Computer Life: Super Shareware/Computer_Life_Super_Shareware_Ziff-s_1996.iso/demos/after/tutorial.txt

Text File | 1996-01-22 | 15KB | 261 lines

CHAPTER ONE: A GREETING

    Hi.

    Welcome to the Official Cheesy Demo Version of AFTERLIFE, the game which
 will someday be known as "The Final Word in Sim Games...Literally."  Sadly, all you
 can play right now is this teeny lil' demo, with its crippled buttons,
 sparse sound effects, unpolished AI, and devastatingly evil bugs, but what do you expect
 for free?

CHAPTER TWO:  THE GOAL

    The goal of AFTERLIFE is simple:  Punish the Damned, Reward the Blessed,
 Reincarnate everyone who wants to go back, and try to turn a profit.

    How do you do that?  I'm glad you asked...

CHAPTER THREE:  THE BIG PICTURE

    If you look closely at your screen, you'll notice two planes floating in space.
 The one with all the blue rivers is Heaven; the one with all the red rivers is Hell.
 In between the two planes is a tiny little planet.  On that planet is a population of
 humanoid aliens, a population that has begun to believe in the AFTERLIFE.

     When these aliens (we call them "Ethically Mature Biological Organisms", or "EMBOs")
 die, their essences, their "Stuff Of Unending Life" (or "SOULs"), drift towards the nearest
 available Afterlife, seeking their Eternal Rewards.  Luckily for you, your little slices of
 Heaven and Hell are remarkably close to the planet.  If you can meet the various expectations
 of these SOULs, the Powers That Be (your enigmatic bosses) will pay you many Pennies From Heaven
 for your efforts.
CHAPTER FOUR:  GATES

    The first thing you'll want to do as Demiurge of this planet's Afterlife is build a GATE.

    When a SOUL first arrives in Heaven or Hell, it must "check-in" at a GATE before travelling on
 to its expected Reward and/or Punishment.  Once the SOUL's sins/virtues have been tallied by
 one of the GATE's demonic/angelic caseworkers, the GATE opens, the SOUL walks through, and the
 Powers That Be give you a couple of Pennies From Heaven for "processing" the SOUL.

    To build a GATE, left-click on the GATE Button on your Remote Control (It's on the third row down, on the left.
 A further aside:  If you right-click on just about any of the buttons, a little window will pop up,
 telling you what the button's function is.).  A window will pop up, showing you a variety of GATES
 you can choose from.  Highlight the GATE you'd like to build, and left-click your mouse.  The window
 will close, and the display at the top of your Remote Control will reflect that your are now "ZONING: GATES."
 If you move your mouse around, you'll notice that your cursor looks like a gate, and that a 3x3 shadow
 is following your cursor all over the place.

    Zoom in a couple of magnification levels (the ZOOM IN/OUT Buttons are the "magnifying glasses" buttons
 in the center of your Remote Control), and scroll to a relatively empty part of Heaven or Hell
 (it doesn't matter which realm you start in).  Move your mouse until you've found an empty spot for
 your GATE, left-click your mouse button, and let go.  If you've done everything right, you should
 see your brand new GATE, ready to receive fresh SOULs.
CHAPTER FIVE:  ROADS

    Now that you've built a GATE, it's time to lay down some ROADS.

    In order to get from place to place in the Afterlife, SOULs must walk.  In order to walk,
 they need ROADs.

    Let's build a ROAD leading outward from your GATE.  Left-click on the ROAD Button on your
 Remote Control (it's just to the right of the GATE Button), and let go.  The display on top
 of the Remote will now reflect that you're "ZONING: ROADS."  Now, scroll up to where you built
 your GATE.  Find an empty piece of astral territory right next to the GATE, and left-click your
 mouse, but don't let go.  With the mouse-button still down, drag your cursor around; a road-shaped
 shadow will follow your cursor.  When you've gotten a road shape you can live with, let go of the
 mouse button.  Now you've got a road!

CHAPTER SIX:  REWARDING AND PUNISHING

    Now that you've built a GATE and some ROAD, it's time to get about that actual business of
 Rewarding and Punishing.

    When a SOUL enters the Afterlife, it expects to be Rewarded or Punished, based on its individual
 beliefs about the nature of the Afterlife.  The Rewarding and Punishing takes place in what are
 called "FATE STRUCTURES," 'cause that's where SOULs meet their eternal "Fate."  To build a FATE
 STRUCTURE, you must first decide what sort of FATE STRUCTURE you want, then designate (or "zone")
 an empty patch of your Afterlife for that types of FATE STRUCTURE.

    In Hell, there are eight types of FATE STRUCTURES:
ENVY PUNISHMENTS
AVARICE PUNISHMENTS
GLUTTONY PUNISHMENTS
SLOTH PUNISHMENTS
LUST PUNISHMENTS
WRATH PUNISHMENTS
PRIDE PUNISHMENTS, and
GENERIC PUNISHMENTS

    In Heaven, there are eight types of FATE STRUCTURES:
CONTENTMENT REWARDS
CHARITY REWARDS
TEMPERANCE REWARDS
DILIGENCE REWARDS
CHASTITY REWARDS
PEACEFULNESS REWARDS
HUMILITY REWARDS, and
GENERIC REWARDS

    Let's do some zoning.  Left-click on the GENERIC ZONING Button on your Remote Control (it's on the second
 row down, on the right, and it's rainbow-colored), and let go.  The display on your Remote will now
 reflect the fact that you're "ZONING: GENERIC."  Scroll to where you've put down your GATE and ROAD, and
 find a nice empty piece of astral real estate next to your ROAD.  Left-click where you want to start zoning,
 but don't let go of the mouse button.  Drag your cursor around; a grey rectangle should follow your cursor
 wherever it goes.  Move your cursor around until you got a 3x3 rectangle next your road (it doesn't have to be 3x3,
 but that's a pleasant size), and let go of your mouse button.  You should now see a bunch of rainbow-colored
 tiles next to your ROAD.  Congratulations, you've just successfully Zoned for GENERIC REWARDS (or PUNISHMENTS,
 as the case may be).

    If you've been following the Tutorial diligently, you've got a GATE, some ROAD leading out from that GATE,
 and some GENERIC Zones...and nothing's happening.  That's because we've started the game with the clock turned
 off for your convenience.  Left-click on the "Global" menu at the top of your screen, and select the "Tempo"
 option.  A sub-menu will pop up, with the "Divine Intervention" option checked off.  Select the "Demonic Speed"
 option, and wait a few seconds.  Soon, various structures will begin to burble into existence.  (For future
 reference, you can pause/unpause the game by hitting your <space> bar.)

CHAPTER SEVEN:  LOST SOULS

    After a while, you may begin to notice colored "spikes" emanating from your ROAD.  These are LOST SOUL SPIKES,
 and they're a bad thing.  They signify that one or more SOULs haven't found what they're looking for in your
 Afterlife, and have moved on to other Afterlifes that can meet their needs.  Each time you lose a SOUL,
 the Powers That Be take back the Pennies they gave you when that SOUL entered your GATE, and also tack on a
 substantial "Penny Penalty" for early withdrawal.  If you lose too many SOULs, you could lose all your Pennies,
 so it's extremely important to eliminate LOST SOUL SPIKES whenever you see them.

    How do you eliminate them?  Actually, it's pretty easy.  Take a look at one of your LOST SOUL SPIKES.
  There's probably a colored ball on top of it.  The color of the ball tells you which type of FATE STRUCTURE
 the SOULs couldn't find when they became LOST SOULs (each type of FATE STRUCTURE is color-coded: ENVY and
 CONTENTMENT STRUCTURES are green, AVARICE and CHARITY are yellow, etc.).  The quickest way to accommodate
 the needs of those LOST SOULs is to click on the similarly-colored FATE STRUCTURE Button near the top of your
 Remote Control, and "zone" for that type of structure near where the SOULs are being lost.  In other words,
 zone orange for an orange spike, purple for a purple spike, and so on.

    If, after a few years, you're still getting more LOST SOUL SPIKES than you think you deserve, you might
 want to check to make sure that all of your ROADS are completely connected to each other.  R