A.C.E. 3/ACE CD 3.iso/files/docs/timekedo.lha/TimeKeepers.doc

Text File | 1995-06-26 | 11.0 KB | 228 lines

                    H E L L F I R E     P R E S E N T S

Full documentation to Timekeepers!

typed by IGGY/HF

THE PLOT

Welcome to the world of the 4th dimension.

Due to recent technological advances which have provided many successful
devices for time travel, on the 5th January 2071 the Earth government
established a fully trained expendable law enforcement group called
                              TIMEKEEPERS.
An elite police force whose sole task is to protect the Earth from mishap and
misadventure and to prevent abuse of this precious dimension.

We join them soon after Seymour, the TIMEKEEPERS commander has received
valuable information concerning the antics of a psychotic warlord named
Wilhelm whose hatred of Earthlings has once more resulted in yet another
attempt to destroy the Earth`s evolutionary superiority by placing nuclear
devices in various time zones of Earth`s history.

THE RESOLUTION

Seymour has selected 4 seperate platoons to travel back to the Time Zones of
Hieronymus Land 2 million BC, Medieval land 1245, Vietnam Land 1966 and
Space Land 2001 in order to locate and disarm the nuclear devices.

Prepare to undertake the position of ultimate responsibility for it is your
task to guide these brave soldiers through 15 treacherous levels in each Time
Zone successfully locating all the Teleporter pods and eventually disarming
the nuclear devices that threaten these fragments of history.

as our destiny is in your hands the following pages are completely dedicated
to the provision of as much information as necessary to help to help you
complete the task as time can be a very unpredictable place.

TECHNICAL INITIATIONS

PLAYING FROM FLOPPY

Switch on your computer and your monitor, at the disk prompt insert disk 1.
Please insure disk 2 is not write protected.

INSTALLING ON HARD DRIVE

Boot your system in the normal manner, insert disk 1 into your floppy drive.
Double click on the disk icon to reveal the contents. Drag the TIMEKEEPERS
icon and the VULCAN icon into any draw on your hard drive. Repeat this
procedure with disk 2. Remove all floppy disks and simply double click on the
TIMEKEEPERS icon to play the game.

THE CHOICE SCREEN

After watching the credit sequence (which can be speeded along by holding
down the left mouse button) you will eventually be faced with three options,
each option can be accessed by a click of the left mouse button on the
appropriate icon.
The icon of the Reel of film allows you to watch the introduction animation,
when it is finished it will bring you backto the Choice scree. The icon of
the chess Board allows you to plat TIMEKEEPERS from the very beginning. The
icon of the floppy disk allows you to load in a previously saved position
from disk 2. Obviouslty if this is your first time playing TIMEKEEPERS then
this should not be used until you have eventually saved a position.

THE REGENERATOR DEVICE

Platoon 1 comprising of 14 government soldiers anxiously climb onto the
Regenerator device. Effortlessly their appearance is electronically
transformed into the relevant identity of their selected Time Zone enabling
them to blend into their new environment and not distort the fragments of
culture.

They know they will never be coming back but if they fail in their mission
there will be nothing to come back to. Warp transmitters are locked and
ignited with precision, in a flash of neon they are instantly transported
into their new world, a world of distorted morals.

The TIMEKEEPERS Electronic monitoring device is their only clue to what lies
ahead, what perils they will face and exactly how many soldiers will be
required to disarm Wilhelm`s neclear devices.

THE ACTION AREA

The 14 strong platoon is instantly teleported into the relevant Time Zones
main Action Area in the middle of the display screen. it is here where the
platoon will do their utmost to obey your commands, avoid death, threatening
incidents, strategically venture through disorientating and puzzling terrain
and eventually be transported through 15 Teleporter Pods to reach the nuclear
devices.

The Action area is quite long but can be viewed in it`s entirety by moving
the mouse indicator into one of the two Scrolling Zones located at the very
top and very bottom of the display screen.

This will scroll the Action Area up or down in the relevant direction
allowing you to focus on your desired section of the Action Area.

TIME ZONES PLAQUES AND MONITORS

At the very top of the display screen you will see four Time Zone Plaques,
thesee indicate what Time Zone your platoon is currently in and also
information regarding the status of the nuclear devices. In the middle of the
4 Time ZOne Plaques sits Seymour the commander, he will often advise you of
your performance and progress as well as keeping a watchful eye over your
mistakes. Below there are 15 Grey Monitors, the one that has a picture in it
corresponds to the level you are currently playing in.
When you successfully teleport into the next level the next monitor in line
will also light up, when all 15 are lit it means you are on the final level
which holds the nuclear devices and nearing the end of that particular time
zone.

STATUS PLAQUES

To the left of the Action Area there are 14 Status Plaques, these inform us
of the relevant status of each individual member of the platoon, there are 3
possibilities, if the plaque contains a picture of a face it means that a
particular platoon member in question is alive and well and still active, if
the plaque is of a small cross it means he is deceased and can only be bought
back to life by going further back in time, if the plaque is illuminated in
orange it means he has successfully been transported into the future and is
waiting for the outcome of the remainder of the platoon.

At the bottom of the action Area sits the main Command icons, there are 8 of
them in all and are listed in more detail in the next few pages, each one is
accessible by clicking the left mouse button on the appropriate icon.

COMMAND ICONS

A command icon is your only way of communictaing with your platoon members,
on selecting a command icon a silver hi-lighter appears to inform you of your
current selection.

Once you`ve made your selection you can now move your mouse pointer into the
Action Area, here you will see a graphic representation of the command
following your mouse pointer. This graphic command can then be pasted into a
blank square in the Action Area by pressing the left mouse button, remember
the square must be blank, you cannot place a command graphic on walls, in
rivers, on bushes etc. but you do have unlimited quantities of graphic
Commands.

When a platoon member walks or lands onto your graphic command he will do his
utmost to follow your given orders

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Not every command is logical? Lets start with the four arrow commands, when a
soldier lands on an arrow command he will attempt to walk in your chosen
direction but only if it`s logical, for example, our soldier is walking
upwards and lands on an arrow command to walk left which just happens to
point into a solid wall, our soldier will think "I was walking up, you want
me to walk left, I can`t as there is a wall there so I will walk right as you
definately don`t want me to to walk up!" Confused? so are they, their
intelligence is in their logic, the same will apply to their etiquette, quite
often they will bump into each other and confuse one another individual
commands, in all cases if they can`t follow your given order they will make a
decision as to what to do instead and faced with an impossible dilemma they
will look up to you in a confused state and wait patiently for a solution.

WAITING AND JUMPING

Having mastered direction commands now lets look at the graphic command of
the clock, this will order the first soldier that lands on it to wait for a
periiod of time, this can be useful in tight passegeways as all other platoon
members will bump into the lazy individual and reverse direction. When the
soldier has finished waiting he will erase the icon from the Action Area and
continue to do whatever he was doing previously.

The icon of the foot will command the soldiers to jump over the object in
front of them, again if this is not logical i.e. the object in front is too
high to jump over or the landing square is blocked by an obsticle or another
platoon member then the soldier will glance in your direction and erase the
foot icon from the Action Area. If the jumping command is logical then the
icon will remain on the screen for the next platoon member.

OPERATING AND AGGRESSION

The icon of the spanner is to command the first soldier to land on it to
operate the square directly in front of him, for example if it is a lever
then he will pull it and open a door or maybe a radio transmitter to call for
a controlled helicopter lift, it will all depend on what level you are
currently playing, again if it`s not logical it will be ignored.

The icon of the teeth is basically a form of aggression, on landing on this
icon the soldier will attempt to be aggressive to the square directly in
front of him using whatever methods he has at his disposal, this can be
invaluable when faced with the Greenmen of Shoutsville or Vietnam gooks in
combat or Shamen Knights of the Realm.

The final command icon is an eraser, this allows you to remove an unwanted
command before a soldier has time to land on it.

TRAVELLING IN TIME

If all your platoon members die Seymour will transport you back in time to
when you started that particular level to give you another chance of
teleporting some or all of your platoon into the future. If you manage to
teleport a few soldiers onto the next level they will wait patiently until
the fate of the remaining platoon has been decided. When no soldiers remain
in the curent level and at least one soldier has been teleported you can
progress onto the next level, but remeber you will need at least the required
amount of soldiers corresponding to the number of nuclear devices to reach
the final level for disarming. If at any point you feel you have performed
badly you can activate the lightening clock to choose the relevant level you
wish to travel back to, perhaps to a level where you had more soldiers alive
so you can better your long time success rate.

SAVING, LOADING AND SLEEPING

Upon selecting the disk icon you will have the choice to either save your
current position to Disk 2 or load in your previously saved position, as with
the lightening clock icons you will always have the option to confirm your
actions with Yes or No and can easily escape the decision process by pressing
the left mouse button.

The snoozy icon simply will pause the game and can be resumed at any time by
pressing the right mouse button.

That basically sums up all the operating techniques involved in TIMEKEEPERS
and the rest is completely up to your personal skills in management,
co-ordination, judgement, patience and logic.

ITS TIME TO SAVE THE EARTH!

TYPED UPBY IGGY/HELLFIRE 20/6/95