You may run CASTLE ELSINORE from a diskette, or you may copy it to your hard
drive. To install it on your hard drive, all you need to do is to copy the
three files ELSINORE.EXE, ELSINORE.INX, and ELSINORE.DAT to the directory of
your choice.
CASTLE ELSINORE requires IBM PC/DOS or MicroSoft MS/DOS release 2.0 or greater, with a minimum of about 128K of available memory, and about
200K of available disk space. The disk space requirement will increase if
you take a lot of save points.
NOTE: If you have a previous version of this game, you must replace all three
files, and delete any previous save files. Attempting to use a previous
save file with this game version will produce unpredictable results.
II. Operation
1. Starting CASTLE ELSINORE
To start playing CASTLE ELSINORE, make sure that your current directory
contains the three ELSINORE files. Then enter ELSINORE. The first time that
you play the game, you should read the instructions by replying yes (or just
y) to the initial question.
2. Saving and restoring games
You may save your game at any time by entering SAVE. If you enter SAVE
without a file name, you will be offered a default file name. If this is
your first save point, the default will be ELSINORE.SAV. Otherwise it will
be the last file name that you used in a SAVE or RESTORE command. If the
default file name is satisfactory, just press ENTER to continue with the
save. If you want to specify a different name, you may do so, including
drive and path information. For example, you could enter A:\GAMES\MYGAME.SVE.
To give you a chance to make sure that the name you typed is really the
file name which you wanted, it will then be set as the new default, and you
will have another chance to accept it, or to change it. If you wish,
you can include the file name on the initial SAVE command, in which case
it will be offered as the initial default name.
To restore any saved game enter RESTORE and the file name that you entered
with any previous SAVE command. If you do not supply a file name with
RESTORE, the game will set the default save file to the last file name
which you used in this session, or to ELSINORE.SAV if you have not
specified any other name.
ELSINORE.SAV is special in another way also. If you start CASTLE ELSINORE
and there is a file named ELSINORE.SAV in your current directory, then
the game will remind you that you have a saved game and ask if you want
to restore it.
3. Communicating with CASTLE ELSINORE
To move around in the game, or to cause things to happen, type a simple
sentence. Almost always, this sentence will be in the form of a command.
The simplest command consists solely of the direction that you want to
move. For example, NORTH tells the game that you want to move to the room
that is immediately to the north of your current position. The most common
directions can be entered in full, or abbrieviated. N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE,
SW, LE (left) and R (right) are all valid. In addition, there are certain
words which are not directions which will cause motion. For example, in
many cases, a room with only one exit will recognize OUT or EXIT.
Also, there are sometimes 'magic' words which can move you great distances
in one move. If you see a strange word carved into a table, or scrawled on a wall, it might be such a magic word. Magic words usually only work when entered at certain specific locations.
Commands which deal with objects can be more elaborate. CASTLE ELSINORE
understands about both direct and indirect objects. For example, the
command GIVE THE GREEN JEWEL TO THE LARGE LIZZARD is a perfectly valid
command. (There is no large lizzard in CASTLE ELSINORE - this is just
an example.)
In spite of all this, however, the parser is still relatively dumb, and
if you don't understand its limitations, you can become quite frustrated.
Here are a few tips:
- The parser only looks at the first six letters of each word entered.
This means that church and churchyard, for example, are considered
the same word.
- The parser can not deal with a word that is sometimes used as an object
and other times as a verb. For example, the word FIRE is a synonym for
SHOOT, and can not refer to a bonfire.
- Although these instructions consistently show the dialogue with the
computer in upper case, the game makes no distiction between upper
and lower case. GREEN, green, and GrEEn are all the same word.
- In many cases, room descriptions contain a lot of detail that has no
bearing on the game except to help you picture yourself in that setting.
If you get messages like IT IS BEYOND YOUR POWER TO DO THAT, you are
probably dealing with such an object. In some cases, you will even get a
message that the game doesn't know a word, even though the word was used
in the room description. Please accept that the English language has about
800,000 words, not including specialized technical vocabularies, and
even today's impressive home computer technology can not handle them all.
Here are some addional words which you may find useful:
- To see a list of what you are carrying, enter I, INV, or INVENTORY.
- To see the full description of the current room, use L or LOOK.
If you would like to have the full description always displayed,
use VERBOSE. Verbose mode can be canceled with BRIEF.
- To get more information about an object, use EXAMINE, EXAM, EX, OR X.
- Although your score is always displayed at the top of the screen, you
can also see what rating that score is worth by entering SCORE.
- You can check the game version with VERSION.
III. Registration
CASTLE ELSINORE is not in the public domain. It is copyright by the authors,
doing business as Temple Software, and all rights under the copyright laws
are strictly reserved. However, the authors grant a non-exclusive license
to any individual to copy and use the game for their own non-commercial
purpose. Users who enjoy this game, and would like to make it possible for
the authors to develop additional text adventure games, are encouraged to
register the game by sending a donation of $10.00 or more to:
Charles A. Crayne
Temple Software
1717 6th Street
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
The authors can also be contacted at Prodigy ID JBHM20A
When registering, please provide your name and mailing address, and the name
and version of the game you are registering, along with your preferred
diskette size and density. In return, the authors will send you a copy of the
next text adventure which they develop.
Even if you decide not to register the game, you are welcome to make copies
and send them to friends, upload to bulletin boards, etc. (SYSOPs will
thank you for uploading just ELSINORE.ZIP, rather than the uncompressed
