The game of TRIPODS is based on the BBC television series of the same name. You have to get to the White Mountains somewhere in South-East France if you are to help the free men defeat the Tripods. You start at one of the French ports and you must try to find the entrance to the tunnel that leads to your destination. On your way you will have to cope with the terrain, the weather and the TRIPODS. You will meet people who may help you or hinder you. You will need to keep well fed and collect items that will help you on your way. You must try to avoid places where you may meet a black guard. Every time you are noticed by a TRIPOD your immunity to being "capped" may decrease. If your immunity drops to zero you may well be capped and you will have lost. Up to four people can play the game together. If several are in the same square the chance of attracting TRIPODS will increase. You can all travel in separate ways if you prefer. 1. Loading To load TRIPODS, follow the instructions on the cassette label. 2. Start up The time taken to play TRIPODS varies as the adventures happen by chance. During any game you may well wish to stop and save the current position so you can restart it later. You therefore have two choices on starting up, to start a brand new game or restart an old one. 2.1. Start a new game When you start a brand new game you can enter the names of up to four players. They will start the game in good health, well fed, with high TRIPOD immunity and with some move credits, some groceries and some money. Each player can choose one of six ports to enter France and start their journey to the White Mountain. After the game has loaded a view of the White Mountains is displayed. This is exactly the same view that will be seen once you have reached the tunnel that leads to the White Mountains so you will need a good memory to help you find the tunnel! 2.2. Restart an old game When you restart an old game each of the players who were in the game at the end of the last game will be restored to their last position with all their goods, health, immunity and move credits as they were. You can then: delete any players who do not wish to continue the game at all; suspend any players who cannot play now but would like to rejoin later; restart any players who had been suspended previously add any players to make the number up to four. Any new player will have to start at a port and will have the full allowance of items. 3. Playing the game Each player plays through one day in turn. You may meet TRIPODS and encounter other people or objects. As a result of these encounters different opportunities for action will arise. If you take particular action there is no guarantee that this will be successful. Remember also that you only have a certain amount of time for each move and if you run out of time then you may be in trouble. If you want to move on, and there is a TRIPOD nearby, you will always be noticed and possibly capped if you do not first press <T>. Pressing <T> allows you to hide from the TRIPOD (to hide press <H>), or attempt to disorientate the TRIPOD. Disorientating a TRIPOD is no easy business! You will need to press <R> for radio (which upsets the TRIPOD'S communications systems), or <M> for mirror (which dazzles the TRIPOD). If you have neither radio or mirror a message will appear on the screen saying: YOU HAVE NO RADIO - or - YOU HAVE NO MIRROR. Before you move to a new map position you can look at the surroundings and decide where you want to go. It is not a good idea to move under TRIPODS even if you want to go in that direction as they are rather unpredictable. At any time you can check your health or examine the goods you are carrying. It is as well to be prepared, but too much weight will slow you down. Once you have an item you will have to carry it until it wears out or you lose it. When the day clock at the bottom of the screen runs out you will be forced to camp until the next day. Your food supply will go down as you eat, your health will be improved by the rest and your move credits will go up. If it is a weekend all the items you are carrying will be examined and the worn out or broken ones thrown away. The end of the week screen arrives when you have camped seven times or you have seen the night screen seven times. It will then display your current status for all four players. For each player, a line shows your current status as being CAPPED (if you were capped and cannot carry on the game), EOD (meaning end of day if you are still active in the game), SUSPENDED (if you started the game but decided not to play during that week) and WINNER (if you have managed to reach the White Mountains and help the Free-men). The next player then gets a turn. Even if the other players follow the same route as you did they may meet different people or be more successful than you were. 4. The action screen At any stage during the game your computer screen may look like this: THERE IS NO TRIPOD DANGER YOU MEET A GUARD YOU CAN FIGHT THE GUARD 1 YOU CAN HIDE FROM THE GUARD 2 L/MV/R/PK/HEALTH/1/2/EAT THE WEATHER IS SUNNY WILL IS IN A PINEWOOD TIME TO NIGHTFALL If you enter <1> then you will fight the black guard. If you are successful then your screen should look like this: THERE IS NO TRIPOD DANGER YOU WON THE FIGHT L/MV/R/PK/HEALTH/1/2/EAT Entering any of the letters or numbers displayed on the action line will allow you to perform that action. For example, by pressing <P>, you will be shown the contents of your pack, and by pressing <H>, you will be shown your current state of health. Entering any of the letters or numbers on the action line will instruct the program to perform that action. For example, by pressing <p>, you will be shown the contents of your pack, and pressing <c> will cause you to make camp for the night. 5. Moving Before moving, you can spy out the terrain and then decide in which direction to go. This can be done by pressing <L> to look LEFT, <R> to look RIGHT and <M> to move in the direction you are facing. By pressing <L> or <R> once will allow you to look 45 degrees to your LEFT or RIGHT. So to look directly behind, you will need to press <L> or <R> four times, and if you want to look WEST when you are facing NORTH you will need to press <L> two times. You will not be able to reach some places at all. Other locations may be difficult to reach if you are short of move credits. You will need to have at least seven credits to cross a river, less if you have managed to get hold of a canoe. If you do cross rivers you will have to leave certain things behind. When you run out of either move credits or daylight you will have to camp for the night. 6. Saving the game When the weekend is reached after seven days play you will be given the opportunity either to continue playing or to save the game so that you can restart at some later date. If you continue then the day count is reset and you can play another seven days. If you want to save the game then do the following: PRESS <S> to save. A message will then appear on the screen saying: INSERT BLANK TAPE INTO YOUR RECORDER THEN SAVE & ENTER. To save your game follow screen instructions then press PLAY & RECORD on your cassette deck. Commodore 64 Spectrum BBC SPECTRUM 7. General information During the course of your travels you may meet many characters, some are friendly and some are aggressive. For example in a village you may meet a villager from whom you could ask for food. Depending on how he feels towards you he may or may not grant your wish. Remember though that people may mistake you for a vagrant, who aren't particularly liked! Never mistake a vagrant for a friend, for often as not he will try to rob you of your food and money. Black guards are always on the lookout for anybody who is new to the area (on the assumption that you may not have been capped) and they will arrest you and beat you up and possibly report you to the TRIPODS if they catch you. If you are reported to the TRIPODS your immunity to being capped falls by a considerable measure. TRIPODS move around at will and may chase you or leave you, but if you are spotted by a TRIPOD your description will be circulated fairly quickly and again your immunity will fall by a considerable measure. So be sure to act quickly when within sight of a TRIPOD by either moving on or using a weapon to try to harm it. They can be killed, but you will need to find the correct weapons. You will find that some weapons are only effective against certain characters, for instance if you attempted to fight a knight with a knife you wouldn't stand a chance but should you try the same with a spear you would have a very good chance of un-horsing him! Some of the objects you pick up may not always be of use to you and carrying too much will hamper your speed when moving, so to successfully buy, sell and fight your way through the adventure don't carry useless objects. If you catch a horse your move credits will go up (because you will be on horseback) but, remember, you need something to catch it with. The same goes for catching a rabbit (if you are hungry but lacking money), you will need to find something to catch it with. You will also come across water in the form of lakes, ponds, rivers, marshes and the sea. Marshes, lakes and ponds can never be crossed. Once you have started from the port it is impossible to return and attempt to sail back to England (as Ozymandias could not arrange this facility!). Rivers, though, can be crossed but only with the aid of a small inflatable dinghy which can only hold one person. So if you start a journey with four people, together you will need four dinghies. These can be found in only a few places as there wasn't much call for them in the Golden Age of Man! Because dinghies are small and inflatable they can easily be folded and placed in your pack. 8. Ozymandias Ozymandias is a Free-man, and there are a small number of Free-men in the White Mountains. He went to England to recruit more people to help him and his men rid the world of the TRIPODS for good! You and your friends have been recruited and MUST reach the White Mountains to help him. He supplies you with a compass and a map each to help you navigate the treacherous terrain. You must be bold and cunning, but always remember ... ONLY A FEW EVER REACH THE WHITE MOUNTAINS! GOOD LUCK AND GODSPEED!! Loading Screen: David Sheridan Play Testers: Kevin, Jason, Chris and others. Many thanks to Smiler. © Watermill Productions Ltd Under Licence from BBC Enterprises Ltd