"GOLD..."

The rumour spreads through the town like ripples on a pond. Seldom is that word even uttered by mere citizens yet now King Ardanga is offering golden treasure and the title of Adventurer to anyone who dares venture into the catacombs to recover his stolen gems. Arfa, the outcast and greedy dwarf, has made off with three precious jewels from the King's hoard. The sentence of death is upon him but who will volunteer to carry it out?

As you delve deeper and deeper into the twisted tunnels under the King's castle in your search for the missing gems life will become almost as precious as the gold you hope to earn. Time, as always, is of the essence as your lamp slowly fades. Strange monsters guard the way forward and still the jewels elude you.

Perhaps if you took just one back the King might release you from this task...on the other hand, he might chop your head off!" Only if you survive this mammoth quest intact and bring him the gems will you earn the title of Adventurer, and the promised gold.

Equipped with an unusually powerful command structure, this outstanding text adventure will require all your skills as a solver of riddles and logic puzzles.

Only the bravest of the brave wear the King's gold: join them if you dare!

I, King Ardanga the Indomitable, Lord of the Fiery Kingdoms and Master of the Ultimate Limits of the Universe, seek vengeance on the person of Arfa, my loathsome and greedy dwarf who has stolen three of the finest jewels from my castle in the northern realm. He that returns with my gems and evidence of Arfa's death shall be named "King's Adventurer" when the task is completed and shall be given gold without measure. But he who cannot fulfil his vow and fails the attempt will be rewarded with death.

"Riches without measure and a King's Adventurer...". Your mind reels at the thought. By this one deed, all your troubles will be at an end - you'll be covered in gold and glory. You conjure up the audience chamber and the scene when you return to lay the jewels and Arfa's head at the King's feet - the shouts of acclaim, the heaped treasure, yourself by Ardanga's side. The vision proves too much and forebodings of the dangers ahead, the dwarf's reputed treacheries and fears of the unknown vanish like smoke. You take up King Ardanga's banner and launch yourself into the quest.

Your adversary is a cunning and fearsome opponent. He has hidden the jewels in separate chambers and ensured their protection through a variety of nasty and unpleasant devices. He has his weakness though...

...and it's in your interests to puzzle them out, if you want to survive.

In, around and under the castle, you must venture. If you knew what awaits you as you start your quest, even gold might not be reward enough! Shadow monsters, rats, spiders and a giant evil hound lurk among the chasms, mazes, booby-trapped chambers and confusing passages. Will there be oil enough for your lamp; will you be able to carry what you need; will you be able to complete your task?

To explore the world of The Greedy Dwarf all you need to do is to type simple sentences in plain English. Here are a few examples to give you an idea of the sort of instructions that your computer is capable of understanding:

  RUN WEST QUICKLY
  TAKE THE LAMP
  EXAMINE THE SCROLL AND THE AMULET
  CAREFULLY DROP THE FLASK OF LIQUID PLEASE
  SHOUT HELP

Your computer has been provided with a vocabulary of over two hundred words, including:

  VERBS:  FLING, MOVE, LOOK, EXAMINE;
  ADVERBS: QUICKLY, CAREFULLY, QUIETLY;
  NOUNS:  DIAMOND, COBWEB, TREE, RUBY;
  ADJECTIVES: YELLOW, ELVEN, PINK.

Despite the large size of the vocabulary, you may soon find yourself wanting to use a command containing words which the computer does not recognise. For example you might try:

  REMOVE THE LANTERN

to which your computer will reply:

  I don't know the word "remove".

Don't give up! A simple change in the phrasing of your command is usually all that is required to make yourself understood. In the example above, you would find that:

  TAKE THE LANTERN

has the desired effect, as does

  PICK UP THE LAMP

Here are five special commands which you will soon find useful when you begin your quest:

The actions invoked by these commands all take place outside "game time" so for instance you can request an Inventory as many times as you like without losing any valuable time.

Whilst running The Greedy Dwarf adventure you will discover that the keyboard auto-repeat has been disabled. It is re-enabled when the program is stopped. To save wear and tear on your fingers, the function keys have been defined as follows:

If your machine is fitted with a 1.0 or later version of the Operating System then the cursor editing keys will be temporarily disabled and redefined as follows:

You can save yourself even more time by abbreviating words to just the first six letters, so for instance you can type CUPBOA instead of CUPBOARD. You may also omit punctuation and words such as "the", "a", "an" and so on. In addition, some of the most frequently used words can be abbreviated even further. A list of such words and their abbreviations is given below:

Finally, note that directions such as north-east, south-west, etc. should not be written in full. Instead you must abbreviate them to NE, SW and so on.

As the game is both very long and very complex, it is most unlikely that you will solve it in a single attempt, or even several dozen come to that! To prevent frustration at having to replay sections again and again there is a facility to store and recall your character's current position and status from tape.

To save the character type SAVE as a command (alternatively press f2). The computer will now request a filename of no more than seven letters. Type this in and press RETURN. If you are using a cassette system make sure you have a fresh tape in the cassette recorder. Do not use the program tape!!! Instructions will be displayed on the screen just as for any normal SAVE or LOAD operation.

To load a saved character back into the memory simply enter LOAD as a command (or press f3) and then enter the filename when the computer requests the information. The character will now be loaded back into the game and all the necessary location and object information will be updated.

If you are new to adventuring it is worth saving your character at regular intervals. Although it uses a lot of tape it does help in solving the harder problems.

As you will already have realised from the above the game possess a very large vocabulary, some 230 words in all. As well as containing standard nouns and verbs the list includes adverbs, adjectives and incidental connecting words. Many words are included as synonyms, TAKE and GET, for example, have the same meaning as far as the game is concerned. Several examples from the vocabulary have been given already; whether they work or not is for you to discover!

As far as is possible every word used within the game to describe an object has been included: For example, an "elven long sword" could be acquired by taking the "elven sword" or the "long sword" or just the "sword".

It is worth bearing this in mind while playing the game as parts of the description of a location may well be more important than they first appear. Although it takes time to EXAMINE objects, and time is very strictly limited, you can learn a lot if you take the trouble.

Plenty of paper is necessary, or a supply of Goldstar Maze Masters, as building an accurate and comprehensive map is essential.

Dying is educational! Unlike many adventure games, The Greedy Dwarf is always informative about how you died. Solving the riddles is just part of the game.

Use logic. The Greedy Dwarf is always logical except when you're stuck in a maze, so a clear head for direction is an absolute must.

Try it! If you can think of a command that sounds sensible, The Greedy Dwarf will always try to give you a sensible answer.