Omnimaga presents RRRR L R R L R R L RRRR L R R L R R L R R LLLLL The Reign of Legends 3 Version 1.63 © 2004, Dream of Omnimaga https://djomnimaga.music-2000.com/ You cannot change the future But if there is no future You have to create one Everything that has a beginning Has an end… IMPORTANT: THE REIGN OF LEGENDS 3 IS NOT AN ORDINARY BASIC GAME! IT HAS A LOT OF DATA AND FEATURES SO READ THIS README CAREFULLY BEFORE USING IT ?. 1: Introduction 2: Minimum requirements 3: Installing the game 4: Story 5: How to play 6: Controls 7: Orbs 8: Battles 9: Menu 10: Features 11: Bugs 12: Version History 13: Frequently asked questions 14: Special thanks 15: Disclaimers 1: Introduction Thanks for downloading The Reign of Legends 3 (a.k.a. RL3)! I hope you'll enjoy it. RL3 is a RPG (Role Playing Game) where magic and monsters take place. You have to explore lots of forests, caverns and dungeons to collect treasures while fighting many foes. If you played many RPGs so far, then you'll be able to get into this game very quickly. The only difference in this one compared to other TI-calc ones is that it's incredibly huge and even more complete. Making this game required more than 900 hours of hard work! 2: Minimum requirements -This game will require the full speed of the TI-83+ Silver Edition, TI-84+ or TI-84+ Silver Edition. -TI-OS 1.14 or higher or OS 1.13 with MirageOS 1.2 shell. -The game is HUGE! It takes around 120 KB of memory. I suggest you to have 1 MB or free archive memory if you use a Silver Edition to increase archiving speed. -All your RAM. -Patience (it's a BASIC game and it's a little slow) 3:Installing the game 1) Make sure you have 24 KB of RAM and 160 KB of Archive or higher. 2: Send everything located in the archive folder to your calculator archive 3) Send everything located in the RAM folder to your calculator RAM. 4) To run the game, simply run LEGENDR3 and prepare to enter where legends reigns… 4:Story The story mainly occurs in the future. Lekens, Zanik and Nomesi start in 2235 A.D., a post- apocalyptic world where chaos reigns and they are the *only* survivors to the emperor's attack. They must kill him, but unfortunately, they run into three monsters and can't defeat them, so the humanity ends here. 382 years later, Xemeca, a mysterious man, decides to return in 2200, where Lekens lives to give magic to him, as well as to the two others. You must find Zanik and Nomesi so Xemeca can explain the quest… 5:How to play When the game starts, the screen will *shut down* (it's normal). After 5 seconds you should have this screen: DON'T PANIC!!!!! Although the game uses ASM programs to run archived pictures and programs, it still need to do some archiving/unarchiving to avoid crashing the calculator and destroying all your files so it will take A LONG time to load (except on the TI-84+). Because archiving and unarchiving fragment the Flash ROM and take more and more time to find enough space to write a prgm in the archive memory, you must garbage collect periodically. It will load faster if the only game you have on your calc is this one ?. If you have a TI-84+, archiving will be faster because it only has 480 KB of archive memory so finding a space in the Flash ROM is easier. If the loading bar freezes, it's due to the fact the calc is writing data in the archive so it can be useful to see if you need a garbage collection. After it's finished, a menu with options will appear. Select "NEW GAME" and wait for the intro is finished. In a RPG, you have to talk to citizens, explore and fight powerful monsters to get useful treasures and clues. As you fight and gain experience points, you level up and become more powerful. To face more powerful foes, you'll need to fight a lot. Although it's important to fight, you may need to buy orbs (a mix with items and magic) to heal yourself or defeat monsters faster. 6:Controls Keys used in that game are almost the same than in my previous releases but you may want to know them. Title screen menu -Arrows: Toggle options -Enter: Confirm -( - ): Cancel -Clear: Enter the CLEAR menu -ON: Quick exit Main menu -Arrows: Toggle options/configuration -Enter: Confirm -( - ): Cancel -Clear: Enter the CLEAR menu -ON: Quick exit CLEAR menu -Clear/enter/( - )/1: Resume -2: Turn the calculator OFF to save batteries (no data loss) -3: Garbage collect -4: Exit the game safely -Clear: Enter the CLEAR menu -ON: Quick exit Walking -Arrows: Walk -Enter: Talk/enter the airship -( - ): Enter the main menu -Clear: Enter the CLEAR menu -ON: Quick exit Airship -Left/right: Change direction -Up: Accelerate -Down: Stop -Enter/( - ): Land and exit -Clear: Enter the CLEAR menu -ON: Quick exit Shopping -Arrows: select number of orbs to buy -)/(: Toggle orbs -( - ): Exit the shop -Clear: Enter the CLEAR menu -ON: Quick exit Going to the inn -Arrows: Toggle options -Enter: Confirm -( - ): Exit the inn -Clear: Enter the CLEAR menu -ON: Quick exit Talking -Arrows: Toggle options (if there are any) -Enter/( - ): Display the next part of text/stop talking -Clear: Enter the CLEAR menu -ON: Quick exit Battles -Up/down: Toggle battle commands -Left: Show hidden command (WAIT) -Right: Show hidden command (FLEE) -Enter: Confirm -( - ): Cancel/skip the character turn -Clear: Enter the CLEAR menu -ON: Quick exit 7: Orbs The Reign of Legends magic system works a bit differently than other RPGs. In RL, items act as magic (orbs). For example, you can have 30 PYROs and if you use one, the number decrease by 1. You can buy these items in shops and each unit costs an amount of GP. This means that if you run out of PYRO, you can use something else. No more Magic Points required! Note that you can have a maximum of 99 of each kind of orbs. 8:Battles When you walk or talk to someone, you may be engaged in a battle. Be prepared for anything! Be warned! If you encounter these monsters in the game, escape!!! Early in the game, you can only use the FIGHT, FLEE and WAIT commands. Later, you can get abilities allowing you to use the more advanced ones. You can display hidden commands with LEFT/RIGHT arrows. Here is the description of commands: -FIGHT: Attack a monster -STEAL: Yes! One of the first calculator RPG with a STEAL command! Steal orbs from foes -SPIRIT: Sacrify HP to attack all enemies -SPY: View monster's LV, HP, EXP and GP -ORB: Use consumable magic to attack or heal. There are more than 10 orbs in total. -WAIT: Wait for next turn -FLEE: Escape from battles. You cannot escape from bosses. Basically, you must keep your HP high to not get killed. Orbs that resurrect dead members cost A LOT of money. Also bring lot of orbs with you and don't waste powerful healing orbs outside of battle. After winning a fight, you can get experience points and when you reach a certain amount, you level up and your stats increase. 9: Menu Here you can view your stats and change many things. -The ORBS option allows you to heal party members. You just have to select an highlighted orb name and then select the character to heal. -The STATUS option allows you to see how many exp points you need to level up. You can also view your attack power, your defense and your battle commands. -You may not believe it, but you are really seeing a ROW option in the screenshot! Trust me, it's really in the game… yes!!! In a calculator RPG!!!! The ROW option is useful to put low HP fighter or orb users in back or in the middle (yes!!! There are even three rows in this game! ? ). If you put your character in front, his weapon attack power will increase but his defense will decrease against physical attack. If you put him in the back, he will have a better defense against physical attack, but less weapon attack power. If you don't want to be a piece of meat in a new game, you may want to keep everyone in the back. -CONFIG (you can even CONFIG THE GAME!!!) allow you to change the battle speed, the status box emplacement in battle and turn on or off the ATB (Active Time Bar) gauge. -SAVE is to save the game. You can choose one of the two save files. 10: Features You are probably wondering why this game takes that much space. It's because of all the features. -One of the only TI-RPG coming from Quebec (Canada) -Fast loading in menu and battles. -A storyline with over 16 hours of gameplay -3 characters -Magic Feed-back (a.k.a. New Game + in Chrono Trigger) -Enhanced graphics using Codex, Zpic and Basic Tools programs -ERR:MEMORY free -Garbage Collect are really rare -Some programs are copied in the RAM with Flash Gordon to avoid archiving/unarchiving -High quality magic animations -Changing character row in battles -Each character has different abilities (including stealing items from foes) -4 world maps -You can travel in time (like in Chrono Trigger)! -Over 70 cool looking monsters -Huge boss graphics -Different battle scenes -30 locations with over 1000 screens -More than 10 magic orbs -Shop and Inn -Interaction with NPCs (Non-Playable-Characters) outside and inside the houses -Big villages (16 x 20 tile-map instead of 8 x 16) -Mini-games -Many side-quests -Over 17 KB of movies (around one hour) -Specials events -Airship -2 compressed save files (They used to be 700 bytes and they shrunk down to 160!) -And many other features I forgot… ? 11: Bugs This game was programmed on a TI-83 Plus Silver Edition under OS 1.14. The game should be compatible with all OS available for the TI-83 + SE and the TI-84 series. However, there may be some compatibility issues. Most of them are avoidable if you read this section carefully. -For unknown reasons, the main program (LEGENDR3) will not work on some calculator OS (mostly happens on TI-84+/SE). Upon launching the game an ERR: UNDEFINED will occur. If this happens, simply unarchive prgmRL3, prgmZ, prgmZDEL, and prgm0 and execute prgmRL3 from the PRGM menu to play the game. -The game has nearly 145 sub-routines (programs) so it will not work properly with OS 1.13. This OS crashes with over 50 programs in the PRGM menu. Make sure you have the OS 1.14 or higher. To play without any problem on OS 1.13, you need MirageOS 1.2 shell. -If you have a TI-83+ (black model), the game will run really slowly if you don't overclock your calculator (go at http://ftp83plus.net/. They have a good tutorial about overclocking your calculator). 12:Version history -1.63: Fixed bug with VITAL orb. -1.60: Now compatible with MirageOS 1.2 (which is required to run RL3 on OS 1.13) -1.56: Fixed a bug with LIFE and RETURN orbs. -1.55: No more archiving/unarchiving in random battles. At high level, a random fight will now last 30 seconds instead of 4 minutes! -1.50: Faster loading bar when the game starts (use Line( instead of reverse-video text), less archiving/unarchiving. Some bug fixes. -1.26: Entering the menu and saving your game now loads as fast as lightning! -1.16: Some balance with some enemies strength/reward ratio. The ERR:UNDEFINED with the "SAINT" orb has been fixed. -1.15: Flash Gordon issues when using orbs in battles and playing mini-games had been fixed. -1.10: The game now uses Flash Gordon, eliminating ERR:MEMORY in battles. The game is slightly faster and there are less Garbage Collection messages. The game lost 2000 bytes. Also as it took 10 seconds to exit the menu before, now it takes only less than one second! -1.00: Full-version! -0.96: Beta version. The final boss works. -0.95: Third demo. Some bug fixes. -0.93: Second demo release. The final dungeon now works and the game now use Codex 1.2 instead of Codex 1.0 and doesn't use Zflash anymore. -0.81: First demo release. 13: Frequently asked questions You probably have some questions about my game. Instead of e-mailing me 50 times about the same questions, look here. You may find your answer. Some questions here came from Maxcoderz forum. If the answer isn't here, post them at http://omnimaga.dyndns.org/index.php?showforum=58 or e-mail me. -Q: RL1 and RL2 were in French. This time, is there an English version? A: Many people requested an English version of RL1 and RL2 so they are now in French and in English (check http://omnimaga.dyndns.org). -Q: I can't believe it! Is it really BASIC? A: Yes but the game use 1400 bytes of ASM utilities, allowing me to move sprites, and make awesome looking animations, fade-in and fade-out… everything that ASM can do but slower. -Q: When I started the game, the calc shut down! I press ON and nothing happens. So I remove a battery and when I press ON again, my memory is still here! What the heck? A: LOL!!! This happens to new RL3 users that believe that the game is 100% BASIC. When something loads pixel-by-pixel (for example, a map loading), the contrast go lighter so you cannot see all the crappy things and glitches appear on the screen. Just wait at least 50 seconds. The screen should come back before that. If nothing happens after 50 seconds, maybe you did something wrong ?. -Q: Where are those orbs? A: Wait 'til you find Nomesi and return back in 2200 A.D. with him. You'll find shops which sell orbs and the ORBS command will be available in battles. Some monsters also give orbs. -Q: Are you kidding???? Is there really a ROW and CONFIG option in the game or is it a fake screenshot you show here? A: Do you really think I would release a game with fake information? Just go in the menu and look by yourself ?. There are even three rows instead of two. -Q: I can't defeat the Erten in the Gaia Volcano. Help! A: You suck! No I'm kidding ?. Make sure your HP is at maximum before entering the volcano and only use physical attacks. I beat him at LV 2. -Q: The game is SLOW!!!!!! A: What did you expect? This game uses the archive, sprites and the graph screen and it's in BASIC. If you want speed, download The Reign of Legends 2. -Q: It takes 1.5 seconds to move Lekens around the screen. A: I guess you're playing on a normal TI-83+ (black model). This game is for the 15 MHz calculators (83+SE/84+/84+SE) only. Try to get a cheap one at Ebay. -Q: I'm bored of those little calculator RPGs. I beat the largest ASM game in 5 hours. Did I got the right RPG? A: Yes. Well, some of my other releases are even longer. It takes 16 hours to beat RL3 but it can take between 25 and 40 hours to beat Illusiat 12. I hope people will take example of this RPG to create more decent games. -Q: It took me 25 hours to beat RL1 and 20 hours to beat RL3, and RL3 is like twice bigger! What the hell??? A: It's because RL3 is more complex and has greater graphics. Maybe it's also because RL3 is easier to beat ?. -Q: Even if it was slow, I was impressed about your game so I hacked it to see your code and I i don't understand anything. How long did it take you to make it? A: Six months (without the debugging). I never took that long to program others games I made before. It took me one and half a month to write RL1 and two months for RL2. I had to re-write the whole code to make it graphical and you know, making good graphics is one of the hardest part of the game making, especially with small sprites. I did optimization (although it's still slow). When Justin Whales released Codex in December 2nd 2003, I though: "BASIC will never be the same again". I started drawing my sprites the same day and the next morning I officially announced my new project at Maxcoderz forum. The project never died. I'm inactive in the TI- community during summers and holidays, but I'm always coding… YOU HACKED MY GAME??????? -Q: Can I take part of your code for my future project? A: NO! You can inspire yourself with the sprites, but try learning and do the coding by yourself. Everyone can learn TI-BASIC ?. -Q: The loading at the beginning of the game is soooo long! Why??? A: Try to free up some archive space or garbage collection. I integrated a failsafe system in all the Reign of Legends games because I know there is n00bs and hackers who don't even read this README and archive/unarchive anything that should not be archived/unarchived so the calculators do it for them. This feature attempt to archive programs that needs to be archived and it takes between 40 and 60 seconds to load. If you unarchive programs that are always archived during game play, it may take up to 20 minutes so don't hack my game. Maybe I should release two different versions of the game: Normal Package and n00b package… no it would be dumb… Ok PLEASE READ README FILES WHEN YOU DOWNLOAD SOMETHING!!!! -Q: I know FFTOM by Hitoshi has an ERR:MEMORY detector and things similar to that in the game. Did you do the same thing? A: No. In fact I don't need that because RL3 is 100% ERR:MEMORY free. It runs under 10000 KB of RAM in battles (version 1.10 or later) and archive useless programs when needed. In the final version, big programs like half of the battle engine stay archived, even when executed. Pictures I've created stay in the archive too. The only thing it detect is if a variable is archived, you get an error and on-screen instructions. -Q: When I select my save file, It says that the file is empty or damaged!!!! A: This happens when you hack the save files. Morale: Don't hack my games. The save files are encrypted and compressed so if you think you can modify them you're making a big mistake. -Q: Zapi, an ASM utility would allow you to display maps instantly, making the game loading 10 times faster. Why don't you use it? A: Because my game has nearly 1000 maps and I would have to re-code everything again. 1000 8x12 maps would add between 10 KB and 90 KB to the file size. I would also need to convert the sprites too. Anyway, I can't get this function to work. -Q: Oops!!! I exited the game with ON. I know it's a huge RPG. Is my saved game damaged? A: No because they are saved into a list. That's why you can have more than one game on one calculator. -Q: Will you learn ASM? A: I'm learning it, but I'll not make huge RPGs like that. I'll use the ASM to make subroutines for my future projects. 14: Special thanks -Justin Whales for the Codex program -Kevtiva Interactive for Zpic and Flash Gordon -Toaster_7 for having found Flash Gordon on the web -Michael Vincent for BASIC Tools -All the great support on DragonFire Programming, Maxcoderz, United-TI, Calcgames, Greenfire and French Forum TI. 15:Disclaimers -If you decide to upload this game to your website's download section or use the source code, you MUST mention me in credits. -I cannot be held responsible for any damage caused to your calculator.