CURSE OF THE NIGHT PUBLISHER: Ultrasoft 1993 PRODUCER: MICROTECH SYSTEMS, DSA COMPUTER GRAPHICS 1993 CASSETTE INLAY: Juraj Maxon ENGLISH TRANSLATION: Pavero/TomasCZ/Bandit/Romborsoft 2012 ------------------------------------------------------------------- The CURSE OF THE NIGHT melts in itself features of adventure and action games. It implies the user must not only react promptly but apart of sharp eye and quickness must also use logical thinking and shrewdness. As one old legend says, in Anno Domini 1510 three felons horsed around in one Slavic kingdom. They called the first Max the Wry Head. He was famous of assaulting the travellers in forests, robbing them of money and cloth, even killing. The second one's nick was the Black Arpad. This knight embarked on devil's services and murdered everyone who stepped into his way. The third felon had lot of different nicks but they most often called him Hellish Imp for his addiction to crapulous drinking. This freak pretending to be a parson knocked on solitary monasteries doors at the middle of dark moonless nights. If unsuspecting monks opened, he murdered all of them, and then robbed and inflamed the monastery. Once there was too much of horror and fear, king Michael let gradually all of the felons arrested and collectively executed. With their last breath they coursed the king and whole castle. About a month after the execution people begun to disappear in the kingdom. Shortly, of each disappeared one only his skeleton was found. Finally, even king Michael turned into a skeleton, and all who did not escape from the castle yet did now. The castle remained abandoned without a single living exposed to ghost evocations. But wait! In one tall castle tower in a bed there lies a beautiful princess half alive and half dead. She can only be saved by the one who ousts all evil forces out of the castle during a single night, destroys the three felon skeletons nailed down to castle walls, and in the alchemy workroom prepares a special potion to wake up the princess to new life with. And this uneasy mission awaits right you! After the game has loaded into the computer you can read through the opening credits. You move further in the text by pressing any key. Once the computer asks you whether you want to use a joystick for playing, you can press the Y key (YES) for choosing the Kempston joystick which, however, must be connected just prior to turning on the computer. In case of answering with N (NO) you may choose five keys to define controls that you are best satisfied with. You can control the game and hero combining the following keys: LEFT - walking left RIGHT - walking right UP - jumping DOWN - kneeling ACTION - punching/kicking/cutting/defending UP+direction - askew jumping DOWN+direction - object choosing LEFT+ACTION - kicking left RIGHT+ACTION - kicking right DOWN+ACTION - object using You furthermore can use the following special keys: CAPS SHIFT+ENTER - game pausing SYMBOL SHIFT+ENTER - game quitting CAPS SHIFT+SYMBOL SHIFT - turning on/off 128k music (ZX Spectrum 128k) The game is accompanied by a wonderful music which however only sound interface MELODIK owners may hear during the opening screen, and ZX Spectrum 128k owners during the game play as well. During the game play, panels at the bottom part of the screen show two objects carried by the hero (selected one is underscored). Furthermore two columned indicators can be seen here, the upper one representing hero's energy while the lower one showing time delimited for fulfilling the goal. The energy gets lost if punched by enemies or fallen from too height. It increases if eating (bowl with meal, flask with drink). In case of getting out of energy or time (the night has ended), the hero dies. All OBJECTS in the game serve for something if either used directly at certain places to disappear then (for example the cross kills all in the surroundings) or indirectly if a cursor has been aimed at them in which case they are preserved (for example the cross repels a monk). Some of the objects serve as WEAPONS to be carried in hand and used for attacking or defending (for example a shield or mace). Unlocked DOOR can be opened using the Action key, while locked door only using a corresponding key.