The Hollywood Murders
An Interactive Mystery

Version 1.3 - 32-bit Dos 

This text/graphics adventure puts you into the shoes of a hardboiled 1950's 
private eye. You are about to begin a case that will either bring you a nice
fat paycheck, or death.

To begin the game, first enter CD [Directory], where [Directory] is the 
location of the game files. Type the command 'HM' and hit Enter. The game
will then begin.

You may also start from Windows by simply clicking on HM.exe in Windows
Explorer.

The game will load graphic screens periodically throughout the 
game. To switch back to text mode press the Space Bar.

This game has a reasonably flexible parser and should accept short sentences 
in the Verb-Noun format. Adjectives, pronouns and prepositions are also 
allowed. If a certain command doesn't work, try experimenting.  
You may use normal English sentences, such as:

 Take the gun and the bullets.
 Open the desk drawer and look inside it.
 Take everything.

When interacting with characters in the game, there are a number of specific
commands you may use. To speak with a character, you may:

Talk to <character>
Ask <character> about <object>

You may also give or show objects to characters. The correct syntax for 
these commands would be:

Give <object> to <character>
Show <object> to <character>

These are just a couple of examples, but it will give you the right idea for 
interacting with people in the game. Again, if something doesn't seem to
work, (and you think it should), try experimenting with different commands.

To travel about, use the directional commands, N, S, E, W, Up and Down. You 
may need to use objects to travel in certain situations. The Inventory 
command will show all the items currently in your possession.

In order to save your current game position, use the Save command. Restore 
will load your saved games. To exit a game, simply use the quit command.

Other useful commands and shortcuts are:
Graphics always : will show the graphics all the time (Default is off).
Graphics <on/off> : will turn the graphics in the game on or off.
Noises <on/off> : will turn the sound effects on or off.

(Default for both is on)

X <object> : Examine object
L : Look (will repeat room description)
I : Inventory (will display current player inventory)

Several locations have graphics associated with them. They will only be 
displayed the first time you visit the spot, unless you have the 'Graphics 
always' setting on. You may view the graphics again by simply using the 
command 'look'.  To change from 'Graphics always' back to default mode, use 
the 'Graphics on' command.

It may be useful to save your position in the game while playing, (in case
you get killed or stuck). I attempted to make the puzzles easy enough for
beginning level players, but if you are stuck, simply try to use common
sense and logic. Hope you have fun.

Although written for Dos, this game should work on most Windows systems.
Windows XP users most likely will need to switch to the MS-Dos prompt to
play the game. Try starting the game from Windows first, and if that doesn't 
work try switching to the Dos prompt. On certain systems you may need to
switch to Dos mode completely.  


This game may be freely distributed for non-commercial purposes.

Design...  Michael Zerbo
Graphics... Christopher and Michael Zerbo
Sound Software...  John Ball
Graphics Software...  Mark Stehr
Special thanks to...  Thomas Nilsson, Goran Forslund, Bob Newell, 
                                 and Christopher Zerbo




E-mail: deadletteroffice0@lycos.com
(C) 1996 M. Zerbo
