Atrocitron is a Z-machine interactive fiction game written with Inform 6 and is © 2016 by Michael C. Martin. It is billed as episode 5 of the Annoyotron series.
In this small abstract game, you could be anyone carrying a ticket with a randomly-chosen number. A sign above the exit door has a different randomly-chosen number. But waiting for the number to change won't work. Perhaps you should explore your environment and make a few changes?
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.
Note that the names of the locations on the map can change based on what's in them:
Grand Exit
> about. rationale. credits.
> x me. i. x ticket. x sign.
> s. (force blocks you)
> drop ticket. (You won't do it.)
It's quite impossible to solve this game without playing several times and figuring out by experimentation how things work. So, for this walkthrough, I'll assume you've played the game several times, you think maybe you've figured it all out, and now it's time to test if you're right.
The main thing you need to worry about, is changing the number on the sign so it matches the number on your ticket. This is slightly easier if you take the sign with you:
> take sign.
> notify on. (To let you know when you're changed something.)
Unfortunately for this walkthrough, most items in the game are in random locations from one session to another, so I'm going to have to tell you to go to a thing's location instead of being explicit about where it is. The game map is small, though, and nothing is hidden.
CAUTION: Changing anything north of the Grand Exit, if you don't know what you're doing, can make the game unwinnable. This includes looking at a poster!
Furthermore, SAVE and UNDO are disabled in this game! If you make a mistake, you'll have to start over again!
Sigh. The first thing you need to do is convert the numbers on your ticket and sign into binary notation. Google can do this for you; for example, just type in a query like what is 11023 in binary into Google's search bar, hit ENTER, and it'll quickly tell you that 11023 = 0b10101100001111.
Do this for both numbers, and make yourself a chart like this:
Note which binary digits are different, and change the environmental status of the corresponding items in the game for each of those differing digits.
Work left to right, starting with the 15th digit from the right. (The 16th digit will always be zero.) For the 15th digit, go to the location of the rope, usually called "Secret Belfry?":
Secret Belfry? (or location of the rope)
Only pull the rope if the 15th digit is different:
For the 14th digit, go to the location of the pail:
(location of the pail)
Only empty the pail if the 14th digit is different:
For the 13th digit, go to the location of the button:
(location of the button)
Only push the button if the 13th digit is different:
For the 12th digit, go to the location of the icosahedron:
(location of the icosahedron)
Only move the icosahedron if the 12th digit is different. If the icosahedron is on the table, simply take the icosahedron.
If the icosahedron wasn't on the table already, find the table and put the icosahedron onto the table. The table is usually in the "Meeting Area".
Meeting Area (or location of the table)
For the 11th digit, go to the location of the mirror, usually called "Cosmetic Corner":
Cosmetic Corner (or location of the mirror)
Only break the mirror if the 11th digit is different:
For the 10th digit, go to the location of the dodecahedron:
(location of the dodecahedron)
Only move the dodecahedron if the 10th digit is different. If the dodecahedron is on the table, simply take the dodecahedron.
If the dodecahedron wasn't on the table already, find the table and put the dodecahedron onto the table. The table is usually in the "Meeting Area".
Meeting Area (or location of the table)
For the 9th digit, go to the location of the cube:
(location of the cube)
Only move the cube if the 9th digit is different. If the cube is on the table, simply take the cube.
If the cube wasn't on the table already, find the table and put the cube onto the table. The table is usually in the "Meeting Area".
Meeting Area (or location of the table)
For the 8th digit, go to the location of the bed, usually called the "Sleeping Nook":
Sleeping Nook (or location of the bed)
Only sleep in the bed if the 8th digit is different.
For the 7th digit, go to the location of the stylish fez:
(location of the fez)
Only wear the fez if the 7th digit is different.
For the 6th digit, go to the location of the tetrahedron:
(location of the tetrahedron)
Only move the tetrahedron if the 6th digit is different. If the tetrahedron is on the table, simply take the tetrahedron.
If the tetrahedron wasn't on the table already, find the table and put the tetrahedron onto the table. The table is usually in the "Meeting Area".
Meeting Area (or location of the table)
For the 5th digit, go to the location of the cheese:
(location of the cheese)
Only eat the cheese if the 5th digit is different.
For the 4th digit, go to the location of the octahedron:
(location of the octahedron)
Only move the octahedron if the 4th digit is different. If the octahedron is on the table, simply take the octahedron.
If the octahedron wasn't on the table already, find the table and put the octahedron onto the table. The table is usually in the "Meeting Area".
Meeting Area (or location of the table)
For the 3rd digit, go to the location of the poster:
(location of the poster)
Only examine the poster if the 3rd digit is different. CAUTION: If you examine the poster accidentally when you don't need to, you've made the game unwinnable and you will need to restart the game!
For the 2nd digit, go to the location of the television, usually called the "Recreation Nook":
Recreation Nook (or location of the television)
Only turn on the television if the 2nd digit is different.
For the 1st digit, go to the south side of the door, usually called "North Junction":
North Junction (or location of door's south side)
Only close the door if the 1st digit is different.
If you've made all the necessary environmental changes and none of the unnecessary ones, the numbers on the sign and ticket should now match. Return to Grand Exit:
Grand Exit
> s. SPACE
Congratulations! You have defeated the Atrocitron. [rest of paragraph redacted]
If you tried to [rest of paragraph redacted]
You will need a password. [rest of paragraph redacted]
*** You have won ***
There are endnotes, but they're encrypted within the story file itself, and I don't think I should spoil them here. If you win the game, you'll learn how to read them.
The response to CREDITS is:
The Atrocitron has been perpetrated by Michael Martin, with the Inform 6 system by Graham Nelson and his many contributors.
Dan Uznanski provided invaluable testing feedback on early versions of the game, helping to to get it into a much more consistent shape before I sent it to the rest of my testers: Dave Bushong, Audrey Carstensen, and Geordan Rosario.
Special thanks, in alphabetical order, to Sean Barrett, Ade McT, Wesley Osam, and Ben Parrish. They know what they did.
Putting any Platonic solid on the table (or taking it off the table) has an environmental impact.
By the way, you can roll all the Platonic solids, but since they're all blank, you have to imagine what number you rolled.
The response to SCORE is:
Your environmental impact is your-score out of a possible 15, in several turns.
You gain 1 point for each of the following actions. You lose a gained point by reversing the change you made to the environment:
The delta values are how much you will be altering the sign's numeric value, either positive or negative, with those actions.
Please understand that the goal in this game isn't to get the highest score, and playing for a high score will usually result in making the game unwinnable.
However:
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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