Extra comments about Crowther’s original Adventure   6 comments

* The LAMP in the game can be referred to as a HEADLAMP. In other words, the proper visualization is not this

but this:

* WEAR is understood as picking something up.

* The game is in a “semibrief” mode of sorts where a full room description is displayed upon first entering a room and then once every five turns (in case someone flails around trying wrong directions, I suppose?).

* XYZZY works after all. Mea culpa.

* The solution to the bird puzzle is spoiled in the HELP response, again seriously suggesting the work-in-progress nature of the game (since it is only one puzzle out of three).

* The bottle of water lets you pour it on the ground.

* There are two ways to get “stuck”: 1.) you can use XYZZY to teleport without the lamp, and then can’t go anywhere without breaking your neck in a pit or 2.) you can kill the bird, blocking the ability to solve a later puzzle.

* The response to GET MIST:

MIST IS A WHITE VAPOR, USUALLY WATER, SEEN FROM TIME TO TIME IN CAVERNS. IT CAN BE FOUND ANYWHERE BUT IS FREQUENTLY A SIGN OF A DEEP PIT LEADING DOWN TO WATER.

* Also of note:

blast
BLASTING REQUIRES DYNAMITE.

* After more toying I’ve gotten the crystal bridge to appear; it requires the same object but a different verb than the 350-point version.

* Unlocking the grate and getting by the snake also have dynamic hint messages associated with them, but I haven’t been able to get them appear (but given my experience with the crystal bridge, they may still be accessible somehow). I suspect it possible Crowther planned for every puzzle to have a corresponding dynamic hint.

Posted March 8, 2011 by Jason Dyer in Interactive Fiction

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6 responses to “Extra comments about Crowther’s original Adventure

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  1. Pingback: Observations about Crowther’s original Adventure (1975) « Renga in Blue

  2. Pingback: Adventure (350 points): Puzzles and concluding remarks « Renga in Blue

  3. Incidentally, each hint message is triggered by provoking parser errors three times in a row (i.e., without any valid command intervening) when one of the offending objects is present (the locked grate, the bird, or the snake).

  4. I’ve decided to go and play all these games in the same order you have, starting here.

    I used the Inform port (it’s not authentic, but seeing as the game is incomplete I don’t care). I indeed did otice the things you said (the maze is very different and I spent a considerable number of turns stuck in there as I’m used to the maze in the 350-point version and pretty much all the othres.) Also, the lower cave was very incomplete with many directions not working. I was surprised to see the dwarf and knife appear though. And I also couldn’t make the bridge appear, but there’s a way around the fissure (in botht his and the 350-point version).

    On to the Woods version, which I’ve played several times before and therefore have a usual way to play through it.

    • I think the z-code version is a decent way to see it. It didn’t exist back when I was writing this.

      • Generally I’ll be playing the version that requires the least advanced messing around with emulators to get working.

        For the 350 (which I’ve done before), I’m using Arthur O’dwyer’s Zcode version available online. It’s as close to a modern version of the original code as I could hope for (the other Inform game has a full-sentence parser among other things). It shouldn’t take long. I can usually do it pretty easily unless a dwarf gets me.

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