============================== QUICK Q&A ============================== Q. What the heck is "Final Soul"? A. It was an answer to boredom one night. Well, several nights, really. Q. Okay, fine. But exactly WHAT am I installing here? A. If you're reading this, you've already installed it. Q. Fine! Then what is it I am about to launch? A. Oh. Well, why didn't you say so? "Final Soul" is a text adventure game, in the spirit of Sierra Online games (such as King's Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Quest for Glory, Police Quest, Gabriel Knight, etc etc). You are control a character who is trapped in a house with others; and in order to get out, there's an assortment of puzzles to solve before you can find the key to get out of there. I have been an avid fan of Sierra Online games for as long as I remember; but lacked the talent and ability to program AGI/SCI games; so I went with what I knew how to do. Text Adventure. Q. Okay, so why does this game say "BETA" at the top? A. Because originally, I had a lot more plans for the game. Expansions and what not. It never happened. And I have long since lost the original source code, sadly, to edit the original version. Q. What about this "Disk Code" thing? A. That too, would unlock expansions that were planned. Never happened. Q. Okay, I have launched the game and tinkered around. I see other house guests. But sometimes they leave the room and never come back! Is it required to talk to them all? A. No. You can solve the game without talking to a single person in the house. However, each person generally gives a small, subtle clue about different things in the house. ============================== COMMANDS WITHIN FINAL SOUL ============================== Anytime you forget what the commands are, you can typically do "?" (without quotes) to get a list of commands. (Or you can read this readme file!) Other commands: I = This opens up your inventory. You might want to check this from time to time as you go through the house. Something here is going to solve a puzzle somewhere else. N = North, when that direction is available. S = South, when that direction is available. E = East, when that direction is available. W = West, when that direction is available. U = This is how you would use an item. For example, you could do "U REMOTE" to use a remote. G = This is the get command to get / pick up items you might find around the house. O = Open. In some cases you may need to open something. You would do, for example: O DOOR T = This is the command to talk. You may encounter other guests that are also trapped in this house. So you would do T and their name (for example) : T TOM M = This is the cute ASCII map that can be used in virtually every room. (See what I did there? Virtually!) SAVE = Save the game. LOAD = Load a game. NOTE: Ideally, the program, when launched will "Lock" you CAPS LOCK ON. However, if it doesn't, you will need to manually turn CAPS LOCK ON, or else the game will NOT understand your commands. ============================== HELP! I am stuck in the game! ============================== Before you resort to the Walk Thru, we highly recommend thinking outside the box. Much like Sierra Online games, sometimes you had to really think outside the box to solve some of the riddles. Still stuck? Then you can find the Walk Thru here: http://www.tawmis.com/finalsoul/fs-walk.html ============================== A New Installer for "Final Soul: The Haunting" by Andrew Branscom (Collector) ============================== This installer is provided free with no guarantee, whatsoever. It merely provides a Windows shortcut, config files and icons to allow "Final Soul: The Haunting" to run automatically in DOSBox. It can install the latest DOSBox for you. DOSBox can be updated simply by installing newer versions in the same location after uninstalling or moving the old version. Many older games have problems running on modern Windows. Many will have problems playing some of the Sierra Windows games. Some Vista and Windows 7 users will have issues with the full screen that the DOS version natively uses. Also, Modern Windows does not have DOS, but instead has an imperfect DOS emulator, NTVDM, which has very flawed sound emulation. It is also impossible to play on some versions of Windows. If you have 64-bit version of Windows, you MUST run it in an emulator, such as DOSBox, since these games will not run (no 16-bit code will run natively in x64 Windows.) DOSBox provides the ideal solution for many of the classic DOS games. It provides the environment that the games were written for. It shields you from the many timer bugs that plague these games on modern PCs. Though it is easy to use, many feel intimidated by the task of setting the games up in DOSBox. While it is relatively easy to use and there is help, such as various guides and frontends, this installer greatly simplifies the process of setting up this game in DOSBox. No manual configuration is needed. Just run this installer. WARNING!: ~~~~~~~~ Vista and Windows 7 users should avoid installing in a folder under the %ProgramFiles% folder, as this has restricted write permissions which causes known issues with legacy games. Instead, choose another location such as: "C:\Tawmis Logue\Final Soul" IMPORTANT: ~~~~~~~~~ DOSBox is required to play "Final Soul: The Haunting". This installer will automatically setup the game to run in DOSBox, but you must have DOSBox installed on your computer. If DOSBox is not installed, be sure that you are online when you run this installer to allow it to download and install DOSBox for you. DOSBox can be upgraded by installing any future versions of DOSBox into this same location after uninstalling or simply moving the old one. The latest DOSBox can be found at: http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1 Closing Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Problems, bugs or suggestions can be reported on the Development forum on the Sierra Help Pages message board: http://sierrahelp.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=24 For help with Sierra games, see The Sierra Help Pages: http://sierrahelp.com/ This installer is provided free of charge with no guarantee, explicit or implied whatsoever. Use at your own risk. "Final Soul: The Haunting" ©® 1995, Tawmis Logue. Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 ©® Microsoft. ™ and ® indicate trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.