The product names mentioned in this manual are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their manufacturers.
License Agreement
You have the nonexclusive right to use this program. You may use it on one computer at a time. You may copy this program or any of its related files onto other disks for your own use, but you may not transfer the program from one computer to another over a network.
You may make one copy of the program disk for backup purposes. You must not remove any copyright notices contained in the program or any of its related files.
Factory: The Industrial Devolution, its look, feel, and its related documentation are copyrighted. You may not distribute copies of the registered program or documentation to others. You may not modify or translate the program or documentation without the written consent of the author.
You are encouraged to distribute those 'month' files created with this program. You are also encouraged to distrubte the unregistered Shareware version of the software provided all files are included in their original form.
Limited Warranties
The author makes no warranty or representation, either express or implied, with respect to this software, its quality, performance, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose. As a result, this software is sold "as is," and you, the purchaser are assuming the entire risk as to its quality and performance. In no event shall the author be liable for direct or indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from any defect in the software or its documentation.
Apple Computer, Inc. makes no warranties, either express or implied, regarding the enclosed computer software package, its merchantability or its fitness for any particular purpose.
DEVOLUTION - A STEP BACKWARD
The year is 2039. Throughout the industrialized world, all manufacturing processes have become completely automated. Computerized factories produce millions of consumer products every hour without any human intervention, as if by magic. Inundated by cheap commercial goods and free from virtually all manual labor, most people live lives of mindless comfort.
Unfortunately, the ultimate conclusion of the Industrial Revolution precluded a revolution in software design. Design of factory machinery far outstripped the design of the computer software which ran it. As a result, the programs which automate manufacturing processes are prone to fail.
This has had dire consequences in the past. In 2028, an epidemic of vandalism and truancy swept over New York's youth following the breakdown of automation systems at a factory producing popular breakfast cereals there. Similarly, in 2033, widespread rioting broke out in Seattle when the local coffee grinding factory and video game factory simultaneously went offline for two days. These are only a few of the worst examples. Most of the population has come to base its existence on consumption, and such violent reactions almost always accompany any interruption in the supply of desired items.
For this reason, it is critical that failing factories remain in operation with the help of special technicians known as EFASTs (Emergency Factory Automation Support Technicians). EFASTs are gifted individuals who can manually control a factory's operations. If they are able keep a factory running at full capacity for a normal 9 to 5 workday, corporate programmers usually have enough time to dig through decaying stacks of aging code to figure out what is wrong with the automation routines. EFASTs at first were hired and trained privately, but in 2037 they formed a collective under the banner FACCOM (Factory Automation Control Compensation). All EFASTs now receive their assignments and paychecks through FACCOM.
The potential rewards for EFASTs are great. Corporations which contract for an EFASTs services are prepared to pay dearly for the maintenance of their production centers. Depending on the complexity of the assembly process and the levels of production demanded, an EFAST stands to make thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars for a single day's work.
With these rewards, however, come great stresses. Some EFASTs have been driven to the brink of insanity because manually running a modern factory entails placing one's mind in many places at once. The EFAST must simultaneously direct many components along conveyor belts and through networks of pipes to be sure that they are assembled together correctly. In a population softened by material luxury, minds sharp enough for the task are rare.
Even so, job security is a term unknown to the EFAST; in the interest of maintaining the integrity and reputation of the team, failure to meet the production quota on any assignment results in immediate dismissal from FACCOM.
GETTING STARTED
Factory requires a Macintosh Plus or better running System 6.0.5 or later and a hard drive with approximately 1.3 megs of free space. Factory’s memory requirements vary depending on the color mode you choose (See “Technical Notes” for more information).
Before you begin, you should back up your Factory master disk. Keep your master and backup disks locked. Refer to your Macintosh Documentation for help on copying files and locking disks.
- Although there is no copy protection on the Factory disk, you are only allowed to make one copy of it for yourself for backup purposes. Making copies for others is illegal and unkind.
To install Factory on your hard drive, insert the disk and double click on the ‘Factory Install’ icon. Follow the instructions which appear on the screen.
Factory must be played in either Black & White, 16 colors, or 256 colors. 256 colors is recommended on color Macs. Once you have begun Factory, do not change the number of screen colors. Refer to your Macintosh Manual for help on changing the number of screen colors on color-capable Macs.
To begin playing the game, double-click on the ‘Factory’ icon.
The Tutorial
Factory contains a tutorial which will help you learn how to manipulate elements in the factory and assemble product components. This is probably the best place to start. To begin the tutorial simply select Tutorial from the Game menu.
The tutorial will step you through a sample workday. Each step contains a prompt to click somewhere and an explanation of what is happening and why. If you read each explanation carefully, you should get a good sense of how Factory is played.
- To abort the Tutorial, click on the black status bar at the top of the screen (where the menu bar normally is) and select Call it a day or Retire from the Game menu.
BEGINNING THE GAME
Once you have gone through the tutorial, you're ready to begin playing Factory. The first thing you must do is open the month you wish to play. Factory includes the month of ‘December,’ and you can also create your own months later. (See “The Editor” below).
To open a month file, select Open on the File menu. You will be presented with a standard Macintosh dialog for opening files. Select the file containing the month you wish to play; in this case the month is ‘December.’ Once you have a opened a month, you're ready to begin play.
- You can also open a month automatically by opening or double-clicking on it in the Finder before starting the Factory application).
Select Begin from the Game menu. You will be asked to enter your name and, optionally, a check number. Entering check numbers is a way to advance past workweeks you have already completed. For now, leave it blank. Click on That's me when you've entered your name; for now, just leave the check number blank so that you will start on the first workday.
Off to Work
Before you begin each workday, you will be shown a calendar. The first day will flicker, indicating that it is the current workday. It will also show a picture of the product which you will be manufacturing on this day. The days which you have yet to work contain question marks.
To the right of the calendar is the name of the company which has contracted your services through FACCOM. Below this is a description of the product you will be assembling, as well as some hints on how to do so. When you are done with the calendar, click on the Go to Work button.
Next, you will be shown the Assembly Guide for the current workday. This will give you a graphic description of the process by which the day's product will be assembled. Arrows indicate how you must combine various components into the finished product, which is outlined. By convention, the flow of the Assembly Guide is from left to right. After you have studied the guide, click on the OK button. You can get another look at the Assembly Guide at any time by using the selection on the Game menu.
PLAYING THE GAME
Finally, the conveyor belts start rolling. At the top of the screen, in place of the menu bar, you will see the status bar. To the left is the name of the company which own the current company. Next is your current quota (the number of finished products you have to assemble during this day). To the right of the quota indicator is the shipment status. The first number is the number of items you have sent into the truck (initially 0), and the second number is the number of items the truck can hold. Finally, on the far right is an indicator of the current conveyor belt speed.
If you click on the status bar, the game will be paused and the menu bar will reappear. To leave pause mode, click on the playfield.
- When the game is playing (the menu bar is not visible), you will not be able to switch applications, and no system background tasks will be performed.
The Game Menu
You will notice that you can now use most of the items on the Game menu. The functions of these items are described below.
Pause/Resume - Enter or leave pause mode.
Call it a day - End the current workday and (hopefully) go on to the next. Make sure you've met your quota!
Retire - End the game.
Assembly Guide - Display the Assembly Guide.
Speed Up & Down - Increase or decrease conveyer belt speed.
Sound - Toggle sound effects on and off.
- Many menu selections have Command key shortcuts. You can use these shortcuts even when the game is playing and the menu bar is not visible.
Directing and Combining Components
You have to find a way to piece them together into finished products. The Assembly Guide will have given you the general idea of how this is done, but now you have to analyze the factory's layout to figure out the mechanics of it. The following section should help you by describing exactly what function various parts of the factory fill, and how they are used to piece move components around and piece them together.
A factory consists of many fixtures which serve different purposes in assembling components. The function of most of these is fairly intuitively obvious: components move around on conveyor belts, fall down through pipes, rise up on elevators, and so on. Use of some of the fixtures, especially those which are used to combine components together, is less obvious. A description of these follows.
- If you are using color, the factory fixtures illustrated below will appear somewhat different on your screen.
There are four specially-labeled pipes which serve special purposes. The Supply Pipe is where all components enter the factory. The Recycler Pipe sends components back through the Supply Pipe. The Trash Pipe is used to eliminate waste; your paycheck will be penalized for trashing usable components. Finally, the Truck Pipe sends products to the truck for shipping.
A number of other fixtures in the factories exist to help you assemble components into finished products. Many of these are turned on and off by simply clicking on them. Controls of this type are described below.
When a Drop Box is on, components traveling into it along a conveyor belt will drop through its bottom; when it is off, components will continue along the belt normally. Similarly, an Elevator Switch sends component up through to an elevator if its is on, or otherwise leaves the component alone.
A Press is used to activate the fixture above it to combine two components. When a component reaches a Press which is on, it stops while something is done to it. The operation performed depends on what fixture lies above, which will be a Gate, Storage Tank, Dispenser, or Gadget. (See below). A press which is off has no effect on components traveling through it.
A Gate which is on (closed) acts as a temporary holding area for a single component. If the Gate is turned off (opened) the object is released. If the Gate contains a component and is above a Press which is on, a second component traveling through the Press will automatically open the Gate and cause the two components to be combined. For example: a pair of shoes is waiting in the Gate which is above an active Press. If a box comes along and enters the press, the shoes will fall into the box.
An Oven and a Washer are used to alter components when they are turned on. If they are off, components will pass through them with no effect.
Storage Tanks can hold up to nine of any particular component. If a storage tank is above an active Press and it contains an item, it will release the item for combining just like a gate. (In some cases, a packet of 2 or 3 components is required for this effect). Items can also be manually released from a storage tank by simply clicking on it. Storage tanks are labeled with a small picture of the component type which it is designed to store and a bar indicating how full the tank is. If an incorrect component type is dropped into the tank, all items become trash and are released.
Dispensers are used in conjunction with Presses. They dispense various forms of matter on or into components which pass below them onto an active Press.
Gadgets can also be used in conjunction with Presses to perform operations on components. Alternatively, components might also pass through a gadget; in this case the Gadget functions much like an Oven except that it cannot be turned off.
The End of the Day
The day ends when you select Call it a day from the Game menu, when the truck shipment is full, or when the clock on the factory wall reaches 5 o'clock. When this happens, you will be shown an evaluation of your performance. If you successfully met your quota, you will advance on to the next day.
If you fail to meet your quota, it's game over. When the game ends, you will be shown a list of the 10 highest-earning EFASTs for this month. If you have become one of them, you will be notified at this time. If you already were one of the top 10, your higher earnings will be displayed and you may move up in the rankings.
Paychecks
Every Friday, you will receive a paycheck. You will see how much money you earned in the past week, and you will also notice that the check has a special code in the check no. space. By entering this number in the space provided when you start a new game, you will be able to skip the days you have worked up until this point. This means that you won't have to work a week over again once you finish it. Your most recent password is saved for you and automatically entered when you start a new game. If you change to a different month, or play with a different name, the old password will be lost, so you may want to jot it down on a piece of paper.
The End of the Month
If you manage to complete all of the workdays in a month, you will be congratulated and be able to see all of the products you have assembled flowing out of the factory. In addition, the editing password on the month will be removed, allowing you to tinker with the Factories and Components as you desire.
Tips on Playing
- When you approach a factory for the first time, take a minute studying the layout and the Assembly Guide to formulate a strategy.
- Use the speed control to your advantage. If things get too complicated, slow down and figure out what you need to do.
- Work quickly but don't rush. There will usually be more than sufficient time to fill your quota if you work at a steady pace.
- Learn to think ahead and be able to concentrate on assembling components in different places at the same time.
- Don't be afraid to throw items in the trash. You will lose money, but having fewer objects floating around allows you to concentrate on getting finished products assembled. You may even want to dump stray objects together in a temporary trash area.
- Remember that the shipment counter is merely a raw count of how many items you've loaded into the truck. Be sure enough of those are finished products before deciding to Call it a day.
- Write new check number codes down when you get them. The back of this manual is a good place to do this. It will be saved and entered for you automatically, but its a good idea to have it written just in case.
