La Bête du Gévaudan

La Bête du Gévaudan is a French graphic adventure game, based on an old French legend, in which the commands can be entered via VERB + NOUN commands (example: "ouvrir meuble"), but it also accept complex, complete sentence commands like "j'ouvre le chevet".

In the year 1765, the Gévaudan plateau, wedged between the d'Aubrac and Margeride Mountains, resounds with the cries of the Beast. For several months, on moonlit nights, it has haunted the mountains and forests, terrorizing the inhabitants. Attacking not only animals but also humans, few have passed close to it without losing their lives.

Pursued by an entire regiment, the Beast, or is it really a Beast, defeats all traps and leaves behind only horribly mutilated remains. This night again, chased by a group of armed men, it escaped them, disappearing into the night despite the shots fired at it. This time, however, it appears to have been wounded, since traces of blood were found in its wake. It's an intense pain in your arm that rouses you from sleep this morning. As is often the case, your night leaves you with the confused memory of a heavy and restless sleep. You then discover a deep wound in your forearm that can only have been caused by a rifle bullet. Protecting your arm with a bandage, you go out into the village where you learn of the night's events. Little by little, the horrible truth, which you reject, appears to you without any doubt remaining: the Beast of Gévaudan is a WEREWOLF and YOU are this werewolf. Overwhelmed by this evidence, you return home. After a moment of despondency, you come to your senses; there must be a solution. You have 12 hours left before the next full moon night to find an antidote to the curse that is overwhelming you.

To navigate your way through the locations in the game you uses the commands Nord (North), Sud (South), Est (East), Ouest (West), Haut (Up), Bas (Down). The game also supports full sentences (for example: "je vais vers le sud", two-word commands (for example: "aller sud") and one-letter commands such as N, S, E, O, H, B.

The game window is divided in two, the upper part allows a representation of the places visited, a clock indicating the time remaining before the next transformation, a score counter used to represent the number of actions performed as well as sporadic animations. The lower part allows text entry and displays the computer's responses.

Pressing the "Return" key switches from graphical display to text mode or vice versa. This not only allows you to read the text preceding the text at the bottom of the graphical screen, but also indicates the possible directions of movement (N, S, E, O, H, B) and which objects are visible in the scene you are in.

The "Inventaire" command allows you to obtain a list of the objects in your possession. This command automatically displays the items in text mode. After executing it, you can press the "return" key to return to the graphical display if you wish.

The "sauve le jeu" command allows you to save the game wherever you are. The "rappelle le jeu" command allows you to recall a previously saved game. The two previous commands automatically cause the display to be in text mode. After executing them, you can press 'return' to return to the graphical display if you wish.

The "aide" command allows you, in certain difficult situations, to obtain help in solving the game. No score or time penalty results from the help obtained.

There are also special commands that are obtained by pressing the 'control' key and simultaneously pressing one of the A, S, T, or P keys:

• Control - A: This command allows you to clear or redisplay the time and score at the top of the graph page.

• Control - S: This command allows you to suppress the beep indicating that a minute has elapsed. If you execute it a second time, a beep will sound again.

• Control - T: This command allows you to advance the time (10-minute periods, up to a maximum duration of 19 hours and 50 seconds) for actions unlockable at a specific time. Although the command can be used multiple times at regular intervals, a penalty to the score is however recorded for each use.

• Control - P: This command allows you to switch between lowercase and uppercase displays, or vice versa. It is particularly useful in the case of an APPLE II+ equipped with a "lowercase" card.