Hi! OK then, you asked for it. This was written by a much younger me (Oh how time flies when you're having fun with an apple II...) Apologies in advance for any errors, omissions, or presumptions.... Cheers 2c ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------- Instructions for House On A Disk. By Me 24th November 1987 I don't really have a complete set of instructions for the "game" if you can really call it that, but I have had a close look at the instruction set contained on the disk. The program does a number of things simultaneously, including animating the little man and his dog, creating all the sound effects (quite well too!), and where appropriate, scanning the keyboard for input. The program contains quite a good input parser, (although not quite as good as the command parser for some of the Infocom games) and it can recognise sentences quite well, although if it does not interpret your command there are no error messages, the little man just ignores you! This is not a real handicap though, because without typing anything in, the man just wanders around his house, doing things that he wants (is programmed) to do at random. The real fun begins when you say hello to him or tell him something. The man in the house actually answers you back or does the thing that you have asked him to do, all in fully animated shades of green (or in my case, amber) or colour, depending on which sort of monitor you have. I have a list of key words below which the command parser can recognise, and they must be included in a reasonably good sentence for the man to respond. The most important thing to remember is that if you are talking to Ivan, (that's his name by the way!) you MUST be polite, which means saying PLEASE if you ask him to do something. I tried commands like "DRINK WATER" and got the proverbial cold shoulder, so be warned. :-) COMMANDS: Control- A : Rings the alarm clock. Control- C : Rings telephone, and Ivan will go and answer it. Control- D : Leaves dogs food at front door. Control- F : Man's food is delivered. Control- P : When Ivan is in the chair, give him a pat on the head. Control- R : Leaves a record at the front door. Control- W : Fills water tank in the kitchen (most important.) IVAN'S STATE OF HEALTH: Smiley face: Ivan is happy. Straight mouth: Ivan is content. Down in the mouth: Ivan is sad. Green Face: Ivan is feeling sick (and no smart comments about my amber monitor!) A LIST OF COMMAND WORDS: 00: PLAYFUL 01: SHOWER DIRTY CLEAN 02: LIKE ENJOY 03: PLEASE (the magic word) 04: NAP BED 05: PLAY PLAYING PERFORM USE TRY TICKLE 07: RELAX 10: LIGHT START MAKE BURN 12: SEEM LOOK APPEAR ARE AREN ARENT RE ISNT ISN LOOKS IS SEEMS APPEARS WHATS WHAT 13: HEAR LISTEN PUT SPIN 14: WORK BRUSH FLOSS 20: HUNGRY STARVED 21: LOGON PROGRAM UTILITIES MATH 23: TYPE TELL WRITE CONFIDE 25: DRINK 27: FEED 30: FILL 31: OPEN 32: DANCE MOON SHOW 34: TIRED BORED APATHETIC AWFUL TALK 42: IN INSIDE STORED KEEP 43: EAT DOWN HAVE ATE 50: PIANO IVORIES SONG TUNE SERENADE JAZZ BOOGIE 51: STEREO TURNTABLE MUSIC RECORD PLATTER 52: FIRE FIREPLACE LOG 53: CHILLY FREEZING COLD 54: PROBLEM PROBLEMS TROUBLES MATTER LETTER NOTE TYPEWRITER NAME 55: CHRISTMAS XMAS HOLIDAY HOLIDAYS 60: TEETH 61: GLASS COOLER 62: DOG PET MUTT POOCH PUPPY 63: BOWL DISH CAN 64: TV 66: COMPUTER APPLE TERMINAL 67: WATER LIQUID LIQUIDS FLUID FLUIDS 70: UPSTAIRS 71: BEDROOM 72: CLOSET 73: KITCHEN 74: FILING FILE FILES 75: CABINET 76: FREEZER 77: REFRIGERATOR FRIG FRIDGE REFRIG 80: DRESSER 81: OUTSIDE 83: FOOD SOMETHING CHOW SNACK LUNCH 84: GAME CARDS POKER WAR CARD ANAGRAMS 90: YOU 91: EXCUSE PARDON HELLO ATTENTION HEY As you can see, the word list is quite extensive, and a great deal of variety can be generated within the sentences to (hopefully) make the little man do almost anything that you want. The numbers down the left hand side were included in the command block on the disk, and it seems pretty obvious that, to the command parser, all the words in the one group have the same meaning. The words in group 21 are the key words to use when you want to change the name of the researcher who owns the disk. Just type "LOGON" or one of the other words in that list, and Ivan will go and sit down at his terminal and type away for a few seconds and then the screen will say "Which programs can we run? 1. UPDATE INFO". type a 1 and the computer will then update your name onto the disk. You can also get Ivan to talk to you by asking him to "WRITE ME A LETTER PLEASE" or any combination of the correct words in the command list given above which means the same thing. Well, hopefully I've given you some insight into the game, and maybe helped with some of those annoying little problems that you've been having with the game. I know that these text adventures (with or without graphics) must have been made up by a sadistic gang of degenerates who are probably still chuckling to themselves in their cosy padded cells while we all sit here and go mad trying to beat the "error messages" like "You're obviously letting things get to you, calm down" etc. Good luck. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- "nunki" wrote in message news:3A7DB132.C1CFD994@surfcity.net... > Too Sense wrote: > > > > I actually have an article I wrote for the game, for our (long since > > defunct) apple II user group over here (Australia). It contains the key > > commands for the game, and a very rough idea of how to play.... Should I > > post it here? > > Sure. I'd like to see it.