Best Objectech Shareware Selections/UNTITLED.iso/boss/educ/misc/010/passages.doc

Text File | 1990-03-07 | 13KB | 362 lines

                         THE PASSING PASSAGES
                FAA Exam preparation, in a fun format.

INTRODUCTION

    Trapped and lost in a large building, you desperately search for
the one exit.  Between you and that exit, are FAA examiners, other
students and many other exciting adventures.

    You can play this game to help you study for your FAA private
pilot airplane written examination or without questions, just for fun.


DISK FILES

    This program is contained on two disks.  It is important that each
disk contains the following files.

    DISK 1:
        PASSAGES EXE  ─── Main program.
        INST     EXE  ─── Installation program.
        WEATCOND DTA  ┐
        NAVIGATI DTA  ┼── Question data files.
        AIRPORTS DTA  ┘
        HARD     DTA  ─── Disk information data file.
        MAP      DTA  ─── Data required by the main program.

    DISK 2:
        PHYSACFT DTA  ┐
        FAAREGUL DTA  ┼── Question data files.
        WEATHERQ DTA  ┘

    To speed up game play, it is suggested that you install this
program on your hard disk drive by doing the following steps from the
hard drive prompt ( C> ).  The symbol (CR) means to press your
"RETURN" or "ENTER" key on your keyboard.

        1.  type MD PASSING (CR)
        2.  type CD PASSING (CR)
        3.  put your passing passages disk #1 in drive A:
        4.  type COPY A:*.* (CR)
        5.  put your passing passages disk #2 in drive A:
        6.  type COPY A:*.* (CR)
        7.  type INST (CR)
        8.  the computer will ask you if you want to use a hard disk
            or floppy disk
        9.  type H
        10. the computer will now return you to the DOS prompt
        11. type PASSING (CR)

    To use this disk from a floppy drive, it is advisable to make a
backup copy.

    Put disk #1 in drive A: and disk #2 in drive B: then type PASSAGES
(CR).









PASSAGES                                                             2

OBJECTIVE

    The purpose of this program is simple - to make studying for your
FAA private pilots airplane exam easy and fun.

TITLE SCREEN

    After you have started the program, the first thing you will see
is the program title screen.  The computer displays this screen and
then loads some necessary information from the disk.  In a couple
seconds, the computer will be ready and ask you to press the enter
key.


CHOICES

    The computer will now ask us if we want to play with or without
questions.  Most of the time, we will want to choose option #1.  With
option #1, we can change the game to one without questions at any
time, but if we choose option #2, we cannot get any questions from the
program.

    If you have chosen option #1, a game with questions, the computer
will now ask you for the subject of the questions.  Choice #1 to #6
will allow you to concentrate on a certain subject, while choice #7
means the computer will choose the question subjects at random.


SCREEN LAYOUT AND GAME MOVEMENT

    The figures and tables refered to in the questions, are not
included with this program.  To answer many of these questions, it is
very necessary to have these figures and tables to refer to.  You can
go to your local airports FBO (flight school) and purchase a copy
of the FAA questions for the private pilot written exam and use the
included figures.  The cost is usually around $12.95.

    From the screen sample to the             Screen Sample
right, you can get a good idea of   ┌────────────────────────────────┐
where everything is located.  In    │ ┌─────────────┐┌─────────────┐ │
this section, we will take each     │ │             ││             │ │
screen portion and discuss them     │ │             ││     3-D     │ │
one at a time.                      │ │     MAP     ││             │ │
                                    │ │             ││     VIEW    │ │
    MAP                             │ │             ││             │ │
                                    │ └─────────────┘└─────────────┘ │
    This is the overhead view of    │         MESSAGE LINES          │
where you are and where you have    │  ────────────────────────────  │
been.  You are marked on this map   │MSG1        INVENTORY       MSG2│
by an arrow.  The direction the     │                                │
arrow is pointing, is the direction │COST         PERCENT        CASH│
that you are looking in the 3-D     └────────────────────────────────┘
view window.  During play, your
keyboard arrow keys actually are operating this arrow on the map.
There is only one way for the arrow to move from the square that it is
in, by pressing the up arrow key.  The other three arrow keys just
change the direction that the arrow is pointing.  The left arrow key
turns the arrow on the map ninty degrees to the left, the right arrow
key turns the arrow on the map ninty degrees to the right and the down
arrow key turns the map arrow completely around.




PASSAGES                                                             3

    Each room you are in, is marked on the map by a white square.
Each doorway is marked by a pair of parallel lines.  Rooms with
vending machines or sleeping facilities, are marked by a special color
so that you can find them quickly if necessary.


    3-D VIEW

    Consider yourself looking into a room.  You are looking at a three
dimensional view on a two dimensional surface.  This requires a little
imagination.  Remember that the direction of this view is the same as
the direction the arrow is pointing on your map.  If you keep this in
mind as you walk through the hallways, you won't get turned around
quite so easily.  Just try to put yourself into the room and walk
through it as you would walk through any room in your house.  Keep in
mind that the up arrow on your keyboard will move you forward into the
next room that you see in the distance.  The other three keyboard
arrow keys just change the direction that you are facing in the room,
they do not move you to a new room.

    When we start this program, we are facing east.  Looking at the
3-D view section of the screen, we can see into the neighboring room.
If you look, you can see that the neighboring room has two doorways in
it, one on the east wall and one on the north wall.  We cannot go
through those doors yet because the are still in the first room.
Notice that the lines differentiate between different rooms in the
same chamber or hallway.  So, in order to progress across a chamber or
down a hallway you must actually jump from square to square.  To get
to the next room (in the direction that we are facing) we simply press
the up arrow on the keyboard.  If we push the right or left arrows on
the keyboard, we find that we have turn ourselves ninty degrees and
are facing a different direction in the chamber or hallway.  Pressing
the down arrow turns us around completely.

    Take some time to experiment.  Always use the map and the 3-D view
together to travel through the "Passages".  You will quickly get
comfortable with the method of travel in this game.  Remember, you
cannot go through walls or unopened doors.

    MESSAGE LINES

    This screen section will tell you any options you may have, or
information that may be necessay to the room that you are in.

    MSG1 & MSG2

    These two sections are reserved for very important messages that
are necessary to your continued health in the game.  Primarily, they
will tell you when you are getting hungry and need to eat, or tired
and need to sleep.

    INVENTORY

    Before you can go through the exit, there are six things that you
either have to do or collect throughout the maze of hallways.  This
screen section keeps track of what you have collected.








PASSAGES                                                             4

    COST

    When, in the game, you encounter a situation that requires money,
the amount required will be displayed here.

    PERCENT

    If you are playing the game with questions, you will not be able