Start of a transcript of JIGSAW An Interactive History Copyright (c) 1995 by Graham Nelson Release 3 / Serial number 951129 / Inform v1600 Library 6/1 Standard interpreter 1.1 Interpreter 1 Version C / Library serial number 951024 >set clock to 59 The clock starts, silently and slowly, and the jigsaw board pulses with a flickering amber light, warm and erratic as though from an oil lamp. >press a3 The piece at a3 presses in smoothly, like a button, then releases. You are sucked up once again into the time vortex. As you slow down, you briefly make out Stravinsky's ballet "The Rite of Spring" being broken up by riots in Paris and then everything begins to change... [Press SPACE to continue.] Chapter Thirteen - Old Cartridge Cases East Berlin Willkommen in Berlin. (Almost the only words of German you understand.) You recognise it from spy films, by a tall tower on the horizon which looks like a golf ball impaled on a spike - some kind of television mast? The streets are drab in the dawn light, giving them a dirty, unfinished look. This one is a broad, extremely straight avenue with four rows of trees which are uniform enough to have been planted all at once, running east-west. >save Ok. >x device A highly curious device, like a wood-mounted gimballed compass, with dials and swinging arrows, inscribed "tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis". The main feature is a white button. The easiest arrow to read points to 89. >s The buildings are unbroken and locked up. >n The buildings are unbroken and locked up. >ne You can't go that way. >nw You can't go that way. >se You can't go that way. >sw You can't go that way. >e Unter den Linden Once the Champs-Elysees of Berlin, this is a broad, infinitely sad boulevard between long rows of old cuboidal buildings, reconstructed after the terrible bombings of 1945. But perhaps all streets are sad at dawn, when nothing is open: anyway, a more pressing concern is that up ahead to the east, early morning commuters are having their papers routinely checked by yawning policemen. A hoarding catches your eye. >x hoarding In the West, a hoarding like this would be advertising cigarettes. Here it seems to be announcing some kind of 1989 Congress, and gives some prominence to an official portrait of Erich Honecker. >read hoarding In the West, a hoarding like this would be advertising cigarettes. Here it seems to be announcing some kind of 1989 Congress, and gives some prominence to an official portrait of Erich Honecker. >x commuters You can't see any such thing. >x policemen You can't see any such thing. >e Slipping back west seems infinitely preferable to having one's credentials examined, surely? >w East Berlin Willkommen in Berlin. (Almost the only words of German you understand.) You recognise it from spy films, by a tall tower on the horizon which looks like a golf ball impaled on a spike - some kind of television mast? The streets are drab in the dawn light, giving them a dirty, unfinished look. This one is a broad, extremely straight avenue with four rows of trees which are uniform enough to have been planted all at once, running east-west. >w Near the Brandenburg Gate ...but not very. About a hundred yards west is the triumphal arch, its green-blue copper roof topped with what looks like a charioteer carrying a flag. This is as close as you can get: the tree-lined square around it is empty but for discreet guard-posts. No traffic passes beneath any longer, for no traffic crosses the Wall. Side streets run north and south, along the frontier of East Berlin. >w You are not the first to entertain this hopeless idea. >n Alleyway This alley peters out further to the north, and is quite narrow here, between the eastern building and the first fence of the wall to the west. Beyond the fence, hares roam the hundred yard no-man's-land up to the Wall proper. >sketch hares As if from nowhere, one of the Vopos rushes up to you. "This is Free Berlin. The drawing of pictures is forbidden." He admonishes you and steps discreetly back to the watch-towers. Curious. He said that in English. >e You can't go that way. >s Near the Brandenburg Gate ...but not very. About a hundred yards west is the triumphal arch, its green-blue copper roof topped with what looks like a charioteer carrying a flag. This is as close as you can get: the tree-lined square around it is empty but for discreet guard-posts. No traffic passes beneath any longer, for no traffic crosses the Wall. Side streets run north and south, along the frontier of East Berlin. >s Corner The Wall, running the border of the Soviet and British Sectors, turns a corner and begins to head east here. (The Wall would be about 100 miles long if straightened out, so this is nothing unusual.) Thus, west and south are impossible. The shabby apartment block here has windows solidly bricked up, and looks out blindly across at Tempelhof Airport in the old American Sector. Its door hangs open at a crazy angle. >x wall Which do you mean, the north wall, the south wall, the east wall, the west wall, the northeast wall, the southeast wall, the northwest wall or the southwest wall? >n You see nothing special about the north wall. >n Near the Brandenburg Gate ...but not very. About a hundred yards west is the triumphal arch, its green-blue copper roof topped with what looks like a charioteer carrying a flag. This is as close as you can get: the tree-lined square around it is empty but for discreet guard-posts. No traffic passes beneath any longer, for no traffic crosses the Wall. Side streets run north and south, along the frontier of East Berlin. >x wall (the Brandenburg Gate) Beyond the wall is the Street of the 17th of June, named by the West Berliners after the tragedy of the Eastern uprising of 1953: when the West stood by and did nothing. It is absolutely inaccessible. Beyond that, the Russian War Memorial, an island trapped in the British Sector, to the twenty million Russian dead of WW2. >s Corner The Wall, running the border of the Soviet and British Sectors, turns a corner and begins to head east here. (The Wall would be about 100 miles long if straightened out, so this is nothing unusual.) Thus, west and south are impossible. The shabby apartment block here has windows solidly bricked up, and looks out blindly across at Tempelhof Airport in the old American Sector. Its door hangs open at a crazy angle. >x berlin wall You can't see any such thing. >e Checkpoint Charlie One of the 13 border crossings, Checkpoint Charlie is rather unimpressive to look at. A broad boulevard four lanes wide simply extends south across a gap in the Wall: there is no cover or shelter of any kind. Uniformed police shuffle about at each end, and here and there is the glint of gun-metal. Far to the south is a blockhouse. >s You join the small knot of people trying to cross back south (most of them Western construction workers who overslept their 24-hour visas, in their girlfriends' flats). One of the Vopos on duty approaches you and asks for your travel permit. >n You wander the dead, dawning streets... Side Street A north-south corridor through East Berlin: there's really little else to say about it, with the buildings closed up and the dawn gleaming dully off the iron window-frames. A white Skoda is parked here. >enter skoda You can't get into the closed white Skoda. >open skoda It seems to be locked. >hotwire skoda That's not a verb I recognise. >n Unter den Linden Once the Champs-Elysees of Berlin, this is a broad, infinitely sad boulevard between long rows of old cuboidal buildings, reconstructed after the terrible bombings of 1945. But perhaps all streets are sad at dawn, when nothing is open: anyway, a more pressing concern is that up ahead to the east, early morning commuters are having their papers routinely checked by yawning policemen. A hoarding catches your eye. >ss That's not a verb I recognise. >s Into the Soviet Embassy? Perhaps not. >n The buildings are unbroken and locked up. >w East Berlin Willkommen in Berlin. (Almost the only words of German you understand.) You recognise it from spy films, by a tall tower on the horizon which looks like a golf ball impaled on a spike - some kind of television mast? The streets are drab in the dawn light, giving them a dirty, unfinished look. This one is a broad, extremely straight avenue with four rows of trees which are uniform enough to have been planted all at once, running east-west. >n The buildings are unbroken and locked up. >w Near the Brandenburg Gate ...but not very. About a hundred yards west is the triumphal arch, its green-blue copper roof topped with what looks like a charioteer carrying a flag. This is as close as you can get: the tree-lined square around it is empty but for discreet guard-posts. No traffic passes beneath any longer, for no traffic crosses the Wall. Side streets run north and south, along the frontier of East Berlin. >s Corner The Wall, running the border of the Soviet and British Sectors, turns a corner and begins to head east here. (The Wall would be about 100 miles long if straightened out, so this is nothing unusual.) Thus, west and south are impossible. The shabby apartment block here has windows solidly bricked up, and looks out blindly across at Tempelhof Airport in the old American Sector. Its door hangs open at a crazy angle. >in Derelict Apartment Block This block would probably have been demolished, if engineering works like the Wall didn't always take priority. The door hangs open, half-shattered, and masonry is scattered across the floor. Dangerous-looking stairs climb the shell of the walls. >u Precarious Balcony From this balcony, you look out of a smashed and grimy spider's-web window at the divided city. As the last street-lamps of night go out, the border would be obvious even without the Wall... You look down upon the guarded open space of Checkpoint Charlie. East Germany is the only country in the world where hang-gliding is illegal. The balcony isn't altogether disused, though. A Berliner rests here. A basket-weave purse has been half-concealed from view. >get hang You can't see any such thing. >x berliner This kind of Berliner is a doughnut (a local delicacy), though Kennedy's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech probably meant the other kind. It looks rather succulent for Eastern produce (but that's probably just your prejudices showing). >get berliner Taken. >eat it You eat the berliner. Not bad. >undo Precarious Balcony [Previous turn undone.] >x purse You can't see inside, since it is closed. >get purse Taken. >open it You open the basket-weave purse, revealing a Cyrillic-lettered key and a fifty Ost-mark note. >i You are carrying: a basket-weave purse (which is open) a Cyrillic-lettered key a fifty Ost-mark note a berliner a crumpled newspaper wheels III and I a cloth cap (being worn) a sparkler (providing light) a canvas rucksack (which is open) a spent cartridge a RZ-ROV gadget a beige folder a Geiger counter Rukl's "Atlas of the Moon" a British Army officer's uniform a wooden broom a cargo capsule (which is empty) a gnomon Waldo a mandolin a box of mosquito powder a Sixth Officer's jacket Place Names of Carolina a green cap a Richard's anemometer a paper dart a madeleine cake Black's Kaldecki detector a second note from Black a first aid box (which is closed) the 1911 Boy's Book of the Sea a curious device the Victorian ormolu clock Emily's sketch book a charcoal pencil three keys: a little key a elegant key a tagged key two newspapers: an historic edition of Pravda Le Figaro an intercept a travel permit a checklist a chit signed by Lenin a handwritten invitation card a White Star Line scribbled-on towel a folded note a white party ticket >d Derelict Apartment Block This block would probably have been demolished, if engineering works like the Wall didn't always take priority. The door hangs open, half-shattered, and masonry is scattered across the floor. Dangerous-looking stairs climb the shell of the walls. >out Corner The Wall, running the border of the Soviet and British Sectors, turns a corner and begins to head east here. (The Wall would be about 100 miles long if straightened out, so this is nothing unusual.) Thus, west and south are impossible. The shabby apartment block here has windows solidly bricked up, and looks out blindly across at Tempelhof Airport in the old American Sector. Its door hangs open at a crazy angle. >e Checkpoint Charlie One of the 13 border crossings, Checkpoint Charlie is rather unimpressive to look at. A broad boulevard four lanes wide simply extends south across a gap in the Wall: there is no cover or shelter of any kind. Uniformed police shuffle about at each end, and here and there is the glint of gun-metal. Far to the south is a blockhouse. The queue of people at the far end shuffles forward, and someone makes the lonely crossing. >n You wander the dead, dawning streets... Side Street A north-south corridor through East Berlin: there's really little else to say about it, with the buildings closed up and the dawn gleaming dully off the iron window-frames. A white Skoda is parked here. >unlock skoda with key Which do you mean, the Cyrillic-lettered key, the little key, the elegant key or the tagged key? >cyrillic (first taking the Cyrillic-lettered key) (putting wheel I into the canvas rucksack to make room) You unlock the white Skoda. >enter skoda You can't get into the closed white Skoda. >open skoda You open the white Skoda. >enter skoda You get into the white Skoda. >s The ignition's off. (Not for nothing is "Skoda" the Czech word for "misery".) >turn on skoda You turn the key in the ignition, and the engine starts. >s The Skoda chokes but lurches forward. Checkpoint Charlie (in the white Skoda) One of the 13 border crossings, Checkpoint Charlie is rather unimpressive to look at. A broad boulevard four lanes wide simply extends south across a gap in the Wall: there is no cover or shelter of any kind. Uniformed police shuffle about at each end, and here and there is the glint of gun-metal. Far to the south is a blockhouse. [Your score has just gone up by one point.] >s You advance the Skoda a little way south. The Vopo on duty approaches the driver's window and asks for your travel permit. >give note to vopo Which do you mean, the fifty Ost-mark note, the second note from Black, the chit signed by Lenin or the folded note? >fifty (first taking the fifty Ost-mark note) (putting wheel III into the canvas rucksack to make room) The young man calls out at once, at such an obvious attempt at entrapment. Vopos have been shot for taking bribes before... (Of course, as anyone knows, the whole bribery scene is run by the Mafia, and the going rate's more like 50,000 Ost-marks.) Burly men drag you away, still protesting. *** You languish in a Stasi jail *** In that game you scored 90 out of a possible 100, in 2052 turns, giving you the rank of Grandmaster Puzzler. Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, give the FULL score for that game or QUIT? > undo Checkpoint Charlie [Previous turn undone.] >n You can't see any such thing. >n The Skoda chokes but lurches forward. Side Street (in the white Skoda) A north-south corridor through East Berlin: there's really little else to say about it, with the buildings closed up and the dawn gleaming dully off the iron window-frames. >