Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

I’ve finished the game, and as I suspected, I was running into a single small issue (a problem with the parser, really). My previous posts are needed to make sense of this one.

Source.

Last time I had the issue of needing to replace two cables. I could replace one of them (with a wire scavenged from FRED) but not the second. I was most suspicious of the “orange wire” attached to the GG-1 needed to win the game, but seemingly removing the fuse and the wire then broke the device.

I was under the assumption that removing the fuse breaks it, for the good reason that the game wouldn’t let me put it back.

FC: Cryolink already established to Iris.
Internal map reference — Main Supply Room
I’m in the northernmost portion of a large, messy area where debris is scattered about as if something had shaken it loose from the walls. Sitting near the wall is a machine which has a little orange button on its face. Beside the button are two small sockets, one red and one yellow. A red IC sits in the red socket, and a yellow IC sits in the yellow socket. The front panel is open and a fourteen-inch cable of orange wire is exposed. A small glass fuse it sits in the panel. On the front panel is a series of eight circles. The orange button is flashing.

>get fuse
Taken.

>iris, put fuse in front panel
There’s no room.

>put fuse on front panel
There’s no room.

Hence my barking up a wrong tree for about an hour, but I finally thought to ask Whiz about the fuse, and got something helpful.

AP: This is a small glass fuse which should be removed before tampering with any exposed sections. After tampering with machine internals, the fuse should be put back into the machine.

I went with the exact wording “put back into machine” and tried it:

>iris, put fuse in machine
FC: Cryolink established to Iris.
IRIS: Done.

Oho! Now I did have one last surprise, as I realized the codewords are not consistent across games, and if you try to guess it will just scramble. (You could still save-restore and go through the 56 possibilities.) However, since I wasn’t being pushed for time, I sent a robot over to grab the camera and bring it to get plugged in.

>plug in tv1
I’ve plugged it in. I detect a vibration from it as it comes on.

IRIS INTERRUPT: Receiving transmissions.

>point tv1 at sign
The small sphere has been pointed at the recessed sign.

IRIS INTERRUPT: The little sign presents me with the access code the machine in the Main Supply Room needs to reset the Filtering Computers. It says CONKLA.

>REPLACE NINE-INCH CABLE WITH ORANGE CABLE
Okay. It’s done.

FC INTERRUPT: Approaching balance between all three units. Attempting internal stabilization. Reset codes may be entered now for planetside stabilization.

>IRIS, PUSH CON
FC: Cryolink established to Iris.
FC: First access code accepted. Enter second access code now.

>IRIS, PUSH KLA
FC: Cryolink already established to Iris.
FC: Second access code accepted.

FC INTERRUPT:

All systems returning to normal.
Weather systems slowly approaching balance.
Hydroponic systems working at full capacity.
Surface life in recovery mode.

Extrapolation based on current weather systems and food supplies:
Total recovery in 82 cycles.
Current surface casualties: 11,862,000
Projected casualties during recovery: 3,417,000
Original population: 30,172,000
Total possible survivors: 14,893,000

This score gives you the possibility of being considered for being burned in effigy. On a scale of 1 (the best) to 7 (the worst), your ranking was 7.

You successfully completed your task, bringing the Filtering Computers back into balance, in 347 cycles.

Now to do it all over again, but faster, and keeping track of the computer settings while I’m at it. The best robot to send over to twiddle with dials / levers / switches is Whiz, because while they were useful for figuring out the puzzles, they are not needed once all the information has been drained from the library. Also, they can see and manipulate all the controls, and just in terms of start position, Whiz is exactly the same distance from the skywalk as Waldo.

A speedy run means sacrificing robots to the acid, so no dealing with the humans, and fixing the system faster than they can arrive (or at least, on my walkthrough, I managed it right when they arrive). That means Auda would normally be best positioned to nab the camera (starting on the north side of the map) but while Auda can hear the CAR needed to go to the Biological area, Auda can’t see the camera so can’t pick it up.

Internal map reference — Biological Laboratory
I am in the Biological Laboratory.

>get all
AUDA: I don’t hear what you mean to get!

Additionally, Auda can’t get the cutter from the Small Supply Room (Auda starts in the room next to it). The only description there is “the air is very still”.

Stars marking the locations of the cutter and the camera.

So at least one more robot is going to need to be sent up to get those; I ended up trying Poet, but Poet is unable to see the wedge when dropped, so I ended up sending both Waldo and Poet and having them split up: so Poet goes to get the camera, while Waldo goes to get the cutter. Then the two meet back at the step, Poet makes a beeline over to Iris to nab the orange wire in the GG-1 (while the robots have been moving, I had Iris fix the machine, so Iris just passes it off to Poet) while Waldo goes over with Sensa to the Gamma Repair to get the wire from FRED.

The timing works such that Poet goes and makes a sacrifice first, swapping a wire and using the camera immediately prior to expiring.

Internal map reference — Secondary Channel
Connections are what make life worth living. In each direction we find our source of disorientation, our metaphysical essence. Linkups are possible, connecting our distant cousin with our essence, our very presence here. There’s a signpost overhead — the next stop…

>POET, REPLACE NINE-INCH CABLE WITH ORANGE CABLE
FC: Cryolink already established to Poet.
Okay. It’s done.

POET INTERRUPT: Warning: I detect the presence of the other worlds.

>POET, PLUG SENDER IN PLUG
FC: Cryolink already established to Poet.
I’ve plugged it in. We’re on location, all systems go.

IRIS INTERRUPT: Receiving transmissions.

>POET, POINT SENDER AT SIGN
FC: Cryolink already established to Poet.
The sender has been pointed at the signpost.

IRIS INTERRUPT: The little sign presents me with the access code the machine in the Main Supply Room needs to reset the Filtering Computers. It says FOOBLE.

POET INTERRUPT: SYSTEM FAILURE: Farewell, sweet prince.
Oh oh. Trouble ….

FC: So much for that robot. Too bad.

Poet’s death of course being dramatic; Sensa I sent to die changing the other wire.

FC: Cryolink established to Iris.

FC INTERRUPT: ALERT! ALERT!
Intruders detected in Sterilization Chamber!

>IRIS, PRESS BLE
FC: Cryolink already established to Iris.
FC: Second access code accepted.

FC INTERRUPT:

All systems returning to normal.
Weather systems slowly approaching balance.
Hydroponic systems working at full capacity.
Surface life in recovery mode.

Extrapolation based on current weather systems and food supplies:
Total recovery in 4 cycles.
Current surface casualties: 23,000
Projected casualties during recovery: 0
Original population: 30,172,000
Total possible survivors: 30,149,000

This score gives you the possibility of being considered for a home in the country and an unlimited bank account. On a scale of 1 (the best) to 7 (the worst), your ranking was 1.

You successfully completed your task, bringing the Filtering Computers back into balance, in 100 cycles.

Of course, at the same time as all that I had to juggle Whiz fiddling with controls, but it didn’t turn out to be too terrible to deal with. As soon as possible Whiz needs to fix the dials to repair the weather (as mentioned last time, 54, 100, 54 the best ones I found). Right after, even before a second earthquake hits (messing with the transport and food) Whiz can move over to the transport room and flip all three of the switches; then I had him camp in the hydroponics room and wait. At the exact moment in my walkthrough that the earthquake hits (when Sensa was about to unlock the cabinet with FRED) I had Whiz fix the settings.

WATER: LEVEL 50, SETTING 70, OUTPUT low
MINEARLS: LEVEL 15, SETTING 30, OUTPUT low
LIGHTING: LEVEL 30, SETTING 50, OUTPUT low

What happened here is that a setting and its level are supposed to be the same, but water dropped by 20, minerals dropped by 15, and lighting dropped by 20. So the way to fix it is to crank water up by 20, minerals up by 15, and lighting up by 20. Not exactly a strategy game moment, is it?

WHIZ, SET FIRST LEVER TO 90
WHIZ, SET SECOND LEVER TO 45
WHIZ, SET THIRD LEVER TO 70

More turn optimization is no doubt possible, but all that was good enough for a regular difficulty max-score win. What about ADVANCED difficulty though?

From left to right, Stu Galley, Marc Blank, Steve Meretzky and Michael Berlyn. Source.

FC: Request for advanced game acknowledged.

SENSA INTERRUPT: Secondary tremor detected by Filtering Computers. Intensity: 8.4. Projected damage: Automatic controls for surface transportation; Automatic controls for Hydroponics Area.

IRIS: In the Weather Monitors.
WALDO: In the Gamma Repair.
SENSA: In the Central Chamber.
AUDA: In the Entry Area.
POET: In the Central Chamber.
FC: Whiz is no longer in communication.

Starting places of the robots are the same, except Whiz is now removed entirely from play, and all three systems (transport, food, weather) are damaged all at the start.

The main point to make is that we are trying to prevent people from dying, not necessarily go as fast as possible. I went ahead and did all-hands-on-deck by sending Waldo, Sensa, and Poet all over to controls simultaneously, so they could be fixed as fast as possible. The fixes are absolutely identical to the regular game; there’s no “tertiary quake” that messes with the controls even more, so after they’re fixed, the rest of the game can proceed as normal — except — the delay means the humans will arrive. However, the acid seems to be more deadly anyway (I couldn’t run any robots through) so I also put Auda back into play, stealing the toolbag at the right moment.

FC INTERRUPT:

All systems returning to normal.
Weather systems slowly approaching balance.
Hydroponic systems working at full capacity.
Surface life in recovery mode.

Extrapolation based on current weather systems and food supplies:
Total recovery in 9 cycles.
Current surface casualties: 67,000
Projected casualties during recovery: 0
Original population: 30,172,000
Total possible survivors: 30,105,000

This score gives you the possibility of being considered for a home in the country and an unlimited bank account. On a scale of 1 (the best) to 5 (the worst), your ranking was 1.

You successfully completed your task, bringing the Filtering Computers back into balance, in 116 cycles.

I think more optimal might require simply knowing what switches/levers/dials should be done first to be effective faster.

WALDO, SET SECOND DIAL TO 100
WALDO, SET FIRST DIAL TO 54
WALDO, SET THIRD DIAL TO 54
POET, FLIP FIRST SWITCH
POET, FLIP SECOND SWITCH
POET, FLIP THIRD SWITCH
SENSA, SET FIRST LEVER TO 90
SENSA, SET SECOND LEVER TO 45
SENSA, SET THIRD LEVER TO 70

For instance, maybe it would be better for Poet to hit the switches in reverse order? That’s optimization past what the game is even tracking for the overall ranking. For even further exploration someone could muck about with the game’s CUSTOM which lets you decide where the robots are and which ones are alive; is it possible, for instance, to win the game with only one robot? (You might worry about FRED, but the BOTH ROBOT AND ROBOT syntax lets you use the same robot twice, so you can have BOTH WALDO AND WALDO move FRED. For Iris being dead and not seeing the code, you can do some brute-force save/reload with the relatively small number of combinations that need to be tested.)

However, I’m fine ending things there…

…except I ought to try IMPOSSIBLE, right?

>impossible
FC: Okay, you asked for it…

FC INTERRUPT: External sensors detect huge radiation abnormalities in the star which provides Contra with all light and heat.

WARNING! TIME CRITICAL!!

External sensors detect significant instability in the star.

…two turns later…

FC INTERRUPT: Oh oh. Abnormalities in star approaching critical level. NOVA IMMINENT!

So long from all the gang — Iris, Waldo, Sensa, Auda, Poet, Whiz, FRED, and last but not least, we three FCs.

…

After clearing myself of spoilers, I get the fun of reading everyone’s write-ups; in addition to Jimmy Maher, Drew Cook, and Aaron Reed I mentioned in my first post of the series, I also got to read The Adventure Gamer (Joe Pranevich, specifically) and The Data-Driven Gamer (part 1, part 2). Data-Driven experimented with the humans and different ways of messing with their pattern; you can, for example, steal the CAR so they can’t get the clones, at which point they’ll argue and then eventually decide to just disconnect the player directly. I also liked Drew Cook’s observation that the lore mentions “malcontents” to the whole lottery system that were “dealt with summarily by the Authority”; the ominous threats on the lottery report letter (involving confiscating children) give the impression that the word “utopia” at least needs an asterisk.

One extremely common thread was remarking on difficulty.

I did not find it that difficult, so that brings up for me the fascinating question: why? I can even compare with my much-younger self, which was utterly baffled.

I could vaguely gesture at the 20 years I’ve been blogging about interactive fiction and mumble something about experience, but I don’t think that’s a good explanation; my grim patience and experience applied with a game like Adventure Quest, but that’s a game that I recognize has high difficulty as I’m hitting it. With Suspended, nearly every object has explicit hints from Whiz; there are often three or more ways to realize the utility of an object. The fixes to the Filtering Computers are relatively straightforward. (When I played this long ago, my child imagination thought I’d need to be changing numbers every 10 turns or so, when you just need to do a single adjustment once for each control.)

Perceptually, I had very little trouble fitting together the multiple perspectives all happening at the same time. It was “normal” to me that Auda would not see an object at all and that information needed combining with another robot. I also never felt like I needed to resort to keeping track on the map of where the robots were; it’s not like they were wandering randomly; I always had particular missions in mind, and when I was in the phase of just trying to understand what was going, I usually focused on one robot at a time anyway.

The game’s longer-term legacy would be more complex. Its alienating premise and interface turned off players expecting the more traditional storytelling that was becoming the core of Infocom’s brand. It was also challenging, uncompromising, and required an obsessive attention to detail: “a game for frustrated would-be air traffic controllers,” one reviewer called it. The first Infocom game created by a writer, it had less plot and characterization than nearly any of their other titles. Today many consider it one of the company’s lesser works, more notable for its unusual packaging and bizarre premise than its often tedious gameplay.

— From Aaron Reed

Clearly, the “fractured reality” element has been too much conceptually for some people (including my younger self). I just find it so puzzling to read so many takes entirely counter to my experience: regarding the paragraph above, I was able to ignore a lot of details. In fact, that’s perhaps why I had the better experience, in that players who could only cope with the fire hose of information by swallowing down every drop ended up with reams of notes, whereas I was able to zero in on the important aspects, and simplify thinking of the game-winning gizmo as a GG-1 and not a complex array of sensory perceptions. I never stopped to examine Poet’s side comments, or figure out the exact rules if one object could see Thing X but not another. (One noteworthy thing I should mention, as it blows my mind at a technical level, is you can have a robot not see an item, but be with a robot that can see the item, and the non-seeing robot can then use it. This is meta-knowledge on a high level. Whiz originally is hesitant to look up anything involving FRED — the robot was removed from the library system — but once FRED is found, Whiz is more willing to engage and can give the hint that the robot can be scavenged from.)

I still find the game a magnificent experience and it is one of the few Infocom games I would change very little beyond a couple moments of parser polish. The most recent Interactive Fiction Top 50 of All Time pool puts Suspended at 21st out of 50, tied with Spellbreaker, Trinity, and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

(Now Hitchhiker’s really is a difficult game. Absolutely nothing in Suspended compared to the complications of the Babel Fish, or the door where you needed to prove your intelligence, or the time travel. Suspended’s difficulty is in being so much unlike anything else; even with multi-character games like Guardians of Infinity: To Save Kennedy they didn’t have the perceptual issues of Suspended.)

Coming up: I’m going to spin the dial on random a few times, but we’re coming close to getting back to another Apple II graphical game. I know some of you have been waiting. It’s not “rare” but it is one I’ve never seen discussed before.