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Hummer House of Horror (hummer_house_of_horror_zx_spectrum_walkthrought.txt)

HUMMER HOUSE OF HORROR (ZX Spectrum version)
Lasersound, 1983
===================

Solution by Exemptus - April 2020


Overview and general hints:
---------------------------
The map, monsters, and objects are fixed, but of course there is a random
element to fights and encounters. There are three difficulty levels and the
player's hit points allotted depend on the level. There is a time limit as well
to complete the game.

The goal of the game is to rescue a maiden hidden in a room of the house;
actually getting to that room is enough to win. The house has four floors
(cellars, ground, 1st and 2nd). We begin on the 1st floor, at one of several
possible random locations; the maiden is in a fixed room on the 2nd floor.

Each room contains a monster, but it is (generally) random whether they will be
friendly (giving us strength) or either attack us. Fighting just involves
finding a weapon (easy) and inputting a number for the strength of the hit.
It seems completely random whether the monster will be defeated (in which case
it will disappear forever), will flee (same effect really), will take away some
of our strength, or we will be told that we "need a sword". Which is misleading,
because we don't, we can win any fight without it. Actually having a sword is a 
liability, because there is a chance in every fight that we might impale
ourselves upon it and die.

Most rooms also contain an object, which can be represented either by a graphic
character or by text. HELP provides a list of the verbs allowed along with the
name of the object in the current room, which is immensely useful as some of
them cannot be guessed from the graphic character. There is also a HINT facility
which says something depending on the current room, and it is necessary to use 
it on every single room, because it will reveal certain passwords and clues that
are impossible to know otherwise.

There are some bugs related to objects: we can only drop an object on a room 
that has none already in it, but often the game won't let us do it anyway. But
if we take an object currently present and drop another, we will be allowed to
drop it, although the name of the object will change to another one. This does
not really make play impossible because we only need a few objects (we can carry
10 of them at a time) and we don't even need to drop any to complete the game,
except for the plank, and it is not technically "dropped".

The walkthrough below assumes several things:

* We start at the Kitchen. This seems to be the most common room to start,
  so if you wish to follow the walkthrough to the letter you can always restart
  and it won't be long before the game allows you to start from there.
* All fights with monsters are won. I will actually ignore all monsters,
  except for those where interaction with them is necessary.
* There are several Place Warps that transport us to a random room in the house.
  This can be used to advantage because going up stairs usually requires a toll
  payment or an object, and this may allow us to go to a room that we couldn't
  otherwise at the time. But they are not needed to win the game, so I will
  ignore the warps completely.
* Finally, I will ignore time. If you would rather give the game a try on your
  own but are annoyed by the time limit, you can use POKE 42831,119 and the game
  will give you unlimited time to explore.


Walkthrough:
------------
[We begin in the kitchen.]

GET KNIFE [This allows us to fight monsters]
GO N
GO W [This is the "secret room", literally, since it discloses the secret]
HINT

[We are told the secret, which is a random string of characters. Write it
down, as it will be needed later. There are two other passwords in the game.]

GO S
GO S
GO E
HINT

[The hint tells us to go East, which would be good advice were it not for
the fact that this is a dark room and unless we have a light source we cannot
escape it, and the game will end. We need several objects to get that light
source, one of which is right here.]

GET TIN OF OIL
GO W
GO W
GO W
GET CROW BAR [This will be needed later to open the box on the 1st floor.]
GO W
GO N [We are in the Freezer]

[Each turn we spend in this room will take away 200 hit points from us unless we
have the coat. But that is an object we cannot reach yet, so we will have to 
bear it for the time being.]

GO N [Stairs to 1st floor here]

[The Imp wants to know the secret. Fortunately we already do. Input the secret
string here. If now we try to go up the stairs, the game will tell us that we
cannot do so yet, although it gives us no reason. The reason is that we need to
pay the toll man in the ground floor first, but there is no way to know this.]

GO S
GO E [Stairs to cellar here]
HINT

[The hint tells us not to go down. Actually, we need to, and this is the best
time to do it. By the way, the game does not allow fights on rooms with stairs,
in order to avoid us bypassing the problems the creatures on them give us.]

GO D
GO W
GO S
GET 3 COINS [These do not take inventory space, but show in STATUS]
GO E
GO E
GO N [We are in the Light Passage; the sword is here]
HINT [It tells us that we don't need the sword; this is good advice, for once]
GO N
GO E
TAKE BOX OF MATCHES [This is another object we need to make light]
GO S
GO E
GET ROPE [We don't need anything East of here, but fights are easier if we know
the spell]
GO E
HINT

[The spell is revealed, which is another random string of characters we need to
write down. From now on, monsters may attack us randomly, in which case the game
will ask for the spell. If correctly input, there is a 50% chance the monster
will calm down and stop the fight.]

GO W
GO W
GO W
GO W
PAY COIN [Climbing up the stairs again requires a toll to be paid]
1 [One coin is enough]
GO W
GO N
GO U

[This time the game should allow us to climb to the 1st floor, as we have paid.]

GO W
GO S
GO W [She-wolf's bedroom]
GET LOCKED BOX
OPEN LOCKED BOX [What with?]
USE CROW BAR

[At this point, the password is revealed - yet another random string to write
down. We absolutely need this one to finish the game.]

GO E
GO S
GET OIL LAMP

[This is the last object needed for the light source, so we go back
down to the ground floor. We could make a detour to get the coat on this floor
and avoid the 200 points damage in the Freezer, but I will ignore that detail.]

GO N
GO N
GO E
GO D

[Generally there is no problem climbing down stairs; the difficulty is climbing
them up.]

GO S
GO S
GO E
GO E
GO E
GO E
GO E [This is the Dark room]
LIGHT OIL LAMP
GET PLANK
GO W

[Strangely, if we cannot make any light we can still take the plank, but not 
leave the room afterwards.]

GO W
GO W
GO W
GO W
GO N
GO N
PAY COIN
1

[We pay the toll gain, otherwise the game will revert to the "not yet paid"
status. Since there is no hint this is actually needed here, it feels like a
bug.]

GO U
GO W
GO S
GO S
GO E
GO E
GO E
GO E
GO E [All these rooms look the same and have the same object, just to mislead]
GO E [Steep stairs]
HINT 

[Not very subtly, the hint tells us that we need a rope, which we procured
earlier.]

USE ROPE
GO W [The Pit]
LAY PLANK [No, the words USE PLANK do not work; you have to say LAY PLANK]
GO W
GO W
GO W
GO W
GO N [Guard room; the guard asks for the password]

[We enter the password at this point.]

GO N

[End of game.]