Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

(Continued from my previous posts.)

Noble warriors of a distant age! Participate in the first-ever Nationwide Adventure Tournament on the CompuServe Information Service.

Beginning at 6 p.m. local time on Friday, September 4 through 5 a.m. on Tuesday, September 8, slay evil dragons, carry off precious treasures and be proclaimed “Grand Master” of Adventure!

Throughout the Labor Day Weekend, all entrants scoring the point total worthy of “Grand Master” status will be awarded two hours of free time and a CompuServe “Adventure” T-shirt. Runners-up will receive a T-shirt only, but still a prize worthy of the challenge!

Additionally, all entrants can receive on request a full size color version of the poster shown here. We’ll charge your account $1 for postage and handling. Check the “What’s New” section of Information Service prior to the contest for details and point total requirements.

Many will win the title “Grand Master.” Will your name be counted within their ranks?

— From TODAY magazine July 1981; the poster being referred to is the “sword and sandals one” I showed off previously

I don’t have a chunk of map to share this time; my progress has been filling in small holes of progress, enough to an extent that I can say I nearly have the 501 content wrapped up, just I’m having trouble making progress on the 751 content.

Ad from the first issue of CompuServe’s TODAY magazine, July 1981, offering the maps of both Adventure 350 and Adventure 751 for sale.

One bit of progress came just from idly checking the Adventure 751 map. I noticed there was an item that normally isn’t there on Adventure 350.

That box on the ground at the window is what I’m referring to. It connects to the Bedquilt room; I had tried earlier to go north at Bedquilt to get to there (as it specifies on my original Adv350 map) but I kept getting sent to the “Low room” instead so hadn’t really tested further. I already knew there was a “randomizing” effect with getting sent in a loop, but there’s some extra randomizing on top of that.

You are in Bedquilt, a long east/west passage with holes everywhere. To explore at random select north, south, up, or down.

GO NORTH

You have crawled around in some little holes and wound up back in the main passage.
You are in Bedquilt, a long east/west passage with holes everywhere. To explore at random select north, south, up, or down.

GO NORTH

You are in a large low room. Crawls lead north, NE, and SW.

The “large low room” isn’t the only possible destination (although it is the most frequent one). Raw persistence is the key, and I mean persistent: it took me about 50 tries to get to the right place.

You are in Bedquilt, a long east/west passage with holes everywhere. To explore at random select north, south, up, or down.

GO NORTH

You are in a secret canyon at a junction of three canyons, bearing north, south, and SE. The north one is as tall as the other two combined.

GO NORTH

You’re at a low window overlooking a huge pit, which extends up out of sight. A floor is indistinctly visible over 50 feet below. Traces of white mist cover the floor of the pit, becoming thicker to the left. Marks in the dust around the window would seem to indicate that someone has been here recently. Directly across the pit from you and 25 feet away there is a similar window looking into a lighted room. A shadowy figure can be seen there peering back at you.
There is a heavy, grey, metal cannister here.
The shadowy figure seems to be trying to attract your attention.

(The shadowy figure is just you in a mirror. I never understood this as a kid playing the game.)

I immediately recognized the canister, er, cannister, as the one I could put the radioactive rock into for safety.

You are at a high rock on the NE side of a watery chamber at the mouth of a small brook. An unknown gas bubbles up through the water from the chamber floor. A bluish light can be seen to the southwest.
Nearby, a strange, greenish stone is glowing brightly.

PUT STONE IN CANNISTER

Ok

CLOSE CANNISTER

Ok

Another puzzle I resolved is near here, so let’s get to that one next. Hop off the boat and head east and you’ll be at the Fairy Grotto.

You’re in Bubble Chamber.
There is a small wooden boat here.

GO EAST

It is now pitch dark. If you proceed you will likely fall into a pit.

LIGHT LAMP

Your lamp is now on.
You are in a sloping muddy defile, next to a tumbling brook.

GO EAST

You are in the Fairy Grotto. All around you innumerable stalactites, arranged in immense colonnades, form elegant arches. On every side you hear the dripping of water, like the footsteps of a thousand fairies. A small stream runs from the SW corner. A bright glow emanates from the south side of the grotto, and a steep passage descends to the east.

GO SOUTH

You go a short way down the bright passage, but the light grows to blinding intensity. You can’t continue.
You’re in the Fairy Grotto.

The game has the dark room in the middle because otherwise it would be easy to accidentally run into the solution: turn off the lamp. (The bright glow is already there, so we don’t need any other light!)

TURN OFF LAMP

Your lamp is now off.

GO SOUTH

You are in the Crystal Palace. An overhead vein of phosphorescent quartz casts a luminous glow which is reflected by countless chips of mica embedded in both walls, which consist of some sort of highly reflective glass, apparently of volcanic origin. A winding path of yellow sandstone leads west and rises steeply to the east.
There is a polished sphere of pure opal here!

The Crystal Palace connects the fairy room to the rainbow / lost river area…

…but before heading over there, I should return to the Fairy Grotto and mention I have the “cold corridor” problem resolved as well, and it was indeed how I guessed mid-post: the cloak is sufficient to protect you.

GO EAST

You’re in a steeply sloping passage. It is very cold here.

GO EAST

You are in the Hall of Ice, in the deepest part of the caverns. During winter, frigid outside air settles here, making this room extremely cold all year round. The walls and ceilings are covered with a thick coating of ice. An upward passage exits to the west.
There are diamonds here!

Now, about that Crystal Palace connection! It makes it easy to transport the cask down to the wine fountain and fill it up.

You are in the Winery, a cool dark room which extends some distance off to the east.
There is a fountain of sparkling vintage wine here!

FILL CASK WITH WINE

The cask is now full of wine.

(East from here are some “limestone pinnacles” and going up is where the cask is; you can take the cask straight back down over to the fountain, but there’s a chance that the cask will break. I spent longer than I needed to here as I assumed there was an extra gimmick, as it’s a “puzzle” that only has a certain percent chance of triggering and it gets bypassed merely by using a different route.)

Trudging past the “tongue of rock” back into the area with the phone booth…

The Conservatory is marked green because it’s in 751 only. It has the flute which is new for this game.

…I have the phone booth worked out, and the flute half-worked out. The phone booth had a gnome come in and use it; if you leave and come back, you can enter, and then get the item I believe was the whole intent of the scene.

You are standing in a telephone booth at the side of a large chamber. Hung on the wall is a banged-up pay telephone of ancient design.
The phone is ringing.

ANSWER PHONE

No one replies. The line goes dead with a faint “CLICK”.

HIT PHONE

A couple of lead slugs drop from the coinbox. (Gnomes are notoriously cheap….) But you’ve broken the phone beyond all hope.

The slugs can serve as a substitute for the coins in the machine that dispenses batteries for the lantern. The various remixes of Crowther/Woods have tended to be uncomfortable with the fact that the Maze of Twisty Passages, All Different doesn’t need to be entered at all because the only reward is the machine for extending battery life (and doing that burns one of your treasures, so you can’t get full points). Usually the resolution has been adding something extra (like hiding a passage behind the battery machine) but here the game slips in a way to use the machine as intended, just with something that isn’t a treasure.

(I still do not know what the plastic card outside the phone booth which says “Merkin Express” is for. It isn’t present in the 501 version.)

For the flute, trying PLAY FLUTE somewhere random gets you the message:

Sounds good. Are you in training to be the pied piper, or what?

If you instead use it at the salt flats (where we made concrete and fell into a bunch of quicksand):

PLAY FLUTE

After playing the flute for a few moments, you become aware of stealthy footsteps behind you.

PLAY FLUTE

You are being followed by a strangely docile giant Devonian rat!

Somehow this resulted in me getting a “smooth, white pebble” in the room just past the construction zone (I guess the rat brought it with them). I haven’t gotten any more use out of the rat; it doesn’t help with the mosquitoes (I thought maybe the bloodsuckers would focus on the critter and I’d be able to get through, no luck) and it doesn’t help with the centipede (ditto trying to make a distraction).

You are in the lair of Ralph the Giant Centipede. The air reeks with the stench of rotting bits of flesh. Giant centipedes, in general, are not partial to visitors.
A golden fleece is lying nearby!
A giant centipede is eyeing you with a none-too-friendly look.

PLAY FLUTE

After playing the flute for a few moments, you become aware of stealthy footsteps behind you.

PLAY FLUTE

You are being followed by a strangely docile giant Devonian rat!

One other quick puzzle, tracing to me still being confused as to what’s a treasure: the honey that you got from giving the flowers to the bees does not count as a treasure, but rather as food for the bear.

You are inside a barren room. The center of the room is completely empty except for some dust. Marks in the dust lead away toward the far end of the room. The only exit is the way you came in.
The bear is locked to the wall with a golden chain!
There is a ferocious cave bear eying you from the far end of the room!

THROW HONEYCOMB

The bear eagerly licks up the honeycomb, after which he seems to calm down considerably and even becomes rather friendly.

The bear not liking the lunch from the start building is the only change in this area.

From a totally different version of Adventure, Platt’s Adventure 551, which includes a new area past the Breathtaking View, the extra long volcano description that is there in Crowther/Woods just for scenery … and also in Adventure 751 just for scenery.

Finally, that leprechaun that was teleporting me with “fnord”: I made a little progress.

ENEMY NUMBER ONE.

I had found the four-leaf clover after the leprechaun and it seemed logical they’d go together, so I did item-juggling and made my way back. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t help:

You are in a dull N/S passage beside a tall black rock. On the rock is chisled the outline of a four-leafed clover, under which is the inscription: “Notice: This rock fabricated from ersatz materials.”

A sudden draft has extinguished your match.
Smoke rings curl upward from the rock.

INVENTORY

You are currently holding the following:
brass lantern
silver horn
ruby slippers
Holy Grail
shamrock
matchbox
wax candle

GO NORTH

As you approach the rock, the little man suddenly notices your shamrock. “Well, well,” says he, “you may be able to see me now, but you’ll never get by this place until you have vanquished one much larger than I! Fnord!”
You’re on grassy knoll.

I’ve tried defeating the dragon and bear but neither seem to satisfy. It could be the centipede?

Apologies about being so randomly scattered! That’s often how progress happens in one of these types of games. I’m left with, at least…

• a shovel which I haven’t used yet
• the centipede which chases the player up to a ravine
• the statue stuck in the ravine (I think I know what to do here, I just need to setup the items to test)
• still getting by the “ersatz rock”

…and one thing I remember from 501 that I haven’t done yet: finding the corpse of the Wumpus and getting a gold ring. I imagine this is just an exploration error, or rather, the fact I have a bunch of save games where progress hasn’t been consolidated (that is, the save file I explored on is not the same one I killed the Wumpus). I’m still under the feeling the final move count is going to be very tight, so when I realize a sequence could be better, I get the urge to redo it. It means I don’t even know how many points I could get maximum at this moment.

I’m stumped enough on the centipede and the rock I’m happy to get gentle rot13 hints. I suspect I’m about two posts away from a conclusion, although if the endgame is tough this might go out to three.