Flight from the Dark Spectrum Instructions
[The following is the instruction manual for the Flight from the Dark Spectrum Game.]
LONE WOLF FLIGHT FROM THE DARK Joe Dever and Gary Chalk Role-Playing Adventure Software Arrow Publications THE STORY SO FAR ... In Sommerlund, it is the custom to send the children of the Warrior Lords to the monastery of Kai. There they are taught the skills and disciplines of their noble fathers. When they have finally learnt the secret skills of the Kai, the children return to their homes equipped to defend themselves against the threat from the Darklords of the West. It is the morning of the Feast of Fehmarn, when all the Kai Lords are present at the monastery for the celebrations. Suddenly a great black cloud comes onto the western skies. So many are the numbers of the black-winged beasts that fill the sky that the sun is completely hidden. The Darklords are attacking. You, Silent Wolf, have been sent to collect firewood in the forest as a punishment for your inattention in class. You see the vast cloud of black leathery creatures sweep down and engulf the monastery. Dropping the wood, you race to the battle that has already begun. But you stumble and strike your head on a low branch. As you lose consciousness, you see in the poor light the walls of the monastery crashing to the ground. YOUR QUEST Many hours pass before you awake. With tears in your eyes you now survey the destruction. Raising your face to the sky you swear vengeance on the Darklords for the massacre of the Kai Warriors, and with a sudden flash of realisation know what you must do. You must set off on a perilous journey to the capital city to warn the King of the terrible threat that faces his people. You are the last of the Kai - you are now the Lone Wolf. IMPORTANT You will notice numbers which appear inside the Wolf's head below the main display to the right of the screen. These are to help you plot your progress on your quest. You may find it helpful to note these down as you go along. Situations numbered up to 350 correspond to episodes in the Lone Wolf Flight from the Dark book. (Where a situation in the program corresponds to a number of situations in the book, only the number of the first situation is shown). Situations numbered from 351 upwards are unique to the adventure program. This program has been designed to be used on its own, but you may find that the book, Lone Wolf - Flight from the Dark, will provide added interest away from the screen. 1. HOW TO PLAY THE GAME 1.1 COMBAT SKILL and ENDURANCE During your training as a Kai Lord, you develop fighting prowess (COMBAT SKILL). You will need COMBAT SKILL to defeat enemies on your way to reach the King. Before you start on your adventure you will be given the opportunity to learn how to fight. Every time you defeat an enemy your COMBAT SKILL may improve. You will need ENDURANCE to survive your gruelling adventure. Whenever you are wounded your ENDURANCE will go down. As your ENDURANCE goes down, you will become slower to react in fights. After a fight your ENDURANCE will recover gradually but if you eat a meal, or rest, your ENDURANCE will recover more quickly. 1.2 THE KAI DISCIPLINES Over the centuries, the Kai Lords have mastered the skills of the warrior. These skills are known as the Kai Disciplines, and they are taught to all Kai Lords. You have been taught all these disciplines but, because you rarely paid attention in class, you do not know how well you have learnt them. As you proceed through your adventure you will find that you become more and more proficient in the Kai Disciplines. If you have mastered these skills then at times they may save your life. Sixth Sense This skill may warn a Kai Lord of imminent danger. It may also reveal the true nature of a stranger or an item encountered in your adventure. Tracking This helps you to choose the right path in the wild. It can help you to find a person or item in a town or city. When you see prints or tracks, you will know which creature made them. Healing This discipline heals your wounds and can cure the sick and injured. Weapon Skill Upon entering the Kai monastery, each initiate is taught to fight with these weapons: DAGGER * SPEAR * WARHAMMER * AXE * SWORD Some of these weapons are more difficult to use than others. The better your COMBAT SKILL, the better you will be at using the weapons. Mindshield The Darklords and many of the evil creatures in their command have the ability to attack you using their Mindforce. The Kai Discipline of Mindshield alone protects you when you are attacked by Mindforce. Mindblast This enables a Kai Lord to use the forces of his mind on an enemy. Temporarily it breaks your enemy's concentration and increases your COMBAT SKILL. However, some of the creatures you encounter in this adventure can retaliate with Mindshield. Animal Kinship This skill enables a Kai Lord to communicate with some animals and to understand the intentions of others. Mind over Matter Mastery of this discipline allows a Kai Lord to move small items by concentration alone. 1.3 EQUIPMENT WHAT EQUIPMENT YOU CAN HAVE You are dressed in the cloak of a Kai initiate. You have little with you to arm yourself for survival. All you possess is a backpack in which you can carry things you find. Hanging from your waist is a leather pouch containing Gold Crowns. You discover amongst the smoking ruins of the monastery a Map of Sommerlund showing the capital city of Holmgard and the land of Durenor, far to the east. You place the map inside your tunic for safety. As your adventure proceeds you will find things. Backpack Items Some things you find can be carried in your backpack. You can only keep a maximum of 8 items in your backpack at any one time. Gold Crowns These are always carried in your belt pouch. It will hold a maximum of 50 crowns. HOW TO USE YOUR EQUIPMENT Weapons Weapons aid you in combat. If you find a weapon during the adventure, you may pick it up and use it. But you can only carry one weapon at a time. If you do not have a weapon then you can fight with your bare hands. Items During your travels you will discover various items which you may wish to keep. Some items have a particular purpose or effect. You may be told this when you find them, or it may be revealed to you as the adventure progresses. Gold Crowns The local currency is the Crown, which is a small gold coin. Gold Crowns can he used on your adventure to pay for transport, or even as a bribe! Many of the creatures that you will encounter possess Gold Crowns, or have them hidden in their lairs. Whenever you kill a creature, you may take any Gold Crowns that it has and put them in your pouch. 2. HOW TO START 2.1 a. Put the overlay on your Spectrum as shown. b. Press J. Hold down SYMBOL and at the same time press P twice. c. LOAD "" should now appear on the screen. Press ENTER. d. Place Side A of the cassette in your recorder. e. Ensure that the volume on your cassette recorder is turned to just below maximum. Press PLAY on your cassette recorder. f. After a minute a title screen will appear. g. A short while later a picture of the Kai monastery appears. h. When the cassette reaches its end you can now choose either to start a new adventure or to continue an adventure which you have previously saved. (This is explained in section 2.3). 2.2 STARTING A NEW ADVENTURE Press SPACE to start a new adventure. 2.3 CONTINUING AN ADVENTURE a. Replace the program cassette with the cassette that contains your adventure and rewind. b. Press PLAY on your cassette recorder. c. After about one minute the program will start at the point which you saved the adventure, (see 3.5). 3. HOW TO RUN THE PROGRAM 3.1 LEARNING HOW TO FIGHT IN THE KAI MONASTERY a. The first screen shows you Lone Wolf in the Kai monastery. Here you can develop your COMBAT SKILL. This is shown by the bar on the left of the screen. b. The bar on the right of the screen shows your ENDURANCE. c. A Kai fighting instructor appears. Both Lone Wolf and the instructor must fight unarmed. d. You can attack the instructor in five ways: To make Lone Wolf step towards your opponent, press E. To make Lone Wolf chop, press O. To make Lone Wolf swipe across your opponent, press I. To make Lone Wolf thrust at your opponent, press U. To make Lone Wolf attack with a Mindblast, press W. e. You can defend yourself against the instructor's attacks in three ways: To make Lone Wolf step back, press R. To make Lone Wolf parry a blow, press N. To protect Lone Wolf against a Mindblast, press V to use Mindshield. f. On rare occasions you can make Lone Wolf run away by pressing A. g. All the attack and defence moves are shown on the inside flap. h. The combat ends when you lose a fight. Watch your COMBAT SKILL bar (on the left) to see how much COMBAT SKILL you have gained. i. Press 9 to start your adventure. j. Learn your skill well, Lone Wolf, for once the adventure begins the fighting is for real! 3.2 HOW TO MAKE CHOICES a. The first scene shows the foot of the hill below the monastery. A description of the action appears line by line. To give yourself more time to read it, hold down SPACE to pause. Release SPACE to continue. b. Lone Wolf walks on. When he stops, you can select an option. Press 1 and "Take the axe" appears. Keep pressing 1 to see other options. When an option you want is displayed, press 9 to make that choice. c. For each scene you can have up to 5 options. Note: Sometimes one of your Kai skills (eg. Sixth Sense) will give you an extra option. d. To repeat the last text displayed, press 2. e. Before you move on to a new screen, press 0 to check how many Gold Crowns you have. Use this key to see what you are carrying at any stage on your quest. Press 1 to continue. 3.3 FIGHTING THE ENEMY a. Your choice of an option may lead you to a combat. In this case you must fight the enemy using the attack and defence moves that you practised in the monastery. b. If you have a weapon, choose your attack moves carefully because some weapons are more difficult to use than others, eg: * it is difficult to swipe with a spear; * it is difficult to thrust with an axe or a warhammer. c. If you are fighting with your bare hands then it is not advisable to use Parry as a defence move. If you do, you will probably get hurt! d. How well you fight depends initially on your COMBAT SKILL, but as you learn to use the attack and defence moves you will see that you become proficient at using the weapons or just fighting with your bare hands. e. A combat ends when you either run away or kill your enemy or you lose all your ENDURANCE and are killed. f. If you have to fight more than one enemy at one time, you fight each in turn until either you are killed or you defeat all of them. 3.4 MOVING ON TO PART TWO a. Because of the large number of scenes that this adventure contains, the program is actually stored in two parts. b. When you have completed half of the adventure, you will need to load the information for Part Two. c. Make sure that Side B of the cassette is facing upwards. d. Rewind the cassette. e. Press PLAY on your cassette recorder. f. After about one minute, Part Two will have loaded. g. Press STOP on your cassette recorder. h. You can now continue your adventure. 3.5 HOW TO SAVE THE GAME a. The adventure continues until either you get killed or you reach the King. Whenever the cassette symbol is displayed at the bottom of the screen, you can stop playing the game and continue later. b. Replace the program cassette with a blank cassette and rewind. e. Make sure the EAR lead is disconnected from your Spectrum and press RECORD on the cassette recorder. d. Press S and then ENTER to save your adventure. e. After a few minutes your adventure will be saved on the cassette. You will need this cassette when you want to continue an adventure from this point. f. If you make a mistake, press BREAK before you press ENTER. Remember to stop the cassette recorder. g. After your adventure has been saved, you can continue with your quest. 3.6 HOW TO START AGAIN a. At any time (eg. after you have been killed), you can start again. b. If you are starting the adventure from the beginning, clear your Spectrum and reload the program. c. If you wish to restart a previously saved adventure, insert the appropriate cassette and rewind. d. Press J and then press PLAY on your cassette recorder. e. If you make a mistake, press BREAK before the program starts to load. 3.7 CONTINUING LONE WOLF'S ADVENTURES a. Initially Lone Wolf is given all the Kai skills in varying degrees. As the adventure progresses, Lone Wolf's proficiency at these skills increases and there may well be times when a Kai skill saves your life. b. But when you reach Holmgard and meet the King, Lone Wolf's adventures need not end - you can take your Lone Wolf on the quest for the Sommerswerd. (Lone Wolf: Fire on the Water). c. When you have succeeded in your Flight from the Dark, you are given the option to save Lone Wolf's character. If you choose this option, then save the adventure on a spare cassette, in the usual way. d. If you buy the next program in the Lone Wolf series, you can start off your new adventure using the same Lone Wolf character you have developed. 4. HOW TO FINISH Simply disconnect your Spectrum from the mains power supply. 5. SUMMARY OF KEYS How to Make a Choice 1 displays each option 9 chooses the displayed option How to Fight O chops I swipes U thrusts E steps towards opponent W mindblast N parries R steps back V mindshield A makes Lone Wolf run away Other Keys 2 repeats text 0 displays all that you are carrying S to save adventure J to start adventure again SPACE pauses text