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Text File | 1994-02-04 | 21.1 KB | 536 lines

****************************************************************************** FOR A QUICK START EXPLANATION OF DBQUEST, PLEASE VIEW THE QWKSTART.TXT FILE! TO HELP ME MAKE BETTER GAMES, PLEASE ANSWER THE QUESTIONS IN THE README.TXT FILE & E-MAIL ME THE ANSWERS! ****************************************************************************** DBQuest PLAYER'S GUIDE DBQuest IS (C) COPYRIGHTED 1993 BY FUTURISTIC IDEA STUDIOS (TM) WITH ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. FUTURISTIC IDEA STUDIOS, DBQuest, and THE PRESENT IS THE HISTORY OF THE FUTURE ARE TRADEMARKS OF DEBRAY BAILEY THE ORIGINAL DCPLAY MANUAL WAS WRITTEN BY DAVID HERNANDEZ. THIS MANUAL IS MODIFIED FOR USE WITH DBQuest VERSION 1.2. THANKS TO DAVID HERNANDEZ FOR A GREAT GAME MAKING SYSTEM. GETTING STARTED HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: This software SHOULD run under @ 400K, leaving plenty of space for your TSRs, device drivers, etc. BUT, it runs best with a large amount of RAM free. I usually run this game with at least 500-600k free. If you notice that the sound drops out unexpectedly, you may need to free more conventional RAM. To hear sounds, you must have a Sound Blaster (or better) card from Creative Labs. Compatible cards may not work correctly. This limitation will be removed in future games created by Futuristic Idea Studios. NOTE: If you do not want sound, or the sound does not work with your hardware, then delete the dcsounds.vfl file to save hard disk space. Also note that, contrary to what the program tells you, you DO NOT need sbfmdrv.com installed to hear sounds since no FM synthesis was used to create music. SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS: Before you can start playing a game, you should have the following files in your current directory: GAME FILES: An adventure should include the following files: WORLD.IDX World's Index File WORLD.### Landscaping for world number ### WORLDO.### World's objects and characters WORLD###.PCX World's graphic representation (optional) WORLD###.SCR World's control script (optional) WORLD###.CFM World's background music score PLAYERS.DTA Character Statistics File PARAMS.DTA Game wide parameters TEXT.DTA Encoded text blocks for the entire game HINT.DTA Hints from bartenders, etc. Some false quests too??? OPICT###.PCX An object's graphic view (optional) CPICT###.PCX A character's graphic view (optional) VOICE###.VFL A character's recorded voice (optional) *.SCO A compiled control script (many) *.PCX A script controlled graphics file *.VLO A file for the graphics blocks *.TXT All the documentation, manuals and notes you'll need DCSOUNDS.VFL A file that holds digitized sounds effects DCPLAY.EXE The main runtime game DBQuest.BAT Use this to start the game CREATING A NEW CHARACTER In this game, you are a human hero. You are able to wield any weapon, wear any armor, and cast any spell (subject to your POWER limit). The following character attributes are provided to you so that you can see what limitations, or advantages your character might have in the land of Bright Wood. There are eight character attributes: STRENGTH In hand-to-hand combat, you will do more damage when using contact weapons if you have a high strength rating. A high strength rating will also allow you to carry addtional weight. SPEED Speed is important in a battle, as it may allow you to strike more than once per round. If your speed exceeds that of your current foe by more than 10 points, you will be able to strike twice. If it exceeds it by more than 20 points you will be able to strike 3 times. AIM Aim betters your chance of hitting a target with a missile weapon. It doesn't affect hand-to-hand combat. In general, you can expect to hit a target about 1 out of 2 times. This number can change for a variety of reasons including: potion effects, ring effects, staff effects, and it may change when you are promoted to a new level of experience. DEXTERITY This attribute is important in combat, as it helps in avoiding getting hit! It also helps to avoid traps when you try to break the lock in a chest or door. A character with dexterity under 9 might have trouble using weapons, and might harm himself during combat. I.Q. A high I.Q. will help the character to gain extra power when promoted to a new level. A character with a low I.Q. might actually lose power when promoted to a new level! POWER A magic user consumes POWER points when casting a spell. Power is replenished with time and rest. HIT POINTS This is the amount of damage that a player can take before dying. A player with only 1 h.p. is unconscious, and a player with 0 h.p. is dead. If your character (the main character) dies, then you are automatically resurected, and teleported to a specified location. If you die too many times in a short length of time, you may not be resurected! Extra hit points are earned when you are promoted to a new level. ARMOR CLASS This attribute depends on the armor you are wearing, as well as the magical items and/or spells that may protect you at any given time. The HIGHER your a.c. the less damage you suffer after being hit. PLAYING THE GAME GAINING EXPERIENCE: When you play the game, you will get experience points for every point of damage done to a monster during battle. You will also get experience (and a reward) for performing "quests". When your experience reaches a certain level, you will be AUTOMATICALLY advanced to the next level. When promoted, you will get additional hit points, and your strength will increase. INTERACTING WITH OTHER CHARACTERS You will encounter many different characters during the course of your adventures. The character CLASS will direct a character's actions to a great extent. The following are the standard classes of characters, but remember each character is an individual, and the following is just the expected behavior for a character of any given class. REGULAR This is someone that might be interested in joining your party. Talk to them before you ask them to JOIN your group. Once they join, if you ask them to leave you have to share your gold with them and they take any item they are carrying with them. There is a maximum of 6 characters in a single party, so choose your companions well. Use the VACATE command to ask a character to leave your group. MERCHANT Merchants buy and sell items. Their merchandise varies a lot, but they usually concentrate on certain 'types' of items like weapons, armor, food, magic potions, magical items, etc. Merchants will usually buy only items of a type similar to the merchandize they carry. For example, an armorer (sells armor, shields, etc) would not be interested in buying a yellow potion. CIVILIAN These are the normal, everyday people of Brightwood. Each has his or her own objectives and motives. BARTENDER The bartender at the local pub is a good source of information. However, the wise adventurer will also make sure to "mind his P's and Q's"! HEALER Can heal your wounds, cure your poisoning, resurrect your dead and remove cursed items (for a price, of course). TELLER These person can usually give you a good lead, but their words are often quizzical, and expensive. BEGGAR These are the unfortunates of Bright Wood. Those who show compassion to these poor folk are often rewarded with a tidbit of town gossip. QUESTOR This person will give you a quest. If you accept, you will have to go and get a specific object, for which the questor will pay well. Finishing a quest will also give you additional experience. A questor may also ask you to find and bring a person. This normally implies a rescue mission. GUARD A guard will not let you approach the door or passage it is guarding. Talking to them can lead to a fight, unless you are prepared to give it the password required. Some guards have been known to take bribes. MOVING AROUND You move around by using the arrow keys (up, down, left, right). When you see a town or an entrance or exit, press the 'E' key to Enter or Exit through the door. Time passes every time you move. Characters will automatically eat every 512 steps. If you run out of food, they will slowly starve to death. If a character gets poisoned, 1 hit point for every 8 steps will be lost until a cure is found. Hit points are regained every two steps (if you're healthy and well fed). Character's must rest (Camp Out). An exhausted character will lose hit points. When you camp out, your attributes will return to normal. This includes hit points as well as other attributes modified by magical items or potions (if the effect was temporary). You will be warned when your characters are getting tired. In civilized areas, players must rest in beds. To sleep in a bed, simply walk up to it and then USE it. Remember to remove magical items before camping out, or their effect will be re-invoked when you wake up. Since most magical items have a limited number of uses, the wise adventurer saves them for moments of great need. If monsters appear while camping out, you may not have regained all of your hit points, and the monsters will have the initiative (first strike) because they caught you unprepared for battle. THE PARTY'S SPOKESPERSON To set or change the party's "primary" character, type the number of the character (1 through 6). If you want to see the statistics on the entire group, press 0. The primary character remains selected and is highlighted on the screen. Commands like Get, Drop, Wield, Remove, Talk, etc., are always performed by the primary character. Thus, if you talk to a merchant, and buy something, it will be placed in the primary character's back pack. If you wish to move an item to another character's backpack, you will need to have the character who is holding the item DROP it, and then have the character that you want to move the item to GET it. Food and Gold are the general exception. They are always shared by the entire party. If a food item is put in the backpack, it probably means that it's not regular food (for example "magic" food). Some food has been known to have strange effects (one of which is poisoning!). TALKING TO OTHER CHARACTERS When talking to other characters, you can use "keywords" to conduct a conversation. Most characters will respond to key words like: HELLO - Greets the character. NAME - asks the character what his/her name is. JOB - asks the character what he/she does. JOIN - asks the character to join the party. BYE - ends conversation (player may also simply press return) Also, any words in CAPITAL letters are key words. This was done to make conversation easier for the player. Some characters will show you a menu from which you may interact with it. If the character is interested in idle chat, you will se a 'Talk' option in the menu, otherwise, the character is interested only in doing business. IF there is a price associated with an option (such as buying an item), it will be shown to the right of the menu entry in either gold pieces (GP) or silver pieces (SP). Remember that there are 10 silver pieces in every gold piece. SAVING, RESTORING AND RESTARTING A GAME Saving the game often is highly recommended. You can save up to 999 copies of the game (slots 1 to 999). If you need to stop playing, press F10 to suspend the game. The current game is always saved in slot 0. When you come back, the game will continue where you left off. To go back to a saved game (restore) press F4 and indicate the slot that you want to load. Should you want to restart the game from the very beginning, press F6. If you choose any of the above options by mistake, press <ESC> to return to the game. Generally, <ESC> will back you out of ANY choices available in the game. COMMAND SUMMARY 0 - Show party summary stats. This command will show all the characters in your party. This is the normal view. 1-6 - Selects primary character. By pressing 1-6, you are selecting a primary character that corresponds to the number that you select. Primary characters do all the interacting with other characters. Usually, the primary character is the player. A - Attack a group of monsters. If a group of monsters is beside your party, you can use this command to attack them. C - Camp Out. When the party gets tired, you will need to rest. In the wilderness, the party simply sets up a tent. In civilized areas, however, the party must rest in a bed. To rest in a bed, simply move the party next to a bed and USE it. D - Drop an object from your back pack. This command will allow you to select an object to be dropped from the primary character's backpack. Note that readied items cannot be dropped until the are 'unreadied'. If your inventory is more than one screen long, pgup/pgdn can be used to scroll up/down. E - Enter or Exit another world. This command will allow the party to enter a town, dungeon, or any other place that can be entered. When you are ready to exit a town, simply 'step out' of the 'edges' of the town. Then, the program will ask you if you want to exit, and if you do, you should select yes. If you are trying to enter stairs, or a ladder then you should move your party over the stairs or ladder, and then press "E". F - N/A G - Get. This will allow the primary character to get an object. To get an object, the party must either be standing on top of the object, or next to the object. To open a chest, the player must use the get command. For the convience of the player, chests, when picked up are converted to a small sum of money (usually 1 silver piece). This avoids the tedium of the player having to get a chest, and then put it back down. H - N/A I - Inventory. This command shows an inventory of the primary character. If your inventory is more than one page long, pgup/pgdn can be used to scroll up/down. J - N/A K - N/A L - Look. To examine something closely. This command will allow you to get a description of what you are looking at. Not all objects (furniture, trees, etc.) have descriptions. Generally, only things that you can GET, USE, or TALK to have descriptions. M - N/A N - iNvoke a magic scroll or a gem. This will invoke a magic gem, thereby releasing its magic. O - N/A P - N/A Q - Quaff. This command enables characters to drink potions, and eat any special food items that they might have. NOTE: This does not apply to normal 'eating'. This command is for special items only. To feed your party regular food, all you have to do is to keep some food in your inventory. You party members will feed themselves when they are hungry. R - Remove. This command allows a character to remove armor, weapons, staffs, amulets, rings, or anything else that can be readied. If the item cannot be removed, then it is cursed. S - Spell. This allows spell casting characters to cast spells. A menu will appear, and the player must choose the desired spell to cast. NOTE: When in combat, only combat spells will appear. Likewise when not in combat, only non-combat spells will appear. T - Talk. This command allows the primary character to talk to another character. To talk to someone, simply move the party next to them and press 'T'. Then, press one of the four arrow keys to select which direction the party wishes to talk in. U - Use, Unlock. This command allows the primary character to use an object. Some examples of objects that can be used are: beds, fountains, chests (when locked), doors (when locked), boats, skiffs, and rafts. There may be other items that can be used, that are not listed here. Experiment! V - Vacate. This command allows you to remove a character from your party. Vacated characters stay wherever you leave them, and will join you at a later date, if you so desire. W - Wield or Wear. This allows a character to wield weapons and staffs, and to wear rings, amulets, and armor. X - eXit. This command will allow the party to exit from a boat, skiff or raft. This command will also 'exit' the party from battle, if things are not going well. Y - N/A Z - Zap. Staffs are imbued with magical energy. To use this energy, the player should select 'Z' for zap. Staffs have a wide range of uses, so the player will have to experiment to see which staffs are useful, and which are not. Function_Keys F1 - Help. This command shows limited help. To scroll up or down the menu, press pgup, or pgdn. F2 - To SAVE the current game. This command will allow you to save your game. F4 - To RESTORE a saved game. This command will allow you to restore your saved game. F6 - To RESTART a game from scratch. This command will allow you to restart a game. F10 - Save game (slot 0) and return to DOS. This saves your game in slot 0 and returns you to DOS. *** - For more information on saving, restoring, and restarting, see the above sections on those subjects. ESC - Cancel last operation or try to escape during battle. This command will cancel the last operation. Most menus, and choices can be cancelled using this command. ESC will also allow you to escape a battle (same as eXit). DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY. DBQUEST IS MARKETED BY FUTURISTIC IDEA STUDIOS AS FREEWARE. YOU MAY COPY AND DISTRIBUTE THIS PROGRAM AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WISH, AS LONG AS: 1. NO FILES ARE ALTERED IN ANY WAY. 2. ALL THE FILES ARE DISTRIBUTED TOGETHER. 3. NO MONEY IS PAID FOR THIS PRODUCT OTHER THAN THE AMOUNT REQUIRED FOR SHIPPING AND MEDIA (CD-ROM, DISKS, ETC.) WHICH IS NOT TO EXCEED $7.00. 4. THIS COPYRIGHT NOTICE IS RETAINED. FUTURISTIC IDEA STUDIOS HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED ABOUT THE MERCHANTABILITY OF THIS PRODUCT TO SUIT A PURPOSE. DBQUEST IS PROVIDED "AS IS" BY FUTURISTIC IDEA STUDIOS. DEBRAY BAILEY, THE AUTHOR AND SOLE OWNER OF THIS SOFTWARE, TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR LOSS OF DATA, DAMAGE TO EQUIPMENT, OR DAMAGE TO PERSON THROUGH THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE. SHOULD THE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, THE ENTIRE BURDEN OF ANY AND ALL REPAIRS, REPLACEMENTS, AND/OR RESTORATION OF EQUIPMENT OR DATA RESTS WITH THE USER. IN NO EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY COSTS AND/OR LOSSES EITHER TANGIBLE OR INTANGIBLE ARISING FROM THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE. IN NO EVENT SHOULD THE ARTWORK, SOUNDS, OR TEXT FROM DBQUEST BE DISTRIBUTED ALONE OR WITH ANOTHER PROGRAM WITHOUT CONSENT OF THE GAME AUTHOR, DEBRAY BAILEY. USE OF THIS SOFTWARE DENOTES ACCEPTANCE OF THE ABOVE TERMS. Futuristic Idea Studios, DBQuest, and The present is the history of the future are TRADEMARKS of DeBray Bailey DBQuest is (C) COPYRIGHT 1993 by DeBray Bailey WITH ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Sound Blaster is a TRADEMARK of Creative Labs Inc.