Delver v0.3, a Computer Adventure Game
Copyright 1996-1998 by Mark Damon Hughes <mark@markdamonhughes.com>

_______________________________________________________________________________
WHERE TO GET IT

  <http://markdamonhughes.com/Delver/> will always have the latest
version of Delver.

_______________________________________________________________________________
INSTALLATION

  Carefully read and follow these steps, one at a time.  No, really, this
MATTERS.

0) GETTING JAVA (if you don't have it already)
   Install a Java runtime or JDK (Java Development Kit) from <http://java.com/>

   Delver 0.3 requires Java 1.1, and will run even better under Java 2/1.2


1) EXTRACTING THE ARCHIVE
   Unzip this archive with 'unzip' or 'winzip' (pkunzip does not handle long
   filenames) in a directory somewhere, possibly C:\Delver under Windows or
   OS/2, or ~/Delver under Unix.


2) RUNNING DELVER
    If you're running Windows, double-click on the "delver.bat" file.  If you
    do not have the JDK or JRE installed, it will give you further
    instructions.

    If you're running OS/2, double-click on the "delver.cmd" file, or from the
    command window, type:
	delver

    If you're running Unix, type:
	delver.sh

    Finally, if none of these work, invoke Java with the following command
    line:
	java -cp Delver.jar mdh.Delver.Delver

    If you want to load or restore a game file immediately, you can add
    "filename.gam" after any of those commands, like so:
	delver.sh test.gam

_______________________________________________________________________________
USE

  If you started Delver with a game file on the command line, it'll load that
game automatically.  Otherwise, select the Game|Load menu item or hit alt-L,
and you'll be prompted for a .gam file to load.

  When the game file finishes loading, you'll be presented with the character
dialog - enter your character's name and stat scores.  As the dialog says, each
stat can range from +4 to -4, and must total 2 or less.

  Once the map comes up, you'll see a happy face - that's you.  You can hit F1
to see a list of valid keys and other help.  At present, about all you can do
is move around (by hitting arrow keys), read the text that appears in the
terminal below the map, and attack creatures (by hitting space).

  When you get tired of the test.gam, read gamefile.txt and examine test.gam,
and start writing your own.  Whatever you write now will still work in future
versions, and will import into the GUI editor just fine.

_______________________________________________________________________________
KNOWN PROBLEMS

* There's not a lot to do, currently, because there are no objects and no
  NPCs, only monsters.  These are both being added as we speak, but I thought
  I'd get a stable demo out there.

* The error messages when you don't follow the gamefile.txt format exactly are
  not very helpful.  This will be solved by the GUI world editor.

* The standard art is very silly and quite bad.  I, ah, didn't want to
  intimidate you, I wanted to encourage you to get out there and design
  your own without being in my impressive shadow.  That's it.

_______________________________________________________________________________
LEGAL

  See license.txt