AlphaMan FAQ updated: May 1995 Most recent version: 1.03 Please direct all questions and suggestions to Jeff Olson: Jeffrey Olson 214 E. Sherwin Dr. Urbana, IL 61801 USA 76473.225@compuserve.com. RELEASE INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------------ February 1995 AlphaMan 1.0 released. Shareware by Jeff Olson. March 1995 AlphaMan 1.01 released. Improvements: Made food somewhat more plentiful. Added a "fast fight" mode to bypass spacebar presses during combat. Added an Easy and a Moderately Easy level of difficulty to assist beginners. Fixed an annoying quirk of superglue traps. April 1995 AlphaMan 1.02 released. Improvements: Fixed bug that could crash game when character's hunger went from "Very Hungry" to "Famished". Made Invisibility, Quills and Heightened Endurance somewhat more powerful to balance them out. May 1995 AlphaMan 1.03 released. Improvements: Fixed saved filename convention to properly handle odd characters such as ? and + in character's name. WHAT IS ALPHAMAN? -------------------------------------------------------- AlphaMan (Copyright (c) 1995 Jeffrey R. Olson) is an adventure game set on Earth in the future, following a nuclear disaster. You will take the role of a mutated human who is struggling to save the planet from annihilation. You will be pitted against hideously mutated plants and animals, traps and snares of all sorts, and several varied adversaries whom you will have to defeat in order to complete your mission. At your disposal are a broad variety of technological relics and mutated substances which you will acquire along the way, as well as your own powers and guile. AlphaMan has occasional humorous twists, and uses colorful text-based graphics in the spirit of Rogue or NetHack. Requires 640K, color. AlphaMan is loosely based on Gamma World by James Ward of TSR Hobbies. WHERE CAN ALPHAMAN BE FOUND? --------------------------------------------- The current release of AlphaMan (currently 1.03) can be found via FTP at ftp.win.tue.nl in /pub/games/alphaman. The most recent major update (currently 1.0) can be found at ftp.dungeon.com in /pub/msdos/games/Misc, ftp.indirect.com in /pub/software/games, ftp.inf.tu-dresden.de in /.4.1/vol4/ms-dos/games/roleplay, ftp.funet.fi in /pub/msdos/games/rpg. WHAT DO THE CHARACTER STATS MEAN? ---------------------------------------- Your character will have six basic personal attributes: Strength (physical power), Dexterity (agility and quickness), Constitution (fortitude and health), Radiation Resistance (susceptibility to radiation), Mental Resistance (susceptibility to mental attacks) and Intelligence (learning ability). These characteristics generally are in the range 3-18 (higher is "better"), but some mutations, devices, etc. can raise or lower these. Your characteristics may increase with time as you gain experience as well. There is no limit to how high your stats can go. I have had characters finish the game with a Strength of 38, a Dexterity of 36, and no stat below 18. I've also finished the game (and won) with a Dexterity of -1. Your character also has Hit Points. These reveal to how much damage you can sustain before dying. You lose hit points as you are damaged by attacks from creatures, falling into pits, etc. You heal hit points back over time, and some devices and substances will heal you faster. In addition, you will gain more hit points as you become a more experienced adventurer. HOW DO THE MUTATIONS WORK? ----------------------------------------------- A character has a physical and a mental mutation. The following is a list of all mutations currently implemented, and a brief overview of their usefulness. Physical mutations: Electrical Generation: usable every few rounds, this attack causes electrical damage to any creature touching you during the round used. The damage done is significant, but not all creatures need to touch you to hurt you! Heightened Dexterity: this mutation raises your dexterity to 19-23, subject to reduction by encumbrance in the usual way. Heightened Strength: this mutation raises your strength to 19-23, subject to reduction by fatigue in the usual way. Heightened Vision: allows you to see long distances, to see invisible creatures, to search more effectively, and to hit more often in combat. Tough Exoskeleton: lowers your armor class, making you harder to hit in combat and reducing your damage sustained. It encumbers you slightly. Sonic Attack: usable every 12 rounds, this does burning damage to all nearby creatures not protected from heat. Blood Structure Change: raises your constitution to 19-23, making you more robust and giving you more hit points and poison resistance. Reflective Skin: raises your radiation resistance to 19-23, and makes you more resistant to lasers and heat. You take only 1/2 damage from laser attacks, and 2/3 damage from heat attacks. Laser Generation: usable every 13 rounds, this attack does laser damage to a selected target if it successfully hits. It does substantial damage. Heightened Endurance: you tire much less easily and regain lost hit points more rapidly, and you can sustain a much longer duration underwater. You cas also carry twice the weight before becoming encumbered. Foul Musk: usable every 14 rounds, you cause nearby creatures to get sick and flee for a variable duration of time. Acidic Saliva: usable every 8 rounds, this attack causes acid damage to a selected target if you successfully hit. It is easier to hit at close range. This does appreciable damage. Poison Claws: you cause poison damage to a selected target if a successful hit is scored. You can inject poison every 5 rounds. Heightened Speed: usable about every 30 rounds, you can double your speed for 10-20 rounds, allowing you extra attacks or movement. This mutation may be too powerful in its present form! Radiation Generation: usable every 15 rounds, you can generate a beam of radiation capable of damaging creatures in line with a selected target. Quills: these provide protection by causing damage to any creature touching you. You can also shoot them at an opponent every few rounds. Tenticles: you can entwine a selected target and cause constriction damage every round. While constricting, you are able to do other things. If you move, you will release your tenticles. Mental mutations: Military Genius: you are a natural soldier, hitting more often and doing more damage than normal mutants. Scientific Genius: your intelligence is raised to 19-23, and you can construct new tech devices with parts salvaged from old ones. Heightened Willpower: your mental resistance is raised to 19-23, and you are able to temporarily raise all your stats and your hit points. Mental Blast: usable every 12 rounds, you can attempt to overload the mental synapses of a selected opponent to do damage. This attack does substantial damage, but it has been pointed out that a lot of creatures resist mental attacks. Teleportation: you can mentally transport yourself short or long distances. You must be rested to teleport, and it can only be used infrequently. Mental Healing: you can heal yourself at a rate of 3 hit points / round. You must sit motionless to do this, however, and it is tiring. It is nice to be able to enter unfamiliar situations with maximum hits, though. Force Field: while activated, you take reduced damage (typically 2/3 normal) from all attacks. It is tiring to use, however. Molecular Disruption: usable every 12 rounds, this mental assault can totally destroy creatures or other objects at which it is targeted. Useful for going through walls. Life Leech: you can steal hit points from nearby monsters and add them to your own. This is usable every 4 rounds. Invisibility: you can mentally bend light rays around you, which makes you difficult to see and less susceptible to lasers. Lasts about 12 rounds. You are also immune to blindness attacks (I think). Cryogenics: you can mentally freeze an opponent, doing progressively more damage as the opponent freezes. It is usable every 3 rounds. Damage increases exponentially, doing 1d6, 2d6, 4d6, 8d6 etc. on progressive "hits", so it is extremely useful against powerful opponents. Hypnosis: you can put opponents to sleep by a sheer force of will. This ability is usable every 3 rounds. Psychokinesis: you are able to disrupt matter to create grenade-like explosions. This ability is tiring, and can only be used every 15 rounds. WHAT USE ARE TECH DEVICES? ----------------------------------------------- As a character progress, (s)he will accumulate technological relics which can be extremely useful. AlphaMan includes over 125 different devices, including tech weapons like the Laser Pistol, Flamethrower, etc., various grenades, vehicles like the Hovercraft or Golf Cart, protective suits like the Radiation Suit or the Bulletproof Vest, and a myriad of miscellaneous gadgets. Many devices one can find are truly useless, such as the Toaster or Leafblower. Some have more subtle uses. A Microwave Oven, for example, can prematurely ripen berries (see below). A Home Movie Projector will put critters to sleep. Some devices can be dangerous to use, like the Porta-Potty or the Kevorkian Machine. Some devices are of obvious use, such as the Medkit, which will restore lost hit points and remove the detrimental effects of poison. One particularly useful device is the Microcomputer (or the Computer Workstation) which can be used to reveal a variety of information about weapons, berries, devices, creatures, etc. A section describing the usefulness of each tech device may be included in this FAQ in the future if I receive enough feedback. WHAT USE ARE BERRIES? ---------------------------------------------------- Mutated berries provide a variety of effects, and can be eaten or thrown depending on the type of berry. AlphaMan includes over 30 different types of berries which do things like turn you invisible if eaten, heal lost hit points, explode, etc. What a particular berry will do is generally not known until that particular type of berry has been eaten (or a Chemical Analyzer has been used on it), so some dangerous eating experimentation must generally be done. Some berries, if thrown at other creatures, will reveal their nature that way (you may, for example, toughen the skin of the creature or turn it invisible). You can occasionally find nectar or extract as well (or make it from a berry using a Still); these are more porent versions of berries. I will consider adding a section describing what each type of berry does if there is enough interest. WHICH WEAPONS/ARMOR ARE BEST? -------------------------------------------- The following is a list, in order of increasing usefulness, of the weapons, armor and shields one can find in AlphaMan. WHY ELVIS, GILLIGAN, ETC? ------------------------------------------------ AlphaMan has a deliberate lighthearted feel to it. The bizarre and peculiar cast of special characters was chosen, in part, to poke fun at the more banal aspects of Americana. Elvis is a (living?) icon, a national treasure. No one in my generation could have missed the appeal of Gilligan and the castaways, or the Munsters, save for those few with progressive, left-wing, hand-wringing parents who forbade the watching of TV. And who hasn't asked him/herself the question "Whatever became of Buzz Aldrin, second man on the moon"? WHAT NEXT? --------------------------------------------------------------- I am working on a SuperVGA game in the same genre as AlphaMan, but which will have a more serious and long-term mission. I hope to have it available within 6-9 months, and will send the shareware version to everyone who has registered AlphaMan.