T H E L A N D B E Y O N D T H E P I C K E T F E N C E
Copyright (C) September 1996 Martin Oehm, Version 1.0
"The Land Beyond the Picket Fence" is a text-adventure entered into the
Second Annual IF Competition in 1996. The player moves around in a virtual
world in order to complete a given task. Therefore, he will have to solve
several puzzles. The game is communicated with by typing commands on the
keyboard. For those among you who are not yet familiar with this kind of
game, I now give some brief instructions.
1. MOVING THE PLAYER
The game world consists of different locations. These locations may e.g. be
the rooms inside a house or building, but places with quite vague borders as
would be meadows or clearings in a wood are possible locations, too.
As soon as the player enters a location, a description of it and the items
and persons which are in this location at the moment is shown on the screen.
The description contains as well information about the exits.
Possible exits are the eight cardinal directions NORTH, NORTHEAST, EAST,
SOUTHEAST, SOUTH, SOUTHWEST, WEST and NORTHWEST, and the ways UP and DOWN. To
leave a location to the east, type
> GO EAST
As leaving and entering locations is probably the command which is used most
often within the gameplay, the ten directions may be abbreviated to N, NE, E,
SE, S, SW, W, NW, U and D. If you want to walk northwest, just type
> NW.
Of course you can't leave a location in all of the ten directions. The room
description tells you about the possible ways to go. Type EXITS to obtain a
list of the possible exits.
Leaving a location means entering a new one. The new description appears and
the plot continues.
2. ITEMS
Sometimes you will find some items lying around. These you can pick up for
later use. Usually the items are not extraordinarily different from every-
day items, so e.g. doors block your way, keys may unlock them. However, some
out-of-the-way items like magic wands and the like may be found as well.
Handling these items is done by typing a short command. For your convenience
you may leave out the articles. Important commands of the game are TAKE or
GET, DROP or PUT DOWN, PUT, OPEN, CLOSE, UNLOCK, LOCK, EXAMINE (abbr. X, used
very often!), PUSH or PRESS, PULL and READ. In addition, there are much more
commands, which apply to the current situation. KNOCK at doors, TIE or UNTIE
ropes, PLAY music instruments etc. The command must be written in imperative
form. Commands understood by the programme would be:
> GET THE KNIFE
> PUT THE COPPER COIN INTO THE CHEST
> PUT DOWN THE GLOWING SWORD
> OPEN HATCH WITH SILVER KEY
> PUSH TOP BUTTON
> CUT CORD WITH KNIFE
> HIT THE CHEST WITH THE CLUB
> TURN ON TORCH
> LIGHT OIL LANTERN WITH MATCH
> EAT THE JUICY ORANGE
> DIG IN THE MUD WITH THE SPADE
> READ THE PURPLE LEAFLET
> CLOSE THE STEEL DOOR
> REPAIR RADIO WITH TUBE
> EXAMINE TREE
> X TREE
> JUMP NORTH
> LOOK BEHIND THE DESK
> LOOK UNDER THE RUG
If the programme doesn't recognize a word or if there's something missing in
the command, the programme will tell you, e.g.: "What do you want me to open
the door with?" So just type the missing information (words as ON, IN, WITH,
TO etc. may not be omitted!), for example
> WITH THE GOLDEN KEY
Of course you may type a new command instead. The arrow up/down keys allow
you to skip through the last ten commands to change them or to correct a
typing error.
A list of the items actually carried along with you is available by typing
INVENTORY or shorter I.
To keep the commands simple you may use the words ALL or EVERYTHING and the
pronouns IT and THEM. Typing several direct objects also works. So the pro-
gramme recognizes commands like:
> DROP EVERYTHING (i.e. all you're carrying)
> GET ALL (i.e. all items in the current location)
> GET ALL FROM THE TABLE
> GET ALL OUT OF THE CHEST
> GET BALL, KNIFE, WATCH
> GET THE LETTER, THEN READ IT
> TAKE THE KNIFE, CUT ROPE WITH IT
> N, E, E, D, THEN OPEN DOOR
Sometimes several similar items are in the same location. Imagine you were
standing in front of a control panel with a blue, a yellow and a black button
on it. If you type
> PRESS BUTTON
the programme does not know which of the three buttons you mean and thus asks
you to define the button more specificly. So type
> PRESS YELLOW BUTTON or just
> YELLOW BUTTON
Generally, however, it is neither necessary nor useful to type the complete
name of items like a mysterious-looking scrap of paper. PAPER or SCRAP should
do the job. If the programme doesn't recognize words appearing in the text
you can assume that these items are not important for solving the game.
3. OTHER CHARACTERS
Within gameplay you may meet other characters you can ASK ABOUT something and
SHOW or GIVE one of your items to, for example
> ASK PRINCESS ABOUT THE WIZARD
> SHOW SWORD TO DRAGON
You may not say explicit words, like "Hello!", "Hi!" or other pearls of high
quality conversation.
If you want to use magic words - imagine a really mystic book had abracadabra
written in it in Gothic lettering - don't type
> SAY "ABRACADABRA"
but just the magic word, thus:
> ABRACADABRA
So much for conversation. Of course you may try to KILL, KISS or CUDDLE a
character, but don't expect to get the desired result.
4. OTHER COMMANDS
Now I give you a list of other commands of the game:
BRIEF
Sets the normal mode for room descriptions, i.e. full description is shown
the first time a location is entered, a brief one the next times. Type LOOK
or L anytime to get a full description. (see VERBOSE)
HINT
This game has a hint option. You will be asked about which puzzle you would
like to get a hint (unless it's clear from the context) and the programme
will give you a clue.
INFO
Display general release information. Type this before playing the first time.
LOOK or L
Shows the room description of the current location. If you enter a location
for the second or third time, only the name of that location is shown in
brief mode.
QUIT
Quits the programme.
RESTART
Starts over.
RESTORE or *R
Allows you to restore a saved game (see SAVE). You will be asked to enter a
file name. A blank file name will abort and '*' will give you a list of all
games saved.
SAVE or *S
Saves the game for later continuation. Enter the file name without an exten-
sion (the programme uses .AMU as a standard). The saved game file is written
to the current directory. Typing a blank file name will abort, and typing '*'
as file name will give you a list of all saved games.
SCORE
Shows your score and the number of moves this took you and the number of
locations you have seen so far.
STANDARD
Sets the standard settings, i.e. status bar on, notification on and verbose
text mode.
STATUS (ON/OFF)
Activates or deactivates the status bar on top of the screen, which contains
information about the location, score and moves. This status bar is on at
the beginning of the game.
TIME
Shows you what time it is. I hope the game is good enough to make you lose
your feeling for time.
UNDO
Allows you to undo your last turn. Only one turn may be undone in succession.
VERBOSE
Puts the room descriptions in verbose mode, i.e. each time you enter the
location, the full description is shown. (see BRIEF)
WAIT or Z
Passes a turn without any action of the player. This command is used to wait
for certain events to occur.
5. SOME VALUABLE HINTS
"The Land beyond the Picket Fence" is fairly simple. You should be able to
solve it rather quickly. One rule of the IF competition was to make the game
winnable in under two hours. I hope this games fulfills the rule. However, if
you are new to adventure games, here are some general hints:
� Examine everything, not just the items you can carry. Read the descriptions
of the locations carefully. Sometimes you'll even have to look behind or
under something. If the programme does not know a word used in the room
description, it is not important. These words just make the descriptions
more lively.
� Save often. Death lurks in the realm of adventuring. So saved games often
do come in handy, not only when you have died but as well when you have
lost or damaged an item you need.
� Try the impossible. The worst thing that can happen is that you die, or -
even worse - you get a stupid remark by the programme. But even that some-
times may get you on.
� If the programme doesn't recognize a verb in your command, try to rephrase
it. If that doesn't work, you're probably on the wrong track.
If you are seriously stuck, try the HINT command. There is a walkthrough in
the game package, but I would like it to be used as a last resort only.
6. A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
This game is freeware. It was written in August 1996 as an entry for the
Second Annual IF competition. I'm planning to translate this game into German
after the competition. If I get some encouragement for my work, maybe I'll
write a sequel (someday...) to find out what lies beyond the toadstools.
So if you like the game, pass it to your friends (free, of course!) and don't
modify the programme or the documentation. I'm always glad to hear what you
think of the game, too. If you want to report bugs, typos or remarks on the
plot, don't hesitate to contact me.
Have fun with your copy of "The Land beyond the Picket Fence"!
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Martin Oehm
Sperlingsweg 3
Dreis-Tiefenbach
D-57250 Netphen
G e r m a n y e-mail:
[email protected]
