REALM OF THE TROLLS by Rainbow Arts Once upon a time, in the early stages of mankind, when there was still no sign of the history books that the old people had left behind, a big and bloody war erupted between the elf people and the aggressive trolls. The trolls constantly attacked the caves of the friendly elves in their kingdom in the North. During these attacks, which took place in Dirillon Sippe's forests, the trolls robbed the elves of their elaborate treasures, making them forget the their caves and how valuable and useful they were. Many of Dirillon's companions, while trying to recapture the magical objects and treasures, were seen by the trolls. They were forced to flee without recovering anything, except their lives and important information regarding the structure and dangers of the well-guarded troll-grottos. After all his companions had failed, Dirillon, the Elf-King's son, was taught by Astarn-The-Magician to use magic. This would help him to fetch the treasures back from the grottos and darkness. You will lead Dirillon through the grottos and overcome the dangers with him. Dirillon's predecessor discovered the following information concerning the troll's home: * The troll-castle is divided into single caves (or grottos) which are guarded by at least 4 trolls. * These grottos are connected with doors through which the trolls cannot go. The elves can see these doors only after they have collected all the treasure in the cave. * The air in the grotto is all consumed after a fixed period of time. The elves will suffocate if they do not exit before this time is up. * Secret passages are rare but very convenient. They appear and disappear in walls and can transport the elves from one place to another. * The treasures are sometimes hidden and appear behind or in front of the elves before they can collect them. * Also, some of the objects are only optical illusions, and therefore cannot be collected. * In some places the floor is not solid and in these places you cannot stop! * Poles and ladders can also bring with them problems. * Floors, ladders and poles can appear in places where you would least expect them! * Trap-doors and poles, that constantly open and close themselves can be dangerous. However, there can also be escape options. * Mushrooms and magic symbols appear to be useful, although it is not totally clear what purpose they serve! * The magic-drink, which makes the elves fresh and strong, can be found in special containers. * Danger lurks in some places where rocks have already fallen from the ceiling. Nothing more is known but it is assumed that there are further nasty surprises waiting in the caves! Dirillon was prepared for these problems by Astarn, and is therefore not completely helpless: he can paralyse the trolls for a set period of time. Additionally, he can destroy soft floors, wooden ladders and wooden poles in order to create new routes and shake off pursuers. He has been specially trained to move along poles without touching the ground and also to jump from great heights without harming himself. LOADING THE PROGRAM 1. Switch on your computer. 2. Put the disk into the disk drive. 3. When the display "INSERT DATA DISK" appears, insert the enclosed data disk into disk drive A (or a disk that you have initialized in the disk menu). Choose the "OK" field. 4. As long as a screen with three menus appears, you are in the Main Menu. From here it is possible to get to the Playing Menu, the Disk Menu and the Editor by choosing the appropriate field. With the right mouse button you can view the high score list. HANDLING THE PROGRAM GENERAL NOTES: After loading the program, the data-disk should remain in the drive. You will need it during the game and for the Editor. The program is controlled either with the mouse in port #0 or with a joystick in port #1. USE OF THE MAIN MENU The GAME MENU offers you several choices. By selecting the corresponding fields you may either select a training game, test a hall of your choice (test game) or perform a little contest with up to 8 players. After selecting the training game, you may play immediately without being entered into the HIGHSCORE. In this case you cannot save a game or load a saved game. The test game follows the same rules as the training game, except that you can choose a hall with which you want to start. In a match (contest) up to 8 players may enter their names in a list and thus apply for the match (by selecting the WILL JOIN/WILL NOT JOIN field). In addition a saved game may be loaded and new players entered. Players already entered can be cancelled again. By clicking at the START GAME field, the players are summoned one after another and now should try to do their very best in order to achieve a good end result. The game of any player is automatically stopped when the energy-level goes under 50% and the displays don't change. The hall must be newly mastered in the next round. After the game stop, or death of a player, you go automatically back to the CONTEST MENU. If you then press the right mouse button or click the START GAME field, the next player may try his luck. As soon as the game is started, the hall - if playable - is displayed in the bottom field of the screen. If not playable, you may either play the next hall or exit the game. In the top right screen partition the following displays are shown: SCORE - value of the collected treasures; ENERGY - remaining energy of the player...... ( a bit missing .... Sewercide). 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