***** SHORE LEAVE *****



Shore Leave is perhaps the most amazing space and science fiction-related text adventure ever crammed into less than 40k. If not that then it's certainly the only one to feature an appearence by Richard Whiteley. And if not even that then it MUST be the only one to feature a secret hidden sausage. Text adventure veterans will also be pleased to hear that it contains NO DARK LOCATIONS, so you won't have to do any pointless fiddling about with matches or torches. After all, since when is switching on a torch a puzzle?



The aim of the game is to escape from your spaceship so you can claim the shore leave you have been saving up for 18 months. Your Captain can neither spare the time nor find the intelligence to actually steer the ship to somewhere nice for you so you will have to find your own way. The ship is generally a safe and pleasant place to be, but try not to annoy the ship's bully, and be careful mooching around in the dark cargo decks...



COMMANDS:



(Note: the interface responds to single word or double word "verb noun" inputs. It also recognises only the first four letters of any words you type so there's no need to type more than that)



I - Displays your inventory



L - Look. Redescribes your current location



EXAM x - Examine something



GET x - Pick something up



DROP x - Drop something



WEAR x - Wear an item you are carrying



REMO x - Remove an item you are wearing



TALK x - Talk to someone



BUY x - Buy something



etc etc



Oh and moving around is done by typing compass directions (N, S, E, W) or up and down (U, D)



Hints 'n' Tips:



  *  Firstly, try typing HELP. This will give general game advice as well as giving specific hints in certain locations.



  *  There are actually two distinct ways to complete this game. Both ways require you to complete a number of seemingly unrelated tasks, so you'll never really know which tasks belong to which path until the end, but at least it means that if you get stuck on one particular task there should always be something else you can try.



  *  Keep track of your finances. You'll have access to some money in the game and you'll be told how much you have initally and you'll also be told how much each of your purchases costs, but you won't be able to check your balance. Blame the limitations of The Quill (or me being lazy).



  *  This game was programmed using The Quill, something you may not be familiar with. In The Quill the game designer has access to 19 variables which he can set to various values and use in the game (for example your cash balance mentioned above is stored in one of these variables). These variables are called 'flags' and are numbered from 11 to 29. Why am I explaining this? Because in an amazingly post-modern touch there is actually a way for you to directly alter the values in these 'flags' from WITHIN THE GAME. This is part of the path to one of the solutions, but once available you can also experiment and see what else you can achieve - you could, for example, increase your cash balance by directly fiddling with the relevant variable, or maybe even use it to find that elusive sausage... (or alternatively just mess up the game in unpredictable ways I never thought of).









And that's it. Please note that, although the game says 2007 on the title screen, I actually made this in 1998. The new date is just because I got rid of a few bugs for this final version. For this reason some of the jokes/references might be a bit old. Oh and the rather nasty fate that MAY befall Richard Whiteley in this game was written long before he died so it's not actually sick. At all. So there.