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CRYSTAL TOWERS README FILE                                                 v1.0
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Written by David Newton, 2004-2005

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Introduction
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During the gigantic waste of time that students like to call "summer", I
finally got my act together and started work on a game. The result, "Crystal
Towers", is a platformer in which you play as Bernard, the nightwatchman at the
Column Temple.

In the game, Bernard wakes up during the night after sleeping on the job to
discover that the Life Crystals which were kept there have been stolen. He now
has to recover the crystals from around the world before anyone discovers that
he's lost them.

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Running the game
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Two executable files are provided - the normal CrystalTowers.exe will run in
a window that uses DirectX/VRAM, and can be resized to smoothed fullscreen. The
other, CrystalTowers-Low.exe, runs in a low resolution true fullscreen with no
smoothing, and should be used if you have a slow computer.

Both version use the same external files, including save file, so it won't
matter if you change the way you run the game midway through.

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Controls
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At the beginning of the game, at the WCB-DOS prompt, you'll be asked to select
your controller type - press 1 for keyboard controls, 2 for joystick.

In menus, Button 1 (Shift) is used to select and Button 2 (Ctrl) to cancel.
Button 1 (Shift) is used to jump in-game. Left and Right move, and Up and Down
make the screen shift in those directions so you can look around you.

All other control help, including game objectives, are given in the Help
section from the main menu.

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Menu screens
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The title screen shows the crystals that you have collected so far as well as
the difficulties that you have earned them on (represented by the chevrons
above them). If you have collected at least one crystal on Crystal difficulty,
an Extras menu will have been unlocked and you can access it from here.
Otherwise, press Button 1 (Shift) to start.

The main menu has five options:

Play: Begins the game after the selection of a difficulty level. The different
      levels of difficulty determine how many lives you have at the beginning
      as well as your starting capacity for health. See the in-game help for
      more information.

Help: Starts the in-game help. Read through this for some playing tips.

Story:Shows the story behind the game.

Quit: Exits Crystal Towers.

Reset:Resets your save file data. This can be used for recovery from a modified
      save, or for just restarting the entire game. You'll be asked to press Y
      to confirm if this is selected - moving away from the option or pressing
      anything else will cancel this.

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Completing the game
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You have to find all five crystals to finish the game entirely. A number of
different routes are provided in the game, and you have to explore all of these
eventually to recover the crystals. The coloured crystals are hidden in a Tower
each, and the route to the fifth crystal will become available after you have
all four of the others.

When a crystal is found, an ending will play depending on which difficulty
level was selected (a scene is added for each difficulty level up). However,
the storyline ending is only played once the fifth crystal has been recovered,
regardless of difficulty level.

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Secrets
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A number of easter eggs, secrets and general references to classic games have
been placed throughout the game. You'll usually be rewarded with a score bonus
or extra life for finding and collecting them.

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No Way!
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The save file for Crystal Towers has been written so that it's fairly easy to
modify if you know what you're doing. However, if the game detects any wrong
values in any of the fields it will refuse to let you start the game, instead
sending you to the "No way!" screen when a level is entered. If you're going
to try and modify the save file, it's recommended to take a backup first.