WHO IS DR. DREAD?

In the year 2011, a genius won the Nobel Peace prize for his work 
in chemistry, robotics, and electrical sound waves. It is rumored
that 2 years ago, in 2023, a lab worker spilled a deadly mixture 
of gases, killing himself, and rendering the genius totally insane. 
Since then, he has gone by the name, Dr. Dread, and seeks to 
destroy the world as we know it in order to take over the planet.

It is your mission to ultimately stop him. You will be up against 
Dr. Dread's powerful Electro Droids. You will be sent on missions
which will require that you make your way past these Droids 
in order to rescue hostages, find secret papers, stop chemical 
disasters, and many other acts of bravery.

COMMAND CENTER

You will begin your assignment in the Command Center. You will be
given a Zapper, some Wave Blasts (ammo) and some Life Capsules.

You may do many things in the Command Center, such as visiting 
the Teller Machine to deposit and withdraw gleckles. You may go to 
the Gymnasium to work out and Chat with other Agents. You may go 
to the Message Center to leave a message to a particular agent.

At anytime throughout the game, you may quit by pressing "Q". 
You may also view the high scores by pressing "S" and your 
inventory by pressing "N". For this help file, press "?" at
any time.

ZONES

When you exit the Command Center through the South Door, you will
enter the first zone. You are given a quota of 150 gleckles a day
which you may pick up in the zones. They are scattered throughout
the forest and mountains. You must find the gleckles before
Dr. Dread's dreaded Electro Droids find you!

The value of the gleckles increases with each zone you are in. But
beware, the cost of obtaining the most valuable gleckles is great --
the Droids are more powerful in each zone farther away from the
Command Center. It is best to stay in the first 3-4 Zones until
you can afford to purchase Protective Gear from the Command Center.

KEY QUESTS AND COLORED DOORS IN THE ZONES
Many zones now have shortcuts to and from other zones which can only be
entered via the colored doors. To enter through the colored doors, you
must go on a key quest. By trying to enter a colored door, you will be
told how you can obtain the colored key for that door. Once you have
that color of key, you may enter freely through all the doors of that
color. Key quests are only available upon obtaining permission by trying
to enter a colored door and only while the Droids are actively roaming
the zones. (While you have battles left for the day.) You must pick up the
keys in a certain order and will be told the order as you go.

MULTIPLE PLAYERS IN THE ZONES:
If you are on a multi-node or single-node BBS you can now see the other
players that are in the zones. If the other player is on line while you
are on line, you will see their movement only as you move. If that player
is transported to a mission, battle or trap, they will disappear from
the zone while they are away.

As you pass over the spot where the other player is sitting, you will
be told who that player is and offered a chance to challenge them to a
friendly battle.

BATTLES

Your mission when encountering an Electro Droid is to deactivate
it so that it may be transported back to the Command Center 
Laboratory for further study. Electro Droids are deactivated by 
blasting a wave at it with your zapper. Electro Droids are 
deactivated in different ways depending upon their difficulty 
level. Droid Levels are indicated by different colors. When you 
have zapped through a color, it will change to another color. 
When the color is a blinking black, that indicates you have disabled 
that area of the droid. Some droids require disabling 5 cells in 
a row, others require disabling all the cells. The farther away 
from the Command Center you travel, the more difficult the droids
are to deactivate. If you do not have enough Waves to finish a 
battle, or if the Droid is too powerful and has zapped most of your
Life, simply "Y" yell for transport and you will be transported 
away from the Droid. But -- the Command Center will demote you in
experience if you woose out and yell for transport.

Keep an eye on your Life. If you allow the Droid to zap all of your
Life, he will take half of your gleckles AND the Command Center will
demote your experience to the beginning of your Rank! You will be
transported to the Zone 1 Hospital when you have been totally zapped
by a Droid. It is better to 'Y'ell for Transport, than to allow a
Droid to totally Zap your Life. You CANNOT replenish Life during a
Battle.

MISSIONS

In the employ of the Command Center, missions will
indicate how brave you are. In each mission, it is 
your task to find the floppy disk, deactivate the computer, and 
rescue the hostage. You must avoid the Electro Droids (moving 
and blinking items) as you travel on each mission. (Use your 
NumLock and arrow keys to move throughout the game.)

As you travel, you may freely pick up the  diamonds. 
The  diamonds are worth 30 gleckles each and will provide you 
with currency to purchase things in the Supply Store.

You begin each mission with 3  Life Capsules and if you
get zapped during the mission, you may replenish your Life by
picking up the  Life Capsules lying on the ground. You cannot
have more than 3  Life Capsules during a mission. (These Life
Capsules are different than the ones you purchase in the Supply
Store. Those are used in Battles while in the Zones.)

If you pick up the letters to the secret code word, in order, 
you will be given a bonus.

MISSION ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

When transported to a mission sight, you are in Dr. Dread's
territory and your purchased life capsules, zappers, and protective
gear will be useless. You only have your wits to aid you.
 
You must avoid Dr. Dread's dreaded electro droids.
 = The Sizzler is perhaps the easiest droid to outwit. 
The Sizzler does not move and when he is not blinking, you may
walk through him. Move into him when he is blinking.
 
 = The Zinger moves around, and if you bump into this droid, look out!
o = Beware the Boppers -- don't bump into this droid, or else!
 = Beware the Squishers.

°± = Missions will vary, but on your mission you may find computers.

 = Freely pick up any gleckles you find.
 = If you lose life, you may pick up any life capsules scattered about.

/ = The Electro Droids will only be active while you are in a room or
in a doorway between 2 rooms. (Use the 5 key to stand still.)
Gain experience by collecting code letters & finishing the mission.
 
In some missions, your goal will be to rescue a hostage.
You will be returned to the spot you left in the Zone upon completion.

EXPERIENCE

As you battle electro droids and accomplish missions, you will
gain experience. When you have gained enough experience, you 
will be advanced to a greater Rank as an agent.

SUPPLIES

You will be requisitioned a Zapper, Waves and Life when you begin
your employ as an agent. You won't need to purchase protective gear 
until you have enough gleckles saved up. It is best to invest your
gleckles in more Life and Waves in your first 3 Ranks. After Rank 3,
you may wish to begin investing in protective gear.

When you are ready to upgrade to a higher deflection 
value, you must first sell your current item before purchasing a 
new item. The Supply Center will only pay half of the value of a 
new item.

PROTECTIVE GEAR

The amount of deflection is listed next to the protective gear item
in the Supply Center. If you purchase head gear worth 2 deflection,
during a battle, you will be shown with a different color head to
indicate the amount of deflection in the item you are wearing. The
Droid will have to hit you in the head twice in order to turn it black
and gain a Life point from you.

Save your gleckles so that you can purchase protective gear! This will
aid you greatly in your battles.

ZAPPERS & WAVES

You will start out with a Sparky Stunner zapper and some Waves.
Each time you shoot a Droid, it takes one Wave. As you get more gleckles,
you can upgrade your Zapper. With each additional deflection level of the
Zapper, this shows how many Waves will hit in one Zap. For instance, the
Turbo Tazer is worth 6 in deflection, this means that it will send six
Waves at once when battling Droids. This will become very handy when
battling the higher level Droids.


PHONE (MULTI-NODE CHATTING)

Multi-node BBS's can now have players send each other messages via the 
cellular phone function. Press '*' from any of the screens to invoke the 
cellular phone options: 

Dial: (*) All (1) Personal (2) Screen/Hold (3) Pausing (4) Rewind

You may press ** to send a message to everyone. Or press *1 to send a
message to a single agent. You will be asked to input the agent's name.

Press *2 to toggle putting messages on hold or automatically send 
them to screen as they are received. To take messages off of hold,
depress *2 again.

Press *3 to toggle pausing on and off. When you enter the game, at the 
end of each message you must press 'Y' to indicate the message was read
and continue. If this is annoying, you can simply toggle pausing off 
by depressing *3 and the messages will advance with each keystroke that 
you make.

Press *4 to Rewind messages. If you had message pausing off and missed some
messages, you can press *4 to rewind messages from 1-9 messages. If you
wish to cancel, just depress 0.

SPLIT-SCREEN Sysop Chat

Split-screen sysop chat can be invoked by the player or the sysop by
depressing "C" from within the game. It is not functional within the
rooms of the Command Center -- only while in the Halls.

RANKS & PROMOTION

Each time you are promoted a Rank, you will gain an additional 2 Life
points. To see the experience levels per Rank, go to the Personnel
office in the Command Center.

DREAD HEADS:
In the Personnel office you may view a list of Dread Heads. Those who 
have battled Dr. Dread's body guard Droid and lived to capture Dr. Dread. 
It lists agent names, ranks, scores, and the date of capture.

CONTACT:

If you have comments, suggestions, or wish lists about Dr. Dread -- 
please address them to Nannette Thacker.

You may contact me in the Fidonet Door Games echo (if your
comment is NICE!). If you want to be nasty, I don't want to 
hear from you ;) -- but if you insist, send it to:

Fidonet address:
1:291/27 Nannette Thacker

My Internet Address is:
Nannette.Thacker@pantherbbs.com