ftp.barnyard.co.uk/2015.02.ftp.barnyard.co.uk.tar/ftp.barnyard.co.uk/cpm/walnut-creek-CDROM/BEEHIVE/GAMES/NIMMOIA1.ARC/NIMMOIA.DOC

Text File | 1989-09-27 | 22KB | 429 lines

welcome to:
the nimmoia world gate way.
introduction:
what is nimmoia? nimmoia is an adventure game creator-player
system.
you can design characters, to a certain extent, and take them on
many diverse adventures.
if you're one of those people who don't like reading
documentation then don't read the rest of this.  simply type,
nimmoia, at the dos prompt, or at the run disk program prompt,
and follow the program.  gerron, the gate-keeper, claymore, the
banker, and, vereena, the shop owner, will help you.
however, if you want to know how, or why, then read on.
note: this system and it's accompanying documentation were
designed for the eureka a4+ by robotron industries pty. ltd.
this is a cp/m. based machine for blind users.  the screen
displays have therefore been structured to *SOUND* good.  they
may not look so good, however.  i make no apology for this.  the
ibm version has been compiled without modification.
this software is copyright (C) 1991 by Paul Nimmo.  ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.
it is placed in the public domain and you are hereby encouraged
to copy it freely and share it with friends.  NO charge may be
made for this software, however, or for any games produced using
nimmoia.  it may also not be sold as part of a software,
hardware/software, or any other package without the prior written
consent of the author.
if you use and enjoy this software you might consider a small
donation, say $15.  the project took over 7 months of sweat and
tears.  i believe it to have been worthwhile and i think you will
agree once you use this software.
make donations payable to:
Paul Nimmo:
7 Flood Avenue Revesby, N.S.W. 2213.
NO WARRANTEE IS GIVEN OR IMPLIED WITH THIS SOFTWARE.  THE AUTHOR
CAN TAKE NO RESPONSIBIlITY FOR LOSS OR DAMAGE ARISING FROM THE
USE OR MISUSE OF THIS SOFTWARE PACKAGE.
on a lighter note though, i believe the files to be named id such
a way that overwriting is highly unlikely.
files you should have.
if you obtained this program from a b.b.s. it will have been in
an archive either called nimmoiax.arc, where x is a version
number, or nimibmx.ar, where x is also a version number.
the following files should be present.
nimmoia.com, the gateway, shop, bank, character
generator/retreaver and internal housekeeper.
nimmoia2.com, the main game player interpreter.
nimmoia3.com, special events processor.
nimmoia4.com quit module.
nimmoia5.com the game create utility.
nimmoia.doc, this documentation and create.doc details on how to
create your own adventures.
there should also be some .wld files, these are games, and there
may be some .chc files, these are pre-rolled characters, see
below.
some definitions.
there are certain words and concepts that you should be familiar
with.
a ROOM is a location within an adventure or game.
a MONSTER is another character within a game hat may be friend or
foe.  these do not necessarily have to be things such as
dragons, goblins, etc. they may be people or whatever.
an OBJECT is anything else you may encounter that does not fit
into the above definition.  sound confusing? well it's just that
there are 6 classes of object including, special events and these
will be explained later.
how to play.
as mentioned above you run nimmoia by typing nimmoia
n i m m o i a
at the dos prompt or from run disk program. you will hear a brief
sign-on message and then the prompt, press any key to continue.
for the technically minded among you, this seeds the random
number generator.  pressing a key will pick a number between 1
and 32000 from a cycling counter.
after this you will be asked what prompt you would like to see.
this is so you can customize your own game prompt.  many people
just prefer a dot or > sign while others prefer words.
if you like the prompt, your move, as i do, just hit return.
now you must pick a character to take on your adventure.  you
will be asked for the file name containing the character.  if you
have one on disk that you wish to use, type it's file name
without the .chc extent.  if the file is found the character will
be loaded into memory and it's attributes used by the game.
if you are not sure what characters are on the disk type question
mark and you will see a character directory.
if you don't have any characters on disk, or you wish to roll a
new one, press return.
gerron will then ask you for your name and sex. he will then roll
you up a character, using a 24 sided single dice. this means that
your 5 primary attributes will initially be between 1 and 24.
what are attributes?
attributes govern your character's ability and behaviour in a
game. there are 5 primary, and 5 secondary attributes as follows:
strength.
this governs how strong you are.  it is used to determine how
much damage you do to monsters, and also how much you can carry.
it can be effected by objects within a game.
dexterity.
this is how nimble you are.  it effects your likelihood of
hitting
an opponent in battle,and of being able to avoid an opponent.
intelligence.
this effects how intelligent you are and will determine whether
or
not you see certain things such as traps, ways out of traps,
spells, etc.  this can also be changed by objects as can all
primary attributes.
charisma.
this is how attractive you are.
it determines whether gerron will give you bonuses or not,
whether vereena gives you discounts in the shop or not, and
whether monsters are likely to be friends with you or not.
hit points.
this is probably the most important primary attribute. it effects
how much damage you can take before death.  if this reaches 0 you
are dead.  in fact, if any primary attribute reaches 0 you are
dead.
hit points are also used to calculate, along with strength, the
amount of weight you can carry.  thus, if you are wounded you can
carry less.  a word here about levels.
games will be divided into levels, hopefully.  unfortunately,
because many people will write games, there's no way to guarantee
this.  but a rough guide is as follows.
a beginner has less than 100 hit points.
a level 1 character has between 100 and 200.
a level 2 character has between 200 and 300, and so on.
the introduction to the game, written by the creator, should
include information about the level character needed to survive.
that doesn't mean you can't take a level 1 character into a level
6
game, but you probably won't survive.
secondary attributes.
weight you can carry.
objects in the game can possess a weight. this is also determined
by the person writing the game.  the weight you can carry is your
strength times hit points times 10.  this is constantly updated
if your strength or hit points change.
you will be told automatically if this happens or you can check
it
with the health command. a full list of commands is below.
weight you are currently carrying.
this is more or less self-explanatory, and tells you how much you
are carrying. this is because, of course, examining an object
will not tell you how heavy? it is.  you'll have to try getting
it
to find out.
gold in hand.
again, more or less self-explanatory.  you will often find gold
pieces throughout the games and these can be used to by weapons
and armour at the shop.  also, some games may require you to have
a certain amount of gold on hand to pay for things.  if so, you
will be told in the introduction to the game.
gold in the bank.
if you wish, claymore, the banker, will keep your gold safe for
you while you are on an adventure.  he does not pay interest, nor
give loans, but he is as safe as the disk file.
finally, armour class.
this is not like the armour class in d&d.  in fact, while on the
subject, none of the attributes really compare with d&d or any
other such adventure system.  i have taken my favourite aspects
from many i have played and added a few of my own ideas.
armour class is the amount of damage your armour will absorb.
that is: if you have an armour class of 4, and a monster scores a
5 point hit, you will only take 1 point of damage.
vereena will, if you can afford it, sell 4 different types of
armour.  you do not have to wear this, it is automatic.  however,
armour found in games, will have to be warn.  it will go on over
your existing armour if you are wearing any.
after gerron tells you about your characters attributes, and, if
it is a new character, saves the file you are ready to play.
note: the sex of a character does not effect his/her ability to
do anything in the gate-way.  i.e. there are NO weight penalties
for being female, etc.  however, game writers can structure
monsters and objects to behave differently toward males and
females.  ah well people, that's equality for ya <grin>.
playing a game.
you will now be told,
you can either, s got to the shop, b, go to the bank, p, play a
game, or c, create your own game.  for information on creating
your own game see create.doc.
the bank.
the bank is simple enough.  you will be asked if you want to
deposit or withdraw and appropriate changes made to your
account.
WARNING: none of the staff of the gate way take too kindly to
dishonesty.  if you don't have any money in the bank, don't
try and withdraw.  likewise if you don't have any in hand, don't
try and deposit and don't worry about a trip to the shop.
the shop.
the shop sells various weapons and armour.  vereena will guide
you through easily enough.  just type the number corresponding
the  weapon or armour you require.
you cannot sell weapons or armour.  you can carry a maximum of 3
weapons but remember you should be able to pick weapons up in the
games.
weapon bonuses.
the weapon bonuses are added to your strength, and dexterity,
respectively if you are using that particular weapon in combat,
i.e. if it is ready weapon.
therefore, if you have bought the battle axe, and you originally
had a strength of 10 and dexterity of 10 then with battle axe as
ready weapon, see below, you are fighting with a strength of 20
and dexterity of 20.
assuming you have now done all your business and equipped
yourself you are ready to actually play an adventure.
type P when prompted.
you will then be asked to enter the name of the disk file
containing the adventure you wish to play.
if you don't know what's on the disk, again, you can type a
question mark to see a directory.
just type the file name, though, without the extent.  this
applies all through the games accept when retreaving partially
created games, see create.doc.
after you type the file name, the disk drive will work for a
second and you will be told,
stand by for transport to, xxxxx.
the x's will be the games, title.
then you must be a little patient.  the program has a lot of work
to do to transport you to the world you have chosen. for those of
you wishing to know what happens, see specifications section at
the bottom of this document.

after a moment, you will hear the games introduction. this will
probably include the game's name, author and level, plus a
scenario.
however, it's not up to me what goes in there.  that will depend
on the game writer. in fact, from now on, most of the text you
see comes from the game data file, not the program.
commands.
once inside the game the following commands are active.
to move around type the first letter of the direction you wish to
go.  valid direction's are, north, south, east, west, up and
down.  hence, n s e w u d.
there are also 2 other single letter commands.  they are q, which
will instantly return you to the gateway from anywhere, and i,
which will give you a list of what you are carrying and weapons
you have.
the following single word commands apply. you need only type the
first 4 letters.
score, tells you your current score.  gerron will let you divide
this score among your primary attributes when you return to the
gateway.
health, this will list your attributes both primary and
secondary.  use this often to check yourself out before doing
anything dangerous.
stat, this will give you game stats, i.e. the name of the game,
and how many rooms you have visited and how man? there are.
save, this allows you to save your game. you will be prompted for
a file name.
load, allows you to restore a saved game, you will be prompted
for a file name.
run, used if you are panicking. it will cause you to end up
randomly anywhere in the game.  not wise, unless you have no
choice.
finally, look, will give you a description of your surroundings.
you will automatically be given a description when you first
enter
a room but not after that.
almost everything else in the game is done with two word
commands, action, object, or verb, noun.
verbs the game understands are:
examine, take, get, open, close, eat, drink, wear, attack, smile
ready
and replace.
most of these are self-explanatory accept replace.
replace is my replacement for drop but it doesn't function the
same way.  if you find you are carrying too much and want to lift
something else you will have to replace object. when you do this
the object will disappear from your inventory and be back where
it came from, <grin>. nasty, isn't it.  it does provide for game
creators to have a lot of fun.
the other confusing one may be smile.  it is used in battle.  if
you smile, a dice is thrown on your charisma. an increase in
charisma may cause the monster to be friendly toward you. you
stand to gain a maximum though, of only 24 points.  a monster
will surrender anyhow, if your charisma is higher than it's
unfriendliness rating toward you. advanced characters should
therefore always attack rather than smile.
the weapon used in battle is determined by the ready command.
you must type:
ready weapon name.
if the weapon is in your inventory it's strength and dexterity
bonus will be used in battle calculations.
if you can't remember what weapon you currently have ready type
ready followed by a question mark as in:
ready ?
note: if an object has a 2 word name, e.g. brown bottle, magic
sword, etc. you must only type the first word, e.g. get brown,
ready magic.
this is because otherwise the program will think you are
attempting to operate a special. the result will be an error
message, "what?", see below.
this applies to *all* commands except when operating specials. to
operate a special you must type the entire string needed.
this might be anything although it is hoped game creators will
use
common sense.
WHAT?
if you've encountered that statement after a fairly long disk
access during the program then 1 of 2 things has occurred.
either you've typed something totally erroneous, or you are
looking at a special.
a special is one of the more unusual object classes so let's
chat about objects.
there are 6 object classes.
they are: gold pieces, weapons, objects that can be taken,
containers, objects that can be worn and special's (short for
special events.)
gold pieces and weapons are self-explanatory.  examining gold
will tell you how much there is. remember you only need type the
first 4 letters of any command. hence exam gold will do fine.
examining weapons will tell you there bonuses, if any.
objects that can be taken, and objects that can be worn are
different only in that any effects on attributes will be
immediately apparent with a taken object, but one that has to be
worn will not effect the character until you WEAR it.
caution: worn objects cannot be removed until gerron does it for
you at the end of the game.  hence, if you wear something that
has a negative effect on you, well, you'll know not to do it next
time.
containers.
containers are what they say. they are things that contain other
things. if you examine a container, such as a chest, a bottle, a
refrigerator, whatever, you will be told whether it is open or
closed.  if it is open you will be told what is inside. you may
open, or close  container and if there is something inside you
may take it, or whatever.
containers may contain the following:
gold pieces, self-explanatory, objects that can be taken, same as
above.
objects that can be eaten, these may be taken but effects will
not be apparent until you EAT object.
objects that can be drunk, assumably liquid, these cannot be
taken, only drunk.  the effects will be immediately apparently.
finally, gas.  this is the most potentially dangerous since it
will, of course, escape as soon as the container is opened and
the effects will of course be immediately apparent.
specials.
now, back to that WHAT?
a special is a special event.  it may be anything and it may
respond to any string that the game creator wished.  hopefully,
game creator's will be sensible about these.
i.e. if the activation string was:
touch the wizard's left elbow with your right 4th naked toe
people aren't going to be able to solve it.  but i can give no
guarantees.  if you find a game so difficult that you can't solve
it then either give it away, or contact the game writer and send
him 1 which is equally as difficult, <grin>.
the only clue you will have is that if you examine a special, you
will be told, "there appears to be something special about the,
object."
when you find the right activation string, remember there may be
clues somewhere else in the game, then a text will be displayed,
written by the creator, and various things may happen. unlike
other objects, special's may also effect location and armour
class so be careful.
well, that's just about it. oh! if you see a gate-way, moving in
that direction will return you to nimmoia.  it may be a good idea
to type stat first and see if you've seen all the rooms.
happy adventuring, the quit module is self-explanatory and
besides, you need a few surprises. good luck.
technical specifications.
the nimmoia system was originally written in microsoft's mbasic.
the cp/m. version was compiled using bascom and functions from
obslib.rel.  therefore it does not need brun.com.
there are 5 modules totalling 166 K. however, if you are short
on disk space nimmoia5.com, the create utility is not needed for
playing games.
the programs break down as follows:
nimmoia.com contains routine to seed random generator, character
generator/retreaval routine, bank, shop and game initialise
routines.
nimmoia2.com contains command parser, dice routines, battle
routines and most of the command processors.
nimmoia3.com contains the special events processor and error
trap.
nimmoia4.com contains quit routine, character update, etc.
nimmoia5.com is the create utility.
how it works.
nimmoia.com creates, or retreaves a character from disk.  it then
opens the relevant game file and loads it into memory. it then
checks object and monster arrays for random labels, see
create.doc, and substitutes random values for these.
then it opens a file called adv.adv and puts character data and
game data, plus a number of program housekeeping flags int it.
it hen runs nimmoia2.com
nimmoia2.com opens the adv.adv file and load all relevant data
into memory.  it then looks at a flag to see if it is being run
by
nimmoia or nimmoia3. this effects the user display.
it then processes all commands accept specials.
if the command line given to nimmoia2 contains more than 2 words,
or contains 2 words not in the standard common list then nimmoia2
updates adv.adv and passes control to nimmoia3.
nimmoia3.com loads adv.adv into memory and scans for the
activation string of a special.  if found, it acts accordingly.
if not it display an error message, updates adv.adv and returns
control to nimmoia2.
complex? well unfortunately the i/o was necessary since nimmoia2
had to know which program was running it.  i.e. on a eureka the
disk i/o maybe a little slow for a large game processing
specials.  sorry about that but i can't do anything more to trim
it down.
nimmoia4 is called by nimmoia2 if the user types q or exits
through a gateway.
if so, a different adv.adv file is created containing only
character data plus score and value for gerron.
nimmoia4 then loads this into memory, behaves accordingly and
then recreates a character file, named by the user, deletes
adv.adv, and exits.
if a character dies, nimmoia2 also deletes adv.adv before
exiting. the user should never see the adv.adv file unless he/she
breaks the program during execution.
note: breaking the program will not save all data.  you will be
able to go back to the game by re-running nimmoia2 but it is not
wise as many pointers will have been reset.
files created by the system are, .chc files, characters, .wld
files, worlds, these contain adventures,
.wls files, saved games, and .tmp files saved partial words, i.e. if you are half way through creating a game, see create.doc.
one final note: on a advanced eureka a4+ nimmoia2 take all but
about 200 or so bytes.  since the linker allows about 45 K i can
reasonably be assured, without checking, that you will need a
minimum 45 to 50 K tpa to run this.  hence standard eureka's will
probably not be able to, sorry people.
see ya, have fun.
direct inquiries to paul nimmo at the address at the top of this
document or leave me a message on the beehive B.B.S. sydney,
02975-4982.
 to paul nimmo at the address at the top of