Assassins - Ultimate CD Games Collection 2

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R E T U R N O F T H E L I V I N G T E X T A D V E N T U R E © SHADOWPLAY, 1992. ----------- Programming : Colin Adams Ross Milward Text/Plot/Additional Programming : Neil Foster Graphic Artist : Bruce Abel Original Score : Michelle Law ----------- This is a freely distributable demo version of RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE. This demo version does not allow the game to be saved to disk and ommits one of the graphics disks. A fully functional version of the program (coming on 3 disks) can be acquired by sending a contribution to the address below. Suggested donation is $25 US. Donations will be accepted in any currency. Overseas users, please do not send personal or bank cheques. Easiest form of payment from overseas is cash funds or American Express Travellers Cheques or alternately disks are an acceptable form of payment. Permission is hereby granted to distribute this program on the condition that no profit is gained gained from its distribution. All document files must accompany it and remain unchanged. If the It may not be distributed on 'copyright' non distributable PD disks. It may be distributed on a BBS as long as that BBS does not have charges for downloading of files. The demo version of Rolta may be included on magazine coverdisks as long as we are sent a copy of the distribution. Please send contributions to : Shadowplay P.O. Box 1201, Aitkenvale, 4814, Queensland, Australia. ----------- !!!!!!!!!!!! IMPORTANT NOTE !!!!!!!!!!!!!! You *must* copy the file diskfont.library from your workbench disk into the libs directory on the first disk of the Rolta distribution. Commodore do not allow this file to be freely distributed and it is needed for this program to operate. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RUN THE PROGRAM WITHOUT THIS FILE. If you have version 2.0+ of the Amiga operating system you should also copy asl.library into the libs directory to enable the use of the Amiga standard file requester. If you install Rolta onto a hard drive, these problems should not occur. ----------- Known Problems :- There are some known problems with this demo distribution which will be fixed in the registered version :- 1) The 'clear screen' menu item is currently used to save the game options to disk (in the file .options in the savedgames directory). The ability to save options to disk is a late addition and a new graphic for this option is not complete. 2) There is a minor bug in the scroll buffer which can cause some text to be overwritten on screen. It is non-fatal, hard to achieve and will be fixed in the registered version. ----------- C o n t e n t s 1.0 IN THE BEGINNING... 2.0 WHAT NOW? A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF GAMEPLAY 2.1 BASIC COMMANDS 2.2 OTHER COMMANDS 2.3 MULTIPLE COMMANDS 2.4 THE USE OF `IT' AND `THEM' 2.5 THE SPELL-CHECKING FEATURE 3.0 THE COMMAND INPUT LINE 3.1 MENUS 3.2 GADGETS 4.0 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 4.1 GETTING STARTED 4.2 HARD DISK INSTALLATION 4.3 BACKUP COPIES 4.4 LOW MEMORY CONDITIONS 5.0 ABOUT RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE ------------ 1.0 IN THE BEGINNING... Newspapers. A symbol of our freedom of speech. An outlet for blossoming literary talent. A public forum for the issues which concern us all. The fundamental bastion of a democratic Western society. After working for a day and a half at the Daily Scumbag, you realize how foolish the above comments seem. From first impressions, it appears that absolutely no one at the Scumbag gives a feathered duck about literary talent or the requirements of democracy. All they care about is selling newspapers. Oh, and consuming alcohol ... but, as you have quickly picked up, selling papers and consuming alcohol go hand in hand. After all, after a few double vodkas doused liberally with whatever else can be found in the bar, a story about a man being attacked by a large dog can turn into a story about werewolves, and a story about a plane crash at night can be transformed into a science fiction saga by adding artistic touches like the sighting of strange lights in the sky before the accident. Even if the werewolf analogy or the strange light phenomenon are denied by the authorities, what sells papers better than stories of a cover-up? Well, pictures of beautiful, busty women, for one thing... and this is perhaps why the staff at the Scumbag have been less obsessed with the supernatural of late and more interested in the female form. To coincide with this interest, the Scumbag has brought forward by a few months its Scumbabe of the Year competition. The competition, a legend in the district, involves the publication of a full-page photograph of the woman whom the special judging panel decide is the best representative of the ideals of the Scumbag's readers. Therefore, as a rule, most winners of the competition have been blonde, smiling, modestly clad in damp, white, skin-tight tops and named either Sammi or Debbie. For weeks now, aspiring Scumbabes have been sending photos of themselves to the newspaper in the hope that they will become the Chosen One and grace page eleven of next Monday's edition of the Daily Scumbag. The Scumbabe edition is always the year's best seller so therefore, the Scumbag's top journalists have all been assigned to the task of selecting whom the lucky winner will be. This has left the normal reporting force depleted... and this is where you come in. You have been employed as a trainee journalist. Maybe one day you too will be senior enough to slobber over five inch color photos with your three inch tongue, but until then, you must begin at the bottom. The very bottom. Day one is a difficult experience. Seeking to make a good impression, you stroll into the Scumbag offices fifteen minutes before you are due to start work. Unfortunately, this enthusiasm is greeted by the drunken jeers of the Scumbabe judging panel. After a few slurred insults about your appearance, your age and your inability to tell the time, you are fobbed off to the only sober journalist in the building. You try to forget this bad start and concentrate instead on the great impending moment in your life - your first assignment. You feel quite nervous but the journalist, whose name is Estelle, tells you not to be. After all, she remarks, the two of you are only off to cover the opening of the new Mushroom and Toadstool Museum. Subconsciously, you groan. The three hours to follow are some of the most boring of your life. You and Estelle drive to a small wooden building on the outskirts of town. There you are greeted by an earnest, yet annoyingly fawning, old woman who drags the two of you into a tour of The Amazing World of the Fungus. The minute you enter the interior of the building, you notice how very dark it is, and how a soily, rotting stench pervades the air. You wish you were somewhere else. The woman does not notice. Instead, she escorts you and Estelle from room to room, lecturing on each of the individual mushrooms, even mentioning her pet nicknames for each, all the while continuously dropping names which are obviously meant to be significant in the fungus world but which are totally unrecognizable to the uninformed. Estelle is nice to the woman (well, actually, she subtly hints to her that she is a boring old cow, but it seems very nice compared to what you would have liked to have done) and manages to curtail the tour before you die from an overexcess of yawning. The two of you are out of the dark museum by lunchtime. Once outside, Estelle suggests that it should be you who writes up the story on the museum. You gaze despairingly at the notes you took on your brand new notepad. They make little sense both because you couldn't and wouldn't understand the woman's rambling speeches, and because it was so dark inside the building that you couldn't see what and where you were writing anyway. Despite your stifled complaints about the quality of your notes, Estelle is firm. She states she has more important stories to do. She tells you to spend the afternoon in the Scumbag offices typing up the article on a word processor. Being the newcomer, you reluctantly comply with her wishes. Back at the offices, you slave all afternoon at the terminal, attempting to encapsulate the morning's happenings in an insightful and topical way. All afternoon, you fail. In the end, with the time of Estelle's return fast approaching, you type the first piece of inane rubbish which comes into your head. Just as you finish, Estelle enters. "How'd it go?" she asks, glancing over your shoulder. You mumble something to the effect that it didn't go that well. You hear her laugh. "It took you all afternoon to write this? `OLD LADY HARBOURS KNOWN KILLERS'?" You explain to Estelle that, after all, toadstools are potentially poisonous. "Oh, leave it out. I've got to show the Ed this." Estelle gets a printout and takes it over to the Scumbabe judging panel. Seconds later, you hear loud bursts of laughter. The room echoes with wild hoots for nearly a minute, before Estelle returns with a smile on her face. "He loved it. It's going on page seven." You sigh uneasily. Your education in Scumbag journalism is swiftly making you cynical. Nevertheless, you set off home that night with a smile on your face. You are published. You don't get into bed until midnight, however. Before you can even walk halfway home after work (maybe one day, you'll be rich enough to own a car), Estelle pulls up beside you in her Honda Speeder and tells you to get in. "Want to see a bit of blood?" she asks. You tell Estelle that a little blood doesn't bother you. Estelle remarks that there might be more than just a little she's off to report on a fatal traffic accident. "I didn't plan on bringing you," she states, "but seeing I've run into you on the way, there's no harm in you coming." You accept the ride - after all, you might get a lift home afterwards. When the two of you arrive at the scene of the accident, you immediately gather that someone has been hit by a truck. A large pool of blood lies on a footpath next to a piece of park. The pool is elongated, as if the bloodied victim had been pushed along for several meters by the truck's impact. The police are talking to the driver. He looks very stunned. At the same time, you can perceive that he is also very drunk. The police are clearly treating the incident as a drink-drive killing. They say as much when they instruct the driver, a bigman, to accompany them to the police station. On hearing this, he starts to babble madly. "It wasn't me fault. I saw this thing appear in front of me. A big green slug. That's what it was. A big green slug. I had to swerve to miss the bugger. You gotta believe me, officer. There was this big green slug that came out of nowhere. Out of thin air..." The policemen look at each other and smile. They might have kicked the truck driver in the head a few times to calm him down but for the fact that you, Estelle and an assembly of thirty spectators were in attendance. Therefore, the driver is taken into custody calmly, the policemen allowing him to dribble insanely. Meanwhile, Estelle is able to wean a sketchy background to the accident. The victim, from all reports, was a hitchhiker who had just arrived in town that afternoon. He had been seen that evening at the local pub and had left just before sunset. Half an hour or so later, as he stood on a footpath next to the park, the truck driven by the man in police custody veered off the road and careered into the hitchhiker, killing him on impact. The police (and most of the spectators present) believe the reason for the truck's swerving was the extraordinarily high blood alcohol content present in the driver. The "big green slug" explanation has been generally brushed aside as drunken rambling. Nevertheless, as a Scumbag journalist (even if only on one's first day) you know full well which explanation will please the editor most. You and Estelle smile at each other. The two of you quickly drive off to the Scumbag offices. The front page headline the next day reads as follows: "HITCHHIKER SACRIFICED FOR BIG GREEN SLUG." Your second day at the Scumbag begins very much like the afternoon of the day before. All morning you sit at a word processor, this time typing up irrelevant articles based on reports coming in from various syndicated sources, tampering with them in such a way as to make them more sensational. You regard your "SMEAR CAMPAIGN AGAINST CERVICAL CANCER" story your best effort for the morning. As for Estelle, she has been nowhere in sight. In a way, you crave her presence. Without her, you are entirely alone in a building reeking with drunken senior reporters, forced to fetch alcohol at their every command and even at times forced to answer their phones when they become too drunk to reach for them. You are extremely grateful when Estelle walks through the door at three o'clock. You immediately ask her where she has been. "Shopping," she remarks off hand, walking towards her desk. You look disappointedly at her. "You are a bit of an idealist, aren't you?" Estelle states. "Hey, look up. We might be able to crack something big this afternoon. Ready for an outing?" Already heartily sick and tired of the Scumbag offices for one day, you immediately agree. An hour later, you wish you hadn't. You and Estelle are standing on a river bank before another old lady and this one is just as boring as the one from the fungus museum. As the old lady prattles on quickly and heatedly about the problems of river pollution, the sense of deja vu is so heavy that you feel you will be crushed into the ground. "I tell you," babbles the old lady, "there is so much pollution in the river behind my house that you find dead fish on the banks every morning... every morning, I tell you. And there's the smell. It's horrid... putrid, I tell you. No one will come to visit me because of it. And you know what? I know who's damn responsible for it all." The old lady pauses, expecting you or Estelle to guess the villain's identity. When you don't, she continues undeterred. "That flaming Mr Vileman, that's who. That's his estate across the river. That's where all that pollution is coming from." Estelle wishes to clarify a point. "You mean Celery Vileman, the businessman? I thought he lived in town." "No, no, missy. He lives across the river, I tell you. Don't believe anyone who says he doesn't. After all, I've actually seen him." You look across the wide stretch of river which separates the old lady's house from the estate on the other side. All you can make out is a tall wire fence and a few trees. "Not with my two eyes, stupid," the old woman bites, noticing your actions. "I'll show you how." The woman takes the two of you into her garden. Standing in a prominent position is a high powered telescope. "My eyesight is not the best," the old lady admits, "but with this feller I can see right into that Vileman's back garden. I've seen him all right. I know him from the telly and the papers. You mark my words. It's him." "And how do you know that he is responsible for the pollution?" asks Estelle. You are annoyed that Estelle asks this particular question. Personally, you would like to know why an old biddy living by a river has a highpowered telescope casually situated in her garden. Is she an astronomer, a busybody ... a pervert? "I'll tell you," states the old woman. "Ever since I've been seeing that Vileman in the garden, the pollution has got worse. Before then, when that nice couple with their two children lived across the river, there was no problem at all." "And when did you first see Mister Vileman in the garden?" "Oh, let me see... Yes, probably twenty eight years ago." You cannot suppress a groan. Estelle starts to snigger. "Well, I would have come earlier," claims the old woman, "except it was on account of my poor Gerald. He never wanted me to have anything to do with it. And I respected his wishes. But now that he's passed away, I believe the truth about this horrible pollution should come out..." "And so do I," chips in Estelle, cutting the old lady off. "You've been very helpful. I know we can get a great story out of this. I think this requires a deeper investigation than a simple interview allows. We'll be in touch with you later to work something out." Before the old lady even has time to wonder if she's being fobbed off, you and Estelle are out of the garden, out of the house and back near the river bank. You immediately remark to Estelle what a waste of time your visit has been. Estelle only half agrees. "I know the old lady might be senile, but if that is Celery Vileman living across the river, there's sure to be some kind of story in it, even if we have to make one up. The Scumbag has had a few cracks at Vileman, but he's always come out on top. It's time to sink the mongrel." Your knowledge of Celery Vileman is very sketchy and you tell Estelle as much. "Well," Estelle begins, "Celery Vileman ... isn't that an embarassing Christian name? ... made lots and lots of money when he was a young man. No one really knows from what. He's been labelled lots of things a gangster, a miser, a thief in the old days, the Scumbag even had a shot at labelling him a murderer. He's one of those intense, brooding sort of guys who usually becomes someone's wicked stepfather you know the type. Anyway, he's very secretive about the things he does... and that makes him the ideal target for sensational stories... Look, I'm going to try and get into his garden and see if I can see or hear anything. It would be absolutely fantastic if I could find some dirt on the guy. You just wait here. I shouldn't be long." With that, Estelle takes off her shoes and, holding them above her head, she wades across the wide, ugly river. You watch her get to the other side. After that, the distance and fading light make it impossible to keep track of her. Instead, you stand dolefully on the opposite bank, waiting for her return. The minutes pass very slowly. You are incredibly bored. When Estelle fails to return, however, you also begin to feel incredibly worried. You strain your eyes to catch sight of her. How you wish you had the old lady's highpowered telescope. However, all you have is the lingering thought that something may have happened to Estelle. Your mind is made up. You set out across the river for the opposite bank. As you get closer, the dark house on the estate looms like a ten meter high shadow. Insects screech. Frogs scream. The moon gazes down upon you. Your heart misses a beat. You are fully aware that this could be the beginning of a great adventure... 2.0 WHAT NOW? A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF GAMEPLAY When you first boot up RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE (see Part 4.1), you will find yourself having to take up the story at the point where the introductory novella has just finished. Your goal is simple - you must locate Estelle and rescue her. To achieve this, however, you will have to overcome a series of puzzles and negotiate several encounters with computer-controlled characters. It is important, therefore, to understand the nature of such puzzles and encounters and the various accompanying aspects of gameplay which go with them. The puzzles: The puzzles in RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE vary in difficulty and importance. All of them, however, require the player to perform a series of acts in a certain order and usually require the possession and use of objects the player has previously acquired. The best way to illustrate what is needed to solve a puzzle is obviously to take one from the game and show how it might be solved. Let us, then, look at the first puzzle you will encounter in the game. It will soon become obvious when you start moving around the first few locations in the game that access to the back garden of the Vileman estate is impeded by a tall wire fence. If you explore your surroundings thoroughly, you will discover that there is a large dog inside the fence under an overhanging tree and that there is a pair of boltcutters lying in the mud on the river bank and that there is a dead fish floating in the river. The puzzle you are faced with can therefore be described like this: how do you get over the fence and how to you get past the large dog? To solve the puzzle, you will have to do several things. First of all, you should take the boltcutters and the dead fish - gathering as many objects as possible is crucial to solving puzzles. Secondly, you should assess your options and the effectiveness of the objects you possess. For instance, can the fence be cut with the boltcutters? Can the fence be climbed? Is the large dog dangerous? What use is the fish? Then, by trial and error, you attempt to solve the puzzle. First of all, you might try to cut the fence. You feel an electric current. Using logic, you reason that the fence must be electric. That rules out cutting the fence and also climbing it. You therefore try something else. You might climb the tree and see if the dog underneath it can be distracted with the fish. You should keep trying things until it is possible to get into the garden. The key to solving puzzles is patience and a willingness to experiment. Within a short time, you should be able to get over the fence. New puzzles will then confront you. Each time you successfully complete a puzzle or perform an act which will assist you in your quest for Estelle, you will score points. The puzzles at the beginning of the game score ten points. As the game proceeds and the puzzles become harder and take more time to solve, solving a puzzle will score you up to thirty points. By the time you have successfully completed RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE, you should have obtained a score of six hundred. A gauge of how close you are to completing RETURN OF THE LIVING ADVENTURE can be obtained, therefore, by comparing your own score with the six hundred point target. You will find that is not unusual for your character to die in your search for Estelle. If you die when failing to solve a puzzle, don't be discouraged. Simply restart (or, if you can, reload a saved game) and tackle the situation from a different angle, learning from your mistakes. If you can manage to complete RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE without dying once then you are either very smart, a cheat, or a person on intimate terms with one of the programmers. Therefore, don't be afraid to trip up and don't be afraid to die (in the game, that is). Character encounters: There will be several times in RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE where you will run into computer-controlled characters. Sometimes the interaction required between you and them will be minimal. At other times you will have to take note of their behaviour patterns - what they say and where they go - and interact with them. The best way to learn how to act around computer-controlled characters is to actually play the game, so they won't be dwelt on too much now. Just be aware, though, that computer-controlled characters are not completely oblivious to what you do and say. For example, characters do tend to see what you are carrying. If you are dragging around a headless corpse, for instance, don't be surprised if a character who sees you with it treats you with a great deal of suspicion and unfriendliness. It is also important to note that although you are not required to rescue Estelle within a certain time limit (the game allows you to type in commands or click icons indefinitely), there are many times in the game where situations will arise which will require you to act quickly. Computer-controlled characters, especially, will not stand around all day and let you do and say what you like. When dealing with puzzles involving characters, therefore, take into account that they have minds of their own and that they might act before you do. Don't waste the time of computer-controlled characters. The computer-controlled characters in RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE are not lifeless morons. Other important aspects of gameplay: As briefly noted earlier, collection of objects is vital in progressing through the game. To collect objects, however, you must also be able see them. It is VERY important, therefore, that you examine your surroundings thoroughly at every possible point when playing RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE. At each location in the game you will be given a text description of your surroundings. Sometimes, however, this will not be enough to help you locate objects. Although objects in easy view will be included in the location description, more often than not objects will be hidden inside, upon, under or behind parts of your surroundings. A wise adventure player will look for hidden objects by examining everything around him thoroughly and will not be discouraged by what might appear to be discouraging or flippant responses to his searches. A lot of the time when you become stuck about how to solve a puzzle, the problem may well be that you have not found a crucial object hidden somewhere in the locations you have passed through. Exploring locations thoroughly is therefore strongly advisable. Here then is a six-point list you should constantly keep in mind when tackling RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE. If you stick to it, you should find gameplay easier and more enjoyable: 1. LOOK AROUND AND SEARCH YOUR SURROUNDINGS THOROUGHLY 2. GATHER AS MANY OBJECTS AS YOU CAN 3. USE YOUR OBJECTS AND YOUR WITS TO SOLVE THE PUZZLES 4. CHARACTER INTERACTION IS IMPORTANT 5. DON'T BE AFRAID TO MAKE MISTAKES 6. NEVER GIVE UP Now, if you can remember all that, let's look at some of the basic commands you'll have to use when playing the game... 2.1 BASIC COMMANDS Movement: To travel around the playing area of the game, you simply tell the computer which direction you would like to go. There are six possible directions: north, south, east, west, up and down. You can tell the computer which direction you would like to go in two ways. Firstly, you can use your mouse. This requires you to move the mouse pointer over the appropriate part of the compass icon located in the top left hand side of the screen and click the mouse's left button. `N' indicates `north', `S' indicates `south' and so on. The `up' and `down' icons are located directly beneath the compass. Alternately, you can type the name of the direction in which you would like to travel. Examples of such input are: > north > south > up Typing in such words so frequently may soon become laborious, however. Therefore, the parser (the part of the program which handles the commands you type in) also allows you to type in just the first letter of the direction name, e.g.: > n > s > u Using this latter method should soon prove just as quick and, in the long run, more convenient than using your mouse to move around. Looking around: The LOOK command is one you will rely on quite considerably. Although the location description comes up every time you enter a location when playing in verbose text mode, if you are not playing in this mode or if you have typed in several commands since the description has come up, you may wish to see the description again. To do so, you simply type in the following: > look The location description will then come up, describing your surroundings and mentioning any objects or characters in obvious view. As a short cut, instead of typing in `look', you can also type in just the first letter. Therefore, another possible input for looking around is: > l If you are adverse to using your keyboard, there is also the option of using your mouse. All you have to do to get the description up this way is move the mouse pointer over the `LOOK' gadget located to the right of the graphics window and click on it once with the left mouse button. Examining things in greater detail: The LOOK command also allows you to look at, look on, look in, look under and look behind things. To look at a thing more closely, say a set of drawers, you could type in any of the following: > look at set of drawers > examine set of drawers > study the drawers > x drawers (The parser does not mind if you use words such as `the' and `a' in your commands.) `Study',`examine' and `x' (short for `examine') are all synonyms for `look at.' Any of these commands will provide you with a detailed description of (or sometimes a slightly irrelevant anecdote concerning) the thing you specify. It is important to note, however, that if there is something hidden in, on, behind or under a thing, this will NOT be mentioned in the description. Hidden objects will only be revealed if you specifically look in a certain place, e.g.: > look in drawers > look behind drawers > look on drawers > look under drawers As mentioned earlier, be sure to search all things thoroughly. It might sound tedious but it's exactly what you would have to do in real life. Remember, a good adventurer is a patient adventurer. There are several other uses for the LOOK command. A couple of examples will be listed below but we'll leave the rest for you to discover yourself: > look at the man > look through window > look on wall Getting objects: You can obtain objects by using the TAKE command. If you are told that there is a stone where you are, for instance, and you want to pick up the stone, then simply type in: > take stone You can also be more specific than that. For instance, if you are told that the stone is in a rubbish bin, you can type: > take stone in rubbish bin If there is more than one object in a location or object and you want them all, then you do not have to laboriously type in the name of every single object you would like to take in order to get them all. Rather, you can take all the objects by typing in the following: > take all The above command, however, will only take everything that is in the location itself. It will not take anything hidden or stored in other objects. Therefore, if you want everything that is hidden in a rubbish bin, typing `take all' will not take them. Instead you would have to type: > take all in rubbish bin If you want to take some but not all of a number of objects in a certain place, there are several ways you can express this. Let's imagine there is a gun, a book and a pencil on a table and you only want to take the book and the pencil. Any of the following will get you just the book and the pencil: > take book and pencil > take the book and the pencil on the table > take all on table except the gun > take book, pencil (The parser will read a comma as if you had typed the word `and'. This is a handy short cut to remember if you are a lazy typist.) If you are not allowed to take an object, the parser will notify you of this. The most common reason for not being able to take an object is either because it is too heavy or because it is attached to something else and is therefore immovable. For example, if you try to take a wardrobe, the parser will respond with the following: wardrobe ... you cannot take it Like most of the words in RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE, several synonyms have been provided for the word `take', e.g. `get',`pick up' and `grab', amongst others. Therefore, if there is a cup on a table, you can type in any of the following: > take cup > pick up cup > get cup on table > grab the cup on the table The program allows you to carry as many objects as you like, so don't be afraid to become a human suitcase. Discarding objects: If you feel you no longer need an object or you don't want to be seen carrying a particular object, you can get rid of the object using the DROP command: > drop stone The DROP command merely takes the object out of your possession and places it in the location in which you are presently situated. It does not physically drop the object. Therefore, if you type in `drop jug' this will not mean that the jug shatters on the floor. Rather, it results in the equivalent of you placing the jug on the floor. Like the TAKE command, the DROP command makes use of the ability to deal with more than one object at once. All of the following are valid uses of this facet of the DROP command: > drop all > drop all except the gun > drop all except gun and pencil > drop book, knife > drop all in backpack (The last of the inputs above will take everything in the backpack and drop it in the location. It will NOT drop everything you have into the backpack.) Synonyms for `drop' include `put down' and `discard.' Putting on and removing clothing: There are a couple of instances in the game where you are required to wear and remove special pieces of clothing. As a rule, the program is oblivious to the clothes you are wearing when you start the game. Therefore, don't try to use your own `clothing' to solve puzzles because the parser will have no idea what you are talking about. The only clothing the parser acknowledges is that which can be found as objects later in the game. For example, you might find a pair of boots. If you want to put on those boots, then use the WEAR command. This command caters for both the verbs `wear' and `put on': > wear boots > put on boots > put boots on If you want to take the boots off then use the REMOVE command. This command caters for the verbs `remove' and `take off': > remove boots > take off the boots > take boots off The REMOVE command is particularly important when you want to drop something you are wearing. This is because you must remove objects that are being worn before they can be dropped. If you try to drop the boots before you have taken them off, for example, the parser will come up with the following message: boots ... but you're wearing that To get the boots off in such a situation, you should type in the following commands: > remove boots then > drop boots Checking your possessions: You will often need to know what objects you have in your possession. There are two ways you can find out. First of all, you can use the INVENTORY command. All you have to do is type in the word `inventory' or one of its shorter synonyms, e.g.: > inventory > invent > i A list of your possessions will then be displayed. If the list is larger than can fit on screen then the following message will be displayed: [More] All you have to do whenever this message appears is press any key on the keyboard and the screen will continue to scroll. A long inventory may bring this message up several times. (Note: If one of the objects you have in your possession contains one or more objects in or on it, these other objects will not be listed in the inventory. In addition, if you want to use one or more of these other objects or you merely want them to appear in your inventory, you must first take them out of the container object using the TAKE command.) The second way you can check your inventory is by using your mouse. Simply move the mouse pointer over the `INVENT' gadget located to the right of the graphics window and click on it once with the left mouse button. Your inventory will then be displayed in the manner described above. Placing objects: A key part of solving puzzles will involve putting objects in certain places. You can put objects in certain places either by using the DROP command (which will put an object in the location itself) or by using the PUT command. The PUT command enables you to place an object in a more specific area. For example, if you want to put a plate on a table, all you would have to type is: > put plate on table Just as you can look in, on, behind and under objects, so too can you put objects in, on, behind and under other objects. The following are all valid uses of the PUT statement: > put plate on set of drawers > put plate in set of drawers > put plate behind curtains > put plate under table The parser may reject your input, however, if your proposed placement is impossible or illogical. For example, the parser will not allow you to put the plate IN the table or ON the curtains. The PUT command allows you to put more than one object in the same place at once. For example, if you want to put both a gun and a book in a set of drawers, you don't need to take two moves to do this. Rather, you can do it in one by typing either of the following: > put gun and book in set of drawers > put gun, book in set of drawers (The parser will read the comma in this situation as `and') There are several other uses for the PUT statement but we'll let you discover most of these for yourself. However, here are a few just to give you the general idea: > put plate on the ground > put blanket in front of wardrobe Opening, Closing, Locking and Unlocking: Doors in RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE can be opened, closed, locked and unlocked. The input required in relation to doors is fairly straightforward, e.g.: > open door > close door > lock door > unlock door However, there will be certain situations where there will be more than one door leading from a location. In such cases, you will have to specify which door you mean by using the direction name (or its abbreviation) as an adjective, e.g.: > open west door > close n door When unlocking or locking doors, you can also specify the object you wish to use, e.g.: > lock door with key > unlock east door with metal key The OPEN and CLOSE commands are not merely used in relation to doors. You can also use them in relation to windows and objects which can be opened, e.g.: > open refrigerator > open set of drawers > close window Talking to characters: There are a several ways in which you can communicate to characters. Firstly, you can talk in general to a character. Let's say you want to talk to the maid. Either of the following are valid inputs: > talk to maid > speak to maid When you talk in general to a character, the character will either reply with a similarly general remark or if the character has something specific it really wants to tell you, the character will reply more lengthily. Generally, if a character replies to your small talk with similar small talk, you will have to probe more deeply if you want to get any information from them. To probe deeper, you will have to ask or talk to the character about a specific subject, object or character. The following inputs are examples of valid conversations: > ask maid about herself > ask maid about gardener > talk to maid about gardener > talk to maid about fountain > speak to maid about dog > tell maid about dog At other times, a character will ask you a direct question. In such circumstances, it is usually best to give them a direct answer. This can be done by typing in either of the following: > yes > no The communication system in RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE caters for even more than has been outlined above, but we'll let you discover this for yourself. Using the three methods outlined is enough to be able to successfully complete the game, however. The commands that have been outlined above are only enough to get you started playing RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE. The parser understands more than 120 verbs and nearly every verb has several synonyms. To successfully complete the game, you will have to use many of these verbs. We'll leave most of these up to your imagination but here are a couple to give you the general idea: give, throw, attach, eat, drink, hit, kill. Although the parser in RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE caters for a wide range of inputs and commands, it is still advisable to keep your commands clear and concise. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the more words you type in, the more chance there is that you might include something in your command or phrasing which the parser does not understand. Although the parser is very intelligent, it is not a person, and is not aware of every single nuance of human language. Don't word something difficultly when it can be worded clearly. Secondly, concise wording of commands saves you time and inconvenience. Typing in a long sentence which could be more easily phrased in a shorter form wastes time in typing and may necessitate you to retype the line if the parser does not understand you. 3.2 OTHER COMMANDS There are many commands you can type in which relate not to solving the game, but to features which make playing the game more convenient or informative. Some of these commands will be explained in the following paragraphs. The ALIAS command: This command allows you to give an already existing word or series of words a shorter or different codename. The ALIAS command is useful for introducing synonyms not already included in the program and for reducing long, frequently-used commands to shorter, speedier codenames. For example, if you want the parser to understand the word `devour', you can do so by aliasing it as meaning the same as `eat' as follows: > alias devour eat More practical is when the ALIAS command is used to reduce often used commands to shorter forms. For example, if you are constantly typing `take all' when you play, you can save typing time by making `ta' stand for `take all', as follows: > alias ta take all After you have typed this in, whenever you want to take all the objects in a location, you only have to type in `ta' instead of `take all' (although the parser will still understand the latter). The basic requirement for the ALIAS command is that the new codename be one word only (i.e. it cannot include spaces) and that it stand for an already existing word or command (this includes already existing aliases). The already existing command is allowed to contain spaces, however. Here are some more examples of valid uses of the ALIAS command: > alias ex examine > alias ten 10 > alias gdeg get all in drawers except gun Whenever you save a game to disk, the current aliases are saved as well. When that game is reloaded, so too are the aliases. The INTERLACE command: This command toggles the screen resolution between interlace mode and non-interlace mode. The format is as follows: > interlace If the screen is in interlace mode at the time the command is typed in, the screen will revert to non-interlace mode. If the screen is in non-interlace mode at the time, it will go into interlace mode. Interlace mode allows more text to be displayed on the screen. The pictures in the graphics window will appear the same size in either mode, however, due to a scan line doubling feature. (The program works correctly under both PAL and NTSC computers.) The SPELLING command: The spell-checking feature (discussed in Part 2.5) can be turned on or off with the SPELLING command. To turn the spell-checker off, type: > spelling off To turn the spell-checker back on, type: > spelling on The game starts with the spell-checking feature turned on. The NORMAL/VERBOSE command: When RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE is first booted, every time a player enters a location, the text description of the location is automatically displayed. This is called verbose mode. If you do not wish the description to come up, you can turn the verbose mode off by typing: > normal The verbose mode can be turned back on by typing: > verbose The GRAPHICS command: When RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE is first booted, graphics are in graphics verbose mode. This means that every time a player enters a location, the picture of the location is automatically displayed. If you would like only new pictures to be shown, type: > graphics on Pictures will then only be shown on the first occasion you enter a location. If you want no new pictures to be shown, type: > graphics off (When the graphics are turned off, the game can run faster because it does not have to constantly access the disks to load the pictures. However, the game also loses a lot of its atmosphere. Whether you play with the graphics turned on or off must therefore take the pros and cons of these points into account.) To put the game back into graphics verbose mode, simply type: > graphics verbose The SOUND command: Like the graphics, the sound has three modes: sound verbose, sound on and sound off. Each of these works, and can be turned on, in the same way as outlined in relation to the GRAPHICS command. The OPTIONS command: The OPTIONS command displays the game options that are in place at the present time. These options relate to the current mode of the graphics, sound, text and other related technical features. The OPTIONS command can be implemented by either moving the mouse pointer over the `OPTIONS' gadget located to the right of the graphics window and clicking on it with the left mouse button, or by typing in the following: > options Every time a game is saved to disk, the current game options are saved to disk along with it. The FOOTNOTE command: At numerous points in the game, the text refers you to the game's footnotes. The footnotes contain a wide variety of information. Some relate to solving the game, some provide additional background to people or things referred to in the text, and some are rather irrelevant ravings about whatever came into the programmers' heads at the time of writing the game. Regardless, all footnotes can be accessed by typing the word `footnote' and following this with a footnote number, e.g.: > footnote 2 2.3 MULTIPLE COMMANDS When playing RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE, it is possible to enter more than one command on a single turn. This can be done in a number of ways. First of all, you can separate the commands with one or more commas or full stops. Here are a couple of examples: > take boltcutters, examine them > take boltcutters. examine them. throw them at fence Instead of using commas or full stops, you can use the word `and' as a separator, for example: > take boltcutters and examine them > take boltcutters and examine them and throw them at fence Thirdly, you can use the word `then', either by itself or in conjunction with the word `and', for example: > take boltcutters then examine them > take boltcutters and then examine them and throw them at fence The method you use depends merely on personal preference. It should be noted however that the commands are processed independently and that using multiple commands does not make solving puzzles any quicker. For example, if you type in three separate commands on one line, they still count as three moves, not one. Additionally, you should note that it does not matter if you mix separators. All the following are still valid multiple command inputs even though they mix separators: > get the gun and then drop the gun. north > north, south, get all then look > n,e,e,e,n, up. take all. No puzzles require multiple command inputs to be solved. 3.5 THE USE OF `IT' AND `THEM' The parser stores in its memory the name of the last noun used in gameplay. This allows the player to refer to this noun not by its real name, but either by the word `it' or `them'. This can best be illustrated by an example. Let's say you look in a set of drawers and the program replies with the following: You can see a book. Instead of typing in `take book', you can type in `take it' because the parser remembers the last noun, i.e. book. Likewise, you can take advantage of this short cut when typing in multiple commands. Instead of typing in, say, `take the bag and examine the bag and drop the bag', you can save time by typing the following: > take the bag and examine it and drop it After you first refer to the bag, `bag' becomes the noun stored in the parser's memory. After that, as long as no new nouns are introduced, every time you type `it', the parser takes `it' to mean `bag'. `Them' functions in the same way as `it'. There is one important point to note about using `it' and `them', however. There may be times when the parser's idea of what is the current noun differs from your own. You have to be careful not to overrely on using `it'. For example, let's suppose that you simply type `look in it' after a piece of text is displayed and you think `it' is referring to a rubbish bin. If in fact the current noun is set to `door', the program's response of `There is nothing of interest' could be very misleading, especially if there is something in the rubbish bin. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the use of `it' and `them' be restricted to use in multiple commands and directly after clear statements such as `You can see a gun.' 2.5 THE SPELL-CHECKING FEATURE These are not all of the commands available in The Return of the Living Text Adventure. The game can understand many words and if there is one that it cannot understand try to think of other words that could fit also fit the situation. In The Return of the Living Text Adventure, the parser (this is the part of the program that handles the commands you type in) is powerful enough to remove most of the frustrations experienced in similar text adventures. One of the most common complaints of text based adventure games is that a simple typing mistake means you have to type the entire line in from scratch. For two reasons this is not the case with Rolta. This first is due to the up and down arrow keys to allow editing of previous commands, and the second is an advanced feature called automatic spell-checking. If a word is entered which the game does not understand, the program will check for words which are close to the word which is unknown. This only works for words greater than three characters in length. An example of this follows: > get bolfcutters The computer will reply with: I do not understand the word 'bolfcutters'. Did you mean 'boltcutters'? (Y/N/Q) After a press of the Y (for Yes), N (for No), or Q (for Quit), the appropriate change will be made. If N was typed the program searches for other possibilities. The program monitors spelling mistakes for common errors, and if it feels that you are making the same error frequently, in future that error will be automatically corrected, without the prompt. Naturally if the word you type does not resemble anything in the computers vocabulary, the game will tell you it does not understand that particular word. 3.0 THE COMMAND INPUT LINE Rolta has an easy to use interface that allows the user to enter commands very simply without frustration or confusion. Editing: The majority of the commands are entered into the game via the keyboard at the prompt. All editing functions are available to the user. The functions are as follows: Backspace - this erases the character to the left of the cursor. Delete - this erases the character under the cursor. Left and Write Arrow Keys - these move the cursor through the sentence allowing for easy editing. Up and Down Arrow Keys - In Rolta commands you have previously typed in are stored in a buffer allowing your last commands to be accessed. This allows for duplicate commands to be reused or editing of incorrect sentences. The buffer stores the previous ten commands. Tab - when this key is pressed, Rolta will attempt to complete the partial word you are currently typing. ie. If you have typed the letters "bolt" and then you press the tab key, Rolta will expand the word to "boltcutters". This feature saves typing in those long words! 3.1 MENUS Rolta has a series of pull down menus to assist in the selection of game options. The five different menus can all be accessed by using the mouse and the right button in exactly the same method as AmigaDOS. Project Menu: About - this gives both graphical and descriptive information on The Return of the Living Text Adventure as well as Shadowplay. Ramload - this allows a game to be reloaded from RAM if a game has been saved to RAM in the current game session. Ramsave - this saves a game to RAM which can only be used in the current session of play. Save - this saves a previously loaded/saved game to disk. This options overwrites the old file on the disk. Save As - this saves your game as a new file on the disk. Under Workbench 2.0 or higher the ASL file requester is used, otherwise a custom requester will appear. If you are playing the game seriously it is vital that you save your game at the end of each session. Load - this retrieves a stored game off disk. Quit - this action quits the game. Text Menu: Normal - this option sets the amount of text displayed to normal. In this mode location descriptions are only printed the first time they are visited. Verbose - this increases the amount of text displayed. Error messages may be more lengthy and location descriptions are printed everytime you enter a location. Textsize - Rolta caters for three different text sizes. The default font when the game is first loaded is small. However, by selecting this menu item the font size can be changed. This is especially useful for televisions and for the interlace mode. Graphics Menu: On - graphics are displayed only when you enter a location for the first time. Off - this turns graphics off. Retrieve - this sets the graphics so that they are displayed everytime you visit a location. Sound Menu: On - this option will play each sample once only. Off - this turns all sound effects off. Verbose - this plays the sound effects everytime, even if the player has already heard a sample. Extras Menu: Clear Screen - this clears the text window. If the Boss Walks By - this loads a picture of a graph, just in case you're playing the game and the boss wanders by. This option has no effect on the game. Pressing the mouse button will return to the game. 3.2 GADGETS Commonly used commands in the game have been implemented by gadgets as well as standard keyboard entry. To perform a gadget command simply click on the specified gadget. These gadgets perform identically as keyboard entry except that they do not go into the command line history. 4.0 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE requires a Commodore Amiga computer with at least 1 meg of memory and at least one 3.5 inch floppy drive. A hard drive and extra memory are optional extras. If present, the game takes great advantage of them. RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE is compatible with all standard Amiga processor boards and expansion devices. Workbench 2.0 is not required, but is supported with extra features. The game also runs under the current beta versions of the Amiga operating system (2.1 and 3.0), so hopefully there will not be any future compatibility problems. The game also supports interlace. This feature is of great use to those playing the game on an Amiga 3000 or a more powerful machine, and to those whose machines have a de-interlacer board. 4.1 GETTING STARTED To load RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE, you must either: 1. Turn on or reset your computer and insert disk 1, or 2. If you are on the Workbench screen, double click on the `Rolta' icon. The program will then begin to load. The first thing to appear on your monitor will be an introduction sequence. If you do not wish to see this, press the left mouse button. The game proper will then commence loading. If you do not press the left button, the introduction sequence will run through once in its entirety and then the game proper will commence loading. RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE multitasks freely with other Amiga software, providing enough memory is available. Although the program comes on three disks, the first disk is used only to boot the program and to provide graphics for the first couple of game locations. After a short period of gameplay, it is possible to play with the just second and third disks in the drives, thereby making disk swapping in a two-drive system almost negligible. Disk swapping in a one-drive system is slightly more frequent but still minimal. 4.2 HARD DRIVE INSTALLATION A separate program is provided on disk 1 of the game to automatically install RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE onto your hard drive, if you have one. Double click on the icon from your Workbench screen to run the hard drive installation program. The program has a help feature to assist you in installation. (Note: You must have a minimum of 2.5 megabytes available on your hard drive to install RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE.) 4.3 BACKUP COPIES Please make backup copies of all three original disks. Store the original disks in a safe place, and play the game using your copied disks. The original disks are not copy protected. 4.4 LOW MEMORY CONDITIONS In order to minimise the program's memory consumption, the game utilizes dynamic memory allocation. If you are playing the game whilst multi-tasking with other programs, it is important not to let the amount of free memory get too low. If during the course of the game, the program cannot acquire the memory it requires, the program will be forced to exit. When playing the game while multitasking, it is important to ensure that there is at least 300k of free memory (200k chip memory) to avoid the possible loss of your current game position. 5.0 ABOUT THE RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE The RETURN OF THE LIVING TEXT ADVENTURE has been developed over a period of three and a half years. The system the game runs under took a year to write (on a part time basis), and after several changes to the plot, months of procrastination, three summers, two changes of government, numberless revolutions in Eastern Europe and a string of forgotten girlfriends and sleepless nights, the game was finally finished in March of 1992. Total programming time amounted to nearly 32 hours. The program was written in C, the majority of which was done on several expanded Amiga 2000s. Ross Milward was responsible for most of the Amiga specific coding (menus, gadgets, windows, input, graphics and sound). Colin Adams handled most of the internal coding (parser, compression and data entry programs), while Neil Foster wrote the game text and novella and watched a lot of TV when he should have been sitting at his computer. Bruce Abel slaved over the graphics (pictures, menus, gadgets) and Michelle Law wrote the original piece of music somewhere back in distant 1989. Send contributions, comments, CDs, bottles of Southern Comfort and Christmas cards to : Shadowplay P.O. Box 1201, Aitkenvale, 4814, Queensland, Australia.