POWERPLAY
THE GAME OF THE GODS

CONTENTS

1.  The Game of the Gods            ... 1
2.  Loading the Program             ... 2
3.  Playing Options                 ... 2
4.  How to 'POWERPLAY'              ... 3
5.  Sound and Speech                ... 8
6.  Summary of Game Controls        ... 9
7.  Compiling your own Questions    ... 10


1.  THE GAME OF THE GODS

Upon the heights of Mount Olympus, the mighty gods are once again
arguing over which of them is the wisest and most powerful. To settle
the quarrel, Zeus has decided that each should compete in a battle of
sheer wit and speed he has devised, to be called the POWERPLAY.

A special courtyard in the gardens of the Temple of Apollo has been
selected as the arena for the competition.

To avoid personal injury, each god will have at his disposal four
warriors to fight the battle according to his commands. Throughout the
contest, the gods will be tested on their knowledge of the universe,
having to respond quickly and correctly to make best use of their
warriors. The better a god responds, the wiser he becomes, and he may
use stronger warriors. The four grades of warrior he may use are, in
order of strength:

HERCULES -	A mere mortal. The weakest, but nevertheless a strong
			character.

CYCLOPS	 -	A huge one-eyed giant possessing the strength of many men.

MINOTAUR -	A powerful monster, half man and half bull with great
			physical strength.

SATYR    -	The most evil and powerful, half man and half goat. A demon
			of the woodland with great mystical ability.

By using the resources available to them, these warriors will fight
bravely to the death for their masters. The battle with rage until only
one god remains with any warriors in the courtyard. Having managed to
win the conflict by creating the strongest warriors, only this god may
claim the title of 'Wisest and Most Powerful God of All'


2.  LOADING THE PROGRAM

The disc supplied can be used with either a 40 track or a double sided
80 track disc drive. It is not possible to backup this disc.

After inserting the disc, press the SHIFT and BREAK keys simultaneously
to load the POWERPLAY title page. This will illustrate the POWERPLAY
characters and will run continuously until SPACE is pressed to begin the
game.


3.  PLAYING OPTIONS

Before play starts, you will be asked to select the number of players
competing and the difficulty level of the game. There may be two, three
or four players. The difficulty level determines the time allowed to
answer each question and may range from 10 seconds on level one to 2.5
seconds on level four.

Each player will then be asked to select which input device they wish to
use throughout the game. More than one player may use the same device
and can choose between the keyboard or one of two joysticks (if these
are connected).

The current player selecting a device is highlighted. By pressing SPACE
a player may cycle through the options and should press RETURN when the
selection has been made. The game will not play correctly if a device is
selected which is not available on your computer.

When all selections have been made, press ESCAPE to commence play.


4.  HOW TO 'POWERPLAY'

4.1 Outline of the game

Each player begins the game with four pieces, three Hercules and one
Cyclops, located in one corner of the courtyard. Each player's pieces
are distinguished by the following characteristic colours.

        ------------------
        PLAYER 1      BLUE
        PLAYER 2       RED
        PLAYER 3     GREEN
        PLAYER 4    YELLOW
        ------------------

The object of the game is to eliminate your opponents' pieces from the
courtyard.

Players take turns to select one of their pieces and answer a question
which will appear at the bottom of the screen. If the question is
answered incorrectly, play will pass to the next player. If the correct
answer is given, a number of points will be added to that piece's wisdom
score. The player may then move the piece onto any free adjacent square
to end the turn.

If after answering correctly enough points have been accumulated, the
player if given the opportunity to change the piece into one of greater
strength by means of a 'mutation'.

Moving a piece onto a square occupied by an opponent will invoke a
'challenge'. The piece losing the challenge will be mutated down to a
lower strength level or eliminated from the game.


4.2 Selecting a Piece

When prompted, a player may select a piece.

The current player and piece number will be indicated on the base of the
left hand statue. The current piece will also be shown bouncing up and
down on its square. The strength level and wisdom score of this piece
are indicated on the base of the right hand statue.

The current player may cycle through his pieces by pressing SPACE on the
keyboard or moving the joystick up or down. Having selected a piece, the
player must press RETURN on the keyboard or press the FIRE button on the
joystick to receive a question.

It is not possible to select a piece which has no free adjacent squares
to move onto after answering the question.


4.3 Answering a Question

The square on the courtyard are divided into four colours corresponding
to the following areas:

    COLOUR          SUBJECT
    --------------------------------------
    BLUE            GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
    RED             SPORTS AND LEISURE
    GREEN           SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    YELLOW          HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY
    --------------------------------------

The question will be presented on a scroll which will appear on the lower
portion of the screen. The subject of the question is determined by the
colour of the square occupied by the selected piece. The difficulty of
the question is determined by the strength of the selected piece as
follows:-

    PIECE           QUESTION DIFFICULTY
    -----------------------------------
    HERCULES        1 (EASY)
    CYCLOPS         2
    MINOTAUR        3
    SATYR           4 (HARD)
    -----------------------------------

Four possible answers will be presented with the question. These are
arranged around a cross in the centre of the scroll. If using the
keyboard, the player may select an answer by pressing the appropriate
arrow key. If using a joystick, the answer can be chosen by moving the
joystick in the appropriate direction.

If the selected answer is correct, points will be added to the wisdom
score of the piece. The more time taken to answer, the less points will
be added. The player may then move his piece, or if over 25 wisdom
points have been accumulated, will be given the option to mutate to the
next player.


4.4 Moving a Piece

A piece may be moved onto any free neighbouring square by moving the
joystick in the desired direction and pressing the fire button, or by
using the appropriate direction key shown in the table below:

    KEY             DIRECTION
    -----------------------------
    ;               BACK
    .               FORWARD
    X               LEFT
    C               RIGHT
    A               BACK-LEFT
    Z               FORWARD-RIGHT
    /               FORWARD-LEFT
    :               BACK-RIGHT
    -----------------------------

A piece may not be moved off the board or onto a square occupied by a
piece belonging to the same player. Moving onto a square occupied by an
opponent's piece will invoke a challenge.

There are four magical squares in the courtyard which are coloured cyan.
These are known as 'teleport' squares Moving a piece onto one of these
squares will cause it to disappear and reappear on any of the four
teleport squares, including itself. These squares may thus be used for
rapidly crossing the board or to escape an impending challenge. However,
since the piece may reappear on the same square, this is not a foolproof
method of escape.

A piece will not reappear on a teleport square which is already occupied
by another piece.


4.5 Mutations

If after answering a question correctly, a piece of strength level one
to three has accumulated a score of 25 wisdom points or more the option
to mutate to high strength level will be given.

The player may choose t postpone mutation to a later move, in which case
the piece may be moved as described in the previous section.

If a mutation is desired, it can be initiated by pressing SPACE on the
keyboard. If using a joystick, the FIRE button must be pressed with the
joystick centred. After a mutation, 25 wisdom points will be deducted
from the piece.

Having mutated the piece, the player may then continue to move it onto a
new square in the manner previously described.

The advantage of mutating a piece to a high level is that it can
withstand more challenge defeats before eventually being eliminated. The
disadvantage is that the subject matter of the questions presented becomes
more difficult.


4.6 Challenges

To invoke a challenge, a player must attempt to move his piece onto a
square already occupied by an opponent.

A challenge consists of two players competing against each other to
answer the same question. The challenge question will be set on a random
subject and at the difficulty level of the stronger piece contending.

The contesting players will be informed which pieces they should use to
answer the challenge question. If the keyboard is the only device
available, one player will be allocated the arrow keys to use as normal
and the other will be allocated an alternative set of keys. This set of
keys should be used if a player is allocated 'KEYBOARD 2'. They are
arranged in a similar pattern to the arrow keys as follows:

    KEY         DIRECTION
    ---------------------
    Q           UP
    W           DOWN
    1           LEFT
    2           RIGHT
    ---------------------

The challenge question will not be presented until both players have
indicated that they are prepared to answer. This is done by pressing the
FIRE button on a joystick or SPACE on a keyboard.

When the question is presented, both players must attempt to answer as
quickly as possible. The player answering first wins the challenge if
the correct answer is given, but loses the challenge of the wrong answer
is given. If neither player manages to answer within the time limit the
challenger will be penalised by losing the challenge.

The piece belonging to the player losing the challenge is mutated down a
level of strength, with no wisdom points being restored in the process.
If the piece is already on the lowest strength level, it will be
eliminated from the game. The stronger pieces thus run a lower risk in a
challenge situation.

If the piece being challenged is eliminated, the challenging piece will
move onto its square. Otherwise, both pieces will remain on their current
squares.


5.  SOUND AND SPEECH

The program makes use of the sound facilities offered by your
microcomputer. In addition, BBC owners with an Acorn Computer speech
synthesis unit fitted are able to enjoy the inclusion of speech in the
program.

If you wish to inhibit the sound effects and speech at any point in the
title program or the game itself then this can be achieved by pressing
the 'O' key. To re-enable the sound and speech press the 'S' key.


6.  SUMMARY OF GAME CONTROLS

Selecting Options

    SELECT PLAYER   RETURN
    SELECT DEVICE   SPACE
    START GAME      ESCAPE

Sound

    ENABLE SOUND    S
    DISABLE SOUND   O

Game Controls
                      Keyboard        Joystick
SELECT PIECE          SPACE         UP/DOWN
CONFIRM PIECE         RETURN        FIRE while centred
MUATE                 SPACE         FIRE while centred
MOVE BACK               ;           FIRE while UP
MOVE FORWARD            .           FIRE while DOWN
MOVE LEFT               X           FIRE while LEFT
MOVE RIGHT              C           FIRE while RIGHT
MOVE BACK-LEFT          A           FIRE while UP-LEFT
MOVE BACK-RIGHT         :           FIRE while UP-RIGHT
MOVE FORWARD-LEFT       /           FIRE while DOWN-LEFT
MOVE FORWARD-RIGHT      Z           FIRE while DOWN-RIGHT

Answering Questions

                        KEYBOARD    KEYBOARD 2  JOYSTICK
CHOOSE LEFT ANSWER      LEFT ARROW      1       LEFT
CHOOSE RIGHT ANSWER     RIGHT ARROW     2       RIGHT
CHOOSE TOP ANSWER       UP ARROW        Q       UP
CHOOSE BOTTOM ANSWER    DOWN ARROW      W       DOWN


7.  COMPILING YOUR OWN QUESTIONS

7.1 Introduction

There are over two thousand questions supplied with POWERPLAY which we
believe will keep you playing for quite a while. However, you may
eventually wish to compile your own questions, so a facility has been
provided to allow you to do this.

Your questions should be prepared using a word processor such as View,
or Wordwise. If you have access to neither of these programs, any
wordprocessor that stores text in a reasonably standard way will
probably work.

Having prepared your question file, it must be processed by 'THE QUESTION
COMPILER' to create a file directly useable by the game. This file will
be given a filename of the form 'd.TOPICt' where d represents the
difficulty level, and t the topic number of your questions. The game
will only operate correctly if all 16 files (i.e. 4 difficulty levels x 4
topic numbers) are present on the drive. If you do not wish to replace
all of these files you should copy any unchanged files from the main
disc.

7.2 Question Format

When you prepare your questions, the files you create must adhere to
these guidelines:

a)  Topic Title

This must be on the first non-blank line of the file. It is the message
that will be printed during the game after a piece has been selected. It
gives a forewarning of the subject matter of the question before the
question itself is displayed, for example 'HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY' You are
not restricted to four subjects that the supplied question files use.
The length of his title is restricted to 22 characters.

b)	The Question

On the next line should be the first question. It must be no longer than
76 characters. Due to the way the questions are centred on the screen,
this limit may be slightly less if you use long words. The question MUST
end with a question mark.

c)  Answer Indicator

The next line should contain a letter between A and D and nothing else.
This indicates which of the following four answers is correct. A
indicates that the first answer is correct, B the second, and so on.

d)  The Answers

The next four lines contain the four possible 'answers' to the question,
only one being the correct answer. The first two answers correspond to
the 'left' and 'right' answers, and should be no longer than 18
characters long. The second two correspond to the 'up' and 'down'
answers, and may be up to 38 characters long.

e)  More Questions

Subsequent questions should begin on the first non-blank line following
the answers to the previous question.

f)  Character Set

Any upper or lower case letter and any numeric character may be used in
the question files. The only additional characters which may be used are
the question mark, full stop, comma, apostrophe or percentage sign. Any
lower case letters will be converted to uppercase by the compiler
program. Blank lines and extra spaces can be inserted at will and are
ignored when the file is converted.


Sample Question File

CARTOON CHARACTERS

WHICH OF THESE IS NOT A WALT DISNEY CHARACTER?
B
MICKEY MOUSE
PINK PANTHER
DONDAND DUCK
GOOFY

WHAT IS MICKEY MOUSE'S GIRLFRIEND CALLED?
D
MAVIS
MOLLY
MILLIE
MINNIE
    etc...


7.3 The Question Compiler

This program is supplied on the disc in addition to the game itself. Its
function is to convert the file prepared on a wordprocessor into a form
useable by the game. After loading the title page as usual, press the
'C' key to use the compiler.

Once the compiler has loaded, remove the main disc, and insert the one
you want the compiled question files on. If you are using 80 track
drives, the compiled files will be put onto drive 2, otherwise they will
be put onto drive 0. If you use a single drive system, the uncompiled
files will need to be on the same disc.

When compiling a file, the program will ask for the name of the file the
prepared questions on. Don't forget to indicate the drive it is on
using ':D.' at the start of the filename, where 'D' is the drive number.
The program will assume drive 2 for 80 track drives, and drive 0 for 40
track drives, so this may be omitted in some cases.

Assuming the file was found you will be asked for its topic number. This
determines which colour square a piece must land on to receive a question
from the file:

    TOPIC NUMBER        SQUARE COLOUR
    ---------------------------------
        1               BLUE
        2               RED
        3               GREEN
        4               YELLOW
    ---------------------------------

You will then be asked for its difficulty level. This determines how
strong a piece should be to receive a question from the file:

    DIFFICULTY LEVEL    PIECE
    ----------------------------
           1            HERCULES
           2            CYCLOPS
           3            MINOTAUR
           4            SATYR
    ----------------------------

The question file will now be converted. Any errors in the file will be
reported, and will usually result in the offending question being
discarded. Filing system errors will cause the conversion to be
abandoned and the created file will be deleted. If you want to pause
the conversion at any stage hold down the COPY key until the message
'PAUSED' appears, and then press SPACE to continue.


7.4 Using The New Questions

To start using your questions, you should have a disc containing 16
files of the form 'd.TOPICt'. These must be on the first side of a 40
track disc or the second side of an 80 track disc.

After loading the game, change the disc for the one with your questions
on. The game will now use your new questions and display your new topic
titles as appropriate.

