It was a day that the members of the Viking village looked forward to every year. On this day everyone in the village celebrated the fall harvest with contests of bravery and skill throughout the afternoon followed by a grand feast at dusk.

The most anticipated event of the day was the hunt. In this competition, the best huntsmen from the village venture into the wilderness to see who could catch the most game for the evening's feast. By noon, all the participants had arrived at the starting point of the hunt, except for three Vikings who lived just outside the village. Since their tardiness was nothing new, the decision was made to start the hunt without them. Upon hearing the horn, indicating the beginning of the competition, Olaf the Stout and his two buddies, Baleog the Fierce and Erik the Swift simply rushed into the forest to prevent the others from having too great of a head start.

Meanwhile, the infamous intergalactic zookeeper, Tomator, piloted his space craft to Earth through a fiery vortex that appeared high above the fjords of the Baltic Sea. Tomator was sure that he could find adequate specimens for his zoo on this tiny planet. He commanded his ship to begin its descent as he made preparations to go on a hunt of his own.

As Olaf the Stout, Baleog the Fierce and Erik the Swift walked home from the feast they were still bragging over their triumphs in the hunt. When each brother had finished claiming that he was a better hunter than the other two, they retired to their cottages, oblivious to the strange flying object that had appeared directly over their village.

Tomator brought his craft closer to the ground, trying to locate the three specimens that he had previously chosen. He had noticed them earlier, when they appeared to be the victors of some primitive ritual of skill and strength. After a few minutes, Tomator's computer located the selected humans and began to teleport his unsuspecting captives aboard his ship.

Erik, the swiftest of the Vikings, was awakened suddenly to find himself suspended above his bed and being pulled upward. Despite his efforts to resist, he was drawn through the top of his hut and into the night sky. Next, Olaf the Stout and Baleog the Fierce experienced the same fate as they too were pulled from their beds, toward the strange metallic object in the sky.

With the acquisition complete, Tomator took his craft out of orbit. Due to a short circuit during the teleportation process, the Vikings materialized in the corridors of Tomator's ship rather than in his specimen room. Now the Vikings only hope to return home is the use of their skills and the strange vortices that can carry them through time and space.

Your story begins with the three Lost Vikings aboard Tomator's ship, and only with your help and expertise can they find their way back home again.

You must guide the Lost Vikings through the complex maze of Tomator's space craft. Use Erik's speed, Baleog's weaponry and Olaf''s defensive abilities to help return these poor lost souls to their village.

How to Play

The goal of The Lost Vikings is to help Olaf the Stout, Baleog the Fierce and Erik the Swift find their way back home. To do so they must successfully solve all the levels of the game going through time and space to many different eras, until they confront and defeat their captor, Tomator.

To successfully complete a level all three Vikings must get to the "EXIT" alive. They will then continue onto the next level. At the end of the last level of each era there will be a vortex that will warp the Vikings to the next era in time.

Each Viking starts each level with three health points and no items. These health points can be lost either one at a time or all at once depending on what type of enemy or obstacle does damage to the character. The health status of each warrior is represented by the three red dots under their picture in the status bar at the top of the screen. Health points can be restored by eating food that can be found throughout the game. They can also use armor to get a bonus health point represented by a blue dot.

To complete the level the Vikings will have to use their skills in many different ways to solve the puzzles. Many times the Vikings will have to use their skills cooperatively.

When the Vikings get to a new level you will be given a password. Write this down in the back of this manual. You will be able to restart the game later by using this password. If at any time a Viking has died or you feel that they are stuck in a position making the level unsolvable, you can give up by pressing a PAUSE key and then selecting YES. Doing this will bring all dead Vikings back to life and they will restart the level.

There are many hidden places throughout the game. If the Vikings find these places, they are sure to find something valuable.

In the early levels there will be hint buttons with '?' in them. When a Viking is near one of these you can press the S key to get a hint.

For the manual, see The Lost Vikings Manual.txt.