====================================================================== T H E R O A D T O H E L L A Tale of Grief, Fog, and Choice by Rogerio Biondi Engine: PunyInform 6.4.1 / Inform 6 Targets: ZX Spectrum, C64, CPC, MSX, Amiga, PC ====================================================================== +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | "The road allows no rest. | | But it allows choices." | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ ====================================================================== 1. HOW TO RUN THE GAME ====================================================================== - See the readme.txt file shipped with the game for installation and platform instructions. SAVING AND RESTORING Use the SAVE and RESTORE commands to save and restore your game, following the conventions of your platform. ====================================================================== 2. THE DEATH ROAD ====================================================================== There is a place, in the heart of the Bolivian mountains, where asphalt surrenders to mud and mud surrenders to the abyss. The ancients called it Camino de los Yungas. The world named it the Death Road. Three and a half meters wide. Twelve hundred meters of fall. A single mistake from the driver, a single curve poorly judged, and the vehicle disappears into the clouds that sleep below. Hundreds of crosses mark the asphalt. Some bear names. Others only flowers. Others... well... no one is left to visit them. When the fog descends, it does not descend alone. Truckers say they hear the engines of buses long gone. That they see passengers standing at the curve where the 1983 bus fell. That, on certain nights, someone knocks on the passenger window asking to come in. And everyone in Bolivia knows: you do not give rides on the Death Road. The Yungas. Where the mountain whispers. Where Supay walks. Where Pachamama remembers her dead. It is onto this road that you will set out tonight. ====================================================================== 3. INTRODUCTION ====================================================================== Your name does not matter much now. What matters is that your wife, Clara, has been dead for eleven weeks. Sunday morning. Drowning, the certificate says. Recovered on the shoulder of km 47. You have read those two lines a thousand times and they have never made sense together. There is someone on the other side of the Yungas. A defendant. A name on the summons that presses against the inner pocket of your coat. The judge asked you to deliver it yourself, by hand. Strange. No one else wanted to go. Maybe because it is the Death Road. Maybe because the defendant has friends. Maybe because the judge does not like you very much. The car waits outside, at the zero marker of the Broken Wheel Bar. Warm beer on the table, matches, an old newspaper. The briefcase with the documents. A photo of Clara, heavy with longing. And, three years behind her, the silence of a house with a pool that no one enters anymore. More than a hundred kilometers of mud, fog, and abyss separate you from the defendant. Several stretches with choices. Each curve with paths, and none of them safe. Some stops will comfort you. Others will not. The road is waiting. You are not alone on it. ====================================================================== 4. HOW TO PLAY ====================================================================== The Road to Hell is a work of interactive fiction: you talk to the game by typing short sentences in English, and the game answers with text describing what happens. There are no graphics. Your imagination does the heavy lifting, and nothing works better than that. --- Basic commands --- LOOK or L Look around EXAMINE X or X X Look at an object/person in detail INVENTORY or I See what you are carrying TAKE X Pick up X DROP X Drop X OPEN X / CLOSE X Open / close READ X Read GIVE X TO Y Give X to Y TALK TO X Talk to X SAVE / RESTORE Save / restore QUIT Quit --- Movement --- N, S, E, W North, South, East, West UP, DOWN Go up, go down ENTER X / EXIT Enter / exit --- Driving verbs (in the car) --- DRIVE or N Go ahead TURN LEFT or W Take the left path TURN RIGHT or E Take the right path BRAKE or B Brake ACCELERATE or A Accelerate SWERVE or R Swerve left/right PRAY Pray (in critical moments) --- Useful verbs in the world --- KNOCK Knock (on doors) BURN X Burn / light EAT X / DRINK X Eat / drink SIT X Sit CARVE Carve (with a sharp object) DIG Dig SHOOT X / KILL X Shoot / kill FIX Reinforce an object PULL / PUSH X Pull / push --- Goal --- Reach the Defendant's House by 9 a.m. the next morning and deliver the summons. --- Inner mechanics --- The game shows no numbers, but it watches you closely. SANITY Rises with comfort, prayer, and rest. Falls in the face of horror, alcohol, and voices that should not be there. Your sanity changes what you see, read, and recognize. Very low states open dark doors. High states reveal subtle messages. GRIEF Longing has weight. It rises with triggers, falls with small acts of redemption. In some places, grief decides whom you recognize and whom you do not. PHYSICAL Hunger, cold, fatigue, wounds. Take care of the body. BALANCE Each stop tips you toward the light or the darkness. At the end of the road, this balance determines the ending. There is no "right path". There is the path you chose. ====================================================================== 5. ESSENTIAL TIPS ====================================================================== * EXAMINE EVERYTHING. In interactive fiction, X (EXAMINE) reveals more than LOOK. Look at the table. Look at the bench. Examine everything you come across. * READ EVERYTHING. Letters, newspapers, walls, signs, books. Important clues live in the margins. Some only appear when you are sane. * SAVE OFTEN. Use SAVE before any choice that feels dramatic. RESTORE brings you back. This road does not forgive. * TAKE NOTES ON PAPER. Like the old days. Names, mileage, strange clues, recurring phrases. Draw a map. The game rewards those who pay attention. * YOUR STATE CHANGES THE GAME. High sanity opens one layer of meaning. Low sanity opens another. High grief makes you see people and things in a darker light. Low grief makes you doubt. Neither the player nor the character can fully trust their own eyes. * NOT EVERY FAMILIAR FACE IS WHAT IT SEEMS. If something looks too good to be there, perhaps it is not. * THE PATH ONLY MOVES FORWARD. You cannot return to places already visited. Explore each one well, and look for objects that may be used elsewhere. * KEEP OBJECTS. Items may be used later. They may have more than one use. Before spending the last one, think where else it might fit. * USE THE BRIEFCASE WELL. The briefcase lets you carry more than the player can with empty hands. Use it wisely. * THE PATHS ARE DIFFERENT. The roads of each stretch, and how you travel them, tell different stories. In a single run you will not see everything. Play several times and try other choices. * REPLAY. The game can be finished in a little under an hour and has seven different endings. Play several times to discover them all. * STOP AND PRAY. PRAY is not decorative. At the right moments it opens passages that other commands do not. * THE CAR IS NOT JUST TRANSPORT. Read the manual in the glove compartment. It matters. * BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU DRINK, HEAR, OR TURN ON. Some temptations cost dearly. * TIME MOVES. In some places, lingering kills. Find a quick way out. * THE END HAS MORE THAN ONE FACE. There is no single ending. Everything you did on the road will collect its bill at the finish. Or its reward. ====================================================================== 6. REPORTING BUGS ====================================================================== Every interactive story has corners the author did not look into. If you find a bug, an odd line of text, or behavior that seems wrong, your help is welcome. --- What to note before reporting --- 1. Platform and interpreter version (e.g., Frotz 2.54 on Linux, Spectaculator on ZX Spectrum, VICE on C64, Frotz/Z-machine on PC, etc.) 2. Game version (release number, if visible) 3. The exact command you typed (copy it verbatim, typos and all) 4. The description of the place where it happened (use LOOK and copy the text) 5. Your inventory at the time (use INVENTORY) 6. The steps to reproduce the problem (preferably starting from a known SAVE point) 7. What you expected to happen and what actually happened 8. If possible, attach the SAVE file from just before the bug --- How to report --- Visit my page: rbiondi.itch.io Go to The Road to Hell and leave a private message (PM) directly to the author. Private messages are read carefully and answered whenever possible. Reporting bugs is an act of generosity. Thank you. ====================================================================== 7. CREDITS ====================================================================== Design, writing and code: Rogerio Biondi Engine: PunyInform 6.4.1 Language: Inform 6 Targets: ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Amiga, PC Author page: rbiondi.itch.io +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | The road is waiting. Safe travels. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ ====================================================================== (c) Rogerio Biondi - All rights reserved ======================================================================