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Almathera Ten Pack 3: CDPD 3
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zerg
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zerg.doc
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Text File
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1995-03-18
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12KB
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278 lines
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|| ZERG -- A Fantasy Role-Playing Phenomenon By Mike Shapiro ||
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|| >>: The Manual :<< ||
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|| VERSION 0.5 (DEMO) ||
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SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: An Amiga 500, 1000, 2000, 2500HD or 2500UX with
at least 512K of memory. The fact that you're
reading this means that this can't be too much
of a problem.
1) What is Zerg?
================
Zerg is a blatant would-be Ultima ripoff whose sole purpose is to serve
as a emotional vent for the author's surpressed frustrations and anxieties
that he's incapable of writing any sort of functional program longer than
five lines or so.
In Zerg, you assemble a stalwart band of adventurers comprising of yourself
and nobody else, and explore a mythical world of sorcery, horrific monsters,
and fabulous treasure; in short, the typical fantasy role-playing plot
surrogate. The actual goal of the game varies in both difficulty and
nature with the revision of the program itself.
2) How do I play Zerg?
======================
The same way I play Zerg, albeit hopefully with more patience. Simply
double-click the program's icon (from the Workbench), assuming I bother
to make one. Otherwise, from the CLI, simply type
1> Zerg
... and the program will run. Simple, eh?
3) What's the goal of the game?
===============================
The current goal of the game is very simple, just like the version of
the software. You must simply seek out and kill any ten (10) monsters,
then return to report your achievements to either of the two towns.
The goal and plot of the game shall increase drastically in complexity
in upcoming versions, and shall involve more than mindless violence.
4) How do I go about accomplishing it?
======================================
First start the game, as explained in step 2.
Now you'll notice a panoramic display of the crudely-drawn, low-resolution
map of the world of Zerg. You may now control the actions of your
adventurous alter-ego, who is always displayed at the center of the
screen, as you attempt to reach whatever the current goal of the game is.
There are many different commands you can use from the main map, the list
of which will hope expand in future versions. Note that some commands
may also be activated by use of the Intuition menus.
The current commands are:
(Movement)
Movement in the four main cardinal directions (you know; north, south,
whatever) is possible by using the numeric keypad. These keys must
also be used when a direction is called for as secondary input for
another command.
7 8 (North) 9
(West) 4 5 (Rest) 6 (East)
1 2 (South) 3
A) Attack + [direction]
This allows you to impart physical violence unto the monster
of your choice. Your strike may draw blood, or swish by without
effect, depending on many factors, such as your skill at fighting
and the weapon you are currently using. Have no moral qualms about
laying waste to any of the horrid beasties that wander around the
mainland -- without exception, they are vile, merciless, and
olfactorily unpleasant minions of Evil, and deserve their gruesome
fates. Upon slaying a creature, you will be awarded experience
points and any treasure the monster was carrying, as appropriate.
VERSION NOTES (0.5): Um, at the moment, the monsters wander about
somewhat aimlessly, making it all the easier for you to do away
with them. In addition, they don't fight back. The weapon you
use is irrelivant, and the combat system is extremely simple.
There are about 8 monster types. Look for a bigger variety of
more intelligent monsters, as well as actual weapon types, in
upcoming versions.
E) Enter
This will allow you to enter a dungeon, castle, town, or
other structure of that nature. You must be currently on top of
whatever you wish to enter.
VERSION NOTES (0.5): The only structures you'll see around are
the two indistinguishible towns, Garolin and Farpath. You may
only enter them after you've slain the required 10 monsters, and
shall thereupon win the game. (Disgustingly simple, eh?) Look for
actual town interiors, as well as other structures, in upcoming
versions.
L) Look + [direction]
This will allow you to identify or examine anything lying
one square in any of the allowable directions away from you. For
instance, if directly to the north of you stood a towering monster,
and you wished to know precisely what species of monster it was,
you could type "L", then "8", and would then be told that, for
example, "You see an Ogre." You can also identify terrain types
this way.
V) Version
This will display the author's name, in case you haven't
yet memorized it, as well as the current version of the game, so
that you can see exactly how primitive a rendition of Zerg you're
playing.
Q) Quit
I must concede that it is vaguely concievable that you
may wish to interrupt your fervid Zerg-playing once every few
hours to perform mundane activities, such as eating, sleeping,
and other trivial fare. The Quit command will exit back to either
the WorkBench, or AmigaDOS, depending upon how you started the
program.
VERSION NOTES (0.5): Since gameplay is right now incredibly simple,
there is no feature to save the game. I intend to implement this
in the next version.
5) I don't understand the display? What are all these numbers?
==============================================================
As of the current version, the display is divided into three segments.
The majority of the screen is a graphic representation of your adventurer
and the terrain and monsters surrounding him. As he moves around Zerg,
the terrain will scroll relative to his position.
The left quarter of the screen is what Infocom calls the Status Bar, and
subsequently I must call the Status Display for fear of litigation. You
will see all information about your character and his attributes displayed
here. These are as follows:
NAME: This is pretty easy to figure out.
STR: This is a numerical measure of the physical strength of your
silicon protagonist, ranging from 0 (a gelatinous pile of
flesh) to 100 (Rambo-like proportions). Values of above
100 are possible, but not for human beings unaided by powerful
magic.
WIS: This is similar to the STR value, but measures the wit and
intelligence of your character. When spells are implemented,
this attribute will be important for wizards and other
thurmaturgistic creatures.
AGL: This is a measure of your character's agility -- meaning a
loose representation of physical and manual dexterity,
handiness, and speed.
HP: This is your character's Hit Point Value, or the amount of
points of Damage (imparted by monsters, traps, hostile magic,
dishpan hands, etc.) your character can sustain before (gasp) death.
XP: This is a measure of your character's experience. This will
influence his skills and abilities, and general outlook on
life. Experience increases with the completion of important
tasks, and victory in combat.
VERSION NOTES (0.5): Most of the Display area is inconsequential in
this release. The name of your adventurer, and his strength, wisdom,
and agility, are static, and have no bearing upon this version of
the game. Hit Points and Experience are not displayed.
This will, of course, change, and in upcoming versions, in which
you will have more control over your character.
6) But what of this Land of Zerg? How did it come to be? Who lives there?
==========================================================================
Apt questions, all. The history of Zerg, and a more flavored and detailed
explanation of the peoples, places, and things of Zerg will show up in
the Textfile of Lore that shall accompany future versions.
7) And all these versions? What of them?
========================================
This is, as admitted, a fairly pathetic demo version of the game, intended
to attract followers and create a reverant mass of frothing, addicted
Zergians who will hound sysops across the country for the latest version.
Additional versions, hopefully culminating in the production of the first
non-demo release version (the mythical V1.0), will come out periodically,
depending upon my personal time and energy, as well as user support.
Now, the typical shareware author takes pains to remind you that he or she
is a living, breathing, and often starving human being, and paints a
mawkish picture of himself slaving away at the keyboard for months, honing
and perfecting a product that he believes will do good for the Amiga
community. He then releases it as shareware or PD, and pleads for
ridiculous sums of cash, sometimes in exchange for appearance on a
"Registered User List".
My view is this: If I wanted this to be a money-making venture, I'd make
it commerical. Much to the disappointment of the legal staff of Origin
Systems, I've decided not to take this path, and thus shan't shower you
with pleas for altruistic donations. Not that I'll REFUSE them, heavens
no, but that I don't abide under the pretense that it's your obligation
to pay them.
What I WOULD like, however -- and I ask this, not demand it as a right --
is feedback on this program from anyone who doesn't disgustedly delete
it outright. It's still in production, as you no doubt guessed, and can
assume a variety of different incarnations from here on. I'll continue
working on the program even if nobody admits to having downloaded it,
but it will surely be a better product should suggestions be made.
The best way to leave a comment is through EMAIL. I belong to no
nationwide networks, so forget CompuSturge or anything like that. You
can EMAIL me on one of the following BBS's, however (all of which I
recommend heartily) in the New Yawk area:
AMUG (516) 234 - 6046 [Leave EMAIL to "Mike Shapiro"]
Battlefield (718) 225 - 9083 [Leave EMAIL to "Mike Shapiro"]
LiveLine (718) 332 - 1330 [Multiuser : Leave EMAIL to "Iago"]
(Note that you'll actually have to register as a user in each case
before accessing EMAIL functions, but I recommend this anyway.)
Or if you prefer to write:
Mike Shapiro
23 Ridge Drive East
Great Neck, NY 11021
In addition to your praise/condemnation, I'd appreciate reports of any
bugs you find.
VERSION NOTES: (0.5) Restrict your comments to general suggestions about
the direction or style of the game, as many basic features have yet to
be implemented.
8) Anything else I should know or do?
=====================================
Good Zappo, yes -- have FUN!
- Mike Shapiro (me)
1/8/88
Other programs by Mike Shapiro:
DeFunct - Function key simulator
CLIColor - Simple ANSI command
Galcon Amiga - Amiga conversion of Galloway + Markgraf's hit IBM
space wargame! (Forthcoming)