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The Orion Odyssey Ver. 3.0 The Search for the Magic Ankh Billy Dalrymple 104 Miss Georgia Ct. Cary NC 27511 Copyright (c) 1991 by Billy Dalrymple Portions Copyright (c) Genus Microprogramming, Inc. 1988-1990 All Rights Reserved I. Shareware: Orion Odyssey is distributed under the shareware marketing concept. Because Orion Odyssey is shareware you can freely copy and share the shareware diskette with its programs and manual. Since the entire Orion Odyssey adventure contains over 3.5 Meg of high resolution top quality graphics, it would be costly to you, the user, just to obtain the software in order to try it out. While most shareware disk distribution houses do offer exceptional services at reasonable rates, the cost of distribution of a game the size of the complete Orion Odyssey adventure can be expensive. ie: The entire adventure takes a minimum of four disks to distribute as shareware (Unarchived), which could mean that you would pay $9.00 to $20.00 just to obtain a non-registered version of Orion Odyssey through shareware distributors. Thats more than the registration cost of only $10.00 ! As a result, I have created a special shareware version which contains one of the eight worlds which are needed to complete the adventure. I have included all the resources needed to survive (Fuel, Ammo, Gold, Oxygen, etc.) in this one world. Therefore, the shareware version is a completely functional arcade version of the entire adventure. The shareware version can be distributed on one 1.2 Meg floppy and therefore the cost of obtaining a shareware copy, experiencing the thrill of flying with a jetpack, and deciding if you want to register Orion Odyssey is drastically reduced. Note to Shareware distributors: You are free to distribute this program provided disk charges do not exceed $5.00/disk. Please send notification that you are distributing this program. The concept of shareware states that you are free to try the software to determine if it suits your needs. If you decide that you like Orion Odyssey, you may obtain the adventure of eight worlds so you can complete the entire quest by registering your copy and sending only $10.00 to Billy Dalrymple at the above address. When you register your copy of Orion Odyssey, you will receive the complete adventure of Orion Odyssey 3.0... 8 worlds that you can explore during your quest for the magic ankh. II. Introduction This revision of Orion Odyssey is a graphical arcade style game which involves a space flier (Wally, as he has become to be known) who flies around using a jetpack strapped to his back and tries to accumulate as many points as possible while destroying alien beings, finding and using artifacts, and monitoring his life status, fuel consumption, ammo etc. When you register your copy of Orion Odyssey 3.0, you will receive the complete adventure of 'Wally' the space wanderer. In it, you can transport to different remarkable worlds in the Orion constellation. Explore eight (8) worlds in a quest for the magic Ankh. The Ankh has been stolen by the overlord Bytor. For it is said that who so ever controls the powers of the Ankh, controls the universe. Bytor has assigned his supreme wizards to the task of unlocking its magical powers. Your job is to find the Ankh before Bytor and his supreme wizards discover its powers. The fate of the universe lies in your hands.... III. Registration To register Orion Odyssey 3.0 fill out the following form and send it along with a check or money order for $10.00 to: Billy Dalrymple 104 Miss Georgia Ct. Cary NC, 27511 USA Outside U.S.A. please add $3.00 shipping. Name: _____________________________ Age:______ Address: _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Obtained Orion Odyssey From: ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Computer Information: 8086 286 386 486 Speed: 8Mhz 10Mhz 16Mhz 20Mhz 25Mhz 33Mhz Other _____ Size of Floppy: 360k 1.2M 1.44M Comments: ____________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ IV. Hardware Requirements: Orion Odyssey requires the following minimum hardware configuration: 100% IBM Compatible PC 512 K Ram EGA/VGA Color Graphics Hard Disk Recommend minimum of 286 running @ > 10Mhz NOTE: If you see the message "360000 bytes required..." and you get dumped back to the DOS prompt...you need to free up the difference between 360000 and the value printed out as the actual free memory. This 360 k requirement is the amount of memory needed to be left UNUSED after after DOS is loaded, after the game is loaded, and after any TSRs are loaded. Therefore you may have 640K of memory but Orion Odyssey says you only have 355000 bytes, that is because 285k is being used up by DOS, the game (105k), and memory resident programs. In the above example, you would need to free up 15k in order to run this program. Try removing a TSR such as a RAMDISK, or device drivers, keyboard buffers, etc. and re-run the game. V. Playing the Game: Starting the Game: All the Orion Odyssey files must reside in the same DOS directory. Type ORION from the DOS prompt and you will see a 'loading' screen which indicates that the game is loading. After the loading gauge reaches 100%, press a key or wait for a second. The main game screen will be displayed and you will be ready to begin the game. The Main Screen: The main screen consists of a Title window (upper,upper left), Three blue lights at the top of the screen which indicate how many Wallys you have left. There is a main window in the middle of which will be Wally. Wally will be standing in the transporter. This main window is a scrolling window in which the game is played. to the right of the main window are the status gauges which are used to monitor various aspects of the game. Above the gauges is the score and hit percentage readouts. Hint: Hit percentage is calculated into the score so you should try to keep it high. Above the score is the address to which you may mail your registration forms to register your copy of Orion Odyssey. If you like playing the game, Please Register. GAUGES: The main screen contains six gauges which give critical indication as to the current status of the game. These gauges are described below: GOLD: Indicates how much gold you have remaining. Gold is crucial for obtaining the resources which are needed to play the game. (FUEL, AMMO, OXYGEN) When you run low on gold you should look for a treasure chest and walk into it to obtain more gold. AMMO: Indicates the amount of ammo left. When you run low on ammo you need to find an ammunition dump and walk into it to get more ammo. Remember: you need to have plenty of gold to buy ammo with. HEALTH This indicates your current status. If your status reaches 0, your Wally is destroyed. There are many things that influence your HEALTH: - Every time you fly into something too hard, your health decreases. Everytime you run into an alien (That doesn't kill you) your health will drop. Resting or flying will increase your health. METER This is an altimeter, the green indicates how close you are to landing on the ground. This is crucial for learning to land safety. Landing is difficult without it. Whenever the meter gauge is almost completely green, you are about to touch the ground. OXYGEN The worlds you will explore are all capable of supporting human life (to some degree). However, some of the atmospheres may have a low oxygen content. Therefore you need to always have sufficient oxygen to survive. Should your oxygen reserves become empty, your health status will begin to drop rapidly and you must obtain oxygen immediately. Be sure to keep gold for the purchases of oxygen. FUEL Indicates the amount of remaining fuel left. When reserves get low, you need to head for the nearest fuel depot (Make sure you have enough gold) and buy some more fuel. FLYING: This can be tricky. Inertia and gravity play a big role in fling with a jetpack. Since Wally does not have any landing gear other than his legs, you must take some care when landing and make sure that his landings are not hard, or else his health may be reduced. Likewise care must be taken while in flight so as not to run into cliffs or scrape the sides of cliffs, or thrust into an overhang, etc. NOTE: You cannot fly into entrances since entrances are dark and you cannot see where you are going. Trying to fly into an entrance will get you killed every time! Use the UP arrow key to control the thrusters. This will ignite the jetpack and send Wally rocketing toward the stars. Wallys' inertia will increase proportionately to his velocity making it take longer to slow down after the thrusters have been shut off. Likewise, when falling (Thrusters off), Wallys inertia will increase with distance making it harder to stop the fall. You should spend time learning how to fly before you venture too far from home base. It will be time well spent. Special Items: There are various items which may be found which will assist you with dealing with the aliens. Some of these items will increase your plazma energy, some will help improve your health, some will increase your jetpack fuel efficiency. To USE these items, you must first have obtained them by walking into them, then you need to activate them by pressing the appropriate key. Once you have activated the item, a flashing light will appear under the appropriate gauge on the screen indicating that the item is activated. Once the item has been used up, the flashing light will disappear. Once you have obtained an item and it is in your inventory, it will not reappear until you have activated it. You may view your inventory of items by pressing the "I" key. 1) SWORD - Increases your Plazma Energy. once you have obtained the sword, you may activate it by pressing the "W" (Weapon) key. 2) SHIELD - Increases your Health recovery rate and helps to protect you from harm. Activate by pressing the "P" (Protection) key. 3) GOLDEN GOOSE - Increases your fuel efficiency. Activate by pressing the "F" (Fuel) key. 4) BOMB - Blows up all aliens in a world sector. Activate by pressing the "B" (Bomb) key. 5) KEYS - Some entrances may be blocked by a door and may need a key the same color of the door lock before you can enter them. If you have the appropriate key for a specific door, it will automatically open whenever you touch it. Each time a Wally gets killed, one of the blue square lights on the upper portion of the main screen will disappear. After the third Wally has been destroyed, the game is over, you may choose to start a new game or return to DOS. Transporter The transporter is the gateway between the eight worlds of the Orion Constellation. Whenever you are standing on the transporter, you may enter it by pressing the 'E' key. The transporter screen will be displayed showing the Orion constellation. A square will be around the star system of the world that you currently occupy. The Transporter has its own help menu which may be activated by pressing the 'H' key while inside the transporter. You select the world you wish to travel to by pressing the space bar. The square will jump from world to world. If you want the cursor to jump back to the world you currently occupy, press the 'C' key. Once the square is on the world you want to teleport to, press the 'Enter' key any the teleporter will engage and send your molecules hurling to another transporter on the world you selected. To exit the transporter, press the 'E' key. NOTE: Since the shareware version cannot be distributed with all the graphics, the transport function only displays a message reminding you of such. You may however, enter the transporter an see the transporter screen. The transporter is completely functional in the registered version. HELP Screen: You may obtain help anytime during the game by pressing the 'H' key. This will list all of the key commands and their functions. The game will be paused while the help menu is being displayed. Main Menu: You may access the main menu by pressing the ESC key. The game is paused while the main menu is being displayed. This menu will let you save the current game, restore the previously saved game, start over, resume the game, or quit to DOS. Since Orion Odyssey increases in difficulty as your score increases, it is highly recommended that you save your game frequently especially if you are in a high scoring game, and you are about to try something which may destroy your last Wally. Misc Functions: You may have a fast computer and wish to slow down the graphics speed of the game. You can slow down or speed up the game by pressing the '-' and '+' keys. The '-' key will reduce the delay time and therefor increase the speed of the game and the '+' key will increase the delay time thereby slowing the game down. You may toggle music on/off by pressing the 'S' key. SPECIAL HINTS: 1) Flying horizontally requires toggling the thrusters on and off while pressing one of the horizontal cursor keys. 2) When being chased by a flying alien, fly away from it to get your inertia moving you away. You can then turn and fire on the alien while you are moving away from it. 3) To shoot at an alien below you while you are flying can be tricky. Since most aliens require several plazma blasts before they are destroyed, you must fly toward the alien in a diagonal path. ie: You must be falling and moving toward the alien, or or you must be rising and moving away from the alien. 4) Keep a shield activated as much as possible. This will greatly increase your chances of survival in this hostile environment.