Category : A Collection of Games for DOS and Windows
Archive   : EVETS.ZIP
Filename : EVETS.MAN

 
Output of file : EVETS.MAN contained in archive : EVETS.ZIP
Evets - The Adventure Begins

"Dark forces are at work here, Evets," said Belham. "The walls seem to
glow with an erie green radiency."
"Be still," Evets replied, "We're being watched." Just as Evets ended his
sentence, the walls of the corridor began to close in on the two explorers.
"Desinite," Evets said as he gestured at the incoming walls. He pointed a
long finger, first at one wall, then the other. They stopped moving. Belham
felt uneasy. He had never gotten quite used to his master's use of sorcery.
The two quietly moved the length of the corridor, stopping at a closed
door.
Unknown to them, a hidden door in the ceiling had swung silently open.
Four yellow eyes peered down from above. Without warning, two winged
creatures floated down from the door and landed silently behind the two,
poised for an attack. Belham must of felt the surge of wind or sensed some
danger. He quickly turned, drawing his his sword to face the attackers.
Evets turned, and on seeing the attackers, started mumbling a spell.
Each of the two winged creatures stood about 8 feet tall. Their huge
shapes side by side in the corrador blocked any possible escape from the way
Evets and Belham had come.
Belham swung his sword, barely missing one of the creature's long arms.
He dodged a blow that surely would have crushed him, parried a second blow
and dashed his sword in for another attack. Blood slowly started to flow
from a fresh cut on the creature's wing.
A bright flash of white hot light started to stream from Evets' open
hand, engulfing one of the winged creatures. Screams of searing pain filled
the corridor, making the second creature pause slightly. The pause was just
enought for Belham. His sword flashed, first striking the creature's wing,
nearly tearing it from it's body.
Then a final blow, striking the creature in the heart. But Belham had
not seen the creature's hand raise. A clenched fist hit him full on in the
face. He wheeled, loosing his grip on his sword, staggered and fell. Blood
dripped from his nose and mouth.
The creature stood motionless, looking at the sword protruding from it's
chest. The look wasn't of fear or of anger. It was more a look of puzzlement,
of suprise. Evidently the creature thought itself immortal. It just stood
there staring for what seemed an eternity to Belham and Evets.
Slowly its eyes closed as it slumped to the floor. Belham retrived his
sword from its chest. There was nothing left of the second creature but a
smoldering carcass of ashes.
Evets again turned his attention to the door. He raised his hands and
started to mumble an incantation.
"Enough of this," Belham blurted. "Why don't you just open the door like
a normal mortal?" He pushed Evets aside and turned the handle.
"No," Evets cried. "It's a trap!"
Just then a trap door in the floor flew open. The two fell. How far they
fell is unknown.
That was 200 years ago. Some say their ghosts still haunt the deep
passages of the dungeons beneath this castle. Few have ventured below, and
fewer still have returned. Those that did return brough with them riches, many
riches, and many tales. Tales of dark creatures with no eyes. Tales of skeleton
armies commanded by powerful undead dark lords. Some have even said they've
seen servents of Evets himself, though I doubt that. Not even Evets could live
for 200 years.

The Innkeeper finished his tale.

There are riches to be taken and
Legends to be started.
You can be a part of it.
The choice is yours.


Copyright 1987,1988 Steven P. Ackerman (SAck)
Copyright 1988 SAck Enterprizes
Some portions written by Dean C Wills.


1.0 General Concepts
1.1 Scope of game
1.2 Hardware
1.3 Overview of game

2.0 Playing the Game
2.1 Player Characters
2.2 Concept of dungeon(s)
2.3 Moving around in dungeon(s)
2.4 Encounters and combat
2.4.1 Hand to hand
2.4.2 Use of arial weaponry
2.4.3 Using spells
2.4.4 Other special items
2.4.5 Damage
2.5 Rewards
2.5.1 Experience
2.5.2 Gold
2.5.3 Special items

3.0 Saving and Restoring Games

Appendix A. Spells
Appendix B. Special notes on running the program.





Section 1 - General Concepts

1.1 Scope of Game and Specification
The first few sections of this specification introduce a player
to the game.

1.2 Hardware
IBM PC, AT and true compatibles are supported.

1.3 Overview of Game
Evets is a role-playing computer fantasy adventure game. Evets
creates a drama where the game player(s) are in a world of
animated mythology. Each player is a roguish character living by
his wits who attempts to challenge the fabulous spirits, sprites
and monsters of folklore. Players explore endless labyrinths and
dungeons in search of treasure and glory.



Section 2 - Playing the Game

2.1 Player Characters
To experience and play the game of Evets, at least one player character
must first be created. There are 5 basic attributes that describe the
player characters. These attributes are:
1. Strength A measure of how strong the character is.
2. Intellect A measure of how fast a character learns.
3. Dexterity A measure of how fast a character reacts as well as
how coordinated they are.
4. Health A measure of how healthy a character is.
5. Luck A measure of how lucky a character is. Luck in Evets
might be thought of as how well a character prepares
in advance for any situation.
The initial values of each attribute cannot exceed 18, however,
after gaining experience and increasing levels, higher numbers for
these attributes are possible.

2.1.1 Creating a Player Character
When the castle if visable on the screen, a character can be viewed or
created. To create a character, press 'I' (Inspect). You will be
prompted for the name of a character to Inspect. Enter a name that
is not already in use. If the name is in use, the character will be
displayed for inspection. If the name is not in use, a prompt will ask if
you wish to create a new character. Press 'Y'.

Choose the class first.
Use the '+' and '-' keys to change the class. As the class changes, the
currrent characters attributes will also change. To change race or
allignment, use the UP and DOWN arrow keys to move the cursor to the item
to change. Then use the '+' and '-' keys to make the change.
When you are satisfied with the character's class, race, and
allignment, press .

Customize the attributes.
Now an amount of "bonus points" will be displayed to the right of the
character window in a window of it own. You may add this any part of this
bonus to any of the character's attributes using the same keys as above.
Note that no attribute can exceed 18. Press when you are satisfied
with the character you have created. You will then be prompted whether
to save the character or not. If you want to save the character, press 'Y'.

2.2 Concepts of Dungeon(s)
The game is centered around dungeons (or labyrinths). Player
characters are "transported" into these dungeons to explore, gain
power, obtain gold and magic, and generally wreck havoc on the
inhabitants of the dungeons. But, unwary characters may find
themselves constantly in trouble if care is not used while
exploring these dungeons. A party of characters (at least one but
not more than four) must be in the "current party" to enter the dungeon.
To add characters to the party, press 'A' at the castle prompt. You will
be prompted for a character name to add to the party. For a list of
characters previously created, press '?' at this prompt. Once a party
of characters has been formed, press 'E' to enter the dungeon.



2.3 Moving around in the dungeons
Players have a partial view (top view looking down) of the floorplan
of the dungeon. They can move through the dungeon using single-key
commands. Moving around in the dungeon without getting lost is simple
and straightfoward. Therefore, no mapping is necessary.

To move, use the arrow keys. To move through rooms and corridors
faster, hold the shift key down while pressing an arrow key. To
move up and down stairs, use the '<' and '>' keys. To cast a
spell in the dungeon, press 'S'. To use an item, press 'U'. If
the pause during combat is too long (or not long enough) while
displaying combat messages, press 'P'. This will cause a prompt
for a new timer value. The timer value is in 100ths of a second.
(During combat, ^P (Control P) can be entered for the same results.)
Here is a list:
> move down the stairs
< move up the stairs
S cast a spell
U use an item
P change the pause time
^S saves a game in progress
arrow keys move around (hold the SHIFT key down to move faster)

2.4 Encounters and Combat
When a player encounters somthing, combat windows will open.
These windows will expand to fill the screen. Each player
will be represented in a different status window. The program
will prompt the the players for their options. The option list is:
F to fight an opposing group of monsters
1 fight group one
2 fight group 2 (if there are two groups)
3 fight group 3 (of there are three groups)
S cast a spell
U use an item
P parry an attack (lowers AC by 2)
R run away

If more than one group of monsters are attacking, players may enter
the group number that they wish to attack in leiu of entering 'F'
and then the group number. After all the players have entered their
option, one combat round will take place. Combat can take place anywhere
in a dungeon. This includes rooms, corradors, and shops. The computer
will handle all the opposing forces and make their moves according to
the type of monster. For example, dragons will most likely breath, giant
ants will surround and try to overwhelm and oppenent, while a solitary
thunder bunny will probably just attempt to run away.

2.4.1 Hand to Hand Combat
Fighting an opponent is simple and straight-foward. Just enter
one of the possible options: F S U P R or 1 2 or 3 to fight an
individual group of monsters. The program will handle all the
combat.

2.4.2 Use of Arial Weapons
It is assumed that that characters bring enough arrows for an
entire adventure and so individual arrows are not counted by the
program. Spears and the like can be re-used. However, items do
have a chance of breaking. When they break, they are denoted as
a "broken item" in the character's list of items and become
useless and worthless. These items should be dropped at the first
chance.




2.4.3 Use of spells
Each spell has a "spell mana cost" associated with it. This cost
is the number of mana points needed to cast the spell. Every
spell also has a level of difficulty attached to it. These are
two of the things that determine whether a mage (or other class)
can cast the spell. The criteria is as follows:

A mage's level must equal to the spells level. This means that a first
level mage can cast only first level spells. A second level mage can cast
first and second level spells. Note that this is different than other
roll playing games.
The second criteria deals with the mages IQ. It is exactly the
same as the level.
The third and last criteria deals with mana. A mage must have an
amount of spell mana equal to or greater than the required spell
mana. Each time a mage casts a spell, he looses the amount of
mana required to cast the spell. Mana is regained in dungeons at
the same rate that hit points are, but only after all hit-points
are regained.

There is only one group of spells. They include offensive,
defensive, healing, and so forth. The main idea here is that
there is not 2 or 3 different types of spell casters that can
cast only their brand of spells, no clerics with clerical spells
and druids with druid spells, only one type. Some spells require
more or less mana according to the the players class. For example:
A priest casts healing spells "better" than a mage, so healing
spells use less of a priest's mana than a mage's mana. Therefore,
mages will use up more mana casting healing (defensive) type
spells. But, on the other hand, a mage casts offensive spells
"better" than a priest. So mages use less mana casting these types
of spells than do priests. Each spell is unique and the spell
itself determines its type. If this seems unfair, too bad! That's
how it works in the world of Evets!

A spells damage is as follows:
The higher the level of the spell caster, the more damage the
spell will do. This indicates that spells operate at the level of
the user. Mages always cast spells at their own level. Other
types of characters can also cast spells but at lower levels than
a true mage would. The following is a complete list:

Class Level General type
--------- --- ---
Samurai 1/4 M (these characters also earn mana at these
Rangers 1/5 P fractions as compared to a true mage)
Ninja 1/6 M/P

When a player wants to cast a spell during combat, he would
indicate so by pressing "S" (Cast spell) during his turn. He will
then be prompted for the spell name that he would like to cast.
If he physically can cast the spell (he must be of the proper
level, have a minimum IQ, and enough mana to cast the spell), it
will be invoked during the next combat round. To see a list of
spells that the character can currently cast, enter '?' when
prompted for the spell name.




2.4.4 Other special items
Using a special magic item usually requires invoking a spell. The
use of magic items and their spells are handled differently
depending on "what" is actually casting the spell. Magic items
all operate at pre-defined levels of power.
Player characters do not expell any of their own energy to invoke
spells from magic items.

2.4.5 Damage
For realism and challange, damage is done to player characters
and monsters. The damage done is relative to many different
things, as follows:
The higher a character's level, strength, and dexterity, the more
damage the character will do.

Damage done to characters by monsters is handled in same way and
under the same criterion.

2.5 Rewards
As players survive encounters and defeat monsters, they will be
rewarded with various different things, including: Experience,
Gold, and Items.

2.5.1 Experience
Each monster has a different "experience value" associated with
it. As players defeate and overcome these monsters, that
"experience value" is divided among the surviving characters.
This experience is directly related to the charcter's level. The
more experience a player gets, the higher his level becomes. As a
player's level increases, he gains many things. Some of them
include: more hit points, more spell mana and more skill when
fighting. Experience is the key to power in Evets.

2.5.2 Gold
When the opposing monsters are all dead, the players may plunder
the corpses for gold and other items. This gold is pooled
together and divided among the surviving players. Gold is used to
buy needed items in the shops along the dungeon passageways.

2.5.3 Special items
In some cases, the monsters may have been carrying some special
item. If so, the first player character to see the item, gets the
item. (This is decided by the computer). These special items
include any item that a character can carry. They include:
weapons, armor, rings, scrolls, and the like. The above items may
even be magically enchanted. They may also be cursed. There are
spells to determine the exact nature of an item before a charcter
uses it (if he chooses). Items may also be identified by
shopkeepers, for a stiff price!


3.0 Saving and Restoring games
While in the dungeon, press Ctrl and the S key at the same time. The
program will prompt "Are you sure". Press 'Y' to save the game or 'N'
to continue playing. When you restart the game, instead of typing
"EVETS", type "EVETS /S". This automatically load the save file and
continue from where the game was left off. NOTE: Only ONE save file can
be active at a time. If you save a second games without restoring the
first, the first saved game will be lost. Typing "EVETS /S" from the DOS
prompt will restore a game. Advanced users will be able to use this
facility avoid death. There is no cheating in Evets (unless you try to
modify the contents of Evets files).




Appendix A. Spells

Magic missle Level 1 Mana 1
Shoot a magic missle from finger.
This spell does up to 4 points damage per level of spell caster.
It effects only one monster in one opposing group.

Shield I Level 1 Mana 1
Lowers AC of spell caster by 1.

Bless I Level 1 Mana 1
This will "bless" one character in the current party so that they
will become +1 to hit (above and beyond all other plusses to hit).

Freezing Hands Level 2 Mana 2
"Spray" frost from hands. This spell does up to 4 points damage to
one opposing group per level of the spell caster. Obviously, this
spell is cold based and will not effect some monsters. Its power
comes from the elemental plane of ice and is channeled through the
caster at the entended target.

Burning hands Level 2 Mana 2
"Spray" fire from hands. This spell does up to 4 points damage to
one opposing group per level of the spell caster. Obviously, this
spell is heat based and will not effect some monsters. Its power
comes from the elemental plane of fire and is channeled through the
caster at the entended target.

Find stairs Level 2 Mana 2
Light up the area around ALL stairs on current level. This is useful
if the party has inadvertenly "fallen" down a chute and can not find
back the stairs up.

Heal I Level 2 Mana 3
Light healing spell. This spell will heal up to 2 hit points per level
of the caster.

Shield II Level 3 Mana 3
This spell will lower the AC of the caster by 1. This spell lasts
for a short duration, but can be "stacked" during that time. In other
words, it can be cast multiple times, each time lowering the caster's
armor class by 1.

Magic missle II Level 4 Mana 3
This is a more potent magic missle, doing up to a whopping 5 points of
damage per level of caster. (Look out for this one!)

Find Shop Level 4 Mana 5
Light up the area around ALL shops (if any) on current level. There are
shops on most of the dungeon levels. To find them, cast this spell.

Fireball Level 5 Mana 3
This spell will cause a fireball to shoot forth from the casters hand.
The spell does up to 6 points damage per level of the caster. Its power
comes from the elemental plane of fire and is channeled through the
caster at the entended target. Since the damage is fire based, some
monsters will be un-effected by it.



Lightning bolt Level 5 Mana 3
This spell causes a lightening bolt to shoot from the casters hand. The
spell does up to 6 points damage per level of the caster. Again, some
monsters will not be effected by this spell.

Cone of cold Level 5 Mana 3
This spell will cause a cone of intense frost to shoot from the casters
hand. It does up to 6 points damage per level of the caster. Its power
comes from the elemental plane of ice, so some monsters (most notably
those from there) will be un-effected.

Heal II Level 5 Mana 4
This is a light healing spell. It effects the entire party. Up to 2
points per level of the caster can be healed with this spell.

Santuary Level 5 Mana 15
This spell will cause the entire party to teleport to the stairs on
the first level. If things are going real bad, (I'm talkin BAD), then
this may be the spell for you. Unfortunately, the spell caster must
be at least level 5 and have 15 mana points.

Shield III Level 6 Mana 4
This spell will lower the AC of the entire party by 2. This spell
(like shield I) can be stacked and only works for a short duration.
However, each time the spell is re-cast, the time is "reset".

Resist cold Level 6 Mana 4
This spell causes the entire party to become resistant to all cold
based attacks. This could be a life saver some day. (Gingle, Gingle,
Lifesavers, a part of living).

Resist fire Level 6 Mana 4
This spell works the same as the above spell, however, it confers
resistance to heat based attacks.

Resist Lvl Drain Level 6 Mana 5
Same as above, but this spell may really piss off vampires and wraiths.
Use with care! These guy don't mess around when it comes to feeding time
and you could be the feed.

Thunder Ball Level 6 Mana 8
This spell is based both on cold and lightning. If a monster is not
effected by cold but is effected by lightning, this spell will effect
it. It causes up to 6 points damage per level of the caster.

Acid Spray Level 6 Mana 8
This spell causes a misty spray of acid to shoot from the casters
hand. It causes up to 6 points damage per level of the caster.

Teleport Level 7 Mana 7
This spell will teleport the party to a new location on the current
level. The spell may or may not work. If it fails, nothig happens at
all. You will NOT end up with a stone skirt!

Heal III Level 8 Mana 5
This is a medium duty healing spell. It heals up to 3 points per level
of the caster. Oh, by the way, it effects the entire party, kind of
like a blanket healing spell.



Disentigrate Level 8 Mana 6
This spell will disentigrate (some of?) opponent. The power for this
spell comes from the negative material plane, so again monsters from
there may or may not be effectd by it. The damage is up to 8 points
per level of the caster to all the monsters in one group.

Death ray Level 8 Mana 6
This spell will shoot a ray of death from the caster's hands. The power
for this spell comes from the negative material plane, so again monsters
from there may or may not be effectd by it. This spell effects all the
monsters in one group.

Thunder Storm Level 8 Mana 10
This spell causes a small "Thunder Storm" (complete with lightning and
hail) to surround all of the attacking groups of monsters. It will do
up to 6 points damage per level of the spell caster to each monster in
every group.

Acid Storm Level 8 Mana 10
This spell causes an acid cloud to surround the all of the attacking
groups of monsters. The acid will eat away at the monsters, doing a
total of up 6 points damage per level of the caster. This is a real
nasty spell. Oh, by the way, some monsters learned this spell recently
and really enjoy the effects of it!

Level Level 8 Mana 20
This spell enables the entire party to teleport to any level. The teleport
is fully controlled. This spell uses alot of mana and is usually used once
to get from the top levels to the lower levels quickly.

Fire storm Level 9 Mana 6
This spell creates an entense fire storm. It effects all opposing groups
of monsters. The damage is up to 6 points per level of the spell caster.
Some monsters will not be effected by this spell though.

Ice storm Level 9 Mana 6
This spell does the same thing as a fire store, but an ice storm is
created instead.

Shield IV Level 10 Mana 5
This spell lowers the AC of entire party by 3. Like the other shield
spells, it can be stacked.

Heal IV Level 10 Mana 6
This is a heavy duty healing spell for the entire party. After a
particularly grueling encounter, this spell will make the whole party
feel simply marvelous darling. After all, isn't that what partying is
all about?

Death call Level 10 Mana 6
This spell does what it says! Need I say more? Up to 8 points damage per
level of the caster to all of the opposing monsters.

Resurrect Level 10 Mana 12
Be careful with it spell. It may or may not work. If it doesn't work, try
again. If it doesn't work twice, you'd better get all the items off the
dead character, cuz he ain't EVER coming back (unless you cheat)! Once a
character is lost, it's lost forever. So, loot the body and accept the
loss. Apon entering the castle, the character will automatically be burned
to ashes (with any remaining items) and thrown to the wind. We're talking
gone!



Finger of death Level 10 Mana 12
Does major damage to ONE opponent. The damage done by this spell is
almost always fatal. Unfortunetly, it effects only one monster in one
group. What a bummer!

Heal V Level 11 Mana 7
This is a real heavy duty healing spell that heals entire party. If you
thought Heal IV made you want to party, try out this sucker and BYOB.

Finger of fire Level 11 Mana 6
This spell will blast a fire based attack at 1 group of monsters. The
damage is up to 8 points per level of the caster.

Finger of cold Level 11 Mana 6
Same as above, but this is a cold based spell.

Shield V Level 11 Mana 8
This spell will lower the AC of entire party by 4.

Teleport II Level 12 Mana 8
Same as teleport, but it works to any level and has a higher percentage
of working.

Magic missle III Level 12 Mana 10
This is a heavy duty magic missle spell. It uses alot of mana, but it's
worth it!

Monster Sensing Level 10 Mana 10
This spell will display all monsters on the current level. It lasts for
about 20 moves.

Life Level 18 Mana 20
This is a real resurrect spell. It heals all lost HP's too! Again, like
all resurrect spells, it may not work, but the chance of failure is very
slim for this one!

Evets fury Level 20 Mana 40
This is an awsome spell. I don't even know where to begin. Use this
sucker sparingly! Notice all the mana it uses? This little guy packs
a punch. Just to cast it, the your Intellect and level must be at least
20 and you must have 40 free mana points. This is a last resort spell!

Monster Sensing 2 Level 20 Mana 50
This spell is the same as monster sensing (above), except
it lasts for the entire duration of the dungeon expidition.
If you thought Evets fury sucked up mana, check out this one!




Appendix B. Special notes on running the program.

There are 2 environment settings that EVETS uses. These should be set up
prior to playing.

The first is as follows:

set EVETS= location of evets.??? files.

For example, if the game of Evets is on a hard drive in a subdirectory
called EVETS, you should type the following at the DOS command prompt:

set EVETS=C:\EVETS


The second specifies where the program will store temporary files. A ram
disk is recomended, but by no means necessary. If there is a ram disk on
drive d:, use the following:

set RAM=d:

If no ram disk is present, set this to any location you like. It can be set
to the same location as EVETS, for example:

set RAM=C:\EVETS


Have fun!


SAck.






  3 Responses to “Category : A Collection of Games for DOS and Windows
Archive   : EVETS.ZIP
Filename : EVETS.MAN

  1. Very nice! Thank you for this wonderful archive. I wonder why I found it only now. Long live the BBS file archives!

  2. This is so awesome! 😀 I’d be cool if you could download an entire archive of this at once, though.

  3. But one thing that puzzles me is the “mtswslnkmcjklsdlsbdmMICROSOFT” string. There is an article about it here. It is definitely worth a read: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/mtswslnk/