***************************
* Apparition Finder *
* *
* Baggetta_Ware *
* (c)1992 Copyright *
***************************
You are in another dimension, often referred to by
humans as the "spirit world." In this world there are good
beings and bad beings. There are those that are serious and
those that are playful. There are those that are always
right (or seem to be) and those that are often making
mistakes, getting into mischief and regularly making things
"interesting."
Your job as an Apparition Finder in this mythical
world is to keep tabs on the mischievous when they
inadvertently get into trouble and help them return to a
normal state.
As in any occupation there are specialists, and you
are one such specialized worker in this world. You are
the sole (maybe it should be soul) member of a team that was
once very active, but has now been reduced to one
enthusiastic and efficient agent. You are the Apparition
Finder.
You work for the Inter-Dimensional Slime Fabrication
Facility, a semi-government agency that's purpose is to
manufacture and store the aqueous substance left by spirits
when they visit the other world.
Slime is stored in huge holding vats after it is
manufactured. And these tanks have been a major problem
for the facility for eons. Many private slime producing
companies have abandoned this archaic method of storing
their product because of the inherent dangers they hold.
But this method has yet to be replaced by a similarly
inexpensive method.
The cause of the problem is the contents of the
seemingly empty tanks. They must be seasoned with a
special gas, an anti-plasmic fume that protects the
sensitive linings of the vats. The difficulty arises from
the fact that this gas has a hypnotic drawing power on
spirits as they pass the exhaust openings -- to the point
where they cannot resist entering the dark chambers.
Once inside, the anti-plamic gas has a repulsively
negative effect on the spirits' beings, making them invisible
and immobile (except for a little eye movement).
This in itself while deplorable is not destructible;
however, when the tanks fill with slime, the spirits are
inadvertently dissolved. In human terms, this means they
go kaput.
This situation has caused problems with our well-known
and extremely popular poltergeist population, for they are
rather mischievous and inquisitive and are most likely to
become trapped in the vats. A once large population has
been decreased over the years to a mere handful that must
be watched over and protected.
This is where you come in. You are constantly on call
to go to the vats to find the helpless ghosts and free them
so that they may return to their tombstones. This is not
an easy task -- remember the ghosts become immobile and
invisible. In effect their ecto-plasm is drained from
their very bodies.
Fortunately you have at your disposal the Ecto-Plasmic
Scanner, a state-of-the-art piece of computerized hardware
which allows the Apparition Finder to scan the contents of
the vats, detecting any minute presences of ecto-plasm that
might remain in the spirits' little carcasses.
We have noticed from studies done in the recent past
that the tanks only absorb a certain amount of ecto-plasm.
After this has permeated the linings of the tanks, their
ability to draw more ghosts in is diminished. So you will
not usually find more than six ghosts in a tank at one
time. Where they are trapped, however, is anyone's guess
and your job to find out.
Your Atari ST is your link to this adventure. Boot up
the program GHOST.PRG on your ST with color monitor and
prepare for your spirit search in "Apparition Finder."
Initially you will be alerted by radio that some
ghosts have been trapped in the vats. Next you will find
yourself at your scanner ready to go to work. The black
screen area is your window to the slime vats. Naturally,
since the ghosts are invisible, you won't see anything now.
In the lower left of the bottom window, you see four
boxes stacked on each other. These are miniature windows
showing the capacity status of each of the four vats you
are in charge of. At the beginning they are empty, except
for your invisible charges. There is an arrow index for
each tank to the left of each of these windows, to show
which tank you are working on. To the right of this panel,
there is a larger window that illustrates what the ghosts
look like when restored and a counter to show how many
ghosts you have saved.
To switch the scanner on, press the left mouse button.
It will start pulsating and beeping as it emits its seeker
beam into the tank area. Every time you press the button a
fresh beam is sent out into the vat. If it makes contact
with any amount of ecto-plasm the ghost will happily be
restored. When you have restored all six ghosts they will
have power to escape from the vat.
Of course, there is a problem here. While you are
searching for the ghosts the slime is entering the tank.
Notice that there is a thin pipeline around the edge of the
tank window. The pipeline is sectioned off by four entry
chambers, allowing only a certain amount of slime to enter
the tank at the start. Once the last entry chamber has
been filled, the slime quickly permeates the rest of the
vat, immediately absorbing anything in its way.
The slime starts entering in the upper left-hand
corner and slowly moves around the perimeter of the tank,
causing no small amount of tension in your job. The
ghosts, of course, are aware of the imminent danger, and
the only way they have of signling for help is by flashing
their eyes at you, using up what little energy they have.
Your scanner has a couple of peculiarities I might
mention now. Start the scanner as soon as possible because
your boss is always checking to see if you are on the job.
He is not a very understanding soul, and if you are caught
you will be fired immediately.
Also, once you engage the seeker beam, continue to
hold down the button as you move the mouse to search
certain parts of the vat. If you release the button, the
beam will stop (further studies have shown that this
increases the flow of the slime as well), and you will have
to start from the scanner plate again by re-pressing the
button.
Finally, you must be careful moving the beam in the
tank. If you hit a restored ghost, your beam will be
deflected back and will have to start over again, devouring
valuable time. In addition, you will only be able to move
the beam within the perimeter of the tank. If you hit the
walls, you will hear an ugly noise echoing throughout the
vat, and the beam will be deflected back again.
If you have saved some of the ghosts in a particular
tank and realize that any further attempt at that same tank
is futile, you can press the right mouse button to leave
the tank. You will save those ghosts already located, but,
unfortunately, the others will have to be sacrificed to the
slime.
There is one other complication that makes the game
interesting. The vats have been prioritized as to the
speed at which they fill. The first tank fills rather
slowly, but subsequent tanks fill at a much quicker pace.
You do not have time to dawdle in tank #4.
You will notice at the title screen that you may
choose one of two levels to play "Apparition Finder," --
EASY or HARD. There is a little invisible ghost selector,
except for a tiny white dot. Use his head to make your
selection by pointing him to the box of your choice and
pressing the left mouse button.
When you finish with your job you can watch the
rescued specters dissolve into their "homes" for the day,
and a final message from headquarters will acknowledge how
many ghosts you saved. At this point you will have the
option of honing your skills by playing again, if you
-------------------------------------------------
~ ~
(.)(.) Baggetta_Ware
(..) Is for Hungry
Machines
-----------------------------------------------------
Order the following from Baggetta_Ware
-----------------------------------------------------
THE COMIC BOOK COLLECTOR -- Everything the everyday collector
needs. Catalog, list, sort, edit and print list of your
valuable collection. Runs with mouse control in either
medium or high resolutions. Printed manual included.\
Only $10.00
-----------------------------------------------------
SHAKESPEARE: THE SONNETS -- Use this complete database of
154 sonnets for study or enjoyable reading. Search, print
analyze, many important options for the study of the Bard.
Medium or High Resolutions. Also includes information
about the sonnets, Shakespeare and many important literary
terms. On-line glossary of obscure words makes understanding
Shakespeare's language a breeze. Printed manual included.
Only $10.00
------------------------------------------------------
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING: THE SONNETS -- Similar to the
above program but includes information about Browning and is
a searchable database of all her sonnets. Manual on disk.
Only $10.00
------------------------------------------------------
THE ELIEMOUSE COMPLIMENTARY COLORING BOOK (VERSION 6)
Lost of fun for young children (4 and up). Includes 104
drawings to color, on-line games, printing, sound, and hours
of imaginative play. Printed manual included.
SOUVENIR ELIEMOUSE PENCIL WHILE THEY LAST.
Only $25.00
(UPGRADES OF OLDER VERSION OF THE MAIN PROGRAM MAY BE HAD
FOR $5.00 PLUS RETURN OF THE ORIGINAL DISK) (PICTURE FILES
COLLECTIONS MAY STILL BE ORDERED AT $5.00 EACH)
------------------------------------------------------
THE MIS-ADVENTURES OF ELIEMOUSE -- An electronic slide-show
adventure and story book featuring the amazing Eliemouse.
Color, sound, music, and adventure. Eliemouse reads about
adventure and then goes off into the world to try and find
it, only to find that the best (and safest adventure) is
found in literature. Includes a simple color page, and
printed manual page. Two graphically packed disks.
Only $10.00
-------------------------------------------------------
ARTWORKS I
ARTWORKS II -- These are two double sided disks packed
with cartoon color graphics I have done. Free-hand imitations
of other artwork and original cartoon artwork. ARTWORKS I is
all .PC1 files (DEGAS) while ARTWORKS II is all .SPC files
(SPECTRUM). Load them into your favorite art program and play
with them. Use them for dtp or general display.
Only $10.00 per disk
--------------------------------------------------------
ATARI SMORGASBORD -- GIANT TWO DISK SET
These disks contain a myriad of programs for children through
adult.
ZEEK & ZAK (Chutes and Ladders Clone)
SCRAMBLE Unscramble two cartoon heads mixed up
TRUST OR IMPULSE Fast action game
WORDBID Graphic Word Game
BLACKBOARD MATH Children's math program
BINGO An ST version of Bingo
PEANUT BUTTER Child's adventure graphic mystery game
LETTER BOMBER Fast action letter recognition game
WORD DIVISION Another graphic word game
GHOST Colorful save the ghost game
STOSGHOST Avoid the ghosts in this game in STOS
CELEBRITY PSEUDONYM -- What is the actor's real name
TOONSMITH Children's repair the record music game
MUMMY Graphic adventure game
DODGER RABBIT Help the rabbit maze game
...and 10 other great programs for all ST computers.
ALL PROGRAMS ARE UNPACKED, IN FOLDERS AND READY TO RUN.
DOCUMENTATION IS ON DISK.
ONLY $10.00 FOR TWO DISK SET
-------------------------------------------------------
**** 8-bit SOFTWARE TOO!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------
RADIO/CONTROLLED RACE CAR TIMER
This fast acting program was designed to keep track of the
cars in a r/c race. Name or number cars. Keep track of times
and laps, print out results.
5 1/4" DISK will run on all 8-bit computers.
Only $10.00
---------------------------------------------------------
Order any of the above programs from
PLEASE INCLUDE $1.00 FOR POSTAGE AND HANDLING.
BAGGETTA_WARE
P.O. BOX 759
AGAWAM, MA 01001
GENIE: BAGET
DELPHI: ALBERT
choose to do so