The Gladiators Of Dagania Shareware Version 1.00 Readme File Released 04-23-94 This game, all graphics, music, names, places, characters, etc., are copyright 1994 by me, Kit Felice! This game is SHAREWARE - If you like it, you may REGISTER as an OFFICIAL PSYCHOSOFT uhh.. Regestree by sending 5 bucks to: Kit Felice 5902 Galaxie Road Garland, TX 75044 Regestrees will be among the first to know if-er- I mean WHEN a new version is made! Of course, shareware money is a great incentive to finish games! This game is freely distributable if it is unaltered, and the following files are always together: The_Gladiators_Of_Dagania - The Game The_Gladiators_Of_Dagania.info - The Icon Gladiators.D8A - The Game's Data Package Gladiators.D8A.info - Its Icon Kit's_Maze.Maze - A maze Solid.Maze - Another Maze Read_Me_Or_Don't.TXT - This readme file Read_Me_Or_Don't.TXT.info - Its Icon - System Requirements - To run this game, you must have a DOS device with enough space to load it (I.E. a Hard Drive, high density floppy, large RAM disk...) 1 meg of CHIP Ram (And probably some fast ram) is required You must BOOT your machine in NTSC mode - Pal isn't currently supported To Load: The game must be run from the same directory as its data file. These can be in any folder. This game is tested and works fine on AGA machines. - The Plot - The place is Dagania, a distant alien world. The famous space pirate, Captain Psycho, has finally been brought to justice by Daganian bounty hunters, and he's gonna be executed! To pay for the high cost of criminal processing, Daganian prisoners are put on planetary TV where the (sick) viewers at home watch them fight a hopeless battle to the death! Oh- Did I mention that here, YOU ARE CAPTAIN PSYCHO? Details, details... You are sentenced to death in an "Arena Of Doom" - A maze on one of the two Daganian moons picked at random by the authorities. The first moon has a rapid rotation rate and day lasts for only a few momemts. The second moon does not rotate at all, and you may find yourself on the daylight side or the night side. Your opponents are the infamous Daganian Skullbots. These fearless cyborg monstrosities have the living brains of rabbid, drugged, wild animals and the steel bodies of robots. Skullbots will kill anything they see. They are equipped with night vision, an arm-mounted laser cannon, and infa-red detectors similar to that of a pit viper so they can track their prey by the heat left from footprints. You, on the other hand, are an old, fat Daganian Pirate. You can't see anything at night. You are armed with a dull dagger. Your only chance is to find weapons left lying around by the networks (to make the fight more interesting for the viewers at home). If you, by some ACCIDENT, manage to survive this massacre, you can go free! (VERY few prisoners have left the arena alive and there are NO repeat offenders on Dagania) - The Game - Welcome to The Gladiators of Dagania, a 3D multiplayer (soon!) combat game written entirely in AMOS Professional 2.0. A level editor is included, so you can make your own mazes. Now you know where I've been since Dillo! As Captain Darlatu "Psycho" Williams, you start off right after you are teleported down into the Arena of Doom. You must move fast - there are enemies all around! - To Run Gladiators - Double click on the game icon. Did you just buy an Amiga? Do you need to hear this? You do need lots of RAM (1 Meg chip, some fast) and a hard drive to run this. It's just too big to fit on a single floppy, and the data file can't be on a different disk. Sorry, floppy people! (It should be OK on a High - Density Floppy, tho) You must boot in NTSC. If you have a PAL Amiga, a program like DEGRADER or, if you have AGA, using the boot screen to boot in NTSC should do the trick nicely. You should have Workbench loaded. I think the game needs some libraries or something. - The Menu - Once the game's up, you will see a title screen with six buttons carved in. On the left, from top to bottom, they are: 1 Player start against computer opponents only 2 Player start using a Null Modem Cable (This feature is disabled in this version) 2 Player start using a Modem (This feature is also disable in this version) On the right, from top to bottom: Info screen : Read me rambling for about an hour Level Editor : Make/Load a maze Quit : To the Workbench with ye - Making a Maze - Before you can start a 1 player game, you must create or load a maze. The editor is pretty self explanitory, you can wander around in the maze with the QWE,ASD keys and use the mouse to draw walls, objects, and opponents. Use the second mouse button to erase a square. With the sun/moon icons at the right you can select which Daganian moon you want to start on - It can be either always light, always dark, or alternate every few minutes. (You should probably leave it on DAY while you're editing and switch it before you save) Your character's position will be saved along with the game, but you shouldn't leave the editor without saving the maze first or his position will be reset to where it was last saved. You must put down at least one Skullbot to exit the editor, and a maximum of ten Skullbots can be in a maze. For your convenience, I included a maze called "SOLID" that's mostly filled with walls so you can carve "tunnels" out of it. The Blue wall with an "I" on it is an intangible wall- you can shoot through it and move through it but you can't SEE through it! The P1 and P2 buttons don't do anything at the moment... You can put down as many objects as you like; they don't affect the speed of the game. Hints for successful Maze Making: The maze CAN be 32*32 blocks large, which is far bigger than it needs to be. Make small, simple mazes or you will get lost. Don't create any "closed off" areas- there's a way to do limited teleporting using one of the objects, and if you teleport IN to such an area and then run out of power, you can't get OUT! If you were seperated from the opponents, you would then have to surrender or wander for eternity... Think "Rogue" style mazes. They're cool. - Starting a 1 Player Game - After you have loaded or created a maze, make sure it's saved and exit back to the menu screen. Then press the "Start 1 Player" button (Top Left) to enter the Arena! Controls: Gladiators uses the mouse and keyboard for controls. Use the keys "W" and "S" to run forward or backwards, "A" and "D" to dodge sideways, and "Q" and "E" will rotate 90 degrees. (I use these keys because with the mouse in the right hand it's hard to reach those arrow keys!) You can press the Pause button or Quit the game with the buttons at the bottom of the screen. A compass in the lower left shows where you're facing. Your Health: Your health is indicated as a shattered-mirror shaped rainbow colored meter. As you are injured, the bar will drop. When it hits bottom, so do you! There may be medical supplies to be found, however... Using Objects: The Arena of Doom is littered with helpful little gizmos that can keep you alive, kill your enemies, and allow you to do generally cool things. Notice the six small storage boxes. The two on the far left are your your pockets. You can store any object you find in either or both of them. Objects in your pockets are completely inactive; they will not affect you in any way. To pick up an object, stand RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE OBJECT and use the hand shaped mouse pointer to pick the object up. The pointer will change into a miniature of the object. You may then drop the object, provided the square in front of you is empty, or "swap" the object with another one on the ground. Notice only one object can occupy any square. The two small far right boxes are your hands. By putting an object in one of these, you can use the objects by means of the two large "close up" windows at the top left. Here, any details on an object you are holding are clearly visible, and if there are any actions that can be perfomed with an object, you can push the buttons in these "close up" windows. For instance, to stab with your knife, press the "Stab" button in the window. To fire a gun, press the "Fire" button, and so on. Some items' buttons are not so clearly labeled, however... Some objects will react with other objects. For example, you can load a gun by placing the ammo in one hand and the gun in the other (IF the gun can hold any more ammo, that is) There is also an "eyes" box and a "shirt" box. You can put only special items in these two boxes. As with objects on the ground, you can "swap" an object you are holding in the mouse pointer with another object in a pocket or hand. If you can kill every Skullbot in a maze, you win! If they get you, you lose. Simple enough... - Future Versions - I have been hacking around with this game for well over a year now, and I'm really sick of even thinking about it! But if I get lots of morale $upport knowwhatimean I will really try to complete the multiplayer version! I have all the graphics for that version done, I have a null modem cable, I have 2 Amigas, 2 phone lines, AND 2 modems... All I need is a little motivation to code the damn thing! If you register, and IF I ever finish the 2 player game, you will be remembered! So be sure to include your address! Anyway, I think even the 1 player game's cool enough for 5 measley bucks, eh? ;) And send suggestions! I'd love to hear some good ideas! Narf! I'm leaving now! BYE! - Kit Felice (Email K.FELICE on Genie)