Unlike most modern computer games, which rely on insanely complex graphics hardware to show you what's going on, the text adventure uses a technology of unsurpassed advancement - the English language - to project the images directly into your imagination.
The game tells you where you are and what's happening, and you tell it what you want to do. Type your instructions in the lower text box next to the > sign, and press ENTER. The game will do its best to obey, and describe to you what happens next.
Here is an example of a few lines of conversation with a typical (non-existent) game:
And so on.
The games have large vocabularies (which vary a bit between the different games) and listing all the words they understand would spoil your enjoyment of playing. Here are some of the important ones, though:
north, south, east, west (or n, e, s, w), in, out
Move in the specified direction.
take thing, drop thing
Pick something up, or put it down (thing being the something
in question, e.g. cake, skull, radio.)
inventory, inv, list
Show a list of what you're carrying.
save name, load name
Save your game to a cookie, so you can resume playing later. You should be
able to go away from your computer and come back to your game at any time,
if you use this. It's also a good idea to save your game before doing
anything particularly risky or irreversible.
delete name
Delete the specified cookie.
dir
Print a list of all saved-game cookies.
verbose, terse
Switch between the two descriptive modes. The default mode is 'terse', in
which rooms are only described to you the first time you enter them; on
subsequent visits you'll just be given the name of the room, a list
of exits, and lists of which characters and items are there. In 'verbose' mode,
the full description will be repeated every time you visit the room.
look (L or X for short)
On its own, this verb repeats the room description (handy in terse mode.)
You can also look at (or inside, or whatever) some particular thing
such as a room feature, an item, or a character.
restart game
Er, restart the game. (Please use this rather than your browser's Refresh
button, to save my bandwidth - ta.)
score
Show your current score. If you notice that some particular move causes
your score to increase, chances are you're working along the right
lines.
Other verbs you might like to try include (but are not limited to): read, give, wear, climb, fight, show, chat, shout, wait, kiss...