Coffee Quest 4

Reference Guide

Coffee Quest Title

Warning

This program requires a Java 1.1 (or greater) Compatible Runtime Environment be installed on your computer. You can get the latest JRE from Sun. (java.sun.com).

Introduction

Coffee Quest 4 is a turn based role-playing game. This game is the first game of the second Coffee Quest trilogy. My goal behind the Coffee Quest series is to develop a powerful Role Playing game. Coffee Quest 4 is the last single episode game in the series. Future Coffee Quest games will be broken into multiple parts and will have increasingly complex stories.

For those of you who are new to the Coffee Quest series, you can check out the earlier Coffee Quests at the Blazing Games web site ( www.BlazingGames.com ).

Story

Thunk...Thunk...Thunk...

"Wake up," the menacing voice of a royal guard shouted through your locked door.

As you climb out of bed and quickly throw on some cloths you think back to what master Wilmag said to you yesterday when you arrived at the lab late, "If you are not on time tomorrow I will tell the royal guards to drag you here by your hair!"

You had assumed that he was just joking but with Wilmag it was often hard to tell. Evidently he wasn’t. Or was he.... Looking out the window you can clearly see the moon and the stars. Something is obviously amiss!

You finish dressing then open the door. "Do you know what this is about," you ask one of the guards.

"You’ll find out soon enough. Now come along, we don’t have much time," the guard responds.

You follow the guards on a breakneck pace towards the laboratory. As you enter the laboratory you notice that it is in an even greater disarray then normal. Wilmag looks up from the thick dragon-skin tome he was reading. "Ah. You’re here at last."

"Master?"

"A magical curse has been placed on Lord Bill. The curse is of ancient magic so my potions and spells are barely holding off the curse. Curing Lord Bill will require the use of a Magic Coffee Bean."

"You mean they still exist?"

"Yes. As you know, the beans were a source of great magic. The power of the beans was great and many devastating wars were fought over them. After the great bean war, the few remaining beans were locked away in magically sealed towers. Only a magician using a special key can enter these towers. One of these towers is nearby. It contains the bean known as Sol. You must retrieve the magic coffee bean."

"Me!?"

"I must keep Lord Bill stable."

"But I’m not a magician."

"Not yet. But you have magic within you. That will be enough to enter the tower. Once inside find the way to the basement and collect the six color orbs that are hidden there. They are required to open magical color doors. The fountains will give you clues on how to open the doors. In the upper levels, there are six special tiles that will be needed to open the final door. Again, fountains will give you clues to this door. Good Luck."

How To Play

Click the mouse button when over the title screen to start the game. Alternatively you can select Restart Game from the File Menu. When the game begins you are at the entrance to the tower with your starting equipment on the floor around you. You can use the get command to get your items, but before you can use an item you must equip that item To do that you must go to the inventory screen (by pressing the I key or by clicking on the inventory summary on the side of the screen) then drag the items from the free inventory slots to the appropriate equip slots (see Inventory Screen below for more information). You should also go to the status screen and spend your starting improvement points.

Improvement points are used to increase your skills. You start with five points but gain another ten points every time you go up a level (see Status Screen below for more information).

Main Window

Once your character is ready, its time to start exploring. To do that, some familiarity with the main screen may help. As the picture above shows, the main screen is broken into four sections.

  1. 3D display. Your view of the surroundings.
  2. Compass and map. The compass shows you the direction you are facing. Clicking on the top (facing letter) of the compass moves you forward. The bottom part turns you around, the sides turns you to face that direction. You can also use the cursor keys to move. Beside the compass is the map. The map is color coded.
  3. Inventory Summary . Shows health (red bar) magic (blue bar) and readied items (which disappear if they are broken or used up). The health and magic bars reflect current percentages. As you gain levels you will be able to withstand more damage and cast more spells. Clicking anywhere in this area brings up the inventory screen.
  4. Commands. Buttons in color can be used.

It should be noted that quest items (orbs and tiles) and spells are picked up by walking over them.

 

Inventory

The inventory screen is where you control what items you will be using. There are five key sections described below.

  1. Equip items. Drag items from inventory to the appropriate slot here to equip them. Items will only go into the appropriate slot. In addition, your weapon, armor, and shield require a certain amount of strength. If you don’t have enough strength to use a particular combination of items then you will get a "not enough strength" message.
  2. Inventory slots. Actual slots available for carrying items. When these are filled you can’t carry any more. You can swap items between slots by dragging one item over another item.
  3. Drop zone. Whatever is in this slot is the item you are currently standing on. To drop something drag it to this slot. To pick it up, drag it from this slot to an inventory slot.
  4. Quest Items. As you find the 12 quest items (and walk over them) they will be added here.
  5. Buttons (on either side). The main button returns you to the game screen while the status button takes you to the status screen.

Status

This is the screen that lets you control how your character develops as the game progresses. It also shows you which spells you know. This screen is broken into three sections.

  1. Skills. If an arrow is to the left of the skill you can increase it by using an advancement point. You start with five points and gain ten more every time you go up a level. The skill levels determine how good you are at that particular skill. Each skill has it’s maximum value. Once this value is reached, you can no longer increase that skill. The skills are:
  2. Spells. Grayed out spells are spells you have yet to learn. The spells are:
  3. Buttons. Main returns you to the main game screen. Inventory returns you to the inventory screen.

Coffee Quest 5

Coffee Quest 5 is a very long delayed game, but hopefully as a result of Project Libra it will see the light eventually. When I originally envisioned the Coffee Quest series, I worked out 9 games, but the last three games are entirely story based modifications while CQ5 and CQ6 added game play elements. With the state of technology, the plans for five and six have evolved and the state of 7 through 9 is strictly going to be based on the success of five and six.

Disclaimer

Use and redistribution and use of this application is permitted provided the following conditions are met:
1. No modifications are made to the files that comprise this package
2. No fee beyond normal user fees and/or the cost of the distribution materials is charged
3. Credit for the program is given to Blazing Games and Billy D. Spelchan
4. The user agrees not to reverse engineer or decompile the binary files.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ''AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

 

The contents of this package are Copyright © 1998,1999, 2005 Blazing Games Inc.

If you have any comments or suggestions feel free to contact me through the Blazing Games contact