"A Bloody Day" - being more of a piece of short fiction than a
real adventure game - is perhaps more interactive fiction than
text adventure; so don't say I didn't warn you. Sure, there are
some puzzles to be solved.....but there are also some bits that
do get rather boring if your speed is more like, say, "Curses"
or "Jigsaw".

I. Some Suggestions.

* The story of this game is covered in greater detail in the
  README.BLD file included along with it; but to get more kicks
  out of playing, you may want to have a bash at the game 'by
  ear' just to see how far you go.

* Since I am a fairly foul player of IF myself (you probably have more
  fingers on your hands than I have games finished without walkthroughs)
  I have tried to make this game easy, with few ways of 'locking' yourself
  out of a win - a feature I find frustratingly common in most
  adventure games. There are several ways of actually dying - but,
  I implore you, please do try them. A lot of them are more fun than
  the actual gameplay.

* There is a lot more to "A Bloody Life" than finishing it! A pro at
  Infocom games, or someone using an AGT disassembler, might finish this
  in about 15 moves or so (exaggeration), but - as with so many works of
  fiction - sometimes the side-plots can be as interesting as the main
  line. Once again, please explore to your heart's content.


II. The Pros and Cons of First Aid.

* Since this game is written in AGT (I tried figuring out Inform, but
  haven't had the time yet) I wasn't able to use one Infocom feature
  that I really enjoyed.....the pop-up quotations. Besides, since there
  will never be a walkthrough for this game, I also wanted to include
  an online hint system. So, killing two birds with one stone, I added
  a combination of song lyrics, quotes, and oblique hints to the game
  data, that are called up by using AGT's good old HELP command in each
  room. Rest assured that you will NEVER get the annoying "Sorry, you're
  on your own here" or "I don't understand what 'help' means" messages
  that send you running for ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/solutions or some
  similar site.

* Some of the hints are downright silly, however, and in one room I
  couldn't resist ticking off compulsive HELP users (and, being a
  mean old bugger, the room contains one of the game's few puzzles).
  Some of them are song lyrics rather than hints - I don't know how
  legal it is, so if any of you legal eagles get hold of this game,
  please let me know. They mean little at times, a great deal at
  others, but they're always worth looking at.

* If you've ever visited Baf's guide to the IF-archive (www.wurb.com,
  or something like that), you'll find another major grouse I have against
  some IF-games : 'guess-the-verb'; in other words, having to use an
  unusual verb in certain situations. For example, in a certain
  adventure (which I shall not name), the game cannot be won without
  the extremely exciting command KISS JOHN. Foul! Therefore, without
  mentioning some of the guessable verbs in "A Bloody Life", here are
  some additional hints....

  # As a doctor, you are expected to use all your five senses, especially
    the less-used ones. For example, a diagnosis of appendicitis can
    traditionally be reached by a smell of rotten apples on the patient's
    breath. (There is no diagnosis in this game, don't worry - it's just
    an example).
  # How many ways are there to hide a message on a piece of paper? And
    everything - EVERYTHING - used for the purpose of writing can
    be read.

* And last, if you start thinking that hints are really great, a quote
  from a guy I once knew....

  "A tough guy like me doesn't need these!"


III. Medical Jurisprudence and Ethics.

The Readme file lists your primary objective as survival. That leads
on to a good question - survival from what? Without giving it all away,
some of the pitfalls you are likely to face are....

* Poison
* Professional malpraxis
* Personal entanglements
* Professorial duties, and.....
* Poorly functioning equipment


IV. Thanks.

The Adventure Game Toolkit is a fine system for creating your
own games. Thanks to Malmberg and Welch for coming up with it - I
was suffering the agonies of the damned trying to write an IF
game engine in BASIC.

A.J.Cronin was an author who wrote piles of books about doctors which
vacillated on the edge of sentimentality without really falling over.
Kudos to him for managing to do that; in case any of his fans read this,
this game does NOT parody him. (Finding out WHO it does is one of
Dr.Irons' Optional Puzzles). And his best books weren't about
doctors at all. "The Keys To The Kingdom" was about a Chinese
missionary; and "The Northern Light" was about the press.
P.S. If you can't find it out in the game, read README.BLD.

The boys who maintain the ftp.gmd.de archive of text adventures,
compilers and development systems deserve the biggest pat of all.
They were to this game as a pub is to a drunkard, or a sweetshop
to the young Roald Dahl.....get the picture?

The guys who wrote the Mystery Science Theatre parody games, for
their inspiration. I loved all their games - especially "Detective"
and "A Fable".
(The doctor seems to be getting angrier!)

.......I don't know if you remember it after all that
"Chicago Hope" hoo-ha, but there used to be a fabulous
sit-com, "Emergency Room", starring Elliot Gould (I think)
as a comical ER professional (not to be confused with a
later and grimmer series conceived by Michael Crichton).
I have tried, as far as possible, to imbibe the spirit of
that show and use it here.

Finally, does anyone remember the actor who played Gerald O'Hara
in "Gone With The Wind"? He's probably dead by now, but he would
be my first choice to play Irons if this game is ever filmed.

(The doctor opens his hand
 to reveal a sharp glittering scalpel
 and rips your flesh
 to tiny shreds...)

Oh dear, you seem to have finished this file already!
Would you like to play the game now?