A question for players who have completed Infocom's Trinity (open spoilers)

I’m sure a lot of you have seen my Trinity thread bouncing up and down lately. I’m trying to write about the ending, and I could benefit from hearing from you. Consider your first time playing, then please pick the answers that best reflect your experience with Trinity’s endgame. Thanks for your help!

When I first passed through the Omega door…
  • I knew that my goal was to sabotage the Trinity test
  • I did not know that my goal was to sabotage the Trinity test
0 voters

After sabotaging the Trinity test, I expected…
  • The Wabewalker’s actions to cause some kind of positive change
  • The Wabewalker’s actions to make no difference at all
  • The Wabewalker’s actions to make things worse
0 voters

I welcome your comments or further thoughts!

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I encountered Infocom games only after playing many modern IF games. Due to numerous references (and me looking up references) I was pretty much completely spoiled on Trinity and its ending and by the time I entered the final door I was using a walkthrough 100% of the time.

I didn’t answer the quiz above because it seems to be for people who came in with no prior knowledge.

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This is a pretty distant memory, but I think I figured out my goal on the fly while exploring the test site.

(Although the feelies included the site map, so it’s possible I went through that chain of thought while looking ahead at the feelies. I just don’t know.)

I’m sure of my second answer, because I found the ending so disconcerting that I wrote a complaint letter to Infocom!

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Ha! It is pretty darn deflating, and not what one would be used to so far as adventure games go.

I was older when I played it. I had a Commodore 64 and wouldn’t have a more powerful computer until college. My recollection was that I did not expect to have a positive effect, but I was somehow bothered and surprised regardless. Lack of precedent, I’m sure.

(I did not know what my goal was)

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It’s been a lot of years, but I think that in each one of the door-scenarios, I had the idea that I should try to prevent the explosion. (Of course only in the Trinity scenario do you actually manage to do so.) Maybe that expectation came from having heard something about the game beforehand, but I don’t recall about that either way.

I agree that the actual outcome was unexpected. Back in the day, adventure games generally had feel-good win states, if you could reach them.

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I figured out the objective of the end-game while poking around the test site. I fully expected there to be a happy ending. After all, I had just poured hours of time and effort into this game, surely it would reward me with happy-happy-joy-joy!

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Ok, so far it seems that my initial guesses were correct. My experience was a very adventure game feeling of just finding things to do, and then it came together

Thanks to everyone who voted! I’m writing the relevant essay this morning.

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