                               The Island



(c) 1989/90 by Christian Machens / Version 1.0

To introduce the program, let us make do with a sentence in a foreign
tongue:
IN ORDER TO SOLVE THE ADVENTURE THE ADVENTURER TELLS THE PARSER HIS
COMMANDS.

Let us take a closer look at this sentence, which undoubtedly springs
from the English language. Remember that, a long time ago, we once
learned this gobbledygook, or perhaps we are still learning it now.
As mere laymen, let us first try to translate this sentence, which is
positively riddled with foreign-looking words, one word at a time.
For this, we should dredge up from the depths of our brains our scant
memories of the language of the Romans, insofar as we may have learned
it, or indeed may not have learned it, as it were. In this way,
we should now be able to translate the trickier words according
to their meaning:

IN ORDER TO, doubtless one of the easier combinations of words, means
in plain English: IN ORDER TO.
SOLVE, this too we can translate directly: SOLVE.
THE ADVENTURE: the Latin origin of this word fairly leaps into the
expert's eye. But the practised Latin scholar will never associate
this word with Father Christmas. Instead, he will apply the most
obvious word from the Latin language. Let us recall:
Latin adventoria - WELCOME FEAST.
THE ADVENTURER: clearly a word of similar origin, namely Latin
adventor - STRANGER.
TELLS, we know this one: TELLS.
THE PARSER: parser, parsley - PARSLEY. We know that.
HIS COMMANDS: this word also comes from the Romans: Latin com - TOGETHER,
and mands (sounds like almonds), mands, Latin mando, mandere - TO EAT,
therefore: EATING ALMONDS.
Let us collect the results so far. Our translation now reads
as follows:
IN ORDER TO SOLVE WELCOME FEAST STRANGER TELLS PARSLEY TOGETHER ALMONDS
EAT.
This cannot, of course, be the finished version. But the shoals of
English grammar may give us some room to manoeuvre, so that we might
put it together something like this:
IN ORDER TO SOLVE THE WELCOME FEAST, THE STRANGER TELLS OF PARSLEY AND
EATS ALMONDS TOGETHER.
Grammatically correct, but it still makes no sense. Solving hardly
seems to fit a welcome feast. But solve, old Latin loedus for ludus,
quite clearly: bread and games, therefore play. Nor can one tell of
parsley, but: Latin petro - OLD RAM, and Latin silanus - FLAT-NOSED,
and everything begins to make sense. Replace almonds with marbles
and swap eating for playing, and we obtain:
IN ORDER TO EAT THE WELCOME FEAST, THE STRANGER TELLS OF FLAT-NOSED
OLD RAMS AND PLAYS MARBLES.
That should make it quite clear what the sentence above means, and
you, dear reader, have now seen that with a knowledge of Latin
(no, really, eh?) you can translate absolutely anything.

Further explanations follow...







Now that the purpose of the program has been explained in lavish detail,
here are a few more unimportant notes for the keener adventure fanatic:
The parser understands complete English sentences (in command form),
without pointless flourishes:
-"Would you please take the money from the gentleman's wallet..."
  can be put just as well like this:
-"Take the man's money from the wallet"
  or even
-"Take man money from wallet",
although it is no longer quite clear whether the man is to come out
of the money or the money out of the man. It is therefore sometimes
wise to include the articles. Naturally, such lovely long sentences
are quite pointless, so the adventure itself makes do with the usual
four-word combinations, for example: "Take money from wallet." Separate
sentences can be joined with AND and/or a comma, as can individual
parts of a sentence. For example:
"Take the money, the passport, the driving licence from the wallet and
drop the money."
This is especially useful when entering several directions in succession,
to spare yourself the redrawing of the pictures:
N,E,S,W,N,E,S,W,N,E,S,W (Where might you end up this time?)
Games can be saved with "SAVE GAME" and restored with "LOAD GAME".
To list the things you carry about, use I for INVENTORY, according to
good old adventure tradition. The directions in which you can walk
are shown at the top right; other directions do not exist
(usually!).
One more point about operation: the keyboard buffer is never cleared,
so do not type too much in advance! Use the English spellings shown
by the game. And one more thing: for simplicity's sake, you must type
"MISTERX" rather than "MISTER X".
Finally, it should be mentioned that this whole affair took just a
little time, too. If you have anything to say, ask or complain about,
or a stomach ache, or a collar that chafes, or have been fed up for days
(ah, I could keep blathering on like this for hours), then write
to me:

Christian Machens
Nelkenweg 4, 6140 Bensheim

Enclose a stamped, addressed envelope, or anything else with postage,
and you will even get a reply. Add a medium-sized green banknote,
namely twenty Deutsche Mark, and you will even receive a disk
with the solution and the source code in Pascal.
