 DARK SCEPTRE 
 Firebird 1986

 CONTROLS : Keyboard, Kempston
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 AIM : Tranquil year after tranquil year, the Islands of the Western
 Sea slumbered. Then, on the wings of a winter storm, came ships from
 the north, tossed and broken by the icy seas. The Lord of the Isles
 smiled upon the Northlanders, harboured them and gave them shelter.

  Then came the spring. The Lord of the Isles offered strong, oaken
 ships to the Northlanders, yet they chose not to leave, coveting
 the riches of the Western Isles. They drew their swords and demanded
 land to make homes upon.

  The Lord of the Isles smiled no longer. The Northlanders were too
 many for even his enchanted sword of lightning and dragonsfire to
 chasten. In secret, fearing more treachery, he gathered the finest
 smiths he could muster and bade them forge him a magical sceptre of
 terrible power.

  Five long years passed, during which the Northlanders grew in
 boldness and power. Then the Lord of the Isles summoned the
 Northlanders to attend his court. "By the Dark Powers", cried the
 Lord of the Isles, "Let the Hounds of Hell harry you to the end of
 time itself!"

  Upon his words, lightning leapt outwards from the sceptre, touching
 each one of the Northlanders with fire. One of the Northlander
 warlords, maddened with pain, leapt upon the rostrum where the Lord
 of the Isles stood.

  "Powers of Death, I call upon thee!", cried the Northlander. "Save
 us and we will serve you forever!". Now the darkness that had
 gathered around the sceptre twisted into long fingers that reached
 out to touch the burning, writhing Northlanders, soothing their
 pain yet at the same time causing their flesh to become shadowy and
 vague, glowing faintly like the embers of a fire.

  The Lord of the Isles had made a terrible mistake. Seeking to
 destroy the Northlanders, instead he had given them a strange and
 evil power. The sceptre had touched the Northlanders with its dark
 force. No more were they mere men; now they were Lords of the Shadow,
 gripped by evil and ruled by the Dark Sceptre that had created them
 The Isles of the Western Sea would know no peace until the Sceptre
 was destroyed and with it, the evil of the Shadow Lords.

 GAMEPLAY : You control a company of warriors, your task being to
 find and destroy the Dark Sceptre. When (if?) you find it, you must
 beware - its dark powers may destroy yoou if you have not taken the
 proper precautions. What those precautions are you will have to
 discover on your quest.

  To hinder you, the computer controls other companies of warriors.
 Most of these are neutral towards you but the Shadow Lords (coloured
 red) are implacable enemies. The other companies may become friends
 or enemies, depending on the events that take place during the game.
 You can recruit new members to your own company, but you can also lose
 warriors by desertion to other companies.

  The action takes place on the top three quarters of the screen, with
 the bottom quarter being given over to a status display. The features
 on this are, from left to right:

 1) Control options - WATCH, SCAN, CHECK, PLAN and QUIT.
 2) A scrolling map, showing a close-up of your warrior's position.
 3) Your warrior's rank, location, object carried and the date.
 4) A time-of-day indicator.

  The control options control the basic functions of the game:

 i) WATCH	- Allows you to watch a fight. If you hear the sound
		 of clashing metal, then one of your warriors is in
		 battle. Select this option to WATCH the combat.

 ii) SCAN	- Allows you to see a full map of the Isle. The
		 positions of each of your (alive) warriors is shown
		 in yellow. The white square indicates the position
		 of the currently selected warrior.

 iii) CHECK	- Allows you to check the personality of the current
		 warrior and the last orders he was given.

 iv) PLAN	- Allows you to plan your orders for the current
		 warrior. A question and answer session happens in
		 the viewing window until your orders are complete. If
		 you select the GO TO command then the map will appear
		 in the viewing window. You must move the cursor to
		 the place that you want to go (you may only select
		 junctions) and press fire.

 PLAYING DARK SCEPTRE: All play in Dark Sceptre is indirect; like a
 true commander, you have no direct control over your warriors'
 movements. They use their own skills and personalities in carrying
 out your orders. Nonetheless, their strategic thinking is poor and
 without your commanding intelligence, they cannot complete their
 quest. You must choose your orders carefully, bearing in mind the
 nature and personality of the warrior in question.

  To give orders to a warrior, first get him in view. Then select
 PLAN - this enables you to "contact" the warrior. He will tell you
 his current orders and you can then change his orders or issue
 further ones. You can select from a large variety of orders, any of
 which can be given to any warrior. Some can only really be carried
 out by certain warriors, however; the magical orders, for instance,
 can only be carried out fully by those with magical powers.

 THE ORDERS: There is a large number of orders available, which 
 should fit virtually any situation you encounter:

 FOLLOW warrior		- attach yourself to him as helper
 PROTECT warrior	- attach yourself to him and guard him in
			 battle
 STALK warrior		- go wherever he goes, a few paces behind
 HARASS warrior		- follow and get in his way as much as
			 possible
 AVOID warrior     *	- stay out of his way
 FIND warrior	   *	- find him and do no more
 KILL warrior	   *	- find and kill him

 BEWITCH warrior   *	- find and magically turn him into your spy
 PETRIFY warrior   *	- find and magically turn him into stone
 CURSE warrior	   *	- find and magically change good qualities
			 to bad
 CHARM warrior	   * 	- find and magically recruit him to your
			 company
 RELEASE warrior   *	- find and magically release him from the
			 effects of bewitchment, petrification or
			 cursing

 THREATEN warrior  *	- find and take what he carries by threat
			 of force
 CHALLENGE warrior *	- find and recruit him to your company by
			 theat of force
 PERSUADE warrior  *	- find and recruit him to your company by
			 persuasion
 BRIBE warrior	   *	- find and recruit him to your company by
			 gift
 JOIN warrior	   *    - find him and join his company
 GIVE TO warrior   *	- find and give him what you carry
 BEFRIEND warrior  *	- find him and give him a message pledging
			 friendship of your company to his
 INSULT warrior	   *	- find him and give him a message ending
			 any friendship of your company to his

 WAIT FOR warrior  *	- wait until he arrives
 AMBUSH warrior	   *	- wait until he arrives and then attack him

 TRACK object	   	- find it, do not take it, but follow it if
			 it is taken elsewhere
 GUARD object	   	- find it, do not take it, but let no others
			 take it
 SEEK object	   	- find it but do not take it
 TAKE object	   *	- find it and take it but do not use force
 GRAB object	   *	- find it and take it by force if necessary
 USE object	   *	- find it, take it by force if necessary and
			 use it

 BLOCK place	   	- go to place, stay there and let none pass
 DEFEND place	   	- go to place, stay there and let only friends
			 pass
 WAIT AT place		- go to place and wait there
 GO TO place		- go to place

 ROAM			- wander around at will
 WAIT			- wait wherever you happen to be

 Where "warrior" is marked with an asterisk (*), the order can also be
 chosen to refer to "friends", "enemies" or "anyone". Where "object" is
 marked with an asterisk, the order can be chosen to refer to 
 "anything". When an order has been completed, successfully or not, the
 warrior will automatically follow his next order; if he has no further
 orders, he will go into WAIT mode. Thralls are simple souls who can
 only remember one order at a time; other warriors can remember a
 number of orders.

 RANKS: There are eight basic ranks of warrior - all have the same 
 body (a programming cheat!) but can be distinguished by their headwear:

 THANE		- Wears a crowned helmet. The commander; without a 
		 Thane, the members of your company are more likely
		 to desert.

 MYSTIC		- Wears a pointed wizard's mask. Possesses magical
		 powers.

 HERALD		- Wears a winged helmet. A messenger and a fighter.

 ASSASSIN	- Wears a turban/headscarf. A hunter and a killer.

 REAPER		- Wears a skull-faced mask. The executioner. Strikes
		 fear into others.

 FOOL		- Wears a crown. A charismatic talker, not as foolish
		 as his name suggests.

 SAVAGE		- Wears a wolf's head. The wild man of the woods,
		 tough and resilient

 THRALL		- Wears a cowl. An underling, a pawn. Being simple
		 people, thralls do not have complex personalities -
		 they are however numerous.

 FRIENDS AND ENEMIES: Six other companies of warriors are at large.
 During PLAN mode, you can specify whether an order is to do with
 friends or enemies. The purpose of this is so that you can refer to
 friends or enemies in your orders without being long-winded.

  However, friendship pledged by a BEFRIEND order is different. If you
 attack a pledged friend, you will be marked for the rest of the game
 as treacherous and other companies will be wary of you. To avoid this,
 you must officially signal the end of the friendship with an INSULT.
 This may anger the offended party but you will still be regarded by
 others as an honest dealer.

  The BEWITCH order turns someone else's warrior into a spy for your
 company. Even so, he remains a member of the other company and behaves
 as such. You cannot give him orders but you can watch him as he goes
 on his travels and see what he does. This can be a valuable source of
 information.

  You can be kind to others in a number of ways - you can give them
 objects, send warriors to join their companies or simply pledge
 friendship. In return, they are likely to be kind to you. The motto
 is: scratch my back and I'll scratch yours for you.

  There are seven teams in total. Their colours are:

 UMBRARG'S (the Shadow Lords)	- Red
 VERDAN'S			- Green
 TYRIAN'S			- Purple
 KUANO'S			- Cyan
 AURIC'S			- Yellow
 GRISUL'S			- Grey
 YOUR OWN			- White

 USEFUL TIPS: Some (possibly) useful information:

1) Only Mystics can successfully CHARM, CURSE, BEWITCH or RELEASE.

2) You will hear the sounds of any fight which one of your warriors
  is involved in, even if it's off-screen. Pressing fire during
  WATCH will get you straight to the fight.

3) You will hear a snatch of music whenever any warrior changes sides,
  even if he's off-screen. Usually this will be someone joining your
  side; if you want to find out who it was, check on your warrior's
  orders. Warriors with orders you haven't given will be the new
  recruits.

4) Petrified warriors will not move off or take new orders. However,
  they will fight if forced to and can kill or be killed.

5) Warriors en garde are either in a fight or about to fight. They
  will ignore further orders until the fight is over.

6) No more than one fight is in progress at any one time. This allows
  you to keep a better eye on what's happening.

7) Warriors will chivalrously not attack a warrior who is already in a
  fight or waiting to fight. This sometimes means you can find a whole
  bunch of warriors standing by near a fight, all waiting their turn
  to try their luck!

8) The outcome of a fight depends entirely on the qualities of the two
  warriors. There is no random element. If both warriors have exactly
  the same fighting qualities, the attacker wins.

9) Just setting off to KILL ENEMY or GRAB DARK SCEPTRE without
  preparing the way first is simply suicidal!

 COMMENTS : 
 RATING : % (CRASH #, month 198)

 NOW : A little like LORDS OF MIDNIGHT, but with some huge and very 
 nicely animated graphics. It's a neat game, even if a little too 
 difficult...
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 KEYS : Redefinable
