SHADOWCASTER ============ CONTENTS Installation Reference Sheet History Starting the Game Option Screen Tutorial Walkthrough Main Game Screen, Movement, Combat, Life Bar, Power Bar, Picking Things Up, Putting Things Down, Using Things, Eating and Drinking, Morphing, Abilities, Option Screen, Inventory Overview, Automap Screen, View Window Size, Opening and Closing, Cursors, Continuing to Play, Death, Your Character Different Forms Kirt, Maorin, Caun, Opsis, Kahpa, Ssair, Grost Troubleshooting The forces of Good had won, but at what cost? The People were virtually destroyed and their great city turned into a haunted ruin. The gods, appalled by the slaughter, turned their backs on The People. The gift of morphing was intended to be used for the benefit of all but The People had instead used it to establish a class of rulers and servants. In this they had gone against the will of the gods. One god, Tovason, did not entirely abandon The People. If they kept watch against evil he promised they would eventually return to their former greatness. The People built a village around the temple and kept guard against Veste's return. Through the years they mingled with other tribes and the gift of morphing slowly faded away. Eventually, only two of The People carried this gift. They were wed and bore a child they named Kirt. At his birth the old gods gathered. Malkor had been growing in power and down every path the gods could see lay their ruin and destruction - Malkor triumphant and all the lands enslaved. But down the path Kirt would travel the gods could see nothing. It was as if he cast a shadow over the future of the worlds. Kirt was given the name Shadowcaster. In him resided the hope of The People and the ancient gods. But Malkor and his followers learned of this hope. One moonless night the doors of the temple flew open and Veste somehow alive centuries after he had fled raided the village. He attacked the house where Kirt lay sleeping and slew his mother and father. But Tovason had been watching the child. Just before Veste and his beasts entered the child's room. Kirt under the care of the last Holy One was sent to a far-away land where magic was little known and less respected. There Kirt grew into maturity under the guidance of a man he called Grandfather. Grandfather kept close watch over Kirt for he knew the Evil Ones were searching everywhere for him. One night a storm arose in which Grandfather recognized the power of Malkor. On that night Grandfather told Kirt of his heritage and sent him back to The People just ahead of the rending claws of Malkor's slaves. Kirt, with little knowledge of this new world, acquires the power to change shape by touching an obelisk that puts him in contact with the gods. He fights his way through the ruined cursed city of The People to cleanse it of a great evil, and discovers a way to the temple at the center of The People's village. By the time he gets there Veste warned of Kirt's escape from the world Earth has struck again. He has carried off the last remaining People and has left Kirt a trail to follow through a series of dangerous worlds where evil creatures wait to destroy him. The trail is clear, but can Kirt defeat the successively more powerful servants of Malkor - and defeat Veste in a showdown of Virtue versus Despair to restore The People to the favor of the gods? INSTALLATION If you are running a disk cache such as Smartdrive, you will need to disable it prior to installing Shadowcaster to insure a clean installation. This only affects the installation Smartdrive will work normally during gameplay. 1. Insert CD-ROM into CD-ROM drive. 2. Type the letter of your CD-ROM, a colon then press . 3. Type CD\shadow then type install . 4. The Main Menu appears: Install Shadowcaster Configure sound Exit To select a menu item use and to highlight the option you want. Select "Install Shadowcaster". The highlighted option appears as blue text in a gray box. Press to select a highlighted option. Other options on the screen: F1 Help F2 Visit DOS (for small tasks) F3 System summary F4 To Quit 5. You must install Shadowcaster on a hard drive. The installation program detects which drives have enough free space and lists them. Use the Up arrow key and Down arrow key or type the letter of the drive on which you want to install Shadowcaster. Note: DoubleSpace drives will prompt a warning message. Select Y and continue. Shadowcaster has been fully tested with the DoubleSpace disk compression utility that shipped with MS-DOS version 6.0. We cannot guarantee the compatibility of our games with other disk compression utilities. 6. Press to select the default directory or choose another by typing the directory name and pressing . The default directory will be SHADOW unless there is already a SHADOW directory on your chosen Hard Drive. In that case the default will be caster. 7. Once the program begins installing files on your hard disk you may abort installation by pressing any key. 8. When you return to the Main Menu after installation the configure sound option is highlighted. Press to configure sound. Your options: Sound Blaster Plus General Midi Device (Sound Blaster plays your Sound Effects and General MIDI plays the music.) Sound Blaster only (Sound Blaster plays both your sound effects and music.) General Midi device only (General MIDI plays music, and you will have no sound effects.) None (You will have neither sound effects nor music.) Once the digitized sound configuration information is available, this next screen appears. Shall I perform a sound effects test using Port xxx and IRQ x, and DMA channel x? Press Y to hear the sound effects test, press N to skip it, or Control X to exit the installation program. If you press Y, you will hear a "shimmery" sound effect. If you chose either option involving General MIDI, you will be presented with screens asking you for the correct port and IRQ for your General MIDI device. Then the following box appears: Shall I perform a music test using Port xxx and IRQ x? Press Y to hear the music test, press N to return to the Main Menu, or press X to exit the installation program. If you press Y, you will hear a brief fanfare. You are then returned to the Main Screen. If you do not hear either the music or sound effect, consult Troubleshooting and/or General MIDI. 9. When installation is complete, select exit to return to DOS. You will be in the directory in which you installed the game. To play, type shadow. 10. If you have never played Shadowcaster before, consult the tutorial walkthrough that explains everything you need to know to get started. If you encounter any difficulties, consult the Troubleshooting section. If problems persist, call ORIGIN Product Support. Changing Your Configuration If you ever add a sound card (or change from one sound card to another) you will need to reconfigure your sound system. Simply return to the drive and directory where you installed the game and type install. This allows you to change the selections you made when you originally installed Shadowcaster. Select configure sound from the menu and follow Step 8 from Installation. Optimizing Your System If you are experiencing problems running Shadowcaster or do not have the appropriate amount of memory, it might help to create a separate boot disk or decrease the number of memory-resident programs (TSRs) you have loaded. Do not delete your AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS files completely - without them, your computer will not function. Creating A Boot Disk To make a boot disk: 1. Put a blank floppy disk into your "A" drive. 2. From the C:\ prompt, type in FORMAT A:/S (SYS A: may be used in place of this command if the disk is pre-formatted). 3. After the format is complete, type in COPY C:\CONFIG.SYS A: . 4. Type COPY C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT A: . 5. Type EDIT A:\CONFIG.SYS, then edit your file to resemble the below configurations as closely as possible. Put REM in front of any line that doesn't seem necessary. Example: REM C:\WINDOWS\FSHLP.SYS". 6. Save the modified file by using the editor's File menu to Save, and then Exit. 7. Type EDIT A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and modify this file in the same manner as the CONFIG.SYS. 8. Save and exit the AUTOEXEC.BAT 9. Reboot your system with your boot disk in the A: drive, then try to play the game! Modifying CONFIG.SYS Determine which memory management system you are using (if any) from those listed below, and type the appropriate commands: CONFIG.SYS using QEMM device=c:\qemm\qemm386.sys ram files=30 buffers=30 dos=high devicehigh=c:\sb16\drv\ shell=c:\dos\command.com c:\dos /p CONFIG.SYS using DOS 5 or DOS 6's EMM386.EXE device=c:\dos\himem.sys device=c:\dos\emm386.exe noems files=30 buffers=30 dos=high,umb devicehigh=c:\sb16\drv\ shell=c:\dos\command.com c:\dos /p CONFIG.SYS using DOS 6.x, EMM386.EXE and DBLSPACE or DRVSPACE device=c:\dos\himem.sys device=c:\dos\emm386.exe 3072 /i=b000-b7ff ram files=30 buffers=30 dos=umb dos=high devicehigh=c:\sb16\drv\ (Users with DLBSPACE should include the next line) devicehigh=c:\dos\dblspace.sys/move (Users with DRVSPACE should include the next line) devicehigh=c:\dos\drvspace.sys /move shell=c:\dos\command.com c:\dos /p CONFIG.SYS using XMS device=c:\dos\himem.sys files=30 buffers=30 dos=high devicehigh=c:\sb16\drv\ shell=c:\dos\command.com c:\dos /p * Note: EMS memory is not necessary to play Shadowcaster! Modify AUTOEXEC.BAT Your AUTOEXEC.BAT file resemble the following: path=c:\dos prompt $p$g set sound=c:\sb16 (default) set blaster=a220 i5 d1 h5 p330 t6 (default settings) (Add your mouse driver here) set comspec=c:\dos\command.com c: (The AUTOEXEC.BAT file does not vary with different memory drivers.) "set sound" should be the directory in which you installed the Sound Blaster software - the default directory is "SB16". "set blaster" variables will vary if you changed the configuration of the Sound Blaster sound card. You may also add SMARTDRV.EXE to the AUTOEXEC.BAT to improve system performance. For example, add: c:\dos\smartdrv.exe 2048, or lh c:\dos\smartdrv.exe 2048 See below for more information on SMARTDRV.EXE Disk Cache Set-Up It is recommended that you DO NOT install the game with SMARTDRV.EXE active - put it in afterwards or temporarily disable your disk cache! To disable, type REM before the C:\DOS\SMARTDRV line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE. To enable your disk cache after installation, delete the addition. Users with only 4MB RAM should not specify more than 256K on the SMARTDRV.EXE driver line. Bus Master Hard Drive Controller users may need to load SMARTDRV.EXE's double buffering driver in the CONFIG.SYS if they encounter graphic distortion. Example: "device=c:\dos\smartdrv.exe double_buffer" Users that have more than 16MB of RAM mayhave install problems due to DMA functions only being able to access up to 16MB. If you have a problem, try using a large SMARTDRV.EXE cache and/or RAMDRIVE.SYS ram drive to trick the game into thinking that you have less memory. Mouse Set-Up Be sure that you are using a 100% Microsoft-compatible mouse driver - a Microsoft version 7.0 or higher mouse driver is preferable. If you are using a boot disk, this driver must be loaded within your boot disk configuration. Since the command line may differ from mouse to mouse, consult your hard drive's AUTOEXEC.BAT or you mouse user's guide. One example: C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.COM Be sure to include your specific mouse driver line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file of your boot disk. When you want to play Shadowcaster, insert the boot disk in the A: drive and start or restart your computer. Expanded Memory Expanded memory is not crucial to play Shadowcaster - once running there is no difference between base RAM, EMS and XMS. But an upper memory manager such as Quarterdeck's QEMM386.SYS and Microsoft's HIMEM.SYS is required. These memory managers are installed by adding the device line to the CONFIG.SYS file on your computer. Do not change EMS or XMS configuration once you've started playing Shadowcaster. There is a possibility that mid-game reconfiguration may prevent you from continuing the game. REFERENCE SHEET WALKING, RUNNING, SWIMMING. Press and hold left mouse button while cursor is in View Window. The farther from the center of the window your cursor is, the faster you move. The shape of the arrow determines direction. JUMPING. Press the right mouse button while jump icon is selected and the cursor is in the View Window. Your speed determines how far you jump. COMBAT. Left-click on a hand, foot or other attack icon to activate it, then right-click on your target. PICKING UP AND DROPPING OBJECTS. Right-click on object to pick it up. Right-click near bottom of View Window to drop object. USING THINGS. Activate icon or hand-with-object by left-clicking, then right-click cursor over target. OPENING AND CLOSING. Right-click on object. CURSORS. White Arrow inside View Window. No option is currently selected. * Black and Red Crosses. Hand/appendage is selected. * Orange and Black Circles. Ability is selected. * Glowing Blue Cross. Ability is selected. KEYBOARD CONTOLS Use of the mouse may be supplemented by the following keyboard commands: Mouse Left Click Right Click Game System Toggle between Normal mode and Mega mode Options F1 Sound F7 Music F8 Movement Fly/Swim Down - Fly/Swim Up + Move Ahead Turn Left Turn Right Back Up (Keypad) Move Ahead 8 Move Ahead Left 7 Move Ahead Right 9 Turn Left 4 Turn Right 6 Sidestep Left 1 Sidestep Right 3 Back Up 2 Selection Up E Left S Right D Down X Open/Close O Pick Up/Put Down O Automap F2 Left "Hand" F3 Right "Hand" F4 First Ability F5 Second Ability F6 HISTORY Kirt is a descendent of a magical race which calls itself The People. The People enjoyed a special relationship with both the gods and the dwellers of other planes; they were permitted to take the shapes of these distant beings for short durations, as they permitted the others to take on human form. This exchange worked for the benefit of both The People and the fantastic creatures from the other planes. The People used it to accomplish tasks that were otherwise beyond their powers, while the fantastic creatures used it to do things only the human form permitted and to use one shape's strengths to compensate for another's weaknesses. The gods gave the gift of morphing to the most worthy of The People. Enjoying as they did the gods' favor and the special powers this entailed, The People built a magnificent civilization and enjoyed a great and peaceful time under their rulers. Trusting the wisdom of the gods to select the most worthy individuals, those who had the greatest morphing abilities were chosen to lead The People. Not all of The People appreciated this arrangement. Most notable among these were those to whom the gods had declined to give the gift of morphing in any form. These formed a subcaste and were generally regarded (and treated) as less than People. To these, Malkor, the outcast god, appeared and promised power and riches if they would worship him and follow his ways. Members of the subcaste eagerly followed Malkor, who provided a different and evil variation on the gift of morphing. Followers of Malkor would capture animals, People, and the fantastic creatures and slay them in horrific, painful rites. Through these rites, they acquired the power to change into the shape of those they destroyed. Flaunting their new powers, the most powerful of Malkor's minions were given positions of power over The People. The manner of the gods' choosing had always been a private affair - the fact someone had been deemed worthy was evidenced by the shapes they received and not any divine announcement. As the Evil One's followers grew in number and power, slowly The People came under the control of their least worthy and most evil members. At a great feast to honor the gods, Riodn, the great holy man, revealed the practice of the evil rites - and named the ones who were following Malkor. At this feast, Veste, leader of the evil People, killed Riodn, and the Kin Murders began. In the course of the civil wars that followed, the morphing powers were used to destroy The People, their city and the civilization they had created. In the final battle, the followers of Good drove Veste and his servants into a temple some distance from the city. There Veste mocked them and vowed to return to bring final doom to The People. He then closed the temple doors so that none could enter. The forces of Good had won, but at what cost? The People were virtually destroyed and their great city turned into a haunted ruin. The gods, appalled by the slaughter, turned their backs on The People. The gift of morphing was intended to be used for the benefit of all, but The People had instead used it to establish a class of rulers and servants. In this, they had gone against the will of the gods. One god, Tovason, did not entirely abandon The People. If they kept watch against evil, he promised, they would eventually return to their former greatness. The People built a village around the temple and kept guard against Veste's return. Through the years they mingled with other tribes and the gift of morphing slowly faded away. Eventually, only two of The People carried this gift. They were wed and bore a child they named Kirt. At his birth, the old gods gathered. Malkor had been growing in power, and down every path the gods could see lay their ruin and destruction - Malkor triumphant and all the lands enslaved. But, down the path Kirt would travel, the gods could see nothing. It was as if he cast a shadow over the future of the worlds. Kirt was given the name Shadowcaster. In him resided the hope of The People and the ancient gods. But Malkor and his followers learned of this hope. One moonless night the doors of the temple flew open and Veste, somehow alive centuries after he had fled, raided the village. He attacked the house where Kirt lay sleeping and slew his mother and father. But Tovason had been watching the child. Just before Veste and his beasts entered the child's room, Kirt, under the care of the last Holy One, was sent to a far-away land where magic was little known and less respected. There Kirt grew into maturity under the guidance of a man he called Grandfather. Grandfather kept close watch over Kirt, for he knew the Evil Ones were searching everywhere for him. One night a storm arose in which Grandfather recognized the power of Malkor. On that night, Grandfather told Kirt of his heritage and sent him back to The People, just ahead of the rending claws of Malkor's slaves. Kirt, with little knowledge of this new world, acquires the power to change shape by touching an obelisk that puts him in contact with the gods. He fights his way through the ruined, cursed city of The People to cleanse it of a great evil, and discovers a way to the temple at the center of The People's village. By the time he gets there, Veste, warned of Kirt's escape from the world Earth, has struck again. He has carried off the last remaining People, and has left Kirt a trail to follow through a series of dangerous worlds where evil creatures wait to destroy him. The trail is clear, but can Kirt defeat the successively more powerful servants of Malkor - and defeat Veste in a showdown of Virtue versus Despair to restore The People to the favor of the gods? STARTING THE GAME 1. First, install Shadowcaster on your Hard Disk. 2. Select the drive on which the game is installed. (For example, if you installed the game on your C drive, type C: .) 3. Select your Shadowcaster directory. (If you used our default directory, type CD\SHADOW .) 4. Start the game by typing SHADOW . An introductory sequence begins with origin presents - Raven Software Game. If you haven't played the game before (or have never 'saved' your previous adventures), the game proceeds to the Introduction. This provides background information you need to complete your adventure. If you have not already saved a game, immediately following the Introduction you begin a new game. (If you have already seen the Introduction, you can press or to bring on the following screen.) Option Screen The left side of the screen holds up to four small Saved Game View Windows for saved games. The middle of the screen holds the options. The upper right of the screen holds a larger View Window for the current game or the currently selected saved game. Below this is a Score Bar that contains your total current score, and below the Score Bar is the Text Box. The Text Box holds text showing either the first line for each saved game (when no saved game has been selected), or the text you entered for the currently selected saved game when you saved it. The lower right of the screen contains the Text Bar. When you select options, prompts may appear here to tell you what to do next. New. Starts over at the beginning of a game. Quit. Returns you to DOS without saving your current game. Return. Sends you back to the game you were playing when you chose to enter the Option Screen. (This option is grayed out and cannot be selected when you do not enter the Option Screen from a game in progress.) Load. Returns you to a previously saved game. Select a saved game by clicking on its Saved Game View Window. This causes a larger version of this View Window to appear in the top right of the screen and the additional information you entered about the game to appear in the Text Box at the bottom right. Once you have selected the game you want to load, click on Load. Save. Stores the current game. Select Save, choose a Saved Game View Window by clicking on it, and enter up to eight lines of text (Save Info Text) about the game being saved. When you have finished entering this information, press to complete the save. The Save Info Text helps identify the saved game. You may then click on return to continue. After saving a game, one of the four boxes on the left of the screen displays a small View Window for that game, and the first line of each Save Info Text is shown in the Text Box. (The save option is grayed out and cannot be selected when you do not enter the Option Screen from a game in progress.) Sound. (Speakers Icon) Toggles sound effects off and on. When sound is on, the icon has a red border. Music. (Musical Notes Icon) Toggles music off and on. When music is on, the icon has a red border. Difficulty. (Weight Lifter Icon) Adjusts the difficulty of the game. There are five different difficulty levels; the game is preset to the third level. When you select this option, a screen appears that allows you to set the difficulty level from wimp (easiest) to hero (hardest). The amount of points you are awarded is tied to the difficulty level. The game is much easier to get through at the wimp level than at the hero level, but if you can make it through the game at hero, your score is much higher. You select an option by moving the cursor over it and left-clicking. TUTORIAL WALKTHROUGH NOTE: If you would like to use keyboard commands to supplement the mouse commands we give here, see the Reference Sheet. The first time you play the game you are placed in the situation described below (after the Introduction). Since the game starts with you being attacked by a slobbering beast, you may want to read the Main Game Screen, Movement and Combat sections of this tutorial before you actually begin play. Main Game Screen The game begins in Normal Mode - the screen you see most of the time. In the upper left is the View Window - the world as you see it. Look below the View Window to see the six icons of the Selection Bar. To the right of the View Window you find the Portrait Panel. Your Portrait is at the top of this panel, and to either side of it are purple Size Gems to control the size of the View Window. (We'll discuss Size Gems later) Look below the Portrait - the horizontal gray bar is the Score Bar. Eight Inventory Boxes are just below the Score Bar. The ninth, gold-outlined box is the Inventory Overview Button. Finally, at the very bottom of the right side are more Ability Icons. Depending on your current shape, there are up to six of these. Now look above the View Window. There is a blue bar on the left, a small box in the center showing the letter E, and a red bar on the right. The blue bar is the Power Bar, which shows your current power reserves. The small box is your Compass, and it now shows that the direction you're facing is east. The red bar is the Life Bar, and it shows the life energy of your current shape. To either side of the View Window are borders with small purple Altitude Gems in them. These gems show your altitude - an important feature when you are swimming or flying. Beneath the Selection Bar is a blank area that displays text throughout the game - the Text Bar. Movement Try moving your mouse around the screen - but don't press any buttons yet. As you move the mouse in the View Window, the mouse cursor assumes arrow shapes corresponding to its position in the window. When you move the cursor outside the View Window, it becomes gray cross-hairs. Two rules govern movement: Rule 1. While your cursor is inside the View Window, its position determines the direction in which you move if you left-click-and-hold the mouse button. When the cursor is an arrow, its shape indicates direction. When it points right, you travel to the right; when it points upward, you travel forward, and so forth. Rule 2. The speed at which you move depends on how far your cursor is from the center of the View Window. When the cursor is centered, you don't move at all. As you move the cursor closer to any edge of the View Window, you move more rapidly. During the course of the game, you gain the ability to morph into the forms of other races. You get their abilities and their weaknesses, as well as their method of movement. Some of your metaforms can fly, others can swim. To change altitude while flying, floating or swimming, click on either of the Altitude Bars - the two thin columns to either side of the View Window with the purple gems. To dive, click at the very bottom of an Altitude Bar; to surface, click at the very top. To go higher, click above one of the small gems. To go lower, click below one. Combat You begin the game in human form, locked in an outdoor "room." Before you can explore, you have to dispose of the monster that is rapidly approaching. In the Selection Bar (below the View Window) are six icons. Two of these look like hands and one looks like a foot. To hit the monster, left-click on one of the hand icons. This is now outlined in white to show that it is active. Move the cursor back into the View Window until it is over the monster. Now right-click. Note that the cursor changed to a red cross when you selected the hand. This red cross appears whenever a hand (or appropriate appendage) is selected, except when an object is cursor-grabbed. When you hit the monster, a small star appears where you hit the creature and you hear the sound of an impact. When a monster hits you, you are pushed back (unless you are against a wall), you make a grunting sound and your Life Bar decreases. If you are unable to hit the monster, you are probably too far from it. Place the cursor at the top of the screen above the monster and hold down the left mouse button while attacking. This keeps moving you toward the monster and helps to offset changes in distance caused by you and the monster pushing each other back. If you have difficulty holding down the left mouse button while clicking the right mouse button, try holding down the left mouse button while pressing to attack (instead of right-clicking). To use the kick attack, click on the foot icon. The hand icon loses its white border and the foot icon gets a white border. (Note that the cursor has changed to an orange circle. This cursor appears whenever one of the first two Abilities are chosen.) Attack the same way you did for the hand - place the cursor on or above the monster, and right-click or press . When you defeat the monster, it collapses into a small shape on the floor. Look at your Score Bar - you see that it is no longer 0. Winning a combat increases your score. Life Bar Being hit by a monster decreases your Life Bar. Click on the Life Bar to find out exactly how much life energy you have left. A message in the Text Bar appears, giving both your current Life and potential maximum Life. Later in the game, when you acquire additional metaforms, notice that while the amount of current and maximum Life varies from one metaform to another, the percentage of current Life remains constant. For example, if the Caun (with a maximum possible Life of 20) has a current Life of 5, then the Grost (with a maximum Life of 200) has a current Life of 50 - Life is at 25% of maximum in both instances. Don't worry too much about losing Life, though. There are three ways for you to regain Life. Given time, in human form, you slowly heal on your own. Also, a metaform that you acquire later in the game - the Caun - heals very rapidly. The Caun also have an Ability to turn Power into Life. A third way to regain Life is to drink a healing potion. Power Bar Power is tracked across metaforms as a single number. If one form has a current Power of 30 and a maximum Power of 50, then all forms have a current Power of 30 and a maximum Power of 50. Only as a human can you naturally regain Power. If a metaform runs out of Power you will morph back to human no matter where you are or what you are doing. The maximum amount of Power that you can generate depends on your score. In addition to the score you earn while as a human, your human form gets a percentage of the scores earned by the non-human forms. Power is used to morph to metaforms, and also to use certain metaform Abilities. Picking Things Up Now take a stroll around the courtyard, explore a little, and notice the objects on the ground. One of these is a vial containing a red-colored liquid. To pick up the vial, approach until you are close to the vial (the vial is visible at the bottom of the screen). Move the cursor over the red vial and right-click (or press ). If you are close enough to the vial, you can pick it up. See how the cursor becomes the vial. If this does not pick up the vial, you are too far away. Move closer to the vial until right-clicking picks it up. Note that you don't have to hold the mouse button down to move the vial. You can also "grab" items that are in a hand or inventory box by moving the cursor over them and right-clicking. Putting Things Down Go ahead and right-click again to put the vial down. If you still have a hand or a foot selected, you might make an attack-like movement. In that case, left-click on the selected icon (the one with the white border) to deselect it. If your cursor is near the ground (at the bottom of the View Window), right-clicking drops the vial. You could also drop the vial into a hand or an inventory box by moving it over the hand or inventory box and right-clicking. If the hand or inventory box already contains an item, you "cursor-grab" that item when you "cursor-drop" the item you are currently holding - a simultaneous exchange. You can only put things down by right-clicking if no other option is selected (no icon is bordered in white). Now is a good time to practice. Right-click on the vial to pick it up. Move it over an empty inventory box and right-click again to put it in the box. Using Things Look around until you find a wand with a green tip. Pick it up and place it in an inventory box. To use most things, you need to be actively holding them. In other words, a "cursor-grab" is not enough - they must be in a hand (or appropriate appendage) and that hand (or appendage) must be selected. Now pick up the wand from the inventory box and move it over a hand. Right-click to put it in the hand, and then activate it by left-clicking on that hand. (A quicker method is to left-click on the object in your inventory - it appears, selected, in the right hand.) Now move the cursor to a far wall and right-click. You see a blazing fireball come out of the wand and hit the wall. Don't do this too often - you have a limited number of fireballs. Manipulating objects is an important skill to master. Try right-clicking on an empty inventory box. The wand appears in that box. The hand which held the wand is now empty, but it is still active (has a white border). Left-click on the hand to deselect it (white border goes away). Now left-click on the wand. The wand appears in the right hand and the hand is selected. Now left-click on the red vial. The red vial appears in the hand which remains selected. The wand is now in the inventory box which had held the vial. Now left-click on an empty inventory box, and the vial appears in that box. The hand is again empty, but remains selected. Deselect it (left-click). There are a number of different items in the game. Things such as armor provide benefits to your metaforms as soon as they are placed in your inventory. Some items can only be used by particular forms. To use a weapon, put it in a selected hand/appendage, then click on what you want to attack in the View Window. Eating and Drinking Right-clicking with an item on your Portrait is how you consume things. The only reason for you to eat or drink is to heal or get special powers. You don't get hungry or thirsty during this game. One more thing. Pick up the red vial, move it over your Portrait and right-click. If you were hit in combat, some or all of your missing Life is restored. Morphing In the center of the room is a green obelisk with a red tip - you can't have missed it. In the course of the game, when you find an obelisk like this one and right-click on it, you are granted a new metaform as the obelisk disappears. Click on it now. The metaform you have just been granted is for the Maorin - a six-legged cat. You can now see the icon for the Maorin shape in the Ability icon area in the lower right of the screen. Select this icon. The Portrait Panel is briefly taken over by an animated sequence showing the transformation from human to Maorin. When the transformation is complete, the side panel goes back to its original state, with the new Maorin portrait. Look at your Power Bar, and notice that it has decreased somewhat. This is because it costs Power to morph into a non-human form - as well as to maintain that form once you have assumed it. If you run out of Power while a non-human, you automatically morph back to human. If you happen to be at the bottom of a lake or flying over quicksand at the time, this spells certain death. So be careful with your Power - when you need it, you don't want to be running low. Click on the Life and Power Bars and watch the Text Bar. Now click on the human icon in the lower right of the screen. You see the animation morph in reverse. When you click on the Life and Power Bars, you should notice that the Power remains unchanged, but the Life is different between human and Maorin. Once again, click on the maorin icon. Abilities When you look at the Selection Bar, notice that some of the icons have changed. The hand icons are now paw icons. (If you select one of these and right-click in the View Window, you see the Maorin's double-pawed claw attack.) Also, the foot icon has been replaced with an eye icon. Each metaform has at least two abilities (the rightmost icons of the Selection Bar). For the Maorin these abilities are Jump and Cat Sight. Selecting an icon turns its border white. Select the cat sight icon. Right-click in the View Window; a number of things happen. The border for the icon turns red - telling you that an Effect has begun. The red border remains around the icon until the effect goes away. You now have Cat Sight; Maorin can sometimes see infra-red. When you use Cat Sight, the View Window takes on a reddish cast and sometimes items which were hidden can be seen - Cat Sight can be used to find hidden symbols and traps. It works for a limited amount of time, and then your sight returns to normal. If you were watching the Power Bar when you right-clicked, you saw it decrease. This is because Cat Sight costs Power. Other metaforms in the game give you other Abilities, either in the Selection Bar or under the Inventory Area. Use them the same as you did Cat Sight - select them and then apply them by right-clicking in the View Window. Some of these abilities cost you Power and some do not. If the Ability is an attack, you must right-click over the target for that attack, the same as you would if you were using any other weapon. Select the jump icon and right-click in the View Window. The screen image dips as you jump up and forward. Now try moving ahead and simultaneously right-clicking in the View Window to leap farther. Because you are in a confined place, it is difficult to use the Jump Ability now. Later in the game, however, jumping over or on top of things may be important. Option Screen The leftmost icon on the Selection Bar is for the Option Screen. Select this icon (left-click on it) to bring up the Option Screen. Going into the Option Screen pauses the game. You saw this screen when you started the game. This is where you: * save a game, * quit your current game, * return to an existing game, * load a saved game, * toggle sound off or on, * toggle music off or on, and * set your difficulty level. Refer to Starting the Game for more information on how these work. Select the return option to continue your game. Inventory Overview You can see all your available forms and what they have in their inventory and hands (etc.) by clicking on the gold-outlined Inventory Overview Button (at the bottom right of the inventory boxes). This causes the Inventory Overview Screen to appear. The red line under the Maorin's icon on this screen shows that he is the currently active form. Click anywhere to resume the game. Automap Screen Between the option screen icon and the left paw icon there is a button that looks like a piece of parchment - the automap icon. When this is selected, the Automap Screen appears. Left-click on this icon. The Location Arrow in the Detailed Map shows where you are and what general direction you are facing. The upper right of the map shows an Overview Map that represents a larger, less detailed area. By left-clicking different areas on the Overview Map, you change what the Detailed Map is showing. The automap only shows where you have actually been and not necessarily what you have only seen. At this point, that's not much. You can get an idea of your relative position in the larger area by looking at the map in the upper right. The blinking red dot shows where you are located. Below the smaller map is the Return Bar. Below this is a small View Window of what you saw when you entered the map. Still lower is a Compass that shows the direction you were facing when you selected the automap - it is more precise than the Location Arrow. Once you've mapped multiple levels, clicking the Level Indicator arrows will change maps. Select the Return Bar to return to your game. View Window Size You have a fair amount of control over the View Window. Try clicking on the Size Gem to the left of the Portrait. The size of the View Window shrinks. Click on this gem several times until the View Window reaches its minimum size. Shrinking the size of the View Window speeds up the frame rate in the game, making things move more smoothly. This option is recommended for people who have 386 systems. Now click on the Size Gem to the right of the Portrait. As you might have guessed, this causes the View Window to get bigger. When the View Window has reached its apparent maximum size, click one more time. This puts the game into Mega Mode. Mega Mode slows the frame rate and is only recommended for people using 486 (or faster) systems. In Mega Mode, the left side of the screen from top to bottom becomes the View Window and takes up approximately 80 percent of the screen. The Text Bar only appears when there is a text message. Obviously, in Mega Mode there is not room for all icons, etc. to be on the screen at once, so there are two side panels. To toggle between the two side panels, left-click on the Portrait. In Mega Mode, the Life and Power Bar appear to either side of the Portrait. When you morph, the change is shown in the Portrait window only. There is only one View Window border in Mega Mode - between the View Window and the side panel. At the top of the border is a small gem. Click on this gem now to return the game to Normal mode. Opening and Closing When you clicked on the obelisk, you unlocked the door on the east wall. Save the game and then open the door (right-click on it) and embark on your adventure. Right-clicking opens and closes doors and other barriers (if they aren't locked). Cursors There are four different types of cursor in the game to help you remember what is currently selected: * White Arrow inside View Window. No icon is currently selected and you can pick up/put down items or open/close things by right-clicking. * Black and Red Crosses. A hand appendage is selected. * Orange and Black Circles. One of your two Abilities from the Selection Bar is selected. * Glowing Blue Cross. One of your Abilities from under the inventory boxes is selected. Continuing To Play This walkthrough should have provided enough information to get you started. At some point you should read the rest of this document, which includes information about the metaforms you eventually acquire and other useful information. Some things to keep in mind: * When you see a black sparkling floor, step on it to teleport. * You are strong enough to take out almost any individual evil creature you might encounter (unless you have been damaged already). * Evil creatures like to attack in groups. Very evil creatures like to attack just after some other evil group. * Conserve your Power. Death Unfortunately, sometimes the Life Bar decreases to zero. When your Life is gone, you die and the Option Screen appears. At this point you can load a saved game or start a new game. You cannot return to the game you were just playing, since that game ended with your death. It is a good idea to save whenever you have acquired something valuable or accomplished something important (four save game slots are provided for this purpose). Otherwise, you risk losing all you've achieved in an untimely, unexpected demise. Your Character Your character is either in human form or one of six non-human forms. Each metaform has different abilities. In some metaforms, you can select one or more Abilities from the icons under the inventory area. When an Ability such as the Caun's Light is selected, the blue cross cursor appears. Forms also have different amounts of Life depending on what type of creature they are and how high their score is. Score is tracked separately for each. Because of this, it is possible to concentrate on a metaform and make it disproportionately powerful. DIFFERENT FORMS KIRT Kirt is a seemingly normal human who was raised in a large, modern American city. In reality, though, he is one of the few survivors of a race of shape morphers. Kirt has studied the martial arts and has recently been sent back to his native world to save his people. Kirt has the ability to morph his shape. He gains the power to assume more metaforms as he progresses through the game. Morphing costs Power, and so does maintaining a metaform. Also, using most of the Abilities of different metaforms depletes your Power. When he runs out of Power, Kirt reverts back to human form. Only in his human shape can he regain Power. Kirt has the Ability to jump, as well as a superior Kick Ability. Selecting any metaform's icon morphs him to that form. MAORIN The Maorin are a six-foot tall, six-limbed cat race. In his Maorin form, Kirt weighs 400 pounds, runs faster, can stand more punishment and can deal out much more damage than a human can. Maorin have the Ability to see things normally hidden to human sight. They also have the Ability to jump. Maorin dislike water and drown quickly. CAUN Caun are a two-foot tall, approximately 40-pound humanoid race with pointed ears. As fighters they are fairly ineffective, but Caun heal much more quickly than a human. Caun have the Ability to jump. They also have a Heal Ability, but this costs Power. Caun can create light, create a special shield which makes it difficult for enemies to harm them, and can make it difficult for enemies to locate them. Caun have the Ability to reach out and grab things that are some distance away. This includes grabbing things that are on the other side of bars. Lastly, Caun can cause a number of small creatures to swarm over their enemies in a stinging cloud. OPSIS Opsis are large, floating orbs with tentacles. They are not built for physical combat, but have a number of other abilities. Opsis can throw cold blasts, cause their enemies to flee in fear or make them move in slow motion, plus create missiles and fire them at enemies. They can also kill foes outright. Moreover, Opsis can increase the range of the automap. Normally you can only map where you actually have been, but when a Opsis is using his automap power, things that were not actually seen in the View Window are mapped. As you might guess, this often provides very useful information. KAHPA Kahpa look like large, green frog-people. They are surprisingly tough, can breathe underwater and are good in hand-to-flipper combat. Kahpa can create an electrical shock (extra damaging when used in water) and a sonic attack (also extra damaging in water). SSAIR Ssair have no legs and a pointed tail. They can both take and inflict enormous damage, and look like flying red dragons. Their tail attack is very powerful. They can also breathe fire, at the cost of Power. GROST Grost look like stone giants. They can punch through some stone walls, are almost impervious to physical attacks and can survive in extremely hot environments. Grost can stamp their feet to cause earthquakes, and can paralyze with a touch. TROUBLESHOOTING Q: My mouse is not working with Shadowcaster. My mouse works with all of my other software applications; why not with Shadowcaster? A: If your mouse is not working with Shadowcaster, you should make sure your mouse has been loaded in DOS (in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file) or onto the boot disk you are using to play the game. Windows and many other "multi-tasking" environments load their own built-in mouse driver. These mouse drivers will not operate outside of their shell environment. Loading a mouse driver into the DOS environment can be as simple as typing mouse at the command prompts. For example: C:\>mouse This command can differ from mouse driver to mouse driver. Please consult your mouse user's guide and Mouse Set-Up for further details. Q: My game runs slowly and occasionally locks up. A: As you may be loading other software that is not compatible with Shadowcaster. First, try running your game from a system boot disk. Refer to Optimizing Your System to create a boot disk. Shadowcaster is only compatible with Microsoft DOS 5.0 or higher. Also, it is not compatible with 286 PCs. You must use a 386-33, 486 or faster PC. Q: Why does my game crash when I try to play Shadowcaster while I am logged into our LAN (local area network)? A: LAN software often tries to take over the same system resources that Shadowcaster uses. Often the two can coexist, but occasionally they can't If you have strange problems with Shadowcaster while your LAN drivers are loaded, try booting from a clean boot disk that does not load your LAN drivers. Please refer to Optimizing Your System. Q: Why does the game crash when I try to play Shadowcaster through Microsoft Windows (Windows NT, IBM OS/2, Desqview, etc.)? A: "Multi-taking environments" - Windows, Desqview, IBM OS/2, and so forth- often conflict in their use of memory and other system resources with Shadowcaster. We do not recommend playing Shadowcaster under these circumstance. Even if you do run the game under a multi-tasker, do not swap to another application while playing. In general, we recommend that you exit Windows (or similar applications) and play from the DOS prompt. Q: During installation, an error message reported that I have a "DOS Error - CRC Data Error reading drive x:" A: This error message indicates that you have a bad or corrupted CD. Review the warranty information listed in the back of the manual and call Creative Labs Customer Service. Q: I have a 100% compatible sound card, but I'm not getting any speech or sound. Why not? A: Your sound card may have to be put into "SB" (Sound Blaster) emulation through its software or a switch setting on the card. Consult your sound card manual or its manufacturer. A: It's also possible that you specified incorrect values during sound configuration. Please recheck your sound card documentation for the proper values and try reconfiguring sound. A: Your General MIDI soundcard may not support the MPU-401 instruction set. See General MIDI below. Q: Shadowcaster still doesn't work after I made a boot disk and/or modified my CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. A: Copy down the error code and information the computer displayed when it exited to DOS. Then see ORIGIN Product Support in the Problems With The Game/Technical Support/Troubleshooting text file. COMMON ERROR CODES Problem #1: Symptom: Flashing cursor after hitting ESC after or during introduction. Problem: Usually caused by using a non-Microsoft mosue driver. Solution: Use a true Microsoft mouse driver version 6.11 or higher. If you have Windows 3.1 and have the original disks, there is a true Microsoft driver on those disks. To expand the mouse into your DOS directory you need to get disk 4 if you have 5.25" disks or disks 1 and 2 of the 3.5" Windows disks. Insert the disk into your floppy drive. Log to that drive. At that prompt, type DIR /ON /P . This will give you an alphabetical directory of the disk and will pause between each page. You want to look for ONE these 3 drivers: mouse.co_ mousehp.co_ Lmouse.co_ Continue through the directory until you find one and you are back at the prompt. Leave the disk in the drive and at the prompt type: Expand a: or b: (letter of the drive disk is in)\mousehp.co_ (or the mouse driver you have found) c:\dos\mousehp.com . Expand a:\mousehp.co_ c:\dos\mousehp.com (whatever mouse line you have found on the disk the "_" will be converted to an "m" at the end of the command line. Now you'll need to edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on your disk and add the following line: c:\dos\mousehp.com, or If you found any of the other drivers, you would put them into the AUTOEXEC.BAT file as: c:\dos\mouse.com, or c:\dos\Lmouse.com Save and exit the AUTOEXEC.BAT. Problem #2 Symptom: Divide overflow error code when attempting to save a game or pull up the automap. Problem: a. Usually, you will find that you have a Gateway system with a Phoenix BIOS verion 0.10 GLB01. To find out if this is the BIOS you have, boot your machine and when the machine comes up, hit the PAUSE key. If you do have a GLB01 version of Phoenix BIOS, you need to contact Gateway for a flash BIOS upgrade to version GLB05. Gateway's technical support number is 1-800-848-2301. If you have this version of the Phoenix BIOS, but do not own a Gateway, you will need to contact the manufacturer of your computer. b. This problem can sometimes occur from not using the correct boot disk configuration to install and run the game from. * Users of quad-speed CD-ROM drives may encounter a "CDR100" Error due to data being read too quickly from the CD. Try setting your drive to a lower transfer rate if possible. * Remember that 90% of all installation problems tend to be configuration problems. If you have problems running the game, try making a BOOT disk first, then RE-INSTALL the game (no matter how much you know about computers!) Simple works best with our games, so leave those unnecessary TSR's out. General MIDI Shadowcaster has joined the next generation of sound quality with its support of the General MIDI standard as defined by the MPU-401 instruction set. At the time of publishing, only a few cards support MPU-401. These cards include the Roland SCC-1, Roland RAP-10, and the Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 with the attached Wave Blaster daughterboard. Other manufacturers have already or are planning to release sound cards that utilize the MPU-401 instruction set. However, sound cards that use a memory-resident program (TSR) to emulate MPU-401 may not work with this software. Note: some General MIDI sound cards offer digitized speech or sound effect capabilities. However, in the case of sound cards like the Roland RAP-10, customers will need to use a second sound card such as a Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro or 100% compatible sound card for digitized speech and effects. Review your sound card documentation or contact the manufacturer if you have any questions. Copyright 1993, ORIGIN Systems, Inc. Shadowcaster is a trademark of ORIGIN Systems, Inc. Origin and We create worlds are registered trademarks of ORIGIN Systems, Inc. Electronic Arts is a registered trademark of Electronic Arts.