TOWER OF BABEL - Complete Manual + 4 accompaning pics typed in by Postcard Man with the help of an IBM, flatbed scanner and Optical Character Recoginition software. I N T R O D U C T I O N Many generations after the flooding of the Earth, and Noah's successful journey in the ark with all the animals, the people of the World decided to congregate in a place called Shinar. There they built a tower of enormous height that reached far into the clouds. The purpose of this tower was one: it would be so high that anyone could climb to the top and communicate with God. So much for theory. Although the tower didn't attract God's attention, it did arouse the interest of a passing Neravas class 1 cruiser from Zantor (a planet in a solar system some 30 light years from Earth). Being benevolent beings, the Zantorians left a triad of robots to assist the people of Shinar with their tower. The robots - sculptured in the form of the Zantorians - were also instructed to teach the Earth people about life and the Universe in general. Being human, and generally frightened of things they couldn't understand, many of Shinar's inhabitants left as quickly as possible. Some, however, stayed and learnt much from the robots (which, noted the remaining Shinarians, had a remarkable likeness to large - very large - spiders). Soon the spiders and the remaining Shinarians built up a great relation- ship and continued adding to the tower. The purpose was now twofold. The Shinarians still wanted to meet their maker, and the spiders needed to get high enough to transmit a message to their owners so that they could be taken back to Zantor. This happy co-existence lasted for a long while. But when it became clear to the humans building the tower that the spiders were homesick, some became jealous. In fact, they went berserk. With the knowledge they'd gained from the spiders the Shinarians built devices to deter the Zantorian robots from progressing up the tower. Explosive devices were built, blockades positioned and traps set. Even the spiders' energy packs were hidden. Shinarians who wanted no part of the spiders downfall fled. Only a handful of degenerates remained building ever more traps for the spiders. Eventually the spiders discovered what was happening and destroyed the evil Shinarians. But as far as can be ascertained, the spiders are still trying to get out. And it is up to you to help them. To do this you must guide the three spiders, either individually or simultaneously, past obstacles. You will also have to help them find Klondikes (their energy modules hidden by evil Shinarians). After the disgraceful behaviour of the Shinarians, you must help. The spiders must get back to Zantor. If they fail to reach the top of the tower, the Zantorians will wreak havoc on Earth. And they would be justified, They offered their hands... er, feet... in friendship and members of the human race spurned them. Don't fail! G E T T I N G S T A R T E D: BEFORE YOU PLAY When the game has loaded you wlll be asked to enter your name. Whatever you type here will appear in the high score table - assuming you get a high score. If you can't remember your name, or wish to remain anonymous, press Return and the computer will select a name for you. Not all are complimentary. You have been warned. Do note that all standard editing keys are available for text entry. THE MAIN MENU Once you've entered your name, you'll be presented with the main menu. From here you can play Tower of Babel, load or save a game position, view or update the high scores, and even design your own game. Boxed menu options: With a few exceptions (text entry, for instance), Tower of Babel is entirely mouse driven. Options in the main menu - and indeed all subsequent menus - are selected by moving the mouse pointer over the boxed option and clicking with the left mouse button. Menu options are only selectable if the boxes they are contained in become highlighted. This automatically happens if the mouse pointer lies within the box. PLAY GAME Clicking on this option will take you to a second menu, Select Game Type: This second menu lets you choose the type of game to play: standard, customised (user-created), tutorial. You can return to the main menu by clicking on Cancel. Choosing Standard Game will start the normal game. Everything you need to know about playing the game will be explained later. Clicking on Customised Game results in another menu appearing. The options in this menu won't make much sense until you've got to grips with the standard game and dabbled with the game designer. The items available let you determine which customised towers (play areas) to use. Use Current Group - lets you play the group of towers currently in memory, if any. If none are present, then a message will appear requiring you to load some data from disk. Use Designer Contents - any towers currently held in the game designer's buffers can be played. Load Group - you can load in a group of previously defined towers from a data disk. Finally, the tutorial game is detailed in the Tutorial Game section. SAVE/LOAD A POSITION Clicking on this menu option will result in a second menu. From the second menu you can elect to load a previously saved game position, save your current game settings or return to the main menu. Before you load or save a game position, insert a blank disk (formated from Workbench previously before you started playing). This standard format disk must then be prepared to receive the special format Babel information. To do this go to the `Designer' (from the main menu) and click on `File'. The last but one entry in the `File' menu is `Prepare Disk'. Click on this and insert your standard blank formatted disk in the internal drive. It will be prepared for use, after which games, designs and scores can be saved as explained in the manual. Click on the option you want once you've inserted the correct disk. A file selector box will appear. If there is a problem with the disk (ie, it isn't a data disk), an error message will proclaim "Not a Babel Format disk! You will be thrown back to the load/save menu so that you can insert another disk and try again. Whether you decide to load or save a game position, the resultting file selector box will be very similar. Briefly though, you can type in the name of the file you wish to load or save at the > (greater than) prompt. Clicking on the icon just below the prompt, or pressing 'Return' will carry out the required disk operation. VIEW/UPDATE HIGH SCORES Selecting this option lets you see the top ten high scores. If you get a high score it will automatically appear in the table. The score will not, however be saved. That's for you to do. Two menu options appear along with the high score table: Upgrade High Score Table and Main Menu. By now the Main Menu item should be obvious. Ensure you place your Babel formatted disk into the internal drive before opting to save your high score to disk. A file requestor will appear asking you to type in a file name for the high score table. Turn to page 32 to see how the file selector functions. TOWER DESIGNER Yes! You can create your own towers and place aliens and objects wherever you like. These custom towers can be loaded and played by anyone with the original Tower of Babel game disks. Because the game designer is so complex and comprehensive, there's a special section towards the end of the manual describing all the options available to you. RESTART GAME Click on this and an alert box will appear warning you that you're about to restart the game as though you loaded it for the first time. Clicking on OK will send you to the 'Enter your name' prompt while clicking anywhere outside the alert box will return you to the main menu. L O A D I N G I N S T R U C T I O N S COMMODORE AMIGA Amiga A500/2000. Make sure you've got a mouse plugged into port 1 before going any further. Turn on the computer and then insert game disk 1 into drive A. Tower of Babel will load. AMIGA A1000. Attach a mouse and then switch on your computer. Insert your kickstart disk into drive A when prompted. Insert game disk 1 when the Workbench prompt appears. Tower of Babel will run. Q U I C K S T A R T I N S T R U C T I O N S: There's no such thing as a quick start in Tower of Babel. But if you insist on trylng, here goes: * Type in yow name when requested and press Return. * Select Play Game from the main menu by positioning the pointer over the option and clicking the left mouse button. * Pick Standard Game from the menu that subsequently appears. * A three-by-three grid, lettered from A to I, wiil appear. Highlight the grey square labeled A by clicking on it. Click on OK to proceed. * Tower objective and information will be displayed. Click on OK when you've read what you have to do. The game will now start. Until you move or fire a spider, the tower remains static and you can change views at will. Very briefiy, you have three spiders (Zapper Pusher and Grabber) which must be individually controlled to solve puzzles, rid the tower of alien filth and collect Klondikes. Each spider has its own characteristics - particularized by its name. By highlighting a spider's name and clicking on the directional icons (arrows) it is possible to control a spider and see the tower through its eyes. Compass (or camera) icons let you see the tower from North, South, East and West viewpoints. There is no luck in Tower of Babel; only logic wiil get you through. Different obstacles and alien life-forms will present themselves as you progress through the towers. Turn to the Game Objects section for a full description of the things you are likely to encounter in Tower of Babel. If you're completely baffled, read through the detailed instructions which start overleaf. If that doesn't help, play through the tutorial game while reading the Tutorial Game section later in the manual. H O W T O P L A Y T O W E R O F B A B E L GAME CONTROLS Throughout your travels in Tower of Babel, the only input device you'll need to use is the mouse. You can select menu options and icons by highlighting them with the mouse pointer and clicking with the left mouse button. Menus can be made to disappear by clicking anywhere outside the menu with the left mouse button. The right mouse button can be discarded. TOWER SELECTION No matter which type of game you decide to play- standard, customised or tutorial - you will eventually get to a screen similar to the one to the left. (This shows a three by three grid with boxes labeled A - I) ~ Every square in the array of three-by-three boxes represents a tower. Towers are always grouped in nines, and individually lettered from A to I. The towers available for play are shaded grey while the non-accessible ones are are coloured red. If you pick the standard game, only towers A through C will be available at first. As soon as you complete a tower (take B, for example), adjacent towers will become available for play (in this case it would be E ). Towers don't become accessible sequentially; instead a tower connected to the one you've just completed becomes available Although towers A and C are adjacent to B, they are already accessible. Hence the only remaining tower complying to the rules is E. You don't have to play towers in alphabetical sequence. In the standard game, play continues until at least (7) of the nine towers in a group are completed (shown in green). At a point, the smaller icon on the right of the screen can be selected (shown in dark grey) and you can then move forward onto the next group by clicking on it and then on 'Okay'. Note that if you leave unfinished towers in a group, you can always go back using the small icon on the far left of the screen. Your current group number is shown above the main grid of boxes (A-l), starting with group 0. Play continues until all nine towers in a group are completed. After that another group of nine towers appears. Clicking on an accessible tower results in its name being displayed. Often, but not always, a tower's name will give you a subtle clue as to how to complete the tower. Once you've highlighted a tower click on the OK icon to proceed or Cancel to return to the previous menu. TOWER INFORMATION After picking the tower you wish to play you'll be presented with a screen giving you details on the tower, the subjects (or robotic spiders) under your command, and the objectives of the game. You'll get to known more about the spiders you can control in a moment, but, briefly, you can control a maximum of three spiders: Zapper, Pusher and Grabber. You'll be informed which of these spiders is available in each tower. It could be one, it could be all three. The objectives for each tower vary considerably. Generally though, you'll either be asked to collect Klondikes (recognisable by the K emblazoned on their side), zap a certain number of objects, or both. For a full explanation of Klondikes and the other items that might appear in a tower turn to the Game Objects section. Click on OK when you're satisfied with your tasks and the tools you have to fulfil them. You can click on Cancel to return you to the tower selection screen. PIAY SCREEN You've finally reached the Tower of Babel play area. Become accustomed to the screen layout because this is where you are going to spend your time searching for objects and destroying others. When you enter the play area, time is frozen until you move or fire, allowing you to switch views and get an idea ofthe tower's layout. If you click on the Pause icon, you'll see four items in the menu bar. These only appear when the game is paused. Just below the menu bar is a window in which all the action in the 3D world occurs. What you see depends on the items you've selected in the menu bar, which tower you are on and which spider you're controlling. Clicking on Pause again gets you back into the main game. The control panel at the bottom of the screen lets you move the spiders view the tower using the cameras and even send sequences of instructions (or programs) to the spiders. When you first start you'll see something like this: (See Screen Pic) 1. Menu bar (only appears when the Pause button below is selected) Drop-down menus The view window shows the view North from the selected spider (usually the Zapper). 2. Control panel 3. Spider selector n.b. You can also select a spider (especially from a camera view, where it is most useful) by clicking on the section of floor it is standing. Click on one of the compass directions to get a view of the tower from one of four cameras. 4. This block of icons controls spider mwement and, when a camera is selected, can be used to view the tower from its side. 5. The robotic spiders can be programmed and set in motion using these controls. 6. When a camera has been chosen you can use these icons to zoom in and out 7. Klondike 8. The tower's floor and walls 9. Spider 10. Fixed zapper 11. Lift (always grey) 12. Directional indicator (up equals North) 13. The first digit tells you how many Klondikes you have picked up while the second informs you of tbe total number that need to be collected 14. The first value informs you of how many enemy robots you've shot while the second tells you the total number of robots that need to be disposed of. MENU BAR When the Tower of Babel is paused you'll see four items at the top of the screen. These allow you to choose the way in which spiders and other items are viewed. By highlighting an item in the menu bar (achieved by placing the mouse pointer over the item) and clicking with the left mouse button, a drop down menu will appear. Within each menu you'll find sub-headings with either a filled circle or empty circle - a filled circled means that an option is selected while an empty circle means that it's not. To pick an option simply click the left mouse button while the pointer is inside an empty circle. Clicking anywhere outside the drop-down menu will cause the menu to disappear. SETUP BACKWARDS ALLOWED - determines whether or not spiders can move backwards in addition to other directions. Well worth having selected. LINK CAMERAS - a carnera is positioned on all sides of the tower. It's possible to control the cameras individually or simultaneously. Altering the position of one camera when the link option is selected causes all cameras to move. So, if you zoom in with the East camera and then switch to the West camera, you will find that the West camera has also zoomed in. SHOW COMPASS / INFO - the compass, number of Klondikes to collect and number of aliens to shoot can be displayed at the top or bottom of the play area. You can, of course, get rid of this information, but it's not wise. SHOW TIMER - in some instances there'll be a time limit in which you can complete a tower's objectives. You can choose whether or not to display the remaining time, and where it appears on the screen. You'll definitely want to keep this one switched on. VIEW: VIEW OFFSET - lets you decide the angle at which you see what's in front of the spider you're currently controlling. You can either see straight ahead, slightly to the left or slightly to the right. Generally you'll want to keep your vision straight ahead. VIEW HEIGHT - this allows you to pick the elevation at witch you see the action. Normal is best as it lets you see what's going on at the level of the spider's eye. High and Very High offer near bird's eye views. VIEW DISTANCE - picking Normal forces you to see through the current-active spider's eyes (this takes some getting used to, and shouldn't be picked until you've got to grips with the game); Behind positions the viewpoint just behind the active spider; Far Behind places the viewpoint a little further back from the spider. SIGHTS - a small target can be switched on which tells you where the spider's vision is focused. Switchlng on the sights forces the view to normal height and distance. INFO: GAME INFORMATION - like whether or not cameras are allowed, the effect mines have on the floor and the speed at which timebomb explode - can be found in this menu. It's useful to check here before you start playing as it can stop you from making fatal blunders. There's a Show Task option in the menu which can be activated by highlighting it with the pointer and clicking on it with the left mouse button. A box will appear containing information on the task to be completed. Click anywhere outside the box to get rid of the drop down menu and the information box. EXIT: This takes you to a further menu with two options. Abandon Tower - this will quit the current tower, and Restart Tower - this will allow you to quickiy restart the current tower. G A M E O B J E C T S (See Object Pics included) SPIDERS - Up to three spiders are available in each tower. By controlling the spiders and using individual skills you can complte the tasks set in each tower. ZAPPER Equipment: laser cannon Status: zappable, pushable. Equipped with a cannon as standard, the Zapper is handy for blasting enemy robots and some, but not all, objects. Take care, the Zapper can destroy other spiders. PUSHER Equipment: repeller beam. Status: zappable, pushable. A repelling tractor beam attached to the Pusher means many objetcs can be shoved out of its way. GRABBER Equipment: tractor beam. Status: zappable, pushable. Grabber collects Klondikes and has special effects on several other objects: moves all unoccupied lifts upward when interfaced to a Force Up module; moves lift down when communicating to a Force Down unit; stops all enemy robot movement when connected to a Freezer; activates a Wiper; swaps positions with an exchanger. ENEMY ROBOTS: The following robots can cause you grief when you're wandering around the towers. FIXED ZAPPER Hardware: laser cannon. Status: zappable, immovable. Faces in one direction (either North, South, East or West) and unleashes a stream of deadly laser beams. Destroys any zappable object in its path and is itself zappable by the Zapper spider. FIXED PUSHER Hardware: repeller beam Status: indestructible, immovable Faces in one direction and pushes any movable object in its path. ROTATING ZAPPER Hardware: laser canon Status: zappable, immovable. Rotates slowly and fires lethal bolts of laser - any zappable object in its way will be destroyed. ROTATING PUSHER Hardware: repeller beam. Status: indestructible, immovable. Rotates slowly and pushes any movable object in its path. WORM Hardware: caterpillar tracks. Status: indestructible, pushable. Slides back and forth in a straight line. Hinders progress, but will turn and run if fires upon. WATCHER Hardware: caterpillar tracks, cameras. Status: indestructible, immovable. Harmless. Wanders around the tower watching and getting in the way. Doesn't respond to forceful action. HOPPER Hardware: recoil spring. Status: zappable, immovable. Cannon fodder. Jumps around the tower making good target practise. LAND LIZARD Hardware: caterpillar tracks, boring equipment. Status: indestructible, immovable. Eats sections of floor if forrced to change direction by an object in its path, Moves forwards and backwards only. Doesn't respond to actions by spiders. OTHER OBJECTS: Many of the remaining objects will be required to complete the task. You may have to collect them, shoot them or use them in some way to aid you. All can be manipulated in one way or another by the spiders. PROXIMITY MINE Explodes if any object moves on to an adjacent square. Explosions destroy all adjacent objects and may destroy the floor. Mines can be pushed out of the way. TIME BOMB This explodes after a user-settable delay. The pillar on top of the bomb gives you a visual indication of how long there's left until the bomb explodes. When the pillar disappears the bomb explodes. Like the proximity mine, the time bomb is pushable and destroys all adjacent objects. BLOCK Gets in the way and is indestructible - however it can be pushed. GLASS BLOCK Reflects a lazer beam back to its source. Don't shoot at it! The glass block is pushable. PRISM Reflects a lazer beam through a 90 degree angle and can be pushed. KLONDIKE One of the most important objects as it is often required to complete a tower. Take care not to shoot it or let anything else shoot it. Pusher can move it. FLAG Does nothing but blow in the wind and get in the way. It can be zapped. CONVERTOR Shooting through the convertor's arc changes the laser beam to a repeller beam. Similarly, firing a repeller beam at a convertor will change it to a laser beam. FORCE UP Causes all unoccupied lifts to go up when fired upon by Grabber. It can be destroyed by Zapper. FORCE DOWN Makes all unoccupied lifts move downwards when fired on by Grabber. Shooting at it with Zapper will destroy it. FREEZER Again, activated only by Grabber, the frezzer will halt all objects (except you) for a short period. The freezer flashed white/ grey while it works and black/ grey when it is recharging. WIPER Use with care! When activated by Grabber, it removes all unoccupied squares from the map of North, South, East and West directions. Supporting squares and lifts aren't affected. Can be pushed. EXCHANGER Swaps places with Grabber and explodes in the process - hence it can only be used once. It will also reflect back any zapper beams. C O N T R O L PA N E L What you see on screen is determined largely by the group of control icons underneath the play window. In addition to controlling the spiders, you can position cameras around the tower and send sequences of instructions to the spiders. When the game first starts you are in a special mode. In this mode you can look left and right using the spiders or in all directions using the cameras. None of the enemy objects wiil start moving until you either fire or move a spider. The advantage of this is that you can get a good idea of a tower's constitution before deploying your spiders. It saves lives. Simply clicking on an icon with the left mouse button will select the icon 1. Spider selector 2. Camera seiector 3. Splder/camera controls 4. Programming icons SPIDER SELECTOR Choose the spider you want to control by clicking on one of the icons. If the spider isn't available in a tower or gets blasted during play, the screen will go fuzzy. If everything is fine with the spider you selected, the screen will either show the worid through the chosen spider's eyes or from a little behind the spider. To determine your viewpoint go to the View menu in the menu bar. SPIDER CONTROLS To move the currently selected spider forward simply ciick on the icon with an upward-pointing arrow. Similarly, click on the left and right arrows to move the spider left and right respectively. The icon with both downward-pointing and upward-pointing arrows performs different actions depending on the circumstances. If the backwards Allowed option is selected in the Setup menu - and the spider is standing on an ordinary bit of floor - the spider will move backwards. If the spider is standing on a lift (recognizable by its grey colour) and the button is clicked, the lift will move up or down a level in the tower. A maximum of four levels are possible. You won't know what sort of a lift you're standing on until you click the button and watch where the lift goes. You can, of course, make an educated guess by looking at a side view of the tower. NOTE that it's impossible to fall off the edge of a tower, fall through a hole in the tower or fall off a lift. Clicking on Fire when Zapper is active cause the spider to unleash a bolt from its laser cannon. Anything lying in the spider's path which is zappable will be destroyed. If Pusher is seiected and the Fire icon pressed, anything that is movable will be pushed forward a square. When Grabber is active and Fire is pressed, Klondikes in the spider's path will be picked up. Force Ups and Downs, Freezers, Wipers, and Exchangers all cause unexpected things to happen when fired upon by Grabber. The Pause icon will halt the game and cause the menu bar to appear. Any options in the menu bar can be altered. Clicking on Pause a second time will restart the game. CAMERA SELECTOR To get a better idea of where objects and spiders are located on a tower, it's possible to see the tower from its side by looking through conveniently-placed cameras. Click on one of the compass directions to see what the camera sees from North, East, South or West sides (n.b. in some of the more advanced towers, the cameras may be disabled). CAMERA CONTROLS After selecting a camera it is possible to move the camera position by clicking on one of the directional arrows. Logically, the up arrow icon moves the camera upwards, the down/up icon moves the camera down and the left and fight arrows move the camera left and right respectively. The icon marked Stop/ln in the programming block causes the camera to zoom in on the tower. Run/Out zooms out from the tower. Altering the position of one camera when the Link option in the menu bar is selected causes all cameras to move. Moving to the left on one side will cause the cameras on all the other sides to move left. PROGRAMMING THE SPIDERS The block of icons to the far right of the control panel are used to send sequences of instructions to the spiders. Essentially you can write a small program, which determines where a spider will move and when it will fire, and then execute the program. Each spider has its own program. To write a sequence of instructions it's necessary to select a spider first, highlight Write and then press the movement and fire icons in the order you wish the spider to carry them out. Up to eight actions per spider can be programmed. These appear as small representations of the directional and firing icons in the row of empty boxes beneath the six programming icons. Once you've written one program you can select another spider and write a new program. It's possible to jump between spiders at any time - but there's little point as it will only confuse. Finish one program before starting on another. If you make a mistake you can erase a single instructions by clicking the Delete icon. A complete program can be erased by clicking on Clear. With the programming done you can click on Stop to deselect the programming mode and continue operating the spiders. Alternatively you can click on Run/Out to execute the active spider's program or Run All to simultaneously run all the spider programs. It's even possible to write spider programs from camera mode. This is often the best way of doing things as the side view gives you all the detail you need to work out a safe path for the spider. Simply highlight the camera you wish to see through, click on Write, enter the sequence of instructions as you would normally and then click on the floor section under the spider you wish to send the program to, or it's icon on the panel. Finally, click on Run All to get the spider moving. [Zapper] selects the Zapper spider (if it exists). [Pusher] activates the Pusher spider (if it exists). [Grabber] picks the Grabber spider (if it exists). [N] displays the tower when viewed from the North (if cameras are allowed). [E] shows you what the tower looks like from the East(if cameras are allowed). [S] lets you view the tower from the South (if cameras are allowed). [W] selects a West view of the tower (if cameras are allowed). [Up arrow] moves the active spider forward or the selected camera up. [Left arrow] forces the active spider or camera left. [Right arrow] makes the selected spider or camera move right. [Down/Up arrow] moves the spider backwards or the camera downwards. If the spider is on a lift, the lift will move up or down. [Fire] Zapper shoots, Pusher pushes and Grabber picks up or activates objects when selected. [Pause] pauses the game and allows you to alter menu bar options. Pressing the icon a second time restarts the game. [Stop/In] zooms into a tower when a camera direction is selected or halts execution of the active spider's program. [Run/Out] zooms out of a tower when one of the direction icons is highlighted or executes the currently-selected spider's program. [Run All] lets you run all three spider programs simultaneously. [Write] stores up to eight directional and firing commands for the current- selected spider and pbce the command into the empty icons below. [Delete] removes one of the stored commands from the active spider's program. [Clear] deletes a complete program. TUTORIAL GAME The Tutorial Towers: The nine tutorial towers are designed to show how to control spiders and manipulate other objects on a tower. If you've played Tower of Babel before then you can ignore the following guide, but if you are a newcomer read on.. To play the tutorial towers simply click on Play Garne from the main menu and then on Tutorial from the Choose game submenu. The screen will clear to show a grid of nine boxes A to I. Each box represents one of the available towers. Unlike the standard garne, you are free to choose any tower to look at and, having finished a tower, you are not prevented from trying it again. Each of the towers A-I will lead through the important elements of the game so, for starters, click on Tower A. At the bottom of the screen the towers title, `Your Spiders and the Lifts - Tutorial 1' should appear. Click on OK to go on to the next page. Now the screen will clear and various bits of information about the tower will appear. Most of this can be ignored at present, but note the under Tower Objective;' it says there is no task for this tower. This is because the first tower has no problems to solve, it's there just to `look around'. Normally towers MUST have an objective, otherwise you will be unable to finish them. Click on OK to play the tower. TUTORIAL 1- YOUR SPIDERS AND THE LIFTS You should now be looking out from the Zapper Spider (it's icon will be highlighted on the left of the panel). Ahead you can see two other Spiders, on the left is the Pusher (note the grey top) and on the right is the grabber. The brown checkerboard on the floor represents areas you can walk on. Click on the Pusher icon on the panel. The view will change to that of the Pusher. There's not much to see in front, so click on the right arrow (or the left one!) twice to turn round 190 degrees. Now you should be boking back on the Zapper Spider (note the flashing spike). Try changing between the Zapper, Pusher and Grabber and turning round using the left and right arrows. Now try clicking on the N symbol at the bottom left of the panel. You should see a birds eye view of the tower, looking North. Click on the E, S and W icons to view the tower from all directions. Note that the left and right arrows don't turn you round when looking from this camera view but move your viewpoint left or right. Get back to the Zapper spider by clicking on it's icon on the right of the panel. Now click on the up arrow. You should see your spider walk forward on to the next square in front. If nothing happens try turning left or right and clicking again, there probably isn't a floor square in front of the Spider. Using the left right and forward icons you can manouever the three spiders around the tower. Now click on Pause to freeze the game, and select End Game on the menu bar at the top of the screen. Click on Restart Game in the window to get back to your start position. You should be looking north from the Zapper Spider again, if not go back to restart game again. Now click on left (the left arrow). You should be able to see several brown squares and 3 solid blocks rising above them. These are supports leading to the next floor up of the tower. To reach the next floor we need a lift, and the grey square you can see on the right is just that! Walk your spider forwards two squares and turn right again and you should be standing in front of the lift square. Now click on forwards again and you can hear the spider walk on onto the lift. To operate the lift, click on the pair of up/down arrows above pause. You should hear a drone as the lift goes up. Click on left and then forwards to move off the lift onto the next floor. To get back down, go back onto the grey left square and click on the pair of arrows again. That's all there is to see on the first tutorial so when you have finished experimenting with the controls, click on Pause. Now select Abandon Game from the end game menu to get back to the end game screen. A message will say Tower abandoned - ignore this if there was no task for this tower. Just click on OK to get back to the choice screen. Click on tower B next. TUTORIAL 2 - YOUR ZAPPER This tutorial looks at the abilities of your Zapper spider. Click OK to get past the information page and onto the game. In front of you you will see a network of squares. On one of them is a small object. Click on forwards and you will see the object start to hop about. Not surprisingly this is called a 'Hopper'. Hoppers are cannon fodder for your Zapper. Just press fire to reduce the Hopper to it's component atoms. Now turn right. Ahead of you is a pink box, a Klondike, and behind that is a Worm. Try shooting the Klondike. Now try the Worm. Note how it tries to reverse away from the zapper beam. Klondikes are more easy fodder but are more often involved with the Grabber (see later). Now go forward 2 squares and turn left. The object to the left in the distance is a Glass Block. Switch to the camera view N and you'll be able to see another object, a Flag, of to the right. Switch back to the Zapper and walk forwards three squares,then turn right. Now you can see the Flag in closeup. Zap it and then turn left, forwards, forwards, right, to face the glass block. Punch the fire button and... WHAT HAPPENED? Glass Blocks (in fact any glass objects) will reflect back the Zappers laser beam and - Bang! Your Zapper just committed suicide. The screens turn to snow as you are trying to control a Spider that now does not exist on the tower and a few seconds later you will be uncerernoni- ously dumped back to the end game screen with the message `Tower not completed. All Spiders Destroyed.' It just goes to show that the Zapper isn't going to have it all it's own way. Now click on OK to get back to the choice page, and we are on to.... TUTORIAL 3 - PUSHERS, BLOCKS AND GIASS BLOCKS This tower looks at the capabilities of your Pusher spider. Get to the viewscreen as usual and you will be looking out from your Pusher. Three objects are ahead of you. In the middle is a Glass Block. To the right is a Solid Block and to the left is a Fixed Zapper. Moving in front of the Zapper will result in your Spider being destroyed, but the other objects offer a solution. Try forward, forward, right, forward and left to move right in front of the block. Now press fire to push the block into the path of the Fixed Zapper. Have a look through the cameras. Nothing happened to the Block. Now you can go behind the block with forward, right, forward, left, forward and forward again. Try getting behind the Glass Block and pushing that into the path of the Zapper. Things work two ways in the Tower of Babel. Generally, if you can shoot or push something, then so can any other objects on the tower with the same properties. That's all to see on tower C so now lets move on to Tower D. TUTORIAL 4 - ABOUT GRABBERS AND KLONDIKES The main job in the life of your Grabber spider is to collect Klondikes. (Remember the pink block with the 'K' on it from the first tower). You can see a Klondike directly in front of you as you start the game up, so click on fire to swallow it up. This is the flrst tower to show a simple puzzle. There are two more Klondikes up for grabs but they are not quire as accessible. A solution follows, but before you read on, have a go at getting the two without any help. If you spider gets shot then reselect tower D from the choice page to get back here. Well did you manage it? The first problem is the Klondike on a separate section of floor to your left. No difficulty here. Just use the grey left square to move up to the next floor and hnd the second lift back down again. The second Klondike is a bit more tricky. Trying to go right walks you into a Zapper beam. The trick is to go forwards and round behind the Fixed Zapper. Then turn to face South and it's there to be grabbed. TUTORIAL 5 - LIZARDS, WATCHERS AND FIXED PUSHERS Not much to do on this tower, just a chance to look at a few more objects. Note how the Lizards eat themselves in to a corner. Both Lizards and Watchers (the ones with the eyes) are unzappable and unpushable. Try walking into the path of the Fixed Pusher to get yourself pushed back to the far edge. TUTORIAL 6 - MINES AND ROTATORS Four new objects on this tower. Try walking the Zapper forwards towards the proximity mine. When you get too close then switch views quickly to the Pusher (or the North-most Camera). Note that the Block, which can't normally be zapped, gets blown up as well. Behind the Rotating Pusher is another type of mine, a Timebomb. The fuse on the Timebomb goes down at a steady rate. When it disappears the Timebomb will explode and destroy any objects on the four adjacent squares. TUTORIAL 7 - MORE ABOUT THE GRABBER Apart from collecting Kondikes the grabber has several more useful abilities. As you start the Tower from the grabber you can see several objects. Looking North from left to right they are.. A Forcer UP A Forcer DOWN An Exchanger A Wiper A Freezer Walk your hopper round the map and try firing at each one to see what happens. Note how the Freezer, when flred on, stops the Hopper in it's tracks.... In fact the Freezer will stop all moving objects, except your spiders. TUTORIAL 8 - TOWERS H AND I Towers H and I contain two simple puzzles for you to try. The next paragraphs explain how to solve the two towers but it's much better if you try them first and check the solution afterwards! The objective in Tower H is to collect the single Klondike. Unfortunately the path to it leads past a Fixed Zapper. Your Zapper would be able to destroy the Fixed Zapper but a supporting block to the next floor blocks the way. To complete the tower go up onto the next floor with your Zapper. Then use the Grabber to activate the Forcer UP and bring a lift up to the Zapper. Now you can move forwards and down with the Zapper Spider and destroy the Fixed Zapper (be careful not to zap the Klondike), leaving a path clear for the Grabber to collect the Klondike. The Goal in Tower I is to Zap the two Hoppers and the two Fixed Zappers. Again the path is blocked, this time by both a fixed Pusher and the two Fixed Zappers. The trick here is to use the two Blocks to block the Pusher and Zapper beams but it is important to push the Block in front of the Fixed Pusher first, otherwise the Glass Block will be pushed out of the way and can't be used to get the fixed Zappers to zap themselves. D I S K O P E R A T I O N USING THE FlLE SELECTOR 1. Tells you how many relevant files exist on the disk and, if you're saving data, whether there is room for any more. 2. Informs you of how many pages worth of filenames there are. 3. Names of existing files appear here. 4. Scrolls back a page of filenames. 5. Type in the name of the flle you wish to load or save here. 6. Clicking on this box will load (or save) the file named above. 7. To log in a different disk simply remove the existing one, insert the new one and click on this icon. 8. Scrolls forward a page of fllenames. LOADING Assuming the correct disk is in the drive, you will be presented with a list of filenames. If there are too many to fit in one window you can click on the arrow icons located near the top and bottom of the filename window. This has the effect of moving you forward or backwards through the list of files. You can select a file for loading by either typing in its name at the prompt or by clicking on the filename in the fllename window. Clicking on the Load icon just below the prompt will attempt to load the file into memory. An error message will appear if any problems occur during the load operation. You can click anywhere outside the alert box to remove the message and try again. SAVING If the correct data disk is in the drive you will be shown list of all the filenames of the type that you wish to save. For instance, if you with to save a group of towers, only the fllenames corresponding to groups of towers will appear. As with loading, if there are too many files to fit in the window you will be able to see the remaining files by clicking on the arrow icon towards the bottom of the file selector. Clicking on the upward- pointing arrow, will scroll you back through the files. The name of the file you wish to save can be entered at the appropriate prompt. Filenames can consist of eight alphanumeric (that's letters and numbers) characters. Clicking on the Save icon below the prompt will save the file to disk. You will get an error message if the disk you try to save to is not of the right sort - that is, not a Babel format disk. You will also get an error if the write-protect tab is on. Clicking anywhere outside the box with the error message will return you to the file selector thus enabling you to rectify the problem. WARNING You can't load game data from, or save game data to, the Tower of Babel game disk. Go to the tower designer and format a blank disk for use as a data disk. Details on how to format a disk can be found in the Tower Designer Format Disk section. Keep the Tower of Babel master disk safe. Keep it write protected. TOWER DESIGNER A very comprehensive tower designer is included with the Tower of Babel. You can create your own towers and place aliens and objects wherever you like. These custom towers can be loaded and played by anyone with the original Tower of Babel game disks. Simply click on Tower Designer in the main menu to get to the game creator section. The opening screen looks like this: (See Pic) 1. Menu Bar. 2. Tower design grid. 3. Your towers can be password protected so that other people can't disassemble them. 4. Tells you which spiders have been placed on the tower. 5. The vast range of objects which can be used to make a tower. 6. Status line 7. Small maps of the four possible tower levels. MAIN EDITING SCREEN Before you discover what all the menus and options do, you must understand how towers work. You can only work on one tower at a time. And each tower can have a maximum of four levels; levels can be anything from a single square in size to a grid-of eight by eight. Objects - which include your spiders, enemy robots and lifts - can be placed just about anywhere on a level. There are, of course, a few restrictions, but all are perfectly logical and are discussed under each object heading. All items in the main editing screen are accessible by moving the mouse pointer and clicking with the left mouse button. DESIGN GRID The design grid at the top left of the screen is where you construct the levels of a tower. Individual levels are portrayed in miniature form in squares labelled 1 to 4 at the bottom of the screen. You can tell which level is being worked on as the level number is enclosed in a red square. Objects are placed into the design grid simply by positioning the mouse pointer in the desired location and clicking the left mouse button. The item deposited depends on the icon highlighted in the object box. Some objects can be placed on top of others - a rotating zapper, for instance, can be positioned on a section of floor. For a full description of an object's characteristics turn to the Game Objects section. If for some reason it's impossible to plant an object in the design grid, a warning message will appear underneath the object box. Click the right mouse button to remove an item from the design grid. What you see in the design grid depends on the options selected in the menu bar. There are two possible displays. The first is a bird's-eye view of the tower currently being edited while the second shows you any levels underneath the one you're editing. Of course, you can only add and remove squares from the level that is currently selected. TOWER BOXES Four boxes along the bottom of the screen, labelled 1 to 4, display each level of the tower. The level being edited in the display grid will be highlighted. A box will remain blank if a level is empty. OBJECT ICONS There are 28 different objects which may be placed in a tower; 24 of them are displayed in a box at the top right of the editing screen. Selecting an object is simply a matter of clicking on the required icon with the left mouse button. Some icons can be clicked on a second, third or even fourth time to produce a different object or an object in a different orientation. A status line underneath the object box informs you of what you've picked and the direction the object is facing. With only a very few exceptions, any object can be placed on any level. FLOOR SECTION Without a floor there is no tower. All objects must be placed on top of a floor section (or a lift). SUPPORTING BLOCK These allow you to build up levels. They aren't essential, but mean you can create mazes and give the tower ralism. As a supporting block joins two floors, you cannot palce any objects on it. LIFT UP This provides your spiders with access to the next level up in a tower. Naturally, you can't have these on level 4. LIFT DOWN Using these you can move down a level. Of course, you can't have one of these on level 1. ZAPPER SPIDER Only one Zapper is allowed per tower. You can tell when the spider is placed as an indicator appears on screen. PUSHER SPIDER Like Zapper, only one PUSHER is allowed per tower. Again, a flag appears on screen when it has been planted. GRABBER SPIDER Again, only one of these spiders is allowed per tower. A marker appears on screen reminding you that it's been used. FIXED ZAPPER Clicking on this icon for the first time will select a North-facing enemy Zapper, a second click produces an East-facing Zapper; a third click results in a South-facing Zapper; a fourth click generates a West-facing Zapper. The arrow shows the direction of fire. FIXED PUSHER Click once to get a North-facing enemy Pusher, twice to get an East- facing Pusher, three times for a South-facing Pusher and four times for a Weat-facing Pusher. ROTATING ZAPPER Can be phced anywhere. ROTATING PUSHER Can be placed anywhere. WORM The first click results in a worm that moves between North and South compass points continuously. The second cllck produces a worm that goes between East and West points. WATCHER Can be placed anywhere. HOPPER Can be placed anywhere. PROXIMITY MINE / TIME BOMB Take care not to position any moving objects adjacent to a proximity mine as they will explode as soon as the game starts. Clicking on this icon a second time will produce a Time Bomb icon. The time it takes the bomb to explode is settable from the menu bar. BLOCK Can be placed anywhere. REFLECTOR Can be placed anywhere. PRISM The first click gives you a prism with a diagonal edge between North and East poles. The second click results in a prism with a diagonal running from South to East poles. The third click produces a prism with the reflective edge going from South to West. Finally, the fourth click results in a prism going from North to West. LIZARD Clicking once results in a lizard that moves from North to South. A second click produces a Lizard that goes from East to West. KLONDIKE Can be placed anywhere. FLAG Can be placed anywhere. CONVERTOR There are two versions. The first runs from North to South and is produced by clicking on the icon once. The second runs from East to West and is created by clicking on the icon twice. The convertor only works if you fire through the spark. FORCER UP/DOWN The first click produces an upward forcer while the second click results in a downward forcer. FREEZER / WIPER / EXCHANGER Click once on the icon to get a Freezer, twice to get a Wiper and three times to get an Exchanger. MENU BAR Menus in the bar can be forced to appear by highlighting a menu heading and clicking with the left mouse button. From there options are selected by clicking the left mouse button. To get rid of a menu simply position the pointer anywhere outside the menu and click the left mouse button. FILE: (on pull down menus) GET TOWER - click on this to transfer a tower from the group of towers in memory to the tower designer. A box will appear displaying the nine towers (arranged in a three-by-three grid) lettered A to I. Simply click on the the tower you wish to transfer. An alert box will appear confirming that you want to transfer the seiected tower. if you don't, click anywhere outside the box. Towers that are password protected can't be loaded or moved into the designer unless you know the password. If the tower you try to get is protected, a box requesting the password will appear. Answering incorrectly will return you to the tower selection box. PUT TOWER - transfers a tower from the designer to the group in memory. A box will appear displaying the whole group - click on the location that you wish to send the tower. You will be asked to conhrm your choice. If the location that you wish to send the tower dteady has a tower (and that tower is password protected), you will be asked for the password. SWAP TOWER - swaps a tower in a group with the tower in the designer. Note: you cannot swap the positions of two towers in a group. After confirming your selections the swap will go ahead unless the tower in the group is password protected. If a password is required, you will be asked for it. LOCK TOWER - click on this and you will be asked for a password to protect the tower you are currently working on. Password protection stops other players from prying and disassembling your tower's construction. UNLOCK TOWER - gets rid of password protection on a tower. Naturally, you must supply the password before being allowed to trash it. LOAD GROUP - a file selector will appear requesting you to enter a name for a group of towers. An error message proclaiming "Not a Babel Format disk!" will appear if the disk in the drive is not a data disk. You will be thrown back to the menu so that you can insert another disk and try again. SAVE GROUP - allows you to save the group of towers in memory. Again, a file selector will appear. LOAD TOWER - lets you load a tower into the game designer. SAVE TOWER - saves the contents of the game designer to a data disk. DELETE GROUP - take care with this one. It prompts you for a filename and erases the file on disk with that name. DELETE TOWER - erases a single tower from a data disk. FORMAT DISK - extreme care is needed with this option. It will wipe an entire disk. And once that happens there's no way of recovering the lost data. Don't have your Tower of Babel master disks anywhere near the machine when you use this option. Play safe! The disks that are formatted using this option can only be used by the game, and are used for storing towers, groups of towers and high score information. EXIT DESIGNER - takes you back to the main menu. OPTIONS: (on pull down menus) EFFECTS MENU - clicking on this produces a menu from which it is possible to determine the moon's position (more on that in a moment); alter the star density from none to high; switch on or off lightning, meteors and blue pulses; determine the hatching pattern of the tower floor. Clicking on the Moon Setup option results in yet another menu appearing. From here you can choose in which compass heading the moon is displayed, whether it appears at all, its position in the sky, the type of moon and its rotation direction. To alter the moon's position in the sky simply point at the small graphic image and hold the left button down. Let go of the left mouse button once the moon is in the desired position. Clicking on the sound effects menu allows you to alter background and foreground sound effects. BEHAVIOUR MENU - determines whether the cameras focused on the tower are on or off, if mines destroy the floor or not, and the speed at which Time Bombs go off. A menu appears with all the available options. Just click on the circles (located next to the options) that you wish to select. FINISHING CONDITIONS - from here you can set the objectives in a tower. For instance, you can determine whether or not there's a time limit, the number of Klondikes to collect (from none to six), and the number of robots to destroy (again, from none to six). To alter the time - which is measured in seconds - to complete a tower click on the current seconds setting, press delete when the cursor appears and type in the new value. If your finishing conditions are acceptable a message stating so will be displayed. If, however, there aren't enough Klondikes or enemy robots in the tower you've created, you will be informed. NAME TOWER - enables you to enter a name for the tower currently in the designer. Just type it in at the keyboard. AD the keys work, including Backspace. TOWER'S AUTHOR - here's the place to credit yourself with the tower design. PLAY / VIEW TOWER - if you want to test that your game works as it should, this is the option to choose. The game will function normally, but when the game ends (or you quit) you'll end up back here. TOOLBOX: ( on pull down menus) COLOURS - clicking on this causes a comprehensive screen for altering the colours of all in-game items to appear. At the top of the screen, you'll see three items in a menu bar. The first Get Preset Colours, produces a menu with a choice of 13 preset colour schemes and an option for reverting to the previous colour selection. The second menu bar item lets you play the game to check that you've got the colour co-ordination correct. When the game ends you'll be returned to this screen. The final menu bar item returns you to the main editing screen. A box just underneath the menu bar holds the currently selected colours for the tower and the various elements that rage inside and outside it. When one of the colours - numbered from 0 to 17 - is highlighted, the colour's statistics appear just below. The information provided includes colour number, RGB (red, green, blue) value and the colour's use. To alter a selected colour simply click on the Red, Green and Blue numbers held in the box below. Colours are created by mixing percentages of red, green and blue. The higher the red value, the more red there'll be in the final colour; the higher the green value, the more green there'll be in the flnal colour. Following is a list of the colour numbers and what they are applied to in a game: O .................black background (not alterable) 1 ........first square colour, side 2 .........first square colour, top 3 .....first square colour, top lit 4 .......second square colour, side 5 ........second square colour, top 6 ....second square colour, top lit 7 .................first sky colour 8 ................second sky colour 9 .......first object colour, unlit 10 .........first object colour, lit 11 ......second object colour, unlit 12 ........seoond object colour, lit 13 .................lift, top unlit (not alterable) 14 ....................lift, top lit (not alterable) 15 .. .............pointer and menus (not alterable) 16 .......................floor, lit 17 .....................floor, unlit SCROLL TOWER / LEVEL - a menu appears allowing you to scroll the complete tower or the currently selected level left, right, up or down. ROTATE TOWER / LEVEL - the active level or the whole tower can be rotated clockwise or aniticlockwise by 90 degrees, or by 180 degrees. COPY LEVEL - lets you copy the selected level to any of the other three levels. SWAP LEVEL - allows you to exchange the active level with any of the other three levels. CLEAR LEVEL - will erase the currently selected level. You will be asked to conflrm your request before losing the level. CLEAR ALL - gets rid of all the levels. You're given the option of canceling before going through with the operation. EXTRAS: (on pulldown menus) DESIGNER SETUP - another menu appears when this option is picked. From here you can decide how the designer operates. Depth Cue can be turned on or off, and determines whether you see just the active level or all the levels beneath the active level in the design box. The enemy movement can be switched off so that you can quickly test your tower design. This option has no effect when you save a tower or group - when the game is played for real, the enemy robots will move! When Auto Repeat is on you can hold down the mouse button and plaster the design grid with floor sections. When Confirm Replace is selected, any save from the file selector over an existing file will require confirmation. STATISTICS - provides you with information about the tower you've created. For instance, the percentage of the design grid filled (taking all four levels into account), the number of enemy Zappers and Pushers in the tower, and the number of Klondikes and other objects that can be found in the tower. SUPPORT CHECK - checks each level in turn to see that it is being held up by sufficient support blocks. It doesn't matter if the search fails, but it does mean you can create more realistic towers with supporting blocks in appropriate places. SPIDER PATH CHECK - examines the paths open to your spiders'. If there are areas of the towers that are inaccessible the check will fail. Again it doesn't matter if your spider's can't travel everywhere on a tower, but it does highlight all potential problem spots. UNDO - every large scale option that alters a tower's map in any way can be undone. In other words, by clicking on this menu item it is possible to return the tower to its original form before the editing facility was applied. Copyright Rainbird & Microprose Software (England)