Walkthrough for

                             The Golden Chalice

                               by Alan Davis
                          Published in ZX Computing
                           in August/October 1984

                           Written by Richard Bos


  First, a few notes. 
  
  To start with, this is a BASIC text adventure for the ZX Spectrum, which was
published in ZX Computing in two parts, in the August/September and October/
November issues of 1984. It was such a large listing that they had to publish
it in two parts, and for a BASIC adventure, it's quite good. It's not as fast
as one might wish, of course, but it's of reasonable size, if not massive.
There are 54 rooms, 14 takeable objects and 25 non-takeable ones - I've played
PAWed games with less than that.
  The vocabulary is both better and worse than one might expect. There are no
common synonyms. The game demands that you use "take" and "drop" rather than
"get" and "put", which might be the only words for which this restriction is
truly, erm, restrictive - not recognising "consume" for "eat", or not knowing
"wear" at all when there are no wearable objects, is no real problem, if you
ask me. On the other hand, several scenery objects are, if not useful, at least
recognised, which is more than you can say of some commercial attempts.
  Note also that the game does require that you type all commands in lower case
only. "Take Sword" will not be recognised; "take sword" will. This should be no
problem unless you are shift happy, but just in case, I've kept to lower case
in all commands below. On a similar note, only the first three letters of any
word are significant, and any word between the first (verb) and the last (noun)
is ignored in its entirety (allowing for, e.g., "take the sword"), but, and
this is a major pain unless you know about it, there are a few exceptions.
One, the direction commands and "i" demand you use a single letter - "east" and
"inventory" will not work. Two, some single-word commands, for some reason,
demand that you type the entire word. These are "stop" (which does not stop,
but restart from the beginning), "look", "wait" and "dismount". The first two
are optional, but you do need the latter two - so remember that, even if you
can type "tak swo", you must enter these two commands in full.
  Obviously, this is a walkthrough, not an alternative to reading the listings.
I'm not taking you past every single clue and sight; in fact, I'm taking you
past none. As far as I can figure out, the walkthrough below is minimal. Some
commands may be done in a different order, but they're all necessary. On the
other hand, I have (quite intentionally - that is the price you pay for reading
walkthroughs!) left out quite a few commands which would explain why you take
certain actions. If you want more hints, most are there in the game, if you
explore for yourself and examine relevant objects. I will, however, give you
two clues, one relevant, one merely amusing. For the relevant, the woman in the
hut is not very clear, and yet she may enlighten your way. This is important if
you want to find out everything in the game for yourself, and not get lost. For
the amusing, there are three (count'em: three! And that in a BASIC game!)
graphic displays in this game. One is the starting screen. The other you will
(of necessity) encounter when you follow the walkthrough. The last you need not
see at all - but you can, if you wish, by examining an out-of-the-way object.
  
  So, let's take up our quest.

open chest, take purse.
e, s, buy food, n, n, buy horse, drop purse.
s, e, e, e, e, s, s, e.
wait, s, take goblet, n, n, n, n, n, w, n.
take water, give water, take sword, s, s, e, e.
s, <press space>, mount horse, n, s, dismount, e.
eat food, e, d, d.
fight ogre (and repeat until it leaves), drop sword.
e, s, take bench, w, w, drop bench.
stand on bench, examine ledge, take key.
n, e, u, e.
open door (Door? What door? The walkthrough door!), drop key.
d, e, s, examine crack.
take boat, take oars, n, e, row boat.
u, u, e, d, open door, e.
open curtain, take chalice, drink liquid, drop chalice.
w, u, w, call eagle.
w, u, w, u, w, w, w, n, w, w, w, w.

 And now you're immortal and eternal king. How touching that the game presumes
that you would use your immortality for the sake of good...