ATOM ADVENTURE Hopesoft, 1982 ============== Solution by Exemptus - June 2023 Overview and general hints: --------------------------- A very small game (23 rooms), but tricky to handle. The player is sent on a quest to retrieve five treasures in a fantasy setting and get them to a certain location. There are several problems: * Some objects appear in fixed places, but others are located at random at the start of the adventure. This wouldn't be too much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that... * ...we have to traverse a set of cave locations, which are dark, and the only light source is *very* limited (it lasts only 15 moves, with no possibility of extending it!). In addition to this... * ...we will be stabbed once in the caves and we will survive only for four turns unless we find a plaster bandage (which, of course, is in a random place.) If that weren't enough... * ...the game is segmented in two areas between the caves and castle: from the caves we have to open a door with no way back, we apparently need to carry more objects that we have inventory for (we can only hold four objects)... * ...and there is no way to save the state of the game, so it has to be sequenced as a whole, from the start. I spent a few hours convincing myself that the game was actually solvable, but it is: there are certain conventions that the player must abuse, plus an intrinsic puzzle naturally set up by geography but not evident at all that must be solved. The puzzle is subtle, because all it earns the player is time, so it is not apparent that shortcuts can be taken. More about this later. Suffice to say that if you played "Adventure 200" by C.J. Coombs, the situation will be recognizable. First things first: it is critical to map the locations which are dark. These include all 8 out of 9 locations in the caves, plus another one in the castle cellar. We want to minimize the number of turns the lamp is lit. The following objects are in the game: * Lamp: Source of light. Random location outside of the caves. * Matches: Needed to light the lamp. Same as above. * Keys: Needed to open the grating and the rusty door. Same as above. * Bottle: With oil, needed for the rusty door *and* also to carry the water needed to water the magic bean in the castle. Random location, but can be in the caves. * Elastoplast: Allows us to survive the troll's stabbing. Random location in the caves. * Knife: Needed to kill the Giant hamster and to open the oyster in the castle. Same as above. * Dead hamster: To feed the snake. We generate it. * Diamond ring: Treasure, fixed location (always with the hamster). * Gold bar: Treasure, fixed location (the NW vaulted chamber). * Ruby: Treasure, random location in the castle. * Magic bean: Generates a treasure if planted. Same as above. * Food: For the dragon. Same as above. * Oyster: Contains the Pearl. Fixed location in cellar. * Pearl: Treasure. We generate it. * Silver Flower: Treasure. We generate it. * Scroll: Has the password to open the Treasury. Fixed location in garden. It will be noted from the list above that the bottle, knife, ring and gold bar need to be carried through the door to the castle. But we also need the lamp, because otherwise we can't open the oyster in the cellar. This makes five objects to be carried. And, if the lamp is unlit, we also need the matches, which makes six. This is the main puzzle to be solved. Our first thought is to let go of the matches, but this implies that the lamp needs to be lit once we go through the door, which of course wastes light turns, as the two locations beyond until we reach the cellar are lit. It's very likely we won't have enough light turns. And that still leaves us with five objects to handle. The inventory puzzle is solved by the fact that the ring is wearable. The player may infer this from the fact that the plaster is, and frees its inventory slot once used. An added quirk is that WEAR does not work as a verb: the right command is PUT ON RING, which works. Even with this, there are not quite enough turns of light to manage all the necessary object handling. We must save light to ridiculous extremes, and this requires planning a bit and exploring what the game allows and what it doesn't. Facts to take into account are: 1. I have said before that the lamp lasts for 15 moves, but these are not turns: the lamp only uses energy *when we move* between locations. Therefore we can do all kind of actions within a location without the lamp running out, but once we move, that is a turn less. This fact is key, as what we need to minimize is the number of times we move with the lamp lit. This also means we don't need to re-light the lamp ever, so we can discard the matches once the lamp is lit. 2. There are two entrances to the caves, one through the building and another one through the grating. The latter one leads to a lit cave space (it says so in the description). It's vital to use this one, as we may be lucky and find at least one of the cave-only objects in this location, ideally the plaster. 3. We need to get all the objects outside before entering the caves, but keep in mind that we will be stabbed at random in one of the cave locations and we'll just have 4 moves to USE PLASTER before dying. This is a serious constraint if we need to specifically search for the plaster before committing to the optimal route. In addition, we'd had found the keys, lamp, matches and possibly the bottle outside, which fills our inventory up: we need to drop at lest one of these to make room for the plaster. Once we use it, we only have the light moves limit to deal with, so we can proceed with the optimal sequence. This means we need to prepare to use as little light as possible until the plaster is used. 3. The hamster is killed with the knife, and we need to also carry the knife with us to the door. Let's see; we need to carry the following objects to the door (I'm not counting the ring, as it can be worn): * knife (needed in the castle) * bottle (to oil the door; also, we need to fill it with water afterwards) * keys (to open it) * gold bar (treasure) * lamp (we need it later) That's five, so two trips to the door are needed. We can't spare more than one trip to the door though: there is simply not enough time. Let's assume the best possible naïve sequence, which is that the knife and plaster are found under the grating, and we get stabbed right there. We can then use plaster while carrying the lamp, bottle and knife. The keys are on the floor and we haven't spend any light turns. Then the sequence goes: ON LAMP / W* / W* / GET GOLD / E* / E* / E* / DROP GOLD / N* / KILL HAMSTER / / GET RING / PUT ON RING / GET HAMSTER / S* / S* / GIVE HAMSTER TO SNAKE / S* where the asterisks mark moves that waste light. We can now see that this won't do: we have spent 9 out of the 15 turns and the keys and gold are still to be brought. We'd need to move 8 more times, which makes 17. There is no way to do this in 15 moves under the current assumptions. 4. The inescapable conclusion is that there must be a way to bring at least one object to the door without having to do a round trip. Once we realize this, and notice that the gold location is described as separated by a river from the door location, we can surmise that it's possible to THROW objects across the river from one location to the other, which is actually the case. 5. In addition to this, it is possible to complete actions that require objects without holding them, as long as the objects are in the room. In fact, it is perfectly possible to OPEN DOOR even if the keys are on the floor. The right idea, then, is to throw the keys across the river (by trial and error, we will find that other objects don't work: the gold bar falls in to the river and the bottle smashes; the matches can also be thrown across, but there is no need to), leave objects strategically in the way to the door, complete the actions there without moving, and go in, straight to the cellar to open the oyster. In fact, this is the only way the thing will work. Let's try to write a walkthrough. It will be unusual, due to the randomness, but since the game is tightly segmented and very short, we can use checkpoints and restart if the situation is unfavourable. Walkthrough: ------------ [We begin at the end of a road. There are several locations outside that we must explore. Commands in (parentheses) are to be issued only if appropriate, meaning the right object is there. If not, they have to be issued when we come across the object. The first order of the day is to find the lamp, matches, keys and bottle, so we'll explore all locations.] W (GET LAMP) W W [The road peters out] E [Mind that exiting the forest and entering it map to different locations] (GET KEYS) (GET MATCHES) E E N IN [Inside of building] OUT S W OPEN GRATING DOWN [Checkpoint 1: You should have with you the keys, lamp and matches, all found above. In the current location there should be either the bottle of oil or the elastoplast. If not, then you *need* to get lucky in the following turns or else restart. If you wish to play conservatively, you may restart here until the above situation matches yours. I will assume that the elastoplast is here. If you also have the bottle with you, drop it here for the moment. If the knife is here, leave it as well.] (GET PLASTER) W LIGHT LAMP W [Light turns begin now: we are at the vaulted chamber] THROW KEYS ACROSS RIVER THROW MATCHES ACROSS RIVER GET GOLD (GET OIL) [At this point in time you should be stabbed by the troll. This happens randomly but it allows you to free the plaster slot. I will assume it happens now or within the next two turns. In any case, wait to USE PLASTER unless you have been stabbed before.] E E [Lit location under grating] [Checkpoint 2: Are you bleeding? If so, all is good. If not, best to restart, as the troll is taking too much time. USE PLASTER [We now have a free inventory slot and we can get the knife, in case we left it here. In my assumed playthrough, the knife has not yet shown up. The important thing is that we can GET it when it appears.] E (GET KNIFE) DROP GOLD N [The hamster and ring are here] KILL HAMSTER [with the knife] GET RING PUT ON RING [Now it doesn't take inventory space, so we still have a free slot] GET HAMSTER S S [The snake is here] GIVE HAMSTER TO SNAKE N GET GOLD S S S [We are at the door] [Checkpoint 3: You are at the door with the bottle of oil, gold bar, knife and lamp, and wearing the ring (and plaster). On the ground we have the keys and the box of matches. In case this is not so, you have to restart. We have spent exactly 11 light turns, so there are 4 left.] OIL DOOR FILL BOTTLE [With water] UNLOCK DOOR [No need to get the keys] OPEN DOOR GO THROUGH DOOR [We are in the castle now. We need to go to the cellar right away, since we can't re-light the lamp now that we don't have the matches.] W [Ignore any objects such as the ruby, food or bean if they are around] DOWN [Cellar, with the oyster] OPEN OYSTER GET PEARL UP [And the lamp should go off right now] [The worst is over. The rest is just mopping up.] DROP LAMP DROP PEARL (GET FOOD) [These are damsel-flavoured crisps] (GET BEAN) W E [If you haven't seen the food or bean, they will be in the W location.] OUT [There is a fire-breathing dragon guarding a scroll of paper here] PLANT BEAN WATER BEAN DROP BOTTLE GIVE FOOD TO DRAGON GET SCROLL READ SCROLL ["The magic word is OKAPI"] DROP SCROLL IN GET PEARL (GET RUBY) [Maybe going E then W again, or the other way around] [Checkpoint 4: you are in the Baronial hall with the gold bar, ruby, pearl and silver flower, and wearing the ring. You can then end the game.] UP [Treasury door, which needs a password] OKAPI [End of game, no penalty points, and all the treasures. Well done.]