WONDERWORM Havensoft, 1983 =============== Solution by Exemptus - July 2022 Overview and general hints: --------------------------- This is a simple, little adventure in BASIC for the ZX Spectrum. You are a worm, and the goal is simply to get in time to attend yout Uncle Worm's wormday party and be back at home again, although this last part is missing from the description. The adventure is marred by a few random insta-death locations. Death is also liberally dispensed in some places either on a timer or at the whim of the random generator. Most dangerous locations can be avoided, but some cannot, and it is purely a matter of luck to survive these - so if this happens, the only option is to restart the adventure. This was somebody's idea of fun back in the early 80s, but to be fair, the game is probably programmed by a very young amateur and manages to include some ad hoc graphics. TAKE and LOOK work for objects and descriptions, and I for inventory. The usual directions are valid, though WRIGGLE is sometimes used instead of UP just for colour. You can carry 7 objects, which is odd not only for a worm, but because there's no need to drop anything ever; or in fact it is, but this happens automatically when necessary. Walkthrough: ------------ [In our nice little hole.] LOOK [The only exit seems to be a circle of light above us] READ ["Home Sweet Home"] HELP [What do worms do?] WRIGGLE [We are in a back garden] LOOK [There is an open back door] GO THROUGH DOOR [The door closes, so no way back out] E U [In a bedroo; there's a ladder here, which will allow us to escape] TAKE LADDER N [Front of house] N [Busy road] [This is a random death location. Just don't tarry.] N [This location is also dangerous] CLIMB EAST [We are on a golf course] N E LOOK [There's a sandwich here] EAT SANDWICH [Otherwise we'll die of hunger in Smidgeton] E E LOOK [Pretty picture] E [We are in Smidgeton; there are several paths. E leads to a death location. We need to buy a map, but we don't have any money, so a brief excursion is needed first.] N LOOK [There's a wallet here] TAKE WALLET OPEN WALLET TAKE NOTE [We drop the wallet automatically, as we only need the £1 note. If we carry the wallet past this point north, a policeman takes us in for theft.] S S LOOK [There's a shop here] ENTER SHOP LOOK [Maps are available] BUY MAP N LOOK [There's a dustbin] LOOK IN DUSTBIN [A tie appears] TAKE TIE [We will need to enter the worm hole here, but the worm inside is crazy and will insta-death us for not wearing a tie or just for the kicks. Yes, I'm afraid this is another "let randomly dispense death" location.] D LOOK [There's a knife] TAKE KNIFE [This prevents us being carved with it, but the knife is also useful] E [Dark room] LOOK SWITCH SWITCH [Light is on] LOOK [We can see a coin now] TAKE COIN SWITCH SWITCH [The worm doesm't like us leaving the lights on] W WRIGGLE S EXIT SHOP N [Back in Smidgeton] N N W W [Dead end] READ MAP [The map says there's a hole in the hedge north] N [There's a piece of taut string preventing pass] CUT STRING N [There's a number 99 bus here; we need the coin to take it] TAKE BUS [The bus drives away, taking us to Chipenbury. If we LOOK here, we'll be told the housing looks quite familiar, which is fair because we are very near where we started. Going W takes us to the busy road we have to cross, and going E to the golf course.] S [Garage, another timed death location; don't spend time here.] S READ SIGN [There's an army training field to the east] [The training field is the most annoying thing in the game. Just going through it will insta-kill us 80% of the time at random, and we have to, twice. There's no way around it, so this walkthrough will assume luck is on your side.] E N [Small field] LOOK D [We have finally arrived in Uncle Worm's hole. Now we have to get back, which fortunately is easier, providing we don't insta-die.] WRIGGLE S W N N W S S D [We did it!] [End of game.]