This one pretty much was over right when it began. Just to be warned, I spoil what is essentially the only puzzle in the game.
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It turns out getting past the hydra was the only thing to pose any difficulty. I found out the game has a HELP command which when applied in the hydra room gives this cryptic message: “CIGAR? CIGARETTE? TIPPARILLO?”
There’s a nearby cigarette lighter, and I thought — no, it can’t be —
>BURN HYDRA
THE HYDRA CRUMBLES TO THE GROUND DEAD.
Alas, the humble lighter was invented too late for Hercules.
Past the hydra there is a “Mac’s Earthdigger Body Shop” which has the “gonkulator” which you use to fix your ship. No treasures are necessary at all — you can just pick it up, drop in the ship, type FIX GONKULATOR, and get game over.
I hoped, perhaps, there would be challenge then in collecting all the treasures. The “secret passage” on the map has some randomization but other than that all the treasures are in the open.
I have marked on the map all the unnecessary parts. (Click for a full sized version.)
The “shiny sword”, “magic wand”, and “keys” are all useless. The “treasure room” is a joke. I don’t mean that flippantly. It is an actual joke room:
If you go back to the Scott Adams interview I linked to when I wrote about Adventureland, he mentions when he hit the limits of the TRS-80 he knew he was done. The same thing must have happened here; I suspect the author had grand ambitions but ran out of space. Journey to the Center of the Earth Adventure gave me a greater appreciation for Scott Adams’s choice of minimalism in text allowing for greater complexity in game-world.
I have played a later Greg Hassett game (Devil’s Palace) which I enjoyed, so I know at least things are going to get better.
It was sort of a shock to see this pop up in the Planet IF feed right after the introduction post. I guess too easy is better than too hard, right? Right?
This was definitely my shortest yet. The only reason it went past the IF-comp-2-hour mark is I was trying to make a careful map for documentation purposes.
I get irritated by the reverse chronological effect when the two posts in a row at Planet-IF happens. (If you use the links at All the Adventures above the posts end up in the correct order.)