Hello, "HLA Adventure" (as I call it) has been updated to version 3.40. Here are the websites where you may obtain the game (w/ source): http://members.tripod.com/~panks/hlaadv.html and http://www.geocities.com/dunric/westfront.html Written in Randall Hyde's HLA (High Level Assembly) language, this adventure game utilizes my previous "Westfront PC: The Trials of Guilder" gaming engine for room descriptions, inventory items, battle sequences, and items/monsters. My ultimate intention was for others to eventually contribute to this project. That being said, as of May 14, 2003 I am releasing "HLA Adventure" (as I call it) into the Public Domain. The source code is included for others who wish to add to the game as time goes on. As the game is expanded, quests will be added, additional rooms designed and implemented, as well as further items, armor and equip- ment as seen fit by the person(s) contributing to the project. The current distribution (version 3.40) includes over 249 rooms, 27 items, 9 quests and 36 monsters. Future versions (planned) will include: 1. Additional Quests - either similar or dissimilar to those in "Westfront PC" and other games. 2. More monsters - probably around 40 or so (added soon) 3. More equipment - this depends on if the need is there 4. More rooms - certainly this will be addressed Note: Typing "credits" at the game prompt will uncover an easter egg. :) Sometimes it is possible to trip up the parser by entering in verbs it does not recognize. The fault lies with 'str.index', which looks for the instance of a word or words no matter their location within a string. Thus, it is possible to type "south go" and still "go south". I am currently working on a better solution for the parser. Currently, "HLA Adventure" works on Windows 95,98,Me,NT/2000, XP and Linux/Red Hat/SuSe/Fedora Core. Using the console libraries introduced by Mark de Wever at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aoaprogramming/ Linux users will thus be able to compile "HLA Adventure" on their system (after compiling the source files with Randy Hyde's HLA program). It should be noted that a compiled version for Linux is already included with this archive. The hlaadv.hla source code compiles with the Gas assembler under Linux, and FASM/MASM/NASM under Windows (check Randy Hyde's HLA website for more details). Information on Randy Hyde's HLA can be found at: http://webster.cs.ucr.edu/ Enjoy, and send bug fixes, contributions, and comments to: dunric@yahoo.com Mark de Wever, Frank Kotler and others have also contributed ideas, code, code modifications, and additional core program content to "HLA Adventure". Files included are: HLAADV.EXE - This is the main program, for Windows. Click on it to play. WEST06.ELF - This is the main program, for Linux. Run in "xterm" console. HLAADV.HLA - This is the source for HLA Adventure. Use HLA versions above 1.48. HLAADV.ASM - This is the partial assembly source for HLA Adventure. HLAADV.Z5 - This is an Inform version of HLA Adventure. From version 3.20. HLAADV.TXT - This is the file you are now reading. ------------------------ Installing under Linux ------------------------ Under Linux, install hlaadvlx.tar.gz using the "tar" and "gzip" utilities. They should be readily available under most distros of Linux. If not, find them here: Tar: http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/tar.html Gzip: http://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/gzip.html Running HLA Adventure under xterm: The examples given below use "$" to designate the xterm command prompt. It may differ on your machine. On mine, it is usually a "$" prompt. On others, it may be a "#" prompt. This is common with the Bash shell used frequently under Linux. For the purposes of this example, I will denote an xterm "command prompt" with the "$" character. First, make sure you are in the /usr/ directory. Next, create a directory named "hlaadv" below: $ mkdir hlaadv Now that the directory has been created, change to it below: $ cd /usr/hlaadv The very next thing you should do is copy "hlaadvlx.tar.gz" from where you downloaded it from to the newly created directory. For example, I saved my copy of HLA Adventure to my floppy drive: $ cp /mnt/floppy/hlaadvlx.tar.gz /usr/hlaadv Next, extract hlaadvlx.tar.gz using gzip first, followed by tar: $ gzip -d hlaadvlx.tar.gz $ tar -xvf hlaadvlx.tar This should extract West06, the main file, along with the source code (West06.hla), and other assembly-realted files (West06.asm, etc.) To run, type: $ West06 A console window with HLA Adventure should immediately open. Follow the prompts on screen to begin playing. You are also presented with a "Plot Introduction" screen, whereby the goals of the game are out- lined. Finally, the screen just before play begins asks you if you wish to resume a saved game. Enter "y" for yes, or "n" for no, followed by pressing the "Enter" key. If you need help during gameplay, type: help at the game prompt. ------------------------ Installing under Windows ------------------------ HLA Adventure runs on Windows machines from Windows 95 on through Windows XP Professional. It does not run on Windows 3.11 or below, and it won't work under MS-DOS. To install HLA Adventure under Windows, use either Winzip or another extracting utility (such as ZipCentral) to open the archive. Then extract the files to the directory "hlaadv". If the directory does not exist, make sure to create it or have Winzip or ZipCentral do it for you. Next, browse to the "My Computer" icon on your Windows desktop and double click it. Browse to the directory in which you installed HLA Adventure and double click that, too. It should open up, displaying several files, including "Hlaadv". This should be an icon of an application window (unless your settings are different, in which case it may be some other similar type of icon). If you are unsure, right- click the file, and select Properties. It should say "Application" under the "Type of File" heading. Double click on "Hlaadv" to play the adventure. It should open in a console window. Following the onscreen prompts as needed. Type "help" at the game prompt for commands used during gameplay. ---------- Misc. Info ---------- Also, make sure that the console window is set to 80 Width and 25 Height. In Windows, you can apply this by right-clicking the console window and selecting "Properties". Then click on the "Layout" tab and make sure that "Screen Buffer Size" is set to "80" Height and "25" width. The game displays an "info bar" at the top of the screen (two lines each), and this should stay in place so long as the console window doesn't have the Screen Buffer Size beyond 80 by 25. Under "xterm" in Linux, it doesn't matter because it should default to 80 x 25 anyway. :) ------------ Contact Info ------------ If you have any questions, please e-mail me at: dunric@yahoo.com Thanks! =) Sincerely, Paul Panks dunric@yahoo.com ICQ# 12234336 11/17/2005