HACK LITE II - QUICK REFERENCE

  

 

 

 

  HACK LITE II - QUICK REFERENCE 

  ------------------------------ 

 

       Hack Lite is a Dungeons and Dragons like game where the object is to 

  descend into a dungeon to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor and return to the 

  surface with it.  The Amulet is harder to retrieve in Hack Lite than in 

  some other versions of Hack, but it's not impossible! 

 

 

  Your character 

 

       You can be one of several character classes when you start the game. 

  Each character starts with different attributes (strength, hit points) and 

  a different inventory of items (armor, weapons, etc).  You should try the 

  different classes to see which is best for you.  The class most likely to 

  survive the first few dungeon levels is probably the cave-person.  However, 

  each class has its strong and weak points so you should try them all. 

 

 

  The status line 

 

       At the bottom of the screen is displayed information about your state 

  of being.  You see the dungeon level you are on, how many hit points you 

  have now (and will have when fully recovered), what your armor class is 

(Pause)...More(y/n/ns)? ns 

  (the lower the better), your strength, experience level and the state of 

  your stomach.  If you are playing the full-blown game, you will also see 

  your energy level, needed for casting spells. 

 

 

  The little dog 

 

       You start Hack Lite accompanied by a little dog (nameable with the 'C' 

  command) who can be very useful to you -- try not to kill him!  Your dog 

  will follow you -- if you carry tripe rations, he will follow you even 

  better.  Sometimes he gets in your way.  Either move around him, or wait 

  (with the '.' command) until he moves.  If you want him to follow you to 

  the next dungeon level, he must be on a square next to you when you descend 

  or ascend the stairs.  Sometimes he gets hungry and confused and hits you. 

  You can feed him by throwing food at him with the 't' command. 

 

       Your dog may get mad at you if you move to a different dungeon level 

  without taking him with you.  Although he may not hit you, he won't help 

  you either.  You'll have to appease him somehow. 

 

       Your dog is useful for his ability to fight and to pick up and carry 

  objects.  Of course, your dog might be a female, so change all "he" and 

  "him" to "she" and "her". 

 

 

  The dungeon 

 

       The dungeon is a set of levels connected through stairways and 

  trapdoors.  Each level is an interconnected system of rooms and corridors. 

  The rooms have doors that lead to the corridors.  You must walk straight 

  through a door -- no diagonals allowed.  Some doors (and some corridors) 

  are hidden and you must search for them (with the 's' command).  Usually 

  you must search several times, so use a repeat count (eg '5s').  Some rooms 

  are special and have no doors or connecting corridors.  There is a way to 

  get in, though, but you will have to experiment. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       The Wizard resides below the normal dungeon levels and can't be 

  reached by only taking the stairs. 

 

       Some rooms have special contents -- some are shops (but be aware that 

  the shopkeeper expects payment (the 'p' command) for the items you get 

  there) and some are zoos, full of interesting monsters.  Some rooms are lit 

  and you can see the entire room, and some rooms are dark so you can see 

  only the floor near you. 

 

 

  Monsters 

 

       To fight monsters, move to occupy the same square they are in.  You 

  can also throw things at them, or zap them with wands.  It is best to leave 

  some monsters alone. 

 

 

  Objects 

 

       The objects you find may be enchanted (that's good) or cursed (that's 

  bad) or normal.  Cursed items are generally less effective than normal and 

  also, once you have them on your body they are impossible to remove unless 

  you remove their curse. 

 

       You use different objects in different ways: 

 

       )  WEAPONS are wielded ('w') or thrown ('t') 

          Some weapons are more effective when used together.  For example, 

          you get more effect by wielding a bow before throwing arrows. 

          'w-' means to wield nothing; ie. be barehanded 

 

       [  ARMOR is worn ('W') and taken off ('T') 

          You can wear more than 1 piece of armor, but there are some 

          restrictions on the combinations.  For example, you can only wear 1 

          SUIT of armor, but you can always wear an elven cloak. 

 

       !  POTIONS are quaffed ('q') 

 

       =  RINGS are put on ('P') and removed ('R') 

          You only can only wear 2 rings at a time, one on each hand.  Also, 

          wearing rings makes you to use up more food, so use them sparingly. 

 

       /  WANDS are zapped ('z') 

          Some wands need a direction to be zapped in, but others do not. 

 

       ?  SCROLLS are read ('r') 

 

       (  TOOLS are applied ('a') 

          For example, to blow a whistle, you apply it. 

 

       Initially you will not know what the potions, rings, wands or scrolls 

  do until you use them.  They will have names like "XIXIXI".  Some of these 

  objects are identified as soon as you use them (for example, a scroll of 

  light causes a dark room to be lit). 

 

       Other objects have no noticeable effect.  If it's not immediately 

  obvious what a scroll or potion does the first time you use it, you may be 

  asked to give it a name.  Hack Lite does this so that if you have an idea 

  about what the object does you can name it something appropriate so the next  

  time you find it you will know something about it.  Whenever Hack Lite asks 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  for a name it is possible to use the backspace or backarrow key to back 

  up, or <Esc> to quit without supplying a name. 

 

       Using some objects gives a message like "You have a strange feeling 

  for a moment, but it passes".  This means the object would have done 

  something but couldn't do it now (for example, some scrolls affect your 

  weapon, but if you're not wielding a weapon you'll get this message). 

 

       The call command 'c' can be used to name individual objects, or all 

  objects of a certain type.  When you do a 'c', Hack Lite asks if you want to 

  name an individual object.  Answer 'y' if you do and 'n' if you want to 

  name all objects of the same type.  Then Hack Lite will prompt you for the 

  inventory letter of the object you want to name.  For example, if you put 

  on a silver ring that has inventory letter 's' and notice your strength 

  increases by two then you do: 

   

       'c' 'n' 's' 'strength<return>' 

            (call all objects with the same type as item 's' "strength"). 

   

       then 'c' 'y' 's' '+2<return>' 

            (call individual inventory item 's' "+2") 

   

  When you do an inventory you will see 

   

       s) a ring called strength named +2 

   

  The next time you pick up a silver ring it will be called strength so you 

  will know what it does.  However, you will not know if it will increase or 

  decrease your strength!  You will have to put it on to find out or you will 

  have to identify it. 

 

 

  Enchanting objects 

 

         If you enchant an object, it will be better than it was before. 

  Enchanting armor changes your armor class by 1 (eg. you could go from class 

  7 to class 6 -- the less positive the number, the better the armor class, 

  as in Dungeons and Dragons).  For weapons, the more positive the number, 

  the better.  Thus a +2 mace is better than a +1 mace.  Some armor is better 

  than others -- normal plate mail is better than normal ring mail.  Some 

  weapons are better than others, but factors such as experience and luck 

  determine whether you can effectively use the better weapons. 

 

 

  Identifying objects 

 

       The scroll of identify will help you to identify many objects, but 

  generally you just have to use them and see what happens.  Occasionally a 

  scroll of identify will have the ability to identify several objects.  So 

  it is to your advantage to have several unidentified objects before you use 

  an identify scroll.  When you read a scroll of identify Hack Lite will ask 

  you which classes of objects you want identified.  If, for example, you 

  answer '=/' then for each ring in your pack you will be asked if you want to 

  identify it.  After going through all rings, you will be asked about the 

  wands.  If you do not identify any of these objects you will get back to 

  the question about which classes of objects you want identified. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       The effect of rings may not be obvious, and cursed rings can't be 

  removed unless you remove their curse.  Thus scrolls of identify are 

  probably best used to identify rings. 

 

 

  Scoring 

 

       When the game ends, either by your death, when you quit, or if you 

  escape from the caves, Hack Lite will give you (a fragment of) the list of  

  top scorers.  The scoring is based on many aspects of your behavior but a  

  rough estimate is obtained by taking the amount of gold you've found in the 

  cave plus four times your (real) experience.  Precious gems may be worth a 

  lot of gold when brought to the exit.  There is a 10% penalty for dying. 

 

 

  What is "--More--"? 

 

       Whenever there is a lot of information for you to see, Hack Lite waits 

  for you to read it all by giving you a "--More--".  If the "--More--" is 

  displayed on the normal response line (the top line that most messages are 

  shown on), then Hack Lite is waiting for you to enter ' ' (the space 

  character) or <return>. 

 

       If Hack Lite has printed out a list of information (eg. you did an 'i' 

  command), then it will accept ' ' or <return> as well as the inventory 

  letter of anything in the list.  Where is this useful?  An example is when 

  you want to quaff a potion but you can't remember the letter of the potion 

  you want.  You do 'q' then '?' and Hack Lite gives you the list of all your 

  potions followed by a "--More--" message.  If you type ' ' or <return> you 

  get back to the prompt about which potion you want to quaff.  If you type 

  the inventory letter of the potion, you immediately quaff that potion. 

 

       If the screen is completely cleared to give you information (eg. 

  you're looking at the help documentation with the '?' command), then there 

  will be more than one screen full of information.  In this case, ' ' or 

  <return> mean "show the next screen" and ESC means "stop". 

 

 

  Getting Help 

 

       Of course, there is much about Hack Lite to discover yourself.  The  

  RUMORS file provides helpful clues for playing.  (Of course, since these are 

  only RUMORS, you can't trust everything you read.)  You can also use the 

  '?' command to get help during play, and you can find out what a monster or 

  object you don't recognize is by moving the mouse to it, and clicking while 

  pressing the shift key. 

   

   

  Playing on the Amiga 

   

       Hack Lite takes advantage of the unique capabilities of the Amiga 

  to make the game even easier to play.  For instance, monsters and objects 

  are displayed graphically, not just as letters and special characters.  But 

  each monster and kind of object still has an associated character as well 

  as an icon.  Sometimes, you will need to reply to Hack Lite messages with  

  these letters.  You can use shift-click to find out the letter in this case. 

  (For a monster, the letter is usually the same as the first letter of the 

  monster's name.  For instance, the symbol for an acid blob is 'a'.) 

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

       You can use the HackIconIII program to change the graphics for all the 

  monsters and objects.  This program is documented in another file. 

   

       Most of the Hack Lite commands can be given using the Amiga's 

  pull-down menus.  Just use the right mouse button to see what menus are  

  available, and then select the command you want.  When you use the menus, 

  Hack Lite will always show you the part of your inventory that the command 

  could use (for example, if you do a READ, it will show you all your 

  scrolls).  You can select an item using the mouse rather than by typing a 

  letter, if you prefer. 

   

       You can also use the mouse to indicate the direction you want to move. 

  The mouse position only defines the direction of movement, not the exact 

  spot to move to. 

   

   

   

  What's New in Hack Lite II ? 

   

   

       One of the big changes is that when you have the opportunity to pick 

  up a number of objects, you no longer have to go through all the objects if 

  you only want to pick up a few.  If there is more than one kind of object, 

  you will be shown the letters for each kind of object (like / for wands, ? 

  for scrolls, and so on).  You can then enter these letters to select what 

  kinds of objects you might want to pick up, and Hack will only ask you about 

  these.  You can also answer 'a' to pick up all the objects or 'A' to be 

  asked about all the objects.  If you answer '=!a', it means "pick up all 

  the rings and potions".  (Some players prefer the old style where you are 

  always asked about all objects.  To avoid having to select object types 

  when you pick things up, put the "noselect" option in the OPTIONS line 

  of your HACKLITE.CNF file.) 

   

       You can now set up your HACKLITE.CNF file to give a name to your 

  first dog.  Just put "dogname:Fido" after your name on the OPTIONS line. 

   

       Hack Lite now supports 16 color graphics.  If you want this option 

  (it uses extra memory), add the line "GRAPHICS=16" to your HACKLITE.CNF. 

  Or, if you are familiar with UNIX Hack, and prefer a boring ASCII character 

  display, add "GRAPHICS=ALPHA" to your configuration. 

   

       If you're busy doing something (like searching) and want to stop (say 

  because something is creeping up on you), you can now do it using the <Esc>  

  key.  This works as a reply to --More-- as well as when there is nothing 

  to respond to.  Note that the <Esc> won't help if you've been put to sleep 

  or otherwise disabled. 

   

       The ctrl-H command now lets you get a history of recent messages from 

  Hack.  This is easier than using ctrl-P over and over again. 

   

       There is a new 'A' command to take off several pieces of armor at  

  once. 

   

       There are seven new character classes, and the Fighter and the 

  Speliologist have been renamed the Barbarian and the Archeologist.  The 

  Archeologist now has some special abilities to make up for his weaknesses. 

   

       As a result of new Federal regulations, the shopkeepers will now tell 

  you how much an item costs before you buy it. 

   

       In addition to its other uses, you can use the #dip command to dip 

  things in a fountain.  The results could be very interesting... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

       Many existing monsters have been modified.  (For instance, you will 

  find ghosts and dragons a little tougher than they used to be.)  You may 

  also have to change your dietary habits, since the list of edible monsters 

  has been changed somewhat since version 1. 

 

       New monsters include giants, quantum mechanics, demon lords and  

  princes, liches, golems, soldiers and the Medusa.  Be careful of the Medusa, 

  since one glance will turn you to stone!  The Wizard of Yendor is also 

  tougher and meaner, since there's a rumor that someone named Baggins once 

  won this game! 

   

       New useful objects include leashes, blindfolds, mirrors, stethoscopes 

  and magic markers (good for writing on blank paper).  There are also some 

  new scrolls, potions and rings, but we'd rather not give them away. 

   

       You will now sometimes find "throne rooms", where the ghost of a 

  deceased ruler holds court.  If you can fight off the courtiers, you can 

  sit on the throne with #sit, and see what it feels like.  (You might even 

  like it.) 

   

   

  Spells 

   

       One of the features of the latest version of Hack Lite is spell 

  casting.  Sometimes, you may find spellbooks, which record the magical 

  directions for casting a spell.  (The object symbol for a spellbook is +.) 

  To use a spell, you must first study it and memorize it.  This is done 

  with the X (eXamine) command.  Of course, a spell might be cursed, and 

  examining it might backfire. 

   

       Once you have learned a spell, you cast it with the Z command.  

  Casting a spell is a delicate business, and requires strength and enough 

  magical energy.  Your energy increases with experience, and from the 

  potion of gain energy.  Your energy is depleted by spell casting, and also 

  by anti-magic traps.  Casting a spell when you are not strong enough to 

  do so is not a very good idea.  Each time you cast a spell, your memory 

  of it fades, and eventually you will have to find another spellbook to 

  relearn the spell. 

   

       The x command gives you a list of all the spells you have memorized. 

  The bracketed number before the spell name (for instance, [1] in  

  "[1] sleep") is the spell level.  The higher the spell level, the harder 

  the spell is to cast. 

 

 

  Tournament Mode 

 

       "Tournament mode" is a new Hack Lite feature that allows several  

  players to compete to see which one achieves the highest score in the 

  same dungeon.  When you invoke Hack Lite, specify the option -Zseed,  

  replacing "seed" by a 1-9 digit number, which will be used to build  

  each dungeon level.  For complete fairness, specify -ZBseed, which will  

  prevent previous games from affecting this one.  You can specify just  

  -Z or -ZB, in which case the game will generate a seed and display it to  

  you, so the game can be played again if you wish.