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* KINGDOMS (v2.0) - 24-Apr-2006 * Marcus Kasumba * Piptol Productions *

"War has broken out on the Isle of Miral following the death of the king. As the
four races struggle for power, there can only be death or glory!"
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GAMEPLAY HINTS & TIPS:

Half the fun will be working things out for yourself.. but heres some clues:

- Press ESC during then main game to abort
- The citizens don't mind playing high taxes if they are proctected by a strong army
- The game ends when your city is deserted
- It's easier to defend then attack
- You can only recruit if you have people availble to recruit!
- Soldiers live in the Garrisons, but they will also strengthen your city
- Look out for NPCs who may help, or hinder you!
- There is more than one way to complete the game..

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AUTHOR'S TWO-PENCE:

Kingdoms was one of the first games I ever wrote way back in 1990, on my
Amstrad CPC. Most the graphics were just ASCII characters, but it was actually a
really fun playable game back then. In 1999, I was moving to MS QuickBASIC on the
PC, and one day, feeling nostalgic, thought it would be cool to recreate one of
my first ever games..

It was never meant to be much more than a mini-game and almost never got
released, but it went on to win 'Best QuickBasic Strategy Game' in the 2002
'Gaming Gold Awards'. I still scratch my head at that one.. but I'm glad that
people seem to enjoy playing it, and hope you enjoy this revamp :)


It's still kinda fun, and if it keeps you amused for an hour or so, then my
work is done!

-Piptol

 piptol@gmail.com
 http://piptol.qbasicnews.com
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CREDITS: (What it was, what it used for, who did it)
 
Program code & graphics	: Marcus Kasumba, Piptol Productions
			  (The game!)

Other code		: Joe Antoon (Jofers/Toonski)
			  (Sprite scaling routine)
			 
FMOD			: Firelight Technologies
			  (Music & sound player)

Thanks to everybody who made suggestions and reported bugs.

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RELEASE HISTORY:

KINGDOMS (v2.0) - 24-Apr-2006
* Rebuilt as a stable(?) Win32 program using FreeBASIC
* Minor graphical improvements
* Resampled music
* Gameplay tweaks including some new NPCs
* Setup program removed as no longer necessary
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KINGDOMS (v1.13) - 13-Oct-2001
* You can now cancel many commands by pressing ESC (including DO NOTHING)
* Quit game in progress confirmation
* Converted to a smart new WINRAR self-extractor (no bigger than the old ZIP)
* Minor bugs corrected
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KINGDOMS (v1.12) - 06-Oct-2001
* Fatal bug fixed :)
* Tax 'cheat' has been ironed out.. people wont pay 99% for long!
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KINGDOMS (v1.11) - 06-Oct-2001
* Now works on machines without soundcards. Just turn sound & music off in SETUP
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KINGDOMS (v1.1) - 05-Oct-2001
* Difficulty selector added
* CPU AI modified
* Sound files compressed to save space
* Several bugs fixed..hopefully the last ones?
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KINGDOMS (v1.02) - 30-Sep-2001
* Fixed Gold mine bug.. you actually get the gold you find now :)
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KINGDOMS (v1.01) - 30-Sep-2001
* It was far too hard, now you have a better chance!
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KINGDOMS (v1.0) - Released 29-Sept-2001
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