THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

TUTORIAL · TIFE CORE 1.1.3 · VERSION 1.0.0

This is a parser adventure: you read what is happening and answer with short commands. Everything in it can also be played with the mouse, using the buttons under the story window. Nothing you need is hidden behind typing.

1. How to begin

Launch the game from the Tronsoft Games library. The story cover appears first, with two optional switches:

Enable story narration — reads the story aloud using your browser's speech voices.
Enable Martian ambience — the procedural soundscape. Both can be changed later.

Press GO OUT TO THE COMMON. You begin in your study at Maybury, outside Woking, on the morning after the first cylinder fell. Type HELP at any time for the command list, and HINT whenever you are stuck.

2. Controls

Type into the command bar and press ENTER, or use the four button rows beneath it: ACTIONS (choose a verb, then pick a target from the CONTEXT row), DIRECTIONS (only the exits that exist here), and SYSTEM.

Purpose	Commands
Movement	`N` `S` `E` `W` `U` `D`, or `GO NORTH`
Looking	`LOOK` · `EXAMINE X` (`X X`) · `READ X` · `SEARCH X`
Handling	`TAKE X` · `DROP X` · `USE X` · `USE X ON Y` · `OPEN X` · `CLOSE X`
People	`TALK TO X` — characters say something new each time, so ask more than once
Waiting	`WAIT` (`Z`) — some scenes advance on their own
Records	`INVENTORY` · `JOURNAL` · `QUESTS` · `ACHIEVEMENTS` · `STATS` · `SCORE`
System	`HINT` · `SAVE name` · `RESTORE name` · `TRANSCRIPT` · `RESTART` · `ABOUT`

3. Turn order

One command is one turn. Anything that changes the world — moving, taking, using, searching, talking, waiting — advances the clock; consulting your own records does not. After each turn the world acts: characters move on their own schedules, machines come nearer, and scenes you have started carry on whether you are ready or not. The MOVES counter in the title bar is the turn count.

4. Movement and the map

The EXITS panel on the left lists every way out of the room and where it leads. The WORLD MAP panel on the right draws the country as you discover it: dotted cells are places you have not reached, [brackets] mark where you are standing, and lines are the connections you have used.

Some exits are shut, and the refusal always tells you why — a dark road needs a horse, a burning bank needs a river, a wall of clay needs a tool. That sentence is the puzzle.

5. Scoring

There is no combat in this story; you cannot fight a fighting-machine, and the game will not let you pretend otherwise. You score by surviving well and observing carefully — 150 points in total:

50 points for the eight objects worth carrying (some are optional, and skipping them only costs points, never the ending).
100 points for story achievements: seeing the tenth flash, watching the cylinder open, getting clear of the Heat-Ray, reaching Leatherhead, surviving Shepperton, crossing the Black Smoke, what the crack at Sheen shows you, digging out, hearing the artilleryman through, the cry over London, Primrose Hill, and the walk home.

The seven entries in the QUEST LOG track the story itself; the fourteen ACHIEVEMENTS track the moments. An optimal run scores 150 in 54 moves.

6. Winning

You win by reaching Maybury Hill again, alive, after you have learned what happened to the Martians. The last quest does not open until you have stood in the redoubt on Primrose Hill and seen it for yourself. Then the story ends and the transcript is yours to keep.

7. Losing

Two places will kill you, and both warn you first, in amber text. When the story tells you to move or to get down, it means this turn — not next turn.

In general: do not stay at the rim of the pit once the lid is off, and do not remain standing when a Heat-Ray starts playing on water. If you die, the ending text names the mistake and invites RESTART.

Nothing else can strand you. There is no way to reach a point where the story cannot be finished: optional items cost points, never the ending, and every one-way passage checks that you are equipped before it lets you through.

8. Saving and restarting

SAVE stores a slot named quick; SAVE sheen names it yourself.
RESTORE sheen brings it back, or use SAVE MANAGER to list, restore and delete slots.
RESTART begins again from the study, clearing score, moves, journal and achievements.
TRANSCRIPT shows everything printed so far and can download it as a text file.

Saves live in this browser's local storage, under a key belonging to this game alone. They are not shared between browsers, devices, or private windows.

9. Accessibility

The ACCESSIBILITY button offers six profiles — standard, low vision, blind / screen reader, hard of hearing, motor assistance, cognitive support — and individual switches for narration, captions, text size, contrast, larger controls, simplified layout and reduced motion. Choices are saved on this device. Audio is optional throughout, and every puzzle can be solved without hearing anything.

10. First five minutes

SEARCH DESK, then TAKE NOTEBOOK and TAKE PURSE.
WEST to the observatory; USE TELESCOPE; TALK OGILVY.
EAST, EAST to Horsell Common, then EAST again into the sand pit.
SEARCH CYLINDER — and then do exactly what the amber text tells you.

After that, the story will be asking you a question you already know the answer to: there is someone at home who has not been told.