CD PowerPlay 6

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ CD PowerPlay 6 / TheCompleteAdventureCollection1995 / CDPP6.ISO / utility / agtm1 / agt-docs / mast-doc.pt3 < prev

Wrap

Text File | 1993-06-13 | 91.8 KB | 2,380 lines

PICTURE [Picture of Small Building] PIX [Sky pix] [Tree pix] END_ROOM By adding the [Sky pix] and [Tree pix] labels to the PIX line for the room, we will cause the SKY and the TREE to be displayed as pictures whenever the player is in this room -- if the player gives the proper VIEW command. META-COMMANDS AND PICTURES Most pictures or animations will be seen when the player gives a command to VIEW something. However, there will be times in the game when the game designer will want to initiate the display a picture or animation. For example, when the player wins the game (or loses) you may want to display as special picture to mark the occasion. These occasions will be handled by using meta-commands to display the pictures or animations. The game designer initiates these picture displays by using the ShowPicture or IfYShowPicture meta-command tokens. The following are two examples of how pictures might be shown by using meta-commands: #COMMENT ------- random "cameo" appearances in cave COMMAND ANY Chance 3 AtLocationGT [hall of mists] AtLocationLT [cylindrical chamber] ;most of cave area FlagOFF [Dwarf here] PrintMessage [IRS men appear] WaitForReturn ; Show picture when player hits RETURN ShowPicture [Picture of IRS men] PrintMessage [IRS men disappear] END_MESSAGE MESSAGE [IRS men appear] Seven men, wearing gray business suits and carrying briefcases, suddenly appear out of the shadows and surround you. They identify themselves as representatives of the Internal Revenue Service! With absolutely no show of emotion, they report: "We understand that you have been accumulating some un-declared income. We wish to warn you that we are watching you closely as you play this game, and all of this income must be properly and totally accounted for on your next tax return. If it isn't, you will go to jail or worse!" END_MESSAGE MESSAGE [IRS men disappear] They then disappear in a >POOF< of red, white and blue smoke. END_MESSAGE 132 COMMAND ANY Chance 3 AtLocationGT [hall of mists] AtLocationLT [cylindrical chamber] ;most of cave area FlagOFF [Dwarf here] PrintMessage [Mining Robot appears] IfYShowPicture [Picture of Mining Robot] ; Asks if player wants to ; see picture -- and display it only if player responds with a YES PrintMessage [Mining Robot disappears] END_MESSAGE MESSAGE [Mining Robot appears] From somewhere nearby, there suddenly comes a sound of something mechanical in motion. As you turn toward it, an incredible figure rolls into the light of your lamp. It stands about five feet high on a wheeled metal pedestal, and has a globular light-filled head, accordion-pleated metal arms, and a cylindrical body the size of an oil drum with a plastic panel on the front. It rolls past without taking any notice of you, all the while waving its arms, flashing a light behind its front panel and bellowing "WARNING! WARNING! DANGER!" at the top of its not inconsiderable voice. END_MESSAGE MESSAGE [Mining Robot disappears] It rolls on out of sight, and moments later there is an immense flash of light and a tremendous blast of sparks and smoke. When the air clears, you find that no trace remains of the strange apparition. END_MESSAGE Remember -- these pictures or animations will be displayed until a key is pressed and then the display will return to the normal AGT text-based screen -- ready for the next game command from the player. IMPORTANT NOTE: Both of the meta-command picture examples above assume that the picture being referenced is one of the up-to-250 pictures or animations defined in the PICTURE list -- i.e., [Picture of IRS men] and [Picture of Mining Robot] were both defined by something similar to: PICTURES [Intro Picture] INTRO [First Jungle Scene] JUNGLE1 ... [Picture of IRS men] IRSGUYS [Picture of Mining Robot] M-ROBOT . . . [Victory Picture] VICTORY END_PICTURES If [Picture of IRS men] and [Picture of Mining Robot] were defines as some of the up-to-30 ROOM_PIX, you would have to use different meta- command tokens. Specifically, rather than ... 133 ShowPicture [Picture of IRS men] and IfYShowPicture [Picture of Mining Robot] you would have to use: ShowROOM_PIX [Picture of IRS men] and IfYShowROOM_PIX [Picture of Mining Robot] Obviously, if the proper picture/animation can not be found on the disk and/or the player's screen is not capable of displaying the resolution of the picture or animation, then these meta-command tokens will have no effect. Another meta-command token that you will find useful is: Room_PixHere [Tree pix] which will check if the [Tree pix] picture may be viewed in the current room. 134 PART 7: OPTIONAL MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS The Master's Edition allows you to play music or have other sound effects (like a telephone ringing) in the background of your AGT Adventure game. In the background means that once you start the sound effect or music playing, you can continue on with the rest of your game and the sound or music keeps playing without any additional effort on your part until the song or sound is finished. You can use this to provide special sound effects in your games or just to add a cute indication that your program is still doing something -- even when it is reacting to or waiting for the player's various commands. You can turn songs on and off using meta-commands and change the music to fit the mood of the current game situation -- e.g., eerie, spooky music for exploring a haunted house, or calliope music for an adventure set at a circus. The Master's Edition can use (1) music files from Neil Rubenking's PianoMan program version 4.0, or (2) music and sound effects that are in the form required by BASIC's PLAY statements or (3) you can create your own sound effects using a Turbo Pascal source program (provided as part of the Master's Edition "package"). All of AGT's sound effect or music files must have a .MUC file extension. You can have up to 50 .MUC files for each AGT game. In addition, Version 1.5 of the Master's Edition can use SoundBlaster and Adlib compatible sound/music files. Just how, will be described a little later in the manual. SOUND CONVERSION UTILITIES To help convert to AGT-useable sound/music files, several conversion programs are provided as part of The Master's Edition package. CNVT_MUZ.EXE will convert any PianoMan 4.0 (.MUZ) file into an AGT .MUC file. CONVT_PLY.EXE will convert any BASIC PLAY music strings (in ASCII or text) into an AGT .MUC file. See a couple of the .PLY files for examples of the format CNVT_PLY is expecting. To create sound effects like water dripping or telephones ringing, you should use the AGTSOUND.EXE program. The Turbo Pascal source code to this program (AGTSOUND.PAS) is also provided so you can create customized sounds. Each of these conversion/creation programs produces a .MUC file that AGT can play/sound in the background. These MUC. files use the IBM PC's built-in speaker. No special sound board is required. Blatant Plug: Neil's PianoMan is an excellent shareware product and is available from many bulletin boards on in the IBM Software forum on 135 Compuserve. It allows you to play your computer's keyboard like a piano keyboard and record and edit music entered in real time or from sheet music. There are also many files of songs already entered that you can use. One sample archive for instance contains over 50 sample songs. PianoMan is described in more detail in the section entitled RECOMMENDED SHAREWARE UTILITIES. ADLIB AND SOUNDBLASTER SUPPORT With version 1.5 of the Master's Edition, we have added the capability to use AdLib or SoundBlaster (or compatible) sound cards -- if one is available on the computer where the game is being played. Using these sound cards, your game can now have sounds ranging from a full symphony to speech. In addition to its own music/sound format .MUC files, the Master's Edition can now play .CMF, .MID, or .VOC files. USING SOUND AND MUSIC The song/sound files are indicated in your AGT source files by something similar to the following: SOUNDS [Intro Music] INTRO <-- actual disk file must be named INTRO.MUC [Jungle Drums] TOM-TOMS <-- actual file must be named TOM-TOMS.MUC [Death Dirge] DEATH <-- actual file must be named DEATH.MUC . . . [Victory March] VICTORY <-- actual file must be named VICTORY.MUC END_SOUNDS There can be up to 50 song/sound files in each AGT game. Playing these songs and sound effects must be controlled via meta-commands. The following examples demonstrate how these meta-commands should be used: PlaySong [Jungle Drums] <-- This plays the song/sound file TOM-TOMS.MUC once. The standard mode is to play the song until it is finished and then to stop. RepeatSong [Jungle Drums] <-- This plays the song/sound file TOM-TOMS.MUC repeatedly. When the song is finished it would automatically be started again. EndRepeatSong <-- This causes the current song/sound to stop when it is finished, i.e., the repeating feature would be turned off. 136 PlayRandom {num1} {num2} <-- This plays a random song/sound file between num1 and num2 once. The song/sound will be played until it is finished and then it will stop. StopSong <-- This causes the current song/sound to stop immediately. Once the StopSong command has been given, the song can not be resumed without giving a new PlaySong or RepeatSong meta-command. If you wish to change songs/sounds before the current sound/song is finished, you must first use a StopSong token before starting the new sound/song with either a StartSong or RepeatSong token. SuspendSong <-- This causes the current song/sound to stop immediately -- but it can be resumed at the current spot at a later time. ResumeSong <-- This resumes playing a song that had been suspended by a SuspendSong meta-command at the spot where it had been suspended. SongPlaying <-- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether there is a song playing at the current moment. There is a utility provided called AGT_PLAY.EXE which allows you to try out your music and sound effects before you incorporate them into the actual AGT game. AGT_PLAY can be used to test/play .MUC, .CMF, .MID, and .VOC music/sound files. Try it to get a feel for what is possible. IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT SOUND AND MUSIC There are a couple of potential limitations about using .MUC sound that you need to understand. NOTE: The following limitations/discussion do/does not apply to Adlib or SoundBlaster sound cards. First, sounds and/or songs within AGT are played in the background. The way in which this is done is to check and potentially change the sound parameters every time the computer's internal clock "ticks" -- roughly 137 18 times a second. The fact that AGT can only adjust the sound every 1/18th of a second means that some sounds can not be played successfully -- specifically, it is impossible to play sounds that change very quickly or have tones that last a very short time. An obvious example of this problem is music that has multiple voices where each voice gets a very short period of time for its note before switching to the next voice. Good examples of this are some of the songs from PIANOMAN that are written for four voice harmony. These songs are almost impossible for AGT to play successfully. Other sounds that AGT will have problems with are sound effects which are made up of a number tones of very short duration -- such as some whistles, sirens, and like sounds. The best way to test whether a sound/song can be used in AGT is to play it using PLAY_MUC. If you try to play it with PLAY_MUC and it works, then it will work in AGT. Conversely, if it does not work (i.e., you get no sound at all or it doesn't sound right), then it won't work correctly in AGT. The second limitation will only apply to some computers, principally older machines with "slow" hard disks. Again, the clock "tick rate" of once every 1/18th of a second may not allow you to make all of the sound/song changes that a sound file may require when you are also reading the descriptions off the disk at the same time. Some computers will complete a disk read (or write) and not interrupt the disk access just because of a clock tick every 1/18th of a second. If your disk is one of these, the sounds may be distorted by slow downs while the disk is being accessed. The best solution to this problem is to put your game (and all its associated files) on a ram disk. If you don't have a ram disk, you may wish to turn the SOUND OFF. The last limitation with AGT's sound/music capabilities is that the number of separate notes is limited to about 5000. The best way to check if a particular song or sound has less than 5000 notes is to use the program PLAY_MUC and check the size of the file. IF PLAY_MUC shows the song/sound files is 5000 bytes or less, then you should not have any problems in getting it to work properly within an AGT game. 138 PART 8: OTHER NEW FEATURES UNIQUE TO MASTER'S EDITION CUSTOMIZEABLE "DEFAULT" MESSAGES At long last, you can "die" in some other fashion than disappearing in a cloud of orange smoke. All (well -- almost all) of the messages in the Master's Edition can be customized by the game designer. The Master's Edition of AGT gets its standard "default" messages by reading a file of such standard messages. These files will have a .STD extension. When the Master's Edition MCOMPILE program is started it will first look for a .STD file for the specific game being played, i.e., GAMENAME.STD. If that file is not found on the current directory, MCOMPILE will look for the "default" .STD file which is AGT.STD. If AGT.STD is also not on the current directory, MRUN will quit with an error message. The Master's Edition package has two .STD file for you to play with: AGT.STD and IRUN.STD. AGT.STD is the "standard" set of AGT messages that use to be "hard-coded" into the MRUN program. IRUN.STD is a set of messages that change the player's perspective to the "first-person" from the normal perspective of "third-person," i.e., all of the messages are changed to use "I" rather than "You" -- such as, "I shoot the gun at the bandit." IRUN.STD is the set of messages that Pat Farley developed for CRIME TO THE 9TH POWER, the first place winning game in the 1990 AGT adventure game writing contest. There must be exactly 185 standard messages numbered STANDARD 1 to STANDARD 185 in a .STD file (either GAMENAME.STD, AGT.STD or IRUN.STD). You may edit these messages as you see fit. However, you must keep them in the same order and you must keep their meaning consistent with the current meaning. For example, below is STANDARD 38 which is the standard message that will be printed whenever the player tries to WEAR something that weights over 100 pounds: STANDARD 38 It's too heavy! You aren't strong enough to carry or wear the $noun$! END_STANDARD You can feel free to change this message in any way you wish -- but, however you change STANDARD 38 -- it will still be printed if and only if the player tries to WEAR a noun weighing over 100 pounds. There are several "string variables" that may be used freely in messages -- specifically: $verb$ is the current VERB $noun$ is the current NOUN $prep$ is the current PREPOSITION $object$ is the current OBJECT 139 $adjective$ is the current NOUN's adjective $n_pro$ is the NOUN's pronoun, i.e., "it" "they" "he" or "she" $o_pro$ is the OBJECT's pronoun, i.e., "it" "they" "he" or "she" $n_indir$ is the NOUN's indirect pronoun - "it" "them" "him" or "her" $o_indir$ is the OBJECT's indirect pronoun: "it" "them" "him" or "her" $n_is$ is either "is" or "are" based upon NOUN being singular or plural $o_is$ is either "is" or "are" based upon OBJECT being singular or plural $c_name$ is the NAME of the HOSTILE creature that is attacking the player Any of the above string variables can be capitalized by making the appropriate letters between the $'s upper case. For example $Noun$ will capitalize the first letter of the NOUN's name, or $OBJECT$ will display the OBJECT's name in all caps. CUSTOMIZEABLE USER INTERFACE The Master's Edition of AGT allows the user to customize the manner in which the game's general interface is defined and to specify the game's overall "look-and-feel." The user may define color schemes, status line options, command input method, size and "layout" of the screen, etc. Once the player has a set of "look-and-feel" options he or she likes, these options may be saved as the standard defaults for this game and any other AGT game the user plays. The "look-and-feel" options are accessed by hitting the ESC key during the game. If you create an user interface that you like, it may be saved by selecting the item on the options menu. This creates a file with the extension GAMENAME.OPT which has your options for this game. Thereafter, whenever you start the game, the fiel GAMENAME.OPT file will be read and your saved "look-and-feel" options will automatically be used. "FREEZING" THE USER INTERFACE If you have saved a particular set of "look-and-feel" options (in a file named GAMENAME,OPT) for a game, you can "freeze" those options, so that whoever is playing the game can not change the "look-and-feel." This is done by putting the word FREEZE on a separate line in the game's .AGT before the game is compiled. As an example, the game HOLMES forces the player to always use a MENU-DRIVEN option for the game. 140 ADAPTING YOUR GAME FOR THE "MENU-DRIVEN" PLAYER INPUT One of the options available in the Master's Edition is a unique "menu-driven" player input that allows the player to enter game commands by selecting words from a menu. This option is particularly helpful for players who are often frustrated by their inability to figure out an adventure game's vocabulary -- since the menu always displays a list of "feasible" (though not always "smart" or even appropriate) commands from which the player may make a selection. However, the "menus" do show some intelligence -- if the player selects the verb DROP from the menu, then he/she will be shown a menu of nouns that can be selected to be dropped. This list will be composed only of nouns that the player is currently carrying or wearing, i.e., logical candidates for being DROPped. This level of inherent intelligence is not extended to all verbs, however. For example, if the player selects the verb EAT, the nouns shown will be all of the nouns and creatures visible at the location plus special "related" or "room" specific or "ubiquitous" nouns (to be discussed a little later). In other words, the noun list will not be limited to nouns that have been defined as EDIBLE and happen to be visible at the current location. I firmly believe the "menu-driven" input should not limit either the player's or the game designer's ability to have such game commands as EAT THE TRASH CAN or PUSH THE STRING WITH MY NOSE. The "menu-driven" input option may be accessed by hitting the ESC key during the game and toggling the MENU option to ON. The Master's Edition of AGT gets its standard "menu-driven" verb list by reading a file with the list of verbs to be displayed in the menu. This file will have a .VOC extension. When the Master's Edition MRUN program is started it will first look for a .VOC file for the specific game being played, i.e., GAMENAME.VOC. If that file is not found on the current directory, MRUN will look for the "default" .VOC file which is AGT.VOC. If AGT.VOC is also not on the current directory, MRUN will quit with an error message. The Master's Edition package has two .VOC files for you to play with: AGT.VOC and SQUYNCH.VOC. AGT.VOC is the "standard" set of AGT verbs for potential use by the "menu-driven" player input. SQUYNCH.VOC is a set of verbs that were selected specifically for the game SQUYNCH. By looking at the differences between these two files, you can get an idea of how and why you might want to "customize" your verb menu. When setting up our own .VOC file please follow these guidelines: 1. The verb menu will be displayed in the exact order as the verbs in the vocabulary file, i.e., the .VOC file. 2. It is important that some verbs be included in a particular order. For example, the directions should be shown before other verbs beginning with the same letter, e.g., SOUTH should 141 be the first S-verb, so that hitting a single letter on the keyboard will jump to the most frequently used verbs (commands). 3. There should be a number in the first column of each verb entry in the .VOC file. The number should be a 1 if the verb does not need a noun, e.g., SOUTH, HELP. The number should be a 2 if the verb always needs a noun, e.g., GET. The number should be a 3 if the verb is a compound verb such as PUT IN that always needs both a noun and an object, e.g., PUT noun IN object. If the number is a 3, then the verb MUST consist of two words, e.g., PUT IN, or an error message will be generated. Any number other than 1, 2, or 3 will also generate an error message. IMPORTANT WARNING: Your verb list is limited to a maximum of 200 verbs. Also, each verb (compound or otherwise) must be limited to 15 characters or less. For example, the AGT.VOC starts off with the following entries: ! AGAIN should be the first A-verb 1 Again 2 Attack 3 Attack With 3 Ask about 1 Brief 3 Block with 2 Break 3 Break with 2 Close 1 Climb 2 Climb up 2 Climb down This would cause the following actions: ! AGAIN should be the first A-verb <- A comment line -- ignored 1 Again <- Will be selected when an A is hit on the keyboard 2 Attack <- ATTACK noun -- i.e., ATTACK ORC 3 Attack With <- ATTACK noun WITH object 3 Ask about <- ASK noun ABOUT object -- i.e., ASK ORC ABOUT GOLD 1 Brief <- Will be selected when an B is hit on the keyboard 3 Block with <- BLOCK noun WITH object 2 Break <- BREAK noun - i.e., BREAK EGG 3 Break with <- BREAK noun WITH object -- i.e., BREAK DOOR WITH AXE 2 Close <- CLOSE noun -- i.e., CLOSE DOOR 1 Climb <- CLIMB -- i.e., no noun 2 Climb up <- CLIMB UP noun -- i.e., CLIMB UP TREE 2 Climb down <- CLIMB DOWN noun -- i.e., CLIMB DOWN TREE 142 The biggest challenge the game designer will have in converting a Classic Edition AGT game to work with the new menu-driven player input will be making sure that the nouns that should be displayed in a particular location or situation will (in fact) be displayed. The menu-driven input option shows only a subset of all of the potential nouns -- and your challenge as a game designer is to make sure that the nouns you want get selected for these subsets. To help you understand how to accomplish this feat, let's review just how this list of nouns to be displayed is determined. This list is formed from: 1. All "visible" nouns and creatures 2. All "related" names 3. All "ubiquitous" nouns 4. All "room specific" nouns More details follow on each of these: 1. All nouns and creatures that are "visible" at the current location, i.e., all creatures present in the room plus all nouns that are either being carried or worn, in the room, or inside another noun (which is inside the room) that is open. 2. All nouns or names that are "related" to one of the visible nouns, i.e., "related" to nouns covered by (1) above. As an example, see the magic carpet in SQUYNCH that has a "label" attached to it. You want the player to be able to READ THE LABEL whenever the magic carpet is present. By making LABEL a "related name" for the magic carpet, the word LABEL will appear whenever the word CARPET would also appear on a noun list. Another example from SQUYNCH is the need to have the word NOSE to appear on the noun lists whenever the player has the CLOTHPIN. This allows the player to use the menu-driven player input to enter a command like PIN NOSE WITH CLOTHPIN or PUT CLOTHPIN ON NOSE. This objective is accomplished by having NOSE as a "related name" of the noun CLOTHPIN. As an example, below is the NOUN definition for the CLOTHPIN: NOUN [247 WOODEN CLOTHPIN] CLOTHPIN WOODEN There is a wooden clothpin here. LOCATION [27 Royal Laundry Room] WEIGHT 5 POSITION on clothline NOUN_SYNONYMS PIN RELATED_NAME NOSE 143 END_NOUN NOUN_DESCR [247 WOODEN CLOTHPIN] The wooden clothpin is about 3 inches long. END_NOUN_DESCR 3. All nouns that have been defined by the game designer as "ubiquitous" for the particular game. Examples of possible ubiquitous nouns include such things/names as "ME", "GROUND," or "SKY." These nouns will appear on EVERY noun list the menu-driven player input generates. There can be at most 100 of these global nouns in a game. Below is an example of how these nouns would be specified in the .AGT file: GLOBAL_NOUNS Me Ground <-- Maximum of 100 of these! END_GLOBAL_NOUNS IMPORTANT NOTE: You should use the GLOBAL NOUNS to do the same thing for nouns that "Dummy Verbs" does for verbs. In other words, a GLOBAL NOUN will be recognized by the parser as a valid noun without having been defined as a separate NOUN (and using up one of your very precious 200 NOUN definitions). However, because they are not one of the "standard" NOUN definitions, you MUST handle all references to your GLOBAL NOUNS via metacommands!! For example, let's say that GROUND is defined as a GLOBAL NOUN (and is not a separate NOUN definition). You must have metacommands to handle such player inputs as GET GROUND, EXAMINE GROUND, etc. The standard "built-in" routines for AGT can only deal with things that are defined as either NOUNs or CREATUREs -- and obviously, GROUND does not apply in this case. 4. All nouns that have been defined by the game designer as "room specific" for the current room. Examples of possible "room specific" nouns might include such things as "TREES", "WATER," or "SNOW," i.e., things that can be expected to be found in multiple locations through out the game and which are unlikely to have specific NOUN definitions in each of these locations. For example, you may want the player to GET WATER at multiple locations within the game such as at wells, streams, lakes, etc. By using a "room specific" noun of WATER for each of these locations, you can assure that WATER will always appear on any noun list the menu-driven input generates at any of these locations. Within the Master's Edition, you are allowed up to 30 "room specific" nouns (or flags). This is 30 in total -- not 30 per room. Here is an example of how these flags/nouns should be specified in the game's .AGT file: 144 REM ---- Flag Noun Numbers FLAG_NOUNS [Castle] Castle [Cave] Cave [Cove] Cove [Water] Water [Moat] Moat [Bridge] Bridge [Stairs] Stairs <-- Maximum of 30 of these! END_FLAG_NOUNS Once these flags/nouns have been defined they can be specified for a room in the game as the following examples shows: ROOM [18 Drawbridge] Drawbridge NORTH [20 Moat] SOUTH [20 Moat] EAST [15 Waiting Room] WEST [Front of Castle] FLAGS [Castle] [Water] [Bridge] END_ROOM ROOM_DESCR [18 Drawbridge] You are now on the drawbridge in front of Squeeb's castle which lies to the east. There is another exit to the west. END_ROOM_DESCR The Drawbridge location has the flags/nouns for WATER, CASTLE, and BRIDGE. These nouns will be displayed on any noun list that the menu-driven input generates while at this location. You can test the status and/or change the status of these flags using the following meta-commands: RoomFlagON num <-- Tests if RoomFlag num is ON RoomFlagOFF num <-- Tests if RoomFlag num is OFF TurnRoomFlagON num <-- Will turn RoomFlag num ON TurnRoomFlagOFF num <-- Will turn RoomFlag num OFF ToggleRoomFlag num <-- Will toggle or switch RoomFlag num Here are a few examples of how the WATER room flag might be used to deal properly with the commands GET WATER and EXAMINE WATER: COMMAND GET WATER Present [231 WOODEN PAIL] RoomFlagOFF [Water] ; there isn't any water here PrintMessage [No water here!] DoneWithTurn END_COMMAND 145 MESSAGE [No water here!] There isn't any water here. Perhaps, you meant to MAKE WATER! END_MESSAGE COMMAND GET WATER Present [231 WOODEN PAIL] RoomFlagON [Water] ; there is water here ReDirectTo FILL PAIL DoneWithTurn END_COMMAND COMMAND EXAMINE WATER RoomFlagON [Water] PrintMessage [Water description] DoneWithTurn END_COMMAND MESSAGE [Water description] The water looks dark, murky and polluted! It also stinks something awful! END_MESSAGE Room flags can also be used without having any nouns added to the noun list generated by the menu-driven input option. Examples of situations where you might want to be able to test or set flags for a location include: (1) a flag to indicate the location is "outside", (2) a flag to indicate that this location is one where a particular CREATURE might appear at random, and (3) a flag to indicate that the player must be wearing a "space-suit" or he/she will die from lack of oxygen. The way to accomplish this is to not add the flag to the FLAG_NOUNS list. For example, to create a flag for a room being "outside," we could add the following definition: #DEFINE [Outside] 8 Then to specify that the "Drawbridge" location was "outside", we would just add it to the room's FLAG list: ROOM [18 Drawbridge] Drawbridge NORTH [20 Moat] SOUTH [20 Moat] EAST [15 Waiting Room] WEST [Front of Castle] FLAGS [Castle] [Water] [Bridge] [Outside] END_ROOM Because [Outside] is not in the FLAG_NOUNS list, the word OUTSIDE will not appear on the noun list that the menu-driven input option generates. 146 INITIAL DESCRIPTIONS FOR ROOMS, NOUNS AND CREATURES NOUN INITIAL DESCRIPTIONS Let's begin with an example of using "initial" descriptions for nouns. Often you will want to have a noun's short description change after you move it or take it. For example, we might want to have the initial short description of a chrome key "attached" to objects in the key's initial location as follows: You are on a large ledge only a couple of meters below the top of the spire. There is a large nest just out of your reach. Dangling from the nest on a red string is a chrome key. Once you move the key, you would want its short description to be "free" of the nest -- for example: There is a chrome key on a string here. You can do this by specifying the noun's INITIAL value to be the number of a message. This message will be printed as the noun's short description until such time as the noun is moved by getting it, wearing it, or placing it. After the noun is moved from its initial location, the noun's "normal" short description will be used. For example, here is how the chrome key might be specified: ROOM [Top of the spire] Top of the spire DOWN [Half-way up the Spire] END_ROOM ROOM_DESCR [Top of the spire] You are on a large ledge only a couple of meters below the top of the spire. There is a large nest just out of your reach. END_ROOM_DESCR NOUN [Chrome key] key Chrome There is a chrome key on a string here. WEIGHT 1 SIZE 1 POINTS 2 WEARABLE ; can be worn LOCATION [Top of the spire] INITIAL [Initial Chrome key description] END_NOUN 147 NOUN_DESCR [Chrome key] The key is made of chrome and is on a string. It looks like it might come in handy. END_NOUN_DESCR MESSAGE [Initial Chrome key description] Dangling from the nest on a red string is a chrome key. END_MESSAGE You have the option of specifying "short-cut" initial messages just like you can with "short-cut" messages within a meta-command. For example, we could have defined the initial message as follows: NOUN [Chrome key] key Chrome There is a chrome key on a string here. WEIGHT 1 SIZE 1 POINTS 2 WEARABLE ; can be worn LOCATION [Top of the spire] INITIAL "Dangling from the nest on a red string is a chrome key." END_NOUN If we went a longer (i.e., multi-line) initial message we can do that as well. For example, we could define a multi-line initial message as follows: NOUN [Chrome key] key Chrome There is a chrome key on a string here. WEIGHT 1 SIZE 1 POINTS 2 WEARABLE ; can be worn LOCATION [Top of the spire] INITIAL Dangling from the nest on a red string is a chrome key. It looks like it could be easily plucked from the nest -- if you wanted it for some reason. But heaven only knows why you would want a key like this one. END_INITIAL END_NOUN CREATURE INITIAL DESCRIPTIONS We can do the same sort of things with initial descriptions for CREATUREs. For example, let's add a bald eagle to the above scenario that swoops out of the sky the first time it is described -- but is 148 sitting on the nest quite peacefully after the first description -- as follows: CREATURE [Bald Eagle] Eagle Bald A bald eagle is perched peacefully on top of the nest. LOCATION [Top of the spire] FRIENDLY INITIAL Suddenly, you hear a screech from high above you. A big bird swoops down at you. It is a giant bald eagle and it dive bombs at your head -- making several passes that very nearly knock you off your precarious perch. The eagle finally lands on the nest and seems to calm down. END_INITIAL END_CREATURE The first time you are in the same room with the bald eagle the INITIAL description will be printed. Thereafter, the normal short description will be given -- e.g., "A bald eagle is perched peacefully on top of the nest." ROOM INITIAL DESCRIPTIONS We can do the same sort of things with initial descriptions for ROOMs. For example, let's add some descriptive prose to describe your very first climb up to the ledge below the nest -- as follows: ROOM [Top of the spire] Top of the spire DOWN [Half-way up the Spire] INITIAL You put you knee between a crack in the spire to wedge yourself safely while you swing your foot up to the ledge. Your foot lands on top of some loose stones and you grab at the ledge with your hands. You just catch the ledge with your finger tips. Finally, you manage to pull yourself up and you collapse exhausted on the ledge. After resting awhile, you regain enough of your strength and aplomb to look around you. You are on a large ledge only a couple of meters below the top of the spire. There is a large nest just out of your reach. END_INITIAL END_ROOM ROOM_DESCR [Top of the spire] You are on a large ledge only a couple of meters below the top of the spire. There is a large nest just out of your reach. END_ROOM_DESCR 149 The first time you enter the room, the INITIAL description will be used to describe the room. On subsequent visits to the room or whenever you give the command LOOK, the normal description will be given. e.g., ... You are on a large ledge only a couple of meters below the top of the spire. There is a large nest just out of your reach. CHANGING DESCRIPTIONS Version 1.5 adds one other way to change the descriptions for NOUNS, CREATURES and ROOMS. This is by using the new ChangeDescr meta-command token. For example, to change the description of the CREATURE [Ogre] to the description contained in the MESSAGE [Angry Ogre], you would use the following meta-command: ChangeDescr [Ogre] [Angry Ogre] This capability will be particularly useful when you want to change descriptions for ROOMs to give the appearance of more rooms without really having more rooms. For example, your game might have an earthquake that changes all of the rooms' descriptions to reflect the damage, but does not change the basic map of the game. This could be done by a series of meta-commands similar to the following: ChangeDescr [Town Square] [Town Square -- after quake] Another example, you might want to have a NOUN which is window in a room that starts as being boarded-up, but after the player uses a crowbar on it, its description should change to "covered with loose boards." This could be done with: ChangeDescr [window] [window --with loose boards] "AUTOEXEC" META-COMMANDS FOR ROOMS Version 1.5 of the Master's Edition adds the ability to execute a set of meta-commands immediately upon entering a room. This is know as an "AutoExec" capability. As an example, the game HOLMES (included with Version 1.5) uses this capability to select one of eighteen cases for the player to try to solve. This is done, by have the starting room for the game a room that has an AUTOEXEC for the verb SELECTCASE (which must be defined as a verb). The meta-commands for the verb SELECTCASE then prompts the player to select a case (from 1 to 18), check to see that a proper case was selected (i.e., number 1 to 18), and then changes the various ROOM DESCRIPTIONS to correspond to the case selected. The logic to accomplish this is shown below: STARTING_ROOM [Select Case Room] 150 ROOM [Select Case Room] 221B Baker Street ! Do SELECTCASE command to get Case number and change various ROOM_DESCR's AUTOEXEC SELECTCASE END_ROOM ROOM_DESCR [Select Case Room] You need to select one of the following cases to solve. 1 - The Adventure of the Dead Inventor 2 - The Adventure of the Missing Cuckoo 3 - The Case of Murder in the Park 4 - The Adventure of the Vanishing Lady 5 - The Case of the Vicious Viper 6 - The Adventure of the Missing Knife 7 - The Adventure of the Mysterious Message 8 - The Case of the Missing Rolls Royce 9 - The Adventure of the Golden Coins 10 - The Case of the Code Crossword 11 - The Case of the Crashed Cab 12 - The Silenced Maintenance Man 13 - The Case of the Jilted Jockey 14 - The Case of the Northern Cross 15 - The Case of the Dead Letter Murders 16 - The Adventure of West Landings Ghost 17 - The Case of the Vanishing Silver 18 - The Case of the Last Alibi END_ROOM_DESCR COMMAND SELECTCASE PrintMessage "Enter the number of the case you wish to solve" GetVariable [Case] SetVariableTo [Money] 25 SetVariableTo [Number of Passes] 2 SetVariableTo [Starting Time] 1302 SetTimeToVariable [Starting Time] END_COMMAND MESSAGE [Please enter a number from 1 to 18 only!] Please enter a number from 1 to 18 only! END_MESSAGE COMMAND SELECTCASE ! Check for Valid Case number VariableLT [Case] 1 GoToRoom [Select Case Room] PrintMessage [Please enter a number from 1 to 18 only!] ReDirectTo SELECTCASE DoneWithTurn END_COMMAND 151 COMMAND SELECTCASE ! Check for Valid Case number VariableGT [Case] 18 GoToRoom [Select Case Room] PrintMessage [Please enter a number from 1 to 18 only!] ReDirectTo SELECTCASE DoneWithTurn END_COMMAND COMMAND SELECTCASE ! Change all of the ROOM_DESCR's to the those for the Case 1 VariableEquals [Case] 1 ChangeDescr [Starting Room] [Case1 Starting Room] ChangeDescr [Loire Gallery] [Case1 Loire Gallery] ChangeDescr [Scotland Yard] [Case1 Scotland Yard] ChangeDescr [Seymore Park] [Case1 Seymore Park] ... ChangeDescr [Stock Exchange] [Case1 Stock Exchange] ChangeDescr [Cab Company] [Case1 Cab Company] ChangeDescr [Newspaper] [Case1 Newspaper] ChangeDescr [Pub] [Case1 Pub] ChangeDescr [Shipping Company] [Case1 Shipping Company] GoToRoom [Starting Room] DoneWithTurn END_COMMAND COMMAND SELECTCASE ! Change all of the ROOM_DESCR's to the those for the Case 2 VariableEquals [Case] 2 ChangeDescr [Starting Room] [Case2 Starting Room] ChangeDescr [Loire Gallery] [Case2 Loire Gallery] ChangeDescr [Scotland Yard] [Case2 Scotland Yard] ChangeDescr [Seymore Park] [Case2 Seymore Park] ... ChangeDescr [Stock Exchange] [Case2 Stock Exchange] ChangeDescr [Cab Company] [Case2 Cab Company] ChangeDescr [Newspaper] [Case2 Newspaper] ChangeDescr [Pub] [Case2 Pub] ChangeDescr [Shipping Company] [Case2 Shipping Company] GoToRoom [Starting Room] DoneWithTurn END_COMMAND These sets of ChangeDescr commands would be repeated for all 18 cases. 152 SETTING COLORS WITHIN MESSAGES AND DESCRIPTIONS The Master's Edition allows you to change colors of words within your messages and descriptions and to mix and match colors to suit your needs. You can even cause some words to blink -- if you want. The way this is done is to insert "control characters" within your text wherever you wish to change colors from the "normal" text colors. These "control characters" are formed while using your text editor or word processor by simultaneously holding down the ALT key and a number key on the numeric key pad. The ALT-number combinations and their associated colors are as follows: Black = ALT 0 Blue = ALT 1 Green = ALT 2 Cyan = ALT 3 Red = ALT 4 Magenta = ALT 5 Brown = ALT 6 "Normal" = ALT 7 Blinking = ALT 8 These ALT-numeric key combination each create a special character in the text. For example, the ALT-1 key combination creates a "happy face" character which will cause the words that follow it to be printed on a color monitor in blue. This blue color will remain in effect until either (1) you change color again using another special character within the message or description, or (2) the game's "turn" is done and AGT asks the player to enter another command -- which ever comes first. Each new turn of the game will cause AGT to revert to the game's "normal" text color. When AGT's MRUN program encounters these special control characters within a message or description, it will change the color accordingly and in place of the special character it will print a space -- so your spacing within your text will remain the same. For example, in the following message, we will change the color of the text to blue at the word "blue" by using our "happy face" character: MESSAGE [Example of color changes] The message should be blue now. END_MESSAGE Where the happy face is will be a space in the final printed message, but all of the text after that will be shown on the screen in blue. If you wish to make only the word "blue" blue and revert to the "normal" text color for the word "now," you would do this by inserting an ALT-7 color control character (a small "dot" character) between the words "blue" and "now" -- as shown below: 153 MESSAGE [Example of color changes] The message should be blue∙now. END_MESSAGE "ILLEGAL" DIRECTION MESSAGES There is now a way to print "customized" messages when you attempt to go in "illegal" directions. This is done by printing a message whenever the room number for a given direction is greater than a 1000. Specifically, if you give a room number of 1005 for going EAST from the current location, you will get message number five printed whenever you try to go EAST from the current location. For example, let's say that you are on top of a cliff and your want to give the message "You will fall to your death if you go $verb$." if you go NORTH or NORTHEAST and the message "You take a few steps and decide that it would be safer to return to where you were." if you go NORTHWEST or WEST. You could do this by putting the following in the first part of your game's source file: #DEFINE [You'll fall and die message] 1001 #DEFINE [You decide to retreat to safety message] 1002 MESSAGE [First message in game file] You will fall to your death if you go $verb$. END_MESSAGE MESSAGE [Second message in game file] You take a few steps and decide that it would be safer to return to where you were. END_MESSAGE You would get these messages to work by using the following in the ROOM definition: ROOM [Top of Cliff] Top of Cliff NORTH [You'll fall and die message] NORTHEAST [You'll fall and die message] NORTHWEST [You decide to retreat to safety message] WEST [You decide to retreat to safety message] SOUTH [Path leading down the cliff] END_ROOM ROOM_DESCR [Top of Cliff] You are on the top of a high cliff. The path you climbed up to reach your current location is to the south. END_ROOM_DESCR 154 CUSTOM FONTS If the game is being played on an EGA or VGA monitor, it is possible to use "customizeable" fonts with the normal text-based output. Specifically, the default font will be contained in a file called GAMENAME.FNT. This font will be loaded automatically at the beginning of the game. If the game is being played on a monochrome or CGA monitor (or if the GAMENAME.FNT font file can not be found on the current directory) the game will continue to use its "standard" font. During the game, you may change fonts using the LoadFont meta-command. For example: LoadFont [Old English] will change the default font to "Old English." If the game is being played on a monochrome or CGA monitor (or if the font file can not be found on the current directory) the LoadFont meta-command will have no effect and the game will continue to use its current font. In order to use different fonts, you must define the font files you plan to use in the game source code as follows: FONTS [Old English] OLDENG [Digital] DIGITAL [Runic] RUNIC [Standard Font] STANDARD END_FONTS Where the words follow the bracket definitions are the *.FNT file names to be found on the current directory, e.g., OLDENG.FNT contains the "Old English" font. A collection of about 30 fonts can be found in the FONTSTUF.ZIP file. FONTSTUF.ZIP also contains a font editor FONTEDIT.EXE that will enable you to design your own custom fonts or edit the 30 or so fonts provided. By the way, the font loaded by AGT's MRUN or by FONTEDIT will remain as the active display font for your computer after this program is finished. To restore the font that is the "default" for your monitor, you will need to give the DOS command MODE CO80. NOTIFY COMMAND You can use the command NOTIFY to have the game give you a specific message whenever your score changes. This is often useful when debugging a game. 155 USER SPECIFIED "STRINGS" The Master's Edition adds the capability to have up to 25 user defined strings that may be initialized in the AGT game source file(s) or input during the game by the player. These strings maybe up to 15 characters in length. To initialize them in the source files for the game, do something like the following: STRINGS [Name] John [Sex] Male [Eyes] Blue [Hair] Brown [City1] San [City2] Francisco [State] California END_STRING Notice that each string must be only one word, that is why "San" had to be a sperate string from "Francisco." Then to print these strings out in messages, you would something like the following: MESSAGE [Vital Statistics] Hi, my name is $Str[Name]$ and I am a red-blooded $str[Sex]$ living in $Str[City1]$ $Str[City2]$, $Str[State]$. I have $str[Eyes]$ eyes and $str[Hair]$ hair. END_MESSAGE Just like $NOUN$, $noun$ or $Noun$, the user defined strings would be capitalized based on how $STR1$, $str1$ or $Str1$ is capitalized. You may only use the GetString metacommand token to get the values for these strings from the Player's keyboard input as follows: #DEFINE [Player] 1 #DEFINE [Age] 4 COMMAND ANY FlagOFF [Game started] TurnFlagON [Game started] PrintMessage "What is your first name?" GetString [Player] PrintMessage "What is your age?" GetVariable [Age] VariableGT [Age] 30 PrintMessage "#Var[Age]#!!! .... my or my ... that is really old!" END_COMMAND 156 ... COMMAND ANY Chance 5 PrintMessage [Strange Voice] END_COMMAND MESSAGE [Strange Voice] You hear a strange voices calling "$Str[Player]$... $Str[Player]$." END_MESSAGE ENHANCED QUESTION AND ANSWER CAPABILITIES Version 1.5 greatly expands the Master's Edition's capability for dealing with questions and answers. Now you can have up to 100 sets of questions and associated answers. Further, you can have answers that can include "logical" relations of AND and OR. For example, the following series of questions and answers represent the solution to case 5 in the game HOLMES: QUESTION [Case5 Who ?] Who killed Harry Wilcox? ANSWER [Case5 Who ?] Robert OR Simms OR Assistant QUESTION [Case5 How ?] How was he killed? ANSWER [Case5 How ?] Fork QUESTION [Case5 Why ?] What was the motive? ANSWER [Case5 Why ?] Revenge OR Pregnant OR Sister OR Pregnancy For example, if the answer the player gives to the "Why ?" question includes any of the words "revenge" or "pregnant" or "sister" and/or "pregnancy" -- the answer would be determined to be correct. You can also use "AND" relations as shown by the following example: QUESTION [Explorers ?] Which explorers found the Columbia River? ANSWER [Explorers ?] Lewis AND Clark The player must give an answer that has both of the words "Lewis" and "Clark" for AGT to determine the answer as correct. The words may be in any order and may be part of a much longer answer. BUILT-IN TIME CAPABILITIES The Master's Edition has built-in time capabilities that can be set, tested and displayed. To set the starting time for your adventure, put something like the following in your game's AGT source file: 157 STARTING_TIME 1247 DELTA_TIME 15 This would cause your game to start at 12:47 PM (12:47 AM would have a STARTING_TIME of 47) and to be incremented by a random number of minutes (from 0 to 15) after each turn of the game. The current time may be printed out in messages by using $TIME$ (e.g., 12:47 PM) or $time$ (e.g., 12:47 pm). There are several metacommand tokens that be used with time: TimeGT {num1} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the current time is greater than num1. TimeLT {num1} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the current time is less than num1. SetVariableToTime {num1} -- This sets variable num1 to the current time. SetTimeToVariable {num1} -- This sets the current time to variable num1. SetTime {num1} -- This sets the current time to num1. SetDeltaTime {num1} -- This sets the current value of DELTA_TIME to num1. AddToTime {num1} -- This adds num1 to the current time. Note: For 1 hour and 10 minutes, you would have num1 set to 110 -- not 70. OPTIONS FOR DISPLAYING SCORE AND STATUS LINE The Master's Edition allows the game designer to select options for how the game will display the SCORE and display the STATUS LINE. Specifically, to set the SCORE option to 2, put the following line in your game's source file: SCORE_OPTION 2 The available options are: 0 -- The "Default" -- shows everything in the SCORE display. 1 -- Don't show the maximum number of rooms. 158 2 -- Don't show the maximum possible score. 3 -- Don't show either the maximum rooms or possible score. There is no need to have a "SCORE_OPTION 0" line, since AGT will automatically use the default if not SCORE_OPTION is encountered in the game's source file(s). To set the STATUS LINE option to 2, put the following line in the game's source files: STATUS_OPTION 2 The available option are: 0 -- The "Default" -- shows "standard" STATUS LINE display consisting of current "Room Name", "Score", and "Move." 1 -- Same as "Default" except "Time" rather than "Move" -- i.e., a STATUS LINE display consisting of current "Room Name", "Score", and "Time." 2 -- Same as "Default" except "Score" is omitted -- i.e., a STATUS LINE display consisting current "Room Name" and "Move." 3 -- A STATUS LINE display consisting only of current "Room Name" and "Time." There is no need to have a "STATUS_OPTION 0" line, since AGT will automatically use the default if no STATUS_OPTION is encountered in the game's source file(s). OTHER NEW META-COMMAND TOKENS New Conditional Tokens: NOUNIsMan {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the NOUN is a creature and a Man NOUNIsWoman {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the NOUN is a creature and a Woman NOUNIsThing {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the NOUN is a creature and a Thing 159 OBJECTIsMan {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the OBJECT is a creature and a Man OBJECTIsWoman {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the OBJECT is a creature and a Woman OBJECTIsThing {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the OBJECT is a creature and a Thing DirectionOK {none} -- Returns TRUE or FALSE depending upon current direction leading to another valid location. Will return FALSE if current verb is not a direction. DirectionIS {num1} -- Returns TRUE or FALSE depending upon current direction being num1 (i.e., num1 = 1 for north, etc.) Will return FALSE if current verb is not a direction. BetweenRooms {n1} (n2} -- Returns TRUE or FALSE depending upon current location being between (and including) rooms n1 and n2. HasVisitedRoom {num1} -- Returns TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether player has visited room num1. EnteredOBJECT {none} -- Returns TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether current command has a valid OBJECT. New Action Tokens: ToggleMovable {num1} -- Toggles "movable status" for NOUN num1. ChangePoints {itm} {pts} -- Changes point value of item (ROOM, NOUN or CREATURE) to pts points. DestroyOBJECT {none} -- Destroys OBJECT (if any) GetVariable {num1} -- Gets variable num1 (1 to 25) from player's keyboard input. SetVariableToTime {num1} -- Sets variable num1 to the current time. 160 SetTimeToVariable {num1} -- Sets the current time to variable num1. AddToTime {num1} -- This adds num1 to the current time. Note: For 1 hour and 10 minutes, you would have num1 set to 110 -- not 70. SUMMARY OF ALL NEW MASTER'S EDITION META-COMMAND TOKENS New Conditional Tokens: NOUNIsMan {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the NOUN is a creature and a Man NOUNIsWoman {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the NOUN is a creature and a Woman NOUNIsThing {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the NOUN is a creature and a Thing OBJECTIsMan {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the OBJECT is a creature and a Man OBJECTIsWoman {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the OBJECT is a creature and a Woman OBJECTIsThing {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the OBJECT is a creature and a Thing SongPlaying {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether there is a song playing or not at the current moment. SoundIsON {none} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the player has the sound option ON. 161 DirectionOK {none} -- Returns TRUE or FALSE depending upon current direction leading to another valid location. Will return FALSE if current verb is not a direction. DirectionIS {num1} -- Returns TRUE or FALSE depending upon current direction being num1 (i.e., num1 = 1 for north, etc. Will return FALSE if current verb is not a direction. BetweenRooms {n1} (n2} -- Returns TRUE or FALSE depending upon current location being between (and including) rooms n1 and n2. HasVisitedRoom {num1} -- Returns TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether player has visited room num1. EnteredOBJECT {none} -- Returns TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether current command has a valid OBJECT. TimeGT {num1} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the current time is greater than num1. TimeLT {num1} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending upon whether the current time is less than num1. Room_PixHere {num1} -- This is a conditional meta-command and will return a TRUE or FALSE depending on whether the num1 ROOM_PIX picture may be viewed in the current room. New Action Tokens: LoadFont {num1} -- Loads and uses font num1 (from FONT list) ShowPicture {num1} -- Shows "global" picture num1 (from 1 to 250) IfYShowPicture {num1} -- Shows "global" picture num1 (from 1 to 250) if Player answers YES to query about showing the picture. ShowROOM_PIX {num1} -- Shows "ROOM_PIX" picture num1 (from 1 to 30) 162 IfYShowROOM_PIX {num1} -- Shows "ROOM_PIX" picture num1 (from 1 to 30) if Player answers YES to query about showing the picture. PlaySong {num1} -- Plays the song/sound file num1 once. The standard mode is to play the song until it is finished and then to stop. RepeatSong {num1} -- Plays the song/sound file num1 repeatedly. When the song is finished it would automatically be started again. PlayRandom {num1} {num2} -- Plays a random song/sound file between num1 and num2 once. The song/sound will be played until it is finished and then it will stop. EndRepeatSong {none} -- Causes the current song/sound to stop when it is finished, i.e., the repeating feature would be turns off. StopSong {none} -- Causes the current song/sound to stop immediately. Once the StopSong command has been given, the song can not be resumed without giving a new PlaySong or RepeatSong token. SuspendSong {none} -- Causes the current song/sound to stop immediately -- but it can be resumed at the current spot at a later time. ResumeSong {none} -- Resumes playing a song that had been suspended by a SuspendSong token at the spot where it was suspended. ToggleMovable {num1} -- Toggles "movable status" for NOUN num1. ChangePoints {itm} {pts} -- Changes point value of item (ROOM, NOUN or CREATURE) to pts points. DestroyOBJECT {none} -- Destroys OBJECT (if any) GetString {num1} -- Gets string num1 (1 to 25) from player's keyboard input. String length will be truncated to 15 characters if necessary. GetVariable {num1} -- Gets variable num1 (1 to 25) from player's keyboard input. 163 SetVariableToTime {num1} -- Sets variable num1 to the current time. SetTimeToVariable {num1} -- Sets the current time to variable num1. SetTime {num1} -- Sets the current time to num1. SetDeltaTime {num1} -- Sets the current value of DELTA_TIME to num1. AddToTime {num1} -- This adds num1 to the current time. Note: For 1 hour and 10 minutes, you would have num1 set to 110 -- not 70. DoSubroutine {num1} -- Causes the meta-commands in Subroutine num1 to be executed Return -- Causes an immediate exit from the currently executing Subroutine (if any), i.e., meta-command processing would resume immediately after the DoSubroutine token that called the Subroutine in the first place. Each Subroutine must have at least one "Return"! 164 APPENDIX A: AGT ERROR MESSAGES ERRORS DURING GAME COMPILATION Error: "VERB is not a valid verb" -- VERB is not a standard AGT verb, nor has it been defined (so far) as a synonym for another verb. This error is in the *.AGT file. Error: ">>> Ignored: ASCII text" -- ASCII text encountered during reading of *.AGT file. Text does not correspond to anything normally expected in this file. Probably, just a comment by the game designer. Error: "Too many commands -- Processing halted" -- AGT only allows 900 meta-commands. The current meta-command being read from the *.AGT file would have been number 901. This is a game designer error. Error: "FOR COMMAND VERB NOUN OBJECT -- ILLEGAL VERB" -- This meta-command has a VERB which the parser does not recognize as a standard AGT verb, a custom verb or a synonym for a valid verb. This is a game designer error. Error: "FOR COMMAND VERB NOUN OBJECT -- ILLEGAL NOUN or OBJECT" -- This meta-command has a NOUN or OBJECT which the parser does not recognize as a standard AGT noun or a synonym for a valid noun. This is a game designer error. Error: "FOR COMMAND VERB NOUN OBJECT -- ILLEGAL TOKEN" -- This meta-com- mand has something in it that the program does not recognize as a token. Probably, a game designer comment or a spelling mistake. ERRORS DURING RESTORING GAME Error: "File not found, can't restore FileName" -- FileName is not on disk. ERRORS DURING GAME PLAY Error: "I don't understand VERB as a verb." -- Try another VERB. Probably a spelling mistake. Error: "I don't understand NOUN as a noun." -- Try another word to identify this noun. May be a noun that does not really play a significant part in the game, i.e., something described in general in the room description, but not a separate object in the room. May also be a spelling mistake. Error: "I don't understand PREP as a preposition." -- Try another preposition. May be a spelling mistake. 165 Error: "I don't understand OBJECT as the object of a preposition." -- Try another word to identify this noun. May be a noun that does not really play a significant part in the game, i.e., something described in general in the room description, but not a separate object in the room. May also be a spelling mistake. Error: "Which NOUN do you mean, the ADJ1 NOUN or the ADJ2 NOUN?" -- Two or more nouns with the same name are present in the current room. Specify the one you mean by some phrase that includes the appropriate NOUN's adjective. Error :"I don't understand WORD as either a verb or a noun". Try another word to convey what you mean. May be a spelling mistake. Error: "You need a preposition and an object whenever you try to VERB a NOUN." Some verbs require prepositions and objects in order to work properly. For example, PLACE BOOK ON THE TABLE is fine, but PLACE BOOK by itself will generate this error. Error: "Too many words in command". AGT allows for a maximum of 12 words in each part of a compound command (i.e., between AND's and THEN's). Re-phrase your command to be more succinct. TURBO PASCAL RUN-TIME ERRORS In addition to the above errors which are generated by AGT, it is possible to get errors from Turbo Pascal -- the language in which AGT is written. Specifically, you might get the following two run-time errors from Turbo: 101 "Disk Write Error" -- You would get this error when there is no more room on your disk, i.e., it is full. This situation might occur when (1) you are compiling a game and there is not enough room for the various files being created by the MCOMPILE program (i.e., *.D$$, *.DA1, etc) or (2) you trying to save a game and there is not enough room on the disk for the data being saved. 201 "Out of Range Error" -- You would get this error if your game source code has a value that is out of range -- like a "illegal" negative number or a label that is too long. 203 "Heap Overflow Error" -- You would get this error if your computer does not have enough internal memory. AGT requires a computer with at least 512K of available memory -- after counting for all of the memory resident or TSR programs. 166 APPENDIX B: RECOMMENDED SHAREWARE UTILITIES PIANOMAN 4.0 PIANOMAN lets you play the keyboard of an IBM-PC (or close compatible) like an electronic piano. The keys sound a tone as long as you hold them down, and stop when you release them. You can record and edit music, insert and delete notes, adjust pitch and length, make global changes, and save/retrieve files. To register PIANOMAN, send $25 to: Support Group Inc. P.O. Box 130 McHenry, MD 21541 You may also register using MasterCard or VISA by calling 800/USA-GROUP or 301/889-7893. MELODY MASTER Melody Master lets you create, save, edit, and play music on a PC. The easy-to-use graphic interface contains a staff on which basic music notation is placed and includes on-screen help. You can configure tempos, and note-lengths and modify the program's colors. Melody Master will also help you to insert music in your own programs whether you program in C, Pascal, BASIC or in DOS batch files. You don't have to know how to write music - Melody Master includes a large collection of ready-to-play melodies! Supports Hercules, CGA, EGA and VGA. ASP member. Registration Information: ------------------------- Regular - $19 Commercial License - $49 Send registrations to: Shareable Software International PO Box 59102 Schaumburg, IL 60159 800-622-2793 (orders only) 708-397-1221 (voice) 708-397-0381 (fax) 215-623-6203 (BBS, Join Conference 77) CompuServe: 76226,2652 Internet: 76226.2652@compuserve.com 167 GRAPHIC WORKSHOP Graphic workshop is a simple, menu driven environment which will let you perform the following operations on graphic files: - View them. - Convert between any two formats (with a few restrictions). - Print them to any LaserJet Plus compatible or PostScript laser and many dot matrix printers. Graphic Workshop can print color pictures to color PostScript and inkjet printers. - Dither the color ones to black and white. - Reverse them. - Rotate and flip them. - Scale them. - Reduce the number of colors in them and do color dithering. - Sharpen, soften and otherwise wreak special effects on them. - Crop them down to smaller files - Scan in completely new files, assuming that you have a supported scanner. - Adjust the brightness and color balance of the color ones. Versions of Graphics Workshop are available for both DOS and WINDOWS. Using Graphic Workshop, you can have your image files in the formats that your software recognizes, all without keeping track of numerous funky utilities. In addition, using the halftoning and dithering facilities of Graphic Workshop, you can convert full color digitized photographs for use as superb black and white clip art, suitable for inclusion in your documents. You can register Graphic Workshop by send $40.00 to: Alchemy Mindworks Inc. P.O. Box 500 Beeton, Ontario L0G 1A0 Canada IMPROCES IMPROCES is the DOS-only "jack of all trades" for PC graphics. It has many features: Image contrast enhancement, Histograms, Sharpening by convolution, Custom filters, Full control of the VGA palette, Clipboard, Five stroke Fonts in five sizes and the ability to import bit-map fonts, FAT BIT editor, many drawing tools, flips, mirror, Color Cycling, Plasma and terrain fractals, UNDO, XMS/EMS support, edit up to five images at one time, etc... IMPROCES can use a wide variety of SVGA video cards in resolutions up to 1024x768x256. The IMPROCES package is incredibly fast and powerful, but it is also incredibly easy to use. You may register IMPROCES with your Master Card or VISA. There are three ways to do this: 168 Ted Gruber Software: VOICE: (702)735-1980 Monday - Friday, 10am - 5pm PST Software Excitement!: VOICE: (800)444-5457 24 hours a day. IMPORTANT: Be sure to *SPECIFY* that you want to order the *REGISTERED* version of IMPROCES. Software Excitement! is a shareware distributor and an authorized distributor of the shareware version of IMPROCES, so if you don't specify the registered version, they might send you a copy of the unregistered version! COMPUSERVE: Type GO SE to visit the Software Excitement! on-line store. Specify floppy disk format, 5 1/4" 360K or 3 1/2" 1.44 meg. Your card will be charged $25 ($35 outside of North America) and IMPROCES will be shipped as soon as possible. If you are using a check or money order, mail your registration to directly to the author of IMPROCES at: ($25, $35 outside of North America) John Wagner 6161 El Cajon Blvd, Suite B-246 San Diego, CA 92115 California residents, please add the appropriate sales tax. Outside of the United States and Canada, registration is $35. Please ensure that your check is in U.S. dollars, _DRAWN_ on a U.S. Bank. PAINT SHOP PRO PAINT SHOP PRO is a wonderful graphics utility that runs under WINDOWS. It does everything that GRAPHICS WORKSHOP and IMPROCES do (see above). PAINT SHOP PRO is available for $49 from: JASC, Inc. 17743 Evener Way Eden Prairie, MN 55346 (612) 934-7117 169 APPENDIX C: ANNUAL AGT CONTEST Each year, Softworks sponsors an annual contest for the best computer text adventure game developed using the Adventure Game Toolkit (AGT). The Annual Adventure Game Toolkit game writing contest offers a grand prize of $100 for the best game submitted. Additional prizes may be added if the judges decide that more than one entry is outstanding. game writers, including the contest winner(s), will also retain all rights to their games. "The main purpose of this contest is to encourage people to share the games they've written using the Adventure Game Toolkit," said Mark Welch, one of two co-authors of the program. "A lot of people start to write a game, and spend quite a few hours on it, but stop before they really finished the game, or before it's really playable," said Welch. "We are hoping that the contest will inspire people to create full-featured, playable games that can be enjoyed by other adventure game fans." PREVIOUS CONTESTS Softworks has sponsored three prior adventure game writing contests. The winner of the first contest was "Alice" written by Douglas Asherman of Oakland, California. Alice put the player in the role of Alice in Wonderland, meeting many of the same characters described in Lewis Carroll's 19th-century book while also adding some humorous 20th-century perspective. The 1988 contest winner was "A Dudley Dilemma" by Lane Barrow, a Ph.D candidate at Harvard. In this game, the player assumes the role of a Harvard student in his/her quest for knowledge, adventure and a diploma. Along the way, the player experiences a student sit-in and meets panhandlers, MIT students and other bizarre characters roaming Harvard Square. "Son of Stagefright" by Mike McCauley was the 1989 winner. In this game, you play the role of an actor (or actress) trying to get out of an old, abandoned theater. This is an adventure game in three "Acts", where each Act has a different theme and a different challenge. The game is fun(ny), frightening and very clever. "Crime to the Ninth Power" by Patrick Farley was the 1990 contest winner. In this game, the player helps Cliff Diver, a San Francisco private investigator escape from the deadly milieu of the Zamboni crime family's secret headquarters. Cliff Diver is cut from the same cloth as such famous PI's as Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. 170 In 1991, the contest had two games that tied for 1st place: "CosmosServe -- An Adventure Game for the BBS-Enslaved" by Judith Pintar, and "The Multi-Dimensional Thief" by Joel Finch. In "CosmoServe," your world and your adventure are set inside a BBS (complete with sound effects for logging on, switching the computer ON and OFF, etc.) It is a very, very original, innovative and unusual game! In "The Multi-Dimensional Thief," you are a thief. Naturally, you aspire to join the largest and most prestigious of organized thieving bodies, the Multi-Dimensional Thieves' Guild. All you have to do is pass a simple test -- escape from a specially prepared set of rooms which have been "borrowed" from other universes and filled with strange items -- including the infamous "portable hole." This game is filled with wonderful puzzles and will remind you of Infocom's finest. CONTEST DETAILS To be eligible for the contest, entries must be designed using the Adventure Game Toolkit, and must not have been publicly released before January 1st of the contest year. Contest entries must be postmarked by December 31st of the contest year and received by Softworks no later than January 15 of the following year. For example, the 1993 contest will consider games written between January 1, 1993 and December 31, 1993 and received by Softworks no later than January 15, 1994. Judging begins approximately February 1st and the winner is announced in the spring following the contest year. The judges consider each game's originality, cleverness, fiendishness, humor, raw cunning and professionalism in arriving at their decision about the contest's winner. Entries must be submitted on disks for the IBM PC (or compatible computer), or for the Apple Macintosh, the Amiga or for the Atari ST computer. AGT source code for the game must be provided, but will not be publicly disclosed without the consent of the author. In addition to the AGT source code, each entry must be accompanied by a game "walk- thru" or solution to be used by the contest judges. A map of the game would also be very helpful, but is not required. No purchase or fee is required to enter. Game authors need not be registered users of AGT to enter the contest. Game writers, including the contest winner(s), will also retain all rights to their games -- including the right to copyright and sell their games -- if they wish. However, it is "customary" for the contest game authors to allow their games' source code to be distributed (to registered AGT user only) -- if their games are judged as one of the "Best of the Contest." 171 APPENDIX D: ABOUT THE AUTHOR David Malmberg has been active in the world of personal computer since 1977. He is the author or co-author of seven published software products. His most recent software product is P-ROBOTS, which is also available from Softworks. His most successful products were the Turtle Graphics series published by HESware. These two programs have sold over 80,000 copies world-wide, were translated into Spanish, and won two Consumer Electronic Software Showcase awards as some of the best software of 1983. These programs are widely used in schools to teach computer literacy to children and other computer novices. Dave has also published numerous articles and programs in various computer magazines. He has been a Contributing Editor of both COMPUTE!'s HOME & EDUCATIONAL COMPUTING and MICRO magazines. He was one of the principal authors of COMPUTE!'s FIRST BOOK OF VIC, the best selling computer book of 1983. He has written regular columns on educational uses of computers and on LOGO for COMMODORE and POWER/PLAY magazines. June 1993 172