Xanadu Adventure ================ Starting Your Adventure ----------------------- The Adventure is set in the mythical land of Xanadu. Your task is to explore the terrain, find all the treasure and get the highest score you can. To help you on your exploration, you start with 125 shillings which you can use to buy provisions in the Adventure shop. The computer is your guide, acting as your hands and eyes. You type your commands in and he will do his best to obey you. He's not very clever, and only understands simple sentences. For example, you can say GET THE BOTTLE (all your inputs must use capital letters) but if you say GET THE BOTTLE AND THE BAG he will only get the bottle. You can shorten all words to the first four letters. If your guide doesn't understand what you mean, he says "I don't understand" which means he didn't understand any of the words you typed, or "I can't" which means he understood one or more words but doesn't know how to do what you asked. This may be because something's not there (you say GET BOTTLE, but it's somewhere else) or it may be that by saying it a different way he will understand you (AXE THE DWARF won't work, but THROW THE AXE will; GIVE THE DRAGON THE FOOD won't work, but GIVE THE FOOD TO THE DRAGON will). Unfortunately, as he's not very bright, he won't understand some things however you say them. Don't say PICK UP or PUT DOWN; he thinks UP and DOWN are directions to go. Say GET, or TAKE, and DROP (he'll do it very gently!). If you have the carrier bag, you can carry more things. Don't try to put things in the bag; your guide will do that automatically. Special Words ------------- Some words are special. These are: INVE (short for INVENTORY) tells you what you're carrying. SCORE tells you your score. MONEY tells you how much money you've got. LOOK (or WHERE AM I) tells you where you are. HELP may help you if you get stuck. BACK usually takes you to the last location you came from. ZZZZ ends the Adventure. It asks you if you want to save it, so that you can start again from that point. If you do want to save it, type Y and then record on to a blank tape. It only takes a few seconds to save the data on tape. After you've saved the data, if you type RUN, you'll restart at the point you stopped. After playing a few times, you may want to set up some function keys to specify some of the more popular commands. Do this before loading the program. Scoring ------- When you explore, you'll find the place to deposit your treasures. Each treasure you deposit (type DEPOSIT, not DROP) scores ten points. Some other things you do can increase your score, and you usually lose points if you use HELP or if you get killed. The top score is over 175. Fighting -------- There are lots of dwarves and dragons about. To kill them, you need weapons (you can kill them without, but it's very unlikely). A sword has a weapon count of 10, an axe's count is 5. To kill a dragon outright, you need a weapon count of 20; for a dwarf it's 15, but if you throw an axe at a dwarf you always kill it. Your chances of killing monsters are proportional to your weapon count. A dragon usually won't let you get past it; if you try you get the response "I can't go in that direction", so you have to fight the dragon. You can normally go back to where you came from. Exploring --------- You'll get lost if you don't draw a map. Some places are easier to map than others; the forest is so confusing you'll never map it properly (but you'll get through it in the end). It is possible to map the maze, but you'll have to think how to do it. Caves have very twisting passages, so if you go North from one location, South won't necessarily get you back to it. Treasures --------- It's fairly obvious which objects are treasures and which aren't. When you've found all the treasures, something will happen, and it'll be clear that you've moved into the final stage of the Adventure. The Shop -------- If you go back to the shop, it may be shut. It's no use hanging around; you have to go back to the caves before it will open again. The Two-Player Game ------------------- When two Adventurers olay, they take it in turns. A player has a fixed number of turns and then the other player takes over and has the same number of turns. Each time you type something in, it counts as one turn (unless you get the reply "I don't understand", which doesn't count as a turn). You specify the number of turns per round at the start of the game (up to 99); a number between 10 and 20 is probably best. You can either explore as rivals or as allies. You start as rivals, and the top line of the screen id displayed in blue to show this. As rivals, it's probably best if you don't want the other person's progress. To help this, at the end of a round it says "press space to continue". The person whose round has ended should press the Space bar and go away to wait for his next round. The other player presses Space again and his round begins. This way, each player can avoid showing his position to the other. To fight the other Adventurer, type FIGHT ADVENTURER. If you lose, your round will end. If you win and your turns count is less than 4, it is reset to 4 (to let you get away). When you lose a fight with the other Adventurer (or with a dragon), you drop everything you're carrying. Although the other Adventurer can then take everything, it's sensible to impose a rule that you never take the other person's torch or principal weapon. To form an alliance, type ALLY (the other Adventurer must be in the same location). When you are allied, the top line of the screen is displayed in white. As allies, you still take it in turns, but anywhere you go, your ally comes with you. In fights with monsters, your combined weapon count is pitted against the monster. You can't use things your ally is carrying (DROP RING won't work if your ally is carrying the ring). While you're allied, it's best if you both watch the screen all the time. To break your alliance, type BREAK ALLIANCE. You then become rivals again. To end your round part way through, type END. Variations ---------- With a two-player game, you can set a specific objective for the game at the start. For example, it might be to find a certain treasure and bring it back to the shop, or to be the first to get to a certain location. If You Get Stuck... ------------------- ...keep trying. You probably won't get far the first time you play. But if you're really stuck and you've run out of ideas, send as much information about the problem as you can (e.g. what you're trying to do, what treasures you've got, where you are, where you're been) together with a stamped addressed envelope to: Hopesoft, Hope Cottage, Winterbourne, Newbury, Berks RG16 8BB Loading ------- CHAIN "XANADU" (RETURN) To start again from a saved point, load the game differently, i.e. by typing: LOAD "XANADU" (RETURN) *LOAD DATA (RETURN) To re-run the program after an adventure, type RUN. Some objects move around each time you play. Warning: This adventure is very complicated and takes a long time to play. Don't get discouraged if you're not doing very well.