Introduction

"The adventuring trade just isn't what it used to be," you reflect gloomily. "Nobody seems to need a trusty sword or a keen intellect any more."

You're down to your last silver piece, and there's tomorrow's dinner yet to be found. Sitting at the inn you contemplate earning an honest living for a change. Perhaps a steady income wouldn't be too boring, after all...

Suddenly, a cold draught and the slam of the door distract you from your train of thought, and seconds later, a tall-silver-haired figure in a black cloak slips on to the bench next to you...

So begins your magical adventure, with wizardry and hocus pocus of all kinds, booby traps and fiendish riddles to be unravelled along the tortuous route to the Magic Ring of Power. Your reward is to keep the treasure that you find on the way.

The Story So Far

Speaking in a whisper, the wizard reveals his purpose.

"I understand you're a professional, ahem, adventurer?"

You nod, a little doubtfully.

"That's good. I have a little, er, job I need doing. Would you be interested? The remuneration would be adequate."

Again you nod - this is beginning to sound interesting.

"About a week ago," begins the wizard. "One of the local upstart warlocks - curse him! - sneaked into my castle and made himself at home. He's booby-trapped the entire place and, worst of all, he found my Ring of Power. I must have it back! (His voice quivers with rage and emotion.)

You feel a little more confident now. Booby traps, rings - you're on comfortable ground here. The wizard, his face now restored to its former colour, stares piercingly at you. "Can you do it?" he asks. "Can you get my ring back for me?" You nod cautiously.

"Good. Now some words of advice. You can keep any treasure you find, and consider that your payment. Knowing that wretched warlock, you'll probably have to keep the treasure in the safe if we're ever going to get that ring back."

("We?!" you mutter to yourself...)

"Er, can I have some decent equipment?" you ask hopefully.

"Equipment? What for?! Go as you are! Are you ready?" roars the wizard.

"Well, er, yes, but..."

"Off you go then!" shouts the wizard, and before you can ask him for any more useful information, such as the whereabouts of the safe and the booby-traps for example, you find yourself flying headlong through the air in the direction of the wizard's castle.

Beginning A Game

Once loaded, you will be asked whether you want to start from the initial position or from a saved position on tape - select either I or S as prompted then press RETURN. The first time you play, you will want to start from the initial position.

The game starts with a description of your immediate surroundings - make a mental note of these before setting off with a command such as WEST, if you want to try going West, or NE to go Northeast.

The computer only looks at the first four letters of any word you type, so that the command NORTHEAST must be typed in as NE to distinguish it from NORTH (or N - there are various abbreviations you will pick up as you go).

The computer becomes your eyes and hands. It will tell you what you can see and what is happening around you. You must tell it, in return, what to do (It prompts you with a colon)). Use command of one or two words (in upper case).

Some General Advice

Tunnels bend sometimes, so going north from one room doesn't necessarily involve entering the next room from the south.

Some areas are not lit, and moving in the dark is rather dangerous, so you will need a light source. Some objects (and treasures!) can have special properties, as you'll find out: some of them are a help and some a hindrance. Nothing in the text is a red herring, so read all the text carefully for clues to other puzzles.

"Eh?" means the computer didn't recognise something vital in what you said: try something else. "I don't understand that!" means something less vital wasn't understood. If the computer needs more information, it will ask for it. So if you meant to say EAT BOOK, but only typed BOOK, the computer will reply "What do you want to do with the bookk?", to which you can reply EAT, for example.

Useful Words

Part of the fun is finding out which words are understood! However, a short list of those you might not guess is given here:

To move in some direction, try something like MOVE UP, CLIMB, SOUTH.

To get or drop a book, for example, try GET BOOK, TAKE BOOK, DROP BOOK, etc. GET, TAKE and DROP alone pick up or drop the first object the computer sees.

To get a full description of the room you are in, use LOOK.

To get a list of your possessions, use INV (for INVENTORY).

ON and OFF may be useful (Hint!).

To stop altogether, use QUIT or STOP.

To SAVE a game for later, use SAVE.

Score

Points are scored both for picking up treasure and depositing it in the safe - you score most, obviously, for depositing it in the safe. There are also other ways of scoring points. During the game you can display your score at any time by entering SCORE. The maximum score is 250; consider yourself an expert if you score more than 200 points.

Load/Save Position

During the course of the game, you may wish to save a game (for example, before trying something dangerous). Simply type SAVE (RETURN). The filename for a saved position is always "INIT" so you will need to keep track of which "INIT" is which!

On replaying you can then request the saved position by selecting S at the start of the program.

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CHAIN"" (RETURN)