THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE



HALLS OF THE THINGS



PUBLISHER

Crystal (later Design Design)



AUTHORS

Neil Mottershead (the Mott!), Simon Brattel and Martin Horsley



YEAR

1984.  A jazzed up version was shipped on the B-side of the

sequel, Return of the Things.  Inferior; play the original.



CATEGORY

Arcade adventure



DESCRIPTION

A simple but extremely challenging maze game with particularly

ratty monsters and a yummy range of traditional fantasy armaments

(lightening, fireballs, arrows, sword).  Goes for the usual "ring

collecting" objective (like you'd want to).  Difficult to get

into but rewarding if you do!



CONTROLS

Keyboard, joystick.  The keyboard controls can be redefined.



Keyboard

Z - move left

N - up

X - right

M - down

F - fireball (homing missile, takes 2 energy units)

L - lightening (random, self-destructive and FUN! 1 energy unit)

space - centre screen (vital for spotting that sneaky Thing round

the next bend)

K - keep (pick up the item you're facing.  Usually energy

potions)

D - drop (drop a pile of objects if you've picked some up.

Pointless unless you're into lego)

O - open the door you're facing

C - close door (some Things are lazy and don't bother to open

doors)

1 - display status (rings collected, energy and arrows left,

injuries etc.)

H - heal wounds (VITAL)

A - fire arrow in direction of last arrow key pressed

5 - set arrows to fire left

6 - arrows down

7 - arrows up

8 - arrows right

S - wave sword (only kills Things directly adjacent to you.  Use

for fun -

it looks obscene)



ORIGINAL INLAY CARD TEXT

(For some reason I ended up with a C64 inlay card, BOOOOH)

LOADING INSTRUCTIONS

Load using LOAD "" CODE



GENERAL PLAYING NOTES

Object of the Game

To find seven rings held in the top seven levels of the tower

(not necessarily one per level - JS), then to find the key hidden

in the bottom, or dungeon, level and escape with it.



DESCRIPTION

The tower has seven floors and one dungeon, each floor being a

complex maze of corridors and rooms.  The seven mazes are all of

different style, the most "open" being the top floor (they look

pretty similar - JS).

     Treasure and magic potions lie scattered about the mazes. 

The treasure may be collected and stored outside the maze to gain

extra points if your task is completed (this may be an

idiosyncrasy of the C64 version, BOOOOH.  We never bothered with

the treasure).  Every potion collected will add to your magic

level (vital - JS).

     The Things move about each level and will attack you on

sight.

     You are armed with the following weapons:



MAGIC WEAPONS

Fireballs and Lightning Bolts, these use up some of your magic,

and are fired only if a Thing is in (line of) sight.  Your magic

weapons will aim themselves at the nearest Thing in sight and not

yet fired on.  Lightning Bolts move in straight lines, bouncing

off walls; fireballs will follow their targets even round

corners.  Things also have fireballs and lightning bolts.



ARROWS

These are fired in the direction set by the arrow direction keys,

and will fire even if no Thing is in sight.  Things can also fire

arrows.



VORPAL SWORD

The only weapon unique to you.  It will be drawn in the direction

you are facing.



CONTROLS

The following are a full list of the control keys and their

functions.  You don't need to be familiar with all of them to

play "HALLS", it just helps.  They are placed in rough order of

importance.  



Keyboard, joystick 



Keyboard

Z - move left

N - up

X - right

M - down

F - fireball (homing missile, takes 2 energy units)

L - lightening (random, self-destructive and FUN! 1 energy unit)

space - centre screen (vital for spotting that sneaky Thing round

the next bend)

K - keep (pick up the item you're facing.  Usually energy

potions)

D - drop (drop a pile of objects if you've picked some up.

Pointless unless you're into lego)

O - open the door you're facing

C - close door (some Things are lazy and don't bother to open

doors)

1 - display status (rings collected, energy and arrows left,

injuries etc.)

H - heal wounds (VITAL)

A - fire arrow in direction of last arrow key pressed

5 - set arrows to fire left

6 - arrows down

7 - arrows up

8 - arrows right

S - wave sword (only kills Things directly adjacent to you.  Use

for fun -

it looks obscene)





HINTS, TIPS & WARNINGS

When rounding a corner, release a fireball or lightning bolt to

see if the coast is clear.  Lightning bolts are useful for

clearing an area of Things if fired in groups, but beware they

also wound you.



Use arrow when you are almost certain to hit; this will conserve

your magic.



Try to avoid getting in line with a Thing at close range, as

arrows are deadly over a short distance.  When healing always

leave some magic for combat.  Things can open doors and keep your

treasure and potions.  They also have a nasty habit of disguising

themselves as treasure, only revealing their true identity when

they can see you.



Display your status as much as possible as wounds gained,

especially from arrows, can be very deceiving.



Finally, in the immortal words of Simon Brattel, "Basically

things are much better at Halls than you are!".



Hints/Cheats, including pokes, hidden games, walk-throughs etc...



To open the dungeon before you've got all the rings press "2"

then "space".  A good fun thing is to go into the dungeon at the

start (contains about 35 Things) and just let rip with loads of

lightning and fireballs.  It's like being a thunder god!!! 

Follow up with arrows, then let the last one or two Things chase

you until they run out of weapons.  You can then slice them

with your sword, imprison them with treasure and all sorts of

other nasty things.  I stress this is purely for fun and doesn't

help with the game at all!  Watch out for what we used to call

"ratty" Things.  These move at blinding speed and nail you with

everything they've got.  Sometimes you can be dead before you

even see them.  The most fun thing is to let a ratty one run out

of ammo - it really upsets 'em.  The only way to succeed at HOTT

is to play CAREFULLY.  Be ready to run for the safety of the

stairs at the slightest whiff of trouble!  In 2 years of playing

every day (almost) my friend and I beat it once each.  We got

bored of it after that.





HACKING GUIDES 

Don't.  Simon Brattel is smarter than you are.



SEQUELS/PREQUELS

Return of the Things.  Similar style, more varied, less playable. 

Only available by mail order as far as I know.



URL 

ftp://sunsite.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/OS/sinclair/



GENERAL FACTS



NOTES

