The Pawn

The Pawn
General
Author	papafuji
Type	Adventure
Version	1.51
License	Mixed
Last Updated	2007/02/21
Links
Download
Website

The Pawn is a graphic text adventure originally developed by Magnetic Scrolls, ported to the Nintendo DS, as the Nintendo DS Classic Adventures series.

The Nintendo DS Classic Adventures series contains a range of text and graphic classic adventure games and interactive fictions ported to NDS created in the 80's for old computer like the TRS-80, ZX Spectrum, Acorn Electron, Commodore 64, Atari 8 bits or 16 bits machines like the Atari ST or the Amiga.

The collection was ported to the NDS by papafuji, divided into 3 categories (see complete list):

• Classic Graphic Adventures.
• Magnetic Scrolls Adventures.
• Classic Text Adventures.

This homebrew was under the category of Magnetic Scrolls Adventure, which contains 7 graphic adventures developed by Magnetic Scrolls between 1985 and 1990 with the original Amiga bitmap graphics.

Installation

Download and extract file.

DLDI patch .nds file (since version 1.5) and copy it to the root directory of the card.

User guide

All games from the Classic Adventure series have the same interface (stories on the top screen and text inputs on the bottom screen), and can be played exactly the same way.

Gameplay

You were knocked unconscious and awakens in the fairy land of Kerovnia, with a silver bracelet around your wrist that cannot be removed. A general election is about to be held to decide whether King Erik will be replaced by a dwarf whose campaign promise is to "rid dungeons of mazes of any sort". You must interact with others and perform tasks for them, gathering objects that will be needed for later tasks in order to escape from Kerovnia and return to reality.

Input text

• There are two ways to type words with the stylus of your Nintendo DS.
  • By default, you can directly draw the letters on the screen, according to the PA-Grafiti alphabet.
  • Second way is to use the mini keyboard or the numerical keyboard.

Icons

• To avoid typing always the same things, the most used orders can be called via the icons.
• Each icon has two or three states, for example:
  • The hand means GET, DROP and GIVE.
  • The N button means GO NORTH and GO UP.
• Just pick an icon twice or more to select the good order.

Vocabulary

• A sentence in these games is defined by a verb + a noun, such as OPEN DOOR, GO NORTH, etc.
• Some sentences can have only one word, e.g. INVENTORY (to see what you're carrying) or SCORE (to see your score).
• Each game has its own vocabulary, but a lot a verbs are common to all the games.
• In many cases, you don't have to write the entire word, only the first letters are necessary. For example:
  • G HELM is equivalent to GET HELMET.
  • CLIM DRAWB is equivalent to CLIMB DRAWBRIDGE.

List of the most common words
GO	ENTER	CLIMB	SWIM
HELP	LOOK	EXAMINE	GET
DROP	THROW	​CAST	WEAR
REMOVE	OPEN	CLOSE	LOCK
UNLOCK	BREAK	CUT	CHOP
SAY	KILL
Shortcuts	Actions
N S E W	GO NORTH, GO SOUTH, GO EAST and GO WEST.
NE NW SE SW	NORTH-EAST, NORTH-WEST, etc (Level9 and Frotz games).
H	HELP.
I	INVENTORY.
X	EXAMINE (in classic games), EXITS (in Level 9 games).
G	GET (or AGAIN for Inform/Frotz games).
L	LOOK.
SV	SAVE.
LD	LOAD.
R	RESTORE.

Word completion

• Draw a slash / in the middle of the word, the game engine will try to complete it with the latest words that have been printed on the screen.
• You can draw this slash until you find the good word to continue. Example:

 You are in the kitchen, you see a can wooden bench, 
 a bottle of wine, and a cute babe... 

 >CLIMB ON B - draw a slash here completes to:
 >CLIMB ON BABE - draw another slash here completes to:
 >CLIMB ON BOTTLE - draw another slash here completes to:
 >CLIMB ON BENCH - that's fine.

Controls

X - Swap keyboard and grafiti input modes

Y/A - YES, Valid (v1.2 and +)

B - NO, Erase text (v1.2 and +)

L/R - Change image size (Level 9 and Magnetic games only)

Start/Select - Save, Restore, Pause, Exit the game

Screenshots

Online emulator

Can use gamepad or customise in the control settings.

Nintendo DS	Keyboard

Credits

Author - Magnetic Scrolls

1st release - 1986

Game engine - Magnetic v2.2

External links

• Author's website - http://gugusse.central.free.fr/papafuji/adventures.html