THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE

HALLS OF THE THINGS

PUBLISHER
Crystal (later Design Design)

AUTHORS
Neil Mottershead (the Mott!), Simon Brattel and Martin Horsley

YEAR
1984.  A jazzed up version was shipped on the B-side of the
sequel, Return of the Things.  Inferior; play the original.

CATEGORY
Arcade adventure

DESCRIPTION
A simple but extremely challenging maze game with particularly
ratty monsters and a yummy range of traditional fantasy armaments
(lightening, fireballs, arrows, sword).  Goes for the usual "ring
collecting" objective (like you'd want to).  Difficult to get
into but rewarding if you do!

CONTROLS
Keyboard, joystick.  The keyboard controls can be redefined.

Keyboard
Z - move left
N - up
X - right
M - down
F - fireball (homing missile, takes 2 energy units)
L - lightening (random, self-destructive and FUN! 1 energy unit)
space - centre screen (vital for spotting that sneaky Thing round
the next bend)
K - keep (pick up the item you're facing.  Usually energy
potions)
D - drop (drop a pile of objects if you've picked some up.
Pointless unless you're into lego)
O - open the door you're facing
C - close door (some Things are lazy and don't bother to open
doors)
1 - display status (rings collected, energy and arrows left,
injuries etc.)
H - heal wounds (VITAL)
A - fire arrow in direction of last arrow key pressed
5 - set arrows to fire left
6 - arrows down
7 - arrows up
8 - arrows right
S - wave sword (only kills Things directly adjacent to you.  Use
for fun -
it looks obscene)

ORIGINAL INLAY CARD TEXT
(For some reason I ended up with a C64 inlay card, BOOOOH)
LOADING INSTRUCTIONS
Load using LOAD "" CODE

GENERAL PLAYING NOTES
Object of the Game
To find seven rings held in the top seven levels of the tower
(not necessarily one per level - JS), then to find the key hidden
in the bottom, or dungeon, level and escape with it.

DESCRIPTION
The tower has seven floors and one dungeon, each floor being a
complex maze of corridors and rooms.  The seven mazes are all of
different style, the most "open" being the top floor (they look
pretty similar - JS).
     Treasure and magic potions lie scattered about the mazes. 
The treasure may be collected and stored outside the maze to gain
extra points if your task is completed (this may be an
idiosyncrasy of the C64 version, BOOOOH.  We never bothered with
the treasure).  Every potion collected will add to your magic
level (vital - JS).
     The Things move about each level and will attack you on
sight.
     You are armed with the following weapons:

MAGIC WEAPONS
Fireballs and Lightning Bolts, these use up some of your magic,
and are fired only if a Thing is in (line of) sight.  Your magic
weapons will aim themselves at the nearest Thing in sight and not
yet fired on.  Lightning Bolts move in straight lines, bouncing
off walls; fireballs will follow their targets even round
corners.  Things also have fireballs and lightning bolts.

ARROWS
These are fired in the direction set by the arrow direction keys,
and will fire even if no Thing is in sight.  Things can also fire
arrows.

VORPAL SWORD
The only weapon unique to you.  It will be drawn in the direction
you are facing.

CONTROLS
The following are a full list of the control keys and their
functions.  You don't need to be familiar with all of them to
play "HALLS", it just helps.  They are placed in rough order of
importance.  

Keyboard, joystick 

Keyboard
Z - move left
N - up
X - right
M - down
F - fireball (homing missile, takes 2 energy units)
L - lightening (random, self-destructive and FUN! 1 energy unit)
space - centre screen (vital for spotting that sneaky Thing round
the next bend)
K - keep (pick up the item you're facing.  Usually energy
potions)
D - drop (drop a pile of objects if you've picked some up.
Pointless unless you're into lego)
O - open the door you're facing
C - close door (some Things are lazy and don't bother to open
doors)
1 - display status (rings collected, energy and arrows left,
injuries etc.)
H - heal wounds (VITAL)
A - fire arrow in direction of last arrow key pressed
5 - set arrows to fire left
6 - arrows down
7 - arrows up
8 - arrows right
S - wave sword (only kills Things directly adjacent to you.  Use
for fun -
it looks obscene)


HINTS, TIPS & WARNINGS
When rounding a corner, release a fireball or lightning bolt to
see if the coast is clear.  Lightning bolts are useful for
clearing an area of Things if fired in groups, but beware they
also wound you.

Use arrow when you are almost certain to hit; this will conserve
your magic.

Try to avoid getting in line with a Thing at close range, as
arrows are deadly over a short distance.  When healing always
leave some magic for combat.  Things can open doors and keep your
treasure and potions.  They also have a nasty habit of disguising
themselves as treasure, only revealing their true identity when
they can see you.

Display your status as much as possible as wounds gained,
especially from arrows, can be very deceiving.

Finally, in the immortal words of Simon Brattel, "Basically
things are much better at Halls than you are!".

Hints/Cheats, including pokes, hidden games, walk-throughs etc...

To open the dungeon before you've got all the rings press "2"
then "space".  A good fun thing is to go into the dungeon at the
start (contains about 35 Things) and just let rip with loads of
lightning and fireballs.  It's like being a thunder god!!! 
Follow up with arrows, then let the last one or two Things chase
you until they run out of weapons.  You can then slice them
with your sword, imprison them with treasure and all sorts of
other nasty things.  I stress this is purely for fun and doesn't
help with the game at all!  Watch out for what we used to call
"ratty" Things.  These move at blinding speed and nail you with
everything they've got.  Sometimes you can be dead before you
even see them.  The most fun thing is to let a ratty one run out
of ammo - it really upsets 'em.  The only way to succeed at HOTT
is to play CAREFULLY.  Be ready to run for the safety of the
stairs at the slightest whiff of trouble!  In 2 years of playing
every day (almost) my friend and I beat it once each.  We got
bored of it after that.


HACKING GUIDES 
Don't.  Simon Brattel is smarter than you are.

SEQUELS/PREQUELS
Return of the Things.  Similar style, more varied, less playable. 
Only available by mail order as far as I know.

URL 
ftp://sunsite.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/OS/sinclair/

GENERAL FACTS

NOTES