Welcome to Dead of Night
------------------------
Dead of Night is an adventure side-scroller based on Greek Mythology.
You play the role of Heropheles, a 23 year old native of Athens, who has
been working very hard to become a City Warrior, until one night, when
things took a twist...
Features of the DON Engine
--------------------------
* Complex four layers of parallax horizontal and vertical scrolling gives a
real depth to the game.
* An intriguing story line that seems to come from the ancient Greek
Mythology itself.
* Smooth character animation, with many different weapons, and different
ways of attacking with each weapon.
* Some of your favorite Greek Mythology monsters, including Medusa, Hydra,
Chimaera, Hades, Cereberus, Charon and many more.
* A great music soundtrack that is captivating by itself.
* A "real life simulating" game. Another words, Heropheles can't jump 6
times his height, and when he falls from 30 feet he gets hurt (and possibly
die).
* Many other "little things" that enhance game play and enjoyability.
The story so far...
-------------------
Heropheles grew up unlike most Greek children. He was very
intelligent, strong and cunning, and he knew this. Since the age of nine he
has dedicated his life to someday become a City Warrior for Athens. The City
Warriors are an elite group of people who have trained most of their life in
combat and techniques for the sole purpose of protecting their city from
outsiders. Unfortunately, a person only has one chance at the test to become
a City Warrior, however, they may take this test anytime they feel they are
ready.
Heropheles has just turned 23 years of age, and he has announced that
he shall attempt his test tomorrow. After his final day of preparation he
retires to his home early to get plenty of sleep. Sound asleep in bed,
Heropheles suddenly awakes with a startle. Hermes, the messenger of the
Gods, stands before his bed. Carrying a message from Hercules, he told
Heropheles that the God of the Underworld, Hades, was planning on reuniting
the Underworld and the Overworld together again. This would be tragic as all
chaos would break loose for those still living as they would have to live
among dead and it would create great paradoxes beyond anything plausible.
Hercules' message goes as follows:
"Heropheles, I have been studying you carefully since you have begun
your training as a warrior. You have always impressed me and I,
along with the gods and commoners, both living and dead, need your
help. Hades is planning on linking the underworld and overworld once
again. If the two worlds were brought together again this would
create udder chaos. Unfortunately, since I already belong to the
underworld, I can do nothing to prevent Hades decisions concerning
connecting the two worlds. I have sent this message to you, because
I feel that you are the most capable of those belonging to the
overworld to stop Hades. I ask you, Heropheles, to follow Hermes to
the underworld, to find Hades and force him to stop his plans."
Slightly stunned from the timing that Hades has (Heropheles just
wanted to be rested for his test) he knew what he had to do, so he followed
Hermes to a small pool of water near the base of Mount Olympus. At exactly
midnight they both jumped in and came up in the Underworld. Hermes then
handed Heropheles 2 gold coins and told him that he could help no longer and
Zeus was waiting on the other side of the gates to talk. Here is where your
journey begins, good luck...
Installation
------------
Installation comes in two different flavors depending on which type
of media Dead of Night is on:
3.5" Disk Version:
To install Dead of Night from floppy, follow these easy steps:
1) Insert the first disk (Labeled Disk 1) into your floppy drive
2) Change to that drive with the command A: (If your floppy drive is B,
then use B: throughout these examples.
3) Run the installation program by typing INSTALL at the DOS Prompt
4) In the install program you may select a different drive and directory to
install Dead of Night to. If the installation program shows the error
"Error Reading Drive x ..." select either (I)gnore or (F)ail to continue
(this is due to no CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive). If the installation
program doesn't allow you to select a drive, this is because there is
not enough free space on that drive.
5) Follow the directions given to you by the install program to install
Dead of Night.
6) After installation is complete you will be immediately taken into the
Sound Card setup program. Here you are to select the digital and midi
drivers for your sound card. If you have no sound card you must select
"No Sound" from the menu options.
7) Installation is now complete.
8) Type DON to run the game.
CD-ROM Version:
To install Dead of Night from a CD-ROM disc, follow these easy steps:
1) Insert the Dead of Night CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive.
2) Change to your CD-ROM drive with the DOS Prompt.
3) Run the installation program by typing INSTALL at the DOS Prompt
4) In the install program you may select a different drive and directory to
install Dead of Night to. If the installation program doesn't allow you to
select a drive, this is because there is not enough free space on that
drive.
5) Follow the directions given to you by the install program to install
Dead of Night.
6) After installation is complete you will be immediately taken into the
Sound Card setup program. Here you are to select the digital and midi
drivers for your sound card. If you have no sound card you must select
"No Sound" from the menu options.
7) Installation is now complete.
8) Type DON to run the game.
(Note: If you for any reason have problems with the CD-ROM installation, a
complete copy of the game is on the CD-ROM in the /DON directory. Use the
DOS XCOPY, making sure you use the /s parameter, to copy the CD-ROM to your
harddrive.)
Controls
--------
The following is a list of keyboard commands to navigate Heropheles through
the Underworld:
Key Action
---------------------------------------------
and move Heropheles left and right
+ "ALT" makes Heropheles jump real high
makes Heropheles crouch. Pressing or while crouching
causes Heropheles to crouch and walk.
"CTRL" A normal attack: (note: these are the same when you are
crouching except that you punch instead of kick)
Weapon Attack
====== ======
none kick
sword thrust
mace side swing
whip whip
bow&arrow shoot an arrow
"ALT" regular jump
"ENTER" Use the Item currently highlighted in your inventory
"z" execute a special attack:
Weapon Attack
====== ======
none ****
sword overhead slash
mace overhead smash!
whip ****
bow&arrow ****
"x" execute a behind the back attack:
Weapon Attack
====== ======
none ****
sword Behind the Back thrust
mace Behind the Back swing
whip ****
bow&arrow ****
"c" to block with the shield (only available when you have it)
"d" drop an item currently highlighted in inventory
"p" pick up an item off the ground
"t" talk to another character
"u" use something in the level (not something from your inventory)
"[ and ]" cycle through inventory
1-5 switch weapons
F8 Load a Game
F9 Save a Game
F10 Bring Up Configuration Screen
PageUp This key is provided to give the user more life. If you die,
you may respawn yourself by using the PageUp key. Becareful
when you respawn, take care not to respawn while an enemy is
on top of you, or you will be "caught" in the enemy. It is
provided for testing purposes only, it will be removed from
the final version.
PageDown This key is provided to decrease your health. That may seem
not useful, but if you lower your health to remove all your
life, then you become invisible to the monsters, they won't
attack you. Be careful not to get hit, drowning, or falling
from a high height while doing this, you will die instantly.
It is provided for testing purposes only, it will be removed
from the final version.
Using the Joystick
------------------
If you have a joystick plugged into your game port before you run
DON you will be prompted whether you would like to calibrate the joystick for
game play. If you answer No to this then you will not be able to use the
joystick during play. If you answer Yes, then you will be prompted a series
of questions, to set the jump and attack buttons. It will then ask you to
move the joystick in a circle and press a button. After doing so you will be
allowed to use the joystick during play.
Game Configuration
------------------
It is possible to configure Dead of Night to your likeness. First
bring up the configuration screen by pressing F10. Then by using and you
can move the box to highlight either of the options. Use and to move the
slide bar to your preference. Changes will not take effect until you
highlight Back to Game and press ENTER.
Sound Effects Volume: Adjusts the volume level for the Sound Effects
Music Volume: Adjusts the volume level for the music
Background Detail: By adjusting this it is possible to make the game
run faster if you have a slower computer. This
will remove some of the background levels. Note:
You don't get everything for free, by reducing
Background Detail you lose some of the graphics,
however you do get speed.
Brightness: Adjust this if the screen is too dark or too light.
How to Load a Game
------------------
If you want to continue a previously saved game, press F8 to bring up
the "Load a Game" screen. By using the and arrows you can select which
game you would like to load. A screen shot of the game is shown as you
scroll through the games (1-9). Press "ENTER" to select the game you want to
load. Answer (Y)es or (N)o to whether you are sure or not if you want to load
the game.
How to Save a Game
------------------
If you would like to save your current game in progress, press F9 to
bring up the "Save a Game" screen. Use the and to select which slot (1-9)
you would like to save the game to. Press "ENTER" to select the slot and
enter the name of the saved game followed by pressing "ENTER". Confirm the
save game by pressing (Y)es, or to abandon the save game press (N)o.
****Take advantage of the save feature and make sure you save your game
often, especially near "hard to get through" areas.******
Item Descriptions
-----------------
The following is just a small list of what you will come across
during game play:
Small Medical Bottle- This will help restore a quarter of lost health.
Large Medical Bottle- This will help restore half of lost health.
Quiver of Arrows- This will give you 10 more arrows if you have the
Bow. You can hold a maximum of 99 arrows.
System Requirements
-------------------
Dead of Night requires a minimum of the following:
A Pentium CPU 90Mhz or greater
8 MB of available RAM
VGA Video Card
MD-DOS 6.0 or Greater
Dead of Night recommends the following configuration:
A Pentium CPU 133Mhz or greater
8 MB of available RAM for MD-DOS 6.0+
16 MB of available RAM for Windows 95 DOS Box
VGA Video Card
A SoundBlaster, Adlib, or 100% Compatible (including AWE32)
Note: Windows NT users may not be able to play Dead of Night in a DOS Box,
you need MS-DOS or Windows 95, since Dead of Night runs in DOS Protected
Mode.
How did Dead of Night come to exist?
------------------------------------
Good question! Lets try to answer that:
Locoware is a group, originally named for Nate Goudie and Mike
VanFleet's games. Eventually Jeff Slutter came and tagged along, and they
decided to work on a "much bigger" game than what they have ever made before.
Jeff came up with the original story and design, while Nate began programming.
Eventually lured into the insanity was Robert Miller for some artwork
(including the great looking cover), and Pete Sysko for the music tracks.
Jeff worked on editors for the game, Mike worked on the main editor, the level
editor, while Nate continued to slave on the main engine for the game. Things
started taking shape as some artwork and music started arriving and Nate
constantly added new features to the engine. Mike eventually finished the
level editor and the level started forming. The rest is history...
Question or Comments?
---------------------
Do you have a question or comment on the game?
Email jrs7@lehigh.edu
Technical Support
-----------------
Having a problem with installation?
Sound not playing?
Email jrs7@lehigh.edu for support.
Credits
-------
Jeff Slutter (jrs7@lehigh.edu)
-Game Design and Development, Writer, Programming and Public Relations
Nate Goudie (nsg2@lehigh.edu)
-Director, Head Programmer, Head Artist, and Level Design
Mike VanFleet (mrv2@lehigh.edu)
-Level Design, Programming
Robert Miller (mill6445@kutztown.edu)
-Artist
Pete Sysko (enfo@psu.edu)
-Music
Sal Castiglione (guardian@global2000.net)
-Sound Effects