ZUT ALORS! - THE .DOC FILE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Greetings, Ladies, Gentlemen and kiddies of all ages to the wild, weird, wonderful (and something else beginning with a 'w') world of Zut Alors, a game which has been literally years in the making. Well, actually, it's been about 3 or 4 weeks in the making this time around, it just seems like longer. And it has been around before. Izzat so? I hear you ask. Well, I wanna tell you a story... Zut Alors! - The History ======================== Once upon a time there was a tabletop role-playing game called En Garde, created by Games Designers Workshop back when the Amiga wasn't even a twinkle in anyone's eye. In fact, this was the era when RPGs were brand new, and even the original version of D&D (TM, C & bar) was a novelty. En Garde was based in the days of the Three Musketeers, Cyrano de Bergerac, Don Juan and various other athletic swashbucklers, most of whom looked exactly like Errol Flynn. To be honest, though, En Garde was not a true RPG as we know them today. A game-turn consisted of writing a set of orders which were evaluated by a referee or GM and compared with those of other players. More like Diplomacy than D&D, really; and not a whole lot of fun face-to-face, if the truth be known. However, the game really came into its own when played by mail. Postal Diplomacy magazines such as Chimaera, Griffin, Herald and Howay the Lads all ran successful postal En Garde campaigns in the late 70's, and each had big waiting lists of players clamouring to get in on the act. Somehow, the postal version of the game, with its emphasis on lively press columns and general silliness captured the true flavour of the game in a way that playing it face-to face could never do. And believe me, it was great fun! Anyway, about five years ago, nostalgia for Postal En Garde prompted me to conceive a game in the same vein for the good ol' ZX Spectrum. So, with the aid of The Quill adventure writing system, Zut Alors! was born. Unfortunately, text-only adventures were no more saleable then than they are now, and beyond giving copies to a few friends, Zut never did reach a wider audience (although I still have the game, and if anyone out there wants to send me a cassette and return postage, they can gladly have a copy). Then along came the Amiga, and the June 1991 edition of Amiga Computing, which featured 'Treasure Island', a demo of the Hatrack II adventure writing system. And as a consequence, Zut Alors! is reborn, a new version, bigger 'n' better than ever, for the Amiga. So what is Zut Alors! anyway? Well... Zut Alors! - The Explanation ============================ Zut Alors! is a text-only adventure in which you play the part of Cyrano de Bergerbar, a young blade recently arrived in Paris to seek his fortune. Cyrano has a burning ambition to join the King's Musketeers like his idols Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan, and, indeed, this is the object of the game. To win, you have to become a Musketeer. This is not as easy as it sounds, as you must firstly prove yourself in the ranks of lesser regiments. For the benefit of any Sun readers out there, or anyone who's been living on Mars for the last 15 years or so, a text adventure is one in which you control a character representing 'you' by typing commands to the computer, which interprets your orders and reports back on their consequences. Orders can be in the form of simple two-word commands (GET SWORD), although you can happily use articles and conjunctions and even adjectives in some cases (e.g. GIVE MY TRAVELLING CLOTHES TO COLONEL SELASTIQUE). Orders can also be strung together (TAKE THE LAMP, GO NORTH, GET THE BAG OF MONEY) or applied to multiple objects (TAKE THE KEY AND THE FOOD or EXAMINE EVERYTHING). Simple enough, I'm sure you'll agree, but this sort of game can get right up many people's noses, and rightly so in some cases. Too many times, text adventures turn out to be a case of 'guess what vocabulary the author has used'. In other words, a case of knowing what to do but being unable to do it because you can't find the exact words the author is expecting you to type. This is extremely frustrating, and difficult to avoid unless you're going to include the entire Oxford English Dictionary in the game vocabulary. However, I have endeavoured to avoid this syndrome as much as possible in the game in hand, by allowing a number of different wordings of certain key commands. Also, in the next section is a list of verbs used in the game. I apologise, however, if there are still a very few cases where exact wording of a command is required. Unavoidable, I'm afraid. Another feature I hate about text adventures is the 'how do I get through the first door' syndrome. One of the most enjoyable text adventures on the old Speccy was 'Twin Kingdom Valley' (which had graphics, actually, but I tended to turn them off...). In TKV you could happily wander around the entire world and solve the various problems in virtually any order. Much better than being restricted to a single path, I think. Well, Zut Alors! has more than one solution, you can wander around Paris to your heart's content and there are no puzzles of the illogical "put the red gem in the elf's left sock to make the blue key appear in the bath" variety, although some events are dependent upon others happening first. You have been warned! Zut Alors! - The Vocabulary =========================== As promised, then, a list of the acceptable verbs used in the game. There are one or two others not listed here, but they are there merely as alternatives to the ones listed, and are not vital to gameplay. I'll leave you to find them for yourselves. The list, then; LOOK (L) STATUS QUIT (Q) TAKE WEAR SCORE DROP EXAMINE GO MOVE GET INVENTORY (I) GIVE PUT REMOVE MOUNT DISMOUNT TETHER BUY LIGHT READ EAT SLEEP EXTINGUISH HAVE DRAW SHEATHE GRAB FIGHT ATTACK DRESS UNDRESS HELP WAKE KNOCK ENTER INTERVIEW MAKE TURN THROW TIE KILL HOOK CHARGE In addition, there are some special commands meriting a bit of explanation; BRIEF (Turns off long location descriptions) VERBOSE (Turns 'em on again) WHERE (Will sometimes give you the location of an object or person, e.g (WHERE IS ATHOS?). Don't rely on it, though.) WAIT (Advances game time by about 8 hours. Useful if you want to enter locations which are open only at certain times of day). SAVE/LOAD (Saves the present game position (or loads a saved game) And then there's.... Zut Alors! - The Compass ======================== At the top of your Zut Alors! screen is the Compass. This is a feature unique to Hatrack II games, which allows you to execute a number of common commands using the mouse instead of having to type them directly. The gadgets are as follows; The Compass Rose has pointers for all eight standard compass directions, i.e. N, S, E. W, NE ,NW, SE, SW. Simply click on the appropriate sector of the rosette to move in the direction you want. To the right of the rosette are four arrow gadgets, again for movement in given directions. The top two are for moving Up or Down, the bottom two for In and Out. Finally, to the left of the rosette are five box gadgets. Clicking on these executes the command word in box, thusly; INVENTORY will list the items you are carrying and also tell you what you are wearing and how much cash you have. STATUS tells you how long you have been playing, how far you have progressed in the game and how strong your character is. LOOK describes your current location. Y and N are YES/NO gadgets for answering YES/NO questions within the game. Zut Alors! - Hints & Tips ========================= Keep the following things in mind when wandering around Paris:- - Be polite and chivalrous, but keep your sword handy! - Look after your horse. It's the only one you've got. - There are a lot of thieves about. Watch your money. - When you join a regiment, wear your uniform with pride. - Creeping around your commanding officer is never a bad idea. - He who hesitates is lost (particularly in combat situations). - You're French. And there are women in the game. Know what I mean? - But on the other hand, indecent exposure is a crime, remember! Zut Alors! - odds 'n' sods ========================== Firstly a waiver - despite the fact that it's written in a very silly accent, Zut Alors! is not racist. Nor is it sexist. Honest. No, really, I mean no-one could really be offended by this game. Unless you're French, I suppose. Or German. Or Russian. Or Irish. Or Australian. Or Scouse. Or a nun. Or an actress. Oh, God, am I in deep merde!!! To hell with it - if you're offended by this game, it's because you've no sense of humour. So yah, boo and sucks to you, too! Secondly, this game is dedicated to (in no specific order) Games Designers Workshop (creators of En Garde), Monty Python, Jasper Carrott, Terry Pratchett (to whom I once lent my pen...), Alexandre Dumas, Frankie Howerd, Bryan Norwood (It's all his fault, really...), those nice people at Heyley Software who helped me overcome a major problem with the game, Judge Dredd, VIZ, Catherine Zeta Jones (for no reason other than being exceedingly decorative), Gorden Kaye, Amiga Computing (a bit of judicious creeping never hurts), Commodore-Amiga, Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, and of course, the incomparable Dot Cotton out of Eastenders... And finally, this document would not be complete without full credit being given to Hatrack II, the software package which was used to write the game. This is available from Heyley Software, 27, Winnington Road, Marple, Stockport SK6 6PD, price £29-95. So that about wraps it up. My name is Brian Asbury, and if you have any comments, etc. on Zut Alors!, you can write to me at 8, Rectory Gardens, Armitage, Nr. Rugeley, STAFFS WS15 4AL. Thank you for your kind attention.