M A S T E R S P Y ***************************************************************** * * * An intriguing game of reasoning and skill for all who love * * a real challenge. Pit your wits against a most devious and * * ruthless enemy, do not be fooled by his comic disguise, he * * is a master of his craft - a MASTERSPY. * * * ***************************************************************** Congratulations! You have attained the highest rank in the Secret Service - SPYMASTER GENERAL. You are responsible for directing the activities of four highly professional and fearless agents in their adventures deep inside enemy territory. Use them wisely and they will reward you well. However, on taking up your post you learn the most closely guarded secret of all - you have in your team a MOLE, a cunning and treacherous agent whose true loyalty is to your enemies. Your duty is clear, you must first rescue your three faithful agents, then unmask and imprison the evil mole. But it won't be easy, you must not allow any agent to be imprisoned until you have identified the mole, you must not allow the mole to escape, and you must avoid the many dangers that will confront you. To make matters worse, the mole has already been hard at work sowing the seeds of your downfall. The details of your assignment are as follows:- You have under your control four secret agents - RUBBER GUTS, HAIR BRAIN, NOSY FERRET and FLASH HARRY. Each has been allocated to one of four hostile domains - POTHOLES, STEPPING STONES, SNAKES AND LADDERS and THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY, each consisting of many interconnected screens. You control only one agent at a time, and to change agents you must first return your agent to their SAFE HOUSE at the centre where they all meet. Somewhere in each domain are two doors and two tickets. These are easy to recognise by the letters 'D' and 'T' alternating with the item in question. The doors lead to various forms of transport and freedom, but to escape your agent must hold the ticket that matches the concealed transport, otherwise he will be recognised and imprisoned. Unfortunately the mole has alerted his friends to your activities and traps have been set. Only one of the two doors in each domain is in fact genuine, if your agent enters the wrong one then he will be imprisoned regardless of the ticket held. Even more unfortunately, the ticket your agent needs in order to escape lies in one of the other three domains! When the agents meet at the centre any ticket held is passed to the agent you choose to control. If while holding a ticket you allow an agent to take a new one, then the first ticket returns to its original position - only one ticket can be held at any one time. To help you in your task are three sources of information - TELEPHONES, LETTERS and RADIOS, distributed throughout all four domains. Each will give your agent a single clue, but because of the mole's corrupting influence only one of the three sources tells the truth. The other two always tell lies. You have to discover which is which. To 'continue' after being given a clue press key 'C'. You are advised to write down the clues for reference, although the full sequence can be repeated at any time by pressing key 'M' (for 'Memory'), followed by key 'C' to display each successive clue. Further difficulties are to be overcome in each of the domains:- In POTHOLES (12 screens) the ground is very unstable, so much so that when your agent passes through a narrow gap between two caves a rock-fall occurs and fills in the gap! If a screen edge gap has already been filled in an adjacent screen then your agent will be unable to pass into it. Similarly when your agent has passed through one of the external entrances to the domain it disappears to prevent its re-use. In STEPPING STONES (16 screens) the stones are all loose, such that stepping off one causes it to sink out of sight. The presence or absence of stones in adjacent screens is indicated by the appearance of the stone edges. If the edge is linked to the screen border then your agent can step over into the next screen, but if the edge is not so linked then there is no passage across it. As for POTHOLES when an external entrance to the domain is used it disappears to prevent its re-use. In SNAKES AND LADDERS (12 screens) snakes will be slid down and ladders climbed if your agent touches the head or foot respectively. Small pointers indicate paths into adjacent screens. THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY (20 screens) consists of four sets of railway lines, coloured RED, GREEN, BLUE & MAGENTA. To travel on one of these lines your agent needs a travel permit of the correct colour, obtainable from an appropriately coloured machine. Barriers and turnstiles restrict movement between platforms, but turnstiles allow permit holders of the colours shown to pass freely. When a permit is held the corresponding trains can be entered to travel to other stations. In both SNAKES AND LADDERS and THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY the external entrances to the domain remain open at all times. To 'take' any of the above items - tickets, travel permits and trains, or to 'transport' your agent through one of the doors, position your agent directly over the item in question then press key 'T'. TO TAKE A TICKET OR TO USE A DOOR HOWEVER IT MUST ALREADY HAVE BEEN MENTIONED IN ONE OF THE CLUES - GUESSING IS FIRMLY DISCOURAGED! Special care is needed to avoid falling foul of the inhabitants of each domain:- In POTHOLES hungry and ill-natured demons rise in search of juicy souls to devour! If any catch your agent then one of your six lives is lost. Demons that have filled themselves float back down and are harmless. In fact if your agent is able to touch a rising demon during the brief period when another is falling past it then it will be caught off-guard, will promptly vanish, and you will be awarded a point for skill. In STEPPING STONES your agent must watch out for the crocodiles - being eaten costs a life! It is possible to confuse a crocodile though and gain a point if your agent can touch one whilst a frog is sitting on the same stone. Be quick though, the frog is likely to leap off at any instant. The SNAKES AND LADDERS domain is the haunt of some very dangerous bees - a sting will cost you a life. However if your agent is quick enough to collide with a bee immediately after climbing a ladder or sliding down a snake then the bee will be blown away and a skill point will be gained. As you might expect the UNDERGROUND RAILWAY is full of bustling people, all hurrying for their trains with no thought for others. If one bumps into your agent then a life is lost. Every now and again though the travellers must stop for a brief rest. If your agent can bump one whilst resting then a point is gained. For every eight skill points gained an extra life is awarded so they are well worth collecting. Movement of agents in the four directions can be controlled by a joystick if selected or alternatively by the following keys:- 'Q' or 'P' for UP 'A' or 'ENTER' for DOWN 'SYMBOL SHIFT' or 'CAPS SHIFT' for LEFT 'SPACE' or 'Z' for RIGHT The alternatives are provided so that two fingers of the left hand can control up/down movement and two fingers of the right hand control left/right movement, or vice versa. Other key facilities are as follows:- 'O' alternately switches 'On' and 'Off' the sound. 'S' allows the current game to be 'Saved' to tape. Reload when the 'Lose' screen is displayed. 'R' allows you to 'Resign' (in disgrace!) - hold the key down for 2 seconds. 'D' gives 'Details' of your agent's current location when in one of the domains, and displays also your remaining lives, your skill level, the number of clues collected, your agent's name, and the ticket held if any. 'T' as already mentioned allows your agent to 'Take' a ticket, a travel permit, a train, or to 'Transport' your agent through a door. In each case position your agent directly over the object in question before pressing the key. HOWEVER PLEASE NOTE THAT TO TAKE A TICKET OR TO USE A DOOR IT MUST ALREADY HAVE BEEN MENTIONED IN ONE OF THE CLUES. 'C' allows the game to 'Continue' after a clue has been given. 'M' gives repeat information in the form of a 'Memory' sequence of all clues in their original order. Press 'C' to display each clue. At the start you are given the option of a 'Practice' game. Here the hazardous inhabitants of each domain can be ignored, allowing you to concentrate without distraction on your strategy. The penalty however is that if your agent becomes trapped in a dead end there is no way out except resignation. In a practice game the 'LIVES' display is omitted and the skill level remains fixed at zero. If you manage to unmask the fiendish mole then you will be rewarded by a diploma to mark your achievement. Four classes are identified, Class 1 for success without the need to reload a saved game, Class 2 for success with one or more reloads, and Classes 3 and 4 similar but for practice games. You are invited to enter your name on the diploma as proof of your success, and to save the display to tape for re-display whenever you wish. NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS !! Between successive games everything changes! Your agents are likely to be allocated to different domains; the informers change places; their clues are different; even the type that tells the truth is likely to be different. The mole will probably be a different agent; the doors and tickets will be in different places; and whether or not they are genuine will also have changed. Only the nature of the domains themselves and their inhabitants remain the same. There are sixteen different challenges in all, and when you win a diploma the challenge number is recorded - see if you can collect all sixteen first class diplomas - then you really can call yourself a SPYMASTER. ****** Good Luck - You are certainly going to need it ******