Quick Start

To run Prince of Destruction, simply double-click the POD Master icon. You will be faced by a succession of three dialogs…

On non-PowerPC Macs you will first see a dialog offering Compatible or Faster operation. We recommend Compatible mode except for slower colour Macs, such as the II, IIx, IIcx, IIci, LC, LC II, IIsi, and IIvi.

Select a Scenario

Only one scenario – Prince of Destruction – is currently provided with MARS. Future scenarios will be forthcoming as our spare time and enthusiasm permits. We are also willing to supply the necessary software to sufficiently persuasive third parties to create their own scenarios.

Pick the scenario you want (using the Previous and Next buttons) and then click OK.

Information

Here follows information about POD and the scenario you’ve chosen. Click OK when you’ve read enough.

Select a Character

Finally, select one of the four characters (these may vary with scenario) and click OK.

Playing the Game

The action in POD is viewed from above.

We recommend playing POD two-handed, using your right hand to control movement and your left hand for violence or spellcasting. The information below is available by pressing the Help key (but only if you have a 640x480 or larger display).

You can move your character by turning (clockwise or counter-clockwise) and walking (forward or backward). To do this use the keys on the numeric keypad (4, 5, 6 for counter-clockwise, forward, and clockwise; 2 is walk backwards). You can turn while walking: experiment. To run, hold down either shift key while moving forward.

Powerbook owners: you can move with [, ], \ for counter-clockwise, forward, and clockwise, and “'” for walk backwards.

Characters may also be able to attack, shoot/cast spells, select spells, and defend. A variety of key combinations are provided: A, S, D for attack, shoot, and defend; Z, X, C for for defend, shoot, and attack; and <, >, / for select spell backward, forward, and cast. The shift-keys enable your character to run (at double speed) rather than walk.

Casting spells requires initiating a spell (with the cast/shoot key), selecting a spell (look at the centre of the ball of energy), then pressing the cast/shoot key again. Simply hold down the cast/shoot key for magic missiles.

You can also (T)alk to NPCs, save games (P), (O)pen saved games, get an (I)nventory, (U)se items, (L)eave items behind, and (Q)uit. Walk over items to pick them up (walking over corpses allows you to grab their belongings).

Talking to other people (including other players in multi-player games) causes a speech balloon to appear; type what you want to say then press return. Computer controlled characters look for keywords in your statements; they all understand “hello”, “name”, “job”, and “place”; they may also recognise words they’ve already used and words you’ve been told to use when speaking with them. Human controlled players are generally smarter.

Example of POD dialog

Player: “hello”
Computer Character: “What do you want? I’m busy with these aphids.”
“aphids?”
“There are aphids all over me? Can’t you see? Are you blind?”
“blind?”
“APHIDS! aiyeeeeee!”
“name”
“Go away, or help me kill the aphids.”
“kill”
“APHIDS! aiyeeeeee!”
“help”
“I...definitely...need...HELP...get...me...some...GLUE!”
“glue?”
“Give me glue!”

Here, the phrase "APHIDS! aiyeeeeee!" indicates the computer character understands nothing. Note that punctuation such as "?" is ignored but can be included for aesthetic reasons.

If you have a 640x480 or larger display, a side-panel providing additional information is visible. This can be controlled with the left and right cursor keys. Among the panels are the Help screen (also available by pressing the Help key on extended keyboards).

For one-handed play, the numeric keypad provides access to all combat actions (see the Information screens for details).

We realize that many people like being able to configure their own controls, but there are a lot of different commands in POD and being able to provide good online help for a fixed (and carefully chosen) set of commands seemed a better solution.

Multiple Players

Multi-player POD uses a client/server architecture. The POD Master application (appropriately registered) operates as the server, while up to three copies of POD Player (together with the Game Data folder) on other Macs operate as clients. Obviously, the Macs must be networked via AppleTalk or EtherTalk. (AppleTalk Remote Access won’t work.)

Launch the POD Master application first. The POD Players then join the game. If you save a game while multiple players are playing, the game will wait until all have rejoined before starting when you resume.

For best results, we recommend switching off file sharing for multi-player play.