94 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
94 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
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THE CARTOGRAPHER
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THE CARTOGRAPHER is a DUNGEON MASTER/CHAOS STRIKES BACK map utility
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program from DreamPark Development. It lets you load DM and CSB
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saved games, print maps of all levels, and save them as low
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resolution D.E.G.A.S./D.E.G.A.S. Elite files. Thirty Champion
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portraits and a list of Spells can be displayed and printed. Maps
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can be changed, saved, and reloaded into DM or CSB, in effect
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creating a different game.
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CARTOGRAPHER is a neat idea for a utility program that works fine
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for the most part. Version 2.3 had a couple of bugs that have been
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taken care of in v2.4 (v3.0 is in the works). If you have a printer
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driver -- one that works better than the ST's Epson-compatible ROM
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driver -- the program will prove useful. A bonus included on the
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program disk is HEADSTART, by Charles F. Johnson and John Eidsvoog
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of Codehead Software, which allows auto-booting of selected
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programs. The disk is not copy-protected.
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DUNGEON MASTER has fourteen levels. CHAOS STRIKES BACK, if saved
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after use of the CSB Utility Disk's Make New Adventure option, will
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have ten levels; if you haven't used Make New Adventure, you'll get
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the two Prison levels. CARTOGRAPHER is possible because of the way
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DM and CSB save game positions: All dungeon levels are saved,
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whether or not you've entered all of them.
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The neat thing about CARTOGRAPHER is that the maps it generates
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from a save file show only what was happening when you saved the
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game. Depending on your progress when you saved the game, doors,
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traps, phony walls, and hidden pits will (or won't) appear on the
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map: Print a map at the start of a level, then print a map at the
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end of the level, and you'll have two different -- perhaps radically
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different -- maps.
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Once you've loaded a save-game file into CARTOGRAPHER and selected
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a level, you'll see a map display of that level. The map is marked
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with symbols indicating dungeon features, such as walls, objects,
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pits, doors, spinners, and stairs, which are explained in the Legend
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to the right of the map.
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New maps can be created; saved-game maps can be altered. Objects
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can be changed. All doors can be changed, that is, you can do away
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with keys by making doors button-operated; another alternative is to
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make doors transparent, thus letting you see what's on the other
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side before opening them. All changes can be saved and reloaded into
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DM or CSB. Maps can appear in color or black and white; both are
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fine for onscreen study, but on a printed color map many of the
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dungeon symbols will be indecipherable.
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The Print feature requires a driver. The setup I use is an Epson
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LQ-800 and Tom Hudson's INSTALL desk accessory (INSTAL.ARC in
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CompuServe's ATARIPRO Forum). CARTOGRAPHER disables all desk
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accessories, so you'll have to load the driver ahead of time. The
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Epson-compatible TOS driver in the ST's ROM turned out to be useless
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for printing the maps, and it remained useless regardless of the
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settings of the DIP switches.
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Maps are sent to the printer from a menu selection. The ALT/HELP
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key combination dumps the Spell list screen; the INSTALL driver
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printed Spell List and maps clean and clear. An alternate approach
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is to save a map screen as a low resolution (PI1)
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D.E.G.A.S./D.E.G.A.S. Elite file, load the file, and then print the
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map using one of the D.E.G.A.S. drivers. This leads to a bug:
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D.E.G.A.S. Elite's refusal to load a map file saved within
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CARTOGRAPHER. Version 2.4 fixes this glitch, with one exception:
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D.E.G.A.S. Elite bombs out when it tries to load a CSB Level One
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map. All other maps loaded and printed fine.
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The thirty Champion portraits on the CSB Utility Disk, the
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characters on the E & L Productions NOVELTY CHARACTER DISK, and any
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portrait with a .CMP extension can be displayed on one screen.
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ALT/HELP will dump these screens to the printer but since the
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displays are in color only, the printouts will be something less
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than perfect.
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Both DUNGEON MASTER and CHAOS STRIKES BACK (to a lesser extent)
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have spawned all kinds of commercial and public domain maps, mapping
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utilities, and solution handbooks. With the exception of the
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D.E.G.A.S. Elite load bombout of a CSB Level One map, CARTOGRAPHER
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works very well. The maps reflect the current state of the dungeon
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levels, rather than their solution. If you're a DM/CSB fanatic,
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you'll find CARTOGRAPHER a useful utility that works most reliably
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with the proper printer driver.
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THE CARTOGRAPHER is published and distributed by DreamPark
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Development.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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