MURDER off MIAMI 

By Jason Somerville and Fergus McNeill. 
Copyright © 1986 CRL Group PLC. 

Based on the original Dennis Wheatley crime dossier, "Murder off Miami" casts you in the role of Detective Officer Kettering. Kettering is assigned to investigate the the death of Bolitho Blane, a wealthy British financier, who allegedly suicides whilst on a cruise off the coast of Miami. All the relevant background information can be uncovered during the opening stages of the adventure. 

The game is played over a period of 3 days, and is itself split into 3 parts, with one part corresponding to each day. At the end of each day, you will be asked to save your current position to tape/disk. Once you have done this, load the next part, reload your saved position, and the game will carry on from where you left off. Obviously, you can only proogress forwards through the parts of the game, it would be impossible to backtrack through time! 

Commands can be given in ordinary English, e.g. PLEASE EXAMINE THE REMARKABLE DOG but you will probably find it easier to use a simple verb+noun combination, e.g. EXAMINE DOG. 

In the process of your investigation, you may find it necessary to converse with the many characters in the game. To do this, you must first TALK TO (name of character) then ASK ABOUT (whatever) or SAY HELLO or anything else you feel would be appropriate. 

Game positions can be saved to load from tape/disk (or RAM on the C64) by typing SAVE/LOAD. You can save/restore a position to/from RAM (not on C64) by typing RAM SAVE/ RAM LOAD. 

Graphics can be turned on/off by typing GRAPHICS ON / GRAPHICS OFF (wonderous!) or set to display occassionally by typing GRAPHICS SOMETIMES. 

Kettering is only human, and as such needs a few hours sleep each night. Remember this, as when people become tired, they often miss things! 

Other, special commands include: 

TIME - gives the day and approximate time (in the game) 
LOOK - redescribes your current location 
TEXT - like LOOK but doesn't display a graphic 
QUIT - ends the game 
INVENTORY (or just 'I') - lists what you are carrying
SCORE - gives a rating of your attempts so far 
WAIT - waits for 5 minutes (game time) 

As well as the evidence hidden in the game, the photographs and floor plan will be referred during your investigation. These may well provide clues pertaining tu the eventual solution of the case. 

"Murder off Miami" was written using an enhanced Quill system from Gilsoft. Thanks to them, CRL, DELTA 4 Software, The Art Studio, Simple Minds, Dire Straits, The Housemartins, Communards, Alice Cooper And The New Inn, Swanmore.