(Continued from my previous post.)
I haven’t made real progress in terms of events happening, but I did manage to get more objects to do something, so it seems worth an update. Exploration across the inventory space rather than the locational space, so to speak.
Actual pictures of Venus from the Ventura 14 probe, front and back cameras. Via The Planetary Society and Ted Stryk.
First, most straightforwardly, I figured out how to operate the boots: you need to JUMP UP (as opposed to just JUMP) while wearing them. This will allow you to scale the cliff up to a ledge.
Another Leduc cameo. I don’t know if he keeps this going through all his games. If you wait long enough he plugs his game Epic Hero 4, Camelot. This was written, but for the Colour Genie adventure series instead of the TRS-80 one.
Unfortunately, this only reveals the one new single room above. The small hole is not the kind you can enter, but the kind you can put things in.
I know this because PUT ITEM then prompts “IN WHAT?” while the command simply fails elsewhere (IN FOG for instance gets “I am not quite sure what you mean”) it has a different message with the hole.
You have in your possession:
Thought Bomb ■ 12 Inch Rod ■ Head Band ■ Space Suit ■ Which you’re wearing ■ Lift Boots ■ Which you’re wearing ■ Dial ■
What will you do now? PUT ROD
In what?
What will you do now? IN HOLE
Won’t fit
Regarding the rod, it is described as having “a DISK at one end” and I admit I was unsure for a while if they meant the kind you put in a computer. Playing around with my verb list, I ended up finding TWIST DISK worked, the game prompting for either TWIST LEFT or TWIST RIGHT. It starts at 12 inches, and twisting left makes it 9 inches, and twisting again causes the rod to explode.
What will you do now? TWIST LEFT
****** Kaboooooooooom !! ******
9 inches will fit in the hole. TWIST RIGHT will result in 5 feet, then 11 feet, then exploding. So to recap, the possible sizes are: 9 inches, 12, inches, 5 feet, 11 feet. The only one that fits in the hole is 9 inches.
Also, due to the two-part aspect of the parser (PUT ROD / IN HOLE) it doesn’t understand putting other things in the hole. I tried PUT BOMB / IN HOLE and (with the rod the right size) it put the rod in instead. I have no idea how to get the rod to do anything after it is in the hole; it seems to be lost.
Speaking of the bomb, let’s get to that next. I found that THINK UP is not necessary, any command with THINK as the verb will work to blow up the thought bomb while the player has the headband on. You do not have to be nearby to set off the bomb; I tried putting it down at the ledge here, setting it off, and coming back shows a “crater” and a completely intact Marc Leduc (alas!) Also, this implies that any thinking whatsoever sets off the bomb, which is pretty awkward if you, er, think about it.
You are on a mountain ledge.
Objects you can see are: Thick Fog ■ Small Hole ■ Marc J. Leduc writing another Epic ■ Small crater ■
The small crater will also show up inside the pool (the one with the poison liquid), even though it doesn’t quite make sense. The same thing happens in the surgical unit of the ship.
The unit (with the white, black, and orange buttons) ends up being the most fascinating object of the game so far, so let’s save that for last and go back outside to the pool/statue area.
I rammed through the verb list on the statue and found that SHAKE STATUE repeats the message about it having its hand out; SHAKE HAND specifically gets a different response. (Rob theorized about this one in the comments, but it took me a while to realize the second noun was being introduced.)
What will you do now? SHAKE STATUE
It
has it’s hand out !
What will you do now? SHAKE HAND
Okay
You
grasp the hand and a voice in your mind says :“Enter my domain. I have a question for you.”
What will you do now?
Unfortunately, I have no idea how to enter the domain as suggested! I would have thought the pool might be it, and ENTER POOL is still possible, but no command I’ve tried after (like DIVE) has seen anything productive.
One last outside-thing: the spacesuit itself that I’ve been wearing. A “dial” is mentioned in inventory and I used mindless verb-testing again to realize READ works: “Enough air for 65 moves”. This means that there’s a time limit to all this, so probably I’ll have to put together a “real run” at some point after stumbling my way to the right answers.
Back to the surgical unit! Remember orange closes the pod, black does some kind of procedure, and white (it turns out) undoes the procedure. What’s most interesting is if you try to leave the unit after pressing black but before pressing white.
What will you do now? PUSH ORANGE
Okay
The lid
opens
Atmosphere
is poisonous
You are DEAD!!
If you’re wearing or even holding a spacesuit, the unit will announce “Patient not ready.” If you drop your suit, go through the black procedure, and then try to put the suit back on, you’ll find that your body shape has changed and the suit can’t be worn!
Won’t fit
over
Strange shaped body
The boots also don’t fit; the thought head-band does (so you can set off the bomb while converted). You can kill yourself with the bomb while converted. If you try to put the bomb on the outside of the surgical unit and set it off, you get the message “Relay not present.”
So it seems the unit is literally turning us into an alien form unable to breathe oxygen; given the context, we likely could survive on the surface of Venus while converted, but I don’t know how to get down there and be in alternate-form at the same time.
Comments and suggestions still appreciated! I’ll even take hacking at machine code, although if someone goes that far, please use ROT13.
What will you do now? HELP
Use your imagination. Remember, I’ve got a weird outlook on
things and you must try to THINK the way I do.
Is it possible? – Signed Marc
Renga in Blue 
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