                             ____________________
                             \ Playing the game /
                              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                          (c) George Foot, 1996-1999

 Product title: REPTON 3 for PC
Version number: 0.9
        Author: George Foot
          Date: unreleased

DISCLAIMER
==========
  I make absolutely no warranties concerning the information contained in
  this document. This information is acted upon at the user's risk. If your 
  computer, data or any other item, real or abstract, suffers damage or loss
  due, directly or indirectly, to the use or misuse of this information, I
  hold no responsibility whatsoever.

  I also cannot be held responsible for damage the software itself may
  inflict upon any real/abstract item, whether you follow these guidelines
  or not.

0. Contents
~~~~~~~~~~~
  1. Loading up
    1.1 Starting Repton
    1.2 The main menu
  2. The Game
    2.1 Title screen
    2.2 How to play
    2.3 Controls
    2.4 The characters
    2.5 Tips
  3. The Map Editor
  4. The Sprite Editor


1. Loading up
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  1.1 Starting Repton
  -------------------
    Is easy, just run the binary -- e.g. for DOS, go to the `bin' directory
    and type:

      repton

    If you intend to use a mouse (required for the editors and the help 
    system in the game), you should first load your mouse driver.  If you're
    running in a DOS session within Windows, make sure it is full-screen.  A
    mouse driver is not needed in this case.

    If your soundcard requires drivers, etc., load these too, of course.

  1.2 The main menu
  -----------------
    If all goes well, you should see the main menu. If not, look in
    `troubles.txt' now.

    There are three options here: the Game, the Map Editor, and the Sprite
    Editor.  Old hands will notice that I have split the map and sprite
    editors; I think that since they were practically split anyway, this
    makes more sense.

    The three options are pretty self explanatory... the first is for playing
    the game, or testing your own levels.  The second is for level design.
    The third is for sprite design.
 
    The workings of these three sub-programs are documented below.  Sort of.


2. The Game
~~~~~~~~~~~
  2.1 Title screen
  ----------------
    This should look familiar!  Almost the same as the original.  Press 'L' to
    load in a level, and Space to play.  Q/S will turn the sound off and on,
    and W/D will turn the music off and on.
    
    On startup a set of levels called "Learning the game" will be loaded.  
    Press SPACE to start playing these levels, or P to enter a password to
    skip to a later level.
    
    To load another level set or just a single map, press L and type the 
    absolute or relative path to the file -- for a level set this is the
    index file or datafile, for a single map it's the map file.  So far
    there is no support for viewing the files in a directory from within 
    the game, sorry.  But here's a magic phrase to load the other built-in
    level set:

        #levels#trickier

    Type it in the filename box.

  2.2 How to play
  ---------------
    The basic idea in any Repton level is to collect all the diamonds, kill 
    all the monsters, and collect the crown (in any order), then finally 
    defuse the time bomb.

  2.3 Controls
  ------------
    To move Repton, use Z,X,' and /.  Press Enter for a status 
    screen.  Hold M to display a map, where available.
    
    Q/S/W/D function in the game in the same way as on the title screen.
    
    Press Escape to lose a life, if you get stuck; you then have the 
    option of continuing from your last transported location (press 
    Space), or resetting the game to the condition it was in at that 
    time (press `L').  You could also quit to the title screen by 
    pressing `Q' at that time.
    
    To quit straight to the title screen inside the game press capital 
    `R' (shift-`r' or `r' with caps lock on).
    
    Holding down either CTRL key will stop the letter keys (apart from
    Z and X) from behaving in their usual ways, allowing you to type in
    a cheat code without disrupting the game.

  2.4 The characters
  ------------------
  There are quite a few of these... Starting with the simplest:

    A) Diamond: you must collect all of them
    B) Crown: you must collect this too
    C) Timebomb: you must go here when you have finished the level
    D) Dust: you can collect this, but don't have to.
    E) Rock: these fall downwards, and slip off curved surfaces.
    F) Time capsule: this resets the time. You die if you run out of time.
    F) Safe: the safes contain diamonds; you must find the key to open them
    G) Key: picking this up turns all the safes into diamonds
    H) Cage: if you can guide a spirit into a cage, it turns into a diamond
    I) Egg: this is like a rock, but when it drops it hatches into a monster
    J) Skull: if you walk over a skull, you die
    K) Fungus: this grows, and kills you.
    L) Transporter: this teleports you elsewhere in the level, saving the game
    M) Fake wall: some of the wall may be fake. Look for mis-alignment...
    N) Forcefield: you can't see this, but it's solid, like walls.
    O) Solid dust: again, it's like a wall, but it looks like dust.

  If there's anything you don't recognize in the game, hit F1 and click on it
  with the left mouse button.

  Repton also has some animated enemies:

    i) Monsters: these chase and kill you. You must hatch and kill them all.
   ii) Spirits: you must get one spirit into each cage. They kill you if you
                 touch them or get in their way.

  2.5 Tips
  --------
   * Watch how the spirits behave, and predict their movements
   * There are two ways to kill monsters
   * Sometimes it is important to leave a diamond for later, or not to take
     a piece of dust at all
   * If you have a mouse driver installed, press F1 during the game for help
   * Avoid releasing fungus until you have to
   * It's often a good idea to make sure spirits can get to their cages
     before you release them
   * Don't hatch a monster unless you can safely kill it


3. The Map Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Documentation pending.  Currently there's not much of a user interface.
  The menu system has not been written, so you have to use the shortcut
  keys:
  
    C       Clear and start a new map
    L       Load map
    S       Save map
    A       Save map with new filename ("save As...")
    O       Options for level
    ESC     Quit
    `       Load sprites; on US keyboards I think this is `~' (tilde)

  Use the mouse to do the editing.  The buttons operate as follows:
  
    Left    Draw in map, select elsewhere
    Right   Erase in map
  
  The toolbox doesn't work yet.  The colour box probably never will work.
  
  Dragging the mouse paints as you would expect, except when placing
  spirits and transporters.  When placing transporters, hold the button 
  down and move to the transporter's destination -- then release it.  
  When placing spirits, hold the button down and drag in the spirit's
  initial direction of movement.
  
  If you hold down CTRL while clicking or dragging the left mouse button
  over spirits or transporters then arrows will appear showing you the
  initial direction of the spirit or the destination of the transporter.
  
  I think that's about all...


4. The Sprite Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  As above, documentation pending, and the user interface is weak.
  
  Keyboard:

    L       Load sprites
    S       Save sprites
    A       Save sprites with new filename ("save As")
    U       Undo major changes (not fully implemented)

    F5      Toggle selection of game sprite
    F6        "      "      "   editor sprite
    F7        "      "      "   map sprite
    F8      Select all sprite types

    X       Flip selected sprite types horizontally
    Y       Flip sprite types vertically
    Arrows  Scroll selected sprite types

    Insert  Copy/paste selected sprite types (see below)

    Esc     Quit

  Mouse:
  
    Left    Draw in design grids, select elsewhere
    Right   Erase in design grids

  Holding Ctrl while choosing a sprite will copy the current sprite 
  into that location WITHOUT CONFIRMATION. At present this is not 
  undoable. (?)

  The large sprites appear in the game.  The top small sprite box appears 
  in the editors.  The small sprites are used to draw the map in the game.

  The toolbox actually works here, but only in the game sprite, and not 
  all tools are implemented.

  The sprite file `repton3.spr' contains the static sprites -- ones that 
  don't animate.  These are the only ones you can use in the map editor.  
  `anim.spr' holds various animation frames used in the game.

  The Insert key is used to copy and paste.  Ctrl-Insert copies, 
  Shift-Insert pastes.  This can also be used to copy sprites between 
  sprite files.
  
  
