                    Cadaver: The Payoff Docs  

          
    HOW TO PLAY: The Payoff is the sequel to Cadaver. It picks up right
                 where Cadaver Ends. The Payoff is an isometric 3D
                 adventure, played by using the joystick and keyboard. You
                 play Karadoc the Dwarf. The object is to explore the
                 dungeons and corridors of Castle Wulf, interacting with
                 hundreds of objects, people, monsters and puzzles. The
                 ultimate objective is to kill the necromancer, Dianos; But
                 what you find along the way is yours to keep.

                 The majority of the action takes place on one screen which
                 is divided into three areas:
                  1) The Main Playing Area which shows Karadoc in the
                     current location
                  2) The Icon Panel which either shows the icons or displays
                     the object you are holding
                  3) The Right Status Display which reveals your current
                     health, the time (in days), the name of objects that
                     you make contact with, and the name of the current
                     location.

                  Karadocs skills include the ability to walk, jump, climb
                  stairs and fight monsters; by pressing F4 you can change
                  between moving in eight directions and moving in four,
                  according to your personal preference. There are three
                  major modes of controlling the dwarf and his actions:
                  basic movement, interacting with objects via icons, and
                  The Rucksack (which I will describe later).

                  When exploring a location, Karadoc's movement is
                  controlled entirely with the joystick. Pressing the fire
                  button when he is holding nothing, allows him to jump.

                  While holding a weapon or spell, the fire button
                  fires/casts the item. Pressing the 'H' key toggles a held
                  object on and off, allowing the dwarf to jump without
                  having to return a weapon or spell to the rucksack.

                  If any other object is being held it is thrown when you
                  press the fire button. The item held is shown in a window
                  in the left hand status panel when no other action is
                  being carried out.

                  As you explore the castle you come into contact with the
                  walls, exits and various objects around the rooms. Walls
                  and floors may contain relevant decorative effects (or
                  the may not, you will have to experiment). Exits are
                  the usual mode of travelling from room to room (though not
                  the only way): they are generally either simple archways
                  or unlocked doors. However, some doors may be locked, with
                  magic, an obstruction or a simple mechanical lock: these
                  can be opened with a key (most of which need to be
                  inserted into a keyhole), an object, or a spell.

                  Every object has characteristics such a weight or a
                  specific use: on touching the object, the left hand status
                  display reveals a series of icons which represent the
                  actions that can be executed on the item (for example,
                  searching it, or picking it up). The name of the object
                  is displayed in the right hand panel.

           ICONS: Objects are manipulated using the icons available: these
                  vary according to the item (you can't drink a spell or
                  cast a potion). The joystick cycles through the available
                  icons and the fire button activates them.

                  At the beginning of the game, or at any time during it, you
                  can customize the icon interaction according to taste,
                  simply by pressing F3 or F2. F3 toggles between icons
                  being displayed as soon as you touch an item or after
                  pressing the fire button: F2 toggles between using the
                  fire button or the enter key to bring up icons. If you
                  don't want to do anything with an object you encounter,
                  simply walk away.

                  This is a full list of icons in The Payoff. I will describe
                  those that i can, you will have to figure out which is
                  which from the others.  

                  Joystick - Returns Karadoc to movement control

                  Search (Question Mark) - Gives information about an object:
                                           searching a spell, for example,
                                           reveals its name (if you are
                                           clever enough to know it), the
                                           number of charges remaining,
                                           and its power.

                  Take - Takes an object and puts it in the rucksack.

                  Drop - Drops an object

                  Drink - Allows you to drink an object, such as liquid from
                          flasks; drinking a potion activates it.

                  Read - Allows you to read books and other objects.

                  Hold (Knife) - Allows you to hold and unhold objects.
                                 Some items (such as weapons) need to be
                                 held before you can use them.

                  Cast Spell - Casts a spell on the item Karadoc is touching.

                  Switch - Allows Karadoc to operate switches.

                  Press - Allows Karadoc to press buttons.

                  Open - Opens and closes containers, such as chests or
                         caskets.

                  Insert - When Karadoc is touching something, he can
                         insert an object from his rucksack into it by
                         choosing the object to be inserted and selecting
                         this icon. Only the right item will be accepted.

                  Pull - Allows you to move an item.

                  Eat - Allows Karadoc to eat any food.

                  Give  (Hand) - When Karadoc touches certain objects or
                                 characters, he may be able to give that
                                 object/person an item. This is done by
                                 touching the recipient, entering the
                                 rucksack, choosing the item to give and
                                 selecting the 'give' icon. However, if you
                                 give an item to something, it cannot be
                                 returned, even if it was the wrong object.

                  Note: Sorry I could not describe the icons. The pictures
                  in these docs really suck. Even if I scanned them
                  it would not help you. You are going to have to
                  experiment to find out which icon is which.

    The Rucksack: There are two ways of using the rucksack: you can either
                  view individual items or take a look at the rucksack as a
                  whole.

                  Pressing the SPACE BAR brings up a window in the right
                  hand status display, which shows the last item in your
                  rucksack which you manipulated or picked up. You can move
                  through the icons using the joystick. Pushing the highlight
                  off the extreme left or right of the icon panel allows the
                  player to cycle through the items in the rucksack,
                  pressing fire selects the item and returns you to the
                  icons. If you want to return to the small rucksack display
                  again, move the joystick off the left or right side of the
                  panel.  

                  Pressing the RETURN key allows you to view the entire
                  contents of your rucksack. Initially, you can hold up to a
                  maximum of 32 objects, 16 of which are displayed on the
                  screen at once (you can scroll through them all using the
                  joystick). As each object is highlighted, additional
                  information is given. Pressing fire selects the item, and
                  pressing RETURN a second time returns you to the 'small'
                  rucksack display. Pressing the SPACE BAR a second time
                  returns you to the game.   

 PERSONAL STATUS: The diary in the first room (of cadaver) is your personal
                  log book. It reveals the amount of gold that you have
                  collected, your current health, experience points gained
                  and the percentage of rooms you have visited.
                  Any valuable items you find are converted to cash and
                  added to your total. The item will not appear in your
                  rucksack, unless it has a specific use. Keys that are no
                  longer needed are deleted from your inventory. Experience
                  points are gained by solving puzzles and killing monsters.

         THE MAP: A map of your adventure is automatically drawn as you
                  explore the castle and its dungeons: to access it, simply
                  press F1. It shows the room that you are currently in
                  (box with light outline), and the rooms you have explored
                  (boxes with darker outlines); however, it doesn't show
                  any rooms that you have not visited, or the doors leading
                  to them. You can scroll around the map using the joystick,
                  and zoom in/out of it by pressing the up/down cursor keys.
                  If you want to center the map display, just press HOME.

SPELLS & POTIONS: Spells are held on a variety of items; eg. parchment,
                  stones, and orbs. There are three types of spells:
                   1) Spells which fire a shot (eg. magic missile, unlock
                      door)
                   2) Room spells which affect either the whole level
                      (eg. freeze) or just the current room
                   3) Object spells (eg. unlock chest, bless weapon)

                  The first two categories are cast by holding the spell and
                  pressing the fire button. The object spells are cast by
                  touching the object on which the spell is to be cast,
                  then entering the rucksack and selecting the spell you
                  want to use. A Cast Spell icon then appears which, when
                  activated, casts the spell on the object you are touching.

                  Potions can be found throughout the game and provide a
                  wide variety of effects, not all of which are positive.
                  Most potions and spells are briefly labelled, but some
                  have no identification tag whatsoever: Experimentation
                  establishes the function and name. Alternatively, there
                  are two spells which reveal unknown information: Read
                  Magic allows you to use an unknown spell, and tells you its
                  true name and function. Learn Potion allows you to discern
                  the nature of a potion if the name is unknown (though
                  you can still drink the potion to find out for yourself).
                  The Read Language spell translates foreign scripts: it's
                  used for learning information written in runes of another
                  tongue. This spell has no effect on unknown spells.

SAVING & LOADING: Saving and loading your position in The Payoff is
                  controlled by pressing the "S" and "L" keys. Saving your
                  position costs gold: The higher the level, the greater
                  the charge. Loading is free.

                  You can have a maximum of ten saved positions, numbered
                  zero through nine. When you press the "S" key you are told
                  the price of the save and asked if you wish to pay,
                  pressing "Y" deducts this value from your current cash and
                  you are asked to press a number from 0 to 9 on the numeric
                  keypad: this stores all the data about your game up to that
                  moment. When the "L" key is pressed the player chooses the
                  number of the saved game, again from 0 to 9 on the
                  numeric keypad.

                  You must insert a blank disk into the drive in order to
                  save and load the information: This disk is specially
                  formatted, and must only be used for storing The Payoff
                  saved positions.

                  Note: The docs do not discuss what happens if the game
                  is stored on the hard drive. Who knows?

        JOYSTICK: Here are the joystick quick commands:

                  North: Cycle through items in rucksack/Scroll map up

                  South: Cycle through items in rucksack/Scroll map down

                  East : Cycle through icons/Scroll map right

                  West : Cycle through icons/Scroll map left

                  Fire : Jump/Cast Spell/Use Weapon/Throw Object

        KEYBOARD: Here are the keyboard quick commands:

                  RETURN      : Displays the whole rucksack. When pressed a
                                second time, it returns to the small rucksack
                                display

                  SPACE BAR   : Displays a single item from the rucksack.
                                When pressed a second time, it returns you to
                                 the game.  
                  UP/DOWN
                  Cursor Keys : Zoom in/out of the map

                  CLR/HOME    : Center the map display

                  S           : Save the game position (if you have enough
                                money)

                  L           : Load a saved game position

                  H           : Toggles a held object off and on

                  P           : Toggles Pause/Unpause

                  C           : Clear all game messages from the screen

                  F1          : Map

                  F2          : Toggles between using fire or ENTER to access
                                icons

                  F3          : Toggles between icons displayed as soon as
                                you make contact with object, or after first
                                pressing the fire button.

                  F4          : Toggles between moving in 8 directions or
                                moving in 4 directions

                  0-9         : Save/Load a game after the appropriate key
                                has been pressed

                  Well, thats it...

      THE PAYOFF: The Payoff is 4 additional levels for Cadaver. It is not
                  just an add-on, however. You MUST load Cadaver to run it.
                  It cannot be run any other way. The game will prompt you
                  for which game you want to play.