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System requirements
Captive requires a minimum of 512 kilobytes of memory to run meaning that it can be played on both 520ST and 1040ST systems. The game has a few advantages by running on 1 megabyte systems:- After loading a graphic file from the floppy disk, the game copies it in the remaining free memory. If the file is needed later, the game will first look in this memory region and, if found, use it directly from there giving a much faster access than from a floppy disk. This means that the more memory you have, the faster will load files that were previously loaded.
- 1 megabyte systems make use of both DMA and Timer-A sound systems whereas 512 kilobytes systems only use DMA. Note that DMA support has been completely removed from Captive 1.2 which only uses Timer-A.
The Atari second disk
The Atari ST version came with 2 floppy disks even though the second disk is usually not used. The first floppy is a double-sided disk, but in the case where a system is equiped with a floppy drive that only supports single-side floppies, the second disk will be required to read the unreadable side of the first floppy disk. In other words, the second disk is a copy of the second side of the first disk.When the second disk is required, the system will display a request to insert disk two. A way to see it is by removing the floppy disk during the "Federation War" screen (the bouncing lines) and hitting a key. Captive tries to locate the floppy disk and eventually displays the following on the screen:
The demo
The Captive demo was made available for the Amiga with the November 1990 release of "Amiga Format" and for the Atari ST with the December 1990 release of "ST Format". It has the following differences:- The game can be played for a maximum of 4 minutes and 20 seconds after which an ad appears and a click resets the computer
- Droids are pre-initialized and have some inventory items
- The preferences cannot be adjusted
- The group status button is deactivated
- The disk (load and save) button is deactivated
- The map is hardcoded
- Anything that touches a power socket explodes meaning that the droids cannot be recharged except by the initial power of a battery
- There is no generator
Changes from 1.0 to 1.2
- The most important change is the fix regarding a clipboard created at the exact same spot as a puzzle affected cell. When this happens, the object blocking the cell (wall, fire or door) is now replaced by a fake wall
- The tone of the sounds has been improved
- The various pitch of the elevator sounds are now used. When using an elevator, the pitch of the sound will get lower when going down, and higher when going up.
- The various pitch of the explosion sounds are now used. The lower the pitch, the stronger the blast.
- Mouse sensitivity can now be adjusted in the preference box
- Fix the crash occuring when the processor speed is greater than 8 Mhz
- The brightness of the 5 brown tones has been slightly increased
- DMA audio support has been completely removed
- The title screen has a bigger logo and different font for the game's title
Captive 1.0 Captive 1.2
Credits
Design, programming and graphics by Antony Crowther
Produced by Phil Harrison
Production assisted by Steve Whittle
Art design and direction by Mark Design
Cover illustration by Jean-Pierre Trevor
Manual written by Phil Harrison
Duplication, print and pack by Priority Packaging Ltd.
Special thanks to Lisa Crowther and Sarah
Geoff Heath, Jean-Paul Rohan, Kirstie Milne & Howell Jones & All at Mindscape UK, all at Commodore UK, The bitmap Bros. and Rob Northern [sic]
Extra special thanks to the gametesting GenII: Chris Crowther and Ross Goodley
Thanks to John Millward