Francisco Gonzalez in Association
with MonkeyGames Entertainment Presents

Case 3: The Sorceress of Smailholm
Contents
Foreword
So, downloaded the 3rd case, did ya? Well, thanks! Hope you
enjoy it. You’ve pretty much
read all this before, so I’ll take this opportunity to say that it is
STRONGLY ADVISED that you read the Paranormal Investigator’s Handbook included
with the game. It’s necessary to
complete it if you take the long path, so you may even want to print out the
page with the Witch Code on it.
[Contents]
The Story
Ben Jordan’s third case finds him in Scotland, in the village of
Smailholm. Apparently, two
children have been found murdered and the prime suspect is a young woman
accused of witchcraft. Ben must
find out what’s going on, but all is not as it seems. Help Ben discover the truth behind
the murders, and survive long enough to escape!
[Contents]
Credits
A graphic adventure game by Francisco Gonzalez
Original music by Andreas Slotte
Beta Testing by AGA, DarkStalkey, Fuzzpilz, and Esseb
Adventure Game Studio by Chris Jones
Ben Jordan logo by Edmundo Ruiz
[Contents]
Playing the Game
To run the game, double-click on the bj3.exe file. For more information on
setting up the game, check out the section entitled AGS
Game Settings.
Most of the screen is taken up by the main view window. This shows Ben
Jordan and his current surroundings. Several objects in each room can be
interacted with, and these are called 'hotspots'.
A gray bar appears at the top of the screen. This bar displays the game title
and the current score. Whenever you accomplish something siginificant in the
game, you will get a score point.
Move the mouse cursor there and the icon bar will appear. The pictures on
the bar represent the following, from left to right:
- Walk to
- Look at
- Interact with
- Speak to
- Open inventory
- Notepad
- Save game
- Restore game
- Quit
- About
[Contents]
Basic Commands
The first four pictures, when clicked on, will change the mouse cursor to
the appropriate symbol. Then you may click on a hotspot in the main view
window to use the appropriate symbol on said hotspot. You can also scroll
through these commands by clicking on the right mouse button.
- WALK (walking
mini-Ben): Click on any point in the room you want Ben to walk to, and
he will do so if he can, otherwise he will go as close as he can to it.
- LOOK
(eye): When used on a hotspot, Ben will examine it and you will get a
message describing it. Click to close the text windows.
- INTERACT
(hand): Click on a hotspot and Ben will walk over to it and then try to
do an appropriate action - e.g. use a button to press it, use a door to
open it. If he can't do anything or if he doesn't know what to do, the
game will tell you.
- TALK
(speech bubble): In most cases, this only works with other characters.
Click and Ben will try and open a conversation with the selected object.
If he succeeds, a discussion will begin. If not, nothing will happen.
During a conversation a number of options appear in a textbox in the
middle of the screen. Click on the type of conversation you want Ben to
talk about. When a character is speaking you can skip dialog by clicking
anywhere on the screen.
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The Inventory
Click on the picture of Ben's pocket to open the inventory. This displays
all the items Ben is carrying with him - obtained by either interacting with
them or being given them. Click first on the magnifying glass and then on an
object to examine it in more detail. Alternatively, inventory items can be
held in Ben's hand and used on another interactive object. Click on the arrow
and then on an inventory item - the cursor will become the same item. Now
click again on something in the inventory to try and combine the two objects,
or click 'OK' and click on a hotspot in the room to use the item on that.
[Contents]
The Notepad
Click on the picture of the notepad to open it. As Ben learns things in
the game, he may write them down in the notepad. If you forget what you're
supposed to be doing or just want to make sure you're on the right track, you
can check the notepad. Click on the "Put Away" button to put it
away.
[Contents]
Saving and Restoring
You can save your progress by clicking on the 'Save Game' icon and
entering a name for your save game. Later on, when you come back to the game,
you can click the 'Restore Game' icon and reload your saved game, so you
don't have to play through the whole game again.
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Hot Keys
- Tab:
Open inventory screen
- F5:
Save game dialog
- F7:
Restore game dialog
- F9:
Restart game
- F12:
Take screenshot (it will be saved as scrnshot.bmp in the game's folder)
- Alt+R:
Record replay
- Ctrl+Q:
Quit game
[Contents]
AGS Game Settings
Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator comes with default settings so that
you don't have to run the setup first in order to run the game. However, if
you want to change any of the settings, you can access the game's setup by
double-clicking on the winsetup.exe file.
- Resolution:
You can change the game's resolution between 320x200 and 640x400. Ben
Jordan: Paranormal Investigator was designed for 320x200 and it will run
best at that resolution. However, if your screen can't handle 320x200 as
a full-screen resolution, then try selecting 640x400.
- Run in a
window instead of full-screen: It allows you to run the game in
a standard window instead of filling up the whole screen.
- Use 85 Hz
display (CRT monitors only): In case that the screen flickers
while you run the game, check this option and it will get rid of the
flicker. However, this will only work on CRT monitors and not on flat
screen monitors.
- Force
alternate letterbox resolution: This changes the aspect ratio
of the game, showing black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.
- Anti-alias
scaled sprites (fast CPUs only): Characters will look a lot
smoother as they scale (become larger or smaller) on the screen.
- Downgrade
32-bit graphics to 16-bit: In case that your computer cannot
handle a 32-bit graphic resolution, you can check this option. However,
Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator was designed in 16-bit mode so this
option will not affect the game.
- Digital Sound:
Changes the kind of sound system the game will use to play the digital
music and sounds.
- MIDI music:
Changes what kind of midi music system the game will use. However, Ben
Jordan: Paranormal Investigator only features digital music and
therefore this feature will not affect the game.
- Use digital
music pack if available: Plays digital music instead of midi
music. Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator comes with the digital music
pack and only features digital music; therefore, unchecking this feature
will turn off the in-game background music.
- Use speech
pack if available: Characters speak if there is a speech pack
available. Unfortunately, there is no speech pack available for Ben
Jordan: Paranormal Investigator.
- Game language:
Changes the language of the game if you have downloaded a translation.
Please check the MonkeyGames Entertainment website for any available
translations.
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Advanced
- Replay:
This option allows you to select the replays you recorded. You can
record the game by pressing Alt+R anytime. When you quit the game, it
will prompt you for a description and a file name and it will save it
into a replay file.
- Maximum size:
As explained in the window itself, you can limit the maximum amount of
memory the game can use for its sprite cache. Usually, this option
doesn't need to be changed from its default selection.
[Contents]
Copyright © 2004 Francisco Gonzalez
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