ORB
Impact Software, 1982
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Solution by Exemptus - September 2021
Overview and general hints:
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The object of the game is to find The Orb, which is in a random room somewhere
in the map, take it to the Furnace of the Gods to destroy it, then exit the map.
It is not possible to give a walkthrough for this game, because although its map
is always the same, objects are placed randomly. Some of these objects are
needed to avoid instant death on entering a number of locations (marked in red
on my map). You don't even have to use them: if you have the object in your
inventory, death is avoided; otherwise, you die. It is practically impossible
not to die, since it is unavoidable to pass through some of these locations
without the right objects. Sometimes death is averted just at random, as well,
but there are so many insta-death rooms that this does not really matter.
But here comes the kicker: when you die, the game STOPs and dumps you at the
BASIC prompt, but you actually can CONTINUE, and you appear in the same room but
now the danger that killed you is no longer there (it may be back if you visit
the room again, though). The game even snarkily says in some of these rooms that
you avoid the danger through skilful use of the CONTINUE command. This actually
counts as a kind of score, because the program keeps tally of all the times that
CONTINUE is used to cheat death and shows it on completion of the game.
Only a few verbs are valid, namely INVENTORY, EXIT (to quit), NORTH, EAST,
SOUTH, WEST, UP, DOWN, TAKE (aliased as PICK), DROP, OIL, and UNLOCK. There are
no puzzles to speak of.
The objects are:
Object Use
------------------------
the orb Object of the game is find and take to Furnace
boat Avoids insta-death in flooded rooms
water-barrel Avoids insta-death in flame caverns
cross Avoids insta-death in vampire lairs
steak Avoids insta-death in spider lairs
sword Avoids insta-death in werewolf lairs and snake rooms
ladder Avoids insta-death in pit rooms
coins Has no use
oil-can Opens a specific door in the map
diamond crown Allows exchanging it for key
key Opens the Furnace
There are three types of room that kill you always: dragon lairs, Satan's den
(two locations) and the Angel of Death (another two locations). This last one
kills you permanently, with no chance to CONTINUE anymore. It is not necessary
to go through the Angel of Death rooms as they never contain the orb, crown, or
dwarf (who has the key).
There is only one of the orb, oil-can, crown or key, but a number of the other
objects. Unless you want to minimize the number of CONTINUEs used, there is no
reason to pick up anything but the crown, key and orb.
The sequence of milestones needed to complete the game is:
1. Wander systematically through the map until you find the crown. If while
doing so you come across the dwarf or the orb, note their locations for
later reference.
2. Take the crown and go find the dwarf.
3. The game will ask you if you want to exchange the crown for the key. This is
another half-joke, as there is no other way to get the key, and the game even
tells you so. If you come across the dwarf without having the crown, you are
told that you will not get the key from him.
4. Take the key, go find the orb and take it.
5. Find the furnace, UNLOCK it with the key and enter.
6. Destroy the orb (you are prompted) and exit the caves.
There is nothing else to the game. The oil-can allows to open a connection (a
closed door) to the east of Satan's den, but it is not necessary to use it, as
all relevant map locations can be reached through more than one path.
There is a nasty bug that is triggered in some circumstances when you pick up
the crown: the game logic is trapped in an infinite loop trying to clear some
array values again and again, due to ill use of loop variables. It can be
avoided by saying TAKE DIAMOND instead of TAKE CROWN due to a fluke with the
parsing routine. Another quirk of a *very* quirky game.
