
*********

The Project 64 etext of the ~Grand Monster Slam manual~, converted to
etext by Langguth Karlheinz.

GRMOSL10.TXT, September 1997, etext #298#

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GRAND MONSTER SLAM
------------------

(c) 1989 by Rainbow Arts GmbH

Table of contents

GholD World Map
Rules of Play
The GRAND MONSTER SLAM
Designers' Notes

[legal notice]

[Picture of GholD Southern Continent - unimportant for gameplay]

GHOLD - THE WORLD OF SIX SUNS

Somewhere in the universe, beyond time and space and also beyond the
limits of our understanding, the world of GholD exists. There, every
morning the sun rises in another direction, following the rhythm of a
six- day-week. A great variety of beings populate the lands and seas
of their home world, in which "technology" is not a known term,
whereas however, magic does work. The history of GholD spans several
thousands of years, full of the rise and decline of mighty empires,
full of great wars of Good and Bad fighting each other, but we have
also to mention the times of peace and understanding, encompassing the
most amazing cultural achievements.

One of these achievements is the Grand Slam, which presents perhaps
the best way from war to peace. This biggest sporting event of the
southern continent had begun as a war between goblins and men - and
today, all peoples of the world celebrate this festival of mutual
understanding. From all corners of the continent, the most strange
creatures comes into the big capital of the Empire of Men every 5
years in order to participate in the games. rumor is that notice of
the Grand Slam had even reached the northern continents, and so,
everybody hopefully expects the day when a ship out of unknown
countries anchors in the harbor of HodT CrownguarD, bringing new
players for the grand Games.

This year, everybody's attention is attracted by the dwarves, who
participate in the Games for the first time. All people respect and
fear these tough little guys out of the western mountains. One can
hear rumors of the champion of the dwarven as being a legendary hero,
and also the king of all the proud dwarves clans is expected as a
visitor to the Games. The big question is: Will a newcomer rise up
into the top class of Grand Slammers - or even achieve the title?

[picture of a compass - unimportant for gameplay]

RULES OF PLAY

Since the reformation of game rules in the year 11216, the famous
Grand- Slam-Tournament has consisted of three leagues... The first
match is an elimination contest with 8 players, who fight each other
in pairs. The pairs of opponents, and the winners of this contest form
the pairs of the second fight. Logically, only 2 players are left at
the end of the second game.  These two will then fight in the final in
order to decide who is the winner of the first league.

The winners of every fight have to participate in an intermediate game
after each game. This intermediate game is called "Revenge of the
Beloms".. As everybody knows, the FUMB has pushed through this game
part with great vigour.

The winner of the whole league must also pass a qualification, an
event which is called "The Remarkable Six Faultons". Anybody who fails
in this qualification (which demands great dexterity) cannot go up
into the next group of competitors.

The participants of the second league are veterans with considerable
experience in the Games; they don't even need to pass the first league
(indeed only beginners, like your dwarf, compete in the first match -
or fighters who have been disqualified in the last Games). After the
winner of the first elimination contest has joined them, the second
group also consists of 8 players, and again there is an elimination
contest in order to find out the next league winner.. The pitch is now
separated by a waist high wall, thus making the game more difficult.
This is especially so with the Homerun, because now you have to move
up to the middle of the baseline in order to start the run (because of
the gap in the barrier).

After an additional (and more difficult) "Remarkable Six Faultons"-
event, the winner of the second league joins the final round, there
meeting only three players - the winners of the last 3 GRAND
SLAM-tournaments. He has to beat them one after the other in order to
finally obtain himself the yellow jerkin and the golden metal; but
watch out, because all three opponents have magical powers which they
use variably.

The whole event is accompanied by a bonus-point-scoring system which
has proven itself very helpful in evaluating the performance of
individual players, and the betting business does take profit from it.

1. The Main Game:

First to appear on the screen are the pairs of the first match, formed
by lots, one atop the other. The gamer's character - the dwarf -
appears in the top left corner. Continue by pressing fire.

Now the dwarf's next opponent is presented in detail (giving name,
race, profession, game skills, character, and last, but not least
important, the sponsor!). Continue by pressing fire.

Now the main game begins! The dwarf is placed in the foreground, and
each of his opponents plays in the background. Six beloms squat at
each baseline.. It is the player's task to kick his own beloms across
the pitch to the opponent. If you have successfully kicked all your
own beloms, you can start to make your "homerun", which means running
across the pitch to the opponent's baseline. If you reach that, you
are the winner! While kicking beloms, the most important things are to
avoid the opponent's beloms and to hit the opponent with your own
beloms as often as possible.  In case of a player being hit, he
remains lying on the ground for a certain amount of time. This amount
of time increases in the course of being hit several times. This is
then the other player's best chance to kick as many beloms as possible
to the other side and to pour out a stream of vituperations on the
opponent's fans!

Which leads us to the so called "Pelvans", the penalty in the GRAND
MONSTER SLAM. Pelvans are given if you have kicked a belom into the
audience, either accidentally or deliberately. Particularly opposing
fans who are very much irritated about your vituperations tend to kick
a belom "into the blue". If then a pelvans is given (look at the
roaring dragon at the left sideline), the pelvans-creature sinks down
a rope to the pitch and places itself on the pelvans-point ("P") of
the executing player. This player may now choose how to kick the
pelvans to the other side: straight forward, angled to the right, or
angled to the left. At the moment of shooting, the other player must
already have made his mind up in which direction he is going to run in
order to catch the pelvans at his baseline.  (This is merely a game of
chance. The player being shot at with the pelvans may choose the
direction in which to run by moving his joystick before the moment
when the pelvans is kicked off by the opponent. If you suppose that
the pelvans will come directly towards you, of course you won't run
off to either side, but rather remain in your position!)

Scoring: Every single game is worth a certain number of points, which
the winner will receive. Additionally, he will obtain a time bonus
when having finished the game especially quickly.

CONTROL:

-O-	Joystick left/right: Move along the baseline

o	Pressing fire and keeping it pressed: Collect strength for a
	belom-shot. The longer the dwarf keeps the fire button pressed
	the higher and further he will shoot.

\ /
 o	Move joystick forward to the left or right while keeping fire
	button pressed: Determine direction of shot. The longer you
	keep the joystick in the chosen direction, the greater the side-
	angle will become.

O	Let go fire button: Shoot

\ /
 O	Joystick forward, angled left/right: Special Shoot. When you
	determine the angle of shooting without simultaneously
	collecting strength, and then kick off the belom, you will make
	a low shot across the barrier.

 o
 |	Joystick down and press fire: Irritate opposite fans!

Pelvans:

\|/
 o	Joystick up / up left / up right and press fire: Determine
	direction and kick of the pelvans.

-O-	Joystick left / in the middle / right: Determine direction in
	which to run when wanting to catch a pelvans. Possible only
	before the opponent has kicked of the pelvans.

Homerun:

 |
 o	Joystick up and press fire: Start on the homerun.

After every main game, the pairs of this fight as shown at the start
will appear once again. The losers of the game are now covered by the
so called "loser curtain" (by the pelvans also called "robe of
silence").

2. The Revenge of the Beloms

After every main game which the dwarf has won he has to compete in an
intermediate game, giving him the chance to increase his score (but he
may also loose points!). Basically, the aim of the intermediate game
is to keep off the beloms (still in bad temper from the main game) by
use of the so called "shove-off pole" (a pole with wooden pushers at
both ends). The beloms will then try to reach the dwarf from eight
directions, in order to knock him over by a precisely aimed
tickling-attack. The dwarf tries to prevent them from doing so by
pushing them away with the shove-off pole (so called "push off"). Of
course, the dwarf is not allowed to win this game (a condition
demanded by the beloms). A short notice in addition: Try to shove-off
all oncoming beloms (recognizable by their trail of dust, kicked up by
their about 200 feet) in an active way, rather than only blocking the
way with a pole end. hoved-off beloms fly from the pitch and need more
time to reach their starting point again.

Scoring: The display on the right side of the screen shows how many
beloms you must shoot away in the current intermediate game, before
you go to the ground, In case you don't manage to shove off enough
beloms, you'll lose points from your current score. In case you push
off a lot more beloms, your score is increased.

CONTROL:

-O-	Joystick left / middle / right: Aim shove-off pole.

\|/
 O 	Joystick in all six other directions: Push with the shove-off
/|\	pole.

This way you can cover only six of the eight directions from which the
beloms will attack you.. So, from time to time, change your basic
position in order to cover all eight directions in the long run.

-o-	Joystick left / right and press fire: Move into another basic
	position.

3. The Remarkable Six Faultons

After every league you have to pass the qualification of the 6
faultons, who in their spare time form a successful singers' sextet,
in order to go up to the next match. The dwarf's task is to grasp: By
means of a well-aimed kick, he has to deliver a belom into the open
mouth of a faulton. Don't be too afraid of this! The beloms have be
expressively instructed that they will be spat out again by the
faultons after the qualification game! In order to go up to the second
league, you have to successfully "feed" 2 faultons; for the third
league you will need four hits. If you don't pass this qualification
you have to repeat the previous match, much to the enjoyment of the
competitors; in addition you lose all your points collected during the
last match. (This is also a result of a reformation of the rules.
Until then, the goblins had lost every qualification in order to
collect more and more points by repeating the same league over and
over again. Certainly this way was an expression of their professional
attitude, because the GRAND SLAM is the goblins's national sport.

Scoring: Every belom delivered into a faulton's greedy mouth provides
you with points. In case you don't pass the qualification, you will
lose all points acquired during the qualification and during the
previous match.

CONTROL:

 o 	Keep fire button pressed: Determine strength of shot.
 O 	Let go fire button: Shoot.

The dwarf is moved from one kick-off point to the other automatically.

PC-users, attention: F1 key = "master key"

Keyboard-control:

ESC: Stop game
P:. Pause
Cursor: Control
Space: Fire button

[picture of HodH CrownguarD - unimportant for gameplay]

THE GRAND MONSTER SLAM

Once upon a time on a beautiful Nes (a Monday according to earth
standards) in the year 10365 the goblins paced their bags in order to
wage war against men They hadn't at this time the slightest idea that
they would find their place in history as the founders of "sport" on
the world of GholD. No, our little friends with their pointed ears had
no idea of this when they formed their forces of no less than 7000
soldiers in actual fact they didn't have much idea about anything at
all. Their extent of their ignorance became fully evident two months
later after they had tried to conquer the first outpost of mankind - a
desert fortress, an incident later known as the "Great Embarrassment".
In order to understand properly what happened then, we should mention
that goblins are quite skillful in manufacturing mechanical devices
which combined with some surprising magical powers makes them rather
gifted as engineers and technicians.  Accordingly the main force of
their military was a number of monstrous war machines mainly catapults
which were drawn - by groaning and swearing pullers - through forests
and swamps and over hills and mountains until finally the desert of
OhgruhN was reached, sundering the realms of men and goblins.

Quickly the big catapults (which unfortunately tended to produce their
little defects now and then) were switched to desert operation. The
magazines of the repeating catapults were filled with stones. The
goblins marched on ready to overcome this last obstacle on their
journey. After some days the above mentioned desert fortress was in
sight. The goblin hordes set up their artillery and then shouting
their terrible war cry "Bash, beat, duff them in!" they let go a
veritable hailstorm of boulders against the walls of the surprised
fortress. For five minutes rubble darkened the sky; then all was
totally calm - in the fortress where people were recovering from the
shock (luckily nobody had been hurt) and in the goblins ranks because
they had no more rocks.

Finally a low giggling noise then loud laughter resounded from the
ramparts of the fortress when the inhabitants realized the mistake the
goblins had made. A normal desert is made of sand and nothing else.
Despite this the goblins tried angrily to maintain the siege. When the
first experiments with sand failed to show the desired effect the
marksmen filled their machines with crates pitchers spare wheels and
such like even draft animals and slaves didn't get around being used
in this way but it didn't help. The goblins' weapon had become
useless. Eventually the commander in chief saw no other solution than
to go directly against the fortress but doing this his brave army
experienced their next fiasco. From the ramparts of the fortress they
were attacked with the very same stones which the goblins themselves
had used up some hours ago. Doubtless an amazingly clever idea
produced by the chief of the fortress named Ree Sycling. And indeed no
goblin reached the high battlements. Covered with bruises of every
kind and look the brave goblin warriors withdrew but not without
taking their stones with them which they had just received back so
very unexpectedly and then ...

[picture of non-observance of the 3-step-rule - unimportant for
gameplay]

Three years later. The great desert war between men and goblins neared
its end. Exhaustion had spread itself through the ranks of both sides.
Wherever one looked one could recognize hints of weakening of the
fighting spirit, yes, even first tender affinities between both sides.
For example: the goblins had provided men with catapult technology in
exchange of regular water deliveries from the fortress thus avoiding
an awful lot of running and getting bruises because the dearly desired
shooting stones could now be obtained more easily. The damage on both
sides proved small because at an early stage of the conflict regular
breaks between shooting phases had been arranged meeting the interests
of both parties. All in all it could have gone on this way for many
years but weariness had descended on men and goblins and all the
material used by both and so in the year 10368 a peace was signed with
an impressing ceremony. In fact both sides discovered nice features in
the character of the opposing side and besides they could learn a lot
from each other. In remembrance of this historical event in the desert
it was agreed to meet each other again every three years in order to
exchange some honorable catapult shots as part of a big festival.

The next group to join the party were the halflings. Being very
curious as part of their very nature they soon invited themselves to
the regular peace festival with every intention of participating in
the catapult shooting. In order to achieve this they immediately
started a war against goblins and men threw some symbolic cobble
stones and after five minutes they selflessly asked for peace for
being allowed to the jubilee and for fare and draught.

It took no longer than the third jubilee festival to see the
participation of for more peoples including elves and imps, a fact
which presented the festival board with some veritable problems. At
first four declarations of war arrived at the same time (luckily
followed by four capitulations immediately afterwards) and secondly
the catapult shooting of now seven parties against each other lead to
unimaginable confusion. The organizers found an answer to this problem
by introducing a slight change in the festivities. from now on big
targets were to be shot at which was less fun but proved to be of an
advantage in avoiding the number of bruises.

Thus the memory day of the "Great Embarrassment" developed step by
step into a big festival consuming several days, a festival of peace
and understanding between races. Certainly it would have remained so
if the powers of evil hadn't got wind of it! During a routine torture
of an elf the orcs learned of the festival and it is a small wonder
that a whole bunch of shady riff-raff appeared at the next jubilee. It
was their leader, Brank, who stood up for the peoples of the darkness
by shouting: "Let's join the party!". From then on the festivities
were never the same again. According to their nature the orcs
instantly created an awful mess by wheeling their catapult around by
90 degrees in the middle of a competition an opening fire on a
neighboring elven team. The elven reacted the same way ... In short
the way of feasting for a little while became very much similar to the
early times; after the big chaos the orcs declared war (thus rather
bewildering the organizers) whereas the capitulation - necessary to
follow - took its time (5 years).

Finally the Orcs were successfully integrated into the games which now
were hold every five years. Together with them all the other peoples
of darkness became participants because meanwhile the Orcs had sent
messengers in all six directions, messengers, who in their turn were
captured and tortured by other evil races. Finally there remained
nobody on GholD who didn't learn to know - one or the other way - of
the GRAND SLAM. Parallel to this development the rules of the games
were decisively changed partly with the intention to reduce conflicts
between competing teams: the catapults were abolished and instead the
best representatives of all races threw stones at each other The
competition was organized as an elimination contest. The influence of
the evil races is clearly recognizable in the abolition of the
targets. Thus the principal rules of the GRAND MONSTER SLAM were
formed as we know them today but let's remain at some other important
changes first.

[picture of dwarf - not important for game play]

The most significant modification of the game was the introduction of
the beloms. This mountain people, nearly unknown until then, one day
appeared before the board of organizers and applied for participation
in the games. Well the honorables of the board looked carefully at
these spherical furry beings - with a diameter of roughly 30 cm -
withdrew for discussion and afterwards made a contract with the
beloms. On closely looking this contract was not exactly what the
beloms had originally wanted but on the other hand they were now
allowed to participate in the games - or not?

Probably the most famous "participants" in the Grand Monster Slam, the
beloms, usually say of themselves that they are a nomad people. Indeed
there is a noticeable migration of beloms from the top of the border
mountains (separating the empire from the desert) down to the fertile
lowlands. This migration has gone on for several hundred years and
doesn't show any signs of stopping.

Unfortunately for the beloms the truth seems to be different from what
the beloms declare. Research has proven that the belom's homeland is
indeed to be found between the rocks of the high mountains but their
so called "migration of the peoples" seems to be random event, much
more than a planned action. As everybody knows the beloms' bodies are
very round things and every creature's common sense will easily
understand that beloms are very much suited for ... erm, rolling down
mountain sides.  Especially in times of a high density of belom
population these round little fellows crowd on narrow mountain ridges
and on the mountain peaks in such a form that the great jostling leads
to a massive "roll-down" an incident greatly feared by the people in
the mountains who the speak o a "belom-fall". It is small wonder that
only the toughest boms survive a belom-fall their form of the
"survival of the fittest". The games of the Grand Monster Slam seem to
take profit from this . Of course if you ask any belom about this
correlation he will deny it as well as the theory that the beloms will
become a sea folk in a not very far future. Beloms have already been
sighted at the sea shores and beaches of the empire and the statement
of some belom-leaders that these have been beloms on holiday is
totally unbelievable.

[picture of a rolling belom - unimportant for gameplay]

Nonetheless when the next GRAND SLAM was held the stones were replaced
by beloms and not before then theses cozy little balls of wool clearly
recognized what they had agrees to - but under the threat of a
contract of 50000 gold coins it was too late to think otherwise. At
the same time further modifications of the rules were put into effect
for example the tournament system introduced by the warrior people of
the Eagle Mountains. From then on the GRAND MONSTER SLAM ceased to be
a mass turmoil carried out in the special arena which had been build
for that purpose but followed the orderly tracks of an elimination
contest (much of the displeasure of the peoples of darkness). Anyway
it appeared that no race on GholD remained that didn't want to take
part in the games but not all of them could qualify themselves e.g.
the skeletons proved to be too rickety, the vampires too bloodthirsty
and the zombies too lazy. The revived mummies unfortunately tended to
stagger over their own loosely hanging bandages. There was such a
crowd of hopeful sportscreatures that the games moved to the biggest
city of GholD, HodH CrownguarD, being the very capital of the Empire
as the name already suggests. However if anyone had expected that the
games would now rnove on smoothly he/she/it proved to be very much
mistaken. A further change in rules (namely the kicking of the beloms
replacing the former throwing) was followed by a shocking scandal when
before the start of the games an unknown perpetrator filled some
unhappy boms (short for beloms) with lead. This was rather
disadvantageous for the elves whose Grand Slammer Bernardantilus
suffered a multiple fracture of the foot. So the elves boycotted the
games for some decades together with some other races friendly with
them until the perpetrator (a pelvans) had been found and filled with
lead in his turn.

[picture of a Fan - unimportant for gameplay]

Of course this wasn't the only incident worthwhile mentioning. We
shouldn't forget to mention also the so called faultons, who made fun
of catching beloms with their mouth and swallowing them when beloms
came flying by. Despite of the rules not banning such behavior - or
rather because of it - this custom produced serious consequences: the
beloms collectively joined the "Society of Kicked Animals" (SKA) thus
giving this formerly very inconspicuous organization considerable
political weight because of the drastically rising number of members
and of course membership fees. So great became the pressure of the SKA
on the board of organizers that the faultons were banned from the
games for good but when the faultons in their turn threatened to found
a "Syndicate of Sadistic Players" (cheered by the evil races with
great howling) this people of perfectly spherical amphibians could
return to the biggest sporting event of GholD through the backdoor.
The faulton's big mouths were from then on used for qualification game
separating the individual Grand-Slam- Elimination-Rounds from each
other. To cut it short: The games were ready for a new form of
organization. Solid rules had to be laid down in order to avoid nasty
incidents like that with the faultons and so the sports messengers of
all races of GholD met in the year 11218 to give the Grand-
Monster-Slam the form still valid in our day.

This of course couldn't be achieved without creating discord. For
example the introduction of the "three-step-rule" (which means one has
to make at least three steps while crossing the pitch in the homerun)
made the giants leave the games forever. Then there were the vain
pelvans, obviously favorites of the emperor, which categorically
demanded to be allowed participation in the games which lead to
introducing the famous "pelvans" (named after the race); yes, even the
beloms raised their voices once more!  In the meantime they had
founded the FUMB (Fighting Union of Maltreated Beloms) and vigorously
pushed through the "bom-punching" as an intermediate bonus round,
commonly known as the "revenge of the beloms". The newly participating
pelvans couldn't help making nasty remarks and called this extension
of the games procedure a "dwarf rebellion" which got them the beloms'
wrath and the dwarves' hostility (people nowadays believe that dwarves
try to make as many pelvans as possible during a game). Eventually the
board of organizers passed the definite version of the rules therewith
giving the Grand Monster Slam its current form.

The Games nowadays:

In the year 12847 the Grand Monster Slam appears to be more splendid
than ever. The festivities accompanying the games have gone on for
four cycles now and on the streets and lanes of HodH CrownguarD merry
people enjoy themselves continuously while the games go on. From all
parts of known GholD creatures flock to the city in order to look at
the sporting show although the Grand Monster Slam stadium has no more
than 1348 seats. Behind their protectively risen claws people
whispered that murders have been committed in order to obtain a seat
in the bowl.  Nevertheless black market prices have risen to
astronomical level.  Fortunately for those who don't find a place in
the bowl there is no reason for moaning because all can participate in
the super festival accompanying the games. In addition the tv rights
have been sold to the "Union of Professional Clairvoyants" (UPC) who
offer their services at all public places.

All in all this big event still offers one or two extra gold coins of
potential profit. Besides the restaurants and inns whose business runs
high during the games many little crafts shops offer "sport bandages"
which are needed for first aid not only by the Slam players but also
by many dedicated fans..  On the other hand sponsors overvalue the
public relations effect of the Grand Monster Slam every now and then.
"Filikili's craft's defile" (today an unimportant smithy in the middle
of the dwarves' realm) for example couldn't manage an international
breakthrough in spite of excessive arena advertisements because the
greatest part ot the audience cannot read. Even the self made slogan
"With Filikili's happy axe any elf you may decap" could only be
deciphered by the elves present.

[picture of cheerleader - unimportant for gameplay]

Which brings us to the "ogrice", the public guards and help service
maintaining law and order when disappointed and/or drunken fans of
different races fight each other. Very remarkable indeed that the
ogres, not very helpful under most circumstances, have volunteered for
this task and for no payment at all! one of the ogres' most important
jobs is to take all weapons from spectators on entering the stadium.
Unfortunately the board of organizers had been forced to take this
measure because of repeated acts of violence against referees. The
most spectacular case was when a referee had been pulled into two
halves by an ogre before the eyes of the audience.  The ogre had been
disqualified because of "accidentally" crushing a belom under his
feet. Remark of palvanish eyewitness: "Looks like a halfling now.".
Until today many referees are used to inconspicuously vanish in the
crowd in order to avoid harassment because even the ogrice has
difficulties in guaranteeing the discipline of the audience. The
custom of uttering discontent by throwing smaller creatures
(preferably goblins and pelvans) onto the pitch never could be
abolished.

Despite of all such adversities the Grand Monster Slam remains a big
festival of friendship and understanding. To quote Dorin Ironhand,
chair dwarf of the board of organizers on opening the current Grand
Monster Slam: "Simply duff'em up!"

DESIGNER'S NOTES

Rolf Lakamper in charge of the game design:

When I conceived the basic idea of GMS and told Hartwig about it I had
no idea about what I had started: Day after day Hartwig proved his
intimate familiarity with the realms of fantasy by presenting new
monsters who had applied to him for participation in the Games! We
selected the best players and then my work at the program began: Orcs,
halflings, dwarves and elves had to be put together peacefully into
the computer. The beloms developed a preference to make use of even
the slightest faults in the program and to not only fly across the
pitch but also through the whole memory! It was particularly
interesting to provide the monsters with characters and an
understanding of the play. So you will find among them the
uncontrolled and lazy ogre Brunf who on the other hand has a mighty
kick! A tactically experienced play is the chief feature of Gnarl
whereas Stig "Firy" Grunf is the old war horse of the Games. In fact
the opponents program follows several parameters like e.g. talent for
observation, slyness, power of kick, laziness, resistance and so on.
In this way every character has its own strength and weaknesses and
with just a little experience and observance the dwarf has a really
chance of winning.

In case your computer starts dripping water, don't panic, this is
because Zsch'luk has its in between baths!

Volker Marohn, PC program conversion:

When we considered how to provide the player's opponents in the Grand
Monster Slam with personalities of their own we quickly agreed that a
mere random figure algorithm or a control along table wasn't worth it
salt.  We had to give the monsters up to a certain degree a real
artificial intelligence! I suggested the Heshenberg algorithm, a model
creating predictable, but no stereotype reactions.

Each opponent is classified by a set of reaction parameters describing
his or her physical and mental abilities.

We started with a set of parameters equal for all opponents. Then the
appalling development of personalities began. Soon, Drunfluk reacted
other than Stig "Firy" Grunf who again behaved not like Hiro-Sha but
they all together didn't do what they should have done! In those times
the saying was devised: if computers won't do what they should it is
because:

a) a power failure
b) a virus
c) the Hershenberg algorithm

Finally we succeeded in stopping the anarchic development of our
monster personalities and persuaded the creatures to volunteer for the
Grand Monster Slam.

Still every opponent has its own individual character with all their
strengths and weaknesses. Not a single one of them is unbeatable! Read
the passages on the presentation screen and observe the opponents'
reactions during the game. Even though you may not be one of the
quickest reacting performers of the joystick you will anyway have a
real good chance when adapting your play to the opponent's weaknesses.
So don't disgrace your dwarf! And if anything in the opponents'
behavior should confuse you ... simply ask Professor Hershenberg!

Hartwig Nieder-Gassel, graphics and design:

The Grand Monster Slam is the first product to be published under the
label Golden Goblins. I have sound experience in fantasy illustration
based on my activities in the German role-playing-scene but the fact
something as untechnological as fantasy is easily adaptable to the
technical world of computers I had to discover by myself.

If you dig into the very nature of fantasy you will certainly find out
that a lot of work and love of detail has to be invested in the
background of any fantasy action plot. If not the Grand Slam players
will only appear as curious looking characters who participate in a
strange sport because of unknown reasons. On the other hand if you
tell the gamers that the best fighters of all races of this fantasy
world meet regularly because some thousand years ago the goblins
fought a war because of which they are still being laughed at today,
the whole event becomes a sound thing and the gamer will then be a
participant rather than a mere spectator wielding a joystick.

So after Rolf had developed the basic game idea as well as the game
components it was my job - and it proved to be a rewarding one - to
work out the complete game background besides creating the screen
graphics.  This background is now presented to you in this booklet. I
took the background from a role-playing-campaign I had written some
years ago together with a friend of mine. We had created the fantasy
world of GholD and called it to life by role-playing (based on the
D&D-system for anyone who is interested in it). This proved to present
enough colorful background material for the Grand-Monster-Slam.

Players who are familiar with this form of gaming will find that the
creatures populating the Grand Monster Slam are also familiar to them,
well, most of them. Pelvans for example and beloms have been thought
out by Rolf and really should be marked with an (c).

Thus the Grand Monster Slam became a big fun for all of us and if the
Golden Goblins some day create another fantasy style game, it
certainly will be located on the world of GholD as well presenting a
good chance of meeting familiar faces again.

The Grand Monster Slam was developed by:

Rolf Lakamper: Responsible for the project, original Amiga program,
game design

Volker Marohn: Pc program conversion

Gisbert Siegmund: Atari ST program conversion

Hartwig Nieder-Gassel: Original Amiga graphics, graphics conversion
for Atari ST and PC (EGA), game design,, artwork, package design and
manual

Olaf Menges: Graphics conversion C64

Andreas Gortz: Graphics conversion C64, PC (CGA)

Thanks to:

The rest of the goblins (Bettina Wiedner, Holger Ahrens, Jorg
Prenzing), Thomas Schichtel and Philip Ridgeway-LeGresley, Kristin
Dodt, Uwe Schaffmeister, Rachel Gauntlett, Bernard Morell,Alexandra
"Mouse" Nolle, Marc A. Ullrich and those who pack everything in
plastic bags.

Music: Chris Hulsbeck

The lead miniature are factured by Hobby Products GmbH
Setting: Fotosatz Lorenz

GholD, the world of six suns, was created by Hartwig Nieder-Gassel and
Jrgen Dollasek

Golden Goblins is a trademark of Rainbow Arts.
Grand Monster Slam (c) by Rainbow Arts

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End Project 64 etext Grand Monster Slam manual.

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