
                                  PANDORA
                                  -------

                Taken from an ST Sewer Software docs disk!
      Typed in by Ital Man & 007. Edited by Parasite and Codetapper!


THE PLOT
--------
The generation ship 'PANDORA' was conceived by the British research team
Maincore Computer Development in collaboration with a group of eminent
European scientists in the latter half of the twentieth century.  It
carried a mixed crew of humans and droids, and was designed to support life
indefinitely whilst it drifted through the unchartered territories of
space, seeking out alien life forms of a greater intelligence than Man.
The ship was controlled by a seventh generation computer, PANDORA, after
which the spacecraft had been named.

PANDORA'S design brief was to surpass the capabilities of any other
computer past, present or future.  During it's construction, a major
component, the bio-rhythmic stabilisers, could not be tested under alien
conditions.  PANDORA'S research team were of the opinion that
de-stabilisation of this component could lead to pseudo aggressive
tendencies, resulting in contravention of the computer's operational
directives.  However, it was thought that it was very unlikely that this
condition could occur.  It is now the 22nd century and PANDORA has been
roaming space for almost 200 years and Maincore's monitoring team has
discovered that rather than roaming deeper into space, PANDORA is rapidly
making it's way back to Earth.

PANDORA'S imminent return to Earth has made front page headlines in every
journal. PANDORA'S current intentions are still not known, and neither are
the contents of it's cargo hold. 


YOUR MISSION 
------------
Your mission as an inter-galactic salvage operator is to board and
investigate PANDORA.  If anything untoward has happened, the success of
your mission will be gauged by the number of alien artifacts salvaged and
returned to Earth for analysis.


GETTING STARTED 
---------------
To begin your mission, press your fire button.  Upon entering the spaceship
PANDORA, you will see that the screen is split into two main sections - the
play area which takes up approx two thirds of the screen (it is here that
your character, guided by the joystick, will pick up objects, trade and
fight with the inhabitants of the spaceship) and the character status
display panel, which occupies the lower third.


GAME INTERACTION 
----------------
All game interaction is controlled through the joystick and the spacebar.
The joystick is used to move your character through four points of the
compass (N,E,S,W) whilst the spacebar is used to access you inventory.


THE DISPLAY PANEL 
-----------------
The HOLDING window displays the object that you are currently holding in
your hands.  If this window is empty, it signifies that you are not holding
anything.
 
The CHAR window shows the name of the character nearest to you.

The CARRYING window displays the name of the object that the character
displayed in the CHAR window is carrying.

The BACKPACK window lists the objects contained within your backpack, and
this is part of your inventory.  This window can only be accessed in
INVENTORY mode.

The POCKETS window displays the contents of your pockets and these are also
part of your inventory.  Again, this window can only be accessed in
INVENTORY mode.

The DEAD CHAR window displays the inventory of the dead character that you
are currently standing over when you select INVENTORY mode.

The STATUS window describes your health at any given time.  The text in
this window is also colour-coded so that white is the strongest followed by
yellow, turquoise, green and finally red which signifies the weakest
condition.  Your overall health goes from MIGHTY to HIGH to POOR, then
finally to DIRE.

The DIST window shows a numeric value which is rapidly decreasing to zero,
informing the player of PANDORA'S distance from Earth's orbit.

The FIGHT windows appear during a fight, and are explained under the
section entitled 'fighting at close range with hand held weapons'.

At the bottom of the screen there is a message display line.  This relays
information from the characters or other sources to you during the game.
Throughout the course the game, certain actions will cause extra windows to
appear temporarily over the display panel.  These message windows inform
you of the outcome of a critical action, such as trading, and will warn you
if a message on the message display line is important.  Certain actions
will cause quotations to appear over the gameplay window.  These quotations
are merely light-hearted and they do not affect the game (or do they ?!).


MOVING OBJECTS FROM YOUR HANDS TO YOUR BACKPACK OR POCKETS
----------------------------------------------------------
In order to perform an exchange of objects between whatever you are holding
and whatever is in your backpack or pockets, you must first enter INVENTORY
MODE by pressing the spacebar.

INVENTORY MODE is signalled by the disappearance of the HOLDING window and
the appearance of an arrow pointing to the top line of your backpack
window.  In inventory mode, the players character will not respond to
joystick input - instead the arrow pointer will move accordingly.  To swap
an object between your hands and wherever the inventory arrow is pointing
at, simply press the fire button on the joystick.  If you are not holding
anything and the slot where the arrow is pointing is empty then nothing
happens.

If you are holding an object and there is nothing where the arrow is
pointing, the object will be moved from your hands to the slot that the
arrow is pointing at, whether it be backpack or your pockets.  If you are
not holding anything and the arrow is pointing at an object in your
inventory, the object will be placed in your hands.  If there are objects
in both your hands and the position the arrow is pointing at, three
positions will be swapped.

To enter or exit INVENTORY MODE, press the space bar.


TAKING OBJECTS FROM DEAD CHARACTERS 
-----------------------------------
If you are standing over a dead character, you will be able to access the
dead characters inventory as well as your own - thereby being able to
obtain objects from any character (provided you kill it first, or somebody
else has done it for you !) - without giving anything in return.  It is
possible to give objects in your possession to dead characters.  If you
enter INVENTORY MODE while standing over a dead character, you may swap an
object between your hands and the dead character, as well as your backpack
and your pockets.  The objects are swapped in the same way as described in
the section 'moving objects to ...'.


PLACING OBJECTS ON YOUR SHUTTLE 
-------------------------------
To the left of your start position there is a cargo chute.  If you stand
next to the chute whilst pressing the fire button, the item you are
carrying will be deposited via the chute into the shuttle which took you to
PANDORA.


TRADING OBJECTS
---------------
One of the most important facets of PANDORA is the concept of trading,
since without trading objects, the player will be unable to complete the
game.

If another character has a liking for a particular object within the game
and has made this clear through the message display line at the bottom of
the screen, you can initiate a trade with the character, providing you are
carrying the object they want, by pressing the fire button when you are
close to the character.

If the character successfully trades objects with you, a message to this
effect is given and the object you have traded appears in your holding
window.  If this event does not occur then obviously the character does not
want to trade with you at the moment.


TAKING OBJECTS FROM PLINTHS 
---------------------------
If you move your character against a plinth (e.g a shelf or table) that
appears to contain an object and you are not holding another another object
in your hands, the object is automatically removed from the plinth and
appears in your HOLDING window.

Conversely, if you move your character against an empty plinth whilst
holding an object that is designed to fit on the plinth, the object will be
placed upon it.


ACCESSING COMPUTER TERMINALS 
----------------------------
Pushing your character against the side of a computer terminal will allow
you to access the terminal, as long as you have some identification (I.D).
Moving away from the terminal will close the terminal down.


FIGHTING AT CLOSE RANGE WITH HANDHELD WEAPONS
---------------------------------------------
This aspect will seem to many to be the most important part of the game,
and certainly during the first few plays it will appear to be a very
accessible and appealing pursuit.

Here is a brief insight into the mechanisms of combat.

A fight will ensue in any of the following situations:

1. If you collide with a character and either of you are holding a weapon.
2. If you collide with a character and neither of you are holding a
   weapon.  This results in a fist fight.
3. If you cross the path of a character who wants the object you are
   holding more than it wants to like you

The outcome of hand to hand combat depends very much on the weapon you're
holding at the time, your skill at pressing the fire button, as well as the
status of your character when entering the fight.

If you are NOT holding a weapon, or the weapon has no effect against your
opponent, the blow is assumed to be struck with your fists.

Weapons possess different attributes which affect strike rate and
efficiency.  The strike rate refers to the speed at which you can deliver a
blow.  For example:  An Iridium mace has a slower strike rate than your
fists, which in turn have a slower strike rate than a shock whip.

Efficiency describes the power of a weapon, a mace for example will have
greater efficiency than your fists.

During a fight two windows appear over the display panel:  the window on
the left contains a moving coloured bar - this is a measure of your strike
rate.

Pressing the fire button at the point just before the bar changes colour
allows the player to deliver a blow with maximum efficiency, thus
inflicting maximum possible damage.  The weapon you are using directly
relates to the severity of the blow.

Pressing the trigger a fraction too early will administer a strike with
half the full effect, and pressing it far too early will cause the blow to
miss.  If you wait too long and allow the bar to change colour you will
over strike the opponent, making a wild swing, missing your opponent
completely and losing your balance.  Missing by this margin means you will
have to wait for the bar to start again, and in effect, this waiting time
would be similar to the time taken to recover your balance.  The faster the
strike rate of the weapon you are holding, the quicker you will return to
your fighting stance.

The display in the second window consists of a green and red bar which
indicates your opponents stamina, and you will notice that a correctly
struck blow will reduce the length of this bar.  When the bar is in the red
zone, your opponent will be very weak and it will take very little effort
to kill your adversary.

Characters themselves have skill and attribute levels.  The drunkard, for
example, has a low skill factor compared to that of a combat droid, who in
turn gets more blows in with full strength than the drunkard.  A combat
droid is probably much more skilled than you are, so beware !!!


USING FIREARMS 
--------------
Another form of combat is that of using firearms.  If you are holding a
firearm, press the firebutton to operate it.  It is not possible to use a
firearm during close range combat.  If you attempt to do this, the player
will strike a blow with the firearm, as described in the section 'fighting
at close range ...'


HINTS 
-----
1. You must have an I.D card to move anywhere within the ship.

2. In any of the four security areas marked by Greek letters, a valid
   security pass with the necessary security clearance or higher is needed
   to avoid unwarranted fights with patrol guards.

3. Any specific force field may be penetrated once the correct I.D is held.

4. One force field protects the escape transporter that will beam you back
   to your shuttle.  On reaching this point you will (perhaps) have 
   completed the mission.
