THE PHANTOM'S REVENGE Temple Software, 1982 ========================================= Solution by Exemptus - February 2022 Overview and general hints: --------------------------- This game is one of several written by Temple Software in 1982-1983 for IBM PC using the same codebase and engine. It is a pure treasure hunt in the vein of the classic Crowther & Woods adventure, and more than this, it heavily borrows from it, as the structure follows similar patterns. To wit: - The goal of the game is to gather all treasures and deposit them in a certain location. - Points are deducted for dying and for losing treasures. - Descriptions are full on first location visit, then replaced by brief ones. Full descriptions can be recalled with the LOOK command. - Most of the game takes place in darkness, with a limited light source. There is a way to replenish the source by expending a coin (one of the treasures). - Moving in the darkness is fatal. - While in darkness, there are random encounters with knife-throwing maniacs which must be killed by chucking an axe. - If we carry treasures, there is a chance we will be robbed of them for an opportunity to locate the thief's hideout and recover our belongings, plus a bonus treasure which cannot be obtained until this happens. - There is a maze with twisty little passages, all alike (fortunately tiny). - There is an obstacle that can only be bypassed by freeing an animal we have previously subdued. - There is a Last Lousy Point. - While some zones are geographically consistent, many connections are really convoluted, just for the sake of irking the map-making player. If you wish to draw your own map, be warned: this may be more difficult than solving the game itself. - There are some magic words which teleport the player in certain locations. - Some connections are random (actually they happen according to fixed chances). - HELP and INFO work in the same fashion, even re-using some wording. These features (there are other parallels as well) are common to other games in the series, which makes them feel similar. However, the themes and scenarios differ: here we are told to explore an old prison which is supposedly haunted by a treasure-hoarding ghost. In fact we turn out to be none other than Eric, Phantom of the Opera, and the ghost itself, who wakes up in a prison cell by supernatural means about 90 years after the events in Gaston Leroux's novel take place. The game is full of references to the novel and its characters, and it helps to have some familiarity with the story (there are other geek culture call-backs, too). But in the end, it can be treated like a standard treasure hunt. There are exactly 21 treasures to gather, and the maximum score is 336 points. The game is mainly deterministic, but certain elements are left to chance: (1) Connections in some locations work only through chance. In these, moving in one direction can take us to one of several places, or to the same location. This is an annoyance for mapping, but does not prevent it. The solution will explain what to do when we are in one of these places. (2) The knife-throwing maniacs show up at random, but only in the dark. There appear to be no fixed number of them. When one appears, we need to stop what we are doing and throw our axe until we kill the pest. We miss a lot, but it's a question of trying again and again, they cannot fight back while we just throw and get the axe once more. They miss a lot too, but there's a small chance that one of the knives thrown at us will be lethal. This means we have to be careful with our saves and carry an axe (good life advice in any case). (3) We need to be robbed of at least a treasure in order to find the last one, just like with the pirate in Colossal Cave. This will happen rarely, only in the dark, and within either the prison or the opera. This is important: likely the main hitch to completing the game. The walkthrough will assume this happens at some point, but if it hasn't, it will be necessary to wander and hope it does. The lamp has a duration of exactly 1000 turns, after which the game cannot be optimally completed. This is plenty of time, fortunately. All ten main directions of travel are possible; IN and OUT are not needed. Some situations are handled by ad-hoc parsing. EXAMINE does not exist, but READ does, and many objects can be READ even if this is not immediately obvious. INVENTORY has to be spelt in full. The inventory itself is relatively advanced for the era: instead of fixed slots, it is based on weight. Each object has a weight associated (in "adventure units"), and there is a limit to how much weight we can haul. So we can carry many lighter objects but only a few heavy ones. This is actually used in one of the puzzles. Funnily enough, almost all objects have a purpose, but there are red-herring puzzles instead, which is unusual. A couple of the puzzles only appear to be, because they can be bypassed, and the game completed with no need to solve them at all. Also, not all objects have to be used, even if they can. The solution below is somewhat wasteful as I go for some things that are unnecessary, for the sake of completeness. An excellent, expert-level challenge would be to find a least-moves solution, given all the magic teleports available and the random events. Be my guest if that sounds like your thing. In order to make things more challenging (or vexing, take your pick) the game only allows for a single save and quits immediately after. The saved game is deleted once the game is continued. Not a problem if using an emulator with save state capabilities, but on the original hardware this makes for an, erm, interesting experience. Small wonder that nobody had published a solution in 40 years, taking into account the relative obscurity of the game itself. Time to remediate this. Walkthrough: ------------ [So you want to challenge the Phantom! Would you like instructions?] NO [Feel free to answer YES; there is no penalty] [We wake up in a cold and cheerless prison cell. Impenetrable stones surround us in all sides. Not an atypical start, and obviously we will have to escape as the first order of the day. In the cell there is a spoon and lump of cheese. The cell door is ajar and we glimpse the back of an uniformed guard outside. This is a good red herring, as it suggests that somehow we need to unhinge the door and distract or knock the guard out. But none of that works: the solution is very different.] GET SPOON GET CHEESE [You never know what odd uses objects could have] DIG [With the spoon and at the wall; the stones loosen and fall] [Well, the game did not lie: the stones may have been impenetrable, but it said nothing of the mortar. We notice a gold ring that was embedded in the mortar has rolled under the door, out of our reach. There is no way to find it for now; we will much later and in a very different place. But, as we will see, there are supernatural elements afoot.] E [Score is now 20] E [We crawl through some tunnels] SW E [There is a lamp here] GET LAMP [It is good, because locations around us are in the dark. The lamp is limited, but it will be 1000 turns before it runs out of fuel. We will be good citizens and turn it off unless we need the light.] E [It is dark here] ON LAMP SE S S [Oozy room; there are keys here] GET KEYS [Keys are always useful] W S E [There is an underground river here] [The path ends here, or maybe not, because rivers can be crossed and/or swum on; we are exploring so it's fair to try.] E [We can't just fling ourselves into the water; we need something that floats] [That didn't work. So far we haven't found anything that floats, so we double back and try another path.] W N NE N NE W S [Empty cell] [Some demented soul has scratched the words YNGVI IS A LOUSE on the wall. In general, any stand-out word is a candidate for magic word, and YGNVI is in fact one of them. If we say YNGVI here we will teleport far away to the Green Room in the Opera house, but to do so right now would serve no purpose. We can always use this as a shortcut later if we need to, and we will.] S [There is a whiskbroom here] GET BROOM W S [Empty cell] [There is a big round black thing here, with a hole in it. The description is not too helpful...] GET THING INVENTORY [Oho. The INVENTORY command described the thing as a "large black inner tube", which suggests it is actually a rubber ring - for floating. So we have a means of going into the river now, which we park for later; let's keep on exploring this side.] N W [By the way: at any point now some deranged individual may appear and throw an axe at you. He will invariably miss: it's just an excuse to provide you with the axe, which will prove invaluable in defending against knife-throwing maniacs. Do keep your axe with you at all times until I tell you otherwise. If this causes problems with keeping things in the inventory, you will have to juggle objects around a bit. Sorry about that.] S E [Uh, a torture room with an iron maiden - but wait, padlocked? We have keys] UNLOCK MAIDEN [It is unlocked now] [Well, this looks like a new passage. Wonder if we can explore this way.] N [A large dog is here] [The dog is definitely NOT friendly. This is an obstacle, so we cannot pass right now. Backing up.] S S [To the rat-infested dungeon] [This is a maze, but a legit one, no randomness in it. There is only a single location of interest in it. It does connect with the river, further downstream, but we don't need to go that particular way right now.] S [There is dust here] SWEEP DUST [What are brooms for? Oh look, a trapdoor! Score is now 40] DROP BROOM [Not needed anymore] D [Ancient crypt] E [Catacombs] [The catacombs look like a maze, as we can go in any direction and there will be more catacombs, but we soon realise there is only a single location; it randomly connects with two others. The best rule is to keep going either E to the Shrine or W to exit. For the time being, persist on going E until you get to the Ancient Shrine.] E [Repeat as needed] GET IDOL [This is our first treasure. We don't know where to store it yet, though. This will be apparent soon. From now on, and as long you are wandering through the prison, the game may tell you hear noises behind you. This is a good thing, as it marks that the thief is around and we can be robbed of our treasure, as long as we carry one. If this happens, be glad, as it is needed for full completion, and do not worry since the treasure will be recovered, just go on with the walkthrough as if nothing happened and adjust later for the recovery of the treasure.] W [Repeat as needed until in Ancient crypt again] U N N W S [We try a different path] NE S [To wet walkway] W [To stormdrain] [The stormdrain is a three-location maze with random connections. As before, the surest way to deal with it is to keep going in the same direction, N in this case. There is an emerald in one of the locations that we need to retrieve.] N [Repeat until you see an emerald] GET EMERALD [Second treasure] N [Repeat until you arrive at Stormdrain entrance; you are out of the maze now] OFF [We are outside now, so best to turn the lamp off] N W S [North end of wharf] W S S [Patch of sand] DIG [There is a pearl necklace here] DROP SPOON [We won't need to dig anymore] GET NECKLACE [Another treasure] N N E S S S [Moorage] [There is a motor boat moored here, with the name FANTOME, and it says "Put loot here", so this is where treasures are deposited.] DROP IDOL [Score is 60] DROP EMERALD [Score is 65] DROP NECKLACE [Score is 80] [So far so good. Before we plunge into dark places again, let's see if we can explore at street level first. Did you notice the word FANTOME? Remember what I said before? This is a magic word as well: saying FANTOME from this location sends us directly to the Ghost Box in the opera, and back again. It would be premature to go now. Let's explore a bit more first. The river area may be good, now that we have a floating device.] N N N N W N [Shady lane; there is a leash here, which we mentally note] N [Into prison tunnels again, we have been here before] E E ON [Dank crawl] SE S SW S E E [Into the river] [The river locations work like any other, but we can only go downstream, meaning South in this case. This is the most upstream location, and we'll take advantage of it. Fortunately the water does not appear to damage any objects.] S S [A dark niche is to the East, too good to pass out] E E S [Roman bath; there is a coral mermaid here] GET CORAL [Going Down from here takes us to the stormdrains again; we already were there] N E E [To the river again] S [There is a dock to the West, connecting to the Dungeon, already explored] S S [There is a locked grate here barring further pass] UNLOCK GRATE S S S S [NE shore] [The river ends up in an underground lake. We need the rubber ring to move in it, but there is only an object here that interests us.] SW [Middle of lake, on a pontoon raft] GET BRACELET W S S [Gravely shore, on terra firma again] DROP KEYS DROP TUBE [Won't need to tread water anymore] S [To sloping tunnel] [There is a giant rat here blocking our passage, another obstacle. If you think the cheese will help now, you're mistaken: the rat gobbles it up and is still hungry. This is misdirection, as the solution is different, and very much in line with the structural homage to Colossal Cave.] KILL RAT [Oh, sure! By yelling "BOO" I suppose?] YES [The giant rat is shocked and keels over; score is now 100] S S [Bench room] W [And to the street again, but don't turn the lamp off yet] GET COIN [The coin is yet another treasure, but serves the same purpose as in Colossal Cave: it can replenish our lamp fuel in a certain location. Of course, that prevents full completion of the game. We'll be done way before our lamp runs out in any case.] N [To darkness again, which is why we did not switched off the lamp] W GET EGG [The "Easter egg" is more properly a valuable Faberge egg] E OFF S [Trade entrance] S [Alley, with grafitti (sic) on the walls] READ GRAFITTI ["Every ham wants center stage"] [Yes, HAM is another magic word, and from here it teleports you to the Center Stage, which is, as you can guess, within the Opera as well.] S E E [We're at Shady lane again, having completed a circuit in the map] GET LEASH [Where did we see something to do with a leash? Remember the dog?] S E S S S S [Moorage again] DROP CORAL [Score is 110] DROP BRACELET [Score is 115] DROP EGG [Score is 120] DROP COIN [Score is 125] N N N N W N [Shady lane again] N E S ON [Back to the prison underbelly] S W N [Another cell, which we didn't see before] D E GET BROOCH W U S W S E [Torture room again] N [Through the iron maiden] GIVE LEASH TO DOG [The wording is awkward, because what we do is put the leash on the dog, but it works. This automatically treats the dog like an object - it will follow us, as long as we don't drop the dog. Don't do it until told, because then the dog will attack us automatically. You can drop the leash instead, and then the dog will still follow but not attack. In any case, the dog is calm and we may press on.] E E [Door-lined hall] [Oops, this looks just like the outside corridor to the very cell we started the game in, with the burly guard outside. Obviously he won't allow us to go near him, but we have the solution literally in our hands.] DROP DOG [Which returns the mutt to his semi-wild state and sends the guard off] N [Score is now 145] GET NUGGET S DROP LEASH [No more doggie] W E [Waiting room] OFF S [Outside to the exercise yard] E [There is a news clipping here] GET CLIPPING READ CLIPPING [It talks about Christine] [Ah, Christine, our long lost love. Longing sets in, but we have a job to do. Did you notice the clipping mentions Christine's birthday as 112371? (Europeans might read this as 23/11/1871). By now you will have caught on to regard that number as possibly useful for later, and you wouldn't be wrong.] DROP CLIPPING [Once read, the paper has filled its purpose] W N E S [If we go East from here, we'll arrive at a security kiosk requiring passes to enter or exit the prison. We are already inside, so this is a bit of a moot point, as we could retrace our steps to exit. However, a pass is to be found, so we'll use it anyway.] W S ON [Elegant hall in the warden's house] S S [A study; there is a jade horse here, another treasure] GET JADE E [The warden's bedroom; there is a document here] READ DOCUMENT [It's the pass we mentioned before, so we can exit now] W N N OFF N E E [North kiosk] S S [And we are out] DROP PASS [We can leave it here, as the guard doesn't care] S W W S S S S DROP BROOCH [Score is 155] DROP NUGGET [Score is 170] [But *don't* drop the jade yet. Remember the Ming vase in Colossal Cave? Well, this behaves exactly in the same way. It will be shattered and lost unless it rests on something soft. We'll hold on to it for the time being.] N N N N W W N [Gravel path; we haven't gone this way before] N [Formal garden] [This is another maze, sort of, with semi-random connections and descriptions about roses and rhododendrons. You can actually ADMIRE them (they are lovely) but thankfully, even if it has just five locations, we don't need to enter it. The only object found in it is a yellowing opera program with more references to the Phantom of the Opera story. Just going North from the initial location we are in will eventually take us to the Opera house.] N [Repeat as needed until we are at the Front steps] N ON [All other locations in the Opera are in darkness] N [Manager's office; there is a theatre ticket here, but we'll pick it up later] [There is a combination vault here as well. Wait, did we ever come across anything resembling a combination? Yes we did.] 112371 [In the vault] GET DIAMOND E E GET CLOCK [Lots of valuable objects to be found here] W N U S [Wardrobe, where we find a scarf] GET SCARF [The scarf is soft, and likely to be a good support to prevent the jade from breaking.] N D [Green room again] YNGVI [We are using the shortcut I mentioned before, way better than walking] OFF N W SW S E S S S S DROP SCARF [Remember dropping it first] DROP JADE [Score is 185] DROP DIAMOND [Score is 200] DROP CLOCK [Score is 205] [Things are progressing nicely. Now we'll take the same shortcut to get back.] N N N N W N N E S ON YNGVI [To Green room] U W [There is a Gutenberg book here, obviously valuable, but ignore it for now] D N N [Cliff bottom] INVENTORY [We have arrived at a backstage space with a shabby rope ladder going up. This rope will break if we carry more than 35 units of weight. We should be carrying exactly the lamp, the axe, and the cheese, which are 20 units; this was the reason not to get the book on our way here. If by any chance you are carrying other objects, you may drop all except the lamp and cheese and pick them up afterwards.] U W [Lots of sharp-toothed mice are here blocking our way] FEED MICE [The eat the cheese and become a lot friendlier] N [There is a valuable Russian coffee urn here] GET URN S E D S S S GET BOOK E N N W GET COMB [Yet another treasure] E N W GET TIARA [And another] E N NE [To basement] OFF NW [Carpenters; this room is lighted, but we won't be long] GET CARD READ CARD ["Joe sent me"] [If you get the pop culture reference, you will immediately know what to do with the card, but I'll explain in a moment, just in case.] SW ON N W OFF S [Trade entrance] S S E E [Shady lane again] S E S S S S DROP URN [Score is 220] DROP BOOK [Score is 225] DROP COMB [Score is 230] DROP TIARA [Score is 235] [About the card: it's time we went north of the wharf, to a yet unexplored location.] N N N N N [This is obviously a low dive. But the description sets the scene / timing of the story: black-shirted burly men, pinball machines, computer freaks. So it's the 1970s at least, and at most early 1980s, the time the game was written. This happens many decades after the Phantom last roamed the Opera. Raoul is no more. Christine is no more. Only her memory remains. But I digress: if we come here without the card and try to go through the inconspicuous door on the East wall, a bouncer will stop us. But, of course, Joe sent us.] E [Hacker's den] GET RUG [No doubt the same Persian rug once found under a certain dragon] W DROP CARD S S S S S DROP RUG [Score is now 250] N N N N W N N E S ON YNGVI [On to the Opera again] S GET TICKET S E [Grand staircase] E SW [We can go this way, even if the exit is not marked] [This is the Ghost box, for our exclusive use, from where we could discreetly watch the stage. There is a page of sheet-music here.] GET MUSIC READ MUSIC ["Don Juan Triumphant", very appropriate] NE S [To the seats] [The ticket is necessary to access the seats. You would think this makes no sense, as we are alone and the opera has been abandoned: but not in our mind. Remember the supernatural is in play here, and the ghosts of this place still haunt the stage. We are tempted to call this an atmospheric device, for the sake of player immersion in the narrative, but the unbelievers will just see another puzzle. And why do we need to check the seats, pray?] SW E SW SE [A small gold ring lies here] [Ah - because here's Christine's ring, the one we had embedded in the mortar in our prison cell. It has come back where it belongs.] GET RING READ RING ["E to C 1890"] NW NE E [Orchestra] E SE [Backstage] E S W D N [Ebony hall] W [There is a framed photograph of a lovely woman here] GET PHOTO READ PHOTO ["To Eric with all my love, Christine"] [The photo is not a treasure for the game, but gives an indication that CHRISTINE is another magic word. It works only from this room and plunges us into the first room of the Formal Garden. Handy if we want a fast escape, but less practical than other words as it does not work back in, only to get out.] N [Coffin] [Suddenly our memory returns and we realize that we are the Phantom. Dramatic as the moment is, we had deduced that long ago, but let's get into the role and bask in the awesomeness of the revelation for an instant. That's it, the instant passed. Back to work.] S S [Music room] [There is a magnificent pipe organ here. Since we have the page of music, why not indulge a bit?] PLAY ORGAN [Why, an opening is revealed] S [A Picasso statue is here; yes, he made some sculptures, in case you wonder] GET STATUE N DROP TICKET [Won't need it again] N [To drawing room again] W [This is the Magic Forest. This place is designed to frustrate: it is a single location, with a confusing description, and a single exit the way we came, but it works only sometimes. If you think this is a puzzle, you are right, but this one is subtler. The description should remind us of something: a hall of mirrors. We can try SMASH TREES to be told that the trees in the magic forest are either glass or bronze, depending on how we want to look at it. This reinforces the idea. The game drops other hints about it, but in the end it comes down to - we need to break the mirrors, only violence does not work. But remember: we are Eric, Phantom of the Opera. And what are we, in the end, but an opera singer?] SING [Our high note shatters the glass into a thousand pieces] [The added difficulty is that, for this to work, we need to be carrying the page of music. We can SING at any other time or place, and the game will give us a light, throwaway message likely to make us think that SINGing is just a filler verb, present for amusement. Misdirection. In any case, now we can use the North and South exits from this place. The North one takes us back to the wardrobe area, but there is another treasure to get.] DROP MUSIC [No longer needed] S [There is a tiny brass cricket here] GET CRICKET READ CRICKET [It had an engraving, now worn away, but -UM- can be read] [The cricket is not a treasure, but it serves another purpose, a bit oblique maybe. Remember what I said about marked words likely to be magic ones? What are crickets known for, apart from singing? That's right: the word is JUMP.] JUMP [We are teleported to the Jump room; score is now 270] GET RUBY D [To Bright room] DROP CRICKET [The only purpose of the cricket was to enable the JUMP teleport. We can discard it now. Reaching the ruby is tricky, as we can see the hole on the ceiling from the room below, but it is not possible to go UP from there, making us think that we need something else to go that way. In fact that exit goes the opposite direction only.] S SW N W OFF S [To Trade entrance] [We are now almost done. We have all treasures but one - the warden's chest that will appear only if we have been robbed at some point. If this has not happened so far, instead of following the below directions, light your torch again and go wander in the dark for a while, particularly within the opera or the prison. Once robbed, get back to this location and continue.] S HAM [We take another shortcut, directly to the Stage] ON E S YNGVI [Back to the prison] S W W S E N N [Treasure vault] [If all went well, here we will find all the filched treasures, plus a lovely little chest full of jewelry. GET all the missing treasures, then...] GET CHEST S S W N E E [Dusty corridor] [At some point around now, we should be hearing the sound of a motor outside. This is a hint that the FANTOME is ready to depart, and we must hurry there to deposit our treasures.] N OFF N W SW S E S S S S DROP STATUE [Score is 285] DROP RING [Score is 295] DROP RUBY [Score is 320] DROP CHEST [Score is 335] [And we are almost done. Do you still have the photograph with you? Do not ever let it go - it's your proof that love springs eternal, and also what will give us our Last Lousy Point, provided we have it the moment the last treasure is dropped on the boat.] WAIT [Or INVENTORY, or NOTHING as well; you may have to repeat this a few times] [The FANTOME departs, our score is 336, we are an Adventure Grandmaster, and it's curtains. End of game.]