Survival
By Stewart F Rush
Published in Creative Computing, vol. 8, no. 1, January 1982, pp. 142, 144, 146, 150, 152-153
For Apple II, S-100, TRS-80
Solution by Garry Francis
----------------------------------------
This is a minimal solution. You can't EXAMINE anything, but you can READ a few things for
important hints.
You start the game with 230 units of power and 180 minutes of oxygen. Power is decremented by 5
units per move, so it wall last 115 moves. Oxygen is decremented by 5 minutes per move, so it will
last 90 moves. In this context, a "move" is changing location or typing LOOK. If you run
out of power or oxygen in an area where you need them (as shown on the map), you die, so don't
carry them around unless you need them. If the power gets low, you can find a supplementary power
pack in the laboratory, but you can only carry one power source at a time. There is no supplementary
supply of oxygen, so minimal use of oxygen is the critical factor.
Inventory is limited to 4 items. As the power unit and oxygen module count as 2 items, this
effectively restricts you to 2 items in the areas where power and oxygen are needed.
The author claims that his best time is 385 minutes (of game time), but this solution does it in
just 310 minutes! I don't think you can beat that.
W
S
DROP OXYGEN
S
GET SEALANT
E
U
GET KEY
D
W
N
GET OXYGEN
N
N
N
W
USE SEALANT
DROP SEALANT
S
E
S
S
S
W
GET ILLUMINATOR
E
N
N
W
N
N
W
W
USE KEY
DROP OXYGEN
DROP UNIT
DROP KEY
D
USE ILLUMINATOR
N
N
N
E
U
W
S
E
S
W
GET BOMB
N
N
W
TRANSPORT
U
S
U
DROP ILLUMINATOR
GET UNIT
GET OXYGEN
E
S
E
S
E
E
GET DEACTIVATOR
DEACTIVATE
DROP BOMB
W
N
N
DIG
GET CRYSTALS
S
S
W
W
S
S
FUEL
E
U
BLASTOFF
***THE END***
