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Text File | 1989-12-15 | 19KB | 405 lines

1 █░ █░ ██░ ████░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ ███░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ █░ ███░ █░ █░ ███ █░ A Work of Pseudo-Medieval Fantasy Copyright (c) 1987, 1988, 1989 Castle Technologies Company All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------------------------------------ written by Brian Sanders Revision 5.0, Advanced STANDARD EVALUATION RELEASE ============================================================ In this manual: - What this game does, in a nutshell - How to get in touch with the game author - How to play the game 2 ------------------------------------------------------------ Introduction and Background ============================================================ Welcome to the splendors of Xoru.... A distant land where your inventiveness and skill are the "tools of the trade" for unravelling devious, mysterious puzzles, guarded by ugly and ferocious beasts. Only by the grace of Fortune and your own ingenuity, by exposing secrets that hold the land hostage, would your life be spared; even in a style befitting none but the greatest of kings! Play of the game usually requires a bit of exploration in the beginning, to gain familiarity with the new, bizarre surroundings. On discovery of a number of items, the clever player will understand similarities between unrelated areas, or things which ought to be made "right." Of course, here and there a clue may be carelessly dropped, so there is a reward for vigilance. Solving these puzzles will gradually reveal the greatest obstacle of all: The Great Enslaver Titan of Xoru, warrior-giant of awe-inspiring stature, whose defeat will lead to the complete mastery of the game. Advanced XORU is a role-playing adventure game which allows the computer to "come alive" for a moment, interacting with you in a fantastical pseudo-medieval world. With its natural-language interface, Advanced Xoru allows the player to communicate with the game and its environment using common, everyday English sentences. The story unfolds in a variety of vivid scenarios, depicting lavishly arrayed dungeon chambers, evil drooling monsters and mysterious treasures. All such joys are within the grasp of the courageous, worthy adventurer. ------------------------------------------------------------ Registration and Ordering Information ============================================================ Advanced XORU comes to your doorstep via modem, courtesy of Castle Technologies and the User-Supported Concept. The User-Supported Concept delivers quality software to you at a very reasonable cost, allowing you to use the software on a free trial basis. Under this marketing concept, you can make an unlimited number of copies of the game without restriction; since XORU isn't at all copy protected, it is quite easy to back up and install on other floppies, or to a hard disk if you choose. Note: This Evaluation copy is from the same code that constitutes the Registered version. The capabilities of the evaluation program are a subset, not of what you can do in the registered version, but of how far you 3 can go. This copy includes the entire first level of the dungeon for the purpose of your evaluation. Xoru is a cleanly written, professional software product which will provide the avid adventurer with endless hours of challenging entertainment. Your own registration of this product has the following benefits: * You will receive a disk with a copy of the game, which includes many additional features. Some of those features are: The second and third levels of the dungeon, which complete the game set with many additional rooms, characters, monsters, tunnels, and puzzles, making the game complete and winnable. A text-graphics finale: one last interactive challenge before the game concludes when you win it. 350 moves of unrestricted access to all of the game's features. * You will receive a full copy of a typeset, spiral-bound instruction manual that reveals many otherwise undocumented features of the game. * You will be entitled to customer support, giving you notification of future products and high priority in any questions you might have about using the game. * Paying for your copy of the game also encourages us to develop products using the Shareware system, including other computer fiction games. 4 If you would like a copy of the Registered version of Advanced Xoru on diskette, including the manual and sample map, send a check or money order for $19.95, also including any applicable sales tax (CA residents 7-1/4%) and shipping/handling costs, payable to: Castle Technologies Company Post Office Box 3297 Livermore, CA 94550-0897 A ready-made order form has been included for your convenience. Simply type PRINTME at the DOS prompt and follow the instructions given to obtain a printed copy of the form. Be sure to specify which size and format diskette you would like to receive. Also available is a DOOR-compatible version of Advanced Xoru, which allows the game to be played over telephone lines using modem equipment. This product supports TBBS, PCBoard, Auntie, QuickBBS, and many other bulletin board systems. SYSOP license registration costs $ 44.95. Some special notes regarding the distribution of Evaluation Advanced Xoru: This revision of Advanced Xoru and accompanying documentation, designated by "5.0", supercedes all previous revisions and the terms outlined in their documentation. Additionally, only the most recent revision is available for registration. The Shareware Concept is only effective if the software it supports is exposed to the public. Please feel free to distribute Shareware Xoru either by bulletin board system or by the more traditional exchange of diskettes. If you re-archive Xoru, such as into another compression format, please be sure to preserve the archive name. It is extremely difficult to keep track of different versions of the game when the archive naming convention is destroyed. Distributors: Please send us your address so that we can make the latest revision of Xoru available to you. We restrict the lawful reproduction of this evaluation software in that, if a fee is charged for such reproduction, it may not exceed $ 4.00 per copy. This limit applies regardless of media type or size used, but it does not include charges which may result from shipping expense or sales tax. Thank you for your greatly appreciated service. 5 ------------------------------------------------------------ Game Installation ============================================================ Here is how you get the game started with your computer hardware. You need, at the very minimum, the following equipment: an IBM PS/2, AT, XT, PC or 100% compatible with 192K of RAM memory a color or monochrome monitor with any IBM compatible video card adaptor ( e.g. VGA, EGA, CGA, MDA, etc.) 1 floppy disk drive of either 3-1/2" or 5- 1/4" variety, or a hard disk Advanced Xoru will most likely come in a packed file format containing the following files. Make sure you have them all: AXORU.DOC Game Documentation (this file) AXORU.EXE Executable AXORUA.SCE Special internal data files AXORUC.SCE . AXORUE.SCE . AXORUF.SCE . AXORUG.SCE AXORUH.SCE ORDER Order form PRINTME.BAT Batch file to print out Order form To begin the game, simply place yourself in the same directory as the above files, and type XORU at the DOS prompt, pressing <Enter> afterward. The game will load in a minute, then instantly pop onto the display. In the succeeding screens, fill in the query boxes until you get to the Character Class input box, where you can use the up and down arrow keys, or the first letter of an option, to select your character. Then, an introductory story will flow down the screen. When you see the single idling word "MORE", XORU is giving you the opportunity to read the previous text before continuing. Pressing any key at this time instructs the computer that you want to go ahead. 6 ------------------------------------------------------------ Game Play ============================================================ When you are at the little square prompt (or chevron on some remote terminals), you are ready to play the game. At this point, you can interact with the computer, commanding it to lead you throughout the adventure before you. Additionally, you can influence the environment of the game by telling the computer what you want to do. These commands follow previous adventure games' conventions and let you explain things in common English phrases. You can get help from the computer by typing, simply, HELP (pressing the <Enter> key afterward.) Most of the game involves getting around, so typing such sentences as "WALK NORTH", "CLIMB THE STAIRS" or whatever lead you into new areas, describing them in a detailed fashion for you to explore. You can do other interesting things by typing your request, verb action-word first, nouns and modifiers following. Some examples of valid statements: CLIMB DOWN THE LADDER TAKE THE RING EAT THE BERRIES BREAK DOWN THE DOOR CLIMB THE WALLS SCREAM AND RUN IN CIRCLES KILL THE BUGBEAR CAST GULVOYEUR INVENTORY WALK NORTHWEST NW EXITS VERBOSE SAVE GAME EXAMINE THE STATUE TAKE THE RING AND THE CLOAK DROP ALL BUT THE KEY INSERT THE KEY IN THE LOCK TAKE TWO RINGS To leave the game, type QUIT When checking your status, type STATUS 7 ------------------------------------------------------------ How to Contact the Author, i.e. Feedback! ============================================================ In the interest of developing future products, as well as perfecting existing ones, your feedback as a software user is VERY important. Suggestions which have particular merit may even be awarded by monetary or other means if we use them. If you find a bug in the game or have any sort of comment at all, please write in. We will reply to questions and comments if you include a self-addressed stamped envelope with your letter. Write to: Castle Technologies Company Post Office Box 3297 Livermore, CA 94550-0897 8 The author also provides customer support on the following fine bulletin board systems, where the latest copy of the game can be obtained: GamesMaster; Dublin, CA; (415) 828-8012 2400/1200/300 baud, PCBoard, 116 megs online Windraker; Livermore, CA; (415) 373-9689 9600/2400/1200 baud, Auntie, 50 megs online The Records Department; Pleasanton, CA; (415) 426-0470 9600/2400/1200/300 baud, TBBS multiline 120+ megs online FIDO Net node 161/42 Please address any mail to the author. ------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright Notification and Legalities ============================================================ This game Software, manual and all other documentation contained within this product are copyrighted and all rights registered and reserved by the author. Persons using the evaluation software marked "EVALUATION" or "EVAL" are encouraged to try the game before purchasing it, and may distribute the evaluation versions freely. It is, however, illegal to sell any version of Xoru, or duplicate registered copies of the game for purposes of distributing them. Willful violations of the United States Copyright Law can result in civil damages of up to $50,000 in addition to actual damages, plus criminal penalties of up to one year of imprisonment and/or $10,000 fine. 9 ------------------------------------------------------------ CHANGES MADE TO XORU, REVISION RELEASE 5.0 ============================================================ Outlined below are the major additions and changes which have been made since the previous release, 4.41. * The fabric of the dungeon was neatly pulled open, and a third level was dropped inside. This level is both magic and monster-compatible with the other two levels. * You may find some more interesting characters showing up on the scene. Some of these are related to the fact that the third level is providing housing. * An interactive text-graphics segment provides a finale to the game, which can be experienced by only those few who reach the end of the game and face the Ebon Titan himself. This segment is functional over the BBS DOOR interface, using both ANSI colors and keypad input. * Some of the puzzles and dungeon features of previous versions of Xoru have been modified to fit the new theme of this version. Monsters and combat have been greatly enhanced, and there is no longer an option to leave monsters out of the game for this reason. * Sound has been added! * An overwhelming number of other refinements and additions have been included in this release, such as an animated title screen for color ANSI players, EGA/VGA expanded screen size support, or the addition of another character class with its own unique capabilities.