Welcome

If you've never played a text adventure game before, it might look a little daunting. You're staring at a blinking cursor and you don't know what to do.

The short answer is: type commands in English. The game has a small but robust vocabulary, and it does a pretty good job of understanding basic short sentences.

Navigating

You can get around by typing GO and then a direction -- GO NORTH or GO SOUTHEAST (or just N or SE for short). That works for any of the 8 compass points. You can also GO UP or GO DOWN (again, U and D for short).

Once you get somewhere, you can LOOK (shortcut: L) to see where you are. Usually the room description will tell you where you can go from there.

Objects

The world is full of objects. When you find an object, you can interact with it an a number of ways.

• To learn more about any object, you can LOOK AT it or EXAMINE it (X for short).
• Many objects are portable, in which case you can TAKE it or GET it or PICK it UP, and then you can DROP it. You can do this with multiple objects at once, if you TAKE it AND something else or even TAKE EVERYTHING or DROP ALL.
• If it is a container, like your trunk, or a door, you can OPEN it and CLOSE it. Containers hold objects, so you can PUT object IN it. And some doors and containers take a key, so you can LOCK it WITH something or UNLOCK it WITH something.
• If it has a surface, you can PUT object ON it If the surface is large enough, you can even SIT ON it or LIE ON it or STAND ON it.
• If it is clothing, like your house robes, you can WEAR it / PUT it ON / REMOVE it / TAKE it OFF
• If it is food, like a pot pie, you can EAT it.
• If it is a liquid, you can often DRINK it. Liquids can also be moved around by FILL container WITH liquid or PUT container IN liquid to fill it, and POUR liquid ON object to empty it.
• If it is a book, you can READ book, or CONSULT book ABOUT topic or READ ABOUT topic IN book if you want to look for something specific.

If you've picked up objects, you can see what you're holding with INVENTORY (I for short).

People

People in text adventures tend to be a little thin. If you meet a person, these should work:

• ASK person ABOUT something
• ASK person FOR something
• GIVE something TO person

General

There are a few other commands that will usually work:

• WAIT (Z for short)
• AGAIN (G for short)
• SLEEP
• UNDO
• SCORE

And then, so that you don't have to play the entire game in one sitting, you can SAVE to save your game at any time, and then RESTORE to resume your game later.