Big Blue Disk 23/bbd23.zip/WESTERN.TXT

Text File | 1988-06-21 | 12KB | 252 lines

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^C^1WESTERN
^Cby
^CMartin Richardson


   This game took third place in our CodeQuest programming contest.  It takes
you back to that colorful place and time in American history known as the
"Wild West," or at least the conception of it that has been popularized in
movies, TV, and Western novels.  Actually, most people in the old West went
about their daily lives without constant encounters with bandits and hostile
Indians, but that would make a boring game, wouldn't it?

   At any rate, this is an enjoyable game if you take it with a grain of
salt; it has all the trappings of the legendary West, including horses,
criminals, gunfights, Indians, and gambling.  Here are full details on how to
play.


NUMBER OF PLAYERS:  One

OBJECT:
   The object of this game is to capture and bring to justice (put in jail in
other words) criminals in the Old West for cash.  Your score depends on how
much cash you make during your adventure.

ABILITIES:
   Your character in this game has 3 abilities:  Aim, Dexterity, and Stamina.

   AIM - This is how well you shoot.  The speed at which your sight moves
during a gun duel with a crook, as well as how much damage your bullet does
(where it hits in relation to vital organs) is dependent on this score.  The
higher the score, the faster you move the sight and the more damage you do.

   DEXTERITY - This is how well you dodge bullets and arrows.  This value
determines whether you will be hit by a crook's bullet or Indian's arrow and
how much damage you may take.  The higher this score, the better chance you
have of not being hit and the less damage you will take.

   STAMINA - This is your health (damage) rating.  This total is reduced
every time you are hit with a bullet or arrow.  When it reaches 0, you are
dead!

   At the beginning of the game, each of your abilities is set at 10.  You
are then given 8 points to divide up and add to any of your abilities to
increase them.  During the course of the game, you can increase your
abilities again, for a price, in the town of Dusty Gulch.

DUSTY GULCH:
   This is your base of operations.  The town consists of an Inn, a General
Store, the Jail, and a Training Center.

   INN - For $10 you can stay at the inn.  There you get a meal and a bed to
rest in.  If you stay the night, you will heal most (if not all) of the
damage you may have sustained during the course of your journey.  You will
never regain more Stamina points than you initially started with.  However,
the initial Stamina can be increased at the training center.

   GENERAL STORE - The General Store carries all the necessities of your
journey:

      FOOD - Each day you eat one meal.  If you run out of food, then your
   stamina decreases every day you don't eat.
      BULLETS - You can't shoot your gun if it doesn't have any bullets.  You
   can carry as many bullets as you care to buy.
      SMITH AND WESSON - This is a much better gun than the one you have.  It
   is well balanced and so helps your aim, and it is more accurate and so
   increases the damage inflicted on crooks.
      HORSE - You start the game with a horse, but a stray bullet or arrow
   may kill it.  With a horse, you move twice as far in a day than you would
   walking, and thus eat less food. You also move twice as fast as the
   Indians can react during an Indian encounter.
      INDIAN ARTIFACT - The Indian artifact was stolen from the Indians and
   pawned off at the general store.  If you have this during an Indian
   encounter, it is a lot easier to make peace with them and the peace pact
   lasts for a few days.  Once you use the artifact, the Indians will take it
   with them where it will probably be stolen again and pawned off at the
   general store.

   Each item listed above costs money, of course.  Be careful you don't
squander your money and wind up broke and needing food or bullets!

   JAIL - This is where you find the wanted poster for the most recent
criminal sighting.  The poster gives the criminal's name, the location at
which he was last seen (you'll always be able to find him there), and the
reward you will get for bringing him in.  When you capture a crook, bring him
to the Jail, where you will receive a hefty reward.  Watch out, though.  The
criminals of the old West tend to hold a grudge.  They have the same
abilities (aim, dexterity, and stamina) as you do.  Each time you bring a
crook in, his abilities increase, so he will be more difficult to capture if
he should escape or be set free.

       TRAINING CENTER - For $1,500 you get 2 points to divide up and
distribute among your abilities.

SHOOTOUT:
   When you discover the location of a crook, ride to it and enter it (with
the E command).  If it is the right location you will hear the combat tune
and see the combat screen.  This consists of your sight (a white circle with
four lines extending from and into it) and the crook.  To shoot, use the
numeric keypad keys to move the sight.  Align the center of the sight over
any non-black area of the crook and press the space bar (the trigger).  If
you hit the crook enough times, he will surrender and automatically become
your prisoner.  However, the crook shoots back and may kill you!  At any time
you may try to escape by running away (with the R command).  If you try to
escape, the crook will take one last shot at you.  If you survive, the crook
will also run and hide.  You must therefore go back to the jail and find
another wanted poster.
   Your gun only holds 6 bullets.  If you fire them all, you must load your
gun.  You can load your gun at any time by using the Load command (the L
key).

MOVEMENT HAZARDS:
   When moving through the old West, you may encounter one of three different
events:

   DUST STORM - If a dust storm should suddenly blow up, you will lose all
sense of direction and, as a result, be relocated to a random place near to
your original position.

   INDIANS - Due to the white people driving them out of their land, Indians
roam around taking revenge on anyone they find.  However, to some, the
Indians are friendly.  If you encounter an Indian band, you have two choices:
Fight/Run or Make Peace.
      FIGHT/RUN (the F key) - If you don't want to make peace, you may take
   hostile action against the Indians by fighting them or by turning yellow
   and fleeing.  Fighting can be advantageous as the Indians are known to
   always carry large amounts of money with them. To fight use the arrow keys
   to move your character around the small encounter field and use the A,S,D,
   and W keys to fire your gun (see CONTROLS section for directions of ASDW).
   Remember, your gun only holds 6 bullets, so it may be necessary to load it
   occasionally (with the L command).  Be careful, though, because the
   Indians will shoot back with arrows!  If you run out of bullets or the
   fight becomes too much for you or you just want to turn tail and escape,
   move your character onto the large arrow in the lower, right hand corner
   of the encounter field.  Once you land on it, you automatically escape.
      While killing Indians may be profitable, it is also dangerous.  The
   indians are good shots and often hold a grudge.  Each time you fight them,
   they will increase in numbers and be harder to make peace with in your
   next encounter.

      MAKE PEACE (the M command) - If you are the non-violent type, you may
   elect to make peace with the Indians.  However, because of the Indians'
   anger at the white man for taking over their land, they may decline your
   peace offer and attack you.  If you have the Indian Artifact, your chances
   of making peace improve greatly.

   GAMBLER - Lying in wait in various parts of the Old West are crafty
gamblers, eager to take any hapless traveler for as much as they can by
gambling with them.  If you encounter a gambler and take him up on his offer
of trying your luck, you will play one of three different games.

     TWENTY-ONE - Better known as blackjack, this game is played with a deck
   of 52 cards.  The object is to arrive at a total as close to but not
   exeeding 21 with cards you are dealt. Face cards count as 10, Aces count
   as 11 or 1 depending on your hand (if 11 puts you over 21, then the ace
   counts as 1), and the number cards count their face value.  During your
   turn you may increase the bet and/or take another card (hit) or stay with
   what you have for the rest of the game.  If you go over 21, you lose.  If
   the gambler goes over 21, you win!  If neither of you bust and both of you
   stay, then the totals of each hand are compared.  If the gambler has the
   greater total, he wins.  If your total is greater than the gambler's, you
   win!  If both totals are equal, you play another hand until one of you
   wins.

      CRAPS - This is a game played with a pair of dice.  Each turn consists
   of you rolling the dice.  The rules of the results of each roll are as
   follows:
      If you roll a 7 or 11 on your first roll, you win!
      If you roll a 2,3 or 12 on your first roll, you lose.
      Any other number on your first roll becomes your match number.
      If you roll a 7 or 11 after your first roll, you lose.
      If you roll your match number again, you win!
   You may only increase your bet at the beginning of the game.

     RUSSIAN ROULETTE - This is a game of life or death.  You and the gambler
   take turns pointing a gun with one bullet in it as his own head and
   pulling the trigger.  The game ends when one of you dies or chickens out.
   If you die, the entire game of WESTERN is over.  If the gambler dies,
   though, you get all of his money (which is usually a lot!).  During your
   turn, you have the option of chickening out and quitting.  If you do, the
   gambler gets your initial bet ($10).  However, the gambler has this same
   option and may chicken out himself, thus giving you $10.

   All initial bets start out at $10.  You may only increase the Craps and
Twenty-One bets.

THE MAP:
   Map icons (symbols) are listed in the rules section of the game.  You may
move onto any place icon.  You must go around cactus.

THE CONTROLS:

MAIN MAP CONTROLS:

          8
          ||
      4 --+-- 6   - Movement keys
          ||
          2

       L - Load Gun
       E - Enter (only if you are on top of a location icon)
       I - Inventory (your abilities and what you are carrying)
       Q - Quit
       H - Help

SHOOTOUT CONTROLS:

       7   8   9
         \ || /
       4 -- -- 6  - Sight Move Keys (these work even with NumLock off)
         / || \
       1   2   3

           5 (only with NumLock on) or . - stop sight

       L - Load gun
       R - Run, run, run away....

INDIAN ENCOUNTER CONTROLS:

          8
          ||
      4 --+-- 6   - Movement keys
          ||
          2


          W
          ||
      A --+-- D   - Shooting keys
          ||
          S

       L - Load Gun

ANYTIME CONTROLS:

       F1 - Sound on/off (this key may be used at any point in the game)

   To run this program outside BIG BLUE DISK, type ^1WESTERN^0 from DOS.

DISK FILES THIS PROGRAM USES:
^FWESTERN.EXE
^FWESTERN.PBL
^FBRUN30.EXE
^FRETURN30.EXE