DUNGEON CRAWL
INSTRUCTIONS
The dungeon is dim and your torch only casts a little light. It can
be hard to disintiguish things in the dungeon. Objects only appear
as light blue blobs. Monsters can easily be mistaken. In the
flickering light you only catch glimpses of colour and the dim
outlines of what appear to be faces. Shadows easily create the
illusion of threatening human forms, even when the reality is much
different. So beware, your eyes can deceive you. You will find in
the dungeon more than a dozen monsters. Their "colours" range from
green to blue to red to cyan to purple to to white to orange. Some
are (essentially) harmless like the deer that have wandered into the
dungeon and become trapped, others are less so. Deer (orange) can be
eaten for health, but don't try to eat any of the other creatures!
In fact they will be trying to eat you! So you must learn to
recognize their distinctive colours and powers and avoid combat
whenever necessary. That being said, monsters (but not all) often
carry useful items, which they will drop when defeated, so combat
can sometimes be useful.
In order to deafeat the pit fiend you must build up your cash of
powerful weapons. You must also keep your health up, although
100 is the maximum. In the dungeon you will find magic items
that will allow you to cast powerful spells to harm attacking
creatures. Like your health, your maximum when it comes to
magical power is 100. When you use magic against a monster
you can cause up to 25 points of damage, but you will lose
whatever amount of damage you cause from your magical power.
Magic can be used like any weapon. It can be cast at figures in
the distance, just like you would shoot an arrow (which you must
also collect). However, be warned, once shot at, monsters will
immediately attack, and you only have a 50/50 chance of hitting
them. If you do, you will do up to 6 damage. Once a monster
is in your square, regular combat will ensue. You always get to
strike first (after all you're a professional warrior and mage!)
However, if you wish to flee a combat you must turn from your
enemy as many times that are necessary to make your escape. Each
turn spent moving is a turn you are open to attack by your enemy.
So be careful when attacking creatures down blank hallways.
You can push past creatures in one move, but you might find
yourself trapped! There is also a chance that the creature will
follow. It depends on their speed and inclinations. Each
creature is different in terms of speed and inclination to pursue.
Different weapons have different powers, but all weapons can break
in combat. So collect up to three of the most powerful weapons
you can. Shields come in different strengths, but since they can
never be broken, you will automatically keep the most powerful that
you find.
You have one special form of magic. If you are facing an interior
wall and have more than 25 of magical power, you can choose the
magic option, and you will be given the chance to blast the wall
in front of you to smithereens. This can be useful to gain
access to parts of the dungeon that might be cut off from the
main areas of the dungeon. You should, however, never be cut off
from ladders going betwen levels or the pit fiend himself, who
resides somwehere on the bottom level. Find him and defeat him!
To save a game use the "P" key. When your tape is ready press "S"
to begin the save process. In the emulator, you will be prompted
to save the file to your harddisk. The program uses a single
standard filename, but if using the emulator, feel free to change
the default filename to anything you wish. After saving is comp-
leted you will have to re-run the program and answer "Y" to the
"LOAD PREVIOUS" prompt to re-load your saved game. Then press
play on your tape player, or select the filename you saved a game
under from the "play cassette" option of the File menu.
VERSION NOTES
Versions 1-4
Created the characters, the 3-D engine and the mini-map.
Versions 5-9
Created the combat routines.
Versions 10-11
Buffed up the user interface and got the mini-map reveal running.
Versions 12-16
Added the game save routine and intro screen. Spent a lot of time
condensing the code as I was down to a few hundred bytes, which
sometimes led to OM errors. Think I have condensed the program
enough, so these shouldn't occur but please contact me if they do!
Please contact me also about your thoughts on the balance of powers
versus those of the monsters. This may still need fine-tuning.
Version 17
Fixed a spelling error in the intro screen and tightened up the
code a little bit more to ensure there is adequate spare memory
so as to ensure no OM (Out of Memory) error will occur. Fixed
the end routine so that whatever creature is killed last will
be erased from the screen (in symbolic recognition of your
victory). It's the best I code do in the limited memory...
Version 18
Fixed a bug where your weapon could break even if you were
attacking with magic.
Jim Gerrie
jimgerrie@ns.sympatico.ca
Enjoy!
December 29, 2012