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DARK DESIGNS III: RETRIBUTION ___________________________________________________________________ by John Carmack You have Grelminar's Staff, you have journeyed to Mount Delkeina and closed the gate, now you must seek retribution against Agamon, the creator of this madness! Top quality graphics and superb sound make this role-playing game a delight to play. WHAT IS DARK DESIGNS III? Dark Designs III is a role-playing fantasy game. Your goal is to adventure through all eight terrifying levels and bring back Agamon's head. If you haven't played Dark Designs I or Dark Designs II, and don't plan to get them (you should, they're great!), then you can create new characters. You will move them around using the arrow keys or mouse. Occasionally you will encounter a group of hostile monsters. You'd best attack them, as their sole purpose is to kill anything living that they see. They are not nice beings. You can use your weapons and spells to defeat these evil forces and forge on to defeat the evil warlord. If you like this type game but find it too hard, try Dark Designs I on Softdisk G-S #9 or Dark Designs II on Softdisk G-S #12. PLAYING DARK DESIGNS III After you press a key at the title screen, you will see a menu of choices. If you played Dark Designs I or Dark Designs II, this will be fairly familiar. For the uninitiated, let's take a look at each option. 1-4: Examine character This allows you to look at each of the four members of your party. You can examine the items or the spells they have. You can Transfer, Drop, Ready (for fighting), or Use Items. You can cast spells. C: Create character If you do not own Dark Designs I or Dark Designs II and you want your own characters, you will have to use this option. Characters have five attributes:Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, and Piety. Fighters need Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. Priests need Piety and Intelligence first, then the fighting attributes. Wizards need Intelligence foremost. You can distribute the numbers using the arrows and spacebar. Once you place the last, press RETURN and choose what kind of character you want. Then you may name your character. NOTE: Try to have two fighters, a priest, and a wizard. This seems to be the best balance. Once you create them, you can add them to the party. D: Delete a character If your character roster starts getting full, you can delete a character with this option. R: Remove a character This removes a character from the current party. A: Add a character This allows you to add a character to the current party. H: Heal a character If you have the money, you can heal characters at the local temple. Sometimes the characters will be so bad off that the only people that can help them are at the temple. E: Equip a character You can go to the equipment shop to buy or sell equipment. NOTE: You must buy equipment for your character before you begin the adventure. If you don't, your party will go naked and weaponless into battle--not the smartest plan of attack. After equipping them, press each character's number (1-4), go into the Items menu and Ready their equipment. Fighters need a weapon, shield (unless the weapon requires two hands to wield), and armor. Priests need the same, but can't use pointed weapons. Wizards can only wear leather armor (they need to gesture a lot), and usually use a staff. T: Transfer a party If you finished Dark Designs II, you can transfer your characters from that scenario to this one. You can transfer from Softdisk #109, Softdisk G-S #12, or wherever you have copied the game. You will need to know the exact pathname if your Dark Designs II is not on your Softdisk disk. L: Learn spells You can learn (read "buy") spells. Your priest or wizard will be taken to the appropriate spell shop. Each has eight spells to offer. Wizard Spells Magic Missile: shoots a bolt of energy at a monster Speed: gives a player great dexterity for a while Strength: improves a player's strength for a while Stun: paralyzes a monster temporarily Lightning Bolt: zaps a monster with a big lightning bolt Fireball: blasts a column of monsters with fiery force Flame Strike: blasts all monsters with critter-crisping fire Death Ray: convinces most monsters to shuffle off this mortal coil Mark: (found on a scroll in the adventure) this spell marks a spot to which you can teleport to later Teleport: (found in the adventure) instantly transports you to the 'mark' you made with the mark spell. Priest Spells Cure Light: heals a character of some damage Dispel Undead: commands magically animated dead creatures to begone in God's will Bless: protects the player from attacks Cure Serious: heals a character of serious damage Death's Door: heals a knocked-out character to consciousness Banishment: tells evil beings to go take a hike Word of Recall: moves the party from big danger back to town Cureall: heals a character completely (unless they are dead) It is wise to accrue all of these spells. Q: Quit and Save position This quits the game and saves the state of your party. W: Enter the Castle INSIDE THE CASTLE When wandering around the Castle, you will have four windows full of information. The upper left window presents a 3-D view of the hallway you are in (spiffy graphics courtesy of Laura Malone). You can use the mouse to move around by clicking at the top, left, right and bottom of that window. The top and bottom are forward and turn around respectively, and left and right are rather nicely equivalent to left and right. When you look at a character (by pressing 1 through 4), the character info will appear in this window. When you are attacked by monsters, an overhead view of the melee will appear in this window. The upper right window contains the automatic map. Wherever you have explored will be automatically mapped for you. When you are attacked by monsters, their numbers will be displayed here. Across the center of the screen is the information window. A text description of the area you are in will be here, as well as information and prompts during an encounter. At the bottom of the screen is the character status window, showing each character's name, body points, spell points, and class. COMMANDS IN THE CASTLE You can use the arrows keys to move around, or IJKL, or click on the 3-D window. Press S to search the wall in front of you for a secret door. Press Q to quit and save the game where you are. ENCOUNTERS When a group of monsters attacks, you can Fight or Run away. If you run away, you will move back to the square you were in. If you fight, each character can choose to Attack, cast a Spell, Use an Item, move Forward to the front line, or drop to the Back of the party. If the character doesn't want to do any of these, press the SPACEBAR to pass the turn. Once all characters have chosen you have one last chance to change your course of action. The fight continues until a) the monsters are defeated, b) you are defeated, c) you cast a Word of Recall, or d) you run away. If you are victorious you will get either a) gold, b) an item, or c) nothing. Regardless of which you receive, you'll get experience points, which go toward you character improving his or her body and spell points. SOME TIPS ON PLAYING DARK DESIGNS III ? Never let your cleric get too low in hit or spell points. If you need to get out quickly, they are your only hope. (Unless you have wisely purchased a Recall Scroll....) ? Cure Light is a pretty good spell, as the higher level the caster, the better it heals, and it only takes one spell point. Save the other healing spells for heavy combat. ?A speed ring on a Wizard is a joy to behold. (He almost always casts first.) A Cleric with a speed ring is helpful, also. He can heal characters before the monsters get to attack him or cast Word of Recall before the party can be mauled. RESTOCKING You can restock the game so someone else can start from scratch by pressing Control-R when the colorful title screen appears. All characters that have not brought back Agamon's head will be deleted. You have been warned! COPYING DARK DESIGNS III Select "File Copier" from the File menu (or just press Open-Apple-F) to run the copying program. Click on "Dark Designs III" and select the disk you'd like to copy it to.