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 >doff uniform (the British Army officer's uniform) You take off the British Army officer's uniform. >s Corridor of a Steam Train This is the corridor of a steam train rattling its way south through icy wastelands. To the north and south are carriages, and there are compartments east and west. >s Showing your travel papers to the Russian soldiers who fill the southern compartment, you pass down the train to... Soldiers' Carriage This shabby old third-class carriage, at the front of the old steam train, is packed with soldiers of the Russian Empire. The soldiers are tired out and slumped lazily over their packs, but they're used to billeting wherever they can. >n Corridor of a Steam Train This is the corridor of a steam train rattling its way south through icy wastelands. To the north and south are carriages, and there are compartments east and west. >drop visa Dropped. >s Before you get far into the southern carriage, which is full of soldiers of the Russian Imperial Army, you are challenged for your papers. Having none, you feign forgetfulness and go back the way you came. >wear uniform (the British Army officer's uniform) You disguise yourself as an officer in the British Army. The effect will pass, if nobody looks too closely. >take visa Taken. >n Lenin's Carriage About thirty people travel in this carriage, grouped into fours. Most of them stare out at the icy Baltic wastes, nostalgic for their homeland, or sing the Internationale softly to themselves. At the north end, there are two passageways, northeast and northwest. The Bolsheviks' leader is clearly the short man, proudly wearing a worker's cap, who sits making notes and hardly glances at the windows: Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, or Lenin as he will some day be known. >nw You join a queue of ten passengers, which blocks the passage-way here. In Queue You stand in a long, patient queue to one corner of the carriage. The passengers stand clutching slips of paper signed by Lenin. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now nine passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now eight passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now seven passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now six passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now five passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now four passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now three passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now two passengers in front of you. >z You're now at the front of the queue, next to the door which should open soon. >z The door opens as a passenger leaves and files south past the queue into the carriage. Smoky Compartment Your eyes swim in this fog of cigarette smoke. The last tiny berth of the train has been converted into a smoking car, but there's only room for one at a time, half-sitting on the bunk. Ash is heaped up in an old grey ash-tray. You cough convulsively. [Your score has just gone up by one point.] >x bunk How glad you are not to have to sleep in here. Your eyes swim. >search bunk You find nothing of interest. You cough convulsively. >look under bunk Underneath the bunk is an old-style ventilation grille, currently shut. There's a knocking at the door from the next passenger. >open grille You slide open the grille. Through it you can see the receding track, and feel the icy air outside. The knocking gets louder and more irritable. >search grille Through it you see the receding track. You feel rather ill. >get tray (putting the lump of corn bread into the canvas rucksack to make room) You shake the ash out of the tray, and pick it up - a jigsaw piece! "Come on," coughs the next passenger, "someone else's turn," and you are bundled back south... Fresh air! What a relief. The passengers, annoyed, search you to find the ash tray, and relieve you of it. You're pushed back south, still protesting the loss of your jigsaw piece. Lenin's Carriage About thirty people travel in this carriage, grouped into fours. Most of them stare out at the icy Baltic wastes, nostalgic for their homeland, or sing the Internationale softly to themselves. At the north end, there are two passageways, northeast and northwest. The Bolsheviks' leader is clearly the short man, proudly wearing a worker's cap, who sits making notes and hardly glances at the windows: Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, or Lenin as he will some day be known. [Your score has just gone up by one point.] >ne Guard's Van An empty, rattling cage of a compartment: the guard's van. To the north is a door leading out to the train's rear end, to south are the carriages. A little boy, with Dmitri embroidered on his jump-suit, sits playing here. >n Ice, Wind, Rails You stand on a kind of wrought iron balcony on the back of the train, in the open Baltic air, white wind rushing past, the silvery rails disappearing among drifts of snow in the distance. It is breath-taking, and fearfully cold. >x vent You can't see any such thing. >s Guard's Van An empty, rattling cage of a compartment: the guard's van. To the north is a door leading out to the train's rear end, to south are the carriages. A little boy, with Dmitri embroidered on his jump-suit, sits playing here. >s Lenin's Carriage About thirty people travel in this carriage, grouped into fours. Most of them stare out at the icy Baltic wastes, nostalgic for their homeland, or sing the Internationale softly to themselves. At the north end, there are two passageways, northeast and northwest. The Bolsheviks' leader is clearly the short man, proudly wearing a worker's cap, who sits making notes and hardly glances at the windows: Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, or Lenin as he will some day be known. From inside the rucksack, the ormolu clock chimes once. >nw You join a queue of ten passengers, which blocks the passage-way here. In Queue You stand in a long, patient queue to one corner of the carriage. The passengers stand clutching slips of paper signed by Lenin. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now nine passengers in front of you. From inside the rucksack, the ormolu clock chimes insistently. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now eight passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now seven passengers in front of you. 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. >z Time passes. >restore Ok. >turn off alarm The latch on the clock is now off. >nw You join a queue of ten passengers, which blocks the passage-way here. In Queue You stand in a long, patient queue to one corner of the carriage. The passengers stand clutching slips of paper signed by Lenin. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now nine passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now eight passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now seven passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now six passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now five passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now four passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now three passengers in front of you. >z The queue shuffles forward, and there are now two passengers in front of you. >z You're now at the front of the queue, next to the door which should open soon. >z The door opens as a passenger leaves and files south past the queue into the carriage. Smoky Compartment Your eyes swim in this fog of cigarette smoke. The last tiny berth of the train has been converted into a smoking car, but there's only room for one at a time, half-sitting on the bunk. Ash is heaped up in an old grey ash-tray. You feel badly in need of fresh air. [Your score has just gone up by one point.] >open vent You can't see any such thing. >look under bed Underneath the bunk is an old-style ventilation grille, currently shut. You feel badly in need of fresh air. >open vent You slide open the grille. Through it you can see the receding track, and feel the icy air outside. Your eyes swim. >get tray (putting the lump of corn bread into the canvas rucksack to make room) You shake the ash out of the tray, and pick it up - a jigsaw piece! There's a knocking at the door from the next passenger. [Your score has just gone up by one point.] >put tray in vent You can't see any such thing. >put piece in vent The edge piece is lost to view through the grille. There is a thump, followed by a clang of metal on metal. The knocking gets louder and more irritable. >close vent You slide shut the grille. You feel badly in need of fresh air. >s Fresh air! What a relief. Lenin's Carriage About thirty people travel in this carriage, grouped into fours. Most of them stare out at the icy Baltic wastes, nostalgic for their homeland, or sing the Internationale softly to themselves. At the north end, there are two passageways, northeast and northwest. The Bolsheviks' leader is clearly the short man, proudly wearing a worker's cap, who sits making notes and hardly glances at the windows: Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, or Lenin as he will some day be known. >ne Guard's Van An empty, rattling cage of a compartment: the guard's van. To the north is a door leading out to the train's rear end, to south are the carriages. A little boy, with Dmitri embroidered on his jump-suit, sits playing here. >n Ice, Wind, Rails You stand on a kind of wrought iron balcony on the back of the train, in the open Baltic air, white wind rushing past, the silvery rails disappearing among drifts of snow in the distance. It is breath-taking, and fearfully cold. A small metal bomb has apparently rolled from the undercarriage onto this balcony. You can also see an edge piece here. >x bomb A small metal explosive device, with a big frivolous letter B painted on one side. Too small, in fact, to actually harm anyone, though it might well strand the train out here for days. You have no idea how it works or when it might detonate. >get bomb Taken. >throw bomb off train You hurl the bomb from the train, and as it smashes onto the ice behind it explodes in a crimson fireball before being doused and enveloped in snow. Soon even that snow is no more than a speck on the horizon. You feel profoundly safer. [Your score has just gone up by one point.] >get piece Taken. >turn on alarm The latch on the clock is now on. >set clock to 1 You shorten the time left on the clock. 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 steamy and tropical. 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 six gaps left. >x edge A large jigsaw piece, six inches on a side and square. It's a dull grey-white, perhaps depicting the still waters in a canal. It is currently this way up: O OOOOOOO OOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO OOOOOOO >x grid "Nec deus intersit nisi dignus vindice nodus inciderit" 1 2 3 4 +----------------------------------------------------+ |............. ooooooooooooo| a |. Mould Park o| |......o...... o oooooo.oooooo| |ooooooooooooo...... ......ooooooooooooo.............| b |o Invalid .. Dunes .. Plane oo Snow .| |oooooo.oooooo.............oooooo.oooooo...... ......| |.............oooooo.oooooo............. | c |. Glass .. Carriage oo Train .. | |.............ooooooooooooo............. | | . o oooooo.oooooo | d | oo Fields oo | | ooooooooooooo | +----------------------------------------------------+ >turn edge You turn the piece clockwise, to: O OOOOOOO OOOOOOO OOOOOOOO OOOOOOO OOOOOOO O >turn edge You turn the piece clockwise, to: OOOOOOO OOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO OOOOOOO O >put edge at a2 It fits at a2, and suddenly lights up with a picture: a 33 r.p.m. vinyl long-playing record. [Your score has just gone up by one point.] >list a1 a growth of mould in a Petri dish (solved) a2 a 33 r.p.m. vinyl long-playing record a4 parklands strobed by laser light (solved) b1 a moustachioed invalid in bed (solved) b2 rolling, low sand dunes (solved) b3 a silver USAF-marked plane b4 white folds of snow c1 a cocktail in a glass, with tonic and ice (solved) c2 a horse-drawn state carriage (solved) c3 a racing steam train (solved) d3 fields of cabbages >footnote c3 [ Footnote c3: ] C. P. Snow's first rule of politics was: always be present in the flesh. Lenin was highly surprised to read about the Russian Revolution in the Zurich newspapers for March 14th, 1917. Unfortunately, Germany was in his way. He plotted escape disguised as a Swedish deaf mute, but his wife wouldn't let him. As his schemes became madder, a way was finally found: the German government (only vaguely knowing who Lenin was) gave 19 Bolsheviks passage, hoping they would cause a stir and get Russia out of the war. To cover costs, Lenin secretly accepted the small fortune of 250000 marks from Germany. (It was paid back in 1923, by which time it was worth only a pocket-full of small change.) When the train pulled in to St Petersburg's Finland Station, at 11.10 pm on April 16th, Lenin was met by local dignitaries who gave him flowers and made speeches hoping he would now join the coalition Provisional Government. To consternation, Lenin made a hard-line speech against compromise of any kind with anybody, then left for Party headquarters - by armoured car. Lenin destroyed the moderates in a matter of months. Every government in Europe had underestimated him totally. The young boy grew up to be Dmitri Shostakovich (1907-1975), the greatest Russian composer of modern times (and DSCH was his musical signature). In the game he stands for the bright hope and freedom of talent in the early years of the Revolution, Lenin's years: but he narrowly escaped the purge, and in 1948 Stalin had him found guilty of "formalistic distortions and anti-democratic tendencies alien to the Soviet people". Like Pasternak and many other artists, he was harassed for years after. Lenin did not want Stalin to succeed him. But the crown always dies before the king. (Dmitri was really 10 years old and wasn't one of the children on the train - but he nearly was: he was at Finland Station that night and witnessed Lenin's arrival (see the 12th Symphony). The chits and the smoking queue are genuine, and the Russian troop escort really did share paskha with the Bolsheviks' children. A diplomatic letter mentions the presence of the British officer but I have no idea what he was doing on board.) Final footnote: there are still no smoking compartments on the Helsinki to St Petersburg train. Today, smokers stand by the doors at the ends of the carriage. >save Ok.