Introduction

Long ago Lord Sadim and his beautiful wife Leonora lived happily together in a castle on a vast estate, until the Lord was summoned by the King to fight in a war. While he was away, the lovely Leonora was unfaithful to him.

On his return he learned the truth about his wife. He flew into a terrible rage and sealed her up in a room in the castle. She cursed her husband and all who set foot in the castle. Her blood-curdling screams could be heard for days... and then there was a deathly silence.

Shortly afterwards, Lord Sadim was decapitated when the portcullis 'accidentally' dropped on him. A woman in white was seen laughing over his body.

Since then, many people have died or disappeared and the castle has a reputation for being a haunted and dangerous place to visit.

Your task is to locate Leonora's remains in the now deserted castle, give her a decent burial and let the spirits rest in peace.

A real-time adventure game.

Playing The Game

Sadim Castle is a real-time adventure. This means the game will continue to play when it is waiting for you to enter a command and the characters you encounter may not wait for you to think.

The screen is split into two sections; the top part shows what is happening around you whilst the bottom lines are reserved for your commands. The game normally updates about every 30 seconds, although if you wish to halt the game for any reason, pressing ESCAPE will cause 'time' to stop until the SPACE BAR is pressed.

The computer acts as your eyes and hands on your quest. It tells you where you are and what is happening and you must tell it what to do by typing a command of a few words. For example, if you find an object that you want to pick up, type TAKE followed by the object name. If you want to look at it more closely (which may yield some vital information) type EXAMINE, again followed by the name. To move, give the direction you want to go, directions such as NORTHWEST must be given as NW to distinguish it from NORTH.

You can also enter more than one instruction at a time, such as TAKE THE KNIFE AND GO NORTH. The computer will carry out your instructions one at a time until it either finishes or encounters something it cannot do.

Some of the objects you may find are vital in your quest. Others are useless, as you can normally only carry a limited number of things you will need to select them carefully.

Useful Words

Many of the commands you must discover for yourself, but some of the more general ones are given here:

To move try one of the points on a compass or something like UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, ENTER, EXIT.

Directions such as NORTHWEST must be given as NW to distinguish it from NORTH.

To get or drop a bottle try GET BOTTLE, TAKE BOTTLE, DROP BOTTLE.

If you want the description of a location, type 'LOOK'.

To list your possessions type LIST or INVENTORY. Some of the objects may fit inside others; for example, if you were carrying a knife and a bag, typing PUT THE KNIFE IN THE BAG would do that; to retrieve it, you could try TAKE KNIFE or EMPTY BAG.

You may find it useful to TALK to some of the characters that you meet.

If you want to save a game and return to it later, insert a suitable tape and type SAVE. Part of the database will be recorded and the game will continue.

To restart a game, Sadim Castle should be loaded and run as usual. Then the data tape should be inserted and the command LOAD given. The data will be loaded and the game will recommence.

To end the game type QUIT.

The only other advice I can offer is to think carefully - a wrong move will probably be fatal!! Being kind and helpful to others may also bring its just reward!

Good luck!!!

Loading

*RUN SADIM (RETURN)

The program will take about five minutes to load after the title page.