Walkthrough for Luster (2011 IFComp entry, gblorb format) by Jared Smith
This document written by Andrew Schultz blurglecruncheon@gmail.com
Luster may not be a very good game, objectively speaking, but it's a neat treasure hunt and I
had fun piecing together what I should be doing and why. In fact, I'm pretty sure the
"best" ending has you losing anyway. The game seems to waver between clever programming
(making the maze hard) and outright silly implementation and bad typos (calling things pedestal1-4)
and some thought it was a troll entry. Sometimes, like with the dye puzzle, it is just unresponsive.
Or with the dynamic hints, the game recognizes you need different hints but then gives very vague
hints.
Nevertheless, there doesn't seem to be a way to get to an unwinnable state, and I enjoyed being
able to get through it, finally. So this game is never abrasive. And I saw it had no walkthrough,
not even by its author, and I felt it sort of needed one. I'm going to point out missed
implementations along the way, but I hope I'm not being too rough on it. I want this to be more
a look at the sort of bugs that can pop up in games than an MST3King.
So if you were stuck on Luster, or if you just want something with some imagination and earnestness
that won't blow you away, or if you like flawed games, then this walkthrough may help you. You
also don't need to worry about the sun going up or down--that doesn't seem to matter for
any of the puzzles.
Parts are badly clued, but the basic idea is that you need to find 4 gems--well, find them, get
warped somewhere, and find how to REALLY get them, put them on the right pedestals, and pull a lever
in a sort of museum. So let's get cracking. This path should be pretty optimal, because you
don't go back to the lever room to put gems on pedestals as you get there.
Some commands are similar enough that the up-arrow may be very useful indeed in some interpreters.
You can't do anything meaningful to start, but there's no way to mess up.
>Z
>Z
>Z
>Z
>Z
>Z
>GET PHONE
Name yourself whatever. It doesn't affect the game. The game cuts off the second word and
beyond.
>W
>NW
>S
>W
>ENTER RAFT
>W
Oh! The first gem!
>GET GEM
Or not.
>W
>N
>GET PEN
>S
There are actual weapons to the south of the statue room, but the pen works better for what you
need. It's mightier than the sword, you see. You should be able to beat the swordsman, but it
does seem to be random.
So you may wish to save here just in case.
>W
>ATTACK SWORDSMAN WITH PEN
>G
Continue with the G command until he is dead.
>E
>GET GEM
There's nothing else to do while on the plain. The game just kicks you back. Still, that's
better than getting kicked to a no-win situation.
You have one of four gems now, and you're kicked back to the fork.
>S
>NW
>GET MAT
>GET KEY
The key is useful elsewhere, but first, get in the store. Note at any time, X SIGN changes Abandoned
Store Front to Myers Entrance. This doesn't affect the game. From disassembly, it seems the
author made this a new location instead of just changing a private name. It's not the first
case of brute-forcing in the game. However, they're to be commended for plugging all the
possible bugs (that I could find.)
>ATTACK DOOR WITH PEN
>W
>OPEN REGISTER
>GET DIME
>E
>SE
That's that for the store. You've robbed it, now, and you're a wanted criminal. Now
let's get by the train north of the fork.
>N
>DROP PEN
Free up some inventory.
>W
>S
>IN
>OUT
Jail. Rats. X RAINBOW for a clue what to do a bit later. Note what's blocked out.
>W
>GET SOAP
>WASH SOAP
Note: you have to get the soap to wash it. The game tells you about a copper key once you do, but
you need to take it explicitly.
>GET KEY
>E
>N
>W
Strangely, the steel key doesn't unlock the steel door.
>SWITCH RED
>SWITCH BLUE
>SWITCH INDIGO
This shuts off the train tracks and lets you go north.
In order to read the sign, you need the command READ SIGN8. Which is, yes, weak programming. They
could've just coded 'the power room sign is scenery in the power room.'
>E
>OUT
>N
>E
>N
>N
>PUT COIN IN SLOT
You still have the coin after this. Oops! But you have another gem. More inventory twiddling, now.
>DROP COPPER KEY AND DIME AND LETTER
>GET GEM
Now is a good time to enter the ramen booth with the steel key we found under the map.
>S
>S
>S
>SE
>W
>UNTIE BULB
>GET BULB
Now we have a light source for later.
>E
>NW
>S
>PUT MAT ON RECTANGLE
You can pick the mat back up again, but you probably want the inventory space. It's useless to
you now.
The forest maze is annoying, since it changes room descriptions and names randomly. But fortunately
there are straightforward ways to the places you need to get to.
Again, you may wish to save here and, in fact, after each gem you get, so you don't get
hopelessly lost.
>S
>S
>S
>S
At the forest center--where to go? The midnight gem is easier of the remaining two to get.
>W
>S
>S
>S
You should be at the clearing now.
>GET GEM
Black doesn't work, but black gem/midnight gem does. You need the bulb to take this gem, but
after doing so, the bulb is useless.
>DROP BULB
>N
>N
>N
>E
>S
>E
>GET GREEN
Okay, so here' the final puzzle. This one is pretty interesting. I had trouble with PUT YELLOW
IN GOBLET showing up blank, and I didn't have a good idea what the box was for or how to
operate it. You need to close it. You are able to create purple and orange dye, which makes things
unwinnable (and if you try to make brown, everything vanishes,) but I think it should be pretty
clear you want the green, since, yeah, green gem.
>OPEN CHEST
>OPEN COMPARTMENT
>PUT YELLOW IN COMPARTMENT
>PUT BLUE DYE IN COMPARTMENT
Crank the machine up. Annoying long names, but you can cut off after nine letters if you want. Also,
use the up arrow and the home/end keys and control-left arrow if you want for the next eight moves.
>CLOSE COMPARTMENT
>SWITCH SWITCH
>OPEN COMPARTMENT
>GET GREEN DYE
Now how to make green liquid? There's some guess-the-noun here.
>GET GOBLET
>PUT WATER IN GOBLET
>PUT GREEN IN GOBLET
>GET GREEN
You now have all four gems! Fortunately, there's a straight shot out.
>W
>N
>N
>N
>N
>N
>N
>N
That's a lot of norths in a row. You should be at the Fork, now.
>W
>NE
>N
We haven't explored the gated path and the lever room, yet. Note if you SWITCH the lever now,
you die. Also, push/pull lever does nothing. Boo, implementation, though since we had to switch the
buttons and a switch, it is not too hard to guess the verb.
>NW
>PUT GREEN ON PEDESTAL3
Yes, you need the numbers at the end. Again, the author could/should have used "pedestal3 is a
privately-named thing in rain-forest room. understand "pedestal" as pedestal3."
The whole guessing the numbers things reminds me of the final puzzle of Wasteland. You should be
able to guess the number, once you know what to do, and it's kind of an interesting extra
puzzle, if totally unrealistic.
>SE
>N
>PUT BLUE ON PEDESTAL1
>S
>E
>PUT SILVER ON PEDESTAL4
>W
>NE
>PUT GEM ON PEDESTAL2
Now, to win the game, sort of...
>SW
>SWITCH LEVER
The paper reads "FAME AND GLORY" but would've read F&G otherwise. You wind up
with 42 points and a YOU HAVE LOST. I don't know how to get the other 13 points.
I hope you enjoyed being able to work through this game. It certainly has flaws, but at the very
least, it shows that even a game with a lot of missed chances and semi-cliche puzzles can be fun to
work through. It may be more fun for people who like to reverse-engineer, or who know they've
had bugs in their own games, but still...there you have it.
======CREDITS======
Thanks to Marvin on the intfiction.org boards for pointing me to disassembly tools which helped. The
tool name is MRIFK.
http://ifarchive.org/if-archive/programming/blorb/gblorb.zip is a neat blorb-to-glulx converter, and
http://www.frobnitz.co.uk/mrifk_2_050524_win32.zip lets you analyze the file. The original topic is
at http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12195
Happy adventuring, whether textual or otherwise.
