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Redhawk (Redhawk_sol.txt)

REDHAWK
Melbourne House, 1986
=====================

Solution by Exemptus - February 2025


Overview and general hints:
---------------------------
This unusual adventure has a three-panel comic-strip-like interface, with
sequential vignettes showing the action on screen. We control Kevin Oliver, who
doubles as the superhero Redhawk, in a slightly parodic version of the genre,
with supervillains and dastardly plots. Kevin awakes in hospital with no memory
of how he got there and must uncover a plot to blow up the city's power reactor.
Saying the work "KWAH" changes Kevin into Redhawk and also the other way around.

A clock is shown on screen at all times and there is an in-universe time limit
to finish the adventure. As we command Kevin / Redhawk, the clock advances by
seconds or minutes, with some actions taking more than others. There are also
two meters for energy and popularity: energy goes down quickly as Redhawk, but
builds up as Kevin, while Popularity is a bit the opposite, as it increases if
we do heroic deeds (obviously as Redhawk) but it will go down slowly when we are
Kevin. If popularity gets to zero, then Redhawk is regarded as a supervillain,
which is not very conducive to victory. Health is more important, so we'll go as
Kevin most of the time.

The oddest quirk of all is that inventories are partly separate for both
personalities: any object taken as one can only be used, and will only show up
in the inventory, as that same character, but not the other. This means that if
we need to pass an object given to Redhawk to be used as Kevin, then we have to
drop the object, change, then get it again: otherwise it won't be available.

The game has a limited parser, but there's not a lot needed: four directions
plus up and down, LOOK and EXAMINE, we can SAY things, and GET works as a
generic for taking things, including photos and vehicles. The geography has
several separate areas and we can move between them by getting taxis or trains
(which cost money) or, as Redhawk, by using the command FLY TO <name of
location>, which works as long as we are outside. It is possible to use adverbs
such as CAREFULLY EXAMINE <object>, which take more time and may provide us with
extra information, but no such use is necessary anywhere. The game also
understands ENTER, EXIT, and a fair number of prepositions.

Travel by train costs £1. Taxis cost £3, but they can go directly to any street
and are quicker. Flying is of course free, but it takes so much energy that it
should be used sparingly. Given that we are given £20 each time we bring snaps
to the Editor, taxis are the recommended way to move.

It is possible to type commands while the current ones are being executed, and
you should take advantage of this, as time can be critical in some spots. It is
also possible to chain commands separating them by commas, which forces these to
execute immediately after each other. The command editor also has abbreviations
for many commands and the ability to recall past ones.

Popularity is raised mainly by arresting muggers and foiling robberies. Muggers
show up at fixed times, but places vary: they can appear at the Park, the Town
Square or the Hospital Grounds. When this happens. If we are there, we can turn
into Redhawk and subdue them for arrest. There's a special event apart from
these, but it is handled in a particular way (it's a puzzle in disguise).

Robberies are different: there are exactly four of them and are important for
the plot. They happen at fixed places and times, and each involves a different
supervillain (of sorts). Each of these has an annoying power that will affect
Redhawk unless we equip ourselves against it, and the villain in question has a
colour card that we will need. The game, in essence, consists on getting all
four colour cards, finding a way into the Reactor complex, and defusing the bomb
using the cards. Robberies and muggings are shown in the following table:

Time    Place               Villain         Superpower              Card
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
10:59   Park                Mugger          -                       -
11:26   Park                Mugger          -                       -
11:53   (varies)            Mugger          -                       -
12:00   Jewellers           Fusor           Energy zapping          Red
12:20   (varies)            Mugger          -                       -
12:47   (varies)            Mugger          -                       -
13:11   Bank                Techno          Electronic armour       Blue
13:14   (varies)            Mugger          -                       -
13:41   (varies)            Mugger          -                       -
13:55   Warehouse           The Rat         Speed                   Green
14:08   (varies)            Mugger          -                       -
14:35   Park                Mugger          -                       -
15:03   (varies)            Mugger          -                       -
15:08   Blackheath Lane     Mugger          -                       -
15:29   (varies)            Mugger          -                       -
15:56   Park                Mugger          -                       -
16:17   Gallery             Merlin          Paralysis spell         Yellow
16:23   (varies)            Mugger          -                       -

Money can be obtained by acting as a journalist (as Kevin), taking snaps of
muggers and selling them to the paper Editor: each time he will give us £20 and
new film for our camera, which we start equipped with. This is not needed but it
is advisable, as it raises both money and popularity.

The game begins at 10:27, and some events will happen at certain times, as noted
above. Unless we prevent it, the bomb will begin countdown at 17:00 and explode
at 17:04 exactly.

The main difficulty of the game is time management. Since we need to intercept
all four robberies, we need to be in the right places at the right times.
Stopping for muggings takes time. There is a way to be notified of muggings when
they happen, so we can go right there and deal with it, but heeding all these
alerts will interfere with the main mission, so it will be necessary to ignore
some. This of course will affect popularity. Due to this, it is advisable to
become Redhawk only when strictly needed and spend as much time as Kevin as
possible.

The walkthrough below is somewhat optimized, but this requires having played in
advance, so it uses knowledge from previous playthroughs. In particular, you
need to know the name of a place before you travel to it. There are three places
that can't be reached otherwise, which are Oxford Gardens, Brook Court and
Smallman Street. The names can be found through the Librarian, as these are
where the Director, Editor and Professor live. I'll skip this step and act as if
we already knew about these from a previous game, which in any case is expected.


Walkthrough:
------------
[Kevin awakes in hospital, not knowing how he got there. We have several things
to do: first, get a job as a photographer at the local paper, which will get us
film for the photos, and arrest our first mugger in order to get a police radio.
The radio (which Kevin will keep) will alert us whenever there's a mugging. For
logistical reasons it is also convenient to first get one of the objects that
will be needed later before we go for the mugger. There's barely enough time for
this combo, but it can be done, so type quickly. If you can't be quick enough,
just deal with the mugging first, but keep in mind some parts of the walkthrough
depend on the time and you may have to adjust later.]

S,E,E,N [This takes us to the Trumpet offices, the local diary]

[During this walk, at 10:30 exactly, Kevin will remember the word "KWAH". At the
offices there is a sign, Lesley (a lady which can be helpful later) and the
Editor.]

READ SIGN [The Editor gives us the photographer job and asks what we need]
SAY "FILM" [We got the film]

[It should be no later than 10:35. The first mugger will be at 10:59 in the
Park. There's barely time enough to travel a bit to get a useful object, but it
will make things easier with scheduling later.]

S,W,S [To City station]
L [Trains run between Heath, District, Central and City]
GET TRAIN TO HEATH
L [There is a pink tube on the train]
GET TUBE

[If we CAREFULLY EXAMINE TUBE, we'll be told it's small and has a speaker. It is
a thief alarm that can be carried in a handbag. We'll give it to Lesley later.]

WAIT [The train arrives at Heath Station]
W,S,E [To Power Lab, here are the Director and Professor, and a magnet]
GET MAGNET
W,N,E [Back to Heath Station]
GET TRAIN TO CITY
WAIT
N [To Park]

[Just in time, hopefully, we'll have arrived at the time a mugger is here. Time
for our first foray as Redhawk.]

GET PHOTO
SAY "HAWK" [Redhawk is here]
HIT MUGGER [The mugger surrenders]
ARREST MUGGER

[Get used to these four commands, as they will be used every time we need to
deal with a mugger. We go to the Police Station automatically, where the officer
gives us a radio as reward. The radio will alert us to subsequent events, but
with the table above we don't really need it. However, we'll pretend we do. Now
it's time to get paid for the photos.]

DROP RADIO
SAY "KWAH" [Back to Kevin]
GET RADIO [It's better if Kevin has the radio]
N,E,N,E,N [To Trumpet offices]
GIVE TUBE TO LESLEY
GIVE FILM TO EDITOR [We are given £20 and more film]

[It's now around 11:15. We can start preparing for plot events. The first plot
event to handle will be the robbery at 12:00 by Fusor. Fusor will zap us with an
energy discharge, but this can be counteracted by our wearing isolation gear (a
pair of wellies). The second event we are already equipped for, since the magnet
will neutralize Techno. We'll travel to several places and get some useful items
for later. Watch your health and wait a bit as Kevin if it's low. Don't wait too
long though, because there's another mugging at 11:26.]

S [To Feet Street]
GET TAXI TO OXFORD GARDENS
WAIT [Until we arrive]
W [Where the Director lives, a pair of wellies is here]
SAY "HAWK" [Redhawk will wear the wellies]
GET WELLIES
WEAR WELLIES [Nice fit]
E
FLY TO PARK [Watch that you don't run out of energy]
SAY "KWAH" [Back to Kevin]

[If the mugger is not here, just WAIT; shouldn't be long.]

GET PHOTO
SAY "HAWK" [Redhawk is here]
HIT MUGGER [The mugger surrenders]
ARREST MUGGER [And once in the station...]
SAY "KWAH"
N,E,N,E,N [To Trumpet offices]
GIVE FILM TO EDITOR [Another £20 and more film]
S
GET TAXI TO BROOK COURT
WAIT
W [We are at the Editor's and there's a cat here]
SAY "KWAH" [Become Redhawk]
GET CAT [This will deal with The Rat later]
SAY "KWAH" [Become Kevin]
E
GET TAXI TO FRONT STREET [We'll go to the Jewellers]

[There is another mugging at 11:53, which the radio will alert us of, but we'll
ignore it as it's too close to the plot event, and it would make is waste time.
Once in Front Street, we'll wait as Kevin, since being Redhawk would hit our
energy meter.]

WAIT UNTIL 11:59 [Repeat if necessary, as the mugging alert will stop the wait]
SAY "KWAH" [Become Redhawk]
W [To the Jewellers; Fusor should be here]
EXAMINE FUSOR [This will probably fail as Fusor will zap us]
EXAMINE FUSOR [After zapping and failing due to the boots]

[We'll see that Fusor has a red card.]

GET RED CARD FROM FUSOR [This command fails unless we wear the boots]
E
SAY "KWAH" [Kevin again]

[We now have the Red card. Three more to go.]

GET TAXI TO SMALLMAN STREET
WAIT
W [To the Professor's lodgings, where we find some gloves]
GET GLOVES [As Kevin this time]
E
GET TAXI TO PARK

[It should be around 11:15 now, and we should wait for the next mugging. This
one may take place elsewhere, either at Town Square or the Hospital Grounds, but
if so we'll hear where on the radio. If this is the case then just move there
and carry on.]

WAIT
GET PHOTO
SAY "HAWK" [Redhawk is here]
HIT MUGGER [The mugger surrenders]
ARREST MUGGER
SAY "KWAH" [To Kevin]
N,E,N,E,N [To Trumpet offices]
GIVE FILM TO EDITOR [Another £20 and more film]
S

[There should be a bit of time until the next plot event. We'll get the
Professor's gloves analysed to get a useful clue. But we shouldn't do this right
away, because due to a bug we'll be interrupted by a mugging alert during the
analysis which confuses the game state. The next mugging is at 12:47 and we'll
have to be around by then. Let's set things up a bit.]

W,W,S,S [To the Police Station]
DROP MAGNET [We need Redhawk to get it later]
N,N,E [To Park]
WAIT UNTIL 12:47 [When the next mugger appears]
GET PHOTO
SAY "HAWK" [Redhawk is here]
HIT MUGGER [The mugger surrenders]
ARREST MUGGER [And once in the station...]
GET MAGNET [Back with Redhawk]
SAY "KWAH" [To Kevin]
N,E,N,E,N [To Trumpet offices]
GIVE FILM TO EDITOR [Another £20 and more film]
S

[Now it should be more or less 13:00, a good time to get to the Bank.]

GET TAXI TO SIDE STREET
WAIT UNTIL 13:10
SAY "KWAH" [Redhawk again]
W [To Bank]

[Techno will be here at 13:11. Ensure that your energy is reasonable.]

GIVE MAGNET TO TECHNO [Techno is disabled]
EXAMINE TECHNO [Has a Blue card]
GET BLUE CARD FROM TECHNO [Two to go]
E
SAY "KWAH"

[Now to the lab and warehouse, where the next plot event will unfold. At 13:14
we'll be alerted of another mugger, which we'll ignore as it interferes too much
with our schedule.]

E [To Central Station]
GET TRAIN TO DISTRICT
WAIT [Until it arrives]
E
GIVE GLOVES TO SCIENTIST [He'll do an analysis]

[This should happen before 13:30, ideally, as the analysis will take 10 minutes.
The Scientist says the gloves show traces of explosive. So we have our culprit:
the Professor. Don't forget to get the gloves back as we have to return them to
him.]

GET GLOVES
W
N
E [To warehouse]
EXAMINE WAREHOUSE [You discover a vase; it will be hidden unless you do this]

[The vase is important: if we CAREFULLY EXAMINE VASE we'll be told it looks
ancient, which is out of place in a warehouse and suggests taking it to the
Museum to get it looked at. But we ought to do that as Redhawk, so it will have
to wait, as Kevin won't be allowed at the Museum (because of the camera, which
can't be dropped) but Redhawk will.]

WAIT [There will be a mugger alert at 13:41, but we need to ignore it]
WAIT UNTIL 13:55 [The Rat appears]
SAY "KWAH"
DROP CAT [The Rat panics and surrenders]
EXAMINE RAT [Has a Green card]
GET GREEN CARD FROM RAT [Only one left]
GET VASE
W
FLY TO BACK STREET [Outside the Museum]
W [In the Museum, the Curator is here]
GIVE VASE TO CURATOR [We are given a book as reward]
READ BOOK [It says there's a sewer under Heath Station]
E
SAY "KWAH" [We must be low on energy by now]
GET TAXI TO PARK [In order to get there by 14:08]
WAIT

[We are cutting it fine in terms of energy. The taxi ride will allow us to get
some back. It should be just barely possible to do the mugger sequence, with the
energy running out (and reverting to Kevin) at the Police Station. This does not
matter as long as the sequence is complete, but if you find your energy runs out
before getting at the Police Station, feel free to bypass the sequence, though
then you may have to be around for the mugger at 14:35 to avoid your popularity
meter getting too low.]

GET PHOTO
SAY "HAWK" [Redhawk is here]
HIT MUGGER [The mugger surrenders]
ARREST MUGGER [And once in the station...]
SAY "KWAH" [Only if your energy has not run out, but if it has, it will fail]
N,E,N,E,N [To Trumpet offices]
GIVE FILM TO EDITOR [Another £20 and more film]
S,W,S [To City Station]

[Now we'll return the gloves to the professor, which is the next to last step.]

GET TRAIN TO HEATH
WAIT
W,S,E [To Power Lab]

[Check the time. If it's before 14:35, WAIT UNTIL 14:35 and let the alert run,
after which you may carry on. Otherwise, just go ahead. This dodge is needed so
the alert doesn't interrupt the analysis. Dropping the radio doesn't work
because the bug makes the analysis timer stop regardless of the alert.]

GIVE GLOVES TO PROFESSOR [He'll do an analysis]

[The professor takes 10 minutes and determines that these are his gloves. He may
be evil, but absent-mindedness does not even let a villain's dignity alone.]

W,N,E [To Heath Station again]
GET TRAIN TO CITY
WAIT

[At 15:08 there will be a siren wail from Lesley, who is attacked in Blackheath
Lane. As she carries the siren, the muggers will flee ans she will be safe. This
Allows us to ignore the alert and prevents a big drop in popularity that would
have happened if we'd let Lesley be mugged.]

N [To Park]
WAIT UNTIL 15:29 [For the next mugger, which will be our last]
GET PHOTO
SAY "HAWK" [Redhawk is here]
HIT MUGGER [The mugger surrenders]
ARREST MUGGER [And once in the station...]
DROP BOOK
SAY "KWAH" [To Kevin]
GET BOOK [So Kevin has the book]
N,E,N,E,N [To Trumpet offices]
GIVE FILM TO EDITOR [Another £20 and more film]
S,W,W,W,W [To Gallery]

[Our popularity should be decent enough now to just wait up until Merlin appears
at 16:17. We can ignore any further radio alerts. The trick to defeating Merlin
is just to wait as Kevin then change to Redhawk after his spell is cast.]

WAIT [We are interrupted by the alert at 15:56]
WAIT UNTIL 16:17 [This should work; Merlin appears and commands us to be still]
SAY "KWAH" [With difficulty we utter the word and change to Redhawk]
EXAMINE MERLIN [He has a Yellow card]
GET YELLOW CARD FROM MERLIN [We now have all the cards]
E
SAY "KWAH" [Back to old Kev]

[We have all we need. We now need to travel to Heath Station, go down the sewers
to emerge at the Power Reactor (otherwise unreachable), insert the cards in the
same order we got them, subdue the Professor, and we're done. But we need to be
quick, because the bomb will be off at 17:00. Since Merlin appears at a fixed
time, we cannot do this earlier: we have about 40 minutes of game time to
sequence this.]

GET TAXI TO HEATH
DROP RADIO
DROP BOOK [It's only necessary to have it with us here to find the Sewers]
D,N,U,SAY "KWAH",U [This takes us to the Reactor as Redhawk]

[Both the bomb and the Professor are here.]

HIT PROFESSOR [He goes down]
INSERT RED CARD INTO BOMB
INSERT BLUE CARD INTO BOMB
INSERT GREEN CARD INTO BOMB
INSERT YELLOW CARD INTO BOMB

[The bomb is defused and the game is won. Well done!]

[End of game.]