The Valley is the original text/graphics real-time adventure. Can you enter the deadly depths of Vounim's Lair or climb the horrible heights of the Black Tower? To find out, you'll have to cross The Valley itself - and that isn't going to be easy!

You can use your character, from barbarian to wizard, from warrior to thiker, and dare the death dealing monsters to come and get you! Each time you fihgt and win you gain experience, each time you lose...

All combat is real-time and you have to make decisions rapidly and quickly - sword or spell, attack or retreat?

It takes skill, cunning and an adventurous mind to succeed in The Valley and recover the helm. Master of Destiny awaits you if you make it, a long wooden box if you but stumble on the way.

Characters can be saved onto tape (from the safe castles) for when you need a rest. Have you got what it takes to tackle this classic epic of adventure?

The first question you will be asked if whether you wish to load a character from tape. If you are playing the game for the first time, or if you wish to create a new character, the reply to this is "No". If you have already generated a character and saved it on tape then reply will be "Yes" and this will enable you to load your character.

Having selected your character type the screen will clear and The Valley will be drawn. A safe path passes through the Valley and there are safe castles at either end. Symbols representing the other scenarios will also be displayed.

There are three basic types of scenario: The Swamps, The Woods and The Tower. The Swamps and The Woods both contain a secondary scenario located on an island in the centre of a lake; in The Swamps this will be the Temple of Y'Nagioth and in The Woods it will be Vounim's Lair. Displayed below the scenario is your character's current status: treasure, experience, number of turns, combat strength, psi power and stamina.

Each of the five character types has a different maximum for the last three; Wizards can have more psi power, Barbarians get more combat strength,etc. Instructions for movement are given in the first program and are continuously displayed under the map.

Ground Rules for playing THE VALLEY
If you move your character onto either of the safe castles you will be offered the option of leaving The Valley and saving your character on tape or reentering with your combat strength and psi power restored to a base level if they have become too low.

To enter one of the scenarios you simply move your character onto the appropriate symbol and the screen will clear and the new scenario will be drawn. To prevent scene-jumping you will have to stay in any chosen scenario for a number of turns; the number varies but is usually around five. Leaving the Woods and Swamps is easy, simply step onto any part of the border and you will be instantly transported back into The Valley scenario. To leave one of the Castle-type scenarios you must step onto the gateway character which will only appear on the ground floor of the Black Tower. The Black Tower has several floors and these may be accessed by using the stairs which appear in the bottom left and top right corners. Note, however, that once used the stairs disappear so you will have to cross the entire floor to reach the next set! To enter the two secondary scenarios in the Woods and Swamps you will have to cross the Lake; they can only be entered from the land and not from the water. Crossing the Lake also reduces your stamina as well as making you prey to two special monsters.

As you move around within any scenario you will encounter various monsters. You may be given the option to Attack or Retreat, in which case you should key either A or R depending on your mood, or the monster may simply attack you. If the beast manages to hit you, you may suffer damage points as a result; these are subtracted from your stamina and, if the level of damage inflicted excees 10, your combat strength will also be reduced. When you are offered the oppotunity to attack, 'Strike Quickly', you must choose to attack its head (Key H), its body (B), or its limbs (L). If you make contact then you may cause the monster damage in which case its strength will be reduced. Combat is in real time so if you hesitate you may miss your opportunity.

One further option exists, casting a spell. This is selected by keying S followed by the number of the spell you wish to cast. There are three spells available: Sleepit (1) which is available to anyone and only costs 5 stamina points to use; Psi-Lance (2) which requires a minimum of 49 psi power and 1000 experience, and can only be used against monsters with magical ability; and Crispit (3) which requires a minimum of 49 psi power and 5000 experience. If you are fighting a monster with no physical strength, the first number displayed after the monster name is zero, you MUST use a spell. The amount of damage that you can do to a monster is related to both your strength and experience: the greater these are the more likely you are to survive a fight.