genesis-manual - Museum of Computer Adventure Game History
Contents
1. 19 The FINISH Operator This is used to terminate the Action at that point The OBLOOP Operator OBLOOP is used in conjunction with ELOOP to loop through every object You cannot ever nest loops inside each other be they Object loops or Location Loops The LCLOOP Operator This loops through all locations in turn ELOOP is used to indicate the extremity of the loop The ELOOP Operator 5 Used in conjunction with OBLOOP and LCLOOP The PICT Operator This is used to call up Graphics sound blocks and has two forms similar to the MSG Operator The simple form PICT lt n1 n2 gt will activate picture sound block n1 window n2 As for messages each picture request is added to a list and only displayed after the action is complete The second form PICT lt PLOC n1 n2 gt selects of the two picture sound blocks attached to each location In this case n1 must be g or 1 only See Fig 1 and the Define Locations option The CANCEL Operator Sometimes you will want to cancel all the messages requested so far during the Action This is done with CANCEL The PCANCEL Operator This cancels all picture sound blocks so far The NEWL and SPC Operators These are used to put in spaces and new lines to the VPRINT message The RESTART Operator This is used to kill the player a VERY powerful Operator After it the player will only have options to restart the game or resurrect himself The INC and DEC O2. Example 1 shows how easy it is to create Actions in TEXTURE This one is practically all you need for any inventory command Obviously you will have to learn the Variables and Operators which can be used but there are not many of these as you might think The ones that are provided have been subject to a great deal of thought and hopefully we have achieved the minimum set needed to give you total flexibility Before looking at more examples we will look at all of them in some detail 16 Variables These are all the things you need to refer to within Actions to design your Adventure such as Status markers Object and player locations etc OBST the Object Status Variable There are various forms of this Variable all of which refer to the status marker of a particular object Firstly there is the OBST status object location form Obviously to identify the correct object TEXTURE needs to know both its name and location In this form of the Variable these are contained as parameters within the round brackets status is any name from the Object Status List Often you will want to use the player location instead of specifying it explicitly This is done using the form OBST status object which simply leaves out the location In the third form both the object name and location are omitted OBST status This form was met in Example 1 It is used within object loops OBLOOP to get the status of the
3. Genesis The Complete Adventure Creation System AMSTRAD CPC 464 664 7 N CONTENTS About Genesis Generating the game Playing the Adventure Structure of Genesis games Messages Locations Objects Commands Actions Some Examples A Help command Take command Look Moving around Scoring Texture Reference Section The DEPICTER Utility Appendix 1 The example game Appendix 2 Hints for Advanced Users 2 3 4 7 12 23 28 30 About Genesis Consisting of three utilities for creating a professional quality Adventure game plus a free example game Genesis provides everything needed to design text Adventures complete with Sound and Graphics with only a minimum of computer expertise The games produced will run independently of Genesis when complete Most of the structure and mapping of your game is done using the Texture utility With this all the game Actions are designed commands defined and locations and objects characters set up At the same time arrangements are made to activate Picture Sound blocks at the correct time eg when changing locations or firing a gun The actual pictures and sounds are created using DEPICTER which has full editing facilities on both sound and graphics Up to 20 separate graphic windows can be defined and pictures plotted in different windows at different times if desired A split mode screen option allows the combination of sa
4. you could replace the It s by the object name PLOC the Player Location Variable This is simply the player location You can use it anywhere appropriate for example to test whether a particular object is present at the player location If you VPRINT it the location name will be printed OBJ the Object Loop Name This variable is the current object name in object loops and only meaningful within such a loop If printed it will give name of the current object LOC the Location Loop Name This has a similar function but for location loops M 1 to M 50 the Marker counter Variables These variables can be put to any use the designer wishes They can store numbers in the range 32767 to 32768 and be incremented and decremented For example a Marker counter variable might be used to count how long a torch had been on or keep track of time 5 0 to SC 9 the Score Variables These ten variables can hold numbers between 0 and 32767 and are used for scoring Virtually any scoring system you like can be implemented involving for example which locations have been visited or particular commands used Further details on scoring are given in the section which dissects the free Adventure provided with the package Constants Two types of constants can be used in actions numbers or text constants Numbers must be in the range O to 32767 Text constants are normally enclosed in round brackets e g VPRINT lt Strik
5. 1 1 56 lt 17 1 gt FINISH OBLC OB1 PLOC MSG lt 9 1 gt FINISH OBST CARRY OB1 MSG lt 8 1 gt FINISH COPY lt 1 OBST CARRY OB1 gt CALL lt 39 gt FiNISH Ignoring the CALL lt 3 gt line again the next line reads in words If the object referred to by the player is not carriable print message 17 and finish uw this is decoded the first thing to realise is that anything in square brackets isa kak Sag Si the object status OBST marker name CARRIABLE is tested to it a zero ie false By using the symbol 1 we ensure that itis the object referred to byt ayer that is used As explained later there are several forms that the OBST variable can take example instead of 1 you could use a specific object name However for the take we must use 1 as it is the object named by the player that must be tested For 2 obj commands you can use OB1 or OB2 ition i i ine i ied out In this case itisa h ndition is true then what follows it on the same line is carrie t i qawan form of the MSG Operator met earlier When PLOC is not included in the brackets then the first number is simply the actual message number to print Thus MSG lt 17 1 gt simply prints message 17 at priority 1 This is message impossible The next line of the Action tests to see whether the object exists at the player location Thus the object location OBLC of the player named object 1 is tested to
6. LIPS 7 GO NORTH 28 GENERAL INJURY 8 GO SOUTH 29 SPECIAL EAST 9 GO EAST 3 UPDATE M 6 19 GO WEST 31 UNUSED 11 GET KEY OUTER OFFICE 32 DISPLAY DIRECTIONS 12 GENERAL MOVE 33 INSERT KEY 13 KILL CHIEF 34 LIBRARY FILE 14 AM 35 TWIST HELIX 15 DON T 36 ASSOCIATED WITH 34 16 YES 37 ASSOCIATED WITH 34 17 NO 38 KILL SHICKLGRUBER 18 GENERAL KILL 39 DISPLAY CARRIED OBJECTS 19 GENERAL HIT KICK 40 DISPLAY PRESENT OBJECTS 29 SWEARING 41 29 2 Messages There are 72 messages examine these using Texture 3 Commands This is not a complete list GO TAKE GET HAVE RUN WALK EAT KISS HUG KILL I ANSWER SAY UP DOWN LOOK RUN INV DESCRIBE DROP HELP YES NO NORTH SOUTH EAST WEST 4 Objects Not a complete list WALL DOOR CHIEF NORTH SOUTH EAST WEST HIM HER TASK TRANSMAT ROOF CEILING HELL UP DOWN LEG DINNER MIRACLE SECRETARY MILLY SOO BOIL CHEER BUZZER OFFICE SMELLYVISION CONTEST JURY PHONE AM LIPS OUT VIDFILE FILE TAPE KEY HELIX GUN F1 to F16 5 Object Status Markers CARRY CARRIABLE LKAB 6 Location Status Markers NO NORTH SO SOUTH EA EAST WE WEST VISIT VISITED 7 Locations G A OFFICE OUTER OFFICE DRAUGHTY CORRIDOR OUTSIDE THE LIBRARY THE LIBRARY VIDFILE READER OUTSIDE THE YOUR OFFICE THE TRAVELSTAT VERSAT SPACEPORT DAMLON SPACEPORT JUNKSHOP HARMIES HI BAR 30 2 Hints for Advanced Users 1
7. Saving memory In most adventures it is messages which are likely to use the lion s share of the memory Large savings can be made by using sub messages for phrases or even long words that are used more than once Remember that including an extra MSG Operator in an Action only takes up three bytes so separate messages for even quite short words will save space if they are used frequently There are limits however Firstly of course you can only have a maximum of 250 messages but also Genesis can only queue up to 10 messages prior to printing them Any more and the last ones will be ignored You can also save space in Actions by copying long location namesto one ofthe M type general variables Since locations and objects for that matter are given numbers as well as names an operation such as COPY lt OUTER OFFICE M 1 gt would load M 1 with the location number Since the PLOC variable is also a number copying an M type variable to PLOC is also quite possible Examples of this technique can be seen in actions 9 and 10 of the example game By a similar technique as that used for messages space can also be saved by constructing larger pictures from several smaller ones Careful choice of graphics windows is needed but large savings can be made 2 Adding Loading Screens The CLONED game deliberately does nothing to the screen whilst loading Thus it is quite easy to add your own leader program to create a loading screen The
8. Screen Modes Genesis allows you to select the screen mode independently for the top and bottom of the screen The mode changes in the middle of lines 12 or 13 line 1 is the top line It is best to set your text and graphics windows to avoid these lines when using different modes 23 If you select different modes you will not see the effect until you actually come to draw a picture Depicter itself always uses screen mode 1 As you should be aware from the Amstrad User Guide the screen modes are Mode 0 16 colours 20 column text Mode 1 4 colours 49 column text Mode 2 2 colours 89 column text Ink Colours Option 2 allows you to set 16 different ink colours from the 27 available These inks are common to all pictures and text The standard setting is BLUE BRIGHT WHITE BRIGHT YELLOW BLACK BRIGHT CYAN BRIGHT BLUE BRIGHT RED BRIGHT MAGENTA 12 CYAN COLOUR BRIGHT GREEN YELLOW 13 PASTEL GREEN PASTEL BLUE 14 ORANGE PINK 15 SKY BLUE Only on Mode can all 16 inks be used If the window is on a Mode 1 part of the screen only inks to 3 are valid For Mode 2 only inks and 1 However all 16 inks are set up though if you are not using Mode you can simply set inks 4 to 15 to the same colour The inks are set in order starting with ink Press the SPACE key until the colour you want is on the border Then press ENTER to set the current ink and progress to the next one Continue Option 3 simp
9. an Action which tested whether the north status is true for the current location and if so would move the player to a new location Thus the map is defined by both the Action and the status markers This arrangement gives great design possibilities for example the map can easily be changed during the game simply by changing location status markers from True to False or vice versa Location Messages There are three messages associated with each location the Help message the Description and the response to an undefined Command The last of these allows you to vary the usual standard and very boring response to the player when he uses a command that you haven t built in Used skillfully you can create the impression that the computer is understanding every word Picture Sound Blocks Pictures and sounds are created separately with the DEPICTER utility and two different blocks can be associated with each location These are normally the ones the player would see at that location though it is possible to put other pictures or sounds on top of these if needed OBJECTS The third major component is the set of objects in the Adventure In Genesis it is possible to have similar objects at different location in the game so objects have to be specified by location as well as name Thus each object name may have many Object Status Sets associated with it as indicated in Fig 2 Each Status Set specifies a location for the object bu
10. current object In effect it will refer to the status for every object one by one The two remaining forms are OBST status OB1 or OBST status OB2 Here the player location is used since it is not specified and the object name is taken as that specified in the actual Command For 2 object commands OB1 represents the first object and OB2 the second For example in take torch OB1 would be torch and OB2 undefined In hit wall with hammer OB1 would be the walt OB2 the hammer LCST the Location Status Variable There are just three forms of this LCST status location refers to the status at a specific location LCST status PLOC indicates the status for the current player location whilst LCST status is used within location loops Just as for objects it is possible to loop through all locations using LCLOOP ELOOP This second form effectively refers to the status of all locations one by one when used inside a location loop the Object Location Variable You will need to be able to change and test the locations of objects vaur Actions Again there are various forms as follows OBLC object location Just as for the Object Status variable the desired object must be specified by its name and location In this form these are specifically named Of course if you can specify its location you might think that OBLC is redundant as you already know its location However this fo
11. graphics or sound In the Test mode you will first be asked which location you want to start at Type in the exact name though spaces will be ignored If you have loaded the example game files look at Appendix 1 to find the names of the locations You can now play the game just as though you were the player though you will have to use the exact command eg Take Vid file This ensures that the game design is correct When the game is finally generated via CLONER things are more relaxed The player could then just as well say Take the Vid fileS with the same effect Listing Commands As well as the game commands there are some special commands you can use You can list locations objects and commands using C Object name to list the location and status of the object L Location name to list the location status C Command to list the Object Sequences for the command For example try 0 Vid file L Outer Office C Get with the example game Please note that the command letters MUST be capital letters both for listing and the other commands described next Modification Commands As well as listing commands you can use commands to create new Objects etc without leaving Test mode All these commands are preceeded by the slash character as follows OSS to create a new object M to modify an existing object 6 1 to modify a location status
12. have a good idea of the structure of Genesis Adventures and how Actions are used to activate picture blocks Depicter allows both pictures and sounds to be created and the results stored on cassette for use by CLONER It is vital to ensure that every picture number activated by any Action actually exists otherwise your game will not run correctly For example if you have an Operator lt 23 0 gt in your Actions and there are only 29 pictures created under Depicter you will have problems when you CLONE the game Up to 257 pictures where picture is used in the general sense of a combined picture sound block can be defined numbered to 249 These are the same numbers that Texture uses in the PICT Operators Depicter is also used to position the two text windows and up to 20 graphics windows A window is simply a rectangular section of the screen Pictures can be drawnin any window though normally you would not attempt to draw into a smaller window Windows can overlap each other so you can merge smaller pictures into larger ones for example The Initial Menu Screen Modes and Colours Depicter is the second program on Side 1 and you should know by now roughly where it starts Forward wind to this point and enter RUN DEPICTER After loading you will have a 3 option menu on the screen allowing you to set Screen Modes Set Colours or continue Pressing keys 1 to 35 selects the desired option 1
13. need to be able to test such things as whether an object is being carried whether a location i ae location is dark or not or whether a particular object is at the players We term things like the location of the player or the status of i i determine the value of a Variable will be termed E E E EEEN yas aera s messages or altering the value of a Variable will be done by Action Operators or just for short A full list and explanation of these three elements which make up any Anton ts 155 the reference section At present it is enough to have a broad idea of what Some Examples e heavy stuff in the reference section we shall take look ata few examples in the Adventure Hopefully an understanding of these will make the Reference Section easier going Incidentally a complete list of Actions given in Appendix 1 for the example game If desired you load Texture ge S cassette RUN TEXTURE and then load in the Texture data files from Side 2 wind the tape forward to just before the data files or else you will be trying to oa t CLONER program as data If you load the files correctly you will be able to call up the Action o the display and compare it with the explanation below Use the Define Action option The HELP Command Action i i i le game This was done by The HELP Command has been linked to Act
14. of a message CTRLD This deletes all characters beginning at the cursor position and up to the first non blank character It can therefore be used to get rid of any left over blanks after using the CTRL key or to delete a block of characters in the middle of the text To do this position the cursor to the start of the block hold down the SPACE key to overwrite the characters with blanks move the cursor back to the start of the block andpress CTRL It takes much longer to explain than to dol DEL The DEL key is used to delete single characters You can of course hold it down to delete more than one but for deleting many characters it is usually quicker to use CTRL D as explained This exits from the editor Left and Right arrow keys These are used to move the cursor around the text 12 2 OBJECT STATUS LIST You should have a good idea of what an Object Status marker is by this time This option allows you to name up to 48 markers but only allows you to add new markers to the list not delete them Try to keep the names as short as possible in order to save memory space during the design The odd spelling mistake is not important as the player never gets to see these names only the designer As long as you know what they mean there is no problem In fact the list of names is deleted when you finally generate the game to run independently of TEXTURE The Status markers are still there but the computer converts
15. to create or modify an action Due to the way that Texture works all objects and locations are reset to their initial status before the command s are carried out except for the Action command If you have followed the appropriate section in the reference chapter you should have no trouble using these commands The prompts etc which come up are identical to those appearing when using the menu options to do the same job The great advantage of course is that you can continue to play the game without exiting from Test mode 21 Control Commands There are three special commands as follows P Location name This moves the player to any location For example try DAMLON SPACEPORT in the example game Note that this does not change the locations of any carried objects Also be sure to remember the decimal point R This simply resets everything to the initial state except for the player Finally there is Q A command This exits from the Test mode back into the main menu Special Note Although not strictly options it is worth mentioning here three keys for colour control of the Texture screen These won t effect the final game in any way they are just there so that you can set the colour to your own taste CTRL B Changes the border colour CTRL Changes the ink colour CTRL P Changes the paper colour 22 The DEPICTER Utility Hopefully by the time you try out Depicter you will
16. PY lt 6 M 9 gt MSG lt 71 2 gt CALL lt 32 gt CALL lt 39 gt PICT lt PLOC 0 gt MSG lt PLOC 1 30 gt gt D0 lt 0 gt In the first Condition we see a new feature the use of a string constant to check whether the player is at a given location in this case OUTEROFFICE The spelling of the name must be match exactly the name you gave to the location or else the Condition will never be true String Constants are always enclosed in brackets as shown On line 2 the LCST Variable is also new though very similar to the OBST Variable It refers to the status marker of the specified location in this case PLOC Also new is the PICT Operator This is similar in form to the MSG Operator see the Reference Section but displays pictures rather than printing messages The second number in PICT is the graphics window for the picture rather than the message priority The other Action involved in moving about are Action 7 for North Action 8 for South Action 9 for East Action 10 for West These are the Actions which in combination with the appropriate location status markers determine the map of the Adventure You should be able to work out yourself how they are constructed Scoring In the example game we have not included any scoring You might like to by modifying the game to include a scoring scheme as one of the first things you do with Genesis The score Variable 5 0 to SC 9 hold the key in fact the score given when t
17. be not equal to the player location PLOC If it is not equal ie the Condition is true then message 915 printed indicating that the object is not there The following line checks to see whether the object is already being carried You should by now be able to see how that works Finally if none of the three Conditions are true if the object is carriable and is at the player location and is not already being carried then the COPY Operator is used to change the CARRY status to 1 ie true The CALL lt 39 gt simply calls an action to display the new state of the objects asin the example game carried objects are displayed onthe left and those just lying around on the right The Look Action Action This is an interesting one as it uses an object scan loop The purpose is to print all the objects that are lying around at the current location so obviously all objects must be checked one by This is achieved using the OBLOOP ELOOP Operators The actual Action reads MSG lt 6 29 gt COPY lt M 1 gt OBLOOP OBLC PLOCYOBST CARRY S OBST LKABHB VPRINT lt A gt SPC VPRINT lt en OBJ gt NEWL COPY lt 1 M 1 gt ELOOP M 1 VPRINT lt NOTHING gt NEWL FINISH Several new Operators are used in this Action On the first line MSG is an old friend and COPY has been met before The M 1 variable is a general purpose one usable for anything The reason for loading it with zero will become a
18. bject just press ENTER without a name when asked for the object name You will then be asked if you want to create a new object and if so for the name of the new object which should be typed carefully as for the various reasons it is impossible to change it once you press ENTER and the computer accepts it though you can put in alternative names for the same option 4 Prior to pressing ENTER you can of course use the DEL key to correct mistakes 3 New Status Set Status Sets in effect create an object at a particular location complete with its own set of Status markers The object created is given the name of the object selected by option 1 You will be asked for the location name and also for the true or false state of each Status marker It is possible to define an object as being at ALL locations by using character in place of a location name For example a roof or wall might be present everywhere and avoids the needto specify it separately for each location However you may also want to say have a special wall at a particular location as well as the general wall at all locations This would allow a different Action to be called up at the one special location for example take wall might be possible at one location but silly at others Amazingly TEXTURE allows this kind of thing with no problem The rule is that where there is an object specified at ALL locations and a sepa
19. components ofa Genesis adventure are linked together In fact there are only five major components Messages Locations Objects Commands and Actions Each of these will be expanded upon The purpose of this stage is to give an overview do not worry about details MESSAGES Messages are simply all those things you want the player to see during the game for example the descriptions for the locations and the visible responses to all the players commands They are numbered starting at zero You will need to keep a note of message numbers as you create them LOCATIONS Locations are of course the places which the player can visit during the game in Genesis each location is identified by a name which can be several words as shown in Fig 1 You may already be asking how the map is created ie what determines the directions the player move from each location This is done using status markers each of which can be either True or False You can have up to 24 such markers representing not only directions north south etc but anything else relevant to the game It is up to you to decide what you want to use them for You might decide to use one to determine whether that location was dark or not for example Stratus markers are used in Actions described later in order to contro what happens in response to the player s commands For example a go north command would be linked to
20. e gt would print the word Strike Spaces are not significant and might be removed by TEXTURE In some cases text constants are converted to the equivalent location or object where the name matches For example COPY lt Swots Acre PLOC gt would move the player to Swots Acre provided it existed The space is not significant in fact COPY lt SwotsAcre PLOC gt would do just as well 18 Operators Finally in this section we look at Operators The MSG Operator Printing messages is an obvious necessity and to do so we must specify a message number and a priority The reason for having a priority is that during an Action you may wish to print several messages but not always in the order they occur within the Action As the Action proceeds each message is added to a list of messages to be printed when the Action is complete together with its priority Then all the messages are printed beginning with the highest priority ones Messages of equal priority are printed in the same order as they are added to the list The simplest form of the Operator is MSG lt n1 n2 gt where n1 is the message number n2 the priority to 49 The message number must exist otherwise you will get a Syntax error when you exit from editing the Action The second form is MSG lt PLOC n1 n2 gt This is used to get one of the three messages which are attached to each location namely the Help message the Description message and
21. e of the window In other words if the top line is less than 12 the mode is that for the top of the screen Normally on a dual mode screen none of your windows would straddle line 12 Option 3 We do not propose to explain in detail what the sound envelopes are The Amstrad User Guide covers this fairly well and there have been many articles on the subject in the computing press You are expected to have an understanding of what volume and tone envelopes are all about This option brings up a sub menu allowing you to create Volume or Tone envelopes and test the sound The Exit option simply returns to the previous menu In fact Depicter creates two initial envelopes for you automatically one Volume and one Tone with a piano like sound Thus you can create music without bothering to set up any envelopes However for special effects it is well worth learning how to do this Up to 15 different envelopes of each sort can be created though the fewer you use the less memory is used 1 Volume Envelopes You will first be asked for the envelope number and be told the maximum number you can use For example the first time you enter the option there will be envelope number zero in the system the one created by Depicter itself You can select that one or type 1 instead Inthe latter case a new envelope is created initially with the same shape as envelope number zero Let us assume that you have chosen number 1 On the screen no
22. earnest The Create Picture Menu This is a four option menu as follows 1 Select picture number 2 Draw picture 3 Create sound 4 Exit These options are used to define the sound and graphics for the selected picture so option 1 must be used first to select which picture to work on You will be asked for the picture number which can be an existing one pictures are numbered from zero upwards or the next unused picture number if you want to create a new picture Option 2 Selecting this takes you into the draw graphics section You will firstbe asked which graphics window you wish to use Of course this is just for drawing the picture you can draw the completed picture into any window of the same size as the one you will eventually use Once you have selected the window you will be in draw mode with the selected window outlined by a frame In the centre of the window will be a pixel cursor surrounded by four dots You can change this to a full cross by pressing CTRLC and back again The cursor colour can be changed by hitting the SPACE key so that you can always make it visible no matter what background it is displayed against 26 When you use any of the draw commands below the ink colour will be taken from the border The border colour is changed by pressing the key Naturally since the pictures drawn have to be packed into very few memory locations you cannot expect to be able to draw highly detailed pictures at
23. every location in the Adventure You can use up to 25 user defined graphics characters to build detailed pictures for a few locations or use the simpler graphics produced by using linedrawing infilling etc to illustrate every location or even objects etc We shall now look at all the command keys in detail Remember that the cursor is moved using the arrow keys use SHIFT for faster motion 1 Drawing Lines and Curves Keys L N E After setting the border to the colour required place the cursor at the start of the line and press key L This causes a rubber band to be anchored at this position Then move to the end of the line and Nail the band by pressing N You can continue to Nail the band like this by moving to new spot and pressing N again When finished with line drawing press SES After this you would have to press L again for another sequence of lines Curves are just as easy Instead of pressing N press C key You will then be asked for the angle you wish the curve to turn through After entering this watch carefully and you will see a small spot move around the curve possible leaving a trail of dots This is so you can judge the curve and change it if need be 2 Boxes Keys R F and E Boxes may be drawn by pointing the cursor on one corner and pressing R Then move to the opposite corner and press for an outline or F for a filled box 3 The Infill Command Key Infill is
24. ffects of adding noise you will just have to experiment using the test sound option The Exit option takes you back to the Set Envelopes menu where we now look briefly at tone or frequency envelopes 2 Tone Envelopes Setting these is virtually identical to setting up volume envelopes as you will see from the display produced However whereas volume envelopes should not normally go less than zero or greater than 15 the tone envelopes are not restricted in this way Also the Repeat option is valid allowing the envelope to be repeated during the sound if it is shorter in duration On the other hand the Noise option is not relevant Again it is impossible to describe the effect using tone envelopes Experimenting is great fun and you may discover just the sound you need to make that graveyard scene truly terrifying 3 Test Sound Option On selecting this you will be asked for the volume and frequency envelope numbers Then a picture of a keyboard will appear one we shall meet again when adding sounds to pictures The letters over the keys show which Amstrad keys to press to get notes As well as the letter keys keys to 7 select the octave key is the lowest octave Of course you can only play one note ata time though when adding sounds to pictures you will be able to have three synchronised tracks for playing harmonies The test sound option is provided so that you can experiment with envelope shapes before using them in
25. han being on a separate tape just remove the CLONER tape without rewinding It is a good idea to note the reading on the tape counter at this point as we shall need to locate the data files again in later sections of the manual Insert the output tape making sure you have advanced it past the plastic leader tape This is important Genesis does not wait for the leader to pass through before starting to save data Put the datacorder to RECORD and press any key to save the irst section Now remove the output tape do not rewind it and re insert the CLONER tape or of course your own data files if you are cloning your own Adventure Before reading the data CLONER will ask for the following parameters 1 The Initial Action Number 26 for the example As explained later Action are used in Genesis to do things such as printing messages displaying pictures etc They are numbered to 249 and every game must have one set up to create the initial screen pictures and messages and to put the player into the start location Of course it is up to you what Action number you use and what the Action does 2 There now follow prompts asking for the inks for pens 1 2 and 3 1 is used to print messages pen 2 for player inputs and pen 3 for location names The ink selected must be sensible for the screen mode as follows Mode Inks to 15 valid Mode 1 Inks to only M
26. he player enters SCORE is simply the sum of the values in SC b to SC 9 Since the score is expressed as a percentage you should make sure that the total does not exceed 100 To modify the game you will have to load the data files into Texture from Side 2 and then modify the appropriate Action to COPY values into the score variables For example you might pick 10 of the locations and put values of 10 into the 10 score variables as each location is visited For this Actions 7 to 10 would be involved 11 TEXTURE OPTIONS REFERENCE SECTION This chapter explains all the options in more detail When you first enter TEXTURE you will be presented with a 9 option Main Menu which we cover below in order 1 DEFINE MESSAGES This option leads to a sub menu giving options to either create a new message or modify an existing one Messages are numbered sequentially beginning at zero and you will be told the number of any new message you create It is as well to keep a note of this including the purpose of the message e g Swots End description etc You are limited to 250 different messages though each can be of any length The TEXTURE EDITOR is used to enter and correct messages and this is a good time to mention the CTRL key This key is always used to exit from the current option or menu back to the previous menu For example after typing in a message under the editor pressing CTRL Q will return you to the Message menu after stori
27. ich does all the work of printing messages altering Status markers etc This arrangement gives TEXTURE outstanding flexibility to cope with virtually anything the designer wishes to do though each individual Action can be quite simple in itself We give some examples later When you use this option you will be asked for an Action number Actions are numbered sequentially starting from zero and to create a new one you simply enter the next number in the sequence It is wise to make note of each Action number and its purpose as you go The TEXTURE Editor is used to enter and modify Actions though you must stick to a few rules when typing them in The following example illustrates most of them Remember that Actions are made up of Conditions Variables and Operators Use CTRL to exit 15 7 Example 1 An Action for an Inventory Command MSG lt 1 gt OBLOOP 5 0 VPRINT lt AJ gt SPC VPRINT lt OBJ gt NEWL ELOOP FINISH The first line means print message assumed to be something like You are carrying at priority 1 Message priorities are explained later They allow messages to be printed in the right order Line 2 is an Operation to loop through all objects at all locations The loop extends down to the ELOOP Instruction All Operations etc between OBLOOP and ELOOP will be repeated for all objects Thus line 3 tests every object to see whether the carried status is
28. ion number 5inthe examp setting an Object Sequence for Help which specified all locations and Action 5 The actual Action reads 2 lt 3 gt 6 lt 0 1 gt is i asy one to start with We shall ignore the first Operator CALL lt 30 gt as this ial ay anion number 30 The second operator MSG lt PLOC 9 1 gt is iil e select Help message for the current player location PLOC As mentioned previously ve i messages can be linked to each location and these are indicated by the eae db the Help Description and Invalid Command messages Thus MSG lt PLOC 1 gt produce Help message while MSG lt PLOC 1 1 gt would produce the description i i i iori When an action prints several The other number 1 in this case is priority of the message messages the higher priority ones are printed first regardless of what order they appear within the Action The last Operator is FINISH All Actions should end with this Operator The Take Action i j i i ill find i Inthe example it has been Taking objects is a command which you will find in every Adventure I 2 for most objects and locations though there isa special action for ee on file at the G I A Office location Action 4 We shall look at Action 2 which can probably used as it stands in your own games provided you use the same status names The complete Action is CALL lt 36 gt OBST CARRIABLE OB
29. losed in brackets Next comes the SPC Operator Using VPRINT removes any spaces for example VPRINT lt This 15 gt would print Thisis so a space operator is needed to separate words Next VPRINT is used again to print the name of the current object The variable OBJ is only valid within loops and represents the current object The NEWL Operator prints a newline character and then the M 1 variable is loaded with the value 1 for reasons explained below We have hopefully now be laboured object loops enough After the ELOOP operator the Action checks to see if the general purpose variable M 1 is zero If itis it means that no objects suitable for listing by LOOK have been found at the player location so VPRINT is used to print the word Nothing 10 Moving Around There are several main actions associated with the player moving between locations Firstly Action 12 is used in all cases regardless of which way the player moves Its effect is to mark that the location has been visited to update the locations of any objects being carried and to print the description message and put up the picture for that location You should by now be able to follow the broad outline of the action We shall confine explanation to the new things that the Action uses PLOC OUTEROFFICE COPY lt 0 M 2 gt COPY lt 1 LCSTIVISIT PLOC gt OBLOOP OBST CARRY COPY lt PLOC OBLC gt ELOOP CALL lt 30 gt 9 0 CALL 28 gt CO
30. ly takes you on to the first of the Picture Sound creation menus To get back to this initial menu at any time simply press CTRL Q The General Options Menu This menu allows you to 1 Create a Pict Sound block 2 Set Screen Windows 3 Set Sound Envelopes 4 Save Load Option 1 This takes you into the Create Picture menu described later 24 Option 2 This brings up options to position the text or graphics windows The two possible text windows are labelled O and 1 Window Ois used to display the Location name and would normally occupy just single line of the display The location names will be automatically centred in the window when printed Window 1 is used for the main text of the Adventure The procedure for setting the windows is identical whether it is a graphics or text window You will be asked first for the window number then for values for the left and right edges and the top and bottom edges all of which are specified as character positions Remember that character line 1 is the top line Inall screen modes there are always 25 lines from top to bottom However the screen mode does affect the number of columns left to right 20 for Mode etc For example entering 10 and 11 6 for the left and right edges would place the window in the centre of the screen Mode but in the left quarter for Mode 1 Where a dual mode screen has been asked for the mode for any window is assumed to be that of the top lin
31. n totally changing the locations to a new one 2 Set Status This option allows you to set all Status markers for the selected location to true or false These will be the initial states i e the states at the start of a game They may well change during the game 3 4 and 5 Standard Messages In these options you will be asked for message numbers for the corresponding purpose Help message etc The message number must exist otherwise TEXT URE will simply ask again You can get out of trouble by pressing CTRL These messages are not printed automatically except for the Illegal Command message Itis up to the designer to incorporate them into Actions for printing i e into the Actions linked to Help and Move commands 6 Rename You will just be asked for the new name 7 8 Location Pictures As previously explained there are up to two picture sound blocks attached to each location Of course the actual blocks are created later with the graphics utility Each block has a number and these options allow you to define the two block numbers for the selected location The numbers must be in the range 0 to 249 and it is as well to keep a note of which numbers you use for each location 13 5 DEFINE OBJECTS In this case a 4 option sub menu is called up 1 Select object This is to select the object name you wish to work on You must have selected an object before the other options can be used To create a new o
32. ng the message Pressing it again would take you back from the Message menu to the Main menu This is about all there is to Messages though you will need to use the editor which is explained next TEXTURE EDITOR The editor provides all the facilities for inserting adding text deleting it and overtyping Special keys are used for control as explained below The editor uses a screen window 80 characters wide just below the menu windows You can type across the end of a line though this will appear to split words between two lines quite often Do not worry about this as when the message is displayed during the game the computer will automatically throw a new line if the word is too long to fit on the current line You of course use ENTER to go onto a newline if you want Remember that you will have to use the Insert key CTRL l to create space when adding text to the end of a line on which you have put a new line The editor prevents you typing across the end of a line terminated by anew line The editor is cursor controlled and you will see the cursor move around as you type in text or use the arrow keys The cursor of course shows you where you are in the text at all times The special keys used are CTRL This creates blank space at the cursor position moving all text to the right You can press it more than once or hold it down to create more blank space It is used of course when you must add text to the middle
33. no objects the Object Sequence simply defines a location which ee specified as ANY and an Action number Actions will be described later and are used to do You may be asking what happens if for instance you define an Obj i i to ANY location and also one for a specific Tone both onthe et tii aie the Sequence defined for the specific location takes precedence at that location so there is conflict When you have objects as well as locations in the Object Sequence see Figs 6 7 Sa roils type of rule applies ie if a Sequence for a specific object conflicts with a Sequence efeined as applying to ALL objects the specific sequence takes priority Object Sequences for 1 object Commands include j i ct an object name which of course m specified as ANY The corresponding Action will only be carried out if the player nies then particular object the Command Similar obj j for 2 object Commands the names of two objects ACTIONS To recap slightly we have seen how locations have status markers attached to them how objects have both status markers and locations and h i i ow Actions are linked to Com through the use of Object Sequences Obviously in Actions we shall need to be gra example alter status markers of specific locations or objects change object locations move the player location or print responses to the players Commands It should also be obvious that we
34. ode 2 Inks or 1 only Of course you would not normally use Ink as this would make the text invisible If you choose a higher value than is valid this can also cause the same effect It is assumed that you are aware of the difference between screen modes if not look itup in your Amstrad User Manual Genesis allows you to have split mode screens ie top and bottom of the screen having different modes as well as the normal single mode screen This is ideal for mixing 80 column text with 4 16 colour graphics on the same screen For the example Adventure respond 1 1 S and 3 respectively to the three prompts s Now CLONER is ready to read the data files Press PLAY and any key to start loading these oa re insert the output tape to save the second main section of the game You should now ave an independent game which can be loaded using RUN clear the computer first Playing the Adventure We don t tell you how to solve the Adventure you will have to work it out However there area few commands which are common to all G i i iti enesis Adventures in addi create yourself These are shail sss 1 Save and Load 2 Quit This effectively restarts from the beginnin i j ively g resetting all objects etc to their initi and re activating the Initial Action 3 down the CTRL key and pressing key A will cause any picture being drawn to be 4 Upper Lower Case Generall
35. ou might use it to clear any previous picture before drawing the new one Two pictures drawn into the same window during the game will be merged unless the second has a Clear Window as its first draw command We look at some control commands These do not actually put commands into the picture they are simply for the users benefit 27 6 Deleting The Last Draw Command Key SDELS This key deletes the last drawing command so can be used to correct mistakes Do not hold it down as it auto repeats The picture is not affected directly to see the effect you will have to clear the window and re draw the picture 7 Clearing The Window Key SCLRS This key simply clears the window Unlike the Z key it does not put a draw command into the picture 8 Re drawing Key DS This re draws the whole picture 9 Finish Key CTRL Q Pressing CTRL Q exits back to the picture creation menu Option 3 Create Sound This leads to a further sub menu with the following options 1 Enter Track 2 Enter Rhythm 3 Play Tracks 4 Exit Briefly Option 1 is used to enter the sequence of notes Option 2 to set up the rhythm for the note and Option 3 to play the results Option 1 You will first be asked for the track number followed by the envelope number The screen that follows you will have seen before in the Test Sound options The piano keyboard shows which letter keys to press to play notes whilst number keys to 7 are used to
36. perators You can only use these with the 59 M type variables to increment or decrement them by one For example INC lt M 1 gt DEC lt M 2 gt etc The DO Operator You can jump from one Action to another by using the DO Operator For example DO lt 5 gt would effectively finish the current Action and start Action number 5 This is very useful Examples will be given later The CALL Operator 20 This is similar to DO but the current Action is not finished merely suspended When the Called Action finishes the original Action will recommence where it left off Calls may be nested toa maximum depth of i e an Action can call an Action which itself calls another Action etc to a depth of 50 If the depth exceeds this any further Calls are ignored An example would be CALL lt 6 gt MSG lt G 1 gt Action 6 would be done then message printed If the CALL were a DO of course message would not be printed as the original Action would terminate at that point This completes the description of Operators If you have read and tried these out you should by now be fairly proficient in the use of TEXTURE Any problems and questions which you have will hopefully be cleared up by re reading the previously explained examples from the free game 8 The TEST Option The final option on the main menu is Test As you might expect this allows you to test the game so far though of course you will not see any of the
37. pparent later However OBLOOP is a new one In conjunction with ELOOP further down it indicates that all lines between the two are repeated for every object at every location The second and third lines down are in fact just one line it s just that the line is too long to fit Obviously this is the line which will be repeated The line starts with three Conditions enclosed in square brackets All of these must be true before the Operations following them on the line can be executed The first Condition checks to see if the current object s location OBLC is the same as the player PLOC Notice that since the line is repeated for every object we do not specify the object Thus instead of OBLC OB1 asin the Take Action we just have empty brackets OBLC The latter form is only valid inside scan loops The second condition checks that the object is not being carried Again the particular object is not specified ie OBST CARRY instead of OBST CARRY OB1 Finally the third Condition checks that the object is Lookable using status marker LKAB There may be some objects which you do not want to show in the Look command even if they are present for example a fixture described in the location description which is not really relevant to the game Assuming all the Conditions are true for the current object then the first VPRINT Operator prints the letter In general VPRINT can be used to print any variable including words enc
38. program should end with a RUN instruction Technical Queries All technical queries should enclose a STAMPED Self Addressed Envelope and should be sent to CAMEL MICROS GENESIS QUERIES WELLPARK WILLEYS AVENUE EXETER EX2 8BE Tel 0392 211892 31
39. rate object created at a specific location the specific one takes precedence at that location Thus at that location take wall would set the carried Status of the specific object to true rather than that of the object specified as being at AtLtocations If the carried status of this general object did get set of course it would mean that you would be carrying the walls at every location Very strange It is important at this point to stress the difference between the initial status and location of objects and their values during the game Clearly they will change in response to the players commands What we are setting up under these options are the initial states These are stored separately in TEXTURE so that they can be restored to restart a game without reloading 2 Modify Delete Status Set Although object names cannotbe changed once entered Status Setscan be deleted or modified as required The computer first has to find the object you want so you will be asked for its location If it finds one at the location specified you will be given the option to delete it or to modify its location and status 4 Alternate Names You can put in here as many alternate names for the object as you like DEFINE COMMANDS Commands are the things which the player uses to play the game and form the fundamental link between objects locations and Actions described later Thus in general a Command be made
40. rm would be only useful for writing a new location to the object when the location specified would be its old location OBLC object If the location is not specified the player location replaces it Here TEXTURE has another clever trick up its sleeve for if there is no such object at the player location it effectively chooses the first object it finds in its list of objects at different locations This means that you can refer to objects which are elsewhere and move them around as if by magic 17 OBLC This form specifies neither the object nor its location It is used within Object loops OBLOOP ELOOP to refer to the location of every object one by one OBLC OB1 or OBLC OB2 By now you should havea good idea of what these mean Instead of a specific object these refer to the object specified in the players command Again OB1 and OB2 indicate either the first second object The location is taken as the player location just as inthe OBLC object form and the same trick is employed if there is no such object at the player location OB1 OB2 Player defined Object Names These two variables refer to the names of the objects specified by the player in a Command as previously mentioned Mainly they are used as parameters in OBLC or OBST but you could use them for any other purpose For example you could print them using VPRINT lt OB1 gt etc Thus instead of responding It s not here for an object not at that location
41. s which Action to carry out if the Command is used at the specified location with the specified object s The object names must exist though of course there doesn t necessarily have to be one at the location specified as one might be moved there during the game Similarly the location must exist CTRL Q can be used to get out of trouble As you can specify for example an Object Sequence to apply to ALL locations and another one for a specific location both for the same Command TEXTURE resolves the conflict by giving priority to the one with the specific location providing the player is at that location Similarly for objects if there is a Sequence applying to ANY object as well as one for a specific object 3 Delete Object Sequence To delete an Object Sequence you will have to tell TEXTURE which one to delete by supplying its location object s and Action number 4 Select Default Messages Each Command can potentially have a different message when 1 the player uses an undefined object or 2 uses an object for which there is no corresponding Object Sequence Thus a wide variety of responses can be achieved for these default conditions The selected messages are printed automatically in the right circumstances you do not need an Action to print these DEFINE ACTIONS How Actions are tinked to Commands has already been described In general each Object Sequence has its own Action number and this calls up an Action wh
42. select the octave Be a little cautious about pressing keys to play notes here as each one you press may insert another entry into the list of notes The option is used to simply enter the sequence of notes Setting the rhythm is left to Option 2 You can edit the sequence of notes by ear using the left and right arrow keys to play backwards and forwards through the sequence Press the delete key to delete the note that was played last Similarly you can insert a note at the current position Try these out to get the hang of it Imagine that you are splicing bits of tape into or out of an audio tape and you should get the idea If you are not positioned at the last note any notes you play will simply re write what was there before so you can insert space for a note and then put in the correct note Of course if you are at the end any new notes played will be added to the sequence Option 2 Using this you can set the rhythm for any track using another track as a backing track or a standard beat When asked for the keyboard speed actually the speed of repeats if you hold the beat key down a typical figure for normal music would be 15 Only if you want to play a sequence of notes very rapidly should you use smaller values otherwise you will not be able to release the key fast enough to prevent several notes from playing each key press The rhythm is set up simply by pressing a single key B As soon as you press the key first time
43. specific to a location and an object and be linked to a specific Action In fact the same Command word s can be attached to many different locations and or objects calling up a different Action for each different location and or object combination As explained earlier this is done through the use of Object Sequences The Define Command option calls up a 4 option sub menu as follows 14 1 Select Command Again this selects the Command to work on and you must select one before using the other options To create a new Command press ENTER alone as usual You will then be asked if you want to create a new Command and if so for the number of objects attached to the Command and the Command name s As shown in Fig 4 and previously explained Commands may have no objects look inv one object e g take something or 2 objects e g hit something with something else Command names must be single words spaces are not allowed within the name 2 Enter Object Sequence Each Command type may have any number of Object Sequences which allow the same Command to call up different Actions at different locations and or for different objects In fact there must be at least one Object Sequence if the Command is to do anything useful For each Object Sequence created you will have to specify a location which may be ALL 1 or 2 objects which may be ANY and an Action number The Action number of course determine
44. t also the object status Obviously there must be something to indicate whether for example the object is being carried or not and this is done by Status markers You can have up to 48 of these allocated to whatever purpose you wish Apart from a carry status you might have for example another status marker to show whether it is possible to carry the object 7 COMMANDS The structure of Commands is shown in Fi i i ice i 9 4 The first thing to notice is that there Messages associated with each command These are the Messages which naiba if the player used 1 an object which is not the Adventure 2 object which is e Adventure but cannot be used with this command eg take floor would be ridiculous Commands may have no objects eg look or inv j m 5 one object take something objects eg hit wall with head In the last case the Command would have two te with as well as two objects This is illustrated by Fig 4 i Often in an Adventure the same command will do differ i i ent things at different locati for different objects In TEXTURE these different Actions are catered for by sania ota ad Object Seque j a quence for each case Thus a Command may have many Object Sequences attached As shown by Figs 5 to 7 an Object Sequence form i i at differs slightly for 1 and 2 obj ae If there are
45. the Illegal command message PLOC indicates that these message numbers are to be taken from the players location In this form n2 is again the priority but n1 can only take values of 1 or 2 corresponding tothe three attached messages A little thought will show why this second form is needed if it wasn t there the only way to select say a description message when the player moves would be to test individually whether the player was at each location a very inefficient method The VPRINT Operator Often you will need to print actual variables such as the names of objects etc This is done using VPRINT lt variable gt for example VPRINT lt OBJ gt would print an object name VPRINT has a priority of 24 and all VPRINT operators in an Action are joined together for printing as a single message You cannot interspace MSG output and VPRINT output For example VPRINT lt OBJ gt MSGC 24 gt VPRINT lt LOC gt would in fact first print both an object name followed by a location name followed by message The message would not appear between the object and the location names even though the MSG priority is 24 as all VPRINTS effectively generate a single message The Copy Operator This is used to write a value from one variable to another e g COPY lt Swots Acre OBLC OB1 gt would move the object referred to by the player OB1 to Swots Acre The general form is COPY lt from to gt
46. the first note sounds from the track the backing track of course plays continuously On the second press the first note finishes and the next begins Thus the length of the first note depends on the second key press For this reason you must press the key once more after the last note sounds to finish setting the rhythm Otherwise the last note will last forever You will be returned to the Sound Menu automatically after the final key press 28 Option 3 This option has a two fold purpose First it enables you to listen to the complete sound with all tracks playing together if you have used more than one Secondly it is used to set the number of times the sound is to repeat itself in the game A zero value means the sound will repeat until terminated by some other sound starting up This completes the description of Depicter Do not be afraid to experiment with the options and do not worry if you do not understand all the features immediately You do not need to be a complete Genesis expert to start building your games Use the features you do understand and you will soon begin to understand the reasons for having the more complex features After that you will wonder why it wasn t obvious to start with Appendix 1 The Example Game 1 Action List ACTION PURPOSE ACTION PURPOSE LOOK 21 DEATH 1 INV 22 EAT 2 23 KISS MILLY 3 DROP 24 HIM HER 4 SPECIAL VIDFILE TAKE 25 EAT HIM 5 HELP 26 START UP 6 UNUSED 27 ON THE
47. the names to numbers to save space This means there is more room for graphics etc When you creat a new Status name every object in the system automatically sets the corresponding marker set to false The Define Objects option is used to change the setting if desired Naturally not all Status names will be meaningful for all objects You are not likely to carry a floor for example In fact you may decide to use another marker to indicate whether a marker is valid e g you might have a carriable marker as well as a carried marker 3 LOCATION STATUS LIST This is similar to the Object Status list but for locations Each location will have its marker set false for each new name Up to 24 markers can be defined 4 DEFINE LOCATIONS This leads to an 8 option sub menu as follows 1 Select Location The purpose of this is to select the location to work on You will be asked to enter the location name which will then be shown on the screen to confirm that the computer has found it If you want to create a new location just press the ENTER key without typing a name You will then be asked if you want to create the location and if so for its name Location names can be more than one word although it is best to keep them reasonably short otherwise the computer may not have room on the screen for them during the game You can rename locations option 6 so there is no problem about correcting errors or eve
48. true i e not equal to zero and if so prints some stuff VPRINT lt A gt prints the word A followed by a space SPC Then VPRINT lt OBJ prints the object name as OBJ is a variable used within loops to get the current object Finally a new line NEWL is printed Format Rules Refer back to Example 1 as you read through the following F Every Operator must be terminated by a colon 2 Conditions are enclosed in square brackets You may have more than one Condition in a line but they must all be at the start of the line e g OBST carried 0 OBLC J PLOC VPRINT lt OBJ gt NEWL would be valid but not _ OBST carried 4 VPRINT lt OBJ gt OBLC PLOC NEWL If there is more than one they must all be true to carry out the Operations following on the same line In this context line means a line terminated by a newline i e ENTER character If you simply carry on typing across the edge of the screen this will still be on the same line even though it appears on the next line of the screen 3 Any parameters or Variables associated with an Operator are enclosed in angle brackets E g MSG 1 gt 4 If there is more than one variable inside the angle brackets they are separated by semi colons e g lt 0 1 gt 5 Any parameters associated with a Variable are enclosed in round brackets e g OBST carried If there is more than one parameter they must be separated by commas
49. used in areas with colour In Depicter a simplified infill is used for maximum speed but one which can escape beyond the edges of concave shapes in some circumstances This is no great problem as you can always delete the infill command and split the shape into two or more segments on which infill works correctly It is always best to start the infill in the narrowest possible place on the shape This is faster and should solve most escape problems 4 User Graphics Keys G and H Key is used to set up shapes for up to 256 characters of 8 x 8 pixels each Hopefully the screen produced on pressing is self explanatory The graphics are numbered from upwards and you can skip through them by using the angle bracket keys lt gt The arrow keys are used to move the large block cursor around the enlarged design area to design the graphic When complete it can be transferred into the current graphic number by pressing SES To return to drawing pictures press ENTER See the D key below for how to re draw the picture you have set up some graphics they can be placed in the picture by pressing G This displays graphic in the top left corner You can move this around using the arrow keys and cycle through the shapes using the angle bracket keys lt and gt When ready press Enter to fix the graphic in place 5 The Clear Window Command Key 7 This command puts a Clear Window into the picture Y
50. w should be a graph of the envelope plus another menu to the right and the legends SCALE ENV NO and REPEAT The REPEAT option is only used for tone envelopes so that it can be ignored at the moment The graph scale vertically is 15 to 15 with zero in the middle Horizontally the graph represents time Try pressing keys 2 and 35 to see how the scale changes The scale factor is given in thousands of a second so 1600 means a scale of 1 6 seconds Next let us try setting up a simple envelope which increases to 15in 15 steps of 2 hundredths of a second stays level for 30 hundredths then decays to zero 15 steps of 7 hundredths First press 15 and you will be asked for the segment number The envelope is always made up of 5 segments each of which is a ramp up or down or level Enter O to select the first segment then type in 15 To number of steps 1 To step size 255 time step This is hundredths of a second 25 Similarly enter the following for the other 4 segments Segment 1 1 08 10S Segment 2 1 5 5 51 Segment 3 1 6 10S Segment 4 15 1 7 Make sure you understand how this creates the shape in the graph We pass on to the NOISE option key 4 This allows noise in various band widths to be added to the sound for special effects such as machine noises footsteps etc Choosing a zero noise factor removes the noise It is impossible to describe the e
51. y 16 colour graphics and 80 column text on the same screen a great boon for graphics adventures Sound wise up to three sound tracks can be laid down and synchronised for each picture with full control over envelope shaping for special effects Both Texture and DEPICTER produce data files on cassette which are eventually loaded into the CLONER program to produce the finished game Note In what follows we have enclosed things to type signs eg SRUNS The actual dollar signs are not typed Where the ENTER key is required this is illustrated by a pair of dollar The first steps Cloning the example Adventure As an easy introduction to Genesis we will generate a stand alone game from the example Adventure For this Side 2 of the cassette is used containing the CLONER program plus the two data files from Texture and DEPICTER You will also need a blank tape C15 is OK if you save on Fast speed First zero the tape counter then run CLONER using RUN It is always best to start with a clean machine before running a new program Press SHIFT CTRL and ESC together to clear it before typing RUN When the tape stops leave it on PLAY but press the PAUSE key while you select the save speed for your output tape Then raise PAUSE and wait for the tape to stop again Normally at this point you would rewind the CLONER tape and load your blank tape However since the data files follow the CLONER program rather t
52. y speaking Genesis ignores any Upper L i i me aa A y Upp ower case letter differences ie SAVE LOCATIONS STANDARD PICTURE STATUS MESSAGES SELECTIONS 0 182 Fig 1 LOCATIONS OBJECTS P 1 FURTHER STATUS SETS Fig 2 OBJECTS STATUS LOCATION Fig OBJECT STATUS SET STRUCTURE COMPONENT STRUCTURES IN TEXTURE 5 s TWO DEFAULT MESSAGES NAME 1 eg HIT COMMAND COMMAND 2 OBJECT COMMANDS OBJECT NAME 2 eg WITH 1 OBJECT NO OBJECT COMMANDS COMMANDS gt OBJECT OBJECT sequences COMMAND sequencers COMMAND seauencets 2 OBJECT NAME 1 OBJECT NAME 0 OBJECT Fig 4 STRUCTURE OF COMMANDS OBJECT SEQUENCE NO OBJECT COMMAND LOCATION ACTION NUMBER Fig 5 O OBJECT SEQUENCE Fig 6 1 OBJECT STRUCTURE COMMAND LOCATION OBJECT SEQUENCE 12 OBJECT conmano or aeron LOCATION 081 082 NUMBER Fig 7 2 OBJECT STRUCTURE OBJECT SEQUENCE 1 OBJECT OBJECT NAME OB1 ACTION NUMBER THE STRUCTURE OF GENESIS ADVENTURES We must now begin to probe a little deeper into the components of Genesis Adventures Most users of Genesis will have at least a general idea of what an Adventure consists of Inthe rest of this section we will build on this and explain how the various major
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