(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 
Does THINK do anything (in any location) with the headband *off*? Maybe after shaking hands with the statue?
Can you TWIST LEFT (or right) *after* putting the rod in the hole?
This is exactly the suggestion I came here to make.
The link to The Planetary Society under the top image doesn’t work.
thx!
Okay, I decided to try this one out myself, and I discovered two things:
– You can DIVE DOWN or SWIM DOWN in the pool. The room description briefly shows that you’re at the bottom of the pool, and that there’s a “dark hole” and “slimy purple plants”, but you immediately float back up to the top of the pool without being able to do anything, presumably because of the dense water. I tried diving with and without all kinds of item combinations, but nothing worked. I also tried to LISTEN at the statue and in the pool, since it “has a question for you”, but you don’t hear anything. I’d guess the dark hole is the entrance to its “domain” and will open up the map once this is figured out. Maybe you need to be in the surgically-altered form, which might be heavier? Speaking of which…
– After seeing the “programmed for personal access” message, I tried to PROGRAM COMP, and when it’s set to switch one it says “Reprogramming commences after next usage”, and “Reprogramming commences after second medical usage” on switch two. REPROGRAM COMP (or IDENT) produces the same messages. I tried fiddling around with this in various ways both before and after using the surgical unit, but seemed to make no progress in changing the outcomes (not being able to wear the suit after transformation, and then dying when exposed to the air). It feels like some combination of this, and perhaps interacting with the Life Support (which I haven’t been able to get any response to) must have something to do with being able to leave the ship in the altered form, though.
– Regarding TWISTing the rod after putting it in the small hole as suggested above, that seems to be impossible, as it just disappears, as you mentioned.
– For Voltgloss: If you try to THINK without the headband, it just says “You can’t do that… Yet!”, IIRC. Also, you must be wearing the headband to SHAKE/HOLD the hand and get the Alien’s message (I discovered that just using EXAM again also works).
one real oddity with the identi-comp:
If you set it to two, go to the surgical unit, use it with both black and white, and then come back, it still remains set at two
if you set it to two, add the REPROGRAM command you found, go to the surgical unit and do both black and white, then come back, the identi-comp now is set on one
I don’t suppose typing WHAT or SAY WHAT after the statue has a question does anything.
“WHAT is not in my vocabulary.”
I get the impression that the question is to be asked/answered after you’ve entered its “domain”, rather than at the statue.
one other important point: shaking the hand does _not_ work if you have the headband off – so it’s got more effect than just linking to the bomb
one other thing that’s been puzzling me is when the bomb gets the “Relay not present” message
I’ve dropped the bomb off before in the pool and set it off, so I know it works, but I’ve also dropped it off before where I get the relay not present message afterwards
ADD: oho – the rod is the “relay” – so if you deposit it in the hole, you can no longer think the bomb to explode
Huh. So. If you extend the rod’s length to the max and then THINK… does the thought bomb behave differently? Maybe with a time delay?
fiddling around some more, it’s the length thing that matters – at default 12 inches it works as a relay, does not work on any of the other lengths
I have managed to explore a few locations beyond the bottom of the pool. To get there is a little involved, to start you off you are able to UBYQ OERNGU.
In greater detail: Frg gur vqragv-pbzc gb gjb gura cebtenz vqragv-pbzc. Ragre gur fhetvpny havg, cerff benatr gura oynpx, ubyq lbhe oerngu naq cerff benatr. Trg bhg, yrnir gur fcnprfuvc (gur vqragv-pbzc ercebtenzzvat nyybjf guvf), tb gb gur cbby, tb cbby, fjvz qbja, naq gura…
Okay, I tried that, but it seems you’d somehow still need to get there in your original form to go further, so I’m a bit stumped. I was able to grab a certain item in a way you’re probably not supposed to, and noticed some other quirky/buggy handling of the rod in that area, but neither has helped me to advance further. I’d guess some other fiddly sequence with the identi-comp and surgical unit is necessary, but what?
Just a note that I’ve finished but I won’t give specific answers unless prompted.
I’m intrigued by your “I was able to grab a certain item in a way you’re probably not supposed to” would you please use rot13 so that I know what you are talking about? As for the rod bug, I noticed that too but it is not important. For your first exploration if the pool area I suggest not taking anything with you. This should give you an idea of what will be needed in the area and how to get a certain object to that place.
To get further: Gurer vf abguvat gb fgbc lbh ubyqvat lbhe oerngu zber guna bapr. Vapvqragnyyl, vs lbh xabj bs gur pbzznaq gung jvyy eryrnfr lbhe oerngu cyrnfr gryy, pheeragyl V nz whfg yrggvat zl snpr tb erq orsber V nz sbeprq gb oerngur.
Okay, I finished the game. I already knew the part about being able to do the one thing repeatedly, I just didn’t get that it naturally reverted once you were further on (I don’t think there’s a command for that, btw). Once I figured that out everything else fell into place. The item thing I mentioned was based on that initial confusion, so it’s nothing important.
Clever little game! Small but dense, and pretty fair. I look forward to trying out his Colour Genie games.
I’m not sure what you mean about the item you’re not supposed to get. If you mean the red furry block, I did find SCAN works for using the scanner; it lets you know if something is sentient or not, and while the red furry block is alive, it isn’t sentient, so not the goal. So getting the block does not bypass the goal (it certainly seemed for a moment like I should be able to take the block back to the life support, blast off, and win)
The item thing was just me grabbing the block in the dark and then running around with it, before I really understood how the oxygen dynamic worked in different areas. The more interesting thing is the rod issue, which is the only bug I found in the game.
One other thing: I found that you can BREAK the various lifeform containers, which leaves only appropriately-coloured “bits” and potentially softlocks the game.
Pingback: Epic Hero #3, Venus Must Live: Xenoshifting | Renga in Blue