!\---------------------------------------------------------------------------
	
	DOWNHELP.HUG
	Help menu system for Down

	by Kent Tessman (c) 1997-1998

---------------------------------------------------------------------------\!

replace DoHelp
{
	local a = 1

	while true
	{
		menuitem[0] = "DOWN"
		menuitem[1] = "About the game"
		menuitem[2] = "Some basic commands"
		menuitem[3] = "Release history and game credits"
		menuitem[4] = "License and copyright information"
		menuitem[5] = "About the Hugo Compiler"
#ifclear BETA_TEST
		a = Menu(5, 0, a)
#else
		menuitem[6] = "Beta-testing help"
		a = Menu(6, 0, a)
#endif

		select a
		case 0
		{
			window 0
			cls
			PrintStatusline
			DescribePlace(location, true) 
			return
		}
		case 1:  Help_aboutthegame
		case 2:  Help_basiccommands
		case 3:  Help_credits
		case 4:  Help_license
		case 5:  Help_aboutHugo
#ifset BETA_TEST
		case 6:  Help_betatest
#endif
	}
}

routine Help_aboutthegame
{
	CenterTitle("ABOUT THE GAME")
	"You wake up lying on your back on a gentle slope of grass, looking
	up into the hazy blue-gray sky, with thick bluffs of trees at the
	edges of your peripheral vision.  How you got there you'll soon find
	out, and soon after that you'll find yourself in harrowing
	circumstances requiring quick thinking, decisive action, and more
	bravery than you might have thought yourself capable of.\n"
	GameTitle
	" is the interactive-fiction equivalent of a short story.  There's
	not an abundance of obstacles or successive episodes that the player
	must puzzle through in order to win.  The world of ";
	GameTitle
	" is small, and your major task--once it becomes clear--is
	relatively straightforward.\n"
	"But in no way does that mean it's going to be easy."

	"\n\I(For an idea of what's in store for you as a player of ";
	GameTitle
	", it might be worth mentioning that the criteria for the 1997
	Interactive Fiction Competition--for which the game was written--\
	suggest that it should be fully playable within two hours.)\i"
	"\n[Press a key...]";
	pause
}

routine Help_basiccommands
{
	CenterTitle("BASIC COMMANDS")
	"You can start by moving around.  Try \"go north\", \"go south\", 
	\"walk west\", \"go up\", etc. (or \"n\", \"s\", \"w\", and \"u\" 
	for short).  If there's a house in front of you, try:  \"enter 
	the house\" or \"go inside\".  A closed door might be remedied with 
	\"open the door\", and a set of stairs deserves:  \"climb the 
	stairs\".  That sort of thing.\n"
	"Additionally, you can get and drop things you might find about the 
	landscape.  Check what you're carrying with \"take inventory\" or 
	just plain \"i\".  You can examine things (using \"examine\" or 
	\"x\"), try to open them, taste them, throw them at other objects 
	or people--whatever comes to mind.  You can be as descriptive as 
	you like about where you'd like to go or what you'd like to do, 
	since the story understands everything from one-word commands to 
	complete English sentences.\n"
	"If you run into someone, try to talk to them:  \"ask Scarlett about
	Rhett\", \"Rhett, give me the pocketwatch\", \"tell Ashley to come
	here\", or anything similar.\n"
	"You can wait around--i.e., \"wait\" (or simply \"z\"), \"wait until 
	11:30\", \"wait for 10 minutes\", \"wait for (someone)\"--or, if 
	you want, repeat your last command just by typing \"again\" or 
	\"g\".  Try \"score\" to get an idea of how you're faring in terms 
	of getting close to any kind of goal.  If you make a mistake in 
	your typing, and the story complains that it doesn't know the 
	misspelled word, you may easily atone by typing \"oops\" (or \"o\") 
	followed by the properly spelled word.\n"
	"You can change the way text is displayed with \"display wide\" or 
	\"display tall\" (or just \"wide\" or \"tall\"), or \"inventory 
	wide\" or \"inventory tall\" (or just \"i wide\" or \"i tall\") 
	to list objects in either sentences or itemized lists.  Type 
	\"verbose\" or \"long\" to have the full room description displayed 
	every time you enter a room.  \"Superbrief\" or \"short\" will only 
	display the full room description if you ask for it (by typing 
	\"look\").  The default setting is \"brief\" descriptions (or 
	\"normal\"), where the full room description is displayed only
	the first time the room is entered (or when you \"look\").\n"
	"At any point in the game, you can freeze your state of affairs 
	using the \"save\" command.  You can pick up again later from this 
	same point by typing \"restore\".  A story that takes a radical 
	turn for the worse can be begun again from the beginning 
	with \"restart\".";
#ifclear NO_UNDO
	"  (And you can take back a move that, in hindsight, might not have 
	been the smartest possible thing to try by typing \"undo\".  Be 
	warned, however, that only a finite number of undos in a row is 
	allowed--you can't trace your steps all the way back to the
	beginning every time.)";
#endif
	"  Finally, you are able to start or stop recording a transcript of 
	your story with \"script on\" and \"script off\", enabling you to 
	have everything that appears on the screen to be copied to your 
	printer or to disk."
	"\n[Press a key...]";
	pause
}

routine Help_credits
{
	CenterTitle("RELEASE HISTORY AND GAME CREDITS")
	"\B\UCredits\b\u\n"
	GameTitle(1)
	"\n was written by Kent Tessman for the 1997 Interactive Fiction
	Competition.  Thanks to Julian Arnold for some ridiculously last-\
	minute playtesting.  Thanks also to Paul O'Brian, Jason Dyer, 
	Stuart Allen, and Brent VanFossen for their contest reactions
	and comments, and to Alan MacDonald for further post-contest 
	playtesting."
	"\nPlease send bug reports to \I<kent@generalcoffee.com>\i."

	"\n\n\B\URelease history\b\u"
	"\n\IRelease 1 (September 1997)\i\n\
	\_     The first public release of ";
	GameTitle
	" for the 1997 Interactive Fiction Competition."
	"\n\IRelease 2 (June 1998)\i\n\
	\_     The long-overdue polishing based on contest and post-contest
	responses."
	"\n\IRelease 3 (April 1999)\i\n\
	\_     A maintenance release to fix a library bug that had been
	hanging around."
	"\n\IRelease 4 (January 2000)\i\n\
	\_     A long overdue to a bug that made the default text color
	invisible on some platforms."
	
	"\n[Press a key...]";
	pause
}

routine Help_license
{
	CenterTitle("LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION")

	print GameTitle(1)
	"Copyright (c) 1997-1998 by Kent Tessman\n"

	"\B\UHugo Compiler and Engine\b\u"
	"Copyright (c) 1995-1998 by Kent Tessman\n"
	"This game (\"";
	GameTitle
	"\") is copyright (c) 1997-1998 by Kent Tessman (the 
	author).  The author reserves all rights regarding duplication, 
	distribution, and modification of \"";
	GameTitle
	"\" or any of its parts.\n\n"

	"\B\UDistribution\b\u\n"
	"Free distribution of \"";
	GameTitle
	"\" is allowable provided that it is 
	modified in no manner and no fee is charged.\n"
	"(Similar distribution of the Hugo Compiler and Engine is also 
	allowable, given the same provisions.  Additionally, distribution 
	of programs created with the Hugo Compiler and/or using the Hugo 
	Library must correspond to the terms of use specified by the 
	author, primarily that commercial distribution of the Hugo Engine 
	or elements of the Hugo Library is prohibited without the express 
	written consent of the author.  See the Hugo Manual for more 
	details.)\n\n"

	"\B\UWarranty\b\u\n"
	color TEXTCOLOR
	"Since \"";
	GameTitle
	"\" and the Hugo Compiler and Engine are available free 
	of charge, there is no warranty whatsoever pertaining to their use."
	"\n[Press a key...]";
	pause
}

routine Help_aboutHugo
{
	CenterTitle("ABOUT THE HUGO COMPILER")
	"\BHugo\b is a language designed and written by Kent Tessman for 
	developing interactive fiction.  The system consists of the \BHugo 
	Compiler\b, which compiles source code to be run by the interpreter 
	(the \BHugo Engine\b).\n"
	"Hugo is an easy-to-learn, powerful, and flexible language.  The 
	syntax is relatively straightforward, keeping hieroglyphic syntax
	to minimum.  Hugo is relatively object-oriented, in that a program 
	consists of a number of objects representing the rooms, objects, 
	and characters that make up the landscape of the story.  Interaction 
	between these objects is governed by a set of rules, or routines, 
	that are specified by the programmer.\n"
	"A number of powerful pre-existing routines are available in the 
	\BHugo Library\b, which is a part of the standard Hugo package.  The 
	library routines are designed to manage many of the real-world 
	aspects of an interactive story, such as weight and containment 
	of objects, the presence or absence of light in a location, doors, 
	vehicles, characters, clothing, and a full complement of player 
	verb routines for moving about, getting things, examining them, 
	opening and closing them, switching them on and off, eating them, 
	drinking them, throwing them, conversing with characters, etc.  By 
	using the library, a programmer need not worry about many of the 
	more mechanical aspects of maintaining the game universe, and can 
	more quickly dive into the writing of the story proper.\n"
	"The Hugo compiler and interpreter are written in C, and the source 
	code is readily available; porting of Hugo to other computer 
	platforms is encouraged.\n"
	"Hugo is currently available via anonymous FTP from the \BInteractive 
	Fiction Archive\b maintained by Volker Blasius at \Iftp.gmd.de\i in 
	the directory \Iif-archive/programming/hugo\i.  There one may find the 
	executable versions of both the compiler and engine, as well as 
	the library files and a number of Hugo example programs.  A selection 
	of Hugo games is available under \Iif-archive/games/hugo\i.  The 
	Interaction Fiction Archive is also an excellent source of materials 
	relating to the history and development of interactive fiction.\n"  
	"Finally, current discussion of interactive fiction design in 
	general, as well as Hugo and other languages in specific, can be 
	found on the Usenet newsgroup \Brec.arts.int-fiction\b.  Discussion of 
	game play can be found on \Brec.games.int-fiction\b."
	"\n[Press a key...]";
	pause
}

#ifset BETA_TEST
routine Help_betatest
{
	CenterTitle("BETA-TESTING HELP")
	"Use the command \"$stop\" to stop the \"ticking bomb\" fuse."
	"\nE-mail bug reports to \I<kent@generalcoffee.com>\i."
	"\n[Press a key...]";
	pause
}
#endif