| 1 | June 25, 1986 |
| 2 | |
| 3 | |
| 4 | This is a much modified version of Phantasia. It is intended to fix |
| 5 | all reported bug fixes, enhance the game, and speed up the game. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | I have to thank Chris Robertson for many ideas which have made the game |
| 8 | faster, and more user-friendly. Most of her changes/additions are |
| 9 | incorporated in this latest versions, although perhaps not in the exact |
| 10 | manner of her design. I left out a few items which were not in keeping |
| 11 | with the spirit of the game. (For example, I didn't like the extra lives |
| 12 | and the pausing of the game. I think it's too easy even WITHOUT that stuff.) |
| 13 | |
| 14 | CHANGES: |
| 15 | |
| 16 | - Wormholes have been deleted (I never liked them anyway). |
| 17 | - The source code has been greatly enhanced for speed, size, readability, |
| 18 | and maintainability. |
| 19 | fight.c should no longer cause optimizers to run out of space. |
| 20 | - A few loopholes have been tightened to make the game more enjoyable. |
| 21 | (Except for those who are in the habit of exercising those loopholes.) |
| 22 | - Chris' map is enclosed. |
| 23 | - The "charac" file is not compatible with older versions of Phantasia |
| 24 | (3.3.1 and 3.3.1+). A 'convert' program is provided to convert your |
| 25 | old file to the new format. See Makefile for details. |
| 26 | - Movements can be made with HJKL for WSNE, respectively. |
| 27 | - Players may examine others while playing ('x') option. |
| 28 | - Monsters are now stored in a binary data base, to speed calling |
| 29 | monsters, and to ease formatting of monster listings. |
| 30 | - Taxes are collected on all gold and gems. |
| 31 | - Dead players can be resurrected by the 'wizard'. |
| 32 | - 'setup' is smarter, although not as smart as it should be. |
| 33 | - Players can change their names and passwords |
| 34 | |
| 35 | PORTABILTY: |
| 36 | |
| 37 | I have tried to make this as non-machine/system specific as possible. |
| 38 | |
| 39 | All identifiers are unique to 7 characters or less, dual case. |
| 40 | |
| 41 | The code WILL NOT fit on a 16-bit machine without separate I/D. |
| 42 | |
| 43 | Stdio MUST support fopen() with mode "r+". I think this is true |
| 44 | for all Version 7 and later. |
| 45 | |
| 46 | 'curses' library functions are required. |
| 47 | |
| 48 | All problems/solutions with portability should be reported to me, |
| 49 | and fixes will be included in subsequent versions of this software. |
| 50 | |
| 51 | |
| 52 | Please send me any bugs, (of which I am sure there are many), you may find, |
| 53 | but PLEASE be specific. I cannot correct a bug which is described as: |
| 54 | |
| 55 | "When I choose a character type, it blows up." |
| 56 | |
| 57 | (What blows up? What exactly was printed at the terminal? |
| 58 | Which character type was chosen? Etc. . . ?) |
| 59 | |
| 60 | Also, please tell me which version of UN*X you are running, and upon |
| 61 | which type of hardware. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | I will also do my best to help anyone with problems just trying to |
| 64 | get the game running. Again, I need to know which version of UN*X |
| 65 | and what type of CPU. Also, a copy of the output from 'make' |
| 66 | would be extremely useful. |
| 67 | |
| 68 | Any and all ideas/suggestions/additions are more than welcome. If |
| 69 | you feel strongly enough about it, write the change and send it to me, |
| 70 | and I will do my best to incorporate it in the next version of Phantasia. |
| 71 | Otherwise, I will give serious thought to adding it myself. |
| 72 | |
| 73 | Follow the directions in the Makefile CAREFULLY to set up the game. |
| 74 | Read the comments at the beginning of 'main.c', if you haven't already. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | Enjoy. |
| 77 | |
| 78 | Ted Estes |
| 79 | AT&T Information Systems |
| 80 | Skokie, IL 60077 |
| 81 | |
| 82 | ...!ihnp4!ttrdc!ttrda!estes |