Solution for the public domain TI-99/4A text adventure "Gnome".
Author and year unknown.
This game is available on disk 1420 of the Tigercub public domain collection
(Text Adventures #4).
Notes:-
It's not possible to DROP any items in this game, as there is no array of
object locations, instead just flags to denote if the player is in possession
of each individual object.
N, E ,S ,W can be typed as single character abbreviations or in full.
NE, SE, SW, NW must be typed as two-character abbreviations.
UP, IN, OUT must be typed in full. U, I, O are not understood.
D can be typed for DOWN.
C can be typed for CLIMB.
In the below text walkthrough, notes and comments are in round brackets and
commands in square brackets are purely optional but generally informative.
Where I type "CROSS BRIDGE" and "CROSS SANDBAR", it's mainly just for
illustrative purposes. In fact these commands can be abbreviated to just
"CROSS", or even "CR".
Text walkthrough:-
E, S, UP, UP, LOOK, READ (Skull marks the spot and MAGIC WORD really is), D,
UP, IN, SAY MAGIC WORD (after you’ve gotten 14 treasures), D, S, E, TAKE COINS
(score=100), N, IN (back to field at start of game), NW, IN (rowing boat),
TAKE SHOVEL, ROW, N, LOOK (skull is revealed), DIG, TAKE CHEST (score=200), W,
E, CROSS BRIDGE (back to where you just dug the hole), CROSS SANDBAR (a message
reveals that SNORT is a magic word), W, S, DIG, TAKE RUBIES (score=300), E, N,
E, N, N, CLIMB TREE, TAKE EGG (score=400), CLIMB DOWN, NE, UP,
TAKE WEATHER VANE (score=500), CLIMB DOWN, [IN], KNOCK, [TAKE EMERALDS], SNORT,
TAKE EMERALDS (score=600), OUT, NW, LOOK, TAKE SWORD (score=700), W,
KILL TROLLS, [E, W], TAKE GEMSTONES (score=800), W, CROSS SANDBAR, W, S, NW,
SW, SW, [LOOK], W (trash heap), LOOK (you find a magic wand), TAKE WAND,
TAKE VASE (score=900, but you get bitten by a snake and are now poisoned with
20 turns to live) E, NE, NE, S, E, S, S, E, N, N, N, N, N, UP, W (spring of
crystal clear water), DRINK (you are now cured of the venom), E, E, E (at a
stone sepulchre), [IN], WAVE WAND, TAKE DIAMOND (score=1000), TAKE DUST (this
is a light source), OUT, W, S, S, D, S, IN, NW, SW, IN (the dust glows
revealing a platinum bar), TAKE BAR (score=1100), OUT, NE, IN (rowing boat), E,
S (beached on the coast of an island), E, LOOK (you find a silver chalice),
TAKE CHALICE (score=1200), W, S, [LOOK], UP, LOOK DOOR (solid jade knocker),
TAKE KNOCKER (score=1300), [IN], WAVE WAND, [LOOK], IN, TAKE IDOL
(score=1400), OUT, N, N (boat dock), S, E, S, UP, IN (gnome), SAY MAGIC WORD,
TAKE RINGS (Congratulations you've completed this adventure.)
Bugs:-
I have fixed three bugs in this game and created an updated copy of Tigercub
disk 1420, containing the fixed Gnome game.
The bugs fixed in the above version are
1) Where the gnome says "come back after you've gotten 14 treasures...", the
message was printed on the wrong row so that half of it was obscured by the
horizontal line separator (row of tilde characters).
2) The game was only checking for the player having 13 items before proceeding
past the gnome, rather than 14 as intended.
3) Some lines of BASIC code from another section, including a clear screen
statement were found to be erroneously inserted immediately after the game
winning message. This meant the final congratulatory message could be never be
seen on winning the game. Fixed by removing the out of place code and replacing
it with a line to wait for a keypress before quitting the program.
The game winning message mentions a sequel "Inside gnome mountain", although I
have not managed to find it at time of writing.
benkid77 - 7 November 2020
