LOST OVER BERMUDA
Custom Cables Incorporated, 1983
================================
Solution by Exemptus - August 2022
Overview and general hints:
---------------------------
This game is broken. I mean, totally broken: the code is a disconnected mass of
bugs, some logic in the program is missing, an important connection is messed
up, and it cannot be completed. More than that, the player cannot even leave the
aircraft, which is the very first puzzle in the game. I'm forced to conclude
this was brought to market in bad faith, as the game is unfinished and
unplayable. Other Elfin adventures are buggy, but this one takes the cake.
So if you are playing the original game, you won't be able to go far. I have
produced a fixed version, which can be played and finished, but if you don't
come across it, here is a minimal set of changes to the BASIC code that will
enable you to fix your version. Although there are several editions of this
game, they differ in trivial presentation details, but the main program seems to
be identical, so this should be valid for any version you play. Just BREAK into
the game, type the following lines as they are, and then RUN again.
1411 FOR I=1 TO 6: IF I(I)=23 THEN GO TO 1412
1412 FOR J=1 TO 6: IF I(I)=26 THEN GO TO 2000
1420 IF LC=18 AND N=18 THEN GO TO 1422
1422 FOR I=1 TO 6: IF I(I)=32 THEN GO TO 1425
1425 FOR I=1 TO 6: IF I(I)=25 THEN GO TO 1428
1428 PRINT "ANOMALY FIELD CONTROL ROUTE NOW OPEN": LET L(17,2)=16: GO TO 20
8700 DATA 5,4,3,5,0,0
Now for the game itself: we are sent by plane into the Bermuda Triangle in order
to investigate the disappearance of a crew. Soon we'll find ourselves in hot
waters, as the Triangle happens to be a spacetime field anomaly deliberately
created by evil Atlanteans, who kidnap people in order to enslave them. The
objective will be to find and free the prisoners, disable the anomaly field, and
escape back home (or civilization anyway).
The game follows usual Elfin conventions: directions require GO <direction> with
NESWUD, EXAMINE is different from SEARCH, and GET is used instead of TAKE. This
one admits HELP in a few places as well, and there are no unusual verbs. Well,
there is a situation that allows BAIL OUT, but it's not necessary to use it. It
is a very short game, although who knows: it might be missing more code than I
imagined so it could have been longer, with a few more puzzles. My changes are
minimal so the game can just be completed.
Walkthrough:
------------
[We are in the cockpit of an aircraft; there is a parachute, an oilcan, and a
locker here. You will quickly notice that if you start giving directions, the
description is the same, so you may assume all directions loop over the same
single location. But no: on the contrary, there are *seven* different locations
in the aircraft, all of them with the same description and objects. This is not
a bug, but deliberate, although it is a baffling design decision. It is odd
because there is code to explicitly prevent the player from taking or dropping
any objects (or opening the locker) in any of the 7 locations but the first one,
where the game begins, as allowing so would create duplicate objects and confuse
the parser.]
GET PARACHUTE
GET OILCAN
OPEN LOCKER [There is a life-jacket and an axe]
GET LIFE-JACKET [We can ignore the axe]
[The aircraft will happily be like this for ever until we enter location 7,
which is the same description but now the plane is out of control and going down
to sea. The original game has a rogue connection from one of the locations in
the plane to a place which is far further in the game, which took a while to
realize it wasn't deliberate because, well, Bermuda Triangle and spacetime
anomalies. In any case, the intended way to leave the aircraft is with the
parachute and life-jacket.]
GO W
GO N
[Here is the "out of control" location: from here we cannot go back. The unfixed
game requires both the parachute and life-jacket to be present in order to
proceed, but what it actually checks is that the objects are present in the
location, not our inventory. And since it is impossible to open the locker or to
drop any objects in this location, the player is stuck here forever. The fix
correctly checks for inventory presence. By the way, this is one of the
locations where we can ask for HELP.]
HELP ["You need a spear in the jungle"]
[The clue is right, but just not relevant to this situation. We'll see later.]
OPEN PARACHUTE [BAIL OUT also works here; we are at sea]
GO N [To beach]
DROP PARACHUTE
DROP LIFE-JACKET
HELP ["Two clues point to the correct code"]
[This will make sense later. For the time being, we are on an island, so let's
explore.]
SEARCH BEACH [A spear shows up; according to the first clue, we'll need it]
GET SPEAR
EXAMINE CLIFFS [We notice a vine]
CLIMB VINE [Top of cliff]
GO N [Jungle clearing; there is a dinosaur (?) here]
[This probably means that we have travelled in time. All is possible. The dino
is mangling a body, but this is not mentioned at all in the description. In any
case, we are in the jungle, where the spear was supposed to be needed, so...]
THROW SPEAR [The dinosaur goes away and leaves a body]
GET SPEAR [It will still be useful later]
EXAMINE BODY [What's left is in pretty bad shape]
SEARCH BODY [A token shows up]
GET TOKEN
GO N [We are in front of a building with a door]
EXAMINE DOOR [We find a slot]
INSERT TOKEN [The door opens and we can go E]
GO E
[We are now in a narrow platform with a railcar. There are several like this one
as railcars seem to be the preferred way of transport in this Atlantean complex.
Railcars link two locations: one can be reached from the other one-way by a
normal direction, but going the other way requires ENTERing the railcar.]
SEARCH PLATFORM [A card appears]
READ CARD ["JAGGED"]
[JAGGED? What's this? We have been able to read the card because it's not a
carryable type of card, but a plaque (really, the description should have read
"plaque" instead). We don't know what JAGGED means. Maybe it will make sense
later. There's nowhere else to go, so we'll take the railcar.]
ENTER RAILCAR [Another platform]
[There is a dogtag here. It can be EXAMINEd, and it will tell us it belonged to
the missing crew, so we know we are in the right place, but it has no other
use.]
HELP ["Oil is a lubricant"]
[OK, thanks for the wisdom. The player probably knew that already, unless their
education had been questionable. On the other hand, we have been carrying an
oilcan from the start, so it's good to know it'll probably have some use.]
SEARCH PLATFORM [Another card]
READ CARD ["A0"]
[Another cryptic clue. Let's think about it later. Before going N, please check
you are carrying the oilcan and the spear.]
GO N [Some cattle pens are here. A guard sees us and flees.]
[The guard would have killed us unless we carried a weapon. Both the spear and
the axe are good for this, but the spear also allows us to deal with the
dinosaur, which is the reason not to bring the axe along. Now what do we have
here? These cattle pens are where the kidnapped crews are held. The description
does not say, but it can be inferred from the context. We'll need to open them.]
OPEN PENS [You can't]
[Not very useful. In order to open the pens we need the oilcan, which we have,
but clearly it's not enough.]
SEARCH PENS [A box and a plastic card appear]
GET PLASTIC CARD
EXAMINE PLASTIC CARD [It is covered in strange symbols]
[The plastic card looks important. The box, if EXAMINEd, will reveal a dial. The
dial will dissolve the force field in the location N of this one, but it's a
trap, as the Atlantean guards surround and execute us. There is no way of
dealing with the force field and in fact it can be ignored. Maybe this was a
part of the game that wasn't completed, or maybe just a red herring.]
GO W [Another guard flees]
GO W [Rec room; the poster is just decoration]
GO W [The Guard Officer's quarters; there are some papers here]
[If READ, the papers will just say "This is the duty rosta for 34/2/56", which
looks significant, but isn't. My guess is this an attempt to lead the player
astray.]
GO W [Another railcar platform]
HELP ["The technician could hold the vital clue"]
[We hope so, because so far we're quite in the dark. We haven't met the
technician yet, but it's likely we will.]
ENTER RAILCAR [A junction]
GO N
GO W [The technician's quarters]
[Aha! the famous technician, who is here, but flees on sight. One might think
that the spear shouldn't be carried here, so the technician wouldn't escape, but
actually this forces the technician to flee with the book.]
DROP SPEAR [Not needed anymore]
GET BOOK
READ BOOK [The de-programming card needs to be entered and a 6-digit code too]
DROP BOOK
[Now, this is actually useful, and starts to make sense. In order to de-program
the anomaly field we need a de-programming card, which is likely to be the
plastic card we already have, and a 6-digit code. We need to find a way to open
the pens and also to find the anomaly control room, but we are in the good
track.]
GO W [There is a body here]
HELP ["The key to success could be close by"]
[The body does not respond to EXAMINE or SEARCH, but the clue seems definite, so
we'd better try other verbs.]
MOVE BODY [Success! A key appears]
GET KEY
[That's it, this will open the pens. Back there at once.]
GO E
GO E
ENTER RAILCAR
GO E
GO E
GO E
GO E
GO E [At the cattle pens again]
[Opening the pens required another fix, since both the oilcan and key are
needed, but again they are checks to be present in the location instead of the
inventory, which does not make any sense. But it's worse, because the logic that
triggers something to happen when opening the pens is completely missing: there
is a GOTO to a line that doesn't exist, and this elaborate setup requires at
least a missing connection to be restored. The fixed version makes this happen,
although it would have been proper to acknowledge the release of the missing
crew, etc. In any case, this allows game completion.]
OPEN PENS [The anomaly control field can be reached now]
[I haven't said where it can be reached from, of course. That would have been
too easy, so the player will have to search for a new exit somewhere that wasn't
there before. :) But it's just south of here, so there's no need to go far.]
GO S
GO S [Another railcar platform]
HELP ["Force fields can kill", which hints at the red herring mentioned before]
GO S [The machine room]
EXAMINE MACHINE [A keyboard appears]
INSERT PLASTIC CARD [Please type the six-digit code]
[Let's see. Only the famous code is missing, so what can it be? We have all the
pieces for this puzzle now: if we remember, an earlier hint said that there were
two clues pointing at the code, and the two pieces had to be those mysterious
inscriptions of "JAGGED" and "A0", since we never found out what they meant.
But
knowing that the code is 6 digits, and that the word JAGGED has six letters, it
stands to reason that it encodes the code. Now we see that A0 means that A=0, so
B=1, C=2, etc. So the word JAGGED translates to 906643.]
906643 [Bingo: the anomaly field will dissipate in 24 hours]
[All that's left is to escape. There is an area we haven't yet explored, so
let's go there.]
GO N
ENTER RAILCAR
GO N
GO W
GO W
GO W
GO W
ENTER RAILCAR
ENTER RAILCAR [Please note this is a different one]
GO W [Small room; there is a map and a circle here]
EXAMINE MAP [Rum Cay in the Bahamas is flashing on it]
ENTER CIRCLE
[This is a transporter, which returns us back to our time and space (or to Rum
Cay in the Bahamas, as the map indicated). The game warns us that unless we
de-programmed the anomaly field, we haven't yet completed the game, so it does
not bother to check - but we know that we did it the right way.]
[End of game.]
