The giant portal known as Chaos Gate shimmers and pulses blood red -- suddenly vanishing. Before you stands a weather-beaten sign post, covered in moss and chained to the muddy earth by sinister looking vines. Barely legible, it reads "Welcome to the Narrse Realm."

Your senses reel. The damp night air is so heavy with evil you can smell it. A sense of foreboding sweeps through you and your muscles tighten accordingly. You expect that there will be great danger from here on in.

Beyond the sign post is an overgrown path pointing suggestively towards the mouth of a cave. Cautiously, you move along the path towards the opening. As you are about to pass into the cave, a tiny voice stops you dead in your tracks. "To return home you must seek the Scepter of Kastuule, deep within the dungeon's belly."

You wheel about but see nothing. And then, another tiny voice, different from the first. "Win the Scepter and your name will be legend across worlds."

Another still, "Deliver us from this evil. Hurry now! Time is short."

You flee far into the cave only to discover that its crude sides soon give way to hewn walls. Eventually, you see a lit torch burning in the distance and adjacent to it an ancient oak door. Without hesitation you snatch up the torch and kick open the door...

Installation:

Unzip the download package and install the following files using Palm Desktop or your favourite install program:
PDimension.prc, DngWalls.prc, Dngmap1.pdb, DngMons.pdb, DngInvI.pdb, DngInvD.pdb

The Pocket Dimension icon will appear on your Palm under the unfiled category.

Playing the Game:

After the title screen and prologue create your character. There are three statistics which define the physical make-up of an adventurer: STR (strength), DEX (dexterity) and CON (constitution). Each trait is used to determine checks and saving throws during gameplay. Select either randomly generated maps or designer maps (chosen at random from a list). Then, name your creation and prepare to do battle!

Inventory:

There are 100+ items in Pocket Dimension. Most paraphernalia found will be vaguely named, so that you are unsure of their consequences. In order to realize an item's full effects it must be identified. Luckily, there are special items you will stumble across which are able to identify others. Most booty found is good and useful, but some are not. You have been warned.

If you are fortunate enough to find weapons or armour, you need to EQUIP them so they can be used. However, there are restrictions. A weapon that is two-handed (having 2H in its name) will prevent the use of a shield.

Combat:

Combat is simple. When a battle ensues the game moves to the combat screen. Here you find three options; RUN, FIGHT or USE.

When you tap RUN, initiative is taken and if you win, you are able to make your escape. But, if you lose initiative you are stuck for at least one more round. You can try to run once each turn.

When you tap FIGHT, initiative is taken, sequence is determined and you each get a turn beating on one another.

USE takes you to the inventory screen so that you can use an item. Accessing an item in combat will typically use up a round and take you back to the combat screen immediately, although you still get a chance to attack.

Healing:

Walking around heals you at a rate determined by your CON (constitution). Even if you have a constitution of 18, health returns slowly.

Experience:

Winning combat will gain you some experience points and eventually increase your level. Gaining a level increases your maximum hit points and thankfully, your current hit points. Gaining levels also makes more powerful items available... and more powerful monsters.

Saving the Game:

When a character is created you must decide if you want the "Real Death" option enabled or not. Enabling "Real Death" permanently deletes your character when it dies. If "Real Death" is disabled and your character dies, you restart your game from the last saved position.

Save your game by tapping the silkscreened MENU icon, adjacent to the graffiti field on your PDA screen, then choose "File" from the drop down menu and select either "Save Game" or "Save & Quit". Switching to another application will automatically save your game as well. If you select "Quit (NO SAVE!)" from the drop down menu -- guess what -- you'll exit the game and any progress made will not be saved. If you choose "New Game" from the drop down menu, you must create a new character before you can restart the game from the beginning.

Fans of Rouge and similar games will undoubtedly enjoy the "Real Death" option.

Problems?

If you have a bug report, suggestions or criticisms please send them to the Pocket Dimension Team. We want to make this game a fun way to pass the time wherever you are.