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1993-03-21
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This application is FREEWARE. This means that you can copy and distribute it
freely, so long as the following conditions are met:
1) You do not make profit from such distribution
2) All files are distributed unchanged and intact
This software is provided 'as is'. Using it is entirely at your own risk.
---
If you haven't ever played UMoria before, please read the text files in the
"Docs" directory for more information on UMoria and how to play it.
If you are not familiar with the improvements in UMoria 5.4.0 (last known
archimedes version was 4.87), then please read the Docs, as many many many
new features have been added.
Description
-----------
Moria plays a dungeon game with you (much like D&D and similar role-playing
games). It lets you generate a character, lets you buy equipment, and lets
you wander in a fathomless dungeon while finding treasure and being attacked
by monsters and fellow adventurers.
The ultimate object of moria is to kill the Balrog, which dwells on the 50th
level of the dungeon, 2,500 feet under- ground. Most players never even
reach the Balrog, and those that do seldom live to tell about it.
For a more complete description of the game, read the document The Dungeons
of Moria.
For help while playing, type a '?'.
Archimedes Colour UMoria 5.5.0
------------------------------
== Credits ==
Copyright 1985 Robert Alan Koeneke
Copyright 1989-91 James E. Wilson
There are lots of people who have contributed to making Moria the game it is,
many of whom can be seen by pressing 'v' while playing the game...
The Archimedes port was done by Edouard Poor.
He can be contacted at the addresses at the end of this file.
General testing, exploratory surgery, and history/recall window handlers by
Jason Williams.
== Bugs ==
There is only one bug I have found so far in the Archimedes version that
isn't in any other version (making it, therefore, my fault...)
If you inherit a monster memory from a (dead) character, and then save your
new character on the town level (the first time you save it,) there is a
chance that when you go to play moria again the file won't restore (and it
will ask you to try again without that savefile.)
As far as I can tell the savefile is just fine, but my port doesn't read it
properly... All is not lost however, as you can try the following and should
get the file to load again.
Go into the !UMoria directory (by shift-double-clicking on its icon) and
rename the save file ("SavedGame") to something new (for example
"SavedGameX".) Now copy the file back with the old name ("SavedGame") and
re-run !UMoria. This should work (and even if it doesn't you don't have to
throw the savefile as I hope to crack this last bug as soon as possible, as
well as adding menus and RISC OS style load/save routines and many other new
features. So look out for a newer copy of !Umoria soon.)
I wish to stress that people I have had testing !UMoria have never
encountered this bug (No... Only me, on the very first day I seriously
started playing a great character I rolled up... Typical...) You will most
likely never come across the behaviour outlined above unless you actually
try to, so don't be alarmed by all this bug talk. (Also note that if you
always save while in the dungeon, and not on the town level, you are safe)
Of course if you find any other behaviour that you think is incorrect,
please contact me so I can fix it for you (and everyone else) as soon as
possible.
== Addresses ==
(Send all snail mail/money orders/cheques/cash to)
Edouard Poor
15 Stanley Pt Rd
Devonport
Auckland
New Zealand
(Email/uu-files may be addressed to)
edouard@nacjack.gen.nz
epoo1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (should also be valid until 1994)
(voice line)
+64 9 4450330
(data line/ABUG II BBS: mail to sysop/user #1)
+64 9 4452923
(fido address not yet availible)
---
Extra features unique to Archimedes UMoria 5.4.0
================================================
Please read the other docs with this release of UMoria 5.4.0. There are a
lot of features new to Moria in this release, as well as the following extra
archimedes-specific additions:
Colour
======
Various parts of the display appear in colour, most notably the monsters...
now an ancient blue dragon appears blue on-screen, for example. Also, your
statistics are shown in green if they are OK, yellow if they are lower than
normal, and red if they are dangerously low. In inventories, each item is
coloured depending on the type of item (for example, rings are gold, staffs
are brown, etc), and magical swords and armour are shown slightly brighter
than normal ones.
Using colour provides a couple of difficulties:
1) The Archimedes 16-colour desktop palette does not supply all the
necessary colours. For example, a purple worm appears as dark blue.
If this concerns you, use a 256-colour screen mode when running UMoria.
2) Black creatures would become invisible. We have made them dark grey,
but they can still be difficult to see.
To remedy the second problem, there are two !Palette files included inside
the !UMoria application directory: One simply makes the colours brighter and
easier to see, while the other makes the greys brighter as well.
Closeable window
================
If you close the main UMoria window, the game does not quit. Clicking upon
the iconbar icon with Select will re-open the window and you can resume your
game.
(At present, clicking upon the iconbar icon opens all three Moria windows,
due to a menu and options-dialogue being unimplemented at this time...
Edouard assures me that he will add a menu right away, but he's been saying
this for 6 months now ;-) But a menu should be forthcoming in early December
- once exams are over, I'm sure he'll do it!
Note that you can set the size and initial positions of these windows by
editing the templates file with !FormEd.)
Recall
======
In UMoria 5.5 there is a "monster memory". This allows you to remember
details about any monsters you (as a player) have met before (this is
achieved by passing the memory of previous characters on to their
successors, which works perfectly so long as you don't "cheat"!)
If you l)ook at a monster, an option to [r)ecall] is available: This lists
everything known about the monster in your monster memory over the top of
the moria screen. However, in the Archimedes version, if you have the
"recall" window open, this option will not appear, and the recall text will
automatically appear in the recall window. This makes looking at monsters to
reveal the information in your memory much quicker and easier. Closing the
window makes UMoria revert to the normal UNIX modus operandi.
Also, if the window is open, whenever you hit a creature (only with hand-to
hand fighting, i.e. "walking into" the monster), your memory recall of that
monster type will be displayed. To improve performance, the recall is not
re-displayed on subsequent hits (which means that the info is not updated if
you just found something out about that monster). In this case, either hit a
differnt monster and then hit that one again, or l)ook at the monster to
update the recall window.
Close the window if you don't want the additional recall functionality, and
everything will revert to normal Unix Moria operation.
Outline-fonts in this window will be available shortly...
History window
==============
A "history" window is available that shows the last 5 messages printed in
the top line of the moria window. This is useful to see what has happened
recently, without having to resort to the "^P" (history) option.
Close the history window if you don't want it.
Miscellaneous options
=====================
Various extra options are available for the Archimedes version of this game,
but currently Edouard hasn't got around to writing the menu code, so you
don't have access to them...yet. Please be patient ;-)
Other notes
===========
The game is saved in !UMoria.SavedGame, so if you wish to run more than one
character over a period of time, you will need to swap the saved game files
around "by hand".
Note also that I have set up the templates file so that everything comes up
tidily in screen mode 78. If you have a multisync monitor, then try using
this screen mode to run moria in. If you wish to use a different screen
mode, then there is no problem, but you will find that "wide" modes such as
16, and overscan modes, will be most useful, as Moria uses an 80-column
display which tends to be slightly too wide for comfort in mode 12. However,
windows such as the recall window actually wrap their text at 76 columns to
enable you to use them as comfortably as possible in mode 12, etc.
Also note that the correct way to quit from UMoria is to use ^X (ctrl-X) to
quit-and-save, or ^K (ctrl-K) to quit (and kill the current character).
However, you can quit if necessary by bringing up the task manager window,
clicking Menu over "The Mines of UMoria", and selecting the "quit" option.
Jason Williams.