The Wade Wars Book III: A walkthrough.
Yes, despite its name, this really is the first book. Oddly enough
the idea for the Wade War series came to me as a teenager, working
in a pizza parlor during the mid to late 80’s. Today, filed deep
in my filing cabinet under “Creative Works” I have twelve-year-old
scraps of paper and napkins upon which are scribbled most of the
text for the currently non-existent Book One, which takes place
almost entirely within the pizza parlor from which it was conceived.
If I remember correctly, there once existed a portion of BASIC
source code for Wade War I (WWI) written to run under TRS-DOS
on my TRS-80 model 1.
In my twenties, as I began to write games with the intention of
distribution, I began to reassess the quality of my games. Slowly,
it began to sink in that WWI was not of the caliber that I truly
wanted to be known for. The game simply contained too many
inside jokes. Events and characters within the game were familiar only
to a small group of people, most of whom did not even own a computer.
Very few would fully be able to appreciate the tale of my war against
Wade. Something geared for a broader audience, a sequel, began to
form in my mind.
Historically, I have always been one to bite off more than I could
chew. True to my nature, I designed the second game to be monstrous
in size. It was to be something that had never been seen before.
Surprisingly enough, if I were to complete it today, I suspect that this
would still be the case. Maybe yes, maybe no. Regardless, the story
never saw a line of code before the third book in the Wade Wars came
upon me. For reasons I do not fully understand, book three came to me
almost in its entirety. Like some strange epiphany it came in a flash.
I envisioned in a moment, the entire story. I saw the references to
the previous books, the storyline, the puzzles, the ending and a basis
for a fourth book. It came to me so completely and took a form that
stood so well by itself that it preempted work upon any previous
effort. WadeWar3 was my singular focus for some time. It existed
once, but no longer, on the TRS-80 model 1, as well as the
Commodore 64. In 1993, I released the PC/DOS version to SDN, the
Shareware Distribution Network, under the company name “Fish
Software”. After a time, my interest waned. Registration mailboxes
were closed, source code was lost, and the game, or so I believed, was
forgotten.
Almost a decade later, in the summer of 2000 I stumbled upon it again
on GMD (search engines facilitate things like that). With a little
research, I discovered Inform, Frotz, and rediscovered Zork again. The
old flame for the now dead Infocom games burned within once more. With
a little effort to learn Inform, a bit of code to extract the text from
the original WWIII game and a few weeks in front of my terminal and I
had produced a young, new version of the Wade Wars, book 3.
Are books 1 and 2 to come? Maybe. WWII has been in development for
quite some time now, but it is no where near completion as of yet. Still, for
those who are interested in seeing where I’m going, there is a work in progress
that can be found in the downloads section of OnyxRing.com. Additionally,
there are a few ties to the Wade Wars that can be found in other works that I
have done, such as my entry in the Mark Musante’s Toaster Mini Comp
(“Got Toast?”). Still, the Wade Wars is around fifteen years old (if counting
from its conception) There are oh so many other ideas which I may just spend
the time to write. Which brings us to this document. Although the information
contained herein should work fine for the DOS version as well, it is written with
the z-code version of the game in mind. I see no reason why there
would be any difference, but just in case there is, this document
covers z-code version of the game. Any questions, suggestions, or just
plain correspondence should be sent to me at:
Jim@OnyxRing.com.
And with that done, on with the walkthrough:
The point of WadeWar3 is fairly straightforward. You are the nephew
of Simon Seamore, a somewhat eccentric scientist and inventor. Uncle
Seamore, it seems, has disappeared, as he had before, and you feel
compelled to locate him. You begin in his apartment:
1) Prologue
(In the Living Room of Uncle Seamore’s apartment)
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Read book
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N
Push red button
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E
N
Notes:
A surprising number of players have written about confusion in the
apartment. For this reason, I’ve modified the journal description to try
and communicate the nature of the huge machine a little more clearly.
I hope this helps players.
Of course if you’re reading this, then you’re already looking for answers,
so I’ll just spell it out here:
This game, indeed the whole Wade War series, deals with alternate
realities. For this story, neighboring realities are “tied together” at
certain locations. Machines such as your uncle’s invention, when used
from these places, push the user (in this case, you) halfway between
the two realities for a few moments. This halfway world spans the two
universes and at the end a three turns, you will be expelled from it and
placed in one reality or the other. If you are fairly close to the machine,
the halfway world looks familiar enough (although backwards, as though
flipped around an axis, marked by your uncle with the yellow line). There,
when three turns time is up, you will return to your uncle’s apartment.
The further away from the machine you travel, the more differences you
will begin to notice (like bark growing on the walls). There are two locations
in the backwards world that are far enough from the machine to expel you to
the neighboring world after three turns: The backwards bathroom, or “Moorh
Tab” and the backwards closet, or “Tesolc.” The Moorh Tab route has the
advantage of being the direction your uncle took. Follow this path and you
will find your uncle almost immediately. Of course, not being the first to
go this way costs you that element of surprise needed to save your life. At
this point in the game, passage into Askin through the Tesolc is the only way
to go.
2) Chapter 1
(At the base of the black tower)
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UNLOCK BOX WITH KEY
OPEN BOX
GET STONE
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S
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S
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E
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PUT STONE IN INDENTATION
Notes
At the completion of the above last step, all of your possessions become
unreachable (you trade places and inventories with the statue). The game
can be completed just fine without most of the obtainable objects in the
game up until this point. There is one notable exception, however. The
phosphorous crystal (from the phosphorous cave) is needed to win. If you
have located and collected the crystal you must drop it before putting the
stone in the indentation. You can pick it up again afterwards.
3) Chapter II
(In the park, having just traded places with the statue of Lord Urthwin)
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E
E
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PUSH RED BUTTON
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S
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TYPE 1357 INTO THE KEYPAD
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PUSH RED BUTTON
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E
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GET CRYSTAL
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W
S
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S
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S
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W
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E
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FEED CRYSTAL TO TREE
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PUSH RED BUTTON
GET BASKET
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S
PUSH BLUE BUTTON
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E
READ SIGN
PUSH BLUE BUTTON
Z
W
PUSH RED BUTTON
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S
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PUT BASKET ON LAUNCHPAD
EZLWOT
TYPE 3823 INTO THE KEYPAD
CLIMB INTO THE BASKET
Notes:
Of course it should be noted that the numbers typed into the keypad are not the result of simple
guesswork. The informative number (1357) is written on the scrape of paper formally held by the
statue. The launch code sequence (3823) is engraved into the side of the basket.
Additionally, it is necessary to actually READ the neon sign to be able to cast the EZLWOT spell.
4) Chapter 3
(In the courtyard on the cloud, in the balloon basket)
EXIT
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Z
Z
N
CLIMB INTO BASKET
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S
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OPEN DOOR
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GET BROWN BAG
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E
GET BLACK BOOK
READ BOOK
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DROP BOOK
OPEN DOOR
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Notes
Getting the black book is not strictly necessary. Anything can be dropped in front of the guards to
send them away.
5) Chapter 4
(In Sibad Edaw’s private quarters, held captive by a gargoyle)
FEED BAG TO GARGOYLE
ENTER BASKET
Z
Z
Z
EXIT
GET RING
OPEN LARGE DOOR
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GIVE RING TO UNCLE
Z
Z
Z
Z
Z
PUSH RED BUTTON
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