This is the short walkthrough for Under They Thunder. It gets through the game rather directly.

I hope you enjoyed the game, even if the premise is simple and probably killed double-dead. It originally started as a total joke that couldn't possibly be a fill game--could it? Well, there was enough for a game. Whether it's a good game, I'll let you decide.

There aren't many critical verbs to use. T for TALK, U for USE, U X ON Y to use X on Y, and the basic directions.

The Reach Each Ray also has some specialized commands (RB/RC/RF/RL) and OM/MO warp you to and from the hub area.

Some of the commands can be cut down quite a bit. For instance, USE BIG WEIRD ITEM ON SMALL NORMAL ITEM can be shortened to U BIG ON SMALL, or T MISTER BIG SHOT can be shortened to T BIG or even T. But I use the full commands in the walkthrough so you know who or what you are dealing with.

So in Start Art Stay, ERNIE J wants to talk. T is shorthand for talk. If there is only one NPC in the area, you talk to them automatically. But we are spelling out commands in this walkthrough, to help you know what's going on, and also so I can sync my walkthrough with another code-checking script.

> T ERNIE J

> IN

> T SHELF ELF SHAY

You can pick any book, but I'm not going to skip over that.

> OUT

> U PLEASE EASE PLAY

> W

The ray starts with R. From the names, etc., you may guess that the needed words start with R and are still R when you remove it.

Note that the ray ALWAYS breaks the second time you use it successfully. In this case, you don't actually need either of these items, but I'm including them, because 1) I did it this way in the main walkthrough and 2) I wanted to leave it as an exercise if you want to replay in short mode to avoid having to fix the ray.

> RICH ITCH (1)

> ROVER OVER (1)

> E

> R BERTH

How do we break down the odd clay?

> CLOD (1)

Now we can go back home.

> OM

> R BLEAK

> U CLOD ON SLEEK LEAK SAY (1)

> E

If you try to go east again, Ump They Thump blocks you.

The Please-Ease-Play suggests you read something to gain knowledge.

> OM

> IN

> X STRIFE RIFE STAY

> OUT

> MO

Now let's try the conversation again.

> T UMP THEY THUMP (1)

Now you need to go east to trigger an in-game flag that says, okay, you saw the Ark Day-Dark.

> E

So you can't really make further progress. Well, not now. The Ark is in the way.

> W

> W

> S

A new location! But it's named funny. Only two words. Plus, oats usually don't grow in a bay.

> BOATS (1)

Now let's get going with what's important. We want to fix the ray.

> DAY DIAL (1)

If you hadn't visited Blight Light Bay, the command below wouldn't work.

> U OWN FEY PHONE (1)

> RAY RILE (1)

If you hadn't broken the ray, you wouldn't need to do this.

> U CLEVER LEVER K (1)

Now go back to Oats Bay.

> SHIP

(BOATS also works.)

> N

> E

> E

Oh, now we can go east or south! Well, we can go east if we are in long mode. That leaves us with going south.

> S

Weird noises emit from the Lower Bay Blower. They're not language, but they're a clue.

> LISTEN

'Ope May Mope and Mopin' 'Opin' Mae are the two songs the Lower Bay Blower plays. This may give you a clue what to do with the ray. If you read the ray handle, you may get another clue.

> OM

> W

> ROPIN OPEN (1)

> MO

> U ABLE KAY CABLE ON LOWER BAY BLOWER (1)

Hooray! You can now use OP HEY HOP to jump over the rest.

You just need some rest now you're over by the boats.

> AWAY AWHILE (1)

And now, let's ... um, hop ahead.

> OP HEY HOP

Now in the final area, you have an ankh. READ it to note the long walkthrough features three actions with the ankh that you wound up skipping over: CLAY CLANK, PLAY PLANK and PRAY PRANK. One more rhyming thing to go... some sort of battle action...

> FLAY FLANK (1)

Now there are two ways to finish the game, the bad-guy way and the good-guy way. They are very similar.

You may note the name of the place, and some of the people's actions. Here is the good ending:

> STAND AND STAY (1)

I will leave the bad ending to your imagination.