-------------- THIEVES SCHOOL -------------- "Welcome to the famous Thieves School! In this place, you'll learn everything related to theft and you'll able to graduate in Stealing Arts". Those were the first words that Mist and Courage heard when joining first year of this University. However, after almost 5 years of study, these students failed a key exam, leaving them with no possibilities of graduating. The professors decided to give them one more chance, an special exam consisting in a delictive tour around the world, in which they'll face many dangerous situations while stealing valuable goods. Instructions: -------------- This program is designed for Spectrum 128K and compatibles.  The program consists of two parts: Side A - Intro: It contains the introductory sequence of the game and tells the story of the main characters. Press Space to speed up the action. Press "C" to end the sequence and load the game itself. Side B - Exam: It contains the game itself and can be loaded independently of the Intro. Main menu of the game --------------------- The menu options can be selected by using the cursor keys and ENTER. * Start: Begin the exam. * Controls: Allows to select number of players and control devices: - Redefine Keys: Allows redefining the two redefinable keys sets. The ENTER key is predefined to access to the Pause Menu, which is also useful to quit the exam. Default keys are: - Set 1: R - Left. T - Right. Q - Up. A - Down. X - Fire. - Set 2: O - Left. P - Right. Y - Up. H - Down. M - Fire. - Change Thief 1: Use this option to appoint any of the two main characters (Courage and Mist) as Thief 1, which will appear in the lower left position at the start of each level. - Change Thief 2: Use this option to appoint any of the two main characters (Courage and Mist) as Thief 2, which will appear in the lower right position at the start of each level. - Change Thief 1/2 Control: Selects a control device to each thief, including several types of joysticks and the redefinable keys sets. If the red X icon is selected, no control device will be assigned so that thief will not take the exam. * Sound: This option is useful for adjust sounds and music volume. If volume is set to 0, either sounds or music are completely deactivated. * English/Espaņol: Toggles between English and Spanish as game language. * Expansion: Useful for loading expansion sets and patches. Check the World XXI Soft website to download the latest add-ins releases. * Credits: Info about designers and copyright. Start Option: Selecting Game Mode --------------------------------- Once the Start option from the main menu is selected, the Exam Setup menu will appear, in which the different game modes can be configured. The options are: * Style: You can choose between Action-Robbery and Stealth-Larceny. - In Action-Robbery mode, the students must steal all the goods present in the room, and also they must get rid of all the witnesses, using any harmful objects they find. This is because fire weapons are not allowed in this particular exam. If the room is clear without injury, the professors will grant a special bonus on the obtained bounty. - In Stealth-Larceny mode, the students must steal all the goods present in the room avoiding any contact with guards or movement detectors. Use of harmful objects is not allowed. If all the goods are stolen without being detected and without injuries, the professors will grant a special bonus on the obtained bounty. * Type: You can choose between Graduation Tour or Custom Exam. - The Graduation Tour is the only possible exam for graduating in Stealing Arts, and involves travel to different parts of the world. It can be taken under Action-Robbery or Stealth-Larceny styles. Each style has its own pre-defined scenario, after which the students are approved and, in the case of Mist and Courage, it will mean the graduation automatically. - A Custom Exam does not allow to graduate, but it is a good way of practicing skills or challenging another student of the School. Once finished, a performance description of the students will be shown, appointing as winner the student with higher grade. The grade is a function of the obtained bounty, injuries, and level reached. Because the injury degree is a component of the final outcome, quitting the exam (by pressing ENTER) when a good bounty has been obtained will result in a higher grade than playing until death or capture. In any case, selecting Custom Exam will enable a wide set of options, explained below. Custom Exam Options: * Location: Specifies the physical location and scheme of the Custom Exam. - Tour: Allows to take the exam in the same locations of the Graduation Tour. At the end of the tour, the exam will finish and the final grades will be determined. - Random: Allows to take the exam in a random location. This mode has no predefined ending, it will only end if both students are captured, or if they voluntarily quit. * Teamwork Mode: It only applies if two students take the Custom Exam. - Cooperative: In this mode, the students must collaborate to steal the goods, and the final grade will be a function of the bounties, remaining energy and levels obtained by the two players. - Deathmatch: In this case, the students compete against each other, and the winner will be the one with the higher grade. * Enemies: - Baddies: Selecting this option, guards, dangerous animals and giant bosses will appear during exam. - Clock: Allows to take the exam with time limit. Scattered goods will appear randomly, to be stolen as soon as possible. When the countdown reaches zero, the exam will end. * Objects harm students: Only applies to the Action-Robbery mode, and specifies if the harmful objects can harm the students or not. It is particularily useful in duels between students. * Start Exam: Select this option for start exam as defined by the rest of the options. Taking the Exam --------------- * The main objective is to steal the goods (paintings, gold coins, notes), simply walking over them. * In the Action-Robbery mode, each thief can pick up the harmful objects walking over them, and they must be used against enemies to clear room and go to the next level. Pressing fire, the objects will be thrown and they will bounce according to their own physics. If fire is pressed while moving left or right, the hurling angle will be higher. Some enemies will require many hits to be defeated (specially the boss guards present in some locations), after which they will leave some useful object behind, which can be taken by the thieves: - Diamond: Increases bounty. - Medical Kit: Increases energy. - i Letter: Gives temporal immunity. - Bomb: Harms all the enemies in the room. - E-X-T-R-A letters: Collecting all these letters, the bounty and energy will be substantially increased. - Big jewel stone: Substantially increases bounty, it only appears after defeating bosses. * In the Stealth-Larceny mode, safe boxes will appear, to be opened with lock picking tools. Press fire while touching a safe box to start the lock picking operation. A graphic will appear, showing the lock pins state. The lock will only open if all the pins are alligned above the shear line. Press fire to stop the movement of each pin. If all pins are up, the safe box will open and dissapear. Otherwise, the operation will have to be repeated until open the box. * If a thief is detected by a guard or security device (movement detector, eye of Horus, etc), all the guards in the room will be warned and raised to alert state, making the mission more difficult in the Stealth-Larceny mode. * If there is contact with enemies, the energy level will decrease and the guards will be raised to alert state. If it reaches to the minimum, the exam will end. * Each thief can jump over objects and platforms moving the control upwards or pressing "up" key, and can step down if moves control downwards or press "down" key. * Pressing ENTER the action is halted, allowing to continue or quit the exam. Suggestions and Tricks ---------------------- * Some game modes of the Custom Exam, like the Enemies = Clock option, are more enjoyable if they are played by two players. Explore the different options and determine the best strategy to break records or to beat your opponent. * Each character got unique skills and characteristics. Mist is a lockpicking expert, while Courage is very powerful when throwing objects. Choose the most appropiate character for your mission, or select the least skillful if you want to increase the game difficulty or to level yourself to another less skillful student. * In the Stealth-Larceny mode, the energy bar cannot be restored because no medical kits or letters appear. This makes the students to perceive it as more difficult than Action-Robbery. However, a good planning to avoid detection will allow you to go through these levels with ease. Credits -------- Concept, code and art: Ariel Ruiz Music: Alan "Factor6" Petrik Testing: Javi "TBrazil" Ortiz Carrasco and Lex Sparrow (c) 2008 Ariel Ruiz. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior permission of the author. Web World XXI Soft: http://ws.vtrbandaancha.net/ EMail: worldxxisoft@yahoo.com