# The Hobbit: The True Story # redux, Director's Cut # - Inform 7 port of old MS-DOS adventure # Copyright 1993, 2001 Fredrik Ramsberg, Johan Berntsson # Copyright 2015 Konstantin Shakhnov # Copyright 2017 A.N. Onymous ####################################################################### This was originally shareware for MS-DOS, but the authors gave permissions to publicize this port using Inform 7. > We're glad that you want to port the game. > I checked with Johan as well, of course. > It was fun to read the Inform 7 source. > I have used Inform 6 quite a lot, but I have barely touched Inform 7. > The fact that it runs at the command prompt was pretty much > the only reason we wrote the game from the start. > We asked ourselves if it would be possible to write an adventure game >using BAT files, and thought we'd give it a try. > If someone else wants to port it to a different platform, > that's fine by us of course. > Best regards, > Fredrik 2017 ###################################################################### # This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify # it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by # the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or # (at your option) any later version. # This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, # but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of # MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the # GNU General Public License for more details. # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License # along with this program. If not, see . ######################################################################## # Initially original MS-DOS "Hobbit - The True Story" was shareware # program, but for this port authors gave permissions to public it # under GPL. # > I asked Johan about your project, and we both agree that you # > can make it GPL, as long as you mention us as the original # > authors. # > Fredrik Ramsberg ######################################################################## ---------------------- ORIGINAL README Thursday 27 Dec 2001 Hobbit - The True Story - redux, Director's Cut by Fredrik Ramsberg and Johan Berntsson This is a small interactive adventure game for PC's using MS-DOS 5.0 or higher, or Microsoft Windows of any sorts. The game was in fact, in its entirety, written in MS-DOS 5 batch files, in 1993. After unpacking the game in a directory of its own, this is what you have to do to be able to play it: * Include the name of the directory in the PATH variable declaration in your AUTOEXEC.BAT. After rebooting the machine, the game should always be available for play. * Type RESTART at a DOS prompt. Please note: You can interrupt gameplay at any time, to do something else in DOS -- As long as you don't turn off or reset the computer, the game will always be ready for continuation. If you have trouble running the game, make sure that you have enough memory space reserved for environment variables. The space reserved can be extended using the MS-DOS command "command /e:nnnnn". If you want to avoid the hassle of rebooting your machine, you can still play the game by simply getting a DOS prompt, going to the directory where you unpacked it and typing RESTART. However, that means you won't be able to move to different directories while playing. Story This game is about what really happened to Bilbo Baggins on his famous adventure. The story, in somewhat corrupt versions, has been told in a book - The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, and several computer games, among them Hobbit. You play the part of Bilbo, and your goal is to journey to Smaug, the great red dragon in the land beyond the river, and return with treasure. For an assistant you have Thorin the dwarf and Gandalf the powerful wizard. They will do everything within their power to guide you and to help you. Well, almost everything, as long as they don't have to get into any trouble themselves. Or get wet, for that matter. Or cold. Sample sentences that the parser will recognize: (Note that everything must be typed in lower case.) >take chest >show gandalf chest >show the chest to gandalf >drop the chest >inventory >i (Short for inventory) >get the chest >ask gandalf about the spell >talk to thorin about chest >examine chest >x chest (Short for examine chest) >hint >clue >look >l (Short for look) >go east >e (Short for go east) >enter the chest >wait >save jake1 >restore jake1 >restart >quit The redux, Director's Cut version The new version restores a lost scene which had to be cut in order to get a PG rating. This rare footage includes some nudity, but this was considered to be rather mild by today's standards. The improved version also includes two new commands, "save" and "restore", along with some added dialogue. Compatibility issues have also been addressed, and the game should now perform well under Windows 95, 98, ME, NT and 2000, quite possibly even XP, for all we know. General info This game is a shareware product. You are absolutely free to distribute it to anyone, as long as you don't take a profit from it. However, anyone who enjoys it and decides to keep it should pay a small fee to the authors. This fee will encourage them to write more shareware programs in the future. Also, paying the fee is helping to establish this form of distribution, as other programmers may start using it if it works properly. The shareware fee for this program is simply the amount of money you think it's worth. This may be sent in any way you like to the address below. Thank you! Mr. Fredrik Ramsberg Sedelv 20 S-129 32 Hagersten SWEDEN If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me using the above address, or the e-mail address below: f.r@mail.com Thank you for playing this game!