Introduction

"We have had our money stolen by a very clever man. Gentlemen, I therefore suggest we steal it back. Each of you must return with a plan of how we are to extract $1,000,000 from him without his ever becoming aware of it. Not a penny more, not a penny less."

At last! An adventure game that you can really understand and enjoy whether you're a dedicated, lapsed or novice player. And no goblins!

Based closely on Jeffrey Archer's first best-selling novel, and with design input by the author himself, this game uses graphics and speech synthesis to bring the whole story to life.

Harvey Metcalfe, a notorious crook, has set up a "shadow" company to attract investors. Once the money arrives, he folds the company and the four major investors are left penniless. They face ruin - both financially and socially. In a secret pact, they vow to swindle him in return and take back their $1,000,000 - not a penny more, not a penny less.

Take the hero's role, invent your own plots, and together win back your money.

Starting The Game

Note: It is advised that you read the book before seriously attempting the game.

You have in your hand a new type of computer game based on the Speech and Graphical adventure which puts you straight into the action of the first book by best selling author Jeffrey Archer.

If you are used to playing normal adventures then you will find many similar features which will let you get straight into the game but then there are those clever features that make this game excitingly different.

Because it is so closely based on the best selling book you will find that, unlike normal adventures, the program will guide you through the plot, presenting you with many puzzles to solve on the way. Obviously, like a book, you cannot "back track" through the plot if you miss something so lateral thinking becomes important at every stage if you are going to win through.

Most computer games are "directional", i.e. you can go North at any time by just typing GO NORTH. However, in this game, you must first solve the puzzle(s) in each location before you are allowed to move on.

The game is based on a "real-life" situation (sorry, no goblins in this story) so you must think carefully about what you would do if the events in the plot actually happened to you. Silly answers may be fun but will not get you very far!

The Plot

You play the part of Stephen Bradley, a visiting Fellow at Magdalen College in Oxford, who finds himself the victim of a swindle.

Left penniless by a company collapse caused deliberately by its unscrupulous owner, you set out to get revenge in a very 'novel' way. You must get together with other victims of this evil man, and, without his knowing anything about it, you must steal the money back to the last penny! Each victim will have his own method to get the money back and it is your job to control the group as they help each other with the stings!

The Vocabulary

The game will understand and react to sentences typed into the computer in plain English, e.g. TAKE THE MAGAZINE FROM THE TABLE and will make your character (Stephen) do the particular action requested.

Shorter forms of command will also sometimes work (only if the meaning is not in any way ambiguous), e.g. TAKE MAGAZINE.

You can also speak to the other characters using the form: SAY "HELLO"

As clever as the program is, it cannot understand every possible sentence that you could type in and so, sometimes, it will need you to rephrase your command so that it will understand.

Other useful words are:

HELP - a cryptic clue to use only if you get really stuck
GET - add an item to those you are carrying
TAKE - e.g. TAKE CAMERA or GET NEWSPAPER
GO NORTH/EAST/WEST/SOUTH/SOUTHWEST etc (No short forms are allowed e.g. N, SW, etc.)

You will be told by the game if you can move in these directions.

OPEN - use on doors, cupboards, etc.
CLOSE - use on doors, cupboards, etc.
EXAMINE - can be used in two ways 1) to look closely at an object or 2) at certain times EXAMINE ROBIN/JAMES etc, will take you to their location.

An important feature of the game is Stephen's dossier which must be filled up with facts as the game develops. EXAMINE this every so often to keep you up to date. (In Stephen's room only.)

Other Useful Phrases

FOLLOW - useful if a character wanders off
SAVE - (File name) save game positions to tape/disk so that you can start next time from where you left it
LOAD - (File name) reload a previously saved game position
GRAPHICS ON/OFF - switches graphics (if present) ON and OFF
SPEECH ON/OFF - switches speech (if present) ON and OFF

There are many more words that the program will accept and it is up to you to find them but remember the nature of the game means that a word may be meaningless in one location and yet be perfectly acceptable in another - you will have to experiment!

Special Feature

We are introducing a unique feature in this adventure - Speech. Although voices have been heard before on computer we believe this is the first time it has been used to such an extent on 8-bit machines without additional hardware.

Through the game you will hear the computer speak sections of what you see on-screen (Note: the amount of speech varies with the computer type and the BBC version is text only).

Game Controls

Arrow keys move the cursor left or right
DELETE to delete the last character typed
ESCAPE to delete the whole line
F1 recalls last line typed
F2 moves cursor to next word

QUIT can be used with all versions to end the game.

Hints

Included in this package is a copy of Jeffrey Archer's book "Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less" which contains all the hints you should need!

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CHAIN"" (RETURN)

The disc version can be loaded by inserting the disc into drive 0, holding down SHIFT and tapping BREAK.