Emily Short

Section 3 - About Menu

Include Basic Help Menu by Emily Short.

When play begins:

choose row 1 in Table of Basic Help Options;

change description entry to "[story title] is a puzzle game about word manipulation, with moderate plot complexity. It will probably take a seasoned IF player at least eight hours to complete.

This game is fairly gentle: it should not be possible to get stuck or make the game unexpectedly unwinnable; if an object you thought was useful goes away, odds are that you can live without it or that you'll have an opportunity to get it back.

There are a handful of timed situations in the story. When these occur, you will probably be well aware of the fact. If you feel threatened, save the game."

Table of Basic Help Options (continued)

title	subtable	description
"Commands specific to this game"	--	"[story title] mostly uses commands standard in interactive fiction, so someone familiar with these should be at ease. The chief exceptions have to do with navigation and communicating with other characters.	INVENTORY TALL, INVENTORY WIDE and INVENTORY UTILITARIAN change the way inventory listing is presented. By default, the inventory list is set to utilitarian, presenting your possessions in two groups (tools and other things), and alphabetizing the output.	In a location, LOOK CAREFULLY will print the room description with object names in bold. If you would like to experience the whole game this way, try HIGHLIGHTING ON.	GO TO a location will take us to the place named, even if that's some distance away. EXITS will list the currently available exits as text. You should also be able to see these in the compass rose of the graphical window, assuming you are using one. Sometimes you will recollect things. MEMORIES will list currently available memories, and REMEMBER will play the results. TALK TO GIRL or GIRL, HELLO will start a conversation with a person who isn't already talking to us. ASK ABOUT or TELL ABOUT let us talk about subjects that interest us, once the conversation has started. ASK GIRL ABOUT CHECKERS or TELL GIRL ABOUT ME will work, as will the more abbreviated forms ASK ABOUT CHECKERS, TELL ABOUT ME, or even just A CHECKERS and T ME. There will sometimes be prompts, like 'You could ask about whether margarine is better than butter.', in which case ASK WHETHER MARGARINE IS BETTER THAN BUTTER will work, but so will a shorter subset like ASK ABOUT BUTTER, as long as it uniquely identifies the question you want to ask. The topics listed during a conversation are not the complete list of available things to say, just the list of things that seem most relevant at the moment. If you'd like to play in hard mode, with some alternate puzzle solutions removed and other puzzles changed entirely, type HARD during the first few rooms of the game. After that point, it is too late to qualify for hard mode, and you'll need to restart if you wish to activate it."
"Testing Credits"	--	"I had a great team of testers to work over the gameplay: Sam Kabo Ashwell, Richard Evans, John Ferguson, Admiral Jota, Jacqueline A. Lott, Kate McKee, Jim Munroe, Mark Musante, Chris Nelson, Graham Nelson, Peter Nelson, Toby Nelson, Zach Samuels, and David Welbourn. As well as catching many errors, the team suggested additional responses and easter eggs, provided valuable help with puzzle design and story development, and offered moral support. I am indebted to the following players for suggestions and bug reports that affected subsequent releases: Draconis, dydt, Guy, Joe, Josh, Matthias, Malor, Weeble, Bruce Addison, Lea Albaugh, Sam Barlow, Sasha Beker, Josiah Boning, Taus Brock-Nannestad, Matthew Carson, Liza Daly, Justin de Vesine, Jason Dyer, Dan Fabulich, Jeremy Freese, Stephen Granade, Admiral Jota, Jacqueline A. Lott, Chris Martens, Jason McIntosh, Megazver, Adam Milecki, Carl Muckenhoupt, Jim Munroe, William O'Neill, Greg Pallis, Karl Parakenings, Q. Pheevr, Sam Piip, Dan Q, Matthew Rees, Sean M. Shore, David Simon, Lucian P. Smith, Michael Sokolov, David Steltzer, Adam Thornton, Matt Weiner, David Welbourn, Matthias Wenigweiser. Any remaining flaws are my fault alone."
"Other Credits"	--	"Counterfeit Monkey uses Inform extensions by Graham Nelson, David Fisher, Aaron Reed, Jim Aikin, Gavin Lambert, Jon Ingold, and Jeff Sheets. To read a complete list of these extensions and their version information, type VERSION at the command line.	A number of other IF community members helped me trouble-shoot specific issues. Jason Dyer worked over one specific easter egg for me. Andrew Hunter and Andrew Plotkin diagnosed a problem running the game under Git. Dannii Willis and Ben Cressey helped with figuring out why UNDO wasn't working on Gargoyle. Graham Nelson provided a hashing solution that made object name comparisons run a great deal faster as the number of objects in the game climbed over 1500. Their assistance is much appreciated. The in-game maps use a variety of readily available fonts. Some of the more esoteric of these came from the HP Lovecraft Historical Society Font Pack. My sister created the Atlantida poster.	There are three cameo appearances by IF community members (or their alter egos). These people bid for the opportunity to appear, as part of a fundraiser for a heart surgery patient who was without medical insurance. They are Mark Musante, John Ferguson, and Kate McKee, and I wish to thank them again for their generosity."
"Contacting the author"	--	"Emily Short can be reached at emshort@mindspring.com. Her website, at http://emshort.wordpress.com, contains more information about this and other interactive fiction."

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