A guide to the 1986 text-adventure game MURDER AT THE ABBEY by A&B Computing for the 8-bit BBC Micro computer CONTENTS a. Introduction b. Notes c. Walkthrough d. Links a. INTRODUCTION The game Murder At The Abbey by Jane and Jonathan Evans and A&B Computing was solved in 2015 by "ahope1" and "leenew". This document was written by "ahope1" and can be found at the Classic Adventure Solutions Archive (CASA): http://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C1430/ Document version 1.0 b. NOTES The following notes are the result of merging two text files that were found on a BBC Micro disc-image of Murder At The Abbey. _>_>_> MURDER AT THE ABBEY is set in the 1930s and is a classic country-house 'whodunnit'. You are Detective-Inspector Edward Carstairs, and you have been sent to investigate the mysterious death of Lord Arthur Melborough. The cast of characters from which you have to detect the murderer includes the victim's son Gerald Melborough, the widow Lady Melborough, her French maid Suzanne, the ancient butler, and a number of house guests, any or all of whom might have had a motive for killing their host. Red herrings abound and your task is to find out 'whodunnit' and discover his or her motive. You must then confront the murderer with the murder weapon and some material evidence to support your theory and make your accusation. Unlike conventional adventures, this game does not consist of solving devious puzzles in order to make progress. Instead you must walk around questioning suspects and making a thorough search of the house and grounds. The suspects move about, and you may receive extra information by questioning them more than once. Also, events occur over a period of time so you have the feeling of being involved with a real story which unfolds at its own pace. If you don't seem to be making any progress, remember it is important to EXAMINE every object, SEARCH every location, and QUESTION every suspect. If you learn nothing the first time there may be something to be discovered when you come back later on. Because of the way the game is constructed, questioning suspects sets flags which enable later events to take place. This means that even if you have played the game previously, and you know what someone has to say, you must still question them each time you play. If you attend carefully to all the clues you will receive, you should be able to work out the identity of the murderer and make an arrest! USEFUL COMMANDS: GET, QUESTION, SEARCH, CUT, BREAK, GIVE, TURN, READ, LISTEN, ANSWER, ACCUSE, OPEN. Warning! The 'unpacking' process of this disc-based adventure takes almost one minute. During this time, the disc drive will click continuously as data is accessed and it may appear that the computer has locked up. This is not a fault and the adventure is loading normally when this occurs. This new game demonstrates the versatility of the ADVENTURESCAPE III system, producing a game quite different from our earlier ones or any of the large number of adventure games we have seen for review. MURDER AT THE ABBEY was originally published in A&B COMPUTING 3.5. MURDER AT THE ABBEY was conceived and programmed by Jonathan Evans. <_<_<_ c. WALKTHROUGH GET ATT OPEN ATT KNOC EXAM BUT QUES BUT EXAM DAG EXAM LOR SEAR E U E EXAM MAG GET MAG W S E SEAR EXAM UND W W U W SEAR L GET HAN E D N EXAM SCI GET SCI W EXAM TEL EXAM ADM QUES ADM SEAR E S D W EXAM GER QUES GER EXAM ARC QUES ARC S SEAR L GET BRA E EXAM UMB HIT GON E EXAM DR QUES DR EXAM WIR TURN KNO LIST LIST E EXAM MIS QUES MIS EXAM MRS QUES MRS W N N W EXAM LAN QUES LAN W W S E D E EXAM CLE E S SEAR EXAM PAI GET PAI N QUES BUT W S SEAR L EXAM HER N W U U E N N SMEL W SEAR E S D W ANSW PHO E W ANSW PHO E E E EXAM BUR SEAR BUR L EXAM DOC GET DOC READ DOC W W U N W PRES SWI L EXAM KNI GET KNI E S S W D D E D EXAM BOD GIVE BRA DROP BRA L EXAM COR SEAR COR L EXAM NOT GET NOT READ NOT QUES BUT E U W U GET CLE W U W S E S W S SMEL QUES LAN QUES GER N E E N N W BREA DOO DROP CLE W SEAR COA L EXAM GOL GET GOL E S S W N U S W U N SEAR L DROP KNI GET TED EXAM TED CUT TED L DROP TED DROP SCI EXAM SHA GET SHA GET KNI S D D W S E HIT GON U S W N W SEAR L EXAM BLA DROP ATT GET BLA E S D E E ACCU ADM d. LINKS This document can be found at the Classic Adventure Solutions Archive (CASA): http://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C1430/ Thumbnails of the May 1986 issue of A&B Computing magazine, in which Murder At The Abbey was first published: http://www.acornelectron.co.uk/mags/aab/cats/aab305.html A disc-image of Murder At The Abbey for use in BBC Micro emulators, at the Stairway To Hell archive: http://www.stairwaytohell.com/bbc/sthcollection/AB2_r1.zip BeebEm, the BBC Micro emulator, for Windows: http://www.mkw.me.uk/beebem/ BeebEm, the BBC Micro emulator, for Mac: http://www.g7jjf.com/beebemmac.htm A beginner's guide to interactive fiction (or text-adventure games): http://pr-if.org/doc/play-if-card/ Video playthroughs of other BBC Micro text adventures: http://www.youtube.com/user/ahope1/playlists