If you go down in the woods today...

You've never played an adventure like Tanglewood! There are five characters for you to control, each one of which behaves differently, and has different problems to solve. At the same time, you must avoid any contact with the evil Schark, who will continually try to thwart your plans.

There are over 700 accessible locations in nine sections, all in colour graphics: the woods, Dwarf Dive (platforms, lifts and ladders), Schark castle (a 3-D maze on five floors) and six smaller text-only sections. The entire game loads at once.

Tanglewood provides many helpful features, including the ability to return to a previous position without having saved it to tape. There is no sudden death, and although it is possible to get yourself completely stuck, you have to be very careless to do so. Tanglewood is also a real-time game, and some things are possible at night which are not, during the day!

As Tanglewood is almost certainly quite unlike anything you have played before, we strongly advise you to read the following notes carefully. They could save you a good deal of time and frustration!

The lower part of the screen displays the playing area, woods, Dwarf Dive, Castle Schark, and occasionally text only. (The woods are represented symbolically. A stylised flower, for instance, is used to represent a garden.) Above this is displayed information about the character you are currently using. First, a picture of the character, then a picture of the location (useful at night). Next comes the date and time, and below that your character's status. If this reads 'safe', then you are invulnerable to Schark's spells. If you are not 'safe', this section is left blank. To the right of this is a list of any objects your character is carrying, and to the right of the main display is a vertical yellow line which indicates the energy of the character. When this falls to zero, the character will not move until energy has been recovered (this takes place automatically while other characters are being used). Commands, messages, etc. are displayed in the upper part of the screen.

The creatures of Tanglewood have always lived in harmony and co-operation, that is, until the arrival of Schark, an unprincipled property developer with magical powers, who plans to cut down the trees and build concrete office blocks that nobody will ever use. His touch corrupts all that he meets, and his first act in the woods was to turn the King of Beasts into a frog. Now he turns all his victims into stone. You have very little time left to defeat him, as the bulldozers arrive in ten days. But don't despair, there is a wise old owl who knows what to do, so you may win through.

Characters are selected by typing their number (1-5). You may switch freely between the characters when in the main display (woods).

1. Bruce
   A wallaby who has lost his bounce. He also has difficulty climbing ladders and things.
2. Goliath
   A mouse. Goliath lost his whiskers in a brush with Schark, and as he has a thing about being properly dressed, you will have to find him a new set.
3. Beanbag
   Once a lordly lion, now a frightened frog. Beanbag keeps to the waterways and marshes, although at night he will venture out onto the pathways. Having once felt Schark's touch, he is now immune from further spells, as long as he stays in the woods. Also, he still retains some of his kingly attributes, and his touch works wonders for creatures who have been turned to stone. Unfortunately, the longer he stays a frog, the weaker his touch becomes, and the time will come when you will have to find other ways of undoing Schark's spells. Beanbag alone is able to utter the final spell that will restore him to his former glory, and defeat Schark.
    
   Note: the spellword is changed at daybreak each day, not at midnight.
4. Foghorn
   A cat of considerable abilities, and rather too proud of them. He seems to have something wrong with his night vision, however.
5. Peabody
   A dog, of sorts. Peabody seems to be missing, but he's probably only out looking for food, like most dogs. You will have to find some way of enticing him home.

The next two characters cannot be used by the players, but have their own ways of getting around.

1. Owl
   During the day, Owl, at great personal sacrifice (since he'd rather be asleep), occasionally puts in an appearance. If you can find him, and occupy his location with one of the characters, he will give you some advice.
2. Schark
   About Schark, the less said the better. By day he roams the woods (except on some Sundays, when he'd rather play golf), and at night retires to the safety of Castle Schark, surrounded by devious traps and spells. Even to enter Castle Schark, you must be 'safe' from his spells.

All locations may be accessed by at least one character, although in many cases access is restricted to one or two only.

Movement is controlled by arrow keys throughout and there are no verbal commands relating to movement.

In Castle Schark, the function of the arrows is slightly changed. Only the Up arrow will change your location - forwards. The others turn left, right, or around on the spot. (There is one exception to this near the end of the game, but that will be perfectly obvious at the time. On this occasion alone, the down arrow moves downwards, and to turn round you must use the right or left arrow twice.)

The left arrow also functions as a normal backspace key when typing commands. The other arrow keys will not operate if you have begun to type in a command. If your character still has energy, but will not move, is not a statue, and you do not appear to have started typing a command, you have probably leant on the spacebar without noticing, in which case nothing will have appeared on the screen, but the arrow keys will not operate until the space is deleted.

The computer will recognise the usual verb+noun format. One slightly unusual verb (INSTALL) is included, whose use will be perfectly obvious when required.

There is no facility for EXAMining objects. Any clues that you may need are included in the initial description of an object. Note them well! In two cases 'silver' and 'gold' have been used to distinguish objects, and GET SILVER or GET GOLD must be used instead of GET COIN, but otherwise the computer will respond to the most obvious word. Because of memory limitations, it has not been possible to supply a number of alternatives as far as nouns are concerned, so if you cannot 'get' an apparently obtainable object, try some other part of the description.

These are not represented graphically, and you will not be told of their presence automatically (but see special commands). Nothing is to be found on pathways, unless you have dropped it there. Objects have different weights, and characters may only be able to carry one at a time. For your convenience objects which have only one use are removed from the game once you have used them correctly. However, *any object which is taken from you by force, for any reason, will be found again in Castle Schark*.

*Note that you may only 'drop' one object per location*, and then only in the woods. It is therefore sensible not to take unwanted objects with you into places such as Castle Schark.

This changes day to night, and vice-versa. It can sometimes get characters out of trouble, but its use is restricted to the woods.

Note: At nightfall, all mobile characters except the one in use are returned home. Beanbag is returned home at daybreak as well, unless he is on water or marsh.

Restores some energy at the cost of time, and may only be used at night in the woods. In other sections where energy is crucial to continued play and the character cannot be abandoned, it is restored automatically at the cost of time.

This is for use in Dwarf Dive only, if there is no other way out.

(+ object). Allows one character to give an object to another if they occupy next door locations. In case of a choice, the computer selects the first character clockwise from 3 o'clock.

Gives a location description together with any object present.

Shorthand for LOOK

Gives a LOOK after every move. You are advised not to overuse it, as it is usually as quick to use ?, and it may lead you to overlook other important messages as they are rapidly scrolled upwards. It is mainly useful if you've forgotten where you left something! It may be cancelled by typing SEARCH a second time.

Saves current game status to tape. Instructions will appear on screen. This command may only be used in the woods.

Reserves current game position without saving to tape. It overwrites any previously saved position. For your first few games it is useful to save the initial position using HOLD, as you can then restart very simply. Same limitations on use as SAVE.

Restarts the game at the most recently reserved position which may be

1. The last continuation position (from tape)
2. The last saved position
3. The last held position

Same restrictions as SAVE

Note: The RESET button will not restart the game from scratch. This is simply because there is insufficient storage space for the initial variables. To give yourself this facility follow this procedure:

1. Load the game
2. Select the "New Game" option
3. Save the initial position to tape

After pressing the RESET button at any time, this initial position (or any other) can now be loaded after selecting the Continuation option.

The "New Game" option will not work at this stage.

At the start of each new game, you are given the option of an alternative scenario which is rather easier. Answer the question 'Extra time?' by typing Y.

The bulldozers will then be delayed by wet weather for a further two weeks. The extra problems also keep Schark tied up in board meetings for 24 hours, giving you more time to explore the woods unmolested.

An error during the loading of a continuation tape will result in a bleep, and the program will return to the original options screen.

CLEAR10 (ENTER)
CLOADM (ENTER)

The game will start automatically after loading.