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. ________________________________________________________________________