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************************* THE HOBBIT FAQ/WALKTHRU ***********************
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Commodore 64 Text Adventure released 1982 UK
WALKTHROUGH/FAQ (version 1.0) 28/11/2001
Author - falsehead (Sophie Cheshire). Contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Copyright stuff; If you wish to use this FAQ on your website, feel free to do
so under the following conditions. a) You email me first and let me know where
it will be appearing and b) you do not alter the content in anyway (if you need
to change the formatting slightly for display purposes that's OK).
If I find out that any part of this FAQ has been lifted and used without credit
to me, especially if you use it to earn money, then I will be annoyed. I didn't
type all this up for the good of my health you know.
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********************************* CONTENTS *****************************
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1) INTRODUCTION/REVISION HISTORY
2) GAME INFORMATION
3) GAME LANGUAGE
4) FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
5) WALKTHROUGH
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************************ INTRODUCTION/REVISIONS *************************
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INTRODUCTION - The Hobbit on the Commodore 64 is a classic text adventure.
Although it is ancient and crude by today's standards, its one of the first
games I became totally hooked on as a kid. It's based on the novel "The
Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien, which was a prequel to the "Lord of the Rings"
trilogy. The game actually follows the plot of the book quite faithfully and
if you have never read The Hobbit, I recommend you seek out a copy. It's a
wonderful, light-hearted fantasy adventure that sets the scene for the events
of the darker books that followed.
You play a hobbit called Bilbo Baggins, you are on a quest to retrieve treasure
from an evil dragon called Smaug. To help you in your quest is a dwarf called
Thorin and the wizard Gandalf. Along the way you will meet Gollum and discover
the Ring of Invisibility that proves so important in the "Lord of the Rings".
If you are at all into Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum or any other computer systems
from the early eighties this is a classic you really must seek out. I have
found copies of it relatively easily in second-hand dealerships. It also came
out across several different formats in the various countries it was released
in. I have included a full list of platforms and variations in game
information section of this guide.
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REVISIONS - Version 1.0 (28/11/2001) Wrote up walkthrough and gameplay FAQ,
command list and language guide and basic info on the game and its history.
I hope to add more info on getting a 100% completion score and how the
percentage scoring works in the next version. Also hope to get more history of
the game and the various versions.
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************************** 2) GAME INFORMATION **************************
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The Hobbit - Illustrated Text Adventure
Date of first release: 1982 (UK)
Platforms: Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Oric - 1, MSX, BBC B
Produced by: Beam Software
Distributor: Melbourne House
Written by: Philip Mitchell, Veronika Megler et al
Adapted from: The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien
Availability: Long out of production, but Beam Software has licensed it for
distribution as Freeware.
In the United States, the game was released under the title "The Hobbit
Software Adventure". This was a longer version and was released on the
Commodore 64, MS-DOS and Macintosh.
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************************** 3) GAME LANGUAGE *****************************
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The Hobbit had, for the time, quite an advanced language recognition system.
To progress though the game you have to use words from the game dictionary to
interact with other characters and objects. The following words are the only
ones the game will recognize when used in conjunction with words from the game.
Some can be shortened, so for example instead of typing DOWN, you can just
type D.
GAME DICTIONARY
Movements:
DOWN D, EAST E, NORTH N, NORTHEAST NE, NORTHWEST NW, SOUTH S,
SOUTHEAST SE, SOUTHWEST SW, UP U, WEST W.
Special verbs:
EXAMINE, HELP, INVENTORY I, LOAD, LOOK L, NOPRINT, PAUSE, PRINT,
QUIT, SAVE, SCORE.
DICTIONARY
Action verbs:
BREAK, CLIMB, CLOSE, CROSS, DIG, DROP, DRINK, EMPTY, ENTER, EAT,
FILL, FOLLOW, GIVE, GO, KILL, LOCK, PICK, PUT, OPEN, RUN, SAY,
SHOOT, SWIM, TIE, TAKE, THROW, TURN, UNLOCK, UNTIE, WEAR.
Prepositions:
ACROSS, AT, FROM, IN, INTO, ON, OUT, OFF, THROUGH, TO, UP, WITH
Adverbs:
CAREFULLY, GENTLY, QUICKLY, SOFTLY, VICIOUSLY
COMMUNICATING WITH THE GAME
You can only talk to the game in a certain way. You have to use the words in
the right order and be quite specific or the game will not understand. Here
are some examples, I have quoted them directly from the manual as I think they
are quite sweetly written and do get the point across direct from the game
designers mouth! The designers invented a new name for this "computer speak" -
INGLISH (not ENGLISH), I have NO idea why, but it sounds cool and it's not a
misprint!
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THE RULES OF INGLISH
With the help of this program, your program is now able to talk
to you in INGLISH. What's more, you will be able to talk to the
computer in INGLISH, and it will understand what you say!
INGLISH is the most sophisticated natural language recognition
program yet developed on any microcomputer, and Melbourne House
are very proud to be able to bring this implementation to you in
THE HOBBIT program.
The rules of INGLISH are simple - you probably already know
INGLISH without even being aware of it.
- Each sentence must have a verb.
As a minimum sentence, you can have just the verb.
For example: RUN
CLIMB
WAIT
These sentences are all fine.
The meaning of the verbs may be altered by the use of adverbs,
such as
RUN QUICKLY
or VICIOUSLY BREAK THE DOOR
- Normal grammar applies, and the order of the different parts
of the sentence is not critical.
For example, the following two sentences are both valid, and
both have the same meaning:
WITH THE SWORD CAREFULLY ATTACK THE TROLL
ATTACK THE TROLL CAREFULLY WITH THE SWORD.
- Adjectives which describe objects must come before the noun.
If it sound right, it probably is right.
OPEN THE GREEN DOOR is right.
but OPEN THE DOOR GREEN is not.
This is pretty obvious. If it sounds odd to you, you can be sure
the computer is likely to think so too.
- Prepositions, such as WITH, UNDER, ON, OFF and so on, usually
come before the noun in INGLISH:
ATTACK WITH THE SWORD.
PICK UP THE GOLD.
There are some verbs where the preposition could go before or
after, or where the more natural sounding sentence is with the
preposition last. For example in:
TURN THE LIGHT ON.
PICK THE GOLD UP.
These are also acceptable.
Use of AND
You can use the word "AND" in all its normal meaning in INGLISH!
This means, among other things, that you can enter more than one
sentence at a time.
The following sentences illustrates different meanings of the
word AND:
TAKE THE LAMP AND THE ROPE OUT OF THE BARREL.
DROP THE SHORT AND THE LONG SWORDS.
TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN.
With the use of INGLISH, your computer will be able to understand
all the sentences correctly.
Punctuation
Different sentences should be separated by some sort of
punctuation - use AND, commas, semi-colons, and full stops as you
normally would.
The only limitation placed by the computer on how many sentences
you can enter at one time is a total limit of 128 characters.
Of course, keep in mind that each time you do something, the
other creatures may also decide to do something and you could end
up with some unexpected results if you enter too many commands
at once.
Using ALL, EVERYTHING and EXCEPT
It may not be convenient for you to enter the description of
every object in the room if you should wish to pick everything
up.
Therefore you can generalise by the use of ALL, EVERYTHING and
EXCEPT, just as you normally would.
You may qualify what you actually want to manipulate - in other
words you can say ALL DWARVES, or you can say EVERYTHING EXCEPT
GREEN BOTTLES.
The following are examples of valid sentences:
EAT EVERYTHING
OPEN ALL EXCEPT THE GREEN BOTTLE.
BREAK ALL BOTTLES EXCEPT THE GREEN ONE.
Limitation of INGLISH
- To describe an object, you can only use the objects name and
its adjectives (if any). For example, if you see that there is
some delicious foaming beer in a bottle, you could say:
DRINK BEER
or DRINK DELICIOUS BEER
or DRINK FOAMING BEER
or DRINK DELICIOUS FOAMING BEER
or DRINK FOAMING DELICIOUS BEER
All these would result in quenching your thirst.
You cannot use the position of an object as its description.
This means that a sentence such as
DRINK BEER IN BOTTLE
is not acceptable.
- You cannot have more than one indirect object in a sentence.
Basically this means that you cannot specify doing one thing in
more than one way.
For example, you could say
PUT THE ROPE ON THE TABLE
or you could decide to put it on the chair:
PUT THE ROPE ON THE CHAIR
but you cannot put the rope on but the table and on the chair at
the same time.
You therefore can't say
PUT THE ROPE ON TABLE AND CHAIR
This is a general rule, and means that you can't say things like:
ATTACK WOLVES WITH EVERYTHING.
We feel that these limitations are fairly minor, and that you
should be able to express yourself exactly the way you feel most
comfortable.
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MOVEMENT AND COMMUNICATION
So that's how you use the games language system! Sound more complicated than
it actually is really. In the same vein talking to characters is accomplished
in the same way. So if Gandalf appears and you need to talk to him just type
in, SAY TO GANDALF "READ MAP". He may say no, he may say yes, it's worth
asking again if they refuse the first time. Gandalf also has the tendency to
appear and disappear just to annoy you, don't attack him no matter how tempting
it seems, he will just kill you (boo). You can use the command FOLLOW to chase
after characters.
If you want to move around you can only go in the directions offered to you.
So if you are in a place and the only exits are East and West, only the
commands GO EAST or GO WEST (GO E, GO W) will let you move to another place.
You can also use commands like CROSS RIVER etc.
The game also uses the passage of time, if you leave the game idle. Time will
pass, night will fall, day will dawn. Some area's can only be passed at
certain times of day. Use the WAIT command to hang about until the time is
right. In general if you find yourself in a dangerous area, get out and wait
for Thorin or Gandalf to turn up. You are a Hobbit and you suck at fighting.
Get the tough guys to do your dirty work for you. For example, you are in the
mountains and a VICIOUS WARG has appeared from the WEST, you can either RUN
EAST or SAY TO GANDALF "KILL WARG", if you're lucky he'll kill it for you. If
not the WARG eats you and you die. No one ever said being a Hobbit was easy!
OK, that's how you actually play the game. I recommend you have a go at doing
it without the walkthrough to start with; otherwise you'll finish it in about
30 minutes. THE FAQ below contains specific puzzle related hints and tips.
When you feel you can't carry on without help, I have provided a basic
walkthrough in the final section. I have just listed the minimum steps you
need to take to complete the game and not described too much other stuff (so as
not to spoil to much). Because there are certain random elements to the game,
there are people and enemies that may or may not appear in the same places
every time. But the guide below should get you from the beginning to the end
without too much hassle.
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******************* 4) FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ***********************
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Q: I haven't read the book "The Hobbit", what am I doing all this for?
A: OK well the best way to introduce you to the adventure is to quote the
original manual.
"In THE HOBBIT program, you take on the role of Bilbo, the hobbit.
You will be able to roam freely throughout Middle Earth, explore
and discover this wonderful enchanted land. You will meet all
types of creatures, some friendly, others much less so. Your
adventure will be dangerous and exciting - it will be up to you
to face the challenges which confront Bilbo.
If you are unfamiliar with Hobbits, you should know that hobbits
are a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the
bearded dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no
magic about them. For a fuller description you will have to read
THE HOBBIT, but this description should be enough for you to
realise that most other creatures you will meet in this
adventure, including dwarves, will be bigger and stronger than
you. You will therefore need to exercise all your cunning and skill
to survive.
At the point where this Adventure commences Gandalf, who is a
wizard, has talked you into entering a new and exciting adventure
to help out Thorin, the dwarf.
Your mission is to seek out the evil Dragon and return the
treasure he hoards back to your home and place it for safe
keeping in the chest. As a secondary mission, you must look out
after Thorin and protect him. Should he be killed during the
adventure, it is most unlikely you will be able to survive the
dangers ahead of you on your journey!
Best of luck Bilbo: may you return with wonderful tales to tell
on a cold evening in front of a log fire."
That's your mission, if you choose to accept it, chuckle!
Q: Does Gandalf do anything useful??
A: Not really, he will kill creatures for you. But he is no help in the
Goblins Dungeon, and not that helpful when you ask him questions.
Q: If Thorin doesn't stop singing about gold, I'm going to kill him!
A: Thorin is just bored, if you are spending to much time wandering in circles
or staring at the screen, the passage of time doesn't stop. Talk to him, keep
him happy. He is your ticket out of the Goblin's Dungeon
Q: What are the Pale Bulbous Eyes?
A: Something nasty that will leap on you and kill you. Either run away, or
wear the Ring if you have it.
Q: Gollum asked me a riddle, what's the answer?
A: If you don't know the answer, just move away or ignore him. Or he will
kill you.
Q: I am totally stuck, I looked at the walkthrough and a certain route listed
doesn't exist, why?
A: Go back to Elrond and ask him to read the map. This opens up a route later
in the game.
Q: Where is the ring?
A: In the Goblins Caves. You can either go via the Goblin's Dungeon route
(short way), or via Beorns House (longer way)
Q: I broke my sword....
A: Well I hope you saved because you need that sword later in the game and it
also provides light in dark places. Basically you are screwed with out it. If
you have to fight, try and get Gandalf or Thorin to do it. If you have to
break or smash something, use your hands.
Q: I found a golden key while lost in the mountains, what's it for?
A: Nothing, it just seems to add more to your percentage score at the games
end.
Q: How do I get out of the Elvenking Halls/Dungeon
A: Just use the Ring a lot, its effects last for about 3-4 turns. You can
keep using it. Just follow the butler around and he will open the door to get
you out of the dungeon. Escape from the Halls requires some barrels jumping in
the cellar.
Q: I can't use the barrels? Why?
A: You need empty ones, either wear the ring and hope the butler empties one
for you, or open one up and drink the wine yourself then climb inside and let
him throw you in the river. Alternatively throw the barrels in yourself and
jump on top of them.
Q: Where is the Bard?
A: He's in the town by the Long Lake. He may not be there on your first visit.
Keep going and coming back. If he doesn't appear, then he's dead and you have
to restart, TOUGH LUCK!
Q: Why won't this damn bard come with me???
A: Well bizarrely if you CARRY the Bard, it's a lot easier to get him where you
want him, than trying to give him directions. You need him to kill Smaug so
don't irritate him.
Q: OK, Smaug is dead, what now?
A: Make sure you have the treasure then run all the way home to your Hobbit
hole and put it in that nice big empty chest.
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*************************** 5) WALKTHROUGH ******************************
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(You start in your Hobbit Hole, a "comfortable tunnel like hall")
- READ MAP
- EAST
- EAST
- NORTH
- WAIT (until day dawns)
- SOUTH
- GET KEY
- NORTH
- UNLOCK DOOR
- OPEN DOOR
- NORTH
- GET ROPE AND SWORD
- SOUTH
- SOUTH
- SOUTH EAST
- GIVE MAP TO ELROND
- SAY TO ELROND "HELLO"
- SAY TO ELROND "READ MAP"
- WAIT (until Elrond gives you some lunch)
- EAT LUNCH
- SAY TO ELROND "GIVE ME MAP"
- EAST
- SOUTH
- EAST
- NORTH
- NORTHWEST
- NORTH
- SOUTHEAST
- DOWN
- DOWN
- DOWN
- DOWN
- EAST
- GET GOLDEN KEY
- UP
- NORTH
- WEST
- SOUTH
- EAST
- NORTH
- WAIT (you should be by a crack in a wall, WAIT until it opens and you get
captured and thrown in the goblin dungeon!)
- DIG
- SMASH TRAP DOOR (keep doing it until it breaks, there is a CURIOUS KEY
underneath. Thorin will take the Key)
- SAY TO THORIN "OPEN WINDOW"
- SAY TO THORIN "PICK ME UP"
- SAY TO THORIN "WEST"
- SOUTHWEST
- WAIT (until a goblin appears)
- NORTH
- SOUTHEAST
- EAST
- GET RING
- NORTH
- SOUTH
- NORTHWEST
- EAST
- OPEN DOOR
- UP
- CLOSE DOOR
- EAST
- EAST
- OPEN CURTAIN
- OPEN CUPBOARD
- GET FOOD
- EAT FOOD
- NORTHEAST
- EAST
- EAST
- LOOK ACROSS RIVER (you should see a boat)
- THROW ROPE ACROSS RIVER (may need to try more than once)
- PULL ROPE
- SAY TO THORIN "CLIMB INTO BOAT"
- CLIMB OUT
- EAST
- SMASH WEB (until it breaks)
- NORTHEAST
- SMASH WEB
- NORTH
- WEAR RING
- EXAMINE DOOR
- WAIT (until the door opens)
- NORTHEAST
- SOUTH
- KILL BUTLER WITH SWORD
- GET RED KEY
- UNLOCK RED DOOR WITH RED KEY
- OPEN DOOR (if Thorin got captured earlier, he'll reappear now)
- OPEN BARREL
- OPEN TRAP DOOR
- GET BARREL
- THROW BARREL THROUGH TRAP DOOR
- SAY TO THORIN "JUMP ONTO BARREL"
- GET BARREL
- THROW BARREL THROUGH TRAP DOOR
- JUMP ONTO BARREL
- EAST
- PICK UP BARD
- WEST
- NORTH
- UP
- NORTH
- NORTHWEST
- NORTH
- WEST
- EAST
- NORTHWEST
- NORTH
- WAIT (keep waiting until sun shines on the rock and opens the SECRET DOOR)
- SAY TO THORIN "UNLOCK DOOR WITH CURIOUS KEY"
- DROP BARD
- EAST
- SAY TO THORIN "WEST"
- WEAR RING
- EAST
- GET TREASURE
- EAST
- WEST
- PICK UP BARD
- UP
- DROP BARD
- SAY TO BARD "GET STRONG ARROW FROM QUIVER"
- WAIT (until Smaug the Dragon shows up)
- SAY TO BARD "SHOOT THE DRAGON"
- SOUTH x 3
- DOWN
- SOUTH x 3
- WEAR RING
- WEST
- WAIT
- WAIT
- WEST
- WAIT
- WAIT
- WEST
- NORTH
- SOUTHWEST
- WEST x 4
- SOUTHWEST
- WEST
- OPEN CHEST
- PUT TREASURE IN CHEST
(You're back in your Hobbit Hole and rich, rich, rich. Congratulations! Your
final percentage score will reflect how much of the game you visited. More on
getting a 100% score in the next update)
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