THE SYNDICATE presents... An Amiga-Only game by Josh Farley... ---OOZE--- Version 1.0 ECS Unregistered ©1994 Ooze is a SHAREWARE product. This unregistered version is missing many features that the full, registered version contains. For information on buying the full game, and the additional features it contains, see the -Registering- portion of this document. Table of Contents BEFORE PLAYING THE GAME: "Introduction" StarDates: 2561-2642 The galaxy has opened up for those species that have mastered methods of interstellar travel. As systems far outside the previous limit of travel became accessible, species discovered new wonders, and each other. By far the greatest wonder of them all is the Ooze. It is a priceless wonder; an exceptionally powerful fuel, an incredibly long-lasting energy source, and an edible, healthy food source that could sustain entire colonies for weeks with a single teaspoonful. It makes a lovely pet, is completely flame-retardant, and gives a perfect haircut every time. It quickly became the most important substance in the galaxy, used in everything from light industry to interstellar engines to fast-food "near-beef". Those who control the Ooze, control the galaxy. The Ooze was discovered on a small moon very near to the center of the galaxy. In a move of brilliant diplomacy, the leaders of the starfaring species agreed to make access to the Ooze free to all, with amounts given to each species, distributed according to height. Business found a loophole, however. Multi-species conglomerates found that they could acquire amounts of Ooze from each species' quota, and in so doing, corner the market and control the value of the Ooze. Instead of the Ooze being available to all, it became a commodity worth more than the lives of those who used it, far surpassing the previous top product: cow-pies, which were in a tragic confusion of translation confused by most non-humans to be an extraordinarily abundant and cheap food source. Three things prevent the Ooze from being mined in amounts that would make it plentiful, and valueless. The first is an ecological treaty, preventing Ooze from being harvested in amounts greater than its ability to replenish itself. The second reason has more teeth: the moon of Ooze sits in the middle of an impossibly dense nebula. The nebula has only one clear, safe path from the moon to the rest of the galaxy, and thus a great bottleneck of starships entering and exiting the "Golden Road" has become a limiting factor on the exploitation of the Ooze. The third reason has confounded all: the Ooze tends to seep through the hands of those harvesting it. Despite numerous attempts by explorers to navigate an alternate pathway to and from the Ooze, and innumerable tries by scientists to encourage the Ooze to grow elsewhere, the moon of Ooze within the Golden Nebula, dangerously close to the galactic core, with its single entry and exit, remains the only spot in the galaxy to acquire the greatest treasure of all time. StarDate: 2642-Present As will eventually happen wherever traffic is great, unnecessarry roadwork is called for frequently, and a pit stop developed at the entry to the Golden Road. The Oozeway, as the station quickly became known, has become a great meeting place and cultural exchange for all species who need the Ooze. It is a perfect place to perform spot inspections, and the United Planets have taken advantage of the opportunity to properly police the harvesting of the Ooze; at least with those carriers that have not contributed directly to the policeman's ball. But all at the Oozeway is not peace and love, or even order and justice. Many of the harvesters of the Ooze are little more than mercenaries and pirates, who found the Ooze to be a more profitable and less dangerous living than their previous careers. These people created a market for the less honorable practices aboard the Oozeway, the most popular of these is gambling... Make that the second most popular activity... These mercenaries, especially those leaving the nebula, have very little of value to gamble with, and monetary exchange rates between many species have yet to be established. Body parts were used in trade for a short time, but only the very best gamblers could afford to play for longer than a few hours. But there is one commodity that all species at the station have in common; one thing that they all have, and that they all want more of: the Ooze. One game emerged as the platform of choice for wagering insane amounts of this very precious substance. This game rewards thought, encourages foresight, and best of all, concludes rapidly; allowing much more Ooze to be wagered than a slower game of skill. Another advantage is that the game uses the Ooze itself as playing pieces, requiring that each player have the goods he wishes to wager in hand at the commencement of the game. By prodding the Ooze with small electrodes, players encourage it to ooze, leap, and influence color changes in the opponent's Ooze. As millions look on, the ultimate in high-stakes gambling takes place, with the winnings of a single match representing months of hard work, unknown numbers of lives lost, and the well-being of entire species; much like politics. And thousands of matches take place aboard the Oozeway in each Earth day. This game of skill once had a different name, but now it is known simply as... OOZE. "System Requirements" REQUIRED: 1,500k free Chip Ram 250k free Fast or Chip Ram Hard drive installation, multi-tasking, and file compression are all available to those users with enough memory to take advantage of them... "Controls" Nearly all functions in Ooze are controlled with the mouse. OPTIONS: The -QUIT- button will exit Ooze, and save the players' scores. Shareware Note---> Player's scores not saved in this version. The -PLAY- button will enter the game. To push the Ooze screen to the back (multi-task), click in the extreme upper-right hand corner of the screen, in either the Options screen, or in the game itself. GAME: To select one of your pieces to move, click upon it, and it should turn silver. To move, just click where you want the piece to move. If the move was legal, the piece will move appropriately, and it will become the other player's turn. The color of the mouse indicates whose turn it is. "Rules" The rules of Ooze are fairly simple. When it is your turn, you select a piece to move, and move it either one or two squares away. If you move one square, then the original piece can ooze, and stays where it is. If you move two squares away, then the original piece must leap, and moves from its original location to the square you selected. At that point, any surrounding pieces belonging to the opponent are turned into your pieces, and it becomes the other player's turn. Turns go on until all squares are full, and the player with the greatest number of pieces is the winner. If these instructions are in any way unclear, give the game a play or two, and the rules should be easily picked up as you go. "Ratings" The ratings system implemented within Ooze is a fairly complex one, underneath its' transparent surface. The player's wins and losses ratio is taken into account, as well as the quality of his opponent, and the quantity by which he won. What it amounts to is this: to gain a higher rating, a player must play other players with high ratings, defeat them, and win by a large number of pieces. Any of the three above requirements will raise your rating. Losing to a high-quality opponent will often raise your rating by more points than defeating a low-quality foe. The Hi-Scores board, displayed if no clicks of the mouse are made for a set amount of time, will display the top ratings of all human players recorded in Ooze. These ratings, along with all statistics of human and computer players, are saved automatically when the game is exited. Shareware Note---> Statistics not saved in this version. "Human - Computer" This button sets whether the player will be controlled by a person or by the computer, allowing you to select 1-player vs the computer, 2-player, or computer vs computer games. Shareware Note---> This button has no function in this version. "Name" If the player is controlled by a person, then this button will bring up a requester, asking you to enter a new name for the player. Type in text only, and press -Return- to accept the name. If the name has been used before, the player's statistics will be shown as well. If the name is new, a new player will be initiated. If the player is controlled by the computer, then this button cycles through the available computer players, and causes their statistics to be displayed. "Registering" ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Many more computer players... Many additional boards for increased enjoyment... A board editor to allow creation of custom boards... Ability to save player ratings... 2-player game... TO REGISTER: US orders cost $10, and are payable through money order or check. International orders cost the equivalent of $12 US, and are payable by International money order. To promptly recieve a registered version of Ooze, simply send the appropriate amount, with your address, to: Josh Farley 43 La Placita Way Chico, CA 95928 "The Future" All future additions to Ooze will be made to the registered version only. Those who register will recieve the latest version of Ooze, complete with all the additions mentioned in the "Registering" section of this document, as well as a keyfile that will allow them to use the latest versions of Ooze, when they are released publicly via the Internet, Fidonet, and BBSes. These versions will not have shareware access, and will only work for those people that have registered. Upgrades to Ooze will only be made if a sufficient number of people register the game. Possible enhancements include: Character images and animations for computer players Password protection for players In-game music A low-memory workbench version More computer players Graphical enhancements Modem play Any feasible user-suggested improvements If any bugs are found in Ooze, please report them. Bugfixes, if needed, will definitely be performed. "Credits" All code, graphics, sound, and music are the product of Josh Farley and are copyrighted ©1994. This unregistered version is freely distributable, and further spreading of the OozeECS archive is encouraged. Development Tools: Amiga 1200 by Commodore Business Machines DSS8+ by Great Valley Products Blitz Basic 2 by Acid Software Brilliance by Digital Creations Deluxe Paint 4 by Electronic Arts Octamed Professional 4 by Teijo Kinnunen