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.

(Continued from my previous posts.)

I’m likely extremely close to the end, but given I still need to tackle the “strategic” layer (and check the alternate difficulty levels) I’ll have enough content for a long final post next time even if I’m only a turn away from victory.

From Mobygames.

My big break — taking me almost all the way to the end — came from Whiz. I realized despite him complaining the moment you take him out of the “library” section where he plugs in…

Internal map reference — Index Peripheral
CLC identifier shows the object before me as the Index pedestal.

>n
Internal map reference — Outer Library Area
CLC identifier tagging detected directly to the south.

>n
Internal map reference — Hallway Junction
Request directions which would send me in a southerly direction as linkup seems imminent.
The W1 is positioned by the step.
There is a W1 here.

…it’s very useful to see things through Whiz’s eyes, as he sees things by their library computer (CLC) tag. (The wedge that allows passing over the step is W1.) This means they get identified quite precisely so they can be looked up in the machine. For example, the machine with the eight circles (FOO, MUM, BLE, BAR, KLA, CON, BOZ, TRA) is only spoken of vaguely by the other robots, but Whiz knows what it is.

CLC reports this area is abnormal in its arrangement. A GG-1 sits here, barely operating. A CX3 chip sits in the S1, and a CX4 chip sits in the S2.

I don’t know the “human” name, but it helps in this game to think like a robot anyway, and GG1 (without the hyphen) is enough to query the library.

>query gg-1
FC: I don’t know the word ‘gg-1’.

>query gg1
CLC: Hmm. That’s a tough one. Hold on a minute while I try to locate a reference …

CLC: Here it is! I was beginning to think I was going senile.
IP: Data available from the Technical Pedestal.
IP: Data available from the Advisory Pedestal.
IP: Data available from the Historical Pedestal.

The database indicates the GG-1 “holds the 8 circles used to reset the Filtering Computers” and that “If the Filtering Computers are operational and balanced, keying in the two codes will result in a system reset.” While I suspected already that using the machine was essentially the last step, this confirms that two of the three-letter codes are needed.

The catch here is the “operational and balanced” part which I don’t have yet.

TP: The three Filtering Computers are kept in balance by two series of four cables. Four cables run through the Primary Channel, while another four run through the Secondary Channel.

I showed the relevant room off already with Poet, but here’s Whiz:

Internal map reference — Secondary Channel
CLC tagged location indicates I am within a connecting tube. The connecting cables for the filtering computers line this floor, resting in their grooves. A small plug, PL-1, sits within the wall beneath the ACS.

Whiz cannot see there’s a sign here (and in the primary channel, which looks the same but has different cables). Whiz can look it up where the advisory panel mentions Iris ought to be able to see the sign somehow.

While I didn’t have a method at this moment in my gameplay, I kept exploring with Whiz and found the right item shortly after. Remember the mysterious force field?

CLC warns that the area to the east is dangerous.
Mobile CLC tagged object CAR is at the head of the tunnel.
I can detect nothing inside of it.

Looking up the CAR reveals it is, well, a “car”. This is a transport tunnel and you’re just supposed to enter the car (or “egg”) and the robot will get moved to the other side. (I admit to initially misreading and think the “egg” was out of reach.) Whiz’s library search leaves no ambiguity:

AP: Use this to get to the Biological Area and back.
TP: Operating this vehicle is as simple as entering it.

Voila, the last part of the map I hadn’t reached yet:

Straightforwardly, this is where the clones are stored (as well as an ominous switch out of robot reach — I haven’t tested Bad Ending yet but I assume the humans come in and use this if they hadn’t seen the acid leak). There’s also storage:

Internal map reference — Biological Laboratory
This area is identified as the Biological Lab. Equipment here is available for clone revivification.
CLC tagged device TV1 sits on the floor by a table.

Most robots puzzle a bit over the device (Sensa mentions an RF signal, and while Iris calls it a “television camera” she gives no hint how it is operated) but Whiz can look TV1 up directly:

TP: This is a complex television camera which links directly to Iris.
AP: It can be activated by plugging it in at the correct location.

That’s what the plugs at the wire grooves are for!

Internal map reference — Secondary Channel
CLC tagged location indicates I am within a connecting tube. The connecting cables for the filtering computers line this floor, resting in their grooves. A small plug, PL-1, sits within the wall beneath the ACS.
In the room with me is Poet.

>plug tv1
FC: What do you want to plug the tv1 in?

>pl-1
I’ve plugged it in. CLC indicates object now functioning.

IRIS INTERRUPT: Receiving transmissions.

>point tv1 at sign
The TV1 has been pointed at the ACS.

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 CONBLE.

Thus, the two circles that need to be pressed to win the game are CON, followed by BLE. (This does not change even on reset, so — as far as I can tell — the bio-area does not need entering in the future.)

Again, though, I’m stuck on my catch: I need to replace the bad wires. There are specifically two of them, one for each of the “channels”.

In the primary channel (to the north) the cables are 4-inch, 6-inch, 10-inch, and 18-inch. One way to tell which is broken is to simply try taking them; the inert wire will be safe, whereas any of the live cables will fry and destroy the robot taking it. (This seems extreme, but given how many save/restores are going on with this game anyway, it seems a perfectly valid approach.) Alternatively, Poet (the diagnostic bot) can examine them.

>examine four-inch
The data transmissions within this cable are irregular. Immediate replacement recommended.

>examine six-inch
I perceive nothing special about the six-inch cable.

So the four-inch cable needs to go. In the secondary channel the options are 5, 9, 19, and 20. Again, the take-and-fry method works. Examining does not work; all the cables appear normal. However, Poet can also diagnose with touch, which apparently finds a different (but equally cable-wrecking) issue.

>touch five-inch
Sensory pads detect no abnormal flow.

>touch nine-inch
Data transmissions are highly irregular through this cable.

>touch nineteen-inch
Sensory pads detect no abnormal flow.

>touch twenty-inch
Sensory pads detect no abnormal flow.

Great! Now I just need replacement cables. One of them I had seen already at the ancient FRED robot; unfortunately, you can’t just take the wire, as it needs a cutting tool, the one that was on the north side of the map, a little too high to reach. There’s a solution that took me a few beats to find but was satisfyingly logical — logical enough that it occurred to me while off the computer, so I went back to test it.

Internal map reference — Small Supply Room
I can detect a small area, cluttered with things which extend from the walls. Doorways lead to the east and the west.
There is a high extending holder here.
Sitting on the high extending holder is…
A cutting tool
There is a square container here.

>drop wedge
Dropped.

>get on wedge
Okay. I’m standing on the solid wedge now.

>get tool
Taken.

This is the using the wedge that bridges the north and south sides of the complex; after passing over, a robot can pick it up, use it to grab the cutting tool, then put the wedge back where it was. This is leveraging the mental model that players sometimes have where an item is “checked off” without realizing re-use might be possible.

The result is a “twelve-inch cable” off of FRED which (I assume) is functional. The parentheses are there because I need a second cable, so I haven’t even confirmed if the one coming from FRED even works.

There are three visible candidates:

• First, the blue cable sitting in storage that the memo already warned was non-functional. I also tested using it anyway as the second cable and it didn’t work.
• There’s a “backup cable” in storage that you can find by moving the shelf (this is the same place Waldo’s microsurgery extension is held). Unfortunately the cable is crushed and non-functional.
• There’s a functional cable (orange color) used in the GG-1 device. You can remove the device’s fuse and then take the cable, but then it becomes non-functional.

I haven’t had luck with any of them. That is, I go over to the primary channel, REPLACE the bad cable, go over to the secondary channel, REPLACE the bad cable, and try to have Iris press one of the buttons and the game says the computers are still broken.

One last wrinkle to all this is the repair conveyer belt which I mentioned not having figured out last time. I thought I needed to get it moving first, but instead, you can just put an object on the north side and the machine will activate automatically.

Internal map reference — Alpha Repair
Running, running, getting nowhere amid the hustle and bustle of life.
The glider is not in motion.

>put cable on glider
Done.

>look
Internal map reference — Alpha Repair
Running, running, getting nowhere amid the hustle and bustle of life.
The glider is in motion, moving a twelve-inch cable.

>s
Internal map reference — Beta Repair
We’re getting nowhere fast, glider, but at least we’re not getting there slowly.
The glider is in motion, moving a twelve-inch cable.

>s
Internal map reference — Gamma Repair
Oh, to reach the end of one’s previous existence, to travel the roadways of life when they are most needed, only to end up here, reborn.
The glider is in motion, moving a twelve-inch cable.
There is a FRED here.
There is a cage here.

>look
Internal map reference — Gamma Repair
Oh, to reach the end of one’s previous existence, to travel the roadways of life when they are most needed, only to end up here, reborn.
The glider is not in motion.
There is a twelve-inch cable here.
There is a FRED here.
There is a cage here.

The twelve-inch cable is the one from FRED. I’ve tried running the other cables through and nothing changes — they’re still busted. I’m fairly sure I’m missing one small step somewhere and I’ll make it to the end.

Envelope containing a catalog. From Infocom-IF.

You might notice I didn’t discuss the controls / people dying in the millions part of the game. People have certainly been dying…

>score
There have been 7,557,000 casualties (original population: 30,172,000) in 242 cycles.

…but as far as I can find you can essentially ignore this after convincing the humans that there was a real accident and didn’t just cause another “Franklin incident”. According to arcanetrivia in the comments, eventually the game will end with enough death, but I haven’t hit that limit while doing lots of experimenting and having robots meander back and forth. There’s essentially no urgency until I have the last puzzle solved, and then I can worry about optimizing and dial settings to keep people from getting frozen and so forth.

(Continued from my previous post. The official WordPress reader has a bug with Soundcloud embeds, so if the last post seemed strangely short you might want to check it before moving on.)

From the Museum of Computer Adventure Game History.

Be prepared, this is going to be a long one. Rather than laying out the territory first and then tackling puzzles, I’m going to flip back and forth a little. Let me first give the general meta-layout:

The main important point of the structure is that there’s a “north side” (with the entrance/decontamination area, a “maintenance corridor”, a “library room” and a biological area) that is separate from the “south side” (central control, central core, repair, environmental override controls, and filtering computers). Between the two there is a “step” which robots can’t pass, so Auda starts trapped on the north side and the other robots start trapped on the south side.

>N
I can’t climb the step.

Let’s start focused on the “Central Chamber” area. This is the area that Iris (the only robot with visual sense) is restricted to, although Iris starts broken and unable to see.

Without Iris, Sensa and Poet are still both able to make a pass. I’m going to give the description each one makes because the two parts together help put together what’s going on.

Internal map reference — Central Chamber
POET: It hops and skips and leaves a bit, and can’t decide if it should quit. It tells the world what it should know, but doesn’t know when it’s been shown.

SENSA: Internal map reference — Central Chamber
All around me charges flow, shaped by the very nature of this room. The electrons are being channeled into an electrical column, central to this environment.

The starting place. Notice how Sensa describes a “column” that Poet doesn’t even mention; Poet is purely luxuriating in metaphor rather than describing anything.

POET: Internal map reference — Weather Monitors
They puff and billow and strain a bit, roar then ebb with time.
In the room with me is Iris.

SENSA: My receptors detect huge electrical flow through the walls and meters all around me.
In the room with me is Iris.

Neither has much helpful to say here; this room, and two other rooms off the Central Chamber (Hydroponics and Transit Monitors) are intended for Iris.

POET: Internal map reference — Main Supply Room
This is another fine mess you’ve got me into. Umm, umm umm! A processor sits on the floor, munching and spitting electrons. Button, button, who’s got the button while the socks ablaze with color. A brain tres sits in the primo socket, and a brain quart sits in the secondary socket.

SENSA: Internal map reference — Main Supply Room
A strange apparatus sits before me, processing electrons internally. This device seems active, though some internal mechanisms are exposed. There are two receptacles, designed to hold small circuitry, and a button beside them. A ruined device sits in the plus receptacle, and a seized device sits in the negative socket.

Flipping back and forth this essentially describes the same thing; while it seems like Sensa is being more exact, it turns out Poet’s “tres” and “quart” will be helpful in a moment. Going to the supply room just south…

Internal map reference — Middle Supply Room
POET: From junk we spring, to junk we go.
Contained spirits, like thoughts, fly from reach.
The basket of goodies for Grandma contains…
A brain plain
A brain quartet
A brain trio
A brain two
A brain zip
There is a sixteen-inch cable here.
It is something we can all grasp, something to embrace, whose presence I detect.

SENSA: I am in the Middle Supply Room.
I perceive a small container which holds several small devices.
The small container contains…
A scanning object
A buss object
A maximized object
A filtering object
A polarized object
There is a sixteen-inch cable here.
A small object emits a weak signal, specifically oriented toward Waldo.

…this is clearly the same set of objects, just described in different ways (except the cable, which is absolutely identical, but based on that mysterious only-on-some-versions memo, can be completely ignored). They do show up in the same order, so the “maximized object” is a “brain trio”.

While this all strongly suggests the “tres” needs to be replaced with a “brain trio” (or maximized object) and the “quart” needs to be replaced with a “brain quartet” (or buss object) trying to swap them in and press the button had no seeming effect. There’s another part later where the plain/quartet/trio notation ends up being very helpful, just not for this exact issue.

The contrasting descriptions of the last object are helpful side by side: “a weak signal, specifically oriented toward Waldo” merged with “something we can all grasp”. The two made me realize this is some sort of tool specifically for Waldo. The GET OBJECT trick also still works

FC: Which object do you mean, the scanning object, the buss object, the maximized object, the filtering object, the polarized object, or the micro extension?

and Whiz quite explicitly says when asked about it: “It looks like a simple waldo for Waldo, in a sense. It has small extensions on it which could probably be used for micro-surgery or something like that.” We’ll be bringing in Waldo a little bit later to try it out.

Internal map reference — Sub Supply Room
POET: It burns and wields tremendous light and makes our joints delight its might.
To rise and fall, and climb new heights, to descend the pit of robot despair. Everything cracks under pressure, sooner or later.

SENSA: Internal map reference — Sub Supply Room
The air here is still. No vibrational activity.
Nothing within this environment emits singular vibrations, but an object does send out a CLC identifier.

Sensa indicates an object; the CLC identifier indicates it is in the “central library computer”. This means you can switch over to controlling Whiz and look for it; the best place to go for this kind of speculative search is an “Index Pedestal” which lets you know if an item is in the database at all and where to get the info.

Internal map reference — Index Peripheral
CLC identifier shows the object before me as the Index pedestal.

>plug in
It’s great to be home. Plugged in to the Index Pedestal. Ready to process queries.

The problem is Sensa’s description is too vague, and while Poet’s description is technically accurate, it doesn’t quite help find the item in the index. However, it is possible to TAKE OBJECT to instruct a robot to grab whatever is in the room (or even TAKE ALL). Once held in inventory, Poet has a more helpful description:

My Zen Master says I am grasping…
A slanting wedge

You can then jump over to Whiz and ask about the wedge:

>query wedge
CLC: Hmm. That’s a tough one. Hold on a minute while I try to locate a reference …

CLC: Ah! Here’s the tagged object. Sorry about that delay, but it’s crowded in here.
IP: Data available from the Advisory Pedestal.

Going over to the relevant pedestal, Whiz then explains that the wedge “can be used as a step or small platform.” This is sufficient information to know: this is meant to bridge the north and south parts of the map!

Internal map reference — Hallway Junction
Life is filled with choice. Decisions always make my eyes moist.

>n
I can’t climb the step.

>put wedge on step
The slanting wedge has been positioned at the step.

>n
Internal map reference — Sloping Corridor
Oh, the travesty of descent, the joyousness of having one’s spirit lifted beyond measure to another glorious level.
The slanting wedge is positioned by the step.

Before going on to further exploration, let’s fix Iris. Fortunately, Whiz is helpful when asked.

AP: Iris can be best used to monitor the monitors surrounding the Central Chamber.
Waldo should remove the maintenance panel and replace all faulty chips.

Bringing Waldo (the grasping/touching bot with sonar), and then doing EXAMINE IRIS:

WALDO: Iris feels extremely delicate and is under a meter in height. My pressure extensions detect a maintenance panel which should be accessible to me.

Remember he had a micro tool in storage; if you pick up and “wear” it, you can then open the panel.

When I open the smooth metal panel I detect a smooth device, a bumpy device, and a rough device.

It’s easy to forget with all the strange messages, but Poet is intended as a diagnostic bot, and can TOUCH each of the boards inside to figure out which one is broken.

>examine iris
The door is open and behind it I detect a brain zero, a brain dos, and a brain uno.

>touch zero
Sensory pads detect no abnormal flow.

>touch dos
Sensory pads detect no abnormal flow.

>touch uno
Electrons can no longer find flow paths through this brain.

The “uno” corresponds to the “plain brain” with the maintenance supplies.

>replace uno with plain
Okay. It’s done.

IRIS INTERRUPT: OOOH! That felt good! Close my panel, big boy.

>waldo, close panel
FC: Cryolink established to Waldo.
WALDO: Closed.

IRIS INTERRUPT: You never looked so good.

We can now see what the room actually looks like!

FC: Cryolink established to Iris.
IRIS: Internal map reference — Central Chamber
I’m in a large room which looks like the inside of a globe. The walls seem sculptured with wiring, swirling around the room’s perimeter, leading into a tall column. The column itself has a door on its face. Doorways lead to the west, south, east and northeast.
In the room with me are Waldo, Sensa and Poet.
Waldo is carrying a microsurgery extension.
Poet is carrying a blue chip.

Since I’m guessing you’re curious:

>w
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 burned chip sits in the red socket, and a fried chip sits in the yellow socket.

>s
Internal map reference — Middle Supply Room
This is the middle of an L-shaped supply room. Scattered about on the floor are all kinds of debris. Nothing looks salvageable.
Among the rubble I can see a little basket, sitting on the floor.
The little wire basket contains…
A plaid IC
A green IC
A yellow IC
A red IC
There is a blue sixteen-inch cable here.

>e
Internal map reference — Sub Supply Room
I am in a sub-station of the supply rooms. The room is small, with debris littering the floor.
A broken shelf lies on the floor in a terrible state, beyond use.

With the colors, it is possible to fix the “burned chip” and “fried chip” properly; the red IC goes in the red socket and the yellow IC goes in the yellow socket.

>push button
Okay. I’ve pressed the button. The front panel popped open, exposing a series of eight little circles with letters written on them. The front panel bears further examination. A bunch of orange wire is exposed, and beside it, in the panel, rests a small glass fuse.

>examine front panel
On the panel are a series of eight circles. Each of these circles has a three letter code printed on it. The three letters correspond to half of the Filtering Computers’ reset code.

The circle codes are FOO, MUM, BLE, BAR, KLA, CON, BOZ, and TRA respectively. I don’t have anything matching with them yet.

Other than that puzzle, the main use of Iris is to check various monitors. The earthquake that started the game is already causing weather to go out of control; Hydroponics and Transit are at “optimal” to start (on default difficulty, at least), but there are secondary quakes later which mess with those too.

Internal map reference — Weather Monitors
All around me I see meters indicating the state of the weather conditions on all three planet-side continents.
The monitors for surface weather show:

  TEMP: 26 WINDS: 70
  PRECIPITATION: a blinding snowstorm
  TOWER PRESSURES: Tower 1 -- 55
                   Tower 2 -- 20
                   Tower 3 -- 55

I haven’t fully experimented yet with everything, but at least tried to fix the weather, by going to the “skywalk” branch on the south side of the complex:

The controls are switches (for transit), levers (for hydroponics) and dials (for weather), with the added complication that not every robot can see every control. Sensa can see all the controls normally. Waldo can see all of them with his sonar (although he sees the switches as “bumps”); Poet only can work with the levers and dials but the switches are invisible. Auda hears a roaring sound while on the skywalk but can’t refer to any of the controls.

Internal map reference — Skywalk Beta
I can hear the tremendous roar of wind in a tunnel to the north. An exact duplication of this sound can be detected from the east and west, though their intensities are somewhat less.

>n
Internal map reference — Hydroponics Control Area
I am in the Hydroponics Control Area.

All the dials are set at 55, but since the Tower’s pressure is at 20 it clearly is not working properly. I ended up getting the weather to simply “rain” by cranking the second dial up to 100, and had everything down to a “light drizzle” by moving the first and third dial down a step to 54.

  TEMP: 42 WINDS: 18
  PRECIPITATION: a light drizzle
  TOWER PRESSURES: Tower 1 -- 54
                   Tower 2 -- 45
                   Tower 3 -- 54

One important point here is that you can technically reach the dials before you’ve fixed Iris, so you can take the information already gathered and send a robot to fix the weather right away. I’m not sure how I feel about that. The “quantum realities” that the game encourages (like Deadline) where you experiment and reset many times feels like it admits “knowing how the chip color puzzle works” but not so much fixing weather without seeing it. On the other hand, the attempts from the Cambridge authors like with Hezarin to “fix” this issue with randomness-during-the-game ended up breaking it utterly instead, so I’d rather authors avoid trying too hard to avoid pre-knowledge.

To recap, as far as puzzles solved, I’ve bridged the step between the north and south areas, fixed Iris, fixed a “reset code” device in storage, and prevented a snowstorm.

Aaron Reed’s map of the south section of Suspended, which you can get as a mouse pad.

Staying with the south side for now, there’s a “repair area” (where Waldo starts at) with two unresolved mysteries. The first is a “walkway” that runs north to south. According to Whiz, putting something in at one side will run it through and have it fixed at the other ends, except the walkway isn’t running. From Sensa’s perspective:

Internal map reference — Alpha Repair
Strong electrical interference can be detected within this environment.
The conveying mechanism is not in motion.

>s
Internal map reference — Beta Repair
I detect slight vibrational activity from a conveying mechanism.
The conveying mechanism is not in motion.

>s
Internal map reference — Gamma Repair
Vibrational activity and electrical emanations detected from the north are stronger than those in the immediate vicinity.
The conveying mechanism is not in motion.
In the room with me is Waldo.
A large object emits strange flows, its surface a tracery of filament-like circuitry. The circuitry is concentrated near the center of one side.

While I haven’t been able to get the walkway running, I have managed to deal with the “large object” which is a locked cabinet. Most of the robots aren’t helpful here, but having Sensa examine the cage (spotting a “flowswitch”) followed by Poet touching it (who otherwise can’t sense it) is sufficient to give instructions on how to open the cabinet.

>touch cage
Data bits flow within the surface of the cage, concentrated in a circle.

>sensa, examine cage
FC: Cryolink established to Sensa.
SENSA: Concentrated on the front surface of the large object is a flowswitch.

>poet, touch flowswitch
FC: Cryolink established to Poet.
POET: Sensa has the ability to turn the plates and detect when they are properly aligned.

SENSA, TURN PLATES causes it to open, revealing a “broken device”. Sensa and Waldo don’t give more detail than that, but Poet refers to the device as FRED, which is enough to get Whiz on the case:

Technical: This robot is a dead and departed robot who is totally beyond repair.

Historical: This robot was an all-purpose, multi-function robot which proved inadequate for maintenance purposes.

Advisory: There may be some salvageable parts inside it.

While FRED is larger than any of the robots, you can specify BOTH robots move FRED. (This is the puzzle that made me grumpy last time, but again, I didn’t have the manual directions that indicated I could command two robots at once.)

>both waldo and poet, get fred
FC: Dual-Cryolink established to Waldo and Poet.
FC: The robots have moved it.
FC: Cryolink established to Waldo.

>look
Internal map reference — Gamma Repair
I have reached the south end of this area. The walkway ends here.
The walkway is not in motion.
In the room with me are Sensa and Poet.
There is a broken mechanism here.
I can feel a bunch of smooth wire coming out of the mechanism.
There is a hollow object here.

>poet, examine wire
FC: Cryolink established to Poet.
POET: I perceive nothing special about the twelve-inch cable.

I’m guessing this goes back to the override device; fixing it seems to be the central puzzle of the whole game. I haven’t taken this puzzle any farther at the moment (you may notice this post is already getting rather long, and I’m not done yet).

It’s time for some acid! Which FRED supposedly resists, so I may need to simply salvage some parts or even fix FRED entirely (my memory is gone past the BOTH robots part, it’s apparently the moments of frustration that stick in memory!) I also found a method of fixing the acid leak later (but it may not be optimal for turns). For now, though, let’s just send in some sacrifices. Going east to the Filtering Computers requires passing under acid, which Poet describes colorfully:

Internal map reference — Short Corridor
The great interpreter of all our daily occurences lies ahead, while a walk in the sky waits for me to the northeast.
Bathe in luxuriating, though scorching, solvents.

>e
Internal map reference — Cavernous Room
Twice the size of life, this area makes me feel like a dwarf.
Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head
And before you know it I’ll
wake up dead… a puddle of lead.

>e
Internal map reference — East End
Ah, Mama! Here I am, your sonny boy, returned after a lifetime of wandering!

>e
Internal map reference — Beta FC
Amid the nervous neurons, the synaptic links make jumps akin to imagination found only in Wonderland.

POET INTERRUPT: I fear I’m about to become one with the cosmos.

There’s a little time before a robot who gets acid-bathed dies, so I think it may be possible to do whatever needs doing via sacrifice rather than “solving a puzzle”. I have yet to experiment; taking Sensa through reveals a “plug” in two places (Primary Channel, Secondary Channel).

Internal map reference — Secondary Channel
Sensory mechanisms detect the disquieting flow of electricity within this tube. The flow is concentrated within the small cables which line a groove in the floor. There is a small hole in the wall of the tube awaiting a plug, while slightly higher up rests a sign.

(The sign isn’t portable, and Iris can’t reach this spot, so I don’t know what it says.)

Finally to the north side:

Auda starts in a long east-west hall where to the far west is “sterilization” followed by “decontamination”; this is for any humans entering the facility (ominous note). Along the way is a “small supply room” with a metal tool up high, which Waldo describes as a cutting tool (but can’t reach).

Internal map reference — Small Supply Room
I can detect a small area, cluttered with things which extend from the walls. Doorways lead to the east and the west.
There is a high extending holder here.
Sitting on the high extending holder is…
A cutting tool
There is a square container here.

Opening the container gives the message “Robots are restricted from opening this cabinet” which feels additionally ominous, in the way that the (television show) Westworld had things the robots just couldn’t see.

A branch heading south has a few specific points of interest:

A maintenance access room: Waldo describes a “strange combination of circular protuberances” with a “small spray going upward”. Sensa more specifically describes it as acid where “Approximately 99.87 percent of these acid droplets are
going up into the room above.”

A library core: This is meant to be the human-usable version of the same database that Whiz can access. If you send Whiz over he specifically says “This peripheral allows no interaction with robots.”

A force field: The end of the hallway turns east to a biological area I haven’t been able to access because of a force field.

Internal map reference — Hallway End
Sonar detects the end of the southern hallway. To the east is a long, narrow area which travels out of my receiving range.
Sonar also detects a large hollow container sitting at the head of the long tunnel.
I can detect nothing inside of it.

>e
CLC WARNING: Dangerous force fields prevent eastern movement.

Sensa has the most helpful description…

Sensory input indicates the end of the southern hallway here, with extremely violent force fields and electrical disturbances to the east.
Sensors detect an egg-shaped object, large enough for me to enter, sitting at the head of the long tunnel.
I can detect nothing inside of it.

…although I’m still not sure yet what’s going on here.

Almost done! Let’s talk about the arrival of the humans. This happens after some amount of turns (I haven’t counted) I assume because they’re trying to do the clone-replacement process, assuming you’ve gone haywire (you think they might notice the earthquakes, but this seems to be the matter of hundreds of years of peace means they have trouble figuring out what to do in a crisis). Switching to Auda, which starts in the north section anyway:

Internal map reference — Sterilization Chamber
A loud whirring noise can be detected from the west.
A small plaque makes tinging noises here.

>w
CLC WARNING!! Further westward movement prohibited to all robots.

(The plaque here is portable and I took it to Iris to read it, but let’s save that for last.)

After enough time passes:

AUDA INTERRUPT: Some talking mechanisms just entered the room.

>wait
FC: Time passes…

I can hear the sound of metal against metal, followed by the sound of a creaking door opening.

“I’ve got the toolbag. Everything in it seems intact.”
“Well, don’t lose it, man. We’re lost without it. We’ll never pull the switch on him if we lose it.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t let it out of my sight.”
“I’m getting sleepy. It was a long ride down here. What do you say we catch some sleep?”
“You really think we should? With all the devastation taking place?”
“I don’t have much choice. I’m not thinking clearly, and I really need to sleep. More casualties will occur if we don’t take care of ourselves.”
“Good point. Let’s go.”

The humans head to the “sleep chamber” to the far east and pause:

“Well, this is some sleep chamber. No frills.”
“Don’t complain. At least there’s bunks for us.”
“I suppose. I’m going to put the toolbag on the floor while I grab some shuteye.”
“What about the robot?”
“What, that ear thing? Gimme a break!”

AUDA: I hear the sound of metal being placed on the floor.

Trying to take the item (a toolbag) awakens the humans:

“Give me that, you little devil!”
“That robot’s a thief! Let’s get it!”

I’m not sure if it is possible to steal the tools entirely, but you can lead the humans over to the acid leak which seems useful:

“Hey — Look at that! The pipes going up to the Filtering Computers have burst.”
“Yeah. Maybe the person in the cylinder isn’t at fault….”
“Hmm. You could be right. Let’s fix this and then see if things return to normal.”

AUDA: I can hear the sound of metal, like a wheel turning, and the hissing stop.

“That should take care of that leak. Let’s go up to the Rec Area and wait for awhile.”
“Fine. Meanwhile, I’ll get our toolbag back.”

AUDA: I hear footsteps as the talking mechanisms walk away.

SENSA: I detect the flow within the pipes overhead stopping and the acid leak stopping, too.

The fun thing about this scene is I first only had Sensa here with the bag but forgot to bring Auda along, and Sensa can’t even sense the humans there, so the hissing mysteriously fixed on its own (although I could guess at what happened).

That’s an enormous amount of progress, I think! I still have the open problems of

• Dealing with hydroponic and transport controls
• The mysterious force field
• What to do with FRED
• Getting the repair device near FRED running
• Getting the “cutting tool” that’s too high
• The mysterious plugs past the acid drip
• Using the reset device with the eight codes
• Anything else involving the humans (either using them to help, or stealing their tools)

Hopefully I won’t need these! Via eBay.

One last thing before I check out, since I promised: the message on the plaque, as read by Iris:

This Underground Complex was designed and built by the Frobozz Engineering Company, makers of such fine products as One-Way ™ Bus Tickets, Ozone Nozone, and “Best in the East”, soon to be a Smello-vision ™ release.

Chief Designer/Architect: Michael Berlyn.

Despite a lack of dark / grues, I suppose that means Suspended is part of the extended Zorkiverse?

A bicycle can get you from New York to LA, so will a jet plane. In one sense they are the exact same thing; in another they are nothing alike. In one sense we are working within traditional genres — mystery, fantasy, science fiction — and in another we are still teaching ourselves, laying out the groundwork for what these things could be. For the most part, we are working without pioneers. In our own way we are like Louis L’Amour or Agatha Christie or Dashiell Hammett.

— Michael Berlyn, from the 1984 article Masters of the Game

The Boston Computer Society (founded by Johnathan Rotenberg) has briefly shown up here in regard to Tim Quinlan, and the company Mad Hatter Software which had published the game Sleuth right before disappearing. Rotenberg himself describes the early days of the group as “a fairly obscure computer group” even up to 1982, when their membership was north of 4,000. While famous amongst computer insiders, enough so that Jobs offered Rotenberg a job in 1981 (he declined, wanting to finish college) that didn’t mean recognition amongst the general public. 1982 was when that would change.

Their big event of the year was Applefest, the East Coast equivalent to Applefest in California.

Picture of 1982 Boston Applefest, From Facebook. The balloon was attached to the ground but people could ride up a couple feet and get an Apple balloon pin.

1982 had Jobs and Wozniak themselves as keynote speakers. The BCS publication Computer Update quoted one attendee that

I kind of expected them to come out in white robes.

indicating religious fervor. The audience was standing-room only.

Software had a strong reception, with games especially doing well on Saturday when many children were in attendance. Sir-Tech, which had debuted Wizardry in 1980, had come back with the just-completed sequel Knight of Diamonds in tow.

Via The Boston Phoenix 11 May 1982.

This time, a feature landed in the Wall Street Journal in October, featuring the “whiz kid” Jonathan Rotenberg, and suddenly Boston Applefest was mainstream.

Somehow, I hit the “tipping point” in October and was besieged by press from all over the world…including BusinessWeek, People, Time, Sports Illustrated, CBS News, numerous magazines and talk shows, and even the National Enquirer (which threatened to “stake me out” if I didn’t cooperate with them).

Just like California Applefest was a source of backroom deals (leading to Al Lowe starting with Sierra, for instance) this could happen on the East Coast as well; this is where Marc Blank of Infocom and Michael Berlyn first met. This was before Zork III came out, so Infocom was still fresh off the thunderbolt of Deadline. Marc enjoyed the technical challenge, but he did the story as well, as it was simply standard that the entire work be done by one person; however, as he stated in a later interview, he “always loved the idea that someone who’s more talented than I am in writing could take this and do something that’s really much better than I could do.”

So the idea for me was really just experimenting with another style of telling, of having the story evolve, a different interface just to see where it would go. And to me that was more important than the story.

While Michael Berlyn’s novels were not considered Pulitzer-worthy or Hugo-worthy, he was a “real author” who also had adventure experience with his works Oo-Topos and Cyborg. Berlyn’s weak spot was his hand-written BASIC source code, so the Infocom’s parser and overarching world system would let him create a next-level product. The pair struck a deal; originally Michael intended to stay in Colorado, but the difficulty of working with ZIL remotely meant he and his wife Muffy moved to Boston a month later.

The mention of Muffy is important in that she already helped with Oo-topos and Cyborg and apparently contributed “significantly” to Suspended. (Eventually, the fact she couldn’t be hired officially — there was a policy against family member hires at Infocom — led to Michael Berlyn leaving, but that’s a bit farther along in the story.)

The structure of Deadline was a good place to start from, as Blank had already done hard work in establishing a complex system of NPCs, really more complex than any other product on the market at the time (The Hobbit would be an exception, except it wasn’t out yet). Berlyn had already experimented in Cyborg with having the player merged with a character in the world. Expanding the idea from Cyborg led to a game where the player awakens from cryofreeze and can only see, hear, and interact with the world via multiple robots. The object-oriented nature of Infocom’s ZIL system meant the Deadline NPCs could be adapted easily to become PCs for the player to jump into instead.

…it was his story and I did some of the tools, the technology that he needed to get all the robots moving around like they were on tracks.

The resulting product, originally titled Suspension, eventually landed on the moniker Suspended.

My own copy of the game, from Michael Berlyn’s garage. This version’s on 8-inch disk for the NEC APC. I got it back in 1998 as a prize in IFComp.

Just like Starcross, the packaging is (in)famous amongst collecting circles for being highly elaborate with a facemask and a fold-open map with figures representing the locations of six robots. The map is extremely important as the game is wildly unusual for Infocom, or really, adventures as a whole: there is no standard exploration. You are given the entire map at the start, but without details as far as what you can find where, just names of places. The overall feel is akin to one of the strategy games from the time that came with a board where the player was intended to move pieces around based on the computer’s instructions. Compare with, for example, Chris Crawford’s Tanktics, originally developed on a KIM-1 with a six-character display (just like Kim-Venture).

Part of the chart for the Commodore PET version of Tanktics, from Data Driven Gamer.

There’s even multiple difficulty levels to add to the strategy game feel, but I would still call Suspended a full adventure at heart. (Although I wouldn’t object if The Wargaming Scribe tried the game out just for fun!)

Starting positions of five of the six main robots.

I incidentally found moving the real pieces on a real board (see picture above) to be a pain — again similar to a wargame setup, it requires a flat surface to be handy near your computer, which I don’t have — so I made a Figma page to work with instead. I may re-scan the map image later but it works for now.

My normal next step would be to collect and read all the documents that come with the game, but I hit one other curious snag. There’s a “memo” that’s in my version of the game I wasn’t finding elsewhere.

It mentions specifically that cables need to be changed with the syntax REPLACE (cable in groove) WITH (cable a robot is holding), and that erratic behavior may manifest itself in a “crash”. Does it mean a literal game crash? This feels out of character for Infocom, who I think are more likely to fix a bug rather than go through the effort of printing an entire extra piece of documentation to cover over a problem. The reference to the sixteen-inch cable being broken also seems more like a hint than a bug aspect.

I crowdsourced this over to Bluesky and Mastodon. Chris Kohler found a “facemask” version of the game on eBay had the memo; I had confirmation from Andrew Plotkin their early copy did not have the memo. I’ll need to investigate this further, but I’m playing a later release first (Release 8 / Serial number 840521) and then will check earlier release for bugs. Unfortunately I do not have a 8-inch disk drive in order to extract the data file I have so I can’t tell exactly which release it is.

Everything else you can find at the Infocom documentation project or the nine versions of Suspended up at the Museum of Computer Adventure Game History (one which has the memo).

From the Museum of Computer Adventure Game History.

It is the far future: the planet Contra has been terraformed with settlers from Earth. They have conquered their world and live in a highly controlled environment: perfect weather, perfect growing of food.

Rather like the story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, there is a dark side to this, in that the system running the planet needs a human in stasis. The human is “put under” for 500 years but some aspect of their brain is enough to support the systems for that long; if everything goes well, they are awoken after 500 years and the cycle is renewed, with a “recruit” gathered from a planetary lottery.

In Suspended, you have won the planetary lottery.

You should only awake in the case of an emergency, which the manual emphatically explains, won’t happen. This is despite a previous disaster involving “the Gregory Franklin incident”.

Gregory Franklin was awoken after 467 years, but there was no emergency, so he decided to create one:

Overriding the three Filtering Computers, he directed the transportation systems to kill whoever happened to be walking outside or riding on any of the glide ramps. Psychologists believe that he must have possessed a twisted sense of humor–to have people maimed, run over, chased by robot-taxis provided him with pleasure for the moment. However, he soon tired of this and decided to eliminate a larger section of the population in a far easier manner.

Ever since weather had been controlled, dwellings had not been designed to withstand snow and sleet. Franklin altered the pressure in the Weather Towers near the cities, setting off raging storms and creating freezing temperatures. Thousands perished from exposure; thousands more became popsicles.

The upshot is that anything that seems to go awry means that you might find yourself replaced with a “clone”.

FC ALERT! Planetside systems are deteriorating. FC imbalance detected. Emergency reviving systems completed. You are now in control of the complex.

SENSA INTERRUPT: Seismic aftershock detected ten meters north of Beta FC. Tremor intensity 9.7. Projected damage: connecting cables in Primary and Secondary Channels.

FC INTERRUPT: All Robots, report locations.

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.
WHIZ: In the Advisory Peripheral.

This is from the game itself. The manual includes special commands…

REPORT LOCATION
ARR (all robots report)
ARL (all robots report locations)
QUERY ABOUT (used for)
ALL ROBOTS, (do something)
DRAG (robot) TO
BOTH (robot) and (robot), (do something)

…but for the most part, your command is in the format ROBOT, DO THING. If you are using a particular robot, you can skip the “ROBOT” preface.

Robots all have individual abilities. Iris, the “visual robot” who can see, starts out nonfunctional. I don’t know the exact boundaries but Iris cannot move about the whole facility.

>IRIS, GO WEST
FC: Cryolink already established to Iris.
Internal map reference — Main Supply Room
Visual function nonfunctional.

Auda is the robot that can hear, although it starts at the northern part of the map.

>w
Internal map reference — Decontamination Chamber
A small hissing can be detected overhead, as if a small port leaked a semi-liquid compound.

>w
Internal map reference — Sterilization Chamber
A loud whirring noise can be detected from the west.
A small plaque makes tinging noises here.

Notice that the plaque might say something, but since Auda can only hear we don’t know (yet) what it says.

Waldo is a “grasping robot” with six arms, sonar, and a well-developed sense of touch.

WALDO: Internal map reference — Gamma Repair
I have reached the south end of this area. The walkway ends here.
The walkway is not in motion.
A large object sits before me. Sonar indicates it is hollow, but not empty.

Whiz is a robot restricted to the “Central Core” that can make queries, and is sort of an encyclopedia. I haven’t tried searching through entries yet.

>whiz, look
FC: Cryolink established to Whiz.
WHIZ: Internal map reference — Advisory Peripheral
CLC tagged object indicates it is the Advisory pedestal before me.

>whiz, plug in
FC: Cryolink already established to Whiz.
It’s great to be home. Plugged in to the Advisory Pedestal. Ready to process queries.

Poet and Sensa start in the same place, the “Central Chamber” (right next to Aura). Poet is a “diagnostic robot” who can activate its sensor with the TOUCH command, but has a cryptic style of speaking.

>POET, WEST
FC: Cryolink established to Poet.
POET: Internal map reference — Weather Monitors
They puff and billow and strain a bit, roar then ebb with time.
In the room with me is Iris.

>TOUCH IRIS
Sensory pads detect no abnormal flow.

>EAST
Internal map reference — Central Chamber
It hops and skips and leaves a bit, and can’t decide if it should quit. It tells the world what it should know, but doesn’t know when it’s been shown.
In the room with me is Sensa.

Sensa has a mixture of operations and “can detect vibrational activity, photon emission sources and ionic discharges”; Sensa also has appendages like Waldo.

>SENSA, LOOK
FC: Cryolink established to Sensa.
SENSA: Internal map reference — Central Chamber
All around me charges flow, shaped by the very nature of this room. The electrons are being channeled into an electrical column, central to this environment.
In the room with me is Poet.

That’s six robots; there’s a seventh the manual mentions that was put out of service by Franklin (and will become important later).

I use the phrasing “and will” because: yes, I have played and beaten this game before. Like Zork III, it was quite a while ago, and I don’t remember much, but I do know where the seventh robot is and what I thought at the time was a highly unfair command to get to it. (Now that I have a full manual, I see it’s listed in the manual; I played the Lost Treasures of Infocom version which I’m pretty sure did not give this game’s “special commands”.) I remember that at some point humans arrive, presumably thinking another Franklin incident is happening; I also remember there’s an acid drip somewhere that’s a pain (that is, if you roll a robot through a particular room they’ll become disabled). Other than that I’m pretty memory-free, other than I enjoyed the game quite a lot.

I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. I’ll give the layout of the complex (as far as I can figure) in my next update. In the meantime for anyone who wants to skip ahead, you can check Jimmy Maher, Drew Cook, and Aaron Reed, all who have their own takes on the game. Also, thanks to Jonathan Rotenberg for sharing some documentation about Applefest 1982.