SAN ARTEIXO DE MONTALVO

The first time I came to this village and met its inhabitants, 
I realized that something strange was haunting their minds. 
That evening, the air was so cold that I could even feel it 
inside my bones. Everybody began to return to their homes, 
locking their doors tight for the night, hoping not be 
surprised defenseless against their most horrifying terrors.

It seemed that these people had no soul, that they had turned 
away from God, abandoned themselves to superstition.

I tried hard to forget that feeling, but my partner could not. 
He was younger and not yet mastered his terrors. However, my 
main concern was to find a place to spend the night. I wasn't 
worried about monsters nor demons, but the cold: another night 
sleeping rough and my bones would be rankling all the way 
to Santiago.


WAVERING BETWEEN FAITH AND SUPERSTITION

The thin line between these two concepts is very easy to cross. 
Both are blind beliefs, without fundaments. Everyone can choose 
between believe or not believe, and that makes faith and 
superstition being so far apart and yet so close.

I remember talking to the people of this town gave me bad vibes. 
Their fears passed through me and, sometimes, unless I was able 
to keep calm, I began to see the same things as them, to be able 
to pass through where I couldn't before, to wake up at a cave 
entrance without knowing how I got there.

The best way to forget everything was praying in a holy place, 
reinforcing my faith and taking myself away from those thoughts. 
Then, reality shown before my eyes, and I clearly felt that 
there was no strange places nor otherworldly beings.

But I always feared of completely losing my faith and my sanity, 
let me be deceived by that collection of pagan beliefs, myths 
and characters, abandoning forever everything that could link 
me with my previous life.

I'll not tell you what happened until I could control myself, 
because I'm still doubting about what was real and what was 
merely a product of my imagination.

  
CONTROLS

Joystick: Kempston , Sinclair 1 and 2

 Start Game - Fire Button
 Walk - Joystick directions
 Fire - Fire Button

KEYBOARD:

 Start Game - Space or M
 Walk - POQA (Right, left , up and down respectively).
 Fire - Space or M

 OTHER CONTROLS :
 Reset Game - G and answer affirmatively (Y)
 Pause Game - G and answer negatively (N)

 "Fire" control lets you interact with objects or characters 
 in front of you. To get objects, simply walk over them.


CONTINUING THE GAME

Finishing the game can take a while, so we've divided the story 
into chapters, and each one will give you a password to resume 
the game later.

Passwords will differ depending on the objects you've taken and 
actions you've made. That's why you'll probably obtain different 
keys in different games.

To restore a game using a password, press key "R" on the title 
screen, type the password and then press "ENTER". If the password 
is valid, the game will resume. If not, the game will return 
to the title screen.


THE HISTORY OF THE GAME

This game comes from a script made in 1994. That original script 
began to be coded as Text Adventure on PC with NMP parser, but even 
as it reached very advanced stages of development, it was never 
completed and went to sleep in a folder during loooong years.

Then, we thought about recoding it as Text Adventure, firstly on 
CEZGS, and then on RetroWorks, and finally we deciced to use 
the actual gameplay system.


CREDITS

 Original script: Benway
 Adaptation and game design: Pagantipaco and Benway

 Coding: Benway
 Graphic art and cover: Pagantipaco
 Loading screen: NeilParsons
 Music: Benway and Mikomedes

 Testing: All RetroWorks team, Traperic and Daniel Canales Llera.

 This program uses the following routines: "Wyzplayer" AY Player (Wyz), 
 "Exomizer" decompressor (Metalbrain, A. Villena and Urusergi), 
 and "PenText" text decompressor (Benway and Metalbrain).
  

DEDICATION

Benway:
 The original text adventure was dedicated to Esther Peralta, 
 and it's fair to keep it. In addition, I have to include 
 the two best and most demanding beta-testers this game had: 
 Nicolás and Elena García Rengel, not forgetting Miguel Garcia 
 Rengel.  And, of course, as in all my previous games, nothing 
 would have been possible without María Rengel Arribas. I also 
 want to thank Pagantipaco for developing the original script 
 as far as I could never have done alone, and making this game 
 to become what it is.

Pagantipaco:
 Publicly thanks Benway for accepting the challenge of changing 
 the design of his game, my dream has come true in Spectrum to 
 create a title that reflects many of my references. Thanks 
 Retroworks team for their support, time and contributions. 
 Thanks to everyone who has come to us in person and through 
 social networks giving us their support, reviews, and patience. 
 I specially want to dedicate this game to José Manuel Saura 
 who has encouraged me from the beginning to the end and beyond.