Game Hints for Version 2.5A by slater@nrlssc.navy.mil Dungeon (a.k.a. Zork), is rather frustrating in places, and it is possible to get stuck for long periods of time. If you get badly stuck, the following hints can be used to get you through a rough spot or even to win the game. They are organized according to puzzle and are labeled that way. The very first of the hints is different though: It makes suggestions about what actions you ought to take in order to win the game. The object of dungeon is deceptively simple: Find your way into the white house, and from there find your way into the dungeon. Once you've found the dungeon, it is your task to wander about it, retrieve all treasures, and then to place those treasures inside of a trophy case that is to be found in the white house. GENERAL STRATEGY. At the start, type "help" followed by "info" to get some useful information from the game. To save you some grief in pausing the screens, the results of typing the two commands are reproduced in the Appendix. You can't move about the dungeon without a source of light. If you attempt to do so, you will fall into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue (grue = GReat Underground Empire) and get killed - something which is to be avoided as a matter of common sense. The game provides you with an obvious source of light at the beginning (the brass lamp), and there are two sections of the game where it is absolutely necessary to use the brass lamp as a source of light. Yet, if you attempt to use the lamp for the entirety of the game, it will run out of power before you can finish. Thus, you must make sure that you immediately seek out an ivory torch which is to be found in the dungeon and, once you have the torch, you should extinguish the lamp to save it for later use. Continue to carry the lamp with you, because a thief who roams the dungeon can come along at any time and steal the ivory torch. You should recover the torch if the thief steals it, or else use the save feature of the game to get yourself back to a position where you still have the torch. The thief is a character who reportedly has never been seen by the light of day (which is a white lie in this version), although he certainly isn't allowed to enter the house. He will steal treasures like the ivory torch, but only after you've found them. If you drop objects in one of the mazes in an attempt to map them, he also has the annoying habit of showing up and picking up whatever you've dropped. Generally, the thief will not attack you unless you've attacked him first or have entered his hideaway in the maze. He will sometimes not rob you if you give him something first ("give wrench to thief"), but you can't ever be quite sure about that. Whatever you do, don't be in a big hurry to eliminate him from the game. He's the only one who can open the jeweled egg, and he is also useful because he'll transport heavy treasures back to his hideaway where you can in turn steal them back. Remember too that, once you've seen something, the thief is allowed to pick it up and carry it about with him. Don't leave useful objects lying around the dungeon once you've found them; take them back to the house. If you don't, the thief may very well pick them up and then later drop them where you'll never find them again. That could make it impossible to win the game. Objects that you don't want to leave lying around include such things as the shovel, screwdriver, pump, lump of coal, matchbook, wrench, sharp stick, thin wire, etc. Obviously, it's probably a good policy at first to leave absolutely nothing behind! You should make a map of the dungeon as you explore it so that you can easily return to the more interesting places. The layout of this version is quite different from the commercial versions, so maps from Infocom will be of little help. You won't be able to take objects back to the house unless you can get out of the dungeon somehow, and when you first enter it, the only exit known to you (a trap door found inside of the white house) gets slammed and barred. There is a chimney you can use to get out, but you can't carry anything with you when you do, so it's not much good. Instead, go to the temple (you'll have to find it on your own), stand in front of the altar, and then pray. You'll not only be out of the dungeon, but the next time you open the trap door, it'll stay that way. In summary, enter the dungeon and immediately get the ivory torch while taking any other small objects you may find along the way. Extinguish the lamp and proceed to the temple where you will stand in front of the altar and pray (You'll need a prayer, because you should have taken the book and candles from the altar). You'll wind up in the forest somewhere, and will have to find your way back to the white house. Go to the living room, and drop the small objects there for later use. Open the trap door, and it will stay open for the remainder of the game. You must obtain a fairly large number of treasures and put them in the trophy case. If you don't have everything listed below, you can't enter the end game: A jade figurine. A huge diamond. A bag of coins. A platinum bar. A pearl necklace. A ruby. A crystal trident. A gold coffin. A burned out ivory torch. A sapphire bracelet. A fancy violin. A grail. A trunk with jewels. A chalice. A painting. A pot of gold. A statue. A large emerald. A gold zorkmid. A crown. A stamp. A crystal sphere. A tin of spices. A stack of zorkmid bills. A portrait of J. Pierpont Flathead. A jewel-encrusted egg. A beautiful brass bauble. A clockwork canary. A gold card. It will take a fair amount of time (and moves) to obtain all of these treasures, and you shouldn't be discouraged if the SCORE command indicates that you've made several hundred moves without finding all of them. Nevertheless, for those who want more information about the location of the treasures, see the "spoilers" which follow (don't read beyond this part unless you're willing to have at least a part of the game spoiled for you). -------------------------( spoilers follow )--------------------------- LOCATION OF TREASURES. The treasures are located in the following rooms (which you may not know how to find at this point): Jade figurine: - Squeaky room Huge diamond: - Coal mine machine (if you know how) Bag of coins: - Maze near troll room Platinum bar: - Loud room Pearl necklace: - Broom closet Ruby: - Volcano bottom Crystal trident: - Reservoir north Gold coffin: - Egyptian room Burned out ivory torch: - At foot of stream (if you know how) Sapphire bracelet: - Smelly room Fancy violin: - Round room (if you know how) Grail: - Grail room (where else?) Trunk with jewels: - Reservoir south Chalice: - thief's hideaway Painting: - Studio Pot of gold: - End of rainbow (seriously) Statue: - Buried in river bank Large emerald: - Inside warning buoy Gold zorkmid: - Volcano chimney Crown: - Inside of safe in volcano Stamp: - In purple book in volcano Crystal sphere: - Cage room south of machine room Tin of spices: - East of mad hatter's tea party Stack of zorkmid bills: - Bank of Zork vault Portrait of J. Pierpont Flathead. - South of vault Jewel-encrusted egg: - In bird's nest Beautiful brass bauble: - Dropped by song bird (if you know how) Clockwork canary: - In jewel-encrusted egg Gold card: - Puzzle room ENTERING THE DUNGEON. The dungeon is entered by moving the rug in the living room of the white house and opening the trap door. Be sure you are carrying the lamp, the rope, and at least one weapon (knife or sword) so that you can deal with the troll. Once you enter the dungeon, the trap door will be slammed shut, and you'll have to find some other exit in order to leave. EXITING THE DUNGEON. The dungeon can be exited in at least five ways after it is first entered: 1.) You can find a way down the Frigid River to the outside world; 2.) you can frighten the Cyclops by saying the name of his deadly nemesis; 3.) you can go to the temple, and stand before the altar and pray; 4.) you can explore the maze near the troll room and unlock the grate to the surface, or 5.) you can drop everything and climb up the chimney that will be found south of the basement. If you elect to climb up the chimney, you'll never be able to get anything out of the dungeon, and the trap door will always be slammed shut when you reenter the dungeon. Methods two and four both involve traversing a featureless maze. Thus, method three is the preferred one, because it is the easiest way to get out and still hang on to all of your possessions; it also turns out that, the next time you open the trap door, it will stay open for the remainder of the game. OBTAINING THE IVORY TORCH. From the troll room, go n-n-w-e. Tie the rope that you found in the attic to the railing and go down. Get the torch and extinguish the lamp. You should save the lamp for use elsewhere in the dungeon, but should still continue to carry it with you in case you encounter the thief (the torch is a treasure, and the thief will steal it from you if he can). SOLVING THE LOUD ROOM. The loud room contains a platinum bar that you naturally want to put in the trophy case, but it has an annoying habit of echoing everything you type. Simply type the word "echo", and the loud room will behave like any other room in the dungeon. SOLVING THE RIDDLE ROOM. The riddle room requires that you answer a riddle before you can proceed through a door which, strangely, leads to a broom closet. To do so, type the word "well", and the door will open. You may now enter the broom closet to find a pearl necklace. THE WELL ROOM. You probably suspect that the bucket at the bottom of the well room ought to be useful, but you may have gotten stuck trying to make something interesting happen. The solution is as follows: Bring the bottle of water from the house, and tell the game you want to "board bucket". Once you're in the bucket, pour the water into the bottom of the bucket, and you're in for a ride to the top of the well. It turns out that this is a construction by the Frobozz Magic Well Company (see the inscription at the top of the well), and that there are even more interesting things than the well itself at its top. Disembark from the bucket and explore further, remembering that you can return to the bottom by filling your bottle with the water that is now in the bucket. TEA PARTY. When you get to the top of the well, like Alice you'll find yourself at the remnants of a tea party. Among the remnants are four pieces of cake, and you should take them all before doing anything else. The reason is that eating one cake (the EATME cake) will shrink you to the point where you can't reach the remaining cakes on the table, and you don't want to wind up in that situation. You DO want to get smaller, because a treasure is found immediately to the east of the tea party in a tunnel you would otherwise be too large to enter. Eat the EATME cake and proceed east. There, you'll find a flask of poison and a puddle of water, and your object is to somehow remove the water so that you can see what was covered by it. One of the cakes has "evaporate" written on the icing, but the print is too small to read. If you look at it through the flask (which acts as a magnifying glass), you'll find out which one to select. Your major problem here will be to find out how to phrase the command so that the game understands what you want it to do. Beware: One of the cakes will explode if put in the puddle, so be sure you've found the right one. Throw the cake at the puddle, and retrieve the tin of spices which is revealed when the sewage evaporates. Go west to leave the tunnel and then eat the blue cake to return to your proper size. You are now ready to find a robot who will in turn help you solve the machine room. MACHINE ROOM. Northwest of the tea party, you'll find a robot along with a piece of paper containing instructions for its use. To solve the next sections of the dungeon, enter the following commands: tell robot, go east east tell robot, push triangular button tell robot, go south south get sphere tell robot, lift cage get sphere north You will have avoided electrocution by using the robot; you will have released a treasure into the round room (and stilled the round room), and you will have saved yourself from a nasty trap in the cage room. It will be a little difficult to get back to the top of the well due to some changes you precipitated, but keep on trying until you succeed. Don't forget to retrieve the treasure from the round room before the thief finds it. THIEF'S LAIR. There is a way to get into the thief's hideout by going through the maze, but that's not covered here. Instead, the use of a magic word is discussed, because you don't have to do battle with the thief if you enter by that means. Go to the temple and stand by the granite wall (west from the altar). Say the word "treasure" and you'll find yourself in the thief's lair; say the word "temple" and the obvious thing will happen. You will find a chalice in the thief's lair and a puzzle room to the east of it. If you go down from the lair, you'll be in the presence of a cyclops who will eventually prepare you for dinner if you hang around long enough. The solution to the puzzle and the defeat of the cyclops are covered in separate sections. THE CYCLOPS. Once you find yourself in the presence of the cyclops, you can only get away by going into the maze. You can't defeat the cyclops with any weapons you have, but you can frighten him so badly that he'll leave the game. You merely need to say the word "Ulysses" (one of the names of his deadly nemesis) and he'll knock down a wall in his haste to leave. The hole will lead back into the white house, and that can be extremely useful. BAG OF COINS. From the troll room, go s,n,e,w,u and you'll find the remains of a luckless adventurer in the maze. Take the bag of coins and take the keys if you like (they are not used in this walkthru, but can be used to unlock a grate to the surface that can be found in the maze). Under no circumstances should you touch anything else until you at least save the game. The adventurer is haunted, and the other items have unexpected side effects when you attempt to use them. You should probably find out about the effects in preparation for the questions the dungeon master will ask in the end game. It is left as an exercise for the reader to find the way back out of the maze. FLOOD CONTROL DAM #3. Until Infocom came out with its commercial games, it was never clear what happened to flood control dams one and two. It seems that Lord Dimwit Flathead the Excessive, not wanting to appear to be a novice at this kind of thing, arbitrarily decided to start with dam number three, somewhat to the chagrin of his underlings. It was also at about this time that he decided to hide his crown in a safe placed in a volcano chimney, but that's getting ahead of the story. You need to know how to make something interesting happen in this section without getting killed, and that's what's covered next. Once you find the dam, proceed north to the lobby and take the brochure and the matchbook. The brochure is not only interesting reading, but it makes excellent book burning material in another section of the game, and you'll need the matches in three other places. Go to the control room and take the screwdriver and the wrench (the tube of gunk isn't really needed). Push the yellow button (click) and go back to the dam itself. Use the wrench to turn the bolt (turn bolt with wrench), drop the wrench, and go elsewhere in the game for a while. The sluice gates have been opened, and once the water level gets low enough you'll find a trunk of jewels, a tire pump, and a crystal trident in places where the water has receded. It takes time (moves) for this to happen, so you might as well use your energies elsewhere. Once the water level does drop, be sure to get the tire pump. If you can't carry the trunk of jewels or the trident, don't worry about it: Let the thief take them to his hideaway and then go steal them back! The tire pump is absolutely necessary to a boating trip you'll want to take on the Frigid River, and you should attach maximum importance to getting it. You'll also need the shovel and the sharp stick that are both lying some place in the dungeon, so hang on to them too when you come across them. RAFTING ON THE RIVER. If you go down from Flood Control Dam #3, you'll find a pile of plastic and a sharp stick. The pile of plastic is actually an inflatable boat, and the stick is a magical wand which has the unfortunate habit of puncturing the boat if you're not careful. To avoid the latter occurrence, bring the paper bag with you and place the stick in it. Close the bag until you need to use the stick elsewhere (the game can't "see" the stick now). You can go puncture-free from this point onward. Be sure that you have the shovel, the pump and the paper bag with you when you first go "down" from the dam. If you have to go back for any of them, you'll need to take the boat too because the thief may decide to move the boat to places unknown while you're away. Inflate the boat with the pump, and board the boat. You can now begin sailing the Frigid River (hello, sailor) in search of treasures. Read the leaflet for complete operating details and warranty limitations. Unlike the commercial version, waiting around for something to happen while you're in the boat won't work. You must say "launch" and then you must give explicit commands to make the boat move. While you're in the boat, "d" is interpreted as "down stream" and is the command you want to use to approach Aragain Falls at the end of the river. There's only one hidden treasure to be found during that journey - a small nondescript statue buried in the sand of the river bank (that's why you need the shovel). Here's a completely rote set of commands to recover all treasures and to get past Aragain Falls while doing so: launch d,d,d get buoy, open buoy w disembark dig with shovel dig with shovel dig with shovel dig with shovel get statue s,s open sack get stick wave stick e,e,get pot,se u,u,w At this point you should have found an emerald inside of the warning buoy, you should have found a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and you should be in the forest near the white house. You will also have missed some of the more interesting things that can happen when you make the wrong choices, and you should probably go back and try out some things such as exploring the barrel that's at the end of the path. In any case, the Frigid River section of the game has been solved, and it's time to move on to something else. THE BANK OF ZORK. When you enter the basement for the first time, you can go south and then west to discover an artist's studio and the entrance to the fabled Bank of Zork. The bank contains one of the nastiest puzzles in the game, because the method of solving it is cleverly made dependent upon the LAST room you have entered while trying to figure it out. The bank contains a curtain of light you'll eventually find, and the whole puzzle revolves around that curtain and its immediate vicinity. Therefore, you must find it and do a little exploring around it to get a feel for this particular construction by one of the Frobozz Magic Companies. The first thing you will discover is that attempting to pass through the curtain by giving the command "n" just doesn't work. The sentence wanted by the game is "walk into curtain", and in fact you'll need to walk into two walls before this puzzle is completed. So what's so clever about this puzzle? It turns out that, if you enter the area of the curtain of light from any direction EXCEPT the one where the portrait of J. Pierpoint Flathead is to be found (and it's a treasure), you can "walk into curtain" and find yourself in a viewing room where you can easily get out of the bank. The series of commands needed to solve this section can be entered from a position at the curtain of light as follows: s take portrait, n, drop portrait walk into curtain walk into south wall walk into curtain take bills walk into north wall drop bills e (or w) (return to the curtain of light again) take all walk into curtain (you can now leave the bank by going south) A longer explanation of what this does is as follows: When you've come from the area of the portrait, the command "walk into curtain" at first takes you to a bare room which seems to have no exits. You then "walk into south wall" to return to the curtain, and then "walk into curtain" again. This time, you're in the vault and will be able to take some Zorkmid bills. Immediately "walk into north wall" to return to the curtain, and then drop all treasures you found (hesitation in the vault will get you killed). Exit to the east or west, and then return once again to the curtain. Get your treasures and "walk into curtain". Because you haven't been to the room just south of the curtain, you'll find yourself in the viewing room and will be able to leave the bank easily by going south. Not mentioned here has been the alarm system, because it is not activated at all if you follow the preceding directions. JEWEL ENCRUSTED EGG. Somewhere in the forest, you'll find a tree which stands out from the rest. Climb the tree, and get the egg from the nest. A small clockwork canary is contained in the egg, but you don't have the necessary dexterity to open it. Take the egg into the dungeon and drop it so that the thief will find it. When you next go to his hideaway, you'll find the egg properly opened, and you can take both treasures (canary and egg) back to the house for proper storage in the trophy case. Before you abandon the canary, take it out into the forest. When the game tells you that you can hear a song bird nearby, wind the canary. The song bird will drop a beautiful brass bauble at your feet which is worth one point as a treasure. Take the bauble and the canary and place them both in the trophy case. At this time you can eliminate the thief from the game if you desire, because he has no further critical tasks to perform. THE MIRROR ROOM. In case you're wondering what the significance of the mirror rooms may be (and the dungeon master may ask you about them), go to one of them and "rub mirror". The earth will shake, and you'll be transported to the other mirror room. This can be a handy way to move about the dungeon, especially if you insist on removing the gold coffin from the egyptian room on your own (you really should let the thief do it). HADES. Just east of one of the mirror rooms is a small cave that has a dark, forbidding staircase leading downward. If you follow the staircase, you'll find yourself at the entrance to Hades, but spirits will bar your way if you attempt to enter. What you need, of course, is an exorcism, and the materials are lying around the dungeon - mostly in the area of the temple. You need a bell, book, and candles (and some matches to light them). The candles are lit when you find them on the altar, but they'll be blown out by the time you get them to the entrance. Unlike the commercial version, you don't need to ring the bell or read the book, but you do need to light the candles and say the word "exorcise". The spirits will be banished, but you'll be disappointed once you enter: There are no treasures to be found in Hades - only ways to do yourself in (keep your hands offa the poles!). Why go to the trouble at all, then? The answer is that the end game can be reached from here, but only if you've scored the 585 points required to do so. THE COAL MINE. This is one of the most difficult sections of the game, because it is necessary to repeatedly traverse a maze with only the light of the lamp available. Since the lamp *must* be used to solve the volcano, it is important to conserve the batteries as much as possible when solving these puzzles. Bring along the clove of garlic that was found in the bag at the start of the game, and also bring along the torch, the lamp, and the screwdriver that you found near the dam (you DID save it didn't you?). The garlic is used to repulse a deranged vampire bat from Wumpus, the torch is used to provide light at the bottom of a strange shaft found just inside of the mine entrance, and the screwdriver is used to operate a machine which will be found in the coal mine. From the slide room, go north and northeast to get to the shaft room. From this point, go directly to a place where a lump of coal is to be found and then return. This is accomplished with the following commands: n,ne,sw,ne,ne,se,ne,nw,d d ne get coal s,u u,s,se,s,e,s This will return you to the shaft room with a lump of coal that should now be placed in the basket along with the torch and the screwdriver. Drop everything else, except for the lamp, and lower the basket (you should now be in the dark). Light the lamp and proceed to the ladder bottom by entering the first two lines given above. Go south from the ladder bottom and drop all items (you can't fit through the tunnel otherwise). Go sw and take everything from the basket. Go east and open the lid of the machine. Put the lump of coal in the machine, close the lid, and turn the switch with the screwdriver. Open the lid, take the diamond out and go nw to return to the shaft. Place everything in the basket, and return to the shaft room (see the commands above). Raise the basket, and take the diamond and the torch. Extinguish the lamp to conserve its batteries, and retrieve all objects you dropped during your last trip through here. You are now ready to solve the remaining puzzles of the coal mine with relative ease. From the shaft room, go north and then west. Drop the torch, and then go down into what is a gas-filled room (the torch would have caused an explosion). Light the lamp, retrieve the sapphire bracelet, and go back up. Extinguish the lamp, take the torch, and return to the shaft room (e, s). Be sure you have the clove of garlic, and then go w, nw and west. This will place you in the room with a vampire bat who would have otherwise carried you off into a random part of the maze but which is now holding its nose. Take the jade figurine, and proceed back to the slide room. Go down the slide and return to the living room with all of the treasures from this section of the game. THE PUZZLE ROOM. Just east of the thief's hideaway is a puzzle room which is interesting because it is the only place in the game that crude graphics are routinely used. If you go down into the puzzle room (as you eventually must), the object is to get back out after retrieving a gold card which will be found therein. There are a number of movable walls in the room which are made of sandstone, and a number of fixed walls which are made of granite. Two of the sandstone walls have a ladder attached to them, and the object is to move one of those walls to a position where you can climb the ladder and get back out of the hole you entered. The wall you want to place in that position is the FURTHEST wall from the point of entry, and NOT the wall just south of it. Once you enter the room, type "push east wall" and that wall will slide back one position. The game will begin to use graphics to show you the layout of the room. Explore the room a little without pushing any more sandstone walls. Make yourself a larger map that shows you the whole room, rather than using the limited information the game gives to you (it limits itself to showing only the positions you can reach in one move). If the sandstone walls are properly positioned (by you), it is pretty easy to get the far wall with the ladder into position so that you can climb out of the room. In the process, you MUST move a sandstone wall which has a depression underneath it in which a gold card is to be found. Take the card, and try not to get into the situation in which the card must be inserted into a slot near a door you'll find in order to escape the puzzle room. There are at least two solutions to this puzzle, and it is really not as difficult as might be imagined. Nevertheless, here is a "canned" set of commands which can be used to get the card and to exit the puzzle. The solution which is given is a long solution. From the bottom of the hole which leads into the puzzle room (no walls pushed yet), do the following: push east wall, w push south wall,e,s,e,s push south wall,n,n,e push south wall, get card, push south wall,e,e,n push west wall, push west wall, push west wall,n,w push south wall,e,s push west wall e,e,n,n,n,n, push east wall w,s,s,s,e,e,n,n push west wall,n,w push south wall, push south wall,n,e,e,s,s,w push west wall, push west wall, s,w push north wall, push north wall, push north wall w,n,up EXPLORING THE VOLCANO. If you still haven't found the volcano, it's because the entrance is cleverly hidden. Also, the method of finding the volcano guarantees that you will eventually find yourself in the dark because the lamp will be the only source of light left. Thus, you don't want to tackle this portion of the game until all other sections have been solved. To do so is to assure a no-win game! Bring the FCD #3 brochure, the matches, the brick which feels like clay, and the wire with you as you embark on this journey. The brick is plastique, the wire is a fuse, and the pair can be used to blast open a safe left behind by Lord Dimwit Flathead. Put the wire in the brick in preparation for having a blast, and proceed to the egyptian room. Go up to find the glacier (the mass of ice you should have noticed) and throw the torch at the ice. The torch will melt the ice, but it will go out in the process (you need to retrieve it at the bottom of the stream to win the game, but you should wait until after the balloon ride to do so). To the west you will find what turns out to be the entrance to the volcano and the beginnings of a hot air balloon ride. The balloon is easy to find, and you'll also find a moby ruby along the way. It is probably best to leave the ruby behind and to pick both it and the torch up on your return from the balloon ride. Proceed to the balloon, and board it. Put the brochure in the receptacle and light the brochure with a match (light match, light paper with match). The balloon will inflate and will shortly leave the ground to sail up the chimney of the volcano. Naturally, there are some pitfalls, but with care you can avoid all of them. As you wait (wait command), the balloon will slowly rise, and you have to take care not to get too close to the rim of the volcano. Also, the balloon (manufactured by the Frobozz Magic Balloon Company - who else?) responds to the same set of commands as the boat, but don't assume that a "land" command is permanent. If you don't take some action to secure the balloon, it'll float away and leave you stranded on some ledge or other. Fortunately, the proprietors of the dungeon have provided mooring hooks to avoid such an embarrassment, and the hooks should be used wherever found. The game sometimes gets confused when told to "tie wire to hook" because the brick has a wire (a fuse) in it, and the game doesn't know which wire you mean. The sentence "tie braided wire to hook" will work as intended. Go as high in the volcano as you can. To do this, wait until the game tells you that you are 100 feet above the floor of the volcano and then execute a "wait" command three times. This will place you near the rim, and you should execute the following series of commands: land close receptacle disembark tie braided wire to hook s put brick in hole light match light fuse with match n (the plastique bomb blows the safe) s get crown n untie braided wire board basket launch There is time to get the card that's in the safe, but bypassing it gives you one more turn as a buffer before the room collapses. It is important to get in the balloon and launch it rapidly. The ledge on which you were just standing will also collapse, and it can hit the balloon even if you're very careful. Execute the wait command twice more, and you will find yourself even with another ledge (make sure it's NOT the viewing ledge). Use the following commands to finish retrieving the volcano's treasures: land disembark tie braided wire to hook get zorkmid s open purple book get stamp n untie braided wire board basket launch You ought to examine all of the treasures at some point, because the Dungeon Master may quiz you about them during the end game. Waiting will return you to the bottom of the volcano, at which time you can disembark, retrieve the ruby, and go find the burned out ivory torch at the location of the stream view. Return to the living room and place your treasures in the trophy case. This should have been the last section you solved, because you probably won't be able to last too much longer now that the lamp is your only source of light. If this was the last section, you should have amassed all of the points the normal game of dungeon can confer (585); if you don't have 585 points, you need to go back and see if you found all of the treasures. If you do have 585 points, you'll have properly achieved the rank of "cheater", because it seems that hardly anyone solves this game without cheating - just as you are doing right now! If you have the full 585 points, you are now ready to enter the end game (if you can find it). The last sections of these hints tell you how to do that. A BUG OR TWO: When you first began your balloon ride, you should have noticed a blue label that contains directions for using the balloon. That label behaves like any other object in the dungeon UNLESS you attempt to burn it in the receptacle. If you do so, it will appear to work just fine, but when it gets consumed by the flames the whole program can collapse and you can find yourself back at the unix prompt. On the other hand, the label may work just fine, and the success or failure of a "blue label burn" seems to be dependent upon things that have gone before. This bug seems to exist in most forms of the game, and could even be found in CompuServe's version (Banshi) when it was available. The reason seems to lie in the way in which the blue label was first made to appear to the adventurer - a way which could lead to a massive logic error if the label is ever destroyed while it is inside of the balloon. Apparently, the bug is thorny enough that it has never been corrected, and the adventurer is warned that burning blue labels can be hazardous to the existence of the universe. While on the subject of bugs, we list a minor one that hardly anyone is likely to notice: If the thief takes the rope, he will next drop it in a form which is invisible to the "look" command. Nonetheless, the intrepid adventurer can get it back again if (s)he happens to issue a "take all" command in the room where the rope has been dropped by the thief. The directions given earlier make it unnecessary to ever get a used rope back. THE END GAME. If you have scored 585 points, issue the "wait" command repeatedly until it is announced to you that you have now become one of the chosen of Zork (yes, the game slips up and calls itself Zork at this point). Go to the crypt, open it, and enter it. Close the crypt and extinguish the lamp. At this point, you will be transported to the end game in just a few moves, and you will encounter a whole new set of diabolical traps. The end game can't be saved, so pay attention to the instructions for the "incant" command which will be given to you as the end game starts. Should you get killed, you'll need to do an incantation to get back to the start of the end game. The puzzles in the end game are somehow more straightforward than those found elsewhere in Dungeon / Zork, and you really ought to try to solve them without further reference to cheat sheets. If you get really stuck, you can use the separate endgame hints file (endhints.txt) to cheat yourself all of the way to the rank of Dungeon Master. THE DEBUGGING TOOL. The original implementors needed a way to alter things in the game so that they could be sure it was working properly. Called the general debugging tool (gdt), it is entered by typing "gdt" to the game. Gdt only recognizes upper case letters, so place your caps lock in the on position, and type BEAR when asked for the password. You'll now be inside of GDT (and on your own) and will have the power to do some really weird things to the game if you like. APPENDIX HELP COMMAND OUTPUT The 'BRIEF' command suppresses printing of long room descriptions for rooms which have been visited. The 'SUPERBRIEF' command suppresses printing of long room descriptions for all rooms. The 'VERBOSE' command restores long descriptions. The 'INFO' command prints information which might give some idea of what the game is about. The 'QUIT' command prints your score and asks whether you wish to continue playing. The 'SAVE' command saves the state of the game for later continuation. The 'RESTORE' command restores a saved game. The 'INVENTORY' command lists the objects in your possession. The 'LOOK' command prints a description of your surroundings. The 'SCORE' command prints your current score and ranking. The 'TIME' command tells you how long you have been playing. The 'DIAGNOSE' command reports on your injuries, if any. Command abbreviations: The 'INVENTORY' command may be abbreviated 'I'. The 'LOOK' command may be abbreviated 'L'. The 'QUIT' command may be abbreviated 'Q'. Containment: Some objects can contain other objects. Many such containers can be opened and closed. The rest are always open. They may or may not be transparent. For you to access (e.g., take) an object which is in a container, the container must be open. For you to see such an object, the container must be either open or transparent. Containers have a capacity, and objects have sizes; the number of objects which will fit therefore depends on their sizes. You may put any object you have access to (it need not be in your hands) into any other object. At some point, the program will attempt to pick it up if you don't already have it, which process may fail if you're carrying too much. Although containers can contain other containers, the program doesn't access more than one level down. Fighting: Occupants of the dungeon will, as a rule, fight back when attacked. In some cases, they may attack even if unprovoked. Useful verbs here are 'ATTACK WITH ', 'KILL', etc. Knife-throwing may or may not be useful. You have a fighting strength which varies with time. Being in a fight, getting killed, and being injured all lower this strength. Strength is regained with time. Thus, it is not a good idea to fight someone immediately after being killed. Other details should become apparent after a few melees or deaths. Command parser: A command is one line of text terminated by a carriage return. For reasons of simplicity, all words are distinguished by their first six letters. All others are ignored. For example, typing 'DISASSEMBLE THE ENCYCLOPEDIA' is not only meaningless, it also creates excess effort for your fingers. Note that this trunca- tion may produce ambiguities in the intepretation of longer words. You are dealing with a fairly stupid parser, which understands the following types of things-- Actions: Among the more obvious of these, such as TAKE, PUT, DROP, etc. Fairly general forms of these may be used, such as PICK UP, PUT DOWN, etc. Directions: NORTH, SOUTH, UP, DOWN, etc. and their various abbreviations. Other more obscure directions (LAND, CROSS) are appropriate in only certain situations. Objects: Most objects have names and can be referenced by them. Adjectives: Some adjectives are understood and required when there are two objects which can be referenced with the same 'name' (e.g., DOORs, BUTTONs). Prepositions: It may be necessary in some cases to include prepositions, but the parser attempts to handle cases which aren't ambiguous without. Thus 'GIVE CAR TO DEMON' will work, as will 'GIVE DEMON CAR'. 'GIVE CAR DEMON' probably won't do anything interesting. When a preposition is used, it should be appropriate; 'GIVE CAR WITH DEMON' won't parse. Sentences: The parser understands a reasonable number of syntactic construc- tions. In particular, multiple commands (separated by commas) can be placed on the same line. Ambiguity: The parser tries to be clever about what to do in the case of actions which require objects that are not explicitly specified. If there is only one possible object, the parser will assume that it should be used. Otherwise, the parser will ask. Most questions asked by the parser can be answered. ------------------(END OF HELP COMMAND OUTPUT)------------------------ INFO COMMAND OUTPUT Welcome to Dungeon! You are near a large dungeon, which is reputed to contain vast quantities of treasure. Naturally, you wish to acquire some of it. In order to do so, you must of course remove it from the dungeon. To receive full credit for it, you must deposit it safely in the trophy case in the living room of the house. In addition to valuables, the dungeon contains various objects which may or may not be useful in your attempt to get rich. You may need sources of light, since dungeons are often dark, and weapons, since dungeons often have unfriendly things wandering about. Reading material is scattered around the dungeon as well; some of it is rumored to be useful. To determine how successful you have been, a score is kept. When you find a valuable object and pick it up, you receive a certain number of points, which depends on the difficulty of finding the object. You receive extra points for transporting the treasure safely to the living room and placing it in the trophy case. In addition, some particularly interesting rooms have a value associated with visiting them. The only penalty is for getting yourself killed, which you may do only twice. Of special note is a thief (always carrying a large bag) who likes to wander around in the dungeon (he has never been seen by the light of day). He likes to take things. Since he steals for pleasure rather than profit and is somewhat sadistic, he only takes things which you have seen. Although he prefers valuables, sometimes in his haste he may take something which is worthless. From time to time, he examines his take and discards objects which he doesn't like. He may occas- ionally stop in a room you are visiting, but more often he just wanders through and rips you off (he is a skilled pickpocket). ------------------(END OF INFO COMMAND OUTPUT)------------------------