                  Plan 9 From Outer Space: Complete Game Manual


PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE

CRISWELL PREDICTS

Greetings my friends. We are all interested in the future, for that 
is where you and I are going to find the rest of our lives. And 
remember my friends, future events such as these will affect you in 
the future. You are interested in the unknow, the mysterious and the 
unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now for the first time, 
we are bringing to you the full story of what happened on that 
fateful day. We are giving you all the evidence based solely on the 
testimony of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying 
ordeal. The incidents, the places... my friends, we cannot keep this 
a secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty, let us reward the 
innocent. My friends, can your hearts stand the shocking facts 
about...

GRAVE ROBBERS FROM OUTER SPACE?!!

A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO THE WORST MOVIE OF ALL TIME

Is Plan 9 the worst movie of all time? It's not a tough question to 
answer. Yes it is. It really is the most flea ridden arnateurish 
waste of celluloid and sticky back plastic ever to be foisted onto 
an unsuspecting and undeserving public. Nobody should have to sit 
through this film without some advance warning of the absolute 
futility of the whole shambolic rambling mess that it is. If you 
think that this is overstating the case somewhat, then you obviously 
haven't sat down and watched the film. But be warned. When you die 
and go to Heaven, and God is asking you to account for your time, 
and you say 'Well, I attempted to use my time as profitably as 
possible', don't be at all surprised when He retorts 'Get real mate, 
you wasted at least seventy eight minutes watching Plan 9 from Outer 
Space.'

The film's creator was one Edward J. Wood Jr, who had previously 
directed the likes of 'Glen or Glenda?', also known as 'I changed my 
Sex' and 'Trans- vestite' in 1953, and 'Jail Bait' in 1954. Plan 9 
originally appeared way back in 1959, and was doubtless an attempt 
to cash in on the popularity of science fiction and all things shiny 
and saucer shaped in the fifties. It is an unmitigated disaster. The 
first thing you will notice when watching the film is wood. Wooden 
sets, wooden gravestones, wooden acting and a wooden script. The 
emotionless and tired way in which the lines are thrown after each 
other possibly owes a lot to the profoundly uninspiring and lifeless 
script, penned by the man himself.

Perhaps the two main things which draw people to the film are a 
macabre fascination with the notion that the film was a genuine 
attempt to make money, and the fascination with being able to 
experience over and over one mans profoundly inept attempts to make 
a half decent movie. Edward Wood called it his little jewel, but 
it's practically impossible to see why. Plan 9 From Outer Space is a 
film makers nightmare-crumbling gravestones, night to day to night 
in the same chase, unbelievable dialogue-the list is endless. But 
that is enough about the film- you can watch it for yourself. Before 
you do, however, we will leave the final word to Harry and Michael 
Medved who have done more than anyone else in bringing Plan 9 from 
Outer Space to the undeserved attention of the public.

It is easy to understand this movie's enduring hold on the 
imagination of the public; once you have seen Plan 9 you can surely 
never forget it. Though reviewed by few critics at the time of its 
release, the film has left an indelible impression on the handful of 
sci-fi writers and Hollywood historians who have encountered it over 
the years. "By far one of the worst films ever concocted," observed 
Vincent Beck in Heroes of the Horrors. "Plan 9 is so very bad that 
it exerts a strange fascination," reports John Brosnan, author of 
The Horror People. "It appears to have been made in somebody's 
garage."'*

Enjoy the film. More importantly, enjoy the game. Be careful though-My
friend, is your heart ready...?

*The Golden Turkey Awards, Harry and Michael Medved


LOADING INSTRUCTIONS

PC

System Requirements

1. An IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2, or 100% IBM compatible computer.

2. 640k Ram.

3. MSDOS 3.1 or higher

4. A hard drive. You will need around 8 megabytes of disk space free 
to install the game, although once installed it will take up around 
5.5 megabytes of memory. 

5. VGA 256k Graphics card.

We recommend that you play the game usimg a mouse. If extended 
memory is available, then Plan 9 will take advantage of it.

Installing Plan 9 onto a Hard Disk

Insert the Plan 9 Disk One into any drive, and type A:, and then 
press the Return key. If you wish to install the game from a drive 
configured as anything other than drive A, of course, you should 
alter the instructions accordingly- make sure that the drive you 
have the current disk in is the default drive. Next, type 'install' 
and press the Retum Key. The game will now Install itself onto the 
Hard Drive. All further instructions will be presented on the 
screen. You will need at least eight meg free in order to install 
plan 9, although once installed, it will only occupy around five and 
a half meg.

Once the game is installed on your hard drive, it is loaded by 
carrying out the following procedure at the MSDOS prompt:

type CD PLAN9 (Enter)

type PLAN9 (Enter)

Configuring Plan 9

The first time you play Plan 9 you will be presented with a series 
of questions about the sound capabilities of your PC. This will 
allow you to configure the game for future use. Once you have done 
this, you need never configure Plan 9 again. Should you wish to 
alter the configuration at any future point, instead of typing 
'PLAN9' at the MSDOS prompt as indicated above, type 'CONFIG'. You 
will now be prompted to re configure the game. When you have 
finished, pressing any key will take you back to the MSDOS prompt.

Graphic and Sound Cards Supported

Plan 9 supports VGA 256k graphics cards.

Plan 9 supports the Adlib, Roland and Soundblaster sound boards.

AMIGA

Playing from a floppy disk drive

1. Insert your Plan 9 Disk One into the default disk drive.

2. Plug your mouse into port 1.

3. Turn on your computer and monitor, and wait for Workbench to load.

4. Double click on the 'Plan 9' icon. The game will now load 
automatically. Follow any on-screen prompts for further instructions.

Installing Plan 9 onto a Hard Disk

1. Follow steps I to 3 above. When Workbench has loaded, double 
click on the 'Install to HD' icon. The game will now Install itself 
onto the Hard Drive. All further instructions will be presented on 
the screen. When installed, Plan 9 will use around four megabytes of 
memory on the hard disk.

Playing from Hard Disk

Once the game is installed on you hard drive, it is played by 
loading work- bench, and then clicking on the Plan 9 icon.

ATARI ST

1. Insert your Plan 9 Disk One Into the default disk drive.

2. Plug your mouse into port 0.

3. Turn on your computer and monitor. The game will now load 
automatically. Follow the on screen prompts for further instructions.

Loading and Saving Games when playing from floppy disk on Amiga and 
Atari ST

If you are playing Plan 9 from floppy disk, you will need a blank 
disk for saved games. When you attempt to load or save a game you 
will be presented with a requester asking you to place your save 
game disk in the default drive. Insert your disk and click on the 
'OK' button. If the disk has not previous saved games on i~ you will 
be asked if you wish to format the disk for saving games. If you do 
so, then any information on the disk will be lost. Once the disk has 
been formatted you can save and load games as indicated later in the 
manual.

PLAYING PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE

Plan 9 From Outer Space is an interactive adventure game in which 
six reels of film must be found and retumed to their rightful owner. 
The game can be played using either Mouse or keyboard. The default 
option is by the Mouse, but if you wish to use the keyboard, the 
following keys should be used.

Alt K   Switches to Keyboard control
Alt M   Switches to Mouse control
Alt S   Toggles music on and off
ESC     Cancel command, or skip Introduction sequence, depending
        upon where you are in the game.

When using the keyboard the direction arrows move the cursor and 
Left CTRL simulates the left mouse button, whilst the left Shift 
button simulates the right mouse button.

You will begin the game seated in an office with a Movie Producer, 
who will give you your instructions. The first screen you will 
encounter looks something like this:

1. This is the window where all the action takes place. It shows you 
the current location, and whoever is there. Sometimes this screen 
will animate. You are able to interact with, use, examine and take 
some items from this screen. If you are in a room with a wardrobe, 
for example, you might be able to open the wardrobe, take a jacket 
from it, and use it later in the game. Try to examine everything 
that it's possible to examine.

2. This is your inventory. When you have more items than there are 
slots for, two arrows will appear, one above and one below the 
Inventory. Clicking on
these will move up or down the inventory list as appropriate.

3. This is a list of all the actions that you can carry out. Moving 
the pointer over this list will highlight the actions that you can 
carry out. These actions can also be carried out from the keyboard 
if the keyboard action is active, and the correct key to use is 
given in brackets. The actions available to you are as follows:

 Command   Key  Result 
 Hit:      (H)  Obvious.
 Give:     (G)  Used to hand an item to another character.
 Use:      (U)  A general term that will, if used with the right 
                object in the right location, allow you to properly 
                carry out an action. For example, if you 'Use 
                Shovel' in a logical location, you would start 
                digging.
 Take:     (T)  Used to take an object from a location or from 
                another character.
 Talk:     (K)  This one is used to converse with other characters. 
                If you select this option, and then highlight 
                another character, you are presented with a list of 
                things that you can say to him or her. Simply 
                highlight the phrase you wish to communicate, and 
                away you go.                                                   
  Open:    (o)  Fairly obvious. Used to open drawers, doors, and so on. 
 Push:     (p)  Again, very straightforward. Use this option to push 
                some thing. 
 Close:    (c)  Used to close drawers, doors, and so on. 
 Drop:     (D)  Find yourself hogging too much pointless stuff around? 
 Examine:  (x)  Used to take a closer look at any object.

4. This area is used to present any descriptions of objects that you 
examine or use, any supplementary descriptions.

Building Up Commands

It's very straightforward to carry out your desired actions in Plan 
9. Generally, you will begin by clicking on one of the commands 
available in area 3. Next, you will click on an item either on the 
main screen, or in your inventory. The result of the actions will 
then be presented on screen.

Occasionally, you must use an object in conjunction with another 
object. If this is the case, then the word 'with' will be appended, 
and you must select another item. For example, if you clicked on 
'USE' followed by a reel of film, you might get the message 'USE 
REEL OF FILM WITH', indicating that the reel of film must be used 
with another item.

Moving around Plan 9

When you move the pointer over the main window, occasionally it will 
change into a large direction signpost. In addition, above the 
window a message will appear like 'Go to private of fice', or 'Go to 
corridor'. This is to indicate that if you click at this point, then 
you will move to another location within the game. This method of 
building up commands is very straightforward, and you'll soon be 
whizzing round the Plan 9 world in no time at all. Note: If one of 
the command words is highlighted, for example if you are examining 
something, they are disabled, and you will not be able to move to 
the next location.

Loading and Saving Games

It's possible to load and save game positions in Plan 9. To save a 
game press the F1 key. A new screen will appear with eight slots for 
saving a game. Highlight the slot of your choice with the mouse, and 
press any mouse key.


You will now be prompted to type a name for the file. If you chose a 
slot that already has a file present, then that file will be deleted 
when you save the new T one. To load a previously saved game, press 
the F2 key, which will bring up a list of the previously saved 
games. Just highlight the saved game you wish to load, press the 
mouse button, and follow any on-screen prompts. If you are playing a 
version from hard disk, then the game will be saved to the hard disk. 
If you are playing a version from floppy disk, then you will be 
requested to put a 'saved game' disk into a disk drive.

That is about all the information you will need to enjoy Plan 9 from 
Outer Space. So, farewell Earth computer game players. And 
beware-who knows what Plan Ten will be...

Any Problems?

If you have problems loading Plan 9, then return it to your 
retailer, or to Gremlin Graphics at the address on the packaging. If 
you have any questions relating to the game, then the Gremlin 
Graphics Helpline is available between the hours of 2.00 and 4.00 U. 
K. time Monday to Friday, on 0742 753 423.

Copyright Notice

Copyright 1992 Gremlin Graphics Software Limited. All Rights 
Reserved. This manual and the information contained on the floppy 
disks are copyrighted by Gremlin Graphics Limited. The owner of this 
product is entitled to use the product for his or her own personal 
use only. No one may transfer, give or sell any part of the manual, 
or the information on the disk without the prior permission of 
Gremlin Graphics Software Limited. Any person or persons reproducing 
any part of the program, in any media, for any reason, shall be 
guilty of copyright violation, and subject to civil liability and 
the discretion of the copyright holder.

end.
