Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

(Continued from my previous post.)

Via a September 1983 review in LOGiN, showing the starting village.

Last time I left off having trouble with getting both the ring (for the girlfriend) and a diving suit (apparently needed due to the kidnapping). The solution is off the verb list…

LOOK, SEE, SEARCH, GO, ENTER, GET, TAKE, OPEN, DROP, PUT, EXIT, LEAVE, OFFER, GIVE, PUSH, PRESS, TALK, ASK, SET, BUY, PAY, KILL, STAB, FIGHT, ATTACK, USE, WITH, BREAK, CROSS, WADE, BOARD, THROW, SWIM, WEAR, REMOVE, PEEL, RUN, ESCAPE, CRY, SHOUT, YELL, TURN, WIPE, RUB, UNLOCK, RENT, INSERT, BORROW, MOVE, DRINK

…but unless I missed something (more likely than usual given the circumstances) it isn’t clued that this is even possible.

The right word is RENT. You can BUY RING and then RENT DIVINGSUIT and then move on from there. (The player starts with 95 credits; you can BUY DIVINGSUIT for 95 and not have any for the ring, but this causes the timed loss like avoiding giving the ring altogether eventually does.)

Immediately after the kidnapping, you can WEAR DIVINGSUIT and then go north into the water.

Before exploring, I wanted to highlight something that’s been showing on the images I haven’t pointed out yet: notice in the lower right there’s a N or a S. This is showing which way the player is facing. Just because the game is trying hard to be a Roberta Williams Hi-Res Adventure (and you’ll see more of this in a moment), doesn’t mean it went completely without other inspiration; I’m fairly certain the reason “facing direction” got added was influence from Micro Cabin Mystery House, which is done in a first-person view akin to Wizardry.

One other thing to highlight is that death has been ambiguous. Nearly all the adventure games we’ve seen (including the Japanese ones we have played) have been explicit about what has caused player death, and sometimes have been even gleeful about it, such that the main plot is in the death scenes (see: The Domes of Kilgari). For the early deaths, the game just cuts things short and gives the equivalent of a “keep going!” message (頑張ろう, that is, ganbaru) while warping the player back to the start.

The first time I died I thought maybe I got swept in the water, not that the girlfriend’s scene was timed. Maybe it’s not even meant as a death but a “time reverse”? Either way, part of my early confusion was just realizing what was wrong. The first event trigger (if you don’t enter the shop) allows some time; the second (enter the shop, but haven’t bought the ring) is short; the third (after you have the ring) gives a little more time again. After the kidnapping there’s yet another timer running for getting the DIVINGSUIT and going in (now fairly short, and again with no detail why you just lost).

Again, using the same vibe from Roberta Williams, we have a grid where only some of the squares are important. Again, I have mixed feelings on this; one surely would expect underwater to be big and contain some locations that are empty of anything more than fish.

Especially for a player of this era, just moving around an environment and seeing graphics change as you move can be an engrossing experience.

Still, the actual game effect is to make the player treat the map as a lawnmower, mopping up each square, sometimes using alternate lives if one dies for inexplicable reasons. Still, the density isn’t too bad; this is maybe halfway between Time Zone and The Dark Crystal in terms of number of “interesting” rooms. (To be clear, The Dark Crystal wasn’t out yet; I’m just trying to describe the feel.)

Heading immediately east is a knife. (If you haven’t noticed yet, all takeable items are drawn in a white square.)

Tracing around the border and heading due north, eventually (five turns later) you’ll find a skeleton with a bottle.

Keep turning and there’s a cave to the north; try to enter and you’ll get another one of those vague, unclear deaths. (Is it simply a trap to avoid? Will it work if I get a light because I’m bonking my head? Or is it more like a creature I can’t see?)

West and south from the above area is a RUIN. You can go in and find an altar with the Humming Bird Soft logo and a blue ring that looks like it matches the red ring. It looks like the kidnapping may have been due to magic afoot in the antique ring we bought, rather than coincidental circumstance.

South a bit and there’s a SHARK. Fortunately, the KNIFE picked up earlier works to KILL SHARK (it prompts with what, you need to type WITH KNIFE). If you just try to hang out with the shark, eventually you’ll die, and again — no description of being chomped, you just get told to MAKE MORE EFFORT.

With the shark out of the way you can see the thing behind, which is a SLATE. I think it is meant to deliver the clue we are supposed to SHOUT somewhere to scare something off?

This has been moving in a spiral, so let’s mop up the last “interesting” spot which is just north of the starting point; I haven’t been able to get anything to happen here but it does invoke the English word (ROCK) which seems like a hint something ought to happen.

Finally, spiraling a bit more, we arrive at a shipwreck.

Entering is one way (as far as I can tell, there may be some parser nonsense).

The layout ends up having five doors, three which can immediately be opened while using the nail remover. (The double room aspect is again reminiscent of Micro Cabin rather than Sierra.) To the immediate west of the entrance is an octopus (the knife doesn’t work this time, and before you ask, yelling/shouting doesn’t help either, we are in a diving suit though):

To the east is a dark room which the game refuses entry; in this case I assume it has to be a light source issue. (The text just says you can’t go that way.)

At the end of the hall the west and north doors don’t open, but the east one goes into a bar where you can find wine in a CABINET, but you’re still stuck (I can’t even get out of the bar, let alone the wrecked ship).

Despite the Japanese text, this does give me the vibe of a lost Sierra On-Line game, with the same quirks and absurdities. Roberta Williams was never afraid to describe deaths, though, but at least with a shark or octopus I can guess what happens.