For those unfamiliar with Interactive Fiction the format is this:

 

 A text description of your current location is given to you. You then choose what to do by typing commands such as "look at..." or "take...", completeing the command with a noun in the description. It is sensative to terminology, for example, if a door is blocking your way, "turn handle" will not open the door, while "open door" will. This is because when you ask to do something with the "handle", the game searches the scene for an object explicitly labelled "handle" and as there are none, it returns "You can't see that here".

 

Try to keep commands simple and stick to the basic set if this is your first IF. The basic set is:

 

look (redescribes surroundings, useful for when you suspect something has changed),

examine... (for getting details about a noun),

open... ,

climb... ,

enter... (for specific objects, not doors, such as a basket, box or car. Also works as an alternative to "climb"),

exit, 

take... ,

i (or "Inventory", will show you everything you're currently carrying), 

give... ,

ask <someone> for <something>,

<someone> <do something> (for getting other people to do things for you),

go <a cardinal direction like north, south, east, west, up, down>