The Talisman

*Long ago, two opposing valleys joined forces to defeat a band of Orcs threatening each individual valley. Before the final battle the two rulers met and brought together the great treasures of each valley.

One valley produced a beautiful solid gold chain.The other valley brought forth a pure diamond of immense value. The two items were joined to produce a extremely beautiful and valuable talisman. It was hidden in a place only known to three fighters from each valley. If the battle was won, the talisman would be paraded and both valleys would become one. During the battle all six fighters lost their lives and the talisman was lost forever.

It is your turn to seek fortune and glory, and saying your last farewell you head off into the unknown. Traveling through forests, towns, caves and swamps you come across a small Orc camp. Three small Orcs sit by a glowing fire eating the remains of some animal. Being small you think them easy gain and draw your sword for battle. Hiding in the shadows were five other, bigger Orcs. Knocking you out, they carried you for four days as reserve food. On the forth day they became tired of hauling you around and hid you in a small cave, to call back at a later date when you became a little more decomposed and tasty.

On the fifth day you wake, tired, hungry, weak and with a hell of a headache. Crawling around you find a small puddle of water, formed by droplets of water from the roof above. Drinking the water causes a strange sensation, a warm feeling overcomes you and as you drink more, all ills are mended. You have heard of such healing springs from the bards, but have never met anyone who actually drank from one. Back to full health you decide to continue your quest... The Talisman* is a freeware adventure with RPG elements for the Amiga. The interface is entirely mouse-driven, and slightly resembles the one used on the Legend text adventures. At the top-left of the screen there is a non-interactive picture, and besides that a series of buttons with verbs:

Describe - outputs the location description that appears when you change screens;

Fight - to battle the enemy;

Operate - to manipulate some object;

Status - to show the character's statistics;

Examine - to detail some location feature or object;

Use - to utilize an object;

Get - to take an object;

Drink - to heal the character by drinking water;

Talk - to speak with a friendly character.

Below the verbs is a inventory window. On the top-right of the screen there's a compass with a button for each cardinal point. Below it two buttons for Loading and Saving the game (the game only supports one saving position), and a window with the current score and rating. The rest of the screen is occupied with text output.

The RPG part comes in the form of combat with randomly placed enemies and statistics. The enemies can pick and steal objects and change their locations. Enemies sometimes engage each other. Water pools act as health stations, where the player can restore lost points. The character can only drink when the strength statistic is very low.