THE RING OF DARKNESS from Wintersoft All versions of THE RING OF DARKNESS were written by John F. Humphreys and David A. Briskham. INTRODUCTION. Welcome to The Ring Of Darkness. You are about to enter a strange world of challenges, surprises and satisfying problems. This is a role playing adventure, so your first task will be to create your character. You will be able to choose your character's name and select from several types and skills. Different characters have very different attributes, and your choice will greatly effect the game. For instance, a warrior is strong, a thief may steal more effectively, and an elf is good at casting spells. When the adventure commences you are an insignificant traveller; weak, inexperienced, and alone in a dangerous and unfamiliar land. You know only that you are here to seek your fortune, and that your immediate concern is one of survival. May luck travel your path. The Game Cassette. The 'Ring' uses both sides of the cassette, which are labelled 'START SIDE' and 'GAME SIDE'. Since the Ring is too large to fit into just one program it has been written in several, both Basic and machine code. At times the game will need to transfer between programs, so leave the Ring cassette in the player unless asked otherwise. Movement Each movement you make represents one day's travelling, so be sure you have enough food with you. In total the Dragon map contains almost 3000 travel days, whilst the Oric and Spectrum map has more than 10000. On the Oric and Dragon the arrow keys move your character west, south, north and east. On the Spectrum the keys Q,W,O and P serve the same purpose, for ease of use. In some cases the movement keys are used to indicate a direction of attack. When in a dungeon they represent the movements left, turn about, forwards and right. NOTE that there is no need to press ENTER (or RETURN) when using the movement keys. The Output and the Input. The majority of the screen area is used to display pictures of your surroundings, and is your "graphics window". A small area at the bottom of the screen forms the independently scrolling "text window" (usually three lines of text). Everything you type will be shown here, as will prompts and messages from the computer. The prompt "?" on the bottom text line indicates that the computer is waiting for your command. Your response can be any of the commands listed at the back of this booklet, and should be followed by pressing ENTER (or RETURN) except when using the movement keys. Most of the time you will communicate with the computer using single letter commands (such as "C" for CAST a spell). However, when you wish to enter the name of an object you must type at least two letters (for example "DAGGER" or "DA" will suffice to describe a dagger, but just "D" will not). Lag Time To give greater control over the speed at which output appears in the text window the Spectrum and Oric versions have a special "lag time" command ("L"). Each line printed will be followed by a pause, the length of which you can vary to suit yourself. The larger the number entered for lag time the longer the pause, and you can really speed up the action by entering the lowest lag time permitted. Time Passes..... The RING is played in real time, which means the computer will not wait forever for you to make your next entry. If you leave the game for more than 20 seconds the word "PASS" will appear and the computer will make its move. Save It. Have a blank cassette ready and label it with the name of your character. You are unlikely to complete the Ring in one sitting, so the blank tape will become your character SAVE cassette. Before saving your character be sure to wind your SAVE cassette past the leader tape. The Oric version has the option to save character in fast or slow mode. If you choose slow mode you will require at least a C60 cassette. On the Dragon and Oric versions type "Q" to save your character. On the Spectrum version type "#". Progressive Play. To "get on in the world" it is important to build up your EXPERIENCE. With each successful endeavour you will gain more Experience Points. As the game progresses technology and the variety of goods available to you will increase (so where before you could only find an axe you can now get a sword). A FINAL HINT.... Keep up to date with your status (status check Z). Your HIT POINTS (a measure of your mortality) and FOOD UNITS (each movement uses up food, so don't starve yourself) are most important. If either FOOD or HP. fall to zero you will die. The Commands: R - Ready for use a weapon, spell or armour. A - Attack C - Cast a spell. Z - Status check. E - Enter. B - Board a craft. X - Exit a craft. I - Inform and search. T - Transact. K - Climb. S - Steal. G - Get. U - Unlock. L - (Oric and Spectrum only) - Set lag time. Q - (or # on Spectrum) - Save current character status onto save cassette. Arrow Keys (or keys Q,W,O and P on Spectrum) move your player and in some cases are used to indicate attack direction.