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Dungeon Builder Adventure, The (dungeon_builder_adv_wt.txt)

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).]