THE DUNGEON BUILDER DEMOSTRATION ADVENTURE Dream Software, 1984 ========================================== Solution by Exemptus - November 2022 Overview and general hints: --------------------------- This is a short demonstration adventure pre-coded within The Dungeon Builder (TDB), a lesser-known ZX Spectrum adventure authoring system by Dream Software. TDB has the merit of being able to draw and assign static pictures to locations prior to The Illustrator, but there's not a lot to say for it in any other respect. It is incredibly cumbersome to use, and in some ways has most of the inconveniences of planning a text adventure on paper and few of the advantages. The game itself is, as usual with example adventures, very short and simple. It is a basic treasure hunt with just 25 rooms and two treasures, and its main feature is that it is unfinished. There is no completion code: the player is expected to just obtain 295 points and that's it. The funny thing is that the manual misdocuments it: for instance, in order to illustrate conditional actions, it says there is an obstacle that is removed with the command TAKE COINS, but there is no "coins" object in the game. It also talks about other non-existing treasures, such as the gold, which is absent in the database. My guess is that the game was expected to be larger, but deadlines got in the way. In any case, the game allows obtaining the maximum score, so I have provided a walkthrough for this goal. This bypasses a maze of twisty passages, all alike, which is present in the game, but leads only to a shaft with a fish (not useful for anything). The idea may have been to use the rope to climb the shaft and get around an obstacle preventing return, but all that logic is missing anyway. What is available is pretty short, so let's be done with it. Walkthrough: ------------ [We begin on a road leading south. There is no way to get back to this location, but since there is no endgame anyway it won't be a bother. A wizard intones "Maximum score 295", which is useful: we'll aim for that goal.] S S [A small wooden hut is to the E] E [There is a magazine, lamp, keys and knife here] TAKE MAGAZINE READ MAGAZINE [It suggests we read the article] READ ARTICLE [We are given some verbs used in the adventure] TAKE LAMP TAKE KEYS TAKE KNIFE [The knife is interesting: it has no use, but the command SPIN KNIFE says "it points to the South" wherever we issue it. This seems to be another of the unfinished ideas for the game.] W S S [S of bridge] S S [End of road; there is a rope here] TAKE ROPE N N W W [N of a cave] [We can enter the cave this way. If we are not carrying the lamp, we could not pass, but not because it is dark inside: darkness is not a property of rooms in the game. In fact, we could enter the caves by the around route we'll follow and without having the lamp at all, and the game will be none the wiser.] W W W [Standing on ledge] D [There is a diamond here] TAKE DIAMOND [Without the rope, we could not continue climbing down, and with the diamond, we cannot get back up, as it is too heavy. At least this part was implemented!] D [Large chamber, and a door with magic inscriptions is here] XYZZY [The door magically swings open] [This is a bit of a nuisance. The HELP command is expected to answer with the message "XYZZY is a useful magic word", but it doesn't because the code linking the message to the verb is missing.] SE [Treasure vault; there is a jewel here] TAKE JEWEL SCORE [295 points] [End of game (or at least, end of the available game).]