home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Game Synopsis
- The year is 2135, the final days of the First Interstellar War.
- You are Gunner First Class Casey O'Bannon, serving aboard the
- TAS Interceptor Talon. The pilot is Lt. Ariel Matheson, the
- copilot/engineer is Warrant Officer Zack Smith, both friends and
- shipmates of yours since Basic Training. During a routine patrol
- near Phalanx Prime, a group of Vakkar fighters roars out of
- hyperspace and attacks. You manage to take out two of the
- enemy ships, but not before the Talon's navigational control is
- knocked out and you are forced to eject. Unfortunately, your
- ejection pod is struck by a large chunk of fuselage, severely
- damaging it. When you awaken, you find that all the medtechs
- were able to salvage was your brain, which has been placed in a
- life support system.
-
- The war ends with a Vakkar surrender and your companions, Ari
- and Zack, "liberate" you from the medlab and connect you into
- the systems aboard the surplus transport Artemis. You can see
- and hear your friends through the A/V feeds on the ship and on
- a remote-control probe that can accompany them as you
- embark on your new venture- salvaging warships, transports and
- cargo damaged during the war.
-
- Playing The Game
- Introduction
- The Daedalus Encounter begins with an opening cinematic that
- sets the stage for the interactive section. After the introduc-
- tion, you will go on your first mission and get an opportunity
- to try out some of your probe's analysis and manipulation
- capabilities. Since the probe is your replacement eyes, ears and
- hands, you must protect it from severe damage or the game will
- end. Your companions, Ari and Zack, must likewise be protected
- from harm. They rely on you for your special capabilities as
- much as you rely on them.
-
- Main Menu
- From the Main Menu, you can save and load games, adjust
- puzzle difficulty levels, get on-line help and quit the program.
- To access the Main Menu, hit the ESC key at any time
- during the game. The following describes the buttons and their
- menu items:
-
- GAME
- New Game
- Starts a new game.
-
- Load Game
- Loads a previously saved game.
-
- Save Game
- Saves your game at the current position. At the prompt, enter a
- filename for your saved game.
-
- Continue
- Exits the Main Menu and returns you to your current game.
-
- Jump To
- This is a convenient way to jump back to an earlier point in the
- game even if you didn't save at that position. When Jump To is
- selected, icons representing past scenes in the game will appear.
- Only the icons that represent places you have been in the current
- game will be available. Use the scroll buttons to move through the
- list and find the point you want to return to, then click on its icon.
-
- Quit Game
- Exits the program and returns you to Terra. Selecting QUIT will
- bring up a confirmation dialog. Click on YES to exit the game.
-
- OPTIONS
- Difficulty
- Changes the skill level of some of the puzzles:
- HARD is reserved for those whose intellects rival the Gods.
- MEDIUM is challenging for most humanoids.
- EASY is available for lower invertebrates or those sentients that
- donÆt enjoy puzzles much.
-
- Volume
- Adjusts the audio volume. Selecting VOLUME will make a volume
- range appear. Click on SOFT to lower the volume level and on
- LOUD to raise it.
-
- HELP
- General
- Describes how to play the game and provides a list of hot keys
- for the interface controls.
-
- Puzzle
- If you are stuck, this feature provides a brief description of what to
- do at each puzzle. This is not the solution to the puzzle, but the
- goal.
-
- EXTRAS
- Trailer
- Plays a looping movie-style trailer for The Daedalus Encounter.
-
- Gallery
- A series of high-resolution images of people and places in the game.
-
- Ship's Log
- Excerpts from personal log entries during the First Interstellar War.
-
- Credits
- A fascinating list of people you probably don't know but who
- worked really, really hard for a very, very long time to bring you
- The Daedalus Encounter.
-
- Player Interface
- As Casey, you walk the line between Man and machine. Your
- brain is all that is left of your human form, and the medtechs have
- infused it with mechanical support and electronic interfaces.
- Zack has added his own modifications to allow you to com-
- municate in a simple way and to control various devices and
- systems on the Artemis. Here is a breakdown of the systems
- and controls at your disposal:
-
- INTERFACE CONTROLS
- Laser Dis/armed
- This is not a switch, but an indicator that shows whether the
- laser on the probe is armed or disarmed. For safety reasons, the
- laser is normally disarmed and arms automatically when needed.
- It disarms again when no longer required.
-
- Analysis
- This activates an intelligent analysis that provides information
- on certain objects. This information may include the material
- and composition of an item, the identity of another spacecraft,
- detection of non-terrestrial lifeforms and the translation of
- alien languages and symbols.
-
- Diagnostics
- Selecting this starts a diagnostic check on the probe. Any
- problems found will route you directly to the system in need of
- repair. This is a required step before the probe can be used.
-
- Yes/No
- A simple method to respond to questions.
-
- Status
- Returns a status report on the Artemis. Any unusual conditions
- will be indicated.
-
- Startup
- Initializes the probe systems. This is a required step before
- the probe can be used.
-
- Grapple Arm
- Activates the probe's Grapple Arm, which can acquire small
- objects.
-
- Floodlight
- Activates a general purpose floodlight on the probe. Shuts off
- automatically when not needed.
-
- VIDEO WINDOW
- There are several cameras on board the Artemis, the probe and
- on Ari and Zack's communication headsets that are auto-
- matically routed to your video display. The default video window
- is one-quarter screen in size, allowing access to the interface
- and readouts. In many cases, the video can be toggled to full-
- screen mode by hitting the space bar. Note that the video hard-
- ware in some systems is not fast enough to support full-screen
- playback (particularly in more than 256 colors)- in these cases,
- the video must be viewed in quarter-screen mode.
-
- While much of the probe's movement is controlled by automatic
- systems, there are many times when the probe's direction will be
- under manual control. These situations are usually indicated by
- the appearance of green symbols at the sides (and sometimes
- top and bottom) of the video window. The cursor will also change
- when it is placed over different portions of the video window,
- as indicated below:
-
- left arrow Rotate the probe to the left.
- right arrow Rotate the probe to the right.
- up arrow Tilt lens up.
- down arrow Tilt lens down.
- bent arrow Back away.
- four arrows Move toward indicated position (when animated).
-
- MULTILIGHT CONTROL
- Below the video window is the Multilight Control, which adjusts
- an illuminator on the probe that can produce a variety of
- different wavelengths of light. The IR button chooses the
- infrared spectrum, VIS the visible light range, and UV the
- ultraviolet wavelengths. Below these buttons are indicator
- switches that transmit a pulse at the frequency represented by
- the color swatch underneath them.
-
- ANALYSIS DATABASE
- This device is auto-configuring and located to the left of the
- Multilight Control. Occasionally, running an Analysis will
- detect Alien symbols or language. Unknown languages will cause
- a prompt to appear in the Data Readout window, allowing you to
- enter your own interpretation of the data. Unknown alien lan-
- guages analyzed will become part of the Analysis Database and
- can be accessed by selecting the left- or right-pointing arrows
- next to the SEND button. When you have selected a language
- fragment, the probe can re-transmit it using the SEND button.
-
- DATA READOUT
- The window immediately below the Multilight Control is the Data
- Readout. Information concerning ship conditions, analysis
- results and other data will appear here. In some cases, it also
- functions as a "soft" control panel that provides additional
- controls as needed.
-
-
- Keyboard Equivalents
- Most of the controls in the interface can be accessed with key-
- board equivalents to allow full-screen play (on capable systems).
-
- Key Interface Control
- A Analysis
- D Diagnostics
- Y Yes
- N No
- T Status
- S Startup
- P Deploy
- G Grapple Arm
- F Floodlight
-
- Key Multilight Spectrum (PC)
- Ctrl+I Infrared
- Ctrl+R Red
- Ctrl+O Orange
- Ctrl+Y Yellow
- Ctrl+G Green
- Ctrl+B Blue
- Ctrl+P Purple
- Ctrl+U Ultraviolet
-
- Key Miscellaneous
- space Quarter/Full screen movie toggle
- Esc Go to Main Menu
-
-
-