
1 Using the Online Help
=======================


1.1 Using the Online Help
=========================

      You can press Escape at any time to leave the online help.

      You  can  press  Question Mark (?) to return to the previous
      help file.

      You  can  press  Space  to  advance  one  page, or Return to
      advance  one  line.  If  you reach the end of the help file,
      you will wrap around to the start.

      You  can  press Minus (-) to back up one half page at a time
      towards   the   start   of  the  help  file  (this  is  very
      inefficient).

      You  can  press Pound (#) to go to a specific line (defaults
      to line zero).

      You  can  press  Percent  (%)  to  go  to  a  specific  file
      (defaults to "help.hlp").

      You  can  press  Slash (/) to search for a string. This is a
      very  primitive  case  sensitive  search.  Slash plus return
      will  search  for  the  previous  search  string  again. The
      search  does  not  wrap  around  at  the end of the file, to
      search  again  from  the  top,  use  Pound + Zero + Return +
      Slash + Return.


1.2 General Information
=======================

      The  game  of Angband is a single player dungeon simulation.
      A  player may choose from a number of races and classes when
      creating  a  character, and then "run" that character over a
      period  of  days,  weeks, even months, attempting to win the
      game  by  defeating  Morgoth,  the  Lord  of  Darkness,  who
      resides far below the surface.

      The  player will begin his adventure on the town level where
      he   may  acquire  supplies,  weapons,  armor,  and  magical
      devices   by  bartering  with  various  shop  owners.  After
      preparing  for  his  adventure,  the player can descend into
      the  Pits  of  Angband  where fantastic adventures await his
      coming!

      You  will  probably want to browse through the "help files",
      especially  the  one on available commands, before beginning
      any serious adventuring...


1.3 A Note from the Maintainer
==============================

      Welcome to Angband 2.7.9.

      My  name  is Ben Harrison, and I have been the maintainer of
      Angband  since November, 1994, when the previous maintainer,
      Charles  Swiger (who developed Angband 2.5.1 through 2.6.2),
      got  a real job. Starting with Angband 2.7.0, and continuing
      through   the   current   version   (2.7.9),   I  have  been
      responsible  for a number of major improvements to the basic
      Angband  game,  some  of them obvious to the casual user and
      others  hidden  below  the surface, but no less significant.
      The  most  significant  improvement has been a total rewrite
      of  large  portions  of  the code, which, after ten years of
      modifications  by  various  people,  had begun to resemble a
      rotting  death  mold.  Also  significant was the design of a
      generic  "term.c"  package,  which has allowed Angband to be
      easily   ported  to  Macintosh,  Amiga,  X11,  Windows,  and
      basically   every   system   in   existance   (including   a
      beta-version for DOS-286).

      In  addition,  I  have added lots of new commands, features,
      and  functionalities,  most  of  which  appear  to have been
      accepted by most people as a good idea (TM).

      It  is extremely easy to port Angband 2.7.9 to a new system.
      If  you  cannot  find  a  version  that will compile on your
      machine,  you  can usually make one by writing a single file
      of about one hundred lines of C code.

      Angband  2.7.8  was  intended  to  be  a nice, clean, stable
      version,   so  we  can  all  give  copies  to  our  friends.
      Unfortunately,  it contained a few minor bugs. The *enchant*
      armor/weapon  scrolls  were  "swapped".  The  game starts to
      look  funny if too many objects accumulate on the floor. The
      "Q"  command  (commit  suicide) does not work (switch to the
      original  keyset  and  use the "^K" command if necessary, or
      try  "\"  +  "ctrl-k").  There  have  been reports that ball
      weapons  can  explode  through walls. You may not be able to
      "correctly"  load  pre-2.7.0  savefiles. Some dungeon levels
      (containing  monster  pits,  lesser  vaults,  etc)  may take
      minutes  to generate. Good drops can include cursed rings of
      speed.

      Angband  2.7.9+  is  intended  to be a "stable" endpoint for
      the  2.7  series,  in  that whenever bugs are detected, they
      are  repaired  without  changing  anything else significant,
      providing  a  relatively  unchanging, but still "up to date"
      version. Angband 2.7.9v4 should be relatively final.

      Angband  2.7.9  cleaning  up  some internal code issues from
      Angband  2.7.8,  and  extending  the  functionality  of some
      existing  commands  (such  as  target  and  look,  which now
      handle  directional  motion).  It  includes  minor tweaks to
      various   aspects  of  the  program,  most  notably  in  the
      introduction   of   new   symbols  and  colors  for  various
      monsters,  and  in  the  use  of  a  more regular set of RGB
      values for the various color codes.

      Angband  2.8.0 will introduce a version independant savefile
      format,  along  with  a new terrain feature concept, and the
      ability  to allow multiple objects in the same cave grid. It
      may  or  may  not  separate  the  "unique" monsters from the
      "normal"  monsters,  perhaps  introducing  some new "normal"
      monsters,  such  as  "skeleton  lord"  or  "giant  boar"  or
      "master mage".

      You  can  email  compliments,  complaints,  bug reports, and
      presents  to  me  ("benh@voicenet.com"),  and  you  can post
      interesting   experiences,  general  questions,  compilation
      questions    and   code   suggestions   to   the   newsgroup
      ("rec.games.roguelike.angband").

      You   can   obtain   the   latest  source  and  pre-compiled
      executables from various places, try
      "ftp://ftp.cis.ksu.edu/pub/Games/Angband/Angband-2.7.x"  and
      the developer site at
      "ftp://export.andrew.cmu.edu/angband".   You  will  need  to
      enter  the  appropriate  sub-directory,  such as "Source" or
      "Macintosh".

      You  should  visit  "http://www.voicenet.com/~benh/Angband/"
      (the Official Angband Home Page) and
      "http://www.paranoia.com/~jth/angband.html"  (the Unofficial
      Angband Home Page), for more up to date information.

      You  may  freely distribute the game, and its source, though
      you  are  bound  not  only  by the existing copyright notice
      from  1984, but also whatever restrictions may be present on
      various other pieces of the code.

      The  basic  help  files  supplied with this game are more or
      less  up  to  date,  but  when  in doubt, the source (or the
      newsgroup)  is  the  place to turn for advice. Or attempt to
      figure  it  out  by  experimentation,  this is sometimes the
      most  fun. In particular, see "commands.txt" for information
      on  the available commands, some of which have been recently
      added or changed.

      The  documentation is very easy to modify and update, so you
      may  want to check in to the ftp site occasionally to see if
      there  are  any new help files (or spoiler files) for you to
      acquire.  Note  that  the  spoiler files are not distributed
      with  the  source since they are so huge, but you can obtain
      them   from   various   places   as   with  the  source  and
      executables.   New  spoiler  files  may  be  placed  in  the
      "lib/help"  or  "lib/info"  directories, to allow access via
      the "online help" system.

      Remember  to  tell  all your friends about how much you like
      Angband...

      Happy adventuring!

