DEADLINE
(c) Infocom, Inc. 1982

Background
----------
Twelve hours to solve the mystery. One false move, and the killer strikes again.

It's been called "part of the latest craze in home computing" (Time magazine),
an "amazing feat of programming" (The New York Times) and the "Best Adventure of
1983" (Electronic Games).

It's Deadline, and it pits you, the keen-eyed sleuth, against a 12-hour time
limit to solve a classic locked-door mystery. Armed only with the clues inside
this package and your own wits, you must sift through myriads of evidence and
motives to track down the killer. No easy feat, for all six of your suspects
exercise free will - coming and going, scheming and manoeuvring independently of
your actions. And some of these personalities are so treacherous that, should
you make the wrong move, one of them may do you in.

Essential Information
---------------------
Type |CPM to load Deadline.

The case centres around Mr. Marshall Robner, an industrialist and
philanthropist, who was found dead at his home. A coroner's examination shows
that Mr. Robner died from an overdose of Ebullion, a medicine that he had been
taking recently to combat his depression, possibly caused by the ailing fortunes
of his company. Apparently, only a few days earlier, Mr. Robner had called his
lawyer, Mr. Warren Coates, to discuss the alteration of his will.

The following is a summary of the suspects and their interviews with the police
detective G. K. Anderson.

Mrs. Robner mentions that there was talk of Robner Corporation selling out to a
larger firm, and says that her husband occasionally talked of suicide, although
she never took this seriously.

Ms. Dunbar was Mr. Robner's personal secretary and was also the last person to
see Mr. Robner alive. She prepared some tea for him and brought it to his
library at 11pm on the night of his death, and says that he was quite nervous.
According to Ms. Dunbar, both George and Mrs. Robner were awake when she was
preparing the tea. (An analysis of the teacup showed that there were no
suspicious substances in the teacup, and that fingerprints on the teacup
belonged to Mr. Robner and Ms. Dunbar.)

Mr. Baxter was Mr. Robner's business partner and also mentions that Robner
Corporation was having problems. He last saw Mr. Robner yesterday afternoon at
the office of the business in the town. After work, he claims he was at a
concert, on his own, at the Hartford Symphony and left for home at about 10pm.
George (Mr. Robner's son) often had arguments with his father, and Mr. Baxter
was told about a recent argument in which Mr. Robner threatened to disinherit
George from his will.

Mrs. Rourke is the housekeeper for the Robner family and was in her room at
10:30pm reading a murder mystery on the night of Mr. Robner's death. Everyone
was apparently upstairs except for Ms. Dunbar, who went upstairs at about 11pm
to bring some tea to Mr. Robner, although George was downstairs for about ten
minutes.

George was Mr. Robner's son, and was very uncooperative during the interview,
refusing to answer any of the questions relating to arguments with his father.
He eventually left the interview abruptly.

Some useful commands in the game are listed below.

ACCUSE <someone> OF <something>

ANALYZE <something>
ANALYZE <something> FOR <something>
FINGERPRINT <something> (this is the same as typing ANALYZE <something> FOR
 FINGERPRINTS)

ARREST <someone>

ASK <someone> ABOUT <someone/something>
<someone>, TELL ME ABOUT <someone/something>
<someone>, WHAT IS WRONG
<someone>, WHERE IS <someone/something>

SEARCH <someone/something>
SEARCH <someone> FOR <something>
SEARCH NEAR <something>

SHOW <something>
<someone>, SHOW ME <something>

TIME (can also type T)

WAIT (can also type Z)
WAIT FOR <someone/time>
WAIT UNTIL <time>

Use SAVE to save your current game, and RESTORE to load a saved game.

Further Information
-------------------
All Infocom games came with additional reading material and objects that set the
atmosphere for the adventure. You can download the material for Deadline and
other Infocom games from The Infocom Gallery at this URL:

<http://infocom.elsewhere.org/gallery/>