INFIDEL Buried Alive In a Phantom Pyramid! Even how the horrors or the tomb's dread chambers and catacombs are too agonizingly fresh in my memory for me to commit the whole shocking story to paper. That others might be spared this fate worse than death, however, I hereby disclose to future adventurers my secret techniques for survival. Know Your Objective Before You Set Out Make certain that you understand what your goal is - to discover the ancient pyramid, make your way to the burial chamber, and uncover the sarcophagus. In doing so, you will earn vast riches and influence. It's Not the Score, It's How You Play The Game INFIDEL keeps track of your score as a rough measure of your progress in the game. You can strive for a perfect score, but of course the ultimate goal, to uncover the sarcophagus, is all that matters. You should consult the score only to measure progress towards your goal. Get Your Directions Straight Your physical abilities and environment restrict you to mundane forms of transportation, such as walking. You should not consider yourself above snooping around, as your surroundings are almost always dangerous. The best way to move from place to place is to type the direction in which you want to move. you can use all eight compass directions, which you can abbreviate to N, E, S, W, NE, SE, NW, and SW. UP and DOWN are also important, and you can abbreviate them to U and D. IN and OUT may also work in certain places. Familiarize Yourself With Your Surroundings INFIDEL calls each location a "room". When you enter a room for the first time INFIDEL normally displays the name of the room, its description, and descriptions of any interesting objects in the room with which you might want to interact. Normally, when you return to a room, only the name of the room and names of the objects in it are displayed. Walking around a room is unnecessary; anything inside a room is always within reach. (Unless, of course, you are sitting down.) The VERBOSE command tells INFIDEL to display the full description of every room and every object each time you see them, not just the first time. The SUPERBRIEF command tells INFIDEL to show only the name of the room, even the first time you enter the room, and not even to mention any of the objects in it. When you are in Superbrief mode, you can still get a description of the room and the objects present by typing LOOK or L. The BRIEF command tells INFIDEL to return to the initial mode, in which you receive descriptions only on your first visit to a room. An Explorer Without A Map Is Like A Camel Without A Hump Exploring any area can be a tricky and dangerous thing. Even the most experienced and capable adventurer finds it wise to keep track of where he's been and where he found objects. For this reason, you should make a map showing where you have been and what connecting passages you've found. Remember that there are 10 possible directions, plus IN and OUT. Curiosity May Kill The Cat, But Save and Restore Will Bring Him Back Many objects in the game are important because they provide nourishment or information, or you can use them as tools. Examine or read every object that seems important - it is the only way you can expect to survive your encounter. Even life-threatening actions may lead to new insights. Besides, you can always start over again, or SAVE your position first. (See the section on Eternal Youth for details on Saving, Restoring, and Restarting.) Trying the bizarre can be fun and often will give you a clue. Here's a nonsense example: >GIVE THE PLAID GERANIUM TO THE WOLF The wolf considers, for a moment, eating the geranium instead of you. Then he decides the better of it. He comes closer and closer. In addition to learning something useful about the culinary preferences of wolves, you have a clue that perhaps feeding something else (a steak?) to the wolf would be more useful. Many Are The Paths To Success There are many possible routes to the successful completion of INFIDEL. Some problems that you encounter along the way have more than one solution; others may not need solutions at all. Sometimes using one way to solve a problem will make it harder to solve another, and other times, a certain technique employed on one problem will render another one blissfully easy. Don't Die A Lonely Death. Bring A Friend Until you have mastered those death traps of the pyramid, you might find it useful to play INFIDEl with another person. One person might find a problem difficult while another might find it easy, so two players often complement each other. Big Game Hunters Stumble On Incredible Discovery: Mysterious Plastic Disk Can Talk! "It's True!" says a very famous expert. "We've found a way to communicate with this 'Infidel' thing - and what's more, it can talk back!" Here's how to do it.... When you see the prompt (>) INFIDEL is waiting for you to type in your instructions. When you have finished doing so, press the RETURN or ENTER key. INFIDEL will respond, and the prompt will reappear for your next action. "Freak Of Science" Understands Plain English When you play INFIDEL, or any other INTERLOGIC game, you type your commands in plain English. You can pretend that all your sentences begin with "I want to..." although you should not type those words explicitly. INFIDEL will digest your request, then tell you whether what you command is possible in the current situation, and also whether anything interesting happens as a result. All words are distinguished by their first six letters, and all subsequent letters are ignored. Hence, the words TWENTY and TWENTY-SEVEN would look like the same word to INFIDEL. Sentence Syntax Provides A Key To Getting "Infy" To Respond To All Kinds Of Commands. INFIDEL understands many different kinds of sentences. Here are some examples using objects or situations that do not necessarily occur in INFIDEL. TAKE THE KNAPSACK. PUT ON THE KNAPSACK. TAKE THE MATCHBOOK. GO OUT. DROP THE MATCHBOOK INTO THE FIRE PIT. WEST. EXAMINE THE LARGE CRATE. PUSH THE TRUNK. BREAK THE LOCK WITH MY HANDS. DESTROY THE MAP. LOOK UNDER THE COT. READ THE COUPON. You must separate multiple objects of a verb by the word AND or by a comma. The word ALL is useful with a few verbs. For example: DROP THE ROPE AND THE BRONZE TORCH. TAKE THE ALABASTER JAR, THE TORCH, AND THE MATCHBOOK. PUT THE TORCH AND THE MAP IN THE KNAPSACK. THROW THE ROPE AND THE ALTAR IN THE HOLE. EXAMINE ALL THE JEWELED CLUSTERS. PUT ALL THE CLUSTERS BUT THE GOLD CLUSTER IN THE KNAPSACK. You can include several sentences on one input line if you separate them by the word THEN (not AND) or by a period. No period is necessary at the end of the input line. For example, you could type the following all on one input line: READ THE MATCHBOOK. BURN THE MAP WITH THE MATCH. OPEN THE DOOR THEN S THEN CLOSE THE DOOR THEN LOCK IT Using the word IT can save you a lot of time: LOOK AT THE BOOK. OPEN IT UP. READ IT. PUT IT IN THE BOOKSHELF Answers Two Types Of Questions With Astounding Accuracy There are two kinds of questions that INFIDEL understands. The first is WHAT IS (something), and the other is WHERE IS (something). For example: WHAT IS AN AIRPLANE? WHERE IS THE BOOK? Reports of Clairvoyance Confirmed INFIDEL tries to be clever about what you really mean when you don't give enough information. If you type that you want to do something, but you don't specify what to do it with or to, INFIDEL will sometimes decide that there was only one possible object you could have meant. When it does this, it will tell you. For example: >UNLOCK THE DOOR (with the key) The door is now unlocked. Insufficient Input Cited As Leading Cause Of Miscommunication If your sentence is ambiguous, INFIDEL will ask what you really meant. You can answer most questions briefly. For example: >BURN THE MAP What do you want to burn the map with? >A MATCH You'd better light a match first. Completely mystifying sentences will cause infidel to complain in one way or another. Here are some of the more common INFIDEl complaints: I DON'T KNOW THE WORD "__________". The word you typed is not in the story's vocabulary. Sometimes using a synonym or rephrasing will help. If not, INFIDEL probably doesn't know the idea you were trying to get across. Remember INFIDEL recognizes your words by their first nine letters. YOU USED THE WORD "_______" IN A WAY THAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND. INFIDEL knows the word you typed, but couldn't use it in that sense. Usually this is because INFIDEL knows the word as a different part of speech. For example, if you typed PRESS THE LOWER BUTTON, you are using LOWER as an adjective, but INFIDEL might know LOWER only as a verb, as in LOWER THE BOOM. THERE WAS NO VERB IN THAT SENTENCE! Unless you are answering a question, each sentence must have a verb (or a command) in it somewhere. THERE SEEMS TO BE A NOUN MISSING IN THAT SENTENCE. This usually means that your sentence was incomplete, such as EAT THE BLUE. THERE WERE TOO MANY NOUNS IN THAT SENTENCE. An example is PUT THE SOUP IN THE BOWL WITH THE LADLE, which has three noun "phrases," one more than INFIDEL can digest in a single action. I BEG YOUR PARDON? You pressed the RETURN (or ENTER) key without typing anything. YOU CAN'T SEE ANY ________ HERE! The item you referred to was not visible. It may be somewhere else, inside a closed container, and so on. THE OTHER OBJECT(S) THAT YOU MENTIONED ISN'T (AREN'T) HERE. You referred to two or more items in the same sentence, and at least one of them wasn't visible to you in your present location. YOU CAN'T USE MULTIPLE (IN)DIRECT OBJECTS WITH "______." You can use multiple objects (that is, nouns or noun phrases separated by AND or a comma) or the word ALL only with certain verbs. Among the more useful of these verbs are TAKE, DROP, and PUT. An example of a verb that will not work with multiple objects is ATTACK; you couldn't say ATTACK ALL or ATTACK THE PRIEST AND THE POLICEMAN. YOU CAN'T GO THAT WAY. There was no passage or exit in the direction you tried to move. THAT SENTENCE ISN'T ONE I RECOGNIZE. The sentence you typed may have been gibberish, such as TAKE ROPE WITH READ. Or, you may have typed a reasonable sentence but used a syntax that INFIDEL does not recognize, such as WAVE OVER THE MOUNTAIN. Try rephrasing the sentence. After making the complaint, INFIDEl will ignore the rest of the input line. Unusual events, such as being attacked, will also make INFIDEL ignore the rest of the sentence you typed, since the event may have changed your situation dramatically. INFIDEL uses many more words than it will accept in your inputs. INFIDEL recognizes a vocabulary of hundreds of words - nearly all the words that you would be likely to use in playing the game. However, descriptions of rooms, objects, or events may use words that INFIDEl won't recognize. It uses these words only to enhance your mental imagery, and you need not use them to complete the game. If you find that INFIDEL doesn't know a word you wish to use or its likely synonyms, you almost certainly don't need that word to finish the game. "It's true!" the adventurer recalls of his dizzy rise to power. "I'd come to the next dimension quite by chance, but soon I learned how easy adventuring can be. "I found I could order my INFIDEL to give me information merely by typing specific commands, and that these commands could be used again and again as needed. Quickly I realized (as you soon will) that some commands constitute a move, and cause time to elapse; others don't cost any time. It was all so simple; all I had to to was type my commands after the prompt (>) appeared..." Important Commands To Adventure By AGAIN - INFIDEL will respond as though you had exactly repeated your previous sentence. Among the cases where AGAIN will not work is if you were just talking to another character. You can abbreviate AGAIN to G. BRIEF - This tells INFIDEL to give you a full description of a location only the first time you enter a it. On subsequent visits, INFIDEL will tell you only the name of the location and any objects present. This is how INFIDEL will normally act, unless you tell it otherwise using the VERBOSE or SUPERBRIEF commands. INVENTORY - INFIDEL will list what you are holding. You can abbreviate INVENTORY to I. LOOK - This will give you a full description of your current location. You can abbreviate LOOK to L. QUIT - This lets you stop. If you want to save your position before quitting, follow the instructions in "Starting and Stopping" section on page 18. You can abbreviate QUIT to Q. RESTART - This stops the story and starts it over from the beginning. RESTORE - This restores a saved position made using the SAVE command. See "Starting and Stopping" on page 16 for more details. SAVE - This puts a "snapshot" of your current position onto a storage disk. You can return to a saved position in the future using the RESTORE command. See "Starting and Stopping" on page 16 for more details. SCORE - INFIDEL will show your current score. SCRIPT - This command tells your printer to begin making a transcript of the story as you venture onwards. A transcript may aid your memory but is not necessary. It will work only on certain computers; read your Reference Card for details. SUPERBRIEF - This commands INFIDEL to display only the name of a place you have entered, even if you have never been there before. In this mode, INFIDEL will not even mention which objects are present. Of course, you can always get a description of your location, and the items there, by typing LOOK. In SUPERBRIEF mode, the blank line between turns will be eliminated. This mode is meant for players who already know their away around. Also see VERBOSE and BRIEF. UNSCRIPT - This tells your printer to stop making a transcript. VERBOSE - This tells INFIDEL that you want a complete description of each location, and the objects in it, every time you enter a location, even if you've been there before. Also see BRIEF and SUPERBRIEF. VERSION - INFIDEL responds by showing you the release number and serial number of your copy of the story. Please include this information if you ever report a "bug" in the story. WAIT - This will cause time in the story to pass. Normally, between turns, nothing happens in the story. You could leave your computer, take a nap, and return to find that nothing has changed. You can use WAIT to make time pass in the story without doing anything. For example, you can wait for a specific time, or wait for an event to happen, etc. You can abbreviate WAIT to Z. There are many other useful words and phrases, including: TAKE, DROP, EAT, DRINK, COMPARE, INSERT, WEDGE, EXAMINE, SEARCH, TURN ON, TURN OFF, PUSH, PULL, ATTACK SLEEP... There are many more. 95-Year-Old Treasure Hunter Reveals Secrets Of Eternal Youth! "It's true!" I saved my life and restored my healthy by quitting a $500,000-a-year job and starting over as a pearl diver." If you want to stop playing INFIDEl for now, but continue from the same position at a later time, use the SAVE command. Since it takes many hours to complete INFIDEl, you will almost certainly not finish it in one sitting. By using the SAVE command, you can continue playing at a later time without having to start over from the beginning, just as you can place a bookmark in a book you are reading. SAVE makes a "snapshot" of your position in the game. If you are a cautious or prudent player, you may want to save your position before you try something dangerous or tricky. You can then return to the SAVEd point, even if you are "killed" or lost since that point. To save a game position, type SAVE at the game prompt (>) and then follow the instructions on your Reference Card. Remember that some systems require a blank initialized/formatted disk for storage. When you want to continue playing from where you made a SAVE, follow the RESTORE procedure. It's possible to RESTORE any SAVEd snapshot of your position at any time during play. When the prompt (>) appears, just type RESTORE and follow the instructions on your Reference Card. You can then continue playing from your RESTOREd position. You can type LOOK to get a description of where you are. If you want to stop playing, and not continue playing from this particular position at a later time, type QUIT. INFIDEL will ask you if you really want to leave the game. Type Y for YES. To start over from the beginning, type RESTART. Once again, INFIDEL will ask to make sure that this is really what you want to do. Famous Adventure Scribe Vanishes As Helpless Friends Look On! "It's true!" his friends remember. Michael S. Berlyn, author of INFIDEL, did indeed work day in and day out, honing and perfecting his adventures at Infocom headquarters, just as previous Berlyn biographers have claimed. But until now, the reason behind this self-imposed quarantine was never known. Through his work on INFIDEL, Berlyn became obsessed with the Egyptian ideal of eternal life. "I want to live forever," he often declared, "or at least until next Thursday." He sequestered himself in a totally decontaminated working environment, surrounded himself with a multitude of pyramid-shaped objects (which were supposed to emit revitalizing power), and always wore the secret scarab amulet he'd won at a penny arcade. When people asked if he wouldn't like to visit the scenes of some of the harrowing experiences he depicted so vividly, Berlyn would respond, "You mean outdoors?! Do you have any idea how many bacteria are floating around out there? Now go away and quit breathing on me." But wouldn't he find it inspirational to get back to the forest primeval? "And get eaten by Sasquatch?" Are you crazy or something?" Berlyn would reply. Concerned for his health, Michael's comrades at last decided to force him to take fresh air. As they jovially gave him the bum's rush out the front door of Infocom, Berlyn turned to protest - but at that very moment, a straphylococcus bacterium flew up his nose and caused him to be convulsed with a sneeze, so that he was unable to dodge when Bigfoot leapt from a nearby maple sapling and bore him away to his forest lair. His friends immediately decided to erect the Berlyn Monument on the spot. After passing the hat, they agreed on a cunning little pyramid-shaped statuette made from styrofoam; and though it blew away down the street with the first gust of wind, their hearts went with it. Where Michael is, and whether he's alive or dead, no one knows. No one's really inquired much. But this we do know; that wheresoever that little non-biodegradable pyramid blows, there goes Michael - and in this he has achieved at least some small measure of immortality The Essentials Laid Bare For All To See! "It's true!" Every last scrap of this adventurer's bible is the gospel truth! So before you start out, be sure you've thoroughly digested this INFIDEL manual. The following lists of reminders are provided as handy references once you've embarked on your adventure. Loading Up For Your Expedition To Load INFIDEl, follow the instructions on the Reference Card included in the game package. A brief introductory passage should appear, followed by the copyright notice and release number. You will then see the description of the game's starting location. Finally, the prompt (>) will appear. If you have finished reading the manual, you are now ready to play INFIDEL. A Quick Look At Your Command Options The following commands can be entered when the prompt (>) has appeared on the screen. (For explanations of these commands, see the section entitled Important Commands.) AGAIN or G SCORE BRIEF SCRIPT INVENTORY or I SUPERBRIEF LOOK or L UNSCRIPT QUIT or Q VERBOSE RESTART VERSION RESTORE WAIT or Z SAVE Language Of The Infidel An INFIDEL sentence must contain at least a verb or a command (e.g., INVENTORY). Multiple objects of the verb must be separated by the word AND oar by a comma. Several sentences typed on the same input line must be separated by a period or the word THEN. A period is not needed at the end of a line of input. Only two kinds of questions may be asked: WHAT and WHERE. For the shortest abbreviations of directions, use N (North), S (South), E (East), W (West), NE (Northeast), SE (Southeast), NW (Northwest), SW (Southwest), U (Up), D (Down), IN and OUT may also be helpful. Messages From The Tomb! It's true! Here at Infocom, we spent month after month scrutinizing our games for errors, honing them to perfection, forcing them on hordes of terrorized testers, and calling down powerful expurgative curses on scarabs and other tiny bugs. Even after the marketing division sends Boris Karloff swaddled in gauze bandages to seize the game disks from us, we continue striving to perfect our games. So if you find yourself trapped within the pyramid and beset by a bug, or happen to unearth a little inconsistency in a description, or think a problem is too hard or too easy, or feel that INFIDEl has unjustly rejected some of your input, or wish to organize a rescue party to go after Michael Berlyn, or just have some interesting comments about the game, dash off a letter today to: Infocom, Inc. 55 Wheeler St. Cambridge, MA 02138 Attn: Nephthys Copyright and Warranty Information Limited Warranty This software product and the attached instructional materials are sold "AS IS", without warranty as to their performance. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the computer software program is assumed by the user. However, to the original purchases of a disk prepared by Infocom and carrying the Infocom label on the disk jacket, Infocom warrants the medium on which the program is recorded to be free from defects in materials and faulty workmanship under normal use and service for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of purchase. If during this period a defect on the medium should occur, the medium may be returned to Infocom or to an authorized Infocom dealer, and Infocom will replace the medium without charge to you. Your sole and exclusive remedy in the event of a defect is expressly limited to replacement of the medium as provided above. This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state. N.B. After the warranty period, a defective Infocom disk may be returned to Infocom with a check or money order for $5.00 U.S. funds for replacement. Interactive Fiction Reference Card for the COMMODORE AMIGA This booklet tells you how to run your Infocom story on your computer, and provides a few other handy bits of information. I. What You Need Required: Amiga computer For Interactive Fiction PLUS only: A monitor that supports an 80-column display, such as an RGB-type monitor. Optional: 256K memory expansion cartridge (for faster execution; especially recommended for Interactive Fiction PLUS) Extra 3-1/2 double-sided disks (for SAVEs) A second disk drive (for convenience with saves) Compatible printer (for SCRIPTing) II. Making a Backup Copy In accordance with the licensing agreement in your package, we recommend that you make a backup copy of the original story disk for your personal use. See your hardware manual for instructions on how to make disk copies. Store your original disk in a safe place and always start the story from the backup. III. Starting the Story Turn on the Amiga and wait for the Workbench to appear. Insert the story disk and open the disk icon into a window, then double- click on the story icon. The story can also be started from within the Command Line Interpreter (CLI). If the default drive and directory are not the same as the story's, they must first be changed with the "CD" command (for example, CD DF1:) Then type in the story name. IV. Talking to the Story Whenever you see the prompt (>), the story is waiting for your instructions. If you make a mistake, use the backspace key to erase the error. When you have finished typing in your instructions, press the RETURN key. The story will respond and the prompt (>) will reappear. If a description will not fit on a screen all at once, "[MORE]" will appear at the bottom of the screen. After reading the screen, press any key to see the rest of the description. V. The Status Line At the top of the screen is a status line. This line is updated after every move to show your current position in the story. Depending upon the type of story, it may also show other information. Score and Moves In stories that keep a score, such as the ZORK underground adventures, the right side of the status line will show something like this: Score: 245/920 The first number is your score and the second is the total number of moves you have made. In the example above, you have 245 points in 920 moves. Time In stories that keep track of the time, such as the mystery thriller DEADLINE, the right side of the status line will look something like the following: Time: 9:22 a.m. This shows the current time of day in the story. VI. SCRIPTing You can use the SCRIPT command to print out a transcript of your moves as you go along. SCRIPTing is an optional feature which is not necessary to complete the story and may not be available with certain hardware. 1. Connect the printer to the appropriate port at the back of the computer. Use the Preferences tool (see Section IX) to make sure the system is configured correctly for your printer. 2. Turn on the printer and make sure it's ready. 3. Type SCRIPT at the prompt (>) to start the transcript. To stop the transcript, type UNSCRIPT. 4. SCRIPT and UNSCRIPT may be used as often as desired. If a problem occurs with the printer, the story will "timeout" (appear to hang) for 30-seconds or so, then a printer error message will appear. If you don't correct the problem before the 30 seconds are up, scripting is automatically cancelled. VII. Saving a Story Position You can save your current position in the story to any disk in any drive, space permitting. The save disk must not be write- protected. No other data on the save disk will be affected. 1. Type SAVE at the prompt (>). A message will appear asking you to choose a name for the save file. 2. If you want to SAVE to the story disk itself, just enter a file name and press RETURN. 3. If you want to save to another disk, you must prefix the file name with either the name of the second disk (e.g., Saves:) or the name of the drive containing it (e.g., DF0:). The prefix is needed even if the two disks were swapped using a single drive. If the save succeeds, the prefix becomes the default prefix, and need not be typed again for the next save. The disk drive will spin for several seconds. If all is well, the story will respond: OK If it responds: FAILED consult the Troubleshooting section (see Section XI). After saving your position, you may continue with the story. NOTE: The file "Icon.Data" is used to create icons for new save files. If you delete this file, new save files will not have visible icons. VIII. Restoring a Saved Story Position You can return to a previously saved story position at any time. Type RESTORE at the prompt (>). The most recently saved or restored position will be displayed as the default. Then enter the name of a save file, as in Section VII. If you want to return to the default position, you can just press the RETURN key. IX. Amiga Preferences Several aspects of the story presentation can be changed using the Amiga Preferences tool, including text size (60 or 80 columns, except for Interactive Fiction PLUS, which requires 80 columns) and color. The size can be changed only before the story is started. You also use Preferences to specify your type of printer and the port to which it is connected. The Amiga supports both parallel and serial devices. X. Memory Usage and Multi-tasking On a multi-tasking computer such as the Amiga, all tasks share the available memory. Some tasks may require that a certain amount of memory be available to work correctly. Also, actions like opening and resizing windows or loading a printer driver can use large blocks of memory. When the Infocom story loads, it will normally leave a minimum of 64 Kbytes (32 Kbytes for Interactive Fiction PLUS). This can be changed by starting the story from the CLI with a special argument of the form "F/n", where n is the new minimum number of free bytes (for example, Deadline F/32000). If you supply an argument, memory use statistics will be displayed when the story loads. You may need to increase the amount of free memory if, for example, you are running several tasks and switching between them causes the system to hang. On the other hand, you can probably decrease free memory if you are running only the story. This may reduce or eliminate disk activity on versions of the Amiga with limited memory. 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