The BLAGst by Geoff Atkinson and Tony Woolcock (c)1990 Ready to go ! Ready and waiting to go.That is why I took it so bad you know.The news hit me like a bomb shell,I was so looking forward to a nice busy Police Station,somewhere I could prove my worth to anyone who would care to watch or listen.But no,I had to be posted to Woolendon.Not that Woolendon is a bad place,oh no,far from it.Woolendon is a lovely place to live if you are after the quiet way of life,but that was exactly what I didn't want.I wanted crime and plenty of it. Well that is how I first viewed my posting to Woolendon.By the end of my first day I was to know how wrong one can be ! THE STORY SO FAR....... You are Detective Constable Adrian Blunder,an officer in the Beeble Constabulary.You have completed your detectives training and have arrived for duty at Woolendon.You find it hard to hide your disappointment at your posting.Woolendon is known throughout the force as a dull place where nothing happens. With a sigh you read a recent telex message that has been passed to your station.As you read the message you realise this could be your lucky day. PLAYING THE GAME....... The game attempts to follow the line of a police investigation of a serious crime at a quiet town,right through to the eventual trial of the accused.Unlike other adventure games,the Blag may end whenever you wish,simply by entering the command COURT.The trial will then unfold before your eyes. EXPLORING....... Movement is made in the four main compass directions,North,South,East and West.Or,by driving the car used by the CID department from location to location.The vehicle has been left for you at the station garage.However,you can only drive the car whilst in possession of the keys,and the vehicle is in your sight.The command DRIVE CAR will enable you to travel quickly about the game world.The locations must be accessable by car otherwise you must walk.You must PARK the car before attempting to do anything other than DRIVE it. For example, if you pssess the key,and can see the police car then you can DRIVE it from the Police station to the High Street by entering DRIVE TO HIGH STREET.(Upper case characters are not required.)Most locations can be driven to,or a position close by. A short text description of your present whereabouts,accompanies a digitized picture of the location. OTHER COMMANDS........ Like the traditional style of adventure games,the Blag is played by the inputting of English commands by the player.For example if you wanted to use the telephone that is in the CID office,the command DIAL,followed by the required number is all that is needed.Available telephone numbers can be found in the conveniently placed directory. To pick up and object use GET or TAKE . To drop an object use DROP . The following is a list of some of the verbs available within the game. SEARCH,LOOK,EXAMINE,UNLOCK,LOCK,PARK,READ,DIAL,CHASE,ARREST, OFFER,THROW,WEAR,OPEN and CLOSE. The game contains some special commands...... T or TEXTSIZE changes the size of the text. WORDS removes the games graphics.GRAPHICS returns them. RS or RAMSAVE saves your current position to RAM.RL or RAMLOAD does the opposite. SAVE saves your position to disk,LOAD does the opposite. QUESTIONING....... The questioning of characters is invoked by the command ASK [characters surname] Unlike the main program which operates mainly on the standard verb/noun input,and is relatively simple to use,the questioning of characters is a little more complicated.However every effort has been made to get characters to respond as normally as possible.However,it is impossible to cover every way in which a question may be asked,players should remember this at all times.In order to get you started,the following is a sample of some of the standards used in the BLAG. All of the following are good ways to start a question,- WHAT WHEN WHERE WHO i.e.WHAT is your date of birth,WHERE do you live,WHO is fred. There are of course other ways that will be recognised,for example, DESCRIBE [name of person},TELL me ABOUT [something/someone]. there are many problems to overcome when coding a questioning file.Every effort has been made to iron out as many of these problems as possible.If you do not get the expected response try REPHRASING your question. Punctuation and capital letters are not required. Like all good police officers you should remain civil at all times,the BLAGst frowns on bad language in the same way that Budgie does. When you have finished questioning a simple THANKS returns you to the main program.The following is an extensive but not complete list of vocabulary understood by the questioning file,- TELL,WHY,WHICH,WHO,WHOS,WHERE,WHERES,KNOW,COMMITTED,FIX,FIXED,REPAIR SOLD,KEEP,SPRAY,RESPRAY,WEARING,BURGLARY,ROBBERY,HAPPENED,BIRTHDAY, COLOUR,MINI,ARGUE,ROW,FRIEND,MATE,ENGINE,OPEN,RECORDS,BOOK,BOOKS, SCRAPYARD,FIX,BARN,TROUBLE,SON,DOG,MASTIFF,ROBBER,INDEX,NUMBER,LIVE REGISTRATION,CODE,GUN,TAKE,TIME,CERTIFICATE,BUY,PURCHASED,RUN, BANK,COMMAND,CONTROL,POLICEDOG,MOTHER,DATE,ENTER,ALIBI,CALL,BORROW plus various names of people and makes of vehicle. The BLAGst was written by two serving police officers in the Hampshire Constabulary.Geoff Atkinson who is a country beat officer and Tony Woolcock who is a member of the Dog Section working in the New Forest.Yes,it's his dog in the game,No,I won't tell you his name ! Credits :- STAC by Sean Ellis and Incentive. Rombo's Vidi ST. Degas Elite (Electronic Arts) Friends and colleagues who allowed their faces to be used freely in the game without bribes or favours. Finally,a special thanks to our wives and families for the endless supply of coffee and patience. Geoff Atkinson