North Sea Bullion Adventure
Hints by Alex Dijkstra for the MSX
This game is very hard to solve without cheating because it has many random elements and your fuel,
body temperature, battery and oxygen have to be replenished lots of times. All this has to be done
within 100 turns.
Cheat to skip the music at the beginning of the game:
Change line 8010 into:
8010 return
***Object of the game:
You are the captain of a salvage tug in search of the wreck of a 2nd world war destroyer loaded with
gold bullion. She went down in or near arctic waters. Your task is to raise her cargo in the short
arctic summer.
***Moving around
You walk around using the cursor keys and U and D for Up and Down. If you want to enter a command
you have to press I and if you want to move around again you enter the command R.
***Money:
At the start of the game you have 25.000 pounds. You get 75.000 pound for each gold bar you retrieve
from the wreck.
***Solution
You start your game at your home port. Here you can buy the following supplies:
Command Price
BUY FUEL OIL 10.000 POUND 10.000 fuel
BUY OXYGEN 10 pounds 1 cylinder of 30 units
BUY STEEL PLATE 500 pounds 4 plates
BUY DIVING LAMP 200 pounds including 35 units of battery power
BUY GAS TORCH 200 pounds
BUY SPEAR GUN 200 pounds
If you play without cheating you need all. Problem is you can only carry 2 objects with you at a
time. Don't forget to TAKE LAMP and TAKE GAS TORCH or TAKE SPEAR After you bought them. The
other objects will be added automatically to your inventory.
Now it is time to begin searching for the wreck.
*** Surface (rooms -1 to 48) ***
The shipwreck is placed randomly somewhere in the locations 19 to 48 each game. Best to save your
game, start searching and when you have found the wreck, load your saved game and go directly to the
wreck to spare fuel. Each movement takes 150 of fuel.
Random events:
-In rooms -1 to 48 you have each turn a 10% chance of one engine being stopped. You have to type
CLEAN FUEL PIPE to restore the engine. If you don't clean the pipe each turn will take the
double amount of time.
-In rooms 7 to 48 you have each turn a 10% chance of hitting an iceberg. After hitting an iceberg
you have a 20% chance you sink. If the ship didn't sink you have to repair the ship using the
command USE STEEL PLATE. Each repair uses 1 steel plate. IF you try to move without repairing the
ship it sinks. Repairing the ship takes a random amount of time.
-In rooms 1-48 you have each turn a 10% chance of entering a storm and being blown away to another
random location. If you end up in room 45 you die.
To cheat the random events change the following lines:
1120 rem no storms blowing you away
1130 rem no icebergs
1140 rem no engine being stopped
Special locations (see my map):
Room 9: You are on collision course. Use the command FULL ASTERN to avoid a collision. You go to
location 4. Better not to enter this location.
Room 14: You have a 50% chance of shoal rock damaging your hull. The damage is the same as hitting
an iceberg. Better not to enter this location.
Room 17: You have a 50% chance of getting pierced your hull. The damage is the same as hitting an
iceberg. Better not to enter this location.
Room 45: The ship has been crushed ending the game.
Room 47: You get stuck in the ice and it takes some random time to leave.
How to find the wreck:
There aren't any clues on how to find the wreck. You just must WEAR CYLINDER and then DIVE at
each location from room 19 to 48 (excluding 45). If you see the wreck you can type ENTER WRECK else
you have to type SURFACE to return to the boat and go on to the next location.
Bug:
Line 52 is wrong. This should be:
52 IFG=45THENG=G-1
This prevents the wreck being placed in room 45 (point of no return).
*** Inside the wreck ***
The wreck exists of three levels. You enter the wreck on a random location on the upper level. You
leave the wreck by typing LEAVE WRECK from any location on the upper level. Type SURFACE to return
to your ship.
Notes:
-Inside the wreck you need oxygen. If it almost reaches 0 and you have another cylinder left, you
can CHANGE CYLINDER.
-Each turn under water your temperature drops 1 point. If it becomes lower than -20 you die from
cold. To raise your temperature you must return to the surface on time and your temperature will
raise a random amount between 10 en 20 points.
-Each turn your battery power gets lower. If you have an extra lamp you can CHANGE BATTERY. Without
a burning lamp it is dark and you cannot search the locations.
Random events:
In some locations (see my map) you have a 20% chance of encountering shells or jaws.
-If you encounter shells type AVOID SHELLS to survive.
-If you encounter jaws type USE SPEAR GUN (IF YOU HAVE ONE) to survive.
To cheat change the following lines:
1986 rem you don't get cold under water
3350 return:rem no shells
3410 return:rem no jaws
-First task: Find the safe which contains a clue on the whereabouts of the gold bars.
The safe is somewhere in the locations 64 to 93 (the two lower decks of the ship). In each room type
SEARCH CABIN until you get the message YOU HAVE FOUND THE WALL SAFE. Best use the same method of
saving your game, searching, restoring your game and then go directly to the right location. The
safe will become visible on the wall.
-When you have found the safe: CUT SAFE DOOR (with gas torch), SEARCH SAFE (you find a box), LEAVE
GAS TORCH (remember where you put it as you need it later on to open the deck), TAKE BOX, return to
the boat as the box cannot be opened under water), OPEN BOX (you find a book), READ BOOK (you learn
in which location on the c-level (rooms 79-93) the gold bars can be found.
Cheat to find the wreck and safe faster:
Change line 2565 into:
2565 PSET(150,111):PRINT#1,"L";v;" W";G;" S";m
You can see your location, the locations of the wreck and the location of the safe.
-Second task: Find the gold bars and recover them.
First recover your gas torch. Go to the location indicated by the book and type CUT DECK (with gas
torch). This can only been done after you have read the book. LEAVE GAS TORCH, ENTER STRONG ROOM,
TAKE GOLD BAR, LEAVE STRONG ROOM, return to the ship and LEAVE GOLD BAR. You have to recover all 16
gold bars from the strong room and take them to your ship to finish the game. Meanwhile you will
have to return several times to your home port to buy new supplies and do all this within 100 turns
which seems almost impossible.
