Assassins - Ultimate CD Games Collection 4

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Your Private Investigator's Handbook If this is your first encounter with a Cliff Diver text adventure, welcome. If you've "read" Cliff's first adventure, Crime To The Ninth Power, welcome back. It's a pleasure to have you here ... and/or see you again (?). Section 1: Introductions are definitely in order Hello, I'm Patrick Farley, computerized writer. This is my second attempt at interactive fiction; an adventure novel entitled, Purchased Sight Unseen. In this adventure, you'll be introduced to Cliff Diver; a private investigator living and working in San Francisco. I hope you and your friends enjoy play- ing this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you. Section II: Now then ... Are there any questions ...yes, the gentleman in the light-green jacket... "Yes sir. What type of system is required to run your adventure?" These adventures are designed to be run on any IBM PC-compatable system with at least 512K of memory, MS-DOS 2.1 or later, and at least 1 disk drive or a hard drive (preferred). The system doesn't require any advanced graphics (*) and will adjust its output to best suit whatever monitor you happen to have. (*) an advantage to E/VGA video monitor users will be explained later. ...yes, the young lady in the white sweatshirt... "Sir, how do I go about introducing Cliff Diver to my computer?" Because it's constantly active and able to provide increased access time, a hard disk installation is recommended. If your system hasn't been outfitted with a hard disk drive, the program can be run from a single floppy disk. Please consult your DOS manual for procedures used in creating and maintain- ing hard disk directories and for the correct form of DOS COPY/DISKCOPY com- mands that are appropriate for your particular system. * A suggested hard drive installation would include creating a sub-directory for the adventure and copying all the support files to that sub-directory... The following files are required for this Cliff Diver adventure: CLIFF2 .BAT Batch file to execute the adventure CLIFF2 .D$$ Adventure support file CLIFF2 .DA1 " " " CLIFF2 .DA2 " " " CLIFF2 .DA3 " " " CLIFF2 .DA4 " " " CLIFF2 .DA5 " " " CLIFF2 .DA6 " " " RUN .EXE Adventure Game Toolkit's ((c) SoftWorks) runtime module CLIFF2 .INS Notes (this can be printed and used as a game reference) CLIFF2 .TTL Title screen card CLIFF2 .VOC Adventure support file ...yes, the tall man in the grey, three-piece suit... "Pardon me, sir. After doing all that, how do I run Cliff Diver?" If you've installed the program to a hard disk, move to the sub-directory containing the Cliff Diver files. Once there, run the batch file by enter- ing CLIFF2 [return]. The file calls the runtime program and the game, as they say, will be underway. Page 2 Your Private Investigator's Handbook Floppy disk users can simply insert the disk into an appropriate drive and run the batch file above. The game will appear sluggish while it's reading information from the "on-demand" floppy drive. ...yes, the elderly gentleman holding the baby... "I've heard the word "shareware" quite a bit, young man. What is that?" Shareware is copyrighted software distributed at a minimal cost. Because you try it before you buy it, it's easy to find a program that fits your needs. Shareware authors release their programs with an element of trust, expecting payment if a program's used regularly. Because expensive marketing costs are eliminated, you'll wind up saving money with Shareware instead of commercial software. ...and the elderly woman standing next to him... "Sounds like a good idea, sir. How do I go about registering my copy?" There's a file called REGISTER included in the game package. You may either send this file to your printer (it's a simple Ascii text file), fill it out, fold it up (*) and send it in - or - you may take the file to your favorite text editor (set to overstrike, or non-insert), type the information in the areas provided, fold it up (*) and send it in. (*) The file was designed to provide a form and mailing envelope out of two sheets of perforated pin-feed paper in a dot-matrix or jet-printer system. Laser printer users may find difficulty with this form and may simply print the form and send it in a conventional envelope to the address on the front. Use whichever method(s) is/are easier for you, but please be legible. Your information is entered into my customer database ... and before you turn up your nose and roundfile this and my form, let me assure you that I will not release your name to any marketing firm. You won't receive mailers for photo processing or catalogs schleping the latest yuppie gadgets (oh pleeeeze!). ...I trust that answers-- "Uh-huh. So you're saying there are benefits to my registration?" If you're registered and you should find yourself in a tight spot you can't get out of, you can write to me. I'll be happy to send you printed maps and hintbooks should you ever need them. ...yes, the woman waving the San Francisco guidebook. "Excuse me, sir. Your adventure takes place in San Francisco. Should I be familar with that city's layout before I settle into playing this?" I had several maps of the city to refer to while I was writing this so I could make reference to streets and landmarks. I'm not sure if any build- ing I wrote into the game is standing at the address or location I gave. In fact, I should be telling everyone that... ANY SIMILARITY TO ANY PERSON OR GROUP OF PEOPLE (LIVING OR DEAD), TO ANY STREET, AVENUE, CROSS-STREET OR BOULEVARD, TO ANY FORM OF TRANSPORTATION CURRENTLY IN USE OR PROPOSED, TO ANY BUILDING OR LANDMARK (PAST, PRESENT OR FUTURE) SHOULD BE CONSIDERED PURELY COINCIDENTAL (or, at least, lucky). Knowing your way around would certainly be an advantage in playing my game. Cliff may talk about something down by the waterfront, and you may remember driving along the waterfront. But as to going there and trying to find the building Cliff mentioned, I don't think you'll have a lot of luck. Page 3 Your Private Investigator's Handbook I think that about covers all the questions. If you have any others, please write to me. Right now I want to move on to-- "Just a second sir ... not so fast. Something's not right here. Your first adventure contained a file called IRUN.EXE, which produced the adventure interface. IRUN is missing from this adventure, replaced by a file called RUN.EXE. Is this a mistake or a typo, an improvement ... or what?" You're observant, sir. Very observant. This adventure was written under the control of a powerful new AGT compiler, v1.7, predecessor of the revolution- ary v2.0 compiler from SoftWorks. v2.0 contains a number of new features to make your adventuring easier. Many of those features are incorporated into this adventure. Let me give you a tour... As soon as you have read the introduction to the adventure (and the optional game instructions) - and before you do anything else - press the Esc key. A menu will open up accessing a personalized form of adventure interface. Here is what the menu has to offer: þ Screen Size (25 or 43 (EGA)/50 (VGA) lines) If you're working with a conventional monitor, 25 lines of information is a conventional amount. If your system supports an EGA card, you may elect to add another 18 to 25 lines (in a scaled-down EGA font). This will present an atmosphere of more information over a larger area and (depending on your screen attributes) provide easier, relaxed viewing. DEFAULT: 25 þ Graphics (toggle ON (û) or OFF) For years, text adventures relied heavily on creative imaginations and the power found in the Graphics of the Mind. Until now. With v2.0, you will be able to see items that were, until now, only described. Here's an example: Walking along a dimly-lit hallway, twelve floors below the main hall of an old castle, you turn a corner and find yourself face- to-face with a large red dragon. The description says that the dragon is not hostile and refers to an old parchment you read upstairs (some- thing about it providing help to lost adventurers). Hanging around the dragon's neck is a large yellow amulet threaded on a leather thong. Conventional text adventures might take four of five paragraphs (over four of five screens) to describe the amulet and whatever was written on it. But with one command, you can view a picture of the amulet (in PCX graphics), read the archaic inscription, and return to the game. This option is on the menu and you can toggle it ON and OFF, but for this version it's nothing more than an un-connected switch. Sorry. DEFAULT: ON þ Menu Input (toggle ON (û) or OFF) Many people find text adventures frustrating because they don't know what commands to input or when to input them. The v1.7 interface pro- vides you with a menu-driven command parser that displays a number of command words for you to choose from. It places them onto the command line with one or two keystrokes. For Example: Walking along a marina, you hear someone calling for help from the west. Stepping over to the edge of a dock, you find a young boy thrashing in the water below. There's a rope on the deck. There is a command that reads THROW [noun] AT [noun], but how do you phrase it in the right way? With the Menu Input turned ON and waiting for your command, press the letter T. You'll see the hi-lite bar in the menu move to the first command beginning with the letter T. Page 4 Your Private Investigator's Handbook Use the cursor keys to bring the menu bar to THROW AT and press the return key. The command menu will be replaced by a menu of nouns you can THROW. The system will list the nouns that you're carrying or that are around you, so the possible commands will range from appropriate to questionable and beyond. ROPE should be listed, so bring the bar to it and press return again. The menu will be replaced with a menu of objects you can THROW the ROPE at. BOY should be listed, which is what you wanted to throw the ROPE to. Eighteen keystrokes (and a lot of head scratching) have been reduced to eight or less. DEFAULT: OFF þ Fixed Input Line (toggle ON (û) or OFF) This option transfers the floating command line from the text area of the screen down to the bottom of the screen. DEFAULT: OFF NOTE: Choosing Menu Input negates Fixed Input Line, and vice versa. þ Status Line (Top, Bottom, No, Boxed) This option allows you to place the single-line status bar at the Top or Bottom of your screen, to have No status bar, or have it Boxed (at the Top or Bottom). DEFAULT: TOP þ Echo to Printer (toggle ON (û) or OFF) This is the equivalent of the SCRIPT command. DEFAULT: OFF þ Height of Menus (5, 6, 7, 8) When you select the Menu Input, this determines the number of lines of input words shown in the menu. DEFAULT: 6 þ Output Colors (16 colors over 8 backgrounds) When the adventure's underway, you're playing with the default colors. If they don't appeal to you, you can alter them. This option controls the messages and descriptions you'll receive based on your commands. (*)DEFAULT: WHITE text on a BLUE background þ Status Colors (16 colors over 8 backgrounds) When the adventure's underway, you're playing with the default colors. If they don't appeal to you, you can alter them. This option controls the single-line status bar colors. DEFAULT: YELLOW text on a RED background þ Input Colors (16 colors over 8 backgrounds) When the adventure's underway, you're playing with the default colors. If they don't appeal to you, you can alter them. This option controls the color of your command text. (*)DEFAULT: YELLOW text on a BLUE background þ Menu Colors (16 colors over 8 backgrounds) When the adventure's underway, you're playing with the default colors. If they don't appeal to you, you can alter them. This option controls the color used in the menu-driven command parser box. DEFAULT: WHITE text on a RED background Page 5 Your Private Investigator's Handbook A colorful word of warning... This adventures contains invisible characters embedded into the body of the text descriptions to control the color of the output text (to set conversations apart from descriptions and to give emphasis to a person's speech - red for anger, etc.). If you choose to change the Output Colors, be aware that your background may be the same as cer- tain words, causing them to become invisible. (*)A suggested output color might be WHITE (or YELLOW) text on a BLACK background or BLACK (or dark BLUE) text on a WHITE background. Typists prefer the latter since it looks very much like a printed page from a typewriter. þ Save Options to File Saves your options to a diskfile called OPTIONS .AGT þ Retrieve Options File Loads OPTIONS .AGT After you have made your decision(s), pressing Esc will return you to the menu screen (or return you to the adventure, putting the changes you made into effect). Now then, if there are no more questions ... I would like to move on to... Section C: A few odd notes about this adventure... þ Every once in a while you'll see something displayed with a lot of empty room around it, like this: ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ something Usually it's printed ³ material; an article ³ CITY COUNCIL GOES TO THE or some such thing... ³ DOGS OVER PETS ON BUSSES ³ ³ The SF Council will hear There's nothing wrong with your computer, ³ the closing arguments on it's just a device to center your atten- ³ the idea of allowing dog tion on something of importance (at least ³ owners to bring dogs who I think that's how it goes...). ³ have completed certified ³ training courses and who þ Let's see ... did I mention the part about filling out the registration form? ... Yeah, I did that! þ Ah ... this is an adventure, a mystery, a fantasy - but it's a current-day fantasy. People do strange things today, I'll grant you that. But there's no need to use commands such as PUT THE DONKEY IN THE CLOSET or GIVE THE PHONE BOOK TO THE GORILLA. A little logic, mixed with some good-old fashioned head scratch will usually result in a competent command style. To create an interface that would cover all the possible commands in any adventure would require years of dedicated effort and a support file that would possibly overshadow DOS in both size and complexity. This adventure contains just enough commands in an adequate interface to provide enough of an adventure challenge for you. To be perfectly frank, you can try giving Cliff a few odd-ball commands out of left field, but I can't guarantee how he'll respond or what he'll say. You might come up with a better way to get something done than I had originally written. More power to you, but... There was one other thing ... aw, but if I tell you that, it won't be a surprise ... will it? Page 6 Your Private Investigator's Handbook Okay then, let's wrap this thing up and get around to... Acknowledging those people who helped me produce this game. þ I would like to thank... The Staff at Softworks: David Malmberg, along with his partner Mark Welch, produced the Adventure Game Toolkit. Their adventure compiler sweated out the hard work, taking all my descriptive files and producing the game's support files. If you would like to write to them, their address is... SoftWorks 43064 Via Moraga Mission San Jose, CA 94539 ...they'll be happy to send you information on The Adventure Game Toolkit. þ A note of thanks also goes to... My adventure beta-testers; Sheri Deiser, Ken Miller, and Phillip Staudinger. Always asking, "Why does this do this when I do this instead of doing this?" þ I would also like to thank you but, of course, I can't do that just yet. I hope I'll be able to very soon, though. I always welcome letters from game players, whether they're registered or not (the users, of course, not the-- oh, never mind). My mailing address is: Cliff Diver Investigations (please, no calls...) c/o Patrick Farley I'm in the phonebook, 1751 13th Street yes, but really... Los Osos, CA. 93402 þ Your Support Of ShareWare Programming Is Appreciated. Happy Adventuring!