                               PLAYING THE GAME


VOCABULARY

Your game's commands should generally be in this format:

    <verb phrase> <noun phrase(s)> <preposition> <noun phrase/object>
Verb phrases can consist of a simple verb like EAT, SHOOT or READ or a 
verb followed by a preposition such as JUMP OVER or SWIM IN.  Noun (or 
object) phrases can sonsist of a single word noun like TREE, or ROCK or a 
noun and its adjective such as RED ROCK or UGLY MUTANT.  Several nouns 
may be connected with AND's or COMMAS.  Articles like A, AN or THE are 
optional.  The personal pronouns MY and ITS are also optional.  The 
pronouns IT, THEM, HIM and HER may be used to refer to the previously 
mentioned noun.

Here are some (hypothetical) examples of valid commands:

    PUT THE GREEN ROCK AND THE SMALL PEBBLE BEHIND THE OAK TREE
    EXAMINE THE GOLD RING, THE DWARF AND THE SILVER NECKLACE
    EAT THE CELERY, THE TUNA, THE APPLE AND THE ONION
    ATTACK HIM (him will refer to the last noun mentioned e.g.dog)
    GET THE BOOK also TAKE THE BOOK
    READ IT (it will refer to the last noun mentioned e.g.book)
    GET ALL (will get everything movable in current room)
    JUMP
    NORTH
    SOUTHWEST
    PUT THE FOOD ON THE TABLE
    TURN ON THE FLASHLIGHT
    DRINK THE WINE
    WEAR THE HAT or PUT ON THE HAT
    TAKE OFF THE HAD also REMOVE THE HAT
    NE for northeast
    XYZZY (i.e. a 'magic' word)

Compound commands can be created by connecting single commands with AND, 
THEN, or by COMMAS.  End of sentence punctuation should not be used.  

Your commands should be structured as follows:  THROW THE GOLDEN EGGS TO 
THE TROLL will be understood by the parser, whereas THROW TROLL THE EGGS 
will not be.  Similarly you should avoid the word USE, such as USE THE 
KEY TO UNLOCK THE DOOR.  This command should be entered as UNLOCK THE 
DOOR WITH THE KEY.

You can try to GET or TAKE most things that are in a room with you; you 
should EXAMINE or LOOK AT most visible nouns, creatures, etc whether or 
not you are carrying them.  Eating and drinking are often permitted, but 
eating and drinking strange things is usually dangerous.  

There's no penalty for incorrect words; if the game doesn't understand a 
word, it gives you another chance and doesn't count the invalid input as 
a turn.  If you try to do something foolish like EAT THE CHAIR or GET THE 
BUILDING the game will give you a response like "It is impossible to eat 
the chair" or "The building cannot be taken".


ABBREVIATIONS AND FUNCTION KEYS

It is possible to use the function keys and cursor keys instead of many 
frequently used commands and directions as follows:

    F1--GET             F2--DROP                F3--EXAMINE
    F4--READ            F5--OPEN                F6--CLOSE
    F7--INVENTORY       F8--LOOK                F9--SCORE
   F10--HELP

    UP ARROW--NORTH     DOWN ARROW--SOUTH       RIGHT ARROW--EAST
    LEFT ARROW--WEST    HOME--NORTHWEST         END--SOUTHWEST
    PG UP--NORTHEAST    PG DN--SOUTHEAST        GRAY PLUS--DOWN
    GRAY MINUS--UP      INSERT--ENTER           DELETE--EXIT


SCORE shows your current status.  QUIT  will let you stop, and SAVE will 
let you save current status with RESTORE to get a previously stored game.  
SCRIPT  echos all of game's output to printer, and UNSCRIPT turns it off.  
BRIEF suppresses long descriptions every time you enter a room, and 
VERBOSE puts them back.  HELP will try to get the game to give you a hint 
about what to do.  Be warned, however, that some game designers may feel 
that the situation does not warrant help or worse yet, some deviate 
individuals may even give the player a hint that is a little misleading. 

Words like THE, MY, ITS, A and AN are ignored; so are words like PLEASE, 
NOW, and THANK YOU.  

In order to accommodate as many hardware systems as possible, it is 
possible to enter a "/B" option on the command like that invokes your 
game. This causes the game to use the BIOS for all output, rather than 
writing directly to screen memory locations.  Some clones may require 
this option.  If you find the game causes strange behaviour on your 
screen, you should try this option.  You would start the game: 
RUN TOMB /B

GOOD LUCK, YOU'LL NEED IT.

