-------------------------------------============--------------------------------------------------============

===-----------------------------------===
The ADOM Fluff FAQ
An attempt to answer all meta-questions regarding ADOM...
(C) Copyright 1994-2015 by Thomas Biskup.
All Rights Reserved.
===-----------------------------------===
============--------------------------------------------------============
-------------------------------------PREFACE
This document tries to answer all the meta-questions regarding
the distribution of the game called ADOM (shortcut for 'Ancient
Domains Of Mystery).
If you plan to distribute ADOM in some way (be that on disk, CD, in
a magazine or whatever), make sure to read Section I: The ADOM
License.
If you plan to write a review of ADOM, please make sure that you read
Section II: ADOM in the Media.
If you would like to submit ideas to further ADOM's development, make
sure that you have read Section III: ADOM Development.
If you are having problems related to the game itself, you might want
to read section V: Game-Related Questions closely.
If you are experiencing technical problems with ADOM, make sure that
you read Section VI: Technical Problems.
Before reporting a bug you should definitely read Section VII: Bugs.
If you never installed ADOM before, you might want to examine Section
VIII: Installation.
Finally questions regarding the installation of ADOM are addressed in
section VIII: Installation.
Any other questions might be answered in Section IV: Miscellaneous
Stuff.
Questions answered by this text will be ignored if you ask them
by email. RTFM, as they say...
If you feel that this document is incomplete, feel free to email
questions and suggestions to adom@adom.de.
Hearty thanks to Stefanie Woll for proof-reading this text :->
All remaining idiosyncrasies are intended to ensure the Ancardian
feeling of the text ;-)
-- Thomas Biskup
May, 1998

===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
TABLE OF CONTENTS
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
Section
A.
B.
C.
D.

I
- The ADOM License.
Terms of use.
Distributing ADOM in magazines, on disks, etc.
The Postcard Quest.
Licensing ADOM and other commercial ventures.

Section II - ADOM in the Media.

A. Where can I find information about ADOM?
B. What should I know before writing a review about ADOM?
Section
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.

III - ADOM Development.

I have some great ideas concerning ADOM. Are you interested?
Is ADOM still being developed?
What can I do to further ADOM's development?
What plans do exist for ADOM's future?
What about the sources for the game?
What about ADOM variants?
Will ADOM be ported to 'xyz'?
How about some technical details about ADOM?
Why don't you make save files between versions compatible?
How about translations of the game texts into other languages?
Who's responsible for the various ports?

Section
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.

IV - Miscellaneous Stuff.
Why aren't my emails answered?
Why is the website for ADOM out of date?
Who is Thomas Biskup?
Why has the savefile of my character disappeared after he died?
Why are requests for advice not answered?
Does Thomas Biskup enjoy receiving binary files?
When will the next version of ADOM be released?

Section
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
L.
M.
N.
O.
P.

V
- Game-Related Questions.
What's the relation between the Mad Minstrel and the village fool?
How much weight is 'one stone' actually?
Why can't I increase my weapon skills?
All my characters start out cursed. Why?
How can I activate a ring of djinni summoning?
What's a 'si'?
Why does fire damage my character despite immunity to fire?
What about the Red Rooster and associated mysteries?
What's the best class/race combination?
Why is the number of charges for wands I zapped not displayed?
Why are scroll names readable for illiterate characters?
Why are all classes able to learn weapon skills equally well?
I can't use command 'xyz'. Why not?
What do 'scurgari' look like?
Are there any cheat codes in ADOM?
Why are blank scrolls labeled?

Section
A.
B.
C.
D.

VI - Technical Problems.
General troubleshooting.
DOS
Windows 3.x, Windows for Workgroups, OS/2
Windows NT, Windows 95

E. Linux/FreeBSD
Section
A.
B.
C.

VII - Bugs.
How to submit bugs?
Which bugs are known?
Command 'xyz' does not seem to work in my version...

Section VIII - Installation.

A. DOS, OS/2, Windows xyz
B. Linux
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
Section I: The ADOM License
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
I.A. Terms of use
=================
You may use ADOM freely provided you acknowledge the following terms
and abide by them:
1. ADOM must only be distributed in the packages created by
Thomas Biskup, the maintainer of the game. The packages
must remain complete and all components must not be altered
in any way.
2. You may not charge more than $3 for the distribution of
ADOM (values as of November, 2001).
3. You do not challenge ADOM's copyright in any way.
4. If you distribute ADOM with a magazine, a CD-ROM distribution
or a similar medium, you abide by the terms defined in section
I.B.
5. You follow all other licensing terms (as given by entering
'adom -b').
6. You acknowledge that the author of ADOM is in no way
responsible for damage done to your system due to ADOM usage.
7. If you play ADOM for a prolonged amount of time and enjoy
it, you agree to abide by the terms of section I.C.
Failure to honor these terms will be a severe violation of the license
and could result in legal measures being taken if you are deemed
important enough to deserve it.
I.B. Distributing ADOM in magazines, on disks, etc.
===================================================
You can freely distribute ADOM with magazines, in game compilations,
etc. provided you abide by the following terms:
1. You honor all terms listed in section I.A.

2. You agree to notify the author of ADOM, Thomas Biskup, either

by email at creator@ancientdomainsofmystery.com or by sending
a written letter to the following address:
Thomas Biskup
Zu den Tannen 5
58456 Witten
Germany
3. You send two complimentary copies of your product (one for
actual examination and one for being stored in my safe) to the
address given under #2 (or, if it is an electronic publication,
to the email address given above).
4. You don't distribute alpha/beta versions or closed prereleases
from the ADOM Indiegogo campaign.
Failure to do so will be a severe violation of this licensing agreement
and will incur legal measures.
I.C. The Postcard Quest.
========================
If you want to thank me (Thomas Biskup) for creating ADOM, maintaining it,
fixing all discovered bugs, providing support and generally spending a lot
of time on the game and if you are having fun with the game, please
consider rewarding my efforts by sending a postcard to the following
address from wherever you live:
Thomas Biskup
Zu den Tannen 5
58456 Witten
Germany
I *love* receiving postcards from all over the world. Weigh the fun
ADOM gave you against the ten minutes you probably need to
write and send such a postcard -- and if you find that you like and
enjoy the game -- please do it. I'm really not asking much... am I?
I.D. Licensing ADOM and other commercial ventures.
==================================================
ADOM is an immensely successful game and I'm proud of that. Still, there
are things that still could be done. If you are member of a game
company and would like to publish a game that could easily be able to
rival the success of Diablo by Blizzard Software, two things are
necessary:
1. You need a competent team of programmers and artists.
2. You need to be willing to license ADOM from me. If you are
interested in such a commercial venture email me at
creator@ancientdomainsofmystery.com.
Consider it if you work for a game company.
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===

Section II: ADOM in the Media

===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
II.A. Where can I find information about ADOM?
==============================================
On the Net a variety of sources concerning ADOM are available. The
most important sources are the following:
http://www.ancientdomainsofmystery.com
This is the official ADOM website. It contains all the latest
news and updates concerning the game, plus all kinds of
interesting links and tidbits of information.
http://www.adom.de/forums
Here you can find the official forums for all things ADOM.
rec.games.roguelike.adom
This is the official ADOM newsgroup. If you are looking for
advice, seek other players or simply would like to discuss ADOM,
this is the place to go. Here you will find many fans of the
game, willing to engage in discussions of all kind. If your
news server does not carry this group, make it known to your
system administrator and ask him in a polite way to get the group.
http://www.aleph-null.com/adom/index.html
This is the primary spoiler site for ADOM, maintained by Richard
Fowler. He also maintains the ADOM FAQ and collects all kinds
of interesting things concerning ADOM. Visit it if you are
looking for information concerning the game.
ADOM has also been covered in a variety of magazines (both online and
printed), but I'm sadly lacking information about most of these articles.
Visit the official ADOM website and look up the respective section to
find out more about this. If you know about such a publication and it's
not listed on the website, please let me know with a quick email to
creator@ancientdomainsofmystery.com.
II.B. What should I know before writing a review about ADOM?
============================================================
I am happy to see all reviews concerning ADOM, good or bad. Out of
politeness I ask for two things:
1. If you write a review please let me know about it. I'd
like to read it, too, and I can't do that if I don't know
about it.
2. If you are printing it somewhere, please send me two
complimentary issues of your magazine, so that I can
show the review to my kids at some point (when I have some that
is ;-) to tell them "Look, what Daddy did when he was young!".
See section I.A for details.
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
Section III: ADOM Development.
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===

III.A. I have some great ideas concerning ADOM. Are you interested?
====================================================================
Every day I receive about 10 emails concerning ADOM (that's more
than 3000 per year). Many of them contain suggestions and many
of those suggestions have been repeated again and again. Some
of the more common suggestions and my replies to them have been
compiled below:
1. How about a multi-player version of ADOM?
ADOM's source code really is not prepared to handle
multi-player code. It would be possible to add this
feature if either a team of professional programmers
worked on it or someone provided me with a
lot of hardware and a lot more free time than I have
these days. Until then, forget it!
2. How about a graphical version of ADOM?
Graphics would be nice, yes. But they would have to
be done in a very professional way. Adding graphics
like those in Nethack is too much work for too little
gain as far as I am concerned. Again, a professional
team of artists and programmers would be able to do
it, but since neither is available, forget about if for
the time being!
If you feel you could do it, do not contact me about it
before you can show me at least 20 samples of graphical
tiles for the game. There have been too many offers
the one time I tried this without ever getting something
out of it...
3. How about a BBS version of ADOM?
I already talked to someone about this and this topic
might be tackled after 2.0.0 is done.
4. How about an attribute roller?
Maybe at some point, but then in a shareware version of ADOM.
5. How about a cheat mode?
See #4.
6. How about monster inventories?
Being implemented right now. Due to the complexity of this
issue quite a number of versions will go by until this
feature is completed.
7. How about more races?
I'm very hesitant about adding new races to the game, since
ADOM has been designed with a background in mind and is more
than just a collection of everything including the kitchen
sink like Nethack. Thus there won't be races like vampires,

dragons, giants, etc. The only races I ever plan to add

are Ratlings, Hill Dwarves and Mist Elves. This will happen
in the ADOM 1.x.y release series.
8. What about more classes?
A couple of additional classes are planned for future
versions (after 1.0.0), among them Pirate, Shaman, Pilgrim,
Summoner, Armsmaster, Noble, Miner, ...
9. How about larger maps?
I have tried to use larger-than-screen-sized maps with
another roguelike game I wrote, but I don't like them. Instead
I plan to add more levels in the current size, because I find
this size very convenient in play (you see everything at once
and you won't suffer from stupid off-screen attacks).
III.B. Is ADOM still being developed?
=====================================
Since 2001 ADOM has been in hibernation. In 2012 I decided to run a
crowd funding campaign in order to finance a new release. See
http://www.indiegogo.com/resurrect-adom-development for details.
III.C. What can I do to further ADOM's development?
===================================================
Although ADOM is postcard-ware I'm not unhappy if someone feels like
sending money to me :-) I need to upgrade my hardware but can't afford
to do so right now.
Sending a postcard (see section I.C) would also be very kind.
III.D. What plans do exist for ADOM's future?
=============================================
Many plans... and they constantly change :-) Visit the official ADOM
website to see my current plans.
III.E. What about the sources for the game?
===========================================
In the past a couple of folks were very insensitive about my notions
regarding ADOM variants and argued "If the game is available without
costs I can do with the sources whatever I like". Those folks are...
well... socially retarded would be too nice as a description. Let's just
assume that those people really made me wonder about what I'm doing here.
They really should try to create something in the scope of ADOM only once
in their lives and then they might understand. Anyways, those folks
annoyed the hell out of me and I've decided that I'm not going to
release the sources for ADOM.
This will have a good and a bad effect. The good effect is that ADOM
will remain the most challenging and mysterious of all roguelike games,
simply because you just can't take a look into the sources and find

all the secrets right away once a new version is released. The bad
effect (for some people) is that they can't toy around with the sources,
create variants, etc. I can live very well with that and thus it will
happen.
III.F. What about ADOM variants?
================================
There won't be any as far as I am concerned.
My reasoning behind this is two-fold:
1. To me ADOM is more than just an exercise in creating a
tactically interesting game. It's a breathing world and
it's my child. Therefor I'd hate to see others toying
around with it just to turn it into a munchkin-fest.
2. I already receive more than 3000 emails per year concerning
ADOM. Some of those emails come from incredibly stupid
people (luckily most of them do not). Those folks are not
even able to take a quick glance at the manual. They also
refuse to notice that I'm not responsible for whatever
variants there might be. I don't want to receive another
3000 emails per year concerning variants I don't know anything
about and I'm not interested in.
This for sure would happen. If you don't believe me write
a game as successful as ADOM and you'll see. In the heyday
of activity I spent roughly an hour per day on reading ADOM
email and news postings, which is more than I realistically
can afford, because I also love my work, my life and my other
hobbies.
III.G. Will ADOM be ported to 'xyz'?
====================================
Eventually (probably in the 1.x.y release series). Over the past couple of
years there have been volunteers for the following systems:
OS/2
BeBox
Native Windows NT
Nextstep
Archimedes
MacLinux

Unix
Solaris/SPARC
Falcon
Native Windows 95
HPUX/DEC ALPHA Macintosh
SGI
SunOS/Solaris 1.x/2.x
UnixWare
IBM AIX
MVS
AIX 4.1.x, 4.2.x, 4.3

Many of them probably won't be available after all the time that has
passed. Our strategy (read: Jochens and mine) right now is to port
ADOM ourselves to all the systems we would like to support.
If you'd like to port ADOM to a system not yet mentioned in that
list, feel free to contact me at adom@adom.de.
III.H. How about some technical details about ADOM?
===================================================
ADOM is written in C and compiled with the help of GNU make (or any
other make) and one Perl script (to compile the in-game manual). As of

ADOM 0.9.9 Gamma 9 it consists of 71 '.c' modules, 74 '.h' files.

This amounts to more than 120000 lines of code (slightly over 3MB
for all the source files). As a comparison: ADOM 0.9.9 Gamma 16
prerelease 2 right now consists of 80 '.c' modules and 84 '.h' files.
This in turn amounts to roughly 140000 lines of code (slightly
over 4 MB for all the source fules).
For output ADOM uses the NCurses library under Linux.
And for comparison: ADOM 1.0.0 grew to 146561 lines of code in 82
'.c' files 86 '.h' files. Still slightly over 4 MB of sources.
The DOS version of ADOM is compiled with DJGPP (see the information
at http://www.delorie.com for a truly magnificent DOS compiler), uses
the PD Curses library for output (it's damn fast) and is edited with
Emacs (as is the Linux version). BTW, the PD Curses library has been
patched because Raymond Martineau found a bug in it.
The Amiga version is compiled with the GCC compiler and utilizes
an optimized curses library my friend Jochen created.
As you can see, you can't write a complex roguelike game in a couple of
months (ADOM required about seven years to get this far).
III.I. Why don't you make save files compatible between versions?
=================================================================
Occasionally save files are compatible. When they are not, it's because
I changed many of the internal data structures and I neither have the
time nor the will to care for all the details of save file compatibility.
It's tedious, it's painful and I'm not paid for it, so there's really no
reason for me to work on it.
Besides that new versions usually get adopted very quickly. Thus it does
not seem to make much sense to fiddle around with savefile compatibility
for a prolonged amount of time, just because older versions usually
are dropped quickly.
Save file compatibility between operating systems neither is a question:
a few (very few!) folks asked for it, but IMHO the amount of work required
to achieve save file compatibility between operating systems is not worth
the tiny benefit gained due to such a feature. It's marketing hype as far
as I am concerned.
III.J. How about translations of the game texts into other languages?
=====================================================================
Simple answer: no chance... for several reasons:
-*- ADOM is not prepared to handle multiple languages and I can't see
any even moderately sane way of adjusting the sources to handle
this. I don't want to keep multiple source trees updated.
-*- Other languages probably have a sufficiently different grammar
to require changes in the source code depending on the language
being used. This is so because ADOM constructs many messages
"on the fly", e.g. it has no idea how some sentences will end when
they are started (especially during combat). I imagine that different
languages will require major changes to the sentence structure.

-*- As far as I know the Curses libraries I use at least on some systems
still expect 7-bit ASCII characters -- thus there is no way of using
all those fancy special characters in various languages.
-*- I'm a bit doubtful of the will of
of text in ADOM -- especially all
each version. It's a lot of work
for Canton chinese suddenly drops
don't grow on trees, you know.

some folks to translate those tons

the additions that will be made with
and what would I do if the translator
out for whatever reason? Such folks

-*- The sources won't be made publicly available.

III.K. Who's responsible for the various ports?
===============================================
Jochen Terstiege (jochen@terstiege.de). He is the master of all ports.
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
Section IV: Miscellaneous Stuff.
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
IV.A. Why aren't my emails answered?
====================================
I receive about 3000-4000 emails annually (and that's only the email I
receive concerning ADOM). I rarely have enough time to answer all of
them and thus these days I'm slowly developing similar tactics as the
Nethack DevTeam, simply to retain my sanity.
Thus bug reports are rarely answered, mostly only to get some more
information about the problem sources. Questions answered by this
document, the manual or common sense won't be answered any longer.
Simple praise (as much as I like to receive it ;-) will also rarely be
answered, usually only when I have some spare time and feel in a
talkative mood.
Don't take this as a personal offense, but I'm really low on time and
I'm still doing this for the fun of it and not because I get paid (I do
not get paid).
IV.B. Why is the website for ADOM out of date?
==============================================
Usually it gets updated whenever I release a new version of ADOM.
In between I mostly lack the time to do so. Sorry...
IV.C. Who is Thomas Biskup?
===========================
Just some mortal ;-) I was born in 1971, am living in Germany and am
a Computer Scientist. I like reading, cinema, good books and Internet.
I love developing ADOM II. I also enjoy pen & paper roleplaying games and
I enjoy collecting postcards from all over the world (see section
I.C). Connect to me on Facebook if you are interested in more details:
http://www.facebook.com/thomas.biskup

IV.D. Why has the savefile of my character disappeared after he died?

=====================================================================
This is a convention of roguelike games. You are expected to
play through the game without dying. It's difficult, but it's
definitely possible. In my opinion this 'feature' also makes roguelike
games a lot more exciting than standard rpgs. Every action you take
counts and all decisions are important. Also, folks who use saved
games tend to play in a more hazardous way, taking risks they are
not yet prepared for and consequently dying gruesome deaths. Then
those players get annoyed because "they have to play through the same
thing again and again", simply because they fail to notice that they
should try something else before.
IV.E. Why are requests for advice not answered?
===============================================
Lack of time on my part. Visit http://www.adom.de/forums to get advice
or look at one of the spoiler sites.
IV.F. Does Thomas Biskup enjoy receiving binary files?
======================================================
No. DO NOT SEND ANY BINARIES UNLESS I ASK YOU TO DO SO. If you
send binaries of any kind without ever having been asked to do so,
you'll be regarded as an idiot who'd like to steal my precious time
and I'll definitely not care for whatever you want.
Sorry for sounding annoyed, but there seem to be too many folks who
can't read and insist on sending useless data to me (e.g. their saved
games to show me some kind of bug that has already been fixed). I'm
really sick of wasting my time on such efforts and so would you, too,
if you had to pay the telephone fees we have here in Germany.
IV.G. When will the next version of ADOM be released?
======================================================
Each time that question is asked, the release date is pushed
back by two weeks. It seems that I still have plenty of time
to get finished.

===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
Section V: Game-related Problems.
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
V.A. What's the relation between the Mad Minstrel and the village fool?
=======================================================================
Fnord. You are not cleared for this kind of information.

V.B. How much weight is 'one stone' actually?

=============================================
50.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 metric grams *or*
615.38461538461538461538461538461538461538461538461538 grains *or*
32.15434083601286173633440514469453376205787781350482 pennyweights *or*
1.60756197151400186477188695624216313538886924090923 ounces *or*
0.13396134411454230767169825475160887574281565311513 pounds
(for those folks suffering from imperial measurement systems ;-).
V.C. Why can't I increase my weapon skills?
===========================================
Change your tactics setting from Coward to something else. Use the
'T' command to do that.
V.D. All my characters start out cursed. Why?
==============================================
Look at the date. It's probably yet another Friday the 13th. ADOM
introduces some special effects into the game because the author
likes it that way.
V.E. How can I activate a ring of djinni summoning?
===================================================
'U'se it.
V.F. What's a 'si'?
===================
No comment on the details. But it rhymes with "see" when pronounced.
If you are interested in how it got into the game, here we go:
Quite a number of years ago (that must have been around 1985 or so)
I played a lot of AD&D with a friend. We had two characters,
dwarven fighter/thieves of LN alignment named Gorko Galgenstrick and
Groron Garman respectively, who lived through many many adventures.
One day my friend looked at the character sheet of his character,
Groron Garman, and discovered garbled writing in his list of normal
items stating that he owned a "Si". We had no idea what that could
be and how it got there and we were pretty puzzled but left it that way,
making occasional comments about Groron's mighty artifact, the Si.
Months later my friend again was revising the list of normal items
his character lugged around and noticed the word "Si" in a second
place on the equipment list. Now we were really puzzled and declared
this item to be an artifact with unknown powers. The 'Si' in ADOM
is just a kind of insider joke on my behalf to celebrate those great
old days :-)
V.G. Why does fire damage my character despite immunity to fire?
================================================================
You are playing a drakeling? You are right now probably exploring the
tower of eternal flames? That's it. While heat increases the inherent

speed of drakelings, it also damages them at some point due to over-heating.

Immunity to fire damage doesn't help with such a great amount of heat.
V.H. What about the Red Rooster and associated mysteries?
=========================================================
No comment :-) That's one of the advantages of roguelike games without
public source code. Some mysteries need quite a bit of time until they
are solved by someone :-)
V.I. What's the best class/race combination?
============================================
There is no single true answer to this. It really depends on your
playing style. See the various spoiler sites for comments on this.
V.J. Why is the number of charges for wands I zapped not displayed?
===================================================================
The number of charges is only displayed if your character is even
remotely able to count and remember numbers. Game-wise this means
that he must have a Learning score of at least 6.
V.K. Why are scroll names readable for illiterate characters?
=============================================================
It's a kind of convenience feature. Just because a person can't read
doesn't mean that said person can't spot differences between two
texts. Letters (and probably more so runes) look different, are
positioned differently, etc. Thus ADOM allows you to see the different
alias names for unidentified scrolls, even if your PC is illiterate.
V.L. Why are all classes able to learn weapon skills equally well?
==================================================================
First of all not all classes are able to learn weapon skills equally
well (e.g. wizards need more marks to advance to the next weapon skill
level). Second it is my sincere belief that -- given enough practice
and the physical capabilities to do so -- you can master any skill,
no matter what you were taught in your youth.
V.M. I can't use command 'xyz'. Why not?
=========================================
You probably still use the keymap of an older version of ADOM and
command 'xyz' is a new command. Just delete the older keymap file
called 'adom.kbd' and let ADOM generate a new file (which it will
do automatically).
V.N. What do 'scurgari' look like?
==================================
Scurgari (scurgar in the singular) are roughly crescent-shaped throwing

blades favored by the drakeling people all over Ancardia. The blade
actually runs around the outer bow, while the inner bow has a small
spike protruding from it (roughly in the center).
V.O. Are there any cheat codes in ADOM?
=======================================
All cheat codes may be found in the ADOM General Spoiler FAQ.
V.P. Why are blank scrolls labeled?
===================================
Or: Wouldn't it be more logical to label "blank scrolls" as "blank
scrolls". The idea behind this is taken from the way cursed scrolls
used to work in ancient editions of D&D. The curse would take effect
as soon as you open the scroll to read it. Thus, by default, all
scrolls are potentially dangerous and you need to unbind them and read
them to determine their type. Only then you will see whether the scroll
is blank or not. Thus "blank scrolls" appear to be labelled at first
(meaning that you haven't identified them - and maybe there's even
some kind of label on the outer side).
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
Section VI: Technical Problems.
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
VI.A. General troubleshooting.
==============================
Two major sources of problems with ADOM are known:
1. Lack of disk space.
Make sure that you have enough disk space to handle a file
twice the size of your current save file (ADOM creates lots
of temporary files which take up size).
2. Screen resolution.
ADOM is able to work with different screen resolutions. It can
make use of both 80x25, 80x50 (or whatever) screens. Sadly, the
save files can't be exchanged. If you started to play in one
specific resolution, you also have to activate that resolution
before restoring a saved game. Everything else could lead to
disaster.
3. Turning off the computer without quitting ADOM beforehand.
This will prevent ADOM from cleaning up its file structure.
There might be all kinds of problems as a consequence. The
least you can do is to delete 'adom.prc'.
VI.B. DOS
=========
* ADOM needs a DPMI host to run. If you don't have installed a DPMI
server you can use the free DPMI server included in the ADOM package.

It's called CWSDPMI.EXE. Simply run it immediately before starting

ADOM and everything should be fine. Details about CWSDPMI.EXE can be
found in CWSDPMI.DOC.
* ADOM does not seem to work when started from a drive created with
the SUBST command (refer to your DOS-documentation when you are using
it).
* ADOM uses a wrong color map when started on an Archimedes with a PC
emulator card (yes, we even tried that :-).
* ADOM seems to have problems to work together with the cache program
from Norton Utilities (reported under DOS 6.22). You might want to
disable the cache software before booting to play ADOM.
VI.C. Windows 3.x, Windows for Workgroups, OS/2
===============================================
* Don't try to run ADOM from within Windows. Windows creates swap
files which can grow at a pretty ugly rate and this might eat up
your disk space without allowing you to notice it. If ADOM runs
out of disk space, it crashes in an ugly way.
The same is true for OS/2.
VI.D. Windows NT, Windows 95
============================
* ADOM potentially encounters problems when faced with long file names
(longer than the old DOS 8+3 scheme). If you are using long file
names for ADOM (e.g. a directory like c:\games\roguelike\adom, where
'roguelike' does not fit into the 8+3 scheme), you must set the
following environment variable (either in your AUTOEXEC.BAT or
manually before starting ADOM):
SET LFN=y
This allows ADOM to handle long file names.
* Heed the advice in section VI.C.
VI.E. Linux/FreeBSD
===================
* Recent Linux ADOM versions (099g9 and later) seem to have problems
with older C libraries under Linux (older than 5.4). Save a character
and then check the save file directory. If the save file name mostly
is made up from '_' characters you are a victim of the bug. Upgrade
your libc.
Starting with ADOM 1.0.0 libc6 is used which should remove those
problems.
* Occasionally, ADOM seems to encounter problems with old a.out systems
(especially with old a.out curses library versions).
* ADOM has some problems to read the correct key codes under X.
* ADOM does seem to have some problems with the latest libc libraries.

So far I was able to fix all encountered bugs, but if you notice
strange crashes under Linux, please tell me about your libc version.
* ADOM seems to encounter a variety of problems if your directories are
spread with links across a network -- that's a real problem :-^
* If you experience problems with colors, you might try to use one of
the following termcap entries (version A & B).
If you experience problems with colors, you might need to upgrade
your version of NCurses. After installing the ncurses-base_4.2-1
package (which contains only the "linux" terminfo entry and a few
other common ones like "vt100", and no libraries), ADOM g10 will
correctly display colors under Linux.
If you cannot install the later version of NCurses, you might want
to use either of the following procedures to fix the termcap
entries:
VERSION A:
==========
Erwin Andreasen provided this entry; be warned -- it's just a hack).
This seems to be needed for the latest versions of ADOM (starting with
Gamma 10), which now are compiled with NCurses 3.0, when playing under
Debian.
Here's the workaround:
linux|console|con80x25|dumb,
am, bce, eo, mir, msgr, xenl, xon,
colors#8, cols#80, it#8, lines#25, pairs#64,
bel=^G, blink=\E[5m, bold=\E[1m, civis=\E[?25l,
clear=\E[H\E[J, cnorm=\E[?25h, cr=^M,
csr=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dr, cub1=^H, cud1=^J, cuf1=\E[C,
cup=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dH, cuu1=\E[A, dch=\E[%p1%dP,
dch1=\E[P, dl=\E[%p1%dM, dl1=\E[M, ed=\E[J,
el=\E[K, flash=\E[?5h\E[?5l, home=\E[H, ht=^I,
hts=\EH, ich=\E[%p1%d@, ich1=\E[@, il=\E[%p1%dL,
il1=\E[L, ind=^J, ka1=\E[1~, kb2=\E[5~, kbs=^H,
kc1=\E[4~, kc3=\E[6~, kcub1=\E[D, kcud1=\E[B,
kcuf1=\E[C, kcuu1=\E[A, kdch1=\E[3~, kend=\E[4~,
kf0=\E[21~, kf1=\E[[A, kf10=\E[21~, kf11=\E[23~,
kf12=\E[24~, kf13=\E[25~, kf14=\E[26~, kf15=\E[28~,
kf16=\E[29~, kf17=\E[31~, kf18=\E[32~, kf19=\E[33~,
kf2=\E[[B, kf20=\E[34~, kf3=\E[[C, kf4=\E[[D,
kf5=\E[[E, kf6=\E[17~, kf7=\E[18~, kf8=\E[19~,
kf9=\E[20~, khome=\E[1~, kich1=\E[2~, kll=\E[4~,
knp=\E[6~, kpp=\E[5~, kspd=^Z, nel=^M^J,
op=\E[37;40m, rc=\E8, rev=\E[7m, ri=\EM,
rmacs=\E[10m, rmir=\E[4l, rmpch=\E[10m, rmso=\E[m,
rmul=\E[24m, rs1=\Ec, sc=\E7, setab=\E[4%p1%dm,
setaf=\E[3%p1%dm, setb=\E[%p1%'('%+%cm,
setf=\E[%p1%{30}%+%cm, sgr0=\E[0;10m, smacs=\E[11m,
smcup=\E[r\E[H, smir=\E[4h, smpch=\E[11m,
smso=\E[7m, smul=\E[4m, tbc=\E[3g,
u6=\E[%p1%d;%p2%dR, u7=\E[6n, u8=\E[?6c, u9=\E[c,
(yes, the trailing comma is correct)

Suppose the terminfo source entry is in "linux.ti". Then as root,

type "tic -v linux.ti". Current directory is irrelevant; the compiled
version will go to the place pointed to by the TERMINFO environment
variable, or /usr/lib/terminfo (default location) if that variable is
not set. The -v is for verbose and thus optional.
A note for FreeBSD users (thanks to Walter Hafner for making this
known to me): FreeBSD usually does not seem to have a terminfo database.
You can create one from termcap by typing
'tconv -c -B /usr/share/misc/termcap'
(at your own risk ;-).
Cautious people should back up the existing linux terminfo entry
before doing this. It's normally found in /usr/lib/terminfo/l/linux.
There may be other links to this file -- "c/console", for instance.
You'll only need to back up one of them.
VERSION B:
==========
This workaround has been provided by Raymond Martineau who experienced
some problems with Erwins solution. Here's his advice:
If you experience problems with colors, you might try to use the
following workaround to patch the termcap. This seems to be needed
for the latest versions of ADOM (starting with Gamma 10), which now
are compiled with NCurses 3.0.
Be sure to make backups of anything you modify. Simply tarring the
directory structure of /usr/lib/terminfo (or wherever the terminfo
directory is kept) should be sufficient.
Here's the workaround (you may need super-user or root access):
First, you must decompile the termcap entry by typing
'infocmp linux > linux.ti'
at the command-line. You might need to perform this procedure on
a different library, depending on your $TERM variable.
The top of the newly created file should look something like this:
linux|linux console,
am, bce, eo, mir, msgr, xenl, xon,
colors#8, it#8, ncv#3, pairs#64,
bel=^G, blink=E[5m, bold=E[1m, civis=E[?25l,
clear=E[HE[J, cnorm=E[?25h, cr=^M, [...]
(The top line may be slightly different, depending on the computer.)
Open the newly created file, and append the following two lines to
end of that file:
setab=E[4%p1%dm, setaf=E[3%p1%dm, setb=E[%p1%'('%+%cm,
setf=E[%p1%{30}%+%cm,
(It's okay if there are similar entries earlier in the termcap.
These entries will take precedence. Also, the trailing comma is
correct.)
Now, you will need to recompile the termcap. To do this, type

"tic linux.ti", and adom will run with the correct colors.
The recompiled termcap will be placed in /usr/lib/terminfo, or the
place pointed to by the $TERMINFO encironment variable.
A note for FreeBSD users (thanks to Walter Hafner for making this
known to me): FreeBSD usually does not seem to have a terminfo database.
You can create one from termcap by typing
'tconv -c -B /usr/share/misc/termcap'
(at your own risk ;-).
* You want colors under X? This also is possible. Try the following
(thanks to Massimo Campostrini <campo@mailbox.difi.unipi.it> for
providing the information):
Include in your resource file (possibly ~/.Xdefaults)
xadom*color0:
xadom*color1:
xadom*color2:
xadom*color3:
xadom*color4:
xadom*color5:
xadom*color6:
xadom*color7:
xadom*color8:
xadom*color9:
xadom*color10:
xadom*color11:
xadom*color12:
xadom*color13:
xadom*color14:
xadom*color15:
xadom*background:
xadom*foreground:
xadom*cursorColor:

#000000
#ff0000
#00ff00
#ffaa00
#2222ff
#ff00ff
#00ffff
#ffffff
#666666
#ff5555
#00aa00
#ffff00
#8888ff
#ff69b4
#00aaaa
#aaaaaa
#000000
#ffffff
#00ff00

xadom*VT100.Translations:
#override \n\
<Key>R7:
string("7") \n\
<Key>R8:
string("8") \n\
<Key>Up:
string("8") \n\
<Key>R9:
string("9") \n\
<Key>R10:
string("4") \n\
<Key>Left:
string("4") \n\
<Key>R11:
string("5") \n\
<Key>R12:
string("6") \n\
<Key>Right:
string("6") \n\
<Key>R13:
string("1") \n\
<Key>R14:
string("2") \n\
<Key>Down:
string("2") \n\
<Key>R15:
string("3") \n\
None<Key>KP_1: string("1") \n\
None<Key>KP_2: string("2") \n\
None<Key>KP_3: string("3") \n\
None<Key>KP_4: string("4") \n\
None<Key>KP_5: string("5") \n\
None<Key>KP_6: string("6") \n\
None<Key>KP_7: string("7") \n\
None<Key>KP_8: string("8") \n\
None<Key>KP_9: string("9") \n\

Ctrl<Key>KP_1: string("w1") \n\

Ctrl<Key>KP_2: string("w2") \n\
Ctrl<Key>KP_3: string("w3") \n\
Ctrl<Key>KP_4: string("w4") \n\
Ctrl<Key>KP_5: string("w5") \n\
Ctrl<Key>KP_6: string("w6") \n\
Ctrl<Key>KP_7: string("w7") \n\
Ctrl<Key>KP_8: string("w8") \n\
Ctrl<Key>KP_9: string("w9") \n\
Meta<Key>KP_1: string("a11") \n\
Meta<Key>KP_2: string("a12") \n\
Meta<Key>KP_3: string("a13") \n\
Meta<Key>KP_4: string("a14") \n\
Meta<Key>KP_5: string("a15") \n\
Meta<Key>KP_6: string("a16") \n\
Meta<Key>KP_7: string("a17") \n\
Meta<Key>KP_8: string("a18") \n\
Meta<Key>KP_9: string("a19") \n\
<Key>F11:
string("-") \n\
<Key>F12:
string("+") \n\
<Key>Prior:
string("-") \n\
<Key>Next:
string("+") \n\
<Key>End:
string("\n") \n\
<Key>KP_Divide: string("T-- ") \n\
<Key>KP_Multiply:string("T++ ")
Tune colors and keybindings to your taste.
Remember to run xrdb after each change:
xrdb -load ~/.Xdefaults
Now start a color xterm (the "standard" xterm in Red Hat 4.1 or
later is fine) using the "xadom" resources:
xterm -title xadom -name xadom -g 80x37 &
In the new xterm, select the appropriate terminal type, e.g.
"pcansi".
setenv TERM pcansi (for tcsh)
eval `resize` (to be conservative)
silly_path/adom
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
Section VII: Bugs.
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
VII.A. How to submit bugs?
==========================
ADOM probably contains many bugs (as do most programs of a certain
size). If ADOM somehow crashes you will have to take care of several
things before you can continue to play.
In case you happen to encounter a bug, you will probably have to cope
with one of the following two kinds of scenarios:
1. The program exits with an error message (maybe saving your game

before doing so). In this case please note down the _exact_ error
message and describe what you did last before the program exited.
If ADOM dumps some binary data, please also note it down exactly!
2. The program crashed without giving any hints why it would do so.
This is very, very bad... try to remember what you did last. Try to
reproduce the error. If you manage to reproduce it, write a step-bystep description on what one has to do to see the error. If you do
not manage to reproduce it, try to describe what you did last in as
much detail as possible.
Look for a file called 'adom.err' (it should be somewhere on your hard
disk in case of crash type #1). Copy it and send it to me together with
your bug report.
After you have collected all necessary data about the error as described
above, try to make the problem known to the developer. This is possible
if you have access to Internet EMail. If you do have such access, write
an email to the following address:
adom-bugs@adom.de
If you have access to the World Wide Web, you preferrably will use
the automated bug report form at
http://www.adom.de/bugs
which ensures, that all necessary data will be there.
Please include the following data (if possible):
* The version of ADOM you are using; please look carefully at the
title screen of your game version. If your version lists the
following text below the game title and the normal version number,
you also need to record the value of 'x':
Gamma Release x
* The system your version is running on (OS name, OS version).
* The bug description (see above).
* Any other comments that you feel would be helpful.
* Your full real life name (so that I can include you in the credits
section in case you have discovered a new bug).
Please do _not_ include any of the following things:
*
*
*
*

Binaries of any kind.

Binary patches (rather detail where you believe the mistake to be).
Flames about this shitty piece of software.
Anything else not specifically requested by the developer.

As soon as your bug report arrives, I'll try to do something about

it. Probably you will receive another email requesting more information
or asking specific questions. Should I be able to locate an error
because of your input, your name will be added to the credits and eternal
fame will be yours :-)
VII.B. Which bugs are known?
============================
See the official ADOM website for this kind of information. Visit
http://www.adom.de/bugs to do so.
VII.C. Command 'xyz' does not seem to work in my version...

===========================================================
You probably copied ADOM over an older installation. ADOM's keyboard
definitions are contained in a file called 'adom.kbd'. Delete that file
and ADOM automatically will create a new file for you.
If you have added customizations of your own to that file you would
like to keep, you also might want to try to type 'adom -k -r'. This
will have ADOM create a file called 'keyref.kbd' which contains all
command definitions for the current version of ADOM.
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
Section VIII - Installation.
===--------------------------------------------------------------------===
VIII.A. DOS, OS/2, Windows xyz
==============================
Installing ADOM is very simple. This section will tell you how to
install ADOM step by step. An example will explain each step. <ENTER>
means that you have to press the enter key after that command. The '>'
represents the command prompt of the DOS shell.
Let's assume that you want to install ADOM on your hard disc drive C: in
the directory \games\adom. The file ADOM-xxx.ZIP (xxx is normally the
current version number, e.g. 099) for the sake of the example is located
on your floppy drive B:. The directory C:\GAMES already exists. You
need to do the following:
c: <ENTER>
cd \games <ENTER>
mkdir adom <ENTER>
cd adom <ENTER>
copy B:\ADOM-xxx.ZIP <ENTER>
pkunzip ADOM-xxx.ZIP <ENTER>
del ADOM-xxx.ZIP <ENTER>
This will install the archive at the location you intended it to be (in
the example).
Next you will have to set an environment variable which will tell ADOM
where to look for the highscore and where to save games. To do this you
will have to edit the autoexec.bat file in the root directory of your
boot drive (C: in most cases). Add the following line at the end of the
autoexec.bat and then save the file:
SET ADOM_HOME=C:\GAMES\ADOM
It is important to use the complete path, drive letter included. Finally
you have to add the directory chosen for ADOM_HOME to your path. After
you have done this just reboot the computer. Now you should be able to
play ADOM.
If you don't set the ADOM_HOME environment variable, ADOM will create
all necessary files during the game and the highscore file in the
directory you started ADOM in.

VIII.B. Linux
=============
When installing ADOM you have two choices. If you have access to root
privileges you can install Linux system-wide. If you are just a simple
user, installing ADOM is also possible.
* Uncompressing the package
-------------------------Distributions of ADOM usually consist of one file either called
'adom-xyz-elf.tar.gz' or 'adom-xyz-aout.tar.gz'. The 'xyz'
normally corresponds to the version number contained in the distribution
(e.g. 070 for version 0.7.0). To install the package you need to issue
the following two commands:
gunzip adom-xyz-aout.tar.gz
tar xf adom-xyz-aout.tar
After doing this you should change to the new directory (called 'adom')
and then continue as described below depending on whether you have root
privileges or not.
Installing ADOM globally will be a bit of work so that you should try the
local version if you just want to take a quick look at it. If you
like what you see you can still install it globally.
* If you _do_ have root privileges:
----------------------------------The following description will assume that you want to use the
directory '/var/lib/adom' as your global highscore directory and that
the binary itself will be installed in the directory '/usr/games'.
First of all you will have to create a new user (e.g. named 'adomown')
and a new group (also named 'adomown'). To create the new group you
will have to add the following line to your /etc/group file:
adomown:*:<gid>:adomown
The term <gid> has to be replaced by the smallest number larger than
99 that is not used by any other group. Note the number. You will
need it once more.
To create the new user you will have to add the following line to the
/etc/passwd file:
adomown:*:<uid>:<gid>:adomown:/usr/games:
The <gid> term has to be replaced by the number you used above for the
group entry. The <uid> term has to be replaced by a valid user id.
Next you will need to copy the adom-binary to the /usr/games
directory. Then enter the /usr/games directory and type the following:
chown adomown.adomown adom
chmod +x adom
chmod +s adom
Now we are nearly done. You need to create the highscore directory
/var/lib/adom. The directory has to be owned by 'adomown' (both user
and group ownership). The correct privileges can be set with

chown adomown.adomown /var/lib/adom

chmod 775 /var/lib/adom
Finally you will have to create a file in the /etc directory called
'adom_ds.cfg', which must contain but one text line: the path to the
highscore directory (in our example '/var/lib/adom').
The configuration file 'adom.cfg' for the individual users has to be
put into the home directory of each user wishing to utilize the
configuration variables (see the manual for details).
The highscore will be saved in /var/lib/adom/HISCORE (if you are
using the default values).
Finally you should make sure that the path variable lists the path to
the globally installed ADOM binary before the one to any home
directories.
* If you do _not_ have root privileges:
--------------------------------------Copy the adom binary into a directory of your choice. This directory
must be included in your PATH variable. To play ADOM just type
'adom'. In your home directory several subdirectories and files
will be created:
.adom.data/
.adom.data/tmpdat/
.adom.data/savedg/
.adom.data/HISCORE
.adom.data/adom.cfg
.adom.data/adom.kbd
.adom.data/adom.msg

to hold
to hold
to hold
to save
for the
for the
for the

all data files

the temporary files during a game
the saved games
the scores of your games
configuration settings
keyboard configuration
message customizations