Hints file for Peter Wood's "Sword", for the 48k ZX Spectrum.
Sword is an odd beast. It's not quite a text adventure, but it comes very close.
At first it looks very normal: a quest, a location picture (made using UDGs, and
not badly for a Basic program, at that), a location description and a prompt for
input. But then it starts resembling Wumpus more than real adventures. Input is
done using single keys, and (almost) all objects and NPCs are put on the map
randomly, so no game is ever the same as the last. It is therefore not possible
to write a normal walkthrough for this game.
Another way in which Sword is like text adventures is that there are puzzles
to be solved to reach certain places. Unfortunately, this, combined with the
random placing of objects, means that it can be impossible to solve the game at
all, though usually it's only frustrating and unlikely. This is not made any
easier by the carry limit of two (2!) whole objects.
There are three NPCs, and this is what they do:
Woman: can heal you. Embrace her when you encounter her, and you will gain a
point of strength for each embrace. This is useful when you meet the...
Guard: will attack you. You can fight back, but don't bother trying this
unless you've had a good few snogs with the girl. You start out equally strong
and he has the drop on you, so you will likely lose the fight. Just move away.
Urchin: will steal your stuff. He'll drop it again later, but that may be
somewhere where you can't get at it: he seems to have no problems going off the
wall with your rope, leaving you stranded. He may do this repeatedly; trying to
take back your possessions while he's still around is useless. And you're not
even allowed to fight him...
There are also five objects, and their uses are:
Sword: wins the game if you take it to your starting position. Also lets you
break through the brick wall out of the dungeon. The only object which starts in
the same place in every game: in the Dark Dripping Dungeon. Does not, strangely
enough, have the slightest influence on your fights with the Guard.
Key: unlocks the door to the dungeon. This is important because, while there
are two more ways _into_ the dungeon, the locked door is the only useful way
out.
Coil of rope: lets you descend into the well or down the city wall, both
leading into the dungeon. Unfortunately, to get back up you need the rope _and_
the Iron hook in both cases, and you can only carry two objects at a time, so
you can't use this to get the Sword out of the dungeon (which is why you need
the key).
Iron hook: lets you get back up the well or city wall; also lets you break the
bricks in the dungeon. Both are useless, because going back up the well or wall
doesn't let you take the Sword, and you can also break the bricks with your...
Foot: yes, you can break the brick wall with your foot, which mercifully does
not count as a carried object.
Lamp: lets you see the brick wall in the dungeon. This is useful if you're
playing this game the first time, but since you can break the bricks without
seeing them, it's essentially useless for all later tries.
Given all the above, the best strategy for solving Sword is to:
- find the key, and unlock the door in the Narrow Stone Staircase;
- strike the bricks in the Dark, Chilly dungeon with your foot, in the dark;
- take the sword and leg it back to the starting point, hoping like anything
that you don't encounter that blasted Urchin on the way out.
It is quite possible that you cannot find the key anywhere in the city itself.
In that case, the strategy becomes:
- find the rope, and descend either into the well from the Busy Market Square,
or down the High City Wall;
- find the key and retrieve the sword from the Dark Dripping Dungeon, which is
accessible from the lower levels (and Reject the Coil of rope at this point);
- strike the bricks from the other side, the Dark Dripping Dungeon, using your
foot or the Sword as you please;
- unlock the door from the other side, in the Dark, Chilly Dungeon;
- high-tail it out of there back to Outside the City Gates.
It is _also_ possible, alas, that you can find neither key nor rope. In that
case, your only possible strategy is:
- Caps shift-Space bar;
- GO TO 1. Do _not_ use RUN, or you'll lose all your location and object data,
which is held in variables loaded with the program, not from DATA statements;
with these erased, the game won't work.
All in all, Sword is a mildly amusing game for half an hour or so, but it soon
becomes frustrating; a real, involved text adventure it certainly is not, let
alone a good one. But the pictures are nice.
-- Richard Bos, July 2015
