Jester Quest

JESTER


QUEST





Loading Instructions - Spectrum 128K/+2 version.





1:- Insert the tape into the cassette recorder and if necessary


rewind to the beginning.





2:- Reset the machine to clear any junk from memory and make


sure the TAPE LOADER option is high-lighted on the start


menu before pressing ENTER.





3:- Press PLAY on the cassette recorder.





4:- Jester Quest should now LOAD and RUN.





Loading Instructions - Spectrum 48K /+ version.





1:- Insert the tape into the cassette recorder and rewind to


the start of the required section.





2:- Type LOAD "" and press ENTER. After making sure the cassette


leads are correctly connected.





3:- Press PLAY on the cassette recorder.





4:- Jester Quest should now LOAD and RUN.





Storyline.





This is the tale of a fat little chap by the name of Jeremy.


By trade he was a jester, by nature a brainless fool!


As jesters go Jeremy, J.J to his friends (and he's


imaginary), was a disaster but he did make a passable effort,


after all he was the best jester in the Kingdom, in fact he was


the only jester in the Kingdom!


One fine day while exercising his eldest joke to the


court of King Bawd the 2nd, accompanied by the usual cacophony


of snores, boo's and yawns, his career suddenly took a turn for


the worse as the courtroom doors were flung open and in burst


a rival jester!


"Greetings your Royal Highness, it is I, Userper the Great


Jester of the Southern Lands, come to rid you of this fat bore


and bring merryment back to your humdrum lives!" declared the


newcomer.


The King signed a 'oh no, not another one' type of sigh and


said "Oh well, I suppose you can't be any worse than this fat


oaf, get on with it!"


"Many thanks your Royal Highness." replied Userper and then


told the funniest joke anyone in the courtroom had ever heard,


far to funny to tell here as we'd never reach the end of our


tale.


The court collapsed into fits of hysterical laughter,


leaving poor Jeremy broken hearted and out of a job as the


King, his eyes watering with mirth, shouted at Jeremy "Your're


fired!" and clicked his fingers at two guards who 'politely'


escorted Jeremy to a nearby window and threw his out of it.


Jeremy flew through the air with all the grace of a flying


brick to land in a cloud of dust outside the palace!


Jeremy picked himself up and began to brush the dirt from


his slightly out of fashion jester suit when a passing pixie


asked him "You alright?"





Jeremy replied "Of course I'm alright, I landed on my head


didn't I?" before he wandered off to the Elfen village to


drown his sorrows in the 'Prancing Odour' tavern, one of


Jeremy's favourite haunts.


While drowning his sorrows (which was quite easy as they


couldn't swim) in several large flagons of ale when suddenly a


strange apparition ( a pink elephant wearing a tutu) appeared


before Jeremy.


The pink elephant looked down at Jeremy and spoke "Fear not


oh humourless one for I am your Fairy Godmother and I have


come to tell you how you may regain your job! To outshine


Userper your jukes need an extra boost, the Secret of Laughter.


You must seek out the ingredients and offer them to Smurkin


the Warlock of the Northern Hills, he alone holds the knowledge


to conjour up the Secret of Laughter."


"Unfortunately my dear Jeremy, there is just one teeny weeny


snag ..., Smurkin's daughter, Xel, has been kidnapped by the


wicked witch Gizelda and even now as you hallucinate me, she is


incarcerated within Grizelda's Lodge! Before Smurkin will help


you, you must rescue Xel and present her to Smerkin, otherwise


you will find him in rather an anti-social mood. Now then I


suppose you'll be wanting a list of ingredients."


The apparition waved its wand and conjoured up a scruffy


piece of paper before shouting "Right, I'm off, I'm already late


for another appointment as it is, bye!"


Suddenly the pink elephant performed an ungainly pirouette


and promptly disappeared in a mess of slops as the Landlord of


the 'Prancing Odour' threw a bucket of the stuff all over him


shouting "Wake up you drunken bum I'm waiting to close up!",


leaving Jeremy wet but strangely sobered up and ready for his


'historic' quest!





Instructions.





Jester Quest will understand the use of verbs, adjectives,


nouns, adverbs and prepositions, eg SLOWLY PUT the BLUE CARD INTO


the RUSTY SLOT. The game will also understand the use of 'IT'


in place of the previously entered noun/adjective and also


allows the player to string commands together via the use of


'AND', 'THEN' or any punctuation.


Speech with characters is allowed by the use of SAY "string"


TO (character), the string (speech) should be enclosed within


quote marks, eg SAY "FOLLOW ME" TO XEL.


To aid play there are included a number of useful commands


including a large number of ALL commands, eg PUT ALL INTO POT.


SEARCH ALL etc. When using ALL commands an object may be


ignored by the use of EXCEPT x, here the second noun (x) is of


the object to be ignored. The only exception to this is with


ALL commands including another object, eg PUT ALL INTO POT.


The useful commands include an AGAIN routine which repeats


the last input, OOPS to take back a move and LAST LOCATION


which takes the player back to the location they previously


visited.





Screen Presentation.





The game is a split screen text and graphics adventure. If


the game ever pauses and displays 'MORE>>>' or 'PRESS ANY KEY'


then read what is on screen and press a key.


To help the player find the available exits within a


location text they will be printed in green upper case


(CAPITALS) letters. Similarily, object nouns/adjectives will be


printed in magenta upper case letters.


In TEXT mode no picture will be displayed rendering the


game a text only adventure.





(?) game may be turned into a text only adventure by


selecting TEXT mode. In this mode all player input will scroll


underneath the main location description and list of present


objects with the letter remaining on screen.


Finally there is an option to change the current


character set to one more prefered by the player from four


provided within the game (A-D). These extra fonts may be used


according to differing light intensities or personal


preference. Font D is the default set while Font A is the


normal Sinclair ROM set.





There now follows a list of more useful commands ...





AGAIN:- Will repeat the last player input.





OOPS, BOM:- This command takes back the game by one move


providing the OOPS buffer is full, ie a game is in


progress and is not the first move of a new game.





LAST:- This command will take the player back to the room they


previously visited before entering their current room.





FONT:- Will change the current character set to another


supplied within the game, there are four available in the


128K version, including the ROM set and are lettered A-D.





SCORE:- This will print on screen what Jeremy's humour rating


is.





TURNS:- This will print on screen the number of moves the


player has currently made.





RAMSAVE:- Will save a position and status to a buffer in


memory and redescribe the current location.





RAMLOAD:- Will restore a saved position and status from the


buffer in memory providing the buffer has been


filled and will redescribe the current location.





LOAD:- As RAMLOAD but from cassette.





SAVE:- As RAMSAVE but from cassette.





LOOK,R:- Will redisplay the location description.





TEXT:- Will turn the picture display off rendering the game a


text only adventure, in this mode all player input will


scroll underneath the main location text.





PICTURES:- Will turn the picture display on and redescribe the


current location.





PAUSE:- This will halt the game until a key is pressed, the


function of this command is to allow the player to


read the responses to stringed commands.





WAIT:- This command does nothing and is designed to allow the


player to wait for something to happen.





INVENTORY,LIST,I:- Will display the inventory page which lists


on screen what Jeremy is carrying and


wearing.





SEARCH:- Will allow Jeremy to look through an object to see if


hides something else.





SAY,SPEAK:- Allows Jeremy to talk to another character within


the game providing that character is present. The


character may not have much to say to Jeremy


though. Other characters may be issued commands with


command. Speech must be enclosed within quote marks.





TELL JOKE:- This is Jeremy's ultimate weapon, one of his


terrible jokes. However not all will succumb to this


command!





EXAMINE ALL HERE, CARRIED, WORN:- Will allow Jeremy to examine all


objects in the specified area


either here, carried or worn.





DROP ALL:- Will place all carried objects (but not worn) into


the player's current location.





GET ALL:- Will get all the present objects.





WEAR:- Will allow Jeremy to wear a wearable object providing he


is carrying that object.





REMOVE:- Will remove a worn object, placing it within Jeremy's


carried inventory providing that object is worn at the


time.





Jester Quest was written by Louise Cantrell and


programmed by Mark Cantrell with the aid of PAW (C) 1988.