Timing

Top of screen message counter

The length of time messages shown at the top of the screen are shown varies per message. A WORD timer holds the current number of remaining ticks that the message will be displayed.

A new message can be made to display while a previous one is still showing, which will reset the timer to the new message's value. The one exception is messages for showing lock difficulties. If the last top-of-screen message was "Failure...", these will not show until the timer has reached 0.

The length of a tick in real-world time depends on CPU speed.

10 ticks: "Game speed FASTER." "Game speed SLOWER." "Pixelation toggled." "Normal roll." "Severe roll." "Cross hatch." "Artifact Quest now possible."

15 ticks: "Your position is %d, %d." "You are not successful..." "Hit 'J' to exit boat." "The magic coffer yields %d gold." "Failure..." "Success..." "Critical strike..." "The chest opens..." "You see a worthless key..." "You see a %s." "Attribute already fortified..." Lockpicking difficulty messages.

20 ticks: "%tem", "%nt", "Mages Guild", and other building names

30 ticks: "On this body you find %d gold pieces." "You have found %s key." "You open door with %s key." "Your %s is broken."

65,533 ticks: "Select target for pilfering..." "Pick spell target..." "Fire spell at target..." "Release spell in your area..."

65,534 ticks: "Pick spell target..." (Unused?)