Solution for Herron Software's A Touch Too Much

One warning: this is _not_ a good game. There area total of six objects, and a
grid of one hundred locations. The authors decided, presumably with the intent
of realism, to set the game mostly in London; unfortunately, they then mapped
this city on a New York-style grid, and seem never to have actually visited the
Great Wen themselves, with the result that, e.g., the National Gallery is off
the Strand, just to the east of Tottenham Court Road. As Infocom's Sherlock
shows, it is quite possible to base a good game in London if you're willing to
do the research, and as Garry Cappucini's much superior Crack City shows, it's
quite possible to write a good noir agent game for the Spectrum without needing
the fake realism of a real city. A Touch Too Much, alas, is neither of those.
On the subject of presentation it does get some points for at least trying to
enhance a Basic game with some machine code and a new character set - but why,
then, the slow scrolling and the all-caps? The capitals are pretty, but with a
set of lower-case characters they'd also have been legible; and the scrolling
could have been done at machine code speeds, when now it's done with Basic
tardiness. Such a pity. Anyway, here is the solution, which shows the complete
story rather than being move-optimal:


take gun, e, n x6, e x2, n x2
  (Follow the man:)
s x2, w x2, s x3, e, n, e, n, u, take key, examine pad, d
  (Follow the man again:)
s, w, s, w, s x3, e
  (That remark is just background - it isn't a puzzle clue.)
e x2, s, get on train, say tickets please.
  (You must use one, and exactly one, extra character after please -
   it doesn't matter what, a space works just as well as a full stop!)
take ticket, w x3, get off train

s, w, n x3, u, e, w, take rope, d, s, e, n
s, w, s, u x2, unlock door, say follow me.
  (Again, you need an extra character.)
e, get in helicopter, lift off, tie up pilot

e, n, e x2, n x2, take overalls, wear overalls
w x2, s, w, n, say white dust.
  (Again, one extra character)
d, e x3, s, take card
s, turn dials, n x2, get in sub

n x4, w x2, n x5, w, u
put card in slot, s, w, shoot man


If you want a larger completion percentage, visit more of the pointless
locations, but... well, _why_? Try, instead, to finish the game with the
lowest possible count. See if you can beat my record of 52%.
                                                 -- Richard Bos, September 2014