Original hints from the classic The Pawn online
Magnetic Scrolls shipped their games with another quite unique feature. The game documentation usually included a so called Cypheric Hint Section which provided the gamer with help to solving the game puzzles (Mind that these were the times before the internet!).
If you take a look at the last pages of "A Tale of Kervnia" - a small booklet that came with The Pawn - you will find list of randomly looking characters and numbers. Those were the encrypted hints. Having a closer look, you will notice that the hints were organized in "questions" and looking further you will notice that there are normally multiple blocks of random characters surrounded by < and >.
Now, what to do with this? First, choose the appropriate question from the list, type the command hint and then enter the first long list of characters. But be carefull! The system is unforgiving. A typing error and you won't get anything but an error message. If you entered the long list correctly, you will get the first hint to solving the puzzle. If this doesn't get you anywhere, try the next block and the hints will get more specific. The idea is similiar to the Infocom InvisiClues, but while those had to be bought separately and the hints were protected from immediate reading with a special marker, the Magnetic Scrolls hints came included with the game.
Ok, there you go... no, wait, remember? We declared the end of the typing age 
To save you from all the typing, we decoded all the hints and put them onto the Strand Games site. Please keep in mind, that the hints were tailored towards the typing way of playing. Saying that, some of the hints may be meaningsless with the new interface of the remastered versions, but still they are fun to read. You can find them here, but don't spoil your adventure!
Stefan
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