Amiga Plus Special 16/AMIGAplus Sonderheft 16 (1998)(ICP)(DE)[!].iso/pd/spiele/zebulon/src/instruct.txt

Text File | 1997-01-14 | 19KB | 458 lines

This file contains instructions for playing TADS games. It was
originally written by Michael J. Roberts and distributed as a TADS
function. Magnus Olsson modified it slightly to apply to "Uncle
Zebulon's Will". The changes are minimal (in particular, the original
"we" referring to the author was kept), and these instructions are
still generic and are not targeted at any specific game.

The original copyright notice of Mike's TADS function looks like
this:

    Copyright (c) 1993 Michael J. Roberts

    Permission is granted to any registered user of TADS to
    use the information in this file, or any part of it, or any
    modified version of it, in any game written with TADS.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------


HOW TO PLAY

In an adventure game, you play by typing commands that describe what
you want to do.  Unfortunately, the game isn't as smart as you are, so
it can't understand nearly as many sentences as a person could.  In
this section, we'll describe most of the types of commands that you
will need to use while playing the game.

Note that we've tried to design this game so that you won't need to
think of any unusual words or phrases that aren't directly mentioned
by the game.  We've especially tried to avoid making you guess a
strange verb or an unusal way of phrasing a commands.

Each time you see the prompt, >, you type a command.  Your command
should be a simple imperative sentence, or a series of imperatives
separated by periods.  Press the RETURN (or ENTER) key when you are
done typing your command; the game doesn't start interpreting the
command until you press RETURN.

You can use capital or small letters in any mixture.  You can use
words such as THE and AN when they're appropriate, but you can omit
them if you prefer.  You can abbreviate any word to six or more
letters, but the game will pay attention to all of the letters you
type.  For example, you could refer to a FLASHLIGHT with the words
FLASHL, FLASHLIG, and so forth, but not with FLASHSDF.



TRAVEL

At any time during the game, you are in a location.  The game desribes
your location when you first enter, and again any time you type LOOK.
In a given location, you can reach anything described, so you don't
need to type commands to move about within a location.

You move from place to place in the game by typing the direction you
want to go.  The game will always tell you the directions that you can
go from a location, although it usually doesn't tell you what you will
find when you go there.  You will probably find it helpful to make a
map as you explore the game.  The directions the game recognizes are
NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST, NORTHEAST, SOUTHEAST, UP, and DOWN.  You can
abbreviate these to N, S, E, W, NE, SE, NW, SW, U, and D.  In some
locations you can also use IN and OUT.

Generally, backtracking will take you back to where you started.  For
example, if you start off in the kitchen, go north into the living
room, then go south, you will be back in the kitchen.

Most of the time, when the game describes a door or doorway, you don't
need to open the door to go through the passage; the game will do this
for you.  Only when the game explicitly describes a closed door (or
other impediment to travel) will you need to type a command to open
the door.


OBJECTS

In the game, you will find many objects that you can carry or
otherwise manipulate.  When you want to do something with an object,
type a simple command that tells the game what you want to do; be
explicit.  For example, you could type READ THE BOOK or OPEN THE
DRAWER.  Most of the objects in the game have fairly obvious uses; you
shouldn't have to think of any obscure or unrelated words to
manipulate the objects.

You generally don't have to specify exactly where you want to put an
object that you wish to carry; you can just type TAKE (followed by the
object's name) to carry an object.  We didn't think it was
particularly interesting to force you to specify which object you wish
to put in your left pocket, which you wish to carry in your right
hand, and so forth.  However, there is a limit to how many objects you
can carry at once, and to how much weight you can handle.  You can
carry more objects (but not more weight, of course) by putting some
items inside containers (for example, you may be able to put several
objects into a box, and carry the box), since this reduces the number
of objects you actually have to juggle at once.

Some basic verbs that you will use frequently are TAKE (to pick up an
object), DROP (to drop an object), OPEN and CLOSE, and EXAMINE (which
you can abbreviate to X).  You can PUT an object IN or ON another
object when appropriate.  The game recognizes many other verbs as
well.  We tried to make all of the verbs obvious; if you find a knob,
you will be able to TURN it, and if you find a button, you will be
able to PUSH it.  By the same token, you probably won't need to turn
the button or push the knob.

Some examples of commands that the game recognizes are shown below.
These aren't necessarily commands that you'll ever type while playing,
but they illustrate some of the verbs and sentence formats that you
may use.

   GO NORTH
   NORTH
   N
   UP
   TAKE THE BOX
   PUT THE FLOPPY DISK INTO THE BOX
   CLOSE BOX
   LOOK AT DISK
   TAKE DISK OUT OF BOX
   LOOK IN BOX
   WEAR THE CONICAL HAT
   TAKE OFF HAT
   CLOSE BOX
   TURN ON THE LANTERN
   LIGHT MATCH
   LIGHT CANDLE WITH MATCH
   RING BELL
   POUR WATER INTO BUCKET
   PUSH BUTTON
   TURN KNOB
   EAT COOKIE
   DRINK MILK
   THROW KNIFE AT THIEF
   KILL TROLL WITH SWORD
   READ NEWSPAPER
   LOOK THROUGH WINDOW
   UNLOCK DOOR WITH KEY
   TIE THE ROPE TO THE HOOK
   CLIMB UP THE LADDER
   TURN THE KNOB
   JUMP
   TYPE "HELLO" ON THE KEYBOARD
   TYPE 1234 ON THE KEYPAD
   GET IN THE CAR
   GET OUT OF THE CAR
   GET ON THE HORSE
   GIVE WAND TO WIZARD
   ASK WIZARD ABOUT WAND


OTHER CHARACTERS

You may encounter other characters in the game.  You can interact in
certain ways with these characters.  For example, you can GIVE things
to them, and you could try to attack them (although this is a
non-violent game, so you shouldn't expect to solve any of your
problems this way).  In addition, you can ask characters about things:

   ASK WIZARD ABOUT WAND

You can also tell characters to do something.  To do this, type the
character's name, then a comma, then a command that you want the
character to perform.  You can type several commands for the character
all on the same line by separating the commands with periods.  For
example:

   ROBOT, GO NORTH.  PUSH BUTTON.  GO SOUTH.

Of course, you shouldn't expect that characters will always follow
your instructions; most characters have minds of their own, and won't
automatically do what you ask.


TIME

Time passes only in response to commands you type.  Nothing happens
while the game is waiting for you to type something.  Each turn takes
about the same amount of time.  If you want to let some game time
pass, because you think something is about to happen, you can type
WAIT (or just Z).


SCORE

The game assigns you a score while you play, indicating how close you
are to finishing the game.  At certain points in the game, you will be
awarded points when you solve some puzzle or obtain some item.  The
score is intended to provide you with a measure of your progress in
the game, and increases as you get further in the game; you never lose
points once they are earned.


REFERRING TO MULTIPLE OBJECTS

You can usually use multiple objects in your sentences.  You separate
the objects by the word AND or a comma.  For example:

   TAKE THE BOX, THE FLOPPY DISK, AND THE ROPE
   PUT DISK AND ROPE IN BOX
   DROP BOX AND BALL

You can use the word ALL to refer to everything that is applicable to
your command, and you can use EXCEPT (right after the word ALL) to
exclude certain objects.

   TAKE ALL
   PUT ALL EXCEPT DISK AND ROPE INTO BOX
   TAKE EVERYTHING OUT OF THE BOX
   TAKE ALL OFF SHELF

The word ALL refers to everything that makes sense for your command,
excluding things inside containers that are used in the command.  For
example, if you are carrying a box and a rope, and the box contains a
floppy disk, typing DROP ALL will drop only the box and the rope; the
floppy disk will remain in the box.


"IT" AND "THEM"

You an use IT and THEM to refer to the last object or objects that you
used in a command.  Some examples:

   TAKE THE BOX
   OPEN IT
   TAKE THE DISK AND THE ROPE
   PUT THEM IN THE BOX


MULTIPLE COMMANDS ON A LINE

You can put multiple commands on a single input line by separating the
commands with periods or the word THEN, or with a comma or the word
AND.  Each command still counts as a separate turn.  For example:

   TAKE THE DISK AND PUT IT IN THE BOX
   TAKE BOX.  OPEN IT.
   UNLOCK THE DOOR WITH THE KEY.  OPEN IT, AND THEN GO NORTH

If the game doesn't understand one of the commands on the input line,
it will tell you what it couldn't understand, and it will ignore the
rest of the commands on the line.


AMBIGUOUS COMMANDS

If you type a command that leaves out some important information, the
game will try to figure out what you mean anyway.  When the game can
be reasonably sure about what you mean, because only one object would
make sense with the command, the game will make an assumption about
the missing information and act as though you had supplied it.  For
example,

   >TIE THE ROPE
   (to the hook)
   The rope is now tied to the hook.  The end of the
   rope nearly reaches the floor of the pit below.

If your command is ambiguous enough that the game doesn't feel safe
making assumptions about what you meant, the game will ask you for
more information.  You can answer these questions by typing the
missing information.  If you decide you didn't want to bother with the
command after all, you can just type a new command; the game will
ignore the question it asked.  For example:

   >UNLOCK THE DOOR
   What do you want to unlock the door with?

   >THE KEY
   Which key do you mean, the gold key, or the silver key?

   >GOLD
   The door is now unlocked.


UNKNOWN WORDS

The game will sometimes use words in its descriptions that it doesn't
understand in your commands.  For example, you may see a description
such as, "The planet's rings are visible as a thin arc high overhead,
glimmering in the sunlight." If the game doesn't know words such as
"rings," you can assume that they're not needed to play the game;
they're in the descriptions simply to make the story more interesting.
For those objects that are important, the game recognizes many
synonyms; if the game doesn't understand a word you use, or any of its
common synonyms, you are probably trying something that is not
necessary to continue the game.


SAVING AND RESTORING

You can store a snapshot of the game's state in a disk file at any
time.  Later, if you want to go back to a point you were at earlier in
the game, you can simply restore the position from the snapshot in the
disk file.  You can save your position as many times as you like,
using different disk files for each position.  Saving the game also
allows you to play the game over the course of many days, without
having to start over from scratch each time you come back to the game.

To save the game, type SAVE at any prompt.  The game will ask you for
the name of a disk file to use to store the game state.  (You will
have to specify a filename suitable for your computer system, and the
disk must have enough space to store the game state.  The game will
tell you if the game was not saved properly for some reason.) You
should give the file a name that does not exist on your disk.  If you
save the game into a file that already exists, the data previously in
that file will be destroyed.

When you wish to restore a game, type RESTORE at the command prompt.
The game will ask you for the name of a disk file that you specified
with a previous SAVE command.  After reading the disk file, the game
state will be restored to exactly the position when you saved it.


SPECIAL COMMANDS

The game understands several special commands that you can use to
control the game.  You can use these commands at any prompt.

AGAIN or G: Repeats your last command.  If your last input line was
composed of several commands, only the last command on the line is
repeated.

INFO: Show copyright and licencing information for the game, as well
as a list of people who have helped testing it.

INVENTORY or I:  Shows the list of items you are carrying.

LOOK or L:  Shows the full description of your location.

NOTIFY: Tells the game whether you want to be notified of score
changes when they happen.  When the game starts, NOTIFY is turned on,
so you will see a message whenever you do something that changes your
score.  If you'd prefer not to see these messages, type NOTIFY.  (If
you later change your mind, typing NOTIFY again will turn notification
back on.)

OOPS: Allows you to correct the spelling of a word in the last
command.  You can use OOPS when the game displays this complaint: "I
don't know the word <word>." Immediately after this message, you can
type OOPS followed by the corrected spelling of the misspelled word.
You can only type one word after OOPS, so this command doesn't allow
you to correct certain types of errors, such as when you run two words
together without a spce.

QUIT:  Stops the game, and returns you to your operating system.

RESTART:  Starts the game over from the beginning.

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

SAVE: Stores the current state of the game in a disk file, so that you
can come back to the same place later (with the RESTORE command).

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

SCRIPT: Starts writing everything you see on the screen (your commands
and the game's responses) to a disk file.  The game will ask you for a
filename to be used for the transcript; you should select a filename
that does not yet exist on your disk, because if you use an existing
filename, data in the file will be destroyed.  Use the UNSCRIPT
command to stop making the transcript.

TERSE: Tells the game that you wish to see only short descriptions of
locations you have already seen when you enter them.  This is the
default mode.  See also the VERBOSE command.

UNDO: Take back the last command.  This can be used multiple times to
take back a series of commands in sequence.  The number of commands
that you can undo at any given time varies, but you can generally undo
over a hundred commands.

UNSCRIPT:  Turns off the transcript being made with the SCRIPT command.

VERBOSE: Tells the game to show you the full description of every
location you enter, whether or not you have seen the description
before.  By default, the game will show you the full description of a
location only when you first enter it, and will show you the short
description each time you enter the location thereafter.  Of course,
you can get a full description at any time by typing LOOK.  See also
the TERSE command.

VERSION:  Shows you the current version of the game.

WAIT or Z: Causes game time to pass.  When the game is waiting for you
to type command, no game time passes; you can use this command to 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.