This is how the story begins……

There is a new coin-op at Vigamus: it is called “Zombies Attack!” and it should be the ultimate survival horror game. But unfortunately, it’s a bit too real for you: as soon as you turn it on, an army of decaying and hungry zombies swarms out of the screen and into the museum, searching for brains to eat.
Seeing the monsters, Vigamus’ director Metalmark faints like a damsel in distress, so it’s up to you to save the museum and Paddy, stuck in her office. Surely you can find something useful to fight this horrible menace in the museum’s rooms. So, keep your eyes peeled and… no panic!

How to play

In a text adventure, each action needs to be typed in following the verb + object syntax: >take ball, >open door, >examine jacket, >wear hat, >talk to the girl, >attack the zombie…
In order to go from a place to another, you need to type in the direction you want to take: >north (shortened n), >south (s), >east (e), >west (w).
The command >inventory (i) makes you visualize the list of object in your possession, while >look (l) brings on the description of the place you are in, and >score will tell you which point of the story you are in. With >save you can save your position in a file, and to continue playing from that, you need to type >restore.

Verbs you can use in this game are: >take (t), >examine (x), >give, >talk, >wear, >remove, >open, >close, >break, >attack (k), >hit, >cut, >throw, >switch on, >switch off, >play and, of course, many others.
Exceptionally, in this game you can also type the verb >use, but try not to abUSE it!
Examining the objects and details in the descriptions of the places will make you find some hidden object and useful clues to proceed in the game. You can also ask for >help, >save your progress on a file, >restore it, or check your >score. Last but not least, >undo allows you to go back one move, even after dying. Type >info to read these instructions again, >credits to see the game’s credits.

Credits

Zigamus was written in Inform 6, an object-oriented programming language dedicated to the development of text adventures. The best way to learn it is by reading the Designer’s Manual available on inform-fiction.org. The illustrated version of the game was realized and uploaded online thanks to the technical collaboration of Paolo Lucchesi.
Did you like Zigamus? Do you want to try some more interactive fiction?
Check out Marco Vallarino’s website to discover other works as the famous Darkiss.