THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE



THE RUNES OF ZENDOS



PUBLISHER

Dorcas Software



AUTHOR

Chris Dorell ?



YEAR OF RELEASE

1984



DESCRIPTION

The Runes of Zendos is an animated graphical adventure.



CHEATS



INLAY CARD TEXT

The tiny principality of DORCASIA was a pleasant fertile land

until the wizard ZENDOS used his evil powers to cast the country

into perpetual darkness until all citizens pledge obedience to

him.



It is known that through the SPELL OF DARKNESS Zendos has trapped

the spirit of each month into one of 12 GOLDEN TEMPUS RUNES or

RUNIC HOUR GLASSES hidden deep within the mysterious and magical

castle.



As the land dies in the grip of the black desolation a hero must

be found to locate and destroy the 12 hour glasses thus releasing

the months and returning Dorcasia to the natural forces of the

seasons.



Each glass has a RUNIC inscription around its base which you must

read and understand. Only saying these words will lift that part

of the spell. To protect the hour glasses Zendos has placed them

in 12 seperate rooms in his castle, each room linked to a

different exterior gateway by a devious route.



Depending on which entrance you select Zendos casts spells which

change the locations of rooms within his castle to confuse you.

The menacing creatures and challenging problems which confront

you at every turn mean that only the brave and the clever will

succeed.



                                INTRODUCTION



Runes of Zendos is a complex and fascinating adventure game which

incorporates 12 seperate adventures in the castle of the wicked

wizard Zendos.  Many of the dangers and creatures will reappear

in each adventure as Zendos attempts to defeat you, so experience

from one adventure will help in the next.  Nevertheless each

adventure has unique spells and problems plus a different route

to ensure a new challenge is provided. The game features full

animation, sentence input, sound effects, save game facilities

to tape or microdrive and much more.



                                 OBJECTIVE



In each adventure your mission is to locate the hour glass and

release the captured month by reading the magic inscription

around the base. The inscription appears in a runic script

devised by Zendos to foil his enemies.  With skill, courage and

intelligence you can achieve much in the castle but only by

deciphering the Runes of Zendos will you attain the ultimate

goal.  Watch out for any clues to solving the runes as you

proceed in your adventure - there's even a clue on the cassette

label!



                               SCREEN FORMAT



The top half of the screen shows continuously your location and

the results of your action and of the creatures you meet. All

action is animated and appears immediately.



The lower part of the screen contains messages from the computer

including error comments.



The bottom 3 lines are reserved for your input. When typing your

commands you have all the standard SPECTRUM cursor

movement/delete functions available.  The ENTER key should be

pressed when you are happy with your sentence. Input is accepted

in upper and/or lower case and is "echoed" in the text part of

the screen.



                               COMMUNICATION



You can enter simple sentences which must contain one verb. The

following are examples of acceptable sentences:-



   Take the sword

   Attack the guard with the mighty axe

   Unlock the door with the golden key

   Move left

   Say magic spell

   

The program will accept any words it has displayed plus words

from this dictionary.



                                DICTIONARY



Movement     : up (u), down (d), left (l), right (r)

Verbs        : attack, drop, eat, examine, give, greet, move,

               pick up, remove,

               run, say, take, unlock, use, wear

Special verbs: status (?), adventure, save, load, stop

Adverbs      : quickly (q)

Prepositions : at, into, from, with



                               ABBREVIATIONS



A single letter or symbol in brackets after a word above can be

used in place of that word. Adjectives can usually be omitted

unless this causes ambiguity e.g "drop the key" is acceptable

unless you have two keys in which case you should enter "drop the

golden key" or whatever.



If you wish to repeat a command simply press ENTER. This is

particularly useful during fights to repeat sentences like

"attack the creature with the weapon".



In general if the sentence you enter looks right it will be OK.

If it is not accepted then a self explanatory error message will

appear. Rules of common sense apply so that for example:-



   You can't - wear what you're not carrying

             - say a spell if you don't know it

             - attack a creature in another room.



                               SPECIAL VERBS



Status (?) : By typing "status" or ? you can check which

adventure you are in, your strength, what you are carrying and

wearing and so on. Press any key to return to the normal display.



Adventure  : When the game loads you are at the start of

adventure one. At any time you can switch to the start of a

different adventure by entering "adventure" followed by a number

from "one" to "twelve".



Save & Load: You can save or load an adventure at any point using

tape or microdrive. The program creates its own file name based

on the adventure number you are saving and the file number which

you specify. You can thus have each adventure saved at different

stages by specifying different file numbers.



These examples assume you are in adventure 4:-



Input                       Result

   

"save zenfile one, md one"  adv4file1  output to microdrive 1

"save zenfile ten, md two"  adv4file10 output to microdrive 2

"save zenfile three, tape"  adv4file3  output to tape



"load zenfile one, md one"  adv4file1  loaded from m/drive 1

"load zenfile three, tape"  adv4file3  loaded from tape



NOTE Load and save must be typed in full. They both use the

current adventure number to create the file name so if you wish

to reload a different adventure use the "adventure" verb first

to change adventures then "load" as above.



Stop       : Typing "stop" in full returns you to BASIC so that

you can delete microdrive files, display the catalogue etc. As

long as you don't corrupt the small driver program in memory RUN

will return you to your adventure.



                                GENERAL NOTES



Fighting                : Whenever you meet a creature its

strength and yours are displayed in a pennant at the top of the

screen.  If a creature is very strong you will need more than

your bare hands. You may have something the creature wants or

which will help you defeat it. Perhaps you can befreind it or use

a magic spell if you know one which is appropriate. Luck can play

its part and you can improve your luck by using certain charms

and lucky items.



Spells                  : You can "say" a spell which you have

found and which therefore appears in your knowledge list in the

current adventure. A spell must be "said" in English even though

it may appear in runic script.



Wearing                 : You can wear one item on your head and

one on your body. If you "remove" something you will still be

carrying it.



Eating                  : You begin each adventure with a supply

of provisions you can 'eat' in quantities from 'one to twelve'

to increase you strength by that amount. e.g. 'eat three'. You

will also find items of food which, when eaten, increase your

strength. If you eat to much it will cease to have any effect.

NOTE: Fighting and running sap your strength.



Performance             : The status display contains a

performance figure to show how much of the current adventure you

have completed.



SPECTRUM error messages : If during saving or loading you get an

error message, eg. microdrive not present or full etc, simply

enter the keyword RUN to retrieve your position after taking

corrective action.



                                QUEST COMPLETION



To finally free Dorcasia and banish Zendos from the land you must

"say" the first letter of each of the 12 hour glass inscriptions.

You can do this at any time to prove that you have completed all

the adventures.



SCORES/REVIEWS



SNAPSHOT/URLS



FACTS ABOUT THE GAME



NOTES

