TOWERS ver 1.21 3D One or Two player Dungeon Game (c)1993,1994 JV Enterprises ========================================================================== Welcome, this is JV Enterprises first attempt at TRYWARE marketing for the PC platform. What you have is the full version of Towers, with all the features intact. You can play several levels of the game without the manual. In order to progress further and complete the game, you will require the manual. The manual can be ordered through us for $15 U.S. funds. To register your game and obtain your manual, send a check or Money Order for $15 in US funds to: JV Enterprises PO Box 97455 Las Vegas, NV 89193-7455 USA -OR- By calling us with your Master Card or VISA at: 1-800-252-0194 Persons calling from outside US or Canada can reach us at: 702-734-9689 ========================================================================== To run Towers on a PC, you will need at least a 386sx 16mhz machine, with a minimum of 559K (572,416 bytes) of conventional RAM, and at least 688K (704,512 bytes) of EMS RAM. You will also need at least 1.5 megabytes of space available on your hard drive. Towers also supports the use of Sound Blaster and compatible sound cards. Although the sound card is not required, it is highly recommended. Towers can only be run from a hard drive. If towers is on disk, you may use the 'INSTALL' program to install it to the hard drive. If this file was Zipped, you may unzip it directly to the hard drive in the directory of your choice. To run Towers, simply type 'TOWERS' in the directory that it was installed or unzipped in. You may run Towers from windows from the File Manager or by installing it as an application. NOTES:If you have a mouse that occupies COM 1:, you will need to change the program to use COM 2: or it will lock up the system. To do so, run the installation program, and select 'Change COM port' from the menu. Verify the change and the program is now set for COM 2:. Use this even if you do not plan to play the two player game. If you have a bus mouse you will not need to change the port unless you wish to. You may also change the settings for the sound card. The program will automatically find the port and address. You may force the program to read a particular port and address by using the manual settings. (SEE TROUBLESHOOTING FOR MORE DETAILS) These are the files that are included in Towers, if any are missing the program might not work. Disk One Files Disk One Files -------------- -------------- ARROW.DAT SOUNDS.DAT BEGINSNG.DAT DOOR0.DAT DRIVER_P.DAT DOOR1.DAT DRIVER_S.DAT DOOR2.DAT INSTALL.EXE DOOR3.DAT INTRO1.DAT DOOR4.DAT INTRO2.DAT DUN0.DAT INTRO3.DAT DUN1.DAT INTRO4.DAT ECLIP.DAT INTRO5.DAT MAIN.DAT INTRO6.DAT MISC.DAT INTRO7.DAT MONST_G0.DAT INTRO8.DAT MONST_G1.DAT INTRO9.DAT MOSNT_G2.DAT INTROSNG.DAT MONST_G3.DAT ITEMS.DAT MONST_G4.DAT README.TXT MTOPBOT.DAT SCITEM.DAT MWALL.DAT TITLE.DAT MXTRA.DAT TITLECLP.DAT PLAYER.DAT TITLESLT.DAT SCREEN.DAT TOWERS.EXE WIND0.DAT README.EXE WIND1.DAT WIND2.DAT ========================================================================== DISTRIBUTING TOWERS IS EXPRESSLY PERMITTED AND DESIRED As long as all files remain on the disks (or compressed files), and remain unchanged! ========================================================================== ----------- Mini Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . Towers ver 1.2 ------------------------------------------------------------- Installation To install Towers on your hard drive run INSTALL.PRG from Towers disk One and follow instructions given on screen. Up and Running Once Towers is up an running you have several options available to you. From here you can select on of the four or press ESC to exit the game. INTRODUCTION - Gives you a brief overview of what the plot is in the game. Press ESC to return to main menu. INCARNATION - Allows you to select from one of four players to begin your adventures. Select the button to the left of the character until satisfied, then click on Accept. Press ESC to return to main menu. CONTINUATION - This allows you to play a game already in progress. A file selection window will appear and allow you to load a game. Simply click on the name of the game to load. From here you can also click on Quit to exit the game or Cancel to return to the main menu. CONNECTION - This option allow you to connect to a game already in progress on another computer. Before you select this, you must have two computers connected by a Null Modem adapter through the serial port. Then, one computer (the Host) must begin a game either by Continuation or Incarnation. Once the game begins and is in progress, then the second computer (the Slave) may select Connection. NOTE: Only the Host may load or save games. Playing the Game Once you are in the game, everything is controlled by the mouse and the LEFT mouse button. You will only use the RIGHT mouse button to sleep (by clicking the right button on your character) and to open/close a bag (by clicking the right button on the bag, when it is on your belt). You may (and should) use cursor keys for movement around the dungeon. They are as follows: '7' - Rotate Left Up Arrow OR '8' - Move forward '9' - Rotate Right Left Arrow OR '4' - Move Left Down Arrow OR '2' - Move Backward Right Arrow OR '6' - Move Right -At the top between the two snakes is the compass. -At the Far right-top of the screen is a gold Disk, you can select this to access the Load/Save/quit options. Don't forget to type a name in when saving. -Below that are two thermometers, the left one measures your health, and will turn RED if you are poisoned. The Right one is blue and it measures your Magic points. -In between them is the representation of you. Click here, to add/remove clothing, armor, and jewelry. You can also read/drink/eat by clicking the appropriate item on your character. NOTE: Try not to eat your food, until you need to. On higher levels, food may be harder to find. -To the left of your character is the Fight hand. Place weapons here that you wish to use in battle. -Directly below is your ring finger. Only rings will fit here. -To the right of your character is a small backpack to carry four items. Put projectile ammunition to be used by certain weapons, or just any other item, except for bags. -Below your character is your belt, that can hold five items. you may also strap bags here to carry more. You may only open/close bags when they are located on this belt. -Below your belt is a status window. It informs you of your standing as well as your condition. There are two pages, to toggle between the two, click the mouse on the little arrow in the corner of this window. This window will also reveal what is contained within a bag when open. At which time you may get/drop items here as well. -Underneath this are two windows with a button to the left of each. These are spell windows. To select a window (and clear it out) click on the button left of that window. Formulate a spell (see spell scroll), then click on the window. You have conjured a spell, although it may not succeed. Duration spells will show up on this window is an icon. These icons will disappear when the spell dissipates. You can dissipate a spell prematurely by clicking on the button left of that window. NOTE: Spells like reveal an item spell, requires that the object be in hand (that is in place of the arrow) for it to work. Take the object and click on the window with the reveal spell to activate. You may have to play with the postion of the object a little to conjure the spell. In this case the name in the message window will change. If the spell works and the name does not change, then the item is not magical. -At the bottom there is a mouse controlled movement panel, which can be also controlled by the keyboard. -To the left of the movement panel, there is an Attack button. Click on this button when you wish to hit an enemy. The weapon you fight with depends on the weapon placed on your fight hand. Different weapons have different strike speeds. The Attack button will remain depressed until you have completed a full swing and are ready to hit again. -Further left is the Spell Scroll. Select a word by clicking the mouse on that word. The word will then appear in the spell window (if it was accessed with the button to the left of the window). -Next is the message window. This window will display messages and information, important to the game. -On the far left center of the screen is an indicator. This indicator will light up when you engage and attack an enemy in hand to hand combat. This indicator will give the average strength of your opponent. The brighter it is, the stronger they are. The left-center of your screen contains your view of the 3D dungeon. You can interact within the dungeon with the mouse. Click on buttons on dungeon walls, that you are directly in front of. Use a key on a keyhole. Drop/get items by clicking on the ground beneath your feet (you can only get items directly in front of you.) Throw items by clicking down the hall. Just the Beginning This is just a taste of what lurks in Towers. If you like the game, don't forget to invest in the Towers Manual for $15 US Funds. It contains priceless information as well as helpful hints to move you along. Happy Hunting! ========================================================================= TROUBLESHOOTING........................ Q. I Get a 'Mouse not Installed' message? A. You must have a mouse driver installed for DOS. You will find the driver under CONFIG.SYS as: Devicehigh=\dos\mouse.sys or in AUTOEXEC.BAT as: mouse The name of the mouse driver may differ from computer to computer, check with the computer manual to find out how to add the driver to the computer. Q. I get a 'Not enough Memory' message? A. There must be at least 572,416 bytes of conventional memory. You can type 'MEM' at the DOS prompt to determine how much you have. If you have DOS 6.2, use Memory Maker to increase your memory. If not, add these lines to your CONFIG.SYS file if they are not there. DOS=high,umb Devicehigh= instead of Device= for entries other than HIMEM & EMM386 If you have a CD Rom drive. You may also move the program found in AUTOEXEC.BAT up in EMS RAM by adding a '/e' to the line. \BIN\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 /V /E The actual names of the programs and sub-directories may vary. Q. I get an 'EMS not Available' message? A. EMS memory is not active on your computer. The driver is located in the CONFIG.SYS file. Check to make sure that it is there. If it is not, add it. If it is there, check to see if 'NOEMS' is included within the line. The entry should look something like this: \WINDOWS\EMM386.SYS RAM 1024 If there is more on the line or the name is not identical, dont worry. The important part is the 'RAM.' The number is how much RAM you wish to reserve. Towers requires a minimum of 688 remaining. We suggest you use a value of 'RAM 768' or greater. Q. I get a 'Not enough EMS memory' message? A. There must be at least 688k (704,512 bytes) available. You can check how much EMS is availalbe my typing 'MEM' at the DOS prompt. There will be two line of EMS. One is total EMS, the other is available EMS. Look at the available EMS and see if it is greater than the required minimum. If it is not check CONFIG.SYS and change the value after 'RAM' to 768 or greater. If there is no value, or no 'RAM' then EMS sets aside 256k. Add 'RAM' and a value of 768 or greater. Q. I get the game up, but it locks up usually at the title screen? A. There is most likely a conflict with the sound card or with the COM port. First try to change the COM: port number. If it does not work then try to set the Sound card manually. You will need the card's manual to determine your Port Number and Address. The DMA is set to 1 and cannot be changed. You can change the settings by running the 'INSTALL' program from the Towers directory. Then follow the instructions on screen to change the settings of either one. If it still does not work, then you can disable either the Sound and/or the COM port. When loading the game, as soon as 'Version 1.2' appears, press and hold the ALT button for the COM: port and/or the CNTL button for the Sound. When a message appears, reading that the sound or COM: is disabled you may let go of the keys. Q. I am trying to run Towers from Windows, and it won't run. A. Make sure you have enough conventional memory and that you have EMS memory installed (check related topics in troubleshooting for details.) When you run an application from Windows, it will use some conventional memory. If nothing is running but the Program Manager, Windows uses about 5K of RAM. When you figure out how much memory you have in DOS, subtract 5000 bytes from it. That will give you an idea of how much RAM is left when running through Windows. If it falls short try to make more room in RAM. If not, run Towers from DOS. If it still does not work, you may have to create a PIF (Program Information File) to tell Windows how much memory to reserve and if you wish to multitask for a particular non-window application. See the Windows User's Guide for more details on PIFs. =========================================================================