Contents

The following Help Topics are available:

How To Play

Control Keys

Creatures

Spells

Combat

Helpful Hints

Credits

For Help on Help, Press F1


Control Keys

The following keyboard controls are used in Square Tower:

Arrow Keys	move / change direction
Shift	attack (punch / swing sword)
Ctrl	pick up object
Esc	go to Quit / Save menu
Tab	go to view of entire level
F1	help
F2	sound on / off
Pause	pause / resume game
S	Shield spell
R	Regenerate spell
T	Teleportation spell
I	Invisibility spell
D	Drift spell
F	Fast spell
H	Healing spell
L	Light spell
B	Drop a beacon


How To Play

You have entered a giant tower, more than twenty-five stories high and thousands of feet to a side.  No ordinary tower, it is in fact a temple to Orion the Hunter. It is rumored that within can be found an object of great value; what that is, the rumors do not say.  Whatever it might be, Orion evidently decided to guard his prize possession well, as his undead minions still walk the stone corridors.  They can sense any living presence (that means you) and attack without fear or thought for themselves.  You have only your rusty... er, trusty sword and your wits to save you.  Well, those plus a bunch of cool spells and a lot of speed.

You begin at the entrance to Level 1.  You must find your way to the stairway to the next level.  Along the way, you will encounter creatures, find treasure, and pass altars to Orion.  Somewhere, amongst the many hallways of the many levels of Orions great Square Tower, you will find the magical object that is your quest.  Then, you need to find your way back to the entrance.

Related topics:

Creatures

Spells

Combat

The Altars

Money


Credits

Copyright 1996 Roundtable Software

Game design	Jeremy T. James
Programming	Jeremy T. James
Artwork	Mark Kappe
Help Files	Mark Kappe
Sound FX	Jeremy T. James, Mark Kappe


Creatures

The different monsters in Square Tower include:

Skeletons	The weakest of Orions minions, there are lots of these pesky little fellows around.
Golden Knights	Slow but mighty, these armored monstrosities are almost impervious to damage, but theyre so slow they can barely catch a cold.
Doppelgangers	It looks like you.  It moves like you.  It has as many points as you.  But is it as clever as you?
Wizards	He doesnt blast you from a distance, but watch out for that sceptre hes holding.
Serpents	Squirmy, slimy, and venomous, these fellows are not much fun if they bite you.
Other warriors	There are other Seekers of the Prize here as well; barbarians and warriors all.  Theyre not here to team up with you, so dont even try.


Spells

You have been granted a handful of magical spell-gems to use as you see fit.  Each performs a different function.  Additional spell-gems may be found in the treasure strewn about the many levels of the tower.  Whenever you pick up treasure, you pick up one or more spell-gems automatically.  By checking your stats, you may find out how many of each gem you have.

Spell (keyboard ctrl)	Description
Shield spell (s)	This spell absorbs one blow from any enemy, thereby saving you from taking that damage.  It is also effective against damage incurred by falling through pits. A shield symbol appears on the right-hand edge of the screen when this spell is in use.
Regenerate spell (r)	As you take damage from combat, you may either recover that lost health by taking healing potions or by standing perfectly still.  A regeneration spell doubles the rate at which you regain points when standing still.  It has no effect on healing potions.
Teleportation spell (t)	This spell removes you from your current location and randomly places you elsewhere on this level.
Invisibility spell (i)	The other creatures cannot see you when this spell is effective.  The invisibility symbol is displayed when in use.
Drift spell (d)	Drift spells allow you to survive falls through pits by preventing you from falling.  They are essentially a one-shot vertical anti-gravity spell.
Fast spell (f)	This spell radically increases your movement rate relative to the other creatures.
Healing spell (h)	A healing potion gives you back a portion (perhaps all) of your lost strength.  Conserve them as best you can.
Light spell (l)	You can only see a certain radius from you.  The light spell temporarily increases that radius.
Drop a beacon (b)	You can only hold a certain amount of treasure.  If you acquire more treasure than that, you need to bury it and leave behind a beacon indicating where it is for later retrieval.

Related topics:

Checking Your Stats


Combat

All fighting in Square Tower is hand-to-hand (or sword-to-sword) conflict.  Whenever you attack a creature (by swinging your sword, using the Shift key), you either hit (doing damage) or miss (whiffing like a double-A rookie swinging at a Nolan Ryan fastball.)  Your opponent(s) can hit or miss as well.  If you do enough damage to kill the creature, it will melt in a puddle of protoplasm on the floor and vanish.  If they do enough damage to you (watch that green bar turn to red), the same thing could happen.

Among the gems and coins that make up the treasure of the Tower, occasionally you will find a sword.  It may be superior to your current sword, so you may wish to keep it.


Screens

Square Tower includes the following screens:

Startup screen	options include starting a new game, viewing the high scores list, or exiting the game.
Game screen	watch out for that skeleton!
Pause screen	statistics, including hit points, level, spell-gems and healing potions
Escape screen	save game, resume game, quit


Helpful Hints

Some of these tips may be useful to you as you play Square Tower:

1.	The ultimate prize of the game is NOT on one of the lower levels.  On the other hand, many of the spell-gems and healing potions ARE.

2.	Creatures become stronger and more difficult to defeat as you get to higher and higher levels.

3.	If multiple creatures are attacking you, run.  They all can damage you at once, while you can only damage the one you are currently facing.

4.	Use the HUD (heads-up display) to stay aware of your health, money and spells.  In addition to the money and health status bars, four possible icons show whether or not an invisibility, shield, ??? or ??? spell is in use.

5.	Treasure can be found in loose coins on the floor, or in various chests, crates or sarcophagi.  Note that the boxes may or may not have traps, including slow-acting poison.

6.	Until you have paid homage to Orion by depositing gold in the altar, the stairways to the next level are...missing.


The Altars

The circular stones, with runes around the edge and water in the center, are altars to the mighty Orion.  Dropping sufficient gold coins into the altar can restore your health.

They could also alert Orion to your presence in his sanctum.  And that might tick him off.


Money

The gold you find adds to your experience, and will eventually help you move up in levels.  It also serves the purpose of feeding Orions altars, renewing your strength for the battles ahead.

In addition, you may find magic sacks among the treasure.  Each sack can hold 100 gold pieces with no suffering of speed.  In addition, this gold does not count toward the total amount you may carry at any given time, so you need bury your treasure less often.

A player may carry no more than 10 magic sacks at once, whether full or empty.