Hello and welcome to version 5.4 of Moria, the dungeon game of the century. This readme file will tell you what you need to know to run and play the game. First of all, this archive should contain the following files : DOC folder with : EXP.DOC manual addendum about experience points FEATURES.NEW differences between version 4.87 and 5.2 MORIA.TXT Moria manual SPELLS.DOC manual addendum about magical spells SPOILERS info about spells and wands FILES folder with : NEWS startup screen SCORES skeleton scores file ********.HLP help files MISC folder with : ENVIRON.PRG environment-setting program (see below) ENVIRON.DAT sample environment PFXPAK.PRG executable program packer (see below) OMEGA folder with : OMEGA.AD ad for the game Omega OMEGA.TXT information about Omega MORIA.TOS the game itself README.TXT this file CHANGES a file detailing the 5.4 (technical) changes INSTALLATION Moria will run on any Atari ST with 512 K or more in medium and high-res mode. High resolution is advised. On ST's with a small memory, you may have memory problems if you have too many accessories - you may need to remove some. Moria does not make use of larger screens or full-page monitors. Installation is simple : copy the game to any disk or folder and make sure that the FILES folder with contents is in the same folder as the game itself. Floppy users : to make things reasonably speedy, put both MORIA.TOS and the folder FILES in the root directory (A:\). Next, you may want to set the environment as explained below. This is not really needed, you can run the game now. No more installation is required. To get the best output speed, you may want to use a 'software blitter' program, such as NVDI, Turbo ST or Quick ST. These will help output speed on nearly all of your programs. If you have a shortage of harddisk space or if you are running Moria from floppy disk, you may want to compress the program MORIA.TOS with PFXPAK, as explained below. This will not lower memory requirements. STARTING TO PLAY THE GAME Moria is a complicated game. To fully understand it you will need to read the manual and play the game for many hours. However, starting to play the game is very easy. Just run the program MORIA.TOS and follow the directions it gives. You will have to answer several questions; for a first game, any answer will do. Soon you will see a map of the town level. There are two commands you can try out right now : ? and /. Typing ? will give you a help screen; typing / and any character explains just what that character stands for. An example : typing / and then @ will tell you that the @ character means you, the player. Just trying out some things will make the game a lot clearer to you. Just don't forget to read the manual at some time, however - you will need the information. ENVIRONMENT Moria makes use of so-called environment variables. These can be set from a shell or with an environment-setting program. An environment variable has a name in capitals and a string value. Moria makes use of four environment variables : MORIA_SAV, NAME, USER and SHELL. MORIA_SAV gives the name of the save file; default is MORIA.SAV NAME gives your name; typing when Moria asks you your name results in this value being filled in. USER is used if NAME is not specified; if USER is not given either, typing when your name is asked will result in your name being X. SHELL gives the name of your command-line shell. Typing ! when playing the game results in a shell escape. The MISC folder contains an environment-setting program and a demo environment. Put the program ENVIRON.PRG in your AUTO folder (make sure it's the last program there) and put ENVIRON.DAT in the root directory of the same disk. Edit the ENVIRON.DAT file as you like, but don't delete the first line, as that will give you many problems. As set up, the name is set to Conan, the save file to A:\CONAN.SAV and the shell to D:\SHELL.PRG. COMPRESSING THE PROGRAM In the MISC folder you will find a program called PFXPAK.PRG. This can be used to compress the program MORIA.TOS from 247 Kb to 145 Kb. This means loading time will be somewhat shorter; however, after loading the program will take some 5 seconds to uncompress. I therefore recommend using this program only if you run the program from floppy or if you're very short of space on your harddisk. Using the PFXPAK.PRG program is extremely easy: start the program, click on button 'Compress', select the file MORIA.TOS, wait for a while, type the name of the compressed program (both versions will fit on a single disk), and that's all there is to it. Maybe some of your other programs may benefit as well... COPYRIGHT Moria is a public domain program. This means you are allowed to copy and distribute it as you like, as long as you don't remove the copyright notices. Source code (in C) is available from the makers (see the startup screen), from me (address below) and from many others. This version of Moria is based on the Moria 5.4 code and the curses library from : Rene van't Veen Debussystraat 27 1817 GL Alkmaar The Netherlands whom I do not personally know. Thanks, Rene. Many slight (and some major) modifications have been made. PROBLEMS There is a bug in the shell-escape routine which has as effect that scorefiles cannot be used after a shell-escape. This will not mess up your scorefile and the scorefile will function correctly the next time the program is run. The manual and help-files are incorrect in that typing % or CTRL-C when selecting class does not get you back to race selection. The 'Help' key gets you help; the 'Undo' key does the same as 'Escape'. This should be in the manual but is not. FINALLY All the good parts of this game have been done by the authors, specifically Robert A Koeneke and Jim Wilson. I am responsible for all remaining bugs. Please send your bug reports and comments to the makers or to me. Jim Wilson's e-mail address (Internet) is wilson@toad.com; my e-mail address is biersma@dutikos.tudelft.nl (please mention Moria in the message header); my real-world address is below. Don't hesitate to write to me: I like feedback and I have not yet been flooded with e-mail, so I have got time to answer all of you. However, when reporting bugs, please don't forget to mention the date of the version you have: I need that. As I will be supporting future versions of Moria, you can contact both the makers and me for the latest version. If you want me to send you the latest version binary or the source code of Moria, please send me a disk and return postage. A warning, though: source code is one megabyte, decompression and compilation requires a hard disk. This binary version is from Dec 8th, 1991. New versions should come out every few months or so. Changes from Moria 5.3.1 are in the CHANGES file. My address is : E-mail (Internet) : HPP Biersma biersma@dutikos.tudelft.nl Tollensstraat 138 [please mention Moria in 2513 GE Den Haag the message header] Holland (Europe). Good luck and enjoy the game !