Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

Here we embark on the final part of the trilogy from the ZX81 Adventure Tape 1 as published by Phipps Associates and written by Mike Farley (see previously: Greedy Gulch, Pharaoh’s Tomb). The collection of three games was based on the Trevor Toms system used in The City of Alzan. The Toms system itself was based off the code in a August 1980 issue of Practical Computing. Additionally, Farley was an admirer of the Artic games, again based off the August 1980 issue (derived directly).

The package served as an advertisement of sorts for both the ZX81 Pocket Book and the make-your-own-adventure system that gets mentioned within, as the instructions include a sample from City of Alzan as well as ordering information (book for £5.95, accompanying cassette £5.00).

132 PAGES OF GAMES, USEFUL SUBROUTINES, ARTICLES ON EFFICIENT PROGRAMMING, USING MACHINE CODE, USING THE TIMER, HOW TO CREATE ADVENTURES PLUS MUCH MORE.

The games were republished in 1983 individually for ZX Spectrum. With Magic Mountain — for reasons you’ll discover — I decided to play both versions, meaning I gritted my teeth and make it through the screen-clear-as-you-type interface on ZX81. I’m stuck at the same part in both versions. I might normally just bust out hints now, but the nature of where I’m stuck involves a “crossword clue” (maybe) which lends itself to crowdsourcing. That is, assuming you aren’t reading my archive, I’m stopping at a point where you, the one reading this might now, might be able to figure out what to do next.

The three-game ZX81 collection was also republished in 1983 with a new cover, as shown. Via zx81stuff.

Our goal is not to collect a hoard of treasure but rather to find the Scrolls of Wisdom on Magic Mountain. Maybe they’re the Four Vedas. Score is given by progress rather than by placing treasures back at the starting room.

Rather oddly, the directions state the possible directions are north, south, east, west, and down. No up.

The ZX81 version of the game starts with

I AM AT THE FOOT OF A MOUNTAIN
PATHS GO EAST WEST AND DOWN

and you might notice the ZX Spectrum version does not say anything about the east and west exit. I’ve been needing to test exits on the revised version but never on the ZX81 one (although to be fair, on Pharaoh’s Tomb, the extra CLIMB SLOPE at the start was just as secret there as on the ZX Spectrum version of the game).

All this is to say: it’s easier to map out the ZX81 version, not only because of the issue above but also because there’s a maze right away and the player doesn’t have to wait for the graphics to slowly redraw at every step.

Red-marked exits go to the red-marked Maze room. The blue north exit off Edge of Fissure is on the ZX Spectrum version of the game; the ZX81 map just has the exit from that room going to the west.

Prior to the maze let’s take the starting east-west chunk. From the far west is a “cave entrance” and no way I can find to enter (ENTER CAVE, IN, GO IN CAVE, etc.)

The casket is a “box” in the ZX81 version and OPEN BOX / OPEN CASKET doesn’t work.

Just to the east is a room with a steel door that appears to be locked. At least here I don’t feel like I’m missing a parser trick.

Note that the east/west exits are given here. The inconsistency is quite frustrating.

One more step goes to the starting room which you’ve already seen, and then on the far right there’s a rope just out of reach along with some soft shoes. I’ll give the ZX81 screen this time:

I think it’s possible this is simply showing action in medias res. That is, we are supposed to assume the rope was used in a prior attempt (either by the current protagonist, or a prior adventurer). The back of the ZX Spectrum version of the game reinforces this:

An out-of-reach rope above a rock fissure is the only way into this Magic Mountain — or is it? Rumour has it that there are vast stores of treasure inside, but legends also tell of huge poisonous spiders, lizards and magic at work — you’ll need more than just cunning to come out of this in one piece! An Adventure which uses split-screen graphic pictures and scrolling text window, and machine coded English command line scanner for fast word recognition.

Heading back to the start and going down leads to a “large cave” with a quill pen as a dwarf selling scythes:

The fortune telling got added for the ZX Spectrum version.

Past that is the maze already mapped above; note that it follows the same “sinkhole” pattern where most wrong exits funnel back to the start. This has the specific effect of making it harder to get to the exit randomly, with the side effect of feeling unrealistic.

At the last step of the maze before looping back to the dwarf, you can go down instead of n/s/e/w to find a hidden cave.

This is the part where I am truly and completely stuck and appeal to y’all reading this right now. The carpet can’t be taken, so it seems like the intent is to fly away with it on the spot, but the obvious commands (like FLY CARPET) get nothing. The ZX Spectrum version of the game doesn’t even provide any guidance with HELP.

The ZX81 version of the game, on the other hand, does!

I suspect this might be an intentional guess-the-phrasing puzzle rather than an accidental we-left-out-tons-of-synonyms one. (See for comparison: riding the camel from The Sands of Egypt.)

BOOK THAT TO “WHERE”

The clue might be literally cryptic, as in “cryptic crossword” of the kind common in the UK. That’s at least how the review from the May 1982 issue of Sinclair User refers to things. It did occur to me that the highlight on HAT was referring to the wizard’s hat from the opening room, but that hasn’t helped me in my tussle vs. the parser. Any recommendations are welcome!

Via eBay.