CASTLE ELSINORE Users Manual I. Installation You may run CASTLE ELSINORE from a diskette, or you may copy it to your hard drive. To install it on your hard drive, all you need to do is to copy the three files ELSINORE.EXE, ELSINORE.INX, and ELSINORE.DAT to the directory of your choice. CASTLE ELSINORE requires IBM PC/DOS or MicroSoft MS/DOS release 2.0 or greater, with a minimum of about 128K of available memory, and about 200K of available disk space. The disk space requirement will increase if you take a lot of save points. NOTE: If you have a previous version of this game, you must replace all three files, and delete any previous save files. Attempting to use a previous save file with this game version will produce unpredictable results. II. Operation 1. Starting CASTLE ELSINORE To start playing CASTLE ELSINORE, make sure that your current directory contains the three ELSINORE files. Then enter ELSINORE. The first time that you play the game, you should read the instructions by replying yes (or just y) to the initial question. 2. Saving and restoring games You may save your game at any time by entering SAVE. If you enter SAVE without a file name, you will be offered a default file name. If this is your first save point, the default will be ELSINORE.SAV. Otherwise it will be the last file name that you used in a SAVE or RESTORE command. If the default file name is satisfactory, just press ENTER to continue with the save. If you want to specify a different name, you may do so, including drive and path information. For example, you could enter A:\GAMES\MYGAME.SVE. To give you a chance to make sure that the name you typed is really the file name which you wanted, it will then be set as the new default, and you will have another chance to accept it, or to change it. If you wish, you can include the file name on the initial SAVE command, in which case it will be offered as the initial default name. To restore any saved game enter RESTORE and the file name that you entered with any previous SAVE command. If you do not supply a file name with RESTORE, the game will set the default save file to the last file name which you used in this session, or to ELSINORE.SAV if you have not specified any other name. ELSINORE.SAV is special in another way also. If you start CASTLE ELSINORE and there is a file named ELSINORE.SAV in your current directory, then the game will remind you that you have a saved game and ask if you want to restore it. 3. Communicating with CASTLE ELSINORE To move around in the game, or to cause things to happen, type a simple sentence. Almost always, this sentence will be in the form of a command. The simplest command consists solely of the direction that you want to move. For example, NORTH tells the game that you want to move to the room that is immediately to the north of your current position. The most common directions can be entered in full, or abbrieviated. N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW, LE (left) and R (right) are all valid. In addition, there are certain words which are not directions which will cause motion. For example, in many cases, a room with only one exit will recognize OUT or EXIT. Also, there are sometimes 'magic' words which can move you great distances in one move. If you see a strange word carved into a table, or scrawled on a wall, it might be such a magic word. Magic words usually only work when entered at certain specific locations. Commands which deal with objects can be more elaborate. CASTLE ELSINORE understands about both direct and indirect objects. For example, the command GIVE THE GREEN JEWEL TO THE LARGE LIZZARD is a perfectly valid command. (There is no large lizzard in CASTLE ELSINORE - this is just an example.) In spite of all this, however, the parser is still relatively dumb, and if you don't understand its limitations, you can become quite frustrated. Here are a few tips: - The parser only looks at the first six letters of each word entered. This means that church and churchyard, for example, are considered the same word. - The parser can not deal with a word that is sometimes used as an object and other times as a verb. For example, the word FIRE is a synonym for SHOOT, and can not refer to a bonfire. - Although these instructions consistently show the dialogue with the computer in upper case, the game makes no distiction between upper and lower case. GREEN, green, and GrEEn are all the same word. - In many cases, room descriptions contain a lot of detail that has no bearing on the game except to help you picture yourself in that setting. If you get messages like IT IS BEYOND YOUR POWER TO DO THAT, you are probably dealing with such an object. In some cases, you will even get a message that the game doesn't know a word, even though the word was used in the room description. Please accept that the English language has about 800,000 words, not including specialized technical vocabularies, and even today's impressive home computer technology can not handle them all. Here are some addional words which you may find useful: - To see a list of what you are carrying, enter I, INV, or INVENTORY. - To see the full description of the current room, use L or LOOK. If you would like to have the full description always displayed, use VERBOSE. Verbose mode can be canceled with BRIEF. - To get more information about an object, use EXAMINE, EXAM, EX, OR X. - Although your score is always displayed at the top of the screen, you can also see what rating that score is worth by entering SCORE. - You can check the game version with VERSION. III. Registration CASTLE ELSINORE is not in the public domain. It is copyright by the authors, doing business as Temple Software, and all rights under the copyright laws are strictly reserved. However, the authors grant a non-exclusive license to any individual to copy and use the game for their own non-commercial purpose. Users who enjoy this game, and would like to make it possible for the authors to develop additional text adventure games, are encouraged to register the game by sending a donation of $10.00 or more to: Charles A. Crayne Temple Software 1717 6th Street Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 The authors can also be contacted at Prodigy ID JBHM20A When registering, please provide your name and mailing address, and the name and version of the game you are registering, along with your preferred diskette size and density. In return, the authors will send you a copy of the next text adventure which they develop. Even if you decide not to register the game, you are welcome to make copies and send them to friends, upload to bulletin boards, etc. (SYSOPs will thank you for uploading just ELSINORE.ZIP, rather than the uncompressed files). (This information is valid as of 9/19/92)