It’s everyone-can-edit so feel free to annotate to your heart’s content. I’ll go back sometime next week and squeeze in some of the older observations.
I don’t want get too deeply into clue theories at the moment from the previous thread (there’s quite a few), but Christopher Drum’s observation that the Einstein statue has a star map is surely worth mentioning, and that it shows the stars at April 22, 1979 at noon — when the statue was dedicated. There are enough astrology references it feels relevant.
In fact, if you want to make a giant leap in the dark that is almost certainly wrong:
– start from April 22 (it is “just past winter” yet within Easter-range as hinted at other clues)
– go to the Washington Monument (which Andrew McCarthy observed is roughly a tenth of a mile high matching the DENVER/10 clue and acts like a sundial)
– wait for some particular time for the peak of the shadow to hit a particular spot
– search at the spot!
But what time? Noon won’t exactly work. The most obvious time reference is “TIME IS RELATIVE BUT SEVEN HOURS SHOULD BE ENOUGH” — seven hours starting from what time?
The search continues! (Also, I will be playing other games, and giving updates at intervals rather than just writing about Alkemstone.)
It has been a while since I’ve posted about the Apple II game Alkemstone (and some reading this might have arrived from elsewhere without seeing my previous posts) so a brief summary/recap:
Alkemstone was a game released in 1981 by the company Level-10 with a $5000 prize attached (later upped to $7500) where the titular “Alkemstone” was hidden somewhere in the real world, and the clues on where to find it were hidden inside the game. It was confirmed fairly recently by the lawyer in charge of certification that nobody has claimed the prize. The company that sponsored it is long defunct, and the object buried was not valuable in itself (you didn’t even need to extract it to get the prize, just explaining the location of the Alkemstone was enough), so solving the mystery is only of historical interest, but still — a 40 year old mystery nobody has cracked!
Last year I did a playthrough of the game, which involved running around a maze and finding clues that flashed at irregular intervals on the walls, ceiling, and floor. I managed to extract quite a few clues, but I knew (because someone on Mobygames found a clue I hadn’t) that there were still clues I was missing. I just didn’t know how many.
To clarify, a reader (Andy Boroson) did some hacking at the game file itself and managed to extract the locations of the clues as well as a method of stopping the invisible-flashing-clue effect from happening. This led to him making a complete map…
… and the file of images above. They are given the numbers matching the map above; some of the sequential numbers clearly go together (even if they aren’t placed together on the map) so the numbers themselves may serve as a clue. There are 80 clues (84 listed, but one of them is blank, and likely removed some time during development; 3 are “special coded” to be findable at the same location, marked “00” on the map) and I managed previously to find about 3/4 of them, but some of the missing ones have what seem to be essential information, so it is quite possible it was not feasible to crack the mystery until now, the moment I post this.
The ZIP file preserves the screenshots in a complete fashion, so I’m going to survey them numerically and clip images together when possible. (That is, what shows up as separate clues I have merged into the same image, for compactness; again, if you need “clean” images, refer to the ZIP file.) Additionally, some of the text clues are stored as text, so I’ll just give those in text format.
Are you excited? I’m excited.
Just as a note ahead of time, the main guess/presumption based on the clues is that the treasure is hidden somewhere in Washington, DC. However, there is nothing I’d call certain confirmation on this. I will say it is near certain (based on a trio of clues I’ll get to last) that the treasure is in a public place somewhere, meaning it should be in an urban environment, not hidden in some random place in the wilderness.
When booting Alkemstone, this is the first thing visible upon entering the maze…
There’s no “hanging banners” style messages other than this one.
…which is certainly reminiscent of the Albert Einstein statue in Washington DC, which was finished just in time for it to be part of the game (1981).
#1 John F Kennedy
#2 Stonewall Jackson
#3 Zachary Taylor
The #1 and #3 clues are names of US Presidents, while the #2 clue is the name of a Confederate General. This suggests historical US sites rather than something dealing directly with the Presidency itself (like the numbers attached to each president).
#4 (on left)
#5 (on right)
Both suggesting wordplay, and #5 is new. There are multiple anagrams using the letters P, I, N, E, S so I’m not sure which one to prioritize, but I should point out the author’s previous game included an ambiguous anagram puzzle as well.
#6
Bruecke is “bridge” in German but rata isn’t anything in German, but maybe it is wordplay leading up to that. (The Rs being lined up is intentional.)
#7 What You Don’t Do To Go
#8 (written as a fraction) DENVER / 10
Again not sure, although I have suspicion #8 is referring to Denver being the “Mile High City”, that is, the clue refers to a 10th of a mile. I haven’t had luck with zipcode or the like.
#10 Calentadora de dedos del pie
#11 Wo Adler sich sammeln
#10 is “toe warmer” translated from Spanish. #11 is “where eagles gather” translated from German.
#12 JOB
#13 TESS
#14 MARIA
The one and only puzzle I’m certain we have the real solve for. Roger Durrant pointed out that both names appear in the song They Call the Wind Maria from the musical Paint Your Wagon.
A way out here they got a name for rain and wind and fire the rain is Tess the fire’s Joe and they call the wind Maria
“JOB” is a “typo” but it may have just been an honest mishearing. (I don’t think it’s a clue, but you never know.)
#15 144
I theorized long that this possibly references the fact that with 12 zodiac signs you can pair them with another 12 to get 144 angles (there’s zodiac symbols elsewhere). However, I haven’t found any confirmers to put this guess at high confidence.
I also pointed out the War Memorial in Washington DC had a 12-arrowed floor that could be interpreted in a zodiac direction sense.
#16-#22
All 7 images appear in roughly the same spot when drawn, so there may be some relation.
#23
Not quite in the same place as the previous clues, so might be distinct. Possibly hinting as to a time of year, that is, Easter (there are later references to this as well).
#24
Hinting a place with a famous speech? Or perhaps a current place (at least current for 1981) where speeches can be made.
#25 BLACK OR WHITE They Are All The Same To Me
This is where the internal number I think is helpful — it certainly seems likely #24 and #25 are related, perhaps referencing the I Have a Dream speech?
#26 Don’t Smell The Salt
#27 THOSE THAT SEEK TO FIND MUST FIRST SEEK TO PASS
#28 Seemanns-warnung
#26 might mean avoiding the ocean. #28 is “sailor’s warning” in German. I’m not sure if #27 is connected.
#29 The First To Recognize The Second
#30 For Us It Is Already Here
#31 Of All This One Is Equal
Not sure on any of these.
#32 WITH GIN YOU BEGIN THE END
More wordplay? I feel like there’s got to be word fragments being glued together at some point (“join” is a clue later).
#33 For the One You Seek The Two Are Known The Three Are There
Again not sure.
#34
The two theories I’ve heard are a.) the signature of TS Eliot and b.) (courtesy Casey Muratori) a metal access panel.
#35 My first is sixth My second is content Followed by the rest Finally a child could play
One of those riddles indicating letters in positions, perhaps, or word fragments being mashed together? I could see “the rest” being the literal “day of rest”, either “sat” or “sun” depending on your theology.
#36 -CIDE
Another word fragment clue. If it is the same as #35, is SLIDE (“a child could play”) somehow tweaked to be CIDE?
#37 join
Again, internal numbering adds some information; this probably refers to #35 and #36, at least.
#38 Coat Of Blue
Possibly the Civil War song.
#39
Look between the pillars?
#40 ONU
Another word fragment?
#41 To Start Anew
Feels very crossword-clue to me.
#42
Bees tend to be popular in rebuses for the sound “-be-” getting put somewhere.
#43 Don’t Go When Winter Blow
#44 Warmer Than Others
Referring back to the potential Easter clue, this might refer to a time of year. Easter has to (no matter the year) land after winter. This also might be simply fitting in with rebus logic somehow (the fragment “apr”, for instance).
#45
Redundancy with the child playing clue?
#46 GPI
#47 FTN
#48 pnijure
#49 BUSH
Not sure.
#50
I’ve played with this one quite a bit (add the numbers on top, then divide, subtract then divide, etc.) without much luck.
#51 Nothing Runs Like A Deer / And It Is A Beaut
The “Nothing Runs Like a Deere” slogan has been around since 1972 for the company John Deere, but I don’t know if the intent here is a pun or something else.
#52 It’s Best To Rest
Another resting reference.
#53
A word ladder? Don’t know what clue this indicates, though.
#54
#55, #56
The best I could come up with here is a reference to the Battle of Wounded Knee, but I have no idea what that would indicate.
#57, #58
Is the first picture of a train or something else?
#59 It’s Not Right
#60 The road is clear But you may have to leave it To find your way
Is this referring to directions at the actual site, or literal wordplay still?
#61 KAMM
#62 CIBURA
More word fragments, perhaps?
#63 Don’t Tread On Me
Another American History reference? All four words are written on separate lines so it could be the initial letters DTOM.
#64, #65
5 is the base? Don’t know what the deal is with those parallel lines on the 5 then, if that’s the case.
#66 This Is Almost The Age of AQUARIUS
Another day of the year reference?
#67 TIME IS RELATIVE BUT SEVEN HOURS SHOULD BE ENOUGH
#68 THAT WHICH GOES DOWN / MUST COME UP
#69 follow your nose / where taylor goes / but not too far / you’ll find a scar
The last clue may refer to some specific site involving Zachary Taylor, although it is unclear what.
#70 ONE SHOULD BE TEMPORATE IN ALL THINGS
This might intentionally be related to time rather than a misspelling of temperate.
#71 Wherever You May Roam There Is No Place Like Home
#72 a billion stars may show you the way
These (plus clue #81) might reference specific museums in Washington DC. The ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz are at the National Museum of American History, the stars might refer to Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory (or that might just be another astrology reference so the clue goes with #66 etc. instead).
#73 Large And Small – Can’t See Them At All
#74 THE SUN ALWAYS RISES / THE SUN ALWAYS SETS
#75 WHOLE BUT NOT COMPLETE
#76 DO NOT OVERLOOK ANYTHING
#77 After Awhile We All Pay The Price
#78 MIDDLE AGE IS THAT TIME WHEN THE BROAD MIND AND THE NARROW WAIST TRADE PLACES
#79 THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY MAY BE OF VALUE
#80 97914
#81 If You Want A Scene / Holocene and Pleistocene Might Do
#81 might be the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Finally, not with regular numbering, there are three clues in the same dead end (corresponding to the three walls). I’ll give the pictures this time:
Due to the status in the game, I suspect this is a meta-clue showing the structure of what is being solved for “Where I Live” is one set of clues, “Be Upon” is a second set, “A Thought of You” is a third set, and “How Far I May Go” is a fourth. All this is still guesswork, though.
While the “watch them play” feels most likely a park, it is possible this refers instead to “play” as in music; either way, not wilderness? (Although maybe you could stretch with a particular named rock monument.)
I’ve skipped some speculation from my previous posts, so if you’re looking for more inspiration, feel free to read those as well as the comments which include some more ideas. It’s fair to say the puzzle is still wide open at this point.
I was planning on doing some save file hacking and finding out what was at the missing corner of the map.
Although I worked out the exact space on the disk that stores the location of the player (00011e01 if you’re curious), I think it’s possible the corner just doesn’t have a location at all. Immediately below the corner is FF 01, and immediately below that is FE 01. (This is in hexadecimal, so FF is the largest possible number; 255, one byte.) You would think based on the pattern the next value would be either 00 02 or 01 02, but modifying the save file to that number just puts the player somewhere random.
I should incidentally say “below” because my map is technically upside down; there’s an automap in the game (not a very helpful one) and I realized only about 3/4 in I was out of synch.
That is, the upper left corner on my map is the lower right corner on the screenshot.
It ends up not affecting anything unless there’s something literal about the map placement.
Speaking of map placement, Casey Muratori made an interactive version of the map. You can click on a square and have the corresponding clue come up.
I have no idea if these being adjacent is significant. I have been running the theory the middle clue refers to the DC Natural History Museum. The thing I’ve previously noted as an “omega” symbol might just be a picture of a tree. It’s drawn imbalanced for an omega.
I wish I had more to update on; the only “solving” I did was realizing “DENVER/10” has a good chance of meaning “a tenth of a mile” (Denver being the Mile High City). I originally tried zip codes, phone codes, and all sorts of shenanigans before it struck me as likely a distance, but of course I have no confirmer to work with yet.
I might as well throw out the Zodiac angle-thing I’ve hinted at possibly being relevant.
There’s been a direct reference to Aquarius, and a symbol that looks like Sagittarius (although turned on its side).
My theory is an angle is indicated somehow by combining the two, but unfortunately, astrology charts are all over the place and there doesn’t seem to be a consistent “up/down/left/right” to the angle chart shown above. I can say potentially the “avoid winter” hints indicate we want Sagittarius
to be the primary symbol (Aquarius starts in February, Sagittarius starts in November) but again, this is flailing without some kind of confirmation.
So I mainly have nothing at all to report, but Casey’s map is so slick you really should give it a look. I’m still keeping an eye on this one and will do at least one last stab with a mad-conspiracy-theory style chart with lots of arrows.
There’s a point I’ve made before, but is doubly relevant for treasure hunt puzzles, so it’s worth repeating with a different example.
Suppose I wanted to give a message to decrypt.
DDZRQDK DGS ZLKRKZ
You might try approaching as a straight cryptogram and realize (even with a search program) that it doesn’t correspond to anything. You might try anagramming letters and get nowhere.
The correct approach is to try both. First, shift every letter forward one step in the alphabet…
EEASREL EHT AMLSLA
…then anagram the result.
RELEASE THE LLAMAS
I can see from the perspective of an author how they might consider this “simple”. One-step Caesar ciphers, no problem! Anagrams, sure! But when combined together, they form a second-order puzzle where two entirely different steps are needed with no confirmation between the two that one is on the right track. Both cryptograms and anagrams might be “easy” puzzles, but they can become vastly harder to solve when combined together because they are only two forms of wordplay out of an immense variety. (This particular puzzle is borderline fair in that when eyeballing the alphabet shift it looks close enough to English that the anagram seems natural.)
With most treasure hunts I’ve seen there is a strong and almost necessary temptation to have second-order, third-order, or ludicrous-order puzzles. If a treasure hunt is well designed there will be “confirmers” along the way, other clues that help let the player know they’re on the right track.
This raises the question: is Alkemstone well-designed in that sense? I don’t know yet. I do know it likely suffers a related problem common for treasure hunts — spurious solutions. The wide-open unmoored nature of the puzzles — a bunch of clues with no given categories — lends itself to multiple plausible ways to interpret clues.
Another made-up example: suppose I gave the phrase
Absent Tithed Hue
You might find the combination of words strange, and do an anagram…
Thine Debate Thus
…and maybe think it was indicating the site of a famous debate. Or maybe it is
Beneath Hides Tut
indicating an Egyptology theme, or
Behind The Statue
with a more literal location.
The only “solution” so far that I’m safe in saying is a slam dunk involves two new clues (I posted them early in the comments of a thread).
Roger Durrant pointed out that both names appear in the song They Call the Wind Maria from the musical Paint Your Wagon.
A way out here they got a name for rain and wind and fire the rain is Tess the fire’s Joe and they call the wind Maria
Both rooms are immediately adjacent to each other on the overall map.
Also adjacent to TESS and MARIA is a room with the word JOB, which suggests the author misspelled the actual song word (which apparently is either JO or JOE based on where you get the lyrics from).
These two pictures are also placed close (although not immediately adjacent).
I’m extremely curious about the second, which looks like it’s a close-up of … something? It incidentally was very hard to get a screenshot of; when it appeared during the game it only came up very briefly, and I had to resort to using recording software and then pause the video I made on the exact right frame.
Speaking of songs, Matt W. noted the clue above suggests the song Faded Coat of Blue, a song by J.H. McNaughton associated with the Union side of the American Civil War.
Sticking with finding Washington, D.C. spots, that definitely suggests Arlington Cemetary which is quite close to everything else. Let me also add marks for the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, possibly referencing the ruby slippers from Wizard of Oz (which have been there since 1979)…
I finally found this one in-game (I previously only had the Mobygames screenshot). I still never found the -ION clue anywhere. My theory regarding the gap in the upper left corner of the overall map is that all other clues need to be found first before it opens, although it could just be a bug.
…the Washington Monument, associated with the death of Zachary Taylor, and the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous I Have a Dream speech. (Both of these were clues from previous posts.)
I’m finally going to put in the D.C. War Memorial for long-shot reasons, but I do have some logic to it.
There’s a “144” clue which possibly references the fact that with 12 zodiac signs you can pair them with another 12 to get 144 angles. There’s also one direct zodiac reference (“this is almost the age of AQUARIUS”) and one actual sign (Sagittarius, but drawn so the arrow points upright). The War Memorial has a domed building with a 12-direction arrow directly on the floor.
I found this by hunting around for domes in DC, based on this clue from an earlier post.
There’s also this clue which faintly suggests looking between columns.
We’ve also had month and seasonal references to go along with the Zodiac ones.
“Toe warmers”, probably just meant to reference winter again.
Maybe T.S. Eliot, “April is the cruelest month.”
Without any kind of confirming puzzle, I still feel like I’m chasing shadows. It’s possible all of this is a coincidence, especially since I can’t fit the Paint Your Wagon reference at all, nor a riddle solution Jake Wildstrom came up with.
My First Is Where I Live
My Second Will Be Upon
My Third A Thought Of You
My Last How Far I May Go
And When I Get There
I Will Watch Them Play
The first two on the “three linked clues” you give feels a lot like it’s cluing to “Home on the Range” (so “them” would be deer and antelope, I suppose). “Home” is “Where I Live”, of course. “On” is another word for “Upon”. “Range” is (in the sense of a travel range) indeed “How Far I May Go”. I have no idea how “A Thought of You” would become “The”, but a clue for a definite article might be opaque in ways I don’t understand (is “You” somehow connected to the letter “U”, and some sort of character-level transformation from “A Thought of” gets us to the three letters “the”? This is mostly trying to back-solve a justification because the other three clues really fit the answer well).
Matt W. followed up with noting “you” could be “thee”.
I’m tentative about this one, just because it originally suggested to me the categories clues could fall in (that the D.C. references were all My First Is Where I Live, the number-type references might be How Far I May Go, etc.) but a traditional riddle is quite possible, and of course Home on the Range goes together nicely with the Paint Your Wagon reference.
Three more new clues to round things off…
…and then let me state that I’m going to delve back into traditional adventures now, and only give the occasional Alkemstone update. I (and hopefully others) will still be active in the comments, so the search for the Alkemstone continues.
One open question I’d really like resolved is the meaning behind this clue:
It has had no comments but I think it might be a straight self-contained riddle? I’m pretty bad at riddles, so I don’t know.
I’m slowing down a little on finding clues just because being thorough is incredibly tedious. My procedure when checking a particular room is to
a.) look at each wall and pause for about five seconds, then repeat 3 or 4 or 5 times
b.) look at the ceiling and slowly turn three full circles, pausing about 4 seconds each step
c.) repeat with the floor
and even then I have come near to missing things.
Let me bring out two theories posited in the comments last time:
1. Continuing from the idea that “Albert” is the Albert Einstein statue in Washington, D.C. (it was unveiled only two years before the game was made; the timely connection makes it more rather than less likely) I noted two JFK-associated locations and the natural history museum (there’s a reference to the Pleistocene).
These nearly form a line, especially because the JFK center extends south a little from where Google has marked it. Still easily could be a coincidence, but given the repeated JFK references and the mention of Zachary Taylor I’d say the chances this is the area we want are at least over 50%.
2. I need to explore this more, but note one of the clues read “144”. There are 144 angles across the sky that can be found by combining two astrological symbols, and there are two specific symbols mentioned (Sagittarius as the symbol itself, Aquarius in words) in addition to a reference to “billions of stars may show you the way”. This is combined with multiple temperature references (like “Warmer Than Others”) to suggest that we *don’t* want to use the dead of winter (since Zodiac signs represent both a time of year and an angle).
I haven’t sat down and fully worked out how this would play out on the map, though, so if anyone wants to go wild in the comments, feel free.
Here are the clues I’ve found since last time.
I am suspecting the assorted word fragments need to be joined and anagrammed. This was used at the start of Kaves of Karkhan, Level-10’s previous game.
You may wonder why the color is different here. This is from the opening area, a 6 by 10 rectangle on the lower-right corner of my map. Everywhere else has the white walls.
Are these signed initials?
Sometime next week I am going to get back to playing regular adventure games and intersperse these posts. I’d like to finish at least one thorough pass through Arkemstone looking for clues, first.
You might notice there’s the missing room in the upper left. I haven’t figured out what’s going on there yet. There is one clue right on the wall next to it
which may have been intentionally placed; perhaps there’s some obscure navigation trick I need to get into that spot.
There definitely is some intentionality to the clue-placing — maybe not a lot, but some — because one dead-end had three messages that clearly linked together.
I’m guessing this is a meta-clue, essentially telling what the result will be when all the clues are put together; ex: “The First is Where I Live” giving a general location, “The Second Will Be Upon” being more specific. “And When I Get There I Will Watch Them Play” suggests the stone is hidden in a park, also suggested by this image:
I found John F Kennedy a third time
suggesting it either a number is repeated three times or it’s a very important clue. I’m going with the latter theory for the moment. If we combine with the “Look to Albert for Help” from the very start, I think Albert may be the one in Washington D.C.
The podium and microphone (from my last post) suggest there may be a public speaking spot involved, perhaps a famous Kennedy speech location?
Here are the remainder of the clues I’ve found:
I’m ballparking based on clue density in places I’ve searched well that I have about half the clues in the game.
August of 1979 saw the release of Masquerade, a picture book that was also a puzzle with the solution being the location of a golden hare. It created both frenzy and scandal, but that is not our story for today.
Two years later (before the Masquerade contest had even ended) a man named Gene Carr at a company called Level-10 made a treasure hunt of his own. Like Masquerade, it involved a treasure buried somewhere in the real world and clues to find it, but rather than hiding the clues in a book, he hid them in an Apple II game.
Via Old Video Game Advertisements. The prize was eventually upped to $7500, although the company Level-10 went defunct not long after.
There were two ways to win:
a.) Find and deliver the physical Alkemstone, and describe its location.
b.) Send a detailed description of the Alkemstone’s hiding place.
In other words, the treasure hidden 39 years ago is likely still in its original location, the hints locked in an Apple II game that barely anyone has played.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if someone got busy on an old copy of the game and found the stone?
nobody seems to have picked up the gauntlet.
The buck stops here. Let’s try to solve the mystery.
…
Now, this is rather different than my usual playthroughs for All the Adventures, insofar as the end result of all this may involve unearthing a real item. I do want to emphasize that the Alkemstone as an object in itself is not considered valuable (unlike the golden hare); the potential money came from proving where it was. Additionally, despite the lawyer still being alive, the company that offered the prize is long defunct. That means there’s no money at stake, just historical interest.
I will state up front if by some happenstance I come to possess the stone personally, I will donate it to a gaming museum like the Strong. In the (much likelier) event it lands in someone else’s hands I hope they do the same, but I can’t enforce that.
And of course, the Alkemstone may be buried under a parking lot or lost due to some other circumstance.
So feel free to contribute any theories as I post clues, but keep in mind the above caveats. I won’t say it will end in disappointment because even if the physical stone is never found, the solution to the game in general has been a long-open question and would be an achievement in itself; there’s no maps or hints or walkthrough here to rely on.
…
The first scene upon entering the maze; there’s no “hanging banners” style messages other than this one.
Enough preliminaries: what is the game like?
The snakes pass by at random.
Alkemstone adapts the 3D engine from Kaves of Karkhan into a pure-exploration game. There are no obstacles, unless you count illusionary walls and a very, very, large map.
Around half of the map; I still need to fill in a lot of the other half.
The maze is seeded with clues. You can find them on the walls
or you can find them looking up (tap U to look up)
or looking down (tap D to look down)
The clues are scattered everywhere; finding them all is partially a matter of just being thorough. Sometimes the clues are “solid” and will always appear, but sometimes they flash on and off, or only are visible 1 out of every 10 or so times looking at a particular ceiling. To give you an idea of how easy the clues are to miss: even though I have found 25 “clues” so far I am missing the two shown in screenshots on Mobygames.
I will say the maze is not randomized, and despite the manual’s claims to the contrary, the clue locations don’t seem to be randomized either. It’s still true more than one “walk through” is likely required to spot everything.
I’m going to try my best to sort the clues I’ve found so far by type, but these categories are arbitrary and may be misleading in terms of how the clues actually connect.
In case it’s important, I do have where I found them marked on my map, but I’d like to get my full map closer to completion before I share it.
IMAGES AND SYMBOLS:
NUMERICAL CLUES:
MESSAGES:
This image also appeared on a wall. I don’t know if the duplication is redundancy to help keep from missing certain things or a clue.
While there are some obvious surface observations I could make, I’m going to save them for the comments. Just keep in mind the game was released in 1981 (late in 1981; the Nov-Dec 1981 issue of Computer Gaming World mentions it will be available by Christmas, and it has a trademark filing of November 12) so any events or media references to works 1982 or later won’t apply.
There is an online version of the game available, except it gets stalled when asking to flip the disk. There might be a button press in the emulator that will work, but I wasn’t able to play any further.
Renga in Blue 
