                      AGIHACK   Version 1.0b1
                      -----------------------


What is AGI?
------------
AGI stands for Adventure Game Interpreter. It is an adventure game engine used
by Sierra on-line from about 1985 to 1989. The games featured featured low
resolution EGA graphics, internal speaker sound and a text based parser. As a
result they are fairly primitive compared to the games of these days, but I
consider them 'classics', which is why I am still interested them.

Here is a list of currently known AGI games:

SQ1  Space Quest 1*
SQ2  Space Quest 2
KQ1  King's Quest 1*
KQ2  King's Quest 2
KQ3  King's Quest 3
PQ1  Police Quest 1*
LSL1 Leisure Suit Larry 1*(in the land of the lounge lizards)
GR   Goldrush
MH1  Manhunter: New York
BC   The Black Cauldron
MG   Mixed Up Mother Goose*

* Older version only, an SCIV version has been subsequently been realeased


What is AGIHACK?
----------------
AGIHACK is a program that allows you to view certain resources from AGI games.

This is a beta version, i.e. there may be bugs in it (e.g. about 2% of VIEW
resources don't display properly). Also you will see debug info about where
the resource is located in the file, e.t.c.

Here are a list of currently known resources:

VIEW    The sprites and animations for the game (e.g. characters walking/dying)
PIC     The background images. These are stored in vector format (i.e. lines,
         circles, polygons, e.t.c.).
SND     Sounds and music
LOGIC   ??????

At present, you are only able to view the VIEW resources.


How to use AGIHACK
------------------
Copy the three files (AGIHACK.EXE, AGIHACK.TXT and EGAVGA.BGI) into the same
directory as an AGI sierra game. Then run AGIHACK.EXE

Alternatively, if you have a 'Sierra' directory on your hard drive (like me)
which contains several different sierra games, you can copy the three files
to that directory, then from DOS change to the directory of the game (e.g.
C:\SIERRA\SQ1\) and then type '..\AGIHACK'.

Once the program is loaded, you will see a list of numbers down the left
hand side of the screen and some instructions on the right hand side.
Each number identifies a different VIEW resource. Select one of these with
the arrow keys and press ENTER to view it.

Each VIEW consists of a number of groups, each containing several frames (for
an animation). For example, a view containing the graphics for a character
walking around might be structured like this:

Group 1: 8 frames for animation of character walking left
Group 2: 8 frames for animation of character walking right
Group 3: 8 frames for animation of character walking down
Group 4: 8 frames for animation of character walking up

Pressing left/right will increase/decrease the frame number you are viewing.
Pressing up/down will increase/decrease the group number you are viewing.
To return to the previous screen, press ESCAPE.


Why was AGIHACK written?
------------------------
I have always been interested in the way Sierra games work. I found out how
to use the debug modes (see my web site for more info) and played around with
that alot.

I also found a program called SCI decoder, by Carl Muckenhoupt. This was the
same sort of thing as AGIHACK, but viewed resources from SCI games (the next
'generation' of sierra games after AGI). I was inspired by this, so decided
to write AGIHACK.

My eventual aim is to be able to actually EDIT the resources in the games
and change the games themselves....I know it sounds pretty optimistic but
I didn't think I'd get this far with AGIHACK in 3 days!


More info
---------
If you are interested in finding out more information about AGI games (including
the debug modes) and also other Sierra games, visit my web site at

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~ptrkelly/

It has reviews, screenshots, easter eggs and many other things relating to the
older Sierra games (pre 1994).

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please email me.


Peter Kelly
email: ptrkelly@ozemail.com.au

5th October 1996