One dark windy night as the moon rises slowly into the mist, a figure appears outside the Manor House. Quietly scaling the wall, the thief reaches the Squires bedroom ...
The Squire, dosing in an armchair is disturbed. He sits up alert, but uncertain. From above, sharp taps are heard. He decides to investigate and, grabbing a sharp poker, cautiously ascends the stair.
Meanwhile the thiefs attempt to open the safe is a failure. In desperation he searches the room, looking for other valuables. A small notebook is his ony find in which, surprisingly, the safe combination is given. Ripping the page from the book, the safe is opened and robbed.
Opening the door, the Squire spots the thief making towards the window. Pulling him back into the room a fierce fight ensues. However, the Squire, and older man, is soon overpowered and falls to the ground dead.
The murderer now makes good his escape scattering the pieces of notepaper thoughout the area to avoid detection.
Next day, the murderer fits back into his usual lifestyle, confident he will never be detected. But unknowingly a vital clue remains in the safe, if only it can be opened ...
Having heard of your reputation he calls you in to solve the murder without having to report failure to his superiors.
On learning of the gold coin rumour you say,
"Looks like a local crime to me."
"Could be", snorted the policeman, "but it's strange that the safe combination is missing. The Squire himself told me where it was kept. The murder must 'ave found it."
You reply revealing interest in the missing safe combination,
"Yes, you're right. I think my first priority must be to locate all the clues to the combination. How many were there?".
"Five", answered the policeman.Considering all this information you decide to search the local area for the clues. On the way out the door you joke:
"I'll search the area this afternoon."
"That may not be easy", he laughed.
"Why's that?"
"There's a lot of ground to cover. However, if you ask around you may get some help."
"Thanks" you shout, leaving the station in the direction of the town cross.
You can type such commands as:
If you make a mistake in typing, the 0 key can be used to delete the last letter. The normal Spectrum delete (caps shift and 0) will delete the whole line. The computer will inform you if you enter a command it does not recognise. Alternatively, if you give incomplete instructions (such as "fight"), you will be asked for more information (e.g. "fight with what?") to which you can enter a sub-command (such as "knife"). Note that you do not have to re-enter the full command again. To exit from a sub-command (say you don't want to fight after all), just press ENTER to start a new command.
A compass in the top left of the screen shows the direction you can move in.
For each point on the compass one of three symbols will be shown:
Alternatively, the Spectrum cursor keys (5-8) provide the fastest way of moving about.
The command "run" can be used to move quickly in any direction e.g. the words "run east" will move three locations east (or until the path is blocked).
If he refuses to talk, keep trying, he may not have heard properly.
Whilst the policeman is a friendly character, some others may not be, so take care when asking questions.
The computer keeps a notebook for you which you can see by typing "read notes". This will display any notes you have taken as well as any clues you have found.
For example you could say:
"open the toyshop door"to gain entrance. Although there are doors in the town, some may be locked. If you don't have the correct key you may be stuck - or are you?
Some thought will provide the answers!
To fight back you could say,Alternatively there are other methods of dealing with violent characters. You could shoot or throw heavy objects at them. Whatever you think best at the time.
"fight the policeman with my hands"
which will invoke the desired response.
As stated earlier, the cursor keys can be used to move one location in the direction chosen. Note that as these keys can be used at any time, if used within a sentence, all your typing will be ignored and the move executed.
You can have as many commands as you like on one line providing you type a full stop between each one, for example:
"search ground.pick.rifle.north"There a few special commands:
Murder at the Manor operates its own time scale in which you start at 9am on day 1. There is no time limit on completing the adventure although there are some things you cannot do at night.
When darkness falls, your fears rise especially if lost in a dark forest or graveyard so don't be surprised if you strength decreases more rapidly.
By typing "score" the computer will display your:
The command "search" will show if there are any objects around whilst "pick" and "drop" can be used to manipulate them.
"inventory", or abbreviation "i", will list the objects you are carrying.
You can also "pick all" and "drop all" but note that a maximum of two objects can only be present at any location.
If you pick up a clue it will be automatically added to your note book so you should drop it straightaway to make room for other objects. You can carry five objects at a time.
A data file with the initial conditions has been saved onto the end of the cassette - just after the game. Thus to play a new game simply load in this file.
You can of course Load in any game you saved earlier and start from there.
Note that every time you load our file the murderers identity will change, as will the clues and other features of the game.
GOOD LUCK
| © 2000 Allan Morton |