In this game you are in complete control and the computer is merely your puppet as you give it instructions which might aid you in your quest. The computer has a tremendous vocabulary, although it only understands sentences of one or two words. In most cases this is a verb and a noun such as "CLIMB TREE". In many cases one word suffices such as "UP", "NORTH", "LEFT" or "WEST". Directions may even be abbreviated to a single character: N(ORTH), S(OUTH), E(AST), W(EST), U(P) and D(OWN). At times a direction isn't sufficient to let the computer know where you wish to go. At these times try moving toward something such as "GO TREE" or "GO CAVE" etc. In all cases do not become frustrated, instead think of a way to explain to the computer what it is you desire and it will do its best to comply.
The world around you
As you travel you may encounter objects which might serve you on your journey to save the earth. You may direct the computer to get or take these items. For example, explosives might be useful in blowing up an Asteroid. To find what you're carrying at any time, type "INVENTORY", or simply "INV".
A few hints
Cranston Manor is not a game that will be solved at one sitting. Even slight progress may take weeks depending on your creativity, mood, and experience as an adventurer. Involve the rest of your family, make sure you try to go every direction from every place you visit. A wise adventurer would keep a map of the places he has visited and so should you. Do not be afraid to experiment. You can not hurt or otherwise blow up the program by trying new things.
The graphics
Each place you visit as you travel will be displayed on the screen in color. Below the picture will be a brief description of where you are. At times if you ask the computer for a closer look at some portion of the picture (such as a knot on a tree) it will comply with a close-up if it thinks there's something that might help you. You will notice that if you drop things they will appear as part of the picture as they would if you dropped them while walking. The computer only provides for four lines of text on the display. If a message to be output is longer than this, you will hear a beep and the computer will hold up additional output until you press return. If you wish to review your dialogue with the computer, you may press return without typing anything thereby causing it to display the last twenty four lines of your conversation. To resume play, simply press return again.
Saving your adventure
If you desire to resume your game at a later time, you must let the computer know so that it can save your game for later play. Games are saved on a diskette other than the one with the gold label (On-Line Systems release). choose any initiated diskette you have and label it "ADVENTURE SAVED GAME DISK". Hi-Res Adventure does not use the standard Apple disk operating system and will blindly clobber any data you may have on the disk, therefore, make sure you pick a completely unneeded disk. To request that your game be saved, simply type "SAVE GAME". You will be prompted for a letter from A to O under which to save the game. This is so that you may have several games saved at once. To resume play, boot the disk as always then type "RESTORE GAME". You will be asked for the letter under which you saved the game. Do not be alarmed if the first time you save under a given letter the drive makes a strange sound. This is just its way of saying that the portion of disk being written to has never had data before.
