THE MIRROR OF KHORONZ

Background to the game

The Mirror of Khoronz is a sequel to an earlier adventure called
Gateway to Karos.  In that game the player enters a parallel
universe through a magic gateway and becomes involved in a quest
for a powerful object called the Talisman of Khoronz.

If you have played Gateway to Karos you may know that one of the
objects to be found and brought back to your own world is a
mysterious and valuable mirror.  It is this mirror, intimately
associated with the wizard Khoronz, which provides the title and
the starting-point for the present adventure.  If, however, you
haven't played the earlier game don't worry!  You don't need to
have played Gateway in order to play Mirror.  It isn't set in
Karos but does inhabit what might be called the "Karos Universe".

Playing instructions

As in other adventure games the computer is your eyes and hands,
giving descriptions of your immediate surroundings, descriptions
of objects and messages telling you what is happening around you.
It will also accept your commands, which should be entered as
phrases or simple sentences in ordinary English.  One or two words
will often suffice, but the computer can detect these when
embedded in a sentence and will also recognize certain synonyms.
e.g. DROP BOX has the same effect as I WANT TO LEAVE THE BOX
HERE.

You may string together several commands into a single input, as
long as they are separated by either a comma, a full-stop or the
word AND.  e.g TAKE THE BOX, GO NORTH AND DROP THE AXE will
perform three separate actions.  Once a verb such as GET or
DROP has been entered it will apply to all other objects named
in that command unless a new verb appears later.  e.g. GET BOX,
ROPE and AXE does exactly what you would expect it to do.

All words may be abbreviated to any extent you  wish, e.g.
NORTH is equally acceptable when entered as NORT, NOR, NO or
N.  Too much of this sort of thing will obviously cause
confusion, in which case the computer will act on the first word
in the vocabulary which the abbreviation matches.  e.g. You may
shorten INVENTORY to INV, but not to IN, because IN is a
recognized word in  its  own  right  and  it comes before
INVENTORY in the vocabulary.

The multi-player aspect

This is the thing which makes Mirror of Khoronz different from
any other adventure on a home micro.  Up to seven players may
take part in a game.  They may follow each other around or go
their separate ways, give objects to each other, even kill each
other under certain conditions!

When you first load the game you are asked for your name.  The
request is printed in red and, having entered your name, it
appears (also in red) at the top of the screen.  Note that it
designates you as PLAYER 1 and also prints your current score.
Beneath this is the description of your surroundings and then the
command prompt What now? (in red again).

Should another player wish to enter the game, he or she should
press one of the function keys f2-f7.  The request for the new
player's name will appear in a different colour.  What happens is
that each of the players 1-7 is assigned to the corresponding
function key.  Once a player is associated with a function key,
pressing the key makes it that player's turn at the game.  The
screen shows the player number, name, score and description of
surroundings for the player and prompts for input in the player's
own colour according to the following table:

                Player 1        RED
                Player 2        GREEN
                Player 3        YELLOW
                Player 4        BLUE
                Player 5        MAGENTA
                Player 6        CYAN
                Player 7        WHITE

Once a player is selected, that player's turn continues until a
different function key is pressed or until the player quits or is
killed.  In either of the latter cases the program will request
the next player and requires a function key to be pressed.  If the
key is that of someone already playing then that player's turn
begins, otherwise the program requests a new name first.  When a
player leaves the game by quitting or dying, any objects being
carried are dropped at the place where the player ceased to exist.
Someone else pressing that player's function key may then enter
the game as a new player, but will of course be starting from the
beginning again.

Locations and objects

The game consists of 190 separate locations and over 60 objects.
Movement from one location to another is usually by means of the
compass directions NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST, NW, NE, SW, SE, but
UP, DOWN, IN, OUT (and a few others) are also necessary.  Some
of the objects are treasure whilst others are needed to solve the
many problems and obstacles which you will meet in your
wanderings.  Many objects are containers and other things may be
placed inside them, or be already there.  The way in which your
INVENTORY is printed is important.  It clearly shows when
objects are inside others by making use of colour and indentation.

When other players are present you will be told who they are and
what they appear to be carrying.  Since you don't have X-ray
vision you will not be told what they have inside any containers
which they are carrying!  Also, when you first find a container
you usually won't be told what's inside.  EXAMINE <object> will
tell you that.  So will GETting the object then entering the
command INVENTORY.



Light and dark, day and night

Although many of the locations in Mirror of Khoronz are out in
the open, others are in caves or buildings and some of these will
be dark, so a light source will be needed.  (Although it must be
added that this is not one of those adventures where a few moves
in the dark always cause the player to fall down a pit, of which
no trace can be found when the area is explored with a light!)

There is also an element of "real time" play in the game. At the
top right of the screen is a display marked TIME which, at the
beginning of the game, shows 10 printed in yellow.  As play
proceeds this number changes, becoming 11, then 12, then 1, 2, 3
etc.  This shows the passage of "game hours", each of which
actually lasts about 2 minutes.  There are 24 such "hours"  in  a
"day".  The adventure commences at 10  a.m.  Sometime during the
evening night will fall, which is shown by the TIME display
turning dark blue.  If you are outside when day changes to night
or vice versa you will be given a message too.

Certain aspects of play depend on whether it is day or night, but
this doesn't mean that the whole world becomes dark when night
comes.  In most open places you will be able to see just as much
as before, but the idea does have a definite purpose.

Saving and loading game positions

You may save the current state of the game at any time by typing
SAVE <RETURN>.  You will then be prompted for a filename.  Up to
12 characters may be entered, but you must provide a name which is
valid for the filing system in use.  e.g. if using the disc
version of the game you could enter filenames such as:

                WHATSIT      (Simple filename; 7 characters max)
                Z.WHATSIT    (Directory Z specified)
                :2.WHATSIT   (Drive 2 specified)
                :2.Z.WHATSIT (Both drive and directory specified)

If using the cassette version your filename must not exceed 10
characters.

To restore a SAVEd game position type LOAD <RETURN> and enter
the filename when prompted.

Filing system errors are reported as normal.  Should you
accidently enter a SAVE or LOAD command and then change your mind
when the Filename? prompt appears, enter @, or any string
beginning with @ to abort the command.

It is important to realize that SAVE and LOAD operate on the
entire game situation including the status of all
participating players.  There is no way in which a player can save
and subsequently restore only his or her own game position while
leaving other players unaffected.  This is impraticable because
another player might, in the meantime, have done something which
makes aspects of the SAVEd game no longer true.
PE
Using operating system/filing system commands

This is mainly of interest to disc users.  You may enter operating
system or DFS commands from within the game just as you would in
immediate mode.  The ones you are most likely to use are *CAT
(when you have forgotten the name of your SAVEd game and keep
getting File not found errors!) and *ACCESS (to lock and
unlock your game files).  *DELETE and *DRIVE may also be
useful.  *COPY, *BACKUP and *COMPACT should not be used since
they make use of the computer's memory and will overwrite the
program.

Some useful words

Many of the words recognized by the program have already been
mentioned, e.g. GET, DROP, EXAMINE, SAVE, LOAD and the "movement
words" NORTH, SOUTH, UP, IN etc.  A complete list would give too
much away and spoil the fun, but here are a few which are
especially useful and which call for some explanation.

RESET    This is used to re-start the game from the beginning.
It replaces all objects at their initial locations, deletes all
players and requests a name for player 1.  Do get the agreement of
other players before you use it!

QUIT      Causes the player who enters it to leave the game.
All carried objects are dropped at the place where the command was
issued and may be retrieved by other players.  The program then
prompts for the next player and expects a function key in the
range 1-7 to be pressed.

FOLLOW    Player Fred, at the same location as player Jim, may
type FOLLOW JIM.  Fred is now attached to Jim in a manner
similar to that of a carried object.  If Jim takes his turn
immediately afterwards, Fred will be taken wherever Jim goes.  In
this way a novice may tag along with a more experienced player; in
fact one player could lead a party of as many as six!  If Jim
doesn't want to be followed he may sever the connection by typing
LEAVE FRED.  The link is broken in any case as soon as Fred
presses his own function key to take his next turn.	

(PUT) IN Besides being a "movement word" IN is used to place
objects in containers, e.g. PUT BOX IN RUCKSACK.  The word PUT
isn't actually necessary in this command.  If you wish to remove
an object from a container use GET (or TAKE).  You won't be
told You already have that, even if you are holding the
container.

WAIT      Moves  the game's  "clock" on by one "hour".  There
are several places in the game where you need to wait for
something to happen and this command will be needed at such
points.


Two function keys besides those used to change players are used by
the program:

f0 changes the display from coloured to monochrome.  Pressing
f0 again restores the colour.  Mirror of Khoronz makes
extensive use of colours to identify players, print inventories,
indicate different types of message etc.  If you have to play on a
black-and-white television or monochrome monitor (or if you simply
don't care for the colours), then press f0 and you will have
everything in black and white.

f8 allows you to conceal your input from other players.
Pressing the key once causes every character entered to appear on
the screen as a white square.  Your commands will be interpreted
correctly, but other players won't be able to read what commands
you are giving (although they can see the program's responses).
Pressing f8 again turns the feature off.

Objectives and scoring

Your meddling with Khoronz's mirror has resulted in you being
drawn, against your will, into another region of the world which
contains the island of Karos.  Your main objective is to get back
to your own world, and in order to do this you will need to solve
many tricky problems, chief among which is acquiring some gold in
order to purchase help.  Gold, you will find, does not actually
exist in the land in which you are destined to wander - which
presents you with quite a difficulty!  It was rumoured, however
that Khoronz was not only a Wizard but a successful alchemist who
posessed the secret of the Philosophers' Stone......

By solving all the puzzles, finding all the treasures and
successfully returning home you can achieve a maximum score of
1000.  Most adventures are then put on the shelf and forgotten,
but this one has a whole new dimension!  A player who attains the
maximum score is promoted to the rank of Wizard and invited to
save a special file under a chosen "Wizard name".

When this file is loaded into any subsequent game, using the
normal LOAD command, the player who has become a Wizard has
special powers and privileges and may use certain commands which
are forbidden to the "profane".  A Wizard may, for example, move
objects around so that other players don't find them in their
expected places. Even the players themselves may be moved around!

It is possible for a Wizard to set up an entire non-standard game
then enter the special command WSAVE (which may only be used by
Wizards). This allows the Wizard to withdraw tracelessly and
causes the dynamic part of the database to be saved.   If two
Wizards each do this then swap discs or tapes they can have
endless fun setting traps and puzzles for each other.  In the
ordinary way it is only possible for one player in a game to be a
Wizard.  Is there a way of claiming your privileges in any game?
As a matter of fact there is - but you don't really expect us to
hand it to you on a plate, do you?
