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Middle Earth is a tranquil and peaceful place. The problems with the Dark Lord Sauron are ancient history, and no dragon has been seen since the sack of Esgaroth.
The last elves sailed for the West centuries ago, after the rescue of their fellows from the dungeons below Colossal Cavern. Indeed nothing remotely interesting has happened for ages, and the ordinary folk lead peaceful, mundane and - for the most part - contented rural lives.
At least this was true until a year ago. First there was a complete crop failure in the northern provinces due to a drought of unprecedented severity. This was followed by attacks by maddened wild animals on storehouses and outlying farms, with the result that people fled south in their thousands.
Then the troops sent north to keep order were ambushed and decimated by unseen enemies in a hundred coordinated attacks. And finally a vast army of orcs moved in.
There was total panic.
The combined armies of Middle Earth were mustered and marched north. As yet nothing has been heard from them but it is rumoured that they are beseiged near Amon Sul.
Then a messenger appeared at the gates of Minas Tirith. "My Lord ACALIAREPT calls on you to surrender. Even now His armies are sweeping towards you and He cannot be defeated in battle. If you surrender, you will be permitted the boon of death with dignity, otherwise it will be much worse when you are defeated. You will have one week to decide."
The name ACALIAREPT is well known to the magicians in the city: it is that of a Demon Lord renounced for his ferocity and skill in battle - there is no doubt that He will be victorious and there seems to be no hope.
There seems to be only one option open to the King, and he takes it. The leader of the Wizards Guild is hauled before the throne and issued with an ultimatum. "We remember the favours bestowed on your guild over the years. Now is the time for you to repay them. You have one week to defeat the Demon Lord by magic. Fail and you will not live to see the fall of the city. That is all."
You are an apprentice magician (as are all members of the Wizards Guild under 60 years old), and have taken courses in the three M's (Meditation, Mysticism and Moneymaking) but not yet used a spell in earnest. Thus you are amazed to be called before the Wizard's High Council.
"The base of the Demon Lord's power has been discovered: He has taken up residence in the Dark Tower, on the far edge of the world. Even now the full council is preparing an assault on its defences."
"But there is a second way. Perhaps one person, acting alone, could find the four Stones-of-the-Elements and use them to enter the tower. Then, the Medallion-of-Life could perhaps enable you to defeat the Demon. There is little chance of success. But will you do your duty and try?"
You mumble a reply and are rushed from the room. And as you leave you think that you hear the shouted order: "Next!"
Shortly afterwards you are dressed in travel clothes and stand before the tele portal. You step through and there is a sensation of rapid movement. As your vision clears you find that you stand at the end of a road, outside a small brick building. What next?
Adventure Quest is a full scale adventure game with 225 individually described locations. You will have to solve a very large number of problems on your journey to the Black Tower and (perhaps) victory.
To play Adventure Quest you simply enter English phrases to tell the computer what you want to go (e.g. MOVE NORTH, FILL THE BOTTLE or LOOK AROUND), and it acts as your eyes and ears to describe your surroundings.
In fact, Adventure Quest is amazingly easy to play - you don't need to be able to find the cursor keys blindfold or hammer the space-bar for hours. But it may take weeks to solve! Fortunately you can use the SAVE command to store the current state of the game and return to everyday life for a while, resuming play later.
Adventure Quest is a 32K program designed for the 48K Spectrum.
It is made up of two parts: a very small BASIC program and a large machine code program which does all the work.
To load it, enter LOAD " "(press J; SYMBOL-SHIFT + P; SYMBOL SHIFT + P; ENTER) and the game will automatically load and run when you play the tape, using either side.
When you eventually finish the game, press BREAK (CAPS-SHIFT + SPACE) or enter QUIT to return to BASIC.
To restart (e.g if you press BREAK by accident), enter GOTO 100 (press G; 1; 0; 0; ENTER) and the game will be continued where you left off.
Unlike our other games, Level 9 Adventures contain few instructions within the programs. We feel that this type of game is very easy to play and that the space is better used for more rooms and treasures etc.
The program asks you "What next?" whenever it expects you to enter another command. Simply type an English phrase to tell it what you want it to do and press ENTER. The program will then act on your request, ask you for the next command and so on..
Please ignore all of the keywords etc. marked on and around the keys of your Spectrum (except for DELETE which works as usual). If you want to READ a scroll, for example, you should type READ in full. However you are allowed to abbreviate words to save typing. See on...
Now at this point, we must admit that the program does not really understand English (no program does, despite claims in press adverts) but it does know a large vocabulary of English words. Thus it can behave as if it knows the language by examining each entered phrase, picking out the words it knows and guessing the meaning from these. Words that it does not know are ignored. In practice this works well and you should find it simple to state what you want to do. If the program does not understand, re-phrase your request.
Adventure Quest provides great freedom in possible input, but to help you get started a sample of possible instructions follows:
| Word | Example | Meaning |
| EAST | MOVE EAST | Move east, if possible. |
| NORTHWEST | TRY NORTHWEST | Move northwest. |
| INTO | WALK INTO THE CAVE | Walk into the cave. |
| TAKE | TAKE THE MEDALLION | Take something. |
| DROP | DROP THE RUBY | Drop something carried. |
| GIVE | GIVE TABLE TO UNICORN | Give a present. |
| SCORE | WHAT'S MY SCORE | How well am I doing? |
| INVENTORY | INVENTORY | What am I carrying? |
To save typing, words can be abbreviated (e.g. EAST to E and NORTHEAST to NE). Three special commands are provided to control the program. These are:
| Command | Meaning |
| QUIT | Stop playing the game, returning to BASIC. You have to answer a YES/NO question to check that you mean it, first. |
| SAVE | Save the current state of the game on tape. Enter SAVE (as S; A; V; E; ENTER) and then, having started one of your tapes in the recorder (on RECORD), press any character to save the state-of-play onto it. |
| RESTORE | Restore a previously saved game from tape, so that you can carry on playing, After typing RESTORE, start the cassette on PLAYBACK. |
You score points for getting nearer to the Black Tower and more for possessing any of the four Stones. There are bonusses for entering the Tower itself and, of course, for winning.
On the debit side, you lose points as time goes by, and lose more points if you manage to get yourself killed.
You are entitled to one free clue, and a SAE is enclosed so that you can send any one question to us at Level 9. We will try to reply by the next post. Don't use up the clue too soon - you may waste it on something that you'll work out yourself while the reply is in the post. Answers will be truthful, but if you try to find out too much (e.g. by asking "How do I win?") the reply may be very cryptic.
Almost everything in Adventure Quest has a purpose: if only to keep you trying to work out its purpose.
Use SAVE/RESTORE regularly. Adventure Quest involves a long journey and you don't want to have to start all over again if you get killed. SAVE the state of play when you get past a significant obstacle and you can start from there if you have a later accident.
You may be wondering how Adventure Quest can be crammed into only 32K, after all typical adventures of this size have only a third as many rooms etc. Adventure Quest is not written in ASSEMBLER or BASIC, either of these would have made it too big - and BASIC would also have been too slow. Instead it is written in a super-compact language known as 'A-CODE', which is specially designed for writing adventure games. Similarly, the text messages output by the program have been compressed by a 'data compiler' to a fraction of their usual size. This also stops you peeking at the program to find out what might happen next! Together, these two means of size reduction - combined with tight coding - allow Adventure Quest to run in only 32K.
Adventure Quest was produced by, and is Copyright © of Level 9 Computing. If you enjoyed this game and want details of other Level 9 products (games or utilities) then please write to [address deleted]
Explore Middle Earth, finding and following the hidden paths leading to the Dark Tower. Umpteen obstacles bar the way, but we have faith in your skill! This massive, pure text adventure has over 200 locations and a wealth of puzzles.
Level 9 Computing specialise in adventures. Big adventures. We have developed sophisticated techniques for cramming huge games into 32K and now produce versions for many popular computers.
Our games are designed much like novels, with detailed backgrounds and interesting storylines: the result is more enjoyment for you. And don't worry if you get stuck. Just write to us for a clue sheet that will tell you almost everything you could ever want to know about a game.
Middle Earth has long been a tranquil and peaceful place. The battles against the Dark Lord are ancient history, and no dragon has been seen since the sack of Esgaroth. Even the last elves sailed for the West centuries ago, after the rescue of their fellows from the dungeons below Colossal Cavern.
But disaster struck. A vast army of orcs swept down from the north, crushing all in their path, and they now besiege the last brave defenders in Minas Tirith. All seems hopeless. Then, to your amazement, you are summoned by the Wizards High Council.
"The orcs are servants of the Demon Lord, AGALIAREPT, who has taken up residence in the Dark Tower on the edge of the world. From safety he controls our enemies. Perhaps one brave hero, acting alone, could sneak into the tower and defeat him. I don't think you've a ghost of a chance, but the King insists we do something. Will you volunteer?"
Naturally you refuse. But no one listens. Good luck!
"Adventures which have a fast response time, are spectacular in the amount of detail and number of locations .. I am extremely impressed .. The Level 9 Adventures are superbly designed and programmed, the contents first rate." - Soft
"In fact, the descriptions are so good that few players could fail to be ensnared by the realism of the mythical worlds where they are the hero or heroine." - Which Micro?
"Adventure Quest .. This has always been one of the best adventures for me as it seems to contain the lot." - Popular Computing Weekly
"To sum up, Adventure Quest is a wonderful program, fast, exciting and challenging. If you like adventures then this one is for you." - C&VG
We'll replace the enclosed cassette/disk/microdrive cartridge if you return it to Level 9. If you have problems in the month after purchase, a replacement of the same type is free.
Otherwise, please enclose £1 for a replacement cassette or £2.50 for a disk/microdrive cartridge (if available). Add £1 if outside the UK.
Adventure Quest if the second in Level 9's Middle Earth Trilogy, along with:
1.Colossal Adventure
3.Dungeon Adventure.
The game and name ADVENTURE QUEST and all associated software, code, listings, illustrations and text etc, are the exclusive copyright of Level 9 Computing. They must not be copied, transmitted, reproduced, hired, lent, distributes, stored or modified in any form without the express written permission of Level 9 Computing.
Level 9 Computing's Address is: [address deleted]
OCR'd in by Jeremy A.Smith - jeremyasmith@lwtcdi.prestel.co.uk
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