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. [Your score has just gone up by one point.] >press a4 The piece at a4 presses in smoothly, like a button, then releases. There is a sense of something happening, which is odd considering that nothing happens. >press c2 The piece at c2 presses in smoothly, like a button, then releases. The table seems to drag you whole into a beam of pure energy, which is suddenly sucked up into the jigsaw piece. With a wrench you find yourself rushing through a kind of vortex, weird patterns of light streaking past you, clashing noises in your ear. As you slow down, you briefly make out Steven Spielberg's film "E.T." and then everything begins to change... [Press SPACE to continue.] Chapter One - Ricochet Flat over the Street A second-floor flat, dilapidated and primitive but with a certain charm about it, decorated with faded Viennese prints. Through the open window you look down on a cafe across the arched, cobbled city street. It is early summer. To one side is a cheap dresser with a mirror and a single drawer. [Your score has just gone up by one point.] >x dresser A cheap, sturdy dresser. >x mirror Your reflection is gaunt in the mirror. >x drawer A cheap, sturdy dresser. The door rattles, unlocked from the outside. The stranger appears, darting in and locking the door again. For the first time your eyes meet. "Welcome to Sarajevo! I knew you wouldn't disappoint me," says Black, extending a friendly hand. >shake hand (of Black) You shake hands, suddenly shy of physical contact. "June 28th, 1914, if you hadn't guessed already," continues Black. "Kaldecki wasn't quite the fool people thought. I confess I may have helped them a little, writing the biography I did. But that's what he always wanted." [Your score has just gone up by one point.] >x black Just looking again (coyly, in the mirror) reminds you how glad you are you came to the party. "You see," Black says coolly (almost as if sane), "he was in a quandary. He'd invented something wonderful and terribly dangerous. He'd invented the time machine. It could save the human race, he wrote in the margins of his sketch-book. But there was a catch." >look under dresser You find nothing of interest. Black is clearly one of those people who really enjoys spinning out a story. "The Kaldecki Effect needs an enormous temporal potential to work, you see. You can't just travel from anywhere to anywhere. Time flows downhill like water, he said. If you want to go from event T1 to event T2, you have to ride the wave. So much for Einstein." >look behind mirror I only understood you as far as wanting to look. >search dresser You can't see inside, since it is closed. Einstein is not, in fact, the person at the front of your mind just now. You are occupied trying to decide whether those eyes are blue or green, a sure sign that you aren't listening closely enough. "...thus, del phi is maximised at great turning points, the way electric charge collects on sharp points - and that's the Kaldecki Effect. His machine works like a lightning conductor. A dilemma. You understand?" >no That was a rhetorical question. >black, no Black looks pained for a moment. "He'd invented a time machine that could never be demonstrated to science, or tested, and wasn't even much use. It can only take you from one really important event to another really important event. You can't even test it unless you're at a big turning point in history yourself. Tuesday morning in the lab just doesn't cut it. "So he decided to throw a great, big party, so large it would be bound to get into the history books. Welcome to Century Park... He left me instructions about how to use the one chance to get into the time vortex and alter history for the better. "And for my first trick, I'm going to prevent World War One." >open dresser It seems to be locked. >x window Down in the arched, cobbled city street, horses pass by and pedestrians dawdle beside the shops. Opposite is a cafe. "It's like waiting for the dentist, isn't it?" Black says companionably. >black, yes Black looks at you cynically. >talk to black That's not a verb I recognise. >ask black about me Black shrugs eloquently. >sketch horses You sketch in a picture of the street horses. >x cafe The kind of just-adequate cafe students hang out in, to argue about Wagner, politics and philosophy. Black glances at a watch. "Right, you'd better have this just in case," - and "this" turns out to be a nasty looking sniper's rifle, fetched in from the hallway outside. You gaze at it in horror as Black re-locks the hallway door. "There's just a chance of them finding a modern bullet, so I'd rather a pistol." Which Black proceeds to draw, before standing by the open window. >[ All the generals were on holiday. -- A.J.P. Taylor, "How Wars Begin" (1977)] ask black about rifle Black shrugs eloquently. >take rifle You already have that. >x rifle A triumph of twentieth century engineering over twentieth century morality, the kind of gun 10-year old boys think is the best thing ever invented. There is one concession to common sense, though: a safety catch. The sniper's rifle is currently switched on. "Soon, soon," Black says, just as a scruffy-looking type slides into a cafe chair. "Ah, there he is. Good, this must be the right place." You have a terrible feeling of events relentlessly proceeding out of your control. Time seems to slow down as you see it all with helpless clarity. >switch off rifle You slip the safety off. >shoot black It might well be the best thing all round, but you just can't bring yourself to do it. "It's like this," Black says coolly. "The Archduke Ferdinand is about to come down the road in an open carriage for a day out with his wife, who's only a duchess, so back home nobody will talk to her. Everybody hates the Archduke, except her I suppose, and nobody's going to miss him..." >undo Flat over the Street [Previous turn undone.] >x student He can't be a day over seventeen, and has a wild-looking moustache. "It's like this," Black says coolly. "The Archduke Ferdinand is about to come down the road in an open carriage for a day out with his wife, who's only a duchess, so back home nobody will talk to her. Everybody hates the Archduke, except her I suppose, and nobody's going to miss him..." >unlock dresser with key (first taking the tagged key) You unlock the cheap dresser. >open dresser You open the cheap dresser, revealing an edge piece. "...For one thing, it's Serbian National Day today and Ferdinand's an Austrian. See that student drinking at the cafe down there? He's panicking because the carriage hasn't turned up yet, but it will. Then he's going to shoot the Archduke, deliberately, and his wife, by accident. But that was last time. "This time, it'll be different," says Black, cocking the pistol, facing up to a murderous duty with reckless bravado. >get piece (putting the charcoal pencil into the canvas rucksack to make room) Taken. [Your score has just gone up by one point.] >x pistol A Beretta, the kind James Bond wore in spite of everyone calling it a "lady's gun". "Here they come!" And so they do: the carriage pulls in to view and halts a moment in confusion. It looks as if the coachmen are lost. The student suddenly looks up. Black aims the pistol at him with a certain panache. The Archduke chats complacently to the Duchess, unaware of all this... attention. You feel sharply tense. This is no time for indecision. >z Time passes. >z Time passes. Black murmurs, training the pistol carefully at the student. >z Time passes. >z Time passes. "Here goes!" And Black fires the pistol, wounding the student and causing the student to miss and shoot one of the horses. The Archduke and Duchess are hustled safely away, but the scene is chaos as the horse bleeds terribly and militia seize the luckless revolutionary. Fortunately nobody thinks to look up at you. Black smiles in frightened triumph, taking the rifle back, and you swallow with nervousness. >z Time passes. >z Time passes. The air here suddenly seems disturbed, and a kind of cloud gathers from light winds and currents. From inside the rucksack, you hear a bell ring. Black notices too and smiles winningly. "Lend me that device, please? I have business in The Land..." Dazzled, you hand it over, and this ever more mysterious stranger does something very complicated, muttering and giving a devil-may-care grin. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing!" The air suddenly condenses into a black sphere, but your friend (or foe) enters it and it vanishes again. You begin to feel bewildered, manipulated... and deviceless. >z Time passes. The ormolu clock chimes a more insistent warning. >z Time passes. >z Time passes. Suddenly you are wrenched out into the time vortex once more, and find yourself back... Disc Room This is a tiny tetrahedral annexe of a room, whose only clear feature is a broad black disc embedded in the floor. >nw Inside the Monument A sloping crevice of metal, sunken into the ground some way to make a larger-than-expected room. Short flights of steps lead up to west and southeast. The air is frigid. At the centre is a heavy old table whose top is a beautiful mahogany jigsaw-board, with room for sixteen pieces arranged in a square. There are two played pieces. Sitting on the jigsaw table, evidently left for you by Black, is the curious device. You shake your head, confused. Why did the mad London-born architect Kettering build this monument? Why did the government of the Franco-British Republic ever allow Century Park to be built here at Versailles? Never mind: time to go and get a drink of potato brandy from the commissars and toast the new millennium. *** You have wrecked the course of history *** In that game you scored 14 out of a possible 100, in 146 turns, giving you the rank of Prowler. Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, give the FULL score for that game or QUIT? > full Your score was made up as follows: 5 points for opening the monument, revealing the board, lighting the board, entering the time vortex and meeting Black; 3 points for recovering jigsaw pieces; 2 points for playing jigsaw pieces; 3 points for finding sundry items; 1 point for visiting various places; which comes to a total of 14 out of 100, giving you the rank of Prowler. Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, give the FULL score for that game or QUIT? > quit