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Imagine the Possibilities Productions
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Game Created by Shadowiii and Mr. B

Readme created by Shadowiii


	Pitch Black

	Created for Gizmog1's Halloween Contest (2003)


NOTE: DO NOT REMOVE THIS TEXT FILE FROM THE ZIP CONTAINING BLACK.RPG IF YOU ARE GOING TO DISTRIBUTE MY GAME!

Current Version: 2.0 (Bam/Bamless incorperated in one version, original music, new NPCs)

*****Introduction

Thanks for downloading Pitch Black! I hope that you enjoy playing this game more then we enjoyed making it. It was a PAIN to plotscript! 

Pitch Black could be called a combination of Silent Hill and Myst. The game itself is (obviously) a horror game where you explore an old, haunted mansion in search of your lost friends while trying not to become one of the mansion's perminant residants. The game attempts to be somewhat spooky, but being an OHR game (thus lacking ambiant noises and sound effects) its pretty difficult. But, we tried our best to create an engaging game that shouldn't take too long to play and beat.

*****Known Bugs

There are a few bugs, some of which we are fixing, others that we don't care about. :P

Bug #1: Sometimes when leaving rooms the NPC stays as the boot. I have no idea why. To fix it, just walk back in and leave again. It should go away (it's like a 1/10 chance). It only happens in the room in the basement. Sorry for the inconvience. 
Bug #2: Not really a bug; but after random encounters the Main Hall music overrides whatever music was playing. This is because there is no "find music" or "play default" music command, and we weren't willing to plotscript the entire music system just for one stupid random encounter. Hope you like the music from Metroid Fusion. :P
Bug #3: Sometimes the flashlight won't turn on after leaving a room. This hasn't happened since about three or four edits of code ago, but just in case it is still there (it fixed itself magically or something), be warned. To fix it, save, quit, load. Or, go back into the room and leave again.

NOTE: SAVE OFTEN! THIS GAME, THOUGH IT HAS BEEN BUGTESTED QUITE A BIT, STILL MAY HAVE A SCRIPT OVERLOAD OR THE OHR MIGHT GO ZANY ON YOU. YOU CAN SAVE EVERYWHERE, SO DO SO!

*****Basic Controls

Pitch Black has two basic areas where you will be playing: Pitch Black, and the various Rooms. The following is an explination on how to play each effectively.

**Pitch Black

When you first enter the mansion, it is late at night, and no light shines into the main hallway. Luckily, Julia comes equipped with a flashlight she can use to see the area in front of her. Use this to explore your surroundings. 

To activate the flashlight press "L" on your keyboard (between the k and the ;, moron). To turn off the light, simply press "L" again. Juila can walk around as much as she wants with the light on or off, but it can be dangerous in pure darkness because of traps. You also will probably miss key items, which will make the game MUCH harder I assure you. 

There is a catch, however. Julia's flashlight eats batteries faster than a Game Boy Advance. Because of this, you'll need to find some extras. When you flip the light on, you have about 20 seconds with the batteries you start with, and 70 seconds each additonal battery you picked up. When you have run out of batteries, you'll be thrust into darkness. You can tell when your batteries are going low because the room will begin to fade...

Be warned: the flashlight attracts attention to yourself, and sometimes you can hear things that may not actually be there...at these points in the game it might be safer to switch off your light for a time...

**Rooms

After you find a room from the various dark locations, the game switches to first person view. Your hand on-screen can be used on the things you see. You can examine some items more closely, pass through doors, or even pick up and take some items. When you enter a room it is imporant to search the room up and down, in case you miss something. Move the curser over what you want to examine and press 'space' to examine it. Here are what the icons represent:

Hand - Nothing is here, keep looking!
Magnifying Glass - Examine this area closely. You may find key items or a hint.
Feet - Back out of the room to the previous area, or go through a passage to a new area.

*****Other Hints/Tricks/Stuff

See attached hints TXT. 

*****Credits

Everything except the flashlight and random encounter plotscript: Shadowiii
Flashlight, Random Encounter PS, Final Touches, Some Tilemaps: Mr. B
Music: Metroid Fusion, Castlevania, Resident Evil 2, Silent Hill, Shadowiii

I hope you enjoy this game! If you did, TELL ME! I frequently visit the Castle Paradox boards (www.castleparadox.com) or you can email me at shadow_iii_@hotmail.com with your feedback. If enough people like it, I'll create a longer version maybe for next Halloween!

Special Thanks (Shadowiii):

Mr. B - For always pulling through, even when I don't. ;)
James "Spam Man" Paige - For making the OHRRPGCE engine, even though I didn't use most of its elements. :P
Fighterpilot27 - For being an annoying brother.
Geostorm8 - For loving my game.
"So you want to be a pixel artist?" Online Tutorial - For teaching me how to do maptiles, even if mine still suck. :P
Members of the OHR Community, especially:
Chaos Nyte
JSH
Uncommon
Squall
Sephyroth
Aethereal

Special Thanks (Mr. B);

Shadowiii - For volunteering me for this without my forknowledge.  ;<)  And
when he told me, I couldn't just leave him there, could I?  It ended up
being quite fun, actually.  In an advil sort of way.  :<P

My brothers - for appreciating the gore tiles.

My parents - for letting me stay way up late working on this, even though I
had class in the morning.  (or maybe they were trying to teach me responsibility)


This entire work is copyrighted 2003 by Shadowiii and Mr. B. Copying, distributing, or tampering/editing the file without the permission of the creators is strictly prohibited. Please just ask!

Email:
Shadowiii: Shadow_iii_@hotmail.com
