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|A |6Fun 'n Games |A ^1Starship Encounter |Aͺ |6Fun 'n Games |A
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^Cby
^CDavid Leithauser

     You are the lone astronaut on a long-range deep-space probe of the
 Horse Head Nebula.  Your small ship is suddenly overtaken by a gigantic alien
 spacecraft.  Before you can escape, you are seized by a tractor beam and
 pulled aboard their ship.

     The aliens immediately blast your ship apart and drag you from the
 wreckage.  Although you fight valiantly, you are overpowered and taken to a
 room.  Strapped to a table, a helmet-like object is placed upon your head.
 Instantly you feel a searing pain.  In between bouts of agony you realize the
 aliens are probing your mind for information about Earth.

     You are able to learn a little about the aliens during the mind link.
 Although humanoid in appearance, they are deaf-mute and cannot make any sounds
 at all.  Extremely hostile, the aliens' mission is to locate and destroy all
 other civilizations they encounter.  Now that Earth's location is known, they
 will proceed there immediately and execute their orders.

     Once the aliens finish probing your mind, they drag you off to a cell.
 After a little while, an alien comes to the door of your cell with a tray of
 food from your ship.  He presses a button on an electronic device, which emits
 a whistling noise.  The door of the cell opens and he deposits the tray
 inside.  He then presses the button again, it emits another whistling noise,
 and the cell door closes.

     As you sit there alone, you realize that you must escape from your cell,
 find a way to destroy or disable the alien base ship, and return to Earth to
 warn of the impending danger.  It would also be nice if you could find the
 plans to this ship, so that Earth can eventually build some like it to defend
 itself.  You know that you must hurry, for it will only be a few hours before
 this base ship reaches Earth and destroys it.

 ^1Playing the Game ^0

     The computer will display information describing your immediate
 surroundings and what is happening.  Read this information carefully each
 time it is displayed, since there may be subtle changes, such as whether a
 certain door is open or closed.  The computer will then ask what you want to
 do.  You respond by typing a sentence and pressing <RETURN> (or <ENTER> on
 some keyboards).

     The sentences you input can be as short as one word, such as "Scream" or
 "Jump".  They may also be fairly complex sentences, such as "Hit the monster
 over the head with a chair" or "Get the gun and the sword" or "Take
 everything in this room except the table".  However, you may not combine two
 commands in a single sentence, such as "Insert key and turn key".  You do not
 need punctuation, such as periods, in your sentences.

     There are many commands that you might use.  To move about, you would say
 "GO" and indicate the direction, such as "GO WEST".  You may abbreviate the
 commands to go in the four directions as "N", "S", "E", and "W".  Other
 commands you might use are EXAMINE (or LOOK), TAKE (or GET), DROP or THROW,
 SHOOT, WEAR, and REMOVE.

     LIST will give you a list of all the objects you are carrying.  END, QUIT,
 and <ESC> will exit the game.  HELP or HINT will give you advice on what to do
 next.  Some of the suggestions tell you what to do next, while others tell you
 that you should have done something before and it is too late now.  You should
 use the HELP feature only if you are totally stumped on what to do, because
 too much use of this feature takes all the fun out of the game.

     Some of the things you can do will get you killed.  If that happens, the
 computer will ask you if you want to take back that move.  If you respond by
 pressing "Y", the computer will backtrack and put you where you were before
 the last move.  Sometimes, however, you may get yourself into a jam where
 backing up one move will not help you.  If you believe that this is the case,
 press "N" and the computer will start the game over from the beginning.

 ^1File Commands^0

     There are a few special commands that relate to operating the game,
 rather than actions by your character.  SAVE (filename) saves your current
 situation on disk with the filename that follows SAVE.  This allows you to
 interrupt a game and come back to it later.  To reload the game, type
 LOAD (filename).

     When either command is entered without a filename, a box containing a
 list of the files in the current directory appears on screen.  You may use
 the arrow keys to move the highlight box to the file to be saved or loaded
 and press <ENTER> to access that file.  If you wish to SAVE to a new
 filename, move the highlight box to the New File area in the lower right-hand
 corner of the files box, press <ENTER>, and input the filename.  You may also
 use the <HOME> and <END> keys to move to the start and end of the list,
 respectively.

 ^1Error Trapping^0

     This program has complete error trapping.  If you enter a command that
 the computer does not understand, it will give you a response such as "I do
 not understand that first word.  Press space bar".  When you press the space
 bar, the command and the message will disappear and the computer will ask you
 again what you want to do.  I suggest that you read the command you had input
 before pressing the space bar, to see if the problem is just a misspelled
 word.

     The program also catches problems such as trying to save data on a full or
 write-protected disk.  If you have such a problem, the computer will display
 a message such as "Disk full.  Press space bar".  When you press the space
 bar, the message will clear and the computer will ask you again what you want
 to do.  This allows you to replace the disk (or fix whatever the problem is)
 and then repeat the command to save the game.  This protects you from losing
 the data.

    To run this program outside ^1Big Blue Disk^0, type ^1STARENC^0.

DISK FILES THIS PROGRAM USES:
^FBRUN30.EXE
^FSTARENC.EXE
^FRETURN30.EXE
