Some of the more useful keys you'll want to know about:

A - Attack (in direction)
B - Board ship or other mode of transportation
C - Cast spell (will be random unless a Wizard or Cleric)
E - Enter town, castle, or dungeon (also used to Examine odd items on the map)
K - Climb ladder (dungeons only)
Q - Quit and save game (does not exit program)
R - Ready weapon/armor/spell (W, A, S)
S - Steal (in direction; towns and castles only)
T - Talk/Transact with someone in towns or castles
X - Exit ship or other mode of transportation
Z - Statistics screen (also useful as a Pause function)

To attempt to steal items from shops in towns, move next to a tile with a letter on it and press S, followed by the arrow key in the direction of the letter tile. It doesn't always work, and if you get caught the guards will swarm on you and ANNIHILATE you, so be careful... but the rewards can be great, including high-end weapons and armor you normally wouldn't find for sale until MUCH later in the game!

To get started with the game proper, enter a castle (the one by where you start the game is good), walk up to the King inside, and (T)alk to him. When asked, say you offer (S)ervice to him and he'll give you a task; either to go to a certain location, or to slay a certain kind of monster in a dungeon. Each King in the game (there are eight in all) will give you a different assignment, and eventually you'll have to complete them all.

To gain hints for how to proceed, go to a pub in town and (T)alk to the barkeeper. It costs some money each time, but if you do it often enough you'll get some hints on how to progress, ranging from vague nudges in the right direction to explicit instructions about what you should be doing. It's advised you keep notes, unless you want to resort to FAQs or the like.

Each castle, in addition to a King, features two important NPCs, a Jester and a Princess. The latter has been locked in a cell by the former. Eventually you'll want to free a Princess, and to do that you'll have to kill the Jester to get his key. Bear in mind, however, that the palace guards don't take kindly to jester abuse...

Dungeons are semi-randomly generated based on an algorithm that appears to have something to do with the name you gave your character. It doesn't really matter which one you enter, they're all more or less identical in their basic layout. They all feature the same types of enemies on the same levels; the deeper into the earth you go, the more dangerous your foes become.

Eventually you'll have to take off to outer space and shoot down enemy fighters. I'm serious. You'll need the best armor (either a Vacuum or Reflect Suit) just to survive blastoff, and a TON of money to pay a spacedock fee. If you manage to shoot down twenty fighter craft, Star Raiders style, you'll be awarded the title of Ace and any Princess you save will tell you the game's final and most important secret. (Remember: Only the craft you launched from Earth can survive atmospheric re-entry, but only the ships you can transfer to at a spacedock have weapons.)

One final tip: If you run low on HP, there are only two ways to restore it. The first is to go to a King and offer (P)ence instead of service; the more you can give him, the more he'll restore your HP. The other way is to go into a dungeon and kill some low-level enemies near the entrance, then exit; your health will be restored upon your exit by a certain formula relating to the number of kills you recorded during that session.

Hopefully that should be enough to get you off on the right foot without resorting to a full-blown walkthrough. 8^)