Alright, that was certainly a strange section, and I think I had an attempt where I messed it up before (hopefully?) resolving it successfully. At least I got something new to play with in the process, and I even have a theory which ongoing mystery it might resolve…
Coming soon to a thread near you:
Part X: The Impossible Floating Penguin
Last time, we explored the extensive back part of Martin’s grounds. We didn’t solve any puzzles, though were tantalized by a suspended tape recorder and a further idea to the mystery of the fuzzy squares. We ended coming back to the booth, and at last, going to the zoo.
PHONE BOOTH, at the zoo entrance
You’re in the phone booth.
The phone booth door is open to the east, leading to the zoo entrance. A telephone is attached to the opposite wall. Light is coming from the ceiling of the phone booth.
The rectangular drawer is open.
Five penguins are also squeezed into the phone booth with you. They look like they’re hoping that you’ll take them somewhere interesting.
>X ZOO
If you want to get a good look at the zoo entrance you should go east.>E
You drop the receiver.
ZOO ENTRANCE
Looking at the large map installed at the zoo entrance, you can see that all of the exhibits must be reached from the center of the zoo, which is directly east of here.
You are currently at the zoo entrance, which is on the west side of the zoo.
The center of the zoo is to the east. The phone booth is to the west.
The penguins are standing next to you.
The zoo seems oddly empty. Everything looks stark and surreal. It’s almost as if you’d stepped into a small avante garde theatre, only to realize that you are the only actor and that you haven’t got a clue as to what your lines are supposed to be or what you’re supposed to be doing.
With sudden inspiration, you decide that you will make your performance into an artsy political statement on the subject of minimalism. How absurdly brilliant! Now you can just stare at the audience and make them feel uncomfortable until they feel the need to spout random nonsense in order to fill the void.
Suddenly you find yourself feeling a bit silly because of the direction in which your thoughts have taken you. This isn’t a theatre, you tell yourself. It’s just a zoo, right? You can’t imagine why everything seems sort of fictional here.
I feel like that’s supposed to be a reference? I definitely don’t recognize it.
>X MAP
Looking at the large map installed at the zoo entrance, you can see that all of the exhibits must be reached from the center of the zoo, which is directly east of here.>X PENGUINS
You see five penguins wearing t-shirts. The t-shirts indicate that their names are Huey, Dewey, Louie, Stewey, and Chuck. They look mischevious.
Before getting too much further, I want to try something, just to see what happens:
>REMOVE GOGGLES
You take off the goggles.The brightly colored machine flicker for a moment as if they are about to disappear. But then they regain their substance and stay with you. Apparently these particular brightly colored machine tools have a talent for being real in any dimension, even when other objects might disappear.
You realize that the penguins have disappeared. You wipe a tear from your eyes as you realize that you had begun to regard them as your own nephews. You just can’t bring yourself to stay in the zoo without them, so you go back to the phone booth and send it back to the pantry.
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
You’re in the phone booth.
The phone booth door is open to the east, leading to the kitchen. A telephone is attached to the opposite wall. Light is coming from the ceiling of the phone booth.
The rectangular drawer is open.
You see Agador-Spartacus in the kitchen. He’s sitting down.
So, at least for now, this is a goggles-on zone only. I immediately undo.
>E
ZOO CENTER
There is a vendor here selling balloons. The price is five balloons for $9.95. Huey, Dewey, Louie, Stewie, and Chuck are jumping up and down, pointing their flippers at the balloons.
There are exhibits to the northwest, north, northeast, east, southeast, south, and southwest.
The zoo entrance is to the west.
>X BALLOONS
The helium balloons are on sale, five balloons for $9.95.
I’m just going to expose everywhere first, to see what exihibits we have.
>NW
NORTHWEST EXHIBIT
There are two elephants here. The sign says that their names are Berringer and Daisy.
A fence surrounds the exhibit.
The center of the zoo is to the southeast. The way is blocked in all of the other directions.
The penguins are standing next to you.
>X ELEPHANTS
The elephants are named Berringer and Daisy.Berringer and Daisy are grunting and snorting.
>SE
As you leave the northwest exhibit, you have the strange feeling that you sensed something odd about Daisy.
Nothing further comes from investigating this. No idea what is supposed to happen here (or in many of the other exhibits, really).
ZOO CENTER
>N
NORTH EXHIBIT
There is an ostrich here. The sign says that her name is Chaillot.
A fence surrounds the exhibit.
The center of the zoo is to the south. The way is blocked in all of the other directions.
The penguins are standing next to you.
>X OSTRICH
The ostrich is named Chaillot. She hides her head in the sand as if this will help her to escape from the absurdity of life as an ostrich.
I think I remember reading somewhere that no one has actually seen an ostrich do that? I forget where, though.
>X FENCE
It’s an imposing looking iron fence. There’s a sign on it.>READ SIGN
The sign says that her name is Chaillot.>X OSTRICH
The ostrich is named Chaillot. She hides her head in the sand as if this will help her to escape from the absurdity of life as an ostrich.>S
As you leave the north exhibit, you have the strange feeling that you sensed something odd about Chaillot. You could have sworn that she seemed somewhat dissatisfied with being an ostrich. What an absurd notion!ZOO CENTER
>NE
NORTHEAST EXHIBIT
There is a tiger here. The sign says that his name is Godot.
The tiger growls at you.
A fence surrounds the exhibit.
The center of the zoo is to the southwest. The way is blocked in all of the other directions.
The penguins are standing next to you.
>X TIGER
The tiger is named Godot. He looks like he’s waiting for someone, perhaps a fashion consultant. No doubt he’s considering changing his stripes.
I know from somewhere (probably from it being a trivia answer) that “Waiting for Godot” is the name of a play, but I never bothered to figure out what it’s about. Some quick Wikipedia searching suggests its plot seems to involve two characters waiting for someone to arrive, only they never do. How any of this helps with what to do here, I don’t know. All this tells me is that there’s probably more obscure references throughout the whole section that clearly I am not cultured enough to recognize.
>SW
As you leave the northeast exhibit, you have the strange feeling that you sensed something odd about Godot. You could have sworn that he seemed somewhat dissatisfied with being a tiger. What an absurd notion!ZOO CENTER
>E
EAST EXHIBIT
There is a rhinoceros here. The sign says that his name is Ionesco.
The rhinoceros snorts at you and wiggles his ears.
A fence surrounds the exhibit.
The center of the zoo is to the west. The way is blocked in all of the other directions.
>X RHINO
The rhinoceros is named Ionesco. He looks rather content with being a rhinoceros. After all, who wouldn’t want to be a rhinoceros?>W
ZOO CENTER
Note that there was no “something odd” message this time.
>SE
SOUTHEAST EXHIBIT
There is crocodile here. The sign says that his name is Captain Hook.
The southeast exhibit shares water with the south exhibit. A closed gate separates the two exhibits. There is a lever mounted near the gate. The lever is currently pushed down.
A fence surrounds the exhibit.
The center of the zoo is to the northwest. The way is blocked in all of the other directions.
The penguins are standing next to you.
>X CROCODILE
The crocodile is named Captain Hook. He looks quite formidable.>X LEVER
The lever is mounted near the gate. The lever is currently pushed down.>PUSH LEVER UP
The lever is now pushed up. The gate opens.>NW
ZOO CENTER
>S
SOUTH EXHIBIT
There is a mother hippo and a baby hippo here. The sign says that their names are Olga and Katrinka.
The baby hippo is looking with longing at your rubber duckie.
The south exhibit shares water with the southeast exhibit. The gate that would normally separate the two exhibits has been opened. The lever is pushed up.
A fence surrounds the exhibit.
The center of the zoo is to the north. The way is blocked in all of the other directions.
The penguins are standing next to you.
>X HIPPO
Which hippo do you mean, Olga, or Katrinka?>OLGA
The mother hippo is named Olga. She looks quite formidable.>X KATRINKA
The baby hippo is named Katrinka.
Well, we can see what happens when we:
>THROW DUCKIE
You throw the rubber duckie into the exhibit. The baby hippo swims towards the rubber duckie. The mother hippo swims after her protectively.>Z
Time passes…
No further changes here. We have one more exhibit to go:
>N
ZOO CENTER
>SW
SOUTHWEST EXHIBIT
There is a giant spider here. The sign says that his name is Kafka.
>X SPIDER
The giant spider is named Kafka.
Finally, a reference I think I get: Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”. Those of you who’ve played other IF games may know that that story gets an homage fairly late in the mega-collab Cragne Manor.
>NE
As you leave the southwest exhibit, you have the strange feeling that you sensed something odd about Kafka.ZOO CENTER
There is a vendor here selling balloons. The price is five balloons for $9.95. Huey, Dewey, Louie, Stewie, and Chuck are jumping up and down, pointing their flippers at the balloons.
There are exhibits to the northwest, north, northeast, east, southeast, south, and southwest.
The zoo entrance is to the west.
Okay, now we can try to see what the deal with the balloons is. They cost $9.95. You’ve probably forgotten by now, but we got $50 as one of the objects that the phone booth can dispense.
>BUY BALLOONS
If you want to buy balloons, just give money to the vendor.>GIVE MONEY TO VENDOR
You give the fifty dollar bill to the vendor. The vendor gives one balloon to each of the five penguins. The vendor gives you two twenty dollar bills and a nickel. You take the money from the vendor.You watch the penguins run off with their balloons, headed northeast. A penguin feather drops to the ground. You bend down to pick it up.
When you stand up again and look around, you see that the vendor has gone.
I was wondering if this was going to be the type of game where we just needed to buy one thing, or the type where we’d keep track of change and so on. We’ll see that there is at least one more place we can spend money later this update.
>GET FEATHER
Which feather do you mean, the penguin feather, or the yellow feather?>PENGUIN
You already have the penguin feather.>X IT
It’s a black feather from a penguin.>N
NORTH EXHIBIT
There is a rhinoceros here. The sign says that her name is Chaillot.
A fence surrounds the exhibit.
The center of the zoo is to the south. The way is blocked in all of the other directions.
>S
As you leave the north exhibit, you think to yourself “A rhinoceros! Well, of all things.”ZOO CENTER
>NE
NORTHEAST EXHIBIT
There is a striped rhinoceros here. The sign says that his name is Godot.
The rhinoceros snorts at you.
A fence surrounds the exhibit.
The center of the zoo is to the southwest. The way is blocked in all of the other directions.
>SW
ZOO CENTER
A number of the zoo animals have somehow turned into rhinos. Is this supposed to be another reference? It seems to happen just after enough time, rather than anything we did.
>E
EAST EXHIBIT
There is a rhinoceros here. The sign says that his name is Ionesco.
The rhinoceros snorts at you and wiggles his ears.
A fence surrounds the exhibit.
The center of the zoo is to the west. The way is blocked in all of the other directions.
Stewie, holding all five balloons, floats high in the air. He’s drifting towards the southeast exhibit. The other penguins run towards the zoo center so that they can follow him to the southeast exhibit.
>X STEWIE
If you want to get a good look at penguins you should figure out how to get yourself to the southeast exhibit.
The penguins have been drifting around, and clearly we need to do something with them.
>W
ZOO CENTER
>SE
SOUTHEAST EXHIBIT
There is crocodile here. The sign says that his name is Captain Hook.
The southeast exhibit shares water with the south exhibit. The gate that would normally separate the two exhibits has been opened. The lever is pushed up.
A fence surrounds the exhibit.
The center of the zoo is to the northwest. The way is blocked in all of the other directions.
Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck are here, pointing upwards and looking very upset. Floating high in the air, directly above the exhibit, is Stewie. He’s holding all five helium balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down, trying to tell Stewie that he should let go of one of the balloons so that he will come back down to the ground.
But Stewie is afraid to come down in the exhibit with the crocodile.
>NW
ZOO CENTER
Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck run into the zoo center from the southeast exhibit. They head towards the south exhibit.
>S
SOUTH EXHIBIT
Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck are here, pointing upwards and looking very upset. Floating high in the air, directly above the exhibit, is Stewie. He’s holding all five helium balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down, trying to tell Stewie that he should let go of one of the balloons so that he will come back down to the ground.
But Stewie is afraid to come down in the exhibit with the hippos.
>X HIPPO
Which hippo do you mean, Olga, or Katrinka?>KATRINKA
The baby hippo is named Katrinka.Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck are here, pointing upwards and looking very upset. Floating high in the air, directly above the exhibit, is Stewie. He’s holding all five helium balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down, trying to tell Stewie that he should let go of one of the balloons so that he will come back down to the ground.
But Stewie is afraid to come down in the exhibit with the hippos.
>X DUCKIE
It’s a yellow rubber duckie. It looks like it would squeak if you squeeze it.Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck are here, pointing upwards and looking very upset. Floating high in the air, directly above the exhibit, is Stewie. He’s holding all five helium balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down, trying to tell Stewie that he should let go of one of the balloons so that he will come back down to the ground.
But Stewie is afraid to come down in the exhibit with the hippos.
>GET IT
But Katrinka has the rubber duckie!Stewie, holding all five balloons, floats high in the air. He’s drifting towards the southeast exhibit. The other penguins run towards the zoo center so that they can follow him to the southeast exhibit.
>Z
Time passes…
It seems the main problem here is getting Stewie down, but he’s too scared of the animals so won’t come down anywhere. If we could get one of them to move…
>N
ZOO CENTER
>SE
SOUTHEAST EXHIBIT
>NW
ZOO CENTER
I do some more wandering around, mainly to see where the penguins went. Eventually, I track them returning from an exhibit. But no further progress as I continue wandering around. I even try going back toward the booth. Eventually I track them heading southeast.
>SE
SOUTHEAST EXHIBIT
There is crocodile here. The sign says that his name is Captain Hook.
The southeast exhibit shares water with the south exhibit. The gate that would normally separate the two exhibits has been opened. The lever is pushed up.
A fence surrounds the exhibit.
The center of the zoo is to the northwest. The way is blocked in all of the other directions.
Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck are here, pointing upwards and looking very upset. Floating high in the air, directly above the exhibit, is Stewie. He’s holding all five helium balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down, trying to tell Stewie that he should let go of one of the balloons so that he will come back down to the ground.
But Stewie is afraid to come down in the exhibit with the crocodile.
>X STEWIE
Stewie, holding all five balloons, is floating high in the air, directly above the exhibit.Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck are here, pointing upwards and looking very upset. Floating high in the air, directly above the exhibit, is Stewie. He’s holding all five helium balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down, trying to tell Stewie that he should let go of one of the balloons so that he will come back down to the ground.
But Stewie is afraid to come down in the exhibit with the crocodile.
It takes me a bit more thinking to realize what the trick must be: the barrier between the exhibits south and SE of the entrance. Maybe we can get one of the animals to move through it, and thus give poor Stewie a cleared landing spot.
Unfortunately, we only found one way to make any of the animals move: throwing the rubber duckie at the hippos. They might be inclined to follow it, but we already threw and I don’t know if we can get it back. So, if we want to try this theory, we’ll have to restore from earlier.
I restore to the start of this session, walking around exhibits and buying balloons from the vendor. You’ve seen that already, so I’ve cut it out. Eventually I make my way back to:
>SE
SOUTHEAST EXHIBIT
There is crocodile here. The sign says that his name is Captain Hook.
The southeast exhibit shares water with the south exhibit. A closed gate separates the two exhibits. There is a lever mounted near the gate. The lever is currently pushed down.
A fence surrounds the exhibit.
The center of the zoo is to the northwest. The way is blocked in all of the other directions.
>PULL LEVER
The lever is now pushed up. The gate opens.>THROW DUCKIE
You throw the rubber duckie into the exhibit. The baby hippo swims through the open gate towards the rubber duckie.The crocodile approaches the baby hippo with a menacing display of sharp crocodile teeth. Then the mother hippo swims through the gate to protect her baby by confronting the crocodile.
It looks like a standoff!
Stewie, holding all five balloons, floats high in the air. He’s drifting in this direction. Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck come running here from the zoo center.
>Z
Time passes…Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck are here, pointing upwards and looking very upset. Floating high in the air, directly above the exhibit, is Stewie. He’s holding all five helium balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down, trying to tell Stewie that he should let go of one of the balloons so that he will come back down to the ground.
But Stewie is afraid to come down in the exhibit with the crocodile.
>NW
ZOO CENTER
There are exhibits to the northwest, north, northeast, east, southeast, south, and southwest.
The zoo entrance is to the west.
>S
SOUTH EXHIBIT
This exhibit is empty.
The south exhibit shares water with the southeast exhibit. The gate that would normally separate the two exhibits has been opened. The lever is pushed up.
A fence surrounds the exhibit.
The center of the zoo is to the north. The way is blocked in all of the other directions.
>Z
Time passes…Stewie, holding all five balloons, floats high in the air. He’s drifting in this direction. Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck come running here from the zoo center.
>Z
Time passes…Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck are here, pointing upwards and looking very upset. Floating high in the air, directly above the exhibit, is Stewie. He’s holding all five helium balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down, trying to tell Stewie that he should let go of one of the balloons so that he will come back down to the ground.
This would be a safe place for Stewie to come down because the hippos are gone now. But Stewie is still too frightened to let go of any of the balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down as if they were begging you to save Stewie.
>X BALLOONS
Stewie, holding all five balloons, is floating high in the air, directly above the exhibit.Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck are here, pointing upwards and looking very upset. Floating high in the air, directly above the exhibit, is Stewie. He’s holding all five helium balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down, trying to tell Stewie that he should let go of one of the balloons so that he will come back down to the ground.
This would be a safe place for Stewie to come down because the hippos are gone now. But Stewie is still too frightened to let go of any of the balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down as if they were begging you to save Stewie.
>JUMP
You jump, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.If you want to go in a particular direction, just say so.
Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck are here, pointing upwards and looking very upset. Floating high in the air, directly above the exhibit, is Stewie. He’s holding all five helium balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down, trying to tell Stewie that he should let go of one of the balloons so that he will come back down to the ground.
This would be a safe place for Stewie to come down because the hippos are gone now. But Stewie is still too frightened to let go of any of the balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down as if they were begging you to save Stewie.
>GET BALLOON
You can’t reach the balloons from here.Stewie, holding all five balloons, floats high in the air. He’s drifting towards the southeast exhibit. The other penguins run towards the zoo center so that they can follow him to the southeast exhibit.
So, we can’t jump up to the balloons, or pull them down ourselves. We’ll need to find some other way to bring them down. Well, they might come down if we popped the balloons, but do we have anything pointy?
>I
You are carrying:
some khaki trousers (being worn)
trouser pockets
a gold key
an envelope
a yellow feather
a pocket watch
a short brown sock (being worn)
a short black sock (being worn)
a pair of brown shoes (being worn)
a flannel shirt (being worn)
a phone bill
an audio cassette with a red label
an audio cassette with a green label
“Go Dog Go”
“The Bedtime Story Book”
“The Boy Who Had No Words”
a red rubber ball
a security badge (being worn)
a large phone book
a pair of black tap shoes
a mug
some black coffee
a lab coat
some goggles (being worn)
a optical filter
a hippo magnet
some ballet slippers
a long black sock
some long-nosed pliers
a store receipt
a blue jacket
a bath robe (being worn)
some brightly colored machine tools
a loose stone
a nickel
two twenty dollar bills
a penguin feather
Nothing particularly sharp or pointed in that list. It seems we might be stuck, which is a shame because it seems we should be able to do something here. I do some more waiting and wandering.
I even try something, just to see what happens:
>THROW BALL
You throw the red rubber ball. It flies a good distance and then it lands on ground.
So we can at least throw things far, presumably including high up. It seems that I am stuck, for now.
However, I do have notes about things we’ve found, and we did find something that might be able to pop a balloon, and we’ve even thrown it before. Can you guess what it is?
Unfortunately, it’s back at the house. And we’re taking a risk because we might not be able to get back. It might be time for another restore. However let’s soldier on for now.
(Continued next post)
(Part X, continued)
>N
ZOO CENTER
>W
ZOO ENTRANCE
>W
PHONE BOOTH, at the zoo entrance
You’re in the phone booth.
The phone booth door is open to the east, leading to the zoo entrance. A telephone is attached to the opposite wall. Light is coming from the ceiling of the phone booth.
The rectangular drawer is open.
You hear the computerized voice tell you (somewhat faintly since the receiver is hanging down on its cord) …
Press “1” to be enlightened.
Press “3” to be cleansed.
Press “9” to be returned.
If you do not have access to a touch tone phone, please remain on the line and an operator will assist you.>PRESS “9”
You pick up the receiver.You press “9”.
You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, “Estimated travel time for this twenty mile trip is ten minutes, using standard travel speed.”
The phone booth flies southwest. After about ten minutes of flying it drops down through an opening Martin’s roof and comes to an abrupt halt in the pantry. The phone booth door opens.
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
You see the kitchen to the east.
You see Agador-Spartacus in the kitchen. He’s wagging his tail.
>E
You drop the receiver.
KITCHEN
>S
The blue birds suddenly become alive. They fly off of the china cabinet doors and begin to flit about, making you feel as if you should sing “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah”. Then the blue birds land back on the china cabinet doors and grow still.
DINING ROOM (by the china cabinet)
>S
DINING ROOM (by the north end of the table)
>W
DINING ROOM (by the west end of the table)
>W
You go through the strands of beads.LIVING ROOM (front half)
>W
HALLWAY
>S
BEDROOM
The bedroom is almost entirely filled by a very large bed, which is oriented with its head on the south wall. A dresser also stands on the south wall just to the right of the bed.
The bottom drawer of the dresser is open.
To the west is a closet door that is currently open. There is a dart board on the closet door.
A shelf runs along the east, south, and west walls.
The bedroom door is to the north, leading to the hallway.
In the dart board you see a yellow dart, a red dart, and a green dart.
You see a handwritten note and a report card here.
>X RED DART
It’s an ordinary game dart with red feathers.>GET IT
You’re carrying too much. Perhaps you could put something in your pocket.You see Agador-Spartacus in the hallway. He’s wagging his tail.
>DROP TAP SHOES
The black tap shoes are now on the floor.Agador-Spartacus enters the bedroom from the hallway.
Agador-Spartacus stands before you, wagging his tail affably.
>GET RED DART
You’re carrying too much. Perhaps you could put something in your pocket.>DROP BLUE JACKET
The blue jacket is now on the floor.>GET RED DART
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the red dart out of the dart board.
Yep, we did in fact find darts earlier. I just assumed throwing them at the closet to open it would be the end, but these would be perfect to puncture a floating balloon.
I love being able to keep this thread because I probably am more thorough about noting past puzzles down than normal, so I can go back through my posts - and upon remembering the dart board on the closet existed, I figured this would at least work.
Can we put our plan into action without a restore, though?
>N
HALLWAY
>E
LIVING ROOM (front half)
>E
You go through the strands of beads.DINING ROOM (by the west end of the table)
>N
DINING ROOM (by the north end of the table)
>N
The blue birds suddenly become alive. They fly off of the china cabinet doors and begin to flit about, making you feel as if you should sing “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah”. Then the blue birds land back on the china cabinet doors and grow still.
Seems that happens every time we pass through here with the goggles on.
DINING ROOM (by the china cabinet)
>N
KITCHEN
>W
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
You’re in the phone booth.
The phone booth door is open to the east, leading to the kitchen. A telephone is attached to the opposite wall. Light is coming from the ceiling of the phone booth.
The rectangular drawer is open.
You hear the computerized voice tell you (somewhat faintly since the receiver is hanging down on its cord) …
Press “1” to be enlightened.
Press “3” to be cleansed.
Press “4” to be uplifted.
Press “7” to be moved.
Press “9” to be transmogrified.
If you do not have access to a touch tone phone, please remain on the line and an operator will assist you.>PRESS “7”
You pick up the receiver.You press “7”.
The computerized voice goes on to tell you
Please specify the destination to which you would like to be moved…
Press “1” to go to the zoo.
Press “2” to go to the beach.
Press “3” to go to work.
Press “4” to go to the store.
Press “5” to go to the veterinarian’s office.
Press “6” to visit Mom.
All other options will return you to the main menu. Please be advised that the previously mentioned destinations can be reached only through the Phantom Phone Booth object-oriented navigational system.>PRESS “1”
You press “1”.You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly. It passes the second floor landing and goes through the roof, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, “Estimated travel time for this twenty mile trip is ten minutes, using standard travel speed.”
The phone booth flies northeast. After about two minutes of flying it sets itself down. The phone booth door pops open.
PHONE BOOTH, at the zoo entrance
You see the zoo entrance to the east.
Okay, what do we have? Ah, we got a loose penguin feather once they grabbed the balloons. I guess that counts as close enough for the booth’s system. A nice bit of mercy on part of our author.
>E
You drop the receiver.
ZOO ENTRANCE
>E
ZOO CENTER
>S
SOUTH EXHIBIT
No penguins here. I decide to go watch for them out in the center, since they seem to spend several turns in an exhibit before floating back.
>N
ZOO CENTER
>Z
Time passes…>Z
Time passes…>Z
Time passes…Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck run into the zoo center from the northeast exhibit. They head towards the east exhibit.
Okay, clearly we should wait longer.
>Z
Time passes…
(Several turns later…)
>Z
Time passes…Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck run into the zoo center from the southeast exhibit. They head towards the south exhibit.
>S
SOUTH EXHIBIT
Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Chuck are here, pointing upwards and looking very upset. Floating high in the air, directly above the exhibit, is Stewie. He’s holding all five helium balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down, trying to tell Stewie that he should let go of one of the balloons so that he will come back down to the ground.
This would be a safe place for Stewie to come down because the hippos are gone now. But Stewie is still too frightened to let go of any of the balloons.
The other penguins are jumping up and down as if they were begging you to save Stewie.
And action!
>THROW DART AT BALLOON
You throw the red dart at the balloons. You pop one of the ballons, and Stewie slowly falls into the water. He lets go of the rest of the balloons and they fly away. He swims to the side and gets out of the exhibit.Stewie has been quite shaken by the experience and is grateful to you for saving him. As a token of his appreciation, he gives you his prized possession, a small cloth sack.
Then the zoo keeper arrives on the scene. “Who’s the idiot who opened this gate?” he barks. You and the penguins try to look innocent of any wrongdoing, while the zookeeper gets the hippos back where they belong and closes the gate. He tosses the rubber duckie out of the exhibit.
You sneak over and take the rubber duckie when you think the zookeeper isn’t looking. But during all of the confusion you seem to have lost the penguin feather.
The red dart is gone from sight. You assume it must be in the exhibit somewhere. You certainly have no intention of trying to retrieve it.
So, we lost the dart and feather. The former is probably no big deal since we have two more darts, in case we need one. But the feather could prove trickier, since it got us here.
>X SACK
The cloth sack is made of a dark blue velvet-like material and is small enough to fit in your pocket. It has a gold thread for a drawstring that is adorned with a tiny pair of white fuzzy dice. The sack is currently closed.
Fuzzy dice, you say? What were we just saying about fuzzy squares?
>OPEN IT
The small cloth sack is now open. Inside the sack you see a white chess pawn and five game tiles.The game tiles look similar to what you’ve seen being used to play Mah Jong except that the markings on the tiles are somewhat unusual. You see a tile that has a picture of one eye. Another tile has a picture of two ears. Another tile has a picture of three noses. Another tile has a picture of four mouths. Another tile has a picture of five hands. You see some words written on each of the tiles.
>X PAWN
The white pawn is a chess piece made of white plastic.>X EYE TILE
The eye tile looks something like a Mah Jong tile. It has a picture of one eye. The words on the tile say “Imagination Reveals Possibilities”.>X EAR TILE
The ear tile looks something like a Mah Jong tile. It has a picture of two ears. The words on the tile say “Compassion Summons Understanding”.>X NOSE TILE
The nose tile looks something like a Mah Jong tile. It has a picture of three noses. The words on the tile say “Memory Finds Truth”.>X MOUTH TILE
The mouth tile looks something like a Mah Jong tile. It has a picture of four mouths. The words on the tile say “Curiosity Tastes Adventure”.>X HAND TILE
The hand tile looks something like a Mah Jong tile. It has a picture of five hands. The words on the hand tile say “Connections Build Strength”.
I don’t know what the tiles will do, but I remember one of the shelves did have a checkerboard pattern on it. So a chess piece could definitely have something to do with it.
>N
ZOO CENTER
>W
ZOO ENTRANCE
>W
You and the penguins enter the phone booth.
PHONE BOOTH, at the zoo entrance
>PRESS “9”
You pick up the receiver.You press “9”.
You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, “Estimated travel time for this twenty mile trip is ten minutes, using standard travel speed.”
The phone booth flies southwest. After about ten minutes of flying it drops down through an opening Martin’s roof and comes to an abrupt halt at the second floor landing. The penguins open the door and get out of the phone booth.
Then the door closes and the phone booth drops again to stop in the pantry. The phone booth door opens.
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
You see the kitchen to the east.
Note that the penguins left.
I suspect we might need to go to the zoo again, given how much other stuff there was going on there. Fortunately the penguins are back upstairs as usual, if and when we have reason to go back.
Now that we’re out of the zoo, we can safely:
>REMOVE GOGGLES
You take off the goggles.The brightly colored machine flicker for a moment as if they are about to disappear. But then they regain their substance and stay with you. Apparently these particular brightly colored machine tools have a talent for being real in any dimension, even when other objects might disappear.
You see Agador-Spartacus in the kitchen. He’s wagging his tail.
It looks like going to visit Mom was next on the poll, so let’s see what happens there.
>PRESS “7”
You pick up the receiver.You press “7”.
You see Agador-Spartacus in the kitchen. He’s wagging his tail.
The computerized voice goes on to tell you
Please specify the destination to which you would like to be moved…
Press “1” to go to the zoo.
Press “2” to go to the beach.
Press “3” to go to work.
Press “4” to go to the store.
Press “5” to go to the veterinarian’s office.
Press “6” to visit Mom.
All other options will return you to the main menu. Please be advised that the previously mentioned destinations can be reached only through the Phantom Phone Booth object-oriented navigational system.>PRESS “6”
You press “6”.You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly. It passes the second floor landing and goes through the roof, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, "Estimated travel time for this 2000 mile trip is forty minutes, using accelerated travel speed.”
The phone booth flies east-northeast. After about forty minutes of accelerated flying the phone booth starts to slow down and circle down to the big city below.
Was that the Statue of Liberty you just saw?
Just before landing you think you see Central Park.
The phone booth sets itself down. The phone booth door pops open.
PHONE BOOTH, on a city sidewalk
You see a city sidewalk to the north.
2000 miles? Per the intro we’re supposed to be somewhere in rural New Mexico. I think that’s about the right distance?
>N
You drop the receiver.
CITY SIDEWALK
There’s a large apartment building to the west.
Across the busy street to the east is Central Park.
On the other side of the street you see a horse-drawn carriage.
The phone booth is to the south.
>X CARRIAGE
The horse-drawn carriage is parked on the other side of the street. You’d need to go east to get a better look at it.>X APARTMENT
The apartment builing is to the west.>W
You go west to get to the apartment building entrance. You tell the doorman that you’re here to see Raina Kessler.The doorman buzzes her apartment, but there’s no answer.
Then the doorman suggests that you try looking for her in Central Park. Apparently Mrs. Kessler is a famous New York choreographer, currently working on a musical special commemorating “The Life and Times of Ginger Rogers.” The show is going to be performed in Central Park in a few months, and the doorman thinks that they might be starting rehearsals soon.
You go back to the sidewalk and look across the street at the park.
Did we know Martin’s mom’s first name before? That’s the first I recall learning of it, at least.
>E
You try to cross the street, but the traffic is so busy that you can’t seem to get across. Cars honk at you and send you back up onto the sidewalk.But the driver of the horse-drawn carriage notices you, and he brings the horse and carriage over to this side of the street. The screeching and the honking of the cars doesn’t seem to bother either the driver or the horse.
“Round-trip tour of the park for $10,” the driver tells you. “Or else you can get two one-way trips, one trip to get to the middle of the park, and then a later trip to get back here. Same price,” he says.
The driver looks like he’s waiting for you to give him some money.
>GIVE MONEY TO DRIVER
You give the twenty dollar bill to the driver, who tucks it away in his pocket. The driver gives you a ten dollar bill. You take the money from the driver.You get in the carriage and the driver flicks the reins to get the horse moving. Cars honk and screech as the cart merges into the northbound traffic and cuts over into the right lane. Then the carriage turns right to follow a path into Central Park.
The park is surprisingly large. It’s a pleasant place filled with interesting people.
After a while, the driver stops the carriage and you get off. “When you’re ready to go back, just whistle!” the driver tells you. Then he pulls away and disappears from your sight.
CENTRAL PARK (near the chess tables)
Two old men are playing chess in front of a group of onlookers. It’s a game of speed chess, and the onlookers have made some bets based on the outcome of the game.
But suddenly the game is interrupted. A bird swoops down and steals a white pawn off of the chess board!
The chess players try unsuccessfully to catch the bird and retrieve the pawn. You can’t actually see the bird anymore, but you suspect that it flew high up into a nearby tree.
A pathway leads northeast through the trees.
A white pawn, you say?
The good news is that we literally just got that exact piece from our escapades at the zoo. The bad news is that I want to do something with it and the checkerboard shelf, so I don’t want to hand over an inventory item that I can’t get back. Since I don’t want to waste money, I undo and return to the booth. At least I know exactly what I need to do here.
>S
You enter the phone booth. The horse-drawn carriage pulls away.PHONE BOOTH, on a city sidewalk
>PRESS “9”
You pick up the receiver.You press “9”.
You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, “Estimated travel time for this 2000 mile trip is forty minutes, using accelerated travel speed.”
The phone booth flies west-southwest. After about forty minutes of flying it drops down through an opening Martin’s roof and comes to an abrupt halt in the pantry. The phone booth door opens.
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
You see the kitchen to the east.
You see Agador-Spartacus in the kitchen. He’s wagging his tail.
>E
You drop the receiver.
KITCHEN
Okay, we’ll end here for now. I’m probably going to return back to do another hour on the watch first next time. I’m definitely interested to try to see if I can get something to happen with the pawn and shelf, but I think I’ll go to the store next time.
>SCORE
Score: 85 out of 360 Turns: 1789 Menu: Whatever
We at least got points out of the zoo, so I feel confident we did the right thing.
>I
You are carrying:
some khaki trousers (being worn)
trouser pockets
a gold key
an envelope
a yellow feather
a pocket watch
a short brown sock (being worn)
a short black sock (being worn)
a pair of brown shoes (being worn)
a flannel shirt (being worn)
a phone bill
an audio cassette with a red label
an audio cassette with a green label
“Go Dog Go”
“The Bedtime Story Book”
“The Boy Who Had No Words”
a red rubber ball
a security badge (being worn)
a large phone book
a mug
some black coffee
a lab coat
some goggles
a optical filter
a hippo magnet
some ballet slippers
a long black sock
some long-nosed pliers
a store receipt
a bath robe (being worn)
some brightly colored machine tools
a loose stone
a nickel
two twenty dollar bills
a rubber duckie
a small cloth sack
a white pawn
an eye tile
an ear tile
a nose tile
a mouth tile
a hand tile
As long as you’re disciplined about keeping track of your saves, this game is very much set up to reward you for trying partial solutions even if you think they might lead to a dead end. Often trying something too early or without having everything you need will end up giving you a hint which will help you make progress elsewhere.
Okay, i’ll take that as encouragement to give it a try and see what happens. (Last update was getting long anyway, so I kind of welcomed the chance to just go back. I have a new, closer restore point now if I need it.)
I think a lot of the animals’ names are references to plays. I don’t know if the intro to the zoo portion is a reference to anything or just signposting that this section contains a bunch of theatre references.
Captain Hook is of course from Peter Pan, but that was actually a play before it was a novel, so that leaves Kafka as kind of the odd one out (I’m sure The Metamorphosis has been adapted to the stage at some point, but there’s not, like, a famous play version as far as I’m aware).
I’m not enough of a theatre scholar to evaluate the claim, but I remember seeing it suggested somewhere that the whole zoo section is a reference to the idea of the Theatre of the Absurd.
That makes sense! Ionesco was a major figure in that movement.
Next update is going to be a long one - some of the things in the store were tricky for me. But we do get a bit more backstory out of it.
Prepare yourselves accordingly.
Last time out we spent most of our time at a rather surreal zoo. Our main activity involved rescuing a penguin who was stuck floating, who gave us some new toys to play with. We ended in the kitchen. First, I’m going to clean up my inventory (I had to do a fair bit of management this time).
>DROP LARGE BOOK
The large phone book is now on the floor.>DROP LONG BLACK SOCK
The long black sock is now on the floor.
Next, let’s do the 4:00 hour on the watch. This hour is all music, instead of movies or TV reruns. To save space, I’ll just list times and results.
4:00:
Music begins to play. You hear the song “Rock Around the Clock”. “One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock, rock!”
4:04:
Music begins to play. You hear Patti Page. “How much is that doggy in the window?”
4:08:
Music begins to play. You hear the Beatles. "Penny Lane is in your ears and in your eyes… "
4:12:
Music begins to play. You hear the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. “Eight maids a milking… and a partridge in a pear tree!”.
4:16:
Music begins to play. You hear They Might Be Giants. "Istanbul was Constantinople. Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople. Been a long time gone, Constantinople. Why did Constantinople get the works? That’s nobody’s business but the Turks. "
4:20:
Music begins to play. You hear the song “Mr. Sandman”. “Mr Sandman, bring me a dream…”
4:24:
Music begins to play. You hear the song “Witch Doctor”. “Oo! Ee! Oo-Ah-Ah! Ting! Tang! Walla-Walla Bing-Bang!”
4:28:
Music begins to play. You hear “Up Up and Away” by the Fifth Dimension. "Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?”
Well, Stewie the penguin did like to last update…
(My autocorrect keeps wanting to change “Stewie” to “Stevie” for some reason.)
4:32:
Music begins to play. You hear the song “The Little Nash Rambler”. "Beep-beep! Beep-beep! That car went Beep-beep-beep!”
4:36:
Music begins to play. You hear the song “All I Have To Do is Dream”. “Whenever I want you, all I have to do is dream… dream, dream, dream!”
4:40:
Music begins to play. You hear the Beach Boys. "I wish they all could be California girls!”.
4:44:
Music begins to play. You hear the song “I think I’m a Clone Now”. Weird Al Yankovich does his comedy spoof of the oldies song “I think we’re alone now”.
4:48:
Music begins to play. You hear the song “Darn That Dream”. “Darn that dream, but bless it too, without that dream I never would have you…”
4:52:
Music begins to play. You hear the song “Red Rubber Ball”. “And I guess it’s gonna be all right, yes the worst is over now, the morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball…”
4:56:
Music begins to play. You hear a song from the musical “Rent”. “Only thing to do – is jump OVER the moon…”
Pretty good selection there, in my opinion.
>GET WATCH
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the pocket watch out of one of the trouser pockets.
I also realize that I never looked at something new we got last time. We got change back when we bought balloons at the zoo, including this:
>X NICKEL
It’s an Indian head nickel. The other side of the nickel shows a picture of a buffalo.
Anyway, I was encouraged to see what actually happens if we go through the scene we ended on last time in the city. Let’s do that now.
>W
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
>PRESS “7”
You pick up the receiver.You press “7”.
You see Agador-Spartacus in the kitchen. He’s wagging his tail.
The computerized voice goes on to tell you
Please specify the destination to which you would like to be moved…
Press “1” to go to the zoo.
Press “2” to go to the beach.
Press “3” to go to work.
Press “4” to go to the store.
Press “5” to go to the veterinarian’s office.
Press “6” to visit Mom.
All other options will return you to the main menu. Please be advised that the previously mentioned destinations can be reached only through the Phantom Phone Booth object-oriented navigational system.>PRESS “6”
You press “6”.You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly. It passes the second floor landing and goes through the roof, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, “Estimated travel time for this 2000 mile trip is forty minutes, using accelerated travel speed.”
The phone booth flies east-northeast. After about forty minutes of accelerated flying the phone booth starts to slow down and circle down to the big city below.
Was that the Statue of Liberty you just saw?
Just before landing you think you see Central Park.
The phone booth sets itself down. The phone booth door pops open.
PHONE BOOTH, on a city sidewalk
You see a city sidewalk to the north.
>N
You drop the receiver.
CITY SIDEWALK
There’s a large apartment building to the west.
Across the busy street to the east is Central Park.
On the other side of the street you see a horse-drawn carriage.
The phone booth is to the south.
>E
You try to cross the street, but the traffic is so busy that you can’t seem to get across. Cars honk at you and send you back up onto the sidewalk.But the driver of the horse-drawn carriage notices you, and he brings the horse and carriage over to this side of the street. The screeching and the honking of the cars doesn’t seem to bother either the driver or the horse.
“Round-trip tour of the park for $10,” the driver tells you. “Or else you can get two one-way trips, one trip to get to the middle of the park, and then a later trip to get back here. Same price,” he says.
The driver looks like he’s waiting for you to give him some money.
>GIVE MONEY TO DRIVER
You give the twenty dollar bill to the driver, who tucks it away in his pocket. The driver gives you a ten dollar bill. You take the money from the driver.You get in the carriage and the driver flicks the reins to get the horse moving. Cars honk and screech as the cart merges into the northbound traffic and cuts over into the right lane. Then the carriage turns right to follow a path into Central Park.
The park is surprisingly large. It’s a pleasant place filled with interesting people.
After a while, the driver stops the carriage and you get off. “When you’re ready to go back, just whistle!” the driver tells you. Then he pulls away and disappears from your sight.
CENTRAL PARK (near the chess tables)
Two old men are playing chess in front of a group of onlookers. It’s a game of speed chess, and the onlookers have made some bets based on the outcome of the game.
But suddenly the game is interrupted. A bird swoops down and steals a white pawn off of the chess board!
The chess players try unsuccessfully to catch the bird and retrieve the pawn. You can’t actually see the bird anymore, but you suspect that it flew high up into a nearby tree.
A pathway leads northeast through the trees.
>GIVE PAWN TO MEN
First you would need to take the white pawn out of the small cloth sack.>GET PAWN
You’re carrying too much. Perhaps you could put something in your pocket.
I ‘ll be juggling things a lot this time, but for now I put the watch and the nickel into my pockets.
>GET PAWN
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the white pawn out of the small cloth sack.>GIVE PAWN TO MEN
The two old men are delighted to have a replacement for their white pawn. They sit down to play chess as the onlookers cheer.
But the game soon comes to a swift checkmate. Money changes hands as the onlookers settle up on their bets.
Someone slaps you on the back and shouts in your ear exuberantly. “Yo, pawn-man!”, he greets you as he pockets the twenty-dollar bill that he won betting on the chess game. As you look at the man’s torn clothing and stubbly face, you realize that the outcome of this bet is likely to have been very important to him. The man introduces himself as Jackson Beauregard the third, but his friends just call him Knight Rupert.
You ask Rupert if he’s seen Raina Kessler. “You mean the dance-lady?” he says. “Not today. But I seen her last week when all them dancer-dudes was here. Musta been a couple hundred or more showed up to try out. The guy on the stage had ‘em jumpin’ around like this,” Rupert says, demonstrating by leaping into the air and clicking his feet together twice before coming back down.
Rupert volunteers to take you over to the stage so that you can look for Mrs. Kessler.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
We’re now “on rails”, this next bit is pretty much a set cut scene.
After walking through the park to reach the stage, Rupert takes you around the back to where there aren’t any security guards. There are even more people here than you saw out front. A young woman with a clipboard approaches you and Rupert. She asks your names and then seems annoyed at not finding them on her list.
Then Rupert leaps into the air and clicks his heels twice, throwing his arms out in a snappy flourish at the end. A harried-looking man with a ponytail and an armful of white tuxedos hurries over and talks to the woman with the clipboard.
“Derek says that Ms. Raina wanted to add ten more men to the chorus so that they could put more stairs on the set for the first act finale,” he tells her. “The A.D. probably hasn’t had a chance to update the list yet.”
The ponytail man eyes Rupert’s physique from head to toe. “38 long?” he asks. “Shoes 10 double-wide?” Rupert nods enthusiastically. A blond girl with freckles takes Rupert aside and hands him a white tuxedo and white tap shoes. Then the man with the ponytail glances briefly in your direction, saying “What about you?”
Trying to impress him, you jump up into the air and try to do something with your hands resembling a flourish. The ponytail man makes a moue with his mouth and whispers something inaudible to the woman with the clipboard. “Maybe he’s a tenor,” she whispers in reply.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
At this point a man with a goatee enters, followed by an entourage of people asking him questions. “Derek, does Ms. Raina want to see the Fred Astaire impersonators tomorrow?” someone asks him.
“No, put them off until Tuesday. Ms. Raina has some kind of family emergency to deal with,” he answers. “This morning she went to pick up her daughter at the airport and now she doesn’t want to be disturbed. She even turned off her cell,” he adds significantly in sotto voice. Everyone is silent for a moment, trying to absorb the concept.
Then Rupert taps you on the shoulder. Rupert asks you in a whisper, “You be a tenor, pawn-man?” When you tell him no, he sneaks an extra pair of white tap shoes into your hands and suggests that you take a hike. This seems like good advice to you, so you slip away unseen.
Once outside, you find yourself getting lost again, and you end up back near the chess tables.
CENTRAL PARK (near the chess tables)
No one else is here. You’re all alone with the chess tables.
Suddenly a bird flies overhead and drops something small on your head. The bird flies out of sight as the object clatters to the ground.
A pathway leads northeast through the trees.
You see a white pawn here.
And we got our pawn back after all. Good, I do think we’ll be needing that. And the tap shoes may help us in the dance studio we couldn’t do anything in earlier.
>PUT RECEIPT IN POCKET
The store receipt is now in one of the trouser pockets.>GET PAWN
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the white pawn.>NE
You follow the path for a long time, until the chess tables are out of sight.STAGE ENTRANCE
You can see the stage to your east. It looks like a large bandshell with rows of empty chairs set up in front. The area is crowded with theater workers and security guards.
A pathway leads southwest.
>E
The security guard won’t let you get any closer to the stage.
That might be all we’re able to do here for now.
>SW
You follow the path for a long time, until the stage is out of sight.CENTRAL PARK (near the chess tables)
No one else is here. You’re all alone with the chess tables.
A pathway leads northeast through the trees.
>W
You wander through the park for a while.As you ride through Central Park you see a giant gorilla who looks like King Kong. He’s asking someone for directions to the Empire State Building.
Eventually you find youself back near the chess tables.
Oh, right, we were told how to get back when we’re done:
>WHISTLE
You whistle.The driver of the horse-drawn carriage hears your whistle, and he brings the horse and carriage over to you.
“Hop on,” he says.
You get in the carriage. The driver flicks the reins and takes you back to your phone booth. You thank the driver and get out.
The driver pulls away into the traffic and disappears from your sight.
CITY SIDEWALK
>S
You enter the phone booth.PHONE BOOTH, on a city sidewalk
>PRESS “9”
You pick up the receiver.You press “9”.
You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, “Estimated travel time for this 2000 mile trip is forty minutes, using accelerated travel speed.”
The phone booth flies west-southwest. After about forty minutes of flying it drops down through an opening Martin’s roof and comes to an abrupt halt in the pantry. The phone booth door opens.
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
You see the kitchen to the east.
>E
You drop the receiver.
KITCHEN
>DROP BOY
“The Boy Who Had No Words” is now on the floor.
We read this book to get into the dining room way back when. Again, things we’ve used before are less likely to be useful again. (Though that’s no guarantee.)
>W
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
>PRESS “7”
You pick up the receiver.You press “7”.
You see Agador-Spartacus in the kitchen. He’s wagging his tail.
The computerized voice goes on to tell you
Please specify the destination to which you would like to be moved…
Press “1” to go to the zoo.
Press “2” to go to the beach.
Press “3” to go to work.
Press “4” to go to the store.
Press “5” to go to the veterinarian’s office.
Press “6” to visit Mom.
All other options will return you to the main menu. Please be advised that the previously mentioned destinations can be reached only through the Phantom Phone Booth object-oriented navigational system.
Now off to the store we go!
>PRESS “4”
You press “4”.You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly. It passes the second floor landing and goes through the roof, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, “Estimated travel time for this six mile trip is three minutes, using standard travel speed.”
The phone booth flies northwest. After about three minutes of flying it sets itself down. The phone booth door pops open.
PHONE BOOTH, in the WalMart parking lot
You see the WalMart parking lot to the east.
>E
You drop the receiver.
WALMART PARKING LOT
You’re at the far end of the WalMart parking lot, quite some distance from the WalMart entrance. The lot is jammed with cars and people, and you don’t see any empty parking spots.
To the west is the phone booth, which has managed to squeeze itself in between a little Nash Rambler and a big black Cadillac.
Throngs of people are hurrying southward, headed for the WalMart entrance. Even more people are streaming out of WalMart doors, bumping into each other and pushing through the crowd as they carry their bags back to their cars.
To the north is a much smaller store, rather oddly-shaped. It’s tall and narrow, with sloping eves that curve upwards like a pagoda.
>X RAMBLER
The little Nash Rambler looks rather run-down, with two flat tires and some missing hubcaps. It occurs to you that the car is likely to have been abandoned here weeks ago. You hear some mewing coming from under the car.
We just saw that a song about a little Nash Rambler was on the watch’s music rotation. That is probably relevant. Somehow.
>LOOK UNDER IT
Under the little Nash Rambler you see a mother cat and several kittens that appear to be about six-weeks old. The kittens are nursing. The mother cat eyes you warily.>X CAT
Under the little Nash Rambler you see a mother cat and several kittens that appear to be about six-weeks old. The kittens are nursing. The mother cat eyes you warily.>PET CAT
The mother cat hisses, and you quickly withdraw. She doesn’t seem inclined to let anyone touch her or her kittens right now. Perhaps you should come back later.
We might not be ready for this part, then. We can look around at other things though.
>X CADILLAC
The black Cadillac is quite large.>OPEN IT
There’s nothing to be gained by doing anything to the cars.>X STORE
Which store do you mean, WalMart, or the smaller store?>SMALLER
The smaller store is tall and narrow, with sloping eves that curve upwards like a pagoda. A sign hanging in front reads “Takamine’s General Store, Souvenirs and Sundries”.
I vaguely recall that name, and we have seen it before: The phone booth is apparently powered by the “Kessler-Takamine drive”. So we should definitely check this out.
>X WALMART
You see WalMart in the distance to the south. Throngs of people are coming in and out of the entrance.>S
You start to walk south, but the throngs of people are too thick for you to get through.A woman carrying several bags and a small child bumps into you. You see something drop from one of her bags as she changes direction and disappears into the crowd. Looking down you see a plastic bottle of hair conditioner.
>X BOTTLE
It’s a plastic bottle of hair conditioner. The label says that the hair conditioner is coconut scented and when used at shower time it will fight static electricity. The bottle is currently closed.
This reminds me that we can still get a shower from the phone booth. We now have conditioner if we want to use it. Or we can get static electrify built pu in our hair. I don’t know why we’d want to do that, though.
>GET IT
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the bottle of hair conditioner.>N
You walk north and enter Takamine’s General Store.FIRST LEVEL
As you enter the store your feet crunch slightly on the loosely packed cobblestone floor. Inside the store you see a handful of tourists, eagerly picking out crystal amulets from the large selection of chains and crystals that hang from the ceiling here. Judging from the maps and brochures in their pockets you conclude that most of the tourists are on their way from Chaco Canyon to Sedona, Arizona or vice versa, perhaps in search of a mystical vortex experience. You realize that a store with a location like this could make a solid income selling New Age trinkets.
The tourists seem to largely be ignoring the statue of the warrior king in the center of room, and the stone table on the east wall with the large book upon it.
However, they seem fascinated by the two statues of foo dogs that stand on either side of the store entrance. The east foo dog has an open mouth and the west foo dog has a closed mouth. Since the proprietor of the store is nowhere to be seen, one of the tourists decides to try to pay for her crystals by placing a twenty dollar bill in the east foo dog’s mouth. As she walks out of the store, the east foo dog closes his mouth and the west foo dog opens her mouth, revealing the appropriate change. The tourist takes her change and the mouths of the dog statues return to their original setting. The east foo dog lets out a satisfied sound that resembles the lowing of a water buffalo, sounding something like a deep “mu”. The onlookers are delighted, and the absence of foo dog saliva seems to have enhanced the experience for everyone involved.
Eventually the tourists leave and you find yourself alone.
>X CRYSTALS
The souvenirs fail to attract your interest. You hope that there is something else you might like to buy in a different part of the store.>X STATUE
The statue looks like a ferocious Japanese warrior king, wearing a loincloth and a topknot. Judging by the frightening expression on his face and the raised sword in his hand, he clearly is used to being in charge of all that he sees. The king is seated on a throne of flat, heavy rocks, his position on the pedestal firm and immutable. Here’s a great king who will not be cast aside!In an odd way you find the presence of the statue somewhat reassuring despite his wrathful countenance. You feel certain that if any evil demons managed to get past the foo dogs, the warrior king would make short work of them. The souvenir crystals hanging from the ceiling seem a bit trivial compared to the powerful workmanship that you see in the statue.
>X TABLE
The table is made of black stone. A large book lies open on the table.>X BOOK
Which book do you mean, the dog book, the bedtime book, or the large book?>LARGE
The large book is open.>READ IT
This page of the book has some Japanese characters with English words beside them. The English words say:
“First Level: Crystals, Stones, Souvenirs”.>TURN PAGE
You turn the page.>READ LARGE BOOK
This page of the book has some Japanese characters with English words beside them. The English words say:
“Second Level: Garden and Pond Supplies”.>TURN PAGE
You turn the page.>READ LARGE BOOK
This page of the book has some Japanese characters with English words beside them. The English words say:
“Third Level: Candles and Incense”.>TURN PAGE
You turn the page.>READ LARGE BOOK
This page of the book has some Japanese characters with English words beside them. The English words say:
“Fourth Level: Kawasaki Maintenance”.>TURN PAGE
You turn the page.>READ BOOK
This page of the book has some Japanese characters with English words beside them. The English words say:
“Fifth Level: Organic Vegetables”.>TURN PAGE
You turn back to the beginning.
This is a nice preview of the areas we’ll be proceeding through the rest of the update.
>X DOGS
Which dogs do you mean, the east foo dog, or the west foo dog?>EAST
The east foo dog’s mouth is open. There is nothing in it.>X WEST DOG
The west foo dog’s mouth is closed.
Well, let’s try to emulate what we saw the customers do:
>PUT BILL IN EAST DOG
Which bill do you mean, the twenty dollar bill, or the ten dollar bill?>TWENTY
The twenty dollar bill is now in the east foo dog’s mouth.
No immediate effect, so I undo. Although we can get our money back for now.
>OPEN WEST DOG
You can’t see any way to open the west foo dog’s mouth.>PUT TEN DOLLAR BILL IN EAST DOG
The ten dollar bill is now in the east foo dog’s mouth.
I think we only lose money if we actually attempt to buy something here. I undo again, even though that’s not necessary.
>BUY CRYSTAL
Which crystal do you mean, the front of the watch, or the souvenirs?>SOUVENIRS
When you’re ready to buy something, just take it, put money in the foo dog’s mouth, and go outside.But you probably can find something better to buy than the souvenirs.
>LOOK IN SOUVENIRS
I’m not sure what you mean by that.>BUY STATUE
When you’re ready to buy something, just take it, put money in the foo dog’s mouth, and go outside.But you probably can find something better to buy than the warrior king.
>GET STATUE
You can’t move the warrior king. His position is firm and immutable.>GET LARGE BOOK
That’s an awfully big book to be trying to move around. And it’s open, too!>X CHAIN
Which chain do you mean, the watch chain, or the souvenirs?>SOUVENIRS
The souvenirs fail to attract your interest. You hope that there is something else you might like to buy in a different part of the store.
Stuck for now, I attempt something new, I’m curious of this area changes with the goggles. The only thing that changes immediately is that upon re-entering the store, a ew thing happens.
>N
As you walk north towards Takamine’s General Store, two men pass in front of you. One of the men is short and squat, with a pot belly and a large, sloppy mustache that reminds you of a walrus. The taller man has several tattoos on his heavily muscled arms and is wearing a toolbelt with a hammer tucked into it. Both men are carrying shopping bags that appear to be completely filled with egg cartons.The mustachioed man takes a look at his wristwatch and says something to the effect that it’s time for the two of them to have a discussion about a variety of different subjects, and then the tattooed man says something that sounds like his mouth is full of peanut butter. “Goo goo k’joob”? No, surely not, you must have heard wrong since you can’t imagine why anyone would say something like that.
This all seems eerily familiar to you, but when you try to approach the two men they just clam up and scurry away. Suddenly they are gone from your sight, and you have trouble remembering which way they went.
So you continue north and walk into the store.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
Okay, yeah I think that’s definitely a reference. Not quite a hint, though.
FIRST LEVEL
A large selection of crystals and chains hangs from the ceiling. In the center of the room is a statue of a warrior king with a rather menacing expression on his face. On the east wall is a stone table with a large book upon it.
To the south is the store entrance, leading out to the parking lot. Two foo dog statues stand on either side of the entrance.
Given the indication I should buy something, I try to see if maybe I missed something in the room. A weird thing happens.
>GET ALL
pebble: Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the pebble.
pebble: There’s no need to take any of the other pebbles. One is enough.
Wait, was I supposed to know about a loose pebble? I undo, because I want to check some things.
>X TABLE
The table is made of black stone. A large book lies open on the table.>LOOK UNDER TABLE
You see nothing under the stone table.>X FLOOR
The floor is cobblestone. Some of the pebbles are loose.
Oh, it did describe the floor the first time we walked in. I don’t think it was a hint, but okay, fair.
>GET PEBBLE
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the pebble.>X IT
It’s a small pebble.>PUT PEBBLE IN EAST DOG
The only thing you should put in the foo dog’s mouth is money.>BUY PEBBLE
When you’re ready to buy something, just take it, put money in the foo dog’s mouth, and go outside.But you probably can find something better to buy than the pebble.
>X TABLE
The table is made of black stone. A large book lies open on the table.>STAND ON TABLE
There’s nothing to be gained by trying to stand on the stone table.
I try a few more things, thinking I can definitely progress here, and finally get through with this:
>PUT PEBBLE ON TABLE
There’d be more room if you closed the large book first.>CLOSE BOOK
As you close the large book, you notice that there is a small indentation in the stone table.>PUT PEBBLE ON TABLE
If you want to put the pebble in the indentation just say so.>PUT PEBBLE ON INDENTATION
You put the pebble in the indentation. It fits perfectly!Suddenly a rice paper panel in the east wall slides open, revealing a stone staircase that leads upwards.
Level 1 complete!
(Rest in next post)
(Part XI, continued)
>E
You climb the stone staircase. It leads you upwards in a spiral to the Second Level.SECOND LEVEL
A black lacquer cabinet is on the north wall.
On the floor near the south wall is a large ornamental carving of a sea turtle. Next to the turtle is an antique washbasin.
Shelves cover the west wall. The shelves contain a variety of garden and pond supplies, including sand rakes, potting soil, and garden decorations. Most of the items on the shelves fail to hold your attention. However, your eye is drawn to a can of fish food, a used paperback novel, and some electric hedge trimmers.
An open panel to the east reveals a stone staircase leading downwards.
>X CABINET
The cabinet is closed. There is a painting on the cabinet doors, a painting of a Japanese warrior king. The king is standing with one foot on the back of a sea serpent and the other foot on the back of a large turtle. Both the sea serpent and the turtle are swimming unharmed in the middle of a boiling sea, while the ships of demons perish beneath them, consumed by the steaming ocean. You wonder briefly why the sea is boiling hot, but then you see that the breath of the sea serpent is heating the waves with lightning bolts.After further inspection you realize that there actually IS steam here, and it’s not just a part of the painting. The steam is coming from INSIDE the cabinet.
My knowledge of Japanese mythology and legends is insufficient to recognize how much of the decorations around here are actual myths. Probably most of them?
>OPEN IT
You open the cabinet, stepping aside to avoid the escaping steam.A bowl of rice porridge is waiting for you inside the cabinet. It looks hot and appealing. You are very impressed that the owner of the store would offer such thoughtful hospitality to his customers.
>GET BOWL
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the bowl of rice porridge containing a spoon out of the black lacquer cabinet.>X IT
The bowl is black in color.On the bowl you see a spoon and some rice porridge.
Well, we could have some, but I’ll hold off for now.
>X TURTLE
The sea turtle is beautifully formed and detailed, with a shiny, dark green finish. It’s rather large, taking up quite a bit of floor space. The top of the turtle shell as high as your knees.>X BASIN
The antique washbasin is filled with water. It’s a little wider than a bucket but much heavier. The basin is sitting on the floor.Judging from the slight cloudiness of the water, you suspect that some washing has already been done here. But the water is still fairly clean, certainly usable for washing one or two more objects before needing to be changed.
>WASH BOWL
Since the washbasin is on the floor, you crouch down to wash the bowl of rice porridge containing a spoon. From this perspective you can see a reflection in the water. The reflection appears to be caused by light shining down from a round opening in the ceiling, directly above the sea turtle.You finish washing the bowl of rice porridge containing a spoon.
>X SHELVES
The shelves contain a variety of garden and pond supplies, including sand rakes, potting soil, and garden decorations. Most of the items on the shelves fail to hold your attention. However, your eye is drawn to a can of fish food, a used paperback novel, and some electric hedge trimmers.>GET TRIMMERS
You’re carrying too much. Perhaps you could put something in your pocket.
I decide to head back to the kitchen, to drop a few mort things off.
>E
You climb down the stone staircase to the First Level.FIRST LEVEL
A large selection of crystals and chains hangs from the ceiling. In the center of the room is a statue of a warrior king with a rather menacing expression on his face. On the east wall is a stone table with a large book upon it.
To the south is the store entrance, leading out to the parking lot. Two foo dog statues stand on either side of the entrance.
An open panel to the east reveals a stone staircase leading upwards.
In the small indentation you see a pebble.
>S
The bowl of rice porridge containing a spoon is not for sale. You should leave it in the store.>DROP BOWL
The bowl of rice porridge containing a spoon is now on the floor.
Oh, so if that’s useful, it has to be around here.
The rest of our trip back home goes without incident, and when we get back to the kitchen we drop a few things:
>DROP PHONE BILL
The phone bill is now on the floor.>DROP SACK
The small cloth sack is now on the floor.
This sack contained the pawn and five other tiles. We already think the pawn might have to do with the shelves and fuzzy walls, so i’ll be sure to grab these again ahead of trying to resolve that.
Anyway, we return back to the store, pick up the bowl, and go back up to:
SECOND LEVEL
A black lacquer cabinet is on the north wall.
On the floor near the south wall is a large ornamental carving of a sea turtle. Next to the turtle is an antique washbasin.
Shelves cover the west wall. The shelves contain a variety of garden and pond supplies, including sand rakes, potting soil, and garden decorations. Most of the items on the shelves fail to hold your attention. However, your eye is drawn to a can of fish food, a used paperback novel, and some electric hedge trimmers.
An open panel to the east reveals a stone staircase leading downwards.
>X TRIMMERS
The electric hedge trimmers have a power cord attached. The trimmers are off and the power cord is not plugged in.They cost $30.
>X NOVEL
It’s a book by Douglas Adams, entitled “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish”. Apparently this is the fourth book in the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” trilogy. It occurs to you that publishing the fourth book of a trilogy must be the toungue-in-cheek behavior of someone with a fantastic imagination and an audacious taste for the bizarre.It costs $5.
>X FOOD
It’s a small can of fish food.It costs $5.
So, we do have to buy some of the stuff here if we want it. The trimmers are by far the most expensive thing on sale in the whole store, and I think (given the money we have left) if we buy them we can’t buy anything else. I’m just going to hold off on spending any more money until we think of a reason to buy anything here.
>X TURTLE
The sea turtle is beautifully formed and detailed, with a shiny, dark green finish. It’s rather large, taking up quite a bit of floor space. The top of the turtle shell as high as your knees.
Given the image we saw here, I have no trouble coming up with this idea:
>STAND ON TURTLE
The dark green finish is a bit slippery. It probably would be safer to sit.>SIT ON TURTLE
You sit on the sea turtle, straddling it as if you were riding a horse.Suddenly you hear some mechanical grinding noises coming from the floor and from inside the turtle. With a jerking motion the turtle rises upwards a little ways and then stops. You look down and see that your turtle is now resting on the back of a SECOND turtle underneath it!
Then comes another jerking motion that lifts you even higher. Now you find yourself sitting on the top of a stack of THREE sea turtles.
The process continues until you are lifted up through an opening in the ceiling to the Third Level. It’s turtles all the way down! You’re fairly certain that there aren’t any more turtles on the way, but you get off the turtle anyway, just in case.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
Level 2 complete!
THIRD LEVEL
Shelving covers the north wall. On the shelves you see a large array of incense supplies, much of which appears to have been imported from Japan. Since you don’t know much about incense, you find the variety of utensils, bowls, fragrant wood chips, and incense base to be rather confusing.
Losing interest in the incense you turn your attention to the small selection of candles at one end of the shelving. You notice a green candle, a ivory-colored candle, and a dark red candle.
In an alcove on the east wall is a statue of a warrior king, smaller than the one you saw on the First Level of the store.
A large box of white rice ash is sitting on the floor next to the west wall.
To the south you see a round hole in the floor with a carving of a sea turtle.
>X INCENSE
That isn’t important.>X CANDLE
Which candle do you mean, the green candle, the ivory-colored candle, or the dark red candle?>GREEN
The green candle is short and squat. It’s the sort of candle that’s able to stand on its own without a candle holder.The candle smells faintly like pine trees. You suspect that the scent would be stronger if it were lit.
It costs $5.
>X IVORY
The ivory-colored candle is short and squat. It’s the sort of candle that’s able to stand on its own without a candle holder.The candle smells faintly like vanilla. You suspect that the scent would be stronger if it were lit.
It costs $5.
>X RED CANDLE
The dark red candle is short and squat. It’s the sort of candle that’s able to stand on its own without a candle holder.The candle smells faintly like cinnamon. You suspect that the scent would be stronger if it were lit.
It costs $5.
I think these are the first light-providing objects we’ve seen all game?
>X STATUE
The statue is molded from copper. The warrior king stands on a background of flames, wearing a breastplate that bears the emblem of a soaring bird. In his hand the king holds a mighty bow that is carved to resemble a sharp beak.On his back the archer king wears a quiver. The quiver is quite realistic and could serve as an actual container. But at the current time the quiver is empty.
>X BOX
The box has been torn open, and you see an extremely large supply of white rice ash inside.You read the label on the box and discover that the ash is intended to be used as a base for preparing wood chip incense. The label tells you that this is “Discount White Rice Ash” from Phoenix, Arizona.
You try to remember the last time you were in the Phoenix area, but you don’t think you saw any place around there suitable for growing rice. Perhaps the rice was grown somewhere else and then brought to Phoenix to be burned? You can’t imagine why anyone would do that. But when you think about that odd bunch of former ASU students that you ran into in Tempe, you realize that not everything in Arizona has a rational explanation.
Whoa there, game. Throwing shade on the good people of Arizona?
(Actually, never been. But remember, we’re supposed to be in New Mexico here. Is there some kind of rivalry out there I’m not aware of? Would people from the Southwest find this the funniest joke in the whole game?)
>X HOLE
The round floor hole has a large carving of a sea turtle in it.>SIT ON TURTLE
You sit on the sea turtle.Suddenly you hear mechanical grinding noises. With a series of jerking motion the turtle drops downwards, lowering you back down to the Second Level. You get off the turtle.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
SECOND LEVEL
A black lacquer cabinet is on the north wall.
On the floor near the south wall is a large ornamental carving of a sea turtle. Next to the turtle is an antique washbasin.
Shelves cover the west wall. The shelves contain a variety of garden and pond supplies, including sand rakes, potting soil, and garden decorations. Most of the items on the shelves fail to hold your attention. However, your eye is drawn to a can of fish food, “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish”, and some electric hedge trimmers.
An open panel to the east reveals a stone staircase leading downwards.
I undo to get back, but it’s good to know we didn’t lose our way out of the store.
>LIGHT ASH
There’s nothing to be gained by trying to do that.>GET GREEN CANDLE
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the green candle off of the shelving.
We can leave it here, but I think we’ll definitely need at least one of these.
>LIGHT IT
You’ll have to be more specific about what you want to light it with.
Nothing we’re carrying suggests itself. and I don’t think anything we’ve dropped along the way would be a good candidate either.
Stuck for now, I look in the bowl:
>X SPOON
It’s just a spoon.>X RICE
Which rice do you mean, the rice porridge, the box of rice ash, or the rice paper panels?>PANELS
The wall panels are made of rice paper.>X PORRIDGE
It look like ordinary rice porridge.>X STATUE
The statue is molded from copper. The warrior king stands on a background of flames, wearing a breastplate that bears the emblem of a soaring bird. In his hand the king holds a mighty bow that is carved to resemble a sharp beak.On his back the archer king wears a quiver. The quiver is quite realistic and could serve as an actual container. But at the current time the quiver is empty.
>X QUIVER
The quiver is empty.>PUT CANDLE IN QUIVER
Which candle do you mean, the green candle, the ivory-colored candle, or the dark red candle?>GREEN
The green candle doesn’t seem like the right sort of thing to put in the quiver.
Okay, fair, but I think this is definitely key to the puzzle here.
>GET BOW
There’s nothing to be gained by doing that.>CLIMB STATUE
You can’t climb the warrior king.
I’m almost ready to give up, or at least ask if I can make pores here, when I do one more pass and finally have success:
>LOOK IN ASH
You start to look through the ash, but this makes you break into a fit of uncontrollable sneezing before you can complete a thorough search. After you finish sneezing you notice that something else besides ash is now visible inside the box. It’s a small arrow with a copper shaft!
Straightforward from here!
>GET ARROW
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the small arrow out of the box of rice ash.>PUT ARROW IN QUIVER
You put the arrow in the quiver. Then you hear the sound of a grinding motor coming from inside the statue. The statue begins to move!The warrior king takes the arrow from his quiver and shoots it. As the arrow leaves the bow, its tip bursts into flame. The arrow rises upwards and westward, and embeds itself in one of the triangular ceiling panels near the west wall. The flame burning on the tip of the arrow is soon extinguished, but its heat has already melted some of the red waxy substance on the ceiling panel. One drop of red wax falls from the panel and lands in the large box of Discount White Rice Ash.
Now you hear a hiss and some clicking sounds coming from inside the ashes. Suddenly a mechanical red bird flies up out of the box, trailing a long red tail behind it as it rises straight upwards. You hear a metallic clunk as a mechanism in the ceiling is lowered to catch the bird. The waxed ceiling panel pops open.
As you look more closely at the long red tail of the bird, you realize that it is actually a rope ladder leading upwards from the box of rice ash to the opening in the ceiling.
Level 3 complete!
>U
FOURTH LEVEL
The entire Fourth Level appears to have been converted into a motorcycle repair and maintenance shop. There’s a metal work table covered with motorcycle parts and tools, and a sign informing you that the mechanic is currently on a leave of absence.
Your eye is particularly drawn to a painting on the east wall.
To the west you see a triangular hole in the floor with a rope ladder.
On the metal ceiling above you see an etching of a warrior king. He rides in a wheeled chariot among the clouds, blowing the demons out of the sky by the power of the four winds that he blows from his mouth.
Nothing is for sale here.
>X KING
On the metal ceiling above you see an etching of a warrior king. He rides in a wheeled chariot among the clouds, blowing the demons out of the sky by the power of the four winds that he blows from his mouth.>X PAINTING
The painting is abstract and yet full of power. With a few strokes of black pigment that look suspiciously like motorcycle grease, the painting seems to have captured something fundamental about life, the universe, and everything.As you look at the painting, you can’t help asking yourself questions. Can a cat bark? Can a dog whistle? Do water buffalo really “mu”?
Without speaking, without silence, how can you express the truth?
Is that greasy handprint in the middle of the painting supposed to show one hand clapping?
Will the answer that’s blowing in the wind settle the question once and for all as to whether or not pigs have wings?
And what is supposed to happen to the frayed knot, the talking dog, and the ten-inch violinist after they walk into a bar?
I try removing my goggles here. Painting still looks the same.
>X TABLE
The metal work table is cluttered with motorcycle parts and tools.>SEARCH PARTS
That isn’t important.
I next try something just because it was mentioned as what the king on the ceiling was doing:
>BLOW
What do you want to blow on?>MOUTH
You blow on your mouth.Blowing on your mouth has no effect.
We can’t make any progress here, it seems. But with the parts being hinted as unimportant, there really is only one thing here that might tell us what to do:
>X PAINTING
The painting is abstract and yet full of power. With a few strokes of black pigment that look suspiciously like motorcycle grease, the painting seems to have captured something fundamental about life, the universe, and everything.As you look at the painting, you can’t help asking yourself questions. Can a cat bark? Can a dog whistle? Do water buffalo really “mu”?
Without speaking, without silence, how can you express the truth?
Is that greasy handprint in the middle of the painting supposed to show one hand clapping?
Will the answer that’s blowing in the wind settle the question once and for all as to whether or not pigs have wings?
And what is supposed to happen to the frayed knot, the talking dog, and the ten-inch violinist after they walk into a bar?
We already know we can do one of the things mentioned here, maybe that’s a hint?
>WHISTLE
You whistle. If you want to whistle something in particular, you should put the name of the song that you want to whistle in double quotes; for example, WHISTLE “BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI”.>CLAP
(your hands)
You clap your hands.A panel in the north wall opens, revealing an elevator.
Okay, yeah. Sure. I think the fact that everything else here is clued as being irrelevant makes it much easier to get there. Still tricky.
Anyway. Level 4 complete!
>N
ELEVATOR
The panel to the south is open, revealing the Fourth Level.
Painted on the wall you see five symbols. From top to bottom you see a tall brown rectangle, a silver circle, a red triangle, wavy blue lines, and a yellow square.
>X RECTANGLE
It’s a tall brown rectangle painted on the wall.
Presumably these are for levels 1-5? We’ve seen all but the top level, so we should just:
>PUSH RECTANGLE
You push the tall brown rectangle. The panel to the south closes, and the elevator rises. Then the panel to the south opens, revealing the Fifth Level.>S
FIFTH LEVEL
The room is filled entirely with extremely large barrels, most of which are marked to say which type of vegetable is inside the barrel. Your eye is particular drawn to the cabbage barrel, the broccoli barrel, and an unmarked barrel.
To the north you see an open panel revealing an elevator.
You don’t see any warrior king here. If there is a warrior king for the fifth level he’s either invisible, hiding, or on vacation.
Okay, right to the point on what should be of focus here.
>X CABBAGE BARREL
The cabbage barrel has a hinged lid, which is currently closed.The barrel is marked to indicate that there are cabbages inside. They cost five dollars each.
>OPEN IT
The cabbage barrel is now open. Inside the barrel you see cabbages.>X BROCCOLI BARREL
The broccoli barrel has a hinged lid, which is currently closed with a lock on it.The barrel is marked to indicate that there is broccoli inside. However, the price has been crossed out. You’re not sure whether this means that the broccoli is not for sale anymore, or whether it’s free, or whether you just are supposed to talk to Mr. Takamine if you want to buy some broccoli.
There is a small hole in the side of the barrel near the bottom, wide enough for a few of your fingers but not for your whole hand. You can see some broccoli but it’s too far away for your fingers to reach. You doubt that even long-nosed pliers would help you here.
Nevertheless, you remain convinced that there must be someway to get broccoli out through the hole. You just need assistance from someone suited to the task.
>OPEN IT
The broccoli barrel is locked.
Why do I have a feeling we’ll definitely be needing broccoli for…some reason?
>X UNMARKED
The unmarked barrel has a hinged lid, which is currently closed.The barrel is unmarked.
>OPEN IT
The unmarked barrel is now open. Inside the barrel you see nothing. The barrel is absolutely, completely empty in a profound sort of way.
Oddly enough, despite my taking time on the other puzzles here, this next move comes to me basically right away:
>ENTER IT
You get into the unmarked barrel.You feel an overwhelming sense of nothingness surrounding you, creeping into your consciousness. Gradually the boundary between yourself and the nothingness dissolves, and you realize that your existence inside the barrel has disappeared.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
JAPANESE GARDEN ENTRANCE
You are at the entrance of a beautiful Japanese garden. A curved pathway to the northeast leads deeper into the garden. Directly south is a gate leading back to the store.
Wait, there’s more?
Fortunately, as far as I know this is the last area here.
>NE
You cross a small bridge and follow curved pathways deeper into the garden. Wandering through the garden makes you feel serene and peaceful.STONE STEP
You are on a stone step. A small tea house stands directly to your north. A wooden step leads upwards and northwards into the tea house. The rice paper panel door to the teahouse is closed.
To the southwest is the curved pathway back through the garden.
>X HOUSE
Which house do you mean, the gold key, or the door?>DOOR
The rice paper panel door of the tea house is closed.>OPEN IT
You don’t see any way to open the door. There must be some sort of trick to it.>N
You try to climb the wooden step to enter the tea house, but the rice paper panel door won’t open for you.>N
You try to climb the wooden step to enter the tea house, but the rice paper panel door won’t open for you.>KNOCK ON DOOR
You knock on the door. Knocking on the door has no effect.>N
You try to climb the wooden step to enter the tea house, but the rice paper panel door won’t open for you.>SW
You wander back through the garden. Eventually you reach the garden entrance.JAPANESE GARDEN ENTRANCE
You are at the entrance of a beautiful Japanese garden. A curved pathway to the northeast leads deeper into the garden. Directly south is a gate leading back to the store.
>S
As you go through the gate, you hear the tinkling of unseen wind chimes. A rice paper panel opens and you walk through to find yourself on the First Level of the store. The panel closes behind you.FIRST LEVEL
I’m not ready to go back yet, so I undo.
>NE
You cross a small bridge and follow curved pathways deeper into the garden. Wandering through the garden makes you feel serene and peaceful.STONE STEP
You are on a stone step. A small tea house stands directly to your north. A wooden step leads upwards and northwards into the tea house. The rice paper panel door to the teahouse is closed.
To the southwest is the curved pathway back through the garden.
>X BRIDGE
The pathway leads southwest, back through the garden.>X GARDEN
The garden and everything in it are beautifully arranged.
I spend a bit more time looking, and get nowhere. This area has been reasonably self-contained so far, so I think there might be a trick I’m missing. But I have no clue what it could be. Fortunately, there’s a hint thread linked here.
I take one hint here and discover that this needs some knowledge of Japanese customs. Fortunately my Google skills are good enough and some quick searches turn up the idea that what we’re supposed to do here is:
>REMOVE SHOES
The rice paper panel door opens as you slip out of your shoes and leave them behind on the lower step. You enter the tea house. The rice paper panel door closes behind you.
Okay, good, that saved me time, let’s see what we found:
TEA HOUSE
There’s a low table in the center of the tea house.
Near the west wall you see a large tape recorder and a plastic box of audio cassettes.
The rice paper panel door is to the south.
>X TABLE
You don’t see anything on the low table.>X RECORDER
It’s a large audio casette tape recorder, currently empty. It would be a simple matter for you to play a cassette in the recorder if you wanted to do so.>X CASSETTES
Which cassettes do you mean, the red audio cassette, the green audio cassette, or the box of audio cassettes?>BOX
There are several dozen audio cassettes in the plastic box. All of the cassettes have blue labels. The blue labeled cassettes are marked “RESEARCH NOTES” and are numbered sequentially.>PLAY CASSETTES
You play several of the blue labeled cassettes until you feel confident that you have gotten as much information from them as you need. Apparently the tapes are recorded in Martin’s father’s voice and contain his notes for a scientific research project.The tapes tell you that Martin’s father had been sending message signals to nearby star systems in an attempt to contact intelligent alien life forms. Martin’s father and his research partner Jorucho Takamine had developed a device that extracts signals from human brain waves and transmits them with a powerful laser beam capable of cutting through the atmosphere and traveling dozens of light years through outer space.
The dates on the most recent tapes are more than 25 years old, so you decide to concentrate on listening to the tapes from that year. You learn that in July, Martin’s father and his partner sent a transmission targeting a star system that was 25.7 light years away. Since the message would be traveling through space at the speed of light, it would take 25.7 years for the signal to reach its destination.
The content of the message was meant to provide a sampling of sensory impressions extracted from Viktor Kessler’s brain as he views a textbook on mathematics, listens to recordings of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Beethoven’s fifth symphony, smells an assortment of flowers, and tastes several different food items. The fabric samples that were intended for tactile impressions were not going to be used that day because of some technical difficulties involving Viktor’s cat Paganini, who had urinated on the samples that morning.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
On the next tape Viktor talks about the astonishing development that occurred immediately after sending that transmission. A reply message was received!
Viktor and Jorucho were stunned by the ramifications of the reply message. It appeared to be alien in origin, from the same region in space that they had been tranmitting to. But the reply transmission arrived instantaneously! This should be completely impossible since their own message would not arrive at its destination until 25.7 years later. Even if the aliens were somehow capable of sending instantaneous messages across light years of space, how could they possibly respond to a message that they hadn’t even received yet?
The content of the alien reply appeared to be mostly mathematical, with the information transmitted directly into the brains of Viktor and Jorucho. Each seemed to have received only a part of the message. But between the two of them they had enough information to suspect that the aliens had supplied them with instructions for how to enhance their transmitter for the purpose of sending signals faster than the speed of light.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
Unfortunately, Viktor and Jorucho’s understanding of the mathematics was fragmented and incomplete. Despite frequent modifications to their equipment and much testing and re-testing during the months that followed, they were unable get any signal at all to emanate from their enhanced equipment.
However, they learned that the process of faster-than-light signaling involved a folding of space-time made possible by the magnetronic transformation of organic materials. They needed to use materials that produce unusually strong taste sensations, either sweet, sour, salty, or bitter.
The last tape, from October, discusses Viktor and Jorucho’s decision to try to use broccoli in a bitterness transformation. Both Viktor and Jorucho apparently possessed the genetic characteristic that causes broccoli to taste bitter to them.
The two partners had been having a disagreement over how much broccoli to use. Jorucho wanted to start the testing with a medium-sized piece of broccoli, and Viktor wanted to use a large piece of broccoli. However, the first broccoli transmission test had been temporarily put on hold because the cat Paganini had eaten almost all of the broccoli. Both partners agreed that the small broccoli sprig left by Paganini was clearly insufficient for testing purposes.
You return the tapes to the plastic box.
And there we go. So we have some more ideas of what Martin’s family was doing, though no ideas on where Martin himself is. And this confirms my suspicion that we need broccoli. I still can’t think how to get broccoli out of the barrel though.
While we’re here, we can finally play the cassettes we’ve been holding near the start.
>PLAY RED CASSETTE IN RECORDER
You put the red audio cassette into the large tape recorder. The cassette begins to play.You discover that the red audio cassette is completely blank on both sides. You take the red audio cassette out of the large tape recorder.
The green one is blank, too. Disappointing. Maybe we’re meant to record something on them?
>S
The rice paper panel door opens. You step down and slip into your shoes.STONE STEP
>SW
You wander back through the garden. Eventually you reach the garden entrance.JAPANESE GARDEN ENTRANCE
>S
As you go through the gate, you hear the tinkling of unseen wind chimes. A rice paper panel opens and you walk through to find yourself on the First Level of the store. The panel closes behind you.FIRST LEVEL
>DROP BOWL
The bowl of rice porridge containing a spoon is now on the floor.>DROP CANDLE
The green candle is now on the floor.
It was also for sale, so we can’t take it out normally.
>S
WALMART PARKING LOT
You’re at the far end of the WalMart parking lot, quite some distance from the WalMart entrance. The lot is jammed with cars and people, and you don’t see any empty parking spots.
To the west is the phone booth, which has managed to squeeze itself in between a little Nash Rambler and a big black Cadillac.
Throngs of people are hurrying southward, headed for the WalMart entrance. Even more people are streaming out of WalMart doors, bumping into each other and pushing through the crowd as they carry their bags back to their cars.
To the north is a much smaller store, rather oddly-shaped. It’s tall and narrow, with sloping eves that curve upwards like a pagoda.
Alright, that’s more than enough to take in. Next time, we’re finally going back to the house.
>I
You are carrying:
some khaki trousers (being worn)
trouser pockets
a gold key
an envelope
a yellow feather
a pocket watch
a nickel
a store receipt
a short brown sock (being worn)
a short black sock (being worn)
a flannel shirt (being worn)
an audio cassette with a red label
an audio cassette with a green label
“Go Dog Go”
“The Bedtime Story Book”
a red rubber ball
a security badge (being worn)
a mug
some black coffee
a lab coat
some goggles
a optical filter
a hippo magnet
some ballet slippers
some long-nosed pliers
a bath robe (being worn)
some brightly colored machine tools
a loose stone
a rubber duckie
a ten dollar bill
a pair of white tap shoes
a white pawn
a bottle of hair conditioner
a twenty dollar bill
a pair of brown shoes (being worn)>SCORE
Score: 120 out of 360 Turns: 2082 Menu: Whatever
Lots of points this time. I’m pretty sure we got points every time we solved one of the store puzzles.
We’re finally out of things to do in the phone booth. For now.
There are a number of things I want to do around the house:
Mess with the rubber duckie. We got a watch hint that we should focus on that so I think something definitely happens if I squeeze it in the right place.
Play with my new tap shoes in the dance studio.
Figure out what the deal is with the fuzzy squares. We have a pawn to go with the checkerboard shelf upstairs. It came in a bag with the five tiles so I’ll grab those in csae they’re relevant.
My favourite thing about this puzzle is that if you somehow arrive at the teahouse without your shoes, you have to go back and put shoes on so that you can remove them at the entrance.
I find this sentence understatedly hilarious.
Do you remember what the store receipt showed? Martin bought three cassettes, but presumably only needed one of them, so the other two were left, blank, in his jacket pocket.
Totally forgot about that, but that makes much more sense now.
Think this will make more sense once we figure out how to safely obtain the hanging tape recorder around the back of the house.
I continue to find this game baffling in an overwhelming way, so I’m very glad I can experience it secondhand instead of firsthand! I think the best word I have for it is “horror vacui”.
So we can add “The Walrus and the Carpenter” and I Am the Walrus to our list of potential clues…but I’m completely lost as to what they have to do with anything. Are they tied to Takamine’s store, or do they just appear at a random point while wearing the goggles?
Wait, it doesn’t taste bitter to everyone?
Most of the articles I can find about this are from the late 2010s, after Finding Martin was released, but here’s one from 2003: Bitter or sweet? Stanford research spits out gene linked to taste sensation
just had a quite productive game session from trying one of the things I wanted to do. Among other things which you’ll be seeing soon: I finally got the missing sock!
I think I can probably guess which of the things on your to-do list you must have tried, then; looking forward to seeing how it went!
I forgot to mention last time that the whole fourth floor of the store is (I think) a reference to the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (which I haven’t actually read, although I have a decades-overdue library copy of it on my shelf - don’t ask).
I don’t think it’s really a puzzle, so I’ll mention here because it will save you a bit of effort if you need to come back: now you know how to summon the elevator, you can do it on any floor of the store, so you don’t need to mess around with the book, the turtle, the ashes and so on every time.
Last time out we went to a store that belonged to a friend of Martin’s father, and got a bit more of an idea what exactly they were researching. We ended still there, on our way back to the house to try some things.
WALMART PARKING LOT
>W
PHONE BOOTH, in the WalMart parking lot
You’re in the phone booth.
The phone booth door is open to the east, leading to the WalMart parking lot. A telephone is attached to the opposite wall. Light is coming from the ceiling of the phone booth.
The rectangular drawer is open.
You hear the computerized voice tell you (somewhat faintly since the receiver is hanging down on its cord) …
Press “1” to be enlightened.
Press “3” to be cleansed.
Press “9” to be returned.
If you do not have access to a touch tone phone, please remain on the line and an operator will assist you.>PRESS “9”
You pick up the receiver.You press “9”.
You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, “Estimated travel time for this six mile trip is three minutes, using standard travel speed.”
The phone booth flies southeast. After about three minutes of flying it drops down through an opening Martin’s roof and comes to an abrupt halt in the pantry. The phone booth door opens.
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
You see the kitchen to the east.
>E
You drop the receiver.
KITCHEN
First off, let’s do another hour on the watch. The 5:00 hour is more music.
5:00:
Music begins to play. You hear “Beethoven’s fifth symphony”.
5:04:
Music begins to play. You hear “Musetta’s Waltz”.
5:08:
Music begins to play. You hear “Scheherazade”. The soulful violin tells many stories…
5:12:
Music begins to play. You hear Figaro singing “Largo al factotum” from the “Barber of Seville”. “Figaro, Figaro, Figaro!”
5:16:
Music begins to play. You hear Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini”.
5:20:
Music begins to play. You hear “Sabre Dance”.
5:24:
Music begins to play. You hear “Peter and the Wolf”.
5:28:
Music begins to play. You hear the “Moonlight Sonata”.
5:32:
Music begins to play. You hear “The Magic Flute”. Papageno and Papagena are singing a duet…
5:36:
Music begins to play. You hear "Thus Spake Zarathustra”.
5:40:
Music begins to play. You hear Debussy’s “Reverie”.
5:44:
Music begins to play. You hear “The Washington Post March”.
5:48:
Music begins to play. You hear Bach’s “Goldberg Variations”.
5:52:
Music begins to play. You hear the “Hallelujah Chorus” from “The Messiah”.
5:56:
Music begins to play. You hear Handel’s “Water Music”.
So the 5:00 hour is all classical, compared to the more recent stuff in the previous hour. Other than the fact we’ve already used “Water Music” no obvious hints leap out here.
>GET SACK
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the small cloth sack.
We dropped this here last time. This is (likely) something to do with the fuzzy walls. (Except, we don’t actually get to that this update. Next time?)
For now, I work on the rubber duckie, because a hint for the watch implied we could make progress. My aim is to squeeze it around the house.
>S
DINING ROOM (by the china cabinet)
>SQUEEZE DUCKIE
The rubber duckie squeaks.
No luck here. However, I continue to make my way out and soon hit pay dirt!
LIVING ROOM (front half)
>SQUEEZE DUCKIE
The rubber duckie squeaks.Slinky comes out from behind the bookcases.
Agador-Spartacus enters the front half of the living room from the back half of the living room.
Agador-Spartacus stands before you, wagging his tail affably.
Slinky appears fascinated by the rubber duckie.
>X SLINKY
Slinky is a fine-looking ferret. He smells like he needs a shower.Slinky goes back behind the bookcases.
That feels like a pretty explicit hint - there was an option to have the phone booth give us a shower. I skipped it back then, but it seems like it’s time to do it fully.
>W
HALLWAY
This short hallway leads south to the bedroom and west to the bathroom. The living room is to the east.
On the north wall you see a cuckoo clock.
The train is stopped at the platform by the sofa.
A cuckoo pops out of the clock and lets out a loud “cuckoo” sound. It then disappears from sight into the clock.
Agador-Spartacus enters the hallway from the front half of the living room.
Agador-Spartacus stands before you, wagging his tail affably.
I wondered if we could get a new watch hint given that our hint about the duckie is now resolved. We did!
>X CLOCK
The cuckoo clock hands show the time as 6:12.The cuckoo clock pendulum is swinging back and forth.
Okay, we’ll give that a try. (6:00 hour was next on the list, anyway.)
>E
LIVING ROOM (front half)
>E
You go through the strands of beads.DINING ROOM (by the west end of the table)
>N
DINING ROOM (by the north end of the table)
>N
DINING ROOM (by the china cabinet)
>N
KITCHEN
>W
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
You hear the computerized voice tell you (somewhat faintly since the receiver is hanging down on its cord) …
Press “1” to be enlightened.
Press “3” to be cleansed.
Press “4” to be uplifted.
Press “7” to be moved.
Press “9” to be transmogrified.
If you do not have access to a touch tone phone, please remain on the line and an operator will assist you.>PRESS “3”
You pick up the receiver.You press “3”.
Hot water sprays down at you from a sprinkler system inside the ceiling of the phone booth.
In quick succession the cleansing process moves through the recommended procedure of shampoo, rinse, repeat shampoo, rinse again.
Then there is a pause while some clicking sounds come from the ceiling. Since nothing happens, you assume that the phone booth has run out of hair conditioner.
A blast of hot air begins to blow down upon you from the ceiling. The hot air lasts for only a short while but it is blowing so hard that you soon find yourself dried completely.
You notice that your hair is standing on end and crackling with static electricity. No doubt this is because the phone booth ran out of hair conditioner.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
We have some conditioner now, but I wonder if maybe we do in fact need the static electricity.
Anyway, we make our way back to:
LIVING ROOM (front half)
>SQUEEZE DUCKIE
The rubber duckie squeaks.Slinky comes out from behind the bookcases.
Agador-Spartacus enters the front half of the living room from the dining room by the west end of the table.
Slinky appears fascinated by the rubber duckie.
>DROP DUCKIE
The rubber duckie lands with a squeak. The rubber duckie is now on the floor.Agador-Spartacus stands before you, wagging his tail affably.
Slinky pushes the rubber duckie into the back half of the living room. He tries to push it behind the bookcases, but the rubber duckie won’t fit.
Slinky goes back behind the bookcases.
>N
LIVING ROOM (back half)
>GET DUCKIE
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the rubber duckie.>SQUEEZE DUCKIE
The rubber duckie squeaks.Slinky comes out from behind the bookcases.
Slinky appears fascinated by the rubber duckie.
I then realize that maybe we were supposed to bring Slinky along, but when I try to take him:
>GET SLINKY
You’re carrying too much. Perhaps you could put something in your pocket.>DROP COAT
The lab coat is now on the floor.>SQUEEZE DUCKIE
The rubber duckie squeaks.Slinky comes out from behind the bookcases.
You see Agador-Spartacus in the front half of the living room. He’s wagging his tail.
Slinky appears fascinated by the rubber duckie.
>GET SLINKY
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take him anyway. You take Slinky.
Back to the booth we go. (There’s a lot of me running back and forth this update that I’ve cut out from the post. This is usually how I play these games.)
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
>PRESS “3”
You pick up the receiver.You press “3”.
Hot water sprays down at you from a sprinkler system inside the ceiling of the phone booth.
In quick succession the cleansing process moves through the recommended procedure of shampoo, rinse, repeat shampoo, rinse again. Slinky gets washed too.
Then there is a pause while some clicking sounds come from the ceiling. Since nothing happens, you assume that the phone booth has run out of hair conditioner.
A blast of hot air begins to blow down upon you from the ceiling. The hot air lasts for only a short while but it is blowing so hard that you soon find yourself dried completely.
You notice that your hair is standing on end and crackling with static electricity. No doubt this is because the phone booth ran out of hair conditioner.
Slinky’s fur is also crackling. You notice that the fabric of your clothing is clinging to Slinky’s fur. The ferret seems to be acting like a magnet for clothes!
Slinky doesn’t have a strong odor anymore.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
You hear the computerized voice tell you…
Press “1” to be enlightened.
Press “3” to be cleansed.
Press “4” to be uplifted.
Press “7” to be moved.
Press “9” to be transmogrified.
If you do not have access to a touch tone phone, please remain on the line and an operator will assist you.
Oh! I think I know exactly how this puzzle is going to end, then.
While I’m here, I decide to test something out. Earlier, we thought that maybe we could go to the vet with the dog, but the dog won’t go in here. Maybe the key object here is Martin’s other pet?
>PRESS “7”
You press “7”.The computerized voice goes on to tell you
Please specify the destination to which you would like to be moved…
Press “1” to go to the zoo.
Press “2” to go to the beach.
Press “3” to go to work.
Press “4” to go to the store.
Press “5” to go to the veterinarian’s office.
Press “6” to visit Mom.
All other options will return you to the main menu. Please be advised that the previously mentioned destinations can be reached only through the Phantom Phone Booth object-oriented navigational system.>PRESS “5”
You press “5”.You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly. It passes the second floor landing and goes through the roof, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, “Estimated travel time for this eight mile trip is four minutes, using standard travel speed.”
The phone booth flies east. After about four minutes of flying it sets itself down. The phone booth door pops open.
PHONE BOOTH, by the veterinarian’s office
You see the entrance to a veterinarian’s office to the east.
Good to know. I undo, because I should probably go get the thing we were explicitly told to bring to the vet’s office before visiting. And I confirm, we still don’t have the object needed for the beach.
>E
You drop the receiver.
KITCHEN
Let’s look at our new watch time hint.
>SWING WATCH
The watch swings back and forth hypnotically. It’s difficult to see the watch while it’s swinging, but for a moment you think that you see the misty image of a train conductor on the cover of the watch. The conductor seems confused and looks as if he needs you to tell him what time it is.>SAY “6:12”
(to the train conductor)
You say “6:12” to the train conductor. The conductor smiles and nods his head briefly before his image fades and disappears.Then the watch stops swinging and pops open.
Maxwell’s arms now show the time as 6:12.
>PUT WATCH IN POCKET
(first closing the watch)
The pocket watch is now in one of the trouser pockets.The video screen begins to show the Fred Astaire movie “Royal Wedding”. Fred is dancing with a coat rack. Soon he’ll be dancing on the walls and on the ceiling too.
I don’t see how this is immediately relevant, but I do look through past sessions. Yes, we have seen a coat rack in the game; it’s in the lab at work, and the lab coat (and goggles) were hanging on it. I honestly didn’t flag that as a portable object, but now we have two reasons to go back to the office!
>GET WATCH
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the pocket watch out of one of the trouser pockets.
Anyway, let’s go put that ferret to some good use. I move back to the living room.
LIVING ROOM (back half)
>DROP SLINKY
Slinky is now on the floor.
Slinky goes behind the bookcases.
Agador-Spartacus stands before you, wagging his tail affably.
>SQUEEZE DUCKIE
The rubber duckie squeaks.Slinky comes out from behind the bookcases.
Because of static electricity, something from behind the bookcases is stuck to Slinky’s fur. It’s a white sock! It falls to the floor in the back half of the living room. Since you happen to be close enough, you snatch it up before Slinky even notices.
Success! This is the problem I’ve probably wanted to resolve the most, and I’m excited we have it solved!
(Incidentally, this sequence with a ferret reminded me of the existence of the absurdly long mainframe-originated game called Ferret, which has to be one of the hardest text adventures I’ve ever seen. if you enjoy reading about long, puzzle-filled games, and haven’t read that yet, go do so.)
I try to catch Slinky again, but I have too much stuff. I want to change, so go back to the kitchen. Don’t want to lose anything more behind the bookcase!
>REMOVE SHOES
You take off the brown shoes.>REMOVE SOCK
Which sock do you mean, the short brown sock, or the short black sock?>BROWN
You take off the short brown sock.>REMOVE BLACK SOCK
You take off the short black sock.>DROP BROWN SOCK
The short brown sock is now on the floor.>DROP BLACK SOCK
The short black sock is now on the floor.>WEAR WHITE SOCK
You put on the short white sock.>DROP SACK
The small cloth sack is now on the floor.
Just until we’re fully changed…
>GET WHITE SOCK
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the short white sock.
This was one of the socks under the bed that I dropped here earlier.
>WEAR WHITE SOCK
You put on the short white sock.>WEAR SHOES
Which shoes do you mean, the white tap shoes, or the brown shoes?>BROWN
You put on the brown shoes.>GET SACK
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the small cloth sack.
Agador-Spartacus also showed up here while I was doing that.
Anyway. Back to work!
>W
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
>PRESS “7”
You pick up the receiver.You press “7”.
You see Agador-Spartacus in the kitchen. He’s wagging his tail.
The computerized voice goes on to tell you
Please specify the destination to which you would like to be moved…
Press “1” to go to the zoo.
Press “2” to go to the beach.
Press “3” to go to work.
Press “4” to go to the store.
Press “5” to go to the veterinarian’s office.
Press “6” to visit Mom.
All other options will return you to the main menu. Please be advised that the previously mentioned destinations can be reached only through the Phantom Phone Booth object-oriented navigational system.>PRESS “3”
You press “3”.You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly. It passes the second floor landing and goes through the roof, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, “Estimated travel time for this ten mile trip is five minutes, using standard travel speed.”
The phone booth flies south. After about five minutes of flying you see some sort of parking structure below. The phone booth enters the parking structure and travels to an underground level before landing.
The phone booth door pops open.
PHONE BOOTH, in the Employee Parking Area
You see the Employee Parking Area to the east.
>DROP CONDITIONER
The bottle of hair conditioner is now on the floor.
Thought being that I might need my hands free, and I’ll leave it there in case I do want to take another shower with conditioner.
>E
You drop the receiver.
EMPLOYEE PARKING AREA
>N
You start to walk northwards, but a small vehicle suddenly drives up to you and blocks your way.Then the cart scans you from head to toe with a bar of white light, pausing for a moment as it reaches the security badge that you’re wearing. An atonal mechanical voice coming from the cart greets you, saying “Welcome, Martin Kessler”.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
The voice of the robot cart continues, “Please board the security vehicle so that you may be escorted onto the building premises and delivered to your authorized work area.”You get on the cart and a seatbelt fastens itself automatically across you. The cart begins to move. It takes you through gates, doorways, tunnels, and passages. Then the cart drives down a particularly long hallway heading north. The robot cart stops at the end of the hallway. The seatbelt releases, and you get off the cart. Then the cart turns around and heads back down the hallway, disappearing from sight.
NORTH END OF THE LONG HALLWAY
To the north is a closed door marked 15-G. A long hallway leads south.
>OPEN DOOR
The door marked 15-G squeaks as you open it.>N
DEPARTMENT RECEPTION AREA
>N
COFFEE ROOM
>CLOSE DOOR
The door is now closed.You hear a door opening and the sounds of someone moving around in the reception area.
>Z
Time passes…You hear a squeaky door closing. Someone is still moving around in the reception area.
>Z
Time passes…You hear another door closing. Then all is quiet.
>OPEN DOOR
The door is now open.>S
DEPARTMENT RECEPTION AREA
>OPEN WEST DOOR
You open the west door and see the research lab.>W
RESEARCH LAB
Ben is working with an allen wrench.
Ken is working with a small flathead screwdriver.
Glen is working with a soldering iron.
Sven is working with a small Phillips screwdriver.
Jen is working with a wire stripper.No one appears to be using the Bunsen burner, which is currently turned off.
You can’t discern any purpose for the activities being performed by the research technicians. It occurs to you that they may simply be trying to appear busy so that they can continue to keep their jobs.
The door to the reception area is open.
Near the door there is a coat rack.
>GET RACK
You’re carrying too much. Perhaps you could put something in your pocket.
Let’s at least do the tool swap then? Since Sven has the Phillips screwdriver, we should:
>GIVE PLIERS TO JEN
Jen looks confused and refuses to accept the long-nosed pliers. Apparently she’s not used to taking tools from a person who is not wearing a lab coat.
Oh, no.
So, I make my way back out, and then to the living room where I left the coat. I drop a few items off in the kitchen in the process.
>GET COAT
You take the lab coat.>WEAR COAT
You’d need to take off the bath robe first.>REMOVE ROBE
You take off the bath robe.
The robe, when worn, opens the cabinet in the bathroom, which is where we found the rubber duckie in the first place. In case anyone has lost track.
>WEAR COAT
You put on the lab coat.
What follows next is a rather annoying moment where I first go back, only to still be overloaded. So I go back and forth to the booth several times, dropping more and more stuff until I can finally do both things I want to do here. Remember, I also have to do the thing to evade the boss every time I do this. At least we got some exercise!
Because of how repetitive that is, I’ve truncated all of that out. Thankfully, while there are things like the boss that are on a short timer, the game doesn’t seem to have an overall time limit.
Anyway, eventually, we are finally able to:
>GIVE PLIERS TO JEN
You give the long-nosed pliers to Jen.
Jen gives the wire stripper to Ben.
Ben gives the allen wrench to Ken.
Ken gives the small flathead screwdriver to Glen.
Glen gives the soldering iron to Sven.
Sven gives the small Phillips screwdriver to you.
(Yay, I did it right again.)
>GET RACK
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the coat rack.>E
DEPARTMENT RECEPTION AREA
>OPEN SOUTH DOOR
The south door squeaks as you open it.>S
NORTH END OF THE LONG HALLWAY
To the north, through an open door, is the reception area for department 15-G. A long hallway leads south.
>S
The security cart appears and prevents you from walking past it. The voice of the cart says, “Please board the security cart if you wish to be escorted to the Employee Parking Area.”>BOARD CART
You get on the security cart.A seatbelt fastens itself automatically across you, and the cart takes you back down the long hallway. The security cart takes you through the same passages, tunnels, doorways, and gates that you saw on the way in. It stops in the Employee Parking Area near the phone booth. The seat belt releases and you get off the cart. The cart then drives away and disappears from sight.
EMPLOYEE PARKING AREA
Incidentally, a few times while I was running back and forth, I tried going south again instead of boarding the cart. This causes the boss to come out (he heard the squeaking door even from this side) and take the badge away.
>W
PHONE BOOTH, in the Employee Parking Area
You see a bottle of hair conditioner, a small cloth sack, an audio cassette with a red label, an audio cassette with a green label, some brightly colored machine tools, some ballet slippers, a hippo magnet, and a bath robe here.
>DROP RACK
The coat rack is now on the floor.
Since it seems to be heavy, I’m fine just leaving it here. If (when?) coat-rack dancing needs to happen, I know where to go to grab it!
>GET ALL BUT RACK
bottle of hair conditioner: You take the bottle of hair conditioner.
small cloth sack: You take the small cloth sack.
red audio cassette: You take the red audio cassette.
green audio cassette: You take the green audio cassette.
brightly colored machine tools: You take the brightly colored machine tools.
ballet slippers: You take the ballet slippers.
hippo magnet: You take the hippo magnet.
bath robe: You take the bath robe.>PRESS “9”
You pick up the receiver.You press “9”.
You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, “Estimated travel time for this ten mile trip is five minutes, using standard travel speed.”
The phone booth flies north. After about five minutes of flying it drops down through an opening Martin’s roof and comes to an abrupt halt in the pantry. The phone booth door opens.
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
You see the kitchen to the east.
(More in next post)
(Part XII, continued)
>E
You drop the receiver.
KITCHEN
You see a short blue sock, a large phone book, a long black sock, “The Boy Who Had No Words”, a phone bill, a short brown sock, a short black sock, “Go Dog Go”, “The Bedtime Story Book”, a mug of black coffee, and a red rubber ball here.
Some of this stuff is probably useless - I don’t think we’ll need the extra socks - but other stuff I dropped may or may not be useful. I leave the socks but try to grab as much of the other stuff as I can.
>S
DINING ROOM (by the china cabinet)
>W
DINING ROOM (by the west end of the table)
>W
You go through the strands of beads.LIVING ROOM (front half)
Now that we have the right kind of screwdriver, time to take it along with Slinky to the vet!
>SQUEEZE DUCKIE
The rubber duckie squeaks.Slinky comes out from behind the bookcases.
Slinky appears fascinated by the rubber duckie.
>GET SLINKY
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take him anyway. You take Slinky.
We make our way back to the phone booth and then:
>PRESS “7”
You pick up the receiver.You press “7”.
The computerized voice goes on to tell you
Please specify the destination to which you would like to be moved…
Press “1” to go to the zoo.
Press “2” to go to the beach.
Press “3” to go to work.
Press “4” to go to the store.
Press “5” to go to the veterinarian’s office.
Press “6” to visit Mom.
All other options will return you to the main menu. Please be advised that the previously mentioned destinations can be reached only through the Phantom Phone Booth object-oriented navigational system.>PRESS “5”
You press “5”.You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly. It passes the second floor landing and goes through the roof, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, “Estimated travel time for this eight mile trip is four minutes, using standard travel speed.”
The phone booth flies east. After about four minutes of flying it sets itself down. The phone booth door pops open.
PHONE BOOTH, by the veterinarian’s office
You see the entrance to a veterinarian’s office to the east.
>E
You drop the receiver.
VETERINARIAN’S OFFICE ENTRANCE
To the west you see the phone booth.
Directly to the east is a door marked:
“Dr. Julie Takamine, D.V.M.
Veterinarian”.
Another Takamine? I don’t think we learned anything about her relationship to the guy from the store in the last session, but the commonality is still worth noting.
>E
You open the door and walk inside. The door closes behind you automatically.WAITING ROOM
The waiting room is filled with people sitting on chairs. Along the north wall is a receptionist’s desk, which is currently empty. Several people are sitting on chairs, waiting for their turn to see the vet.
There’s a middle-aged lady wearing a house dress and holding a ridiculously furry Persian cat. A big man with an eye patch has a parrot on his shoulder. A teen-aged boy listens to music on his headphones while holding a white mouse. And there’s a soulful-eyed young woman wearing a halter top and patched jeans who has brought in her pet rock.
Mrs. McGillicuddy is here too, sitting next to the big man with the eye patch. She has a fishbowl on her lap.
The inner door leading to the vet’s office is to the east. The outer door is to the west.
Mrs. McGillicuddy smiles and nods at you as you walk in. But she doesn’t say anything to you because she seems to already be involved in a conversation with the young woman who’s wearing the halter top.
Well, let’s start with what we came here to do.
A quick note: like the scene in the city, this next bit is mostly “on rails”. There’s lots of listening and waiting, and things that happen automatically.
>GIVE SCREWDRIVER TO MCGILLICUDDY
“A Phillips screwdriver!” Mrs. McGillicuddy exclaims, clapping her hands. She searches in her handbag for the battery and the hearing aid. “Would you put the battery in for me please?” she asks, handing them to you.
Using the Phillips screwdriver, you put the battery in the hearing aid. You give the hearing aid back to Mrs. McGillicuddy and she puts it into her ear.
“Thank you so much,” she says sweetly.
The soulful-eyed young woman in the halter top and patched jeans looks at Mrs. McGillicuddy’s fish. “I’m getting bad vibes from your fish,” the young woman tells Mrs. McGillicuddy.
“Are you psychic?” Mrs. McGillicuddy asks. “Can you tell me what’s wrong with my fish?”
The young woman closes her eyes and puts her hands on the fishbowl. “She’s lonely and she needs to find a boyfriend,” the young woman says. “This fish will go on a long journey with a stranger, a long day’s journey into night. There she will find her soul mate, and together they will travel to other places and have many exciting adventures.”
“They’ll travel with the stranger?” asks Mrs. McGillicuddy, and the young woman nods, opening her eyes. “Oh my!” says Mrs. McGillicuddy. “Well that’s a good thing then. My passport expired quite some time ago. And how is your pet rock? A bit under the weather perhaps? He does seem a bit lethargic. Perhaps it’s a mineral deficiency.”
“Oh no, there’s nothing wrong with him,” the young woman replies. “He’s just here for a checkup.”
>GET BOWL
You don’t feel comfortable doing anything to the fish or the fish bowl when it’s on Mrs. McGillicuddy’s lap.
Okay, it *is* a waiting room. Clearly were supposed to just sit back and watch.
A nervous-looking man with a yippy dog on a leash enters through the outer door and takes a seat in the waiting room.
A short while later, the inner door to the vet’s office opens and a skinny old man wearing a turban comes out with a cobra in a basket. He leaves through the outer door, and the middle-aged lady with the Persian cat stands up. But before she can get to the inner door, the man with the yippy dog slips into the vet’s office and the door closes behind him.
“Well that’s not fair,” says the lady with the cat. “I was here first! This sort of thing never used to happen when Dr. Julie had a receptionist working here. I suppose the doctor just never got around to hiring a new one. The last receptionist moved away when her husband got transfered to Toledo.”
“So Dr. Julie needs a new receptionist,” Mrs. McGillicuddy muses. “How very interesting.”
>Z
Time passes…The parrot seems to have taken an interest in the young woman in the halter top and patched jeans. “Wha’s happenin’ babe?” the parrot says. “What’s a hot tamale like you doing in a dive like this?”
Mrs. McGillicuddy hits the big man on the head with her umbrella. “I heard that!” she declares in an outraged voice. “How dare you say such a thing to me!”
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
Things are about to get rather messy. I hope you have prepared yourself.
”Ar-argh-gh! Ar-argh-gh! Double Ar-argh-gh!" says the big man with the eye patch, jumping to his feet to get away from Mrs. McGillicuddy, who hits him repeatedly with her umbrella while trying to keep her fishbowl from sloshing on the floor. The parrot flies away from the umbrella and lands on the head of the teen-aged boy with the headphones. This causes the boy to drop his mouse.
The mouse runs across the floor at the boy chases after it. This attracts the attention of the Persian cat, who jumps off the lap of the middle-aged lady. The cat starts chasing the mouse while the lady starts chasing the cat.
The teen-aged boy manages to get the parrot off of his head, but the parrot is still hanging onto the boy’s headphones with his claws. The parrot (flying with the headphones) chases the young woman in the halter top, the big man with the eye patch chases the parrot, and Mrs. McGillicuddy chases the big man with the eye patch while she hits him with her umbrella and tries not to slosh her fishbowl.
They all run around in circles for a while until the headphones fall into the fishbowl. Then the mouse and the young woman with the halter top run out of the waiting room, exiting through the outer door. Everyone else runs outside too, except for you and Slinky. Slinky appears to have fallen asleep.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
Everything is quiet for a while. Then Mrs. McGillicuddy comes back inside carrying the headphones, which are still sopping wet from having been in the fishbowl. The headphones have a small audio cassette player built into one of the ear pieces. Mrs. McGillicuddy takes an audio cassette out of the headphones and looks at it briefly. “Ice-T,” she reads from the cassette label. “Sounds refreshing,” she says as she puts the cassette in her handbag.Then Mrs. McGillicuddy hands the headphones to you. You notice that the tiny fish with a mustache is now swimming around INSIDE the water-logged headphones!
“Everybody’s gone home now,” Mrs. McGillicuddy tells you, “But that young woman with the pet rock told me that you should take this fish on a long journey across the ocean. She’s a psychic, you know. The woman, I mean, not the fish. And she’s not really sick, she’s just depressed because she needs to find a boyfriend. The fish, I mean, not the woman.”
The inner door to the vet’s office opens, and a man leaves with a dachsund on a leash. A dachsund? You don’t remember seeing a man with a dachsund. But while you’re trying to figure it out, Mrs. McGillicuddy slips into the vet’s office and the door closes behind her.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
A few minutes later Mrs. McGillicuddy comes out of the vet’s office with a satisfied smile on her face. She takes her seat at the receptionist’s desk and tells you sweetly, “Dr. Julie will see you now.”
Whew. That’s probably the most convoluted moment in the game so far. I feel like that bit with the fish and headphones is going to be important.
Anyway, let’s go on in:
>E
You open the inner door and walk into the vet’s office. The door closes behind you automatically.VET’S OFFICE
Dr. Julie Takamine’s smile fades as she turns to you and sees Slinky. “What are you doing with Martin’s ferret? Slinky was here for a check-up just last month,” she demands. But then she gets even more annoyed when she sees the tiny fish. “And what sort of a twisted person puts fish inside of a pair of headphones?”
You start to explain about the headphones, but the whole story is rather confusing. So you start off by saying that there’s a psychic who told Mrs. McGillicuddy that you should take the fish on a journey across the ocean to get her a boyfriend.
“The psychic wants you to bring her a boyfriend?” Dr. Julie asks.
“No, no,” you explain, “The boyfriend is for the fish.” Dr. Julie gets increasingly impatient with your explanation. By the time you get to the part about the parrot and Mrs. McGillicuddy’s hearing aid, the vet waves you into silence. Apparently she has heard enough to decide that you’re a decent sort of person after all, albeit one who seems to get himself into some unusual predicaments.
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
“This fish is obviously a koi,” says Dr. Julie, “But I’ve never seen one so small! It must be some sort of evolutionary miniaturization caused by geographic isolation. Perhaps an island somewhere…”
The vet starts clicking away on her laptop computer, doing Internet research to find out more about the fish. “Aha!” she declares. “This type of fish originates on a small island in the south Pacific, not far from Bora Bora. Apparently they’re considered an endangered species because they have special nutritional requirements needed for reproduction. There’s a certain kind of flower that they need to eat in order to become fertile. Wait a minute, I’m loading the picture of the flower right now.”
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
Dr. Julie taps her foot impatiently as she waits for the picture to load. “Now that looks familiar,” she says to herself. “I seem to remember seeing something like this a very long time ago…”
Suddenly her face turns very pale. She glances at you and then looks back at the picture on the screen. She looks as if she’s seen a ghost.
You take a peak at Dr. Julie’s computer screen to try to see what has unnerved her so much. But all you can see is a small picture of an exotic-looking purple flower. Nothing scary there, you think.
But Julie Takamine seems very confused, and she keeps muttering something about needing time to think. Time to figure out what it all means. Time, she says to herself.
Since Dr. Julie seems to be lost in thought, you take advantage of the opportunity to slip out and go back into the waiting room.
WAITING ROOM
The waiting room is filled with chairs. Along the north wall you see Mrs. McGillicuddy sitting at the receptionist’s desk.
The inner door leading to the vet’s office is to the east. The outer door is to the west.
Okay, that’s a very odd reaction. And yes, that business with the fish is very, very important, clearly.
How do we get to the South Pacific, though? Unless the booth’s beach destination is somewhere in that area? It’s the only one we haven’t been able to get to so far.
>E
You start to go into the vet’s office, but then you stop and reconsider. There really isn’t anything else for you to do in there.
Okay, I’ll take the hint - I think we’re done here.
Note that we also didn’t lose the screwdriver - so we can trade it back for the pliers if we think we have a reason to.
>W
You start to go outside, but Mrs. McGillicuddy calls out to you.“Oh, young man! I almost forgot to give this to you,” Mrs. McGillicuddy says, handing you a brass token.
“What’s this?” you ask.
“I don’t rightly know, but the psychic found it just outside. She told me to give it to you because she thought you might be able to use it. She said that thinks it has something to do with dancing.”
After you thank Mrs. McGillicuddy, you go outside.
VETERINARIAN’S OFFICE ENTRANCE
>X TOKEN
It’s a brass token about the size of a poker chip. The token has a picture of a horse-drawn carriage.
So, we could’ve used this instead of paying cash in New York to get the tap shoes? I do hope we didn’t screw that up…
I’ll take an explicit yes/no answer: did I sequence-break and make the game unwinnable by not using this token earlier?
>W
PHONE BOOTH, by the veterinarian’s office
>PRESS “9”
You pick up the receiver.You press “9”.
You hear the sound of a motor grinding, the door slams closed, and the phone booth suddenly rises upwards very quickly, flying high into the air.
The telephone voice tells you, “Estimated travel time for this eight mile trip is four minutes, using standard travel speed.”
The phone booth flies west. After about four minutes of flying it drops down through an opening Martin’s roof and comes to an abrupt halt in the pantry. The phone booth door opens.
PHONE BOOTH, in the pantry
You see Agador-Spartacus in the kitchen. He’s wagging his tail.
>X HEADPHONES
The headphones have a small audio cassette player built into one of the ear pieces. Inside the cassette player you see some water and a tiny fish.The cassette player is stamped with the words “durable and waterproof”.
Since the water doesn’t completely fill the headphones, it occurs to you that there is still room inside to play an audio cassette. Hopefully the fish won’t mind having a little company.
>E
You drop the receiver.
KITCHEN
Okay, now that we’re back, let’s finally use our pair of matching socks to open up the dryer. Of course, first we need to open the other door, but we know how to do that:
>GET STOPPER
You’re carrying too much. Perhaps you could put something in your pocket.
To free up space, I go back to the living room and:
>DROP SLINKY
Slinky is now on the floor.
Slinky goes behind the bookcases.
>DROP DUCKIE
The rubber duckie lands with a squeak. The rubber duckie is now on the floor.Slinky comes out from behind the bookcases.
Slinky pushes the rubber duckie into the back half of the living room. He tries to push it behind the bookcases, but the rubber duckie won’t fit.
Well, that’s fine by me - Slinky can be summoned again if we need to.
Back to the kitchen we go, and let’s see if I can remember how to do this:
>GET STOPPER
Your arms are getting full, but a little rearranging lets you take it anyway. You take the sink stopper out of the right drain.You notice some activity in the kitchen sink.
Water from the faucet is pouring into the right basin. The right drain is keeping pace with the new water pouring in from the faucet, so the water level in the right basin is holding steady even as some of the water swirls clockwise down the right drain. The right basin remains completely full.
>PUSH FAUCET LEFT
The faucet is now pushed left.You notice some activity in the kitchen sink.
Water from the faucet is pouring into the left basin. The water is going straight down the left drain without leaving any standing water in the left basin.
The water level in the right basin is two-thirds full and dropping. You find the clockwise swirling of water down the drain to be almost hypnotic.
>PUT STOPPER IN LEFT DRAIN
The sink stopper is now in the left drain.You notice some activity in the kitchen sink.
Water from the faucet is pouring into the left basin. A sink stopper is in the left drain. The level of the standing water in the left basin is almost one-third full and rising.
The water level in the right basin is one-third full and dropping. You find the clockwise swirling of water down the drain to be almost hypnotic.
>Z
Time passes…You notice some activity in the kitchen sink.
Water from the faucet is pouring into the left basin. A sink stopper is in the left drain. The level of the standing water in the left basin is almost two-thirds full and rising.
The water in the right basin is draining away. The right basin is almost empty. You find the clockwise swirling of water down the drain to be almost hypnotic.
The right drain gurgles as the last of the standing water there swirls down the drain. At the instant that you hear the gurgling of the drain the laundry room door slides open, disappearing into the wall. At the same moment the pantry door slides shut and the stone door slams. You hear a click as the stone door automatically locks itself.
>W
The watch beeps as you enter the laundry room…
------------- Press space bar to continue -----------------
[more]
LAUNDRY ROOM
A washing machine is on the north wall and a dryer is on the west wall.
On the south wall is a glass shelf that appears to have something etched into the glass. The kitchen is to the east.
You see Agador-Spartacus in the kitchen. He’s sitting down.
>OPEN DRYER
The dryer is now open. In the dryer you see a large towel.
Alright, finally. And I think we’ll stop here, and look at the towel first thing next time. Then we can finally see about resolving the mystery of the fuzzy walls.
>I
You are carrying:
some khaki trousers (being worn)
trouser pockets
a gold key
an envelope
a yellow feather
a nickel
a store receipt
a flannel shirt (being worn)
a security badge (being worn)
some goggles
a optical filter
a loose stone
a ten dollar bill
a pair of white tap shoes
a white pawn
a twenty dollar bill
a pair of brown shoes (being worn)
a pocket watch
two short white socks (being worn)
a lab coat (being worn)
a small Phillips screwdriver
a bottle of hair conditioner
a small cloth sack
an eye tile
an ear tile
a nose tile
a mouth tile
a hand tile
an audio cassette with a red label
an audio cassette with a green label
some brightly colored machine tools
some ballet slippers
a hippo magnet
a large phone book
a mug
some black coffee
a red rubber ball
some headphones
a brass token>SCORE
Score: 135 out of 360 Turns: 2460 Menu: Whatever
15 more points from last time. As a reminder, the main things we did are: get slinky, get the sock, visit the vet, and open the dryer since we had matching socks.