The World of Computer Software/The World of Computer Software.iso/race13.zip/RACE.DOC

Text File | 1992-12-19 | 17KB | 398 lines

The Great Archeological Race!
An Absolute Zero Release
Interactive Fiction by John LaBonney
Copyright (c) 1992 by John LaBonney.  All Rights Reserved.

    Beta Testers:
        Dave Dechellis
        Melissa Dempsey
        Cheryl Ingram
        Chuck Ingram
        Phil Irwin
        Michael Wlodyka


INTRODUCTION

In The Great Archeolgical Race you play the Assistant Curator of
The Evelyn Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.  Donations are low,
and it's up to you to find some new exhibits.  Be aware that
artifacts aren't just lying around anywhere, and when a cache is
found, there are many dangers that await those who try to claim
it!

PLAYING THE GREAT ARCHEOLOGICAL RACE

In an adventure game, you tell the game what you want to do.  The
Great Archeological Race has a vocabulary of around 800 words,
and is pretty good at recognizing sentences once you've gotten
used to formatting your commands.

Whenever you see the prompt ">", the game is telling you it's
ready to accept a command.  Your command should be a simple
imperative sentence.  Press [RETURN] (or [ENTER]) when you're
done typing your sentence, and the game will begin processing the
command.  Some simple examples might be OPEN THE BOTTLE or READ
THE BOOK.  You can use articles if you wish, but they may be
omitted.

You may use capitals and lowercase in any mixture, and you can
even enter more than one command at once by separating them with
a punctuation mark.

GETTING AROUND

At any one time in the game, your at a certain location.  The
game gives a description of the room when you first enter, and
you can see it again at any time by typing LOOK.  In general,
objects that you see in a room are directly accessible; you don't
need to move around within a location to reach them.

To move to a different room, you type the direction you want to
go.  The rooms description will give a list of obvious possible
travel directions.  The game understands the commands NORTH,
SOUTH, EAST, WEST, NORTHEAST, SOUTHEAST, NORTHWEST, SOUTHWEST,
UP, and DOWN.  You can abbreviate these to N, S, E, W, NE, SE,
NW, SW, U, and D.  In some locations you can use IN and OUT, or
you can GET IN or OUT of something.

In general, backtracking will take you back to where you started.
If you start in the bedroom, go south to the hallway, then go
north, you'll be back in the bedroom.

When the game describes a door or doorway, you don't have to
worry about opening the door; the game will do this for you.
Only when a specific impediment is described will you have to
type a command to open the door, or whatever.

OBJECTS

There are many objects in The Great Archeological Race that you
can manipulate.  You'll want to carry objects that you find with
the TAKE command.  For example, TAKE THE APPLE.  Some objects
can't be taken because they're too heavy, or require you to solve
a particular puzzle before they can be collected.  You can only
carry so much weight and bulk at any one time, but you can carry
more bulk by putting some items inside containers.  For example,
you may find a sack, put the objects in the sack, and carry it
instead of carrying all the objects separately.  In general,
objects inside containers will always be directly accessible
while you're carrying the container.  When you want to stop
carrying an object, DROP it.

It's important to EXAMINE objects as you encounter them.  When
you examine an object, you get a more detailed description about
the object that can give insight as to its features and possible
uses.

You can OPEN and CLOSE certain objects.  TURN, PULL, PUSH, LOOK
IN, LOOK UNDER, and many other verbs are possible.  For example,
you could CLIMB a ladder, PUSH a button, or CLEAN a dish.  The
game will let you know when it's unclear about how you want to
manipulate an object.  If you asked it to SWEEP THE FLOOR WITH
THE CHAIR, it might respond by saying "I don't know how to sweep
the floor with that," but might respond a little more favorably
to using a broom.

You can interact with multiple objects at the same time by using
the words AND, BUT, ALL, and others.  For example, TAKE THE
BOTTLE AND THE BOOK, DROP ALL BUT HAMBUGER AND FRIES, PUT THE
CUP, THE SHOE, AND THE NEWSPAPER IN THE SACK.

When the game is unsure of what to do when you type an ambiguous
command, it will try to figure out what you mean anyway.  If only
one object would make sense with the command, the game will make
an assumption about the object and continue as though you've
suppied it.  For example:

     >ATTACK THE DRAGON
     (with the sword)
     You swing the sword at the dragon, killing him.  He
     falls to the ground unceremoniously.

If the game can't figure out exactly what you meant, it will
question you for more information.  You can supply the
information the game requests, or enter an entirely new command.
For example:

     >TURN THE BOLT
     What do you want to turn it with?

     >THE WRENCH
     Which wrench do you mean, the monkey wrench or the
     cresent wrench?

     >CRESENT
     The wrench fits perfectly on the bolt.  You turn it and
     the gate opens, revealing a pathway to the north.

You can also refer to objects with words like IT and THEM to
refer to the last objects you used in a command.

     TAKE THE BALL
     PUT IT IN THE BOX
     TAKE THE PAPER AND THE SOCK
     PUT THEM ON THE TABLE

The following list of commands should give you a general idea of
the ones that you'll be able to use while playing the game.  You
might not encounter any of these objects in the game; it's just a
sampling to illustrate how your commands might be structured.

     TAKE
     LOOK IN THE CABINET
     OPEN THE SAFE
     TURN THE OVEN ON
     PUSH THE BLUE BUTTON
     EXAMINE THE FLOWER
     DROP BALL
     WEAR THE RING
     TAKE OFF THE RING
     GET IN THE TAXI
     GO NORTH
     GIVE MICHAEL THE RADIO
     ASK MICHAEL ABOUT THE MACHINE
     NW
     INVENTORY
     READ THE LEAFLET
     TYPE "PASSWORD" ON THE KEYBOARD
     TYPE 6789 ON THE NUMBER PAD
     TAKE THE KEY.  UNLOCK THE DOOR.  GO SOUTH.

OTHER CHARACTERS

You may encounter other characters in The Great Archeological
Race.  You can interact with them just like with people in real
life.  You can GIVE things to a character, SHOW something to a
character, ATTACK a character, and so on.  You can also query a
character for information:

     ASK THE DOCTOR ABOUT THE MEDICINE

You can also give commands to a character, telling them to do
something.  To address a character and give him a command, type
the character's name, then a comma, and then a regular command.
For example:

     LARRY, GIVE ME THE BASEBALL
     LARRY, GO SOUTH
     LARRY, TELL ME ABOUT THE GUN

You shouldn't expect a character to follow your commands blindly;
usually they have minds of their own and won't automatically do
what you ask.

TIME

Time in The Great Archeological Race passes only in response to
the commands you type; nothing happens with the game is waiting
for you to enter a command.  Each turn takes about one minute of
game time.  You can display the current time by typing TIME, the
current day by typing DAY, or get both by typing DATE.  If you do
something that takes more time than a regular command, the game
time will be updated accordingly.  If you want to wait because
you think something is going to happen, type WAIT (or Z).

SCORE

The Great Archeological Race gives you points when you solve
certain puzzles or do something of merit in the game.  The score
is indended to give you a measure of how well you're doing; it
isn't necessary to get the maximum score to win the game.  You
can see your score by typing SCORE.

UNKNOWN WORDS

The Great Archeological Race uses many more words than it
understands.  You may see something in a room's description that
you somehow can directly manipulate.  For example, "You can see
that the moon is full and blue from your position in the
clearing."  If the game doesn't understand the word "moon" when
you type it, you can pretty much assume that it isn't needed to
play or win the game.  In most cases, such words and descriptions
are there to provide a more realistic atmosphere.

SAVING THE GAME

It's important to save your game at regular intervals while
playing.  If you should break or lose an important object, or get
killed (gulp!) making it impossible to finish the game, you can
restore a previously saved game instead of restarting the game
from scratch.  Saving stores a snapshot of the current game in a
file on disk; you can save a game as often as you wish, assigning
different names for each saved game.  You may create an unlimited
number of saved games at any point during the adventure, limited
only by your available disk space.

To save a game, type SAVE.  The game will prompt you for a
filename (you must supply a valid filename for your computer
system) and then write the file to disk.  If you choose a
filename that is already being used on your disk, the file will
be overwritten (the game asks for a confirmation).  The game will
tell you if a game was not saved for some reason.

After you've saved a game, the current game continues as normal.
Saving a game takes up no turns or time.

To load a previously saved game and resume play at the point when
the game was saved, type RESTORE.  The game will ask you to
supply the filename of a saved game, and then the game state will
be restored to exactly the position it was in when you saved it.

IMPORTANT COMMANDS

Here's a list an descriptions of important commands that you can
use with The Great Archeological Race.

AGAIN (or G):       Repeats your last command.

DATE:               Displays the current day and time in the
                    game.

DAY:                Displays the current day in the game.

INVENTORY (or I):   Shows a list of all the items you are
                    currently carrying.

LOOK (or L):        Gives you a full description of the room.

OOPS:               Allows you to correct the spelling of a word
                    in the last command.  When the game issues
                    the complaint, "I don't know the word
                    <word>," you can type OOPS followed by the
                    correct spelling of the word, instead of
                    retyping the entire command.  You can only
                    type one word after OOPS, and it only works
                    on the previous command.  This is useful for
                    correcting a long command where you made a
                    misspelling.

QUIT:               Stops the game and returns you to your
                    computer's operating system.  You must SAVE
                    your game first if you want to continue from
                    that point when you play again.

RESTART:            Starts the game over from the beginning.

RESTORE:            Restores a position previously saved with the
                    SAVE command.

SAVE:               Saves the current game in a file on disk.
                    You can use the RESTORE command to retrive a
                    saved game and continue play at the point at
                    which the game was saved.

SCORE:              Displays the current score, maximum possible
                    score, and the number of turns you have taken
                    so far.

SCRIPT:             The SCRIPT command writes everything on the
                    screen (your commands and the game's
                    responses) to a disk file as the game's being
                    played.  The game will prompt you for a
                    filename to which the script will be written.
                    A script file can be viewed and printed like
                    any other text file.  UNSCRIPTS stops making
                    the transcript.

TERSE (or BRIEF):   Sets the game in TERSE mode.  The game will
                    display short descriptions of locations
                    you've already seen.  You can always get a
                    full description of a location with LOOK.

TIME:               Displays the current time in the game.

UNSCRIPT:           Turns of a transcript being made with the
                    SCRIPT command.

VERBOSE:            Sets the game in VERBOSE mode.  The game will
                    display full descriptions of locations,
                    regardless of whether you've seen them before
                    or not.  You can always get a full
                    description of a location with LOOK.

VERSION:            Give the current version and serial number of
                    the game.

WAIT (or Z):        Causes time too pass.  Since nothing happens
                    while the game is waiting to accept a
                    command, this forces time to pass while you
                    wait for something to happen.


COMMAND EDITING AND RECALL

On most computer systems, the game has a special feature that
allows you to use your keyboard's editing keys to modify an input
line as you are typing it, and to recall commands that you have
previously typed for editing and re-entry.  The specific keys you
use vary depending on your system, and some systems don't support
this feature at all; see the system-specific documentation for
more information.

While you are typing a command, the game allows you to go back
and change part of the line without "backspacing" over the rest
of the line to get there. Simply use your left and right
cursor-arrow keys to move the cursor to any
point in the command line.  The BACKSPACE key deletes a character
to the left of the cursor, and the DELETE key deletes the
character at which the cursor is located.

You can insert new text at the cursor simply by typing the text.
You can press the RETURN (or ENTER) key with the cursor at any
point in the line (the cursor need not be at the end of the
command line).

You can recall the previous command that you  entered by pressing
the up cursor-arrow key; pressing the up-arrow key again recalls
the command before that, and so forth.  Using the down
cursor-arrow key reverses this process, until you get back to the
original command that you were typing before you started pressing
the up-arrow key.

Once you have recalled a prior command, you can re-enter it by
pressing the RETURN key.  In addition, you can edit the command,
as described above, before entering the command.

The exact number of commands the game retains depends on the
lengths of the commands, but more than a hundred of the most
recent commands are generally retained at any given time.


REVIEW MODE

Another special feature that the game supports on many computer
systems is called "review mode."  The game remembers text as it
"scrolls" off the screen; by invoking recall mode, you can go
back and look at text that is no longer visible on the screen.
On most systems, review mode is activated by pressing the
function key F1.

Once in review mode, the status line that is normally at the top
of the screen will be replaced by the review mode help line.
This line shows the keystrokes you use to view previous
screenfuls of text, and also shows you the key that exits review
mode and resumes normal game play (this is generally the game key
that you used to activate review mode).

While in review mode, your screen becomes a window onto the text
that the game has stored away.  When you first activate review
mode, you are looking at the very bottom of this text, which is
the screenful of text that was just displayed.  Use the up and
down cursor-arrow keys to move the window up and down.  Pressing
the up cursor-arrow key moves the window up one line, showing you
one line of text that has scrolled off the screen.  Most systems
also provide keys to move up and down by a full screenful (also
called a "page.")

To resume game play, press the same key that you used to activate
review mode.

The number of screenfuls of text that the game stores away for
review depends on how much text is actually on each screen, since
the game has a limit on the number of characters it can store,
not on the number of lines.  Normally, more than twenty of the
most recent screens of text are saved and available for review at
any given time.