BCI NET 2

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

/ BCI NET 2 / BCI NET 2.iso / archives / games / misc / pass10.lha / Passages / Passages.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1994-09-10 | 25.0 KB | 477 lines

__ ___ |_)( |_) | _)| \ S O F T W A R E presents ______________________________________________________________________ __ _ __ | )|\ ( ( |\ | |_( |¯ |¯\ ) )|¯\\_||_ ). ______________________________________________________________________ for two players via electronic mail ...................................................................... NOTICE I'm not a great fan of shareware, but when programs take as much time and effort as Passages did, I see why other programmers put fees on their work. This means that I am charging a fee for Passages if you like and are going to use it, but this fee is small enough, I feel, to not break anyone's bank balance or do them out of anything more than a couple of pints down the local. SHAREWARE So the fee is fixed at 3.00 UK pounds, or the equivalent of 3.50 UK pounds in any other currency. If you so happen to live in any remote country such the desolate wastelands of outer Rebosia or the frozen Trebosk, or anywhere where you feel I would have trouble in changing your currency into mine (ie Iraq), then please obtain one of the larger currencies, American dollars etc. are fine. In order to encourage you to register, the program has a number of handicaps which are released when you receive your keyfile. The largest of these is that you cannot exit from the program, nor multi-task so it is vital that you save important data before running Passages. This also means that you will have to reset before sending your moves to the other player, but please bare with it and give the game a chance (and the cat a saucer of milk). Please send registration fees to the address at the end of this documentation. CONTENTS I have this nasty habit of saying too much in docs so entries below in caps are essential reading, others are not: notice About shareware SHAREWARE Please register CONTENTS brief A little about nothing passages What 'brief' should have been SETTING UP Assigns and fonts running passages main menu NEW GAME How to start a new game continue game Your opponent sends a file practice Practice mode PLAYING PASSAGES The screen ICONS What the icons represent turning and moving hitting walls GOLD BANKS ROCK DOORS DYNAMITE LEVELLING time pausing multi-tasking Registered only exit Registered only PREMATURE END OF... Ending before timer's out. end of turn in p... Ending in practice mode END OF TURN REAL Ending a real game back-up SPOT How to use with Spot so NOTICE Sound problems PAPER MAIL Contacting PSR Software FIDONET MAIL Contacting PSR Software BRIEF I developed the idea for the game, Passages, when I was sitting around trying to think of an idea for a game. I'd always had trouble programming computer opponents with IQs which weren't in the negatives so I decided to write a two player game. The slight flaw in this plan was that I didn't have anyone who looked remotely like a second player, nor anyone who could pose as a second player - even on a part time basis. Okay, so I had a dog who could have been a second player except for the fact that he had no idea what a joystick was and simply fondled the spherical end in his jaws when I presented it to him. Consequently, I now have a a joystick with no 'stick' and as for the dog...that's another story. Well, actually, that's this story. After the experience, my poodle became a little lazy, he used to be a happy go lucky kind of poodle but the very next day he refused to go for a walk, usually his favourite event. What was even more surprising, and a little worrying too, was that he also refused point blank to bend his legs. With a little persuasion I managed to get my poodle, Winnie, to go for a short walk but his insistance on keeping his legs completely straight made the walk which was usually quite enjoyable into an ordeal. After two hours of dragging Winnie around the woods I realised that he just wasn't in the mood and so we retired home...and this is where things took a turn for the worse. Not only had Winnie taken a vow to never again bend his legs, he had also stopped eating and drinking - I presumed he just wanted to punish me for not letting him play with my computer for as long as I'd first promised, he did like his revenge did old Winnie. At this point I was getting worried about poor Winnie so I had him neutered, at the suggestion of the vet and to the results of a balot I held on his behalf at the local chippy.. Unfortunately, it was a traumatic process which solved nothing. When I saw the vet three months after his neuturing, he made a huge discovery. He found out that Winnie hadn't just become incredibly lazy, nor had he simply become stuborn, in fact he had been dead all along - he had simultaneously electrocuted himself and choked on a length of red plastic with a small sphere on the end. PASSAGES Passages is a game like none other that I have any knowledge of (except one, but I wrote that so it doesn't count). It is a game which is played by passing a single file between you and your opponent. These files store details of the current state of the game and so by giving the opponent information as to what you've done during your turn they can play on and try to undo what you've done, and do a little of their own - for you to undo yourself. The game is viewed from above so all you see is your little bloke's head and feet sticking out the front. I could have arranged it so he looked up at you whilst you were playing but then he wouldn't get any fun, so I decided against that. The idea is to move your character around the passages in order to collect gold and deposit in one of the banks of your own colour, using doors to help prevent the other player from accessing particular passageways. SETTING UP Copy the Passages directory to a suitable place on the disk it is to be run from. Create an assign to this directory called 'Passages:'. Failing to do this will result in you not being able to start a game and you will be unsure as to where the saved files will be put. When I tested this, my files ended up on an Airbus 3000 bound for Los Angeles, much to the amusement of the pilot whose onboard computer they ended up in. 1> Assign Passages: DH1:Games/Passages The above line will assign 'Passages:' to a the 'Passages' directory in the 'Games' directory on the DH1: partition of the user's hard disk, but you knew that already... RUNNING Passages can be run from the CLI like any other CLI PASSAGES program. 1> Passages Passages can also be run from Workbench using the icon supplied, or you can make your own and use that. Upon loading Passages, a screen will appear giving details of the revision of the game. If a keyfile is found, information will be shown about the registratee. If it isn't found, there will be a time delay as shown by a timer. To stop the screen of registration information from disappearing, hold the left mouse button until you are done. MAIN MENU Pressing fire when instructed to do so by the ever helpful joystick will result in the appearance of silver breadstick on the left of the screen. From here you can start a new game, continue an old game, practice or, in the registered version, exit. For those of you without a joystick, who do not like using joysticks or who have a dead poodle, the cursor keys and return will kinda mimick the joystick as best they can, however, they are nowhere near as good, and you will find it hard to control the character. NEW GAME When selecting this either the breadstick will show 'Player One' or a hole in time will open up and you will be turned into a vacuum cleaner. Player one is the red player who starts, in red drag in the bottom, left hand corner. Player two, blue starts in the top, right corner and wears a rather expensive blue suit with grey cycling helmet. Once you've selected your player, you will have to select a level. The ones available are from 000 to 015 although extra levels will possibly be released in the future, along with a level editor (at no extra registration fee). The files to these are found in 'Passages:levels'. Use backspace, or the arrow keys and delete, and change the code to the level you want. The fun then begins. CONTINUE GAME Upon receiving the 'input' file from the other player, select this option and the file will be loaded from 'Passages:'. You may then take your turn. For those who want to know, the file is called 'Passages.output' when it leaves a machine, and is renamed to 'Passages.input' when it arrives. PRACTICE Selecting this option lets you get the feel of the game without actually having to have a friend ready to play - it's therefore ideal for those who haven't any friends. It's also ideal for those who have never played before and simply want to know what everything does. LEAVE PASSAGES This option exits completely from the game. This option also makes the first sentance of PLAYING PASSAGES incorrect, so just ignore that bit. PLAYING No matter which of the options above seleted, you will PASSAGES be eventually presented with the play arena. A green box surrounds the actual area where your character can move within. The fact that it's green has no relevance to any part of the game and the reason for it being so is a mystery to me which is peculiar since I chose the colour scheme. A length of tunnel will also be visible. This is what your player can see. Facing him in other directions show you that passage up until his sight is hindered by a large rock surface. A wall springs to mind as a handy example of a large rock surface. To the right of the arena are the amount of money you have stashed away, whether you are holding gold, and your opponent's money. On occasion you may be lucky enough to come across some gold. ICONS The icons along the top of the screen above the playing arena represent (and are labelled as) the function keys: F1 gold/up arrow PICK UP GOLD F2 gold/down arrow DROP GOLD F3 zip NO FUNCTION F4 zip NO FUNCTION F5 lock DEPOSIT GOLD F6 wall BUILD DOOR F7 dynamite DYNAMITE F8 shoevel LEVEL GROUND F9 zip NO FUNCTION F10 clock/arrow END TURN WITH SAVE ESC exit END TURN NO SAVE P paws PAUSE TURNING AND Turning and moving are two different things. Turning MOVING about a point requires movement about two planes (unless you happen to be a point particle which, in theory, has no dimensions whatsoever and so may turn by any degree in any direction without actually moving in any plane), whereas moving from one place to another in a straight line only requires movement in one dimension (and for all you dimensionless points out there, the same would go for you). Just a point, but if space is curved, like it is supposed to be, wouldn't all the planets roll off? Turning is achieved by moving the joystick in a new direction, your character will face the desired way, or at least the way in which you pushed the joystick. Moving is acomplished by pushing the joystick (or 'joy' if your dog also bit the stick off it) in the direction you character is already facing. HITTING WALLS Hitting walls is not desirable and although will not affect the performance of your character, is hardly fair and will almost certainly put him in a bad mood. PARACETAMOL Newtons 4th law: Walking into walls may inspire headaches. GOLD Gold is the reason for life as far as red or blue overhead viewed computer sprites go. Gold, unlike the passageways, can only be seen whilst you are actually facing it. Walking over it will render it out of sight but will NOT pick it up. Turn around and it's still there. Well if you walk over a coin in the street it doesn't magically appear in your pocket. Now, chewing gum... To pick up gold, move on top of it and press either fire on the joystick, F1 or Return. Only one piece of gold can be carried at a time and must be deposited into a bank before it will affect your bank balance or another piece can be picked up - it's heavy you see. When you are carrying gold, 'gold held' will be displayed to the right of the arena. This is to let you know that your character is holding gold. Gold can be dropped by moving to a square not already occupied by gold and pressing F2. Keep it behind doors if you don't want your opponent to get it. Again this will not change the amount of money you have, to do that you have to visit the bank. It is essential to remember that gold you fail to pick up will still be present on your oppponent's go. BANKS These are a piece of straight vertical or horizontal passageway with either a red or blue light in each corner. Look carefully for them. When carrying gold, move into the bank and press fire or F5. A shutter will close you in (for security), your gold will be deposited and the shutter will open again. If a piece of gold just so happens to be lying in the centre of a bank, you can still pick it up with fire or F1. Fire will automatically pick it up and deposit it. F1 will simply pick it up. This is called 'robbing a bank'. Make sure that you visit the correct colour bank otherwise not a lot happens. ROCK Corners and junctions are always soft rock. Straight pieces of passageway may be soft or hard. The hard rock contains less cracks than soft rock (compare the passageways with junctions to find its type). The difference between the rocks is that soft rock, straight passageway is the only rock that can be damaged by dynamite. Hard rock is too hard to build doors on - it also requires larger doses of paracetamol if you walk into it. See PARACETAMOL. DOORS Your own doors will not affect you in any way but will stop your opponent's movement and sight. The reverse is also true. Doors can be placed on any straight piece of soft rock passageway by moving onto a sqaure adjacent to it, facing it and pressing F6. If you have enough money, and the passageway is suitable, the door will be built and $4 will be deducted from your balance. Doors can only be built on straight pieces of passageway which do not already contain a door, which are level (they cannot be built on craters) and which are soft rock. Remember, a door will be built on a sqaure which you FACE, not which you are actually ON. Make sure that you are facing the correct way; you are facing soft rock; you have enough money. DYNAMITE Dynamiting is similar to door building. Only straight passageway can be blown up (the game prevents you from committing hari-kari by deystroying a junction). There are two types of dynamiting: passageway and doors. Blowing a hole in a piece of passageway will cost you $3 and will mean the other player (and you) will have to level the ground before a door can be built, it does not restrict movement nor sight though. Blowing up doors will remove the door and leave a crater, but as more dynamite is required, it will fetch you back $4 - rip off, isn't it? To dynamite, face the square to be blown up and hit F7. LEVELLING To remove a crater so that you can build a door, you can face the square and press F8. The crater will be removed and your balance will go down by $2. TIME As if all that doesn't sound hard enough, you only get two minutes to make your mark, collect as much gold as possible and save it away either in banks, or by keeping it (relatively) safe in blocked (and locked) off pieces of passageway where you can sort it out next time (providing it hasn't gone). PAUSING Pause at any time by pressing P. Press anything when you want to restart. MULTI-TASKING Left Amiga-P will take you back to the world of Intuition. The game will automatically be paused. Press the same again to come back. This won't work without the keyfile. EXIT To save going back to the menu, you can quit with CONTROL-C, again you must be registered. PREMATURE To end your turn before you run out of time, you can END OF TURN press F10 or ESCAPE. F10 will save the game if you are not in 'practice mode' and will result in the same as the clock running out. ESCAPE will abort the save and so in 'practice', the two are no different. F10 will simply speed up the clock, hold it down until the time runs out. END OF TURN If you are simply practicing, you will be returned to IN PRACTICE the menu when your turn has ended. END OF TURN When the time is up or you have had enough, a blank REAL screen will appear...well, it won't 'appear' as such: an absence of light can't 'appear', but the previous screen will disappear to give the 'illusion' of a blank screen appearing. A disk icon will then appear and the 'keep' file and 'output' file will be saved to your 'Passages:' assign. The output file is called 'Passages.output' and will be loaded as an input file by the other player. Renaming of the 'output' file to the 'input' file is done automatically by the scripts (see below) or can be done manually if you are communicating some other way ie. telepathically, via diskette etc. In more simple terms: When your go ends the 'output' file is made (the last) is backed up. The 'output' file is sent to the other player. The other player renames the 'output' file to an 'input' file (all done by script). The other player plays on. BACK-UP Passages will create backups of the file before overwriting it at the end of turn point, this is called: 'Passages.output.bak'. SPOT Included are two scripts for use with Spot (auth: Nico François). 'Passages.EXPORT.spot' will send an 'output' file. Go to the message area you wish to send it in (you should obtain permission if this isn't a netmail area) and run the script (see Spot documentation if you are unsure how to do this). The 'output' file will be converted into a message and you will simply have to supply details of who to send it to. The 'Passages.IMPORT.spot' script will take a message which contains the Passages data and convert it into an 'input' file so that you can simply select 'continue game' and play on. SO I hope you enjoy playing Passages and have the patience to keep reseting your machine to see what it's like. :-) NOTICE Some programs such as commodities which use sound whilst Passages is running may screw up the sound in Passages (samples might start repeating). REGISTRATION Please send the following details: o Your name o Your mail address o Your netmail address (fidonet) o Any other comments. PAPER MAIL PSR Software Paul Ruane 26 Birdwood Close, Selsdon, Surrey. England. CR2 8QG. EMAIL Currently there is no way to contact me via any net. Please write via paper mail. __________________________________________________________________NULL