home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Atari Mega Archive 1
/
Atari Mega Archive - Volume 1.iso
/
games
/
hero.arc
/
HERO.INS
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1988-08-06
|
21KB
|
439 lines
H E R O !
V 1.0
Dan Winslow
1988
The program you have just downloaded was written in GFA
basic over the period of one and a half years. It represents
a lot of effort and patience, especially on the part of my
wife. It is also, as you may have guessed, that particularly
optimistic species of software known as shareware. If you
play this game, and if you like it, a donation of ten bucks
to the Winslow Programming Fund would be appreciated. Here
are the benefits of contributing :
1. You don't feel guilty while you are whacking away at the
monsters.
2. You get a free copy of the HERO Dungeon Construction Set,
in progress and due for release this time next year.
Design your own Dungeons to confound your friends. It
will not be uploaded to COMPUSERVE.
3. You enable me to provide some sort of justification to my
wife as to why she should put up with me huddling in
front of my computer every night.
4. You get a free copy of HERO hints, a booklet that will
reveal all of the awesome secrets of the dungeon, and
will tell you various techniques for doing things like
oh, say, living beyond level two...and how to kill that
pesky Baldur fellow.
Please send donations, comments, and bug reports to :
Dan Winslow
1201 Sunshine Blvd.
Omaha, NE 68123
Or leave comments at COMPUSERVE PPN [72637,1044]
And now for the good stuff!
*******************************************************************************
Running the Program :
1. HERO.ARC should de-arc into four files : Hero.prg,
Hero.lvl, Hero.spr, and Hero.ins. All four files must be
in the same directory for HERO to execute properly.
2. Double-click on the Hero.prg file and you should see the
HERO greet screen.
The greeting screen :
There are four options on the greeting screen: Play, Make,
Load, and Quit. to choose an option, move the mouse cursor to
the box desired and press the left button.
Play : This option initiates game play. The currently
loaded character will be inserted into the dungeon at the
starting room and level. If there is no currently loaded
character an alert box will appear to remind you to load a
character first.
Make : This option transfers you the character creation
screen. See that section for further info.
Load : This option brings up a standard file selector,
looking for *.HCR files in the current directory. Choose a
file in the normal manner and the character contained in that
file will be loaded as the current character.
Quit : This option exits to the desktop.
Character Creation Screen :
The idea here is to create a new character to be a Hero.
You have sixty five points to distribute among the five
attributes. By placing the mouse pointer over the two letter
acronym of the attribute you wish to affect, you can add or
remove points by pressing the left or right mouse buttons,
respectively. An attribute cannot have less than 0 or more
than 18 points, except for the Hit Points attribute, which
can go as high as you have points for.
Here is a brief description of the attributes and thier
functions.
Attribute Abbreviation Effects
Strength ST The stronger you are, the more damage
you will do to the monsters that you
manage to hit.
Intelligence IN The more intelligent you are, the
more damage you do when you cast a
spell. Intelligence also controls how
fast you get spell points back.
Constitution CO This attribute controls how well you
can take a blow and how fast you
recover your Hit Points.
Dexterity DE This attribute represents how 'agile'
your Hero is. It governs how often he
connects when he swings at a monster,
and also how fast he moves in
general.
Hit Points HP This is the most important attribute.
It represents your 'life-force'.
When a monster hits you, you lose
some Hit Points. When you run out of
Hit Points, you die. How many you
lose at one blow depends on the
strength of the monster, on the
quality of the armour your're
wearing, the level of Dungeon you
are on, and certain spells that may
be in effect.
Choose your distribution of points with care, as it can
greatly affect the lifespan of your character. Your first
impulse may be to load up on Hit Points at the expense of the
other attributes, but this is not the best policy. You can
expect to lose many characters at first, anyway, so you will
be able to try many combinations.
The options for this screen are as follows:
O.K. : Click this box to save the character and exit back
to the main menu.
You will be prompted to enter a name for the
character. The character will be saved to disk before you exit.
It will also become your current character.
REDO : Click this box to throw away the current distribution of points
and start afresh.
SAVE : This does the same as O.K. except that you stay in
this menu.
QUIT : This exits you without saving and without disturbing
the current character you may have already loaded.
*******************************************************************************
Playing the game:
Controls : The Hero is controlled with a joystick in port 1. The options are
selected and objects are identified with the mouse. Joystick mode is the
normal mode. Whenever you move the mouse, you are switched over to the mouse
mode, and the pointer appears. Game action stops completely while in mouse
mode. To choose a menu selection, point to the item with the mouse and click
the left button. To identify an object on the screen, point to the object and
hold down the left button until you are finished reading the description. To
return to joystick mode and restart game play, either click the right button,
move the joystick, or press the joystick trigger.
Attacking : To attack something, face the Hero towards it and press the
joystick trigger. The Hero will extend his sword and strike ( maybe )
whatever he is facing.
Identifying things : To identify an item or monster, move the mouse. The
pointer will appear and game play will stop. Move the pointer to the item
that you want to know more about and hold down the left button. The name of
the item will appear, and if it is a monster the Attack Damage and Hit Points
that the monster possesses will a