MISSION 1: PROJECT VOLCANO
Mission Software, 1984
======================
Solution by Exemptus - May 2020
Overview and general hints:
---------------------------
You are a sectret agent in charge of infiltrating a missile facility between
Yugoslavia and Romania (Cold War era) and sabotaging it. Extra points will be
awarded for "any useful information". There are a number of things to achieve
here in fact, although some are optional. This walkthrough covers all goals, for
a maximum reward of $19100.
This adventure has some unusual features. Descriptions are extremely terse, but
pictures may have objects in them that we can interact with. Directions are
always relative to point of view, and are FORWARD (F), BACK (B), LEFT (L) and
RIGHT (R), with LEAVE being a synonym for BACK. No cardinal points are used, so
we have to take account of the direction we are facing at all times. It is
possible to be in the same location but facing in a different direction, and the
picture will change accordingly. So if we are facing West, then L means South
and R means North, F means West and B means East.
The original materials coming with the game had a number of useful informations
and clues. Fortunately the game is easy and it does not have really difficult
obstacles to overcome. The most useful information is that the missile base has
three floors, arranged in the form of a ring corridor with rooms at both sides.
We enter the base through a ventilation shaft on Floor 1, and our objective is
the Computer Control Centre on Floor 3.
The inventory capacity seems unlimited, which makes the mission easier. We start
with a camera, which we can use to TAKE PHOTOs of interesting things, and other
useful objects.
Walkthrough:
------------
TAKE ALL
F [A shaft down is in our way]
FISH
TAKE BOOTS
JUMP
UNSCREW GRILL [The R spelling is "grille", but the game does not take it]
WEAR BOOTS [Otherwise the electrified floor will fry us]
F
[We are now in the Corridor on Floor 1, facing North. There are three locations
per side of the floor, four sides to each floor, and two rooms to L and R
of each location. R now the rooms are off limits as they are all locked to
us.]
B [This always moves us in the opposite direction we are facing]
{We are told that there is an Object Detection Area ahead of us. Sure enough, us
walking through the next location while carrying any objects will trigger an
alarm, but that is no big deal: we can trigger it all R, as long as we also
disable it afterwards.]
F [Objects are detected, so the alarm sounds]
F
F
BREAK GLASS [We need the hammer for this]
TAKE KEY [Now we can enter almost all rooms]
B
L
SWITCH [This disables the object detection area]
B
F
R
PUSH BUTTON [This disables the alarm]
B
B
F
F
L
TAKE MASER [A weapon against the pesky droids]
B
F
L
TAKE PLIERS
B
F
KILL DROID
F [We hear hissing]
R
TURN VALVE [This disables another trap]
B
F
F
L
TAKE IDCARD [This is another mission milestone]
B
F
F
R
[The room seems to be empty, but cabinets have drawers that can be opened. This
is an example.]
OPEN DRAWER
TAKE MONEY [More points]
B
F
R
TAKE PENTAGON
B
F
F
F
F
R
[There is a droid in the lift. We cannot operate the lifts, and this droid does
not seem to be hostile.]
ASK DROID FOR HELP
ENTER LIFT
UP
B
L
TAKE SEPTAGON [The right name is "heptagon", but we'll overlook that]
B
F
F
F
F
F
L [There is an electrical cabinet here]
OPEN CABINET
CUT WIRE [We need the pliers for this - this disables the lasers in the S side]
CLOSE CABINET
B
F
R [We see some secret documents]
TAKE PHOTO
B
F
F
F
L
OPEN DRAWER
TAKE PLAN
READ PLAN
[We are told there is a hatch going upstairs on the N side of the floor. This is
good, because the lift cannot go any further up. If we didn't know about the
hatch it would be impossible to find it.]
B
F
F
F
F
F
F
R
LOOK FOR HATCH [Now that we know it is somewhere around]
OPEN HATCH
CLIMB
CLOSE HATCH
B
F
L
TAKE PASS
B
F
KILL DROID
F
F
F
L
TAKE UNIFORM
WEAR UNIFORM
B
F
F
L
TAKE DECAGON
B
F
KILL DROID
F
L
[The original materials included a partially decrypted note from a fellow spy
who infiltrated the facility but was found out. If we decode the note (it uses
an easy Caesar cipher) we find it says "You see your self and on your back will
be the code", which calls out to the mirror here. The code mentioned is the
sequence needed to disable the missile launchers.]
LOOK BEHIND MIRROR
[The code is not given directly, but we are told that the polygons hold the key.
Since we have found a pentagon (5 sides), a "septagon" (7 sides) and a decagon
(10 sides), we can infer that the code is 5710.]
B
F
F
L
TAKE IMAGE [We have uncovered a double agent on our side]
B
F
F
F
F
R
CMDR YURI KENKO [Exactly as written]
F
5710
[End of game.]
