Gamers Delight 2/Gamers Delight 2.iso/Aminet/game/misc/AmiOmega.lha/AmiOmega/omega.lzh/Versions

Text File | 1991-03-22 | 15KB | 304 lines

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*       Please let this file stay near the executable game...            *
*    Since it contains explanations about how to make it work        *
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   This file is a runthrough of all the specialities, that makes this version
different from all the rest out there...It is an accumulated script, i.e. it
summarizes all the versions that I stand for. Some day I'm gonna clean it up,
so it only concerns the current one, though. I keep it as a kind of history-
book over the development.

This is not a shareware product, but Public Domain. You are hereby entitled
to spread it as much as you can. I do not charge anything for for it,
but, but, since I'm a student and wrote this during my sparetime I do not
deny any donations made by you :)

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*    Omega version 0.76 beta                            *
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   The game is a conversion of the UNIX (tm) game Omega, There have
been made no voilation of that game's overall game-play, only changes
in the infra-structure to fit the Amiga's environment. That does not mean
it has got smashing 3d vektor grafik or neat sampled battle noise, only that
it simulates the former game's behavior, i.e ASCII characters being moved
from place to place...This could be sensed as a drawback, but think of all
the space there is left for game-play!!!!

   This Game is a beta version of a beta version. So you'll have to expect a
lot of irritating and fatal errors! But as far as I can see the lowest and
basic routines of the code is working satisfactoring, though not all has been
tested for irrelevant coinsidenses of playing.

   Every level are kept in a file after you leave it...not in memory,
Making the game very slow at times. I have done this not because I like it
or because it's a good solution, but because I hadn't any choice...The
various sites as the arena and the houses are not kept, waste of disk-
space. Only if you wish to save the game in one of the many special sites,
will the level be swapped to the disk, since I have made the game continue
after a save...This is done because I want to compensate for the diskwork,
it would be a time-killing game, if you had to restart after every save!
Omega is a very large game and eats a lot of bytes...You can not possibly
have it all in the machine at the same time! (Of cource you can buy 8 mega-
byte or so...) And I wanted that the levels you have been to wasn't spoiled
when you returned! It should run with 1 mega-byte though. Use the 'X'
command to check the memory amount left...
   The program can be runned on a single drive maschine...but it is not
recommanded...It uses 3 disks! The main disk...The level disk (remember to
make a directory named Levels on this!) Defaultname: OmegaData:!...and your
savedisk! You would wish you had a hard-disk!
   I'm sorry to admit that I'm a bit lazy. This results in, that instead of
writing my own delete routine, I use the CLI command 'delete #?'...*blush*
this means, it must always exists in a known path or in the command directory...
The same is the case with copy, here I too uses the CLI-command...

   DELETE and COPY is run by Execute so therefore the CLI/command RUN must
also be present!

   The game can be runned from the workbench, but the savefile does not get
an icon attached to it, so why not run it from CLI? It saves ram too...
To save access time on disk operation I copy the various files into ram: so
please be sure the machine is totally clean. It is also important, due to
recursive function call, that you set the stack to at least 15000...Don't
try to run the game on a machine with less than 1M, you won't succeed...


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*   What CLI-commands are needed:                        *
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*   STACK, DELETE, COPY, RUN                            *
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 Btw, if you have any suggestions what so ever to the game write to the

  InterUNet/NordUNet address:

    [e-mail], or
    [e-mail]

   if you use the last address please write that it's for Klavs...

   Let's make Omega a living and exciting game so feel free to add new ideas!

   At the current moment there should be about 250 kilobytes left on a
1 mega-byte machine, so there is lot's of room for new and vicous monsters
and interesting items or sites...sooo gimme some ideas!

PS YOU HAVE TO USE A STACK COMMAND AND SET IT TO AT LEAST 15000!

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*    Omega version 0.77 beta                            *
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   It took me all in all a year to code it (well, I've not coded every day,
actually only three month in all)...
I'm sorry to say it, but it's some of the most dirty code I've seen....Most
of the time was spent on trying to clean up all the pointer business, so that
everything allocated was freed properly. Hmmm I must admit I didn't succeed...
But if someone else, with the time to look 1 Mega-byte of source-code through,
would like to look at it, they are very wellcome....9k is lost from the opening
of the ram disk and console-device, 24 bytes (sometimes more) is lost out of
the blue sky...And if ya quit in the Arena (I'm not sure of the other places)
the machine looses 100k or so!!!!!!!So make a warm-start after you quit...
But the game-play should be allright, and it should be possible to play to the
end w/o complications.

Changes from version 0.76:

   There is added some new items and monsters, plus three new item categories.
Helmet, amulets and gloves. There has not been made many changes in the game-
play, but I've devaluated the prizes of items, and made it harder to raise
level in guilds. That was one of the bad things in 0.76 (after my opinion),
it was too easy to get a descent character...I'm planning to make more quests
etc. when I find time for it...
It is possible to change the save path, the OmegaLib path and the OmegaLevel
path. The paths can also be changed during play with the '#' command. Just
remember to type in the full path, i.e. if it's a disk type

   OmegaSave:Save/    (The '/' must be present)

   Well after all these warnings and brimstone sermon I want you to have some,
I hope, enjoyable moments of fun with this marvelous well-thought-out game!
It gives a whole new perspective to the Rogue, moria, nethack-type games, It
actually creates a total environment around the player, religion, guilds,
alignment etc. I must say I was breathless when I first saw it! So please
play and spread the Omega idea!

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*  Omega version 0.80 (beta)                           *
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   The current version of omega have now a file omega.cnf attached to it.
It should contain a setup for your system. Change it to something that
is more appropriate for you :) I made this due to a phone-call from Brian
(I didnt get his last name). Because of this, the '#' command is no longer
in function. I've made some default paths though:

    SavePath  = OmegaSave:
    LibPath   = sys:omegalib/
    LevelPath = OmegaData:Levels/

If the name option is not used, there should be a prompt for typing it in.
Important is it, that omega.cnf lies in the same directory from which you
start the game, and it must be present at run-time.
   Besides I have added Menus. One for each of the different environments:
countryside, and dungeons. It works, but because of adaption to the old
system (and to save memory) I am only sending back the last menu-item that
is selected.
   This version have also been submitted to a lot of bug-fixes in the item
control part, and some new features have been added (Which you must find
for yourself...) But I believe there are many more to be slaughtered before
the game can be called an alfa-version...
   I've also added a FileWindow, this should make access to the save-files
much easier, instead of that silly and ugly typeline...And the screen doesn't
switch to the workbench, when prompting for a new disk...
   Another neat change (or add) is that Copy and Delete are now incorporated
in the game :) You still need to set the stack to at least 15000 though...
But one thing bothers me a lot is the memory leak :( Not even weeks of sleep-
less nights have brought me to the answer. It's simply an impossible task.
   You can now drink, eat and read things from the floor!

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*  Omega version 1.0 (alfa)                            *
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   Finally I feel capable to call a version an (alfa) version! With this I
mean, that there is no memory leak (7-9-13) and the surface is much neater
(this could be discussed, some output routines are still screwed... :( ).
   The memory allocations and deallocations (including the Arena) is now
acceptable, it is also reallocable (Meaning it can function with the shell,
workbench and other processes turned on). It fills 70kb less than Version
0.80 with the same code! (Due to the fact, that I bought Lattice C V.5.02 (c)
SAS institute, and used the new keyword far together with the smalldata option
on the Blink'er, instead of the -b0 -r0 option on Lattice 4.0, and finally
used the global optimizer!!! It's amazing how much SAS institute have done!)
   Before you run the game, still remember to set the stack to 15000. And
now let's play!

   Somehow first time the program is runned, it eats about 2k of memory,
the following upstarts seems to be satisfied with that...I think it's due
to opening a library...Since it's mostly exactly the same amount that is lost.
Use flushlibs with loadwb -debug to get it back.

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*  Omega version 1.01 (alfa)                            *
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   Now the output are in real techni-colour! Plus it's possible to display
pictures at anytime...Still only got a lousy introduction screen, though.
Besides that I fixed that irritating and confusing misplaced ANSI-code in
the countryside, plus several other display bugs. (More to come I'm afraid.)
   On behalf of 'the Monsters Liberation Front' (MLF) I've fixed the lacking
immunity to magic for some of the major monsters, plus added some more vicious
attacks and subdivided dragons into colours each with a private gas attack...

   This is only a minor version increment due to the fact, that I'm waiting
for graphics and music/sound to include, before I give it a boost upward.
So if you dear reader have anything, that burns in your directory, for
inclosure, it will be VERY welcome. For your deed of saving a poor
non-artist you are entitled to a direct shipment of any new versions I make
in the future, plus an entrance on the contribution list.


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*  Omega version 1.10 (work)                            *
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   This is the very first version with pure grpahical output, but behold it's
still only a workcopy, so if you happens to have it in your possesion expect
some strange output bugs.
   Instead of moving ASCII characters around the game now manipulates images.
I'm not following the Moria tradition though, but have expanded the size
with 8x2 to resemble Ultima-look, because I feel that graphics are only use-
ful if you can distinguish one character from the other :)
   The game still seem to leak some memory, but that is apparently not true,
using Loadwb -debug it shows no loss...It's a great relief!

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*  Omega version 1.50 (work)                            *
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  This version has one major implementation, namely an additional output-
window (accessable with the 'W' key or menu-bar), that displays the whole
level as a small pixelboard. Every action in the main window is echoed to
this smaller one! The change should compensate for the decremented view due
to the larger characters...Besides the window can be moved around and closed
at any time. I'm still waiting for some more graphics to beef the athmos-
phere up though.
   Futhermore I've fixed some minor bugs and included colour text.
   I have also included the first real picture made by "Bombman". Wauw!

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*   Remember to put iff.library in the libs: directory!!!!!            *
*             It must be version 16.1                    *
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   Feel free to send suggestions, bug-reports etc. to me if you got an idea
of where some of the solutions are. {:-) If ya like to see the source-code,
then write to me, and I'll email it or send it on a disk for thee, against a
small fee of 60 Dkr. if you live in Europe, and 80 Dkr for American's.

   Any contributions to the game, will be mentioned here...

                            -Klavs Pedersen

P.S. Is there a need for 3M games out there? And is Omega big enough?

Contributions So far:

   Flemming Andreassen
   Strynøgade 3 3th.
   DK-2100 København Ø
   Denmark
   31-200699

   Game-play test, suggestions for optimization and user surface besides from
beeing a good friend of me.

   Brian...

   Suggestions and encouraging to make it easier to run the game on a
Hard-disk system. Thus I made a configuration reader.

   Thanks to Timo Rossi from the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, all the
System Requester windows now pop up on the games window instead of the CLI!

   Due to Christian A. Weber from Zurich/Switzerland marvelous IFF library,
on one of the fishes, the program can know show pictures :)

   Incredible many thanx to Hans Henrik "Bombman" ([e-mail])
for his smashing front picture.


                        Yours Sincerely

                        Klavs Torben Pedersen
                        Grønjordskollegiet v.3404
                        DK-2300 Copenhagen S
                        Denmark
                        Tlf. 31 583 469

                        [e-mail]