2003-09-19 Welcome to the ALTERNATE REALITY FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FAQ version 2.0 (beta) -covering everything about and around the games- by Robert Hagenström r o b e r t @ a t a r i . o r g http://w1.214.telia.com/~u21405572/alternate-reality/ Alternate Reality: The City and Alternate Reality: The Dungeon are copyright Philip Price. Alternate Reality is a registered trademark (in the United States) of Paradise Programming, Inc. THIS FAQ MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED ANYWHERE BUT ON THE WEBSITE WWW.GAMWFAQS.COM AND ON ITS HOMEPAGE AS WRITTEN IN THE HEADING OF THIS DOCUMENT. PERMISSION TO PRINT THE DOCUMENT FOR PERSONAL USE IS HEREBY GIVEN. THE CONTENTS OF THIS FAQ MAY NOT BE USED, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, WITHOUT EXPLICIT PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR (OR IN THE CASE OF A SECTION WRITTEN BY SOMEONE ELSE, AS STATED, PERMISSION HAS TO BE GRANTED BY THAT PERSON). ~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~` CONTENTS -------- 0. Revision History 1. How to read this FAQ! 2. Introduction 2.1 What is AR? 2.1.1 What is The City? 2.1.2 What is The Dungeon? 2.2 About the authors of the games 2.3 The history of the games 2.4 The complete plans for AR 3. Playing the games 3.1 General tips for The City 3.1.1 Combat, experience and levels 3.1.2 List of monsters 3.2 General tips for The Dungeon 3.2.1 Walkthrough for The Dungeon 3.2.2 Rumors heard in The Dungeon 3.3 Using Emulators to play the games 3.3.1 About rom images 3.3.2 Regarding disk images 3.3.3 Rundowns on the different emulators 3.3.4 The IBM PC version of The City 4. Items, locations and other things 4.1 Items in The City 4.1.1 Clothes 4.1.2 Food and Drinks 4.1.3 Weapons and Armour 4.1.4 Treasure 4.2 Items in The Dungeon 4.2.1 Treasure 4.2.2 One-of-a-kind Items 4.3 Establishments in The City 4.3.1 Taverns 4.3.2 Inns 4.3.3 Banks 4.3.4 Guilds 4.3.5 Healers 4.3.6 Smiths 4.3.7 Shops 4.3.8 Other locations 4.4 Locations in The Dungeon 4.4.1 Guilds 4.4.2 Fountains 4.4.3 Transporters 4.4.4 Other Special Locations 4.4.5 Special Areas 5. Secrets and cheats 5.1 Secret Codes in The City 5.2 Secret Codes in The Dungeon 5.2.1 Secret Items in The Dungeon 5.3 Cheating with the Emulators 5.3.1 Manipulating The City 5.3.2 Manipulating The Dungeon 5.4 Secret messages in the games 5.5 Hidden trivia and annotations 6. Miscellanious AR questions 6.1 What is the current legal status of AR? 6.2 What or who is Xebec? 6.3 What are the Deathtraps? 6.4 What is this 'secret area' in The City? 6.5 How do you raise your alignment in The City? 6.6 How do you raise/lower your alignment in The Dungeon? 6.7 How do you kill the Great Wyrm? 6.8 What can I do about the Devourer? 6.9 Has the Enchantress any really significant use? 6.10 I remember FBI Agents in The Dungeon? 6.11 What does 'you are TOAST level 1.1' mean in The Dungeon? 6.12 What is this AMP engine? 6.13 What AR artifacts exists? 6.14 Are there any AR-like games today? 6.15 Why is the movie The Matrix so similar to AR? 7. Other sources of AR information 7.1 The Alternate Reality Mailing List 7.2 #alternate-reality on IRC 7.3 Other AR pages on the web 8. Appendix 8.1 Reference card for The City 8.2 Reference card for The Dungeon 8.3 The letter from Trilog 8.4 Complete lyrics for all songs 8.5 A letter from Gary Gilbertson 9. Special Thanks & Credits 10. Last Notes ~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~` -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 0. REVISION HISTORY -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= You can always get the latest version of this FAQ at its home location, as printed on the top of this document. v2.0 19/09/03 "Beta" release due to the long waiting period. Too many updates to list. v1.4 15/11/02 Small updates here and there, most notably to emulator and game reviews. v1.3 31/03/02 Another rather large update. Updates everywhere and new sections to read. v1.2.1 24/09/01 New AR trivia section (5.5) and a little version numbering change. v1.2 22/02/01 MASSIVE update (pretty much to all sections) which broke the 200k barrier!!! v1.103 21/02/01 Added a small section about the PC version of The City (3.3.4). v1.102 17/10/00 Updated some emulator reviews (3.3.3) and the history of the games (2.3). v1.101 27/09/00 New Mailing List info (last time, hopefully)! v1.1 06/07/00 * Added section with secret messages from both the games (5.4). * Added an overheard rumors section for The Dungeon (3.2.2). * Cleaned up and corrected small infobits here and there. v1.093 02/06/00 Added new AR Mailing List info and new download locations for files. v1.092 21/03/00 Added a new ftp location (many thanks to Robert Cortese for the space)! v1.091 09/03/00 Corrected some of the credits found in the different sections. v1.09 06/02/00 Removed more Dungeon spoilers for future restructuring of the FAQ. v1.08 06/02/00 Lots of small infobits dug up from old mail, added credits in text. v1.07 31/01/00 C64 AR emulated for the very first time. Read all about it in section 3.3! v1.06 08/11/99 Added question 6.4 "How do you raise your alignment in The City?" v1.05 21/04/99 Updated the emulation review section with the new WinUAE release. v1.04 31/01/99 * New mailing list email, and corrected majordomo-command errors. * Added preliminary memory locations for The City. * Added price list for food and drinks for all Taverns (City). * Removed all the NEW: tags (since they weren't new anymore). v1.03 20/11/98 Had an extensive online chat session with the man, Philip Price himself and was able to update several sections! Search for NEW: to find them. v1.02 01/11/98 Found that all the Transporter coordinates were reversed and fixed it. v1.01 30/08/98 Removed a huge Dungeon spoiler, got a new provider and put the FAQ online! v1.00 16/08/98 Finally! All (well, almost all anyway) sections are in place! More soon... v0.9f 16/05/98 Uploaded a preliminary update due to the long wait for a final version. v0.9e 06/05/98 New sections and new and more detailed lists. v0.9d 22/04/98 Spellchecked the entire FAQ and made minor updates here and there. v0.9c 21/04/98 Rewrote some old item/location lists and added some new ones. v0.9b 19/04/98 Added some notices and requests for info where it was needed. v0.9a 03/03/98 Added preliminary lists of all items found in The City. v0.8b 20/02/98 Added new PacifiST and City v1.2 info, check it out! v0.8a 05/02/98 Added two new sections describing in detail The City and The Dungeon. v0.7a 04/02/98 Finished the emulator section with Atari ST, C64 and Apple II emus. v0.6a 08/01/98 * Added reviews for some Amiga emulators. * Waiting for new version of PacifiST to review (along with WinSTon). * Waiting for info on a possible working AR C64 disk image! v0.5a 10/12/97 I cleared up a serious problem regarding Emus, and rewrote some reviews. v0.4b 09/12/97 Corrected and updated some information on Xl-it and Rainbow. v0.4a 04/12/97 Added some Atari 8-bit Emulator information. v0.3a 26/11/97 General Tips sections complete, solution for The Dungeon was added. v0.2a 20/11/97 Some articles are added and the structure is touched up a bit. v0.1a 16/11/97 Work on the FAQ begins, structure is laid out, not much information wise. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 1. HOW TO READ THIS FAQ! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Over the years (yes, the time flies...) the FAQ has evolved and while I've tried to keep it well structured and logical, it's not always as easy as it sounds. So, how should you go about finding information in this FAQ? Well, that depends on what you are looking for, if you've already played AR or not, and how much time you have to spare. If you have very little time, no matter if you know what AR is or not, I would recommend you to use the built in word search feature for the program you use to view this document. It's the fastest way to find information, and whether you are looking for information about "smithy" or, for example "emulators", you will (most likely) score some hits. The second fastest option is to browse by the numerical index in the beginning of this document. If you haven't played AR before, I'd recomment you to read the initial introductory sections to get a grip of what we are dealing with (and believe me, it's not easy in the beginning). If you are an experienced AR player, I'd still recommend you to read the first sections, along with the general tips sections, just to freshen your memory (and I might have snuck one or two things in there you didn't know about before too). The final and slowest way to read this FAQ is section by section. This will present you with very detailed information about almost every tiny detail involving the games. Whether or not you have played AR before, this is the way to get in-depth knowledge on how the game works (and pherhaps too much knowledge if you're not careful). Well, hope you'll get along with the FAQ after this, and if you have got any ideas or additional information, please contact me via the e-mail address at the top of this document. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 2. INTRODUCTION -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Right, this is the part where I present some vague history behind this FAQ and some other meaningless mumbo-jumbo (ie. this part is completely optional to read)... In 1993, when my school got its first Internet connection, I decided that I wanted to create a homepage. But I didn't want to put up some informative nonsense about myself, my pet or my family and other similar terribly interesting stuff. So I considered other things. I wanted to have a page that would be informative to others, but still fun for me to work with; pherhaps something to do with some hobby of mine, or something similar. I tried a page about music, and Terry Pratchett books, but those never got off my harddrive. Then I considered doing something about the Ultima games, something with alot of my own artwork in it, but I soon found out that I knew way too little about those games compared to what was already availible on the web. I think it wasn't until I found my first Atari emulator that I remembered that "gee, I know a hell of a lot about The City and The Dungeon", and there sure weren't any Alternate Reality pages out there that I had found, so that was what I was going to do. The page started off as a black and white little affair, with only a few tips and some hand drawn maps. Then I got contacted by Gary Gilbertson (who gave me Philip Price's email address, who I actually had to look up in the manual to understant who he was the first time) and then Ken Jordan also got in touch. They were extremely helpful and very nice to me in their letters (though I occasionally got a little carried away with my questions to them, which still happens on occasion, though). Anyway, the page now took off as The Original Alternate Reality Homepage, in full color and with new material from Philip Price, new music from Gary Gilbertson, and graphics and information from Ken Jordan (and from Dan Pinal as well eventually). Soon, I began hearing from fans too (more frequently than before) and I could even say that we had something of an active AR community going on there for awhile, which is still alive, I might happily add, though somewhat dormant. In 1996 however, my highschool days were over and the Swedish Airforce had found a place for me (mandatory service is required here in Sweden). I no longer had as much time to maintain the page, and the whole AR thing was no longer just about the games, but about the emulators, the mailing list, IRC, the new ARO game and lots of stuff about other things too (and the letters were increasing with lots of questions now, since the emulators had gotten so good that more and more people found the games playable on them). So I decided to write an FAQ. It took some time after the decision to actually get it going (I hadn't done anything like it before), but I was determined that all questions would be answered so I could get back to playing around with my page again. So, how did I do? 2.1 WHAT IS AR? --------------- Alternate Reality (or AR, for short) is a Computer Role Playing Game concept by Philip Price. The first, out of a series of totally seven planned games, was released in 1985 for the Atari 800 series of computers, as a first person, 3D, non-linear CRPG. "The AR concept is to have a virtual place to entertain yourself in and to explore, which should be as true to real life as possible." -PHILIP PRICE 2.1.1 WHAT IS THE CITY? ----------------------- Alternate Reality: The City, is the first ever released AR game. It was released in 1985 for Atari's 8-bit line of computers, and it was entirely coded by Philip Price; with music by Gary Gilbertson and graphics by Craig Skinner. It was the first in a series of a total of seven planned games. The City was an incredible piece of code, stretching the 48k availible to a maximum. It featured a smooth scrolling, texture mapped, 3D graphics engine (using a mirror effect to reduce CPU load; it only rendered the objects above the horizon, then mirrored them to the rest of the screen, which is also what's causing some of the strange effects seen in some emulators today), and rich 4 channel sound (using a music engine called AMP, Advanced Music Processor, which could synch events and sound, letting Gary Gilbertson compose lyrics which got highlited at the correct notes, something unique for a game, even today). Four channel sound was something unique for the Atari; the C64 had only three channels and so did the Atari ST (it wasn't until the Amiga and PC that four and more channels were availible again). But that was not all: The famous room with the spinning stats featured an incredible amount of 63 colors on screen at once (4 colors per line), compared to the total of 8 colors which were normal at the time (in game graphics had roughly 45 colors depending on what time of day it was and special locations could have over 50, and through a palette shift, establishments gained night and day pictures as well). Needles to say, these amazing effects weren't easily acquired, and most were lost in the translations to other systems (which weren't handled by Philip Price). All this made contemporary games like Mercenary (by Novagen) and Ultima (by Origin) pale in comparison (since they only used monochrome, basic, vector line graphics). It wasn't until Wolfenstein 3D (from Apogee Software), released seven years later, that similar graphics were reproduced. All this and we haven't even begun talking about gameplay! The City was the heavy weight champion of features. You character had 6 different visible stats plus a number of hidden ones, which all had an impact on how well your character could survive in The City. In addition, your character had several different conditions he could be in; he or she could get a number of different diseases which all acted differently, had different symptoms and incubation times and were given to you by different monsters (rabies, for example, had an incubation time of 10 days and was carried by Giant Rats and Giant Wolves) and one could even get the character drunk (which had various funny, and some times disastrous, effects). You also had some sort of immunity system, since certain very strong characters would not be affected by even the deadliest poison (the red and sweet potion). Equipment picked up could also render you cursed, which had to be removed (for a certain amount of gold) at a Guild. As the hours went by, the sun moved accordingly in the sky, and then things would gradually get darker. It could start raining and you could hear the wind blowing, at various strengths, around the corners (which also made your character go freezing, if you didn't have proper clothing on). There was even a see-through effect on the sun and the rain, created by switching frames at a very high speed creating an illusion of transparency. Other small details which helped to set the atmosphere was an animated falling waterfall in the mountains beyond the city walls to the south. And whenever you got close to a Smithy, you could hear the sound of him working on some armour or sword at his anvil (which was also fully animated if you would go inside). There were also alot of places to visit, ranging from Taverns (which all featured a band who played different songs with lyrics, individual menus with prices varying from tavern to tavern, and other small suprises which would show up from time to time) to Banks (where you could deposite an amount of money for interest, and depending on how high interest rate you chose, the risk of the bank getting robbed also increased). And then there were those devious doctors who never were in when you needed them (for example, to diagnose your condition in order to be able to treat it properly). You encountered alot of different monsters all the time (though the nastiest would only come out during rainy nights), all with their own graphics and a small tune to give you a clue whether they were evil or not (the game featured about 50 different monsters). These monsters sometimes had treasure, ranging from the standard money and jewelry, to potions and magical weapons or armour which couldn't be found in shops. You could also not mindlessly kill everything in sight, since killing Commoners or slaying friendly creatures rendered you evil, and if you became evil enough, Guards would start attacking you and you would no longer be welcomed in the various establishments. It was a wonderful place to explore, even though it didn't have any quests at this stage. Then of course came the 16-bit versions for Atari ST and Amiga, which had even more features, like spell casting and the ability to finally join the guilds (though some strategical features of Philip Price's combat system were, sadly, somewhat overly simplified). 2.1.2 WHAT IS THE DUNGEON? -------------------------- Alternate Reality: The Dungeon (the second chapter out of the seven) revised the way we percieved AR. The cold and very real world of The City was replaced with the brighter and somewhat more cheerful The Dungeon (which may seem strange, since it was an even more unfriendlier place then The City). We now had a mission and a goal to look forward to, and an area more than twice the size of The City to explore, with more than a dozen new locations to visit. No longer was there a need for the mirrored 3d effect from The City to create the wall graphics; The Dungeon was rendered with an incredible new sharpness (again, looking more like a cartoon, than the gritty and realistic City graphics). It featured details such as small windows in the doors, archways to cross underneath and new and amazing wall textures to be found in secret places of The Dungeon (such as Egyptian drawings in hidden tombs and blue icicles in a beautiful Crystal Cavern). The textures were even mip-mapped! The menu systems and other interactive aspects were also "cleaned up" and made more user- friendly. Disk swapping was decreased and the game could take advantage of the new 128k systems to lessen the swapping and loading even more. The hidden real world details of The City now became very visible and apparent, as every item you picked up now had weight (even money), and you got very tired, very fast, if you carried too much (and sometimes you even got immobilized). Diseases, curses and poisons rained down on you, but there were also new and exotic weapons and items introduced (among others, a whole range of asian weapons). You could also find magical items like scrolls, horns, wands, eyes and cards. There were even unique magically "sentient" weapons who screamed at you when you picked them up, and summoned hoardes of monsters to try to set it free. Combat, although featuring a similar simplified menu system like the 16-bit versions of The City, was also taken to new heights, were you could face multiple enemies, each with their own set of inventory items or spells they could use. Some could even call for help or had other specialities (like Gnomes who you could peacefully talk to, and who then suddenly hit you for fun). You could also be struck down (and then rise again), get stunned (and become unable to act for a turn or two) and your weapon could be hurled from your grasp. And monsters were also affected by these new features, and could be struck down or stunned (giving you time to either aim or charge). Interaction was also improved; you could now give items to those in need, and get response from them, just as others would give you small hints or items (or demand them, like the Thieves). You could also buy services from wandering Healers, get help from fellow Guild members, and if a Ronin didn't like your looks, you knew you were in trouble. Alignment was also refined, where every monster now could be either evil, netral or good. New ways of improving alignment was also introduced, and it was no longer just down to what monster you killed or didn't kill. Guild wars made an appearance in a small way; when you joined a guild, you instantly became enemy with another opposite guild, who's members would taunt you in combat (though, of course, you also gained you fellow guild members as allies). The Thieves' Guild was especially active, since they could either send Assassins after you if you had killed too many Thieves, or break you out of jail if you got into trouble. An interesting point to be made is that while most of the songs in The City was about wanting to go home, the songs of The Dungeon were more relaxed and invited you to enjoy and explore while you were there, creating yet another gap between the harshness of The City and more adventure friendly place of The Dungeon. All in all, The Dungeon has an incredible amount of depth and detail, and I would easily dare to say that both the Alternate Reality games probably are the most detail rich games ever, since even today, more than 15 years after its initial release, people (including me) are discovering new hidden secrets, things, features and aspects that nobody has discovered before. 2.2 ABOUT THE AUTHORS OF THE GAMES ---------------------------------- Philip Price and Gary Gilbertson created the Alternate Reality concept back in 1984. They had done one other games together earlier, The Tail of Beta Lyrae (which featured enemies who "evolved" over time), and had plans for one other; F.A.C.E of The Galaxy, which was going to be a space combat and trading simulation game where there was planned to have a fully alive universe, in which the player could interact and affect various events. They both lived in Hawaii and created their games under the name Paradise Programming. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF GARY GILBERTSON After 1986, when the AR escapades with Datasoft ended, Philip Price went to work on the B2 Stealth Bomber for the US Airforce. He has also worked for Creative Labs as a 3d consultant. Gary Gilberston has toured with various bands on Hawaii (with Chuck Berry amongst others). Noteworthy is also that Philip Price is/was a member of the ANSI C++ standards committee. The other two main authors, Ken Jordan and Dan Pinal, who did most of the work on The Dungeon for Datasoft back in 1985, has since then worked together at a company called Mass Media (and Dan Pinal makes a noteworthy appearance in the credits of Wings, a very famous game from Cinemaware), which still today ports games to various systems. Another interesting point to be made, is that one of the artists on Alternate Reality: The Dungeon, Bonita Long-Hemsath (Reid), today is an art director for New World Computing and creates art for the beautiful Might & Magic series of games. 2.3 THE HISTORY OF THE GAMES ---------------------------- The absolutely most frequently asked question is "what happened to the rest of the games in the series". Out of a total of seven planned games, only two of them were ever made. Below is a compact version of a very long and difficult story (kept short by the request of the authors) which will hopefully shed some light on the answer: The first Alternate Reality game was The City for the Atari 8-bit line of computers, released early in 1985. It was a result from a joint effort by publisher company Datasoft and Paradise Programming (Philip Price and Gary Gilbertson). But, it was under a company named Marsten Systems, a year earlier, that Philip Price made his initial work on the game, which featured The City and The Dungeon as one game. However, Marsten systems wanted a game out fast, and had The City and The Dungeon split into two games. And, when The City was not completed on schedule, Marsten turned it over to Datasoft. However, the contract Philip Price signed with Datasoft allowed them to charge 100% of conversion costs from his 7.5% of the net profits. Datasoft took longer time to convert The City to each different platform than it took Philip Price to write the original game, and so, he never saw any money (except small advances while writing his version) and was forced to leave the business to seek an income elsewhere (in that process, a Philip Price coded version of The Dungeon, which was about 50% complete, was lost). Philip Price left his concept and ideas behind to Ken Jordan and Dan Pinal (employed by Datasoft, which also by this time, went by the name Intellicreations). Using conceptual documents and hand written notes by Gary Gilbertson taken during questioning sessions with Philip Price, they were able to continue developing the series, and after 18 months release Alternate Reality: The Dungeon for the Atari 8-bits (with music from Gary Gilbertson, working from Hawaii, and graphics by Bonita Long-Hemsath, an inhouse Datasoft artist). A C64 version of The Dungeon followed along with a conversion of The City (in the late 1985). Plans for the third installment, Alternate Reality: Arena, which would deviate from the 3D first person perspective and let you see your own character for the first time, were outlined, but by now, the 8-bit market was declining and Datasoft were in financial trouble. Software Toolworks then stepped in and bought Datasoft, and told Ken Jordan and Dan Pinal to work on the 16-bit ports of The Dungeon from home. They got as far as a 70% complete version before they both got layed off. Software Toolworks didn't have much faith in the CRPG market, and decided to not wait any longer for The Dungeon to be finished. Thus the only games that ever made it to the public of the original Alternate Reality game series were the following: Alternate Reality: The City for the Atari 8-bit computers Commodore 64 port of The City Apple II port of The City (?? version) Machintosh port of The City (?? version) Atari ST version of The City (16-bit version) Amiga version of The City (16-bit version) PC port by The City (not made by any of the original authors) (16-bit version) Alternate Reality: The Dungeon for the Atari 8-bit computers Commodore 64/128 port of The Dungeon Apple II port of The Dungeon Today, all copyrights for Alternate Reality has reverted back to Philip Price. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF PHILIP PRICE, GARY GILBERTSON, KEN JORDAN AND DAN PINAL 2.4 THE COMPLETE PLANS FOR AR ----------------------------- Even though not all of the planned games were ever released, many people remember vaguely about the other games since they were mentioned alot in the documentation for The City and The Dungeon and newsletters from Datasoft. So I've obtained a complete rundown on these games written by Philip Price, (parts which are from previously confidential material), so you can really know what they were going to be about: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Tue Jan 02, 1990 from Philip Price Okay since I am a notorious procastinator. I will give a brief outline of what was the main parts of AR as originally conceived. The idea behind AR was a place to entertain but also to enlighten/educate oneself. I desired to have as realistic of a world possible, but still a world that was filled with the unknown. I knew I couldn't do it in one product so I plan to develope it through a series. City/Dungeon (Something originally planned as one) You are thrust into a new enviroment and have to first learn to survive. You have to learn to discern to a certain degree. Free will is of course permitted, monsters and people react to your moral decision. Traps are laid both physical, mental and moral. Multiple ways to resolve problems are avaiable. The first clues to why things are the way they are are given. [Further details on the clues I will disclose further in this letter]. Arena Original game would be patched to add slaver bands (you could be shang-hi'ed into the arena amongst other ways in). [Original game meaning City/Dungeon]. The arena would permit combatting your characters against other peoples characters or against computer run characters. The ultimate goal if you had been abducted would be to regain your freedom, if you are free then it would be to gain nobility and a title. A choice would be given if this was accomplished that would retire that character to a life of luxury [and boredom]. Palace Palace intrigue and the ability to modify the city layout. You could climb the ladder to greater power and responsibility, wielding it as you saw best or worst. Again if you climbed to the pinnacle you had a option to retire the character to a life of luxury, power and the thrill of trying to stay one step ahead of future wouldbe kings. (To become king you have to defeat the current king which at first is a computer character, though once overthrown or disposed/killed/poisoned etc. it would be someone else, possible a player character [retired].) Wilderness The wilderness would be the start of a pilgrimage to find the truth of AR. There would be traps, tricks to waylay the adventure and to turn him from his or hers true quest. Revelation Hidden in the depths of a cave behind the immense waterfall that can be seen even from the city is a metallic door requiring a pass card to enter. Once open it reveals corridors gleaming with technology far beyond our own. Further investigation reveals a room that has immense windows/portals and a view, a view into space. Destiny Fighting with high tech equipment (from both revelation, destiny and if you run into the aliens that politically are friendly to you plight, the weapons the riddler has from the dungeon). Searching further this immense ship you discover a chamber filled with metal cocoons. Using wit and knowledge gain through other locations you decipher the controls and the display. You learn that these cocoons hold bodies, the bodies of all of those captured. The machines keep the bodies physically alive and fit, but imprisoned. The minds of those entrapped are tapped and fed with images. The ships computer can even permit the images to interact with solid/material components of the ship. You are an image. What is reality? You body lies in a cocoon. Your mind sees what the image sees. What is a soul? What is experience? You experience, you feel what this image you have been controlling since you kidnapping feels. Again there are choices to make. In the end you are left with many choices, continue to live in you image body, a nearly immortal life, but knowning that these aliens have done this to you and can watch, feel, experience whatever you do whenever they want. You are their entertainment. They have become jadded by luxury, power and knowledge and use lesser beings to regain some of the passions of life. You can cut off this channel, though they may also destroy the ship, or earth. You can escape in a smaller ship than the entertainment world and go back to earth (hoping to evade the future capture ships these beings send to gain more 'entertainment'. You could destroy the planet [and hope that they are not a multiplanet race] You can take the entertainment world (that was orbitting the alien's planet) and bring it back to earth to let the scientist learn from it [and hope the aliens don't trace it]. You could blackmail the aliens. You could sell out humanity. You could try to bluff them. There are many choices, life isn't easy and some of the most important decision are the hardest to find a best answer in. There were other details I haven't gotten into here (Like a lot of the fun things to do in each scenerio other than the main plots). And there were/are a lot of little details to be left until the scenerio each were to be produced. But from this you can see the main plot and the main suprises that were originally planned. Take Care, Phil P.S. I think I have mentioned this before... For Atari 8 bit City owners if you type fiat as you character name (while holding down the control key) you get into another menu which allows some game changes. The only command I remeber from it allows changing the speed of the numbers spinning by before you walk through the portal. The command is cela saute aux yeux. I hope I spelled that right. Acrinimiril's gate was a portal into a true parallel universe. Acrinimiril was/is a being from another universe, who had a habit of adventuring/travelling into many dimensions and universes and getting himself into heaps of trouble. He was a complete unknown to the aliens and caused them all sorts of problems. For one since he wasn't run from the computer, he was not traceable. Also he had a lot of experience in these situations. Unfortunantly he wasn't always very bright about keeping a low enough profile. And after killing an alien (and getting its passcard) the aliens were then able to trace him and finally entrap him for further study. Not all aliens were for this 'entertainment', and there was planned to have ways to resolve the ultimate questions through interaction with these aliens also. And it was also was going to be allowed to go through acrinimirils gate into other universes at destiny's end. ----------------------------------------------------- End of Phil's message Advantages of having City Disk and Quest Logic within Dungeon - IN WHOLE OR PART... NOT FOR AR NEWSLETTER USE - It is our intention to allow people to play the Dungeon without owning the City. However, it is also our intention to make owning the City an extremely advantegous to seccess and enjoyment of the AR series. To this end, the Dungeon shall have the following "goal/reward" features. Life in the Dungeon will be very difficult for characters created in the Dungeon. To truly make progress one should introduce an experienced character from the City. As we discussed, the Dungeon will be more goal or quest oriented. You must make it to the forth level of the Dungeon, along the way encountering the various "one time only" monsters and of coarse finding the special treasure rooms. In the forth level of the Dungeon you will encounter one of the actual Aliens. Now Aliens carry a type of beam weapon that is more than a match for anything you might have. Consequently, the encounter will end with your demise. There will be, however, a way to change this rather dim scenario. Be sure to find ALL the "one time only" treasure rooms. Be sure to defeat all the "one time only" monsters. Doing this will trigger the possibility to acquire a rather unusual object, "...lest with you've brought that which to come...". The item is a Portal Acces Card (PAC). This card will be in the possession of a very special Wizard* somewhere on the forth level. After rescueing him/doing him a favor, he will offer you a choice of rewards. All of the choises save one will be of obvious value, (gold - jewels etc.). The unusual choice will be a white plastic like card. Those that choose the white card will find they possess a modified "PAC", the best ticket available to Revelation. Now, it will be possible to obtain a PAC in the Wilderness. The advantage, however, of securing the Dungeon PAC is this: It has been modified to jam the Alien Security Systems Entity Monitering capabilities. With this card in your possession, you can not be electronically tracked by Alien Security. Knowing this, you can see how your encounter with the Alien at the far reaches of level four could be different. Alien Security would be unable to alert him of you approach. You would have the element od suprise working for you and this time you may well survive the encounter. Once the Alien's out of the way, further exploration will lead you to a doorway at the end of a hall. Passing through this door you will be asked to insert: "the REVELATION DISK". Passing into REVELATION from the Wilderness is easier than from the Dungeon. The Dungeon entrance connects to a maintenance area of the Alien's ship. It is always crowses; encounters are frequent and death is common. The Wilderness on the other hand has a portal that connects to a part of the ship that is rarely used and out of the way. This gives the character a chance to orient himself and possibly find the tools necessary for survival in this realm. If he has added advantage of the Dungeon PAC... well he'll have it just that much easier. However, as explained on the block diagrams, the entrance to Revelation will be advantegous later in the series. *VERY SPECIAL WIZARD The Wizard's name is Acrinimiril. Those with extensive knowledge of Xebec will recognize the name as the same given to a gate on the NW quadrant. The significance of... the events leading to... etc. will be explained soon. --- Entries pertaining to the "Acrinimiril affair" as logged by: The ASSISTANT to the SPECIAL AGENT in CHARGE [EED][8944839] XEBEC SECURITY 1400 day3 THE LAST FALL shipyear 39 >>>>>........................ <<<<< I have just been notified by Dungeon Four Maintenance Techinician [3257858], that the fatally injured body of Equipment Designer [3292000], has been located in the system. Awaiting Furhter information. >>>>>.....[EED]............................. 1423 day3 THE LAST FALL shipyear 39 >>>>>........................ <<<<< The Death of Equipment Designer [3292000], has been confirmed. The cause of death has been attributed to spell casting. [3292000] was most likely killed by a character in the system. Having the computer reconstruct area traffic during the period and from there will plot the whereabouts of the killer. As [3292000]'s PAC has not been found, I am posting double guards at all Dungeon Portals. >>>>>.....[EED].......................... 1655 day3 THE LAST FALL shipyear 39 >>>>>........................ <<<<< Completed interview of Dungeon Four Maintenance Techinician [3257858]. He informed me that [3292000] was play existing as a champion in the system. I'm also told that the PAC he carried was modified with a sensor jammer. This explains why the recent computer report did not even show [3292000] to be in the area. I must now assume the killer is in possession of a so- to-speak cloaking device. Security has been notified to program a map/scan/plot of singular character death activity. If i cannot scan for this killer pherhaps I can plot his movements by the deaths of his victims. >>>>>.....[EED]........................... 2000 day3 THE LAST FALL shipyear 39 >>>>>........................ The computer has failed to turn up any prime suspects in the [3292000] killing. I have ordered the sensor cross check monitering of all traffic in or out of the Fourth Level. I am proceeding on the assumption that our killer has yet to leave the area. A similar sensor cross check has been ordered for traffic in and out of the Sanctuary on Level Four. >>>>>.....[EED]....... 2345 day3 THE LAST FALL shipyear 39 >>>>>........................ I have just been informed that a Wizard has entered the Level Four Sanctuary without sensor confirmation. His present geographic location has been fed to the computer for entity analysis. This is no doubt our killer, I have requested further instructions from XEBEC COMMAND. >>>>>.....[EED]................. 2351 day3 THE LAST FALL shipyear 39 >>>>>........................ I've been ordered, {XCO-MAC213\RN4321}, by XEBEC COMMAND to terminate the killer Wizard and recover the modified PAC as soon as he leaves Sancturary. >>>>>.....[EED]......................... 2353 day3 THE LAST FALL shipyear 39 >>>>>........................ Results of computer analysis indicate Wixard in question is not of this system. Word of this and the complete analysis have been sent to XEBEC COMMAND. Termination order {XCO-MAC213\RN4321} has been recalled... will continue monitor suspect. 0028 day4 THE LAST FALL shipyear 39 >>>>>........................ Received word from XEBEC COMMAND that the Wizard'c Character name is Acriminiril. He first became in the system of the CAROLINUS. COMMAND is unsure as to how he managed to appear in the XEBEC system. COMMAND also indicates that his being of elsewhere is what made sensor scan impossible and sees no reason to belive he is [3292000]'s killer. While COMMAND checks with the CAROLINUS, I've been ordered, {XCO-MAC213\RRN4324}, to dispatch a Securityman with a GLFU, (Geographic Location Freeze Unit), to Level Four. After Acrinimiril clears the vicinity of the Sanctuary, the Srcurityman is to follow him until he moves to a low traffic area. At such time he is to activate the unit and maintain Acrinimiril in "geofreeze" until COMMAND can confer with the CAROLINUS. >>>>>.....[EED].............................. 1211 day4 THE LAST FALL shipyear 39 >>>>>........................ Acrinimiril has left Sancturay and is on the move. Securityman [3256679], disguised as a Mage is following Acrinimiril awaiting the order to engage the GLFU. >>>>>.....[EED].................... 1248 day4 THE LAST FALL shipyear 39 >>>>>........................ As of this moment Acrinimiril is in "geofreeze" on level Four at location =d4-28|05=. The search for [3292000]'s killer continues. >>>>>.....[EED]....................................... 1700 day4 THE LAST FALL shipyear 39 >>>>>........................ Guard post on Acrinimiril reports he's retained his ability to speak although deep in "geofreeze". Curious. Have dispatched a team to Sanctuary on Level One to conduct sensor cross check on traffic there. It would appear our killer is moving back toward the City. >>>>>.....[EED]........................................ ================================================================= The SPECIAL AGENT'S Log contained many more entries over the day and a half period covered above. Had he known what ultimately would happen in the Acrinimiril affair, he probably would have started his report with the the following entry that had appeared a couple of days erlier. ================================================================= 1631 day2 THE LAST FALL shipyear 39 >>>>>........................ Sensors indicate the first humanoids from the Planet Earth, (1186) are starting to move into Level Four of the Dungeon. ========= Acrinimiril's Own Story It is true, I am not of Xebec. I became here, after I became elsewhere. I see, however, no reason to dwell on the before. Xebec is the now and the now must be your concern. To recount my experiences in the city streets of Xebec would be of little value. I would comment, however, it was during this time I realised that when I became here my powers were greater than when I became elsewhere. As soon as I found the way I entered the Dungeon. It was there, while on the fourth level, that I first saw the creatures that control the here. Now, as time passed I came to realize I had a power unlike anyone of Xebec. These creatures acted as though they where totally unaware of my presence. I'd watch as other life forms would attempt to sneak up behind a creature; at the last moment the creature would spin around and terminate the attacker with a kind of pulsing light weapon. They had no chance at all. At first, I too though myself to be at the mercy of these creatues. Then I had a near encounter with one where it should have sensed my approach. I had just rounded a corner and there one was. It was looking in the other direction, cut I was very close... I could've touched the thing. I did not belong here and apparently these creatures sensors are not programmed to pick me up. They have to actually see me to sense my presence. Although I found it comforting to ponder this nre hypothesis, I could see no reason for testing it. Days later I came upon a most unusual situation. I saw a Champion appearing to carry a conversation with one of the controller creatures. He was obviously unafraid and made no attempt to escape. Stranger yet, the controller creature kept his weapon harnessed. Having encountered numerous Champions, I decided to follow this one after the meeting came to an end. I had followed him for a good distance when my curiosity could stand no more. I had to talk to this humanoid. Quickening my pace to close in on his position, I called to him. To my suprise he swung around and came at me with his sword raised high. I dearly wanted to speak with him, but I was not going to die trying. When it was over I stood over his lifeless body whishing our encounter had been friendly. I decided to search him for clues. To my amazement he had no money at all. Here he was in the 4th level without a copper piece to his name. then I found a most curious object. A flat white card about half the size of a humanoid hand. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. I put it with my things and prepared to remover the champion's headgear. The wearing of jeweled earring was not an uncommon practise and I'd yet to find anything of value to this character. As I pulled the helmet from his head I jumped back in suprise. You see, inside this champion's armor was a controller creature. Instantly my mind filled with answers to why this so-called Champion was speaking with an Alien and why he refused my frienfly advances. Such thoughts, however lasted for mere seconds. They were quickly replaced with the reakization that this deed would not go unnoticed. I sprang to my feet and began to quickly move of the scene. I wanted to put as much distance possible between me and the... As I neared the stairway up to Level Three rational thought began to return. I knew I would need to seek the Sanctuary soon. Eventually the effects of weariness catch up with everyone. I would have to woek my way to Sanctuary on Level One or remain here on Four. I reasoned that if they had the power to find me, they would find me on One just as easy as on Four. As I turned to leave, I noticed two mages appearing ro rake up guard on each side of the stairway. I would have though nothing of it except that one rarely sees Mages moving about in pairs and I'd never heard of them being employed as guards. About four hours had passed before I rounded a corner and stood at the entrance to Level Four Sanctuary. As I opened the door the sound of story telling and laughter filled my ears. Blending into the crowded room I could feel tension leaving my body. I really did feel safe here. It really felt like Sanctuary. After resting a number of hours I moved back through the noisy main hall. Nothing had changed, it was as though the same party was in progress. I left Sanctuary telling myself thegreat truths would be found by probing deeper into Dungeon. The events of yesterday should be forgotten. I... I can speak, but I cannot... seem to move. A mage has put some kind of spell on me. I don't un-der-stand. He is nearby holding some kind of box. He won't... speak to me. I can't move. I've lost track of time, Occasionally the Mage seems to leave. Just when I think he is gone for good, he reappears. I have to come to the conclusion that my predicament is the work of the controller creatures. Nothing else makes any sense at all. I am totally helpless in a kind of cage that is exactly one square building unit in size. My jailer has made no move to touch me. In fact he has gone out of his way to prevent anyone from touching me. He has not attempted to search me for treasure... nothing! This has got to be some sort of punishment for killing that controller. I have a plan for escape. Should a character pass by during the time the controller is gone, I will plead with them to try and touch me. I have the feeling that once the cell membrane is penetrated it will collapse. I wait patiently for my escape. I will offer a rich reward for helping me escape. I wait patiently. I'll give them anything I have. I wait... -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 3. PLAYING THE GAMES -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Alot of detailed instructions and very good tips can be found in the Manuals for The City and The Dungeon and the Guidebooks for The City and The Dungeon (availible transcribed at the home location of this document). The following information will deal mainly with issues that are not mentioned in either the manuals or the guidebooks. 3.1 GENERAL TIPS FOR THE CITY ----------------------------- The City is a very hard game. You should back up your character disk as described in the manuals and cluebooks very often, (in the beginning, backing up after each succesful combat is a very good and safe thing to do), so you don't loose your character. Let's start from the very beginning: When you are at the portal with the spinning stats, there are some things you should know in order to figure out what stats you want to keep an eye on. Naturally, Hit Points should always be a priority, even though these increases alot with levels, since you tend to take alot of damage on early levels too. Anything (and this goes for all stats) under 10 is not very good. Strength increases with combat, and you will do alot of that, so if you want, you can chance skipping a few points there. If you want to buy a dagger or something, you should try to keep you money above about 150 coppers too. Finally, the scrolling stats go faster the longer you wait (you might say it's an incentive to avoid procrastination). -INFORMATION COURTESY OF PHILIP PRICE After you have passed through the portal, a number of hidden stats will also be set. The physical speed can immideately be found out by visiting The Blue Wizards guild at 18E, 47N (they will raise your Speed by 1 and also tell you how much you've got). Noticeability can also be figured out by the number of monster encounters you receive. If these are painfully high, you probably have a high noticeability too. There is also a stealth stat which determines whether you can suprise a monster or not. This will have to be estimated in the same way as the noticeability (and though it can be increased at Assassins Guild at 55E, 2N, they don't tell you how much it is). There are also two hidden stats that start with set numbers. The Alignment stat, which starts at 127 (0 being evil, and 255 being good) and the Treasure Finding stat which starts at 0. You can, however, find treasure anyway, so don't worry. Also, according to the cluebooks, the treasure stat can only be raised by potions, after wich it decreases as normal when you have found treasure. I don't know how gaining levels affect this stat (alignment does not go up with levels). So, now you are in The City of Xebec's demise. Anything can happen now. If you want buy that dagger, find your way to Occum's Weaponsmiths at 19E, 32N, as your chance to find one at an affordable price is highest there (haggle if you want to, but he will throw you out if you make an "outrageous offer"). Remember that more nasty monsters comes out if it rains, and that chances of you getting suprised by one is higher near doors. Have in mind whether you want to play evil or good; there is NO way in The City to increase you alignment once you've commited an evil act. Killing Commoners is evil, but they are easy prey in the beginning and have more money than some other monsters (see the Cluebook for a list of evil monsters, and note the music for unlisted ones). Muggers are easy prey for good characters in the beginning, having around 13 Hit Points and giving about 75 Experience. Also, if you dare to venture out at night, Gremlins are just as easy (if not easier) and almost always carry treasure. Beware for Thieves or Cutthroats though, and Warriors or Knights who will kill you at an instant (or mug you and then kill you if you try to run away). Other monsters which can be defeated on the first couple of levels are Giant Rats, Gnolls and Orcs. As you will notice, money is initially vital. The cheapest place to sleep is Sleeping Dragon Inn at 60E, 6N where the common floor costs 5 coppers. And at The Tavern (20E, 62N accesible through the far northwest city wall) you can even get free water, which actually costs a couple of coppers in other taverns. Food packets and Water flasks are sold randomly at the taverns across town, and are consumed automatically in The City. You should also learn how to quickly get to the two hospitals in The City, since living for a long time with a disease, if not fatal, still may have a permanent damaging effect on your stats. Sleeping is also very important, since if you are tired for a long time, you will start to loose alot of stamina, and then the other stats will also start to fall. After your first level or two, you should backup your character and go potion hunting. Potions are the only way you can cast spells on yourself with in The City, and if you dare to gamble a bit, you can end up with Protection, Invulnerability and pherhaps even Treasure Finding boosts which will enable you to find magical weapons or armor! (Remember that you can also get permanent stat boosts from potions.) The Cluebooks also warns you about entering Banks after year one. This is a known bug. The code lacks a line which stops the banks from counting months after the year ends, so what happens is that the game calculates interest (and failures) for months 12-255 until it reaches month 0 again (which is quite alot of calculations for an Atari computer). So either, if you're extremely lucky, you will have received 243 months of rent, or more likely, your accounts have failed and you've lost all your money (ie. it's best to withdraw all your money in the month of Lights). -INFORMATION COURTESY OF PHILIP PRICE A final note: As stated in the cluebook, if you disengage from a monster, it may steal from you. However, what it doesn't say is that EVERYONE will steal from you. No matter what monster it is, there is a very good chance that it will take you money! (Trust me, I've seen Commoners, Ghosts and even Knights steal, and the first thing they nag is all your gems and jewelry.) Food packets and water flasks can also be stolen, in addition to valuables. 3.1.1 COMBAT, EXPERIENCE AND LEVELS ----------------------------------- In addition to what has been said in the general tips, and what is written in the cluebook and manual, there are some hidden features which has been, until now, undocumented. Some of the more experienced players may know that a character's strength may increase during a fight. The secret behind this feature has now been revealed and it is startling. The strength increase is infact a part of what may be the first ever skill based character improvement system in a computer role playing game! Here is how the system works. Every time you carry out a succesful roll on a "skill" (attacks, trick or charm) you get an increase of 1/255 of a full stat point. Get 255 more succesful rolls and you get the full one point increase of your stat. This works for attack, lunge, parry, which increases strength; trick, which increases intelligence; and charm which increases charisma. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF MARK WIECZOREK Another thing with combat is the disengaged and engaged menus. Engaging doesn't count as an evil act, and if you want to stay good, you must take the first hit before attacking, something which you can't always afford. And when you encounter good monster, do watch those menus as the L key can be both (L)eave and (L)unge and pressing that last key by mistake can produce very frightening effects if you encounter the wrong monster. Another important factor is experience. The exact way in which you acquire experience is the following. You get 1 experience for each 1 point of damage you inflict on an opponent. You get a (fixed?) amount of experience for killing your opponent. You get 1 point of experience for each Silver and 10 points for each Gold you find (finding Coppers doesn't earn you any Experience Points). You get 120 experience for finding a Potion, 255 for each Jewel and 128 points for each Gem. There doesn't seem to be any experience given for finding weapons and armor (even magical ones). I have tried to put together a chart describing level gains and experience points, however, this has been done by trial & terror so these are only estimated numbers: Level Experience 1 250 2 500 3 1,200 4 2,400 5 4,700 6 9,300 7 15,100 I will fill this table in with more numbers as my character grows in strength. 3.1.2 LIST OF MONSTERS IN THE CITY ---------------------------------- *** IMPORTANT NOTICE: ********************************************************************* Monsters have a number of abilities tied to them: Day or night appearences, good or evil, chance of treasure, amount of experience and hit points, attack strength and so on. The exact value, or nature, of these abilities are currently unknown, and though research is being made, progress may be slow. If you think you posess enough knowledge to be of assistance, please contact me via the e-mail address at the top of this document. ******************************************************************************************* Monsters and their attacks: Wizard Novice Archmage Mage a weak spell a spell a enchantation a strong spell a dazzling spell a over-powering spell Giant Rat it's foaming teeth (rabies) it's yellow claws Giant Wolf it's sharp teeth (rabies) it's claws Night Stalker it's claws it's blood sucking fangs (-2 strength) Specter moans janges invisible chains festering touch soul wrenching grasp (LEVEL DRAIN!!!) Apprentice Acolyte weak spell spell Merchant Courier long dagger short sword Gremlin it's claws it's teeth Black Slime acidic slime corrosive goo nauseating gunk (slimed) Skeleton sickle Imp it's claws it's poisoned tail Wraith crushing blow bone-chilling scream Brown Mold burst of spores Zombie loses piece of flesh strangle hold (gangrene) Ghoul claw (gangrene?) sword Assasin Weapnsmaster poisoned shri-ken strangling wire poisoned dagger nanchucks longsword sword Troll large knurly club claw teeth IT REGENERATED (regenerates) Ghost let's out a heart-breaking moan bolt of lightning bone chilling touch Orc short wavy sword Small Green Dragon it's claws it's teeth it's tail a scorching breath of fire Guard greatsword Dwarf sharpsword Gnoll a dagger Master Thief Brigand Mugger Thief Cutthroat Robber sword switchblade shortsword dagger Pauper bare hands Nobleman magical sword Commoner dagger Hobbit shortsword Giant war hammer Goblin siletto shortsword Champion Gladiator Fighter Warrior Swordsman Knight sword longsword greatsword -INFORMATION COURTESY OF JIM NORRIS 3.2 GENERAL TIPS FOR THE DUNGEON -------------------------------- The Dungeon is, in my humble opinion, much easier than The City (even though Ken Jordan disagrees). First of all, you get much higher stats in the beginning of the game. Second, there is a newbie area where you start with virtually no dangerous monsters at all. Third, if you know where to go, you can find killer weapons right from the beginning. The money is also of less importance here, since food packets and water flasks are cheap at the Damon and Phytias Shoppe (46E, 59N) and you can offer any amount of coppers you wish at the Reatreat (55E, 60N) for a cheap rest. (You can also sell loot from monsters at the Dwarven Smithy on the second floor, but be sure you have joined a Guild first to get rid of any curses the items may bestow upon you.) Granted that you need money to learn new spells and charge your ring at a Guild, but by the time you get that far, you should have little trouble finding the right monsters to loot for plenty of gold. There is also another great thing in The Dungeon, namely Crystals and Wands! A Healing Wand is worth its weight in gold, since it heals more efficiently than any healing spell, and never fails. Wands uses Crystals which can be found on Humunculi and Salamanders (and others), or they can be spawned by The Star (which 20 Crystals for each card). Also, by comparison, if you charge your Guild Ring with a Crystal (which gives you 10 Charges, just enough for a Healing spell) you'll get about 10 Hit Points (or a backfire) compared to the Healing Wand's 40 or so (with no backfire risk, though it'll break if you run out of Crystals). A nice shopping tip in the beginning is to buy a couple of torches at the D&P. However, buy them one at a time, leaving and then going back inside, between each purchase. The reason is that Omar & Jeff like people that buy instead of window shop and remember this. Buy as many pieces of Leather Armor you can too, using the same method. You will find that their starting prices will be getting better. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF DAN PINAL Another sneaky way of getting money is to haggle at the D&P and buy alot of cheap weapons, which can then be sold for a higher price at the Dwarven Smithy on the second floor (granted, there's a risk that you may die on the way down, but if you know your ways around the dungeon, the journey doesn't need to be very far). -INFORMATION COURTESY OF JASON FREAR One of the easiest ways to get a good start is to wield a torch as a primary weapon (it has Blunt and Fire damage which is good against Molds and Slimes) and then make your way southeast to the secret area containing the Razor Ice (61E, 23N) which is one of the best weapons in the game, making both Sharp and Cold (magical) damage. And if you make it back to the Well Lighted Area (watch out for disease spreading Rats in the sewers on the way) you can kill almost anything (including the Wraith at 60E, 58N which will be affected by the Cold damage). Also, if you drop and then get the Razor Ice, but without readying it, and then enter the room at 51E, 59N you'll encounter a Doppleganger, which you then can defeat by using the Razor Ice in the middle of combat (since the Doppleganger will then still use his bare hands). If you are feeling ballsy, you could also go for the Saurian Brandy and Golden Apple while at level 0. Chug the brandy while you're next to the Retreat and sleep it off. The +8 Stamina will get you more Hit Points every time you go up a level. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF DAN PINAL The Golden Apple isn't actually that hard to get, and a very important item is right next to it; the Whetstone, at 31E, 62N, which is used to repair weapons which are about to break. A difference from The City when it comes to monsters, is that you don't get much by slaying Paupers or Apprentices, compared to the Commoners in The City (if you want to play Evil that is). Paupers will fight for their lives, and can be very tough (also watch out for the Shaolin Monks who looks like paupers but who "strikes with a hardened fist"), and Apprentices carry only cursed weapons which you shouldn't pick up until you have joined a Guild. Another difference in combat is also the Experience distribution system, which only gives you half of the dealt damage in Experience Points, rather than The City's full. If you encounter a very strong or very skilled foe, it might disarm you, which leaves your weapon on the ground. However, if that foe flees, the weapon will be lost! To avoid this from happening, always use the Temporal Fugue spell (learned from Ozob in the Palace Prison) which will temporarily instill you with lightning speed and enable you to pick up your weapon. As in The City, if you go to sleep while being diseased, you may suffer permanent stat reductions, as if you go to sleep while being poisoned, the damaging effects are accelerated. Also, don't kill Healers when playing Evil. There are only three wandering Healers in the entire game. There is a freelancing one and there are two employed by the Physicians Guild (working day and night shifts). If you kill them you will get Assassins after you with a "greetings from a friend" message. Heirophant Cards will still work though. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF DAN PINAL Evil characters will take alot of beating from both good and evil monsters, so it is well advisable to wear Hit Point restoring equipment, such as the Bloodstone (all lost Hit Points restored every 24 hours), Junai's Sword (two Hit Points per hour) and Morgana's Tiara (four lost Hit Points per hour). As you'll notice, the Bloodstone and Junai's Sword are, in fact, evil items. Bribery was supposed to be a way for Evil characters to get out of combat since they have way more hostile encounters than good characters. Thus, there are several ways to bribe your way out of engagements with undesireable foes. Guards can be bribed if you offer is high enough (based on your level and the number of Guards encountered). Zombies may leave you along if you offer them a corpse to much on. Also try giving Water Flasks to Water Sprites. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF DAN PINAL You have probably noticed by now that alignment affects more things in The Dungeon than in The City. You can lower your alignment in the usual manner, but there are also a number of ways to raise it. For a full list of all the known ways to modify alignment, please refer to section 6.5. If you could manage to become incredibly good (it is unconfirmed, but you probably need an Alignment of 255), you would be invited to the Chapel Sanctuary where you were offered free food and sleep, and also got a weapon called ST. Percival's Mace and the spell Dispel Evil (worth 50%). Note that you can only use the mace if you remain good, otherwise it will scream at you ("I was meant for better than you!") and drain your Hit Points. In The Dungeon, luckily, monsters act a bit more intelligent than in The City. Only certain monsters steal from you here, and it is also monsters you expect to be stealing who does it. A note of warning though: If you get anything stolen, or even if you drop anything (if your weapon is hurled from your grasp) during combat, and the foe escapes, it will be lost! The only way to retrieve it will be if you are lucky enough to find a Master Thief who carries the item. You also won't be needing to fight all monsters. In addition to bribery, mentioned above, some monsters will initiate transactions with YOU (instead of the other way around). You will be offered to surrender money to Thieves and yielding passage to Knights (until your level is high enough that is, after which the Knights will start yielding to you instead). All of the above mentioned things will remove the need for combat during that Encounter. On the above note, however, if you yield to an evil Knight, he will sometimes call you a coward and your Charm will drop one point. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF SEAN NOBLE Finally, if you have gained a few levels, you could try this tip for loads of experience: Encounter a Flame Demon (Sword of Demons), Vampire (Unholy Sword), Liche (Sceptre of Chaos) or Wraith (Unholy Mace) and pick up its respective special weapon after defeating them. It will scream at you ("Miserable do-gooder, you shall pay!") and drain your Hit Points (these are very evil items), but it will also summon new demons/vampires/liches/wraiths quite frequently. This is a great way to get alot of experience, but prepare for furious combat, especially if you stole the Sword of Demons since the Flame Demons call for more help almost all the time during combat (though a standard Flame Demon attack of 4 demons give you a good 1,000 Experience Points, and you generally only have to fire away two sets of Cold Blasts to calm them down). Also beware of the Vampires, since they are extremely hard. 3.2.1 WALKTHROUGH FOR THE DUNGEON --------------------------------- General Notes All the quests are acquired by tossing atleast 5 gold pieces into the flames of the Oracle. Note that they do not have to be completed in any particular order. Quest One You must find a Master Thief and slay him (Master Thieves are often found as wandering monsters). Take the Silver Key you loot from his body and go to the Palace on level one. Find the Prison (hidden door from the Sewers) and free the prisoner (Ozob). Accept the spell he offers to learn you if you want it. Take the Staff Piece he offers you. You'll be teleported to the Puzzle of the Three Doors. Go middle, left, left, middle, middle. Find Acrinimiril's Tomb and give the Staffpiece to him. Quest Two There are two ways to solve this quest: 1) Go to the Troll King or the Goblin King and fight them. Take their two ring halves and go to the Dwarven Smithy at level two. Take the reforged ring to the Oracle and toss it into the flames. 2) Go to the Troll King or the Goblin King and fight one of them. Take his ring half and offer it to the other king. Fight the king. You can now loot the reforged ring of the dead king's body and toss it into the flames of the Oracle. Quest Three There are several ways to solve this Quest: 1) Find the Shrine of Monsters on level one and defeat the 3 Wraiths. Get Morgana's Tiara. Go to the Hall of Mirrors on level two and offer Morgana's Tiara to the Clothes Horse. Get the Mirrored Shield. 2) Go to Damon & Phytias Shoppe and buy a Heavy Leather Jacket or a Flowing Purple Cape. Wear it. Go to the Clothes Horse and trade it for the Mirrored Shield. Quest Four Go to the River Stonz at midnight and offer the Ferryman two coppers. Kill the seven knights on the other side. Visit the Undead King and you'll receive the second Staffpiece. Take the Staffpiece to Acrinimiril. Quest Five There are multiple solutions to this Quest too: 1) Go to the Fearsome Gargoyle on level three (the Riddler). Answer his questions as following: Shipwreck, Oracle, Bloodstone and Shingor (the last answer isn't necessary, it's actually to complete a Wilderness quest). You'll be teleported to the Basilisk. Kill it with your bare hands and use the Mirrored Shield as protection. Give the Bloodstone to the Great Wyrm to get the last Staffpiece. 2) Go directly to the Great Wyrm and kill him for the Staffpiece instead. (Note that you definetly should have gotten the Temporal Fugue spell from Ozob if you want to try this.) Ending the Game When you take the last Staffpiece to Acrinimiril you will be offered a selection of treasures. Take the (PAC) Card. Go do Death's Door and use the PAC Card to enter level four. Use the Mirrored Shield in the Alien Control Room and you have completed the game! 3.2.2 RUMORS IN THE DUNGEON --------------------------- There are a couple of ways to learn what is going on in The Dungeon from the inhabitants themselves. If you sit at a bar in the Rathskeller you sometimes get the chance to offer other dwellers a drink or meal, which will grant you a small piece of information. Of course, you will have to take some rumors with a grain of salt, and maybe totally dismiss others, but there are a number of rumors which will give you ingenious clues about the mysteries of the world. Rumors of the Rathskeller * Never fight fire with fire. * The fountain on the first level heals wounds. * There is a fountain that cures disease on the second level. * The fountain on the third level flows directly from Hell. * The Clothes Horse will let you ride him if you give him a nice hat. * The River leads to the Lands of the Undead. * Never allow an enemy to surrender; he will never have any interesting information. * Muggers make powerful allies. * An unspeakable horror dwells at the centre of time. * In the Rooms of Confusion, seek out a secret door. * Greedy adventurers are often visited by the Devourer! * Those about to die dwell beneath the Arena on the third level. * The Red Wizards teach the black arts. * There are magical baths hidden on the fourth level. * The truly brave are not afraid of making peace. * Be sure your friends are not your foes. * Beware of the clown that laughs by the bedside. * The guilds conspire together against the king. * Beware the screamer that walks on the wind. * Fruit juice is very invigorating. * Seek the leg of Jeerbeef. * Occum gets the best weapons in his shop with a clever trap. * They need a new jester at the palace. * Troglodytes are valuable friends. * About half the rumours you hear in the Dungeon are false. * Mutilation has its good points. * The third level of the dungeon is patrolled by elephants. * The Goblin Lord is a decent fellow. * Read the Guidebook thoroughly! * Many great treasures are carefully guarded. * The Troll King eats punks like you for breakfast. * The Thieves' guild is a trustworthy organisation. * Exploring the third level requires stamina. * Never eat anything you didn't kill yourself. * You can get rich quick on the fourth level. * Beware of the boatman on the second level. * Avoid the elf in the raincoat. * Music heard from the tavern comes from beyond this world. * Step lightly in the crystal caverns. * The third level is actually safer than the first. * It's too bad they beefed up security, it used to be easy stealing from others around here. * Never trust a demon. * My dog told me to beware of you. * There's a dead dragon on the third level. * There are a lot of crazy people running around in the Palace Prison. * The last time I had a drink was... I can't remember the last time I had a drink. * Locked doors require skill to pass. * There is a fountain on the fourth level that makes you invulnerable. * Beware of the poisoner named Lucky. * Seek the ways of the Wizards of Law. * It takes skill to use armor well. * I'm tired, I've just finished a show in the City. I hate dancing, but it's a living. * Evil magic takes a special toll. * The one winged dog flies tonight! * Seek the Dwarf by the Wharf. * Walk backwards through the hall of mirrors. As told by a "dwarf", a "sly-looking stranger", a "sloppy guy" and a "large, burly human". -INFORMATION COURTESY OF JOEL GOODWIN AND MARK WIECZOREK Encounters with friendly beings (or sometimes even unfriendly one's) can also sometimes yield interesting responses if you try to transact with them. Certain beings also only reveal information after they have been offered a certain item they crave. Rumors from Encounters * "Don't tell the peasants how good the pears are with the cheese!" * "No good deed ever goes unrewarded." * "Run! The Devourer comes." * "Beware of false alarms." As told by an Acolyte, an Apprentice and a Novice. 3.3 USING EMULATORS TO PLAY THE GAMES ------------------------------------- This has become more and more popular lately, and for some, it is the only way in fact, to be able to experience the old classic versions of the Alternate Reality games again. However, the road to nostalgia is filled with hazards that one has to overcome. Hopefully, this section will clear some of the problems out. 3.3.1 ABOUT ROM IMAGES ---------------------- These are the ones that cause most of the trouble. They are files that contain dumps of the system rom chips of a computer or console, and they are highly copyrighted, even if the machine isn't sold anymore and even if the company who made it doesn't exist (patents lasts 50 years if not renewed). So, the only way you legally can own a dumped rom image file, is by owning its correspondant machine too (or if you have purchased the rom separately). Most of the times, you can find the roms by searching on the web, but beware of asking the emulator authors about them, since that is to break an unwritten law of the internet, and can have horrible consequences. 3.3.2 ABOUT DISK IMAGES ----------------------- Disk images are files that contain dumps of real disks from other computers. If they contain copyrighted material, such as a comercial game for example, they should be considered illegal too, if you do not own that game. For the legal status of Alternate Reality The City and Alternate Reality The Dungeon disk images, please see section 6.1. You will find Alternate Reality disk images for all of the below mentioned emulators at http://www.netmagic.net/~ricortes/ar/ (this archive contains atleast one copy of both AR games for every system they were every made for or ported to). 3.3.3 RUNDOWNS ON ALL THE EMULATORS ----------------------------------- My philosophy on emulator reviewing is this: Since the MacOS is one of the most user-friendly operating systems ever, applications running under it are pretty self-explanatory, so they do not need to be elaborated here. Those people who are running Unix variations for some strange reason, are probably doing it out of their own free will and can thus help themselves if they want to run an emulator. That leaves the Windows users (BeOS users fall under the MacOS category), and since that platform is usually the one with the most question marks, I will devote this section for making the life easier of those forced(?) to run that OS. Also note that the emu scene is constantly changing very fast and I can't possibly keep up with reviewing every new version of all the emulators that all these wonderful programmers keeps producing. Finally, I am ignoring any emulator which costs money, since freeware emulators are often just as good and comercial one's. XL-IT 0.18/0.20 (http://www.netmagic.net/~ricortes/ar/) Download the emulator and refer to its manual for details on installation for each individual system. Place TOS rom files in the Xl-it directory. If you have a joystick, make sure you calibrate it (in the menus of the emulator) before the first time you try to start a game. To play The City with Xl-it 0.18, you must first make a little configuration change to get it running. Go to the Enviroments menu and make sure that 130XE mode and Basic Cart is off and set the old 800 mode to on (this will change the "please insert disk" font to the basic font the first time prompted, but more importantly, it will accept the disk you insert, rather than crash). The old 800 mode has to load to memory a few more times than 130XE mode, but it's more stable with Xl-it. Xl-it version 0.20 can, however, handle The City with 130XE mode, but it is known, in The Dungeon atleast, to occasionally crash entire Character disks, rendering them forever unusable with any emulator! (So make backups regularly.) Identify what disk and side each disk image represents and make yourself comfortable with the diskswapping in the emu (there are shortcut keys). When everything is set, press Alt-E or choose Emulate from the options menu. F3 (Start) skips the introduction, and F8 gets you back to the menus. Please note that if you chose to leave Basic Cart on (in the Enviroments) you must hold down the F1 (Option) key when you boot the game, just like on a real Atari. Xl-it is all in all a very good Dos emulator, and has the undoubtedly best sound emulation of all the other emus. Xl-it is also quite fast and displays very accurate graphics (although at a resolution which cripples the screen) and crashes very seldom. Xl-it, however, won't be updated anytime soon, so you'll have to take it as it is (still one of the best though). ATARI800WIN PLUS 3.1 (http://atariarea.nostalgia.pl/PLus/) Download the emulator and refer to its manual for details on installation for each individual system. This emulator has alot of settings, so you need to familarize yourself amongst the menus for awhile before you can start the emulation. Remember to enable the Pentium Pro and MMX options if you have a Pentium II or newer (the settings can be found under the advanced graphics options). Inserting disks can be done by pressing Alt + 1 to 8 for the drive you want to use and choosing the disk image file (idea contributed by yours sincerely, a very long time ago). Note that The City only supports a maximum of two drives, while The Dungeon supports up to four. Also, press Shift - F5 to reboot the computer with the new disk and note that F4 is Start in this emulator. Atari800win is by far the most compatible Atari 8-bit emulator out there. Note that Atari800win saves all its configurations in the Windows registry instead of a configuration file, so make sure you delete all its entries there if you want to uninstall it. One fun thing to note is the ability to emulate TV color distortion, for a really authentic Atari feeling. Atari800win can also save memory states, which eliminates the need for a character disk, however, the function does not always work, so backing up your character properly to a disk now and then, is adviseable. And never save a memory snapshot inside a City establishment, as The City caches some data by writing on the disk images, which would then be lost. All in all, this IS the way to play AR (even though the mirrored mountain glitch exists in The City, like it does in all other Atari emulators), and, of course, the Atari 8-bit versions are the original versions containing all the unique features of AR, some of which never made it to the other different ports (including the 16-bit versions). WinUAE 0.8.22 Release 2 (http://www.winuae.net/) Download the emulator and run the install file, but DON'T refer to its manual for details! The history of UAE is not a pretty one (UAE originally stood for the Unusable Amiga Emulator). It is originally a Unix build which was converted to both Dos and Windows. This means that (as with most Unix software) it's a bitch to use, but it gets the job done. Fortunately, in the later versions, its Unix heritage has been concealed, so you won't have to use the manual too much, nor dabble with any command line options. You do, however, have to experiment alot with different configuration settings (see the end of this review for an example that works). Since the Amiga apparently is a pretty complex machine, emulation isn't glitch free (and sound, by today's emulation standards, is horrible). Mouse and joystick support is, as you would expect in any Windows software, a no frills deal (though with Alternate Reality, you will only be using the keyboard). Saving and loading from the character disk image also works very well for AR in WinUAE. The Amiga version of The City comes in the 16-bit flavour. This means simplified combat (which is bad, since it's a main focus of The City), no wind or thunder sound effects, less elaborate encounter tunes (hard to distinguish good monsters from bad ones), ability to take jobs at establishments (a plus) and the ability to join Guilds and cast spells (another plus). However, the Amiga version of AR also features a rather unique soundtrack version. Unlike the Atari ST and IBM PC versions, all 4 channels from the original Atari 8-bit incarnation has been retained, and samples are being used to produce the sound. There is also two new Tavern songs (Ganthem and Haven). However, since it's a very old title, the quality of most samples are questionable (as are some of the "new" arrangements). The Amiga version also has, by far, the smoothest scrolling graphics of any version (atleast on this emulator). So, what configuration do you need to use? Well, as mentioned, there's hundreds of things to alter, so here's just a quick suggested list, which seems to be generally good for games: RAM ROM CPU Display Sound Misc --- --- --- ------- ----- ---- No Change Use Type: 68000 Width: 640 Sample: 8-bit No Change Kickstart Speed: Adjust (1) Height: 512 1.3 Line Mode: Scanline Centering: All On Chipset: Full ECS * Correct Aspect * No Fullscreen WINFELLOW 0.4.2 (http://fellow.sourceforge.net/main/) Download the emulator and refer to its manual for details on installation for each individual system. Remember to put the TOS roms into the directory of the emulator. At launch, WinFellow presents you with a window where you can load disk images into disk drives and then launch or configure the emulator. Apart from letting the emulator know where your TOS rom is, no additional configuration should be necessary, so just load the disks and off you go. WinFellow, though less compatible than UAE, seems to be much better coded. There are no sound glitches and no graphics glitches in the games it supports (I recommend running in a windowed 640x512 mode with scanlines and double horisontal pixels). The City behaves prefectly well, with both loading and saving from a character disk fully working. The music timing to the lyrics might be questionable though. Finally, I encountered a curious bug while testing the emulator; all the Stats were 00 in the portal room, but looked fully normal in the game. While fun, it may cripple play a bit. PACIFIST 0.47 (http://www.pacifist.fatal-design.com/) Download the emulator and refer to its manual for details on installation for each individual system. Remember to put a TOS rom into the directory of the emulator and change the path to it in the pacifist.ini file! The most compatible version of PacifiST is currently version 0.47 together with a version 1.00 of the Atari ST TOS rom. When you start the emulator you'll end up in the monitor (no, your head will not smash into your monitor; it's a screen with a command prompt which is called the "monitor"). From here, you type in different commands for what you want to to, eg. "g" for go and "x" for exit. But first, you should insert a disk image into your virtual Atari ST. Do that by pressing F12 and follow the onscreen instructions (look at the bottom right hand corner for the keyboard commands, and the disk image you want to insert would be the AR one). NOTE: If you are using version 1.2 of The City, you must insert that disk image into both drives, or PacifiST will crash (I'm sorry, but I don't know why). You can however, later switch disk when the game wants you to without the emu crashing. Now you are almost ready to go, but first, hit F1 to ensure that you have "line" screen emulation (check the upper left hand part of the monitor). This is to get correct colors when you later run The City. If you are playing with the Klaupazius compacted version 2.0 of The City (the trained version), disregard the below sets of instructions; the game runs fine (although a section of The City which is normally unavailible is opened in this version). Right, press "g" to start the emulation and watch a wonderful blue screen appear. Then watch it go black. And black it stays. Time to hit tilde (the key above tab ~) and enter the monitor again. Try to press Ctrl-T a couple of times and you should see the emulator step through some addresses and then suddenly come to a loop. This loop is what causes all trouble and needs to be eliminated. The loop should be at address 00C204 (00EE7C if you are using version 2.0, but then you must make sure you are using TOS 2.06 also), so enter "nop C204 1" to get rid of it. Press "g" again, and voila, life is good. So, is it worth all trouble? Yes, I think it is. PacifiST is a very good Atari ST emulator with extremely good sound. The City for the Atari ST is, of course, the 16-bit version which features jobs and the ability to join guilds. The Atari ST only has three channels of music, however, so there are some differencies in the different music pieces. Also, if you are using the untrained version 2.0 of The City (should work with any TOS rom) the game will think you are running a pirated copy of it, and therefor will treat you in that way. That is, your character becomes extremely evil and you won't be able to enter any taverns or save the game. Sneaky? Oh, yes indeed! Note that from version 0.48 of PacifiST, there is also the ability to save the memory state, which removes the need for a character disk, but more importantly, enables you to bypass the need to "hack" those versions which require that, everytime you load the game. To save, simply type "fz x y" in the monitor, where x is the name of the file (standard 8 characters max, no spaces) and y is a description (more characters and space are allowed!). Later, to load your saved game, just insert the disk into the emulator and type "uz x" to restore the emulator to exact state as you left it in the last time! STEEM 2.4 (http://steem.atari.org/) Download the emulator and refer to its manual for details on installation for each individual system. Remember to put the TOS roms into the directory of the emulator. This emulator has a wizard, and overall very easy menus to use, so there shouldn't really be any problem at all to get the game running. It also features very charming on screen graphical display effects, such as a working and accurate ST floppy led. Note that you must use the uncracked version 2.0 of The City (without the trainer) for STEEM. No other version will work, but on the other hand, version 2.0 works like a charm. There are also options for fast forwarding (if you want a quick death), and saving snapshots, so you don't need any character disks (a temporary character will do). I would risk to say that STEEM is the best ST emulator yet (STE in fact, if you want to be picky), but then again, it is the only ST emulator for Windows still in development (except for SainT, which is really intended to only run demos, so it is not reviewed here). WINSTON 0.5 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/winston/) Download the emulator and refer to its manual for details on installation for each individual system. Remember to put the TOS roms into the directory of the emulator. Upon loading the emulator, you will be presented with a window with a toolbar (with an ST-esque "look"). Simply click on the first disk icon and select the disk image you want to use (it even supports zipped disks) and away you go. To get back the control of your mouse in Windows, press F12, and to go to a fullscreen mode, press F11 (the menu is availible by F12 in fullscreen too). In the "Modify Options" window, you can also do a save state under the "Memory" tab. This enables you to save your progress at any time without using a character disk. WinSTon is an extremely well made emulator, and runs The City flawlessly. However, I have not been able to get version 1.2 or the cracked and trained version 2.0 of The City to work under WinSTon, and thus, due to the elaborate copy protection, the game is pretty much unplayable. FRODO 4.1a (http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/FRMain.html) Download the emulator and refer to its manual for details on installation for each individual system. This emulator comes with its own TOS roms. Since the version I tried was a Win 95 app, it was a whizz to configure and load. In fact, the only thing you need to configure is personal stuff, like whether you want fullscreen or not (and it's all reachable from standard windows menus). There are then several number of ways to get a game running. You could use standard C64 commands, but Frodo also has a set of very nifty built in features. For example, Ctrl-D lists the content of an inserted disk image, and F7 loads up the first program from that disk it finds (you still need to type "run" for that command though). Even though this is a brilliant emulator, complete with full sid emulation and everything, it does not run AR. Though there has yet to be discovered a complete set of disk images for the C64 version of The City, the known (partially) cracked version of The Dungeon will not work, due to the lack of proper 1541 emulation (but also due to the structure of the d64 disk images). WINVICE 1.2 (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dsladic/vice/vice.html) Download the emulator and refer to its manual for details on installtion for each individual system. This emulator comes with its own TOS roms. Vice is also one of these emulators which are availible for a multitude of different platforms, and thus can suffer in the area of user-friendliness (it resembles Atari800win alot, although with slightly more features). Don't fear however, since you are but two clicks away from reliving Alternate Reality on the CBM64! Vice features a multitude of configuration options and setting, all of which can happily be ignored (except the True Drive Emulation switch, which is needed for The Dungeon). Just load the x64.exe and select Autostart from the menu and insert the first Dungeon disk and off you go. When the game prompts for another disk, simply press alt-8 to change disk image file, and then press space to continue the game. A very good thing about Vice is the ability to enter "warp" mode when you wait for something to load (and of course, set the speed to 10% during the scrolling stats portal). Memory state saving is also availible in Vice, called a "snapshot", which works very well and totally eliminates the need for a character disk. Note that the C64 version of Alternate Reality lacks the lush colors of the original Atari 8-bit versions, but that is hardly ever noticable and some of the monsters are actually tweaked so that they look better than on the Atari. Most important, though, is the lack of the fourth channel of sound which the fantastic original soundtrack boasts (the SID chip only had three voices). However, everything else is there, in all its 8-bit glory and nothing bad can be said about this emulator. It is truly versatile. However, there currently doesn't exist a known good dump of The City for the C64 (only known version just runs the intro without sound), so you'll have to settle with The Dungeon only for this system (like you don't have enough of The City versions to play anyway). APPLEWIN 95 (ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/emulators/applewin/) Download the emulator and refer to its manual for details on installtion for each individual system. This emulator comes with its own TOS roms. This is a very easy to use emulator. Simply click on the disk icon and enter what disks you want in what drive and the click on the Apple logo and off you go. However, there isn't very much to look at. Sure, both The City and The Dungeon runs fine, you can save your character and all, but there's only four colors, and one channel of sound. And no, that's not the emulator's fault; that's about all the Apple II had. What's funny, though, is that even the color blur of a TV is emulated. All in all, it's a very good emulator, easy to use, runs everything, fast, with sound, perfect. A Note if you want to uninstall it, though: It saves some of its preferences in the windows registry, which need to be removed in case of a manual uninstall. 3.3.4 THE IBM PC VERSION OF THE CITY ------------------------------------ Now, some people may ask why this game is mentioned under the "emulated" section of the FAQ. The answer is simple: The PC version of The City emulates the code of the Atari ST version of The City. Remember, that this game was conceived in the age of 8086 machines with a speed of 4mhz and a total of 640k RAM. So to emulate something with 1mb of ram running at 7mhz was not exactly a good idea... "Ack! What an embarassment. Because [he] couldn't understand the 3D wall drawing code, he wrote a cheezy 68000 interpreter to run the code that was written for the ST. Imagine, 32-bit 68000 instructions being emulated on a 16-bit processor and 32-bit registers being emulated as 8088/8086 32-bit variables in memory! If that wasn't lame enough, instead of writing a print routine to put text on the screen [he] just called the BIOS routines. You could actually watch the text updates get drawn. It was almost funny when we tried it on the PC Jr. Each little step took over a second to redraw the screen. Maybe [he] just anticipated 10 years ago that people would still want to play it on their P200's :-) [He] did it as an outside contractor. [His] name's in the credits in the PC version, so I won't divulge it here. [He] preferred to be called John though. Fortunately, I've never heard of him doing any games since." -INFORMATION COURTESY OF DAN PINAL What does this mean? Well, it answers the questions why the response after pressing a movement key is so sluggish (even today) and why the game has a general "untidy" feeling. In other words, stay away from the PC version and instead, emulate Alternate Reality properly using any of the above recommended emulators. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 4. ITEMS, LOCATIONS AND OTHER THINGS -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Since The City didn't have any quests or defined goals, other than to stay alive, you might think that there wasn't much to do. But you are so wrong. Staying alive was enough to keep you occupied for a very long time. And its items, treasure, locations, secrets and details made it a very worthwhile experience. 4.1 ITEMS IN THE CITY --------------------- Items were a very treasured thing in The City, indeed. Without clothing, you would freeze; without food and water, you would go hungry and starve; without weapons, you were an easy target for thieves; and without money, you mostly couldn't get any of these things. 4.1.1 CLOTHES ------------- One of the first things you'll notice in The City is that you will get cold quite fast if you don't buy any proper clothing. Apart from that, it is still unknown exactly what the effect is, apart from a certain dapper value which apparently increases your status. Here is a list of all the different selections: Quality Color Fabric Articles Cheap Black Dragonskin Blouse Simple Blue Fur-lined Breechcloth Fine Brown Linen Cloak Gold Satin Dress Green Silk Hat Maroon Wool Jerkin Orange Pants Pink Raincoat Plaid Robe Purple Scarf Red Shirt Silver Skirt Striped Socks White Tie Yellow Toga Vest 4.1.2 FOOD AND DRINKS --------------------- Also, one of the first things you'll notice in The City, is that some of your characters will get hungry and thirsty very, very fast, and if you leave them that way, their stats will deteriorate quickly. Food can be very expensive and not very satisfying if you aren't careful. The Official Cluebook has some very good tips that teaches you the ways of the Taverns. In addition, I can say from experience, that it is going to take alot of money (from an initial point of view) if you want to build up a safety buffer of food packets, since the characters tends to eat them whenever he feels for a snack, and if you don't have enough, it can be hard to find a Tavern which carries them at the time. In the list below, every meal has a price for every tavern. Please note, however, that I have not seen each and every one of those meals in all of the taverns, so they may not be availible there (such prices are calculated, but hopefully accurate). Check 4.3.1 for complete Tavern names and locations (prices are in coppers): Food/Drink Tail Mom Tavern Tears Stop LLoyd Hunter Ale 6 4 2 5 3 3 4 Beer 4 3 1 3 2 2 2 Grape Juice 6 4 2 5 3 3 4 Grog 4 3 1 3 2 2 2 Milk 4 3 1 3 2 2 2 Mineral Water 4 3 1 3 2 2 2 Orange Juice 6 4 2 5 3 3 4 Sasperilla 6 4 2 5 3 3 4 Spirits 10 8 4 9 6 5 7 Water 2 1 0 1 1 1 1 Water Flask 10 8 4 9 6 5 7 Wine 8 6 3 7 4 4 5 Apple Pie 24 19 9 21 14 12 16 Bagel 12 8 4 10 7 6 8 Bowl of Chili 20 16 8 18 12 10 14 Block of Cheese 30 24 12 27 18 15 21 Bowl of Fruit 50 40 20 45 30 25 35 Chokolate Cake 20 16 8 18 12 10 14 Crayfish 80 64 32 72 48 40 56 Filet of Beef 140 112 56 126 84 70 98 Food Packet 50 40 20 45 30 25 35 Fried Chicken 100 80 40 90 60 50 70 Gruel 8 6 3 7 4 4 5 Ham 120 96 48 108 72 60 84 Lamb 112 89 44 98 67 56 70 Lasagna 60 48 24 54 36 30 42 Leg of Dragon 600 480 240 540 360 300 420 Leg of Lamb 160 128 64 144 96 80 112 Lemon Pie 24 19 9 21 14 12 16 Loaf of Bread 16 12 6 14 9 8 10 Lobster 200 160 80 180 120 100 140 Pasta 60 48 24 54 36 30 42 Pemmican 40 32 16 36 24 20 28 Plate of greens 36 28 14 30 21 18 25 Pork Ribs 60 48 24 54 36 30 42 Rack of Lamb 80 64 32 72 48 40 56 Ragu of beef 66 52 26 59 39 33 46 Ragu of Dragon 100 80 40 90 60 50 70 Roast Beef 100 80 40 90 60 50 70 Roast Chicken 50 40 20 45 30 25 35 Roast Dragon 300 240 120 270 180 150 210 Sandwich 20 16 8 18 12 10 14 Smoked Fish 50 40 20 45 30 25 35 Vegetable Soup 10 8 4 9 6 5 7 The Dancing Nymph Tavern has the exact same prices as Mom's Bar. The Black Devil Tavern has the exact same prices as The Happy Hunter Tavern. The Flaming Dragon Tavern and The Screaming Siren Tavern has the exact same prices as the Last Stop. PLEASE NOTE: None of the Taverns with entrance fees has been covered yet. 4.1.3 WEAPONS AND ARMOUR ------------------------ Tools of vital importance if you wish to defeat your foes. And there will be foes. If you are lucky, you will find a good weapon or armor after combat, though, depending on what character you use, such treasure is very rare. Take note of the Cluebook's notes on weapon, combat and smiths. In addition, Occum's Weaponsmiths (19E, 31N) usually carries a cheap dagger in the beginning which is always a good start. Here is a list of all the different weapons and armour: Weapons Armor Shields Battle Axe Banded Armor Shield Battle Hammer Chain Mail Small Shield Dagger Leather Armor Spiked Shield Flail Padded Armor Tower Shield Long Sword Plated Armor Short Sword Scale Mail Stilleto Splint Armor Sword Studded Leather War Net Whip 4.1.4 TREASURE -------------- As the cluebooks tells, you'r ability to find treasure in The City relies on luck, the hidden treasure finding stat and the type of monster you encounter. A good way to find treasure in the beginning are by way of killing muggers, and, if you dare to venture out at night, Gremlins. Gremlins are very weak and almost always carry some sort of treasure. Listed below are weapons and armor, both mundane and magical, which can be found after combat. But you will also be able to find money (gold, silver and copper), precious stones (gems and jewels which can be appraised at banks) and potions (see the Official Cluebook for a very good rundown on those). The Crystal Plate and the Magical Flamesword, which can only be found as Treasure (ie. not availible in any shops) are considered to be, by far, the best equipment in the game. Crystal Plate Magical Flamesword Magical Tower Shield Elfin Chain Magical Battleaxe Magical War Net Plate Mail Magical Battlehammer Magical Spiked Shield Banded Armor Magical Flail Magical Shield Chain Mail Magical Whip Magical Small Shield Splint Mail Magical Longsword Scale Mail Magical Sword Ring Mail Magical Shortsword Studded Leather Magical Stilleto Leather Armor Magical Dagger Padded Armor -INFORMATION COURTESY OF JIM NORRIS 4.2 ITEMS IN THE DUNGEON ------------------------ Sequels are usually better (hopefully) than their predecessors, and atleast for the items and the inventory, this is true for the Alternate Reality games. All items in The Dungeon have a set weight, and the inventory is much easier to manage. Even though The City has many more shops than The Dungeon, and pherhaps just because of that, items tend to be more easy to come by, and there are certainly more varied ways to get them. For example, if you join a Guild, fellow guild members will, if you are short on a vital item, hand you one, or, you can sometimes find special items lying on the floor in special areas (one of the best weapons in the game, for example, is Razor Ice which is located but a short walk from your starting point). Also, another important factor in The Dungeon is that you can sell the items you find, which you couldn't in The City. This is great in the beginning, if you have joined a Guild, since you can then go and remove any curse that the weapon has, and then use the stairway (49E, 46N) near the Well-lit area to reach the Dwarven Smithy (17E, 24N), and then sell the items for money! Food and water is also managed in an easier way, being almost always availible at the Damon & Phtyias Shoppe (46E, 59N) (whereas in The City, you had to chase Taverns which could supply them), and since they are vital when you plan on making long journeys, you can choose when to consume them manually. The same goes for torches (also a very vital thing in the beginning of the game). 4.2.1 TREASURE -------------- *** IMPORTANT NOTICE: ********************************************************************* This area is currently under construction. As each monster in The Dungeon can carry both standard items (food, money etc.), special items (as mentioned in the Cluebook) and also has its own items, this list will narrow it down to the last option (like the Water Sprite's Trident for example). As there are alot of monsters in The Dungeon, as with The City, work in progress is slow. Anyone who feels that they possess information that they think would be a valuable contribution to this section, please contact me via the e-mail address at the top of this document. ******************************************************************************************* 4.2.2 ONE-OF-A-KIND ITEMS ------------------------- These are the true treasures of The Dungeon. A real pain to find, if you don't know where to look (since there are rarely clues to where to find most of them), but a salvation when you find them. The abilites of these items are as varied as they are numerous. The Cluebook for The Dungeon contains very good descriptions of these items, with the exeption that Melvin's Helm actually doubles damage done to your head (and supposedly makes you "ugly"), and that the Bolt Gun is missing. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF DAN PINAL AND KEN JORDAN Here are the locations of all the one-of-a-kind items: Name Locations Crossbow [03] 6E, 62N Level 1 Thunder Quarrels [10] 11E, 62N " Whetstone 31E, 62N " Golden Apple 31E, 59N " Staff of Amber 11E, 36N " Six Pack [6] 17E, 48N " Lodestone 38E, 57N " Page of Cups 62E, 56N " Winged Sandals 47E, 45N " Morgana's Tiara 44E, 45N " Helm of Light 41E, 45N " Truesilver Coat 42E, 38N " Potion of Restoration 45E, 38N " The Star (card) 48E, 38N " Sword of the Adept 3E, 23N " Amethyst Rod 3E, 15N " Saurian Brandy 9E, 8N " Map Stone 59E, 28N " Razor Ice 60E, 23N " Blue Pearl Dagger 48E, 25N " Crystal Breastplate 8E, 23N Level 2 Death (card) 19E, 5N " Robin's Hood 0E, 14N " Flame Quarrels [10] 4E, 10N Level 3 Junai's Sword 9E, 0N " Iron Palm Salve 9E, 3N " Melvin's Helm 5E, 5N Room of Confusion Cloak of Levitation 19E, 29N Level 2 Beam Weapon [99] 2E, 0N Level 4 Gauss Riftle [99] 33E, 62N Level 1 Solar Suit 36E, 62N " See section 5.2.1 on how to acquire the last two items. 4.3 ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE CITY ------------------------------ What other game let you, on a cool but clear night, wander around a city, from tavern to tavern, and listen and be entertained by good music and dancing and drink from the local establishment's selection of beverages, and even become a bit drunk. No other game offered such a widespread selection of shops and inns, and no other game ever have had such a level of interactivity as The City had (and no other game succeeded to appeal to one's vanity as The City; why, if not only to get that expensive Fine Gold Dragonskin Raincoat, do you continue to play the game as a Level 13 character?). At the home location of this document one can find maps to pinpoint these places on, and they are dumps from the original source code so they are 100% accurate! (Even showing certain areas in The City which can't be accesed in a normal game.) 4.3.1 TAVERNS ------------- The Tavern, along with the Smithy, was the peak of the games interactivity. Each Tavern had different opening times, different menus (that changed from time to time) and different prices. On top of that, they served different appetizers and had different music playing too, along with some random events that occasionally occured. The cluebook has some notes on taverns, which you should read. Also, when you entered a tavern you got some choises on where to sit. These were as follows. If you wanted to sit at the bar, you got to listen to the band (and watch the various events that could occur around that), and from time to time, strangers would wander in whom you could interact with. If you chose to sit at a table, you still got the band playing, but you wouldn't be disturbed by anyone entering the tavern. And finally, in the private booth, you were isolated from both the music playing and any wandering strangers. Here is the list of all the tavern names and locations: Name Location Opening hours Membership fee Flaming Dragon Tavern 60E, 2N Misty Mountain Tavern 1E, 54N 11:00-03:00 3,000 Screaming Siren Bar 44E, 9N 16:00-04:00 Happy Hunter Rest Stop 7E, 24N 00:00-08:00 Dancing Nymph Tavern 41E, 34N 16:00-08:00 The Club 33E, 53N 18:00-23:00 1,500 Black Devil Tavern 32E, 19N 00:00-06:00 (Lost Oasis) Tavern 20E, 62N Last Stop 52E, 56N Tail of the Dog 39E, 29N Club Babalyon 57N, 33E 10:00-05:00 50,000 Lost Tears Tavern 13E, 12N Mom's Bar 5E, 35N Lusty Lloyds 60E, 30N 4.3.2 INNS ---------- The Inns were the only means of sleep you had in The City. And sleep you needed, since the character realistically got tired if he stayed awake for long times. More importantly, it was also the easiest way to recover lost Hit Points. This was also the only way to check the time in the 8-bit version of The City. As with everything in The City, you had alot of options here. In this case, the options were where you would sleep and for how long, and depending on what you chose, you got various healing bonuses. There are two tables here, one with locations, and one with prices (and the prices of lodging doesn't change from time to time): Name Location Green Boar Inn 9E, 19N Lazy Griffin Inn 33E, 52N Sleeping Dragon Inn 60E, 6N Travellers Inn 31E, 25N Midnight Inn 32E, 23N Warriors Retreat Inn 28E, 54N Royal Resort 31E, 3N Sleep Green Lazy Dragon Travel Midnigt Warrior Royal the common area floor 10 16 5 60 30 7 80 a Bed with no bath 20 32 10 120 60 15 160 a Bed with common bath 30 48 15 180 90 22 240 a Room, with common bath 40 64 20 240 120 30 320 a Room with bath 50 80 25 300 150 37 400 a Premium Room 100 160 50 600 300 75 800 a Deluxe Room 200 320 100 1,200 600 150 1,600 a Small Suite 400 640 200 2,400 1,200 300 3,200 a Suite 800 1,280 400 4,800 2,400 600 6,400 Our BEST Suite 1,600 2,560 800 9,600 4,800 1,200 12,800 4.3.3 BANKS ----------- The banking system in The City is a very advanced one. They provide you with interest and also a risque of account failures. A low risk account has a 0.6% interest per day, and a 0.1% failure risk per day, medium risk has 1.3% interest and 1.0% failures, and high risk has 3.2% interest and a 3.3% account failure risk per day. To keep track of things, The City lets you view your balance, your interest rate and even the account failure history of the bank, whenever you want. You can also appraise gems and jewelry for a small fee, and then sell them (but always get a second opinion since jewelry, while more expensive to appraise, can give you up to 100 gold). Name Location Opening Hours Grams Gold Exchange 2E, 61N ?? Granite Bank 38E, 27N ?? First City Bank 30E, 6N ?? 4.3.4 GUILDS ------------ As you probably know, the Guilds award you a bonus the first time you enter them. This can, if you want, be seen as the game's first and only quest; to get all the knowledge the Guilds has to offer. Also, ignore the highlighted option to join the guild. That only works in the 16-bit versions of the game, not in the 8-bit (an option which, together with the two hidden guilds, would be enabled and opened up with The Arena). Name Location Increase Remove Curse Thieves Guild 43E, 34N Skill 9,000 Blue Wizards Guild 18E, 47N Physical Speed 3,000 Light Wizards Guild 2E, 4N Wisdom 2,700 Green Wizards Academy 11E, 42N Stamina 3,000 Red Wizards University 47E, 14N Strength 3,000 Dark Wizards Guild 33E, 21N Charisma 3,100 Star Wizards Guild 27E, 11N Hit Points + Strength 2,000 Wizards of Chaos Guild 50E, 59N Charisma 4,000 Wizards of Law Guild 61E, 49N Wisdom 3,800 Guild of Order 57E, 49N Intelligence 4,000 Physicians Guild 5E, 14N Hit Points 7,000 Assassins Guild 55E, 2N Suprise Attacks 11,000 Mercenary Guild 32E, 55N Strength 12,000 Power Wizard Institute 25E, 44N Stamina 2,500 The last two Guilds are not normally availible in the game (see section 6.4 for details). 4.3.5 HEALERS ------------- Healers doesn't seem to have any fixed opening times, but rather they come and go as they please (that is, the cursed doctor is never there when you need him). Neither do they seem to have any fixed prices on their services, rather prices on cleansing diseases or curing poisons can range from anything from 200 to 800 (prices also seem to radically increase after you have used their services). If you chose to remove a disease and exit and find that the Diseased! text is still there, don't panic; it will wear of in a few minutes. Diagnose can only be chosen after you have gotten a disease warning, and its only effect is that it names your ailment. Name Location Opening Hours Prices One Way Soothers 29E, 29N Random? Random? Alpha Omega Healers 4E, 19N Random? Random? 4.3.6 SMITHS ------------ The Smithy is the most complex character in the whole game. All is not known about the smithy, but atleast we know that he has a memory of you, he knows whether you're good or evil and there seems to be a intricate system for haggling with him (it is also possible, though it is unconfirmed, that your Intelligence or Charisma may increase if you make a good deal, and that he may increase his prices if he doesn't like you). Name Location Opening Hours Occums Weaponsmiths 19E, 32N 05:00-21:59 Sharp Weaponsmiths 54E, 9N 04:00-20:59 Knights Armorers 50E, 35N 11:00-15:59 Best Armorers 32E, 27N 08:00-19:59 4.3.7 SHOPS ----------- While the Shops had one (or maybe two) major functions, namely providing clothing to keep you warm (or providing outrageous outfitts to milk you of money), and of course letting you have the compass for 5 silvers, it is still unknown if there were other purposes. Clothing are rumored to have a 'dapper' effect, which would affect the way that other citizens viewed you, but no hard facts has ever been revealed about this. Also, if you bid too low for the shopkeepers liking, too many times, he'll not only throw you out, but also ban you (you'll know when that has happened since he will say "Get OUT! You worm!" when you enter). Name Location Opening Hours Best Bargain Store 35E, 30N 09:00-22:00 Honest Trader 35E, 24N 08:00-22:00 Exclusive Outfitters 21E, 43N 11:00-16:00 Smiley's Shop 25E, 15N 08:00-21:00 Sunset Market 33E, 55N 09:00-20:00 Warrior's Supplies 26E, 59N 05:00-18:00 Ono Goods 9E, 37N 09:00-18:00 Adventurers Outfitters 3E, 12N 08:00-20:00 Da Place (north) 60E, 61N 08:00-18:00 General Store 55E, 17N 05:00-00:00 Merchants Grotto 52E, 9N 04:00-20:00 Pauline's Emporium 46E, 37N 11:00-17:00 Betelguese Sales 38E, 56N 03:00-23:00 Da Place (south) 19E, 5N 08:00-18:00 Grubron Imports 0E, 13N 10:00-15:00 4.3.8 OTHER LOCATIONS --------------------- When The City was made, it was made with the intention that The Arena and The Wilderness would be released. However, since this didn't happen, alot of features in the game never got any use. That is the case with these locations, as in the game, they are all (except for the Floating Gate of course) "closed by order of The Palace". However, it is fun to see that they are there and to think of what could have been. Name Location House of Ill-Repute 42E, 35N Acrinimirils Gate 31E, 36N Floating Gate 35E, 27N Maximum Casino 39E, 36N Jacks Fitness Academy 54E, 4N Davids Weapons Trainers 23E, 47N Armstrong Builders 25E, 50N Apollo Trainers 26E, 46N The last three trainers are not normally availible in the game. Grogs Weapons Trainers Not on the map Flash Weapons Trainers Not on the map The above two trainers are only found by dumping data from the original disks. 4.4 LOCATIONS IN THE DUNGEON ---------------------------- Whereas The City didn't have any of its special locations implemented (they were all 'closed by the order of the Palace'), The Dungeon had dozens of them! It took some time to find them all, but luckily, most of them had clues which pointed you in the right direction in one way or another. 4.4.1 GUILDS ------------ There were two kinds of Guilds in The Dungeon; Good guilds and Evil guilds. These Guilds were often at war with each other, so if you joined one guild, you instantly made enemies with another (if you didn't use the Ace of Cups, that is). But you also made friends in your Guild, who could come and help you in The Dungeon if you were ever in need (to give you torches, timepieces, compasses, food, water, money or even advice). You also got a Guild Locker, which acted as the eqvivalent of a City Bank, but without any risk of it being robbed. The most important thing, however, was the Guild Ring, in which you stored the spell points needed to cast the spells the guild would offer to learn you. But you didn't always have to rely on your Guild to recharge the ring or train you in Spell Casting; you could use Crystals for that and whenever you cast a spell, there was a chance that its success rate would increase a bit. To replenish your Guild Ring by using Crystals, simply press U to Use and select your Guild Ring; 1 Crystal will be drawn from your inventory and become [10] Guild Ring charges. Name Location Wizards of Chaos Guild 50E, 59N Wizards of Law Guild 62E, 49N Guild of Order 58E, 49N Thieves Guild 44E, 33N Light Wizards Guild 2E, 4N Dark Wizards Guild 33E, 21N Paladins Guild 2E, 26N Level 2 Mercenaries Guild 8E, 12N Level 2 4.4.2 FOUNTAINS --------------- The Fountains in The Dungeon provided you with a small safety buffer if you couldn't reach The Well Lighted Area. They were strategically placed, since on Level 2, you probably don't want to waste time to go up to the Well Lit Arean to find a healer to cure your diseases, and on Level 3, having gotten that far, you probably are quite tired already getting there. Fountain Cure Wounds 14E, 10N Level 1 Cure Diseases 24E, 15N Level 2 Cure Fatigue 15E, 1N Level 3 4.4.3 TRANSPORTERS ------------------ This may be something that is unknown to many, but if mastered, it can be a great way to travel in The Dungeon. There are alot of different transporters scattered around. Some will transport you to places where you will find interesting things, and some may transport you into near certain death. Here is a list of all transporters, including from where and to where they take you. Location Destination 56E, 48N 43E, 35N Level 1 54E, 48N 43E, 32N Level 1 56E, 42N 24E, 4N Level 1 46E, 36N 18E, 22N Level 1 5E, 47N 58E, 58N Level 1 9E, 17N 54E, 56N Level 1 15E, 21N Level 2 60E, 56N Level 1 7E, 19N Level 2 11E, 21N Level 2 11E, 3N Level 3 0E, 3N Room of Confusion 2E, 2N Room of C 13E, 0N Level 3 Blink Mines 18E, 22N Level 1 Elevator Buttons (2E, 5N Level 4) Blue 45E, 41N Level 1 Red 31E, 22N Level 2 Green 9E, 3N Level 3 Ozob's Door Puzzle is not listed here. See the Solution to The Dungeon for details on that. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF TONY EKSELL AND JIMMY SJÖSTRÖM 4.4.4 OTHER SPECIAL LOCATIONS ----------------------------- The Dungeon had a multitude of hidden shops, strange guilds and other interesting locations. Each location featured its unique graphics, though not all locations were blessed with music (visit the home location of this document for a screenshot of each special location). Here is a list of all the special locations in The Dungeon with a short description. (46E, 59N) DAMON & PHYTIAS SHOPPE This is the first establishment you encounter in The Dungeon. Inside, you will find a humble little shop, owned by Omar and his brother. Here you will be able to buy everything a newly descended Dungeon adventurer needs. From supplies to clothing, survival gear and weapons. As with the grumpy Smiths in the city above, Omar has his distinct personality. Do to much window shopping and he will start to dislike you and raise the prises. But if you buy from him alot, he will consider you a loyal customer and may even lower his prices, or atleast be willing to bargain a bit more. Though you should be advised to watch your purse if you want to buy more than one item from him at a time; Omar is not the brightest of minds when it comes to adding. (55E, 60N) THE RETREAT Located in the Well-Lit Area, this is the place where weary Dungeon adventurers go to rest. The Retreat is a generous place, so you will get to sleep here, no matter how poor you are (but you'll usually end up at the drafty spot by the door, and probably be frowned upon by others). If you are generous, though, you'll get a comfortable nights sleep close to the fireplace (that is, if you are not cursed poisoned, or sick, since then you'll probably be troubled by nightmares, which you should take as warning to seek out a healer). The lady in charge of the Retreat is also the one who spoke the immortal words: "Thou art welcome here, but thy deceased friend is not! Please have it wait outside!" (if you happened to drag a corpse into the establishment). (60E, 61N) DER RATHSKELLER BAR & GRILLE Also located in the Well-Lit Area, this is a gathering point for the hungry adventurer in The Dungeon. Der Rathskeller only has a few tables and a bar (no fancy private booths as in The City). Since you can eat at the bar, that's usually the best spot, because you can meet wandering strangers who may tell you interesting stories if you buy them a drink or a meal. Of course, you can always buy a round for the house to try to get friends too, if there is anyone around that is (The Dungeon is not as bustling with human activity as The City is). Always leave a nice tip to the barkeep too, since you always get any leftovers neatly wrapped in a food packet, and remember that he will always buy dragon corpses from you for 50 gold. (59E, 36N) PALACE PRISON Hidden in a wall outline of the Palace, you access this dreadful place through a hidden entrance in the Sewers. Inside, you will find the poor imprisoned apprentice of Acrinimiril. He requires a special Silver Key to be freed, which only a Master Thief carries. Once Ozob is free, you will be best advised never to return, or be returned, here again. (27E, 55N) THE CHAPEL If you exit the Well-Lit Area to the north and take the first door you find to the west, you'll end up in an alcove with a sign that says "Welcome to the Chapel. Please come in." Here, ceremonies is held twice a day (8:00 to 11:00 in the morning and 21:00 to 23:00 in the evening) and a priest is always availible for consulting about your current alignment. Donations are always welcome, and if you have been generous and righteouss, you might even get access to the Sanctuary. (31E, 54N) THE CHAPEL SANCTUARY Only the one's with a truly good heart and pure soul are allowed to enter this secret place. Here, kind monks will offer free food and lodging for all visitors. It is a safe haven from all evil. (2E, 61N) GRAM'S GOLD EXCHANGE VAULT The hidden and well guarded vault of one of the wealthy banks of The City. If you manage to penetrate its defences and enter the vault, temptation may lure you into trying to get away with some loot. If you set off any alarms, watch out for guards, since you will have to fight or bribe them to get away. Surrendering means a sure death in the Palace Dungeons... except maybe for members of the Thieves Guild, who may get lucky with some friends. (2E, 49N) GOBLIN KING'S PALACE In the northwest part of the first level of the City sewers, you will find an alcove, and if you take that alcove and follow the windling corridors, you may end up in front of a dirty sign which reads "Goblins only!". Beyond that sign lies the goblin's demesne. The goblins are short and nasty creatures, but also sneaky, and are suprisingly articulate. Do not let that fool you, though, since the goblin lord is a fearsome opponent, wielding a Sceptre of Evil. The goblin and troll kings are locked in an eternal struggle over a ring they both possess one half of. (31E, 36N) ACRINIMIRIL'S TOMB Deep in the heart of The Dungeon lies the Egyptian themed tomb of Acriminil, where his mummified corpse still resides, and his ghost still is trapped. Only by the power of his now lost staff can set him free. Unfortunately the staff is broken into three hidden pieces, which the ghost will ask you to find. But as Acriminil was a powerful being while alive, the rewards for the pieces are great. (30E, 6N) FIRST CITY BANK VAULT Another hidden and well guarded vault of one of the wealthy banks of The City. If you manage to penetrate its defences and enter the vault, temptation may lure you into trying to get away with some loot. If you set off any alarms, watch out for guards, since you will have to fight or bribe them to get away. Surrendering means a sure death in the Palace Dungeons... except maybe for members of the Thieves Guild, who may get lucky with some friends. (35E, 27N) ORACLE OF WISDOM Get quests and enlightment for gold coins The great Oracle of wisdom is located in the very heart of The Dungeon, beneath the Floating Gate of The City, beyond the spinner trap and behind the door with the rune of the all-knowing eye upon. To receive guidance, the Oracle demands you to offer a few golds into its flames. The flames of the Oracle can also be used to permanently destroy any object in The Dungeon, though it is unknown what the Oracle itself sees of such actions. It is the Oracle which gives you guidance in your various quests in The Dungeon. (43E, 2N) WEAPON ENCHANTRESS The Weapons Enchantress is not only the most beautiful character in The Dungeon, but also one of the most mysterious. In her shop, adventurers and other weapon wielders come to get their steel examined and, for a donation in crystals, enchanted. The Enchantress can increase the power of a weapon in any of the seven different damage types of The Dungeon. She can also reveal the power of a weapon, but she never exactly tells you what she knows... (56E, 6N) TROLL KING'S PALACE A crooked sign says "TROLLS ONLY" at the entrance to the troll king's demesne, located beyond a secret hallway near the southern part of The City sewers. The trolls are large and lumpy creatures. The troll tyrant is also a fearsome beast, wielding a Sceptre of Evil. The goblin and troll kings are locked in an eternal struggle over a ring they both possess one half of. (16E, 24N) DWARVEN SMITHY In the damp halls of the second levels of The Dungeon, one can find a doorway with carvings above it which says "Fine Weapons & Armor". Inside you will find a forge, and working by that forge is the Dwarven Smithy. The smith stocks fine truesilver armor, but can also make you the best weapons in the whole of The Dungeon. The only currency the smith accepts is gems and jewels and, as with the Enchantress, the more you offer, the greater the crafted weapon will be. (7E, 6N) LUCKY'S POTION BREWERY In the heart of the ghost infested maze of pitch-black rooms that are Mordred's Maze, out of the faint blue glow in the walls, you may find an arrow painted on the floor pointing south. If you follow the arrow, you will end up in the strange laboratory with a strange man. That man is Lucky, who is always looking for wanderers who are willing to taste his latest experimental brew. Naturally you can also purchase anything from his selection of already labeled potions, or have him identify and label one for you. (15E, 5N) UNDEAD KING'S PALACE If you have managed to pass across the river Stonz with the ferryman, an even greater challenge awaits you on the other side. In order to reach the palace, you need to defeat seven Undead Knights. The Undead King will be glad to see you, though, as you will have broken an evil curse, and will reward you with a staff piece and a great clue to the mechanics of the alien world. (28E, 12N) RIVER CROSSING There is only one known way to cross the swift and perilous dark waters of the underground river Stonz, and that is by the means of the mysterious and ghostly ferryman by the River Crossing. Only at the midnight hour, and only by offering no more and no less than two coppers, will he row you across, into the regions of the undead. (26E, 23N) CLOTHES HORSE'S ROOM In the hall of mirrors, there is a most puzzling creature. The Clothes Horse is like nothing else in The Dungeon; arrogant, self-centered and totally harmless. It spends all days and all hours admiring its reflection, and feeling rather happy about it. You can, however, make it even happier by trading it a piece of fancy clothing in exchange for its mirror. (3E, 1N) GREAT DRAGON'S LAIR If you ignore the "BEWARE OF THE DRAGON" sign, and travel down the stench ridden, lava glowing corridors on the third level of The Dungeon, you will end up in the Great Dragon's Lair. The great wyrm would gladly have you as a crunchy meal, if it was not for the fact that it craves the bloodstone, and needs bold adventurers to find it. Whether or not you decide to bring it to him, is up to you, but in the horde of the great wyrm, there awaits a staff piece. (2E, 5N) FEARSOME GARGOYLE This is the most mysterious character in the whole of Alternate Reality. Originally rumored to be a friendly alien of some sort, nobody really knows what he is after, or how he really looks like. In The Dungeon, he will toy with you and test you with his tricky riddles. But do put your mind into it, because he will not be patient with those who are foolish enough to not think twice before answering. The last riddle he asks, though, wasn't really meant to be answered in The Dungeon, but rather was planned to be revealed in The Wilderness, where apparently a clue to his name would be given. However, since The Dungeon was the last game released, Datasoft was kind enough to reveal the name to those who wanted to solve it, which is: SHINGOR (8E, 7N) DEATH'S DOOR At the end of the terrible gauntlet of monsters, where no magic works, lies the Death's Door. The door is, however, not as bad as it sounds, as the "death" part is just something the aliens have added to scare away dungeon dwellers. A special item is needed in order to use the door. Anyone without that item, simply passes right through to the other side, without anything special happening. (6E, 4N) ALIEN CONTROL ROOM If you manage to survive all the way down to the fourth and final floor of The Dungeon, you will find one of the mysterious and strange secret installations of the aliens. The aliens however, are not happy to see you, and you should be well advised to equip some defensive gear against their beam weapons. (2E, 5N) ELEVATOR Once clear of the Alien Control Room, you may take this moving room to any of the different levels of The Dungeon. But once you the door closes behind you, it will disappear. 4.4.5 SPECIAL AREAS Not only were there special locations in The Dungeon with its special location graphics, but there where also whole special areas with special graphics and monsters and other things which affected you in various ways when you entered them (one being the Crystal Caverns with its beautiful textures and archways, where the Ice Devils lured and in which you could get cold and catch the Crystal Doom disease, but which held the Crystal Plate as a reward deep within a central chamber). Here is a list of all these special areas with a small description and a rough location: Name Location Notes The Well Lit Area Level 1, NE No need for torches, easy monsters, many paupers The City's sewers Level 1, Edges Disease spreading Rats and food consuming Molds Pythonesses' Maze Level 1, Center Where you can find the Oracle Goblins' Demense Level 1, NW Lots of Goblins to fight Troll's Demense Level 1, SE Lots of Trolls to fight Taurean Maze Level 1, SW Many fixed monster encounters The Loop ?? Ozob's Door Puzzle Level 1, NW A Teleporter behind every door (m, l, l, m, m) The mausoleum Level 1, NW Undead creatures, Tomb of Acrinimiril Shrine of Monsters Level 1, NE Special monster and treasure in every room The blink minefield Level 1, SW Lots of teleporters, to 22E, 18N in Taurean Maze The Hall of Arches ?? Cult Room Level 1, SE Special symbol on the map, Blue Pearl Dagger Pelinor's Puzzle ?? The Hall of Mirrors Level 2, E Many Dopplegangers, Clothes Horse The Crystal Caverns Level 2, W Ice Demons and the Crystal Doom disease The Hall of the Adept Level 2, E Egyptian hieroglyfs and a pyramid painting The River Stonz Level 2, S Unreachable area, River Crossing Realm of the Undead Level 2, SE Many undead creatures, egyptian hieroglyfs Mordred's Maze Level 2, SW Lots of ghosts and dark passageways The hot area Level 3, S Many Small Dragons, very warm, very smelly The Gauntlet Level 3, Center Monster in every room, Death's Door at end The Room of Confusion RoC Special area outside any normal map, Basilisk The Shrine of Monsters is a special area south, southwest of the Well Lighted Area (main entrance is at 48E, 41N). It contains rooms, secured in various ways in which there are monsters who will give you treasure if you defeat them. Here is a list of the different room's contents: Location Door Monster Treasure 41E, 44N Locked 4 Flame Demons Helm of Light 44E, 44N Bolted 3 Wraiths Morgana's Tiara 47E, 44N Enchanted Valkyrie Winged Sandals 41E, 38N Locked 8 Dwarves Truesilver Coat 44E, 38N Bolted Great Naga Potion of Restoration 47E, 38N Enchanted Lich The Star (card) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 5. SECRETS AND CHEATS -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Now, with this FAQ you really should have gotten enough tips to not have to resolve to cheating. But also, since this is a FAQ it should contain every little detail about the games, and since cheating is one of those details, well, here you go! 5.1 SECRET CODES IN THE CITY ---------------------------- Philip Price is a man who is known to not be fond of cheating in computer games, atleast, not without a negative effect for every positive one. So, there are some codes in The City which can be entered, but exactly what they do is unknown (even to Philip Price himself at this day). Well, by entering your Character's name as "fiat" with the CTRL key pressed down you get the question "What is Reality?" The following are the various answers and their cryptic effects: cela saute aux yeux - To be outside of time is to be unchangable. sempiternal - The gift of life is thru love. Master of Chronos - Hail Master of Chronos! But power is fleeting. unseen - That which is invisible is real If you type an answer incorrectly, you get a message saying "The laws are as they were". 5.2 SECRET CODES IN THE DUNGEON ------------------------------- Of course, The Dungeon also had its share of codes, but also some cheats (Ken Jordan and Dan Pinal were apparently a bit more liberal with cheat codes). But another thing was also introduced; due to the increased size of the game, and the increased size of the code, the gamers were able to exploit some bugs the programmers didn't think of! There is also a debugger option in The Dungeon, which is supposedly initiated with the name 'Adept-1', but I haven't gotten it to work yet. THE GUILD CODE This cheat is activated by entering one of the guilds and typing '666' with the keyboard. You will get a very large amount of Hit Points, but you will also become extremely evil in the game. TACTICAL NUKE SPELL This powerful cheat is activated by going to a Stairwell and typing '853-1212'. This will get you a Spell in your spell inventory called Tac Nuke (at 95%) which will make about 1,000 Hit Points of damage to a multiple amount of monsters. The number is an old telephone number to Datasoft which was printed on The Dungeon box. If you are going to try the cheat on an emulator, make you you have the 'dash' key correct before you type it in the stairwell (make a test type in the name character screen). -INFORMATION COURTESY OF DAN PINAL AND KEN JORDAN GOLDEN APPLE TRICK This cheat is funny in that way that it requires you to be faster than the computer itself (and believe me it worked on a real Atari 130 XE atleast). Go to the Golden Apple and get to the menu which gives you the option to get it. Press Y immideately followed by D. This will get you the apple and open the Drop Item menu. You can now scroll through your items, and if you were fast enough, you will discover the Golden Apple. Now choose to drop it. You will still have the Hit Point bonus gained, and you will now also be able to get the Apple again, with the bonus, as many times as you like (as long as you are fast enough). STAT SPELLS CHEAT This is executed by learning a spell in one of the Guilds which raises one of your stats (also make sure you have learned the maximum amount of spells your mind can hold at your present level). Go outside the Guild and cast the spell so it takes effect at raises one of your stats. Then, while the spell is still in effect, quickly go inside the Guild and choose to learn a spell (either one is fine) and then unlearn the Stat raising Spell that you just cast. The effect of the spell will then become permanent, and you can do it over and over again as many times as you like. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF JIM NORRIS ITEM EFFECT CHEAT This cheat works in a similar way as with the Stat Spells cheat. Equip a one-of-a-kind item that has a special effect (like the Winged Sandals or the Helm of Light), and then enter the Dwarven Smithy on level 2. Now try to sell him the item you just equipped, and he'll refuse. However, he will have removed them item from use and placed it back into your inventory, but, the effect will still be there, and it will be permanent. This cheat can also be done over an over again (try giving the Iron Palm Salve to the Smithy again and again and watch your Bare Hand Damage become greater than even the damage from a Custom Weapon!). -INFORMATION COURTESY OF JIM NORRIS 5.2.1 SECRET ITEMS IN THE DUNGEON --------------------------------- There are two items in the game to which there aren't any clues to be found, and still, there are persons who has been able to figure out the way to access them. I am, of course, talking about the infamous Solar Suit and Gauss Riftle, and here is the proper way to access them: Go and fetch the Amethyst Rod at 3E, 15N which is able to open any door in the game (except Death's Door, of course). Then make your way down to Level 2, to the Hall of the Adept, and position yourself in the alcove with the painting of the purple pyramid at 28E, 17N. Face the northern wall and use the Amethyst Rod and you will be teleported to the end of the long corridor at 32E, 62N on Level 1 (behind the teleporter which previously hindered your path there), and there you will find something which looks like evidence of a small battle (and some disgusting remains which could be an alien) and finally, a Solar Suit and a Gauss Riftle [95]. The reasons for these weapons being so mysterious and secret in The Dungeon, were that they weren't meant to be discovered until the release of The Wilderness (which we are all still waiting for)... 5.3 CHEATING WITH THE EMULATORS ------------------------------- For this, you have to use Xl-it or Atari800Win Plus who's monitor enables you to change the values in any memory position. In Xl-it, you change the value of a memory position with the ":" (colon) command, and in Atari800Win Plus, you change the value of a memory position with the "c" command. It should look like this... > : [memory position to change] [value to change it to] > c [memory position to change] [value to change it to] You can also, for example, directly type ": 6345 F F F F" for 3,855 Hit Points, or directly type "c 6313 0D 16" to go to the Shrine of Monsters (Dungeon), as each following value is assigned to the next memory position. 5.3.1 MANIPULATING THE CITY --------------------------- Below is an preliminary list of memory positions in The City. Note that you shold change all three stat position for the entire stat to change. Stats are believe to be in the following order: Displayed, Natural, Effective (current). According to Philip Price, the displayed-only stat exists so that a person can be deluded, so de thinks he is strong, but really isn't (could be caused by potions etc.) The opposite could be true too, he feels he is weak, but really isn't. Memory Starting What is modified Location Value Range (Notes) 8924 23 West-East Location (nw corner=00,00) 8925 24 North-South Location (nw corner=00,00) 892E RND STR (displayed) 895F RND STR 8960 RND STR 8937 RND INT (displayed) 8938 RND INT 8939 RND INT 8940 RND WIS (displayed) 8941 RND WIS 8942 RND WIS 8949 RND SKL (displayed) 894A RND SKL 894B RND SKL 8952 RND STA (displayed) 8953 RND STA 8954 RND STA 895B RND CHR (displayed) 895C RND CHR 895D RND CHR 8964 ?? 8965 ?? 8966 ?? 8AA6 00 Experience 16777215+ 8AA7 00 Experience 65535+ 8AA8 00 Experience 256+ 8AA9 00 Experience 000+ 8AB8 00 Hit Points Current 256+ 8AB9 RND Hit Points Current 000+ 8ABC 00 Hit Points Maximum 256+ 8ABD RND Hit Points Maximum 000+ 8AC0 00 Gold - 256+ 8AC1 00 Gold - 000+ 8AC4 00 Silver - 256+ 8AC5 00 Silver - 000+ 8AC8 00 Copper - 256+ 8AC9 RND Copper - 000+ 8FAB 3 Food Packets 255+ 8FAC 3 Water Flasks 255+ -INFORMATION COURTESY OF JIM NORRIS, MARK WIECZOREK AND JAMES NEAL 5.3.2 MANIPULATING THE DUNGEON ------------------------------ Below here is a very comprehensive list of all the different locations including all the fixed encounters. There is also a list for stats and valuables which can be altered in the same way as the rest. Memory locations for 6313 X Position 6314 Y Position 6315 Dungeon Level The Dungeon Levels can be given the following values: 1.1 = 0 1.2 = 1 1.3 = 2 1.4 = 3 2.0 = 4 3.0 = 5 4.0 = 6 Room of Confusion (RoC) = 5 Values which can be given to the X and Y positions (note the Level): X Y Level Name 10 10 1.1 Stairwell 11 0F 1.1 6 Pack 6 0E 1.1 message (A dirty sign reads: "Goblins only!") 1B 7 1.1 message (A sign above the door says: "Welcome to the Chapel. Please come in!") 1A 1B 1.1 message (You stand before an elaborate door.) 2 2 1.1 Grahm's Gold Exchange 2 0E 1.1 Goblin King's Palace 1F 1B 1.1 Tomb of Acrinimiril 1B 8 1.1 Chapel 1C 8 1.1 Chapel 1F 8 1.1 Chapel Sanctuary 1F 1 1.1 Whetstone 6 1 1.1 Crossbow [03] 0B 1 1.1 Thunder Quarrels [10] 0B 1B 1.1 Vampire 1F 4 1.1 Golden Apple 1B 1B 1.2 Palace Prison 12 3 1.2 Dungeon Entrance 7 9 1.2 Devourer 11 11 1.2 Stairwell 13 4 1.2 Doppleganger 0F 4 1.2 message (A sign on the door reads: "The Damon & Phytias Shoppe") 16 3 1.2 message (A sign above the door reads: "The Retreat") 1C 3 1.2 message (A sign reads: "Der Rathskeller Bar & Grille") 0D 16 1.2 message (A plaque reads: "Shrine of monsters") 3 1E 1.2 message (The rune of the all-knowing eye is upon the door.) 14 16 1.2 Entrance to Palace 0C 1E 1.2 Theives Guild 12 4 1.2 Wizards of Chaos Guild 1E 0E 1.2 Wizards of Law Guild 1A 0E 1.2 Wizards of Order Guild 0E 4 1.2 Damon & Pythias Shoppe 1C 2 1.2 Der Rathskeller's Bar and Grille 17 3 1.2 The Retreat 0F 19 1.2 Lich 0F 13 1.2 Valkyrie 0C 19 1.2 Great Naga 0C 13 1.2 3 Wraiths 9 13 1.2 4 Flame Demons 9 19 1.2 8 Dwarves 16 5 1.2 8 Homonculi 1A 6 1.2 8 Skeletons 1C 5 1.2 Wraith 10 20 1.2 The Star (card) 0F 12 1.2 Winged Sandals 0C 19 1.2 Potion of Restoration 0C 12 1.2 Morgana's Tiara 9 12 1.2 Helm of Light 0A 19 1.2 Truesilver Coat 1E 7 1.2 Page of Cups Card 6 6 1.2 Lodestone 1 1 1.2 Gauss Rifle [95] 4 1 1.2 Solar Suite 0E 14 1.3 Fountain (Hit Points) 0E 16 1.3 Fountain (Hit Points) 0D 15 1.3 Fountain (Hit Points) 0F 15 1.3 Fountain (Hit Points) 12 7 1.3 creature (taurean maze) 7 10 1.3 creature (taurean maze) 6 0B 1.3 creature (taurean maze) 19 0 1.3 creature (taurean maze) 15 9 1.3 creature (taurean maze) 12 0B 1.3 creature (taurean maze) 13 0D 1.3 creature (taurean maze) 9 25 1.3 Saurian Brandy 0B 0A 1.3 message (Writing scrawled on the ground reads: "GO BACK!") 7 0 1.3 message (Scratchings on the wall read: "THERE IS NO ESCAPE") 10 9 1.3 message (A red arrow on the ground points east.) 0E 13 1.3 message (You hear the sound of running water.) 0E 17 1.3 message (You hear the sound of running water.) 0C 15 1.3 message (You hear the sound of running water.) 10 15 1.3 message (You hear the sound of running water.) 0 1F 1.3 message (Glowing letters float in midair: "SEEK THE LIGHT") 1 1F 1.3 message (Glowing letters float in midair: "SEEK THE LIGHT") 1 12 1.3 message (You hear the crackle of electricity.) 1 13 1.3 message (You hear the crackle of electricity.) 1 14 1.3 message (You hear the crackle of electricity.) 1 15 1.3 message (You hear the crackle of electricity.) 1 16 1.3 message (You hear the crackle of electricity.) 1 17 1.3 message (You hear the crackle of electricity.) 1E 19 1.3 Bank Vault 2 1B 1.3 Wizards of Light Guild 3 8 1.3 Sword of the Adept 3 10 1.3 Amethyst Rod 0D 1D 1.4 Enchantress 1B 1E 1.4 Dungeon Entrance 0D 1C 1.4 message (Glowing letters on the door proclaim: "Enchantress") 14 19 1.4 message (A crooked sign says: "TROLLS ONLY") 1 1F 1.4 message (Black letters hovering slowly say: "THE SHADOW WILL HIDE THEE") 18 19 1.4 Troll King's Palace 1 0A 1.4 Wizards of Darkness Guild 3 4 1.4 The Oracle of Wisdom 4 19 1.4 Phoenix 1D 8 1.4 Razor Ice 10 6 1.4 Blue Pearl Dagger 1B 3 1.4 Map Stone 12 7 2.0 Dwarven Smithy 10 7 2.0 Dwarven Smithy 0 1 2.0 Stairway 1F 0 2.0 Stairway 1F 1F 2.0 Stairway 0 1F 2.0 Stairway 11 0C 2.0 Stairway (to 03) 0F 7 2.0 message (Carved above the doorway are the words: "Fine Weapons & Armor") 13 7 2.0 message (Carved above the doorway are the words: "Fine Weapons & Armor") 7 18 2.0 message (An arrow painted on the floow points south.) 19 0E 2.0 message (You hear the sound of running water.) 17 10 2.0 message (You hear the sound of running water.) 1C 0E 2.0 message (On the wall is a paiting of a purple pyramid.) 1C 12 2.0 message (A skull hangs from the ceiling above the door.) 0B 1F 2.0 Entrance to Wilderness 1D 13 2.0 River Crossing 1A 8 2.0 Clothes Horse's Room 7 19 2.0 Lucky's Potion Brewery 19 0F 2.0 Fountain - Disease 18 10 2.0 Fountain - Disease 8 13 2.0 Mercinaries Guild 2 5 2.0 Paladin's Guild 6 0 2.0 Arena Entrance 15 15 2.0 Undead Warrior 13 15 2.0 Undead Warrior 11 15 2.0 Undead Warrior 11 17 2.0 Undead Warrior 11 19 2.0 Undead Warrior 0F 19 2.0 Undead Warrior 0D 19 2.0 Undead Warrior 0D 1A 2.0 Undead King's Palace 11 1 2.0 Vampire 1B 9 2.0 Whirlwind 13 2 2.0 Cloak of Levitation 8 8 2.0 Crystal Breastplate 0 11 2.0 Robin's Hood 13 1A 2.0 Death (card) 0A 3 3.0 Stairwell 0A 4 3.0 Stairwell 0B 7 3.0 creature... (gauntlet) 0C 8 3.0 creature... (gauntlet) 0C 0A 3.0 creature... (gauntlet) 0B 9 3.0 creature... (gauntlet) 0A 9 3.0 creature... (gauntlet) 1 9 3.0 message (Writing on the wall says: "BEWARE OF THE DRAGON!") 9 7 3.0 message (Writing carved into the door reads: "GAUNTLET DO NOT ENTER") 7 0C 3.0 message (The stench is becoming unbearable.) 0F 0E 3.0 Fountain (fatigue) 2 0A 3.0 Gargoyle 3 0E 3.0 Great Dragon's Lair 8 8 3.0 Death's Door 0E 0D 3.0 Unblinking Basilisk 0A 8 3.0 Doppleganger 9 0F 3.0 Junia's Sword 9 0C 3.0 Iron Palm Salve 4 5 3.0 Flame Quarrels [10] 4 0 4.0 Entrance to Destiny 6 3 4.0 Alien Control Room 5 2 4.0 Alien Control Room 2 2 4.0 Elevator 2 7 4.0 Beam Weapon [25] 5 10 RoC Melvin's Helm Note that Locations are listed, one for each entrance. You also may have to turn in the square you're standing to make the effect of teleporting active. Here is a list of other memory locations which can be changed: (Note that the current value can't be above the maximum value.) 633D Experience Current 16777215 633E Experience Current 65535 633F Experience Current 255 6340 Experience Current 0 6341 Experience Needed 16777215 6342 Experience Needed 65535 6343 Experience Needed 255 6344 Experience Needed 0 6345 Hit Points Current 255 6346 Hit Points Current 0 6347 Hit Points maximum 255 6348 Hit Points Maximum 0 6349 Stamina Current 634A Stamina Maximum 6351 Charisma Current 6352 Charisma Maximum 6359 Strength Current 635A Strength Maximum 6361 Intelligence Current 6362 Intelligence Maximum 6369 Wisdom Current 636A Wisdom Maximum 6371 Skill Current 6372 Skill Maximum 6379 Physical Speed Current 637A Physical Speed Maximum 6381 Noticability? Current? 6382 Noticability? Maximum? (starts at 127) 6384 Total good deeds? 6385 Alignment Current 6386 Mood Current 6387 Total evil deeds? 63B1 Gold 255 63B2 Gold 0 63B3 Silver 255 63B4 Silver 0 63B5 Copper 255 63B6 Copper 0 63B7 Gems 255 63B8 Gems 0 63B9 Jewels 255 63BA Jewels 0 63BB Food Packets 255 63BC Water Packets 255 63BE Crystals 255 63BF Keys 255 63C0 Compasses 255 63C1 Timepieces 255 63CC Level (unconfirmed) -INFORMATION COURTESY OF JIM NORRIS AND MARK WIECZOREK Unlocated stats are currently dapper value (an charisma like stat which changes depending on what clothing you wear), body temperature (which can give you colds if it gets to low, and will go up by wearing warm apparel), food and thirst levels and the "jerk rating" stat (increased by shortchanging healers and such). 5.4 SECRET MESSAGES IN THE GAMES -------------------------------- Since the Alternate Reality games are very complicated, they were probably very hard to make. It is suspected that the programmers hid small messages here and there in the game to brighten up their workdays. Some of them are quite obvious, like Philip Price's name inscribed in The City's map, and similarly the initials of Ken Jordan and Dan Pinal in The Dungeon. Ken Jordan and Dan Pinal also hid alot of mathematical symbols in the map of The Dungeon (see the southeastern part of level 1), but there is also another symbol which appears atleast twice in the game; it's an upside down Ankh like symbol, imprinted on the map where you find the Blue Pearl dagger, but also drawn on the shield of the Skeletons. Also, there is an extensive "readme" displayed if you try to boot The City with Disk 1 Side 2 in the drive: Alternate Reality Designed & Programmed by Philip Price P.O. BOX 2634 KAILUA-KONA, HAWAII 96745-2634 Music (All are Original Scores) Composed by Gary Gilbertson Using AMP 11.3 AMP 11.3 (Advanced Music Processor) was Designed & Programmed by Philip Price Phil's AR System Structure... (c)1985 100% Machine Language/Custom Operating System with software Banked memory (disk and RAM based)/Custom Interrupt Driven Sio with 2 voice music carry-over/Advanced Music Processor 11.3 with songbooks, tunes and 2&4 voice masked operation/Animation Frame Processor/Advanced Screen Processor/Three Dimensional Object Manipulaor/Multi-process Time slotted Queue/Multi-staged Booter and system validator/128-color Graphics via Interrupts/Multi-Process Interrupt router/Custom Crytographic Daga Storage (A easily breakable simple Block Chained, multi-encryption cipher using pre-generated primary keys, with formula and keys in minimumally secured memory and disk) Program created on... Atari 800, 800xl, 1200xl with TRAK drives and a modified 800 with LE high speed drives with these utilities of mine: PICTURE CUTTER, WALL MAKER, MAPMAKER with MAP PRINTER, PICTURE PAINTER, 52K SWITCH, and CUSTOM MAKRO LIBRARY. and these programs MICROPAINTER -DATASOFT INC. DOS 2.0, FIXDMP & AMAC -ATARI INC. THE NEXT STEP -ONLINE SYSTEMS OSS/A+ 2.10 -OPTIMIZED SYSTEM SOFTWARE 6502 ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE ROUTINES -LEVENTHALL/SEVILLE CRYPTOGRAPHY -DR. CARL MEYER ATARI OS RV A SOURCE DE RE ATARI TECH USER NOTES 1200XL OS MANUAL My thanks to Gary for his patience and faith in the project and fantastic music, Craig for his beautiful pictures, all who buy this game, and God my father, Jesus Christ my savior, and the Holy Spirit my comforter. After this text there appears some strange characters. However, these are just some garbled characters that made it into the string, and no secret message (apparently, the string length is wrong somewhere in the code). The only known "real" secret message in The City are the symbols that appear after the Death theme has played, which apparently is meant to give you clues to what would happen with your body after the character had died. 5.5 HIDDEN TRIVIA AND ANNOTATIONS --------------------------------- Presented in this section is a list small tidbits of information around some of the terms which appear in the Alternate Reality games. Though a man with a classical education might object to this being listed in the "secrets" section, it could very well be that the authors of the games more or less wanted to hide these facts. * Xebec is a real type of ship (see section 6.2 for further information). * According to Greek mythology, a golden apple was thrown by lady Eris (the goddess of chaos and confusion) into a banquet of Greek gods, who started fighting over the apple. This was the event which started the Trojan war. Inscribed in the apple was the word "Kallisti", which means "to the fairest" or "to the prettiest"... * Damon and Pythias (or Phintias, as Pythias is a female name) is a story taken from about 500 years BC about true friendship. The two men are "Pythagoreans", and friends who live together and the story goes that Pythias is condemned to death by the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse, for conspiring against him. However, Damon offers to be excecuted Pythias place, so the latter can go on a journey to arrange some family affairs. Damon honored his offer, and when Pythias returned at the last moment, Dionysius was so taken by their friendship that he remitted the sentence. * Rathskeller is ancient german and translates into "advice cellar" (it is a common name for pubs or inns). * Galahad was the pure sone of Lancelot who returned the Holy Grail, and Mordred was the bastard son of Arthur and Arthur's sister (or half-sister, depending on legend), from the Arthurian stories. * Robin Hood was legendary outlawed "bandit" who stole from the rich and gave to the poor, as told by 14th century English ballads. * Shingor is an anagram of the name of the person who played the Riddler in the original Batman series, Frank Gorshin. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF JOEL GOODWIN * The river Stonz is a humourus reference to the river Styx from the Greek mythology (ever heard the saying "sticks and stones may break my bones..."?). Styx is only one of five rivers of the underworld (it is the river of unbreakable oath, though the name actually means hate). -INFORMATION COURTESY OF MARK WIECZOREK * The ferryman of the river Stonz is most likely also inspired from Greek mythology (even though he looks like the traditional western image of the Grim Reaper). However, Charon did not ferry souls across the river Styx, but the river Acheron (the river of woe), and he took only one coin for the service (the coin placed under the toungue and buried with the deceased). -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 6. MISCELLANIOUS AR QUESTIONS -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Pherhaps, this is really what an FAQ should be about; answering those small questions that has been nagging you for all these years. Well, if you have any additional questions which aren't answered anywhere else in this FAQ, please feel free to mail me via the e-mail address at the top of this document. 6.1 WHAT IS THE CURRENT LEGAL STATUS OF AR? ------------------------------------------- As according to the contract between Datasoft and Paradise Programming, all the rights to the Alternate Reality games have reverted back to Philip Price. Concerning the distribution of Alternate Reality The City and Alternate Reality The Dungeon, Philip Price has said the following: " Agreed. It goes without saying that the copies that were produced while the contract was in force can still be sold(ie. A person can sell a Model T ford even if Ford no longer sells it). On the other hand, Datasoft and it's sucessor can no longer sell it. But if someone has bought a copy they are free to do with it what they will just as any consumer can with any product. -Phil P.S. Plus as I have said before, in regards to the existing product, if you can't find a person to sell it to you or you need to run it on the transformer, then do what you have to do ;)." 6.2 WHAT OR WHO IS XEBEC? ------------------------- Alternate Reality: The City takes place in a large city called The City of Xebec's Demise. The exact meaning of Xebec is never revealed though, neither in The City or The Dungeon (the intention was, however, to do reveal it in a later episode). Even though we don't exactly know, there are still clues to be found. If you look up the word 'Xebec' in a dictionary, you'll find something like the following: ['zi:bek] n sea, a mediterranean ship with three masts. This could either mean that the city was named Xebec in order to honour one of the Alien's lost flagships or the like, or it could even be possible that The City of Xebec's demise is located on a ship of some sort, named Xebec. It is still unknown. 6.3 WHAT ARE THE DEATHTRAPS? ---------------------------- The deathtraps refer to two rooms in The City located at 41E, 4N and 47E, 6N. These rooms have one-way secret entrances into them (through the east wall, and the west, respectively), but no way of getting out other than to turn off the game and kill your character. However, The Deathtraps were made by mistake. The City was built with a 2d "bird's eye view" map editor controlled with a joystick, and at some point the joystick was hit at the wrong moment, causing these entrances (the deathtraps) which then slipped out unnoticed on the released version. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF PHILIP PRICE 6.4 WHAT IS THIS 'SECRET AREA' IN THE CITY? ------------------------------------------- The secret area is the area immideately east of the Arena, which isn't normally accessible through the game, and has only been revealed by dumping the raw map data from the disk images of the game. It contains three additional trainers (see section 4.3.8 for locations, but all are, naturally, closed) and two additional guilds (see section 4.3.4 for details) which are fully operational (making the total amount of guilds 14). The trainers were most likely meant to be used in the Arena expanision disk, and the secret area was probably going to be opened with it, or pherhaps accessible through it. It is also interesting to note that there are yet additionally two trainers stored in the data on the disks of The City which can't be found anywhere on the map. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF JIM NORRIS 6.5 HOW DO YOU RAISE YOUR ALIGNMENT IN THE CITY? ------------------------------------------------ Simple answer: You can't. The philosophy behind the decision was that you shouldn't be able to balance out bad acts with good. If you have done something bad, then, just as in real life, it can't be undone. Though admittedly, the pherhaps more catholic view of alignment (chance of redemption and so on) adopted in The Dungeon, might be a more playable solution from a gaming point of view (see section 3.2 for details). -INFORMATION COURTESY OF PHILIP PRICE 6.6 HOW DO YOU RAISE/LOWER YOUR ALIGNMENT IN THE DUNGEON? --------------------------------------------------------- Unlike the extremely strict philosophy of The City, The Dungeon has a more flexible view of a character's evil or good doings. The following is a list of actual memory values modified in the game (remember that alignment starts out at 127, and ranges from 0 - 255): Alignment Action - ?? Killing an Evil being - ?? Killing a Neutral being - ?? Killing a Good being -3 Killing a Pauper - ?? Killing a Healer - ?? Slaying the Great Wyrm -1 Waylaying or snatching +1 Offering an accepted gift to a Pauper ("Bless your kind, sir!") * +1 Praying at the Chapel (once every 24 hours) + ?? Donating at the Chapel +1 Yielding passage to a Knight - ?? Casting an evil Spell - ?? Casting a good Spell -INFORMATION COURTESY OF JIM NORRIS AND MARK WIECZOREK * Paupers usually accept a few coins or food and water, but they may also accept other items. Note that shortchanging Healers or giving less that 36 coppers at The Retreat does NOT make you evil. It just marks you as being a "jerk" (which can cause other establishments to raise their prices or cause otherwise helping encounters to ignore you instead). There is currently no definitive list on where the game measures alignment (an enourmous task to nail down, presumably). Chance of monster attacks and establishment prices are considered to be the main places of alignment interest. Guilds certainly do charge you different prices depending on your alignment. Note that The Dungeon MAY keep track of you total evil or good deeds, though this hasn't been confirmed yet (see section 5.3.2 for details). 6.7 HOW DO YOU KILL THE GREAT WYRM? ----------------------------------- First of all, if you want to play a good character, be aware that attacking the Great Wyrm is an evil act. Also, if you decide to do fight him, he has around 3,000 Hit Points, is pretty immune to magic and can whop you with about 100 Hit Points a round (if he doesn't use his Death magic, or breath that is, which is does even more). A good strategy is to use alot of Temporal Fugue (learned by Ozob, in the Palace Prison at 59E, 36N) which will increase the hit on your weapon and sometimes lets make additional attacks too. When you do defeat him, you will however, gain 35,000 Experience Points, and have the option to loot his lair (and also sell his body for 500 Gold in Der Rathskeller Bar & Grille). Note that the corpse of a Small Dragon is always worth 50 gold at the Rathskeller... -INFORMATION COURTESY OF LONEDRIFTR There are a number of strategies on how to loot his lair. One thing is to join a Guild near the lair (the Guilds on Level 2 would be the obvious choice then) and only get Gold and Gems or Jewels and run to the safe and deposit it (obviously, copper and silver weights too much compared to the values of the others). His lair will eventually be cleaned out (there are other in The Dungeon too, remember?) but you will most likely, not have any financial problems in any near future. It is not confirmed yet that a huge inflation strike all the shops and establishments in The Dungeon after the lair has been looted... 6.8 WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT THE DEVOURER? ------------------------------------- The Devourer is one of the most famous (and feared) creatures in The Dungeon. It is also one of the most amusing, if you know its story. You WILL get a visit by the Devourer if you carry too much DIFFERENT stuff (depending on how much spells you have and how much items are laying around in The Dungeon, it'll take about four or five full iventory screens). He will consume your things when you do encounter him, and he will begin with the heaviest item first (and avoiding the one-of-a-kind items until last). Some things can however sometimes be retrieved from Master Thieves if you ever encounter one after having a run in with the Devourer. The best way to deal with Devourers is, in my experience by using the Temporal Fugue spell. Also, note that if you are over encumbered, you can accidently drop things wihout noticing (watch the status line for new items on the ground, they may be yours). -INFORMATION COURTESY OF DAN PINAL "Dan and I thought that existing RPGs were extremely unrealistic in that you could carry (for example) eight items no matter if they are paper clips or boulders. We wanted to change this for the Dungeon. How much you carry in the Dungeon was determined by the weight and bulk of the items carried and your stats. The problem with this was that in the AR system each object was unique (except commodities like food, money, gems) and had a structure with attributes (like "spells" which were small intrepreted programs embedded in objects). Those data structures took up memory (16 bytes to about 64 bytes) and on an 8-bit 64K (or 48K) computer we had to limit the amount of items somehow. The way we came up with that was least artificial was to introduce a creature that would eat up objects when the object queue was getting full. Still I would be hard pressed to carry all the itmes in real life that characters can carry in the Dungeon. But when the number of large complex items becomes great the chance of meeting a devourer increases untill it becomes almost 100%. The AR system was not too graceful when memory actually ran out (since some partial objects may be left around with bad results) so the devourer must always be vigilant." -INFORMATION COURTESY OF KEN JORDAN 6.9 HAS THE ENCHANTRESS ANY REALLY SIGNIFICANT USE? --------------------------------------------------- Apart from the fact that all enchanted weapons are unbreakable, Dan Pinal has a few things to say about her: "A lot of people don't seem to think the Enchantress is worth the price. This isn't the case. The best course though is to give her as much as you can. This means over 200 crystals, 255 if you can. Besides how much you give her, she is also swayed by charisma, and how much of a 'jerk' you are. There are other stats besides damage that all weapons can have. These are (from memory): Bonus to hit, minimum strength & dexterity to wield without penalty, parrying ability, weight, hit points (before they break), number of hands required to use. Unfortunately, she only reports a vague description of damage and how worn it is. She will at most modify two things (on a very rare roll of the dice she'll do three) if she really likes you. She also sees through your enchantments and looks at your natural charisma without magical augmentation. So put on your Flowing Purple Cape and stay on your best behavior. The best weapons are likely to be a weapons from the Dwarven Smithy that have been enchanted. Once a weapon has been enchanted, it gets that little lightning bolt in front of its name, to show that it's been enchanted, and so that it can't be enchanted again. Occasionally, you will run into Adventurers that have enchanted weapons because they've visited her too. All this being said, some weapons are better than others, without being obvious about it. The Sword of The Adept seems pretty mundane but is naturally easy to wield and has bonuses to hit and parry. Sometimes it's better to have something that hits and parries all the time than something that's flashy. Ken wanted a special weapon in his section that wasn't magical and obvious. So because none of its bonuses are from magic, it works really well in areas where magic (and magical damage) is suppressed or against creatures that are resistant to magical damage. This would be all aliens, their machinery, and the 4th level. So when your Pulse Rifle's out of ammo, whip it out and you've still got a chance." -INFORMATION COURTESY OF DAN PINAL 6.10 I REMEMBER FBI AGENTS SOMEWHERE IN THE DUNGEON? ---------------------------------------------------- Yes, you are correct, there were two FBI Agents in The Dungeon. They were a part of the copyprotection in the game, although a bug in the initial shipping version made them pop up a bit too often (every time you tried to transfer characters from The City actually; it apparently had something to do with floppy drives, and especially if you only had one drive). This was, however, fixed in version 2.0. The FBI Agents struck you with "the long arm of the law" and there was no way to beat them. A common way to crack Atari games was to take a snapshot of the memory after you had let it boot past the copy protection, thus there is a 1/8th chance that the game will check the copy protection when you save your game. The copy protection code is on multiple places on the disk , and is, like all the code and data of The Dungeon, encrypted and checksummed. If the copyprotection fails when a game is saved, that character is marked and will always get the two FBI Agents when that character is reloaded. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF DAN PINAL 6.11 WHAT DOES 'YOU ARE TOAST LEVEL 1.1' MEAN IN THE DUNGEON? ------------------------------------------------------------- That is the default message for a square that didn't have the appropriate description code assigned. In The Dungeon, every square had to be assigned a description and every square was checked by testers to make sure that the player couldn't get into an area he wasn't supposed to be in (ie. an area which isn't a part of the game). The "you are" part is essentially hard coded for descriptions and the "toast" comes from an expression describing non-working computer stuff. The "level x.y" part referred to the map segment you are in. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF KEN JORDAN If you have encountered such an area, you have found a small glitch in the game which the testers missed and if you can't get out of it, you will have to switch off the computer and get another save and go from there. (One such area exists north of the Blink Minefield at 9E, 12N, which you can get out of.) Ken Jordan also revealed to me, pherhaps the most important secret of AR: One of the secrets of AR is to never deny any strange theories players may have as to why things happen as they do. This is known as the "Green Dragon" effect (player asks "Why did blah blah happen?" you answer "Did you kill a green Dragon?" and no matter what the response is you say "Oh! Well that explains it." :-) Whereupon Dan Pinal contributed the following: Oh sure Ken, give away all our secrets. Next you'll be telling them they can't draw monsters by dropping a trail of food packets :-) 6.12 WHAT IS THIS AMP ENGINE? ----------------------------- The AMP engine is what controlls all the sound of the Alternate Reality games. It stands for Advanced Music Processor, and was created by Philip Price for Gary Gilbertson and modified so that lyrics could be displayed, controlled and synchronized to the music. The engine could also be used to trigger events in the game, using the music (and the other way around), but alot of those effects never got to be used. -INFORMATION COURTESY OF PHILIP PRICE The last feature above is directly noteicable in The City, where the Smithy's hammering on the anvil is always perfectly timed to the music (and note that he lowers his hammer when he puts the workpiece into the water). "Phil understood that audio was in many ways much more important to the video game than the visuals. As Phil would say, audio can stir the emotions much more than video. To this end his music handler (in Atari City), had features that began to tie it (realtime) to the game. The early development versions of Atari Dungeon allowed me to walk down a hallway of graphics he had created and through the handler have the power to score the experience much the same way composers score the movies of today for maximum effect. Walking down a prison hallway, I was able to randomly program (thru the music handler), tin cups being run across the bars by bored prisoners... Or if you found the secret way out of prison, passing a certain location triggered an alarm that got quieter as you ran from it... This was all amazing stuff at the time and with 48k." -INFORMATION COURTESY OF GARY GILBERTSON There exists a number of demos of various versions of the AMP engine (which can be downloaded as disk images from http://www.netmagic.net/~ricortes/ar/). Some songs are even from Paradise Programming's planned sci-fi game F.A.C.E of the Galaxy. One thing which Gary Gilbertson also did to improve his music, which had nothing to do with the engine though, was to insert small variations into all the notes, making the sound become less static and sound more natural and "hand made". 6.13 WHAT AR ARTIFACTS EXIST? ----------------------------- I guess that the games themselves are artifacts today, if their boxes and documentation are intact that is. The box was interesting for both games, since its front could fold open to reveal a set of screenshots and some text. Both games also contained a cartoon style drawn map of its respective playfield (The Dungeon also contained a letter from 'Trilog', which is transcribed in the appendix). The Official Adventurer's Survival Handbooks for both games (8-bit and 16-bit versions of The City Handbook exists) should pherhaps be considered even rarer. Datasoft also had posters of both games (probably mainly for display in stores, but you could order them too; they were standard size). Apart from that, if anyone knows any other official items that were availible back then, please let me know! [The author of this FAQ posseses all the items mentioned above, except a City poster and an intact Dungeon box, so if you have any of those items and wish to get rid of them, or if you want information about the items I have, please contact me via the e-mail address at the top of this document. ] It has also been confirmed by Philip Price himself that the original Atari 8-bit source code for The City still exists! It's apparently stored on 5.25 inch floppies (condition unknown), boxed up in Philip Price's garage. However, the source will not be released since Alternate Reality is still copyrighted, and because Philip Price doesn't want all secrets to be found out definetly (wouldn't be any fun, would it?). Gary Gilbertson also had a special tape recording made of a few select AR tunes, specially remixed using his Amiga. This tape, along with a letter (which can be read, transcribed, in section 8.5) was sent to a few fans during the mid 90's. 6.14 ARE THERE ANY AR-LIKE GAMES TODAY? --------------------------------------- That, of course, depends. If you mean a 1st person CRPG, the answer is yes. But if you are looking for something as complete and deep as AR, not a chance! (Well, unless you are willing to play an ASCII-text based Rogue clone named ADOM, Ancient Domains of Mystery, which contains a tremendous amount of stuff.) There has been some real attempts but all of them has had alot of shortcomings. And of course, there were games like these before there was AR. The following is a list of 1st person CRPG games, listed in chronological order, so that you can observe the evolution (or lack thereof) of the genre: ADVANCED DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: THE TREASURE OF TARMIN CARTRIDGE Perhaps the longest CPRG name in history? It might also be the first (proper) CRPG game in history. This was released by Mattel for the Intellivision system back in 1983 (but had been in production since 1981). It featured "fake" 3D graphics, just like AR, about 50 monsters, just like AR, and semi-realtime combat, just like AR. It had a really unique interface, "rotating" equipment through the left hand, right hand and the inventory and featuring audio only feedback when counting arrows or sacks of flour (food). The goal is to locate and slay the minotaur and claim his treasure, hidden on one of the 256 levels. The Intellivision had a very unique controller, looking something like a touchpad phone and requiring a special sticker to be inserted into the pad which added labels and images for the buttons with different commands for each game. This means that playing this game through an emulator makes you miss out on all that. Even though I have strong personal nostalgic feelings for this game, I do believe that it actually still is enjoyable for anyone, and though it might also be my childhood memories which haunts me, I still think that the giants or large ghosts are damn scary when they jump you! (Recently, this game has been freely availible from The Blue Rangers' "Intellivision Lives!" webpage, as "Minotaur".) WIZARDY This is one of the longest CRPG epics in gaming history. It's currently up to the eighth episode (depending on how you count). It starts from Wizardry 1, released in 1981 for the Apple II and the on to latest one in full 3D on a modern PC. You play with several party members here as well. There are alot of stats and the games in general are quite detailed (and complex) in the way you expect a standard CRPG to be. However, all the games (except for Nemesis maybe) are hard, damn hard. Wizardry is a classic, though pherhaps not so famous in all circles, but well worth playing, if for no other reason, educational purposes (this is hardcore CRPG gaming and not easy to get into). MIGHT & MAGIC Currently, there exists 9 episodes of this great game series, which makes it almost as old and long running as Wizardry. The Might and Magic universe has a special mood which no other CRPG has. The way it is played, with mini-quests for special skills, monster hideouts to locate and treasure spread out in its lands, is unique and very enchanting. All the episodes exist for PC and all are truly recommended to play (except pherhaps the first, which may be too crude by modern standards). From episode 3 and onward, the game changed pace a bit, and became very graphical, but retained most of its traditinal play systems (as mentioned before, The Dungeon artist Bonita Long-Hemsath is the leading artist behind all the M&M games, and for those of you who completed a M&M game, you may suspect that she brought more than just lovely art to the game). Might and Magic 3 was absolutely one of the most beautiful games of its time, with lush 256 color graphics, and M&M 4 and 5 added even more graphical features (like gatekeepers for the special locations), larger and more elaborate monster designs and Darkside of Xeen featured an introduction which was, at the time, just as spectacular as the introductions for The City and The Dungeon were for their time. For each of these games there exists a 300+ page cluebook if you get stuck (used mostly to solve dungeon puzzles, since the quests are easy). This is yet another gaming experience which I truly recommend! But restrict yourself to play episodes 2 - 5, as the rest as unfortunately not at all on the same level. BARD'S TALE The original episode of this series was a higly entertaining title for the C64, Apple II and Atari ST (where the best version exists). It also took place in a single city (named Skara Brae) as The City did, but here you had a party and you weren't abducted. It featured different professions for your characters and a very complex magic system, with different guilds and short key phrases for all the different spells. It was also quite a hard game, where some dungeons and towers were a nightmare of mazes with literally hundreds of monsters coming at you at the same time. Bard's Tale 2 and 3 took the game further, and out of the city, but never (as it usually happens) gained the popularity or retained the magical atmosphere of the original game. The sequels are also availible for PC (EGA). DRAGON WARS This is the last game (?) from the author of the Bard's Tale series. The game inherits alot of its interface from the previous games, and improves upon it by having a fully graphical automap, better presentation during combat, and on the Apple IIgs version (which is the best version of the game, in all aspects) extremely simple to use menus. Alot of non-linear "mini" quests flesh out the game (I say "mini" within quotes, since some of them are quite essential to beat the tough end of game boss) and multiple solutions to some problems exist, which is a good thing, since this game is very hard. For example, you start out with no gold and no possesions in very rough territory (which luckily, has multiple ways of getting out of, and you don't have to fight all the monsters if you don't want to). Unique to this game might also be that loosing a battle does not always mean a bitter end. You can get rendered unconcious instead, and live to fight another day (though it's somewhat strange that it isn't the monsters that walk away when the party gets knocked out, but rather the party). The game also features very funny, sometimes hilarious, monster names and monster descriptions. Interestingly, some mosters will also try to run away or call for companions, and you can encounter other Adventurers... does it ring a bell? DUNGEON MASTER This is the game that really refined the way all CRPG games were to look like for a long time after its release. Dungeon Master was the most impressive game of its time, using incredible, huge graphics and horrifying sound in a way nobody had before. Before this, you were mostly forced to picture the world before you, but now it was presented to you in a very detailed, and very real way. You could hear the footsteps of approaching monsters, light faded into darkness as your torch went out, and your characters constantly needed food, water and sleep. The interface was also just as revolutionary, as everything was but a click away. It was so slick that you hardly noticed it at all, just the way it should be. The game is availible for Atari ST, Amiga and PC, where the PC is the best version (it has the upper edge on sound, and a "knock" feature for detecting secret walls) and I truly recommend to track a copy down as soon as possible for this game is still extremely playable, and pherhaps always will be! Chaos Strikes Back level disks are also availible on ST and Amiga (with a long intro on the Amiga), and also the sequel, Dungeon Master 2 (PC, DOS, VGA) which added an original shopping system and changing weather for its outdoor sequences, but never was as good as the first. Dan Pinal has also mentioned that this is the best CRPG he's ever seen. BLOODWYCH This game is only availible for the Atari ST and the Amiga (with a level disk too). What makes this game worth mentioning is, amongst other things, the way you choose party members. There's a ritual in the beginning of the game where you have to walk around trying to persuade a bunch of people to join you. Another great novelty (and a one-timer so far) is a split screen two player mode! However, I can't imagine anyone surviving in that mode for very long since food ran out on about the second level even in single player mode. It is also quite easy to map this game; its indoors only and it has alot of markings on the walls and you always know that a stone wall is 1 square thick and a wooden wall always has a room on the other side. The game has an obscure sequel, which failed utterly and didn't add anything to the franchise. ISHAR As with all Silmarillion games, the graphics are beautiful on all three of the games in this series. However, Silmarillion is also known for not having pherhaps the best though out control systems at all times. Still, since these games are availible on budget on the PC (check emulation sites for the ST and Amiga versions) they are worth checking out for a quick romp (if you have your computer set up for DOS though, since they can otherwise generate some problems, being this old). Ishar 3 also features some photorealistic graphics and party members with an opinion (they vote for or against your decisions). All game feature outdoors locations (cities and wilderness) and there's even a tree-city in Ishar 2! EYE OF THE BEHOLDER The first modern AD&D game which wasn't like SSI's "goldbox" series. It takes its inspiration (and everything else) directly from Dungeon Master, and adds a Forgotten Realms theme to it, plus 256 color VGA graphics for the PC version (Amiga versions exists too) and a couple of the best soundtracks ever in a CRPG (both EOB 1 and 2 had great midi, although there wasn't much of it). Both games have great introductions (where EOB 2 really excells in its VGA representations). Too bad that the ending sequence for EOB 1 never made it into the final product (SSI refused to pay for another disk in the package), something which was changed for EOB 2. However, the 3rd incarnation is very poor (mainly because Westwood, who did the first two games, left and did Lands of Lore instead) and should be avoided. Since the games are SSI and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games they are widely availible in various collections on a budget price level, which they are well worth. LANDS OF LORE Lands of Lore was originally meant to be Eye of the Beholder 3, but Westwood jumped off the wagon (as mentioned above) and pursued their own path to establish creative freedom. The result was, as with Westwood's other titles at that time (Legends of Kyrandia, Dune 2) a game with the most beautiful graphics and animation of its time (believe me, their palettes are simply enchanting). Lands of Lore also builds on Dungeon Master's way of play, but takes it a couple of steps further by adding more fluid animation and more character interaction, coupled with alot of special quests and locations with atmospheric music. The fully animated interface has been simplified, though; all characters share the same inventory. This PC title should also be availible on budget (or from Westwood directly) and is very well worth playing, if not atleast to compare it to Dungeon Master too see what have been so brilliantly evolved from the original creation. Sadly, all of its sequels falls short of all expectations; they are poor products of the money hungry computer industry of the 90's (containing large amounts of primitive pre-rendered 3D graphics and lots of video sequences instead of gameplay). ULTIMA UNDERWORLD Amongst the different branching Ultima games which were released during, what I wish to refer to as "the golden age" of Origin Systems (which is sadly gone now), two games stood out: Ultima Underworld 1 and 2. These games were different from anything Origin had done before (System Shock came later) and different from any previous Ultima game. They featured state-of-the-art 3D graphics, with lighting effects, physics, complex maps and it was all very grand. As with Dungeon Master, since this was the first time gamers saw these kinds of graphics (Doom, from iD Software came later), and the immersion was immense. And though the setting of Ultima Underworld was all in just one (albeit enourmous) dungeon, the details of the characters, sub plots and different settings you encountered was probably deeper than any game before it. Sadly, this wasn't the case with the sequel, but Ultima Underworld 1 will always be a milestone of CRPG games (despite it having action based combat). LEGENDS OF VALOUR This is the most hilarious and most direct clone of The City; even the packaging resembles the AR ones. It is hilarious, because though it was released about ten years after the original game, it adds absolutely no features besides (ever so slightly) updated graphics (and alot of werewolves). The creators of this series even promised a bunch of sequels which were never released! The game is fun while the nostalgia lasts, but should be played only for educational purposes. THE ELDER SCROLLS 1 & 2 The first two games in this series from Bethesda are called Arena and Daggerfall. The vision for these games is not as much Dungeon Master as it is Alternate Reality. This must be one of the most faithful and promising attempts to recreate the detail levels of The City. However, it fails due to the amount of bugs that litter the titles, and its interface which cripples play (and alot of other features which are really puzzling in the way the creators have thought them out, such as not being able to sleep in a bolted shut room with a monster on the other side of the wall, no matter how tired ot hurt you are). Another thing which would generally speak for a game, is size. Both Arena and Daggerfall are huge, but they are too huge for the design decisions of that game (for example, quests are carried out across nations, and there actually doesn't exist any roaming monsters in the landscapes). Dungeons are also a nightmare of complexity and size, and the automap more than often only confuses it. The deathblow to these games, though, is that the creators have choosen to randomize just about everything (shop names, city layout, dungeon layout, items, quests, the lot). The good side of this is that you never play the same game twice, though with the size of the playfield, that shouldn't have to be a problem, since you could never ever explore every dungeon unless you play non stop for at least a year or two. The bad side is that you never get really into the game, never get to know any places or characters, and it feels like the authors just didn't care for you or anything else. Bottom line, this still is the closest thing to AR yet, with a definitive distinct atmosphere of its own (seeing the snow fall, hearing the music and watching the people wander about is really special). So either you have to live with all its shortcomings, or go back to the emulators (or choose another title to play from the bunch of good games listed here). THE ELDER SCROLLS 3 The third game in the Elder Scrolls series (Morrowind) deserve a separate section of its own. It differs from its predecessors in the way that though it still is huge, it has done away with the randomized world. This is a great thing, and could have really threatened AR, but again, the design desicions of the creators quickly dethrone the game. First of all, the annoying inability to sleep while monsters are close is still there, though not as apparent this time. Second, they decided to make everyone you meet stand in the same spot all day and all night. Convenient, they may have thought, but mood shattering. And third, there exists another aspect which can have the player confuse the local citizens for statues: They have little or no memory and absolutely no personalities. Stealing, killing and being generally evil has very little effect, as does trying to act good or friendly. Same goes for shopkeepers, who seem to suffer from Alzheimer's disease (no matter what you do, their opinion of you is forgotten on your next visit). Another thing I dislike, but which may be simply due my personal preferences, is that the creators have tried to invent their own version of a fantasy world. Again, the part with the lifeless inhabitants shatter the illusion. All in all, Morrowind and its mission disks are an rather enjoyable, though perhaps mainly because they were released during a period of severe roleplaying drought. WIZARDS AND WARRIORS From the creator of the Wizardry series, this game tries to inherit almost every aspect from its forefather to continue legacy of the classic CRPG. Although wrapped in a new, but extremely poor 3D engine (which sometimes, even hampers the gameplay) there is little else that is different from its predecesors. The maps aren't bigger, the quests aren't interesting, the gameplay isn't more diverse and the monsters and the spells are more or less the same. The only thing that really sets the game apart from the other Wizardry titles is that this game is very, very easy (even on the hardest setting) so atleast, that would be a welcome thing for newcomers. GOTHIC Now what is a 3rd person game doing in this section, you might ask? Well, I might be stretching things, but during the turn of the millenium, when this game was released, the CRPG genre was dominated by top-down perspective games, so not only did this game bring you (literally) more down to earth, it also managed to create a sense of AR de-ja vú that eclipses most games mentioned here! The game starts out by imprisoning you in a hostile world, just like AR does. You are then left to your own to explore and do whatever you like, just like AR. You actions also determine if you are good or evil, again just like AR. The game isn't totally open ended, though (even if you could play it like that), and all of the characters in the game are rather simple (though cleverly convincing at first). And even though the combat in the game is an utter drudge (it's down to YOUR skill, not your character's), I dare to say that if you won't try any other game in this section, at least try this one. ARX FATALIS This game has been labeled as the spiritual successor to the Ultima Underworld games, and if you have that in mind when you start playing the game, the source of inspiration for the game is pretty apparent (even down to the completely square corridors). Now, the previous sentence might poke some fun at the graphics, but they really are servicable, though nothing more. What really is bothersome, however, is the shaky feeling of the controls. The camera "floats" around the mouse, giving you a heavy headed feeling. Your characters movements around the world is also shaky, literally (when moving over objects, the character exercises rather jerky lateral movement). More gripes with the game are lack of interaction alternatives, the fact that you can't pull obvious visible equipment off bodies, and the way weapons break extremely fast, and without notice. Then again, this game was made by a totally unknown company under a budget game label (JoWood). It's an ok effort, but it lacks the polish of Ultima Underworld. OTHER GAMES Other games of note (thought without distinction) are Knightmare on the ST and Amiga, based on a fantasy themed TV games show, and Black Crypt, which was made to be an Eye of the Beholder killer on the Amiga. Also on ST and Amiga, Legend of Faerghail by Thalion, which was made to be a Bard's Tale killer. Stonekeep for PC, is an inferiour Dungeon Master clone, which features pre-rendered fullscreen graphics. Special mention should perhaps also be made of Drakkhen, the first CRPG with 3D vector graphis (though it has nothing to do with AR beyond a "real time" rising and setting sun). Possibly even more remote, but still in the AR spirit (though again, totally unrelated), might be the games Robinson's Requiem and its sequel Deus. These are 3D survival simulations, which monitors health and sickness like AR, but goes much further in the detail of various ailments. There is also a promising shareware game called Grimoire in the works, but it never seems to be released. 6.15 WHY IS THE MOVIE THE MATRIX SO SIMILAR TO AR? -------------------------------------------------- Nobody knows for certain, it might just be coincidence. However, Philip Price has posted a story about him having dinner with two movie making brothers in Hollywood to whom he retold the entire AR story and concept. I have constructed the following sentences so that they can be read to be true for both Alternate Reality and The Matrix movies at the same time: 1. THE MATRIX = ALTERNATE REALITY * Your body is being kept alive inside a metal cocoon controlled by machines. 2. BLUE PILL/RED PILL = DESTINY * To continue to live in the other world, or reject it and fight it from the outside. 3. AGENTS = ALIENS * The captors of humans. * Can track humans, and take human form. 4. THE ONE = ACRINIMIRIL * A person with unique knowledge on how to use Agent/Alien powers against them. * He is outside the system, beyond the controlling abilities of the Agents/Aliens. 5. MORPHEUS = OZOB * A person who believes in Neo/Acrinimiril. * He teaches how to "cheat" in the other world. 6. ORACLE = THE RIDDLER * An apparently friendly Agent/Alien. * Helps by giving only small bits of information. 7. BULLET TIME = TEMPORAL FUGUE * An ability to move incredibly fast. The sequels to the movie contain a few more connections, like rogue Agents/Aliens. If you want more in-depth analysis, please refer to the online mailing list archive (see section 7.1) or try one of the other AR webpages (see section 7.3). -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 7. OTHER SOURCES OF AR INFORMATION -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Apart from the home location of this document, there are a number of fan webpages which have various information and other contents on them (see the "links" section in the page from above). But the internet isn't all web. Currently, AR forums exists on a mailing list and IRC also. See below for the latest details. 7.1 THE ALTERNATE REALITY MAILING LIST -------------------------------------- Three people have hosted and maintained the Alternate Reality Mailing list previously; Matt Roller (first initiative taker), Sean Noble and Andy Numainville. The latest edition is now hosted by Alexander J Rementer who has kindly provided the following instructions: The Alternate Reality Mailing List Archive http://www.avatardesign.net/alternatereality/ 1. To join the list, e-mail alternatereality-join@avatardesign.net with a blank e-mail. You will receive a confirmation by e-mail that you will need to send a reply to. 2. If you would like to get the digest version, send a blank message to alternatereality-digest@avatardesign.net 3. To post or reply to the list, choose reply or send your message to alternatereality@avatardesign.net 4. To leave the list, e-mail alternatereality-leave@avatardesign.net with a blank e-mail. All commands can be done from the website at: http://www.avatardesign.net/alternatereality/ ADDRESSES Post message: alternatereality@avatardesign.net Subscribe: alternatereality-join@avatardesign.net Digest: alternatereality-digest@avatardesign.net Unsubscribe: alternatereality-leave@avatardesign.net List owner: alternatereality-owner@avatardesign.net Message archive: http://www.avatardesign.net/alternatereality/ 7.2 #ALTERNATE-REALITY ON IRC ----------------------------- If you are familiar with Internet Relay Chat (which I won't go into here, but you would try www.mirc.co.uk for details), you could log onto an Efnet server and join the channel #alternate-reality. Though unfortunately, the activity there is presently about zero, though during its heyday both Gary Gilbertson and Ken Jordan freqeuented the channel. 7.3 OTHER AR PAGES ON THE WEB ----------------------------- If you want to have your page listed here, please contact me via the e-mail address at the top of this document. http://www.markzilla.com/ar/ http://www.akuma.demon.co.uk/ar/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 8. APPENDIX -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= For those of you who doesn't remember the keys or the ways to correctly save and backup games in Alternate Reality, in addition to the manuals that are availible on the homepage, I've taken the liberty to also transcribe the reference cards which came with the games. 8.1 REFERENCE CARD FOR THE CITY ------------------------------- Alternate Reality The City Programmed by Philip Price Microscreen Art by Craig Skinner Music by Gary Gilbertson Documentation by Kathi B. Tremblay Here's how to use your Atari computer to enter Alternate Reality. Read the Guidebook before loading the game. It has information you'll need in The City. Requirements * Atari 400/800/XL series computer (48K) * Compatible disk drives (1 or 2) * TV or video monitor * Joystick * Blank, formatted disk (Character Disk-Optional) * Alternate Reality - The City game diskettes (2) Note: Do not Write Protect the game disks or your Character Disk. It's a good idea to make backup copies before you load the game. You can make copies of both sides of Disk 2 and Side 2 och Disk 1. An elementary copy program is inlcuded on Disk 2. Turn off your computer. Insert Disk 2 (either side) into the disk drive and close the door. Turn on the computer. Follow the prompts. You can also use this copy program to backup your Character Disk. Getting Started 1. Turn off the computer and connect a joystick. 2. Place Disk 1, Side 1 in the drive (with two drives, place Disk 2, Side 1 in the second drive). Turn on the drive and the computer. If the wrong disk is in the drive, the game asks for the correct one. With two drives, the game checks both drives for the correct disk. 3. When the game is loaded, follow the prompts. 4. Once you've familiar with the game, press Start to bypass the opening scenario. This takes you directly to the Character Decision menu. Note: If you have two drives, you can acoid turning disks over during gameplay. When the game asks for Side 2 of Disk 2, put your backup copy of Disk 2, Side 2 in the first drive. Leave Disk 2, Side 1 in the second drive. Character Decision The Character Decision menu offers four options: Hit N to become a new person Hit E to resume an existing one Hit I to initialize a Character Disk Hit T for a temporary character Press I to initialize a disk to use as a Character Disk. As prompted, remove the Alternate Reality disk from the drive and insert a blank, formatted disk. Press any key to continue. Note: Initializing doesn't format the disk. It simply prepares the disk for use as a Character Disk. See you Atari user's guide for formatting instructions. Press N to create a character. Press Return. As prompted, type a Character name (up to 31 letters, including Secret Name) and press Return. The next prompt is Verify your name. Type the name again and press Return. You're prompted to remove the AR disk and insert a Character Disk. You can store up to four character on a Character Dis, but you can only play with one at a time. To prevent anyone else from using your character, use the Control key for a Secret Name. Example: You want a character named Morag with the Secret Name, Morag Giant. When promted to name your character, type Morag. Press Control and type Giant. Press Return. Only Morag appears on the screen. Verify the full name when prompred, pressing Control again for the Secret part. To access this character, type the full name, using the Control key for the Secret Name. Secret letters can be used before, after, or within a character's name, or for the entire name (up to 31 letters). Press T for a temporary character. Follow the prompts, pressing Return after each response. You can't save this character, but it's useful for getting into the game quickly to look around and get the feel of the game. Press E if you already have a character from a previous venture into AR. At the prompt, rype the ID number corresponding to the name you're using. Type the name (when prompted) and press Return. To return to the Character Decision menu, press Return instead of typing a name. If you make the wrong selection from the Character Decision meny, press the Option key instead of typing a name. If you make an error when typing a character name, hit Return when the program asks you to verify the name. After selecting from the Character Decision menu, you're at the door to enter The City. To Save A Character Save your character when you're ready to stop playing. Press S. You're prompted to remove the AR disk, insert the Character Disk, and press Start. To play again, reload, select the saved character from the Character Decision menu, and the game resumes at the point stopped. Note: Save the character to disk or you'll lose it when you turn off the computer. Compass Finding your way around The City is simplified by use of a compass, availible for purchase at most Shops in The City. If you buy a compass, press the Select key until you see it. The direction you're heading will always be the topmost on the compass (the arrow always points North): N E W S ^ | W | E N<--S S-->N E | W | v S W E N Joystic Control The Joystick controls physical movement. * Enter The City i nthe beginning scene by pushing up on the joystick. * Move Forward by pushing up on the joystick. * Move Back by pulling down on the joystick. * To Turn Right or Left, press the Fire button while pushing the joystick to right or left. * To Enter a shop or store, push up on the joystick. Follow the prompts. Pull down on the joystick to Exit. It's possible to back through a doorway. Keyboard Control To play without a joystick, use the keyboard commands shown in the diagram below. Note: You must use a joystick to exit Banks and some other establishments. I ^ | J<- ->L | v K * Press I to enter The City in the beginning scene. * To enter a shop or store, press I. Follow the prompts. You also use the keyboard to interact with business establishments, review and posi- tion your belongings, and during Encounters. * A Menu at the bottom of the screen displays your options. Each option has a flashing letter or number. To choose, press the appropriate flashing character. In some situations, there is no flashing character. Either hit any key or answer Yes or No, where appropriate. * Press the Select key to get a full account of your condition. Repeat until you've seen all the information and are back in normal operating mode. * Defend yourself with either hand in an Encounter. Press U to switch hands. * Press R to ready a weapon for use. Follow the prompts. * Press D to Drop items. This is usually done to make rooms for new acquisitions, since how much you can carry is limited. * Press U to Use Potions in your possession. You can't Use Potions during an Encounter. * Press P to pause the game. Press P again to resume play. * Press S to save a character. Follow the prompts. Datasoft 19808 NORDHOFF PLACE, CHATSWORTH, CA 91311 ATARI IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ATARI COMPUTER, INC. DATASOFT IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF INTELLICREATIONS, INC. ALTERNATE REALITY IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF PARADISE PROGRAMMING, INC. (c) 1985 INTELLICREATIONS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN USA 8.2 REFERENCE CARD FOR THE DUNGEON ---------------------------------- ALTERNATE REALITY (R) The Dungeon Designed and Programmed by Dan Pinal and Ken Jordan Original Concept by Philip Price Graphics by Steve Hofmann & Bonita Reid Music by Gary Gilbertson Documentation by Kathi B. Tremblay & Thomas J. Clement Illustrations by Thomas J. Clement =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Here's how you use your Atari computer to enter The Dungeon. Read the Dungeo Guide before loading the game (yes, even if you've already played The City!); it has vital information for survival in The Dungeon. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Requirements * Atari home computer * The Dungeon game disks (3) * Compatible disk drives (1-4) * Blank disk (Character Disk) * Video monitor or TV * City Character Disk (optional) * Joystick (optional) NOTE: Do Not Write-Protect The Character Disk!!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Getting Started 1. Turn off the computer, remove any cartridges, and connect a Joystick, if desired. Turn on the monitor or TV and disk drives. 2. Insert Disk 1, Side 1 into Drive 1, close the door, and turn on the computer. 3. Once you're familiar with the opening sequence, hold down the START key to bypass it and go directly to the Character Decision menu. 4. When the game is loaded, follow the prompts. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Backing Up Disk 2, Side 1 contains a copy program you can use for backing up your Character Disk and all sides of the game disks except Disk 1, Side 1 (play with the backups and keep the original in a safe place). To use the copy program, turn off the computer, remove any cartridges, insert Disk 2, Side 1 into the drive, and turn on the computer. The screen looks like this: Verify Format Source Drive = 1 Destination Drive = 1 Press RETURN to Start. Press V to turn Verify OFF or ON (the program runs faster with Verify OFF). Press F to turn Format OFF or ON (use Format if you're copying onto an unformatted disk). Press S to select which drive you're using for your original disk; press D to designate the drive your backup disk is in. To start copying, press RETURN and follow the prompts. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Character Decision The Character Decision menu offers four options: Hit N to become a new person Hit E to resume an existing one Hit T to transfer a City Character Hit U for character utilities Press N to create a Character. You get a prompt that says "NOTE: IF YOU WISH TO KEEP THIS CHARACTER, YOU MUST HAVE A DUNGEON CHARACTER DISK READY WITH FEWER THAN 4 CHARACTERS ON IT." If you don't have a Dungeon Character Disk prepared, or if your only Character Disk already has four Characters saved on it, press ESC. This takes you back to the Character Decision menu. Press U to create a blank Character Disk (explained below). If you have a Character Disk ready, type a name when you see the prompt "ENTER NAME:". The name must begin with a letter, not a number! Press E if you already have a Character from a previous venture into The Dungeon. Follow the prompts. Press T if you have a City Character you want to bring into The Dungeon. Make sure your City Character was saves in front of one of the two Dungeon entrances before you try to bring it into The Dungeon (see the Dungeon Guide for information on Dungeon entrances). You can't enter The Dungeon if you're Diseased or Poisoned. Press U to get a selection of Character Utilities: (1) Create a blank Character Disk formats a disk you can use as a Character Disk. (2) Remove a Character gets rid of any undesireable Character. Make your selection and follow the prompts. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Corrections If you make an error in any selections (in Character Decision or anytime during the game), press the ESC key to halt the process and go back to your current Menu. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To Enter the Portal After you've created a new Character, you're taken to The Dungeon Portal. To enter, press the SPACE BAR (this sets your Stats) and follow the prompts. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To Save a Character Save you Character when you're ready to stop playing or when you've built it up to a level you want to keep. Press S and follow the prompts. Note: You can only save a Character while walking around The Dungeon (not during Encounters, while in buildings, etc.). =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To Resurrect a Lost Character When a Character that you've saved and reloaded into the game dies, it's not really dead (The Dungeon is nice that way). Instead, it's only "Lost". To restore your Lost Character, select E and load it the same way you'd load any other Character. You'll be transported to the NE Dungeon entrance. Of course, the Character is now minus a Stat point (the price of resurrection). =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Compass It's a lot easier to find your way around The Dungeon if you have a Compass (availible at the D & P or, if you're lucky, in Treasure). When you own a Compass, it's visible on the left of your screen. North is always at the top of the Compass; the arrow points in the direction you're heading. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Joystick Control The joystick controls physical movement. Make sure it's in Port 1. Move forward by pushing Up on the Joystick, backward by pulling Down. Turn left or right by pushing the Joystick Left or Right. One of the four red arrows at the right of the screen lights up, showing you which direction you're heading. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Time Indicator A symbol just under the word "Stats:" at the top left of your screen, is in constant motion when time is passing. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Hit Points Hit Points are displayed as "Hit Points =" or "Hit Points :". When you see the "=", your Hit Points are at their maximum level. the ":" means you've lost Hit Points and need rest or healing. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Keyboard Control You can move around The Dungeon using the Keyboard instead of a Joystick. Move forward by pressing I, backward by pressing K. Use J to turn left and L to turn right. One of the four arrows at the right of the screen lights up, showing you which direction you're heading. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Other Important Information When you're walking along Dungeon corridors (exploring), text at the bottom of the screen shows you which level you're on and how many Food Packets, Torches, and Water Flasks you have. It also lets you know if you're hungry, thirsty, Diseased, Cursed, etc. To get information about other things you're carrying, as well as what Curses and Diseases you have, etc., press , (comma) and . (period) or START and SELECT. During an Encounter or any other interaction, if you lose sight of the main menu, just press the SPACE BAR to get back to it. Below is a list of options you can use in The Dungeon: C Cast a Spell (only during Encounters or when exploring); D Drop an item (only during Encounters or when exploring); E Examine Spells or items (check your Inventory); U Use an item (you can't light a Torch, use a Timepiece, or eat and drink during an Encounter); P Pause the game (this suspends all time and activity; press any key to continue); G Get an item you've dropped or discovered (you can't pick up anything during combat); S Save a game (only when exploring); Q Quit a game without saving it. Press the ESC key to get out of an option after you've selected it. Example: You selected C to cast a Spell, then decide you don't want to cast a Spell after all; just press the ESC key and you'll be back where you were before you tried to cast the Spell. Datasoft 19808 Nordhoff Place, Chatsworth, CA 91311 Atari is a registered trademark of Atari Computer, Inc. Alternate Reality is a registered trademark of Paradise Programming, Inc. Datasoft is a registered trademark of Intellicreations, Inc. (c) 1987 Intellicreations, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in USA. 8.3 THE LETTER FROM TRILOG -------------------------- Day27, Month of Sowing. Year 5 Since Abduction Greetings Fellow Travellers: I am Trilog. I was kidnapped from my home several years ago and left in this alien place. I understand that I am one of the few who survived the arduous encounters of The City of Xebec's Demise. Having gained strength, wisdom, and courage there, I decided to venture into the dank depths of the cavernous world beneath The City: The Dungeon. Though I made extensive plans before descending into the Dungeon, I was not totally prepared for what befell me. As I write this, I have already been faced with sould-shaking encounters, monstrous foes, and unnatural perils. The lower I travel into the Dungeon's darkness, the more alone I feel. Solitude weights on me and Death dogs my heels: it lurks in the shadows, waiting for me. Yet, I've come too far to quit now. Along with the danger comes the strength drawn from simply surviving: from hard fought adventures; from battles won! I trust this map will be found by others like me. I cannot mark my exact course of travel, I'm afraid, because there are evil enemies who might also find this map and use it to hunt me down. There are several places marked on the map where you will be met with baffling and fearsome quests. But don't lose heart! I've lived through many of these and am confident that these quests will one day provide me with the solution to my ultimate goal(and undoubtedly yours)... Escape from Alternate Realilty and the return to my beloved Earth! Good luck. And if I have been fortunate, pherhaps you and I will one day meet and share stories of The Dungeon. Fare Thee Well, Trilog 8.4 COMPLETE LYRICS FOR ALL SONGS --------------------------------- [I have entered the text of the songs exactly as it appears in the game, except in lowercase. Each line represents one screenful. The titles are my own and did not appear in the game. My comments are in square brackets.] ARMOR [City] armor this we have for you we do armor tools of death we have them too swords worth much more than you pay swords to hold evil at bay DWARF DANCE (Instrumental) [City] [Text, but preceding the music, which begins on the word "dwarf." The song repeats endlessly, the intro text does not.] walking in sitting down naturally you glance around on the floor about to dance with smallish legs in smallish pants a character with features drawn from ages past and yet to dawn you down an ale a few a forth you watch the dance you watch the dwarf AR: CITY INTRO [City] the early morning turns into early day a sunset comes they take the colors away where you are alternate reality a bit like home yet unmistakably new a morning rain then evening stars come and view what is your alternate reality you walk around each corner hoping to see a way to get back home a way to break free and to leave alternate reality this is your alternate reality MOMENTS IN MY LIFE [City] these are just moments in my life that i've held out for you to see look at them look at them and tell me if you see the real me i have been waiting for you my heart is hoping you will see in all the moments of my life i've none that shine so bright as you look at them look at them and tell me if you see the real me i have been waiting for you my heart is hoping you will see these are just moments in my life that i've held out for you to see look at them look at them and tell me if you see the real me i have been waiting for you my heart is hoping you will see DEATH IN THE CITY [City] now that you're gone some will grieve on on and on i know you'll be back again maybe next time will be the time you win LET IN THE LIGHT [City] let in the lite we want to see past colored shadows in a fantasy evil appears and we've the right to cast such shadows from apparent sight treasures below will help reveal secrets around us both true and unreal the floating gate could hold the key investigations do them without me let in the lite we want to see past colored shadows in a fantasy WAVES [City] the waves at home are pounding on the shore the snow here's falling just outside my door and all i want's to be with you once more but i'm told that this is one thing that i best stop hoping for they tell me to go on i ask them for how long they tell me to be strong to what you can't be wrong i'm lost without your love i need you here with me in this reality the reply they without warning took away from me the happiness we shared when you were free i search the sky my love return to me i am cold and feel alone blind silent this i've come to be friends tell me to go on no one knows where you've gone they tell me to be strong endeavor to live on i'm lost without your love i need you here with me come to reality i know that you'll agree to hurry home to me as soon as you are free THOREANDAN [City] [All these verses are played in random order, but always a long followed by a short. This is the way I personally prefer it; it's different than the order on the videotape. Repeats endlessly.] let me tell you bout thoreandan the man who bit off the dragon's hand no blows from his sword ever did land so he bit off the dragon's hand paws and claws could be the cause of anyone here's demise when you're tired you shouldn't retire in bad parts of town they'll setcha afire as they burn you a circle they form they intend to stay snug and warm do be kind to poor and blind see well out beyond your eyes into danger entrusting our sword to ward off dragon or evil horde we love danger and we love our wine just like treasure we hope to find raise your mug another jug relax and stay thru the night AR: DUNGEON INTRO [Dungeon] how do you expect us to live here within this world of yours built on fantasy and other illusion i'd rather take my chances with earthly circumstances 'way from this world of glances nowhere to run some thought it a wishing well filled only with dreams some thought it an evil spell some still hear the screams the journey downward lasted for hours maybe longer you know it's hard to say in a trance along the way waiting for others on a ledge covered with the suffered remnants of previous life felt the pain though none in sight damp darkness is everywhere you long for the sun your ears grasp at every sound this is the dungeon the journey downward could last forever ending never never could be this way who are you am i to say some thought it a wishing well filled only with dreams THE DEVOURER [Dungeon] [This song repeats endlessly. Every once in a while, perhaps after every three repetitions, there is the single phrase "He might eat your...sword".] the devourer is it him or her? is it scale or fur? does it occur in the dark of nite? crystal cavern lite? metal appetite? i want to know you? i want to know you? i want to know... the devourer? GOOD GUILD [Dungeon] when some are lost can't find their way a number of them stray to where you've come today then there are those that this is for and those that are no more we've peace and yet there's war EVIL GUILD [Dungeon] enter dear champion come...rest awhile if blacks your heart then we're your style falsehood--deception black arts for all evil to rise and good to fall RATHSKELLER ROCK & ROLL [Dungeon] [Repeats endlessly. I think the verses are played in random order, or perhaps the song always plays in this order but can start at any verse.] sliced off an elbow bit off a toe a big toe cut up a ghost but... it didn't show typical when monsters are monsterin' we rock and roll [CHORUS:] crash! mash bash! boom!! splat zappp!!! bonk zoom! bang!! poww! baroom! crash! mash bash! boom!! splat zappp!!! bonk zoom! bang!! poww! baroom! startin to wonder what's going down underground we slashem we mashem they're still around all around when monsters are walkin we rock and roll [chorus] into a cavern friends by your side for the ride cavern got narrow one friend was wide but we tried to get em on thru he got stuck and died [chorus] out sippin potions me and this guy gettin high some made us silly some made us cry don't know why and then someone hollared let's rock and roll [chorus] bought me some armor found me a blade there it laid armor was shiny but it would fade like most made i'm ready for monsters let's rock and roll [chorus] THE TROLL KING [Dungeon] ah!...come in the troll king calls you 'cross the room do beware this horrid carnivore drools doom if you're in his way don't stay IN THE HALL OF THE GOBLIN KING [Dungeon] you come to see the goblin king so many of ya people do you think you maybe take the ring? you know the trolls they want it too DEATH IN THE DUNGEON [Dungeon] now that you're gone some will grieve on on and on i know you'll be back again maybe next time will be the time now that you're gone some will grieve on on and on i know you'll be back again maybe next time will be the time you win INTO THE FRAY [Dungeon] into the fray into it everyday there just to carry on playing the champion moving along silence my only song as i continue on playing the champion into the fray into it everyday there just to carry on playing the champion i am the champion -INFORMATION COURTESY OF MARC G. FRANK 8.5 A LETTER FROM GARY GILBERTSON --------------------------------- The enclosed tape has a number of AR songs converted to play on the Amiga. The problem with converting old Atari songs is they were all composed knowing that there would be but four voices. Waking up one day with a computer like the Amiga and moving out of the realm of the 4 fource square wave music thing into the world of instrument samples and no realistic memory constraints, is a bit overwhelming. I must say that in many of the cases here presented, I never really had the time to fine tune what you are about to hear. So hang in there... If you recall the tunes, I guess I've succeeded. I've included background on each tune, more than you ever wanted to know about AR songs. *chuckle* GANTHEM 1:45 [AR - City] Ganthem was written at Datamost while Phil and I were being courted to sign a contract allowing them to distribue "The Tail of Beta Lyrae" (our first game), have Phil do copy protection for them and me to write game music for their other releases. Phil was checking out the place and I found a spare Atari and sat down and wrote Ganthem. At the time I wasn't sure what it would be for. The inspiration for it was the slave powered boats in the Ben Hur movie. I could picture that guy setting the rowing pace by pounding the drum below decks. Aside from that, I wanted to write an anthem. Well it didn't turn out to sound like an anthem, so I put a "G" in front (I wrote it) and figured nobody would know what the title meant... I was safe. :) HAVEN (Sanctuary) 2:30 [AR - Dungeon] Haven was written around the time the acrinim story found on the web page was written. The lyrics and the melody came to me at the same time. Like Thoreandan, Haven was an attempt to write some period type music for the medieval atmosphere of the City and Dungeon. Please excuse me for the Beatle-esque ending... Couldn't help myself *chuckle* MOMENTS 2:00 [AR - City] While Phil and I were working with Datamost, we were phoned by some fellows in northern California who had caught wind of our work on Alternate Reality. Being farmiliar with Beta Lyrae, they wanted us to sign with them for Alternate Reality. They flew to Hawaii and we entertained them in my home. Because we had little to show on AR (Phil had the beginning of the 3D walk thru, but no monsters), the visit became nothing much except a demo of the music (with words on screen etc). Well Moments was done and I recall one of the Advertising people that came along, helped me with some of the words. This is one of those songs that maybe worked better on Atari. I claim no brilliance in drumming and... Well I could use help in that area. ARMOR 3:36 [AR - City & Dungeon] I seem to be alone on this, but this is without question, my favourite song in AR. In it's first incarnation (Atari 8bit), the integrating the hammer blows into the music and the lament of the song... I could feel the blacksmith's labor. The version recorded here, I like even more. This ARMOR not only has the blacksmith's hammer, it also has him placing the hot blade into the water (sizzzzle). Even though it has no bridge, as a musical piece it has one of the more complex melody(s) in all of AR music. In the second verse you can hear a trumpet laying down a new melody, while the old plays in the background. The third verse is highlighted by yet another (although sparse) melody line (high pitched). After this verse, as the song appears to climax, a dream sequence commences and the blacksmith's hammer gets louder and louder with the final beat of the song being his putting the blade in the water (sizzzzzzzzzzzzle). INTO THE FRAY 2:22 [AR - Dungeon] Someone once told me that it was very difficult in western music to write a song in 5/4 or 7/4 time. Well that's not true... I sat right down and wrote Into the Fray (7/4 time). In this version, you can hear the water dripping into puddles on the floor of the caverns you are walking through :) DWARF DANCE 1:15 [AR - City] Just as goofy as the little people this was meant to depict. Children always like this song. WAVES 4:06 [AR - City] This song along with the AR theme was debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show, January, 84, in Las Vegas. Phil and I had a special rig and version of these great tunes that used 8 voices (we sunched two Ataris together). Interesting sideline to this is that a fellow game writer saw the AR 3D graphics demo and decided to drop work on his then current project and move to finish another one he called Bard's Tale. True Story. GREMLINS 1:13 [AR - Dungeon] The Troll song was already done and I knew I needed another song in a similar vein to cover the Gremlins. As time was running out, I finally finished this little ditty. TROLL 2:22 [AR - Dungeon] Actually, I cheated on this one. I had written this for another project, that I ended up not needing. This song was written as Baby Dinosaur. It had lyrics like: Baby dinosaur is walking down the street Look'n kinda hungry think it wants to eat If you're in its way... Don't stay. Oh well, it fit in the Troll area just fine in Dungeon. By the way, this tune has had more work done on it than most. I needed this for another project and was able to devote a bit more time to this Amiga version. AR THEME 3:33 [AR - City] Don't expect to enjoy this one. I've not had time to do a version of this that captures and appeals to those who liked the 8 bit Atari version. Maybe someday. DEATH :57 [AR - City & Dungeon] Silly, but seemed fitting to throw this on the end of the tape :) Thanks for indulging me, Gary Gilbertson -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 9. SPECIAL THANKS & CREDITS -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= You might wonder why there is a bunch of credits inside the text of this FAQ. Well, the answer is simple! It simply isn't possible for a single person to learn everything there is to learn about AR. Even though I have played the game (on and off) since it was released, over fifteen years ago, I still learn new things from other people all the time. The following is a list of names (in alphabetical order) of people who have (directly or indirectly) helped me over the years. My thanks go out to all of them: Robert Cortese Mark Devlin Tony Eksell Marc G. Frank Gary Gilbertson J.F. Goodwin Ken Jordan Ronald A. Laski Jr. Wayne Myers Sean Noble Jim Norris Andy Numainville Dan Pinal Philip Price Matt Roller Jimmy Sjöström Mark Wieczorek RegisMeek If your name doesn't appear here and you think it should, please contact me right away via the e-mail address at the top of this document. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 10. LAST NOTES -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= I would like to make one last comment. During all these years with Alternate Reality, no matter who I talked to, everyone who ever had played the game still thinks it is the best CRPG game ever and they are usually very determined about that. I don't know if it was the timing of the game or what it was, but it presented you a depth that was so completely unique that no other game since it has never even managed to come close to delivering the same experience. Again, I would like to thank Philip Price for bringing it, and much joy, to us. Yours Sincerely, Robert Hagenström ~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~`'´~` THE END (?) "If he could do that with only 48k, imaging what he could do with todays computers." -Gary Gilbertson "The last thing it will be is a game." -Philip Price