FORBIDDEN QUEST Pryority Software, 1983 ======================= Solution by Exemptus - September 2022 Overview and general hints: --------------------------- In this adventure, we play the role of a space explorer. Five hundred years have passed since the end of the intergalactic civil war, which destroyed the trade routes between the United Alliance of Planets. Technology has faltered, the planets have fallen into a state of chaos and decay. Something must be done to re-establish a technological society or civilization will perish. Acting on an ancient rumour of a lost alien civilization, we have departed for a region of the galaxy where unconfirmed reports of alien races have been heard. Deep space analysis reveals powerful magnetic fields and strange nebulous clouds shielding that sector of space from detailed scanning. The limited data that has been gained suggests the possibility of a system of planets beyond the nebula. Our goal is to find this alien race (or their technology), secure help, and return with their knowledge to restore order to the United Alliance of Planets. A fine scenario, which reduces in the game to finding a number of special objects (which I'll name "quest objects") and bring them to a secure location for retrieval. In other words, this is a traditional treasure quest type adventure. The difficulty is that we don't know in advance which objects these are, or where to store them, for that matter. The latter problem solves itself, as the storage location is fairly clear once found, but the only way to tell which objects are valuable is to watch the score change when we store them. For easy reference, there are 15 quest objects, which are: * Plastic card * Green liquid * Android plans * Fertilizer * Blue pill * Black rod * Cube * Book * Collar * Metal belt * Dagger * Brown liquid * Hollow tube * Luminator * Gadget Parser-wise, the game has some particularities: it accepts LOOK and EXAMINE as synonyms, also SEARCH as different. It uses adjectives to distinguish between similar objects, which we need to always use (e.g., we must refer to the BLACK ROD instead of just the ROD, even if there are no other RODs around). Prepositions like BEHIND, ON, IN or UNDER are used properly. Disambiguation for nouns is not only done through adjectives, but indirect objects also work: for instance, you can say PUSH BUTTON ON THE TRANSPORTER if there are several possible buttons to push. Also, GET ALL and DROP ALL work, except with containers. The main difficulty with this game is that location descriptions are incomplete on purpose. Many of the elements described can be LOOKed, revealing further objects sometimes. There is a need to LOOK BEHIND and LOOK ON TOP OF some things as well, with scant clues to do so, and also SEARCH ROOM is needed at least once, with little hint that the description might not include all relevant data. To compound this difficulty, the game also incorporated some original artwork as part of the packaging, where some locations in the adventure are depicted. These pictures contain elements and objects that are not revealed in descriptions in any way. I personally never have been a fan of this device, which mainly served copy protection purposes back in the day, but at least the player is forewarned of this: it happens on locations known in advance, and the clues are reasonably fair. The manual also clearly states that the player "should leave no stone unturned". So there's plenty of warning that this is one of those "carefully search under the old blue wardrobe" adventures. Fair enough. The game is segmented into well-defined parts: it begins in our ship, the Paradox, which crash-lands in an unknown world (provided we survive the game beginning). We have to explore that first world, find an alien craft, get access to it, find how to operate it, and use it to travel to two other planets in order to gather all the necessary quest objects. The maximum score is 3500 points, obtained by finding all quest objects, storing them, and getting back home safely. The game has a few timed events, particularly at the beginning in our own spacecraft, as some alerts come up at a fixed number of turns that we need to handle in the proper fashion (or die trying). Later on, when we use the alien ship to travel to other worlds, there is also a limit to how many turns we can spend on each planet before the ship goes on its own and leaves us stranded, but luckily the time allotted is ample for the tasks at hand. The player should be advised that such a limit exists, though. Inventory is based on weight: there are no fixed inventory slots. This means we can only carry a single very heavy item (like the piece of wreckage) or many lighter ones. This comes handy, as it's difficult to be sure there's no further use for an object, since several have many uses throughout the game. Also, true containers are implemented, but weight adds up with these, so they offer no advantage for inventory capacity and are used mainly for puzzles. There is a hint system. If we ask for HELP we are presented with a menu of contextual hints, depending on the situation we are, sorted by level. This works pretty well, as some puzzles can be a bit obscure. There are no random events, and, as far as I have been able to determine, no chance factors at all, so the game is totally deterministic. This allows for a precise walkthrough, as shown below. Walkthrough: ------------ PART 1: GETTING TO THE FIRST PLANET [We begin with a crisis situation, a bit of a tradition in space adventures: we were knocked unconscious against the control panel in our ship and just came to, woken up by an alarm bell. We don't know what has happened, but we hear the hiss of air escaping, so something is very wrong. We need to get our bearings first of all.] LOOK [We are in the control room, with a seat, a control panel, and a hatch] LOOK PANEL [We can't see the controls clearly from here] SIT IN SEAT [The seat wraps around us and holds us firmly, and the panel glows] LOOK PANEL [We can see a screen and a number of controls] LOOK SCREEN [The screen reveals the nature of the emergency: there has been a meteor strike and we need to manually release emergency sealant to prevent the air from escaping. As the controls are unlabelled, we don't know which button or lever does this, but we can find out by trial and error, as the screen provides feedback about control panel actions.] PUSH RED BUTTON [The emergency sealant is released] LOOK SCREEN [Situation normal] [The emergency is averted. We can now explore the rest of the ship, but if we do so, we'll find that the moment we step out of the room, a lethal dose of radiation kills us because the engine drives are not shielded. So we need to put the drive shields up before we venture out of the control room.] PUSH SQUARE LEVER [Nothing seems to happen, but now the shields are up] [We can go now. Which is non-trivial, because the seat holds us in position, and we can't STAND UP without releasing the seat lock, which we must find first.] LOOK SEAT [A white button is on the armrest] PUSH WHITE BUTTON [The seat releases us] LOOK HATCH [The hatch is behind the seat, with a green light] [If we hadn't raised the shields, the light would have been red, hinting that something was wrong.] OPEN HATCH S [Engine room; we see an airlock and a locker] LOOK LOCKER [It has scratched graffiti on the side] READ GRAFFITI [It's hard to make out] [It reads "..gh above the fl... an an..er .. this ..ight resides", which can be completed to "High above the floor an answer to this plight resides". This is a cryptic clue. It appears to be a metaphor about the general quest for alien tech and the need to find it through space exploration, but actually it just suggests to look on top of the locker. Or maybe it's the other way round.] OPEN LOCKER [We don't have the key!] LOOK ON TOP OF LOCKER [What the hint was about: there's a thick layer of dirt] LOOK DIRT [A notched rod is buried in the dirt] GET NOTCHED ROD LOOK NOTCHED ROD [The missing key, no doubt] OPEN LOCKER LOOK LOCKER [It contains a blaster] GET BLASTER DROP NOTCHED ROD E [To airlock] [The airlock is essentially destroyed: the inner door is a twisted mass of metal, the walls are scorched black, and controls are kaput. Leaving the ship might pose a bit of a problem. There's a space suit here which may be handy.] GET SUIT LOOK SUIT [It is severely damaged, but probably will hold for a while] WEAR SUIT [If you followed the walkthrough strictly, 28 turns should have passed by now. On turn 31, a new alarm will ring requiring our attention in the control room, so it'd be a good idea to go there.] W N SIT IN SEAT [An alarm bell is ringing!] LOOK SCREEN [The screen tells us that we are approaching our destination and requests to activate the landing sequence. It also says there are unidentified life forms on the planet, so it looks like we are on the good track.] PUSH BLACK BUTTON PUSH ROUND LEVER [This activates the landing sequence] LOOK SCREEN [Status normal, landing site identified] [Given the accident before, we are not in a position to make a proper landing, so it will be a bit rough. The safest place to wait the crash landing out is in our control seat.] WAIT [Repeat several times, until turn 45] PUSH WHITE BUTTON [Seat release] [We have landed now. Exiting the ship is a puzzle you might well spend a bit of time stuck in, but the solution is quite direct] SHOOT BLASTER [We blow a hole in the wall] N [And we are outside. We won't need to get back to the ship, and, besides, it's in no shape to fly again. There's a piece of wreckage around and it's raining acid. Our space suit protects us, but it will stop soon anyway. We can then begin to explore the area.] PART 2: EXPLORING THE PLANET AND FINDING THE ALIEN SHIP [Note for reference: from time to time, the game will tell us that we feel a "localized discomfort". This is a roundabout way of telling us that nature calls and we need to PEE. Even if it's predictable when this will happen, I won't include it in the solution flow, as it's event-driven and it can be done anywhere at any time (insert snarky remark about hygienic habits here).] N N N W [Small cave; there is a rock here] MOVE ROCK [We can't budge it] [Some leverage is needed. The piece of wreckage we found earlier would do, but it is so heavy we can't carry anything else. This is the reason we need to wait until the rain stops, as we need to doff our space suit as well.] E S S [The rain should stop now] S DROP ALL GET WRECKAGE N N N W MOVE ROCK WITH WRECKAGE [It rolls away] DROP WRECKAGE LOOK [There's a plastic card and a hollow tube here] GET CARD LOOK CARD [A tiny square card made of plastic] GET TUBE LOOK TUBE [About 3 in by 1/2 in diameter, with a small hole in the middle] [Remember that these are alien artifacts, so their use might be obscure and far from evident. However, this is not the case. The card is an ID device, and if the description of the tube reminded you of a flute, you'd be on the money.] E U S [Outside city] E [Ruins] [We are in the ruins of an ancient city. This is actually a maze, but a tiny one, and easy to map out. A good point for the game is that there are no other mazes to speak of. Well, actually one more, but there'll be a spoiler clue about how to deal with it.] E [Clearing; this is location for Print #1 in the manual] [The description says there's a vicious looking beast here, which resembles the fabled carnivorous Wozbyte. The picture is supposed to contain clues. The most interesting thing is, however, not with the beast, but with the flight of stairs that can be seen there. The Wozbyte won't let us pass, so let's deal with it first. Here is where the musical features of the hollow tube come in.] BLOW TUBE [The beast flees, and something falls off it] LOOK [There's a collar here] GET COLLAR LOOK COLLAR [A plastic piece with interwoven fibres - artificial, no doubt] [The collar is actually one of our quest objects, so we ought to keep it until we can store it safely. Now let's see about those stairs.] U [Top of the stairs] [We can see debris all around and an intact building to the north. The debris is not just for decoration, in fact.] LOOK DEBRIS [We notice a block with the characters SWEES inscribed in the stone] [If you are a veteran player, your clue instinct should have kicked in and strongly suggested this inscription is a hint about directions, since it could well mean S,W,E,E,S - probably a path to negotiate a future maze or something. As it turns out, this is misdirection: it's just a magic word, useful by itself, but nothing to do with that idea. A nice example of cunning design. And this is not all, as we'll see later.] D [To ruins maze again] S W W N [Inside ruined building] N [There's a skeleton here] LOOK SKELETON [Vaguely humanoid] GET SKELETON [It crumbles off...] LOOK [...leaving some dust, an arm and a small cube] GET ARM LOOK ARM [It's capped with claws; might be handy to keep] GET CUBE LOOK CUBE [One inch square, and it shimmers; another quest object] GET DUST [The dust is one of those objects that seem unimportant, but it is the key to solve a puzzle. Remember that this is no ordinary dust: it is powdered alien skeleton dust. This fact will be relevant later on.] E E [E/W passage, dark, with shadows hiding the details of the room] [The description is suggestive that we may be missing something. It usually pays off to stop and look more closely when this happens.] SEARCH ROOM [We find a black rod] GET BLACK ROD LOOK BLACK ROD [It's just a mysterious black rod, but also another quest object] E E S [Aquarium - there is a bottle lodged in the bottom] GET BOTTLE WITH SKELETON ARM [You need to type that exactly] LOOK BOTTLE [It has a blue pill and a red pill] [We may eat these if we want. They will make us queasy, but with no obvious effects. They do have an effect each, but it's a bit tricky to find out what they do, as we have to be in the right places. In any case, one is a quest object (the blue pill) and the other won't be needed until much later, so for the time being we just keep the bottle as it is.] DROP SKELETON ARM [We won't need it again] N W S S [N/S hallway; there is a small glowing sphere here] GET SPHERE LOOK SPHERE [Size of an apple, glows, and it is actually a container, but empty] PUT DUST IN SPHERE [Finding out the need to put the dust in the sphere is probably the most difficult puzzle in the game, as it is not evident at all why this needs to be done. Not in advance, at least - as it happens, this is one of those things that are solved by trial and error when stumped and rationalized in hindsight: the sphere turns out to be a funeral urn, for ashes. This will make sense in context, but not now.] S [Dead end] [There is a suspicious wall to the east, and it has the inscription "SW..."; now we know what that debris inscription from before was about.] SAY SWEES [The wall slides open] [Before going E, please make sure you have with you the plastic card, hollow tube, small cube, collar, black rod, bottle with pills, and sphere with dust. There is no going back.] E [The door slams shut; we are now in a new installation, not ruins] E [Relic room, there is a blue door and a compartment] LOOK BLUE DOOR [It has a small slot] LOOK COMPARTMENT [It has a luminator and three cartridges] GET LUMINATOR LOOK LUMINATOR [It has a switch; we can surmise what this does] GET CARTRIDGE E1Z GET CARTRIDGE X1Y GET CARTRIDGE TOP [On the other hand, the purpose of the cartridges is unclear now. In fact, the "cartridge top" is not a cartridge, but part of one: if we LOOK at it, we are told it's the top piece of a cartridge, suggesting there are other pieces around that will need to be found, which is correct.] INSERT CARD IN SLOT [The door opens] GET CARD [Fortunately, the door stays open] E [There is an alien craft here] [OK, we have found the alien ship. Now we need to find out how to operate it. The ceiling is clearly the exit, but needs to be open.] LOOK BLUE DOOR [From this side there is a lever] PULL LEVER [The ceiling opens, that's one less problem] OPEN AIRLOCK DOOR N [It's too dark to see] PUSH SWITCH ON LUMINATOR LOOK [We are in the airlock. The outer door has automatically closed after us and the inner door is open.] W [Alien Ship. This is Print #2 location in the manual] [The description tells us nothing. What do we see in the picture? Three key things can be seen: there is a slot and button at the forefront, a kind of open coffin with some skeletal remains as if having tried to reach it, and an empty recess in the wall. The way it's drawn, it might be a protrusion instead, but it would be at an odd angle. Let's see if we can tell.] LOOK WALL [A compartment surrounded by a force field sits recessed in the wall] [We were right about this one. In fact, this is the quest object storage, but we won't know unless we notice that leaving one of the quest objects here raises the score by 50 points. So we can start leaving some of the objects here already.] PUT COLLAR IN COMPARTMENT PUT BLACK ROD IN COMPARTMENT PUT CUBE IN COMPARTMENT GET BLUE PILL PUT BLUE PILL IN COMPARTMENT [Next, the coffin. This lies to the south.] S [We lay down in the coffin-like chamber, which is strangely comfortable] [The hints are subtle, but this is actually a healing chamber, which explains the skeletal remains trying to reach it. We note it for later.] LOOK CHAMBER [We notice the word SENEE carved in the wall] [This is another turn on the SWEES hint I mentioned before. Another magic word maybe? No, this time it is not a magic word, but a bona fide clue about directions, to be used quite a bit later.] N INSERT CARTRIDGE E1Z IN SLOT PUSH BUTTON [Everything moves and the light come on] PUSH SWITCH ON LUMINATOR [There is light now] [How to know which cartridge to insert? Easy: the X1Y cartridge does nothing. We may not be able to tell right away, but we have travelled to another planet, so that concludes this part.] PART 3: THE SECOND PLANET DROP ALL [We only need a few objects on this planet] GET HOLLOW TUBE GET SPHERE GET LUMINATOR OPEN AIRLOCK DOOR E S [Open field] [We are off to explore. There is a quirk on this planet: the outer airlock door will stay open unless we close it, and if we are away for a while, we will find that the moment we're back, a poisonous snake has slithered into the airlock and killed us. The obvious way to prevent this is to close the airlock door. But not the first time, because we are going to have to get back to the ship real quick, as we'll see in a moment. To make things more involved, the ship will only stay a fixed number of turns in each planet, so we shouldn't take too long in getting back, but there is more than enough time.] E [A band of savage natives surround us] E [They don't let us go] [There is no way to bypass the natives. We have to let them attack us, after which they leave us for dead and won't show up anymore. This is a bit of a subversion of old-school space opera tropes.] WAIT [Repeat several times until the natives attack] [We are in extreme pain now. This is the reason we left the airlock door open: we have a very limited number of moves to get back to the healing chamber in the ship.] W N W S [We heal instantly] N OPEN AIRLOCK DOOR E S CLOSE AIRLOCK DOOR [This time we leave it closed] E E [Forest; there is a huge leaf here] GET LEAF N [By river] [The water may look inviting, but if we try to SWIM RIVER we'll find that the tiny fish populating the river like human flesh a bit too much. The huge leaf serves as a makeshift raft.] GO LEAF [A bit questionable as an action, but it works] [We are now in calm waters. If we stay here, the current will take us towards swift waters, then to raging ones, then to our doom down a waterfall, so best not to waste time.] N [North bank] W [Huge tree with a large crack at the base] W [We don't fit through the crack] [We can't carry any objects with us through the crack.] DROP ALL W [In tree, the floor is mushy with residue] DIG IN RESIDUE [Yeeuck] DIG IN RESIDUE [We find a large jeweled ring; also, just DIG does not work] GET RING U [A giant rat with ornamental items is here] GIVE RING TO RAT [The rat throws us something] LOOK [There's a cartridge base here] GET CARTRIDGE BASE [Remember I mentioned we would be looking for further parts of a cartridge? This is one of them.] D E GET ALL E GO LEAF [To river again] E [Repeat until the current takes us to Swift River, should take three turns] N [W beach, there's some rancid meat here] GET MEAT E E S [Bridge over waterfall; an immense alien blocks the way] GIVE SPHERE TO ALIEN [He lets us pass] [This is the reason we put the dust in the sphere: it became an ashes urn, and the alien wanted this ceremonial object. Or else said urn is a valuable commodity, we'll never know. In any case, we are free to continue.] S E [Suddenly, a group of neolithic aliens jump at us, knock us unconscious, and we find ourselves tied to a pole within a cave, presumably to be offered as sacrifice. There is no way to avoid this, it's expected to happen. We notice some colour bands decorating the pole top (green, red and blue - note the order of the colours as it will be important later), and many tiny little creatures scurrying around, much like insects. These happen to provide a solution to our predicament.] RUB MEAT ON ROPES [The insects come attracted and eat through the ropes] W [Shallow cave, there is a metal belt here] GET METAL BELT [Another quest object] E PUSH SWITCH IN LUMINATOR [The location to the S is dark and dangerous] S E [Sound room, there are cave paintings here] LOOK PAINTINGS [They show a native singing to an octopus-like monster] [This is a clue for the upcoming situation.] W N PUSH SWITCH ON LUMINATOR E [A force field blocks our path] WEAR METAL BELT [It allows the wearer to walk through force fields] E [Temple] E [A massive metal door is to the east] E [Closed and locked] N [Lair; this is Print #3 in the manual.] [The description says there is a beautiful princess here, impatiently having waited for us. If we look at the picture, her attitude is not exactly hopeful, though, and there is an octopoid monster there as well, which we don't see. And the princess wields a dagger with a stance that does not seem to be inviting us to have tea with her. If we wait a few turns, the damsel proceeds to slit our throat with no qualms whatsoever. So we may have reason to heed the clue about music we saw before, but in reverse: the idea is to summon the monster in order to subdue the princess.] BLOW TUBE [The monster emerges and grabs the princess, who screams helplessly] [This is another subversion of classic space opera tropes. Now that the princess is helpless, we notice some objects in the picture: a key hanging from her waist and the dagger itself. If we look closely, they are the only two objects that have shiny reflections.] GET DAGGER GET KEY DROP LEAF [Won't be needing it] S [Now we have the key, we can go through the door] E [Tech lab; there's a green liquid here] GET GREEN LIQUID [Another quest object] S [This is a cylinder bathed in light with coloured buttons. Remember the order of the decorations on top of the pole we noted before?] PUSH GREEN BUTTON PUSH RED BUTTON PUSH BLUE BUTTON PULL LEVER [We are transported back to the open field] OPEN AIRLOCK DOOR N W PUT HOLLOW TUBE IN COMPARTMENT PUT DAGGER IN COMPARTMENT PUT GREEN LIQUID IN COMPARTMENT PUT METAL BELT IN COMPARTMENT DROP ALL [Done for now; on to next planet] PUSH BUTTON PART 4: THE THIRD PLANET GET BOTTLE GET RED PILL DROP BOTTLE GET CARD GET LUMINATOR OPEN AIRLOCK DOOR E S [Landing field] [Let's explore.] S [Desert; there is a tree here] [Trees can be climbed, but if we do we'll be told that there's a weak branch, and if we carry anything at all it will break, with predictable consequences. So first we lay down our burdens.] DROP ALL U [Tree top, there's a bird's nest on a limb to the south] S [A book is here] GET BOOK N D GET ALL LOOK BOOK [It's written in an unknown language] N W U [A brown liquid is here] GET BROWN LIQUID D E S E [Cliff] [It is a bit counterintuitive, but good explorers all jump down from cliffs.] JUMP DOWN [On a ledge] S [There's a box here] GET BOX LOOK BOX [It's a black box with two metal contacts, probably a battery] N U [To cliff again] W N E E [Beach, there is a mound of sand here] DIG SAND [This reveals a small silver disk] GET SILVER DISK [Let's recap: you should have the plastic card, red pill, luminator, book, brown liquid, small box and silver disk. Now what? There are no more places to go. Or maybe there are: if we try to SWIM OCEAN we'll be drawn in by the strong currents and drown. But this is one of those places where I mentioned you needed to be in order to find out what the pills do. The red one provides us with the ability to breathe underwater.] EAT RED PILL SWIM OCEAN [We go underwater] [This is technically another maze, although we can't map it by dropping objects, as all are taken away by the current. But it is very small, and actually we have been clued about it. Remember the SENEE word we found carved in the healing chamber? It turns out to be the S,E,N,E,E directions out of this maze.] S E [Oops, stop here] [We are at View of Dome, which is Print #4 in the manual, and we can't go on because a hideous sea creature is blocking our path. Any clues in the picture? Not really to deal with the creature; we have to resort to what we have.] POUR BROWN LIQUID [The creature is repelled by it and goes away] [Note that we use just a little of the brown liquid and we still keep it. Now back to the picture. From here, if we continue N,E,E we'll arrive at the dome we see in the distance, but a closed door will prevent us from going in, so we need something else. What else is there? We can see a cave nearby, so let's try that.] GO CAVE [We see a dark mass slip to the East] E [There is a transmitter here] GET TRANSMITTER LOOK TRANSMITTER [A small button is on the side] [We have what we came for. Going E would be hazardous to our health, since the dark mass we saw before is a tentacled monstrosity which awaits there.] W N N E E [Dome City] [If we do not follow the right directions, we'll end up in a whirlpool, and that will be the end of us.] PUSH BUTTON ON TRANSMITTER [An airlock whisks us in] E [Too dark to see] PUSH SWITCH IN LUMINATOR LOOK [this is the Power Station, which is Print #5 in the manual] [What clues do we see? The main one is that there seems to be an elevated platform, and in fact we can see stairs on the lower right corner, so we have reason to try that. In addition, there is a slot and a lever.] U [Power panel] PULL LEVER [The lights go on] PUSH SWITCH ON LUMINATOR D D [There was an exit down, but not available until we switch the lights on] [Here we have a terminal for a transportation shuttle. The shuttle has four stops, including this one, and will move between them back and forth. It needs the card to work. Before we ride on it, let's explore the area a little more.] W [Maintenance room; there is a gadget here] DROP TRANSMITTER GET GADGET LOOK GADGET [It is empty and has a square button] [The gadget's function is mysterious. All we know is that it can contain things and has a button. We can try putting things in it and pressing the button, but nothing we have fits, and the button does diddly squat. We'll have to wait.] E E [Guard room; a huge robot blocks the north exit] [We don't have the means to pass the robot, so that's it for the exploring.] W S [Transport shuttle; there's a slot and button] INSERT CARD IN SLOT PUSH BUTTON [We move to stop 2] E [A greenhouse with fertilizer available] GET FERTILIZER [Another quest object] W PUSH BUTTON [To stop 3] W U [Sleeping loft, with sleeping pad included] MOVE PAD [A gold disk appears] GET GOLD DISK [We also had a silver disk; we don't yet know what these are for] D E PUSH BUTTON [To stop 4 and end of line] E N [There is a preserved hamburger here] GET HAMBURGER S W PUSH BUTTON PUSH BUTTON PUSH BUTTON [Back to stop 1] N E GIVE HAMBURGER TO ROBOT [Dies from food poisoning] N E [Lab] LOOK DEBRIS [There's a cartridge core here] GET CARTRIDGE CORE [Aha. So we now have a cartridge top, bottom, and core, which looks like it will be enough to reconstruct a full cartridge. The question is how. More about that later.] W D [Factory; there are a set of plans and an android here] GET PLANS [Another quest object] LOOK ANDROID [It might just need to be powered up] INSERT BOX IN ANDROID [It comes to life] [The android will follow us from now on. This will be necessary to avoid a lock- up situation later. We have almost all that we need, so let's get back. By the way, the android can be taken, but we drop it the next instant automatically.] U S W S PUSH BUTTON PUSH BUTTON PUSH BUTTON [To stop 4 again] GET CARD [No need to use the transport anymore] W [Ticket counter] LOOK BEHIND COUNTER [A bronze disk is here] [This is tricky, since there is no reason why we should look behind the counter, but for the fact that a counter is something that can be looked behind. In any case, we have bronze, silver and gold discs now.] W N [Tubecar] READ SIGN [Gold, bronze and silver dots form a row on the sign] [This is where the discs have to be used. We can insert them in any order, but the android needs to be with us in order to operate the controls - otherwise we will be stuck here.] INSERT GOLD DISK INSERT SILVER DISK INSERT BRONZE DISK [The tubecar accelerates right away] N [Back to building] E N W [In ship again] PUT CARD IN COMPARTMENT PUT LUMINATOR IN COMPARTMENT PUT BOOK IN COMPARTMENT PUT BROWN LIQUID IN COMPARTMENT PUT PLANS IN COMPARTMENT PUT FERTILIZER IN COMPARTMENT [That puts the remaining quest objects in storage, except for the gadget, whose utility we haven't found out yet. At this point, having reunited the three pieces of the cartridge, it doesn't feel unnatural to try them with the gadget, and we find out that in fact they are the only objects that fit within. It turns out that the gadget is a repair device - our version only works with cartridges, but that's what makes it valuable. So we proceed...] GET ALL PUT CARTRIDGE BOTTOM IN GADGET PUT CARTRIDGE CORE IN GADGET PUT CARTRIDGE TOP IN GADGET PUSH BUTTON ON GADGET LOOK GADGET [We see a new cartridge Z1X within] GET CARTRIDGE Z1X PUT GADGET IN COMPARTMENT INSERT CARTRIDGE Z1X IN SLOT PUSH BUTTON [And we fly off to our home planet, Centauri IV, where out quest objects are assessed and we are told how each one contributed to progress, we are congratulated, and our final score is revealed (should be 3500, perfect score). End of game.]