SEKA32 Professional Limited PD Edition of Release 2 by Mark Dennison of Scissorsoft Release 1 - 31.07.94 Release 1a - 01.08.94 Release 1b - 05.08.94 Release 1c - 12.08.94 Release 2 - 25.08.04 EDITOR: V1.34 - 24.08.94 GAME: V1.32 - 24.08.94 MANUAL: V1.3 - 24.08.94 Programming: Mark Dennison Playtesting: Mark Gilbert Matthew Smith Steve White Acknowledgements: Chris Gilbert Amiga Computing Magazine _ This is the Public Domain version of Seka32 and it has several limitations: 1. Maximum of 10 Objects (Full version supports up to 500) 2. Maximum of 10 Events (Full version uses up to 500) 3. Game area limited to 7x7 rooms 4. Only graphics import (no music modules and samples) 5. No map support in Editor 6. No options in Player _ The full version also includes a disk of example graphics, music modules, sound samples and object graphics. It also enables self-booting disks to be made so that adventures can be put into the public domain. A LESS LIMITED version of this software should be available on the coverdisk of AMIGA COMPUTING magazine in the near future. _ If you would like to use Seka32 to the full, send eight pounds to: Seka Registration, Scissorsoft, 7 Knab Road, Ecclesall, Sheffield, S7 2ET. * ** Please report any bugs to me as I will try to rectify them before delivery. * _ I know that piracy is big business on | the Amiga, but I hope this product | will not be copied, sold or lent in | any way. If you do copy it, spare me | a thought - I`m only 15 years old and | need some reward for Seka32 Professional. | ----------------------------------------------- | If you have any comments about Seka, | feel free to write to me, Mark Dennison, | at the following address. Alternatively, | you may telephone me during non-school | hours (I am a GCSE student at Silverdale). --- Scissorsoft ---- | | | | Mark Dennison Mark Gilbert 7 Knab Road, 23 Stowe Avenue, Ecclesall, Ecclesall, Sheffield, Sheffield, S7 2ET, S7 2GP. England. England. Tel: 0114 2584619 Tel: 0114 2366853 | I accept no responsibily for any damage | incurred by the use of this program. However, | should an important Seka32 adventure go faulty, | please send it to me as I should be able | to revive some or most of it. |------------------------------------| | | | CONTENTS: | | | |------------------------------------| 1.0 INITIATION | | 1.1 Memory Configuration | | 1.2 Starting the programs | |------------------------------------| 2.0 THE MAIN EDITOR | | 2.1 The Basics of Seka32 | | 2.2 Starting a Fresh | | 2.3 Creating a Room | | 2.4 Multimedia | | | 2.41 Illustrating Locations | | | 2.42 Adding Sampled Sounds | | | 2.43 Adding Music Modules | | 2.5 The Mapping Device | | 2.6 Adding Objects | | 2.7 Deleting Objects | | 2.8 Finding Objects | | 2.9 Adding Inventory Objects | |------------------------------------| 3.0 THE EVENTS EDITOR | | 3.1 New Objects | | 3.2 Commands | | | 3.21 Use (1) | | | 3.22 Use (2) | | | 3.23 Look at | | | 3.24 Talk to | | | 3.25 Give | | | 3.26 Eat & Drink | | | 3.27 Death Room | | | 3.28 Victory Object | | | 3.29 Death Object | | | 3.30 Open | | | 3.31 Link Ascend | | | 3.32 Link Descend | | | 3.33 Block Room | | 3.4 Inputting Events | | 3.5 Deleting Events | | 3.6 Additional Information | | 3.7 Object Graphics | |------------------------------------| 4.0 DISK FEATURES | | 4.1 Saving | | 4.2 Loading | | 4.3 New Adventures | | 4.4 Password | |------------------------------------| 5.0 PLAYING ADVENTURES | | 5.1 Using Commands | | 5.2 Dual-Command Input | | 5.3 Moving Rooms | | 5.4 Using Graphics | | 5.5 Using Music | | 5.6 Using Sampled Sounds | |------------------------------------| 6.0 QUICK START TUTORIAL | |------------------------------------| 7.0 AUTHOR'S COMMENT | | 7.1 Acknowledgements | |------------------------------------| 8.0 HISTORY | | 8.1 Future Prospects | |------------------------------------| 1.0 INITIATION ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ What is Seka? I first became involved with adventure games about a year ago; when my friend and me began coding using AMOS to create simple text adventures. These were pre-programmed affairs where the story of the adventure affected how the game was programmed. However, my friend proceeded to create a very simple text adventure creator; so simple that it had no loading or saving. He christened it Seka (pronounced Seaker). Why Seka 32? As we learnt more and more of AMOS, we found it was indeed possible to load and save data - something that we previously thought unfeasible. And so progression lead to SekaPC (QBasic version), Seka 32, and finally Seka 32 Professional. 1.1 MEMORY CONFIGURATION ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How should I run the program? If are running from an unexpanded Amiga A500 or A600, simply double-click as usual. However, performance will be slow because of the disk-access and the slow processor. If you have a more than 1Mb RAM (eg A1200), you can make Seka cache some of it`s data by double-clicking on `Install` and following the on-screen prompts to install on ram. Note that it will be necessary to follow this proceedure every time you reset the computer. Hard Drive users will be able to attain maximum performance as all the data will be copied upon double-clicking the `Install` icon. Seka will benefit from the rapid access times. This proceedure need only be carried out once. What if I don't know how much memory is inside my machine? Assuming you haven't expanded it, observe this chart. Machine Memory A500 0.5Mb Can't run Seka32 CDTV 1Mb Must disable all peripherals other than one external disk drive. Use floppy method. A500+ 1Mb Follow floppy instructions A600* 1Mb Follow floppy instructions A600HD 1Mb Follow floppy instructions (may experience memory problems) A1200 2Mb Follow extra memory instructions A1200HD: 2Mb Follow hard drive instructions A1500* 1Mb Follow floppy instructions A2000* 1Mb Follow floppy instructions A3000* 1Mb Follow floppy instructions A4000/030 2Mb Follow hard drive instructions A4000/040 2Mb Follow hard drive instructions * If you have any memory expansion in your machine, follow the extra memory instruction. 1.2 STARTING THE PROGRAMS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Seka32 contains two main programs: 1) The Editor - This utility enables you to create your own Seka32 adventures and save them. The files created can be loaded into the game module and played separately from the game editor. 2) The Player - This module imports games created using the editor. Within workbench, click on the relevent icon. After a brief wait the desired module will be ready for use. If you have installed the Seka data onto Ram or Hard Disk, access will be almost instantaneous when using requesters, etc. However, disk-users will have to put up with pauses in- between actions. At any time, you can quit a module of Seka by pressing Ctrl+C. 2.0 THE EDITOR ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ As Seka32 was designed to be a construction kit, I will start by explaining the Editor module of Seka32. 2.1 THE BASICS OF SEKA ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Seka32 adventure consists of a maximum 9,998 rooms. Each of these rooms can contain a maximum of 10 objects from a total of 500 objects. Objects can be split into two categories: 'dynamic' (the object can be picked up) and 'static' (the object cannot be picked up. ROOMS | OBJECTS / \ DYNAMIC STATIC | | eg FOOD eg PEOPLE 2.2 STARTING A FRESH ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Once the Seka32 contruction module has loaded, you will see the basic icons displayed down the left hand side. More detail will be given later, but for now, here is a brief run-down of what each of them do: EDIT: Switches to edit mode and enables you to define the current room. Note that the maximum length is 600 characters per room. EVENTS: Moves to the events section of Seka32. It is possible to set up every combination of object with a command. ADD: Adds an object which is automatically assigned to the current room. You are also requested to choose between the object being `static` or 'dynamic' ie being able to be picked up during play. DELETE: Deletes an object from the object list. FIND: Enables quick location of any object in the game. OPEN: Loads a Seka32* File SAVE: Saves a Seka32* File NEW: Starts a fresh Seka32 adventure. All previously unsaved work is lost. MAP: This feature enables you to see the overall appearance of your adventure. Note that only edited rooms appear. * The Load/Save features agree to Seka32 Filesystem V2 and so future updates of Seka32Pro may be have to restructure these files automatically. 2.3 CREATING A ROOM ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rooms essentially make up an adventure game. It is possible to use up to 9,998 rooms in a Seka32 game. To make a blank room into a working room (ie make it appear in the game and on the map), you must describe it. To do this follow the steps:- 1. Click on the EDIT icon, or press 'e'. A cursor will blink in the top left hand corner of the Construction Window. 2. Type in a description of your starting room. It may start "You are in a room which a chest infront of you. You can see many things...." 3. When you have completed the description, press Return. 4. A requestor, prompting you to confirm this description will appear. If you are happy with the description, press Return, or click on OK. This can be useful in a instance where you have wrongly edited a room - press Cancel (or 'c') and the description will return to how it was before editing commenced. 5. The room will have gained a description. Of course, you will want to have more than one room in your adventure game. So, with the mouse, click on one of the up/down/left/right arrows and you will find that the edited description of the starting room has disappeared. Type in, using the same method as before, another description. It is also possible to use the arrow keys for room scrolling. If you take the room to the left and right extreams, the room will bounce to the opposite side of the map. You will notice at the top of the page, that a room reference is given. The origin is room 5050 (50 across, 50 down). Your new room maybe something like 4950 or 5051. The maximum width and height is 100, hence the number of rooms is 10,000. Howeverm two rooms are reserved, and you will learn about these later. To review the layout of rooms, consult the next subheading, the map. If you are using floppy disks when playing the game, it will be necessary to insert the SekaData disk during play. However, this will result in speed loss and you may prefer to turn the graphics off, in which case you should consult the Options. Hard Drive users will have little speed loss from encorporating graphics. 2.4 MULTIMEDIA ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ Seka32 V1.3 uses a multimedia system to compliment descriptions of rooms. You have the choice of adding graphics, a sound sample, a noisetracker-compatable music module or any combination of the two. 2.41 ADDING GRAPHICS ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To add an image to a location, click on Load IFF in the Multimedia Window and select a file. However, you must first create a file! If you have a copy of Deluxe Paint or Personal Paint (bundled with all Amigas) you will be able to import graphics. Make sure the resolution is set to 320x256 and you must not use a palette of more than 32 colours. Final images must not be larger than 320 pixels wide by 100 pixels down. SAVED GRAPHICS FOR USE WITH SEKA32 MUST BE: 1) IN LOW RESOLUTION 32 COLOUR MODE 2) PLACED IN THE SekaData:Images/ DRAWER (ASSIGNed if using Hard Drive) You may display the image by clicking on the `Display` icon. 2.42 ADDING SOUND SAMPLES ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Adding samples to rooms is very similar to adding graphics. The use of this function will be dependant on whether you own a sound sampler or have access to a wide variety of sound samples. Samples used on Seka32 should be in RAW format (IFFs can be used but a small crackle is evident at the start of the sample). I cannot use IFF sample import directly due to the limitations of AMOS. Samples are played at 15000Hz as I cannot get AMOS to detect the IFF saved speed. SAMPLES MUST BE PLACED IN THE SekaDisk:Samples/ DRAWER *** The Demo Version of Seka does not support Sampled Sounds 2.43 ADDING MUSIC MODULES ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Seka32 supports the famous, standardised, noisetracker-compable music modules. If you want to include such masterpieces into you adventures, I recommend you look out for ProTracker or OctaMED to produce your music. Just looking in the catalogue of my nearest PD stockest - Choice Software - it is evident that many of you are music enthusiasts! The members of Scissorsoft are also a music group called `That Kid` and we specialise in more subtle dance music (you can keep your techno) written using the Amiga. My hard drive has 25Mb Modules and 25Mb Samples on it! Telephone me for more information. STOP PRESS! - That Kid collapsed on 6th September, 1994! STOP PRESS! - A new band has been formed by the elite members of That Kid: Mark Gilbert and Mark Dennison are now known as DISASSEMBILAGE! However, another limitation of AMOS prevents the modules being played to their full potential (some of the number codes are not implemented). *** The Demo Version of Seka does not support Sampled Sounds 2.5 THE MAPPING DEVICE ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This tool can give you an overview of the current adventure. Click on the MAP icon. You will see a 12x12 grid. The colour scheme is as follows:- SQUARE COLOUR DESCRIPTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ BLUE: An unused room GREY: An edited room (in use by Seka32) WHITE: The room you are currently in If you have created a number of rooms already, you should notice that the created rooms correlate with the pattern in the map window (See 2.1 Creating a Room). As you move the cross-hair around, you will notice that the read-outs show which room your cursor is over. If the left mouse button is pressed, the editor will jumped to the room over which the mouse pointer was. This enables rapid access to any room within an adventure. You can use the arrow keys, or the arrows on the screen (in the bottom-left hand corner) to scroll around. If the arrows are faded out, you can still use them. The fade is to show whether the adjacent rooms to the map pointer are active. It is also possible to centralise the map by pressing the right mouse button on a desired square; the room will become central on the map screen. To exit the mapping device, press the close icon (the small circle) on the MAP WINDOW. You will return to the editor. The icons at the bottom left (Reserved, Inventory and Origin) have been included to make speedy access to key parts of the adventure. Origin will take you to room 5050 instantly. Refer to chapter 2.8 for Inventory and 3.1 for Reserved. In this demo release, you may enter rooms which are outside the 7x7 room boundary which I have imposed by you will not be allowed to EDIT these locations. 2.6 ADDING OBJECTS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To add an object, click on the ADD icon within the main editor. You will be presented with a requester asking you to type in an object name. Once you have done this, press return or click on OK. A second requester asks whether you will allow the new object to be picked up. This is useful because it means people or large bookcases etc cannot be picked up. After pressing 'y' or 'n' or using the mouse to click on the appropriate panel, the new object will be added to the CURRENT ROOM ie the room you are in. 2.7 DELETING OBJECTS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To delete an object, click on DELETE and click on the desired object to delete. Use the UP and DOWN panels to scroll. Alternatively, use the 'u' or UP CURSOR keys to scroll up and the 'd' or DOWN CURSOR to scroll down. You will be asked to confirm your choice. 2.8 FINDING OBJECTS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You may get to the stage where you have completely lost track of all your objects. If you click on FIND, a requester will pop up. Click on the desired object and you will be taken directly to it. 2.9 ADDING OBJECTS TO INVENTORY ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Of course, it will be necessary to begin the adventure with objects already in the adventurer's inventory. I have created this program so that the inventory items are actually stored in room 0000! (This is one of the reasons why there are only 9,998 rooms available!) If you click on MAP, and then on INVENTORY, you will be taken immediately to room 0000 where you can add objects just as you do to a normal room. These will appear at the start of the game as inventory items. 3.0 THE EVENTS EDITOR ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It has been possible to create an events proceedure which runs constantly upon playing the Player module of Seka32. But what is an event exactly? It is hard to define, but it's something that happens during the game, eg:- INPUT: USE SEED WITH GROUND -> OUTPUT: TREE *INPUT: TALK TO MAGICIAN -> OUTPUT: WAND INPUT: GIVE FOOD TO BEGGER -> OUTPUT: MAGIC SPELL ...and so on Events in Seka32 also have text output. So, an example which goes with the asterisked example could be: "Wow! The magician gave me a magic wand!" Seka32 Events require three, four or sometimes five pieces of information:- 1) The first piece of information is a command. Each command requires a number of data sources. The table below shows each of the commands plus the number of data sources they require: COMMAND DATA SOURCES PIECES OF INFORMATION ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ USE (1) 1 4 USE (2) 2 5 LOOK AT 1 4 TALK TO 1 4 GIVE 2 5 EAT 1 4 DRINK 1 4 DEATH ROOM 1 3 VICTORY OBJECT 1 3 DEATH OBJECT 1 3 OPEN 1 4 LINK ASCEND 2 4 LINK DESCEND 2 4 BLOCK ROOM 2 4 You may find it obvious that GIVE requires two data sources because you need the object to give and the person to give it to. USE (1) means one object. USE (2) means two objects are needed. 2) The first object (or only object). 3) A second object (if required). 4) A object to come in to play when the criteria is met. 5) Some text to output on the screen. Note that some commands work entirely different. Refer to the detail command input in chapters 3.2 to 3.34 3.1 NEW OBJECTS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ Any new object brought into play must already exist in Room 0001. Use the MAP and click on RESERVED. This will take you into a spare room in which all preliminary objects which do not appear at the start of the game must be placed. Select ADD and place all objects which you want to appear due to the occurance of an EVENT. When you use the EVENTS editor, only objects placed in this room will be allowed to come into play once the entered criteria is met. 3.2 COMMANDS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~ Some description is needed of each of the commands before their use. Follow each of the descriptions in co-ordination with your objects: 3.21 USE (1) ~~~~ ~~~~~~~ This command supports just the primary source object. eg: INPUT: USE TOILET -> OUTPUT: URINE 3.22 USE (2) ~~~~ ~~~~~~~ The command requires two pieces of data. They do not have to entered in any particular order and so in the game can be selected either way. eg: INPUT: USE COIN WITH MACHINE -> OUTPUT: CAN OF COKE \_These are INPUT: USE MACHINE WITH COIN -> OUTPUT: CAN OF COKE / the same 3.23 LOOK AT ~~~~ ~~~~~~~ Requires just one piece of data. eg: INPUT: LOOK AT CHOCOLATE -> OUTPUT: IT LOOKS CHOCOLATEY 3.24 TALK TO ~~~~ ~~~~~~~ Talk to requires one piece of input. eg: TALK TO PARROT -> OUTPUT: WHOSE A PRETTY BOY THEN? 3.25 GIVE ~~~~ ~~~~ Give requires two pieces of information: First, enter the object which you want to be given. Second, enter the person (or thing) you want to give the object to. eg: INPUT: GIVE GOLD TO PIRATE -> OUTPUT: OHOY! *INPUT: GIVE PIRATE TO GOLD -> OUTPUT: * - INCORRECT 3.26 EAT & DRINK ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ This requires one piece of information: the consumable eg: INPUT: EAT CADBURY'S CARAMEL -> OUTPUT: YUM-MUNGUS INPUT: DRINK POTION -> OUTPUT: YOU HAVE BECOME A FROG! 3.27 DEATH ROOM ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ This is slightly different to the other commands in that it looks at the adventurer's location (room number). When you chose this command, you will be prompted to enter a room value. Upon playing the game, any movement into the chosen room will cause immediate termination. This could come in useful when the adventurer requires directions through a maze; a wrong direction could be programmed to cause abrupt death. 3.28 VICTORY OBJECT ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This allows an object from the list to be designated as the winning object. Once the object is collected when playing the game, a requester will display the TEXT OUTPUT message, also stating that victory has occured. 3.29 DEATH OBJECT ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the exact opposite to VICTORY OBJECT in that the object causes death when picked up rather than victory. 3.30 OPEN ~~~~ ~~~~ This command is for placing objects within other objects, such as a bottle of milk in a fridge. The inside object must be placed in the reserved area. Upon using the Player module, you can click on OPEN to open the object and CLOSE to close it. When open, the object inside will be available for collection. 3.31 LINK ASCEND ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ This command gives the user the feature of going up rather than the compass directions. Instead of actually moving up a floor, the adventurer is transported to another room within the play area, thus giving the illusion of vertical movement. You must specify the source room and the destination room. A comment may be added eg "You have climbed the ladder". 3.32 LINK DESCEND ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ As with the LINK ASCEND command, this enables the user moving vertically. This feature operates the same way but permits downward movement. NOTE: The commands LINK ASCEND and LINK DESCEND can actually perform the same tasks... A link ascend from room 5050 to room 4040 is the same as a link descend room 4040 to 5050. I included both commands to make creation easier. 3.33 BLOCK ROOM ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ This is an essential command for an adventure game. It restricts the play area until a certain object is found. It works on the basis of an object being present in the inventory in a defined room. This could mean a key is required to move through a door or a map at the start of a dark forest... When using this command, note that the TEXT OUTPUT occurs when you are NOT in possession of the object eg If you do not have a key, the text output could] be "The door is tightly closed..." 3.4 INPUTTING EVENTS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To input an event into Seka32, follow these steps. 1. Make sure the object you want to appear after the criteria has been met is in the RESERVED area (Room 0001). (Refer to 3.1) 2. On the events screen, select ADD. 3. Click on the chosen command (See chapers 3.2 through to 3.26) 4. Enter the primary object (or only object) by clicking in the requester (If the command is special, then an alternative requestor will appear - follow on-screen instructions) 5. Enter the secondary object (if required) in the same way. 6. Click on the output object (Problems? Refer to chapter 3.1) If you do not want a new object to be brought into play, select [NO OBJECT]. 7. Enter a string of text given a description of the outcome of the criteria eg "You have combined the bangers and mash to create bangers and mash...". This has a maximum length of 80 characters. 3.5 DELETING EVENTS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click on DELETE (from the main Event Window) and select the event you wish to delete. If you change your mind, and don't want to delete an event, press the right mouse button. 3.6 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To scroll up and down through the events, use the arrow keys or the graphical arrows towards the bottom-left of the screen. 3.7 OBJECT GRAPHICS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Object Graphics are small graphics which are directly linked to the objects in an adventure game. If you have a paint package, such as DPaint, you can create such graphics. 1) Load the Paint Package 2) Open the picture called "Grid" - it is on the "SekaGFX" disk of the disk, or, if you have a hard drive, it will be in the assign "Seka:SekaGFX/" 3) You will see a grid of squares. Each on represented the maximum size and object can be. 4) Draw an object in one of the squares which corresponds to an object in an adventure game. Do not change the palette and only use the 16 colours provided. 5) Copy the object (DPaint: press 'b' and drag a square around the object). 6) Clear the screen. Your object should be the current brush. 7) Paste the object in the top left-hand corner as near to the edges of the screen. 8) Save the object in the same drawer as the name of the object in the adventure game itself with the extension ".OBJ" eg: if the adventure game object is "Money" then the file is "Money.OBJ" eg: the adventure game object is "Peas" then the file is "Peas.OBJ" If your adventure game object is more than one word, save the file as the first word plus ".OBJ": eg: the adventure game object is "Air Freshener" then the file is "Air.OBJ" eg: the object is "Swamp monster from Planet X" then the file is "Swamp.OBJ" 9) When playing the adventure, the object will automatically have an image to accompany it - simply click on the object text! 4.0 DISK FEATURES ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is possible to load and save your Seka32 adventures. These rules are applicable for the Player Module, too. For those of you who are familiar with AmigaDOS files, here's how it works:- The actual Seka32 FileSystem V1.00 uses a three file system per game (eg game called CastleCats):- 1) CastleCats.SEK - this is the largest file of the three and contains the room data. 2) CastleCats.SEO - this conatins the object data 3) CastleCats.SEV - this contains the events data If you are transfering files from disk to disk, be sure to copy *.SEK, *.SEO, and *.SEV files as ALL ARE NEEDED. 4.1 SAVING ~~~ ~~~~~~ Naturally, you will want to save your adventure at some stage. Click on SAVE from the main menu, and you will be confronted with the save requester. If you are a competent disk handler, save your games on another disk. Beginners should stay with the default directory (if the default directory is RAM, you should press the right mouse button and click on DF0:). Type in your save game name followed by '.sek' and press Return. It may take several seconds to save a game - progress is monitored along the bar at the bottom of the screen. *** YOU MUST END YOUR FILES IN '.SEK' OTHERWISE THEY WILL FAIL TO LOAD *** eg: Teeth.SEK Pans.SEK Ghost.SEK MagicCastle.SEK 4.2 LOADING ~~~ ~~~~~~~ Click on LOAD from the main icons and double click on the file you want to load. Wait, and edit the adventure. 4.3 NEW ADVENTURE ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you click on NEW and accept YES from the confirmation requester, all unsaved work will be lost and you will start a fresh Seka32 construction. 4.4 PASSWORD ~~~ ~~~~~~~~ The password feature was a late addition to Seka32. Obviously, because the Editor and Player are together, any adventure game could be easily loaded into the Editor and hints could be found as to progressing in the game. This feature enables ONLY THE AUTHOR of the adventure access to the data. When saving, you will be prompted to type in a five letter password. I restricted the length to five characters to minimise the chance of forgetting it. Examples: If your name is Phil Fish, you may choose to enter the `PHILF` as the password. I may choose `M-A-D` as the password as my initials are MAD. Note that a Password is not requested when saving from the Player - the original password is encoded so it cannot be reloaded into the Editor! ** Password Encryption not available on PD demo! 5.0 PLAYING ADVENTURES ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After constructing a Seka32 adventure, you will need to play it in order to test it. If you are still in the Editor Module, save your adventure (Chapter 4.1) and exit the program by pressing Ctrl+C or pressing the close icon. Upon loading the Player Module of the Seka32 system, a series of options are available down the left hand side of the screen. Here is a brief description of each:- OPEN: Loads a Seka32 game (See chapter 4.2) SAVE: Saves a Seka32 game in Seka32 FileSystem V1.04 Format (See chapter 4.1) *** SAVE IS NOT SUPPORTED FROM THE PLAYER IN THIS DEMO *** OPTIONS: These two options are self explanetary. COMMANDS: The various command icons are self explanatory and display the action of the command. If you are unsure of them, refer to this table: |---------|---------| | USE | TALK TO | | EAT | DRINK | | LOOK AT | GIVE | | OPEN | CLOSE | | ASCEND | DESCEND | |---------|---------| 5.1 USING COMMANDS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Commands are very easy to use. Click on a command icon on the left hand side and then on the object(s) in the room or in your inventory which you want to use. If more than one object is required, you will receive a message like "Give Cheese to ?" and you should select another object. If any output occurs, then you have used a process of the events editor. You may proceed to click on another object without clicking on the same command panel, making things even faster. Note that the drop and pick-up commands are automatic and cannot be controlled by the events editor within the Editing Module. 5.2 DUAL-INPUT COMMANDS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The normal commands require a left click of the command and object. However, dual input commands (such as GIVE and on some occasions USE) require: 1) A left click on the command 2) A left click on the first object 3) A left click on the second object This system enables one object to be tested using the command USE with every object in the inventory by:- 1) Clicking on the command USE or GIVE 2) Left click on the object to be tried several times 3) A left click on each of the tested objects in turn 5.3 MOVING ROOM ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ Use the arrow keys, or the arrow panels on the Seka32 Player screen to move around and change room. You will not be able to enter a room if it does not have a description. 5.4 USING GRAPHICS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If a graphical image is available in the current room, the graphics icon (top right-hand corner) can be pressed and graphics will be show. A further click will remove the image from the screen. 5.5 USING MUSIC ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ If a music module is available in the current room, it will be played automatically. If you are using floppy disks, you may prefer to turn this feature off by using the options screen and turning the modules setting to OFF. When constructing games, if the same music module is used in ajoining rooms, the music will not be reloaded but continued to be played. Rooms with no music setting will be silent. 5.6 USING SAMPLED SOUNDS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sampled sounds add to the atmosphere of a room. If you have a sound sampler and a hard drive, sampled speech could be added to every room - I use MegaLoSound which has sound excellent sound processing tools. To use the sample, click on the small waveform icon in the top right-hand corner of the Player Screen. The music is stopped to play the sample and can only be reheared by re-entering the room. 6.0 QUICK START TUTORIAL ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So, you want to jump straight into Seka32? If you have read the manual in detail, you may find this boring. This chapter shows how to create a simple adventure game, where the goal is to find the Magic Tonsils. 1. Load in the editor (See Chapter 1.2 if unsure). 2. Click on Edit (or press 'e'), and type in: "You are in a room which contains many lavish decorations and is the centre of the castle you are in." [Press Return after description] By clicking on OK, you will have created the first room description. Select NO to the next requester. 3. Click on ADD, and then in the requester, type in "Beads". Select YES to the second requester as you want the object to be picked up. 4. Click on the north button, and in room 4950 edit the room description to read: "This is the store room. Aunty Barbs always has something to talk about." Confirm the room by selecting OK. To add a picture to the room, click on `Load IFF` from the multimedia window and select "StoreRoom.GFX". 5. Add the object of Aunty Barbs by clicking ADD and entering "Aunty Barbs" and selecting NO to the second requester as you do not want the object to be picked up. 6. Now, click on MAP. You will see a strip of two squares. These represent active rooms - the bright white one shows the current room. Left-click on room 5150. Edit the room to read: "This is the Princess's bedroom." 7. Add the Princess object and make her immobile by selecting NO on the second requester (so we can't pick her up(!)). 8. Now, all the objects are in place in the actual play area. We need to ADD appearing objects (see chapter 3.1). Click on MAP and then on RESERVED. Add these objects: "String", "Magic Tonsils" and "Necklace". 9. Click on EVENTS and select ADD (this adds events rather than objects). In the first requestor, select "Talk to" (the command), in the second select "Aunty Barbs" (this is the source object), in the third, click on "String". You will have to enter some output text also. Type in: "I don't want to speak to you today. Have some string instead." This will set up the first event so that when you try to talk to Aunty Barbs, she will give you some string. 10. The next event will allow you to combine the string and the beads to make a necklace. Select ADD in the events window and select "Use (2)". This allows two objects to be selected. Click on the string and the beads in the proceeding two requesters. Next, click on the necklace as this is the output of the combination and for the text output type "Maybe I can give this necklace to the Princess". 11. The third event is where the princess receives the necklace. Select Give as the command after selecting ADD event. Click on necklace (you will need to scroll down) and then in the next requester, on princess. For the text output, type in "The princess says she loves you!" 12. Finally, you will need to tell the program to finish the game when you have attained the Magic Tonsils. ADD an event, and select the command Victory Object. Select the Magic Tonsils and input for the text output: "You have found the Magic Tonsils!" 13. That's it! A quick adventure constructed in minutes. Yes, the storyline is a little thin, but it still can be played. Exit the events editor by clicking on EDITOR. Select SAVE and in the disk requester, type in "MagicTons.SEK" and press return. The password feature is not necessary here, so press [Return] in the requester. 14. You are ready to play this adventure! Press Ctrl+C to quit the Editor and load the Player module. 15. Select OPEN and double-click on "MagicTons.SEK". You will find yourself in room 5050 with the beads on the floor. 16. Pick up the beads by pressing the clicking the left mouse over "Pick up" and then then left mouse key over "Beads" in the objects area. 17. Go north by clicking on the North Arrow. 18. Talk to Aunty Barbs by left-clicking on Talk to and then left-clicking on Aunty Barbs in the object area. Click on Image to see the room. 19. Pick up the string. 20. Go south twice. 21. Use the beads with the string. To do this left-click on USE, right-click on BEADS and left-click again on STRING. You have made a necklace! 22. Give the necklace to the princess by left-clicking on GIVE, left-clicking on the necklace, and then left-clicking again on the princess. 23. You have finished your game! 7.0 AUTHOR'S COMMENT ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Seka 32 Professional is quite an acheivement considering the intuition limitations of AMOS! I never though Europress's master of creation could ever deliver a smooth, Workbench-like environment - but I made Seka32Pro and this shows what can be done with a bit (let's be honest, quite a lot) of effort! My Amiga set-up has made it much easier, though. I am using a 6Mb A1200 with Hard Disk of sizemic proportions. This may result in a slow operating performance on 'lower' Amigas, but I am unable to test this. This is actually the first major program I have completed. I am also working on a graphic adventure using AMOS. So far, I have developed the engine but really need some decent artists at Scissorsoft. 7.1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MARK GILBERT - Scissorsoft co-programmer play tested all versions and wrote the example adventure for version 1b - Rat Invasion on his 2Mb Amiga 1200. Fellow founder of the band - Disassembilage. STEVE WHITE - Provided many suggestions to Seka32 over the telephone and it would not have been half as good without him! Suggestions include: Graphics, Room Link Commands, Drink Command, and Input Reorganisation. He works at Amiga Computing Magazine. CHRIS GILBERT - Ex-Member of That Kid and Gemsoft`s Number One Customer. NICK COLLINS - Chief Head Nodder Please report any bugs you find in the product to me at the address at the top of the document or phone me on (0742) 584619. Mark Dennison Aged 15 Years August 1994 8.0 HISTORY ~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1a - 01.08.94 Major bugs fixed in both programs. The event number followed by 'Lips' appeared down left-hand side of screen (forgot to remove). Fixed requesters moving to back of screens. Corrected some command bugs. Map enhanced - centres on current room. Allows editing to commence by clicking on Construction Window. Stops cursor taking current room out of boundary. Installers repaired. 1b - 03.08.94 Minor cosmetic changes made such as addition of shaded 'arrow head' graphics. Delete enhanced - before if you deleted an object, all the events randomised! Increased save/load speed by maximising the rooms to 200 characters. Added Room Graphics and Object Image routines. 1c - 12.08.94 Improved throughout: bugs removed, command icons added, password feature added. Many changes with code. 2 - 01.09.94 Regeneration of screen. Multimedia Added. Many Bugs fixed; many still remain. Gained 100Kb by closing workbench and so 1Mb compatability remains. New version of SekaFilesystem. Demonstration Disk 8.1 FUTURE PROSPECTS ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Change File System again so only 1 file is saved rather than three. 2. Adding Motion Video Capabilities to multimedia (!) 3. No bugs (!) 4. Seka32 Continental Edition - exotic environment (!)