Playing Apple ][ BD in a Windows World

This document is a quickie guide to playing BD using the AppleWin
emulator. Please note that this is the original BD, NOT the new
game we're working on. For full instructions, refer to the BD
manual (available on the Bronze Dragon web page).  Incidentally,
the AppleWin Emulator eliminates the biggest hassle of the
original BD --- swapping lots of floppy disks and waiting through
lengthy load times.

Overview

BD is a text adventure game, but if "Zork" springs to mind, forget
it. There's no parser (it's menu driven) and it's got combat. We
were trying to one-up Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.  BD has 1
module (Seekers of the Storm) and 20 plots.  The module is a pre-
designed adventure with a complex story line.  The plots, on the
other hand, have randomly generated castle/dungeons with a few
special rooms and monsters that provide the story line.

Historical Note

BD was never a big deal in the Apple world.  The timing was bad
for a non-graphic game because the Wizardry and Ultima series were 
all the rage, and many people were turned off by parser text games 
with unfair puzzles.  It was hard to market a text game that was
NOT a parser puzzle deal.  Even so, BD had a cult following that 
bordered on zealotry and considerable respect in the role-playing 
community.  The funny thing is that BD has aged better than many 
of the more successful Apple games.  They went for flashy graphics 
and sound while BD went for depth.

Starting Out

"Put" the Bronze disk in drive 1.  To minimize the disk switching, 
you should put the Character disk in drive 2.  When BD prompts you 
for the Character disk, just press 2.  Switch the other disks in 
drive 1 as necessary.

You have two decisions when starting the game:  

Do I make my own characters or use the pre-made ones?

Do I play the module or one of the beginner's plots? 

The Interface

During the game play, each character get his own "turn," but that 
they generally move as a group.  Browse the section on commands in 
the manual.  The space bar toggles between the normal commands and 
each character's special commands (i.e. the special command for 
Knights is Swordplay).

Quick Start

You start out on the Main Menu.  To get a feel for BD, let's 
assume that you want to use the pre-made characters and play the 
module.  Follow these steps:

Select the copy module command and follow the prompts.

Select the gather party command and follow the prompts.

The select Go on an adventure.

Use the left/right arrow keys and the Enter key to select 
commands.  The leave command moves the party from room to room.

For more information, comments, or questions, contact us at

Web Page: http://www.iquest.net/~adamw
E-Mail:   adamw@iquest.net