Main SPACE JEST IV½ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This doc last updated 18 Nov 1994. Contents ~~~~~~~~ Copyright Notice About the game Distribution Shareware About Me How to play Technical stuff Credits, Thanks and Hellos CRight Copyright Notice & Version Number ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Space Jest IV½ Copyright (©) by Simon Champion, Pegasus Software, October 1994. This version 1.32; Development Version number 941001. Written using Amos Pro 2.00 & Compiler. Back to begining... Shareware Info About About the game ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Space Jest is an adventure game of the old type. No graphics here, this is a text adventure. I know that about half the prospective players have just stopped reading and turned to something more interesting like Monkey Island 6, or something like that. To those of you who are still reading, thanks. I have tried to make the game as appealing as possible, but there are those who think that to be called a game it needs graphics. Ah well, we can't all be perfect! I have been meaning to write a decent adventure game for some time, but all of the projects I started have ended up mutating into something else. One of the things I have mastered as a result is being able to write a decent input routine, and most of the programs I have written of late (from databases to all manner of other things) have used the same input routine which I hijacked from one or other of my attempts at an adventure game. The idea for the game came after playing Space Quest IV on a friend's PC (yuk). That game is a graphic adventure, although not what I call state- of-the-art, but it has a fair helping of humour to make up for the graphics problems. I decided to write my own adventure game with some humour in it, based in space. Or rather based on dry land, but with a spacey-type background. Unfortunately, I have about as much graphic ability as a road accident, so I have been forced to make it a text adventure. *Note to any graphic artists out there trying to get noticed: I have plot lines coming out of my ears, but unless someone offers their graphics talents «free», I will just have to make them text adventures, too. For «free», read «cheap» - you should take it with a pinch of salt. There's always the shareware fees if nothing else...... Other inspiration came from Jim MacBrayn, who wrote the rather good `Golden Fleece', proving that the text adventure still has some life. Well done Jim, the shareware cheque's in the post! Playing the game is fairly easy if you can type, but if you're new to these things, try reading how to play before starting - it also contains loads of tips and the occasional hint. I won't tell you the plot here: You'll have to play the game to find out that. The game starts with a page of opening info, and the plot develops from there as you explore. The game is not extremely big, containing a little short of one hundred locations, but the puzzles are much more closely packed than in some other games I have played. I sometimes find it fustrating in other games to be able to move all over the place but not actually do anything. How was it written? Technical Info Back to begining... Written The game was programmed using Amos Professional Version 2.00 and the Amos Professional Compiler. Most of the work was done on an A500 with kickstart version 1.2, but later changes were made using an A4000/030. The game has been tested under Kickstart 1.2, 1.3 and 3.0, and works with them all. The icons were originally drawn for the old Workbench colour scheme, but have been changed to look better under 3.0. The main program icon is an eight-colour icon. If you don't like the icons (why not????), feel free to change or replace them with something better. Better still, send your replacements to me if you think they're good enough! Icons were drawn using IconMaster with WB 1.3, and changed using WB's IconEdit when I upgraded to WB 3.0. I'm sure there's plenty of scope for some really good Icon editors for WB 3.0, because IconEdit crashed three times while I was trying to create the main program icon! This AmigaGuide® file was written using ED 2.00 (from Workbench), and tested using MultiView. Back to begining... Technical Info Distribution ***NOTE: There are two versions of this program, only one of which is to be distributed as shareware. The following section applies only to the shareware version. For licence agreements and copyrights on the registered version, please read Licence.Doc, which accompanies every registered copy of the program. Distribution ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This game is SHAREWARE. It may not be sold as, or as part of a commercial product without the prior consent of the Programmer. If a price is charged for the program, it must be purely to cover media costs and other sundries, and may not be above £2 sterling (and hopefully a good deal lower!). However it is distributed, the following files MUST be included: SpaceJestUNREG The (unregistered version) executable program file. Adventext.dat The location description data file. SpaceJest.guide This AmigaGuide® file. Amos.Library (Libs:) Amos Pro's distribution library. ...And any icon files associated with the above. A standard ASCII documentation file may also be included, but this has been superseded by this AmigaGuide file. All methods of distribution generally used for shareware are fully supported by the author. The program, and all associated files are Copyright (©) 1994, Simon Champion, and may not be altered, edited or removed or added to without prior consent from the programmer. The only exception to these restrictions is the icon files associated with the program and Doc files. These may by changed or replaced freely. They have been designed with the Workbench 2/3 standard colours, and may not look as good using 1.3. You are free to replace them with your own if you really don't like them (although I'd rather you didn't). Notes to distributors Back to begining My Address DistNote Distributors Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you are a Public Domain/Shareware distributor distributing this program, I would appreciate it if you let me know about you. The reason for this request is simply so that I can send you updates if and when I write them, as well as other programs. I would prefer to avoid having libraries distributing old (or buggy) versions of my programs when I could easily send them updates. If you are distributing via floppy disk.... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This disk may contain more than one program when supplied to you. These programs may or may not be by myself, although they will all be freely distributable. You are not required to distribute these programs with SpaceJest, but you are required to distribute it on a disk that is at least 80% (eighty percent) full, and you may not sell the disk for and more than £2 (Two UK pounds), $3 (Three US dollars), or the equivalent. It would be preferable for you to charge a good deal less than that. Or on a CD-ROM... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is quite possible that this program may find it's way onto a CD-ROM. Provided that the software on the CD-ROM is predominantly freely distributable, all I can say is that the price charged should be in line with other PD/shareware CD-ROMs available. BBS sysops... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I do not own a modem (yet), so I do not know much about the operation of a Bulletin board. However, you may not charge for this program over and above your normal on-line time charge (if you have one). Thank you for your attention. Back to begining Back... Shareware Shareware ~~~~~~~~~ Well, I had to come to it sooner or later, didn't I. I have put a lot of effort into producing this little gem, and I am doing the same for the next adventure I'm writing. I would really appreciate a little something for my efforts. Yes, I know I live a long way away (from most of you, anyway), and I know this program isn't going to compete for your cash with the likes of Monkey Island 5, but spare some thought for us poor shareware programmers. It doesn't cost as much as Monkey Island (or whatever), either. If you like the game and play it more than once or twice, please send me your shareware fee. If you want to pay as little as possible, fine: I can take rejection. But seriously, even £2 will garuantee a reply. For those more generous souls among you, who want to contribute towards my hardware upgrade fund, £5 will get you a big wet slobbery kiss in the post, along with an upgrade to the program (if I've written one - I hope it'll be perfect on it's first release!), as well as however many other of my programs as I can fit onto a disk. Five pounds will be enough to make you a Registered User, which will entitle you to ask me for help when you get stuck. For those who really do have money to burn, I would much prefer it if you sent it to me (unburnt), and I will certainly not turn away anything (except possibly a letter bomb). The more you send, the more you will get back, is all I can say. I have put British Pounds as my currency of choice, but I am happy to accept anything else. South African Rand have the value of so much compost, but are perfectly acceptable. US dollars are welcome. For these three, use the current exchange rate to work out how much to send (£1 = ±R5.69 = ±$1.60 at time of writing, but subject to change). I will be keeping $'s and £'s as they are, but for other currencies, please add 50% to cover the extortionate bank charges over here! From the proliferation of PD libraries (particularly in UK), it would seem that they must be doing quite well (whatever happened to the idea of a non-profit-making network?). I will be interested to see exactly how many buyers send their shareware fees, and how many think that once they have bought the disk, they have bought the program. Read about me for my address. Why Register? Shareware Alternatives Back to begining... Distibution Info Incentives Shareware Incentives ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Whether you pay for using this software of not is up to you. Let it be on your conscience to decide. There are certain benefits, though, to help you make up your mind... Firstly, you should note that SpaceJest is unlikely to be bug-free. I have removed all bugs that my play testers and myself have found, but I am quite certain that there will be more. In other words, updates are almost certain. But the only people who will get the updates will be registered users. All users who register with £5 or more will get an update straight away, along with a few other programs that I've written. I will notify all registered users whenever a significant update occurs. Obviously, I will not be able to afford to continually send disks to people at my own expense, but registered users will have the opportunity to send for an update. Another important feature of registering is that only registered users can expect any help from me in solving the game. So if you get stuck on the first puzzle you come to, don't give up - register and ask for some help. Finally, the unregistered version of SpaceJest has a Shareware reminder message built into it, which will display itself every now and again as you play. It has an annoyance factor built in, in that when it comes up, you will have to re-input the last command you typed (ie press up arrow to get it back...). This does not come up very often (about once every 30 or so moves, but it is randomised). It will hopefully come up enough to keep you reminded, but not so much as to detract from the game... Back to Shareware Info Shareware Address Shareware Alternatives Back to begining Alterntvs Shareware Alternatives ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What If I can't afford to pay? Don't worry. There are several things you can do to get around having to pay the incredible sum of £5. Get rid of all your copies of the game. Keep it, and let your conscience bother you forever. Instead of sending £5, send £2 and a disk, preferably with something on. Instead of sending money, send a registered version of your program. - we'll swap registrations. If you aren't paying because you don't want to send cash in the post, I will accept international money orders or cheques (only in UK£, SA Rand or US$). (I'd still rather have cash, though). Back to Shareware Info Author's Address Back to begining... AuthorInfo About Me ~~~~~~~~ It's a badly concealed fact that most people like to talk about themselves, with programmers being no exception to the rule, and this programmer being very heavily in line with the rule, so here is my self-gratifying chance to be extremely modest (not). I grew up in England - hence my preference for British pounds (if you bothered to read the shareware info!) - and emigrated here to South Africa three years ago with my family when things were looking fairly rosy out here. I have been programming since I can remember, and have had an Amiga since 1987, when they were brand new. Until recently, I was using the same Amiga 500 with Kickstart 1.2, but having had my job for a year, I was recently able to spend my entire year's savings on a brand new Amiga 4000, and boy am I chuffed with it. Unfortunately, I am now broke. I studied computers at school and at college in Pretoria, and I am now woring as a full time computer programmer in a small town called Estcourt. My work, and my studies have focused on the PC (yuk), but I have decided that Amiga is my favorite machine. When programming, I usually call myself Pegasus Software, but at the moment any correspondance, should please be addressed to me by name. Although I have written this game in Amos, I can program in C, Pascal, and assorted other languages. At work, I am using a so-called programming language called Clarion (on the PC (yuk)), which is a bit of a cheat as far as programming is concerned. It is more of an Application Builder, or a 4GL than a programming language. I have written several programs on the Amiga and on the PC (yuk), in all sorts of categories, from games (like this) to utilities of all sizes. I'll refrain from listing them here, but I'll send anyone a list if you write to me (preferably with your shareware fee! :-) ). Come to think of it, if you send my your shareware fee, it's quite probable that you'll get quite a few of them from me anyway! My other hobbies/passtimes/sports besides anything connected to computers include gliding, chess, reading and writing. I am trying to break into the fields of freelance journalism, short stories, and I am even trying my hand at a novel (don't hold your breath, it may take a while!). I am a member of the Chess South Africa (CHESSA), Science Fiction South Africa (SFSA) and the Estcourt Aero Club. My address is: Simon Champion, PO Box 695, Hilton 3245, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I am open to any correspondance, and I will try to reply to it all. Please let me know what program/version you are using! Money talks, so shareware subscribers will get their replies before anyone else. Back to begining... Techies Technical stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Read this if you want to write your own game, know how to program, but don't know where to start with an adventure. If a registered user wants more help writing their own game, I will be happy to help - Just write! The most important part of the adventure game is the parser or interpreter. This takes the sentences input by the user, chops it up into it's component words, and analyses them. The words can be grouped into categories such as nouns, verbs, etc, and the parser must check each word to see what category it fits into. Usually each verb will have it's own sub-routine or procedure, which will then perform the correct action on the object(s) in question. Objects are usually not stored by the computer in their word form: The computer stores a list of nouns, and possibly adjectives, and the objects in the game reference these. When you type GET ROPE, the computer finds rope in it's list of nouns, and then looks to see if there is an object in the area with the same noun number. Locations are also not stored as a description. Each location has a unique number, and the descriptions are stored in a database with the same numbers. Location zero is commonly used for objects that are carried by the player, and negative location numbers are used for items that are worn, eaten, hidden, or any number of other things. When the game starts, usually at location 1, the computer loads the location description and the exit details which tell the computer (and the player) which direction he can move to, and to what location (if any) each direction leads. If you've tried to cheat by reading through the data file containing the room descriptions, etc, you will have found out already that it has been encrypted. The encoding is based on the fact that if the random number producer is given the same initial seed, it will produce the same sequence of numbers. The text of the game is then combined with the random numbers to produce a totally unreadable load of gibberish. I hope I haven't given too much away by telling you all that. You obviously won't be able to decode it unless you know the seed number(s) I've used! ¿*** NOTE: I have removed this encryption for now. I found it was just a big ¿pain in the neck from a programmer's point of view. I will put it back into ¿place when I have decided to stop adding things to the program. Maybe I should write an encryption program to do the same thing for any security conscious Amigan. This is a simmilar method of encryption as used by the Germans in the Second World War with their Enigma machine. That code took months of work by a team of the world's top mathematicians to break, so I don't think there will be much casual cracking of my encryption. The game's vocabulary is split into three main groups: Verbs, Nouns and Adjectives. Words such as The, And, A, An, and so on are effectively ignored by the computer. All the objects you can find in the game are either in the form of an adjective and a noun, or just a noun. The objects are stored as a list of six numbers which tell the computer (among other things) what noun and adjective to call the object by, and where it is (0 for this last field represents that is is being carried). Doors are special objects in that some of the data serves a different purpose to that of the others. For example, doors must be in two locations at once (you can't go through a door and find it doesn't exist on the other side!), and can be open, closed or locked, but they can't be picked up, so the weight field used by other objects is used for the door's status (Open, closed, locked). Locations are stored in a random access file for flexibility and speed. They are stored as a title of 20 charaters, six description fields of 70 characters each, and an exits field of 30 characters. The exit field is in the form of a sequence of numbers, three for each possible direction (8 compass points plus up and down), which are set to the location number that the direction leads to, with 000 meaning that no exit exists. Doors exits are not stored in the file, but are checked when needed from the door data (see above). I hope all that was worth it. If you want a more detailed discussion of the tequniques I've used, please feel free to contact me. My tequniques are probably very different to anyone else's, but they work for me. They need to be refined a bit, and I have already got ideas on some important refinements for my next adventure. I shalln't be fixing this one up before release, because it is too far gone in development to start changing it now. For example, doors could in future be stored in the locations file with other exits, but as negative numbers representing the object number of the door in question, eliminating the need to check. Back to begining Credits Credits, Thanks, and Hellos ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Although all the programming, and most of the ideas in this game are my own, many others have helped to change it from an idea to a finished program. From inspiration to bug checking, I would like to thank as many of you as possible.... Credits go to: Douglas Davern.......For being a wonderful friend, and for bug checking and play testing. Jim McBrayne.........For The Golden Fleece adventure which motivated me to do the same. Amiga Computing......For giving me something good to read when I didn't Magazine feel like programming. Europress Software...For Amos, Amos Pro and the Compiler. Great Stuff! My family............For being there. My boss..............For the job. And all the other nameless millions, for whatever it was you did for me. Simon Champion :-) / |\ / / | \ / \ | / / / |/ \ / . / . \_ . Footnote... Extra thanks must go to Jim MacBrayne. I have now sent my shareware registration for his game The Golden Fleece. He has sent me three more of his games, only one of which I have seen advertised (The Holy Grail). Many thanks, Jim. Tagline: "I haven't lost my mind. It's backed up on tape somewhere." Back to begining... HowToPlay SPACE JEST IV½ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For those of you who haven't played a text adventure before, here's what they do: Rather than give you graphics and using a mouse pointer, you are given text and use the keyboard. The idea is that words can conjure up a mental picture of the scene which is far more vivid than any graphics could be. To play the game, you must type in what you want to do in the game using short English sentences like GO NORTH, or TAKE THE LONG ROPE. Quite long sentences are possible, but usually you will be entering shorter sentences of three words or less. The basic sentence structure is simply VERB ADJECTIVE NOUN. The verb tells the computer what you want to do, and the adjective and noun tell the computer what you want to do it to. The adjective can usually be ommitted unless there are more objects around with the same noun - eg if a Pink flower and a Red flower are both in the same location, you will need to type GET PINK FLOWER to take the pink one, but if the red flower is not there, or is in a different place, you can ommit the word PINK. Moving from one location to another is quite a common thing to do in these games, so rather than typing GO TO THE NORTHEAST every time you want to go anywhere, the same command could be shortened to simply NE. Other directions can also be shortened simmilarly to either one or two letters, and UP and DOWN can also be used, either as is, or shortened to U and D. So the command GO TO THE NORTH could be shortend to GO NORTH, or NORTH, or just plain N. Related Topics: Objects Characters Computer Terminals Loading, Saving, Quitting... The Command Line Back to begining... Objects Objects ~~~~~~~ Dotted about the landscape are numerous objects that can be manipulated in various ways. Most can be picked up, although you can only carry so much weight. You can and should examine all objects you come across. Some objects will have uses in puzzles or problems later on, some are red herrings. It is up to you to work out which are which. You can use TAKE or GET to pick them up and DROP or THROW to get rid of them. Many other commands are possible, although many commands are only applicable to certain objects. You are advised to pay careful attention to the text of the locations, and to examine every object you find: clues are hidden in the text in several places, and you will have to be sharp to spot all of them. There are also quite a few red herrings about, but I'll leave them for you to find. You can only carry a certain amount at one time, so you may have to drop some objects to pick others up. Some objects are heavier than others, and others will be simply too heavy for you to lift at all. Do not assume that any one object has only one use in the game. Back to begining... Back to How To Play... Characters Characters ~~~~~~~~~~ On your travels, you may well meet other characters. In this game, you will not be able to interact with them as freely as you might wish. When you meet a character, you will generally be told what happens, rather than being asked to interact with them. Sometimes, they might ask you a puzzle for which you must supply the answer. Most characters will give clues to the next part of the game, or they might ask you to bring them something. Back to begining... Back to How To Play... Terminals Computer Terminals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An important part of the game are the computer terminals. These link up to StarNet, as well as to each other. They operate with a simple command line. All the old favorite commands are there - Dir, CD, etc, as well as many special ones that you can use to send messages and even teleport with. The system is spectacularly unfriendly, and although a page of on-line help is given, you will probably get very irritated with the number of things the system won't allow you to do. It is important to read the text in the system carefully, as with the text in the main adventure, as even minor details can be of importance later on. To use a terminal (assuming you have found one), simply type LOGON as your command in the game. When you are finished (assuming you haven't been thrown out of the system for security reasons), you should type LOGOFF. Back to begining... Back to How To Play... SysCommands Loading, Saving, Quitting and Restarting ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is quite easy to die without much warning in the game, so you are advised to save your position regularly with the SAVE command. Saved games can be restored later by typing in either LOAD or RESTORE. Saved games will be saved in the current directory unless you specify a different one, and with the extension .Jest, again unless you specify a different one. If you want to stop playing, type EXIT, QUIT, or just Q. You will be asked if you are sure before the game quits. If you get really stuck, RESTART will take you back to the begining of the game, so you can start again. Back to begining... Back to How To Play... CommandLine The Command Line ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Some of the puzzles you will get might need a number as the answer. In these cases, you will only be able to enter numbers at the cursor. If at any point, you want to repeat a previous command, you can use the up and down cursor keys (just like Amiga Dos Shell), to recall any of the previous ten commands you entered. If you try to press return without entering anything, you will find that your entry is not accepted. A space will also not be accepted as the first character in a command. Some commands you might find useful are: TIE - eg TIE STRING TO PARCEL UNTIE - eg UNTIE STRING AND PARCEL LOCK / UNLOCK - eg UNLOCK DOOR WITH KEY (you'll need the right key!) OPEN / CLOSE - eg OPEN DOOR LOOK - will give you the description of the current location. EXAMINE - eg EXAMINE TREE - will tell you some details about the specified object. Often very useful. THROW - eg THROW BONE AT DOG or THROW STONE - if only one object specified, this is the same as DROP. TAKE / GET - eg GET ROPE - will make your character pick up the specified object. DROP - Opposite of GET. You will drop the object. There are many other commands in the game, but I'll just let you suffer and work them out for youself. Back to begining... Back to How To Play...