All Quiet on the Library Front is a Z-machine interactive fiction game written with Inform 5 and is © 1995 by Michael S. Phillips. It was an entry in IF Comp 1995 where it took 5th place.
In this game, you're a generic college student who's been slacking all semester. For your final paper on the "The History of IF Games", you need to check out a book about Graham Nelson which is somewhere in this library, but where?
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the game.
SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of an interactive fiction game. Please make an honest effort to play the game before reading this walkthrough.
Lobby
The HELP command in this game is like an extended ABOUT command. For in-game help, the command to use is HINTS.
Also, the clock is ticking. The game starts at 3pm and you need to escape with the book before 5pm when the library closes.
> help. help author. help GMD. help Inform.
> help intro. help license.
Look at your inventory and your surroundings:
> i. x ID card.
> x attendant. x desk. read signs. x catalog.
> ask attendant about nelson.
> ask attendant about reference.
> w.
Ground Floor Stacks
> x librarian.
> ask her about Nelson. (It's in the Rare Books Room.)
> ask her about rare. (On 2nd floor, and you'll need the key.)
> ask her about key. (Obtain it at circulation desk.)
> e.
Lobby
> ask attendant about key.
> give card to attendant. (+5; swap card for key.)
> x key.
> w. n.
Ground Floor Stairwell
> x picture.
> look under stairs. (+1; found a red herring)
> x herring.
> u.
Second Floor Stairwell
> x painting. give herring to grue. (+2)
> s.
Second Floor Stacks
> unlock door with key. open door. s.
Rare Books Room
> take Nelson. (+5) read it.
> x Avalon. x biographies.
> n.
Second Floor Stacks
> close door. lock door with key.
> x shelves. search shelves. (+5; you find a novel.)
> e.
Computer Lab
> x technician. x manual.
> x printout. (The technician blocks you.)
> ask technician about gates. (+2; he goes to the lobby.)
> x printout. (+5; you take it.)
Mild bug: Don't refer to your printout as "printout" in this room after you've taken it.
> x Frobozzica.
> w. n. d. s.
Ground Floor Stacks
> ask librarian about technician.
> give printout to librarian. (+2)
> xyzzy. (+1)
> e.
Lobby
> give novel to attendant. (+2)
> give key to attendant. (You get your ID card back.)
> x gates. e.
End Game
*** You have won ***
Also:
The is the response to HELP AUTHOR:
This vignette was written by Michael S. Phillips, based (extremely) loosely on the library in which he works. The author may be reached at
email redacted.He would like to express thanks to those people he browbeat into testing this, and to Gareth Rees for his excellent tutorial (check it out at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/gdr11/inform/) and to Graham Nelson for Inform, and all the folks on rec.arts.int-fiction and rec.games.int-fiction for rekindling his interest in interactive fiction.
The response to SCORE is:
You have so far scored your-score out of a possible 30, in several turns.
Points are awarded as follows:
This walkthrough is provided free of charge since the work it's based on has less than fifteen locations. Please consider it a thank you for your support!
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