CONTENTS

"TRANCE-PACIFIC"
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
SETTING UP THE GAME
THE STORY
HOW TO PLAY
THE INVENTORY GUI
THE MEMO
GLOSSARY
HELP!


"TRANCE-PACIFIC"

"Trance-Pacific" is an entry by for the MAGS competition for September 2007. It was created using Chris Jones's Adventure Game Studio (AGS).

The rules for the September competition (titled "Innovation") were as follows:

1. The main character must not currently be, have ever been or be trying to become a pirate, private eye or archaeologist.

2. The game must be placed in an "infrequently used in AGS games" setting. This means use locations we didn't see in a long time (for example a Cyberpunk environment would classify) or use places is a non-standard way...

3. In addition to this the game must feature something that'll be considered "innovative", e.g. a new and interesting GUI or in general something you don't see in every game. Don't get stuck on this rule: It doesn't have to be a GUI or completely new, but it shouldn't have been "done to death". Just a nice feature.


The setting for this game is a cruise liner sailing up the east coast of Australia and then out to the islands of the Pacific.

The main innovation in this game is a GUI for a memory device belonging to the main character (more on that later). The standard AGS GUIs have been reworked in a stylish manner.

At various points in the game, there are references to classic adventure game situations (such as escaping a room by crawling through a vent), but these are, for the most part, debunked or dismissed as cliches. This is just one way in which authors have deliberately played around with the competition rules.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

The game was written by Ben Chandler (Ben304 on the AGS boards) and Paul Giaccone (paolo) in just under a month. Ben produced all of the graphics, while Paul wrote all of the scripting. The storyline and gameplay were the authors' joint work.

It is the first time the authors have collaborated on an AGS game, and it is also the first game either of them have written.

If you liked the game and are registered on the AGS forums at http://new.bigbluecup.com/forums.shtml then why not vote on it there and give it a review?

SETTING UP THE GAME

To set up the game, run winsetup.exe. It is recommended that you play the game at 640x480 resolution and check the box "Run in a window instead of full screen". The game can just as well be played at 320x200, but some players might then find the text a little difficult to read at times, and if you play it at full screen, the quality of the text is greatly reduced. For best results, use the 640x480 setting.

THE STORY

Vince is a stage hypnotist, and is close friends with Eve, a magician, and Nick, her assistant. They have just completed a long season and are now going on a long cruise to relax. They soon discover something underhand is going on aboard ship. It's not just the ocean that smells fishy, and the cruise is going to be anything but relaxing...

HOW TO PLAY

The game uses an interface similar to the Sierra graphical adventure games like King's Quest and Leisure Suit Larry.

Typically, at the beginning of each scene in the game, there is a cutscene. Watch what happens and pay attention to what the characters say, as it will suggest what you should be doing next and is sometimes relevant later on the game.

Note that each line of narration or speech and each message displayed on the screen remains there until you click the mouse or press a key.

When a cutscene ends, a pointer appears on the screen and you regain control of Vince, the main character. Move the mouse pointer to the top of the game window to see the main GUI for carrying out actions in the game.

In the blue section of the GUI, you'll see four icons. Clicking on any of them changes the mouse pointer to a similar-looking icon. Clicking objects or characters in the game then causes Vince to perform various actions.

* Hand icon - use this to make Vince interact with (touch, manipulate, open or pick up) objects in the game. It can be used with people, but this is rarely useful, if ever. Use this on a door in a room if you want to exit the room (although you might not always be able to exit when you want to).
* Magnifying glass icon - use this to make Vince look at objects or people to get Vince to give a description of them.
* Speech bubble icon - use this to make Vince talk to people or objects. Clicking on a person or object then either gives a response or brings up a list of conversation options will appear at the bottom of the screen. Click on one of these topics to begin discussing it with the person Vince is talking to. Click on the final topic to end the conversation.
* Shoe icon - use this by clicking on a particular location in the current room to make Vince walk there, if he is able to.

Whenever the mouse pointer is over an object or character that you can do something with, the name of the object or character appears at the bottom left of the window.

The pointer is set to the shoe icon by default. You can cycle through the four pointers with the right mouse button.

At the top right of the GUI are two buttons for saving the game and restoring a saved game. It's recommended that you save the game frequently so that you can revert to an older version if you need to. You can give each saved game a name.

Clicking on the exit button (with the icon of an open door) will ask if you are sure. This does not save your game, however, so ensure that you do so before you quit the game.

Clicking on the question mark icon to the far right of the GUI displays some brief information about the game.

Clicking on the M icon enables Vince to start using the Memo on a person (see THE MEMO below).

Clicking on the suitcase in the bottom left of the GUI will show the inventory (see THE INVENTORY GUI below).

THE INVENTORY GUI

The inventory GUI shows you all the objects Vince is carrying. Initially, he is only carrying the manual for the Memo (see THE MEMO below). The inventory can also be opened by pressing the Tab key.

The tick button closes this GUI when you have finished using it.

Click on the magnifying glass button and then on one of the items in the inventory to find out more about that item or, in the case of the Memo manual, to read it.

Click on the arrow button and then on an item to select that item. The mouse pointer will turn into the item. Click on the tick button to close the GUI, and then on an object in the game to use the item somehow on that object, or on a person to give them the item. Clicking the right mouse button or selecting an icon from the main GUI will reset the mouse pointer.

THE MEMO

Vince has a gadget called a "Memo" that can extract and implant memories. To do this, he has to hypnotise a subject first so that they respond to the Memo. There are several points in the game where it is necessary to make Vince to this in order to move the game on.

To make Vince use the Memo:

* Click on the M icon in the main GUI (see HOW TO PLAY above).
* Click on the person or location you want Vince to use the Memo on.
* Vince only uses the Memo when it is necessary. If this is the right time, there is sometimes some sort of positive response from Vince, and then the message "Hypnotising..." appears.
* The Memo GUI then appears on the screen.
* The Memo has three modes:
    - Erase (bottom left button): use this to remove a memory from the person's mind, in other words, to make them forget something.
    - Replicate (bottom middle button): use this to copy a memory from the person's mind into the Memo so that it can be transferred to someone else later on. This does not make them forget the memory.
    - Infuse (bottom right button): use this to transfer a memory stored in the Memo into the person's mind. This mode can be used to jog people's memory or to change their mind about something.
* Click on the appropriate button to choose a mode (or the ON/OFF button to close the device if you didn't want to use it). The mode is displayed on the screen of the device.
* Click the ACTIVATE button to make the device scan the person's mind for relevant memories (you must have selected a mode before you can do this).
* A list of suitable memories (if there are any) appropriate to the current mode will appear at the bottom of the screen.
* Select a memory to erase, replicate or infuse, depending on the current mode.
* You'll then get some feedback from Vince on what you've done. (You cannot move the game on by pressing a key at this point - you must click the mouse instead.)
* When you have finished using these memories, click on "Go back to main menu".
* You can now select another mode and do something for this mode, or click on the ON/OFF button to turn the device off.
* The message "Dehypnotising..." appears on the screen.
* Vince reports that the subject is now back to normal.

Note that the memories erased, replicated or infused are visual or emotional when they are in a person's mind. The lines of text you see when you use the Memo are just summaries. A memory may also be perceived differently by two different people.

GLOSSARY

As the characters in the game are Australian, they often use Australian English words and phrases that other English-speakers might not be familiar with. Here is a glossary that you can refer to when you need help making sense of what they are saying.

* beauty: see "you beauty"
* berko: see "go berko"
* bonzer! - great! excellent!
* Brizzie - Brisbane (city in Queensland, Australia)
* bung - broken, not working, injured, as in "he's got a bung knee"
* cobber - a friendly term of address
* crikey - my goodness!
* dinkum - real
* dodgy - suspect, disreputable
* drongo - idiot
* for yonks - see "yonks"
* g'day - hello
* go berko - to become insane
* hard yakka - hard work
* hooroo - goodbye
* mate - a friendly term of address
* mint: see "that's mint!"
* no worries - you're welcome; think nothing of it
* righto - OK
* ripper - great! excellent!
* sport - a friendly term of address
* strewth - my goodness!
* that's mint! - great! excellent!
* yakka: see "hard yakka"
* yonks - a very long time
* you drongo: see "drongo"
* you beauty - used to show approval towards a person

HELP!

If you've come here looking for solutions, you won't find them. However, if you're really stuck, see if you can use something in your inventory or the Memo, or ask Eve or Nick for help by talking them. They will often have helpful suggestions, and sometimes they'll even get the game moving again when it seems like nothing you try works. Remember, Vince, Eve and Nick are in this together!

If that doesn't help, send a message to the Hints and Tips forum at http://new.bigbluecup.com/forums.shtml

If you reply to a topic in this forum, you are welcome to give hints (please use spoiler tags so others can choose whether they see what you have posted), but please do not post solutions or walkthroughs as this can spoil other people's enjoyment of the game.
