
 2 1 1 2 - a Field Trip   
 by George K. George of  
 Mutilation Software Independent
 Copyright 2001      
 
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 ------- General Help ----------
  ------- & Instruction ---------
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If you are unfamiliar with playing text adventure games, don't despair. This should clear up most questions you have.

Interactive fiction---the term I have only recently been hipped to for this minimalist game type---puts you, the player, into a first person point-of-view. Unlike graphical games, 2112 requires you to give typed commands in order to move around in and interact with your environment. 

2112 has a decent vocabulary, but has only the grammar that is necessary for game play. The basic sentence structure your should use is like this: ([] Means optional.)

   <Verb> <[Preposition]> <Noun> <Preposition> <Noun> <Preposition> ...

Don't let that gibberish scare you. If you can put together a imperative sentence in real life, you can do it here. For example:

   PUT THE BLUE CRYSTAL IN THE KNAPSACK.

This would tell the game to first see if you are holding a blue crystal. If you were not, you would see something like this:

   "You don't have a blue crystal."

If there wasn't a knapsack in the area, you would get a similar message. And if you were dead, you'd be told that you were much to incapacitated for such tasks. Starting to get it? If you did have a blue crystal, and a knapsack was present you would see:

   "The blue crystal is now inside the knapsack."

... and so it would be.

You may also list items like this:
	
   TAKE SHOE, RAZOR, AND KITE.

... and these items would be transfered to your inventory provided there is room.


Here is a list of common verbs you can use:

	LOOK		PULL
	EXAMINE		PUSH
	TAKE		TOUCH
	PUT 		TURN (ON, OFF)
	WEAR 		ASK <character> ABOUT, FOR		
	ENTER		... and explitives up the wazoo
	EXIT
	JUMP
	SING 

Some of these can be used alone, without the help of other sentence elements like nouns and prepositions. LOOK will give you a description of the room, and EXIT will try to find you a way out of the place you are in.

Which brings us to the topic of navigating the world you have been thrust into. ENTER and EXIT will work fine for many things, but generally you will need to use cardinal directions to get around. Here they are with their functional abbreviations:

	NORTH, N
	SOUTH, S
	EAST, E
	WEST, W
	NORTHEAST, NE
	NORTHWEST, NW
	SOUTHEAST, SE
	SOUTHWEST, SW
	UP, U
	DOWN, D

You may also type WALK or GO before these, but it is not necessary.

There are some "irregular" verbs. These include SAY and TYPE in which everything you type after that word is either said or typed. The string of characters that is said or typed is only interrupted by one of these characters which starts a new command sentence: ".","?","!"

Another way to say things---when there is a character in the room worth talking to---is to type that character's name or description followed by a comma (,) and then what you want to say to them. Like this:

BADGERBOY, PUT ON SOME PANTS

A more effective way to communicate with the computer-controlled characters is to ASK either ABOUT or FOR <something>. For some examples:

ASK BADGERBOY ABOUT HIMSELF
or
ASK BADGERBOY FOR A WATERMELON


Here are a couple other commands you may need:
	
	INVENTORY, I – lists what you are holding
	WAIT – passes time
	
	VERBOSE - sets game to give full descriptions of even visted rooms when entered
	BRIEF - (default) gives room description on first enter only
	SUPERBRIEF - gives no room descriptions on any entry

	VERSION, ABOUT, INFO - all display version information and copyright of game


Some questions you might want answered about 2112:

? Why is the Story Menu grayed out? I can't save or load.
- This means that you are in the middle of either reading something before a "More" prompt, or choosing which item you meant when your referred to something. Make your selection, or go on past the "More" prompts and the menu will re-activate.

? Why can't I hit the Enter key to move passed a "More" prompt.
- There's a good reason for that. It's so you don't accidentally move past it when you hit return for a command. You'll get used to using the spacebar or other keys soon enough.

? Why does it take so long to restore or undo?
- You've stumped me. Maybe I took the long road programming this thing. I haven't figured it out, but I am working on it.


With that I wish you good luck and happy interactive fictioning.

 
