Used by the routines at GAME_OVER and ENDING_PIT_FRONT.

Entered from START the first time and from GAME_OVER after each game and after the ending (ENDING_PIT_FRONT). The variables from CELL_LOOKED_UP on are cleared, the turn counter taken from FRAMES, the screen cleared and the lookup tables built, and the menu run until a game is started (MENU); then the start tune, the panel (the frame, the heading over the score, the score, the compass and the heading of the view), six lives, a random cell to start in, the first life, the villains and the objects placed, the villains drawn on the panel, and the buildings stocked -- with the third protection check at the end of that (STOCK_BUILDINGS).

The number of lives is not written in the code as a number. It is the opcode of the JR that closes the main loop, at LIVES_BYTE: $18, shifted right twice, is six. A search for a load of six finds nothing, and a poke to that byte breaks the loop; whether it was meant as a guard is not known, but it works as one.

MAIN_LOOP is one turn. Every object record, knight first, is updated by the routine UPDATES gives for its graphic, through the dispatcher and NMIADD; the random number is stirred after each. Then the turn is counted, and unless the ending is under way: a find may appear, a monster, the creature, a bonus; this turn's note of the sound effect; the carried things coloured on the panel; the town and everything in it drawn into the buffer; the knight coloured by his hits; a new life if his record has emptied; the ending if the villains are gone. At END_OF_TURN the buffers go to the screen and are cleared, the flash is kept for the next turn and ended, and the pause key is read.