THUNDERDAWN - a 5th Dimension Licenceware release ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ © 1996 by Andrew Campbell ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To scroll this text simply move the mouse into the top/bottom areas of the screen. Or, you can use the up/down arrow keys. The right mouse button (or Return or Escape on the keyboard) will take you back to the ThunderDawn main menu. Please read these instructions carefully. Introduction ~~~~~~~~~~~~ I really hate it when games like this are compared to texture mapped creations on the market. So please, don't do it, alright? And don't compare it to Dungeon Master II, either (which I never ever laid eyes on). I'm just a back bedroom coder with a lot of enthusiasm for RPGs and big monsters with big teeth. OK?! ThunderDawn takes the usual elements from RPG games and piles on the dark fantasy atmospherics. The result is a rather tasty full-screen experience. I really hope you enjoy it, it's taken quite some months to make. The background story? Yeah right. You're some kind of brave hero- archer type bloke who's been imprisoned in a sort of monster-infested maze by a rather unpleasant force of somekind. Ahem. Yeah, and your task is to escape by collecting a suffient amount of Blood Crystals from the nests of a whole array of bone-rattling creatures - hydras, phantoms, zombies, genies - you name it, ThunderDawn's got it. How's that? A Note About ThunderDawn's AMOS Origins ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Right. I'm aware of AMOS's limitations, especially in terms of speed, but I can't deny the fact that I really like the language and believe many people seriously underestimate its capabilities. I'm not a very clever programmer, nor do I intend to move onto Blitz b*st*rding Basic to "improve my career prospects" - I'm in this low-cost, little profit -making, tiny-speckles-of-fame business for the raw creativeness of it. So no pointless slagging sessions. OK? ThunderDawn is a messy, 130k AMOS listing. Don't knock it. :) How To Play ThunderDawn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) turn off the lights. (2) kick everybody out of the house. (3) read this: You can move around the world of ThunderDawn by using either the mouse, the keyboard or a combination of both (actually, you'll need to press the function keys from time to time so have that keyboard handy, alright?). Gone are the standard `RPG arrows' - nah, mate, non of that around here - just move your mouse pointer around the edges of the screen and watch it change. See? Right, now click the LEFT button - you can turn 90° or move forwards, backwards, step left or step right. Maybe it's called freedom of movement, I dunno. You'll notice - upon bootup - that there's this guy with a hood on lingering about in front of the screen. That's your character. Your hero. Mr Big Man. Arnie. Old Iron Balls. Put the mouse in the middle of the screen somewhere and press the LEFT button to see him strut his stuff. Yep, that's how you attack your foes. Shoot em with arrows. So, You Can Move About And Shoot Arrows. What Else Can You Do? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pick things up for a start. You'll find all sorts of bits n bats lingering around the game - arrows, energy boosts, magic arrows (which do such things as explode, freeze monsters, banish monsters, etc) and of course keys and much-needed blood crystals. All these items are stored in your "backpack" which is capable of holding nine objects at any one time. These objects will appear superimposed down the right hand side of the screen - and will disappear once used. You can open doors, press on things and generally be all interactive by clicking on the middle of the screen whilst exactly opposite the thing you wish to interact with. Eg. stand right upto a door and click on it - if you have the required key (or it's unlocked) it'll open right in front of your eyes. Clever huh? So What Do I Do First Then? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When ThunderDawn first boots up, get rid of the main menu by hitting F1 or ESCape. Right. Now walk forward until you pick up the object that's floating around near some kind of skully-crossy-type thing. OK. You've got a portal key - this'll give you access to any of the black doorways in the walls that're hiding behind strange green barriers - what do you mean "where"? Have a wander round! See for yourself! What you're looking at are the doorways to "challenges" - portals that'll skip you off to various different dimensions, all of which, sadly, are very, very hostile indeed. :) Every "level" as it were contains a blood crystal and another portal key. You'll need both - one to gain access to another level, one to get rid of those crossy-skully-type things I mentioned earlier - there's loads of em. Once they've all been destroyed, you're on to the final confrontation. And boy are you gonna have a fit when/if you get to this stage (still, if you do crack it - you're in for a really nice musical/animated outro sequence :). There's not much else to say, really. Play play play, you'll get the hang of it eventually. :) The On-Screen Stats ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the RIGHT corner we have, weighing in at 100%, your current energy level, and right below that, your stock of `normal' arrows. And in the LEFT corner - boasting a wonderful 0/9 - we have your inventory stats. The more objects you pick up, the more pockets you fill. And that's about it. The rest is just the game window. :) Those Controls In Full ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please note many of the keyboard commands here are not essential when playing the game: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mouse | Reaction ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Left Button | (around edges of screen) move around the gameworld Left Button | (middle of screen) fire an arrow at current pointer pos Right Button | fire a magic arrow (if you have one in your possession) | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keyboard | Reaction ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ESCape | toggle menu on/off F1-F10 | (when in menu ONLY) select options/toggle prefs Arrow Keys | move forward/backward & turn left/right Return | shoot an arrow (pointer must be in middle of screen) ? or / | shoot a magic arrow (if you have one) Z and X | alter screen scan line update C | compass: tells you which direction you're facing V | detail level: if you've a slow processor, try this B | free memory: how much memory is left in your machine | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Main Menu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ESCape will toggle the menu on/off. When the menu is on, the game freezes: you're safe from attack. From this menu you can do all kinds of sexy stuff - here's what's on offer: * RESUME GAMEPLAY = no explanation needed. Same as pressing the ESCape key. * PREFERENCES = loads of options in here, two pages of them to be honest. See below for more details. * SAVE PREFERENCES = quite obvious. Configured every time you boot the game up. So make sure they're comfortable. Also, you can change the system font to one of your own choice by (1) making a FONTS dir on the disk, (2) editing the prefs.asc file in the PREFS dir from (3) "no font" to something like "garnet.font" or whatever. * ALTER SCREEN MODE = you can play ThunderDawn in 4 different modes: lowres (big screen), hires (thin screen) lowres laced (widescreen) or hires laced) (Black Dawn sized window - lovely detail :) * LOAD/SAVE GAME = you can save your game ANYTIME, ANYWHERE and whatsmore it saves onto the gamedisk. No disk swapping required. Just make a backup of your original disk, OK? * QUIT TO WORKBENCH = or to a black screen if you're playing from floppy disk. NEVER use this option. :) Those Preferences In Full ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Page #1 ~~~~~~~ Show Player Sprite = pretty obvious. Increases speed a little. Show Inventory = and again. Tiny speed increase, but not much. Text Font Size = see * SAVE PREFERENCES (above). Default is N/A. Sound Effects = ditto. NO speed increase. Page #2 ~~~~~~~ Show Animated Sky = turns the scrolling clouds on/off Show Weather FX = toggles special effects like rain, snow, etc. Show All Stats = toggles the on-screen stats - energy, etc. Scroll Messages = toggles whether messages appear or scroll Notes About Frame Rate/Speed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you experience a slow screen update whilst playing ThunderDawn because, for example, you're still back in the days of steam and are toying around with an A500 with expanded memory :) you might want to try cutting down the on-screen details and special effects. For instance, setting the player sprite preference to NO will give you more speed, because the computer doesn't have to constantly redraw our hooded hero several times a second. Similarly, knocking out the rain, or the clouds, or even the roof/floor (press V to do this) may have some good results. Experiment. Relax. Enjoy yourself. You're on holiday. :) Hard Disk Installation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To run ThunderDawn from your hard disk, simply copy everything on this floppy across to any chosen directory - then make sure you put the CrM.library in your hard disk's LIBS directory, and the rtdd command in your C directory. Before running ThunderDawn from hard disk, open a CLI screen from workbench and type C:rtdd <--- this will launch the game's runtime decruncher - the amazing CrunchMania - and you can run the program as normal. Please note you'll have to turn off rtdd by issuing the same CLI command again if you wish to do other things after playing ThunderDawn. Credits ~~~~~~~ Code, Design, Graphics and Sound FX.....................Andy Campbell Wonderful In-game Main Menu Music Mod...................Andy Cashmore Game Complete End Sequence Music........................Mike Richmond Game Complete End Sequence Background GFX............Tristan Campbell Playtested By...............................................Jen Allen Neale Grant Shaun Watters Phil Wilkinson Richard Martin Paul Gumsley Andy Smith & apologies to anybody I forgot. FAQs About ThunderDawn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Is there any way I can get hold of the AMOS source code? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A very large bribe may get you somewhere. Otherwise, no. :) What else has the bloke who made this created? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Alsorts: Black Dawn, Black Dawn II, Legions of Dawn, The Funhouse series of PD disks, Artistix - major Shareware success, Illusions, Magnetic Fiction, Dark Fiction, EdgeWorld, Paradox - cool puzzler and much more besides, a lot of which I have had little credit for. Black Dawn II and Paradox are available from the same place you got this game from - ask Phil, he'll fill you in on the details. If you want a full list of my stuff, write to this address: 4 Alloe Field Place, Illingworth, Halifax, HX2 9ES, ENGLAND (or you can email me at ajc@ajco.demon.co.uk if you want). Ah but in Legions of Dawn, Andy Campbell said it was his LAST game ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yeah well, he lied, alright? :)