Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

I’ve made progress, shockingly without hints (previous post here).

Strident in the comments pointed out that a download for this game also exists in MZ-700 format, with color. I have tested the two versions and the major difference is that the first line is missing in the MZ-700 edition. It has two POKE commands followed by REM BY GEOFF CLARK JULY 82. I think it likely whatever shenanigans caused by POKE wasn’t needed and the removal of the author name was an unintended side effect — especially given the name stayed on Secret Kingdom — but swapping back and forth they’re essentially the same just with the addition of color.

From the Sharp MZ Archive.

To recap, I was in a cell with a blanket on a bed but otherwise no apparent resources. The guard was noted as bribable but I didn’t have anything to bribe with.

Now with color! Here I was trying to GET a BRICK. TAKE BRICK properly mentions a BRICK rather than a RICK. I assume the game trims the first five characters (“T”, “A”, “K”, “E”, “ ”) but the author forgot the synonym was shorter, causing the effect.

I had already tested verbs thoroughly, so maybe the problem was nouns. I thought I had tested those thoroughly too, trying LOOK FLOOR, LOOK WALL, LOOK CEILING, LOOK BAR, and LOOK CHAIN. The latter two give YOU CANNOT SEE IT HERE rather than the “doesn’t exist” kind of feedback which is important information, but doesn’t quite help set off the chain of events.

I had a problem of visualization. The skylight is BARRED AND AT GROUND LEVEL, but I assumed this was just to indicate it was a funny kind of skylight that wasn’t strictly aimed at the sky. What didn’t occur to me was that this also indicates GROUND is a recognized noun, and that I should be visualizing the cell as not having a FLOOR but rather just being GROUND.

FEEL at least was on my verb list although I think SEARCH should map to the same action (I would visualize someone searching a floor after seeing a glint as using their hands). The glint is a GOLD COIN. You can then SHOW COIN to the guard, followed by GIVE COIN.

GUARD TAKES IT AND DROPS SOMETHING

The something is a FILE. Since I already had the two nouns mentally stored, FILE CHAIN and FILE BAR came to me right after (both give a CHAIN and a BAR respectively), and I was further able to ENTER SKYLIGHT to escape.

Now the game puts up a hilarious contrast with the opening constrained section, as there’s a lot of rooms. I’m going to give the whole map at once (at least as I have it so far), then explain it in pieces.

To start with, there’s a giant 7 by 10 plain. There’s no thirst meter or concern about timing; you can map out at your leisure a series of rooms which are mostly all the same.

This reminds me of Dark Star having the giant 8 by 8 crater with random items tossed in. This is not typical for adventures of this period; even Time Zone wasn’t quite so blatant. This essentially encourages CRPG-like “lawnmowering” checking each square. This game has the fortunate interface addition of being able to move around with the arrow keys so this isn’t as bad as it sounds.

One thing I do find fascinating in a historical-analysis sense is that Dark Star was by the other Sharpsoft author. The authors essentially formed a miniature “school of design” with common patterns, just like artists from the same Renaissance workshop have the same affectations. We’ve also seen that with the multiple authors from Aardvark who tended to use interesting geography tricks — also the same bad parser, but the geography tricks are not something determined by a common codebase as much as overarching choices in design.

Returning to the game at hand…

…just a bit northwest from the start is a stuck jeep and a large rock. The jeep is described as having a PULLEY IN THE FRONT. There’s also an ENGINE nearby — which I presume goes in the jeep — but it is TOO HEAVY AND YOU NEED SOME TYPE OF TRANSPORT.

I’ll just skip ahead and mention there’s a town with a whole slew of items, including a SHOVEL. With the shovel I tested each and every room in the big plain using DIG before hitting literal paydirt.

We’ll visit the town in a moment; two more stops. To the north is a garage with a petrol pump, and the garage itself has SOME WHEELS. I assume these also go to the jeep.

Farther north still is the US-Mexico border where you need your papers to cross.

The overall quest seems to be thus: a.) put together the Jeep with various parts b.) pick up the gold with it c.) get a passport somehow d.) escape with profit assuming they don’t ask too many questions at the border. It’s sort of the plot of Three Kings without the war in the background. I assume we don’t get to shoot a bazooka either.

As far as “various parts” for the jeep go, let’s hit the town.

Most of the locations are empty of people and serve to deliver items. This includes a SKEWER, METAL STRIP, WIRE, SHOVEL (as already used), PLASTIC TRAY, EMPTY CONTAINER, SOME WOOD, a PHOTOGRAPHIC SHEET, and a BOTTLE with some developer fluid. The latter two are in the same building and there’s additionally some curtains that can be “DRAWN” to make the room dark.

I assume the plastic tray also gets used in this procedure. I do not have a CAMERA yet but the game recognizes it (there’s no I DO NOT THINK THERE IS A AMERA message upon trying to GET one).

Of special note is the stables which in addition to having the EMPTY CONTAINER also has a HORSE. You can GET HORSE like a regular object and I assume do something with it hauling the jeep out of the quicksand but I haven’t tested this far yet.

There’s also a bank (BANK’S ARE SMALL if you try to enter with a horse) and I’m not sure what I should be doing. I am unable to GET CASH or GET LOAN or anything like that but none of the shops have shopkeepers to take money anyway.

That’s everything so far! I’m definitely just stopping to report in rather than stuck, as I have to try to build something to pull a jeep. I accidentally hit MAKE WINDOW while in the cell and found the command was recognized (YOU DO NOT HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED) although my guess is the “WIN” in the three-letter parser is standing in for WINCH instead.