Alphaman Source and Files

Source code and related files for the 1995 DOS roguelike game Alphaman by Jeffrey R. Olson.

Jeff can be reached via email at [email protected]

The Game

The game itself is described at:

• http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Alphaman
• https://mutant-future.fandom.com/wiki/AlphaMan

The game is available for download at:

• https://archive.org/details/Alphaman11
• https://archive.org/details/Alphaman-roguelike
• https://www.myabandonware.com/game/alphaman-315
• https://www.dosgames.com/game/alphaman-the-new-beginning
• https://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/alpha-man/

There are several contemporary discussions about Alphaman from 1995 on Usenet, including the suggestions from others which are referenced in FIXES.TXT:

• https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.roguelike.misc/search?q=Alphaman

Files

Game source

• Any .BAS file is in MS QuickBasic 4.5 binary format
• Any .BAS.txt is a plaintext version of the same file
• A1.BAS to A8.BAS - Game source
• ALPCLIB.C - C helper library
• MODJNK.BAS - Game strings
• MODAM6.BAS - More strings
• ALPHA.CAS and ALPHA.CAS.txt - Castle data
• ALPHA.DEC and ALPHA.DEC.txt - Variable declarations
• ALPHA.GDY and ALPHA.GDY.txt - Weapon and item handling
• ALPHA.CRE, CRELIST, CRETEST.*, CREVIEW.*, CREALTER.*, VIEW.* - Definitions, programs, output for creature (enemy monster) generation

Supporting Files

• ALPHA.DBG,DB2,DB3,DC2 - Debug snippets, commented out in the game code
• BRESNHAM.C - Public Domain example math code
• MAZ.* - Maze path finding test
• *.BAT - Build scripts for MS QuickBasic 4.5 and MS QuickC 2.5
• *.MAK Compiler directives to create object files from source and strings

Gameplay Assistance

Jeff made the FAQ available publicly. The Spoilers file was only provided to the 50 to 100 people who registered the shareware. It appears on some very old FTP listings but this is the first time it's been available publicly in about two decades!

• ALPHAMAN.FAQ.txt - Alphaman FAQ by Jeff Olson, version 1.1
• ALPHAMAN.SPL.txt - Spoilers by Jeff Olson, version 1.1
• ALPMAN11.TXT - Description for upload to FTP sites
• FIXES.TXT - Changelog
• README.TXT - Descriptive file shipped with game
• ITEMLIST - All possible items in plaintext

Cheats

These tools require a .ALF saved game in the current directory.

• ITEMS.EXE/BAS/txt - Add berries, small and large tech devices
• MUTAT.EXE/BAS/txt - Modify player stats and physical/mental mutations

You can also name your character Jeffrey Olson to start with all stats at 18, good gear like a Long Sword, Chainmail, Small Titanium Shield, and advantageous Mutations. Keeping with the game's humour and not taking itself too seriously, this inside joke allows Jeff to be atop everyone's High Score list.

GamqFAQs also contains a guide which does not allow copying elsewhere. The author did not respond to my request to include it here:

• Alphaman Food/Item/Lore Guide by BabaGan00sH

Code Description

Alphaman was originally written as a QuickBasic program. In order to keep the game on a single 3.5" floppy, Jeff used some C and assembly helpers (ALPCLIB.C) which are linked into the QuickBasic objects at compile time.

Strings are kept in intermediate files and referenced by their binary offset and length. String definitions are in MODJNK.BAS and MODAM6.BAS. String print routines are SUB Printjnk in A7.BAS and FUNCTION jnk$ in A8.BAS.

Jeff originally used floating point math to handle the game randomisation, but after seeing how slowly the map generated on an 8088 system without a math co-processor, he changed to integer-based math using bit-shifts with the help of a classmate who had written some books on assembly language programming.

File Formats

Note that when browsing QuickBasic source, SUB procedures are "hidden" from the main file they are defined in. You can list and enter subprocedures in QuickBasic by pressing the F2 key or in the top menu bar by selecting View then SUBs....

A few of the text files may not open in your editor of choice. This occurs because those files use ISO-8859-1 Latin encoding, not UTF-8 like most modern text files. I chose not to convert the Latin files to preserve the content accurately, as some DOS characters do not covert to UTF-8.

Compiling

Alphaman can be compiled in DOSBox. The following was tested successfully with dosbox-staging version 0.76.0.

Install Microsoft QuickBasic 4.5 and Microsoft QuickC 2.5 with "medium" memory model support selected. You can find those at:

• https://winworldpc.com/product/quickbasic/45
• https://winworldpc.com/product/quick-c/2x

Your PATH should look something like:

SET PATH=C:\QB45\;C:\QC25\BIN;%PATH%

You also need the LIB and INCLUDE variables set as QuickC requires, plus add the QuickBasic path to libraries:

SET LIB=C:\QC25\LIB;C:\QB45
SET INCLUDE=C:\QC25\INCLUDE

• ALPHAMAN.EXE is generated by running COMCLIB.BAT then COMALPHA.BAT
• ALPHAMAN.1 is generated by running MODJNK.BAS
• ALPHAMAN.2 is generated by running CREALTER.BAS
• ALPHAMAN.3 is generated by running ALPHA.GDY
• ALPHAMAN.4 is generated by running ALPHA.CAS
• ALPHAMAN.5 is plain text, no compilation required
• ALPHAMAN.6 is generated by running MODAM6.BAS

These steps provide all required game files.

Interestingly, this source generates files with differences in ALPHAMAN.1 (strings) and ALPHAMAN.4 (castles) compared to the v1.1 game release, so the source may be a slightly later unreleased version.

License

The contents of this repository are made available under the MIT license.

tl;dr - do what you like, but include Jeff's copyright notice in any derivative.

Copyright (c) 1995 Jeffrey R. Olson

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

Maintainer

This repository is maintained by:

• Jamie Bainbridge - [email protected]