MOANBIRD

A fLAtDiSk(tm) FreeWare Virtual Reality Dream
(6th in the series - see BDREAM.ZIP, FURTHER.ZIP, PURPLE.ZIP, NOUPDOWN.ZIP, 
EARTHNAP.ZIP, in no particular order.)

System requirements: AT or better, with minimum VGA/MCGA 256-color card/monitor. 
A sound card (AdLib, SB, SBPro, ATI all ok), rodent, and/or joystick are 
optional but recommended.

Tools Used This Time Department:

Programmed using the Domark Virtual Reality Studio, by Rich La Bonte, (aka. 
FLAtRich on America OnLine, the user-friendly network). 

The fLAtDiSk(tm) User Interface (revised as of this Dream) was created in 
ZSoft's  PCPaintbrush V+ and John Wagner's IMPROCES 4.1, then converted to 
Domark's required .LBM format using VPIC.

The FLATKEYS.GIF and (revised again!) FLATFACE.GIF graphic docs were created 
with IMPROCES 4.1 and PCPaintbrush V+. MOANFLOW.GIF began in Quattro Pro, 
using the Annotate feature, was written to .PCX in QPro, converted to .GIF in 
IMPROCES 4.1, where the color was touched up and the Maya glyph and the text 
elements were created, and moved into PCPaintbrush V+ for some more touching 
up.

MOANBIRD is FreeWare by fLAtDiSk SoftWorks, circa 1992. Abuse at will. We 
will always make no reparations to any eye strained individuals addicted to 
VR or computers who can't get enough of a good thing. (cf., Lawnmower Man, 
Brainstorm, Monkey Island 1 & 2, AOL forums, etc.)

RUNVGA.EXE is (C)1991 Domark. You can use it, but All Rights Reserved.

What Should Be Included For This ZIP To Be Legit Department:

 MOANBIRD.BAT (32 bytes), a free batch file to help run this Dream. Modify as 
 you like.

 MOANBIRD.RUN (97,800 bytes), the fLAtDiSk(tm) FreeWare program file.

 RUNVGA.EXE (38,566 bytes), the Domark semi-free runner file. Do not rename 
 this file - required to run the program. This same file will run the other 
 four fLAtDiSk(tm) Dreams, (or any .RUN file created with the Domark Studio 
 by anybody else, for that matter).

 FLATKEYS.GIF (26,390 bytes), a free graphic file (320X200 - 256 colors) to 
 assist those rodentless users who want to brave Domark's incomprehensible 
 keyboard alternatives. View with VPIC or whatever. Not required to run The 
 Dream.

 FLATFACE.GIF (11,865 bytes), another free graphic file (640X480 - 16 colors) 
 to help explain how to mouse around inside The Dream. I made some changes 
 in the interface this time, and they are annotated here. Not required to 
 run The Dream.

 MOANFLOW.GIF (12,252 bytes), this Dream's Special Free Graphic file 
 (640X480 - 16 colors), which is a very pretty flowchart of MOANBIRD, if I 
 do say so myself. Not required, but may be helpful.

 FLATDOCS.TXT (8,322 bytes), this file, of course. A little longer this time, 
 'cause I'm ramblin' on about the mysterious Maya, etc. The general hint 
 stuff was in previous Dream text files.
 
To run it, type MOANBIRD and press ENTER.
To run without the batch file, type RUNVGA MOANBIRD.RUN and press ENTER.

To Quit back to whatever shell or OS you use, press SHIFT and ESC together.

Test launched successfully from GeoWorks Pro (from anywhere) and Windows 3.1 
(from File Manager) by double clicking on MOANBIRD.BAT.

PATH TO THE LORDS OF THE UNDERWORLD:

[You can skip this part if you don't give a hoot about the oldest and most 
mysterious culture in the history of our planet.]

According to some, Maya culture really began about 2600 B.C. According to 
Richard Leakey, however, hominids have been walking around on our planet for 
MILLIONS of years. So, who really knows...

I've got some Native American blood and I got interested in the Maya in 5th 
grade. I found a picture of a temple at Chichen Itza (the Spanish named it 
El Castillo, but it was originally dedicated to Kukulcan, the feathered 
serpent). There was no reference to the Maya in my 5th grade history book. 
My dad and I built a miniature of Kukulcan's temple out of plywood, and I've 
been hooked ever since.

I was watching Walter Cronkite one evening in the late 70s, and Walter 
suddenly announced that satellite photos had uncovered a previously unknown 
network of  ancient, man-made canals in the Guatemalan jungles. I dropped my 
beer (or whatever) and the hair on the back of my neck fell out: Oh, my Gods!, 
sez I. This is It! I knew it!

Those photos were a Rosetta to people studying Maya civilization. In the last 
decade, archeologists have shown that The Maya were not just a bunch of crazy 
savages in the jungle who just happened to be architects and mathematicians. 
They had an ingenious agrarian system based on the canals and the lilies that 
grew in them. (The lily is prominent in Maya glyphs, but no one knew why 
until the canals were uncovered.) The little lily lead to a civilization that 
eventually grew to hundreds of teeming cities in Mexico and Cental America, 
sea-worthy boats, trade routes that stretched from Belize to the Baja 
Peninsula, and science, literature and mythology that rivaled the Chinese, 
Egyptians, and Greeks.

Flapping over it all was the Moan bird. According to J. Eric Thompson, an 
early authority, the Moan bird is a kind of owl and, by itself, a glyph for 
the Maya month of Muan, which is in the rainy season. It was once generally 
believed that the Maya developed a calendar, mathematics, and astronomy to 
predict the rainy season, in order to know when to cut and burn the jungle 
to plant corn. The revelations following the canals have altered this picture 
of the Maya as an exclusively cut and burn culture, but the Moan bird is 
everywhere in what remains of Maya literature. 

Maya mythology is a particularly dark and bloody world - Freddie Kruger would 
have loved it! - but the Maya civilization "vanished" 600 years before the 
Spanish arrived in Mexico, so what is left of it is mostly oral tradition. 
(The Spanish found whole libraries of Maya literature - thousands of books of 
mathematics, history, and poetry - but they burned them, seeing the Maya as 
heretics. Only five books remain.)

The glyph reproduced in MOANFLOW.GIF is "thirteen Moan bird". It is a symbol 
(in the Dresden Codex) for the 13th level of the afterlife.

MOANBIRD is only a brief VR Dream of the Maya. It is very representational, 
as was the graphic art of the Maya, and full of "artistic license", but I 
make no apologies to The Lords of The Underworld. The bird, you see, has 
been perched on my shoulder since childhood.

THANKS:

1057 persons have downloaded the other fLAtDiSk(tm) VR Dreams since October! 
Thank you, one and all. Thanks again to PCMikeW of the AOL Graphics area, 
this time for the October "Pgr Top Pick Award" for NOUPDOWN. Thanks to John 
Wagner for sending me IMPROCES 4.1 so quickly. IMPROCES imports Domark 
palettes, by the way, which made creating the new "improved" user interface 
a snap.

SPECIFIC MOANBIRD HINTS:

 As you can see in MOANFLOW.GIF, there are thirteen areas. All have at least 
 one connecting entrance to another area, but many are hidden. 

 There are no dead ends. You must sometimes go back the way you came.

 Shoot to escape the lightning eyes of the real Moan bird if you meet him.
 
 Crouch low when approaching the monolith (stele) for 13. There is no other 
 way in.

 Remember the Maya obsession with counting when you reach 13 Moan bird. It 
 is the key to the way out.

GENERAL HINTS:

 fLAtDiSk (tm) Dreams are not games, only alternate realities. You're just a 
 Dreamer. You can't do anything to get killed or penalized. Take your time 
 and look around.  If the controls seem to go nuts or the view becomes 
 unpleasantly distorted, use the big button to righten yerself: you are 
 probably upside down or something.

 Collide to pass through obvious portals. Use the left rodent button to 
 shoot at anything that you are curious about: some things are actually 
 portals.

 To restart at any time - or if you get stuck - click on the GUI button 
 marked R.

 You will probably have to hold down the SHIFT and ESC keys for a while when 
 you QUIT back to DOS (or whichever shell). You should NOT have to press your 
 computer's reset button to get out.

 When you move around in there, the left mouse button is normal speed and 
 the right is double speed.

DEDICATION:

To Woody Allen, who once said: "I don't believe in an afterlife, but I'm 
bringing along a change of underwear."

Have FUN.

:o)FLATRich