Original Release Date: January 14, 1995
Story -----
Saric, a servant of the Ambassador of Kish, had been aboard the ship Seraphim,
en route to the kingdom of Zarin. A great storm arose, however, blackening the
sky with great billows. Rain smashed across the decks day and night, as if it
planned to torture the ship before smashing it across whatever land was handy.
Sometime near the peak of the storm, Saric ventured out on deck, partly from
curiosity, and partly from a need for fresh air. As he was leaning against the
rail, he and several other crew members were lifted from his feet by a huge
wave and dashed overboard. Struggling to the surface, Saric saw that the ship
was already passing away, too far to reach.
Sure that he was doomed, Saric was relieved when he caught sight of one of
the sailors, clinging to a piece of flotsam. He and the sailor clung to the
barrel, simply drifting with the current, as neither had either knowledge
of the direction of land, nor the strength to seek it out. As dawn broke,
Saric could see a most welcome sight ahead: Land! A beach pink on the horizon
beckoned to him and the sailor. The two swam with all their might, and now,
on the beach at last, Saric has recovered his wits, but the sailor, fatigued
and suffering from injuries incurred as he was washed overboard, is dying.
Now Saric wonders where he is, whether this is the land of Zarin, and how
he can possibly find his master, the Ambassador, again.
Movement --------
Both the arrow keys and the keypad can be used to help you move Saric around
the screen.
On Mac OS X, holding the Option key makes Saric run whenever it is held
down with one of the movement keys. Holding the Alt key on Windows does
likewise. Keep in mind that running for too long will deplete Saric's stamina.
Weapons and Items -----------------
The Space Bar will make Saric thrust out his sword or dagger, if he has one.
The Shift Key will make Saric use the selected alternate weapon or item. These
items can range from magic spells and wands to keys and healing potions.
You can select your weapons by pressing "I" at any moment during
game-play. This will bring up a list of all of the items that you have. You
can then select, for example, the sword you want to use by clicking on it
and then pressing the "select" button. (As a short cut you can double-click
on the sword/item in the list to select it.) A check-mark will appear to
the left of the icon to show it's your current weapon.
Important: You must select a weapon before you can use it: nothing is
automatically equipped.
To find out more information about Saric you can press "S" at any moment
during game-play. This will show a dialog with some statistics concerning
Saric.
You can acquire weapons and items from treasure chest, bags left over from
dead enemies, or from people. To pick up bags and open treasure chests all
you have to do is walk over them.
People and Signs ----------------
To see what a person (or a sign) has to say, simply walk up and run into them.
A box containing the message will appear. Messages tend to vary from useless
to very important, so talk to
everyone!
Some people are merchants, and when you talk to them, a store dialog will
appear. You can then use cash acquired from enemies which you have killed
to purchase various types of healing potions.
Extra Information -----------------
To get information on your current status press the "S" key at any moment
during game-play.
If you forget what certain controls are you can press the "H" key for
extra help.
Problems: Game Play -------------------
A few things which can be confusing in game play have been brought to the
attention of the Syzygy Cult, so we are going to document them here:
Saving: In order to save, you must first pause the game, then hit the
Save button.
Getting in over your head: it is possible to go the wrong direction in Mantra
and enter an area where the monsters are too difficult for your current
power or that of your weapons. If this happens, try exploring other areas
to see if there is an easier route.
Tough monsters: some monsters are just nasty! If your sword just stays out
when you hold it against a monster, or if the monster does not yelp when
you hit it, it is probably too tough for you. Some monsters cannot be hurt
with lesser weapons, so you must wait until you acquire better swords and
Mantras. Some monsters can only be killed with certain types of weapons or
Mantras. There are even a few monsters which are practically immortal...
Getting lost / Getting stuck: Always remember three things when you journey
in Zarin: One, some boulders can be pushed, some trees conceal secret
passages. Two, sometimes barriers need magic to demolish them. Three,
SyzygyCult answers its email.
Townspeople: Yes, they are annoying, and yes, they sometimes got in the way,
so you can now kill them. Take care when you choose to do this, because some
of them actually have something important to say.
Leaving rooms: when you leave a room, any items in that room will be gone when
you next enter the room. This can, in particular, cause trouble with the keys
left behind by many boss monsters. If you do somehow manage to lose a key this
way, you can send your saved game to SyzygyCult, and we will give you a key.
Using Keys: Equip the key as an other weapon, walk up to a door, and hit the
'use' button. Remember, keys can only be used once.
Some people have also experienced general difficulty in finding keys: again,
we are able to give assistance here if you get stuck.
Problems: Bugs --------------
Mantra has very few known bugs and should run with no difficulty on any
supported platform. That being said, if you discover any, please feel free
to email us.
About the Syzygy Cult (1995) ----------------------------
The Syzygy Cult was, in 1995, an association of six high school students,
forming the Syzygy Cult itself, along with Brett Thayer who worked as an
independent contractor for the Syzygy Cult. Mostly located in and around
Portland, Maine, they were shocked to discover that their regionalism was
shattered by the inclusion of a resident of Utah.
About the Individual Members of the Syzygy Cult (bios from 1995): Dustin
Mitchell is one of the main Syzygy Cult programmers. He was drawn into the
Mantra project claiming "I'll just write the blitters, and you guys can do
what you want," but by the time it was all over he had worked on just about
every part of Mantra. He realized he was doing too much work on the game when
he dreamed repeatedly of a suitcase with its "isExplosive" bit set. He has
an annoying tendency to remain on the phone with Jake for several hours at
a time, sometimes stretching into those wee hours of the morning when the
real programming gets done. As a matter of fact, it's 1:16 AM right now,
and with just a little Pepsi he feels great! Dustin is a Junior at Waynflete
High School by day, taking far too many courses to have a life this year.
Jake Beal is another of the programmers for the Syzygy Cult, and holds
responsibility for the Mantra MapEditor ("It work's don't it? At least
sort of"). Jake lives in Portland, Maine and also goes to Waynflete High
School, where he is a Junior and a fixture in the computer room. He too has
had times when programming overwhelmed him and he sucessfully debugged a
piece of code in a dream. Unfortunately, by the time he had started up his
computer, he had forgotten. Since we still can't figure out what it was,
that bug couldn't have been that bad. His other interests include theater,
piano, lording his driver's licence over other cult members, and writing.
Macneil Shonle is yet another programmer for the Syzygy Cult. Also a Junior
at Waynflete High School. He likes: computers, weight lifting, philosophy
and hanging out. His best advice to someone is: "Take it easy," something
that he himself should do more often... Anyway, things are on the up and up
for him, and he looks forward to future projects from The Syzygy Cult.
Gabe Ganberg is the person most directly responsible for Mantra's plot,
the actions of the monsters, and the general game design, and is also a Junior
at Waynflete High School. He is not a programmer, although he plays one on TV.
Ben Cote is the tallest member the Syzygy Cult. His interest including theatre,
show tunes, shiny things and twiddling with his fancy hardware. His main
contribution to Mantra was hanging around and bothering the programers. Not
to mention dancing Irish jigs while quoting Andrew Lloyd Webber shows.
Brett Thayer is a 28 year old free-lance Illustrator/Designer living in Salt
Lake City, Utah (no man's land). Graduated with a B.A. in Fine Art from
the University of Utah in 1991. Brett created nearly all of the graphics
for Mantra, for which the Syzygy Cult is eternally grateful.
Ben Birney was born in Washington DC in 1979. He grew up in North Yarmouth,
Maine, using Apples and Macintoshes. He attended public school until eighth
grade, when he finally became fed up with being taunted as a computer nerd,
and transferred to Waynflete School, where he is currently a sophomore. He
learned to program in C and has used his ten years of piano experience to
write MODs. After finishing the MODs for Mantra, his current projects include
a tactical war game, an arcade style spaceship game, and an in-play aid for
Dungeons and Dragons called DM's Aid.
About the Syzygy Cult (2009) ----------------------------
A lot has happened since Mantra was originally released. All of the original
members have now graduated from high school, and went off to pursue their
lifelong passions. Some of you may be wondering, what brought these great minds
back together? Here is the story, as best it can be recalled.
Sometime in the late 90's or early 2000's (who can keep track of such things),
the Syzygy Cult made a website with a forum. In September of 2005, Christopher
O'Neill, a loyal fan of the original game, found the site, created an account,
noticed an overall lack of activity, and continued on his way. However,
much to his surprise, he soon received an email from none other than Ben
Birney himself! He proposed the idea of collaborating on a sequel, and Chris
jumped at the opportunity. After some discussion with the other members,
it was decided that there was not enough time or manpower to create a whole
new game, but that it might be possible to recode Mantra to work for Mac
OS X using the old code as a template. Chris, being the sly programmer he
was, rewrote the game using the Allegro Game Programming Library, so that
Windows users could also enjoy the game. Some 5 years later, and after many
starts and stops in progress, the game was finally ready for release. It was
released for beta testing in December 2009, and released soon thereafter. Now,
longtime fans and newbies alike could enjoy Mantra once again.
Below is a list of the updated Bios of the members of the Syzygy Cult,
both old and new.
Dustin Mitchell: Dustin has had a varied career, teaching, administering
UNIX systems, and now developing open source software. He writes at
http://code.v.igoro.us/.
Jake Beal: After finishing his PhD at MIT, Jake is now a scientist a BBN
Technologies, where his research focuses on engineered emergent behavior,
spatial computing, and artificial intelligence. Jake lives in Somerville, MA.
Macneil Shonle: Macneil Shonle is an assistant professor of computer science
at The University of Texas at San Antonio. He is currently looking for PhD
students to advise.
Gabe Ganberg: Gabe Ganberg is software engineer at a research company in
the Boston area by day and a martial arts instructor by night.
Ben Cote: Ben Cote continues to live in southern, Maine. He recently
completed a masters degree in history and works at a local high school in
Special Education.
Ben Birney: Benjamin Birney works as a software developer, participating
in teams the develop custom enterprise products on a number of different
platforms. He continues to love and create music, singing actively in and
writing for his church choir. His musical theatre piece Sophia's Fall was
an official selection of the 2008 New York Musical Theatre Festival. Ben
is, through a series of unreasonable coincidences, joyfully married to Hop
Nguyen. He is continually amazed by their daughter Ivy.
Thanks ------
The Syzygy Cult would like to extend its thanks to the following parties:
- Ernest Liu for help with graphics.
They would also like to thank the hard working developers of the following
pieces of software, without whom this would not have been possible. -
Allegro. After developing entirely on the Mac platform, it took less than
an hour to get it up and running on Windows. Simply amazing. - libDumb.
Used for sound. Allowed us to use the original music and sound, in its
original format. - libAlfont. Used to allow a custom font. Makes the text
prettier than block test :).
Thanks also to everyone who helped test.