M Y S T E R I O U S S O N G Created by: DarkDread darkdread@hotmail.com http://welcome.to/DarknessEthereal 1 INTRODUCTION ---------- 1.0 TABLE OF CONTENTS ---------- 1 Introduction 1.0 Table of Contents 1.1 Welcome: A Message From the Creator 1.2 What is Mysterious Song? 1.3 System Requirements 2 Gameplay 2.0 Basic Controls 2.1 Walking Around 2.2 The Menu Screen 2.3 Battles 2.4 Scroll Speed 2.5 Hints and Tips 3 Technical Information 3.0 Troubleshooting 3.1 QuickBasic?! 3.2 The Source Code 3.3 Libraries 3.4 Credits 3.5 Music Information 4 Legal 4.0 Program License 4.1 Source Code License 1.1 WELCOME: A MESSAGE FROM THE CREATOR ---------- Welcome to Mysterious Song. It has taken almost three months of hard work and dedication to complete this game. It hasn't been a solo effort though. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Tyranny, DeviusCreed, and Mystt for their help and suggestions. As you may already know, this game is freeware. I welcome and encourage anyone to distribute this game, so give a copy to a friend, or better yet to two friends! Of course, feedback is encouraged, so write me a quick e-mail and tell me what you thought. My e-mail is darkdread@hotmail.com I look forward to hearing from you! Cheers! DarkDread 1.2 WHAT IS MYSTERIOUS SONG? ---------- As you may already know, Mysterious Song is a role playing game. To define this further, it is a 'console style' RPG. This means that, Mysterious Song looks, sounds, and plays like a Japanese RPG. You may have already played or heard of the Final Fantasy games, and the Dragon Warrior games. This is the type of game which you will find in Mysterious Song. 1.3 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ---------- For Mysterious Song to run, you don't need more than a 386. Having said that, for the game to run at a playable speed, you will need at least a 486DX2/66. Ideally, if you have a Pentium class machine, running at 100 mhz or faster, and a good sound card, you should be fine. Note that, you can play the game without sound if you don't have a sound card or you are having problems getting the sound to work. Overall, here's the stats: System needed for the game to run: 386 4 meg ram with 450k free conventional memory. 7 megabytes of free space on your hard disk. DOS 5.0 or greater System needed for the game to be playable: 486DX2/66 4 meg ram with 450k free conventional memory. 7 megabytes of free space on your hard disk. DOS 5.0 or greater Recommended system: Pentium 100mhz or greater 4 meg ram with 550k free conventional memory and 2 meg of free EMS. 7 megabytes of free space on your hard disk. DOS 5.0 or greater Soundblaster compatible sound card. 2 GAMEPLAY ---------- 2.0 BASIC CONTROLS ---------- On the map screen: Up Arrow Key - Move character up Down Arrow Key - Move character down Left Arrow Key - Move character left Right Arrow Key - Move character right Enter - Talk to people Delete - Open menu screen Insert - View world map (On world map screen only) Esc - Quit game F1 - View help screen In the menu screen/During battle: Up Arrow Key - Move hand pointer up Down Arrow Key - Move hand pointer down Left Arrow Key - Move hand pointer left Right Arrow Key - Move hand pointer right Enter - Accept a selection Delete - Cancel a selection 2.1 WALKING AROUND ---------- You will use the arrow keys to move your character while on the world map or in towns, caves, etc. You can talk to people by standing next to them and pressing the Enter key. To call up your menu, press the Delete key. In towns, you may also go to shops and inns. The menus in shops and inns are navigated the same way as in the main menu. The inns also allow you to save your game. 2.2 THE MENU SCREEN ---------- Your menu can be called up by pressing the Delete key any time you are not in battle or engaged in conversation. You can do many things from this screen, including using items and magic, equipping weapons and armor, and checking out your characters' stats. 2.3 BATTLES ---------- Battles can happen when you are not in towns or in the castle. Once a battle begins, you will see your enemies, and be able to select the actions of each of your characters. You may attack, use magic, use an item, or try to run if you find yourself outmatched. Once you have entered your selections, your characters will act them out, and the enemies will attack as well. After this, you will be able to make selections again. The battle ends once all of the enemies are defeated, or your characters have perished! If you are defeated, you may restart the game from the last time you saved. When you have won a battle, your characters will receive gold and experience. The experience builds up, and allows your characters to gain levels. Each time a character gains a level, they get stronger, and it becomes easier for them to defeat their enemies. Remember, battles are the key to winning! 2.4 SCROLL SPEED ---------- On the title screen, you can change the scroll speed of the character by pressing the left and right arrow keys. You will notice the number at the bottom of the screen change. To speed up the character use a higer number, to slow him down, use a lower number. This is in the game so that you can still enjoy Mysterious Song on a slower PC. 2.5 HINTS AND TIPS ---------- Before venturing out for the first time, go talk to the king... He will give you 200 GP. Use some of this money to buy a Long Sword, and some Herbs from the store. You'll need them, as the enemies will be tough to defeat at first. Until you are a level 3 or 4, stick around close to the castle and fight enemies to gain strength. Remember, you're weak at first! Should you stray too far, you will meet up with much stronger enemies who will likely decimate you! When you visit Illus, you will hear of the fabled 'Isle of Dragons'... It's no fairy tale, the island exists! Just to the east of Illus, is a small patch of land. If you walk around there long enough, you will come face to face with one of the strongest enemies in the game, the dragon! This foe may not look to tough, but it can decimate even a level 50 party, so be careful! On the other hand, you will get 999 gold and experience for beating one, and you might also get the fabled Sword of Chaos! So, it is up to you to decide if you wish to take a risk. 3 TECHNICAL INFORMATION ---------- 3.0 TROUBLESHOOTING ---------- Q: Why am I missing some files? A: Did you remember to recurse the subdirectories when unzipping? If you used WinZip, it was automatically done for you. If however, you used pkunzip for DOS, make sure that you remembered the -d tag. eg. pkunzip -d msong.zip Ideally, you should create a directory for the game (say, msong) and unzip all of the files to that directory. Q: Why won't the game run? A: Make sure that you have run the setup and selected the correct settings. Also make sure that you have at least 450k of free conventional memory. You'll want around 550k free if you're running the game with sound. Q: Why can't I hear music? A: Run setup.exe and select the correct soundcard settings. Q: Why won't the music play under WindowsNT? A: It is because NT has pathetic DOS sound support (So I'm told). If anyone has managed to get the sound to run under WindowsNT, please let me know. Q: Why is the game slow? A: Because you need a quicker computer ;) Seriously though, I know what it's like, I had a 386/40 for the longest time. I've done as much as I could to speed up the game without taking away from it. You can increase the scroll speed from the title screen (See 2.4). This will speed up walking around. If it still runs too slow on your system, then it's a good sign that you need a new one :) Q: Do you like Dragon Warrior? A: Yes, yes I do. Q: How 'bout Final Fantasy? A: Yup. These two series are probably some of my biggest inspirations... But then again, I'm sure that you could tell if you've played Mysterious Song already (and Distant Promises) :) Q: Are there any bugs I should know about? A: There aren't any... At least, there shouldn't be... I've tested this game to death! 3.1 QUICKBASIC?! ---------- This game was created using Microsoft QuickBasic 4.5 as well as external libraries for the sound and graphics engine. Let me begin by saying that, I would not recommend QB4.5 for such a project, unless you are ready to be challenged by the limitations. That is the main reason why I undertook the creation of Mysterious Song in QB. However, I am not trying to downplay the language. It is a great language to use for small 2D games, as well as applications. Over the course of my coding years, I have found myself coming back to QB every time I have wanted to create a small game and have a lot of fun doing it. I guess the best thing to say is the QB's strength lies in being a fun language, not to be taken too seriously, but not to be dismissed either. 3.2 THE SOURCE CODE ---------- All of the source code for the game is included with this distribution. It resides in the file source.zip. You may use it, and modify it to your heart's content. Though if you do wish to use some parts of the code in your own program I ask that you give me credit. For all of you out there who do code, I want to say that I'm actually quite happy with the code for Mysterious Song. I have taken a lot of time to optimize it, and to keep its size down. All in all, the game itself (minus EMS for loading the music modules if you are playing with sound) takes up around 400k of memory to run... Remember, this includes putting the whole exe file into memory as well. I think, it's quite a feat for a role playing game! 3.3 LIBRARIES ---------- The two libs used in this game are The_Brain's GSLib for graphics handling, and Edward Schlunder's BWSB for sound. A thank you goes out to them for creating the libs and making them free to use. 3.4 CREDITS ---------- Story - DarkDread Graphics - DarkDread Tyranny DeviusCreed Code - DarkDread The_Brain Edward Schlunder DeviusCreed Joe Huber Jr. Milo Sedlacek Music - DarkDread Andreas Viklund Timo Vehmaa A.N. and J.K. Unknown Thanks - Tyranny Mystt DeviusCreed 3.5 MUSIC INFORMATION ---------- Most of the songs and sound effects for Mysterious Song were created by myself, DarkDread. Some of them however, were from other sources. If I have used your music in this game, and you would like me to remove it, please e-mail me and inform me and I shall do so right away. ... and finally, a big thanks to everyone (Too many to mention here) whos samples I used in the music modules. 4 LEGAL ---------- 4.0 PROGRAM LICENSE ---------- MYSTERIOUS SONG (C) 1999-2000, MATT ZUCHOWSKI. THIS GAME IS DISTRIBUTED AS FREEWARE WITHOUT A WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU MAY DISTRIBUTE THIS PROGRAM BY ANY MEANS SO LONG AS ALL ORIGINAL FILES ARE INCLUDED, NOTHING IS MODIFIED, AND NO FEE IS CHARGED EXCEPT TO COVER ANY DISTRIBUTION COSTS. 4.1 SOURCE CODE LICENSE ---------- MYSTERIOUS SONG SOURCE CODE (C) 1999-2000, MATT ZUCHOWSKI, EXCLUDING EXTERNAL LIBRARIES WHICH ARE (C) THE_BRAIN (GSLIB), EDWARD SCHLUNDER (BWSB), AND KEYBOARD INTERFACE CODE WHICH WAS CREATED BY JOE HUBER JR. AND MILO SEDLACEK. YOU MAY USE ANY PARTS OF THE SOURCE CODE IN YOUR OWN FREEWARE PROGRAMS SO LONG AS CREDIT IS GIVEN TO THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR(S).