NAPOLEON(1) 386BSD Reference Manual NAPOLEON(1) NAME napoleon - adventure game SYNOPSIS napoleon DESCRIPTION Napoleon is a traditional text adventure game. On the other hand it is modern in the sense that it has a yacc/bison parser to allow you to type more complex commands than the traditional two words. You already know what an adventure game is, I expect... so all that re- mains is to set the scene for this particular one: INTRODUCTION It was an alarmingly dark night. In Rusgreve's office, a solitary candle burned, and spluttered fitfully in the slight breeze. The Council of War began. Prendergast lit a smelly cigarette. Rusgreve began to explain the problem. 'The difficulty is,' he said, 'someone is going to have to go in without us having first obtained prop- er information. It isn't going to be me.' Many, many weeks previously, the investigation had begun. At first, Rus- greve had claimed there was nothing to worry about. After a time, that became a bigger worry than the things people might have worried about, and so he rewrote history so that in fact he had been concerned all along. The delay rather hindered the efforts to gain information about the people involved prior to sending in an agent. Many, many years previously, the so-called Napoleon gang had been normal criminals - yes, they did a bit of time here, and yes, there was the odd bungled attack there. Then things changed for the better (although it was worse for everyone else). The first and most important change was that Rusgreve took over as director of the Criminal Re- education Bureau, responsible for placing crooks in the nick for re-education. The second, and less important change was that the Napoleon gang were joined by a fourth member. This member was known as Professor R. P. P. Tinthywinkle-Croack. Rusgreve pointed out early on how surprising it was that one of the Napoleon gang was using his real name. Unfortunately it rapidly became obvious that this was not so. Information was passed out to the Napoleons which was supposed to be top secret, for your eyes only, printed on red paper. This led to the uncharitable starting to believe that somewhere in the CRB, a leaker was at work. An immediate Public En- quiry was set up, which served only to pass still more information into the hands of Joe Public (who Rusgreve always suspected of being a secret Communist - others only suspected Rusgreve of being a little simple). One particular piece of information which got into the hands of the Napoleon gang was the knowledge of how to idea-flip. Prendergast was originally employed to try to research this topic, in order that it could be directed at miscreants, as part of the re-education programme. We asked him to explain it to the Council of War so that it could be quoted below: When you dream, you populate your dreams with other people. However those people don't know that they were in your dream (unless you tell them, yes, Rusgreve). Now if we can bring sufficient energy to bear on the problem, we can arrange it so that people's dreams come true; they don't know it, and neither does anyone else unless some action is taken to transport people to them. But when this happens, two people can meet in a dream, and both people will remember the same dream when they wake up. Now this is not just of academic interest. Many people saw a lot of po- tential in this system for creating everything from idyllic gardens to death traps (the use the Napoleon gang were eventually to find). What was not appreciated was that people's dreams were not being realised individually but instead everyone who placed their dreams at the disposal of the idea-flipping machine had their dreams combined into a single very large system. In the end portions of the system became quite well ordered. In places this was because people deliberately dreamed in such a way as to create improved order while in others it was due simply to people with efficient minds dreaming. This caused the Napoleon gang a lot of problems. The point was that they wanted to create death traps to which people could be whisked as soon as they fell asleep. But the majority of the dreamland was neutral or good, since wide publication of the invention had been prevented; apart from the Napoleon gang, everyone who knew about the invention was concerned with creating safe places for people to go. However there are nasty places. These, however, have been watered down by the proximity of good areas. They are now much more what you make of them than unreservedly bad. That is, you have to survive by your wits. Next Rusgreve himself gave a short briefing to the meeting, reading from a large pad in front of him on the table: Now it wouldn't be so bad if the Napoleon gang hadn't managed to steer anyone to the unpleasant areas, but they have. They created for them- selves a complex of rooms with exits leading to all the bad places; then they entered the dreamland looking for someone important who could be kidnapped and held hostage there. And they found someone: the Princess Caroline, who was dreaming naturally and was unaware that she had moved from dream to semi reality. She has been asleep ever since, and cannot be woken. It has been put about that she is ill, but those people knowing about the idea-flipping secret know that she is not ill. So do the Napoleon gang, who have asked for a large fee in return for releasing her. But someone's going to have to go into the dreamland to let her out. 'Well volunteered,' said Rusgreve to you at about this point. 'Hmmm,' said Prendergast, 'I suppose we could easily put someone into the Napoleon gang's rooms that lead to all the nasty bits. It's just if they get killed, they won't come back, just like the Princess Caroline didn't.' 'We won't get anywhere without taking a few risks,' said Rusgreve, kind- ly. 'We don't know what unpleasant things the Napoleon gang might have put there for unexpected visitors, though,' said Prendergast. The exchanges went on for quite some time. In the end Rusgreve, as di- rector of the Bureau, overruled all objections and annouced that Some- thing Must be Done. You are on your way. 'Alright then,' said Prendergast with a sigh. 'We'll be able to keep watch over you until you leave the Napoleons' place for the various nasty bits, and make sure nothing too nasty happens. But we won't be able to help you operate whatever the Napoleons have put there, and we won't be able to help you once you get past there into the rest of the dreamland.' 'And good luck,' finished Rusgreve. 'We appreciate what you are doing. We will give you the papers you need to carry out this mission to the best of your ability - and remember the most important thing. Read the scroll in the office at the centre of the Napoleons' headquarters.' SHEET 604 Target Information -- Napoleon Gang (sheet # 604) Up to date information on the Napoleons is difficult to come by. Over the last few years they have moved from being really quite ordinary crim- inals who we have been able to have a try at re-educating sometimes to their present form. It is popularly believed that they 'hit the big time' as the leader liked to put it, when the information on idea- flipping fell into their hands, apparently leaked by someone at the Bureau. We would like to stress that this is almost certainly not the case and it is thought to be highly un- likely that anyone at the Bureau could have been responsible for the sud- den rise to power that the Napoleon gang have experienced. The reason we haven't got much information to place in this report is that the Napoleons have become very accustomed to secrecy. Last year one of our operatives had to pretend to be a window-cleaner after he was seen fixing an electronic device to their window frame. It is believed that his cover may have been compromised by someone at the Bureau and everyone is urged to be uncommonly vigilant to prevent unauthorised activities such as leaking from being carried on. The attached device subsequently only ever recorded people berating the Bureau for inefficiency in catch- ing criminals. The Napoleon gang is, however, known to have three members, as well as Professor R. P. P. Tinthywinkle-Croack. Apart from the Professor, all the members use false names, and so the accuracy of what follows cannot be guaranteed. Napoleon target # 1: Richard Entwhistle-SmytheCumbert Commonly uses the alias of Fred Smith. Served five years in jail for robbery with violence, while the Napoleons were in a less subtle phase. Commonly believed to be the leader of the outfit, RESC seemed to be the first to hear of the opportunity available with the idea-flipping ma- chine. He approached Professor Tinthywinkle-Croack to bring him in on the project. The meeting was monitored, but unfortunately took place in a language for which a translator could not be found for another three weeks, by which time it was, of course, far too late. If you see RESC, take great care. He may attack with a savagery learnt during his days as a robber. He may try to trick you, using his undoubt- ed verbal skill. He may ignore you and hope you go away. He might at- tempt to recruit you, and we wouldn't want that, would we? RESC may be recognised in the dreamland by his tendency to end up leading what ever bizarre operation someone has 'dreamed' up. One of nature's leaders, he will lead you into compromising the Bureau if you are not careful. Be warned. If you change sides, the whole arsenal of the Bu- reau's sophisticated tools will be pointed at you. Napoleon target # 2: Charlie Zzzwocke Changed his name by Deed Poll in order that he could take part in a bank fraud. Commonly uses the alias of Uncle Z, which is not very convincing, but you believe that that is his name when he is standing over you asking whether you want to buy any insurance. A natural thug, he is available for any operation involving crimes of vi- olence in a dark alley. He was brought into the fraud because someone realised that the person most at risk was the one with the funny name - and predictably Zzzwocke got caught. He served three months at an open prison before absconding. While on the run, he took part in an attack on a bank. Unfortunately the bank had folded several months previously and there was now nothing in the branch except a pile of old paying-in slips. He took these, and started to run out before falling over the doormat and letting his gun off across the street. RESC saw him and thought him the ideal gang mem- ber - frightening to anyone not wanting insurance, but not intelligent enough to have leadership ambitions. RESC removed him from under the noses of the police. Of all the gang members, Zzzwocke is the least at home in dreamland. 'Namby-pamby' pursuits like dreaming are not for him, and a sudden shock will sometimes cause him to wake up. Napoleon target # 3: Brian Turner [ Note: the above name is believed to be too ordinary to be correct. Would anyone who would like to suggest an alternative name please contact the information desk on the number shown below. ] Not using any aliases, Brian Turner is a supremely confident talker who could sell double glazing to... well, anyone really. He has been in- volved in organised crime ever since his childhood, when he 'organised' people to distract the store detective while his friends helped them- selves to chocolate bars. Predictably, he got caught, and was cautioned. Later he turned his attention to selling timeshare holidays. This ended when he got so good at it that he sold himself one, forgetting all the bad points, like that it was still just a hole in the ground. Later he turned his attention to getting people to put thousands of pounds in brown envelopes and leave them in the hotel safe. One of the people he did this to was our own Rusgreve, and this was the reason why Rusgreve decided to go into crime prevention, in order to get his own back. This particular misdeed therefore had repercussions for the crime statistics far beyond its own ability to increment them. Finally, he joined the Napoleons when a man who had just been cheated turned nasty. That man was Mr Zzzwocke. If you have any further information to add to this dossier, please ring 4733 and ask for Peabody. If you believe that your cover may have been compromised, please ring 8955 and ask to speak to the Editor. SHEET 904 Target Information -- Bureau Leaker (sheet # 904) (this page intentionally left blank) If you have any further information to add to this dossier, please ring 4733 and ask for Peabody. If you believe that your cover may have been compromised, please ring 8955 and ask to speak to the Editor. DIAGNOSTICS Exit status is always 0. All errors are reported interactively by the program. BUGS Surely not? HISTORY This is the first version. History is just about to start... :-) BSD Experimental February 28, 1993 6