****************************************************************************
*                                                                          *
*                             It's The Pits!                               *
*                                                                          *
*                        A Bold Miner's Slaughter                          *
*                                                                          *
*                                                                          *
*                   Version 1.01 Released Jan 15, 1995                     *
*                                                                          *
*                      Coding, Graphics & Music by                         *
*                                                                          *
*                Kit "My Therapy Bill Is WHAT?!?" Felice                   *
*                                                                          *
*                  A member of Dark Unicorn Productions                    *
*                                                                          *
*                      Tombstone BBS (803)863-0313                         *
*                                                                          *
*             Copyright 1995 Kit Felice, All Rights Reserved              *
*                                                                          *
*                Registered Version - DO NOT DISTRIBUTE!                   *
*                                                                          *
****************************************************************************


   "Gravity... Is a harsh mistress."  - The Tick


   Hi and welcome to "It's The Pits!  A Bold Miner's Slaughter," a multi-

level arcade adventure written entirely in AMOS Professional 2.0.


 - The Plot -


   "It's The Pits" picks up where "The Gladiators of Dagania" left off.

Everyone's favorite blue-haired Dagan, Captain Psycho, is now a free alien

and he's also flat broke.  Naturally he's got a cunning plan and naturally

it's got about a one in a million chance of actually working.

   The plan is... Mining!  With all the dough he and Bonnie Rorschach had

left, the brilliant space pirate bought an old mine site complete with a

rusty mining ship he calls the U.S.S. Crash-Site.  The mine is littered

with valuable crystals.  Captain Psycho & Bonnie ought to make a FORTUNE if

only they don't get eaten by the many dangerous CREATURES inhabiting the

caverns!  Then, assuming they DON'T get eaten, they plan to get right back

to doin' what they do best - space piritin' and getting arrested by the

authorities.


 - How To Load -


   DOUBLE CLICK ON THE GAME ICON.  Like with all Psychosoft productions,

ITP requires NO special fonts in your fonts folder, NO special libraries

in your libs folder, and NO special boot procedures.  All that is required

is that the PITS_DATA folder be in the same directory as the game icon.

Click the It's_The_Pits! icon twice & unless your Amiga completely sucks

ITP will run!

   Amigas that don't completely suck have:

   - Two or more megs of memory

   - ECS, AGA, or just about anything BESIDES a 1/2 meg Agnus chip

   - A hard drive with at least 5 megs of free space (just to be safe)

   - Kickstart 2.04 or higher

   - Any CPU should have no problems if AMOS Pro compiles as

     advertised...


   If you have a LOT of ram (like four megs or so) you can use the

"Extra Memory" setting in the "Options" screen and ITP will load all

its data at the beginning and keep it in ram.


 - What to do -


   ITP is divided into four stages:  The Surface, The Pits, The Excrement

Caves, and The Mines.  From the surface, use your joystick to fly the

"U.S.S. Crash-Site" down one of the four pits that hasn't been visited.

Lucky for you it's meteor season so watch for falling rocks.

   Your ship is shielded from just about anything, but your shields take

a lot of fuel.  When your fuel is gone, you land real messily all over the

landscape and die, so don't collide with anything!

   Once you enter a pit you free-fall down about 50 miles to the cave area.

There isn't much room to maneuver which is unfortunate because you're being

shot at by a psychotic flying creature all the way down!  You can dodge his

shots or shoot'em, and you can shoot HIM out of spite or just for points.

If he comes up behind you it's hard to aim so wait for him to get real close

and then turn as far as possible to the left or right and he'll swing around

to the front of the ship and into your sights!

   The indicator at the right will show you how far you've gone down the

pit.  When you reach the bottom, it's time for the EXCREMENT CAVE!

   It's called the Excrement Cave because the creatures that live in it

have little else to do than eat and defecate.  Little to do, that is, until

YOU show up!  They'll try to blast you as you head for the bottom of the

cave, so drop bombs on their heads and collect the fuel they leave behind.

Your first objective here is to land at the bottom of the cave to enter the

mine!

   Once you land, it's time to hop out and grab some crystals.  Just be

careful where you step - there's rabid armadillos all around the mine!

One bite and you'll wish this planet used the new 5-needle-in-the-arm

rabies treatment and not 20 in the stomach!  The Crash-Site has enough power

to use it's teleporter twice:  If Captain Psycho gets bit, he'll be beamed

aboard and put in a stasis chamber until you reach the surface.  In that

case, Bonnie will have to finish the level.  If she ALSO gets bit, well,

it's pretty hard to fly back when everyone's cryogenically frozen...

   You can run by pressing the trigger, or at least you can until you get

tired.  After you slow down, you'll have to let GO of the trigger to "re-

charge."  Also, you might notice that somebody left you four TELEPORTER

PADS in the cave!  To teleport, stand on a pad, hold down the trigger, and

push the stick where you want to teleport.  Then you have to wait for the

pads to recharge (stop flashing) before you can use'em again.

   Pick up a crystal by walking over it.  You can only pick up one at a

time because they're, like, real heavy or something.  Then get back up to

the ship and run up and into the door to deliver them.  When you deliver

all four crystals, it's time to leave!

   Fly back up the cave and KILL ALL THE REMAINING EXCREMENT BEINGS before

going back up the cave.  (This is Captain Psycho's fault.  He won't leave

unless he gets to kill all the excrement beings...)

   Then it's back up the pit to the surface, and back to the landing pad.

There!  Now all ya gotta do is that same thing three more times!  Piece'o

cake!


 - A Bit of DUP -


   Psychosoft is, as many of you know, now a part of DARK UNICORN

PRODUCTIONS - A team of AMOS programers devoted to producing cool &

inexpensive software for the Amiga.  Founded by Shane R. Monroe,

DUP is growing and spilling out tons of great stuff such as:


   PSYCHO SQUARES        By Shane Monroe.  An extremely addictive strategy
   DELUXE
                         board game with great graphics & sound


   SCORCHED TANKS        By Michael Welch.  Also EXTREMELY addictive tank

                         battle game with up to four players.  More than

                         sixty weapons to choose from!


   THE GLADIATORS OF     By me.  3D maze/combat game with a level editor!
   DAGANIA


   And coming soon -


   FLEET COMMANDER       By Shane Monroe.  Like Star Raiders for the Amiga!

   TOMCAT                By John Graham.  A hard drive based FMV game!

   FLYING TIGERS         By Seumas McNally.  Like Choplifter only MUCH MORE

                         SO!


   All DUP productions can, I believe, be found on GENIE, and, of course,

on the TOMBSTONE BBS (See top).  Check it out why doncha!

  
 - Commonly Asked Questions -

   (Well, SOMEBODY must be wonderin...)


   Q: What does 'Dark Unicorn Productions' MEAN?

   A: It's from the game "Archon" from way, way, way back a long time

      ago.  The light side's most powerful piece was the Unicorn.  It

      could shoot REAL fast and run REAL fast, and it's shot was DEADLY!
      
      The dark side's most powerful piece was the Shapeshifter.  It would

      become whatever piece it fought.  So, when the Shapeshifter fought

      the Unicorn, it became - THE DARK UNICORN - the most powerful piece

      of the game.  "Archon" was one of the best games EVER WRITTEN and it's

      just the sort of game (simple yet fun) that we AMOS programers strive

      to create.  So, it seemed only appropriate to call this team...

      DARK UNICORN PRODUCTIONS!


   Q: Just how the HECK do you pronounce Kit's last name?

   A: It's FUH-LEES.  Rhymes with "Police."  I can always nail a salesman

      on the phone because they ask for "Mr. Fellekee," "Mr. Felix," "Mr.

      Feleesee," or "Susan."


   Q: What's NEXT?

   A: Weyall... I don't wanna spread any vaporware, or create any deadlines

      for myself, so I ain't tellin!  But I WILL tell you that I'm planning

      yet another Psychosoft production and it will be COOL!  Stay tuned!


   That's about it, I s'pose.  Have fun showing "It's The Pits" to all your

IBM loving friends and be sure to remind them it's written in BASIC!






   P.S.  Ya like riddles?  Ahem:


   "Wait!" shouted Bonnie as the Crash-Site grazed yet another rock.

"Something isn't right here...  Oh, great.  We're almost out of gas."

   "I guess we could use some assistance," admitted the Captain.  "But don't

worry.  It'll be all right when we find those crystals.  You'll feel like

a new person."



   Later.


                                             Kit Felice

                                             Jan 15, 1995






