"An illustrated adventure set in a quiet English village. You have 20 days to unravel the sinister secrets of Woodbury End. In real time with interactive characters. 100% machine code."

It was on a cold winter's night back in the early 50's, when they came. Silently and unnoticed they drifted down through the clouds to shelter in the woods, to the north-east of Woodbury End. All night long they lay in their alien craft, wary of intruders, but certainly not unprepared: they had come this far ... the rest was going to be easy!

In the days that followed, life in the village carried on as normal, unaware of the lurking menace in the woods. people followed their routines: church, school, pub nights, market days, these were the days of excitement for the village folk: the coronation, the new Queen, patriotism was never higher in Woodbury End. In fact, such was the hustle and bustle that the first newcomer, a young man with an easy-going manner arrived almost unnoticed. Such was his friendliness and manner, coupled with the festivities that the normally diffident villagers quickly accepted him into their fold and very soon people looked on him not as a stranger, but as an honest, trusted citizen of Woodbury End.

Things did not go quite so smoothly, at first, for the next stranger, who arrived later that year. This was due to his 'rather alien' appearance, as he was an albino, and was never seen without dark glasses. He also seemed to have an unhealthy attraction for the younger citizens, a weakness which almost resulted in total disaster for the project when, in late January, the Potter boy went missing. He was later found murdered on a rubbish tip north of the town and a lynch mob, fuelled by hatred and xenophobia, marched to the stranger's home. They kicked the door down and, spades, shovels and picks raised, they entered the cottage...to find the albino facing them, a twisted grin on his face and...his glasses in his hand. What happened next was unclear but the outcome of it all was that the murder eventually remained unsolved and was forgotten by most. The albino was never again treated suspiciously but rather with a new respect. Though mainly from a distance.

Over the next few months, more strangers arrived in Woodbury End, the greatest influx for 200 years, yet all, though treated with suspicion at first, were strangely and inevitably accepted into the fold.

Then, for 20 years, things settled down. No more strangers, no unusual activities. Then the fair came to town. Paradisa as it was called, appeared on a hot summer's day in the late 70's, using a small site close to the woods rented from Farmer Wilbert. Nobody really knew why the fair came, or who the organisers were, but it was all free-of-charge and the kids loved it. They came in their droves and adored this new entertainment, particularly the Funhouse, the indoor playground barred to adults...

Soon things started to change in Woodbury End. People became reticent and introspective, a new atmosphere shrouded the village. Villagers started to keep themselves to themselves, troubles were not shared, life long friendships began to crack. But most worrying of all, the children began acting strangely; more withdrawn and introverted. This did not affect all children at once, but slowly and surely this attitude seemed to be spreading through the village. Some children even disappeared...and the strangest thing was that people didn't seem to care. Either that or they were too afraid to speak up. Afraid? Afraid of what?...

You wake up in a darkened room, tied with a rope and your memory a blank.

This a real time adventure, the time (days hours) being displayed at the top of the screen. Your score is also shown as a percentage; the aim of the game is to attain a 100% score.

The adventure understands a vocabulary of over 150 words. For simplicity, the common actions can be invoked by single letter inputs. S (Go South), N (Go North), E (Go East), W (Go West), I (Inventory), H (Help), L (Look), F (Fire Weapon), T (Talk), X (Load), Z (Save), Q (Quit). Otherwise, two word inputs are used: i.e. ACTION OBJECT , e.g. TAKE CARD .

For abbreviations, only the first three letters of each word need be used.

1. As the game is in real time, certain events are planned to happen at certain times. This is particularly true in the case of the 14 characters who appear in the plot.
2. Most objects are illustrated and often give visual clues.
3. The game may be saved at any point and restarted at a later date. When restarting, remember to have the data type containing the previously saved game handy. To save, type 'Z'. To load, type 'X'.