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Night Owl CD-ROM (NOPV9) (Night Owl Publisher) (1993).ISO
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SKYLAND.DOX
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1993-02-19
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Instructions to
S K Y L A N D ' S S T A R
A prose adventure
by
Castle Software
1993
* * * * *
The Earth is in desperate trouble. The rapid growth in
population and need for electricity has all but depleted
the world's fossil fuels. Science has been unable to
fully replace them with a safe alternative. Nuclear
power helps somewhat, but is far from enough to meet
the incredible need for energy. You, a member of a
small group of scientists, have been recruited to
witness how the Earth's future handled the problem, so
that the present may solve it as well. This will be
done by using an advanced, but still experimental,
process which makes time-travel possible.
About The Game
A prose adventure is a story in which you take on the identity of the main
character and control his thoughts and actions. You will explore new and
unusual locations. Your reasoning ability will have to be used to the
fullest in order to reach the desired outcome.
The story has no graphics; the scene takes place in the most amazing and
wondrous computer of all - your mind. The game will describe your location
and the events around you.
Throughout the story, you will be faced with obstacles and puzzles which you
must overcome. Some of them are rather easy to solve, while others will
require patience and perseverance.
Above all, the game will place you in a time that has not yet occurred, and
will entertain and fascinate you each time you play.
System Requirements & Installation
Skyland's Star requires the following hardware:
IBM PC/XT/AT or 100% compatible machine
DOS version 2.0 or greater
640k RAM
One floppy drive
A hard drive with about 700k free space
Installation
Before running Skyland's Star, you must first install it on your hard drive.
In the following steps, it is assumed that drive A is a 5¼" drive containing
the Skyland's Star disk and drive C is the hard drive which you will be
installing to.
1. Create a subdirectory called "SKYLAND" on your hard drive by issuing the
command: md c:\skyland
2. Copy the "sky.exe" file from the floppy disk to the SKYLAND directory on
the hard disk with the command: copy a:\sky.exe c:\skyland
3: Change to the SKYLAND directory on the C drive with the following
commands: c:
cd skyland
4: Decompress the game by typing: sky
5. When the decompression is complete, you may delete the archive file with
the command: del sky.exe.
The installation process is now complete. You can now run Skyland's Star by
typing: skyland
Commands
To communicate with Skyland's Star, you simply type in what you would like to do
whenever the story prompts you with a ">" sign, and then press the ENTER key.
Commands may range from a single letter to a complex English sentence.
Skyland's Star will tell you which "room" you are currently in (i.e. your
present location), as well as possible exits, any objects in the room, and
any other relevant information.
To give you an idea of how well you are doing, Skyland's Star will award you
points for accomplishing various tasks. There are 800 points possible. The
story also gives you different ranks, depending on your score. Finally,
since time is an important factor in the story, it will keep track of a how
long you have been playing in the game.
To navigate from one location to another, you enter the direction you wish to
travel in. The following is a list of most possible directions. Note that
some may be abbreviated.
NORTH (or N) NORTHWEST (or NW) UP (or U)
SOUTH (or S) NORTHEAST (or NE) DOWN (or D)
WEST (or W) SOUTHWEST (or SW) ENTER/GO IN
EAST (or E) SOUTHEAST (or SE) EXIT/GO OUT
Skyland's Star comprehends over 1500 words, most anything you are likely to
type. This is a short list of some recognized verbs:
CUT TAKE TALK PULL CLOSE STAND
ASK GIVE READ MOVE THROW UNLOCK
SIT KILL YELL PUSH CLIMB INSERT
HIT LOCK TURN JUMP PRESS LISTEN
GET HIDE OPEN DROP DRINK EXAMINE
An example command would be:
>Take red ball
Certain terms and phrases may be used in special contexts:
>Take all
You may use ALL to refer to all objects in your current location that you can take.
ALL also can be used with DROP.
>Buy dictionary. Take bubble gum.
>Walk north then eat the apple
You may use THEN or a period to link commands.
>Drop box and ball
>Get disk, orange, oven
You may use the word AND or a comma to link nouns.
>Grab it
>Hit him
>Ask her about shoe
You may use the pronouns IT, HIM, and HER to refer to the noun mentioned in the
previous command.
>Play the game
You may use the word THE before a noun, but it is not necessary.
The following is a list of commands that have special uses:
WAIT
The WAIT command lets time pass in the game. This is the equivalent of three
moves.
TIME
This command tells you what time it is in the game.
AGAIN
This will repeat your previous command.
LOOK (or L)
LOOK will describe your current location. By following LOOK with a noun, you
can examine objects.
QUIT
This lets you stop playing the game.
INVENTORY (or I)
The INVENTORY command gives you a list of all of your current possessions.
SCORE
Skyland's Star will display your current score, rank, and how much time has
elapsed in the game.
SAVE
This command will store your position in the game onto a save disk. See Save
and Restore for more details.
RESTORE
This command will retrieve a saved game. See Save and Restore for more
details.
Error Messages
If you enter a command that the game doesn't understand or try to do something
that can't be done at your current location, it will tell you so. Some
common complaints are:
You don't have the object.
I don't see that here.
- These messages mean that you have asked Skyland's Star to do something
with an object that you either do not possess or is not in the
current room.
I do not know the word xxxx.
- This means that you have entered a word that the game does not
recognize.
You forgot to type something.
- This means that you have pressed the ENTER key without typing in a
command.
I don't understand that.
- This complaint occurs when the game understands all the words in your
command, but not in the order you have put them. If this occurs, try
rephrasing your command.
I have lost track of who or what you are referring to.
- This message occurs when you use a pronoun in your command, but there
was no noun in your previous command.
I seem to have lost track of what you were doing.
- This means that you typed AGAIN and the previous command was not
valid.
Communication With People in the Game
In Skyland's Star, you are likely to meet many people that serve different
purposes in the game. Some are there merely conducting their daily lives and
do not directly affect your progress, while some hold a bit of knowledge that
you need for successful completion of the game.
It is obvious that you must somehow communicate with these different people.
The most general form of communication is through the TALK command:
>Talk to man
The man looks up and greets you.
There are, however, times when you want to find out information about a
specific topic, rather than carry on idle chatter:
>Ask man about the giant balloon.
The man shrugs, "I think it came out of the giant balloon maker in the toy
factory."
In some cases, you may even request a person to do you a service:
>Ask girl to give me the seashell
The girl smiles and hands you the seashell.
As you can see, each command has a different effect. Try to be specific when
you can, and use the ASK command. Reserve TALK for when ASK doesn't yield any
valuable information.
Save and Restore
Saving and restoring allows you to record your current position in the game
onto a save disk, and retrieve it at a later time. This is quite useful,
since it will almost certainly take you many days to complete your adventure.
To save a game, simply type SAVE at the ">" prompt. If you are not using a
hard drive, you will need a blank, DOS formatted disk. The game will ask you
in which directory you want to save your game to. The default directory
either the directory the game is in, or the last directory you saved to or
restored from.
After entering the directory name, the game will ask for a save position,
which can be any letter A through Z. You may, therefore, save up to 26 games
in a single directory. If you enter a letter that has already been used to
save a game, Skyland's Star will write your current position over it, thereby
erasing the previous game. Once the game has been saved, you will return to
the prompt.
Restoring a game means to retrieve a previously saved game. When you type
RESTORE at the prompt, Skyland's Star will ask you which directory to restore
the game from, as when you save games. Then it will ask for the position of
the game to be restored. Enter the letter of the game you wish to restore.
After this has been entered, Skyland's Star will retrieve the saved game.
You then will be returned to the location where you saved the game, along
with all your possessions, points, and so on.
In the case of a disk error, the save or restore command will be aborted.
Also, to abort a save or restore command, you can hit ENTER at the prompt
asking for the position.
Acknowledgements
Skyland's Star v3.30
Copyright 1989, 1991, 1993 by Castle Software
* * * * *
The Skyland's Star interpreter was written by Daniel Berke.
The Skyland's Star game files were written by Matthew Engle and Daniel Berke.
The original idea for Skyland's Star was by Jeremy Cavaterra.
Skyland's Star was created using Turbo C v2.0 and Borland C++ v2.0, which are
copyrights of Borland International, Inc.
Should you encounter a bug in Skyland's Star, please inform us!
We are constantly trying to provide you with a better product.
Any questions or comments should be sent to:
Castle Software
101 N. Crescent Heights Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048