                                CAPTIVE

Typed in by MR.THOMPSON of DEFJAM. Edited by PARASITE.


PLAYER'S REFERENCE CARD
You also need a blank disk-with a label saying CAPTIVE FREEDOM DISK. This
will be used to save your progress during your quest)

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the exciting world of Holographic Bried Case computers - a
revolution in portable control and communications systems. Your ABCCSI
machine will become an integral part of your control and comms, needs
right through to the next decade. By careful use of the machine, it
should provide trouble free service for many years. In the unlikely
event of a fault occurring during use, please contact your nearest
Maintenance point. Details of which should appear elsewhere in this
document.

PART ONE - GENERAL OPERATIONAL CONCEPTS
ABCC 500XL/GT MKI,II,III revisions i to xiv (includes 2000XL/GT)
These machines are designed for connection to up to four independent
intelligent control devices - ideally droid systems or mining
installations. See your nearest dealer or store on site for details.
about purchasing droids, and spare parts. When Military Standard
Droids are connected to this system, then their full armement and
weaponary skills can be manipulated from the control deck on the
ABCCSI machine.
The 500XL machine have six independent monitoring and viewing systems.
The main screen is usually linked to a sight module in one of your
droids, often the leader - in most cases this will be a bi-focal 3D
holographic simulation of the world as seen through your droids eyes.
The latest version of this machine allows priority for viewing to be
manually transfered between up to four droid systems (if operational).
There are five further monitoring systems on the machine - placed in a
line along the top of the briefcase, for external monitoring devices.
One monitor is allocated to each droid and a fifth allocated to a
manual viewing source - usually a remote camera. Each of the 5
monitoring systems can be turned on and off using the remote control
pad on the bottom right of the brief-case.
The new 500XL machines have useful features for monitoring of
connected droid devices. It is now possible to see exactly what status
of each droid is and, through our patented BodyLink System, actually
repair damage to connected droids from the remote location. The Body
Link System also allows the user to swap body parts and objects carried
between members of the party and the environment they are in - thus
creating the first full remote, interactive virtual reality environment.
Initial tests on this system proved its superlative power over rival
systems and it's sheer ease of use was a big advantage for the user.
One tester commented that it would even bepossible for an jailed man to
release himself from prison if he had an ABCC 500XL and four raw battle
droids to play with - it would not take long to control the four droids
in any situation and eventually break himself out of prison - proof of
the power of your ABCC in any situation.

PART TWO - GETTING STARTED

                Forward
       Turn left   |   Turn right
               \___|___/
    Move left__|PYRAMID|__Move right
               /-------\
        Climb up   |   Climb Down
                   |
               Move Back

This is where movement commands are issued to the droids linked up to the
ABCC.
There are two different situations where droids can be commanded, the
first is when they are in their space craft, the second is when they are
on the ground. Because of this the movement clusters have a dual
function:

IN SPACE
Whilst in the space ship the control cluster works as follows:

Turn Left    : Fly the ship to the current cursor position on the
               holographic planet map.
Forward      : Move up the map.
Turn Right   : Commence the landing procedure at logged position.
Move Left    : Move left on the map.
Pyramid      : Move cursor to The Swan (your ship)
Move Right   : Move right on the map.
Climb Up     : Zoom out from map.
Move Back    : Move down the map.
Climb Down   : Zoom in on map.

ON THE PLANET
Whilst on (or in) a planet surface, the control cluster works as follows:

Turn Left    : Rotate the team of droids 90 degrees to the right
forward      : Move the team forward.(or push forward if the right mouse
               button is used)
Turn Right   : Rotate the team 90 degrees to the right.
Move Left    : Sidestep to the left.
Pyramid      : No Function - indicates which direction you are moving in.
Move Right   : Sidestep to the right.
Climb Up     : Climb up.
Move Back    : Move back.
Climb Down   : Climb Down.

The up and down arrows only become functional in situations when you can
actally direct the droids up or down. (see the section on Remote Control
Keypad)

THE DROID STATUS ICONS
These are multi-purpose icons - different functions are accessed by using
either left or right mouse button. The system is explained in full below:
There are four coloured icons in a square - red,blue,green and yellow.
These colours are used throughout to denote which droid is which and
where.
This group of four icons represents an at-a-glance look at how your
droids are positioned within the battle group and a quick read out of
their health and power.
The icon with the crown on it is the leader - and it is its eyes that you
see through in the main view. To promote any droid to leader, simply
doubleclick with the left mouse button on its coloured icon.
To swap positions of the droids within the group, you can click once on
the first droid and again on the one you want it swap with. They will
then exchange places in the formation.

THE DROID BACK-PACK AND INVENTORY SYSTEM
To view the droid's back-pack and inventory and get a read-out of its
stats, click with the right mouse button on the coloured icon relating to
the droid you want to check out. The main view screen will now be
replaced with the stats and back-pack relating to the droid. From here
you can view and manipulate the objects that are being carried, as well
as checking on other things like power, health, power drainage and
skills.
The three coloured buttons on the top right of the back-pack are used to
display further information about the droid status:
i)Green Button   - this brings up a display of the working order of the
                   various droid body parts.The higher the percentage, the
                   healthier the component.
ii)Red Button    - this brings up a display of overall trength of each
                   component - this is also known as Hit-Points on Military
                   Standard Droids. The number displayed refers to the
                   maximum hits allowed before the component becomes
                   useless.
iii)White Button - this button displays the power consumption of each
                   component - the chest piece, however, shows the
                   recommended power rating in Watts. This is directly
                   related to the amount of power left in the chest. A
                   large power draining component will quickly reduce
                   power available for the rest of the droid.

On the left side of the Droid's head is a brain. This is where silicon
rom-constructs are inserted which give the droid personality. On the
right side is a computer which is the where devices have to be plugged -
which are viewed through the monitors at the top of the brief-case.
Click on the droid icon with the right button to bring back the main view
and quit from the droid stats screen.
This latest version of the ABCC 500XL incorporates real-time health status
on the droid icons. If your remote units are injured or damaged, a figure
flashes in this icon to show the extent of the trouble - along with a
single read-out of remaining life power.
If the droid icon becomes shaded then one or more of the following could
have occured :
               i)no legs connected, or too damaged to walk
              ii)no power
             iii)no chest fitted
              iv)dead

DISK ICON
The left mouse button will activate loading of a saved set of BodyLink
System and Progress System events - However teams can only be regenerated
once they are in the space ship.
The right mouse button will initiate the saving of the events at any time
during the quest.
Regenerated teams and event lines are only able to start from the
beginning of that base.

THE MULTI-DROID STATS ICON
This icon allows a Holographic image of all four team members to be
displayed at once - allowing stats to be compared and objects to be
manipulated and transfered between team members. The left mouse button
will activate the read-out of their skills, the right button will activate
the display of theit back-packs and stats.

THE SLEEP ICON
This puts the party to sleep (which allows time to pass quickly). Click on
it again to wake them up once more. If any thing occurs to the party
whilst in this mode, thay are automatically woken up.

THE HALT ICON
This icon allows the user to put the team into suspended animation for as
long as required.
Click on the mouse again to get on with the job.

DROID HAND ICONS
The four droid's hands, denoted by their individual colour, are displayed
in pairs in a grouping. The user can see at a glance what is in the hand,
and activate and manipulate objects held by the droids.
If an icon is shaded it means that the hand or arm is damaged or missing.
The icons will go shaded for a moment if the hand is busy - this happens
whilst the droid is reloading his own weapon or is "recoiling" after a
shot or punch.
The left button will pick up an object from the droid's hand and put into
the user's hand. It can then be put in a back-pack or into another droid's
hand.
The right button will activate the object in the hand. If it is a gun or
weapon then this usually means pulling the trigger. If the hand is empty
then the droid will punch.
If a weapon is put into a droid's hand and a little "s" appears next to it
on the hand, then this means that the droid does not have the skill to use
the item. Although the item can still be carried, it means that for the
time being your droid is not experienced enough to operate it.
See the section on weapons and weapon skills for information about
handling amourment and reloading guns.

THE REMOTE CONTROL KEYPAD
The remote control has 8 buttons in two rows of four.

DROID MONITOR SYSTEMS:
The top row of buttons turn on and off the individual droid monitoring
systems at the top of the brief-case. If a droid has devices or other
silicon slices plugged into its ROM port, then the monitor will have to be
turned on in order to view the effect. If no device is present, then the
monitor will show static.

REMOTE CAMERA CONTROL:
The first button on the bottom row turns on the view from remote camera
outfits that can be connected to the system. Multiple cameras can be
connected - simply select the feed from the coloured buttons on the
monitor screen. Connected cameras have a detonation facility which can be
activated at any time.

MINI-MONITOR VIEW:
When the user selects the stats screen of a connected droid remote, the
main view screen is hidden. To allow the user to monitor events outside
whilst checking the stats and back-packs of droids, then the minature view
can be turned on. This is done by pressing the second button from the left
on the control keypad. This view creates addiotnal holographic feeds of
the main view, which are very costly in image process time. As a result it
is not recommended that this view be left on for extended periods of time.
There are certain times when the view must be turned off to perform a
seperate function - for example reloading weaponary.

TV TEXT STYLE:
Certain external viewing devices such as televisions and poor quality
monitor devices give sub-standard image projections of text. If this is
the case with your system, then toggle the third button from the left to
change the style and typeface of the text used on screen.

MOVEMENT CLUSTER SHADING TOGGLE:
During early beta-tests of the ABCC 500XL system software, it was noted
that some users found the shading of the climb up and climb down movement
icons to be obtrusive to the screen to the screen layout. The default
setting is that the arrows will be shaded until available for use,
however, the user can change this as personal taste dictates.

CHINESE ICON:
This icon takes the user into the preferences screen - where various
settings of the system software on your ABCC 500XL system can be changed
to suit personal taste.
Once the user is happy with his/her chosen settings, then the USE button
must be pressed to put them into practice. Press DEFAULT to go with the
system designer's original settings.

PART THREE - ADJUSTING OPERATIONAL DROID CHARACTERISITCS

SETTING CHARACTERISTICS:
Any new droids connected via the BodyLink System to the ABCC console must
be initialised with identifying name. This will instigate formation of
operational droid characteristics that will be specific to the droid. The
three integral parts of the droids character are :
  i) Vitality
 ii) Dexterity
iii) Wisdom.  Any new droids connected to the system will be given two
skills to start with. These are Brawling and Robotics (all set to Grade 1)
As the droids become more experienced, new skills will become part of
their Knowledge, and can be increased - allowing manipulation of new
objects and technology as they get older. This prolongs the active life of
the droid.

INCREASING SKILL SETTINGS:
Droids aquire Experience during their working life. This overall "power"
can be exchanged for increasedlevels of skill in any of the ones available
in the droids character.
For example, a droid who has aquired 23 experience points can increase his
Brawling skills. This is done by clicking on the word Brawling on the
stats screen for the relevant droid. This will then ask the user to
confirm the increase of that particular skill.

PART FOUR - WEAPON USE (MILITARY STANDARD DROIDS ONLY)
This section relates to weapons use on Military Standard Droids which are
connected to the system. However, since advances are made in military
hardware at a daily rate, it is not possible to cover all types of weapons
available for control on this system. Direct field experience will show
which weapons are suitable in which situations. There is no limit on the
number and type of weapons which MSD can aquire.
A weapon held in a droid's hand will become activate if the right mouse
button is clicked over it. If it is a firing weapon and is loaded this
will fire a shot or shots in the direction of travel.
By careful positioning of weapons within the team, an effective line of
fire can be set up.
Weapons can be reloaded at any time in the following way:
The user must pick up the weapon from the droid's hand and the reload
option icons will appear in the info screen area. The user must first turn
off any system which are functioning in the info screen area (for example
the mini-screen view).
The four coloured icons relate to the members of the droid team. By
clicking on the desired droid colour the BodyLink System will
automatically search the back-packs for ammunition for that particular
weapon.

PART FIVE - POWER CONSUMPTION
One of the keys concepts in succesful field operation of droids is careful
management of their power. There are various systems and devices that are
available to assist teams in power management (see local dealer for
details).
Power can be gained from the most unlikely sources in any situation - keep
an eye open for any opportunity to replenish valuable stocks of power.
The chest is the key to the power of any droid - keep an eye on power
levels for the chest.

HINTS
To get them dosey droids out of bed in the morning you must plug in the
rom-constructs into their brains. This instigates the set-up.

To get anywhere, make sure the droids collect anything they find, you
never know what might come in handy.

If they are military stock then a bit of killing practise will not go
amiss - doesn't matter who you hit 'cause experience will be good for
them - whatever the consequences.

Keep an eye on the power levels, these suckers drain faster than a bath
with a bomb hole in it.

The audio on these decks is superb - use the stereo on the ABCC 500XL to
full effect in searching out anything that you want to kill (it will be
trying to kill you too, so watch out)

Spare limbs always come in handy (pun intended) in giving you an arm or
leg (literally!).

Pillage anything, you can always trade it in for some useful gear later.

Visit ABCCSI HQ as soon as you get going - I'm told their is some whacky
stuff going down on their planet.

Dancing on the cieling is a great song.

If all else fails push it - you never know what will give way.

DIARY

18-09-2542
The trial did not go well - in fact it could not have gone worse. THEY say
I am guilty on all counts. ALL COUNTS? , no way! And to think I paid all
that money for that son-of-an-alien defence lawyer. Would have been better
off doing it myself. At least I would not have anyone else to blame.
I can't sleep tonight - I find out in the morning what my sentence is.
I hope that they give me community service. I like community service, not
much killing involved.

19-09-2542
I can hardly write, my hands are shaking so much. I just got sentenced to
two hundred and fifty years suspended animation. I may as well have been
thrown into space without a suit. OK, diary I think this will be the last
entry for a while now.
Some men in coats came in to explain all the stuff about freezing my body
and how I would not feel a thing and like, is their anything I want to
tell them and stuff. They can all spacewreck in a star for all care.
They just gave me a shot of something, I think this might be the feeling
of dying.

??-??-????
I think it has been 2 days since I woke up. All I remember is hearing a
low hum of machinery and then realising I could feel myself against the
cold metal slab. It took about three hours to pull some of the tubes and
stuff out of me and think about getting up. That was a misstake.

Two Days Later:
I can't figure out what has happened, but I think some serious fire fight
has taken place outside my cell. I can't just see through the window - the
place is a wreck. I can only figure out that some serious war is going on
out there - and that some computer shutting down woke me up to save me
from dying - what good that did me I will never know.

The Next Day:
I have found an interesting bit of kit in my cell. I guess while I was
asleep they used this as a store room - unlikely that I would get up in
the night and hang myself, is it? I got this strange brief case computer
thing, and it works. I press the power stud and these holograms flicker on
- I think it is some kind of remote communicator device.

The Next Day:
I wish I could find out the time and date. I also realised yesterday that
I can't even remember my name. I think (for what it's worth) that all my
memories have been squirted down one of these tubes. I have found out one
good thing, however, and that is that one of these tubes feeds me.
Unfortunately it is plugged into my arm, but who cares.

The Next Day:
I have found the instructions for this brief-case computer thing. It is
called an ABCCSI 500/520XL MK viii. I think I might be able to escape
with this.

End.
