Blinded by the Dark (v1.2) by Aaron Curtis email: acurti1@umbc.edu (expiring soon) aaron@global-domination.cjb.net web: global-domination.cjb.net January 2003 Intro ----- Blinded by the Dark is best described as an action-rpg. You run around killing monsters and collecting treasure, while solving the occasional puzzle or discovering the story. There aren't any character classes or the like though, you only get to play a swordsman. The game uses a raycasting engine, so you can only see parts of the map that are in your line of sight (usually). It makes for some interesting-looking dungeons... The first time you run the game, it'll spend a few seconds relocating memory. This only needs to be done once though. The relocation causes incompatibilities with some shells, so I've set it up to kick you back to the home screen when the program exits for the first time. By now you might be getting the idea that this program does some weird evil stuff to your calculator and well, it does. So back up anything important before you run this, ok? This thing will eat your batteries like crazy, so um... don't run it all day. Fresh batteries also make the "slow rendering" mode somewhat playable (imo anyway). Also, Blinded by the Dark is not compatible with most ASAP programs, so remove any you have installed before running it. The Story --------- The story is mostly explained in the game, but it goes something like this... A huge black cloud has formed over the land and completely blocked out the sun, causing much distress. Instead of hiring a crack team of mages or knights to go deal with whoever's responsible, the king, cheapskate that he is, has decided to send you in to take care of things. After all, a dead peasant costs nothing, and if you succeed, well, so much the better. Controls -------- Arrows -- move around 2nd -- swings your sword Exit -- exits back to the title screen (or exits the menu screens) More -- cycle through the menu screens (these are all less important) Custom -- switches rendering modes (slow or fast) Alpha -- "moonwalk" button, lets you move without changing direction Graph -- sort of the opposite, lets you change direction without moving +/- -- change contrast * -- change grayscale mixing ratio 1 -- shortcut to attack select screen 2 -- shortcut to inventory screen 3 -- shortcut to stats screen 4 -- shortcut to extended stats screen 5 -- shortcut to save/load screen X-Var -- save your game as "qiksave" Clear -- save your game as "qiksave" and exit On -- turn calculator off Objects can be activated by just walking up to them. For example, doors can be opened, NPCs can be talked to, boulders can be pushed around... it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Character Creation Screen ------------------------- This is what you see when starting a new game, there are 4 primary attributes and then 4 weapon proficiencies. Use the right and left arrow keys to allocate points where you like, and 2nd to finish. The primary attributes will affect your abilities... strength increases your damage and carrying capacity, dexterity improves your defense rating and speeds up your hit recovery, constitution determines your maximum health, and perception affects your attack rating. The proficiencies will affect your attack rating with that particular weapon, and determine what attacks you can use. For example, the eye gouge attack needs 5 or 6 (I forget) points in short swords. Attack Select Screen -------------------- To get to this screen, press MORE or 1 during the game. At the attack select screen, you have a choice of skills, which vary based on what weapon you're using. Each weapon has five skills, some of which are described below... Short Swords... Jab -- quick, low damage move, nothing special about it Stab -- similar to jab but a little better damage and a little slower Eye Gouge -- like stab, but even slower and you're more likely to miss your target. Causes critical hits much more often and stuns your enemy for twice as much time. Long Swords... Slash -- basic low damage move, covers a wide area Thrust -- similar to the short sword series of attacks, but slower and you get higher criticals (3x) Strike -- a good all-around attack, decent damage and speed, reminiscent of the Zelda games... Two-handed Swords... Swing -- covers a wide area, otherwise unremarkable Berserk -- swings your sword in a full circle Behead -- similar to swing, but more likely to get critical hits, which are done at 4x. You take a large attack penalty though (more misses). Scimitars... Slash -- same as for long swords... Slice -- similar to slash, but you get 2 hits Gut -- more likely to get critical hits and harder for enemies to avoid Inventory Screen ---------------- To get to this screen, press MORE twice, or 2. This screen shows icons for all items in your pack (maximum 32), and a description of the one currently selected. Arrow keys move the selector around, 2ND equips an item. Equipped items are shown on the right side of the screen and are selectable as well. DEL will drop an item, but you won't be able to get it back. Some items aren't equipable, so 2ND will just use them directly. These are scrolls, tomes, potions, elixirs, and healing herbs. Other items such as keys and gems cannot be used (they're just used automatically whenever they're needed). Healing herbs will restore 50% of your health while potions and elixirs can have a variety of effects. An icon will appear in the lower right of the screen when you're being affected by a potion. Stats Screen ------------ To get to this screen, press MORE three times, or 3. This sceen shows your current character level and experience needed to reach the next (so it should go down when you kill stuff). Instead of just numbers, each level has a title, starting out at "unknown". Below that are your exact hit points and burden, then your attack and defense ratings. F1 and F2 will take you the attributes and proficiencies screens, respectively. When you gain a level, you get a couple extra points to apply whereever you like. A (!) will show up on the stats screen if you have unspent points. Extended Stats Screen --------------------- To get here, press MORE four times, or 4. This screen shows some additional stats that didn't fit on the previous screen: damage - the maximum damage you can do reduct - when you get hit, the damage is reduced by this amount cr att - critical attack rating cr def - critical defense rating cr mul - critical multiplier The Save/Load Screen -------------------- To get here, press MORE five times, or 5. Pressing F1 here takes you to the save screen, where you can type in the name of a file to save your game in. If the file exists it'll ask if you want to overwrite it. ALPHA acts as a caps-lock here. Save files take around 2000 bytes of raw data, but they're compressed so hopefully it'll be something less than that. F2 takes you to the load screen, where you can use the UP and DOWN keys to flip through the available saved games. ENTER loads the game, EXIT gets you out of the load menu. There should also be some text on this screen to describe where you are in the game. Regarding Armor --------------- Armor in this game will absorb some damage as well as deflect some hits entirely. Currently the order goes like this (best to worst): plate mail -- +3 defense, -2 damage chain mail -- +2 defense, -1 damage studded leather -- +2 defense leather armor -- +1 defense cloak -- same as no armor, but you get the benefit of any modifiers There is a trade-off though, as the better armors are much heavier and slow your hit recovery. Regarding Shields ----------------- There are currently two types of shields: kite shields and round shields. They both have the same stats since I couldn't think of any reason for them to be different. What they do is increase your defense rating when attacked from the front; the increase is noted in the stats screen... it'll look like this: defense: [base defense rating]+[shield bonus] Using a shield also slows down your attacks slightly, in the wind-up stage. Hints ----- Getting killed a lot? Maybe this'll help... -If a section seems unbelievably difficult, try and find an alternate solution. A lot of times you can avoid fighting all together. -Keep in mind you can use healing herbs and potions in the middle of a fight... -For 3/4 of the game, you'll have access to either fountains or NPCs that'll heal you completely, so make a point to find them and retreat back to them when you get beat up. -Try different armors. Leather can be better than plate in some situations. -Lead large groups of enemies into narrow passages so you can fight them one at a time. This is especially helpful if you're relying on a shield for defense. -Save and reload a lot :P Item Weights ------------ Since you can only carry a certain amount of stuff, it's often useful to know exactly how much everything weighs. So here we go... Short Sword 12 Long Sword 20 Two-handed Sword 35 Scimitar 20 Chain Mail 28 Plate Mail 50 Leather Armor 14 Studded Leather 18 Cloak 8 Kite Shield 25 Round Shield 25 Potion 4 Elixir 5 Healing Herb 2 Key 0 Tome 6 Chalice 3 Gem 1 Scroll 1 Scepter 3 Regarding the Loot System ------------------------- **** Spoiler Warning **** It might be more fun to discover this stuff on your own... Most times you get some loot out of a chest, it is assigned some random modifiers. These are for weapons: sharp -- higher critical percentage fine -- +1 attack blinding -- stuns opponents much longer obsidian -- higher critical multiplier (i.e. 3x instead of 2x) lion's -- +2 damage, pushes enemies back further jagged -- +2 damage, higher critical multiplier diamond edged -- +2 damage, higher critical percentage overlord's -- +4 attack, +3 damage hero's -- +4 damage, more criticals blazing -- +3 damage, +2 attack, new skills... of pain -- stuns opponents longer of brilliance -- +1 attack and damage of agility -- +2 defense, faster hit recovery of vampires -- +1 attack, restores health of the banshee -- +1 damage, pushes enemies back much further of murder -- +4 damage of fire -- +1 damage, gives you a new skill of the demon -- +3 damage, more criticals, +3 attack of terror -- +1 strength, +4 damage, stuns enemies longer of fury -- +4 damage, +2 attack, pushes enemies far back for armor: radiant -- reduces criticals taken by a small amount hardened -- +1 defense blackened -- -1 damage taken superior -- +1 defense, faster hit recovery resilient -- +3 defense knight's -- +1 defense, -2 damage wolf's -- faster hit recovery, +3 dexterity hero's -- -2 damage, +3 defense champion's -- +4 defense, faster hit recovery, +1 dexterity peerless -- +4 defense, +1 constitution, reduces criticals of the heavens -- +1 defense of the beast -- -1 damage, slight reduction in criticals of harmony -- much faster hit recovery of power -- +3 strength of valor -- +1 to all stats of protection -- +2 defense, reduces criticals by a lot of deliverance -- -2 damage, reduces criticals by a lot of great strength -- sets strength to 13 of the ages -- +3 defense, -2 damage of legend -- +5 defense, -1 damage, faster hit recovery for potions: of defense -- +2 defense rating of accuracy -- +2 attack rating of rage -- +3 damage of clarity -- +6 perception of defiance -- +3 defense, -1 damage taken of fortitude -- sets constitution to 15 of immunity -- +5 defense of iron skin -- -7 damage of titan's strength -- set strength to 18 of malevolence -- much higher critical percentage and multiplier Shields have mostly the same modifiers as armor, except where a modifier on armor increases your defense rating, the same modifier on a shield increases the shield's defense bonus. There are however some modifiers unique to shields: light -- removes the wind-up penalty for shields falcon's -- removes wind-up penalty, +2 defense of the stars -- +4 defense of endurance -- 13 constituition Additionally there are some items with unique modifiers hidden throughout the game... A Note About Add-on Maps ------------------------ Theoretically the game can handle 3rd party maps, though I was too lazy to write a map editor. If anyone's interested in this sort of thing send me an email. The Source ---------- ...has not been included in this archive due to its gargantuan size. You can pick up a copy from my web site (global-domination.cjb.net) or hopefully where ever you downloaded this file from. Blinded by the Dark is covered by the GNU GPL, just because I thought it might be fun to release something under it... See gpl.txt for details. Additional Credits ------------------ Graphics Shiar (pack icons, enemies) ZCrossman (lot of enemies, bridge tiles, the side bar) Beta Testing ZCrossman Josh Gentry Bob Toehead Special Thanks To Josh Seagoe (lzss compression plugin) Code7 (spiffy findpixel optimization trick) -- You just use that "shin" of yours...