INTRODUCTION As Hercule Holmes, the world's greatest detective, you are faced with the toughest challenge of your career. The world's finest murder mystery writers are gathered at the Gargoyle Hotel for a festival of murder and mayhem. They're known as the Midnight Murder Club and you must stop them before one of them is Killed Until Dead. This is the ultimate challenge of your sleuthing skills. You must uphold the family honor and discover, BEFORE the scheduled murder, the identities of the killer and the intended victim. You must also correctly identify the instrument of destruction and the location of the dastardly deed. But that's not all. Slyest sleuth that you are, you must also uncover the motive. But beware! If you don't have your facts straight when you make your accusation, you become the victim. And remember, there are more than twenty mystifying mysteries to choose from so you'll be challenged by the experts again and again. Choose one of the classics and begin. The clock starts at Noon. You've got exactly 12 hours to PREVENT the murder. Here's how... TO START THE GAME 1. Connect your joystick to port #2. 2. Turn on your Commodore 64, disk drive and Monitor. 3. Insert the Killed Until Dead disk into the drive, label side up and close the drive door. 4. Type: Load "*", 8, 1 and press RETURN. CONTROLS - F1 Restart the game - F5 Toggle sound off/on - F7 Pause/continue the game - All other actions may be selected by using the joystick and fire button. PLAYING THE GAME As your base of operations you have chosen one of the rooms of the Gargoyle Hotel to set up shop. On your desk you have , at your fingertips four tools essential to stopping the Midnight Murder Club: 1. FILES on each of the charismatic characters. 2. Various and sundry SURVEILLANCE equipment. 3. A TELEPHONE. 4. NOTES, in which will be recorded important (and not-so-important) information. To use these features, when sitting at your desk, move your "FINGER" (joystick left/right), then press the fire button. Here are some clear-cut clues for capturing the culprit: 1. FILES Read them all. They contain profiles of each of the maniacal murder suspects (and victim). Look for connections and motives . . . some are banal, some benign, some meaningful, others meaningless . . . You'll catch on, or die. 2. SURVEILLANCE Every dapper and devilishly daring detective has been trained in the employment of elaborate electronic equipment. As the erudite Hercule, if you are to entrap and ensnare you must elucidate the elemental and use the tools at hand. "Break-in" If any one of the suspect's rooms is empty, try a break-in. Each of their rooms contains crucial clues. These clues and "meeting" notes are pieces of the puzzle. You must successfully break-in and get the essential information before you can piece together the mystery. Further, you must have "Break-in clues" before you are able to interrogate a suspect on the phone. A successful Break-in depends on your ability to answer a mystery trivia question. Select your response by moving the joystick up or down and pressing the fire button. If you are correct, Break-in clues will be revealed (and automatically recorded in your NOTES). If mistaken, the security guard challenges you and stands guard for 10 minutes of game time. Remember the question and come back later. Also return later if the room is occupied. Among the clues are notes containing times for planned meetings between suspects. These are essential to the solution of the puzzle because suspects reveal themselves at some of these encounters. To complicate matters, the meetings often take place simultaneously. That's where your trusty hidden camera and bugging device come in handy. They'll help you figure out the time and whereabouts of various meetings. (see "Monitor" below) A helpful hint: the best time for Break-ins is generally between noon and 4 p.m. when the rooms are most likely to be vacant. "Monitor" Your hidden surveillance camera allows you to check the whereabouts of each suspect. Highlight and press the fire button to explore the Gargoyle Hotel -- after you've gathered clues. "Tape" You'll want to use your tape recorder to record meetings that you think you will not be able to "Monitor". Your hectic schedule may interfere with your snooping time, or perhaps those sneaky scribes have scheduled two meetings at the same time. The tape recorder has four buttons and three "presets." The buttons are: Rewind, Play, Fast Forward and Stop. To use the tape recorder you MUST set some record preset times. These are instructions to your tape recorder telling it in which room and at what time to record. To schedule a recording session: - Move the white highlight bar (joystick up/down/left/right) to the room name on the first preset line. - Press the fire button. The name will turn yellow. Now move the joystick up/down to cycle through all the room names, stopping at the one you'd like to record. - Press the fire button again -- the name will return to white. - Next move the highlight bar to the "from time" and repeat the procedure, press the fire button, move the joystick up and down to pick the time (note you cannot record past events) and press the fire button to finish. - Using the same procedure, set the "to time." - Now move the bar to the set instruction and press the fire button. This final step will instruct the tape recorder to enter this preset and to record the room between the two times you have requested. You have only three presets so use them carefully. However, you should remember that after a preset has recorded, it will be free again. To play back: - Hit Rewind. - Hit the Play button. The monitor will now show you the time of the recording and the events. If you want to stop the tape, just press the stop button. NOTE: To exit the tape function, press the Stop button or EXIT. 3. TELEPHONE Now a bit of often forgotten and generally erroneous geneology . . . The infamous Hercule Holmes, has a somewhat more famous relative Sherlock who had a sidekick Watson. That, we all know is elemental. Less known surely is that this Watson was related to the one (by the same name) who was Alexander Graham Bell's assistant. Now A.G.B., of course, had some involvement with the telephone and that's why it can now be used to interrogate your suspects. Point your finger at the telephone, highlight the person you're calling and press the fire button. You will soon see that your tenacious telephonic technique will be properly rewarded. In addition to hearing responses from those you choose to call, you will observe certain not- so-furtive facial features that will indicate whether your line of questioning is on the right track or off in left field. When you do get through on the phone, you will be presented with four questions. One, and only one, will be the key that will allow you to continue questioning. That one will somehow be related to a clue you found previously within that person's room. So remember, in order to interrogate a suspect you must have successfully broken into their room. If you have not, they will be closed-mouthed, tight-lipped and generally discourteous. An incorrect correlation between clue and question produces the suspects response "You're guessing Holmes" (And further, their telephone line will now be busy for 10 game minutes and they'll be as most politicians are . . . unavailable for comment). Having properly linked the room clue with the qualifying question produces the suspects response "You've been spying on me". Continue the questioning -- now ask about the murderer, the victim, the weapon or the location . . . any four questions will do. Analyze the answer, observe the facial expression, and be confident in the fact that the response is AUTOMATICALLY recorded in the NOTES. Upon questioning if the suspect appears upset or rattled, follow up with another question based on the clues you've compiled. As the suspects becomes increasingly nervous, they reveal more information. If they appear calm, or return to a more normal expression, you're headed up the wrong trail. But a negative response can often confirm other positive information. It's important to remember that while you can call any of the suspects, you can also be called. It's important to answer the phone when it rings. It may be a critical clue, an important indication, a formidable fact . . . or, then again, it may not. 4. NOTES During SURVEILLANCE if you have your hidden camera to "Monitor" a meeting or been devious enough to "Break-In" to someone's room the clues will find their way into the NOTES. So will the results of questioning that occurs over the TELEPHONE. "Monitor" If you have witnessed a meeting by monitoring or taping it at the correct time, the results will be saved. These notes may be examined at your convenience to recall details of the event. "Break-In" This is where the clues you have discovered from successfully breaking in are automatically stored. Each of these clues is a piece of the plot puzzle. You'll want to review these valuable clues. These clues are necessary in order to successfully interview suspects on the phone. "Phone" Phone notes are a record of what you have learned during your interrogations. You'll notice that the suspects tend to give two kinds of responses: Weak, for example: "If Agatha is the killer, don't worry about the gun." A more positive answer looks like: "If Agatha is the killer, the gun will be the weapon." Responses are automatically stored in your notes under the headings: Source, Murderer, Victim, Weapon and Room. The Source is the person who gave you the clue. Each clue has two parts. If they are shown in - RED it means that the clue was weak (IF . . . the NOT . . . ) - YELLOW means that the clue was strong (IF . . . then . . . ) If you have more clues than will fit on the screen, just scroll through by pushing up or down on the joystick. You have the ability to SORT or DELETE clues you have collected. "Call" This saves the results of phone calls made to you. To SORT clues: - Press the fire button while the highlight bar is over SORT. - Select which of the five categories you would like to have clues sorted under, using the joystick left/right to move the highlight bar and press the firebutton. Clues that do not have an element in the sort category will not be displayed. To return all the clues to the screen simply sort by source. To delete a clue, select DELETE by: - Moving the Highlight bar over the world DELETE. - Pressing the Firebutton. - Scroll up or down until the clue you want to DELETE is highlighted and press the firebutton. To EXIT from notes press the firebutton while the highlighted bar is over EXIT. SOLVING THE MYSTERY In order to solve the mystery its important to try break-ins and study your "NOTES" to see how the plot is unravelling. Once you've successfully broken into the suspects' rooms, eavesdropped on their meetings and answered the phone calls, your "NOTES" should be giving you a good sense of the impending murder. Don't give up. You've got 12 game hours to outsmart the outlaw, to hoodwink the hooligan, to capture the culprit. This band of culpable calligraphers and inscrupulous scribblers is smart. But you're smarter. Once you have gained enough information to make an accusation, phone the suspect, highlight "I wish to confront you" and make your accusation. If you're correct, the suspect will reply, "Congratulations. But you'll never prove it without a motive." Ah yes, the motive. Again, the clues will provide the answer. From the four motives shown, one will be the obvious answer. From the four motives shown, one will be the obvious answer . . . obvious, of course, to Hercule Holmes. Think as he would, review all the facts, examine the clues, re-evaluate the answers . . . it is there. If you are correct you will live to play another marvelous mystery, another daring drama. If you are wrong, look out, because you will be KILLED UNTIL DEAD. Copyright Copyright (c) 1986 by Accolade. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transcribed, copied, translated or reduced to any electronic medium or machine readable form without prior written permission of Accolade, 20813 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino, California 95014. Disclaimer Accolade makes no representations or warranties with respect to this publication or its contents and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. In addition, Accolade reserves the right to revise this publication and to make changes from time to time in its contents without obligation of Accolade to notify and person of such revisions or changes. Trademarks Killed Until Dead (TM) is licensed from Artech (c) 1986. Commodore is a trademark of Commodore Electronics Inc. We understand your concerns about disk damage or failure. Because of this, each registered owner of the HardBall (TM) may purchase one backup copy for $10. Send your money with your registration card. Checks should be made out to Accolade Software. This copy is for backup purposes only and is not for resale. Your backup disk is covered by our limited warranty on disk media described in the back of this manual. Limited Warranty for Disk Media Accolade warrants to the original purchaser of this computer software product that the recording medium on which the software programs are recorded will be free from defects in materials and workmanship for ninety days from the date of purchase. Defective media that has not been subjected to misuse, excessive wear, or damage due to carelessness and that is returned during that ninety day period will be replaced without charge. Following the initial ninety day warranty period, defective media will be replaced for a replacement fee of $10.00. The defective media should be returned to: Accolade 20813 Stevens Creek Blvd. Cupertino, CA 95014 (408) 446-5757 Software Copyright The enclosed software program is copyrighted. It is against the law to copy any portion of the software on disk, cassette tape or another medium for any purpose other than personal convenience. It is against the law to give away or resell copies of any part of this software. CO-KDCO-31-21-0 ********* The end of the Project 64 etext of the Killed Until Dead manual. *********