THE WITNESS INSTRUCTION MANUAL FOR THE WITNESS In The WITNESS, you are a police detective working near Los Angeles. The year is 1938, and on this stormy February night a wealthy but frightened man has asked you for protection. In spite of your best efforts, a death will occur, and you will have twelve hours to solve the mystery and try to arrest the killer. If you think you have enough evidence against one or more suspects to convince a jury of their guilt, you can arrest them and conclude the case. Your ever-helpful assistant, Sergeant Duffy, will assist you in taking the accused into custody. (He will also offer help before the arrest if you ask him for it.) You can expect to receive a letter from your superiors about the outcome of the grand jury investigation - and, if the District Attorney gets an indictment, of the trial itself. If the jury does not convict, your higher-ups will probably tell you where you may have erred, so that you can profit from your mistakes. Because the State cannot win the case unless it can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, you are expected to establish the three traditional ingredients of an ironclad case for the prosecution: the accused must have had a motive, a method, and ample opportunity to commit the crime. There are many possible endings to this case, and the one you reach is determined by your actions and by the deductions you draw from the evidence you gather. But one ending fits the facts better than any other, and you will know it when you reach it. As in all Infocom interactive fiction, The WITNESS understands a very large vocabulary. Appendix B on page 18 lists several commands that will be useful in your investigation. Some of the commands listed are found in all Infocom fiction; others are included especially for The WITNESS. All detectives will want to familiarize themselves with this list. Table of Contents An Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 12 What is interactive fiction? Time in the story Tips for Novices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Seven useful pointers about interactive fiction. Communicating with The Witness. . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Basic sentences Complex sentences Talking to characters in the story Vocabulary limitations Starting and Stopping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Loading The Witness Saving and Restoring Quitting and Restarting Appendix A: Quick Reference Guide. . . . . . . . . . 17 This briefly describes the most important things to know about interactive fiction. It is vital that you know all these things before you begin your investigation. Appendix B: Important Commands . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Appendix C: Some Recognized Verbs. . . . . . . . . . 19 Appendix D: The Witness Complaints. . . . . .. . . . 20 Appendix E: Sample Transcript and Map. . . . . . . . 21 Appendix F: We're Never Satisfied. . . . . . . . . . 23 Appendix G: If You Have Technical Problems . . . . . 23 Appendix H: About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Appendix I: Copyright Warranty Information . . . . . 24 An Overview Interactive fiction is a story in which you are the main character. Your own thinking and imagination determine the actions of that character and guide the story from start to finish. Each work of interactive fiction, such as The Witness, presents you with a series of locations, items, characters, and events. You can interact with these in a variety of ways; moving around, talking to other characters, obtaining and using objects, etc. You will have to interact with several characters and solve many puzzles as you move through The WITNESS. Frequently you will need to bring a certain item to a particular place, and then use it in the proper way, to solve a puzzle. Remember that other characters may help you or deceive you when you try to solve a given puzzle. In The Witness, time passes only in response to your input. The clocks in the story will advance each time you type a sentence and press the RETURN (or ENTER) key. If you don't make any moves, the story will not progress; so you can plan your turns as slowly and carefully as you want. Most investigative actions will take one minute. Some actions, such as when you EXAMINE (something) CAREFULLY, will take a little longer. Tips for Novices 1. When you begin The WITNESS, you should first become familiar with your surroundings. Explore every location carefully. Note any interesting objects and all exits from the location. As you explore the house and yard, it is a very good idea to make a map of the geography. Even the most experienced and capable detectives find it wise to make a map showing each location, the directions connecting it to adjoining locations, and any interesting objects there. 2. Read everything carefully. There are clues in many of the descriptions of locations and objects. Also check labels, books and other items. Many objects in the story can be picked up and are needed to solve puzzles. 3. Unlike other "adventure games" you may have played, there are many possible routes to completing The WITNESS; there is no one "correct" order for solving puzzles. Some puzzles have many solutions' others don't need solutions at all. However, sometimes you will have to solve one puzzle in order to obtain the tools or information you need to solve another. 4. It is often helpful to do The WITNESS with another person. Different people find different puzzles easy, and can often complement each other. 5. Don't be afraid to try something bold or strange - you can always SAVE your position first if you want. (See "Starting and Stopping" on page 16). Trying the bizarre can be fun and will often give you a clue. Here's an example: >GIVE THE SOGGY NEWSPAPER TO THE NIGHT WATCHMAN The night watchman tastes the soggy newspaper, spits it out, shivers, and looks at you sadly. You have just learned that there probably is something which would be better to give to the night watchman. Maybe the bottle of brandy you saw earlier in the story...? 6. If you really have difficulty, you can order a hint booklet and a complete map using the order form in your package. You don't need this booklet to enjoy the story, but it will make solving the puzzles easier. 7. Read the sample transcript on page 21; it's a good example of how Infocom's interactive fiction works. Communicating with The Witness In The Witness you type your sentence in plain English each time you see the prompt (>). The Witness usually acts as if your sentence begins "I want to.....," although you shouldn't actually type those words. You can use words like THE if you want, and you can use capital letters if you want; The Witness doesn't care either way. When you finish typing a sentence, press the RETURN (or ENTER) key. The Witness will respond by telling you whether your request is possible at this point in the story, and what happened as a result. The Witness recognizes your words by their first nine letters, and all subsequent letters are ignored. Therefore, HYPNOTist, HYPNOTize, and HYPNOTic would all be treated as the same word by The Witness. To move around, just type the desired direction. You can use the eight compass directions: NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST, NORTHEAST, NORTHWEST, SOUTHEAST, and SOUTHWEST. You can abbreviate these to N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, and SW, respectively. You can use UP (or U) and DOWN (or D), IN and OUT will also work in certain places. The Witness understands many different kinds of sentences. Here are some examples. (Note that some of these items do not actually appear in The Witness.) WALK NORTH GO SOUTH L OPEN THE WOODEN DOOR EXAMINE THE RADIO LOOK BEHIND THE STATUE LOOK UNDER THE ROCK LOOK INSIDE THE VAT TAKE BOX TAKE THE BOOKS PICK UP THE WOODEN BOX LOOK THE DOOR WITH THE KEY PUSH THE BUTTON PUT TOOTHBRUSH UNDER BED You can use multiple objects with certain verbs if you separate them by the word AND or a comma. Some examples: TAKE THE KNIFE, BOOK, COMPASS DROP THE BOX, THE GUN, AND THE JAR PUT THE GOLD BAR AND THE NECKLACE IN THE REFRIGERATOR You can include several sentences on one input line if you separate them by the word THEN or by a period. (Each sentence will still cause time to pass.) You don't need a period at the end of the input line. For example, you could type all of the following at once, before pressing the RETURN (or ENTER) key: PUT DOWN THE CUP OF COFFEE THEN TAKE THE PENCIL. LOOK BEHIND THE PAINTING THEN SIT DOWN ON THE DAVENPORT THEN READ THE MAGAZINE The words IT and ALL can be very useful. For example: EXAMINE THE RADIO. TURN IT ON OPEN THE BOX. LOOT IN IT. CLOSE IT THEN LOCK IT You will meet other characters in The WITNESS. You can talk to them using the format: CHARACTER, DO THIS. Here are some examples: PETE, GIVE ME THE KEY WALTER, TURN OFF THE RADIO ALICE, PET THE PURRING CAT Once you've engaged someone in conversation, you can often skip the formalities and just state your requests as long as that person remains in the same room with you. Characters will answer only two kinds of questions: asking for information about someone or something, and asking for the whereabouts of someone or something. Here are some examples: MR HONES, TELL ME ABOUT MRS JONES JIM, WHERE IS THE BUTLER SCOTT, HAVE YOU SEEN THE BULLETS? If your command is ambiguous, The Witness will ask what you really mean. You can answer most of these questions briefly by supplying the missing information, rather than typing the entire input again. You can do this only at the very next prompt. For example: >OPEN THE DOOR (Which door do you mean, the bedroom door or the closet door?) >BEDROOM The bedroom door is now open. The Witness uses many words in its descriptions that it will not recognize in your commands. For example, you might read, "The full moon is bright and clean, and the wagons case eerie shadows." However, if The Witness doesn't recognize the words MOON or SHADOWS in your input, you can assume they are not important to your completion of the story, except to provide you with a more vivid description of where you are or what is going on. The Witness recognizes over 900 words, nearly all that you are likely to use in your commands. If The Witness doesn't know a word you used, or any of its common synonyms, you are almost certainly trying something that is not important in the story. Starting and Stopping Starting the Story: Now that you know what to expect when you venture into The Witness, it's time for you to "boot" your disk. To load The Witness, follow the instructions on the Reference Card in your package. The story will begin with a description In the Wings, the opening location. Here's a quick exercise to help you get accustomed to interacting with The Witness. Try the following command first: >LOOK UP Then press the RETURN (or ENTER) key. The Witness will respond with: There's a dark, cloudy sky above you. What next? Then try" >WALK NORTH After you press the RETURN (or ENTER) key, The Witness will respond: You are now on the driveway. The driveway, paved with peastone, runs from the entrance at the south end in a curve to a two-car garage at the east end. North of you is the front porch, the entrance to the house. Saving and restoring: It will probably take you several days to complete The Witness. Using the SAVE feature, you can continue the story at a later time without having to start over from the beginning, just as you can place a bookmark in a book you are reading. SAVE puts a "snapshot" of your place in the story onto another disk. If you are cautious, you may want to save your place before (or after) trying something dangerous or tricky. That way, you can go back to that position later, even if you have gotten lost or "killed" since then. To save your place in the story, type SAVE at the prompt (>), and then press the RETURN (or ENTER) key. Then follow the instructions for saving and restoring on your Reference Card. Some computers require a blank disk, initialized and formatted, for saves. Using a disk with data on it (not counting other The Witness saves) may result in the loss of that data, depending on your computer. You can save your position as often as you like by using additional blank disks. You can restore a saved position any time you want. To do so, type RESTORE at the prompt (>), and press the RETURN (or ENTER) key. Then follow the instructions on your Reference Card. You can then continue the story from the point where you used the SAVE command. You can type LOOK for a description of where you are. Quitting and restarting: If you want to start over from the beginning, type RESTART and press the RETURN (or ENTER) key. (This is usually faster than re-booting). Just to make sure, The Witness will ask if you really want to start over. If you do, type Y for YES and press the RETURN (or ENTER) key. If you want to stop entirely, type QUIT and press the RETURN (or ENTER) key. Once again, The Witness will ask to make sure this is really what you want to do. Remember when you RESTART or QUIT: if you want to be able to return to your current position, you must first use do a SAVE. Appendix A Important Commands There are a number of one-word commands which you can type instead of a sentence. You can use them over and over as needed. Some count as a turn, others do not. Type the command after the prompt (>) and press the RETURN (or ENTER) key. ACCUSE (someone) OF (something) - This makes an accusation against someone. ANALYZE (something) FOR (something specific) - If you're looking for a specific substance on or in "something" the lab will run a special analysis. ARREST (someone) - If you've found enough evidence, this sentence will end the case and describe the outcome of the prosecution. ASK (someone) ABOUT (someone or something) - This is an impersonal form of the sentence CHARACTER, TELL ME ABOUT (someone or something). BRIEF - This tells The Witness to give you a full description of a location only the first time you enter a it. On subsequent visits, The Witness will tell you only the name of the location and any objects present. This is how The Witness will normally act, unless you tell it otherwise using the VERBOSE or SUPERBRIEF commands. CONTINUE - THis is the same as RESTORE. EXAMINE (something) - You will probably use this a lot. EXAMINE (something) CAREFULLY - You will probably use this occasionally, when you think that spending more time will give you more results. FINGERPRINT (something) - This is the same as ANALYZE (something) FOR FINGERPRINTS. INVENTORY - The Witness will list what you are holding. You can abbreviate INVENTORY to I. LOOK - This will give you a full description of your current location. You can abbreviate LOOK to L. QUIT - This lets you stop. If you want to save your position before quitting, follow the instructions in "Starting and Stopping" section on page 18. You can abbreviate QUIT to Q. RESTART - This stops the story and starts it over from the beginning. RESTORE - This restores a saved position made using the SAVE command. See "Starting and Stopping" on page 16 for more details. REVISION - This is the same as VERSION. SAVE - This puts a "snapshot" of your current position onto a storage disk. You can return to a saved position in the future using the RESTORE command. See "Starting and Stopping" on page 16 for more details. SCRIPT - This command tells your printer to begin making a transcript of the story as you venture onwards. A transcript may aid your memory but is not necessary. It will work only on certain computers; read your Reference Card for details. SEARCH (someone or something) - This is a search for unusual items. SEARCH (someone) FOR (something specific) - This is a search for something in particular, whether unusual or not. SHOW (something) TO (someone) - You may get an interesting reaction. SUPERBRIEF - This commands The Witness to display only the name of a place you have entered, even if you have never been there before. In this mode, The Witness will not even mention which objects are present. Of course, you can always get a description of your location, and the items there, by typing LOOK. In SUPERBRIEF mode, the blank line between turns will be eliminated. This mode is meant for players who already know their away around. Also see VERBOSE and BRIEF. SUSPEND - This is the same as SAVE. TIME - This command tells you the time in the story. This is particularly useful for those versions which have no status line. UNSCRIPT - This tells your printer to stop making a transcript. VERBOSE - This tells The Witness that you want a complete description of each location, and the objects in it, every time you enter a location, even if you've been there before. Also see BRIEF and SUPERBRIEF. VERSION - The Witness responds by showing you the release number and serial number of your copy of the story. Please include this information if you ever report a "bug" in the story. WAIT - This will cause time in the story to pass. Normally, between turns, nothing happens in the story. You could leave your computer, take a nap, and return to find that nothing has changed. You can use WAIT to make time pass in the story without doing anything. For example, you can wait for a specific time, or wait for an event to happen, etc. You can abbreviate WAIT to Z. WAIT FOR (someone or some amount of time) - You may wait for some specified amount of time; if something interesting happens in the meantime, however, you wait will terminate then. You may also wait for a character to arrive; if something interesting happens in the meantime, or if the character doesn't show up after a long time, The WITNESS will ask you if you want to keep waiting. WAIT UNTIL (time) - This causes time to pass until the desired time arrives. If anything interesting happens during this time, you will have a chance to stop waiting. Appendix B Some Recognized Verbs These are only some of the verbs that The Witness understands. There are many more. Remember that you can use a variety of prepositions with them. For example, LOOK can become LOOK INSIDE, LOOK BEHIND, LOOK UNDER, LOOK THROUGH, LOOK AT, and so on. CALL GIVE MOVE SMELL CLEAN HELP OPEN TAKE CLOSE HIDE PUT TIE COMPARE KISS READ TURN DROP KNOCK RING UNLOCK FIND LISTEN RUB WAKE FOLLOW LOCK SIT WALK Appendix C The Witness Complaints The Witness will complain if you type a sentence that confuses it completely, and will then ignore the rest of the input line. (Certain events in the story may also cause The Witness to ignore the rest of the sentences you typed, since the event may have changed your situation drastically.) The Witness's complaints always appear in brackets "[like this]" to distinguish them from the text of the story. Some of The Witness's complaints: I DON'T KNOW THE WORD "__________". The word you typed is not in the story's vocabulary. Sometimes using a synonym or rephrasing will help. If not, The Witness probably doesn't know the idea you were trying to get across. Remember The Witness recognizes your words by their first nine letters. YOU USED THE WORD "_______" IN A WAY THAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND. The Witness knows the word you typed, but couldn't use it in that sense. Usually this is because The Witness knows the word as a different part of speech. For example, if you typed PRESS THE LOWER BUTTON, you are using LOWER as an adjective, but The Witness might know LOWER only as a verb, as in LOWER THE BOOM. THERE WAS NO VERB IN THAT SENTENCE! Unless you are answering a question, each sentence must have a verb (or a command) in it somewhere. THERE SEEMS TO BE A NOUN MISSING IN THAT SENTENCE. This usually means that your sentence was incomplete, such as EAT THE BLUE. THERE WERE TOO MANY NOUNS IN THAT SENTENCE. An example is PUT THE SOUP IN THE BOWL WITH THE LADLE, which has three noun "phrases," one more than The Witness can digest in a single action. I BEG YOUR PARDON? You pressed the RETURN (or ENTER) key without typing anything. YOU CAN'T SEE ANY ________ HERE! The item you referred to was not visible. It may be somewhere else, inside a closed container, and so on. THE OTHER OBJECT(S) THAT YOU MENTIONED ISN'T (AREN'T) HERE. You referred to two or more items in the same sentence, and at least one of them wasn't visible to you in your present location. YOU CAN'T USE MULTIPLE (IN)DIRECT OBJECTS WITH "______." You can use multiple objects (that is, nouns or noun phrases separated by AND or a comma) or the word ALL only with certain verbs. Among the more useful of these verbs are TAKE, DROP, and PUT. An example of a verb that will not work with multiple objects is ATTACK; you couldn't say ATTACK ALL or ATTACK THE PRIEST AND THE POLICEMAN. YOU CAN'T GO THAT WAY. There was no passage or exit in the direction you tried to move. THAT SENTENCE ISN'T ONE I RECOGNIZE. The sentence you typed may have been gibberish, such as TAKE ROPE WITH READ. Or, you may have typed a reasonable sentence but used a syntax that The Witness does not recognize, such as WAVE OVER THE MOUNTAIN. Try rephrasing the sentence. Sample Transcript and Map This transcript is not from The Witness, but it does show most of the usual things you can do in the story. It contains several simple puzzles and their solutions, and will give you a good idea of how Infocom's interactive fiction works. The player's sentences appear in capital letters after each prompt (>). The map represents the terrain in the sample transcript as you might have drawn it. Tin of cookies !-------------! ! Dessert ! ! department ! !-----|-------! | | !----------! !----|--------! ! Salad ! ! Check out ! --! Bar !---! area !--- !----------! !----|--------! | !----|-----! ! Cheese ! ! Corner ! !----------! (cheese corner) You are in the cheese section of Donna's Delicious Delicacies. Hundreds of different kinds of cheese are displayed in open refrigerated cases or are aging on the shelves. The finest Bries, Camemberts, Port du Saluts, Tilshits, and many other varieties exude a hearty, cozy aroma. Saltless crackers of varying degrees of tastlessness fill a shelf on one side of the room. The only exit is to the north. You hear people arguing to the north. >WALK NORTH (check-out area) You are in the check-out area of Donna's Delicious Delicacies. The store exit is to the east. Doors lead north to the dessert department, south to the cheese corner, and west to the salad bar. A cashier, looking bored, is sitting behind a cash register, chewing gum and reading a trashy novel. Lou, the store's overweight stockboy, leaves the room heading west. Donna, the surprisingly slim proprietor of this establishment, is here. Her face is flushed with anger. Donna turns to you and says, "That boy had better watch his step. A lot of expensive food has been disappearing lately, and I've a good idea that he's been eating my inventory without my permission." >DONNA, TELL ME ABOUT THE ARGUMENT "I accused him of stealing, and he called me an ungrateful and suspicious beanpole. We exchanged some harsh words; too bad, really, because he's been a fine stockboy. But with food disappearing..." She shakes her head in thought. >WEST (salad bar) This is the salad bar of Donna's Delicious Delicacies. Behind refrigerated glass cases are dozens of appetizing and colorful cold salads. Donna;s Antipasto Deluxe, lobster/seafood salad, marinated mushrooms, Artichoke Delight: all are attractively garnished, and the extravagant prices are tastefully posted in tiny black letters on the wall. There is an exit to the east. A door marked "Private" is to the west. >GO WEST The door is locked >INVENTORY You are carrying: a badge a pad of violation forms a wallet containing $10 >KNOCK ON THE DOOR After a moment, the door opens and Lou, the stockboy, comes out, wiping his hands on a towel. "Yes?", he inquires politely. >ACCUSE LOU OF STEALING "Oh, I suppose Donna thinks everyone who works for her is stealing. Well, I'm not. I'm an honest, underpaid, unappreciated hard worker." Donna comes into the room. She looks very angry. Lois, the store's assistant manager, follows Donna into the room. Lois is a short but seemingly strong young woman. Lois is saying something to Donna. >LISTEN TO LOIS "When I came back from my coffee break, several cream puffs were missing, and a tin of the Danish butter cookies was open and half empty." Lois throws a look at Lou. "He's certainly large enough to eat more than that just for a snack!" >LOIS, WHERE IS THE TIN OF COOKIES? Lois looks at you coldly. "Where do you think?" Donna, barely restraining her anger, says to Lou, "You're fired!" >EAST As you leave the salad bar, you somehow bump into Lois, "Hey, watch it!" she snaps. (check-out area) A cashier, looking bored, is sitting behind a cash register, chewing gum and reading a trashy novel. You hear people arguing to the west. >NORTH (dessert department) You are in the dessert department of Donna's Delicious Delicacies. A refrigerated glass case holds a sinful assortment of cakes, pies, and pastries; Boston cream pie, seven-layer cake, raspberry-apple tarts, frosted cupcakes, and many other freshly-made baked goods. The cream puffs are not symmetrically positioned on their tray, indicating that some are missing. There is also an open case containing candies and chocolate truffles. A shelf is stacked with tins of Danish butter cookies. On a table next to the shelf is an opened tin of cookies. >EXAMINE TIN (Which tin do you mean, a closed tin on the shelf or the opened tin on the table?) >OPENED The opened tin of Danish butter cookies is half empty. The shiny cover lies next to the opened tin. >ANALYZE THE COVER Your ever-helpful assistant, Sergeant Duffy, arrives suddenly and takes the shiny cover from you. "I'll have this analyzed in no time flat, Detective." He leaves as quickly as he came. >SOUTH (check-out area) A cashier, looking bored, is sitting behind a cash register, chewing gum and reading a trashy novel. You hear people arguing to the west. >CASHIER, WHERE IS DONNA? "I think she's in salad." She returns to her book >TELL ME ABOUT LOU (said to the cashier) "Aw, he's nice. Very polite, you know?" She returns to her book. >TELL ME ABOUT LOIS (said to the cashier) The cashier looks around to make sure no one is listening, then whispers. "Donna likes her, but Lois gives me the creeps! She's not very friendly, either. Whenever I ask he if she wants some lunch or somethin', she says, very haughty-like, "I'm not hungary'." She returns to her book. Duffy comes in from the east. He hands you the shiny cover to the tin of Danish butter cookies. "Well, Detective," he says, "we found some fingerprints, but it'll take a little while to determine whose they are. I'll be back as soon as we know." He disappears as quickly as he arrived. >GO NORTH (dessert department) There is an opened tin of Danish butter cookies on the table. >LOOK (dessert department) You are in the dessert department of Donna's Delicious Delicacies. A refrigerated glass case holds a sinful assortment of cakes, pies, and pastries; Boston cream pie, seven-layer cake, raspberry-apple tarts, frosted cupcakes, and many other freshly-made baked goods. The cream puffs are not symmetrically positioned on their tray, indicating that some are missing. There is also an open case containing candies and chocolate truffles. A shelf is stacked with tins of Danish butter cookies. On a table next to the shelf is an opened tin of cookies. >HIDE BEHIND THE CASE (Which case do you mean, the refrigerated case or the open case?) >REFRIGERATED You are now crouching behind the refrigerated case. >WAIT Time passes... Lois comes into the room and looks around stealthily. Do you wish to keep waiting? >YES Not seeing anyone in the room, Lois reaches into the open case containing candy and chocolate truffles. She eats one, two, three truffles. While she's chewing, she reaches for a fourth. Do you wish to keep waiting? >NO >STAND UP You stand up and come out of hiding, Lois, seeing you, freezes immediately. >ACCUSE LOIS OF STEALING "Mnffmmmpfrrm," she says. Her mouth is full of truffles. >INVENTORY You are carrying: a badge a pad of violation forms a shiny cover to a tin of Danish butter cookies >LOIS, WHERE IS THE WALLET? "Mnffmmmpfrrm," she says. Her mouth is full of truffles. >SWALLOW THE TRUFFLES You don't have the truffles! >LOIS, SWALLOW THE TRUFFLES Lois swallows the truffles and looks at you guiltily. >WHERE IS THE WALLET? (said to Lois) "What wallet? I've never seen your brown leather wa..." She trails off. >SEARCH LOIS Lois is carrying your wallet, which you reclaim. >SHOW THE BADGE TO LOIS "Oh, dear, this isn't my day," says Lois. >ACCUSE LOIS OF PICKPOCKETING "Umn, well, I won't do it again?" She looks at you hopefully. >ACCUSE LOIS OF STEALING "Oh yes, well, um..." She trails off, Sergeant Duffy suddenly arrives. "Detective, the fingerprints belong to someone by the name of 'Lois O'Shea.'" Donna enters the room. >ARREST LOIS "Good work, Detective." Duffy gently leads Lois away. Donna says, "It looks as if I owe Lou an apology. Thank you, Detective." She hurries off. Appendix E We're Never Satisfied Here at the Infocom Game Writers Clown Society, we take great pride in the quality of our products. Even after our stories are "out the door," we're constantly improving, honing and perfecting. Your input is important. No matter how much testing we do, it seems that some bugs never crawl into view until thousands of you begin doing all those wild and crazy things to the story. If you find a bug, or if you think a certain puzzle was too hard or too easy, or if you have some other suggestion, or if you'd just like to tell us your opinion of the story, drop us a letter! We love every excuse to stop working, and a letter from you is just such an excuse! Write to: Infocom 125 CambridgePark Drive Cambridge, MA 02140 Attn: PHONG 22 Appendix F If You Have Technical Problems You can call the Infocom Technical Support Team to report "bugs" and technical problems, but not for hints to solve puzzles, at (617) 576-3190. If your disk develops a problem within 90 days after purchase, we will replace it at no charge. Otherwise, there is a replacement fee fo $5.00 (U.S. funds). If you call to report a bug, please provide your version number, which you can find by typing VERSION. Please return the registration card from you The Witness package if you'd like to be on our mailing list and receive our newsletter, The New Zork Times. Appendix H About the Author Stu Galley. Stu Galley was a student of physics and journalism when he discovered computers, which at the time were mostly just big number-crunchers. At first he thought computers were too much fun to be taken seriously, until he decided that physics was too little fun to be taken seriously. At MIT he discovered computer games and Lisp-like languages and met the other founders of Infocom. He began writing interactive fiction in 1982 and has authored The WITNESS and SEASTALKER both for Infocom. His son enjoys interactive fiction more than his wife does. Appendix I Copyright and Warranty Information Limited Warranty This software product and the attached instructional materials are sold "AS IS", without warranty as to their performance. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the computer software program is assumed by the user. However, to the original purchases of a disk prepared by Infocom and carrying the Infocom label on the disk jacket, Infocom warrants the medium on which the program is recorded to be free from defects in materials and faulty workmanship under normal use and service for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of purchase. If during this period a defect on the medium should occur, the medium may be returned to Infocom or to an authorized Infocom dealer, and Infocom will replace the medium without charge to you. Your sole and exclusive remedy in the event of a defect is expressly limited to replacement of the medium as provided above. This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state. N.B. After the warranty period, a defective Infocom disk may be returned to Infocom with a check or money order for $5.00 U.S. funds for replacement. 23 Appendix I Quick Reference Guide 1. To start the story ("boot up"), see the separate Reference Card in your The Witness package. 2. When you see the prompt (>) on your screen, The Witness is waiting for your input. There are four basic kinds of sentences or commands that The Witness understands: A. Direction commands: To move from place to place, just type the direction you want to go: N (or NORTH), S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW, U (or UP), D, IN, or OUT. B. Actions: Just type what you want to do. Some examples: READ THE BOOK or OPEN THE DOOR or LOOK THROUGH THE WINDOW or GIVE THE BALL TO THE CAT. Once you're familiar with simple commands, you'll want to use more complex sentences are described in "Communicating with The Witness" on page 14. C. Commands given to other characters: Talk to characters in the story by typing their name, then a comma, then what you want to say to them. For example: FRED, GIVE ME THE AXE or OLD MAN, HELLO. D. Special one-word commands: Some one-word commands, such as INVENTORY or DIAGNOSE, give you specific information or affect your output. A list of these appears in the "Important Commands" appendix on page 17. 3. Important! After typing your input, you must press the RETURN (or ENTER) key before The Witness will respond. 4. On most computers, your screen will have a special line called the status line. It tells you the name of your current location, your score, and the number of turns you have taken. 5. You can pick up and carry many of the items you'll find in the story. For example, if you type TAKE THE FLASK, you will be carrying it. Type INVENTORY to see a list of the items you are carrying. 6. When you want to stop, save your place for later, or start over, read "Starting and Stopping" on page 18. 7. If you have trouble, refer to the specific section of the manual for more detailed instructions. Interactive Fiction Reference Card for the COMMODORE AMIGA This booklet tells you how to run your Infocom story on your computer, and provides a few other handy bits of information. I. What You Need Required: Amiga computer For Interactive Fiction PLUS only: A monitor that supports an 80-column display, such as an RGB-type monitor. Optional: 256K memory expansion cartridge (for faster execution; especially recommended for Interactive Fiction PLUS) Extra 3-1/2 double-sided disks (for SAVEs) A second disk drive (for convenience with saves) Compatible printer (for SCRIPTing) II. Making a Backup Copy In accordance with the licensing agreement in your package, we recommend that you make a backup copy of the original story disk for your personal use. See your hardware manual for instructions on how to make disk copies. Store your original disk in a safe place and always start the story from the backup. III. Starting the Story Turn on the Amiga and wait for the Workbench to appear. Insert the story disk and open the disk icon into a window, then double- click on the story icon. The story can also be started from within the Command Line Interpreter (CLI). If the default drive and directory are not the same as the story's, they must first be changed with the "CD" command (for example, CD DF1:) Then type in the story name. IV. Talking to the Story Whenever you see the prompt (>), the story is waiting for your instructions. If you make a mistake, use the backspace key to erase the error. When you have finished typing in your instructions, press the RETURN key. The story will respond and the prompt (>) will reappear. If a description will not fit on a screen all at once, "[MORE]" will appear at the bottom of the screen. After reading the screen, press any key to see the rest of the description. V. The Status Line At the top of the screen is a status line. This line is updated after every move to show your current position in the story. Depending upon the type of story, it may also show other information. Score and Moves In stories that keep a score, such as the ZORK underground adventures, the right side of the status line will show something like this: Score: 245/920 The first number is your score and the second is the total number of moves you have made. In the example above, you have 245 points in 920 moves. Time In stories that keep track of the time, such as the mystery thriller DEADLINE, the right side of the status line will look something like the following: Time: 9:22 a.m. This shows the current time of day in the story. VI. SCRIPTing You can use the SCRIPT command to print out a transcript of your moves as you go along. SCRIPTing is an optional feature which is not necessary to complete the story and may not be available with certain hardware. 1. Connect the printer to the appropriate port at the back of the computer. Use the Preferences tool (see Section IX) to make sure the system is configured correctly for your printer. 2. Turn on the printer and make sure it's ready. 3. Type SCRIPT at the prompt (>) to start the transcript. To stop the transcript, type UNSCRIPT. 4. SCRIPT and UNSCRIPT may be used as often as desired. If a problem occurs with the printer, the story will "timeout" (appear to hang) for 30-seconds or so, then a printer error message will appear. If you don't correct the problem before the 30 seconds are up, scripting is automatically cancelled. VII. Saving a Story Position You can save your current position in the story to any disk in any drive, space permitting. The save disk must not be write- protected. No other data on the save disk will be affected. 1. Type SAVE at the prompt (>). A message will appear asking you to choose a name for the save file. 2. If you want to SAVE to the story disk itself, just enter a file name and press RETURN. 3. If you want to save to another disk, you must prefix the file name with either the name of the second disk (e.g., Saves:) or the name of the drive containing it (e.g., DF0:). The prefix is needed even if the two disks were swapped using a single drive. If the save succeeds, the prefix becomes the default prefix, and need not be typed again for the next save. The disk drive will spin for several seconds. If all is well, the story will respond: OK If it responds: FAILED consult the Troubleshooting section (see Section XI). After saving your position, you may continue with the story. NOTE: The file "Icon.Data" is used to create icons for new save files. If you delete this file, new save files will not have visible icons. VIII. Restoring a Saved Story Position You can return to a previously saved story position at any time. Type RESTORE at the prompt (>). The most recently saved or restored position will be displayed as the default. Then enter the name of a save file, as in Section VII. If you want to return to the default position, you can just press the RETURN key. IX. Amiga Preferences Several aspects of the story presentation can be changed using the Amiga Preferences tool, including text size (60 or 80 columns, except for Interactive Fiction PLUS, which requires 80 columns) and color. The size can be changed only before the story is started. You also use Preferences to specify your type of printer and the port to which it is connected. The Amiga supports both parallel and serial devices. X. Memory Usage and Multi-tasking On a multi-tasking computer such as the Amiga, all tasks share the available memory. Some tasks may require that a certain amount of memory be available to work correctly. Also, actions like opening and resizing windows or loading a printer driver can use large blocks of memory. When the Infocom story loads, it will normally leave a minimum of 64 Kbytes (32 Kbytes for Interactive Fiction PLUS). This can be changed by starting the story from the CLI with a special argument of the form "F/n", where n is the new minimum number of free bytes (for example, Deadline F/32000). If you supply an argument, memory use statistics will be displayed when the story loads. You may need to increase the amount of free memory if, for example, you are running several tasks and switching between them causes the system to hang. On the other hand, you can probably decrease free memory if you are running only the story. This may reduce or eliminate disk activity on versions of the Amiga with limited memory. X. Troubleshooting - Load, SAVE, RESTORE and Other Problems A. If the story fails to load properly, or SAVE/RESTORE or SCRIPT fails, check each of the following items. If none of these offers a solution, consult your Commodore dealer for assistance. 1. Inspect all disks carefully for any visible damage. 2. For SAVEs, make sure the save disk is not write-protected (the small opening in the corner of the disk should be covered). 3. For SCRIPTing, make sure the printer is connected properly, enabled for printing, not out of paper, etc. 4. Try again; the problem may be only momentary. If all else fails, you can call the Infocom Technical hotline at (617) 576-3190. Please note that this number is for technical problems only, not hints. B. If the story produces an error message, run the following procedure: Restart the story. When the initial screen appears, type $VERIFY and press the RETURN key. The disk drive will spin for a minute or so, and a message similar to one of the following will appear: 1. "DISK CORRECT". The disk has not been damaged and the data is intact. If you are having problems, they are most likely hardware related. It is also possible that there is a bug in the program. If you suspect that there is a bug, call the Infocom Technical Hotline. 2. "DISK FAILED" or "DISK READ ERROR". This reply indicates either hardware trouble or disk damage. Repeat the $VERIFY procedure several times. Also try the $VERIFY process on another computer (such as your dealer's). If the story ever replies "DISK CORRECT", the problem is your hardware. If you repeatedly get a negative response on more than one computer, the disk has most likely been damaged. Please send the disk only to Infocom for testing and replacement. ============================================================================ DOCS PROVIDED BY -+*+-THE SOUTHERN STAR-+*+- for M.A.A.D. ============================================================================