THE SPECTRUM GAME DATABASE CHAOS - BATTLE OF THE WIZARDS PUBLISHER Games Workshop. AUTHOR Julian Gollop YEAR 1984 DESCRIPTION Chaos is a 1-8 player strategic fantasy wargame. CONTROLS: The keys are: Q W E A D - Each of these is a direction, e.g. Q is up-left. Z X C S - Select K - Cancel 0 - Finish There are also various other menus which are selected by pressing the appropriate number or letter. INSTRUCTIONS At the start of the game, you must select the number of wizards (from 1-8) and the level of the computer wizards (from 1-8), which is basically their difficulty level. Not all of the wizards have to be controlled by human players - any or all can be controlled by the computer. The computer will then go through each wizard in order. For each wizard you must give them a name, decide who is to control them (a player or the computer), and then select their colour and graphic, which AFAIK makes no real difference to the game. The game is divided into turns, and each turn is divided into 2 parts. The spells are selected and cast in the first part, and all movement is made in the second. A menu is given for the first part, which allows the players to examine the spells to see what they do and their chance of success, select a spell, view the map and then finish. During the first part, all the human players can select 1 spell to cast that turn. The chance is success of each spell is shown by the colour (the lighter, the greater chance), unless a creature is cast as an illusion, in which case they are always succesful. The chance of success of each spell is determined by how powerful the spell is, and also the current state-of-the-world, which can either be law (arrows) or chaos (stars). The current state is shown on the menu screen. When viewing the map, holding down a number from 1-8 will cause all the objects to flash that are owned by that number wizard. Once all the players have selected their spells, the wizards take turns to cast their spells. This may involve selecting target squares or creatures, by using the keys above, and pressing S. If no such selection has to be made, then just pressing S will cast the spell. Any wizard that is computer controlled casts their spells automatically. After all the spells have been cast, the computer then checks all the effects in the game, and things will happen across the map. Once this has been done, the wizards then take turns to move their creatures, by selecting them and then moving. Wizards can ride certain creatures simply by moving into them (provided they own them). To attack another creature, simply move into it. Then, at the end of each turn the wizard will be asked if he wants to dismount. Any creatures that can shoot can only do so once they have moved. One thing to note is that undead creatures can only be attacked by other undead creatures, or a wizard with a magic weapon. When a creature is stood next to an enemy, they cannot move away until that creature has been killed. Once all the wizards have moved, then game then loops round to the menu screen again. SEQUELS A sequel to Chaos, called Lords of Chaos, was released by Blade Software. It had the same spells and spell system, but the game format was slightly different. Chaos has also appeared in a very similar game on the PC, called Morkin2, and also a virtually identical PD game on the ST. INLAY CARD TEXT "CHAOS" By Julian Gollop (1985) Instructions taken from "The Rebelstar Collection" Players' Manual by Julian Gollop (1991). COPYRIGHT Julian Gollop has kindly agreed to this game being made Public Domain. Anyone is freely allowed to duplicate and distribute this game for use in Spectrum emulators. It is requested that the identification of Julian Gollop as the author of this software is not removed and the code not altered. INTRODUCTION 'Chaos' is a battle between 2 to 8 wizards, and or all of which can be computer controlled. Most spells are used to summon creatures which are controlled by the casting wizard. Other spells have a variety of different effects. The popularity of this game resulted in 'Lords of Chaos', which adds many aspects to the basic concept of magical combat. STARTING THE GAME Select the number of wizards to participate and select the level of any computer controlled wizards (from 1 to 8). For each wizard enter a name, computer or human control, a character shape and a colour. 'Chaos' is played in a series of game turns. Each turn is played in three phases; the spell selection phase, the casting phase and the movement and combat phase. KEYS: QWE A D All move in the appropriate direction ZXC S Selects an creature/wizard K Cancel movement/ranged combat I Show Information/stats on creature 1-8 Highlights creations of wizard # (1-8) 0 End your turn MOVEMENT To move something, select it with and then press the direction keys to move it as desired. COMBAT In order to attack an enemy creature you must move into it. If your creature is able to fly then you can do a ranged attack by placing the cursor on top of the enemy creature (or you can move into it as before). Success depends on the attackers combat rating compared to the defenders defence rating with a random factor involved. Some creatures have ranged combat (ie if they carry weapons - see chart below) which occurs when the creature has finished moving. Move the cursor to the target and press to fire. The target must be in line of sight. MAIN MENU: 1. Examine spell Tells you creature/attack stats and chance of it working 2. Select spell Obvious really. On the select spell screen each creature has a symbol next to it: * = Chaos spell - = Neutral spell ^ = Law spell As more Law(Chaos) spells are cast, the % chance of a Law(Chaos) spell working in the future increases. Neutral spells have no effect either way. The lighter the colour the name of the spell is, the higher the chance of it working. The overall state of the world is indicated by the number of symbols on the main option menu. The more symbols, the more Chaos/Law the world is (ie if it was (*****) then the world would be very chaotic and it would be worth considering trying to cast a real red/green dragon). Real/Illusion Creatures can either be created as real creatures or Illusion creatures. Illusions have 100% chance of working but are destroyed by the disbelieve spell. Real creatures have a chance of failing, but are unaffected by the disbelieve spell. Other than that the two work the same. 3. Look at board Use it to see what's in range of a spell/what's attacking you. Press "I" to examine a creature. Press "0" to return to menu. 4. Continue Goes to next player You get one round where everyone casts a spell then a round to move/attack in. If you are player one then you get to cast your spells and move first. The last player is at a disadvantage that he can be attacked before he has a chance to move, but has the advantage that illusion spells can be cast without the risk of being disbelieved for one turn (useful for dragons). Some spells need to be cast at a target - attack spells need an enemy creature, create spells need a square adjacent to your wizard. Press "S" to cast the spell. Undead creatures can only be attacked by undead, magic weapons or attack spells. When you've moved all you want to press "0" or "TAB" to end turn. SPELLS: CREATURES Undead Flying Rideable Armed Spell Bat X Chaos Bear Law Centaur X Bow Law Crocodile Neutral Dire Wolf Chaos Dragon, Red X Fire Chaos Dragon, Gold X Fire Law Dragon, Green X Fire Chaos Eagle X Law Elf Bow Law Faun Chaos Ghost X X Chaos Giant Law Giant Rat Neutral Goblin Chaos Gorilla Neutral Gryphon X X Law Harpy X Chaos Horse X Law Hydra Chaos King Cobra Law Lion Law Manticorn X X Bow Chaos Ogre Chaos Orc Chaos Pegasus X X Law Skeleton X Chaos Spectre X Chaos Unicorn X Law Vampire X X Chaos Wraith X Chaos Zombie X Chaos OBJECT SPELLS Magic Wood (Law) Computer places approx 8 magic trees near your wizard. If you put your wizard in a magic wood tree and leave him there, he gets a new spell after a few turns. Shadow Wood (Chaos) Allows you to manually place approx 8 shadow trees near your wizard. No two trees can be adjacent, and line of sight is needed in placing. Shadow wood can attack anything in contact with them (except undead) - select the tree to attack. Magic Fire (Chaos) Attacks and kills enemy units it covers and randomly spreads across the map. Gooey Blob (Chaos) Attacks enemy units it covers and randomly spreads across the map. Any unit covered up by a gooey blob will be able to carry on once it is uncovered (except wizards who are killed by gooey blobs) Wall (Neutral) Allows four wall blocks to be built near the wizard, which blocks creature's paths, but can be flown over. ATTACKING SPELLS Magic Bolt (Neutral) Attacks creature it is cast at. Lightning (Neutral) Attacks creature it is cast at (more powerful than magic bolt) Vengeance (Chaos,x1) Allows 1 attack on an enemy creature Justice (Law, x3) When cast on a wizard it kills all that wizard's creations if successful. Allows 3 attacks. Dark Power(Chaos,x3) Allows 3 attacks on enemy creatures Decree (Law, x1) Allows 1 attack on an enemy creature. WIZARD'S SPELLS Magic Armour (Law) Gives wizard increased protection from attack. Magic Knife (Law) Gives wizard increase attack power including undead creatures Magic Sword (Law) Gives wizard increase attack power including undead creatures Magic Bow (Law) Gives wizard ranged weapon including undead creatures Magic Wings(Neutral) Gives wizard ability to fly long ranges Magic Castle (Law) Gives wizard building to hide in Dark Citadel (Chaos) Gives wizard building to hide in Shadow Form(Neutral) Gives wizard increased protection and allows movement of 3 spaces per turn MISCELLANEOUS SPELLS Law (Law) Makes the world more lawful Chaos (Chaos) Makes the world more chaotic Raise Dead (Chaos) Allows reanimation of dead bodies left on screen. Any creatures raised from the dead become undead creatures, able to attack other undeads. Subversion (Neutral) Realigns enemy creature to your side Turmoil (Chaos) Randomly moves all objects onscreen to a different location. Only available from a magic wood. Disbelieve (Neutral) Allows illusion creatures to be destroyed. This spell has 100% casting chance, and is always available SCORES RECEIVED The budget release received 8/10 in SU. CHEATS The following cheats will work in Chaos. Whether these are bugs or the game was designed that way, we do not know. - If your wizard is riding an undead steed (by casting Raise Dead on a corpse) and the steed is killed, the wizard then becomes undead. - If you want to move away from an enemy, but keep getting "Engaged in Combat", try selecting Information, and then pressing the movement key. This works only sometimes. - If you cast an illusion, but it gets covered by a Gooey Blob, if you then dig it out, it will be a real creature. - Also, put a weak creature (eg bat) over a dead dragon or other creatures body, then Justice/Vengeance/Decree/Dark Power it and it turns into a live version of the corpse. URL ftp.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/OS/sinclair/snapshots/c/chaos.zip GENERAL FACTS Julian Gollop has also written many other strategy games, in particular the excellent Rebelstar series. Chaos is actually an unfinished game. Games Workshop released it without Julians knowledge, and as such there is the odd bug that crops up. Further clues to this include the fact that if you hack into the program, there are a few sprites not used in the game, and the names of a few spells that are never shown. Apparently Chaos is based on an old Games Workshop boardgame (the people who created Warhammer). It was the same sort of game, with wizards casting spells trying to kill each other. There is a program available to edit Chaos. Naturally called The Chaos Editor, it allows you to change all graphics and statistics of the game. Does anybody know the location of this editor? NOTES Be advised to save the game before casting a Turmoil spell - it is renouned for crashing the program. It can also take a long time to complete this spell, so you may want to push up the speed of your emulator while waiting for it. You may like to look at the Chaos page, located at http://www.gre.ac.uk/~bm10/chaos.