Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

(Prior posts here, and definitely necessary for understanding this one.)

Via Mobygames.

So I’ve now rotated my conclusion about the teleportation in this game back to it definitely being random, definitely being chaotic, and (at least in the version I’m playing) definitely designed so you can “short-circuit” a puzzle if you want to.

Everything is normal. T̶̰͚̞͓̞͇̬̍̍̄̓̎ͅh̸̢̧̞̬͙̪͎̺̭͐̾̽̎͜ę̷̣͖̝̥̰̓̐̓̇̽͗̍̌r̴̨̧̮̬̱͙͆̉ẹ̷͔̜̩͍̲̤̳̈́̈́́̉̐̓̐̕ͅ ̸̦̫̯͖͚̣̭̃͋̓͆͒͊̓͛̊ͅị̷̧̫̜͚͇̙̙̉̾͛͋̚͝s̵͔̠̿̀̆̔͛͆̓͆͆͘ ̶̨̨̡̝͚̆̂͠ͅṉ̴͎̳͇͙̬̓̀ỏ̵̭̬̾͊̂̍͑̈̀̇́͜ ̷̢̖͈͖̜͖̹̟͉̈́̒̈́̄͋͌̓̔̚g̸͕̯͍̘͊̓̾͠ļ̷̛̲̯̠̮̼̦̙͑͌̏̔̒̌͊̈́͜ì̷̖̭̟̝̫́͌̇̉̅̄͠t̷̼͉̼͓͚̟͉̪͍̏̅̃̈́̓̏̄ͅc̵̡͖̟͔̘̬̝̮̐̈̍̓ͅḧ̸̝͖̪̄̀͊̊͑̎̇̃̓.̴̜̫̞̮̼͈̹̺͈̤́̐͂

Since last time I popped open the BBC Micro version of the game and tried to go through the same puzzles I had already solved, thinking maybe the text description would be ever-so-slightly different in a way that inspiration would strike.

However, I found that the teleportation steps I found before did not apply at all, and while my first teleport was to inside the oasis in the version I was playing, I could not get inside at all whilst in the BBC Micro version.

I had also found, via experimentation on the graphical edition, that you could kick the djinn away from blocking the oasis as long as you used the bag…

…the problem is that the bag is behind the tentacled creature, where I needed the magic lamp to escape, and the magic lamp is behind the djinn that is blocking my way in the BBC Micro edition. I clearly had short-circuited the puzzle in my other game.

Using some meta-structural thinking, I decided to go back to working out how to solve the tentacle-puzzle without jumping ahead. I figured even if the puzzle turned out to be technically optional if you toss in the teleports (it is) it would help eliminate some of the clues I’ve been stuck on and narrow things down for solving required puzzles.

So rewinding all the way back: from the forest I was able to get a bottle, keys, Talisman of Life, silver ball, sling, fruit, an “onion” (really garlic), a stick, and pan pipes. The sling and silver ball I finally got working on the giant, and I swear I had tried this before:

You just have the silver ball in your inventory and it works. I don’t know what my issue was before.

Passing the giant, I could then get the snowman and push the rocks, killing the orcs on the tower. This left the open puzzles as:

– black tentacled thing
– rapids from going down the rope
– a slab near the oasis that did not respond to anything I tried

Going back to the slab, and knowing I was stuck with my item set from before (bottle, keys, Talisman, ball, sling, fruit, garlic, stick, pan pipes) I tried various combinations but nothing seemed even remotely able to knock over a slab of rock. CUT ROCK suggested my blow bounced off, further suggesting if I had a lot of power I could break through, but I otherwise started suspecting there would be no item involved at all.

So if not an item, then what?

errrrrrrrgh no, the phrase doesn’t get mentioned anywhere and yes, I worked this out without checking hints.

There’s some “Arabian Nights” style theming so I thought I’d try the themed answer out. A very similar puzzle appeared in Time Zone but in that game I came up with the solution right away; I think the presentation (and the penchant Roberta Williams has for random fairy tale references) made it more obvious to try than in that game than this one.

Nevermind. Sun-dial in hand I could return to the temple and deliver it to the priestess.

I discovered the ruby dissolved while in water and also kills you if you drop it.

Given blowing things up is not helpful for navigating rapids, I tried the tentacled thing instead:

This opens up the way to the emerald eye and the bag that blasts air. You can then (in the BBC Micro version) blast the djinn into the lamp and go pick it up. Technically speaking you can go on a teleportation spree after that, but teleportation wasn’t helping with the rapids, so I decided to keep going no-teleport and see if I could resolve the issue:

You can teleport to them or teleport away, but end up dying at the end.

Again I quickly decided my item list was of no help, so I contemplated a no-item solution. Swim against the current, maybe?

Just typing SWIM oddly enough gets no response at all from the game — it seems like it is broken, but at least it acknowledges the command. This led me to go through trying SWIM N, SWIM S, SWIM E, etc. until I got to SWIM UP.

I found out later CLIMB UP works too, but the ability to somehow grab and stop ourselves on the rapids and climb up is not even close to my visualization of how the rapids operate. I think maybe the text version of the game would’ve been easier here.

Up on the ledge you can find a “model of a lung-fish”, and if you pick up you start being unable to breathe. This is a magic item that was fun to figure out: it inverts your breathing from water to air or vice versa. The inversion happens when you pick the item up, so if you enter water-breathing mode, to switch back to land-breathing you need to do DROP LUNG-FISH followed by GET LUNG-FISH.

Breathing underwater made it easier to get to the octopus lair. I used the (intended?) lamp teleportation in order to get my items down at the lake, including the bag you need to use to defeat the octopus.

Regarding the white dots: they seem to all simply be teleport destinations. That is, there’s a black dot at the door-that-needed-oil that teleports to the white dot at the building; the white dot in the desert no doubt has a matching black dot somewhere, and they’re all one-way trips. I worked this out because I found another black dot. You see, once the slab was opened up, the destinations of my lamp changed. I was able to land (via teleporting) inside the sun-dial cave, for instance, as well as land on the ledge above the rapids. And from there I went into the glitch-i-verse, as seen on the top of this post. Fortunately I could pick a direction (like east) and end up back in normal-land:

Well, kind of. This is a new area! Wander around too long and you freeze.

Our first sighting of the black tower.

However, just to the north I found another one of the elemental stones: the Star-Stone.

I’m not sure what they were going for with “glowing like a commercial” but it’s evocative nonetheless.

So, two more stones to go? More teleportation brought me back to my regularly scheduled areas, and I’m still stuck on getting by the dragon. The dragon will swallow everything I throw at it so I think I just need to find the right thing (the garlic, if you’re curious, doesn’t work).