THE MINE AND THE CAVERN V1.10
PROGRAMMED BY JAK LOCKE, 1996
BASED ON "GOLDMINE AND THE PRINCESS" BY WILLIAM AUSTIN, 1990

---OUR STORY SO FAR...

You are a bored person living in a medieval village.  Your whole life has been
the same boring routine, over and over again, hour after hour, day after day,
year after year, and so forth.
However, that all changed a few months ago.
You overheard the local gossip chain that somebody saw a cavern not too far
from town, and that they got a glimpse inside of the cavern.  What they saw
was treasures beyond imagination.  Pearls, gold, silver, rubies, and just
about everything a man could wish for (wealthwise, that is.)
The man only got a glimpse of the treasure, and then the stone door leading 
into the cavern slammed shut.  The only way to get into the cavern is by way
of a magic medallion.
You found yourself more and more curious of the hidden treasure, but you
realized that there was no way you could ever get your hands on the treasure.
Until a few weeks ago.
On a routine visit to the king's castle to bring him your harvests, you 
noticed that around his neck was hanging a golden medallion.  Curious that
that might be the medallion in question, you dropped your harvest and ran off
to the location of the cavern.
Sure enough, the designs matched.  The indentation in the cavern was exactly
the same as the designs on the king's medallion.  All you'd have to do is
get the medallion from the king and the treasure is yours!!!  Easy, right?
Wrong!  Even though the king has no clue about what his medallion could be
used for, it is still HIS medallion.  You will have to BUY his medallion.
Disappointed, but not deterred, you bargained with the king for hours.  He
finally came up with the terms for the sale of his medallion.
"All right, then," he said.  "You REALLY want my medallion?  I'll tell you
what.  Not far from town is an abandoned old gold mine.  At the bottom of that
mine is a horrible monster known as the Beast of the Deep.  If you kill the
Beast of the Deep and bring me enough money to satisfy my cost, then I'll sell
you the medallion.  Otherwise, no go.  Oh yeah, and I also want you to ring
the Bell of Wondrous Things while you're down there."
"The Bell of Wondrous Things?  But...that's just a legend!  And where am I
going to get money?" you stammered.
"It's a mine isn't it?  There's sure to be some ore around in the mine!  We've
got an assay office in the village, don't we?  THAT'S WHERE YOU'LL GET YOUR
MONEY!  Now don't come back until you've done what I asked."
Great.  The only way to get that treasure is to go into that cramped,
airless mine filled with diseased rats and poisonous gas, looking for a bell
that doesn't even exist and probably dying in the process.  But, it will be
worth it, will it not?
The only thing that worries you is that Beast of the Deep...

---HOW TO PLAY

You start the game by your secret cache of coins and you are presented with a
menu of choices--places to go and things to do.  Press the number next to the
option you want.  Of course, you're starting out with no money, no sword, and
nothing to offer the king, so you're pretty much limited to going to the mine.
You're essentially limited to traveling up and down through the shaft by 
pressing "8" on the numeric keypad to go up, and "2" on the keypad to go down.
You answer questions by typing a capital "Y" or "N".  In the mine, you'll be
searching for gold and picking up the various magic items you'll encounter.
It is up to you to figure out exactly what these items do.  (I suggest you
write down their uses once you figure them out because you'll need them much
later on in the game.
The walls of the mine have numerous species of fungi carpeting them.  Red and
green fungus get rid of certain poisons, while white and black fungus transport
you to different places in the mine.
Gas clouds are also present and are rarely good news.  Some poison you, others
choke out your oxygen, and others confuse you or dissolve your gold.  There is
something you can find that will protect you from the gas clouds, however.
Early on you're extremely weak, not able to hang out too long in the mine without
suffocating.  The longer you play, the stronger your lungs become, provided you
push them to the limit each time.  Deeper in the mine are more threatening hazards
such as diseased rats and poisonous insects.  You'll also have rockslides and the
fearsome shaft wolves and bats to contend with.  If you get hurt, you'll have to
recover in the village.
Aside from those regular animals, there are also creatures not of this earth
lurking the mines.  Besides the Beast of the Deep, there is the mysterious
cave goblin who might help you or he might kill you.
There are also rumors of a mad wizard running around in the lower depths of the
mine.  Nobody's actually talked to him, but he has been known to cast spells
on people who happen to see him.  These spells can either be fatal, or just a
nuisance.
The old mine is rotting and falling apart.  More often than not, you'll be in
the wrong place when a rockslide occurs.  If you're lucky, no rocks will hit
you, but usually you'll walk away with at least some damage.
Along the side of the screen is a map of what level you are on in the mine.
You got this map from one of the old codgers who used to work in the mine.
There is a dash on the tenth level--that dash indicates the lowest "safe" spot
in the mine.  Below that dash, you'll find things more dangerous than you will
above the dash.  You may want to keep that in mind.  However, the deeper you
go, the more gold you will find, so you should keep that in mind as well.
Speaking of miners, you may find some dead and rotting miners in the mines.
You have the choice of searching them--however, a lot of times you will be
greeted by poisonous gas if you search them!  If you're lucky, though, the
rewards will be grand.  It's your choice to risk searching them or not.
You'll find that as you go deeper into the mine, you'll begin to have visions.
The effects of these can range from beneficial to fatal.
You'll notice a sequence of strange characters at the bottom of the screen
while you're playing.  This tells you what items you have and what poisons
are currently in your body.  You'll have to pay close attention to them to
figure out what the individual symbols represent.
You'll find some treasure chests scattered around the mine.  Some of them have
gold, some of them have treasures, and some of them are booby trapped with
either gas or dynamite.  If it's dynamite, then you're pretty much dead.
One of your many missions is to find and ring the Bell of Wondrous Things.  It
is said to not even exist in this world.  If you happen to find it, give it a
ring.  The results may be good for you (or they may not be...)
At the village, you can rest, recovering about 10% of your health--not much
if you're severely wounded.  You can only rest one time per visit to the
village, however, so try not to get hurt too much.
There is also a weapons shop in the village.  You're going to have to buy a
sword if you want to fight the Beast of the Deep.  Unfortunately, swords 
aren't free, so you'll have to raise enough money to buy a sword.
As well as selling swords, the weapons shop also sells potions to cure poisons
that you may have contracted along the way.  The potions, however, aren't 
cheap either, so you would be well advised to have lots of gold handy.
You can also see what kind of shape you're in at the village by checking your
condition.  When you do this, it tells you what kind of (if any) poisons you
have in your body, and the shape that you are in.  The shape you can be in
ranges from "Excellent" to "Hopeless".  Once you reach "Hopeless" shape, I
hope you have insurance.
There is, like the king mentioned, an assay office in town.  This is the ore
house where you get your nuggets appraised.  While you're in the mine, you may
find a pile of "high grade ore" or a pile of "good grade ore", and they are 
ranked in that fashion.  However, the only person qualified to tell how much
the quality of a lode REALLY is is the assay officer.  Your gold quality can
range from "MOTHER LODE!" to "WORTHLESS", so it is a good idea to visit the 
assay office frequently.
You can also head to the castle and try to buy the medallion from the king.
Don't keep dropping by every two minutes, however--the king gets mad if you
bother him too often, and that could lead him to raise the price even higher
than it already is.  He also may do so if you insult him with too small an
offering!

---TROUBLESHOOTING

If you encounter some problems with The Mine and the Cavern, here's how you can
remedy SOME of them.


I'M IN THE MINE, AND I'M PUSHING THE "8" AND "2" KEY ON THE NUMERIC KEYPAD,
BUT NOTHING'S HAPPENING!
That's not even a question.


WHAT AM I DOING WRONG HERE?
It's really quite simple.  Just push the NUM LOCK key.  Somewhere on your
keyboard, a green light will light up.  Now you're set.


I WAS PLAYING THE GAME AND SUDDENLY MY LIGHTS AND COMPUTER SHUT OFF,
ALONG WITH MY TV AND OTHER THINGS!  WHAT'S GOING ON??
You had a power outage, dummy.  Go whine to your power company, not me.


---IF THIS DID NOT HELP YOU ONE BIT....

If you have any problems that weren't covered, send us a note of what's wrong 
and we'll get back to you as fast as a speeding bullet (unless the mailman
screws up our mail again...)  The address is at the bottom of this file.


---ABOUT "THE MINE AND THE CAVERN"

This game was NOT entirely Flying Hawk's idea.  It is derived from an ANTIC
magazine program known as "Goldmine and the Princess".  The original game
was by William Austin, made in 1990.  This game has many major modifications
made to the original, but, in essence, uses the same structure.  This
game, "The Mine and the Cavern" was made by Jak Locke in February of 1996.


---THAT'S ABOUT IT...

I hope you enjoy this game.  I know I've had fun programming it.  If you have
any suggestions on how to improve the game, send them to

                        ADDRESS REDACTED
                        BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW WHO LIVES THERE NOW

Have a good game, and try not to die TOO much.              -FLYING HAWK
