Technical Manual for The Lurking Horror If you've never played Infocom's TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION I: ABOUT THE Sample Transcript and Map interactive fiction before, you should Section I: About The Lurking LURK.ING HORROR This transcript is not from The Lurking read this entire instruction manual. If Horror Horror, but it does show many of the you're an experienced lnfocom game Preface to the Story Preface to the Story Page 3 In The Lurking Horror, you are a usual things you can do in the story. It player, you may only want to read About the Author 3 student at G.U.E. Tech. You have shows a few simple puzzles and their Section I: About The Lurking Horror. solutions, and it will give you a good Sample Transcript and Map 3 braved a snowstorm to get to the Computer Center and finish work on idea of how Infocom's interactive Section II: About lnfocom's an assignment. But the snowstorm has fiction works. The player's commands Interactive Fiction turned into a raging blizzard, and has appear in capital letters after each An Overview: What is trapped you in a complex of buildings prompt (> ). The map shows the layout interactive fiction? 6 late at night. You are not alone, of the rooms in the sample transcript as Starting and Stopping 6 fortunately ... or perhaps, you might have drawn it. •"Booting up" unfortunately. •Saving and restoring •Quitting and restarting TOP OF STt>.IP..'3 Communicating with lnfocom's interactive fiction 8 About the Author D Dave Lebling was born in •Basic sentences Washington, D.C., in a hospital that •Complex sentences u •Talking to characters in the story was torn down soon thereafter. He grew up in suburban Maryland. He Special Commands 10 attended the Massachusetts Institute of WORK.SHOP '---- Lt>.BORATORY Tips for Novices 12 Technology, and worked at M.I.T.'s Eleven useful pointers about Laboratory for Computer Science, 5C~EWOR\VER 'tlOOOelll C.RAl'/f<iS interactive fiction where he developed an interest in 0PEP.ATIN6li'ISLE C.OMPVTEP.. Common Complaints 13 computer entertainments. He co­ authored the original mainframe Zork. Top of Stairs We're Never Satisfied 14 He co-authored 'Zork I, Zork II, Zork You are standing on a landing overlooking a If You Have Technical Ill, and Enchanter, and wrote crude but spectacular laborato~y. Rough stone steps curve down to the laboratory Problems 14 Starcross, Suspect, and Spellbreaker floor, and a closed wooden door leads east. Copyright and Warranty on his own. He is married and lives in Information 14 a suburb of Boston, on a windblown GODOWN Quick Reference Guide 15 hill crowned by a covered ring of Laboratory stones. He hopes the noises in the This stone laboratory is full of shelves and This briefly describes the most tables, all cluttered with bubbling beakers, important things to know about walls are the heating system. strange machines, and moldy books. Two interactive fiction. large wooden cranks are connected to puneys and ropes that lead up. A stone stairway leads up, and an exit leads west. On a nf:!arby operating table, a sheet covers something rarge. A computer isllere, currently turned off. 2 Instruction Manual Instruction Manual 3 >TURN ON THE COMPUTER >ATIACH THE GREEN WIRE TO THE >TURN THE WOODEN CRANK >TOUCH IT The computer beeps once, then the screen SCREW [Which wooden crank do you mean, the roof The monster feels warm to your touch, and flickers to life with the unfriendly message: The screw is tightened shut. wooden crank or the lift wooden crank?] you can feel blood coursing through its veins "Login please." 1n time to the zaps of the apparatus. >UNSCREW THE SCREW >ROOF >INVENTORY (with your hands) You pull with all )'.Our weight on the root crank, The monster's hand grips the side of the You are carrying a gold key and some The screw is too tight to loosen with your but you are unaole to move it alone. table. biscuits. In your poCket is a note. bare hands. >IGOR, TURN THE ROOF CRANK >DETACH THE WIRE WITH THE >READ THE NOTE Igor cocks his head as if to listen. "Master! I Igor cowers nervously behind you. SCREWDRIVER taking the note from your pocket first) heard thunder! Hurry!" As you lean over the monster, its eyes open fn your own scrawl you read "Login Shelley, >SHOW A BISCUIT TO IGOR and stare at you coldly. It reaches for you, Password Byron." >IGOR, GIVE ME A SCREWDRIVER Igor eyes the biscuit greedily. and you jump back. Clumsily but determinedly, the monster pulls itself to its "Master1 I don't have one, but I saw one a >LOGIN SHELLEY momemago." >IGOR, TURN THE ROOF CRANK feet, rips the wire out of its neck, smashes The computer whirs a moment, then the Igor pushes on the roof crank -- all 95 pounds the apparatus with a wave of its arm, and message changes to "Password please." >WEST ol him -- and you pull. Nothing happens for shuffles toward you, growling. Workshop several strainlul seconds. Then the crank >PASSWORD BYRON moves a little bit, and a little more, and slowly >UP This small workshop looks like a hardware Top of Stairs The computer seems to shudder, either in store after an earthquake. Amongst the a crack in the ceiling widens. Inch by inch the anticipation or fear. The screen blanks many topls on a bench, you see a cei!ing operisi until it completely disappears. The monster looks up at you from the bottom momentarily, then displays a lengthy menu of screwdriver. Rain pours 1mo the laboratory. fi les. Highlighted by a box is a file called Igor looks at you expectantly. of the stairs and growls at you. "Life." >TAKE THE SCREWDRIVER >EAST Taken. >GIVE BISCUIT TO IGOR >CLICK THE BOX Igor devours the biscuit greedily. The wooden door is closed. The screen displays the message: Igor nimbly climbs the rope and crawls The monster begins to climb the stairs. "1. Get body [done] >E outside. Over the rumbling thunder you hear 2. Get brain Jaonel Laboratory , him shout down to you, "Master! The storm is >OPEN THE DOOR 3. Put brain in bocfy fdonel A monstrously large dead man lies on the here! Hurry! Hurry! The wooden door is locked. 4. Attach apparatus lo body operating table. Next to the table is a cart. 5. Electrify body A compuler is here, currently turned on. >TURN ON THE APPARATUS The monster continues its ascent. 6. LIFE!!" Igor is llere, fidgeting nervously. The apparatus drones to life with a rhythmic From the west a wretched, hunchbacked heartbeat of zap .. zap ... zap ... >I man enters the laboratory, wheeling before >UNSCREW THE SCREW WITH THE You are carryirig a gold key, a note, a sheet, him a cart. "Master!" he says to you. "The SCREWDRIVER >TURN THE LIFT CRANK and a screwanver. apparatus is ready!" You loosen the screw in the monster's neck. You spit on your hands, take a deep breath, The monster is nearing the top of the stairs. It creaks like a nail being pulled from wood grit your teeth and heave on the crank. It >LOOK AT THE MAN with a crowbar. nudges a little bit. >UNLOCK THE DOOR WITH THE KEY Igor (for indeed it is he) is not much to look at. Okay, the wooden door is now unlocked. "Master, the apparatus is ready! You >ATIACH GREEN WIRE TO SCREW >AGAIN promised me a biscuit when I finished !" As ~ou wrap the wire around the screw, v.ou As you pull on the crank a sharp CRACK! of The monster reaches the last step and cant help noticing that the monster's neck is lighlning illuminates the laboratory like a towers over you. It looks at you with hideous as cold and hard as the stone floor. sfrobe, and at the same time gives you a jolt contempt ana roars at you . of adrenalin which helps Y.OU Ifft the operating >GIVE A BISCUIT TO IGOR >OPEN THE DOOR Igor devours the biscuit greedily. >TIGHTEN THE SCRW table a few .inches, a few feet, up higti, finally, [I don't know the word "scrw."] into the raging storm. You swing the door open, revealing a sitting >LOOK AT THE CART room to tfie east, a fire ablaze in the fireplace. This is a stainless-steel cart with wheels. >OOPS SCREW >WAIT The monster lifts you with ease. It raises you Sitting on it is a complex tangle of wires, You tighten the screw into the monster's Time passes .. over its head and throws you 30 feet onto the electrodes, needles dials, valves, bags, neck, securing the green wire. Another crack of lightning, directly overhead, hard stone laboratory floor. pumps, ~p1gots , and levers. The apparatus is You hear a clap of thunder. "Master!" cries shakes the entire ouilding. Igor, soaking wet, ***You have died.*** turned off. Except for one end of a long Igor, frightened. tumbles off the roof and rancfs in a heap green wire, everything seems to be beside you. Your score is 50 (out of a P.OSsible 100). This connected to everything else. >LOOK gives you the rank of Lab Assistant. Igor fidgets nervously. Laboratory >TURN THE LIFT CRANK You can turn the lift crank easily, and the >LOOK ATTHE OPERATING TABLE This stone laboratory is full of shelves and operating table lowers to the floor. A sheet covers something large. tables, all cluttered with bubbling beakers, strange machines, and moldy books. Two >LOOK AT THE MONSTER large wooden cranks are connected to Lying on the operating table is a monstrously >TAKE THE SHEET FROM THE TABLE pu~eys and ropes that lead up.