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Welcome to Project 64!

The goal of Project 64 is to preserve Commodore 64 related documents
in electronic text format that might otherwise cease to exist with the
rapid advancement of computer technology and declining interest in 8-
bit computers on the part of the general population.

Extensive efforts were made to preserve the contents of the original
document.  However, certain portions, such as diagrams, program
listings, and indexes may have been either altered or sacrificed due
to the limitations of plain vanilla text.  Diagrams may have been
eliminated where ASCII-art was not feasible.  Program listings may be
missing display codes where substitutions were not possible.  Tables
of contents and indexes may have been changed from page number
references to section number references. Please accept our apologies
for these limitations, alterations, and possible omissions.

Document names are limited to the 8.3 file convention of DOS. The
first characters of the file name are an abbreviation of the original
document name. The version number of the etext follows next. After
that a letter may appear to indicate the particular source of the
document. Finally, the document is given a .TXT extension.

The author(s) of the original document and members of Project 64 make
no representations about the accuracy or suitability of this material
for any purpose.  This etext is provided "as-is".  Please refer to the
warantee of the original document, if any, that may included in this
etext.  No other warantees, express or implied, are made to you as to
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members of Project 64 will assume liability for damages either from
the direct or indirect use of this etext or from the distribution of
or modification to this etext.

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The Project 64 etext of the Master of the Lamps help file. Extracted
from original Windows(R) help file GAME11.HLP obtained from the
Activision C64 15 Pack. Help file supplied by Fandango. Converted by
the Basic Bombardier. Some of the information in this etext is assumed
to be close enough to the original hardcopy version until an orginal
can be converted, which is likely to be called MOTL10B.TXT.

MOTL11A.TXT, February 1996, etext #17.

This replaces MOTL10A.TXT, from which most of the Windows(R) 95 C64
emulator stuff was removed.

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Master of the Lamps

Contents

 General Description   [ 1.0 ]
 How To Play           [ 2.0 ]
 Hints                 [ 3.0 ]
 Game History          [ 4.0 ]
 Commodore History     [ 5.0 ]



[ 1.0 ] General Description

General Description

It tolls for thee.

Indeed, it summons you to the far reaches of fantasy. To ride a
magical roller coaster and solve mystical riddles. To banish devious
genies and rightfully claim a shimmering palace - and its powerful
throne.

It was once a land of peace. But now, the King is gone, and a
mischievous band of genies has escaped and ransacked the palace.

As the sands of his life drew their final measure, a brave king
bequeathed to his son an incredible throne - and a terrible trial.

Now, you can help the young prince return three genies back into their
lamps and regain his rightful place on the throne.



An Evil Upon the Land

"It has been our sad fate for centuries, my son. Upon a king's death
and the interruption of power, three evil genies escape from their
prison-like lamps and threaten our land.

"Only you, my young prince, can reconstruct the lamps and recapture
the genies. By surviving incredibly dangerous journeys. By entering
the genies' dens and solving their mystical riddles of sight and sound,
you will be rewarded pieces of the lamps.

"Three genies. Three lamps. Seven pieces each. If you, my eldest son,
can prove your mental and physical worth - prove the power of good
over evil - the genies will be banished once again. And the kingdom
will be saved.

"May the flame of strength and wisdom burn brightly in your young
heart!"

Even as the dying king's warning fell from his quavering lips, three
evil genies swarmed over his beloved land. And only a young, untested
prince could stand in their way.

------------------------------------

Embark on a spectacular journey through time and space.

Take an unbelievable, three-dimensional magic carpet ride into the
very dens of danger.

Solve unique, mystical riddles of music, memory, and color as you help
a young prince reconstruct magic lamps and recapture mischievous
genies.

Two years in the making. A masterpiece of computer design!



[ 2.0 ] How to Play

Basics

How to Start

Press F1 to start. Use the up and down controls to select your game.
If you have problems try holding down the control instead of tapping
them. Press fire to start the game.



The Task Before You

Luring those three genies back into their lamps is a two-part
challenge:

1. Fly the magic carpet through twisting tunnels of diamond-shaped
gates that lead to the genies' dens.

2. Once there, match the tones and/or the colors sent forth by the
genies.

Succeed at each level, and one piece of the genie's lamp will appear
on the screen. There are seven pieces to each lamp. Each completed
lamp will pull a genie back into its chamber. Complete all three lamps
to regain the throne and win the game.



Controller Selection

Controller one is a flight simulator. Push forward to fly down, pull
backward to fly up.

Controller two is an arcade simulator. Push forward to fly up, pull
backward to fly down.



Game Selection

At the game selection screen, you can choose Seven Trials (Beginner's
Game), Throne Quest (Standard Game) or Magic Carpet (Flying Practice)
by moving the joystick up or down. We recommend that new players start
with the Seven Trials. Once you have made your choice, press the
joystick button to begin that game.

Seven Trials - The tunnels are easier to navigate, and you are aided
by both colors and tones in the genies' dens. Mastery is achieved upon
completion of one seven-piece lamp.

Throne-Quest - Mastery is achieved upon completion of three seven-
piece lamps. Color and tones are given alternately:

In the Seven Dens of the First Genie - Color and tone are given, but
colors disappear quickly. In the Seven Dens of the Second Genie - No
tones are given, and the colors disappear as quickly as above. In the
Seven Dens of the Third Genie - No colors are given, just tones. Play
it by ear.

When, at last, the three lamps are completed, fly a final tunnel back
to the palace. You will see the palace in ruins, ransacked by the
mischievous genies. But, since you have now proven your abilities so
well, striking the gong three times will bring pleasing results.

Magic Carpet - For flying practice only. Select any of the 21 tunnels
used in Throne Quest (numbered 1 through 41, using odd numbers only).
When you move the dot down to this selection, keep pulling back on the
joystick until the desired tunnel number appears. Once flown, the same
tunnel will be repeated. (Note: The joystick button may be used during
this level to restart or select a new tunnel.)



Getting Underway

To begin, walk to your Magic Carpet by moving the joystick in that
direction, then watch the carpet rise.

Fly through the tunnel to the genie's den by maneuvering the Magic
Carpet with your joystick. If you miss a gate and fall off the carpet,
you'll begin that tunnel again.

Once in the genie's den, you must match the tones and/or colors the
genie sends forth. But first, practice moving and hitting gongs. You
can hop quickly from gong to gong by pressing the joystick button and
moving the joystick in the desired direction. To walk from gong to
gong, move the joystick left or right. To hit a gong, push forward on
the joystick.

When you're ready to summon a genie, hit any gong three times. He'll
materialize and blow colored tones into the air. When he is finished,
the first note will move to the top of the screen and begin to drop.
At this time, hit the gong which corresponds to the note which has
risen. Match each successive note in the correct sequence. Do not hit
the gong before the note reaches the top of the screen. But when it
does, move quickly! If you don't match the tones in time, you'll be
transported out of the den, back to the beginning of the tunnel. Then,
you must begin the same journey again.

If you match all the tones in one den, you'll go on to the next tunnel
and the next den, until all of the Lamps are assembled.



Keyboard

The keyboard can be made to act as a joystick. See the Game Options
section on how to configure the keyboard for use as a joystick.



Joystick

Joystick one is a flight simulator. Push forward to fly down, pull
backward to fly up.

Joystick two is an arcade simulator. Push forward to fly up, pull
backward to fly down.

You can hop quickly from gong to gong by pressing the joystick button
and moving the joystick in the desired direction. To walk from gong to
gong, move the joystick left or right. To hit a gong, push forward on
the joystick.

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[ 3.0 ] Hints

Special Tips From a Master's Notebook

The most important tip is to get to know the tunnels. There are 21 in
the Standard Game, and they always move in the same manner. Some move
up and down, some move left and right. So, if you always crash in
tunnel 29, select "Magic Carpet 29" on the menu screen and practice.

Hot Tip #2: A good navigator will keep his/her eye on the farthest
diamond and try to keep it in the center of the screen. You really
don't need to move around too much. Don't overcompensate when you're
trying to get back on track.

You can also play Master of the Lamps with a friend, since both
joysticks will work at the same time. For instance, while flying
through the tunnels, one of you can steer left and right while the
other steers up and down. Or, you can match half the notes the genie
sends forth and your friend can match the other half. Be careful,
though -- since both joysticks work simultaneously, you can cancel
each others' movements if you try to move in opposite directions!

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[ 4.0 ] Game History

Russell Lieblich - Designer

"I worked on Master of the Lamps with Peter Kaminski. He was the
programmer, and I did the music and the design of the game. Part of
the goal of Master of the Lamps was to create a digital sound-light
landscape to experiment with color-sound relationships, even with full
knowledge that the system had very finite limits."

"Master of the Lamps was originally scheduled to be released on the
Intellivision. But by the time it was finished, it was too late to
release on that system."

Before joining forces with Activision, Russ spent most of his time
studying music. He currently owns a recording studio in the San
Francisco area, and occasionally works on computer game projects. He
plays the keyboard primarily, but is also a professional saxophone
player. He also did the music for a CD game called "The Manhole".



[ 5.0 ] Commodore History

Birth of a Legend

Commodore International Limited was founded in 1958 by Jack Tramiel, a
typewriter repairman from the Bronx, New York. It received much of its
financing from Canada's Atlantic Acceptance Corporation and quickly
grew to include typewriter manufacturing. However, Atlantic went
bankrupt in 1965, threatening to take Commodore with it.

To save his company, Tramiel began hunting for a new source of funds.
He found it in Irving Gould, a Canadian venture capitalist, who
supplied the ailing company with $400,000 in exchange for 17% of the
company and Tramiel's pledge of all the receivables.



Price War and the Lean Years

By the 1970's, Commodore Business Machines had grown further,
branching into calculators and other office machinery. Business boomed
until Commodore lost in a brutal price war with Texas Instruments.
Commodore had been assembling pocket calculators with TI
microprocessors. The chips cost Commodore about $50 per calculator,
and the final product sold for about $100 each. In response, TI came
out with a competing calculator of its own manufacture using the same
chip that sold for only $49. Commodore lost $4 million on sales of $56
million and nearly sank.

Tramiel learned a valuable lesson. In 1976, Commodore bought MOS
technologies, a failing semiconductor manufacturer, for $800,000,
ensuring that it would no longer be dependent on outside vendors for
needed parts.



Growth

Under Tramiel's deliberate guidance, Commodore grew into a $1 billion
company, growing sevenfold from 1981 to 1984. It was one of the
largest suppliers of home computers in the world.



Commodore 64 Era

By early 1982, Commodore had five new products in development, one of
them being the infamous Commodore 64. Believing he had a winner,
Tramiel took a gamble. He sidelined the other products and built up
massive inventories of the C64. Then, he flew in the face of the
computer industry by enlisting the same mass merchandisers (K-Mart,
Toys "R" Us, Target, and others) that sold the Vic-20 to market the
C64. By doing so, he proved that computer buyers didn't need to rely
on the hand-holding of an elite class of computer-literate salespeople
and their specialty store prices.

The C64 was rushed to market with haste bordering on recklessness, and
about 1/4 of the machines shipped didn't work. Commodore's solution
was a no-questions-asked policy on the exchange of defective machines.
After several months, the defect rate had been whittled down to a more
acceptable 4-5%.

By 1984, about 4 million Commodore computers were in use around the
world, and 300,000 more were being sold per month. However,
Commodore's leadership believed that market saturation was still a
long way off, since only about 6% of U.S. households owned computers.
This was far less than the 20-25% that owned video game players during
the peak of the home video game craze.



Tramiel Leaves

Tramiel had been known for his iron-fisted style of management. He was
involved with every aspect of the company and anything or anyone he
didn't like was changed or removed. This led to a class action suit in
November of 1983, which charged that Commodore failed to disclose
information about its operations and did not build a strong management
team.

According to a statement released in January of 1984, Tramiel said,
"personal reasons prevent my continuing on a full-time basis with
Commodore." Gould recruited Marshall F. Smith from Thyssen-Bornemisza
NV, a conglomerate based in the Netherlands Antilles, to replace
Tramiel.

At the time of Tramiel's departure, the home computer market was
failing, causing Mattel and Coleco to leave the business. Another
company that decided to leave the industry was Warner Communications,
which sold Atari to the newly unemployed Tramiel for a pittance.
Shortly thereafter, a stream of Commodore executives followed him.



Smith

In an effort to make Commodore profitable, Smith took to downsizing,
cutting the payroll by more than 45%. Though the company had an
impressive $339 million in 1985 holiday revenues, it made only $1
million for the quarter after paying off about 1/4 of its bank debt.

Commodore suffered through Fiscal Year 1985, losing $237 million, and
getting into trouble with its creditors. The banks granted a much-
needed one-month extension on Commodore's loans, and, with the success
of the company's second-best Christmas sales ever behind them,
Commodore defied the Gods of Bankruptcy yet again.



The Rattigan Years

In March 1986, Thomas J. Rattigan replaced Smith as Commodore's CEO.
Rattigan was hired in April of 1985 with the understanding that he
would replace Smith, who remained on as a director. Rattigan's
objective during the first few months of his leadership was clear -
cut costs in order to stabilize Commodore's position, allowing it to
rebuild. Once again, the payroll was trimmed from top to bottom, and
three plants were closed in five months. New controls were added in
the finance department to prevent the sloppy reporting that had
undermined Smith's leadership.

Commodore continued to sell respectable numbers of its $150 C64
throughout 1986. The Commodore 128, a successor to and more powerful
machine than the C64, was selling for $300 at the time, also helping
to keep the company afloat.

Rattigan's policies worked. By March of 1987, Commodore had caught up
on its loans and posted a $22 million earning in the quarter ending
December 1986. It also had $46 million in the bank, the most cash
since 1983, its most profitable year.



Amiga

Commodore's next move was to release the Amiga line of home computers.
Code-named 'Lorraine' during development, Amiga was quickly dubbed the
"save-the-company machine." The Amiga was packed with computing power.
At its center was a Motorola 68000, the same chip that powered Apple's
original Macintosh. The Amiga had an additional set of three custom-
designed chips, one to handle stereo sound, one for graphics and one
for animation. The Amiga was also one of the first computers to mult -
task, performing several different computing jobs at once - such as
word processing and game playing.



The Post-Rattigan Years

On April 22, 1987, Rattigan was replaced by Chairman Irving Gould, the
venture capitalist who had been involved with Commodore for over 20
years. It is unclear as to why Rattigan was replaced after turning the
company around and posting $28 million in profits over the four
quarters ending in March 1987. Rattigan himself claimed that he was
forced out by Chairman Gould due to personality conflicts and that
Gould was upset about Rattigan getting credit for the company's
turnaround. Gould argued that the comeback in the U.S. was
insufficient compared to its rebound in overseas markets, which
accounted for 70% of its sales. In fact, despite its profitability,
Commodore's U.S. revenues had declined by 54% in the same four
quarters.

According to Gould's ideology, the North American operation was to be
a sales and marketing extension of the company, rather than the
unwieldy, semi-independent entity it had become. For the third time in
Commodore history, a new leader began his term at the helm by
drastically downsizing. Under Gould's reign, the payroll was cut from
4,700 to 3,100, including half the North American headquarters'
corporate staff, and five plants were closed.



Current

On April 29, 1994, Commodore International announced that it had been
unable to renegotiate terms of its outstanding loans and was closing
down the business. The liquidation process lasted for months, owing
largely to the far-reaching size of the corporation. In addition, the
fact that the company was incorporated in the Bahamas while a large
share of the creditors were from the United States made legal
proceeding tense and drawn out. On April 20, 1995, almost a full year
later, Commodore was sold to the German company ESCOM for
approximately 10 to 12.5 million dollars.

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End of the Project 64 etext of the Master of the Lamps help file.

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