Lords of Magic: Special Edition Demo
Version 1.0 
Readme File
10/26/98


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Welcome to the Lords of Magic: Special Edition demo.

Prepare to enter a mystical, magical world of fantasy and fury, and to discover the myth and legends of Urak.  The evil Lord Balkoth has threatened its peaceful people with death and destruction, and as a brave hero you must come forth, build up your forces, and use your magical and military power to stop the reign of terror. Explore the land, manage resources and wield the forces of magic through spells and artifacts of power as you and your growing party battle to restore the balance and overthrow Balkoth and his evil collaborators. There are eight different races to choose from, each with unique strengths and religious beliefs: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Life, Death, Chaos, and Order.  And as the Lord of a race, you must choose a character class to play as within this race; either a Warrior, Mage or Thief.
 
In this demo, however, Balkoth does not yet pose a threat to Urak.  This story follows the age old struggle between the Elves and the Dwarves, and you must choose to lead one of these great nations as either a Life (Elven) Mage or an Earth (Dwarven) Warrior - two Lords whose people are locked in an ancient and bitter conflict.

Remember that if your Lord is killed, you lose!

We hope you enjoy this morsel and look forward to seeing you online at www.LordsofMagic.com

LOM SE Development Team

TO ORDER: Please call Sierra On-line sales support at 1-800-757-7707
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		    	TABLE OF CONTENTS

		  
			I.  	MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
			II.		THE DEMO 
			III. 	FEATURES OF THE FULL GAME 
 	 
	               


I.  MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
-----------------------
P100
4x CD-ROM
16mb RAM
Video card capable of 16bit at 640x480 
Min Hard Drive space 30 MB (+100mb free for Virtual Memory)

*** Please note that the Lords of Magic: Special Edition Demo requires DirectX 5.0 or better in order to run. If you do not have DirectX 5.0 installed on your machine, visit the Microsoft website at www.microsoft.com and download it there.

Recommended
P200
4x CD-ROM
32mb RAM
30 HD, plus +(100mb) free for Virtual Memory


If you get a warning about Low Virtual Memory, please ensure that you have at least 100mb of free Virtual Memory on your Windows System Hard Drive, NOT the Hard Drive that LOM SE may be installed to.  LOM SE will run with less than 100mb free, however there will be a performance hit if you decide to play with less than is recommended.

The Hercules Graphics (Thriller 3d) and Matrox Mystic video cards seem to have an incompatibility with Microsoft's blitfast function in Direct X.  As a result, users may suffer significant video and gameplay slowdowns. 

We have included an option in LOM SE in the options menu that will turn this feature off and allow LOM SE to use our Software Emulator to handle blits.  If you have either of the two video cards mentioned above, and are experiencing video slowdowns, this will drastically improve video and game performance and allow you to better enjoy our product.

To turn on Software Blit, simply open the options panel and click on the button which says DX BLIT, this will change it to say SW BLIT once you've done that your ready to play!

NOTE: This feature should not be used for any other purpose, as it will result in poorer performance on other video cards.

We have taken great precautions to test LOM SE on a wide variety of computers to ensure its compatibility with various hardware configurations.  If you experience difficulties running LOM SE, disable any TSR's, compression programs and crash protection programs, as these can interfere with the smooth operation of the game.

On a VERY SMALL minority of machines, the monitor may appear to get stuck on the last screen of the credits or go black and appear that it has locked up.  It hasn't; you may have clicked too quickly through each animation or simply too many times.  To fix this, simply refresh the screen by going to the desktop (ALT + TAB), and then returning to the game (ALT + TAB - again).  The next time you play, please click through all animations slowly and one at a time.  


II.  THE DEMO 
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NUMBER OF TURNS
The number of turns you are given to complete the demo depends on the difficulty setting chosen. The EASIER the game the LESS time you have to defeat the other side.  

	EASY-	30 turns
	MEDIUM- 37 turns
	HARD-	44 turns
	
THE PURPOSE OF THE DEMO
	The purpose of the Demo is to give you an accurate taste of what the full retail version of LOM SE has to offer. This is not easy because the Demo can only reveal a few of the hundreds of strategies available in the full game.  The full retail version offers you 66 different starting characters as well as the Legends of Urak Quest Pack, which provides an additional 100+ hours of entertainment through Strategic-Quest Adventuring.  Each Faith and champion that you choose to play in LOM SE affects the strategic course of the game.  Don't take our word for it, come visit the website at LordsofMagic.com and see what people who own the game have to say.

THE STORY
	Although the full game pits your aspiring Lord against the mighty Balkoth, this demo tells a different story and is just a brief sample of the in-depth game play and quests to be found in the full version of the LOM SE.  The demo takes place in a time when the nations of the Elves and the Dwarves struggled for power, and were at war with each other rather than against the evil Balkoth.  


III. FEATURES IN THE FULL GAME
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FEATURES OF THE FULL RETAIL GAME OF LOM SE:

Eight fully developed faiths-

LIFE (Elves)- Agility, fast healing, healing magic and archery.
DEATH (Dark Elves)- Well balanced and powerful units with very powerful and lethal magic.
ORDER (Humans)- Well organized defensive military with magic that supports combat abilities.
CHAOS (Barbarians)- Relatively inexpensive units with great potential once experienced.
FIRE (Fire Giants)- Overall offensive power with the strongest attack magic in the game.
WATER (Amazons) - Best ships in Urak for fast transportation with strong healing magic.
EARTH (Dwarves) - Sturdy dwarven folk who make some of the best warriors in the land.
AIR (Storm Giants)- Ability to move very quickly over Urak. Powerful lightning magic.
There are also several different races of monsters which inhabit caves, huts, bridges, castles, strongholds, dungeons, hamlets, barrows, webs etc.


New Multi-level encounters. (Included in demo)
New Diplomatic messaging and barter advisor. (Included in demo)
70+ Artifacts. 
150+ Spells.
Eight New special Great Temple upgrades. (Such as the Altar of Sacrifice for Death)
Eight New Legendary Creatures. (Such as Sir Lancelot for Order)
Eight pre-made maps. 
Eight New Watchtowers to construct at villages to oversee your lands, and track intruders.
New Lord Editor. You choose your spells, artifacts and even faith of units to join your starting Lord.
Powerfully enhanced Map Editor puts you in control of terrain, topography and texture, and now even allows you to place and define caves and dungeons in your own customized worlds.  
With Multi-player support you can battle alone or ally your party with up to 4 players via LAN or the Internet.


THE LEGENDS OF URAK QUEST PACK-
In addition to the fully enhanced version of the original classic, the Special Edition also includes the Legends of Urak Quest Pack, which features five new epic quests, each with its own unique story, and its own set of compelling adventures to embark upon and goals to achieve.  You can lead Merlin and Arthur on the quest for the Holy Grail...follow the tale of Crispin the Sorceress... as the Necromancer, exterminate the Elves and deliver the Scepter of the Lich to the dastardly King of Darkness, or accompany the humble Beow on his search for the ancient hoard of the dragon Vyrm.

LEGENDS OF URAK QUESTS
FIRE QUEST
	As Crispin, the now legendary Fire Giant Mage, you seek to save the fire people from the icy evil which torments their realm.  Though of limited means, you must beseech the help of other adventurers you encounter, and always use your limited resources shrewdly.  Crispin may never come to be Lord of Fire, for in her time the throne was already held by a wise and noble king named Emberaken, who, it was said, in time came to honor Crispin's name.  Fail and your faith will live in an eternal ice age.  Succeed and the name Crispin will live on forever in song and story!

DEATH QUEST
	In this quest you are a necromancer, who, like all necromancers, seeks the glory of absolute power by embracing the forces of the underworld, and serving the will of Golgoth.  At the time of this quest, the region of Death has not yet been swallowed up by swampland, and the Eldren are not yet your accursed enemies.  The lore of how to summon an army of skeletons is already at your command, and the Altar of Sacrifice is nearby...  Serve your king by raising an army of skeletons...locate the Scepter of the Lich, and defeat the Life Queen!

EARTH QUEST
	The legends of the Earth Folk tell of an age of splendor, where mighty kings won glory by the strokes of their singing blades, dragons lusted for hoarded gold, danger lurked in the wild hills of Urak, and brave warriors clad in shining mail and tall helms marched to war, their bright spears glistening in the sun.  In the days of Beow, the humble halfling thief, any who dared to venture forth into the vast reaches of the world might find boundless fortune and extraordinary adventure...

ORDER QUEST
	The lore of the Archon people of Urak tells of a golden age of Order... their tales of the sorcerer Merlin, the sword Excalibur, the boy king Arthur, and his noble knights of the Round Table were told long before they became known to this world.  In this quest, based closely on the Arthurian legends of Sir Thomas Malory, you must unite the realm of Logres under Arthur and lead his noble knights on many fantastic adventures in their search for the Holy Grail."


We hope you enjoyed your taste of LOM SE.  Please visit us at WWW.LORDSOFMAGIC.COM, your local software retailer or call  Sierra On-line sales support at 1-800-757-7707 to get your copy.


Thank you from all of us at Impressions.


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