Chaos

				CHAOS

			    Originally by
			    JULIAN GOLLOP

		     Unofficial ST conversion by
			   MARTIN BROWNLOW

		       Original code ported by
			   MARTIN BROWNLOW

			Graphics extracted by
			    ADAM TURNBULL

			Graphics recoloured by
			   MARTIN BROWNLOW
			    ADAM TURNBULL

			 Samples selected by
			   MARTIN BROWNLOW
			  MICHAEL BROWNLOW
			    ADAM TURNBULL

The samples used in this game were taken from the following films:

	WARLOCK
	HIGHLANDER
	BLADERUNNER
	FRIGHT NIGHT
	GHOSTBUSTERS
	EVIL DEAD II
	A FISH CALLED WANDA
	MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL

Extra samples taken from:

	Red Dwarf series II	(Queeg)
 				(Stasis Leak)
	Red Dwarf series IV	(White Hole)
	Red Dwarf series V	(Quarantine)
	Blackadder series II	(Head)
				(Money)
	Blackadder series IV	(General Hospital)
				(Goodbyeee)
	'Gimme The Prize' By Queen
and
	Numerous Noisetracker modules
	STOS Maestro samples disk


1.  Introduction

    Chaos is a game of  magical combat between  2 to 8  wizards in an
arena.  Each takes turns to select  and cast spells and move summoned
creatures.  The winner is the last wizard left alive,  but there is a
limit to the number  of game turns in  which to acheive victory,  and
the contest  could be drawn.   Playing time varies  from five minutes
(with two wizards) to half an hour (with eight wizards).

2.  Creating your wizards

    Each wizard must be assigned a name and a graphic.   The name can
be up to twelve characters long, but must be at least one letter long
and cannot start with a space.  Any or all of the wizards can be com-
puter controlled, and each computer can have a seperate level between
1 and 8 (8 being hardest), which governs how strong the wizard is.
    Simply pressing  enter for the  name of the wizard  will assign a
random name from the many names stored in memory.
    Pressing  Q at the  computer  controlled or  graphic prompt  will
return to the game  to the title screen.   Also, pressing R at either
of the above prompts will return to the name entering for the current
wizard.

3.  Selecting a spell

    During this  phase each  wizard must  select which spell  he will
cast (if any).  There are 4 options available to every wizard.
    These are:

1.  Examine a spell
     Select a spell from the list and you are given details about it.

2.  Select a spell
     Select which  spell to cast during the  following turn.   If you
    select a  monster spell,  you will be required to choose if it is
    an illusion or not (see below).

3.  Examine the board
     Move the cursor around the board using the standard keys (below)
    and 0 to exit.

4.  Continue with game


Standard keys for cursor movement:

	Q W E
	 \|/ 	I : Info on current square
	A-*-D
	 /|\
	Z X C

    Some foreign keyboard layouts do not  have these keys in the same
position,  so you can  also use the  keys around  5 on the  keypad to
acheive the same effect.   In this case,  5 replaces  S as the select
key.
 
4.  Placing spells on the board

    At the bottom  of the screen is  shown the name of a wizard,  the
spell to be cast,  and the range  from the wizard  at which it can be
cast (going diagonally costs 1.5 movement points).
    Use the  cursor  movement keys  (above) to  select the  space you
want, and press S to cast the spell. Press K or 0 to abort the spell.

5.  Moving creatures

    Pressing f10  during either your move or the computer's move when
no creation is selected will abandon the current game.
    Press  1 to 8  to highlight  the respective  wizard's  creations.
Using the cursor,  select the creature  you wish to move.  Press S to
select,  or I for information.   Once selected,  the screen will tell
you the creature's movement points.
    Movement is acheived using the cursor keys.
    For flying creatures,  place the cursor  where you would like the
creature to move and press S.
    To attack another creature, move your  creature up next to it and
try to move  onto its square.   Some creatures have  ranged combat as
well as direct  combat  (e.g. an elf with a bow) and after moving (or
pressing K  to abort its movement),  you can place  the cursor on  an
enemy creature (within range) and fire at it by pressing S.
    Pressing K aborts  a creature's movement,  and can be used before
or during movement.  K also aborts ranged fire.
    When you have moved all the creatures you wish to, press 0 to end
your turn.

6.  More about spells
a.  Law and Chaos
	  All spells are either lawful,  chaotic or neutral.  This is
	shown on the spell menu by the following symbols.

			^ Lawful
			* Chaotic
			- Neutral

	  Casting  chaos spells  makes the universe more  chaotic and
	the reverse  applies  for law  spells.   Chaos spells  become
	easier to cast in a  chaotic universe,  and law spells easier
	in a lawful universe.   The state of the universe is shown on
	the main menu under the wizard's name e.g.

			(CHAOS **)

b.  Reality and Illusion
	  Each spell has only a specific chance of being cast succes-
	sfully, ranging from 100% for a giant rat to 10% for a golden
	dragon.  The more  powerful the spell,  the lower the chance.
	However, creature spells can be automatically cast as illusi-
	ons but may then be disbelieved,by use of a Disbelieve spell.

c.  Properties of creature spells
	  The spells on the  menu are printed in  various colours to
	indicate how easy they are to cast,  the brighter the colour,
	the easier to cast. To find out more about a particular spell
	press the letter of the spell (on examine spell mode only) or
	I in the game which will give you the following information:

	COMBAT:			Offensive power
	RANGED COMBAT, RANGE:	Some creatures have ranged combat
	DEFENCE:		Defensive power
	MOVEMENT ALLOWANCE:	Number of  spaces it can move  in one
				turn.
	MANOEUVRE RATING:	Ability to disengage from an enemy.
	MAGIC RESISTANCE:	How good it is at, wait for it, resi-
				sting magic.
	CASTING CHANCE:		Guess!

	OTHER CHARACTERISTICS:
	  Some crestures have special characteristics which are prin-
	ted below its name.  These are:

	FLYING		The creature can fly
	MOUNT		The creature can be ridden
	UNDEAD		These can  only be  attacked by other undead,
			spells or wizards  with magical weapons.

d.  Other spells

	(LOS) means the wizard  needs to have a  line of sight to the
	target square.

DISBELIEVE:  All wizards have this spell.   If you suspect a creature
	to be an illusion, then this spell will automatically succeed
	if you are right  and fail if you  are wrong.  It will always
	remain in your spell list.

CHAOS 1&2, LAW 1&2:  These spells  simply alter  the balance  of  the
	universe.

GOOEY BLOB (LOS):  The gooey blob cannot be cast on another creature.
	Once cast it will spread,  engulfing  enemy creatures but not
	affecting  yours.   Creatures  engulfed do  not die,  but are
	trapped until the blob holding them is killed.

MAGIC FIRE (LOS):  The magic fire cannot be cast on another creature.
	Once cast it will spread,  destroying enemy creatures but not
	affecting yours.

MAGIC WOOD (LOS):  Up to 8 magic woods will spring up around you. Any
	wizard may enter  a tree,  and there is a  chance of  gaining
	extra spells from them.

SHADOW WOOD (LOS):  You can  place up  to 8 trees  provided they  are
	placed in empty spaces and are  not adjacent to another tree.
	These trees can be selected as though a creature. They cannot
	move but can attack creatures next to them.

MAGIC CASTLE / DARK CITADEL (LOS):
	These must be cast in an empty space.  The casting wizard can
	enter the castle or citadel.  They are impregnable to attack,
	but don't last forever!!

WALL (LOS):  You can  place 4  walls in empty  spaces.   Nothing  can
	enter or move through a wall.

MAGIC SWORD/KNIFE/BOW:  These affect  a wizard's  combat power:   the
	sword adding 4,  the knife 2,  and  the bow  giving a  ranged
	combat  option.  You cannot have  the sword and  knife at the
	same time.

MAGIC ARMOUR/SHIELD:  These  affect a wizard's  defense rating:   the
	armour adding 4,  the shield 2.   You cannot  possess both at
	the same time.

SHADOW FORM:  This make the wizard  semi-visible and fleet,  adding 3
	to defence, increasing movement  to 3 and allowing the wizard
	to move freely  without becoming engaged,  but if the  wizard
	attacks anything, these effects disappear.

MAGIC WINGS:  This spell transforms the wizard into a flying creature
	with range 6.

TELEPORT (LOS):  This spell moves  the wizard across the  board,  but
	takes  more time  than any other spell,  so the wizard cannot
	then move.   You can  only land in  an empty square  or  on a
	corpse.

MAGIC BOLT/LIGHTNING (LOS):  These are both  ranged physical  attacks
	of magical origin.  Lightning has a shorter range but is more
	powerful.

VENGEANCE/JUSTICE/DARK POWER/DECREE:
	  For these spells, pinpoint an enemy creature or wizard with
	the cursor and press S.   If the target is a creature, it may
	die,  depending on its  magic  resistance;  if a wizard, then
	their creations  may all vanish.   Decree and Dark Power give
	three attacks, Justice and Vengeance both give just one.

SUBVERSION (LOS):  This  spell  tries to  change  a creature  to your
	side.  The lower its magic resistance, the better the  chance
	of it defecting.  You cannot subvert a  mount being ridden or
	an illusion.

RAISE DEAD (LOS):  You must select a corpse for this spell to act on,
	if successful,  it reanimates as an UNDEAD creature, behaving
	as any other UNDEAD,but retaining its other skills.

MUTATE (LOS):  This spell will  mutate a creation  into another form,
	gaining all the abilities of this new form and retaining none
	of its old abilities.  If this spell is cast at an undead, it
	will mutate into another undead. This spell's success depends
	on the magic resistance of the target.   Illusions and mounts
	being ridden are immune to this spell.

TURMOIL & TEMPEST:  These spells cause huge  amounts of disruption to
	the arena by randomly swapping the positions of creatures and
	wizards.  Use carefully.


THIS PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN IN 2 WEEKS, and was assembled from over 140K
of source code.  There are 54 samples (including the one in the load-
er) taking up about 700K of memory.

Version 1.1 was completed on 8th January, 1993.  It fixes the engaged
bug and adds in randomly assigned names,  the ability to quit a game,
to re-enter a name and keypad movement for foreign keyboards.


I hope you enjoy this game.

Martin Brownlow
(11:54 pm Friday, 11 September 1992)

See you again soon!

Hi! to:

Steve "The BSc" Camber
Daniel Marc "With a C" Littlewood
Duncan "No sharp objects" Robertson
Richard "Ringo" Clements
"Grave" Dave Gymer
"Captain" Kirk Jackson
Adam "Put this spell in" Turnbull

And anyone who's ever played and enjoyed one of my games!


Other games by me for the ST:

ABOMBINABALL (written in STOS)
GRAV
GRAV 2 (Shareware, available from LAPD)
GEMS
TANX
GRAV BATTLES

Games under construction

SPUD (cute platform game)
"ROTO" (one step better than rotoscape)
DERELICT (Captive x Bloodwych x Dungeon Master)
ABOMBINABALL (Assembly version)
GRAV 3 (as in ALIEN 3)