I’ve got a little way into it and quite enjoying it so far, despite the typos. It seems that ASK or SAY causes it to crash, which is a pity. I’ll try to remember to avoid those.
1 Like
I’ve managed to reach the point where you’re stuck. I saved the game before throwing the iron ball at the glass, which turned out to be the right thing to do, as I got drowned. Unfortunately, I didn’t realise that the door had closed behind me, so I can’t get out of the tank room and will have to start again. I’ve been keeping notes, so it shouldn’t take too long.
I have a few ideas, but I need to get past the hot room (perhaps by dousing myself with water) and find the code for the metal door.
It’s 2:00 a.m. here, so I’ll try again tomorrow.
1 Like
I have made some further progress:
- DRINK WATER from the fountain. This cools you down and allows you to go south from the hot room.
- GIVE GOLD RING TO OLD MAN. He gives you two items.
- X SCROLL to get the randomly generated 4-digit access code for the metal door in the triangular room.
- TYPE access code in triangular room and the game crashes, so it’s impossible to finish.
I was using Windows Frotz. I wonder if there’s an older interpreter that will allow you to play the game without it crashing all the time.
I ran the infodump and txd z-code decompiler tools on the z5 file and can see that you should be able to ask the NPCs (especially the wizard) about lots of different things. I can also see what I think you need to do once you get past the metal door in the triangular room. It’s a pity that it’s so buggy in modern interpreters, as it’s not a bad game.
1 Like
Does it work in Rezrov? That one’s designed specifically to handle Infocom games (and very little else), so it might be more lax in places where the Standard requires strictness.
1 Like
I’ve tried it in Gargoyle and MS-DOS Frotz. Both crashed when asking the wizard about something. (That’s the easiest test, as you can do it on the first move.)
Where do I find Rezrov?
EDIT: Don’t worry, I found it.
1 Like
Rezrov was too much mucking about. I do have Perl installed, but I got too many strange error messages that I didn’t understand, while trying to make Rezrov, then I noticed in the readme file that the make instructions may not work on Windows.
So…
I created an Atari ST disk image and ran it on an Atari ST emulator using the JZIP.TTP interpreter. I asked the wizard about the diamond and he responded without the program crashing, so it looks like I might be in business. I’ll report back later.
3 Likes
Finished. Yell out if you can find an interpreter that works without crashing and still need a hint. It gets very tough and you will probably get killed a lot, but it’s actually quite clever.
4 Likes
Awesome! Would a CASA solution be feasible?
1 Like
Not a modern interpreter but JZIP 2.1 for DOS doesn’t crash with ask wizard... commands either. Tested in DOSBox.
1 Like
Of course. However, CASA has a database issue at the moment and none of the admins are doing any updates for fear of losing data. It’s been like this for about 6 months and it doesn’t sound like the situation is about to change. I’m planning to look for an alternative outlet for all my maps and solutions.
I’ve done a solution for Transporter. I just need to check it, as there are a few random events that I need to confirm. I’ll do a map, too. In the short term, I can send it to you in a PM.
3 Likes
I couldn’t find an executable for JZIP 2.1, but can confirm that it also works with JZIP 2.0.1g (downloaded from the IF Archive) with DOSBox.
It crashed with Parchment and locked up with Filfre. Interestingly, all the interpreters that failed gave different error messages. The failure may not be the fault of the interpreter, as it was compiled with an old compiler and old library on the Acorn Archimedes, but you’d think they’d agree on the error.
I got JZIP 2.1 from Jzip Development page on sourceforge. It is dated DOS Distribution
[17-Mar-2000]
Edit: Frotz 2.40 and 2.32 for DOS also work if commandline option -i (ignore runtime errors) is used.
Edit 2: Frotz 2.43 works with -i option as well, but it keeps printing the error message as a side note every time you ask wizard about the machine or the diamond. (2.50 and above all crash even with -i.
1 Like
You can actually ask the wizard about a lot of things. He’s a bit like an in-game hint machine, but he’s a bit out of the way, so you don’t want to be travelling back to ask him about every little thing.
2 Likes
Here’s a map and solution for anyone that needs it. Let me know if you find any issues and I’ll fix them before posting to CASA or elsewhere.
Transporter (Andrew Laker).zip (15.3 KB)
3 Likes
Level-9’s remake of Adventure, Colossal Adventure, puts some… interesting content in the magazine. Credit to Jimmy Maher for the picture.
3 Likes
I just came across and started playing Escape from the SS Borgarís, a game by Kevan Davis, a regular contributor to 24 Hours of Inform. There’s no recorded walkthrough or completion, and it’s pretty interesting – there seems to be some elements of random generation with 200 cabins you can explore and a bunch of different clothing items and suitcases to find. Here’s how far I got:
Borgaris 1 upper deck corridor.sav (8.9 KB)
4 Likes
I’ve beaten the game from your savegame, and then gone back to figure out how to get there. I think the randomness precludes a verbatim solution, but I could take a stab at writing something up.
Beating the game seems to require only the following steps-
Turning on the torch, opening the panel, exiting.
Finding warm clothing - at least the boots, scarf, mittens, and trousers, I believe.
Finding the key in the toolbox on the deck and entering the lab.
Deflating the balloon to move it, then inflating it on the deck using the red gas cylinder.
Turning the valve and getting the flare gun.
Showing the haddock to the cat, putting it in the dumbwaiter, pressing the button, and waiting for the feathers to fly.
Getting the lighter in the bar.
Removing the flare from the gun, putting it in the balloon basket, lighting it with the lighter, and dropping the balloon to release it.
Presumably finding the baby.
Other open questions -
Not quite grasping whether there’s any rhyme or reason to the randomization. The first 3-4 suitcases I search are usually loaded with clothing, with the remainder having none. The gas cylinder and baby seem to spawn entirely randomly.
3 Likes
Borgaris2.txt (31.3 KB)
Here is a transcript of a fairly inefficient, brute-force solution, with eight hundred moves of shuffling suitcases deleted.
EDIT:
Aaand here’s a step-by-step solution and a mock-Invisiclues hint list. I felt like it.
EDIT EDIT:
Fixed to correct a major missed puzzle.
borgarissol.txt (1.3 KB)
Borgaris invisiclues.txt (7.5 KB)
3 Likes
I’ve submitted game info for all the eight ‘24 Hours of Inform’ games to CASA. It might take a few days for the admins to add them to the database.
@rkowalski, would you mind adding the hints and solutions for ‘Escape from the SS Borgarís’?
For anyone that’s solved the other seven unsolved games from the ‘24 Hours of Inform’, would you mind adding hints, walkthroughs and/or solutions for those? I think David Welbourn has solved a couple. You’ll find those on his web site.
I’ve also submitted the map and solution for ‘Transporter’ by Andrew Laker that was discussed earlier in this thread.
2 Likes
The Man from DEFRA, Aesthetic Deletions, Within a Wreath of Dewdrops, and Ghost Ship have existing walkthroughs. Dastardly has some reviews but no walkthroughs, so it’d probably be the easiest one to start with.
I remember playing the last two games a year ago, but I wasn’t able to beat them. The Stone Cage I think is possible and I got pretty far, but Semi Intelligent Design I kept running into bugs and I was pretty sure I exhausted everything I could have done.
1 Like