The Hobbit

By Beam Software
© 1982 Melbourne House


CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations! You are about to play the most sophisticated game program yet devised for any microcomputer.

Melbourne House in association with the Tolkien Estate are very proud to be able to present to you THE HOBBIT, an amazing program based on J.R.R. Tolkiens brilliant fantasy novel.

In THE HOBBIT program, you take on the role of Bilbo, the hobbit.

You will be able to roam freely throughout Middle Earth, explore and discover this wonderful enchanted land. You will meet all types of creatures, some friendly, others much less so. Your adventure will be dangerous and exciting - it will be up to you to face the challenges which confront Bilbo.

If you are unfamiliar with Hobbits, you should know that hobbits are a little people, about half ouor height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them. For a fuller description you will have to read THE HOBBIT, but this description should be enough for you to realise that most other creatures you will meet in this adventure, including dwarves, will be bigger and stronger than you.

You will therefore need to exersise all your cunning and skill to survive.

At the point where this Adventure commences Gandalf, who is a wizard, has talked you into entering a new and exciting adventure to help out Thorin, the dwarf.

Your mission is to seek out the evil Dragon and return the treasure he hoards back to your home and place it for safe keeping in the chest. As a secondary mission, you must look out after Thorin and protect him. Should he be killed during the adventure, it is most unlikely you will be able to survive the dangers ahead of you on your journey!

Best of luck Bilbo: may you return with wonderful tales to tell on a cold evening in front of a log fire.

 

COMMUNICATING WITH THE COMPUTER

The computer in this Adventure acts as a go between for you. You tell the computer inplain Inglish exactly what you want to do, and the computer will translate that request and execute it.

The computer will also be your source of information about where you are, what you can see and what the other creatures in the adventure are doing.

If the computer is not sure of something you meant, or if there is any ambiguity about what you said, it will come back to you with queries asking for clarification.

The computer has a large vocabulary - it knows over 500 words, and it can perform over 50 different actions (made up by over 30 verbs listed at the back of this booklet, combined with over 10 prepositions) so it is capable of very sophisticated communication. The use of plain INGLISH allows you to enter your instructions in normal sentences.

 

The Screen Display

The screen display has been divided into two "windows" -

The bottom five lines of the screen is your "communication window" with the computer. Everything you type will be shown here in capital letters, and this part of the screen will scroll independantly of the rest of the screen. If doe some reason there is confusion about what you typed in, the computer will prompt oyu in the same "communication window" area.

An obvious example is where you mistyped a word, such as DOOR - the computer would return with the prompt -
    I don't understand the word "DOR".

Other messages will also be printed here when the computer is not able to execute what you typed in.

The rest of the screen is the "Adventure window" - this is where you will be able to find out what is happening in the adventure, what you can see, and so on.

The "Adventure window" is shown on the screen in upper and lower case. Every action that you take is also printed on the "Adventure window" (usually in more detail than what you entered!)

Any action that takes place, whether performed by you or one of the other characters will be shown:
    You take the short strong sword.
    Thorin examines the curious map.

Descriptions of the locations, objects, what is in the objects, and so on, is also shown on the "Adventure window".

The "Adventure window" scrolls independantly of the bottom screen. Usually what happens will be able to be printed on screen without losing anything. Occasionally, such as if you have typed in many sentences at once, or if there is a lot of action going on, the information will take up more than one screen full.

The screen scrolling speed is slow enough to be able to be read at normal reading speed. You may however want to examine a particular message more carefully - holding down any key will stop the scrolling. Taking your hand off the key will return to normal scrolling speed.

 

GENERAL CONCEPTS FOR THE HOBBIT ADVENTURE

THE HOBBIT Adventure is an adventure simulation where you have to instruct Bilbo on what to do in various situations.

The map of WILDERLAND, where the action takes place, can be found in the book of THE HOBBIT, and over 50 of the locations described in the book are represented in this Adventure.

On first entering a new location, the computer will give you a full description of where you are, and what the p[lace looks like. You will also be given a list of the visible exits from where you are. It is a good idea to draw a map of the way the different locations connect to each other, should you need to go back or if you should get lost.

The second time you arrive at any location, the computer will give you only a short description of where you are. If you want a complete description again, you can obtain it by asking the computer to have a look around. It's that simple.

On your adventure you will find many strange and wonderful objects. Some may have magical properties, while other may not be what they first seem to be! Some can be sued as weapons, others can be be eaten, and so on.

There are however certain general laws of physics in Wilderland that must be obeyed:

  • You cannot lift any object that is too heavy, or, if you are carrying too much, lift another object if that would mean carrying too heavy a load. The same obviously applies to all other creatures in the adventure, but as they are likely to be stronger than you are, they may be able to lift things you can't.
  • You do not have to be carrying an object in order to be able to use it. For example, if there is a sword lying on the ground, you can say KILL THE GOBLIN WITH THE SWORD
    The major exception is if the sword (or any other object you want to do something with) is carried by someone else - as everyone else is stronger than you, they won't let you take anything they are carrying.
  • Some objects can act as containers - for example, sacks, barrels, and so on. You cannot put an object into a container if it's too large to fit, nor can you put in or take out any objects if the container is closed.
  • Some containers may be transparent, while others not. You will be able to see the contents of any transparent container but if it is not transparemt, you will not be able to see inside it unless you open it.
  • Liquids behave just like liquids - this means that you can't carry them around without putting them in a container; if the container breaks the liquid spills to the ground, and so on.
  • Some things may be locked - doors are an obvious example, but so many windows, secret caches, and so on. To unlock them you will need the right key.
  • Some things are breakable, and you must be careful in how you handle them. In other cases, you may want to deliberately break an object. Be careful what you try to break things with, because you may find that trying to break a door with a bottle, for example, will result in the bottle being broken instead!
  • Fighting makes you weaker, as it requires so much energy. You will need to eat regularly to get your strength back, as otherwise you may find yourself too weak to lift even the smallest object. Be warned though - don't be a glutton.
 

THE RULES OF INGLISH

With the help of this program, your program is now able to talk to you in INGLISH. What's more, woul will be able to talk to the computer in INGLISH, and it will understand what you say!

INGLISH is the most sophisticated natural language recognition program yet developed on any microcomputer, and Melbourne House are very proud to be able to bring this implementation to you in THE HOBBIT program.

The rules of INGLISH are simple - you probably already know INGLISH without even being aware of it.

Each sentence must have a verb.
 
  For example: RUN
CLIMB
WAIT
 
These sentences are all fine.