THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE THE RUNES OF ZENDOS PUBLISHER Dorcas Software AUTHOR Chris Dorell ? YEAR OF RELEASE 1984 DESCRIPTION The Runes of Zendos is an animated graphical adventure. CHEATS INLAY CARD TEXT The tiny principality of DORCASIA was a pleasant fertile land until the wizard ZENDOS used his evil powers to cast the country into perpetual darkness until all citizens pledge obedience to him. It is known that through the SPELL OF DARKNESS Zendos has trapped the spirit of each month into one of 12 GOLDEN TEMPUS RUNES or RUNIC HOUR GLASSES hidden deep within the mysterious and magical castle. As the land dies in the grip of the black desolation a hero must be found to locate and destroy the 12 hour glasses thus releasing the months and returning Dorcasia to the natural forces of the seasons. Each glass has a RUNIC inscription around its base which you must read and understand. Only saying these words will lift that part of the spell. To protect the hour glasses Zendos has placed them in 12 seperate rooms in his castle, each room linked to a different exterior gateway by a devious route. Depending on which entrance you select Zendos casts spells which change the locations of rooms within his castle to confuse you. The menacing creatures and challenging problems which confront you at every turn mean that only the brave and the clever will succeed. INTRODUCTION Runes of Zendos is a complex and fascinating adventure game which incorporates 12 seperate adventures in the castle of the wicked wizard Zendos. Many of the dangers and creatures will reappear in each adventure as Zendos attempts to defeat you, so experience from one adventure will help in the next. Nevertheless each adventure has unique spells and problems plus a different route to ensure a new challenge is provided. The game features full animation, sentence input, sound effects, save game facilities to tape or microdrive and much more. OBJECTIVE In each adventure your mission is to locate the hour glass and release the captured month by reading the magic inscription around the base. The inscription appears in a runic script devised by Zendos to foil his enemies. With skill, courage and intelligence you can achieve much in the castle but only by deciphering the Runes of Zendos will you attain the ultimate goal. Watch out for any clues to solving the runes as you proceed in your adventure - there's even a clue on the cassette label! SCREEN FORMAT The top half of the screen shows continuously your location and the results of your action and of the creatures you meet. All action is animated and appears immediately. The lower part of the screen contains messages from the computer including error comments. The bottom 3 lines are reserved for your input. When typing your commands you have all the standard SPECTRUM cursor movement/delete functions available. The ENTER key should be pressed when you are happy with your sentence. Input is accepted in upper and/or lower case and is "echoed" in the text part of the screen. COMMUNICATION You can enter simple sentences which must contain one verb. The following are examples of acceptable sentences:- Take the sword Attack the guard with the mighty axe Unlock the door with the golden key Move left Say magic spell The program will accept any words it has displayed plus words from this dictionary. DICTIONARY Movement : up (u), down (d), left (l), right (r) Verbs : attack, drop, eat, examine, give, greet, move, pick up, remove, run, say, take, unlock, use, wear Special verbs: status (?), adventure, save, load, stop Adverbs : quickly (q) Prepositions : at, into, from, with ABBREVIATIONS A single letter or symbol in brackets after a word above can be used in place of that word. Adjectives can usually be omitted unless this causes ambiguity e.g "drop the key" is acceptable unless you have two keys in which case you should enter "drop the golden key" or whatever. If you wish to repeat a command simply press ENTER. This is particularly useful during fights to repeat sentences like "attack the creature with the weapon". In general if the sentence you enter looks right it will be OK. If it is not accepted then a self explanatory error message will appear. Rules of common sense apply so that for example:- You can't - wear what you're not carrying - say a spell if you don't know it - attack a creature in another room. SPECIAL VERBS Status (?) : By typing "status" or ? you can check which adventure you are in, your strength, what you are carrying and wearing and so on. Press any key to return to the normal display. Adventure : When the game loads you are at the start of adventure one. At any time you can switch to the start of a different adventure by entering "adventure" followed by a number from "one" to "twelve". Save & Load: You can save or load an adventure at any point using tape or microdrive. The program creates its own file name based on the adventure number you are saving and the file number which you specify. You can thus have each adventure saved at different stages by specifying different file numbers. These examples assume you are in adventure 4:- Input Result "save zenfile one, md one" adv4file1 output to microdrive 1 "save zenfile ten, md two" adv4file10 output to microdrive 2 "save zenfile three, tape" adv4file3 output to tape "load zenfile one, md one" adv4file1 loaded from m/drive 1 "load zenfile three, tape" adv4file3 loaded from tape NOTE Load and save must be typed in full. They both use the current adventure number to create the file name so if you wish to reload a different adventure use the "adventure" verb first to change adventures then "load" as above. Stop : Typing "stop" in full returns you to BASIC so that you can delete microdrive files, display the catalogue etc. As long as you don't corrupt the small driver program in memory RUN will return you to your adventure. GENERAL NOTES Fighting : Whenever you meet a creature its strength and yours are displayed in a pennant at the top of the screen. If a creature is very strong you will need more than your bare hands. You may have something the creature wants or which will help you defeat it. Perhaps you can befreind it or use a magic spell if you know one which is appropriate. Luck can play its part and you can improve your luck by using certain charms and lucky items. Spells : You can "say" a spell which you have found and which therefore appears in your knowledge list in the current adventure. A spell must be "said" in English even though it may appear in runic script. Wearing : You can wear one item on your head and one on your body. If you "remove" something you will still be carrying it. Eating : You begin each adventure with a supply of provisions you can 'eat' in quantities from 'one to twelve' to increase you strength by that amount. e.g. 'eat three'. You will also find items of food which, when eaten, increase your strength. If you eat to much it will cease to have any effect. NOTE: Fighting and running sap your strength. Performance : The status display contains a performance figure to show how much of the current adventure you have completed. SPECTRUM error messages : If during saving or loading you get an error message, eg. microdrive not present or full etc, simply enter the keyword RUN to retrieve your position after taking corrective action. QUEST COMPLETION To finally free Dorcasia and banish Zendos from the land you must "say" the first letter of each of the 12 hour glass inscriptions. You can do this at any time to prove that you have completed all the adventures. SCORES/REVIEWS SNAPSHOT/URLS FACTS ABOUT THE GAME NOTES