LANCELOT TEXT/PICTURES ADVENTURE GAME. INSTRUCTIONS : Getting started If you have not played a Level 9 adventure before, please read all these instructions. If you are an experienced Level 9 adven- turer, skip to the preface and just read that. Boot the disc or load the first cassette to start the game. If you don't know how to do this, see the loading instructions on Page X. When the game prints "What now?" or ">", it is waiting for you to type a command. (The game also waits when it has more text to print than will fit on the screen at one time; read what's displayed and press either Shift or the Spacebar to continue.) This game knows four types of commands: Movement: Just type the direction you want to go: NORTH, NORTHEAST, EAST (and the other compass directions], IN, OUT, UP, DOWN or ACROSS. GO or RUN take you to a named place, for example GO TO CATHEDRAL, and FOLLOW is self-explanatory. Actions: For example, LOOK, TAKE THE HARP, DROP IT, EXAMINE THE CROSS, WEAR THE HAT, DRINK THE WINE, or GIVE CLOTH TO SIR MELIOT. System commands: EXITS, INVENTORY and SCORE give information; WORDS, PICTURES, BRIEF, VERBOSE, EXITS ON and EXITS OFF control what is output; UNDO takes you back a move; SAVE, RESTORE, RAM SAVE and RAM RE- STORE save your position or return to an earlier position, and QUIT stops the game. See the example game, on Page iv for more details of these commands. Commands to others: Lancelot could command some people such as knights who were grateful to him for their freedom. Type their name followed by a command such as SIR GAWAIN, GO NORTH, TAKE EVERYTHING, THEN FOLLOW ME. You can abbreviate commands such as SOUTH to S and SOUTHEAST to SE, and even type several commands on one fine, like EAST, TAKE ALL, WEST. After typing a command (or commands) press the ENTER or RETURN key. Preface Lancelot recreates the tales of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, as told in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D' Arthur. Parts 1 and 2 follow Lancelot's arrival at Camelot, his rise to become the best knight in the world, and the completion of the Round Table. Part 3 then follows the Quest for the Holy Grail, the high point for Chivalry, in which the best knights came near to God, but which led to the destruction of the Round Table. Hints for part 1, Camelot Lancelot must go to Camelot to be knighted by Arthur. Next, he becomes the best knight by valorous deeds in Logris. * Finally, on his return, Lancelot must look to Guenever. Hints for part 2, Logris Despite the Damosel Maledisant's manner, her quest is genuine. You score points mainly for freeing all the captive knights, and Lancelot can command them. Ensure Galahad can come to Camelot. Hints for part 3, The Quest for the Holy Grail * Remember that virtue is what is important, so avoid sins. Galahad is the holiest knight. Talking to the game As you have seen, this game understands a lot of commands. The following list is only part of its vocabulary, but it gives an idea of what to try: North, northeast, east [and other compass directions], up, down, in, out, across, climb, go, run, follow, again, attack, inventory, quit, save, restore, RAM save. RAM restore, undo, score, wait, shout, search, examine, blink, look, kneel, take, drop, wear, throw, give, fill, empty, open, unlock, close, eat, drink, fight, press, wave, blow, exits, words, pictures, brief, verbose. Many words can be abbreviated, for example: INVENTORY to INV. The following example is not from the game but it illustrates how to play. The player's commands are in capitals, after each ">" prompt, and any text in square brackets is a comment. Lancelot woke suddenly. He had been dreaming of Guenever, and thought for a moment that it was she who had kissed him. > LOOK Lancelot was lying beside a fountain, in a glade of the Forest Sauvage. He could see a fair damosel. The fair damosel took a step backwards and stood, peering timidly at Lancelot. > EXAMINE DAMOSEL She was Elaine, called at that time the Fair Maid of Astalot, daughter to Sir Bernard of Astalot, in whose castle Lancelot had recently tarried. She was holding a red sleeve. Elaine cast a look of love unto Sir Lancelot and besought him to wear a token of hers at the jousts. > GO NORTH Elaine clutched at the bridle of Lancelot's horse and would not let him ride past. "Prithee, my Lord", she said, "Will you wear my token? Just tell me yeah or nay" > ELAINE, YES Elaine cast a look of love unto Sir Lancelot and twined the sleeve about his arm. Then she walked away into the forest, ever looking back at Lancelot until she was out of sight. > NORTH Sir Lancelot rode north and was on the edge of a great thorn thicket; the biggest that man had ever seen. He bethought himself to see a treasure glinting within the thicket. > IN Sir Lancelot dismounted and walked in. He was trapped by the thorns, completely unable to move. > UNDO [Take back move available on most micros.] Lancelot was on the edge of a great thorn thicket; the biggest that man had ever seen. > INVENTORY Lancelot was wearing a red sleeve. Sir Lavaine entered from the south. > EXITS Exits lead east, south and in. Sir Lavaine stopped in front of Lancelot. "Good sir knight", said the youth, "Pray let me ride with you unto the tournament, for methinks I am of my age strong and wight. I see you wear my sister's sleeve and I would help her chosen champion". > LAVAINE, FOLLOW ME Sir Lavaine bowed. > BRIEF, WORDS, EXITS ON OK. OK. OK. [Locations will be described briefly, pictures turned off and exits reported automatically in future. 'To reverse these choices, you could use VERBOSE, PICTURES and EXITS OFF.] > E [EAST] Sir Lancelot rode east and was on a forest road. Exits led east and west. Lancelot could see a little gate across the track. Sir Lavaine entered from the east. > A [AGAIN repeat previous command.] Lancelot pushed the gate halfway open. Sir Lavaine looked on with interest. Then the gate sprung closed, blocking the road. > LAVAINE, WAIT THEN PUSH THE GATE [WAIT defaults to WAIT 1.] Sir Lavaine nodded. > PUSH THE GATE Lancelot pushed the gate halfway open. Sir Lavaine pushed the gate the rest of the way open and it clicked in place. > EAST Sir Lancelot rode through the open gate and was at a junction in the road where a winding track joined it from the north. Exits led north, east and west. Lancelot could see a signpost. Sir Lavaine entered from the west. > READ SIGNPOST "Thou knight, which would enter into the Tower Perilous, beware thou be well prepared. For the fiendly dragon therein is proof against all weapons, save only one." A great roaring was heard in the distance. Sir Lavaine looked as if he had just remembered something. "Ye must hold me excused at this time", he said, "For I have duties elsewhere. But if God give me speed, I shall meet with you again at the jousts". Spurring his horse, he galloped into the distance. > SCORE Lancelot scored 10 out of 1000. > RAM SAVE OK. [Before facing the dragon, save the position in RAM that is in the computer's memory in case you encounter diffi- culties and want to return to this point, using RAM RESTORE. To save to disc or tape, use SAVE and RESTORE.] > GO TO TOWER PERILOUS [Let the computer work out the route. Press any key to cancel this type of "high level" command.] Sir Lancelot rode north and was deep in the forest. Sir Lancelot rode northeast and was on the edge of a clearing. Sir Lancelot rode north and was before the Tower Perilous. Exits led south and inside. Lancelot could see plumes of smoke curling from its windows. A fierce bellowing echoed from inside the tower. > EXAMINE EVERYTHING The sleeve was of scarlet cloth, well embroidered with great pearls. The bellowing grew louder. The plumes of smoke were flecked with glowing ash. Lancelot heard movement within the tower. > WAIT FOR DRAGON [Do nothing until the dragon arrives] Lancelot saw two great eyes within the tower. A great gout of flame gushed from the doorway, A hideous dragon entered from the north. It reared high above Lancelot, opening its mouth like a chasm. > MAKE SIGN OF THE CROSS A good idea but, alas, the dragon was no fiend and could not be banished. The dragon's breath scorched Lancelot's face. > KILL SERPENT [Strike it repeatedly] Lancelot's blow barely scratched the dragon's scales. The dragon's breath scorched Lancelot's face. The dragon prepared itself for a deadly strike. Lancelot redoubled his efforts and slightly wounded the dragon. The dragon's fire belched forth again, and Lancelot felt himself nigh unto death. [This is rather one-sided, so a key is pressed to stop the command.] Did Lancelot want to continue? NO > RAM RESTORE [Return to position saved earlier] Lancelot was at a junction in the road, where a winding track joined it from the north. Exits led north, east and west. Lancelot could see a signpost > EXITS OFF [Stop reporting exits] OK. A great roaring was heard in the distance. > E Lancelot rode east and came to the edge of a great river. Lance- lot could see a small boat. This fragile craft bobbed high in the water, rocked by every wave, its awning of white samite fluttering in the breeze. > GET INTO BOAT Lancelot seated himself in the boat. > E [To move boats, just enter the normal compass directions.] The boat sailed east and was at the far side of the river. Lance- lot could hear the sound of distant cheering, carried on the summer air. > RUN TO TOURNAMENT [Like GO TO, but without describing the moves] Lancelot climbed out of the boat. [A little time passes.] Lancelot was on the tournament field surrounded by milling crowds. He could see Sir Lavaine a priest and a great altar. "Hail, best of knights", said Sir Lavaine, "I have been waiting for you. " > EXAMINE ALTAR It was a massive block of granite, carved with all manner of signs of the cross. A sword was sticking through the altar. The priest noticed Lancelot's interest. "Wit ye well", he said, "that the haft and pommel of this sword are made of the bones of divers beasts; and its virtue is that he handleth it shall never be weary or hurt. But it belongs only to he that shall win the tournament". [Perhaps the sword is what is needed to defeat the dragon. or perhaps it will protect Lancelot so he can lead the beast to the thorns, so its firey breath will burn them. In either case, Lance- lot must first prove victorious in the tournament... HINTS 1. Draw a map [or a series of maps]. Remember that the EXITS ON connmand lists all the paths from each location. 2. To make life easy for you, the objects that matter in a location are normally listed in a sentence like: "You can sec a shopkeeper and a bunch of herbs". (Some other authors mix in useful objects amidst the background scenery, but Lancelot avoids this). The rest of your surroundings are probably scenery, but by all means try to do things to them if you like. 3. Examine all the objects that you see and, as a rule, take everything that you can. Most objects are useful in some way. 4. Use the "high level" ccmmands, such as GO TO TOWER, RUN TO ARTHUR, FOLLOW DRAGON, WAIT 5, WAIT FOR ELAINE and KILL DRAGON, which take the place of many individual instructions. Remember that pressing a key "breaks" out of such commands. 5. Some puzzles can only be solved with cooperation from other people (especially in the later parts of the game), so get used to giving orders. You can cancel orders given in error by typing, for example, DAMOSEL, STOP 6. Get used to using UNDO. If you make a mistake and get "killed" or lose a vital object, the UNDO command is avail- able on most micros and takes you back in time to before your previous move. On larger micros, you can use UNDO many times in succession to retrace your stops a long way through the game. 7. SAVE your place occasionally, so that if you notice a mis- take too late to be able to UNDO it, or if the electricity flickers and your computer crashes, you can RESTORE the saved position and continue from there. SAVE puts your position on tape or disc (see the detailed instructions] and RESTORE can retrieve it later. RAM SAVE is quicker but less secure, as it saves the position in memory. 8. Try everything you can think of even weird or dangerous actions sometimes provide clues, and might be fun. You can use UNDO (or RESTORE if you have previously used SAVE) to recover if the results are "fatal". 9. You can word a command in many different ways. For example, if there were an axe and a ball on the ground, you could take the axe by typing any of the following: > GET THE AXE > TAKE AXE > GET ALL BUT THE BALL > LOOK AT THE AXE AND TAKE IT If the game doesn't understand your command, try rephrasing it and using synonyms. If the game still doesn't understand, you are probably trying something that is not important in the game. Saving to disc To save game positions from the disc version of Lancelot, you first need a blank disc of your own. Before playing Lancelot, format (initialise) this disc. using the ordinary software bought with your micro. (Exceptions to this are Apple 11 and Atari XE/800XL discs Lancelot uses its own disc format on these computers and will initialise the disc itself. ) When playing the game, enter SAVE and follow the instruc- tions displayed. To return to a SAVEd position, enter RESTORE and YES, and follow any instructions asking for one word from the story. When entering a filename, you can either type a short word such as POS1 or use the full format permitted by your par- ticular computer. Saving to tape To save game positions from a cassette version of Lancelot, you need a blank cassette of your own. When playing the game, start a blank tape on RECORD and enter SAVE (if the cassette doesn't move, press Enter or Return again]. When the game starts running again, for example to prompt for your next command by displaying ">" or "What now?", stop the tape. To return to a SAVEd position, enter RESTORE and YES, then follow any instructions asking for one word from the story. Finally, rewind the tape on which the position was saved, and play it (if the cassette doesn't move, press Enter or Return again). Save in memory To save your game position in memory (all but the 48k Spec- trum, 64k Amstrad CPC and un-expanded BBC Micro allow this), enter RAM SAVE To return to a SAVEd position, enter RAM RESTORE Remember that saving in memory is very quick and convenient. BBC DISC FEATURES *Colour pictures on BBC Masters. B+ with additional side- ways ram, or BBC B with both shadow and sideways ram. (Smaller BBC Micros show a Mode 7 text only display such as the BBC B with just sideways or shadow ram). On BBC Masters you can use the cursor kevs, with Shift pressed, to slide the picture up and down. To see more pictures, wait until the game has loaded and is waiting for you to type something then flip the disc over Recall and editing of previous commands, on BBC micros big enough to show pictures. by cursor keys. Delete and Copy ("forward delete"). Variable text size, on BBC Micros big enough to show pic- tures; press FO and FI to select between 40 and 80 column text. * RAM SAVE/RESTORE and UNDO on big BBC Micros. Picture cache on very big BBC Micros (avoiding unnecess- ary disc loads). * READ ME file. For more information, turn on the BBCC Micro, insert [he game disc and enter *TYPE "README" NOTE that if you save a position to disc, then when you come to RESTORE it, you will be asked to type in a word from the story.