Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

For your perusal, one of the most evil parts of the game:

> s

You are in a large room with a polished floor and smooth walls. The only visible exits are an upwards passage to the north, and a downwards sloping corridor to the southwest. There is a 15 foot high triangular rubber object leaning against the east wall, with the words “ONE NINGY” embossed on it.

> get ningy

You pull the ningy away from the wall, but then discover that it is far too heavy for you to support. You jump away just in time to avoid being crushed by it, and then see that there were several holes in the wall behind the ningy, the largest of which is about four feet across and directly to the east.

> e

A hideous mocking voice sneers: “I suppose you think you’re clever, don’t you!”

You are in a long east-west corridor, the ends of which are out of sight.

There is a three foot black rod with a rusty star on the end nearby.

How obvious was it that you just lost the game? (You can incidentally get in about 5 hours or so in before realizing that fact.)

Test yourself: based on the text, what should you have done instead?

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You are in a large room with a polished floor and smooth walls. The only visible exits are an upwards passage to the north, and a downwards sloping corridor to the southwest. There is a 15 foot high triangular rubber object leaning against the east wall, with the words “ONE NINGY” embossed on it.
> climb ningy
OK.
You’re in a contorted passage which ends abruptly in a two foot wide hole to the west. In the other direction the passage turns two full circles before exiting to the north.

The relevant map section:

A few extra comments:

1. The long time period before realizing there’s a mistake isn’t quite as bad as it sounds given that the optimizing-lamp-time aspect to Acheton means you’re likely need to a restart somewhere along the way. However, it is quite possible to have done that restart and still not know about the ningy trick.

2. The mocking voice is supposed to be a hint you messed up. So helpful.

3. The holes in the wall described in the text are behind the ningy. Not above. I suppose because you can’t see the one above. How lovely.

4. There really seems to be no way to even have a chance at knowing what to do without screwing up first. This hence represents five simultaneous violations of Graham Nelson’s Player’s Bill of Rights all in one go:

Not to be given horribly unclear hints
To be able to win without experience of past lives
To be able to win without knowledge of future events
Not to have the game closed off without warning
Not to need to do unlikely things