Amiga CD-Sensation: Golden Games/Amiga CD-Sensation - Ausgabe 2 - Golden Games (1996)(GTI - Schatztruhe)(DE)[!].iso/Various/Enquiry/Steward_Docs

Text File | 1994-01-18 | 7.5 KB | 226 lines

                    Instructions for Steward's Enquiry

                          Design and Programming
                                    by
                              Alistair Duncan

PLEASE PAY THE REGISTRATION FEE OF £5 AS I AM TRYING TO MAKE SOME MONEY FOR
UNIVERSITY. MY ADDRESS IS AT THE END OF THIS DOCUMENT.

THANKS A LOT !!

ALISTAIR
---XX---


THIS GAME REQUIRES 1 MEGABYTE TO RUN

COMPATIBILITY

I have tested this game on the following formats :

KICKSTART 1.3
KICKSTART 2.04
KICKSTART 3.0 (i.e A1200,4000/30)


DISCLAIMER (IMPORTANT READ THIS FIRST BEFORE USING PROGRAM!!)

The author, ALISTAIR DUNCAN, accepts no responsibility for damage caused by
this software through correct or incorrect use and will therefore not be
liable to compensate for any such damage if caused. I do not know of any
other game bearing the same or similar title if, however, the name `STEWARD'S
ENQUIRY' has been used before in a game please send me some form of proof
and I will gladly change it. The program code and documentation is
`(C)1993 ALISTAIR DUNCAN & TIGER SOFTWARE' and it was written on the AMOS
package which is `(C)1990 EUROPRESS PUBLICATIONS'.

Phew! now that's over and done with I can explain the game.


BACKGROUND

Long ago (and I mean long ago) in those days when the 8 bit computers (BBC
Micro, Sinclair Spectrum and Commodore 64) ruled the gaming world, there
were a few games based around horse racing. On the Spectrum there was `Derby
Day' and on the BBC there was the imaginatively titled `Horse Race'. Both of
these games involved betting on little horses which would then run on a track
and have you jumping up and down yelling at them to get a move on. I really
liked these games and when I got an Amiga I set about trying to find an Amiga
version of either of these games.

Alas, I had no luck so one day I decided I would write one using AMOS. What
you have on disk now is what I came up with and I hope you like it.



STARTING PLAY

After the title page you will be presented with a prompt asking you how many
races you want. You can have any number from one (1) to twenty (20). The
program will not progress any further until you enter a valid number. Once
this has been done you will be asked for the number of players. The number of
players can be from one (1) to eight (8). When you have entered a valid
amount you can begin the game proper.


BUYING A STABLE

The stables screen is presented here. It is here that each player may
purchase a stable for 1000 pounds (£). A player who purchases a stable
therefore begins the betting with only £2000 as opposed to £3000. Purchasing
a stable is not compulsory. The advantage of buying a stable is that if the
stable you buy has the largest number of winners at the end of each game
then you net a prize bonus of £5000. Also stable owners will occasionaly
receive an income from their stables.

Players are offered stables in numerical order. There is absolutely no
advantage to be gained by being the first to purchase a stable.


THE RANDOM EVENT SCREEN

Before each race you may be presented with the random event screen. As the
name implies there are some random events which can occur. Some helpful,
some not but any of them can make a difference to the outcome of the game.


BETTING ON A RACE

It is here that all the most important information is shown :

a) The number of the race and the total number of races selected in the
   format :

   Race number / Total number of races selected.

b) A list of the horses, their numbers, their jacket colours and their odds.


Each player will then be asked, in numerical order, which horse they wish to
bet on (1-8) and how much out of their money they wish to bet on it.
Obviously each player can only bet as much as they have got (Players who have
gone bankrupt in previous races are excluded from the betting section). If a
player makes an invalid entry the computer will wait for a valid one. More
than one player can bet on the same horse and there is no place betting.

When all the bets have been made the race will begin.


THE RACE

The race track will be shown with the horses on the starting line. The track
is two screens long so you cannot see the finishing post. The horses are
displayed in numerical order with number 1 at the top and 8 at the bottom.
After a short delay the race will start.

When one of the horses passes the finishing post the screen will fade to the
results screen.


THE STEWARD'S ENQUIRY SCREEN

If at the end of the race two or more horses are judged to have reached the
finishing line at the same time a steward's enquiry will take place. This
basically means that the computer will decide, at random, which horse has
been judged to have won.

Furthermore the enquiry may decide that a jockey was maltreating his horse
in these cases the jockey is assumed to be acting under the owner's
instruction and therefore the owner will be penalised.


THE RACE RESULTS SCREEN

This screen displays the following :

a) The name of the horse that won and on what odds.

b) A list of players who were able to bet on the race and how much money they
   won or lost.


When ready pressing a mouse button will continue. If all the races are not
yet finished you will be returned to the betting screen. Alternatively you
will end the game if either of the conditions below are met :

a) All the races are finished
b) All the players are bankrupt

THE END OF THE GAME

If the above (a) condition is true then the following happens :

After the results screen for the last race you will be presented with a
summary which displays how many races each stable has to its name.

After that the owner of the stable that owns the most winners will be
informed and awarded his/her £5000.

Finally a summary board will be displayed showing the total amount each
player has and the winner will be announced.

If the above condition (b) is true then the following will happen :

The game will immediately end with no winners.

Regardless of which condition applies, pressing a mouse button will now start
a new game. To quit back to Workbench / Amiga DOS at any time during the game
press Ctrl-C.


CUSTOMISING THE GAME

Due to the way that this version of Stewards Enquiry has been written, you
can invent your own horse names to be included in the game. There is an
ASCII file held in the game's directory for each stable. Simply adding horse
names to these files will allow them to be accessed by the game during play.

The files are laid out as follows

<list of horse names> (One per line)
END OF FILE

for example :

Daisy Chain
Whiskey Bottle
Grape Vine
END OF FILE

It is most important that the `END OF FILE' is written at the bottom just as
it has been shown here (i.e UPPER CASE) otherwise the computer will not know
where the end of the file is and this will cause the game to crash. I have
supplied eight stable files but feel free to add to or alter these. It is
important to note that no horse name may be longer than 15 characters
(including spaces).

SOME USELESS INFORMATION FOR TECHIE BOFFINS

`Steward's Enquiry' was written on the following configuration :

A4000/30 with 2 Meg memory (80 Megabyte Hard Disk)
Commodore 1960 Multiscan Colour Monitor

Software used :

Deluxe Paint IV for the graphics
AMOS Professional V2.00 for the code
AMOS Professional Compiler for the stand alone code
Textra by Mike Haas for this document file

Any useful comments regarding this game my be sent to me at the following
address :

113 Brook Street
Soham
Cambridgeshire
CB7 5AE

You can also e-mail me at university on :

    [e-mail]


Thanks for bothering to read this!