MIND WALKER

WHAT YOU NEED

A Commodore Amiga Computer with 256K of RAM
A Mouse plugged into Port #1
A non-proportional joystick (Commodore joystick or the equivalent) plugged
	into Port #2
Kickstart Disk

START-UP INSTRUCTIONS

1. Be sure that your Amiga is plugged in and that the keyboard, mouse, and
monitor are attached to the main unit.

2. If the computer is not already on, turn on the monitor and then the
computer power switch. When the Kickstart disk icon appears, insert your
Kickstart disk into the disk drive with the label toward the front, facing
up.

4. When the Mind Walker disk icon appears, open it by double-clicking the
left Selection button with the pointer pointing to the disk.

5. When the Mind Walker icon appears in the window, open it by
double-clicking with the Selection button. The game then loads and the
title screen appears.

6. Press the left mouse button to start the game.

USING THE MOUSE AND JOYSTICK

At many points in the game, you'll want to select objects and gadgets with
the mouse. To do this, move the mouse so that the pointer is over the
object, and then press the left Selection button once.  The right mouse
button isn't used in the game.

To move your character, push the joystick handle in the direction you wish
to move.

CASE HISTORY

You are a physics professor gone mad. Your years of preoccupation with the
study of minute particles and obscure formulae have twisted you into a
tight knot within yourself, and you seem forever lost in your own internal
world.

The remains of your ego are split into four basic archetypes:

...You are the strong man (the Human) of the earth, able to muscle his way
out of any situation.

...You are the whiz kid, the brainy mathematical Wizard, a lonely child
prodigy.

...You are the goonish and awkward Spriggan, a creature dredged up from
years of fantasy reading.

...You are the Water Nymph, the girl of your earliest drams, fearless,
quick and lithe.

In these forms you wander in the wasteland of your internal world, first in
the Mind, then in the Brain and, ultimately, in the Subconscious, trying to
find and piece together your precious Shards of Sanity.

YOUR OBJECTIVE

There are three stages of your journey. First, you must trace a Path of
Coherent Thought through the chaotic and jumbled terrain of your Mind.
Having completed this Path, the mysterious connection to the physical Brain
is unlocked. Once in the Brain, you make your way through the maze of
flashing neurons to locate the container with your Shards of Sanity. Next,
you must carry those Shards into the deep Subconscious, where you must
piece them together to try to become whole again.

BEGINNING THE GAME

When the title screen appears, click the Selection button on the mouse to
get to the opening Game Selection screen. There are four different Preset
Games, where the Mind and Brain terrains are always the same.

You can also choose a completely new, randomly-generated game. To start
play, use your mouse to select the version you want.

If you have previously saved a game and wish to continue playing it, select
the disk icon in the upper-right portion of your screen, and then select the
letter under which your game is saved. To return to the Game Selection
screen, just select the highlighted disk icon again.

IMPORTANT NOTE: While the game is running, you MUST keep the game disk in
the disk drive.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL

The game automatically defaults to the lowest difficulty level and
increases in difficulty as you play.  If you would like to start the game
at a higher difficulty level, point to the difficulty slider on the top fo
the screen. Then, while holding down the Selection button, drag the
difficult slider to the right, and release the button. You cannot change
the difficulty level in this fashion once the game has started.

RETURNING TO THE WORKBENCH

In the upper left-hand corner is the QUIT box. Select this if you want to
return to the Workbench. When the game is in progress, this box is replaced
by the Close Window gadget. Selecting Close Window stops the game and
returns you to the Game Selection screen, so that you can save the game,
start a new game, or exit to the Workbench.

SAVING THE GAME

To save a game in progress, select the Close Window box to halt the game,
and you are returned to the Game Selection screen. Select the disk icon to
get to the game save utilities.

The game you halted is still in the computer. To save it, select the "Save
Game" command, and then choose a letter (A through H) to assign the saved
game to.

You have tow different ways you can use this saved game. With the "Continue
Game" command, you can pick up the game where you left off.  The "New Game.
Same World" command gives you the same world as the one you had left, but
starts you off fresh again. Even after you have completely finished a game,
you can still use the save game feature in this way to re-play the same
world - a thing to remember when someone starts boasting about the score!
This is also useful for preserving randomly-generated worlds you
particularly like.

There is a price, however, to saving a game. If you quit the game from the
Tubeway, the Brain or the Subconscious, when you restart the game (with the
"Continue Game" command) you are reset to the condition you were in WHEN
YOU ENTERED THAT LEVEL OF THE GAME.  Any gains or losses you made after
entry are reset. If you quit the game from the Mind, almost everything is
the same as you left it, but any Coherent Thought Paths you have drawn are
NOT saved.

HIGH SCORES

In the upper right-hand corner of the Game Selection screen, there is a
"FAME" box.  Select this to see the high scores. To return to the Game
Selection screen, select the Fame Box again. Your score during play is
displayed on the left horizon in the mind. You'll see...

                          THE MIND

GETTING ORIENTED

Look at the top of your screen. Notice the gadgets and icons. You've
already seen the difficulty slider. Just to the right of the slider is your
life indicator. You start out with 3 lives, so there should be two extra
lives displayed on the bar. Moving right are four letters representing
screen directions. Refer to the Mind Hints section entitled Screen
Directions for more information. The last icon on the right is the scroll
icon. This is explained in the section entitled "The Map".

MAKING PATHS AND CHANGING BODIES

When the game begins, you are standing on a square with a crystal. This
location is called a Square of Crystallized Thought. Now take a step to the
right. You see that the center of the square you are standing on has turned
black. You have just created a path. This is called a Path of Coherent
Thought. A Path must originate at the Square of Crystallized Thought and be
adjacent to it or to one of the blackened path-squares. Diagonally adjacent
is fine. 

Continue moving to the right to create a Path of Coherent Thought.
Eventually, you'll reach a square that does not turn black when you step on
it.  You have reached terrain that requires a different body type in order
to continue the path. Changing body types is easy. All you need to do is
stand under the nearest Pyramid and you'll watch your form change before
your eyes. The easiest way to find a pyramid is to check your map.

THE MAP

Select the scroll in the upper-right portion of your screen to bring up the
local map. The 16-square box with the flashing outline in the center of the
grid is a two-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional world
where you are positioned. The first thing you might want to do is get a look
at the rest of the map. Select "Fill In Entire Map" in the upper-portion of
your screen. The rest of the grid is automatically exposed.

Now select "Path" and continue holding down the Selection button. The
highlighted area you see is the Path of Coherent Thought that you just
traced. Notice that ll the squares on which the Path is drawn are the same
color, and the square you couldn't draw on is a different color. This color
change indicates that the terrain is different. To keep the map
understandable, only four basic colors are used. The different colors on
the map DO NOT represent different heights or actual colors of blocks. Each
color on the map represents one of the four basic topographical features.
Each of the four body types (the Human, the Wizard, the Spriggan and the
Nymph) has a particular terrain on which they can draw a Path.

...The Human can draw on solid blocks.

...The Wizard can draw on the towers.

...The Spriggin can draw on the hanging platforms.

...The Nymph can draw on water.

Using your mouse, select "Wizard" on the upper portion of the screen.
Notice how a large area of the map is highlighted. This is Wizard terrain,
purple on the map when it's not highlighted. Do the same for the other body
types. You may also have noticed that the color of the body type name and
the color of the corresponding terrain on the map is the same. You don't
need to highlight the terrain in order to tell the corresponding body type,
it just accents the terrain type to make it easier to tell terrains apart.

Now notice the flashing square. This is a very important square to
remember, the one you want to get to. This square is where your Path of
Coherent Thought must end. When you have traced a complete Path from the
Square of Crystallized Thought on which you landed to the flashing square,
you will have completed and Idea.

Take a look at the area between your Path and the flashing square and try
to find a way from one to the other that minimizes the number of times you
have to change body types, i.e., the minimum number of colors you have to
cross. The fewer times you have to change your body by seeking out a
pyramid to keep your path going, the better.

Try locating a pyramid now, just for the fun of it. Select "Pyramid" above
the map, and continue pressing the Selection button. All the pyramids on the
map are highlighted. Remember the location of the one nearest to you. Now
select the scroll icon in the upper-right corner to return to the game.

Welcome back! You should now move in the direction of the nearest pyramid.
If you have trouble locating it, refer to the map at any time. Once you
find the pyramid, step underneath it. Watch the incredible body
transformation! Now you're almost ready to go off on your own. You just
need a few more hints.

LIMITATIONS OF THE PATHS

The Path of Coherent Thought can never get farther than 32 blocks away from
the Square of Crystallized Thought. Within that radius, however, you can
draw on as many blocks as you want. Note: If you step on another Square of
Crystallized Thought before completing your Path of Coherent Thought, your
previous Path is erased and you have to start from a new center location.

You also cannot draw a Path on a square containing a Tube or Pyramid.
(You'll find out about Tubes soon enough).  You usually have to take these
obstacles into consideration when trying to complete your path.

BAD THOUGHTS AND BOOBY TRAPS

Naturally, there are some impediments to your quest for sanity. Bad
thoughts are running amok throughout the vast terrain of your Mind, and
they do not appreciate your attempt to end their free reign. They'll attack
you with devastating Nihilism Beams, and if they manage to annihilate you,
you accumulate death poisons. If you collect too many death poisons, you
lose a life.  The Bad Thoughts become Horrible Thoughts as the same game
progresses and they become increasingly lethal.

You can tell how many death poisons you have by the size of the skull that
appears after your poisoning. Losing a life from poisoning is all too
apparent.

You can quash most of the Bad Thoughts (and the Horrible ones, too) with
your trusty Fractal Ray (described in the next paragraph.) The only Bad
Thought you have no defense against is the ever-nasty Existentialist Death
Mask, which swallows everything you can throw at it, and yet, curiously
enough, is always hungry.

If you walk into a screen with flashing towers and lots of Bad Thoughts,
congratulations!  You've been booby-trapped. You'll have to figure out how
to unlock the trap and defend yourself at the same time. Think Good
Thoughts!

THE FRACTAL RAY

Press the trigger button on your joystick and hold it down to unleash the
Fractal Ray. While the button is held down, moving the joystick doesn't
move your character, but instead moves the endpoint of your ray. It is only
the endpoint of the ray that destroys enemies.

THE EINSTEIN EFFECT

Through the course of your travels, you may notice two terms from a fairly
famous equation lying around. One pops up within the Kingdom of Ideas, the
other is lost in the unexplored terrain of the mind outside. Step on them
to pick them up; they're kind of useful. The terms of the equation that you
have already retrieved are displayed on the far right edge of the event
horizon. Remember, it's all relative.

THE MINI-PAUSE AND THE MAXI-PAUSE

If the mouse is pointed at anything except the title bar, clicking the
Selection button pauses the game so you can decide what to do. This
mini-pause ends after you select a gadget, or after about 5 seconds, if you
do nothing. For a longer pause, select the Pause Gadget (the box with a "P"
in it). To resume the game, select the Pause Gadget again.

YOU HAVE AN IDEA

After you have completed your Path of Coherent Thought, the large region
surrounding the place you are standing turns a "transparent" black. This
is the area occupied by your Idea. Getting the Idea automatically unlocks
the Tubes. They stay unlocked until you retrieve your Shards of Sanity in
the Brain or until you get another Idea. These Tubes are your passage to
the Brain. Wander around until you find one, or refer to your map if you
need to. Step on a Tube and prepare for the fall...

TUBING

You're falling down a long passageway, seeking entrance to the realm of the
physical. What's behind all those green doors? Catch one between your hands
and find out.

                            THE BRAIN

You find yourself in a vast neurotic field that flashes and sparks with
synaptic impulses. The Idea you have just completed is flowing freely
through your Brain. The dotted line you see on the screen represents your
thoughts as they twist and turn. Control your thoughts with your handy
Thought Reflector, to defend yourself against the Vicious Viruses which
attack you and suck your precious strength. Be sure to keep a close eye on
your Strength Indicator on the right side of the screen.

To change the angle of your Reflector, press the trigger button on your
joystick and push the joystick to the left or right. Pushing the joystick
to the right directs your thought clockwise, the left reflects them
counterclockwise.

Now for your task; somewhere in this vast labyrinth of your Brain is a
multi-colored container with a few Shards of Sanity. Find this container
and return to your point of entry. You then delve into the Subconscious
Mind, where you will have a chance to put all the pieces together.

No, there's no map of the Brain to help you find the Shards or the Tube you
rode in on, but there is a way. Remember playing "Hot and Cold" as a child?
The pounding in your head becomes louder and you grow more feverish the
closer you become to your objective. The Temperature Indicator on the right
side increases as you close in on the object of your quest.

You can cross over the neurons that make up the "walls" of the Brain, as
long as they're not in the middle of a firing sequence. Beware of the
damaged neurons; they may not flash as long or as brightly. To escape to
the Subconscious, you may have to time a break through the neurons, as they
have a tendency to grow around the escape Tube.

                        THE SUBCONSCIOUS

Repeat into the recesses of your Subconscious to stare at moving inkblots
and reorganize the remnants of your sanity. It all seems so puzzling,
doesn't it?

The seven Shards you have most recently acquired are displayed in the
upper-left portion of the screen. They all have a specific place in the
inkblot puzzle on the right. To place them in the puzzle, select a Shard
with the mouse, move it into the puzzle square in which you think it fits.
Then click the Selection button again to set it down. You can pick up any
of the Shards, even the ones that are correctly placed in the puzzle. When
you correctly place them all, you are automatically returned to the Mind to
continue your journey.

When you have created only a few Ideas, you don't have many Shards and it
may seem very difficult to piece your sanity together. Uncle Sigmund can
help you. Tap on one of his pipes with the mouse (make sure your pointer is
directly on the pipe).  Aim for the red gap, and if your timing is right,
he'll show you where the corresponding Shard goes. Just remember that
therapy has a price...

THE FINAL EVALUATION

When all's said and done, how do you evaluate your recovery? There's the
small victories on your way, of course. Then the things you've managed to
keep - the life you have remaining is valuable to the end. (If you have
more than one, so much better!) Then there is the time spent in illness;
the shorter it is, obviously the more pleased we are. We don't penalize you
for the time spent in the therapy of the Subconscious, however. Relax and
ruminate.

Finally, there is the effort you put into you own recovery: the insights
you had without help. Though in the end, both cases may be the same, the
things we do for ourselves always come to mean more. Isn't that always the
way?

If you do put back all the pieces and are ready to return to the real
world, press the left mouse button to return to the Game Selection screen
and enter a high score.

			ADDITIONAL GAME HINTS

MIND HINTS

When you return to the Mind from the Subconscious, you'll need to find the
nearest square of Crystallized Thought in order to begin your next Path.
You can find the location of the nearest square of Crystallized Thought by
selecting "Crystal" on the map. You may have to wander out from the Idea
kingdom so the flashing Square shows up on the map.

In the Mind, you probably noticed the screen direction gadgets located
directly to the right of your life indicator. The game always starts out
with your point of view to the north. Sometimes your view is obstructed by
tall objects in your line of sight. You can change your point of view by
selecting the first letter of the direction you wish to face. Be warned,
however, that your map, in the nature of all good maps, always points
north.

MAP HINTS

Use the map as often as you need to. It will help keep your path (and you)
moving in the right direction. It's very easy to lose oneself in thought,
and the map will keep you from going too far.

When looking at the map, a quick way to scan an area is to "paint it in."
Hold down the Selection button and sweep the mouse over the map. You can
"paint in" the areas of interest to you. Suppose you bring up the map, and
you want to find the nearest pyramid. Select "Pyramids"; then, without
releasing the button, move down into the map and start painting in the map
manually. The pyramids stay highlighted until you release the button, so
it's quite easy to spot the nearest one while you paint.

BRAIN HINTS

Different Tubes lead to different Brain-mazes. Some are harder than others.
To leave the Brain, you can step out at any time by walking across the Tube
hatchway you first appeared by. This is a good thing to remember when your
strength gets really low, or to help you determine the right direction to
track down the Shards of Sanity without taking too much damage.

Don't just dive right into the escape Tube once you've snatched up the
Shards, since Neurons will have grown around it! You must time it right to
cross the Neurons when they aren't firing. Position yourself in front of
the neurons surrounding the Tube, with your Thought Reflector at the ready
for last-second Virus attacks. Pay attention to the firing pattern of the
Neurons - it's not an even pulse, but it's a consistent pattern - and time
it so you can cross during a longer break between flashes.

SCORING HINTS

The biggest thing is to get your mind back together, but there are a few
ways to increase your score. Time spend in illness is a consideration, so
remember to Pause the game (or even save it) if you plan to be away for a
while, even if there are no bad thoughts floating around. To increase your
self-development score in completing the puzzle, always plug the last piece
directly into the puzzle rather than accepting Uncle Sigmund's help. Try
placing it in every available space if necessary. Eventually, if all the
other pieces are in the right place, it'll fit somewhere.  Also, the
self-development gets a lot easier once you've got a couple sets of Shards
in place.

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         DOCS PROVIDED BY  -+*+-THE SOUTHERN STAR-+*+- for M.A.A.D.                                                               
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