THE RING OF DARKNESS

from Wintersoft



All versions of THE RING OF DARKNESS

were written by John F. Humphreys and David A. Briskham.





INTRODUCTION.

Welcome to The Ring Of Darkness. You are about to enter a strange world of

challenges, surprises and satisfying problems.

This is a role playing adventure, so your first task will be to create your

character. You will be able to choose your character's name and select from

several types and skills. Different characters have very different attributes,

and your choice will greatly effect the game. For instance, a warrior is strong,

a thief may steal more effectively, and an elf is good at casting spells.

When the adventure commences you are an insignificant traveller; weak,

inexperienced, and alone in a dangerous and unfamiliar land. You know only

that you are here to seek your fortune, and that your immediate concern is one

of survival. May luck travel your path.





The Game Cassette.

The 'Ring' uses both sides of the cassette, which are labelled 'START

SIDE' and 'GAME SIDE'. Since the Ring is too large to fit into just one

program it has been written in several, both Basic and machine code. At times

the game will need to transfer between programs, so leave the Ring cassette in

the player unless asked otherwise.





Getting Started.

1. If you have been using your computer, switch it off and then on again.

2. Insert the Ring cassette on START SIDE and rewind it.

3. Enter the load command for your computer:

   Dragon 32 type CLOAD

   Oric-1    type CLOAD ""

   Spectrum  type LOAD ""

4. Depress PLAY on the cassette recorder.

5. If you have a Spectrum or Oric the program will now run automatically. If

   you have a Dragon type RUN when OK appears.

Clear prompts will now be given by the program.





Trouble Shooting.

If at any time during play a program fails to load first time, adjust the

volume setting on your cassette recorder, rewind the cassette and proceed from

stage 3 above.

If you accidentally halt the game, type: GOTO 4450 to continue.





In Play.

Play begins on a high resolution map of the enchanted land. If you are playing

the Oric or Spectrum versions you will appear as a small figure in the centre of

the screen, and as you move the map will scroll around you. Dragon owners

should look for the red Z that marks their position.





Movement

Each movement you make represents one day's travelling, so be sure you have

enough food with you. In total the Dragon map contains almost 3000 travel

days, whilst the Oric and Spectrum map has more than 10000.

On the Oric and Dragon the arrow keys move your character west, south, north

and east. On the Spectrum the keys Q,W,O and P serve the same purpose,

for ease of use.

In some cases the movement keys are used to indicate a direction of attack.

When in a dungeon they represent the movements left, turn about, forwards

and right.

NOTE that there is no need to press ENTER (or RETURN) when using the

movement keys.





The Output and the Input.

The majority of the screen area is used to display pictures of your surroundings,

and is your "graphics window".  A small area at the bottom of the screen

forms the independently scrolling "text window" (usually three lines of text).

Everything you type will be shown here, as will prompts and messages from the

computer.

The prompt "?" on the bottom text line indicates that the computer is waiting

for your command. Your response can be any of the commands listed at the

back of this booklet, and should be followed by pressing ENTER (or

RETURN) except when using the movement keys.

Most of the time you will communicate with the computer using single letter

commands (such as "C" for CAST a spell). However, when you wish to enter

the name of an object you must type at least two letters (for example

"DAGGER" or "DA" will suffice to describe a dagger, but just "D" will not).





Lag Time

To give greater control over the speed at which output appears in the text

window the Spectrum and Oric versions have a special "lag time" command ("L").

Each line printed will be followed by a pause, the length of which you can vary

to suit yourself. The larger the number entered for lag time the longer the

pause, and you can really speed up the action by entering the lowest lag time

permitted.





Time Passes.....

The RING is played in real time, which means the computer will not wait

forever for you to make your next entry.  If you leave the game for more than 20

seconds the word "PASS" will appear and the computer will make its move.





Save It.

Have a blank cassette ready and label it with the name of your character. You

are unlikely to complete the Ring in one sitting, so the blank tape will become

your character SAVE cassette.  Before saving your character be sure to

wind your SAVE cassette past the leader tape.

The Oric version has the option to save character in fast or slow mode. If you

choose slow mode you will require at least a C60 cassette.

On the Dragon and Oric versions type "Q" to save your character. On the

Spectrum version type "#".





Progressive Play.

To "get on in the world" it is important to build up your EXPERIENCE. With

each successful endeavour you will gain more Experience Points. As the game

progresses technology and the variety of goods available to you will increase

(so where before you could only find an axe you can now get a sword).



A FINAL HINT....

Keep up to date with your status (status check Z). Your HIT POINTS (a

measure of your mortality) and FOOD UNITS (each movement uses up food,

so don't starve yourself) are most important. If either FOOD or HP. fall

to zero you will die.



The Commands:

R - Ready for use a weapon, spell or armour.

A - Attack

C - Cast a spell.

Z - Status check.

E - Enter.

B - Board a craft.

X - Exit a craft.

I - Inform and search.

T - Transact.

K - Climb.

S - Steal.

G - Get.

U - Unlock.

L - (Oric and Spectrum only) - Set lag time.

Q - (or # on Spectrum) - Save current

character status onto save cassette.



Arrow Keys (or keys Q,W,O and P on Spectrum) move your player and in

some cases are used to indicate attack direction.





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Another Fine Product transcribed by: Jim Grimwood (jimg@globalnet.co.uk)

Dead Dog Farm, Hatfield, England

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