@database "Ooze Instructions" @master "Ooze Instructions" @node Main "Ooze Instructions" THE SYNDICATE presents... An Amiga-Only game by Josh Farley... Theme by Chuck Hooten ---OOZE--- Version 2 AGA ©1995 Ooze is a SHAREWARE product. This unregistered version is copyright, and may be distributed freely. If you enjoy Ooze, and would like to play the complete version, please refer to the REGISTERING portion of this document for details... Table of Contents BEFORE PLAYING: @{"Introduction" link Introduction} @{"Installing" link Installation} @{"System Requirements" link "System Requirements"} @{"ToolTypes" link "ToolTypes"} THE GAME: @{"Controls" link Controls} @{"Rules" link Rules} @{"Ratings" link Ratings} @{"Making Boards" link "Making Boards"} POST GAME: @{"Registering" link "Registering"} @{"The Future" link "The Future"} @{"Other Projects" link "Other Projects"} @{"History" link History} @{"Credits" link Credits} @endnode @node "Introduction" StarDates: 2561-2642 The galaxy has opened up for those species that have mastered methods of interstellar travel. As systems far outside the previous limit of travel became accessible, species discovered new wonders, and each other. By far the greatest wonder of them all is the Ooze. It is a priceless wonder; an exceptionally powerful fuel, an incredibly long-lasting energy source, and an edible, healthy food source that could sustain entire colonies for weeks with a single teaspoonful. It makes a lovely pet, is completely flame-retardant, and gives a perfect haircut every time. It quickly became the most important substance in the galaxy, used in everything from light industry to interstellar engines to fast-food "near-beef". Those who control the Ooze, control the galaxy. The Ooze was discovered on a small moon very near to the center of the galaxy. In a move of brilliant diplomacy, the leaders of the starfaring species agreed to make access to the Ooze free to all, with amounts given to each species, distributed according to height. Business found a loophole, however. Multi-species conglomerates found that they could acquire amounts of Ooze from each species' quota, and in so doing, corner the market and control the value of the Ooze. Instead of the Ooze being available to all, it became a commodity worth more than the lives of those who used it, far surpassing the previous top product: cow-pies, which were in a tragic confusion of translation confused by most non-humans to be an extraordinarily abundant and cheap food source. Three things prevent the Ooze from being mined in amounts that would make it plentiful, and valueless. The first is an ecological treaty, preventing Ooze from being harvested in amounts greater than its ability to replenish itself. The second reason has more teeth: the moon of Ooze sits in the middle of an impossibly dense nebula. The nebula has only one clear, safe path from the moon to the rest of the galaxy, and thus a great bottleneck of starships entering and exiting the "Golden Road" has become a limiting factor on the exploitation of the Ooze. The third reason has confounded all: the Ooze tends to seep through the hands of those harvesting it. Despite numerous attempts by explorers to navigate an alternate pathway to and from the Ooze, and innumerable tries by scientists to encourage the Ooze to grow elsewhere, the moon of Ooze within the Golden Nebula, dangerously close to the galactic core, with its single entry and exit, remains the only spot in the galaxy to acquire the greatest treasure of all time. StarDate: 2642-Present As will eventually happen wherever traffic is great, unnecessarry roadwork is called for frequently, and a pit stop developed at the entry to the Golden Road. The Oozeway, as the station quickly became known, has become a great meeting place and cultural exchange for all species who need the Ooze. It is a perfect place to perform spot inspections, and the United Planets have taken advantage of the opportunity to properly police the harvesting of the Ooze; at least with those carriers that have not contributed directly to the policeman's ball. But all at the Oozeway is not peace and love, or even order and justice. Many of the harvesters of the Ooze are little more than mercenaries and pirates, who found the Ooze to be a more profitable and less dangerous living than their previous careers. These people created a market for the less honorable practices aboard the Oozeway, the most popular of these is gambling... Make that the second most popular activity... These mercenaries, especially those leaving the nebula, have very little of value to gamble with, and monetary exchange rates between many species have yet to be established. Body parts were used in trade for a short time, but only the very best gamblers could afford to play for longer than a few hours. But there is one commodity that all species at the station have in common; one thing that they all have, and that they all want more of: the Ooze. One game emerged as the platform of choice for wagering insane amounts of this very precious substance. This game rewards thought, encourages foresight, and best of all, concludes rapidly; allowing much more Ooze to be wagered than a slower game of skill. Another advantage is that the game uses the Ooze itself as playing pieces, requiring that each player have the goods he wishes to wager in hand at the commencement of the game. By prodding the Ooze with small electrodes, players encourage it to ooze, leap, and influence color changes in the opponent's Ooze. As millions look on, the ultimate in high-stakes gambling takes place, with the winnings of a single match representing months of hard work, unknown numbers of lives lost, and the well-being of entire species; much like politics. And thousands of matches take place aboard the Oozeway in each Earth day. This game of skill once had a different name, but now it is known simply as... OOZE. @endnode @node "Installation" Ooze can be installed simply by un-lha'ing it's archive. Ooze will magically appear where you want it. There are no assigns, fonts, or libraries required to run Ooze. To un-install Ooze (Why?), simply delete its' directory. If you have a mod-style song that you would prefer to use instead of the OozeTheme, simply copy the song into the Sound directory, and rename it as "OozeTheme.mod". If you choose to change themes, it is recommended that you store a spare copy of the original OozeTheme in a safe place, in case the song you select is not of the version3 med standard, or the song you select uses up more chipram than you have available. @endnode @node "System Requirements" REQUIRED: AGA Amiga (or perhaps some 24-bit cards) 1,500k free Chip Ram 250k free Fast or Chip Ram If you play Ooze from floppy, the disk MUST be write-enabled for the game to function properly... Hard drive installation, multi-tasking, and file compression are all available to those users with enough memory to take advantage of them... @endnode @node "ToolTypes" The Ooze icon now contains two ToolTypes for setting some start-up preferences. They are: CLOSEWB= YES or NO : If set to YES, Ooze will shut down the WorkBench, freeing up some Chip Ram. SCREENMODE= : The hex value of the Screen Mode you wish Ooze to use. @endnode @node "Controls" Nearly all functions in Ooze are controlled with the mouse. OPTIONS: @{"Human/Computer" link "Human - Computer"} @{"Name" link Name} The -QUIT- button will exit Ooze. The -PLAY- button will enter the game. To push the Ooze screen to the back (multi-task), click in the extreme upper-right hand corner of the screen, in either the Options screen, or in the game itself. GAME: To select one of your pieces to move, click upon it, and it should turn silver. To move, just click where you want the piece to move. If the move was legal, the piece will move appropriately, and it will become the other player's turn. The color of the mouse indicates whose turn it is. @endnode @node "Rules" The rules of Ooze are fairly simple. When it is your turn, you select a piece to move, and move it either one or two squares away. If you move one square, then the original piece can ooze, and stays where it is. If you move two squares away, then the original piece must leap, and moves from its original location to the square you selected. At that point, any surrounding pieces belonging to the opponent are turned into your pieces, and it becomes the other player's turn. Turns go on until all squares are full, and the player with the greatest number of pieces is the winner. If these instructions are in any way unclear, give the game a play or two, and the rules should be easily picked up as you go. @endnode @node "Ratings" The ratings system implemented within Ooze is a fairly complex one, underneath its' transparent surface. The player's wins and losses ratio is taken into account, as well as the quality of his opponent, and the quantity by which he won. What it amounts to is this: to gain a higher rating, a player must play other players with high ratings, defeat them, and win by a large number of pieces. Any of the three above requirements will raise your rating. Losing to a high-quality opponent will often raise your rating by more points than defeating a low-quality foe. The Hi-Scores board, displayed if no clicks of the mouse are made for a set amount of time, will display the top ratings of all human players recorded in Ooze. @endnode @node "Making Boards" The Board Maker utility is fairly simple to use. To add a block, where pieces cannot be moved, left click on the place you want the block. To remove a block, right click on it. Pressing the -l- key will bring up a requester that allows you to load in previously made boards for editing. Pressing the -s- key brings up a similar requester for saving your board. Pressing the -q- key at any time will quit the board editor. The Board Maker is fully functional as of version 2, and will now automatically add your board to the list that Ooze uses to choose boards from... If for any reason you wish to delete a board, you can do so without worry; Ooze will not try to load in a board that does not exist. @endnode @node "Human - Computer" This button sets whether the player will be controlled by a person or by the computer, allowing you to select 1-player vs the computer, 2-player, or computer vs computer games. @endnode @node "Name" If the player is controlled by a person, then this button will bring up a requester, asking you to enter a new name for the player. Type in text only, and press -Return- to accept the name. If the name has been used before, the player's statistics will be shown as well. If the name is new, a new player will be initiated. If the player is controlled by the computer, then this button cycles through the available computer players, and causes their statistics to be displayed. @endnode @node "Registering" The registered version of Ooze saves player rankings. Ooze is available for: US orders -> $10 International orders -> $15 Please specify that you want Ooze. Josh Farley 43 La Placita Way Chico, CA 95928 @endnode @node "The Future" Possible future enhancements include: Character images and animations for computer players Password protection for players In-game music A low-memory workbench version More computer players Modem play Any feasible user-suggested improvements If any bugs are found in Ooze, please report them. Bugfixes, if needed, will definitely be performed. Any bugs, or ideas for improvements to Ooze are greatly appreciated, and can be sent to: Josh Farley 43 La Placita Way Chico, CA 95928 @endnode @node "Other Projects" Well, there's TeleTerm, my shareware Terminal program... Features: XEM support XPR support Internal multi-tasking of windows Faster interleaved bitmaps for smooth scrolling (OS 3.x) Public screen, so other programs can open on TeleTerm's screen Can open on the WorkBench Numerous visual controls, from ScreenMode to ScreenPens Low memory consumption (could theoretically run in 512k) 60 user-defined macros Highly detailed phonebook, including multi-line BBS support, and full preferences control for each entry Much, much more... Also well underway is a commercial venture into gaming entitled STALKORS. Stalkors is an isometric action/adventure game set on a space station where something has gone horribly wrong. Myself, as well as a trio of artists and a musician, are collaborating on this AGA-only, Amiga-only epic game. Features include: 512 colors on-screen fast & fluid animation numerous friends & enemies, items and weapons an extremely detailed plotline to keep the player occupied realistic lighting, smoke, and item interaction fully multi-tasking allows player to select memory usage & screen modes for the game A demo of Stalkors will be available soon, and I can be reached for answers to questions related to any of my projects. @endnode @node "History" Version 1a - Original shareware version. Version 1b - Original registered version. Added keyfile. Added computer players Sloppimus and Bloodsucker. Added fourteen new boards, and included demo version of BoardMaker utility. Added two-player game. Added saving of high scores. Version 2 - Made starting player random. Upgraded graphics (ECS). Changed computer player Bloodsucker to Leech because of name length restraints (ECS). Made "Ooze" effect and name color cycle (ECS). Upgraded Boardmaker and created file "BoardList" which contains the filenames of all available boards, so user-made boards can now be used. Changed opening window graphics. Changed title screen graphics. Made cursor more visible in requestors. Fixed display bug in HiScores screen (ECS). Added busypointer routine. HiScores file structure altered. Added tooltypes. @endnode @node "Credits" All code, graphics, sound, and music are the product of Josh Farley and are copyrighted ©1995. The Commodore Installer and AmigaGuide are the product of Commodore. Development Tools: Amiga 1200 by Commodore Business Machines DSS8+ by Great Valley Products Blitz Basic 2 by Acid Software Brilliance by Digital Creations Deluxe Paint 4 by Electronic Arts Octamed Professional 4 by Teijo Kinnunen @endnode