Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

(My posts on this game in order are here. You should read my previous posts about this game first.)

I’ve finished, and this was an enormous slog.

From the Winter 1982 Dynacomp catalog, via eBay. Two of the other North Star adventures upcoming (Windmere and Zodiac) are listed as “Late Arrivals” meaning Uncle Harry/Whembly came earlier.

I left off last time on a moment I felt was genuinely promising. The game had bestowed some clues where I thought I just needed to interpret them and arrive at the goal, but the only clue of any note is “DIG 1800 GOLDPIECES………”. I still don’t know what the purpose of Alice and the rabbit and so forth are.

I was sidetracked into thinking (because the rabbit had a wristwatch) that maybe 1800 referred to a time, 18:00, which on a clock would be “south”. Just to the south of the painting is a privy, and maybe I could use the rope to go in….?

AGAINST THE EAST WALL. ON THE SOUTH WALL IS A PAINTING OF A YOUNG GIRL HOLDING A RABBIT. THE RABBIT IS WEARING A WRISTWATCH. THERE ARE DOORS NORTH AND SOUTH.

YOU SEE HERE, A NOTE

NOW WHAT? >S

YOU ARE IN A PRIVY. THERE ARE DOORS NORTH AND SOUTH.

NOW WHAT? >D

YOU CAN’T GO THAT WAY

No. What you can instead do (with help from Gus and Rob in the comments) is go to the random well in the northwest corner and TIE ROPE to go down. As far as I can tell no clue is related to this.

YOU ARE HANGING AT THE END OF THE ROPE.

YOU ARE AT THE END OF THE ROPE DANGLING OVER A TEN FOOT DIAMETER HOLE IN THE FLOOR OF A LARGE ROOM.

NOW WHAT? >D

YOU ARE IN THE LOWER WELL ROOM. THERE IS A 10 FT. DIAMETER HOLE HERE. THERE ARE DOORS EAST, SE, AND SOUTH.

It isn’t like “climb the well” is unreasonable but it was disappointing to think the game was going in an interesting direction only to find not much going on.

From here is when the slog begins.

YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF HALLS

NOW WHAT? >S

YOU ARE AT A DEAD END

The game decided to give another maze. I sighed and started dutifully mapping. My map is a mess and incomplete so I’m not going to give the whole thing.

Early on there’s a bit of a trap: what looks like a vault door. Perhaps the gold is inside?

NOW WHAT? >OPEN DOOR

THE DOOR SWINGS OPEN WITH A CRASH. TONS OF ICY WATER POUR THROUGH THE OPENING. THE WATER LEVEL RISES RAPIDLY! YOU DROWN!!!

WELL, YOU MANAGED TO GET YOURSELF KILLED! BETTER LUCK WITH YOUR NEXT TRY. HOPE YOU REMEMBERED TO SAVE THE GAME BEFORE TRYING SOMETHING NEW!

After enough trudging I finally hit a room with something different:

YOU ARE IN A LARGE ROOM. IN THE CENTER OF THE ROOM ON A ROUND BASE IS THE STATUE OF A WOMAN. HER ARM IS RAISED AND POINTING AT YOU.

NOW WHAT? > ROTATE STATUE

ROTATE TO WHAT DIRECTION? W

A DOOR IN THE WEST WALL OPENS. THE OTHER DOOR CLOSES.

The rotating arm lets you flip between exits. There’s a switch to a water pump to the west that will drain the water, and a battery in another. Additionally, in a completely random spot in the maze, down a dead end, there is a flashlight to go with the battery. I found the flashlight first and found if you try to light it the game just wouldn’t let me, and the player is just supposed to use their imagination to guess that a battery is required.

With the water drained, you can pass through the vault-looking door to find yourself underneath a pool that marked the center of the castle.

YOU ARE IN A DAMP CHAMBER. THERE ARE PUDDLES OF WATER EVERYWHERE. HIGH ABOVE IS A LARGE CIRCULAR MESH GRATING. YOU CAN SEE THE SKY THROUGH THE GRATING. THERE IS A TUNNEL TO THE NORTH AND AN EXIT WEST.

I thought, well, finally, this is getting back on track. Maybe we’ll have to triangulate directions based on the fact we know the pool is in the middle. Going north required light (LOAD FLASHLIGHT / LIGHT FLASHLIGHT) and I moved forward to gloriously find myself…

YOU ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF A LONG FLIGHT OF STAIRS A TUNNEL LEADS SOUTH

NOW WHAT? >U

YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TUNNELS

…back in another, entirely distinct maze.

The game is nice enough to maintain the rule that if room A goes to B, an exit from B goes to A. However, even given games like Acheton which went overboard with their mazes, I’ve never experienced a game with the mazes as grinding as this. Acheton tried to mix in variety, with things like a “turn-based Pac-man” maze, a hedge maze, and a gimmick maze that required an item; here, it is literally the same action over and over and over and over. Drop items, keep track of exits, repeat.

Incidentally, as part of all this I found an exit going back to the manhole near the cabin. Unfortunately, this is a one-way trip, so this bit that might be nice location continuity (and the opportunity to enter the maze via a different route) ends up being a softlock.

Eventually — after another moment of false promise climbing down a hole which seems like it might be the end, but no — the maze winds its way to the outside.

YOU ARE AT THE BASE OF A LARGE MOUNTAIN. THERE IS A MINE ENTRANCE TO THE EAST. A PATH LEADS NW. THERE ARE DENSE WOODS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE PATH.

NOW WHAT? >NW

YOU ARE ON A PATH IN THE WOODS. THE PATH TURNS NORTH AND SE HERE.

This leads to a fork in the road. On the northeast fork there is a “SMALL CLEARING” with a “WOODEN BENCH” and a “SHOVEL”. To the left are some graves and the last part of the game, so you might think: we are free of mazes, yes? We are now trying to use the clues to find the gold?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha no it’s another maze.

At least this one is interesting to look at.

YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF GRAVES.
A HEADSTONE HERE READS:
SIR JOHN WHEMBLY
1729 – 1818
KNIGHT & PIRATE

NOW WHAT? >S

YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF GRAVES.
A HEADSTONE HERE READS:
P. MORTON CLYDE
HUNG TILL HE DIED
HIGHWAYMAN
1632 – 1688

As I said earlier, the 1800 clue is pertinent: you’re looking for the year. However, there’s not really much reason to look hard, since it is easy to DIG in every room, and the important one is most likely going to come near the end of your mapping due to how the map is structured.

YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF GRAVES.
A HEADSTONE HERE READS:
BABY
AURUM
DIED-A-BORNIN’
1800

NOW WHAT? >DIG

YOU DIG INTO THE GRAVE.
YOUR SHOVEL HITS A COFFIN.

The coffin has a small skeleton (…sad…) but if you LIFT COFFIN you see an extra hole and the treasure.

NOW WHAT? >LIFT COFFIN

BEHIND THE SIDE OF THE COFFIN IS A HOLE IN THE SIDE OF THE GRAVE. THERE IS A CHEST IN THE HOLE.

NOW WHAT? >OPEN CHEST

THE CHEST IS FILLED WITH GOLD COINS.

A SHEET OF PAPER IN THE CHEST READS: CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE FOUND MY GOLD! NOW, LEAVE IT HERE AND SEE IF YOUR FRIENDS CAN FIND IT!!!
JOHN WHEMBLY

For my longtime readers, you know I’m willing to tolerate a lot of nonsense. I’ve played enough games from the era to be able to be “in the head” of a player from that time period and get a feeling how they’d react. I just don’t see even the most maze-crazed of fans being enthused about this. Most of the games I’ve played has kept to the unspoken rule of one (1) standard maze and if you insist on more you need to mix up the configuration somehow. So despite an absolutely standard maze in Murdac it could be one of my favorite games of 1982, and when there was a second maze (the haunted house with the flying furniture) it wasn’t really a maze at all.

But I’m mostly annoyed that the premise didn’t pay off. Uncle Harry had a genuinely good moment with home base (undercut by a bug, but still, conceptually) and I thought the follow-up might have more of that with less of the fluff of mapping an endless freeway system. The endless mazes made this game worse instead.

YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF GRAVES.
A HEADSTONE HERE READS:
HERE LIES IMA PRUDE
BORN A VIRGIN
LIVED A VIRGIN
DIED A VIRGIN
WHO SAYS YOU CANT
TAKE IT WITH YOU?
1740 – 1831

I’ve been on the hunt for R.L. Turner still, and maybe the open possibility that he or she did more games, but I’ve come up empty. However, it’s only recently these games were even unearthed, so I’m still hopeful at least more information will appear in the future.

For now, let’s return to the (fictional) future, as we get help from various animals in an alien zoo to escape a UFO.

As part of their maximalist approach, Dynacomp also did public domain distribution. Disks via eBay.

ADDENDUM: I got so caught up in the maze nonsense that I forgot to mention the resolution to the drawbridge. With the crank, you can LIFT PORTCULLIS as a direct command; the use of the crank is passive and automatic if you’re holding it, so the bit with the small hole can be ignored. With the sword you can then CUT ROPE to open the drawbridge. All this turns out to be meaningless, as there’s no point in going back outside. This seems to be due to a bug. You were supposed to leave the can with gas behind before climbing the vine, and then get it after dropping the drawbridge, then use it to start the generator. Since the generator already has gas — I assume due to a bug — none of this is necessary at all.

(Continued from my last post.)

The essential vibe that Uncle Harry’s Will had that felt “original” wasn’t necessarily the car aspect as much as deciphering a riddle while applying it to a large landscape. Many adventures have had cryptic instructions as part of their gameplay, but they usually don’t involve what might happen in a realistic “puzzle hunt” where there’s an enormous amount of extra space, and you have to apply the riddles/poems/clues in a way that whittles down the possibilities. The MIT Puzzle Hunt — the in-person component, at least — has an entire college campus as fair game, but only a small percentage is used.

I’ve hit this moment in Whembly Castle, and I’m not sure yet how to decipher the clues. While the game doesn’t start you with a poem there are some hidden within the castle itself.

Cover of one of the Dynacomp catalogs, from Jason Scott.

But first: last time I had stopped right before getting down to the bottom of a ladder under a manhole. At the very bottom is a compass, which can be used at the foggy lake.

YOU ARE IN A SMALL CHAMBER AT THE END OF A TUNNEL. THERE IS A LADDER FASTENED TO THE SIDE OF THE WALL. A LARGE SHAFT RISES ABOVE YOU. A TUNNEL LEADS WEST.

YOU SEE HERE, A SMALL COMPASS

Going west from here leads to darkness. It may simply be a red herring or it may be the tunnel gets entered via the opposite direction later. I don’t have any obvious light sources; while I have a can of gasoline, there’s no method of lighting it. The rusty key, the iron bar, and the oars aren’t helpful; I’ve got the deck of cards, but my character isn’t Gambit.

YOU ARE IN AN EAST-WEST TUNNEL THE TUNNEL SLOPES UPWARD TO THE EAST.

NOW WHAT? >W

IT IS PITCH BLACK HERE. TO CONTINUE WITHOUT LIGHT COULD BE DANGEROUS.

Leaving this be for the moment, I went to take the compass to the lake and got hit horribly by the boat bug again: while in the boat, the game claims you can’t go west (even though you should be able to). Rob suggested dropping the oars but I found it made no difference. I went as far as restarting my game altogether in case I had some corruption. Being able to go WEST ended up just working sometimes at random. I can’t guarantee this isn’t an emulator bug.

Here’s what my playing setup looks like. North Star is being played as an emulator inside an emulator, which works better than you might expect, but there’s still the open possibility of some obscure command being performed wrong.

Finally breaking out into the lake, though, the game uses a grid of rooms:

The Castle is marked by a berm that you can row around.

YOU ARE ON THE LAKE AT THE NW CORNER OF THE CASTLE. A 5 FOOT BERM RUN EAST AND SOUTH HERE. A HUGE TOWER RISES INTO THE FOG HERE.

YOU ARE IN THE BOAT.

NOW WHAT? >S

YOU ARE ON THE LAKE NEAR THE BERM BY THE WEST WALL.

YOU ARE IN THE BOAT.

Hopping out of the boat causes the boat to float away (I think this is meant to be a one-way trip). The south side of the berm has a drawbridge (not openable from the outside) and on the southwest side there’s a tower with vines that indicates you can climb.

YOU ARE ON THE BERM AT THE BASE OF THE SW TOWER.

THERE IS A THICK VINE GROWING UP THE SIDE OF THE SW TOWER. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU COULD CLIMB IT IF YOU ARE CAREFULL.

I had quite a lot of frustration here as CLIMB VINE simply told me YOU’RE UNABLE TO DO THAT with no explanation why. I finally realized this was not a “your command is not being parsed properly” scenario but rather “something is preventing the action but we’re not going to tell you what it is because transparency in error messages is for weaklings”. I tried dropping everything and the climbing finally worked:

YOU ARE HALF WAY UP THE TOWER. THE VINE HERE IS THINNER AND SEEMS TO BE A BIT LOOSE. BETTER HURRY UP.

NOW WHAT? >CLIMB VINE

YOU SCRAMBLE UP THE VINE. NEAR THE TOP THE VINE IS THINNER. YOU CAN FEEL IT BEGIN TO COME AWAY FROM THE TOWER WALL. AS YOU GRAB THE EDGE OF THE PARAPET, THE VINE TEARS AWAY AND FALLS TO THE GROUND. YOU PULL YOURSELF OVER THE TOP.

YOU ARE ON THE TOP OF THE TOWER. THERE IS A HATCH HERE.

(On a repeat test, I was able to climb holding one item. I don’t know what the limit is.)

Going through this lands the player on the second floor of the castle, so let me give the map of that first:

It’s hard to know what to focus on; there’s a lot of places that are clearly just functional but it may be we are supposed to do something vital in a nondescript room just because one of the clues (which I promise I’ll show off soon) signals it.

YOU ARE IN AN EMPTY STOREROOM. THERE ARE DOORS NORTH AND WEST.

NOW WHAT? >N

YOU ARE AT THE JUNCTION OF THE WEST AND SOUTH HALLWAYS. THERE ARE DOORS SOUTH AND WEST.

The northwest corner has a ornate bedroom with a button next to a mirror.

YOU ARE IN A VERY ORNATE BEDROOM. THIS IS THE MASTER BEDROOM. THERE IS A FOURPOSTER BED AND AND LARGE DRESSER HERE. ON THE NORTH WALL IS A FULL-LENGTH MIRROR. THERE ARE DOORS NORTH AND EAST.

NOW WHAT? >EXAMINE MIRROR

THERE IS A BUTTON ON THE EDGE OF THE MIRROR.

(PUSH isn’t normally recognized as a verb; it seems the game has PUSH BUTTON hardcoded as a thing that works.)

Going in you can find a tower with a brass key, but also a corpse and some warning about blocking the entrance. The mirror once closed can’t be opened the other way.

YOU FORGOT TO BLOCK THE DOOR WITH SOMETHING! YOU SLOWLY STARVE TO DEATH! TOO BAD!

WELL, YOU MANAGED TO GET YOURSELF KILLED! BETTER LUCK WITH YOUR NEXT TRY. HOPE YOU REMEMBERED TO SAVE THE GAME BEFORE TRYING SOMETHING NEW!

The random leather boot can be used to invoke the command BLOCK MIRROR after opening it, allowing the player to grab the key safely.

A similar “trap room” can be invoked by visiting the first floor…

…finding the power room and pulling the switch (which does not need extra gas to run, although I assume we’ll still need to fill it up later)…

NOW WHAT? >N

YOU ARE AT THE JUNCTION OF THE EAST AND NORTH HALLWAYS. THERE ARE DOORS NORTH AND EAST.

NOW WHAT? >N

YOU ARE IN THE POWER ROOM. THERE IS A LARGE GASOLINE GENERATOR HERE. AT ONE END IS A SMALL GAS TANK. ON THE SOUTH WALL IS A SWITCH. THERE IS AN EXIT SOUTH.

NOW WHAT? >PULL SWITCH

THE GENERATOR STARTS WITH A ROAR!

…then going back to the second floor (southeast corner) with an “office” that has a button that can be pushed.

THE DOOR SLIDES CLOSED BEHIND YOU

YOU ARE IN A SMALL ROOM. THERE IS A TABLE AND CHAIR HERE. SEATED AT THE TABLE IS A SKELETON. SCRATCHED IN THE SURFACE OF THE TABLE IS THE FOLLOWING: LAST WILL OF SILAS FRUMP. GOT LOCKED IN THIS ROOM. HOPE THE PERSON THAT FINDS ME THINKS TO BLOCK THE DOOR WITH A CHAIR. I AM STARVING. I WILL LEAVE A CLUE I DISCOVERED. DIG 1800 GOLDPIECES………

You can block again, this time with a chair, but there’s no item as far as I can tell? This means there’s something essential in the text but it’s a fairly vague clue.

Other clues include a note randomly in one of the side rooms…

THE NOTE READS:
GOOD LUCK FRIEND, WITH YOUR ONGOING SEARCH FOR MY GOLD. LEAVE NOT A STONE UNTURNED DURING YOUR WANDERINGS AND IN TIME YOU SHALL FIND MANY NEW CLUES. SOME OF THEM WILL GUIDE YOU STRAIGHT, SOME NOT. ROAM EACH HALL, SEARCH IN ALL PLACES. SOME THINGS WILL VERY LIKELY PASS UNNOTICED, EVEN IF YOU LOOK AT THEM!

…and a secret inscription off the northeast corner, this time found by pulling a hook.

YOU ARE IN A SMALL ROOM IN THE NE TOWER. THERE IS A BRONZE TABLET FASTENED TO THE WALL HERE. IT READS:
I HAVE HIDDEN IT WELL.
TO FIND MY GOLD WILL
BE DIFFICULT. THE KEY
CLUE SHALL BE NAMED.
YOU SHALL SEE FOR YOURSELF
THE GOLD IF THE SCRATCHES
PLACED ON THIS TABLET
ARE READ AND MADE NOTE
OF. SIR JOHN WHEMBLY

The southwest tower similarly has a clue but is not blocked off:

YOU ARE IN A SMALL ROOM IN THE SW TOWER. THERE IS METAL PLAQUE FASTENED TO THE WALL HERE. THE PLAQUE READS:
“PUT FIVE TOGETHER. SHE KNOWS WAYS.”
STAIRS LEAD DOWN.

The “five together” might be referring to letters that are scattered randomly through rooms on the first floor. Samples:

YOU ARE IN THE STEWARDS OFFICE. THERE IS A DESK HERE. ON THE WALL IS PAINTED THE LETTER “I”. THERE ARE DOORS NORTH,EAST AND SW.

YOU ARE AT THE SOUTH END OF THE “GREAT HALL”. A LONG, HIGH ROOM USED FOR EATING. THERE IS A LONG TABLE DOWN THE CENTER OF THE ROOM. ON THE WEST WALL IS A MASSIVE FIREPLACE. ON THE SOUTH WALL IS PAINTED THE LETTER “L”. THERE IS A DOOR EAST.

Put all together, there are the letters, I, L, C, E, and A. They anagram to ALICE. This is clearly referring to a picture found at the note I mentioned earlier (the one that mentions “SOME THINGS WILL VERY LIKELY PASS UNNOTICED”).

YOU ARE IN THE STUDY. THERE IS A DESK AGAINST THE EAST WALL. ON THE SOUTH WALL IS A PAINTING OF A YOUNG GIRL HOLDING A RABBIT. THE RABBIT IS WEARING A WRISTWATCH. THERE ARE DOORS NORTH AND SOUTH.

YOU SEE HERE, A NOTE

I haven’t gotten any significance out of this room otherwise and I suspect I’m missing a parser command. Doing EXAMINE or MOVE give me nothing on any noun other than the note (MOVE isn’t even recognized as a verb).

There’s still other new items lying around to play with (a sword, a rope, a horseshoe, a crank, a silver key in addition to the brass one I mentioned earlier) and there’s one more straightforward concrete puzzle: how to open the drawbridge. With a key (I’m not sure which one, they work passively!) you can get at the drawbridge controls, but I can’t get them to work.

YOU ARE IN THE DRAWBRIDGE EQUIPMENT ROOM. THERE IS A LARGE WINDLASS HERE WITH ROPES LEADING TO THE TOP OF THE DRAWBRIDGE. IN ONE CORNER IS A LARGE PULLY WITH WIRES LEADING DOWN TO THE PORTCULLIS. THERE IS A SQUARE HOLE IN THE PULLY WHEEL. ON THE FLOOR HERE ARE SOME SMALL HOLES LOOKING INTO A PASSAGE BELOW.

TURN WINDLASS is recognized but it is described as rusty. The crank is suggestive but I have not been able to get the parser to recognize any use of it. Other than bespoke commands (which includes turning the windlass) the only ones I have are CUT, DIG, CLIMB, READ, OPEN, LIGHT, UNLOCK, TIE, JUMP, EXAMINE, ENTER, and CHOP — not suggestive for fixing anything, and I’m pretty sure TIE is meant solely for tying the boat at the docks.

I will take speculation at this point on anything (although my one reader, hello Rob, who has solved it already — please hold off on hints for now).

From Daves Old Computers, a very early Dynacomp disk for the Altair.

Recently, the Internet Archive went down, and unfortunately, my next several posts were dependent in some way or another on references there. Hence, I scrapped my schedule and picked something I didn’t need extra research for: the sequel to Uncle Harry’s Will, by R. L. Turner, as written for the North Star Horizon.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE PERSERVERED TO THE END OF THE SEARCH! THE MONEY YOU HAVE FOUND IN MY CHEST WILL PAY YOUR WAY TO ENGLAND THERE, YOU’LL FIND YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE. SOMEWHERE IN WHEMBLY CASTLE LIES HIDDEN A HUGE TREASURE OF JEWELS AND GOLD. HIDDEN THERE BY YOUR GREAT, GREAT, GRANDFATHER ALMOST TWOHUNDRED YEARS AGO. MANY HAVE SEARCHED, BUT NO ONE HAS FOUND IT. WITH YOUR LOGIC AND INTELIGENCE I KNOW YOU WILL BE ABLE TO FIND IT! GOOD LUCK!

The previous game involved a gigantic map which tried to re-create the roadmap of an entire country, and the player had to follow the instructions of a poem in the manner similar to a gimmick road rally. It was, if nothing else, unique.

Whembly Castle is much more traditional: we’re on foot, we’ve arrived at a castle, we’re looking for treasure with no poem to guide us.

North Star Horizon brochure, from Bitsavers.

We even start adjacent to a forest! Very unexpected, I know.

YOU ARE AT THE END OF A ROAD LEADING NORTH. THERE ARE DENSE, UNPENATRABLE WOODS ON EACH SIDE. TO THE WEST IS A SMALL GATEHOUSE.

NOW WHAT? >W

YOU ARE IN A SMALL EMPTY ROOM. THERE IS A SIGN PAINTED ON THE WALL HERE. IT READS: BEWARE THE ICY WATER!

The start area is meant generally just to stall the player from trying a direct approach.

Entering a gate over a bridge leads to a lake which is a dead end.

YOU ARE AT THE SOUTH END OF A BRIDGE EXTENDING NORTH OVER A VERY FOGGY LAKE. SMALL TOWERS FLANK THE PASSAGE. THERE IS A DOOR INTO THE WEST TOWER.

NOW WHAT? >N

YOU ARE AT THE NORTH END OF A BRIDGE WHICH ENDS ABRUPLY HERE. TO THE NORTH LIES THE LAKE. MISTY WHITE FOG COVERS THE WATER. YOU CAN SEE A DARK MASS IN THE FOG TO THE NORTH.

Trying to enter the lake results in the icy doom warned about in the sign. The proper way to go is the previously mentioned west tower, which has a deck of cards. After picking up the deck of cards, the game rather unusually gives the player ACE OF DIAMONDS through KING OF DIAMONDS as individual objects.

YOU ARE IN THE WEST TOWER OF THE BARBICAN.
THERE IS A BENCH AND A TABLE HERE.

NOW WHAT? >INVENTORY

YOU ARE CARRYING:
AN ACE OF DIAMONDS
A TWO OF DIAMONDS
A THREE OF DIAMONDS
A FOUR OF DIAMONDS
A FIVE OF DIAMONDS
A SIX OF DIAMONDS
A SEVEN OF DIAMONDS
AN EIGHT OF DIAMONDS
A NINE OF DIAMONDS
A TEN OF DIAMONDS
A JACK OF DIAMONDS
A QUEEN OF DIAMONDS
A KING OF DIAMONDS

This is quite unusual and ominous, and I immediately knew this signaled a maze coming, and the objects were intended to map things out. Indeed, heading back to enter the forest, one step in reveals “YOU ARE IN A TWISTING MAZE OF PATHS”.

Topologically, you can consider the map above to be in three sections.

The “main” group is an interconnected set of 11 rooms, with many of them having a “Dead End” branch room. (The idea of random dead ends scattered about dates back to Crowther’s Adventure, even pre-Woods.) In a narrative sense, if someone is stumbling around they’ll essentially go in circles although there’s no special tendencies to force the player back to the start (unlike some mazes, which include special one-way “trap” exits; see the ending maze of Sphinx Adventure for the most extreme example). This is essentially forced by the author’s insistance that if room A goes to room B, there is a path that also lets you go back from B to A. In the context of a cave, one way exits can make sense (you come from above using gravity somehow) but in a forest it doesn’t, so I appreciate the decision.

The “branch” I have marked is miss-able by someone not thorough enough: it leads to a key.

YOU ARE IN A TWISTING MAZE OF PATHS

NOW WHAT? >E

YOU ARE IN A TWISTING MAZE OF PATHS

YOU SEE HERE, A RUSTY IRON KEY

The “ending” section is separated from the main set, making it less likely someone will wander to the end of the maze by accident.

YOU ARE IN A TWISTING MAZE OF PATHS

NOW WHAT? >NE

YOU ARE AT THE EDGE OF THE WOODS. TO THE NORTH IS A CLEARING. THE LAKE LIES ALONG THE WEST EDGE OF THE CLEARING. THERE ARE WOODS SURROUNDING THE CLEARING. THERE IS A TRAIL INTO THE WOODS TO THE SOUTH. YOU CAN SEE A BUILDING TO THE NORTH.

This leads to a shack next to a dock and a boat. Just for simplicity of explanation, I’ll assume a player who has already poked ahead to the next outdoor area (a cabin) and returned with a metal prybar lying out in the open.

With the prybar you can bust through a rusty padlock into the shack and find some oars.

YOU ARE AT THE NW CORNER OF THE SHACK. THERE IS A HAND-OPERATED GASOLINE PUMP HERE. THERE IS GAS IN THE PUMP.

NOW WHAT? >S

YOU ARE AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE WOODEN SHACK. ON THE DOOR THERE IS A RUSTY HASP AND PADLOCK. TO THE WEST IS A BOAT DOCK. TO THE NORTH A GAS PUMP.

NOW WHAT? >OPEN DOOR

OK!

NOW WHAT? >E

YOU ARE IN A SMALL OFFICE. THERE IS A DUSTY COUNTER HERE.
THERE ARE DOORS EAST AND WEST.

NOW WHAT? >E

YOU ARE IN A DIRTY STORAGE ROOM.

YOU SEE HERE, A PAIR OF OARS

The oars let you jump in the boat and row around, although I found it quite finicky; the game insisted I not use ROW WEST but instead just type the direction, but at first just typing the direction failed. I am unclear the source of the bug.

Even after getting to the lake, it turns out to be too foggy to move around.

YOU ARE ON THE LAKE NEAR THE EAST SHORE. THERE ARE ROCKS EAST.

YOU ARE IN THE BOAT.

NOW WHAT? >W

THE LAKE IS VERY FOGGY! YOU’LL NEVER FIND YOUR WAY WITHOUT A COMPASS!

There’s another bug with the boat I’ll get to in a second, but let’s check out the final area first.

This is straightforwardly a cabin with another locked door, but rather than forcing it this time, you can use the key from the forest maze.

YOU ARE IN A LARGE ROOM. THERE ARE CHAIRS AND A TABLE HERE. A LARGE DESK SITS IN ONE CORNER NEXT TO A FIREPLACE. THERE IS A BED ALONG ONE WALL. NEXT TO THE BED IS A SMALL DRESSER.

YOU SEE HERE, A GAS CAN

(The desk, dresser, table, etc. don’t seem to be hiding anything.)

The gas can can be filled up back at the shack; I haven’t used the filled can for anything yet, but I do wonder if we get to hit the road somewhere just like the last game. There’s also off to the side a manhole that goes underground.

YOU ARE AT THE NW CORNER OF THE CLEARING.
THERE IS A MANHOLE COVER IN THE GROUND HERE.

NOW WHAT? >OPEN HATCH

THERE IS A LADDER HERE LEADING DOWN TO A CHAMBER BELOW.

NOW WHAT? >D

YOU ARE AT THE TOP OF THE LADDER.
THERE IS A TRAPDOOR ABOVE YOUR HEAD

(Notice how it is referred to as a “manhole cover” but you need to call it a “hatch” to get anywhere. Yes, this game retains the guess-the-noun from the previous one.)

I’ve gotten a little farther, but this seems like a good place to cut off. I did promise I’d return to the boat.

While I was able to enter the boat, I have yet to discern a good syntax for leaving the boat. Out of desparation I just tried leaving east at the docks, thinking it might have my avatar hop out of the boat automatically. Instead, the boat stayed with me.

YOU ARE AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE WOODEN SHACK. ON THE DOOR THERE IS A RUSTY HASP AND PADLOCK. TO THE WEST IS A BOAT DOCK. TO THE NORTH A GAS PUMP.

YOU ARE IN THE BOAT.

Land boat! You can “ride” the boat all the way to the underground, but if you do that, you hit the “fog” condition and end up getting warped back to the docks.

YOU ARE AT THE TOP OF THE LADDER. THERE IS A TRAPDOOR ABOVE YOUR HEAD

YOU ARE IN THE BOAT.

NOW WHAT? >D

THE LAKE IS VERY FOGGY! YOU’LL NEVER FIND YOUR WAY WITHOUT A COMPASS!

YOU ARE ON THE LAKE NEXT TO THE DOCK. THE LAKE IS COVERED WITH A DENSE FOG.

YOU ARE IN THE BOAT.

The last game went up to roughly 200 rooms and I’ve only got 71 so far, so I expect quite a bit to go. I do find it interesting the same room-to-object ratio is still fairly large. In a road trip, it’s understandable you wouldn’t see much by the side of the road worth picking up; here, in a “classic” style adventure, the ratio feels a little more uneasy, but it is possible the game will change things up later.

Source.