™ PLAYER’S GUIDE ® ® An Electronic Ar ts® Company
CONTENTS History .............................................................................4 Starting the Game .............................................................8 Option Screen ..............................................................8 Tutorial Walkthrough ......................................................10 Main Game Screen .....................................................10 Movement..................................................................11 Combat.......................
HISTORY Kirt is a descendent of a magical race which calls itself The People. The People enjoyed a special relationship with both the gods and the dwellers of other planes; they were permitted to take the shapes of these distant beings for short durations, as they permitted the others to take on human form. This exchange worked for the benefit of both The People and the fantastic creatures from the other planes.
Followers of Malkor would capture animals, People, and the fantastic creatures and slay them in horrific, painful rites. Through these rites, they acquired the power to change into the shape of those they destroyed. Flaunting their new powers, the most powerful of Malkor’s minions were given positions of power over The People. The manner of the gods’ choosing had always been a private affair — the fact someone had been deemed worthy was evidenced by the shapes they received and not any divine announcement.
One god, Tovason, did not entirely abandon The People. If they kept watch against evil, he promised, they would eventually return to their former greatness. The People built a village around the temple and kept guard against Veste’s return. Through the years they mingled with other tribes and the gift of morphing slowly faded away. Eventually, only two of The People carried this gift. They were wed and bore a child they named Kirt. At his birth, the old gods gathered.
Kirt, with little knowledge of this new world, acquires the power to change shape by touching an obelisk that puts him in contact with the gods. He fights his way through the ruined, cursed city of The People to cleanse it of a great evil, and discovers a way to the temple at the center of The People’s village. By the time he gets there, Veste, warned of Kirt’s escape from the world Earth, has struck again.
STARTING THE GAME 1. First, install Shadowcaster on your hard disk. If you haven’t already done this, refer to the Install Guide included in this package for instructions. 2. Select the drive on which the game is installed. (For example, if you installed the game on your C drive, type C: e.) 3. Select your Shadowcaster directory. (If you used our default directory, type CD\SHADOW e.) 4. Start the game (by typing SHADOW e).
SAVE . Stores the current game. Select SAVE , choose a Saved Game View Window by clicking on it, and enter up to eight lines of text (Save Info Text) about the game being saved. When you have finished entering this information, press q to complete the save. The Save Info Text helps identify the saved game. You may then click on RETURN to continue.
TUTORIAL WALKTHROUGH NOTE: This tutorial walks you through the beginning of your adventure. If you would like to use keyboard commands to supplement the mouse commands we give here, see your Reference Card. The first time you play the game you are placed in the situation described below (after the Introduction). Since the game starts with you being attacked by a slobbering beast, you may want to read the Main Game Screen, Movement and Combat sections of this tutorial before you actually begin play.
are just below the Score Bar. The ninth, gold-outlined box is the Inventory Overview Button. Finally, at the very bottom of the right side are more Ability Icons. Depending on your current shape, there are up to six of these. Now look above the View Window. There is a blue bar on the left, a small box in the center showing the letter E, and a red bar on the right. The blue bar is the Power Bar, which shows your current power reserves.
During the course of the game, you gain the ability to morph into the forms of other races. You get Click to Surface their abilities and their weaknesses, as well as their (when swimming) method of movement. Some of your metaforms can fly, others can swim. To change altitude while flyClick to go ing, floating or swimming, click on either of the Higher Altitude Bars — the two thin columns to either side of the View Window with the purple gems.
To use the kick attack, click on the FOOT icon. The HAND icon loses its white border and the FOOT icon gets a white border. (Note that the cursor has changed to an orange circle. This cursor appears whenever one of the first two Abilities are chosen.) Attack the same way you did for the hand — place the cursor on or above the monster, and right-click or press z. When you defeat the monster, it collapses into a small shape on the floor. Look at your Score Bar — you see that it is no longer 0.
PICKING THINGS UP Now take a stroll around the courtyard, explore a little, and notice the objects on the ground. One of these is a vial containing a red-colored liquid. To pick up the vial, approach until you are close to the vial (the vial is visible at the bottom of the screen). Move the cursor over the red vial and right-click (or press z). If you are close enough to the vial, you can pick it up. See how the cursor becomes the vial. If this does not pick up the vial, you are too far away.
USING THINGS Look around until you find a wand with a green tip. Pick it up and place it in an inventory box. To use most things, you need to be actively holding them. In other words, a “cursor-grab” is not enough — they must be in a hand (or appropriate appendage) and that hand (or appendage) must be selected. Now pick up the wand from the inventory box and move it over a hand. Right-click to put it in the hand, and then activate it by left-clicking on that hand.
MORPHING In the center of the room is a green obelisk with a red tip — you can’t have missed it. In the course of the game, when you find an obelisk like this one and right-click on it, you are granted a new metaform as the obelisk disappears. Click on it now. The metaform you have just been granted is for the Maorin — a six-legged cat. You can now see the icon for the Maorin shape in the Ability icon area in the lower right of the screen. Select this icon.
ABILITIES When you look at the Selection Bar, notice that some of the icons have changed. The HAND icons are now PAW icons. (If you select one of these and right-click in the View Window, you see the Maorin’s double-pawed claw attack.) Also, the FOOT icon has been replaced with an EYE icon. Each metaform has at least two abilities (the rightmost icons of the Selection Bar). For the Maorin these abilities are Jump and Cat Sight. Selecting an icon turns its border white. Select the CAT SIGHT icon.
OPTION SCREEN The leftmost icon on the Selection Bar is for the Option Screen. Select this icon (left-click on it) to bring up the Option Screen. Going into the Option Screen pauses the game. You saw this screen when you started the game. This is where you: • SAVE a game, • QUIT your current game, • RETURN to an existing game, • LOAD a saved game, • toggle SOUND off or on, • toggle MUSIC off or on, and • set your DIFFICULTY level. Refer to Starting the Game (p. 8) for more information on how these work.
AUTOMAP SCREEN Between the OPTION SCREEN icon and the LEFT PAW icon there is a button that looks like a piece of parchment — the AUTOMAP icon. When this is selected, the Automap Screen appears. Left-click on this icon. Location Arrow Detailed Map Overview Map Level Indicator View Window Return Bar Compass The Location Arrow in the Detailed Map shows where you are and what general direction you are facing. The upper right of the map shows an Overview Map that represents a larger, less detailed area.
VIEW WINDOW SIZE Size Gems You have a fair amount of control over the View Window. Try clicking on the Size Gem to the left of the Portrait. The size of the View Window shrinks. Click on this gem several times until the View Window reaches its minimum size. Shrinking the size of the View Window speeds up the frame rate in the game, making things move more smoothly. This option is recommended for people who have 386 systems. Now click on the Size Gem to the right of the Portrait.
CURSORS There are four different types of cursor in the game to help you remember what is currently selected: • White Arrow inside View Window. No icon is currently selected and you can pick up/put down items or open/close things by right-clicking. • Black and Red Crosses. A hand appendage is selected. • Orange and Black Circles. One of your two Abilities from the Selection Bar is selected. • Glowing Blue Cross. One of your Abilities from under the inventory boxes is selected.
D IFFERENT F ORMS KIRT Kirt is a seemingly normal human who was raised in a large, modern American city. In reality, though, he is one of the few survivors of a race of shape morphers. Kirt has studied the martial arts and has recently been sent back to his native world to save his people. Kirt has the ability to morph his shape. He gains the power to assume more metaforms as he progresses through the game. Morphing costs Power, and so does maintaining a metaform.
MAORIN The Maorin are a six-foot tall, six-limbed cat race. In his Maorin form, Kirt weighs 400 pounds, runs faster, can stand more punishment and can deal out much more damage than a human can. Maorin have the Ability to see things normally hidden to human sight. They also have the Ability to jump. Maorin dislike water and drown quickly.
CAUN Caun are a two-foot tall, approximately 40-pound humanoid race with pointed ears. As fighters they are fairly ineffective, but Caun heal much more quickly than a human. Caun have the Ability to jump. They also have a Heal Ability, but this costs Power. Caun can create light, create a special shield which makes it difficult for enemies to harm them, and can make it difficult for enemies to locate them. Caun have the Ability to reach out and grab things that are some distance away.
OPSIS Opsis are large, floating orbs with tentacles. They are not built for physical combat, but have a number of other abilities. Opsis can throw cold blasts, cause their enemies to flee in fear or make them move in slow motion, plus create missiles and fire them at enemies. They can also kill foes outright. Moreover, Opsis can increase the range of the automap.
KAHPA Kahpa look like large, green frog-people. They are surprisingly tough, can breathe underwater and are good in hand-to-flipper combat. Kahpa can create an electrical shock (extra damaging when used in water) and a sonic attack (also extra damaging in water).
SSAIR Ssair have no legs and a pointed tail. They can both take and inflict enormous damage, and look like flying red dragons. Their tail attack is very powerful. They can also breathe fire, at the cost of Power.
GROST Grost look like stone giants. They can punch through some stone walls, are almost impervious to physical attacks and can survive in extremely hot environments. Grost can stamp their feet to cause earthquakes, and can paralyze with a touch.
Software © 1993 Raven Software, Inc. All other materials © 1993 ORIGIN Systems, Inc. Shadowcaster is a trademark of ORIGIN Systems, Inc. Origin and We create worlds are registered trademarks of ORIGIN Systems, Inc. Raven is a trademark of Raven Software, Inc. Electronic Arts is a trademark of Electronic Arts.
CREDITS Creative Directors Steve Raffel, Brian Raffel Producer Victor Penman Associate Producer Erin Roberts Assistant Producer Robert Zalot Technical Director Tim Brengle Lead Programmer Steve Coallier Programmers Victor Brueggemann, Kurt Schallitz, Carl Stika Additional Programming Ben Gokey, Rick Johnson, David Stildolph 3D Engine Id Software AIL Sound and Music System John Miles Music Composition, Arrangements & Conversions Marc Schaefgen Digital Sound Effects Randy Buck 30
Audio Direction Marc Schaefgen, Randy Buck Artists Brian Pelletier, Scott Rice, Shane Gurno, Jim Sumwalt Raven Technical Support Wes Taylor, Tim Moore, Michael Raymond-Judy EA Scripting Bill Schmitt EA Test Tony Iuppa, Eric Newhouse ORIGIN Test Scott Shelton, Marshall Andrews, Brian Wachhaus, Rik Packham Guest Playtesters Steve Suhy, Keith Francart, Jeff Glazier, Ken Rogers, Yun Shin Documentation Writing Victor Penman, Melissa Mead Documentation Editing Melissa Mead Cover Art Denis Loubet Document Design A
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