[ Diablo came with two manuals, the Player's Guide and the Investigation Dossier. This text files contains both. The Guide seems to have been mostly typewritten; the Dossier was apparently printed on a matrix printer. There were also a few headers and titles done using what looks like decals, a few hand-drawn diagrams, and some parts of screen shots. In this plain text transcription, the layout has been kept as it was much as possible, including the different line lengths. The diagrams have been (badly) rendered in ASCII art. The screen shots have not, but they can easily be displayed by CONTROLling each character in turn. All in all, it was a far from bad feelie package for a 1980's home-written game, even if the grammar is wonky in places. ] It was bred to kill, now it's loose.... DIABLO! PLAYER'S GUIDE. SPECTRUM DIABLO! INTRODUCTION By the twenty second century man has spread far beyond the confines of our Solar System, the new colonies controlled by the corporations, themselves regulated by the International Corporate Council (said by the more cynical to be the real planetary government). So profit orientated are these colonies that many have rebelled, the so called 'Break Away' colonies who fight for their independance Under prompting (and some say command) from the I.C.C, the national governments of Earth mobilised their forces under a UN flag, instigating what may be considered the first galactic war as Earth forces battled succesfully to regain the lost colonies until only a hard core remains, bitterly resisting all efforts to oust the rebels. However these events only set the scene to the background in which this interactive story takes place and has nothing to do with the mysterious reappearance of a 'dead' ship or the events which will follow in the game - or do they? The game. DIABLO was written and programmed by Mark Cantrell using the Professional Adventure Writer from Gilsoft International Limited. Copyright(C)1988 Mark Cantrell. All rights reserved. Loading the Game. Spectrum I28K/+2 version. I: Insert the correct tape into the cassette recorder and if necessary rewind to the begining. 2: Reset the machine to clear any junk from memory and make sure the TAPE LOADER option is high- lighted on the main menu before pressing ENTER. 3: Press PLAY on the cassette recorder. 4: The required section of DIABLO I12K should now LOAD and RUN. Spectrum 48K/+ version. I: Insert the cassette (side 4) into the cassette recorder and wind on to the start of the correct section. 2: Ensure the cassette leads are correctly connected before typing LOAD "" and pressing ENTER. 3: Press PLAY on the cassette recorder. 4: The required section of DIABLO 48K should now LOAD and RUN. Should the game fail to load then adjust the volume or tape head alignment and try again. Storyline. The research vessel Discoverer, bound Earthwards after a six month expedition to the Edanus system, ploughed silently through the black void of space, she appeared normal, her engines quiet, all systems apparently functioning normally, yet there was something not quite right, apart from the fact that the Discoverer had been lost to Earth some seven months previously, strange mis-shapen figures flitted past the windows while the vessel herself was surrounded by a strange halo of orbitting debris. Suddenly the Discoverer's ghostly solitude was broken by two sleek starfighters on routine patrol of that sector, surprised by the Discoverer's presence they flew close to her hull, surveying for damage and attempting to communicate with the crew when, without warning, the wingman screamed in cold terror and , closely followed by his bemused flight leader, veered away from the ship and streaked Earthwards in a state of sheer panic, leaving the Discoverer to the solitude she had known for many months.... Captain Payne walked briskly towards the door of the Interstellar Shipping Coordinator's office, he was just about to knock when the secretary looked up from filing her nails and said "Mr Mcbride said you should go right in Sir." before once more tending to her nails. Payne mumbled a brief reply and wondered if secretarys ever did anything other than file nails as he entered the office. "Ah! Good morning Captain, have a seat." said Mcbride while pointing to a row of seats positioned before his desk. "Can we get down to business?" replied Payne curtly who didn't like big fat executives like Mcbride, particularly those who have him called back from leave early, "What's this all about? We have no authority over civilian shipping so I can't see what you want with me!" Mcbride stood up and went to look out of his window, an action Payne was sure meant he would not be told exactly what was going on, "I'm sure you recall the E.S.S Discoverer? She went missing seven months ago after a research expedition to Edan III, we lost all contact with the vessel and assumed she had been destroyed!" Payne looked puzzled "What's this got to do with the military? Ships often disappear, space is a dangerous place!" "The Discoverer reappeared on course last week, a routine patrol found her, they failed to communicate with the crew, either they are dead or have been incapacitated in some way. One of those pilots is on sick leave at the moment, claims he saw the Devil beckoning to him from the Discoverer! Apparently the doctors diagnosed 'Space Fatigue' so I wouldn't pay any heed to that 'devil' rubbish, he was long overdue for leave anyway." replied Mcbride. At last Payne understood the reason for his presence, "So you want me to go aboard the Discoverer and find out what happened? But why not a civilian investigation team using your own people? Or do you think the Discoverer has been ransacked by pirates or commandeered by terrorists to mount an attack against us?" Mcbride returned to his desk and took out a thin folder from a drawer, "You're quite right, we want you to find out what happened and if necessary to bring back the ship. Your team comprises mainly of military personel except for a Doctor Russel and a civilian named Lawson. The Discoverer's disappearance may be due to pirates or rebels but it's more probably due to an alien viral infection, your job is to add a bit of... security!" Payne opened the folder and examined the brief amount of information on his fellow team members. "Who is Lawson and why is he a member of the team?" he asked as he noticed the total lack of information within his profile. "Lawson... er, we don't know! As far as we can tell he's just a civil servant, he was forced on us by higher authorities so I don't think we'd better argue, though it may be a good idea to keep an eye on him." "Hmmm... right. Where's the Discoverer now?" asked Payne. "Well she's about three weeks away at sub-light speeds. She's quite an old design and was due for a refit after this voyage, every so often she has to return to sub-light speeds to rest her drive motors. She's in just such a rest period now. Read the dossier, you'll find all the information in that. There's a shuttle waiting for you on the launch pads so you'll be leaving right away. You and your team will need to work fast, it can't be much longer before she re-enters hyperspace. Good luck and goodbye!" finished Mcbride. After a grueling ten hour flight through hyperspace and a nights recuperation, the BCIS shuttle docked with the Discoverer. Payne ordered the access hatch to be opened, allowing the strangely stale air of the ship to mingle with that of the shuttle, air like that of a tomb. It was then that Payne noticed one of his team was missing, somehow the mysterious Lawson had entered the Discoverer! Screen Presentation The display for DIABLO is split into a number of 'windows' to display the various sections of the location text and responses. The picture window and the character window are fixed, they remain on screen with all text and input scrolling off screen underneath them. The character display window will inform you which character you are currently controlling by displaying his/her picture and their name. The text window displays the location text and the responses to player input, long player input lines (which are formatted on entry) will intrude upon the main text area eventually causing any text so far displayed to be scrolled off screen. The location text is split into three sections, the actual location text, the available exits (which is printed in green upper case (CAPITALS) letters)and, if there are any, a list of any present objects. ############### +---------+ ##################### |Location | #+------------+----+# +---------+ |picture |------> | <-----|Character| |window. | ##+------------+----+## |display | +---------+ ##-------------------## |window. | +------------+## ================= ## +---------+ |Text window.|------->============ ### +------------### ================= ###+------------+ ### # _ <-------|Input window| ####################### +------------+ ################### Fig I: The Screen Display. The object nouns/adjectives will be displayed in magenta upper case letters within their object text. The picture display can be turned off giving a text only game. In this mode the display and operation is as normal except the graphics windows will be absent, being replaced instead by the main location text. Instructions. The game's parser will allow the use of adverbs, nouns, adjectives and prepositions within complex chained commands or speech with other game characters - as this subject differs between 48K and I28K versions it will be covered later. Should the game ever pause and display 'MORE' or 'PRESS ANY KEY' then read what is currently on screen before pressing a key. The game is played in realtime, that is things without you typing in commands, ie characters moving, though the game can be PAUSEd (note this command is classed as a turn and so may prove dangerous or fatal in tight situations). DIABLO features the rare (of not unique) option of duel direction display - that is SHIPBOARD (port, aft etc) or the more normal COMPASS (north, south etc) directions. In both systems the mid- point directions are displayed in the form PORT- AFT for SHIPBOARD or NORTH-WEST for COMPASS etc. These should be typed in as displayed though substituting the '-' for a space. Directional commands may be shortened to their first letter, eg (N)orth, (S)outh, (P)ort, (S)tarboard etc. This also applies to the mid-point directions, though this time it is not essential to include the space between them, eg (P)ort-(A)ft can be entered as P A or PA. The I28K version also features a FOLLOW (char) command which will allow the player character to follow a PSI. This is an experimental routine and so is not essential to the completion of this game. Following characters can be aborted by holding down a key or moving away from the character. PORT, NORTH ^ _ | _ PORT-AFT \_ | _/ PORT-FORWARD NORTH-WEST \_ | _/ NORTH-EAST \_###_/ AFT, WEST <--------#####---->FORWARD, EAST _/###_ _/ | \_ STARBOARD-AFT_/ | \_ STARBOARD-FORWARD SOUTH-WEST | \_SOUTH-EAST V STARBOARD, SOUTH Fig 2: Directional commands (SHIPBOARD and COMPASS). Speech. Speech with other characters must be enclosed within quotes ("") and the character must be present. The RADIO command can be used to speak to a character who is not present and takes the same format as the SAY TO command. In the smaller 48K machine speech is limited to the rudiments, ie FOLLOW ME, STAY or ASKing them what they are CARRYING, therefore you will have to alternate between the four player characters more often. In the I28K version speech has been extended a little further. It is possible to ask a character where they are (this gives a more detailed response than the 48K version), who is with them or tell them to follow a character or move about the ship by themselves (via LOOK AROUND or SEARCH). It is also possible to instruct a PSI to move in a certain direction though they may not actually want to do that at a particular time. A PSI will also be able to GET an object (but not from a container) and GIVE that object to you or one of its comrades or be instructed to do certain tasks such as operate the airlock in deck one to cut down the need to keep exchanging between the characters. You may directly control Payne, Erskine, Newson or Russel. You will have to talk to the other characters. Should your current character die then the only allowed input will be OOPS or CONTROL (char). A character's death will not halt the passage of time (life goes on?) which may lead to events over taking your fellow team members while you are 'dead.' The OOPS command, if you are fortunate, will let you reincarnate a dead character. Once all the team members are dead then naturally the game will end. Him & Her. PSIs will not respond to pronouns such ar 'IT' or 'THEM,' however there are certain special pronouncs which will apply to the last referenced character. As Russel is the only female character SHE will always be converted to her name without refering to her by name in any previous input. But HIM will be converted to the last referenced male character, ie X PAYNE then CONTROL HIM will work but X PAYNE then CONTROL IT won't. Vocabulary. There now follows a list of useful commands.... OOPS:- This command will retrieve a bad move and redescribe a location providing it is not entererd as the first move of a new game. AGAIN:- Will repeat the last valid player input. If used with a SAY TO or RADIO command then a new speech string must be entered with it. CONTROL:- Will exchange the current character you are controlling to the one selected, the old character becoming a normal PSI. EXITS:- This will display the available exits in your current location in either SHIPBOARD or COMPASS depending on the mode selected. Trying to move in a direction that does not exist will call the exits routine. SHIPBOARD:- Will set the EXITS routine to display the exits in the form of PORT, AFT etc. This is the default mode. COMPASS:- Will tell the exits routine to display available exits in the normal compass points. RAMSAVE:- Will save the player's position and status to a buffer in memory and redescribe the current location. RAMLOAD:- Will retrieve a stored position and status from the buffer and redescribe the current location. SAVE:- As RAMSAVE but to cassette. LOAD:- As RAMLOAD but from cassette. FONT:- Will change the current character set to that selected from the fonts supplied, the ROM set or the default set. TEXT:- Will turn the picture display off and redescribe the current location. PICTURES:- Will turn the picture display on and redescribe the current location. EXAMINE, X ALL:- Will allow the player to examine an object, the player must specify whether all the objects carried, worn or present are to be examined. REDESCRIBE, LOOK, R, L:- Will redescribe the current location with or without graphics depending upon the picture mode. You may also LOOK INTO a container. RADIO:- Allows you to speak to a character who is not present at your location and issue commands etc. SAY, SPEAK, TALK, ASK:- This operates exactly the same as the RADIO command except the character must be at the same location as the player. SEARCH:- Allows you to find whether an item hides another object not uncovered by the X command. In the I28K version it may also be used to instruct a PSI to move about the ship. A couple of commands available to the I28K version: FOLLOW (char):- This command has been extended from the 48K version to allow you to instruct a character to follow you, another PSI or for the character you are currently controlling to follow a PSI. The movement of a character is turned off (stay) when ever they are selected for control. To abort following a character you should either hold down a key or enter a movement command to leave the followed character behind. WHO:- This will print up the characters who are currently with you or another character if asked. As the routine only deals with PSIs it will ignore your character should ask a present character whho is with them. ALL Commands. Certain commands allow the use of ALL, ie GET, DROP SEARCH and EXAMINE. When using ALL commands you may omit a particular object by typing EXCEPT (object). However this does not apply to ALL commands which involve a second object, ie GET ALL FROM the DRAWER. When GETting an object from a container it is not necessary to specify the container unless using the ALL variant. +-------------------------------------+ |This pack should contain: | |One player's guide, one BCIS dossier | |and two cassettes containing the I28K| |sections and the 48K sections. | +-------------------------------------+ [ That was the end of Player's Guide; the BCIS dossier starts here. ] B U R E A U O F C I V I L I N T E R S T E L L A R S H I P P I N G . I N V E S T I G A T I O N D O S S I E R : SUBJECT: E.S.S. Discoverer. REFERENCE: #1202354. PURPOSE: Suspected eradication of crew via alien viral infestation. DATE: 20 April 2183. +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | This dossier is the property of the Shipping Coordination | | Department and should not be removed without the written | | permission of the current Coordinator or his/ her | | senior assistants. | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------+ | N/B: Permission has been granted for you to remove these | | documents from the building. Please leave your clearance | | and ID codes with Security as you leave. | +----------------------------------------------------------+ LLOYDS INSURANCE REF: GH 456098/1 SORT CODE: 89/45 Page 1/#1202354 E A R T H S T A R S H I P D I S C O V E R E R CLASSIFICATION: Long Range Planetary Assault and Landing Craft, decommisioned in 2180 and converted to a deep space research vessel. DOCKING FACILITIES: One forward docking port and forward loading/ unloading bay for use in port or at a landing site. CREW: Basic crew numbers five; Commander, First Mate and Engineer, Navigator, Pilot, and Communications Officer. LIGHT SPEED CAPABILITIES: Mark IIb Sinclair Hyperdrive Unit - scheduled for a refit after current voyage. Capable of 2.5 times light speed. Rest periods are essential to prevent overheating to the drive units. HULL SHIELDING: Standard heat/ radiation shielding only (all military shielding stripped). RANGE: Maximum fuel capacity for 90 light years (unloaded). CARGO SPACE: Seperate cargo and equipment bays provide maximum total of 300 tonnes approximately. M I S S I O N D E T A I L S MISSION: Research expedition to the Edanus System, specifically the planet Edan III. SHIP'S MASTER: Commander Renfield, formerly served 15 years distinguished service in the Martian Navy (3rd Fleet). He has commanded the Discoverer for the past three years. CREW LIST: Not disclosed. PASSENGERS: Professor Eikophf, Ivan - of Bonn University (Alien Genetics Dept.) and his lab. assistant Schmidt, Adolf. CARGO: Botanical and cartographic equipment with a variety of other miscelaneous equipment, convicts (specifically rebel colonists) and various lab. animals. P E R S O N E L L I S T . 1. Payne, S. Rank of Captain. 2. Newson, A. Rank of Flight Lieutenant. 3. Erskine, K. Rank of Corporal. 4. Russel, C. Civilian (Doctor). 5. Lawson, N. Civilian (Observer). Profiles of the above personel are included further on. Page 2/#1202354 P L A N E T A R Y D A T A F O R D I S C O V E R E R ' S M I S S I O N . Some brief information on the Discoverer's destination now follows, the Edanus star system. However please note the Discoverer was returning to Earth before he tragedy. As Prof. Eikophf's work on Edan III has not been disclosed by the relevent authorities this is the only background information we can provide. EDANUM SYSTEM - A large yellow star (about twice the size of the sun) possessing a system of twelve planets. Only one of these bears life, Edan III, and was discovered only fifty years ago making it the most recently discovered life-bearing system. EDAN III EQUATORIAL DIAMETER: twice that of Earth, approximately 25512KM. ATMOSPHERE: Oxygen 30%, Carbon Dioxide 6%, Nitrogen 59%, Argon 4%, other 1%. Edan III's atmospheric pressure is only slightly higher than Earth's, the difference is considered negligible. GRAVITY: Similar to Earth's, 1.012Gs approx. DISTANCE FROM PARENT STAR: 301,300,000 KM approx. SIDEREAL MOTION (Edan days): 26.2 hours ORBITAL DURATION (Edan years): 2.12 Earth years. COMMENTS: Edan III is mainly a sub-tropical planet, it possesses no polar ice-caps and has only one desert which is about the size of all Earth's deserts combined. The land/ sea ratio is approximately the same as Earth, though it has only one ocean and a large number of seas which are about the size of the Atlantic Ocean*. The planet has no sign of intelligent life on its surface or indeed on any of its eight moons, meaning Man is still the most advanced and highly developed creature in the known universe. This has, however, not prevented the wild reports of alien ships and monsters, mostly on the fringes of Man's exploration into the galaxy, from occurring with alarming regularity - rather reminiscent of the myths created by early seafarers on Earth. Edan III is considered ideal for colonisation and has been designated as an 'agricultural' and 'timber' class planet as it bears very few mineral deposits of commercial quality. Colonisation rights are owned by the European Food Conglomerate, operations will begin once the UN Court of Human Rights finds the company not responsible for the deaths of half a million Ethiopeans who ate food packages donated by the company to help alleviate the famine of 2180. *That is the size of this ocean prior to the global warming which decreased the Artctic to half its 1999 area. Page 3/#1202354 I N V E S T I G A T I O N T E A M P R O F I L E S . [ ]SUBJECT: Captain Payne, S. [ Screen shot: ] [ ]OCCUPATION: Soldier - Planeraty Assault Regiment [ Head of a man ] (PARas). [ wearing a ] [ beret, under ]STATUS: Commander of Investigation Team. [ which the name: ] [ ]COMMENTS: +-----------------+ | Capt. PAYNE. |Payne is a professional, experienced soldied with ten +-----------------+years military service behind him. His last mission was in the recent successful raid on Nu-Venus, an important planet in the Crab Nebula which led to the eventual recapture of that entire star system by our armed forces from the rebel colonists. He was called back from leave in order to lead this investigation. ______________________________________________________________________ [ ]SUBJECT: Corporal Erskine, K. [ Screen shot: ] [ ]OCCUPATION: Soldier - also Planeraty Assault [ Head of a man ] Regiment. [ in a floppy ] [ hat, under ]STATUS: Aide to Doctor Russel [ which the name: ] [ ]COMMENTS: +-----------------+ | Corp. ERSKINE |Another experienced soldier with six years service +-----------------+behind him, three with Captain Payne. He has recently returned to active service after a long period of recuperation from injuries received when his platoon was almost wiped out by a rebel bomb attack. ______________________________________________________________________ [ ]SUBJECT: Flight Lieutenant Newson, A. [ Screen shot: ] [ ]OCCUPATION: Interstellar Space Force [ Head of a man ] (Transport and Supply Dicision). [ in a visored ] [ helmet, under ]STATUS: Pilot and 2nd in command. [ which the name: ] [ ]COMMENTS: +-----------------+ | F. Lt. NEWSON |Newson is an experienced pilot and is familiar with +-----------------+many designs of space craft including the Discoverer. He has had no combat experience, having been assigned to the Transport Division since the start of his career. Here he has remained despite numerous requests for transfer to an active combat squadron. ______________________________________________________________________ Continued over the page..... Page 4/#1202354 |SUBJECT: Lawson, N. | PHOTOGRAPH |OCCUPATION: Not disclosed - believed low | ranking civil servant. NOT | |STATUS: Official observer. RELEASED. | [ The above is |COMMENTS: written, not | printed. ] |Lawson has been forced upon this investigation by ------------------+higher authorities, as you may see from his profile, very little information has been offered. Nor have wee been able to acquire any from other sources. It may be a good idea to keep an eye on him, not least because if anything happens to him the bureaucrats will not be pleased if anything happens to him. ______________________________________________________________________ [ ]SUBJECT: Dr. Russel, C. [ Screen shot: ] [ ]OCCUPATION: Biochemist and virologist, [ Head of a woman ] Institute of Extra-Solar Diseases, [ without head- ] Martian Federal State. [ gear, under ] [ which the name: ]STATUS: To diagnose and deal with [ ] suspected alien viral infection. +-----------------+ | Dr. RUSSELL. |COMMENTS: +-----------------+ Russel has worked at the Institute for five years after being educated at the Lunar University. She helped to find the cure to the infamous Capellan Death, a rather virulent plague which wiped out early settlers to that star system and led to a huge loss of profits for the Westerm Spiral-Arm company who owned the colony rights. ______________________________________________________________________ B R I E F M I S S I O N D E T A I L S . To be backed up by interview by Shipping Coordinator. The ESS Discoverer is now on automatic pilot, she is travelling in a hyperspace rest period and is therefore at sub-light speeds. You are advised to return to base within your shuttle upon completion of this investigation though, depending on the scale of the problem, you may have to accompany the Discoverer all the way on her return journey. Either way you must repoprt the situation before landing so the bay crews will have time to make any necessary preperations. You are instructed to fully investigate and report the situation and give full support to Doctor Russel in dealing with the suspected virus or cause of the crew's demise. The Bureau will expect a full written report from each team member upon completion of the mission. Furthermore, the Discoverer lies in an unprotected space lane. Should the vessel be attacked or boarded by rebel terrorists we will be unable to provide assistance. Good luck. Page 5/#1202354 [ The last page of the Dossier was a hand-drawn plan of the ship on which the game is set. I've tried to represent this as best I could, but it might be a better idea to download the scanned version from, e.g., World of Spectrum. The Zenobi version of the documentation misses out much of the background information given above, but does include this diagram in an individual JPEG file, so it's probably the most convenient. In any case, here comes the ASCII art monstrosity: ] Earth Star Ship Discoverer _X_ __/ | \__ Fuel tanks Deck plan of ship in profile. / \ X / \ and landing ==#######== gear held in === 'wings'. ___ Rear view of ship. \ /\-Communications Dish. Airlock _/\__\ Hatch--> + /||||||\ _Vu-dome _XXX====================_/_\________ ====####### Air- | Suit| | |1| |W|=| |-----__ ====################ lock. | Room| | |_| |a|=| Bridge| Bridge\Vu-window. 2 XX==============================#-------==|[ | ]|t|=|-------+--------+########=====_____ / # ==|[ | ]|e|=| Laboratory. | | === Docking # Brig+prisoners kitchens # ==|[_|_]|r|=| | |Reception |######====_Port. # etc. # ==| | |=| | | area. | Access X #==================================#---------| L |C+-+----------------+-------++-----------============= # ## /XX==-\ ### Life | i |o| Crew area:- |Toilets | Navigation| | \####= # Engines and ## (XX=_{0}) ### | f |n| Mess,kitchens, | and | Computers.| | Forward \ # turbines. ## \|_|_|/ ### Support.| t |d| bunks and |showers.| | | Vu-dome. ) #-----+ ## /XXXXX\ ### | | | recreation. | | | | / \3==-|==================/====================# S |T+-------+----------+--------+-========================== \== | Nuclear Pile. # h |o| | : Landing Bay == ==== # a |w| | Equipment Bay. : == XX=== Ship's Hold. # f |e| | : (depressurised ___/ 2 ====== # t |r| | : in flight).___/ ======= # . |X|-Pump. | Access tunnel. : ___/ ======== ##====#-+-------+/--\------======----+ ___/ 1: Lift cable room. =============## # / } \ == | ___/ Loading/unloading ###/###===========/===============----/ Ramp. 2: Emergency Depressurisation Hatches. #/## Emergency hatch. Escape Pod. 3: Ship Self Destruct Mechanism. #=: Permanent bulkheads and hull shielding.