Dungeon Explorer manual

                     Welcome to Dungeon Explorer.
======================================================================

Dungeon Explorer is a graphical role playing game. You create a
character, buy equipment and explore a dungeon or ruin. You must
defeat whatever monsters you encounter to gain experience and wealth,
causing your character to become more powerful and stronger.

But unlike most RPGs, Dungeon Explorer allows you to play a variety of
different adventures using the same game. Each adventure is stored
separately and as time passes, more adventures can be added and
played without having to upgrade the basic program. Dungeon Explorer
comes with a mini-adventure called Dungeon of the Beast which contains
64 rooms to explore (full adventures have 128 rooms). You may copy
it freely and are encouraged to give copies away. In this way you can
try out Dungeon Explorer for free and if you enjoy the game, you can
order some of the other full size adventures.

You begin the game by selecting the desired adventure from the ones
available to you. Then you must select the character to play. To
create a new character, you merely supply the name of one that does
not exist. The game will create the character and play will begin.

Once you have a character, the first order of business is to equip the
character with armor, weapons and other handy items. Since your
starting funds are limited, you must begin the adventure to find
gold and gain experience fighting monsters. With additional funds you
can buy healing and better weapons, which allow you to explore further
and further. As you progress you will find a number of puzzles and
devious traps. Not to fear. You may save your character to disk at
any time and in case of an untimely death, you can restart your
character where he was last saved.

Overall, the purpose of this game is to have fun. The game plays in
either 4 color CGA or 16 color EGA graphics and there are plenty of puzzles
to keep you busy. And or course, a variety of colorful monsters to hack and
slash. The only real goal of the game is to explore every room of the
adventure and return alive.

Rules
====================

In Dungeon Explorer, all characters start the same. You have a certain
number of hit points (Hits) that represent your life energy. When these
reach zero, your character is dead and you must restart him where he
was last saved.

All transactions take place at the Shops. There are six shops which
are grouped together and can be found in a variety of places. Each
shop is represented by a picture of the item it sells. To buy or trade
items at a shop, stand on the picture and press 'B' for buy, 'T' for
trade ins. Prices for items vary, but as a rule you get what you pay
for. The more it costs, the more powerful it is. Trade-ins allow you
to sell an item back to the shop for half of what you paid for it
(The market for used item is limited). In this way, as you gain more
wealth, you can upgrade you current items cheaply.

The shops are:

Weapons - Here are sold all available weapons. Since weapons cannot be
          found in the dungeon, you must buy them here. You will find
          a variety of normal and magic weapons (marked with a +).
          Any Magical weapon is better than the best non-magic weapon.

Armor   - Here are sold all the available armor for your character.
          Like weapons, magic armor is marked with a + and is always
          superior to normal armor.

Keys    - All doors in the adventure are locked. Each key will open
          only one door, so always stock up on keys. Never leave the
          shop with less than 10 keys. If you run out, you could
          become trapped in the dungeon. Keys cost 2 gold pieces.

Wands   - Wands are magic items that show you the location of most of the
          traps in a room. Like keys, each wand can only be used once,
          so always keep a bunch on hand. When a wand is used, roughly
          85% of the traps in the current room will be displayed.
          Using more wands will reveal more traps. A trap is displayed
          by highlighting the section of floor that will trigger the
          trap. It is up to you to figure out how to avoid it (if you can).
          You can buy wands for 5 gold pieces.

Potions - Potions are expensive items that will heal your hit points
          wherever you are. It is cheaper to heal yourself at the
          shops, but it is always good to carry a few potions for
          emergencies. Potions cost 50 gold pieces.

Healing - Healing is a shop that allows you to "buy" hit points.
          Unlike many games, you have an unlimited maximum of hits. If
          you have the money, you can buy 5000 hit points. (Though
          this is unlikely). The price is 1 gold piece per hit point.

Commands
====================

Use the arrow keys to move your character around.

To execute a command, you merely press a single key. Some commands
need you to supply the direction of the action (like Jump). On the
bottom right of your screen you will see a directional indicator. When
a direction is needed, the word 'Dir ?' will appear in red. Just press
the arrow key of the desired direction.

For convenience, certain commonly used instructions (Kill Monster, Get
Chest, Open Door, Push Block) are arranged to work with a single key.
To attack a monster, just walk into him. The same applies to getting a
chest, pushing a block or opening a door. Just walk into it. (But
remember you need a key to open a door).

Finally, note that at any point in the game, you can get a list of the
commands by hitting the H key (for Help).

Available commands :

A (Armor)  - This key will cycle through all the armor you possess.
             Press A until the armor you want to wear is displayed on
             the screen.

W (Weapon) - Like Armor, this key will select the weapon you wish to
             use.

E (Enter)  - This allows you to enter any vessels you find (Ships and
             Boats). You must enter a ship before you can use it.

X (eXit)   - This allows you to exit any vessels you are riding in.

K (Kill)   - This lets you attack monsters. This is the same as
             walking into them, but also works with long range weapons
             (like Bows).

F (Fire)   - This fires a ship's cannon. All vessels have cannons which
             are a powerful weapon against monsters.

J (Jump)   - The command allows you to jump over one square. Great for
             avoiding traps or crossing water. Also can be used to
             outrun monsters.

L (Look)   - This lets you identify an object. Sometimes this can
             provide useful information.

C (Climb)  - This command lets you climb up or down stairs.

S (Search) - This allows you to search special items for treasure. The
             only items that can be searched are Bones, Bodies and
             Coffins. Use the look command to identify which is which.

R (Reveal) - This command uses a wand to reveal most of the traps in
             the current room.

D (Drink) - This lets you drink a healing potion.

Z (Zave)  - This saves you character. It is good practice to save your
            character frequently since the dungeons are usually
            pretty dangerous.

Q (Quit)  - This ends your current session with Dungeon Explorer. Note:
            This DOES NOT save your character. You must use the Zave
            command to do that. So be careful to save your character
            before you Quit or all your latest actions will be lost.

! (Ahh!)  - This is a special emergency escape key. If you have become
            trapped in the dungeon (maybe you ran out of keys) you can
            teleport back to the first room with this key. However, the
            price is high. If you use this, ALL monsters in the entire
            dungeon will reset and will have to be re-killed to get back
            where you were. So use only in emergencies. (Unless you really
            love to hack-and-slash).

Various Objects
====================

You will find a variety of objects as you travel through the dungeon.
Here is a list of more common ones:

Force Field - This is normally an impassable wall, but there are
              ways of getting through it.

Void        - This is a bottomless pit. If the distance is small, you
              might Jump over it.

Lava        - This is nasty stuff. To step on lava means instant
              death.

Ship        - One of a variety of vessels, it will enable you to cross
              large bodies of water.

Bones       - The remains of previous adventurers. Sometimes hold gold
              and items.

Bodies      - Like bones only not so old.

Coffins     - Stone boxes with the remains of ancient warriors.
              Sometimes contain gold.

Chests      - Containers of gold. Usually guarded by monsters or
              traps.

Blocks      - These blue blocks are made of light sandstone and can be
              pushed. Be careful ! These are often arranged in clever
              puzzles which can trap you !

Glass Walls - These devious objects appear invisible and can often be
              used to trap or mislead.

Statues     - Man shaped works of art that will often shoot missiles
              or flames.

Altars      - Usually bad news. These will often shoot flames or
              fireballs.

Secret Door - Watch for that which looks like a wall but isn't.
              Usually leads to treasure and valuable items.

Windows 3.0 Users
====================

Dungeon Explorer is not written for Windows 3.0, but it can be played from
it (as a DOS program). For this purpose I have included an icon you can
use to represent the game. To use this icon instead of the DOS icon,
go to the Program Manager, pull down the File menu and select the
Properties item. Click on Change Icon and type EXPLORER.ICO in the
box. Include the path name if necessary. (C:\EXPLORER\EXPLORER.ICO
if the icon is in a directory called C:\EXPLORER for example).

Order Information
====================

If you have tried out the mini-adventure and have enjoyed it, you can
order another in the series. Each adventure costs $10.00 and can be
mailed to you First Class or perhaps sent to you electronically. In
addition to your order, you will automatically receive any upgrades
to the basic program free of charge.

Currently there are two adventures in the series :

The Dark Pyramid
The City of the Dead (available March 1, 1991)

The Dungeon Explorer series is available only for IBM PCs or
compatibles. They require 128K of memory and an CGA or EGA graphics
adapter.

Please specify which adventure you would like and type of disk (if
applicable) you would like the adventure to be on (5.25 or 3.5 floppies).

Please send all orders to:

John Murphy
P.O. Box 1352
Morgantown, WV. 26507

I can also be reached through CompuServe, ID# 71161,2030 if you have
any questions or complaints.