The first ten minutes

Everything you need to start, and nothing that would spoil the rest.

You play John Carter. You type what he does; the story answers. If you have never played a parser adventure before, the only thing you have to know is that the game is listening for plain instructions — look at the bench, talk to tars tarkas, go up — and that it will tell you when it does not understand.

Try this first

The story opens at the bottom of the world with a fifteen-foot green man in it who has been here eleven days longer than you have.

> look Where you are, what is here, and which way you can go. Free: it costs no turn.

> examine grass Most of this story is hidden inside things. Examine everything the room mentions; it is the single habit that makes the difference.

> talk to tars tarkas People have more than one thing to say. Talk to them again, and again, until they start repeating themselves — the last thing somebody says is usually the useful one.

> take charm Four small things in this game are worth five points each and are easy to walk past. This is one of them.

> east Compass directions move you. EXITS lists what is open; the panel on the right has a button for each.

When you get stuck

Type HINT. Ask once for a nudge, twice for a clear direction, and a third time for the exact command. It costs nothing and is not counted against you. There are 23 hint ladders and every room in the game has one, so you will never be left without an answer.

If a command is not understood, the game says so and suggests something close. Nothing is ever lost by trying.

The eight verbs this story adds

Beyond the usual ones, this story understands eight verbs of its own. They are on the buttons under the command line as well, so there is nothing to memorise. TELL is the important one: it is how John Carter takes a religion apart, and it only works on something you have witnessed yourself, so it rewards reading everything.

TELL	TELL - say what you have seen. It is the only weapon that works down here.
FEIGN	FEIGN - put on what you are carrying and be taken for something you are not.
CLIMB	CLIMB - go up something that was not meant to be gone up.
DIVE	DIVE - go into water, from a height, deliberately.
SWEAR	SWEAR - give your word, or take somebody else's.
FREE	FREE - get somebody out of somewhere.
CHALLENGE	CHALLENGE - say it to their face, in front of everybody.
SIGNAL	SIGNAL - make yourself understood at a distance.

What you are playing for

There are 150 points: 8 objectives worth fifteen each, one optional objective worth ten, and four keepsakes worth five each. A complete game runs about 73 moves. Taking only what you must takes about 55.

Four commands will get Tara killed. Each one is warned in the room text before you can reach it, and RESTORE or RESTART always works afterwards. The game will not let you make it unwinnable by accident.

Housekeeping

SAVE 1	Save to slot 1. Three slots, kept in this browser.
RESTORE 1	Go back to it.
SCORE	Points so far and what is still unclaimed.
QUESTS	What has been asked of you.
SETTINGS	Accessibility profile, text size, motion, captions, sound, narration.
HELP	All of it, in the game.

Press Escape at any time to put the cursor back in the command line, and use the up and down arrows to walk back through what you have already typed.

Reference

Everything above in one place, for looking up rather than reading.

How to begin	Open `index.html`, then choose Enter the story on the cover screen. Audio and narration are separate optional buttons; neither is needed to finish. You start in the Valley Dor with Tars Tarkas.
Controls	Type a command and press `Enter`, or use the buttons under the command line, which cover every verb the game knows. `↑` and `↓` walk back through what you have typed. `Esc` returns focus to the command line. `Tab` reaches every control. No mouse is required, and no keyboard is required either.
Turn order	You act, then the story answers. One command is one turn. `LOOK`, `HINT`, `SCORE` and the other housekeeping commands are free and do not consume a turn. Nothing in this game happens on a clock, so thinking, reading and asking cost you nothing at all.
Movement	The compass directions `N NE E SE S SW W NW` plus `UP DOWN IN OUT`. `EXITS` lists what is open from where you are, and the Ways on panel has a button for each. Some ways are closed until you have a reason to use them; the game says so rather than pretending they are not there.
Scoring	One hundred and fifty points. Fifteen for each of eight objectives, ten for one optional objective, and five each for four keepsakes that are easy to walk past. There is no combat to resolve: this is a story about testimony, and the sword is the least useful thing you pick up.
Winning	Take the whole machine apart, get the third alcove open, and reach the Temple of the Sun. The ending is the one Burroughs wrote in 1913, and the last thing you do is `WAIT`.
Losing	Four commands end the story in John Carter's death. Each is warned in the room text before you can reach it, and none can be stumbled into while doing something sensible. Death is never final: `RESTORE` and `RESTART` always work, and the game cannot be made unwinnable by accident.
Saving and restarting	`SAVE 1`, `SAVE 2`, `SAVE 3` and `RESTORE 1-3`, or the buttons in the Save and restore panel. Saves are kept in this browser on this machine only and nothing is uploaded. `RESTART` begins again from the Valley Dor without touching your saves.