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 ************************** C A V E   R A I D E R ************* Version 1.4 *
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 ******************* Copyright (c) 2004 by Paul  Redling ********************
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Cave Raider is a fun and amazing ASCII adventure game. You are a young man
or a young woman and enter a dangerous underground cave system with six 
consecutive caves. You'll find a lot of gold in these caves, but also
terrible cave monsters that guard the gold. Your intention is to raid cave 
after cave, get all the gold and leave the cave system alive. The layout of
the individual caves is randomly generated. This means that each game will
offer you a new challenge! In addition, you can choose between three
difficulty settings (Easy, Normal and Hard). If you have some spare time,
then give this game a try. The best cave raiders will get an entry in the 
Hall of Fame.

This program is freeware, i.e. you can freely use and distribute it. However,
you must leave all files as they are and must not charge any money for the
program.

CR.ZIP contains the following files:

  CR.EXE   - The executable program
  CR-E.TXT - The documentation in English
  CR-G.TXT - The documentation in German
  CR.BAS   - The source code

The file CR.DAT is created after you run CR.EXE. It's used for the
configuration data and the Hall of Fame data.

The program was written in Microsoft QBasic 1.1 and compiled with Microsoft
Basic PDS 7.1.

It is offered without any warranty. The program has been tested and should
not cause any undesirable operation. However, you are using it at your own 
risk.


System Requirements
-------------------

Don't worry! All you need is a computer with an EGA/VGA compatible graphics
card. The game should run fine under DOS as well as under Windows (including
Windows NT/2000/XP).


Running the Game
----------------

DOS: Switch to the directory into which you installed the game, type "CR" and
     then press Enter.

Windows: Open the folder that contains the game and double-click on the CR
         icon. The game should be played in fullscreen mode.


Options
-------
  
  1) Cave Raider        - Male (yellow) or Female (pink)

  2) Difficulty Setting - Easy, Normal or Hard

  3) Sound              - on/off

If you make a change, you can save the new settings. If you want to clear the
table in the Hall of Fame, then go there and press F1.


Keys
----

  The arrow keys - Move the cave raider

  Spacebar       - Fires a grenade. Use the arrow keys to pick a direction.
                   Press Spacebar again to cause an immediate explosion of
                   the grenade.

  M              - Magic (Stone Spell)

  S              - Sound on/off

  H              - Help

  Q              - Quit

Every time you start a new game, you'll be asked for your name. It can have a
maximum length of eight characters (A-Z, a-z and spaces). Use Backspace to
delete a character. Press Return if your name is less than eight characters.


Symbols
-------

(The actual ASCII characters can be found in the in-game instructions.)

  Smiley         - You

  Rock           - If you run into it, your health will decrease by 80 (cave
                   wall), 60 (rock formation) or 40 (damaged rock formation).
                   If your health is zero, you'll die.

  Gold           - 50 points. As soon as you've collected all the gold, the
                   magic wall around the magic scroll will disappear and you
                   can get the scroll.

  Chest of       - Depending on the difficulty setting, you'll get 5 (Easy),
  grenades         3 (Normal) or 2 (Hard) extra grenades. You also begin a  
                   a game with 5, 3 or 2 grenades. The number of grenades is
                   the only difference between the three difficulty settings,
                   but you'll see that this difference really influences the
                   difficulty of the game.

  Grenade        - You are equipped with a grenade launcher. Use a grenade to
                   kill a green or a red monsters or to block its way with a
                   sign. A grenade has no effect on a black monster, but a
                   sign will also block its way. Be careful not to hit a
                   piece of gold. If a grenade blows up one of the pieces of
                   gold, you can no longer get the magic scroll to leave the
                   cave and your adventure has come to an end. In rare cases
                   you'll have to blow up either the leftmost rock or the
                   rightmost rock of a rock formation to get a piece of gold.
                   These two rocks are the only ones that can be blown up by
                   a grenade, provided there's no rock below them. All the
                   other rocks of a rock formation can only be damaged by a
                   grenade. A grenade has no effect on the cave walls and on
                   everything of magic origin.

  Explosion      - If you run into it, you'll die.

  Sign           - A white star on blue background. This sign is left behind
                   on the ground after you cause an immediate explosion of a
                   grenade by pressing a button (Spacebar) on your grenade
                   launcher. It's absolutely harmless, but the cave monsters
                   are afraid of it and won't walk over it. Therefore, you
                   can use the sign as a barrier, e.g. at the magic door.

  Magic gem      - 100 points. It gives you two spells. Press "M" to
                   temporarily turn the red monsters into stone. This also
                   applies to the black monsters. You need the gem to leave
                   the cave through the magic door.

  Magic scroll   - 100 points. It generates magic fields of quicksand
                   every few seconds. If you take the scroll, the magic
                   fields of quicksand will disappear immediately and the
                   magic monsters, i.e. the black monsters, will turn into
                   gems worth 100 points each. You need the scroll to leave
                   the cave through the magic door.

  Magic wall     - It protects the magic scroll. If you walk into it, you'll
                   die.

  Magic field of - It's near the magic scroll and protects it. If you walk
  quicksand        into it, you'll die.

  Green monster  - 60 points. Maximum number: 10. The green monster is slow 
                   and not very intelligent, but it moves towards the magic
                   door and once it reaches its destination, it stays there
                   and hinders your escape. If you're in the way, it'll eat
                   you.

  Red monster    - 80 points. Maximum number: 10. The red monster is always
                   in the same cave as the green monster. It's a skilled and
                   pretty fast hunter that adjusts to the speed of your
                   movements. If it gets you, it'll eat you.

  Black monster  - 100 points as gem. Maximum number: 15. The black monster
                   is a magic creature that can't be killed by grenades.
                   However, as soon as you take the magic scroll, the black
                   monster will turn into a black gem. Similar to the red
                   monster, the black monster is a skilled hunter, but it
                   moves continuously, at a quick speed. This means that you
                   should also move quickly if you don't want to get eaten by
                   it. Luckily, the black monster never appears together with
                   green or red monsters because it doesn't get along with
                   them.
                 
  Magic door     - You'll get 200 points if you leave one of the first five 
                   caves and 1000 points if you leave the sixth cave, i.e.
                   the cave system. You need both the magic gem and the magic
                   scroll in order to leave a cave. In addition, there must
                   be no cave monster at the magic door when you want to
                   leave the cave. If these conditions are not met and you
                   walk into the magic door, you'll die.


Notes
-----

1) As I wanted the possibility to escape from the cave system, I decided that
   there should be a total of six caves and three difficulty settings (Easy,
   Normal and Hard). If you play well, you should be able to escape from the
   cave system in Easy Mode. If you play very well, an escape should also be
   possible in Normal Mode. In Hard Mode, however, an escape is almost
   impossible. If it says "Cave:X" in the Hall of Fame, it means that he or
   she escaped from the cave system. That's great, but remember: There's
   always a next time. You can never be sure if you'll leave those dangerous
   caves alive.

2) There's one cheat code in this game. 


Program Updates
---------------

Version 1.4  12/01/2004

  - Changed the behavior of the magic door
  - Improved some routines
  - Made a few corrections in the documentation

Version 1.2  10/24/2004

  - Fixed bugs with the grenade
  - Optimized several routines

Version 1.1  10/04/2004

  - Fixed bug with the initial positions of the monsters
  - Fixed a few other bugs
  - Improved the AI of the hunters
  - Optimized parts of the code
  - Made some minor cosmetic changes
  - Improved the story
  - Revised the documentation

Version 1.0  08/04/2004

  - First public release
                          

Contact
-------

Email: paul.redling@gmx.net

I welcome your comments.
