﻿THE Gods of War



(C) 1987, By Mark Cantrell and Ted King.



	Loading Instructions - Spectrum 128K/+2 version.



I: -	Insert the tape into the cassette recorder and rewind to

	the begining.



2: - 	Reset the machine to clear any junk from memory and make

	sure the TAPE LOADER option is high-lighted on the main

	menu before pressing ENTER.



3: - 	Press PLAY on the cassette recorder.



4: - 	The GODS of WAR should now LOAD and RUN.



	Loading Instructions - Spectrum 48K/+ version.



I: - 	Insert the tape into the cassette recorder and rewind to

	start of the required section.



2: - 	Ensure the EAR socket on the Spectrum is connected to the

	EAR socket on the cassette recorder.  Disconnect the MIC

	socket.



3: - 	Type LOAD "" and press ENTER.



4: - 	Press PLAY on the cassette recorder.  The required section

	of the GODS of WAR should now LOAD and RUN.



	Storyline.



	"Long ago, before the cold spirits of winter scoured the

lands, there lived an ancient civilisation, a mighty race with

great magical powers, they flew through the air like birds,

built vast towers high in the sky defying the elements and,

though'tis only legend, had sailed to the moon!

	As they grew and prospered, the Ancient Ones as we now call

them forgot their gods, believing themselves to be more

powerful and turned evermore to the ways of sorcery.

	This angered the Gods who under the lead of the God Kruse

they came, Pershing, Trident and others so sacred their names

are only mentioned in whispers by the Druids.  They appeared

high in the sky above the cities of the Ancient Ones where

they used their great powers to fragment themselves into an

army of Gods and attacked the Ancient Ones!

	The ensuing battle was fought long and hard and saw the

great cities of the Ancient Ones pounded into the ground and

their armies all but vanquished.

	As a punishment the Gods stripped the Ancient Ones of their

knowledge and power and forbade them to study sorcery again,

then they went through the survivors and here and there they

transformed people into vile disfigured half-men, they would

later spawn the race of Mutts and be a constant reminder to

all of how the Gods punish those who cross them.

	The Gods had spent much of their powers in battling with

the Ancient Ones and could not recombine the fragments of

themselves let alone make the long journey back to the

heavens, so with their flagging strength they built tombs for

themselves, here they lay, regaining their strength until the

day when they will be ready to leave their tombs and return to

the heavens.

	As one final warning to the Ancient Ones, the Gods blew

accross the lands, whipping up the smoke, ash and dust from the

battle and formed a huge cloud of dust over the Earth,

blocking out much of the suns's life giving rays.

	The world was condemned to a perpetual dusk for half an age*

before the Gods, still watching over mankind from their tombs,

knew mercy and allowed the clouds to clear and the sun to

shine once more, bringing an end to the long dark winter!

	To thank the Gods, the Druids built temples, mostly with

slave Mutt labour, as close to the tombs as possible, in these

temples they placed shrines to house the bodies of those Gods

who had fallen in battle where they could wait in safety for

the day when their fellow Gods would restore life to them.

Once the temples were built the Druids had the Mutts exiled to

the ruins, though in the North where ruins were scarce they

were put to death, so that people would not catch the influence

that had first caused the Mutt's disfigurment.

	Now the sun shone brightly over the kingdoms, food and crops

could be grown in greater quantities, brining an end to the

famine of the dark days, the Gods anger had finally been

appeased, the kingdoms had never been so prosperous..."



	The King closed the Book of Ages and spoke, "As all of you

gathered here know, it is now some two years since the Mutts

took up arms against our Southern brethren and conquered them,

were it not for the Great Rift then we to would have suffered

the humiliation of a triumphant Mutt flag being raised high

above our heads!"

	"Since the Mutts were exiled to the ruins more then an age

ago they have learned much of the Ancient Ones sorcery, they

make our Wise Ones appear like ignorant peasants!  They have

brought much change to the lands of the South and now they

threaten us with a danger even the Rift cannot keep out."

	"Deep beneath the Charred Hills there lies a long forgotten

tomb, it was recently discovered by a Mutt excavator searching

for ancient sorcery.   It has been named the 'Halls of the Gods'

by the slave workers who dig there.  Our spies have informed me

they wish to use the power of the Gods against us and destroy

our people as the Gods destroyed the Ancient Ones!"

	"The King paused a moment before turning to you and resumed

speaking, "We have chosen you becouse as a boy you trained to

be a Wise One before joining the ranks of my warriors.  We hope

your slight knowledge of the Ancient Ones will help you in

this quest.  You must go to the High Temple at Greenham, it is

now a Mutt garrison so you must take care.  Here the mutt high

Sorceror awaits the Gods to be delivered.  He alone	T holds the

forbiden knowledge that will allow the Mutts to use the God's

power against us, therefore you must kill him, however be wary,

he may be an old sorceror but he is alert, any frontal assualt

would prove fatal for both you and him.  To ensure total success,

in the event of another Mutt discovering the knowledge, you must

seal up the Halls of the Gods, forever ensuring the Mutts never

get their vile hands on the Gods who lie within."

	"To bring swiftness to your journey you must make use of

the Ancient Ones Way system, we pray to Kruse it still works,

take this ancient tool, our Wise Ones call it a 'hatch key'".

The King offered you a strange piece of metal before

continuing, "Use this to open the portal to the Way system and

make use of the Chariots which run upon it, merely make your

wish known upon the lanes and the Guardian will hear you.  How

you carry out this task we leave for you to decide, now on your

way and may the Gods aid you in this quest!".



* an age = I000 years.



	Instructions.



	The game will understand the use of verbs, adverbs, nouns,

adjectives and prepositions, eg PUT the BLUE CARD INTO the 

RUSTY SLOT.  In many cases you may omit the adjectives and use

only the nount.  If an input does not receive the expected results

then try any associated adjective before pulling your hair out

in frustration!  The game will understand the use of 'it' in

place of the last entered noun/adjective and will also allow

commands to be stringed together via the use of 'and', 'then'

or punctuation.  The last entered verb will also be remembered

allowing inputs such as GET the GASTAFF AND the MASK.

	To aid play their are certain special commands such as

RAMSAVE/LOAD,GET/DROP/EXAMINE ALL and a variety of other ALL

type commands.  There is also a command which will change the

main character set and an 'in game glossary' giving information

about aspects of the game world in an atmospheric way.

	Most things can be examined to find clues or other general

information about the game world, you will be told if you

attempted to examine something which was not recognised by the

program.  Pressing BREAK will re-initialise the program forcing

you to reload a saved game position and status.



	Screen Presentation.



	The game is a split screen text and graphics adventure.  If

the game ever pauses and displays 'MORE>>>' or 'PRESS ANY KEY'

then read what is on screen and press a key.  To help the

player find the available exits within the location text they

will be printed in green upper case, (capitals), letters.

Similarly the object noun/adjectives will be printed in

magenta upper case letters.

	In text mode the location text and present objects will

remain on screen with the player input scrolling off underneath

the main text.

	The player may select the main character set from a 

selection of six (the ROM and five redefined sets), in the I28K

version and three (the ROM and two redefined sets), in the 48K

version.  These character sets may be used according to 

differing light intensities or personal preference.



	Special Commands.



TEXT:- Will turn the picture display off and redescribe the

       current location.



PICTURES:- Will turn the picture display on and redescribe the

           current location.



RAMSAVE:- Will save your current position and status to a

          buffer in memory and redescribe the current location.



RAMLOAD:- Will restore a RAMSAVEd position from a buffer in

          memory and resescribe the current location.



INVENTORY,I:- Will list what objects you are carrying and

              wearing on screen.



REDESCRIBE,R:- Will redescribe your current location and

               redisplay any associated graphic according to

               the picture display mode.



WEAR:- Allows the player to wear a wearable object providing

       they are carrying it.



REMOVE:- Remove a worn item, placing it in your carried

         inventory.



PAUSE:- Pauses the game for a few seconds to allow you to read

        the responses to stringed commands.



WAIT:- A neutral command, it does nothing but print time passes,

       and is used whenever you wish to wait for something to 

       happen.



CHARSET A-C-F:- Selects the main character set for the text

                to be displayed with.



MENU,CAT:- Displays what is available within the 'in game

           glossary'.



DATA:- Displays information on what you chose from the menu

       and draws any associated graphic.



SEARCH:- Allows the player to search through an object to see

         if it hides another.



CALL:- Will bring a Way Chariot to your location providing

       you are in a Way Station.



LOAD:- As RAMLOAD but from cassette.



SAVE:- As RAMSAVE but to cassette.



BUILD, REPAIR:- Will allow you to construct/repair an item

                providing you have the correct tools, parts or

                knowledge to do it.



KILL x WITH y:- Will allow you ti attack and kill an enemy

                providing the enemy is present and you have

                the correct weapon, (y).  If you do not use the

                correct weapon then the attack will be aborted.

                Typing simply KILL x will be fatal as the

                attack will be with your hands.



AGAIN:- Will repeat the last command.



EXAMINE ALL HERE, CARRIED, WORN:- Willallow you to examine all

                                  objects in the specified area,

                                  (here, carried or worn).



GET ALL:- Will put all conveyable objects in your current

          into your inventory.



DROP ALL:- Will place all carried objects, but not worn, into

           your current location.



QUIT:- Will end the current game allowing you to restart

       another or clear the program from memory.



Most ALL commands will allow you to ignore an object by

typing EXCEPT x after the ALL command, the exception to this

being ALL commands which have a second noun in them eg PUT

ALL INTO SAFE.



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