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         /                                                             \
        /          The Test of Courage (A.K.A.  "NEW ZELDA DEMO")       \
        \                Sam Heald    -=-   Harper Maddox               /
         \_____________________________________________________________/

A Void Production: http://void.calc.org
by Sam Heald and Harper Maddox
Version:    v0.08
System:     TI-83(+) ION
Released:   March 20, 2000

I. History of this project (now going on two years since the inauguration)
       by Sam Heald

    The Zelda project originated on the TI-83 during March/April of 1998. The first
demo was released sometime in June. The original was the product of hard work by
Harper Maddox. Unfortunately, Harper lost the time and will to continue the project
soon after that. The game just sat on his computer untouched for nearly six months
(July -> December)! Meanwhile, I was working on miscellaneous calculator
projects for the 82. One such project was Picross, a port of Andreas Ess's paint-by-
numbers puzzle game. In November, I contacted Harper because I wanted to use
Zelda's beautiful 16x16 sprites in Picross. Harper sent me the source code and told
me to take whatever he wanted. A month passed...
    One of the biggest problems with the old demo was an ugly crashing bug. Priding
myself in my ability to debug just about anything, I decided in sometime December to
rid the old demo of the bug simply so I could keep it on my calculator without the
worry of a memory reset. Within a few days, the bug was solved. I contacted Harper
about releasing a fixed version of the game. Harper informed me that he was through
with the project entirely. I had almost unintentionally inherited this goliath of
a calculator project.
    I worked diligently on the project for about three months. Between January and
March, I released three or four new demos, adding a shield, some new enemies, and
other gameplay features. The project was well on its way, when the unthinkable
happened. My computer became fried literally. The motherboard and hard drive were
trashed, the computer totaled. Over the next six months, I never had a consistent
source of a computer. Instead, I did some occasional work for the TI-85, and he
wrote a simple game called "SubHunt" (which is quite popular for some reason). 
Again, the Zelda project was dead.
    Then, September '99 rolled around. With the school year starting again, I had
no choice but to buy a new computer. However, six months had passed since I had
worked with the source code and many of the changes that I been making were only
half done, so understanding the  code was a serious problem. Three more months
passed without making any progress. Instead, I worked on Baseball II and Checkers
8X. Finally, I decided that I had enough with the old game. The methods used in the
original programming were so one-dimensional in nature that serious improvements
were almost impossible. So I decided to rewrite the entire game from scratch.
    About a month later in early December, I contacted Harper to see if he was
interested in rejoining the effort. Afterall, he started the project. He agreed,
and to my surprise he has helped a lot in miscellaneous programming tasks and
ideas. We've been making slow, but steady progress on the new game for about three
months now. The occasion for this new demo is the reopening of Void Productions, 
the group Derrick Ward and I co-founded, with an all new website and four new
members (Harper, Kouri, Wouter, and Ahmed), 
    The new improved Zelda project fixes most if not all of the complaints that
people had with the old version. The collision detection is not quite so stingy.
The sprites are now a smaller 12x12 design. The backgrounds are now interactable
and animated. The maps, designs, and stories represented in this demo in no way
reflect the final game. The title of the final version isn't even "The Legend of
Zelda: Test of Courage." The Demo should take you 15-20 minutes to complete.

Differences since old game:
               | Old Zelda  | New Zelda |
-----------------------------------------
sprite size    |   16x16    |   12x12   |
move directions|     4      |     8     |
talk to people |    N O     |    YES    |
read signs     |    N O     |    YES    |
push blocks    |    N O     |    YES    |
slash plants   |    N O     |    YES    |
animation      |    N O     |    YES    |
sword spins    |    N O     |    YES    |
reset button   |    N O     |    YES    |
go to last door|    N O     |    YES    |
size of rooms  |    5x4     |    7x5    |

  You get the idea ;)
  There's a lot of other new stuff as well. Enjoy the demo!

   SAM HEALD

II. About the authors

   The Zelda project is an ongoing effort by Void Productions (void.calc.org)

Primary Programmer & Graphics             = Sam Heald (evil_sam@hotmail.com)
Secondary Programmer, Graphics, and Ideas = Harper Maddox (gte172i@prism.gatech.edu)
Optimization, Compression                 = Wouter Demuynk
Level Design, Beta-Testing                = Everyone at Void


III. Description/Objective: 

If you've ever played The Legend of Zelda for the nintendo (or any
derivitaves) as a little tyke, then you probably know how to play the game
already, so you can skip to the controls section.  As for those of you who are
new to zelda, this little section may come in handy.

That little guy you're controlling is -not- named Zelda. His name's Link. The
"Zelda" referred to in the title is the name of the princess that most
adventure games seem to have. You live in a kingdom called Hyrule with your
standard adventure game monarchy government.

All that is good and pure in this kingdom is not "the force" but a triforce.
The triforce is a triangle that is the center of the universe. It keeps the
galaxies aligned, because coexisting on this planet is the Dark World. Think
of it as Hyrule after Armageddon. So one must keep the triforce safe to keep
the nasty Dark World away.

However, this demo does not take place on any given location. You awake on a
small island. The monsters are terrorizing the citizens. One of the neighbors
has been kidnapped by a giant hog beast. Your mission is to collect your items
and your courage to defeat this monster and save the child.

IV. INSTALLATION (easy as 1,2,3)

1) Make sure you have ION installed on your calculator
2) Send ZELDA.83P to your TI-83  (.8XP -> 83+)
3) Run A, then select "ZELDA" and hit enter


V. CONTROLS:

Game...
[Directional Pad] - move Link (Link can move in 8 directions) (new!)
[2ND]             - Use item equipped to 2ND (new!)
[ALPHA]           - Use item equipped to ALPHA
[MODE]            - Status screen
[DEL]             - Reset demo   (new!)
[CLEAR]           - Exit


Pause Screen...
[Directional Pad] - Move cursor
[2ND]             - Change 2ND item
[ALPHA]           - Change ALPHA item
[MODE]            - Resume game
[CLEAR]           - Exit Game


VII. SPECIAL THANKS To (in no particular order):
       Dan Englander    - Checked to make sure this worked
       Jimmy Mardell    - I hacked his ASCR routine
       Joe Wingbermuele - I used his random number routine (I think)
       Patrick Davidson - Taught me basic ASM (Sam)
       Derrick Ward     - For being cool
       Nintendo         - created original Zelda

       And all my beta testers and the other *not so* little people out there!
       Especially those people who didn't lose faith in the project!


VII. VERSION HISTORY

v0.08
    -First Public demo of the new Zelda project
    -Size = ~15600 bytes

VIII. Frequently Asked Questions
If you email me a question that is on this list, I WON'T answer.
  1)When will the final release occur?
    ANSWER: When I finish it
  2)Will Zelda be ported to calculator TI-XX?
    ANSWER: Zelda will be availible for the 82,83,83+,85,86. It won't for the 89,92, or 92+
  3)May I have the Zelda source code?
    ANSWER: I am not going to distribute the source code until the final version.
  4)May I join the project?
    ANSWER: Void Productions is currently seeking artists to help with this project.
            Otherwise, NO.
  5)May I join Void Productions?
    ANSWER: See #4, unless you are a truly experienced programmer that has multiple ASM
            programs already released.
  6)How do I beat this part of the demo?
    ANSWER: Try restarting the game. There are more locked doors than keys, so be careful!
  7)How many items are in the demo?
    ANSWER: Three, the sword, the shield, and the boomerang.
  8)I can't buy anything in the shop. Why?
    ANSWER: Read what Marin tells you.
  9)Where's the sword?
    ANSWER: You need help :)


Send comments/suggestions/revisions/BUGS FOUND to:
        Sam Heald
   evil_sam@hotmail.com

     Harper Maddox
 gte172i@prism.gatech.edu

Please visit the Void Productions site! 
http://void.calc.org

