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Text File | 1990-09-07 | 16KB | 364 lines

\ \\ \\\ \ \\ \ \\\ / \ _____ \\\\ / \ ____ \ \ \\\ \ / /\ ) / / \ \ \ \/ / \ / / / \ \ \ / \/ / / \ \ \ / / / \ \ \ / _________/ / \ \ \/ / ______ / \ \_________ / / / / \ \ / (_____/ / \_____________)(____________/[PAZZA] P R E S E N T P O W E R P L A Y Typed by SIDEWINDER/LSD. (I know its an old game, but I haven't seen a doc for it before!) 1. THE GAME OF THE GODS On the heights of Mount Olympus, the mighty gods are once again arguing over which of them is the wisest and most powerful. To settle this quarrel, Zeus decided that four of them representing different ideologies should compete in a battle of sheer wit and speed he has devised, to be called the 'POWERPLAY'. The representitives will be Apollo, standing for strength and dignity; Hermes, standing for magic and trickery; Hecate, standing for witchcraft and wizardry; and lastly Aphrodite, standing for love. A courtyard in the temple of Apollo has been selected as the arena for the main competition. In addition special battlegrounds have been prepared in places as diverse as the craggy tops of mount Olympus and the fiery caverns in the very depths of Hades. To avoid personal injury, each god will pick a team of warriors to fight the battle according to their commands. Throughout the contest, the gods will be tested on their knowledge of the universe, having to respond quickly and correctly to make best use of the warriors. The better a god responds, the wiser they become, and they may use stronger warrior. There are four families of warriors, one to represent each of the four ideoligies competing, each containing four grades from weak to strong. The families are as follows with members listed weakest to strongest: APOLLO'S FAMILY HERACLES - The most famous of Greek heroes, and one of the sons of Zeus himself. ATLAS - One of the great Titans, whose task it was to hold apart earth and heaven. CYCLOPS - A huge one-eyed giant possessing the strength of many men. MINOTAUR - A powerful monster, half man and half bull, with great physical strength. HERME'S FAMILY ORPHEUS - A poet whose magic lyre could charm trees, rivers and wild beasts. PROMETHEUS - One of the great Titans who stole fire from the gods for mankind. TALOS - The giant bronze man who guarded the entrance to Crete. PAN - A satyr, half man and half goat, who was the mischievous son of Hermes. HECATE'S FAMILY MAENAD - One of the wild women followers of Dionysus, the wine God. NERIAD - A mystical sea nymph. SIREN - A sea creature, with the head of a maiden and the body of a bird, who used to sing to sailors causing them to wreck their ships upon her rocky home. SCYLLA - A horrible dog-headed man-eating hag. APHRODITE'S FAMILY PERSEPHONE - A beautiful girl condemned to live six months of each year in Hades. PANDORA - A temptress who let loose all the evils known to man from her mystical box. EROS - The god of love and son of Aphrodite, recognised by his quiver of golden arrows. IRIS - The beautiful winged goddess of the rainbow, and messenger to Zeus's wife, Hera. By using the resources available to them, these warriors will fight bravely to the death for their masters. The battle will rage until only one god remains with any warriors in the courtyard. Only this god may claim the title 'Wisest and Most Powerful God of all'. 2. LOADING THE PROGRAM Just put the disk in the internal drive, and it will load automatically. The credits will appear on the screen before the game is started. If you wish to stop the credits prematurely press the ESC key. 3. PLAYING OPTIONS You will be asked to select the number of players competing and the difficulty level of the game. There may be two, three, or four players in a game. Alternatively the one player practise mode may be chosen. Press 1, 2, 3 or 4 on the keyboard to make your choice. The difficulty level determines the amount of time allowed to answer each question and may range from 10 seconds on level one to 2.5 seconds on level four. Again press 1, 2, 3 or 4 to choose. Each player will then be asked to select which god or goddess they wish to be during the game. You can do this by pressing 1, 2, 3 or 4. If you try to pick a diety who has already been chosen by another player nothing happens, so just choose again. Each player will then be asked which input device they wish to choose during the game. More than one player can use the same device and can choose between the keyboard and one or two mice or joysticks (if these are connected). The current player selecting a device is highlighted, together with the current device, which may be changed by pressing SPACE. You can move from player to player by pressing RETURN. When all players have chosen, pressing ESC will set their choices. The game will not play correctly if a device is selected which is not available on your computer. Next, each player has the opportunity to choose their army. A default army is shown both by name and graphically, so just press ESC if you are happy with this. If you would like to hand-pick your warriors press SPACE to cycle through the available pieces, RETURN to cycle through the pieces in your army and ESC when you have picked all your pieces. When all the players have chosen their armies, the game begins. 4. HOW TO 'POWERPLAY' 4.1 THE OUTLINE OF THE GAME Each player begins the game with four pieces, each of the lowest grade of their family, in one corner of the courtyard. Each player's pieces are distinguished by the following characteristic colours: PLAYER 1 - BLUE PLAYER 2 - RED PLAYER 3 - GREEN PLAYER 4 - YELLOW The object of the game is to eliminate your opponents' pieces from the courtyard. Players take turns to select one of their pieces and answer a question which will appear at the bottom of the screen. if the question is answered incorrectly or not answered at all, play will pass to the next player. If the correct answer is given a number of points will be added to that piece's wisdom score. The player may then move the piece onto any free adjacent square to end the turn. If, after answering correctly, enough points have been accumulated, the player is given the opportunity to change the piece to one of greater power by means of a 'mutation'. Moving a piece onto a square occupied by an opponent will invoke a 'challenge'. The piece losing the challenge will be mutated down to a lower grade or eliminated from the game. 4.2 SELECTING A PIECE When prompted a player may select a piece. The current player and piece will be indicated underneath the board. The current piece will also make itself known on the main board. the wisdom score and the strength level of this piece are also indicated at the bottom of the board. The current player may cycle through his pieces by pressing SPACE on the keyboard, the right button on a mouse or by moving a joystick up or down. Having selected a piece the player must press RETURN on the keyboard, the left button on the mouse or the FIRE button on the joystick to recieve a question. 4.3 ANSWERING A QUESTION The squares on the courtyard are divided into four colour corresponding to the following subject areas: COLOUR SUBJECT Blue General Knowledge Red Sport and Leisure Green Science and Technology Yellow History and Geography The question will be presented on a tablet which will appear on the lower portion of the screen. The subject of the question is determined by the colour of the square occupied by the selected piece. The difficulty of the question is determined by the grade of the selected piece: the higher the grade, the harder the question. Four possible answers will be presented with the question. These are arranged around a cross in the centre of the tablet. If using the keyboard, the player may select an answer by pressing the appropriate cursor key. If using a mouse or a joystick the answer can be chosen by moving it in the appropriate direction. If the selected answer is correct, points will be added to the wisdom score of the piece. The more time taken to answer, the less points will be added. The player may then move his piece, or if over 25 points have been accumulated, will be given the option to mutate to a higher grade. If the player answer incorrectly or runs out of time, no points are added and play passes to the next player. 4.4 MOVING A PIECE A piece may be moved into any free neighbouring square by moving a mouse or joystick in the appropriate direction and pressing the left or fire button. If using the keyboard then the numeric keypad is used to move the piece. Imagine that the piece is standing on the '5' key, and then press the neighbouring key as if it were the square you want to move the piece to. The following table indicates the exact key to use: KEY DIRECTION 8 Back 2 Foreward 4 Left 6 Right 7 Back-Left 3 Forward-Right 1 Forward-Left 9 Back-Right A piece may not be moved off the board or onto a square occupied by a piece belonging to the same player. Moving onto a square occupied by an opponent's piece will invoke a challenge. There are four magical squares in the courtyard which are coloured white. These are known as 'teleport' squares. Moving a piece onto one of these squares will cause it to disappear and reappear on any of the four teleport squares, including itself. These squares may thus be used for rapidly crossing the board or to escape an impending challenge. However, since the piece may reappear on the same square, this is not a foolproof method of escape. A piece will not appear on a teleport square which is already occupied by another piece. 4.5 MUTATIONS If after answering a question correctly, a piece of grade one to three has accumulated a score of 25 wisdom points or more the option to mutate to a higher grade will be given. The player may choose to postpone mutation to a later move, in which case the piece may be moved as described in the previous section, unless using a mouse in which case the right mouse button will have to be pressed before you will be allowed to move the piece. If a mutation is desired, it can be initiated by pressing SPACE on the keyboard. If using a mouse the left button should by pressed, and if using a joystick the FIRE button should be pressed with the joystick centred. After a mutation, 25 wisdom points will be deducted from the piece. Having mutated the piece, the player may then continue to move it onto a new square in the manner previously described. The advantages of mutating a piece to a higher grade are that it can accumulate more strength than before, and that it can withstand more challenge defeats before being eliminated. The disadvantage is that the subject matter of the questions presented become more difficult. 4.6 CHALLENGES A challenge consists of two players competing against each other to answer the same questions. The challenge questions will be set on a random subject and at the difficulty level of the higher grade piece contending. To invoke a challenge, a player must attempt to move his piece onto a square already occupied by an opponent. This will cause the contending pieces to be taken off the main board to one of the specially prepared sites. Although the challenge can differ, the process in each case is the same. The two players competing in the challenge must watch their pieces take part in a 'see-saw' competition and not until one of them has lost the competition will normal play resume. The contesting players will be informed which devices they should use to answer the challenge questions. If the keyboard is the only device available, one player will be allocated the cursor keys to use as normal and the other will be allocated an alternative set of keys. This set of keys should be used if a player is allocated KEYBOARD 2. They are arranged in a cross about the number '5' key on the numeric keypad and are marked with the appropriate arrows on some machines. There will then follow a quick-fire round of questions. When each question is presented, both players must attempt to answer the question as quickly as possible. The player answering first wins the question if the correct answer is given, but loses the question if the wrong answer is given. If neither player manages to answer within the time limit (which is shorter than the main board), the piece with the higher strength will win the question. The first player to gain a three- question advantage over the other wins the challenge. After each challenge question one point is deducted from the strength of each piece regardless of who won or lost. If the strength of either player's piece falls to zero during a challenge, then that player will lose the challenge. The piece belonging to the player losing the challenge is mutated down a grade, with no wisdom points being restored in the process. If the piece is already of the lowest grade it will be eliminated from the game. Thus, although the higher grade pieces run a lower risk in a challenge situation, their strength is vitally important - if it is low they could easily lose the challenge to a stronger, lower-grade piece. After a challenge, each surviving piece will be restored to the main board in the same position as before, unless the piece being challenged is destroyed, in which case the challenging piece will move onto its square. 4.7 IRRITABILITY At the start of each player's turn, their pieces will be checked to see if any of them has been kept out of action for too long, and thus got a bit 'fed up'. If so then that piece may decide to start moving about on its own accord by making a random move. If it encounters an opponent's piece it may decide to attack causing a challenge to occur in the normal fashion. If a piece has moved on its own accord during a player's turn, then after it has moved, or after any resulting challenge, play will pass to the next player. No on-screen information is available regarding how irritated or fed-up any particular piece is, so it is up to the players to keep their warriors happy. 4.8 PRACTISE MODE If only one player is selected at the start of the game, a special case applies, and thus one-player practise mode is entered. Since you have no-one else to play against, you may take on Zeus himself (whose part is played by the computer). You may pick your pieces as normal, but when you arrive on the board you will find that Zeus has picked an army of top-grade warriors. You must still answer questions in order to move, but Zeus, because he knows all the answers, will move whenever he cares to. He won't cheat though, his aim is not to win, but to test you. 4.9 CHARACTER PERSONALITIES Each of the sixteen different types of warriors that can appear during POWERPLAY has a unique personality manifesting itself to the player as strength, recovery and irritation factors. To take full advantage of your army you should consider these carefully as it means the difference between emerging victorious or vanquished. End.