Demoniak© 1991 Palace Software

ManualDemoniak has arrived. This is not good news. This Demoniak dude you see,is a large demon from a parallel universe, who enjoys enslaving entireplanets. Normal future mythology would have mankind's shiny space fleetswhizzing out and bombing the beast. Mankind's state, however, in thisfuture view, bears sad similarities to the present day. The world is ina mess and we couldn't organize a round of drinks in a distillery, letalone a galactic strike force. Thus, world saving is left in the handsof private enterprise.

Luckily one man has his act together, a certain Doc Cortex, the cleverestman in the entire universe. He gathers together a band of misfits to helphim build the ultimate bomb, the only thing that can stop Demoniak.

Demoniak is a text adventure. Now before you delete this file and the twodisks the program is on PLEASE READ ON. Popular in the early days ofcomputing the text adventure has been largely forgotten since the 16-bitsmade it big, because these machines allowed glorious pictures and soundswhile adventuring. Why be satisfied with mere text? In Demoniak thedescriptions and story rattles across the main game screen, while youinterrupt the game interjecting actions for the characters you currentlycommand by entering text commands.

Traditionally, there would have been no choice of the character you controlbut in Demoniak, it can be any one of 50 characters, who all have differentviews of events. So during the game you are leaping around a galaxy ofplanets and personas, aiding the gang of five (Doc Cortex, Sondra the psychic,Flame the fire girl, Sirius the muscle, and Madlock the magician) intheir quest.

The worlds the team visits are crazy places and a black nihilistic humorpervades the whole game. Each of the 50 characters you can become haspsychological problems that loom large just when you need it least. Toachieve free movement you need to learn to appreciate the game's amusinglywarped perspective. Then it becomes clear how to encourage folks to dostuff their predetermined character would never dream of.

The 50 characters all have defined characteristics and objectives, so thecurious will have great fun becoming periphery players and pushing theDemoniak universe to its logically mad conclusion. The mind-reader Sondrais fun, because her psychic abilities let you watch the thoughts of theperson she's talking to.

Now, those of you who enjoy the slash and hack of Dungeon Master or Eyeof the Beholder are going to have a big attitude adjustment to make untilyou become used to the "logic parser"(text/game interface). The parser isfar more intelligent than the average Infocom text basher. It allows compoundsentences and short-cut commands. You are still forced to master the syntaxsystem to succeed and annoyance is inevitable as this process runs its course.Typing the wrong command earns a "you do not need to use the word....." anda vicious circle of harried and frustrated key bashing commences.

The limitations of the text adventure mode can not be held against Demoniak,as it forces the form and frees it considerably from previous constraints.

Thrills are few and excitement is sparse but the challenges of a 50 way logicalpuzzle-49 more than usual- are intriguing! Refreshingly, the combat isparticularly flexible and reasonably tense. You can even become your enemyand mess with their happy fighting thoughts.

There are many excellent graphics still screens and a very well done animatedintroduction. This is not text only.

So if you dread the thought of actually using your brain rather than strumminga joystick please give this to a friend.......or come enjoy the warped universeinside your own head!!!!

Here are a few key hints and short-cuts:

Demoniak works from DF0: only. You must put Disk 2 into DF0: when prompted evenif you have 2 drives (How very European)

If you want to talk to someone, type their name then enclose what you want themto say in " ". Example: Cortex "What is a 3 toed eye muncher?"

n= go north s= go south e= go east w= go westu= go up d= go down o= go out l= look aroundx= show exits quit= quit save= save game

Now go play and discover your own. ---Typed by VOLTAIRE

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