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- Welcome to Anacreon!
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- This program is a demo of Anacreon: Reconstruction 4021, a
- game system set in a dark future governed by the shades of
- Clausewitz and Machiavelli. As the absolute ruler of a
- powerful world, you must forge an empire that will challenge
- the wave of barbarism that has swept the galaxy. Though you
- will have only a single world at first, you must conquer the
- surrounding planets to set up bases that will build more
- ships, mine metals to build up industry, and develop the
- technology for more powerful weapons, all while defending
- your home worlds from the inevitable attacks of your
- enemies.
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- I must admit that this game is not for everyone. If you like
- war games or detailed role-playing games, you will almost
- certainly like a Anacreon. Because it is played on a
- computer, Anacreon can have layers of detail unattainable on
- simple board games. But because it demands intelligence over
- hand-eye coordination, it can challenge you more than a
- simple video game. My goal in writing this game was to
- create a universe detailed enough to seem real, yet
- interesting and challenging enough to be enjoyable.
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- SET UP
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- The .ARC file should include the following files:
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- README This file
- ANACREON.EXE The main program
- ANACREON.CNF Configuration file
- ANACREON.HLP Help file
- ANACREON.TXT Instructions manual
- INTRO.SCN Basic scenario
- JAKARTA.SCN Introductory scenario
- PRINCES.SCN Advanced scenario
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- To play, all you have to do is read the instructions and run
- ANACREON from the DOS prompt. All support files should be
- kept in the same directory as the main program, but you can
- designate the directories for the scenario (.SCN) files and
- any save files.
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- PLAYING
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- Anacreon is admittedly difficult to learn, but the best way
- to learn is simply to try out different commands. The on-
- line help should give you some hints, and the instruction
- manual is useful as a reference, but nothing will beat
- experimentation. Here are some basic hints that should help
- you a bit:
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- FUNCTION KEYS: Each of the function keys is tied to a
- different information window. You cannot ruin anything by
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- pressing these keys, so you can always try them if you want
- to know something. If you want to close the windows and
- return to the menu bar, press <Esc> or <F2>.
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- ESC: The Esc key always gets you out of a command. Pressing
- <Esc> if you panic is generally helpful and never
- disastrous.
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- ABBREVIATIONS: Abbreviations and symbols can usually be
- found in the reference section of the instructions manual.
- The on-line help also has several lists of frequent
- abbreviations.
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- NOTES ABOUT THE GAME
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- Anacreon evolved out of an acute dissatisfaction with games
- like Empire (The War Game of the Century!) and Strategic
- Conquest (A recent Macintosh game). It was a love-hate
- relationships from the start. Games in which you could
- conquer the world or the galaxy fell into two categories:
- simple and poorly implemented. Games like Risk or Galactic
- Empire (an ancient TRS-80 and Apple II game) were too
- simple. One was left with a burning desire to increase the
- detail in the game. Why not have many different kinds of
- ships? Maybe each planet could produce something different?
- Games like Empire, on the other hand were of pretty high
- complexity but very poorly implemented. Why can't the map
- scroll? Why is moving your pieces so difficult? And why
- can't somebody write a decent galactic conquest game? I hope
- that I have been able to write just such a game, and that
- Anacreon will prove to be more successful than its
- predecessors, but above all I hope that you will enjoy this
- game in the spirit in which it was written.
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