As punishment for a crime that you do not remember, you have been taken to a strange planet. You are constantly hunted by beasts, each of which you must kill and present as sacrificial offerings to the various gods of this planet. You are given a weapon to fight off these beasts but, much to your horror, the missles fired by these weapons do not travel in a straight line, but rather veer off in various directions. It appears that the laws of physics on this planet are not those to which you are accustomed. There is an all-pervading flux which always appears to swallow one of your missles in one of its vortices.
However, after some experimentation, you discover that the flux can be used to your advantage. You discover that firing a missle in any direction always moves the flux in that direction. Furthermore, you discover that a flux vortex can be used to knock down the beasts which are hunting you. So you decide that, rather than aiming your weapon at the beast that is hunting you, you aim in the direction that you want to move the flux. By doing so you can cause a flux vortex to knock over the beast. Once the beast has been knocked down, an army of friendly soldiers will take the beast to the temple of one of the gods and make the required sacrificial offering.
The object of the game is first to escape from the hideous routine of hunting down the beasts by building observation towers to track the beasts from a distance, and then to escape from the planet by discovering the ultimate nature of the flux.
When you start the game, you will see a man, the "protagonist," and soon you will see a beast approach him. Walk north two screens, and allow the beast to follow you.
Your immediate objective is to knock down the beast by moving the flux so that one of the vortices knocks down the beast. For each beast there is normally only one vortex which can knock it down, but it is no problem to determine which vortex that is because your missles will automatically be attracted to the correct vortex. You fire your weapon by clicking anywhere in the lower half of the screen. Note carefully which direction the missle flies. To move the flux properly, you must keep clicking in the direction opposite that to which the missles are moving--that will drag the flux in that direction. When the vortex is alligned with the beast, the vortex will knock over the beast.
As soon as the beast has been knocked over, one or more friendly soldiers will appear to help you to handle the beast. In this case, two soldiers will appear, a Hagorian and a Tragorian. The Hagorian is carrying no weapon, but the Tragorian is carrying a Tripod. Move the mouse over the screen and you will notice that the cursor changes shape depending on what part of the screen it is over. Each soldier has its own region of the screen. A soldier carrying no weapon is represented by the cross-hair cursor. A soldier carrying a weapon is represented by a cursor representing that weapon. The arrow cursor indicates an area of the screen that does not represent any soldier.
Your object at this point is to command the soldiers in the correct order. You command a soldier by right-clicking in the appropriate area of the screen. Each soldier has a particular task to perform, and the tasks must be performed in the correct order. The Hagorian's task is to carry the beast to the temple, while the Trogorian's task is to make a sacrificial offering to the god of the temple. So you first right-click in the cross-hair region, and then right-click in the Tripod region. When you right-click in the cross-hair region, the Hagorian will carry the beast to the temple. When you right-click on the Tripod region, the Trogorian will make the sacrificial offering. At this point the demo will end.
The planet that you have been banished to is divided into several precincts, each with its own god, temple, and beast. You start the game with three precincts, but more are added as the game progresses. In this demo, only one precinct comes into play:
Troforia: This is the precinct where you start the game. Troforia is a lush land with flowing rivers and plentiful fruits. The beast of Trofuria is the Narulung, which somewhat resembles a bull. The Troforian vortex is very round and resembles a turnip.
Before starting the game, make sure that the Num Lock key is in the on position.
Moving the Protagonist To move the protagonist, use any of the arrow keys or the keys on the numeric keypad.
Some of the graphics in this demo have been generously provided by Fribbi.
Copyright 1997-2008 Repline Meadow SoftwareTM. All Rights Reserved.