The Cube is a Z-machine interactive fiction game written with Inform 7 and is © 2010 by Simon Smart and Eleanor Gang. It was a participant in Jay Is Games's Casual Gameplay Design Competition #7 where it took 12th place.
In this small game, you play as the top researcher at your institution. Xenoarchaeologists have brought you an enigmatic cube discovered in the remnants of a lost civilization on a distant star system. Your task is to examine this cube thoroughly and report your findings, a great honour.
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: This game is Merciful on Zarf's cruelty scale. You can't die or ever make a fatal mistake. Also, this game often nudges the player on what to do next, making the game so much easier to play than it otherwise would be.
The Lab
> x me. i. x scanner.
> x table. x rocks. x cube.
> scan me. scan rocks. scan cube. scan table. scan scanner.
> touch cube. x cube. (Each side is now a different color.)
> scan cube.
> x red. scan red. (angry buzzing)
The game will soon start suggesting touching the sides in a specific order. Rainbow order is the most obvious order to try:
> touch red. touch orange. touch yellow.
> touch green. touch blue. touch purple. ("SLURP": all goes black.)
Press space four times.
Inside the Cube (Standing on the red side)
> x rings. scan rings. (The game suggests jumping.)
> jump.
Inside the Cube (Standing on the yellow side)
The game suggests jumping somewhere specific, and maybe touching these walls too.
> jump to red.
Inside the Cube (Standing on the red side)
> touch red. (The rings become a red-ringed portal back to the lab.)
> x portal. enter it.
The Wrong Lab
> x locker. open locker. take all from locker.
> x suit. (Has cable and hook for anchoring.)
> x gun. (Has three settings: STUN, KILL, and VAPOURISE.)
> x rocks. scan rocks. take tile. (The triangular one.)
> wear suit. enter portal.
Inside the Cube (Standing on the red side)
Continue exploring by touching the sides in rainbow order. By the way, you only need to jump to another side if the side you wish to touch is currently the opposite one to the side you're standing on. Red is opposite green; orange is opposite blue; yellow is opposite purple.
> touch orange.
Through the orange portal, a tentacled creature tries to grab you!
> vapourise tentacle. (It drops a talisman on the other side.)
> enter portal.
The Monster's Den
> x adventurers. take sunglasses. take talisman.
> x square tile. x sunglasses.
> enter portal.
Inside the Cube (Standing on the red side)
> touch yellow.
The yellow portal goes to somewhere with little air. Fortunately, you're wearing a space suit.
> enter portal. (You tether yourself to a ring for safety.)
Deep Space
> x stars. scan stars.
> x debris. scan debris. take tile. (The hexagonal one.)
> enter portal.
Inside the Cube (Standing on the red side)
> jump to green.
Inside the Cube (Standing on the green side)
> touch green. enter portal.
An Alien Temple
> x columns. x rubble. x altar.
> x sculpture. scan it.
> scan rubble. take tile. (The pentagonal one.)
> enter portal.
Inside the Cube (Standing on the green side)
> touch blue. (The blue portal opens to intense light; you're blinded.)
> wear sunglasses. x portal. enter portal.
Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Way Up High)
> x crystals. scan crystals.
> x ground. scan ground. take tile. (The round one.)
> enter portal.
Inside the Cube (Standing on the green side)
> touch purple wall. scan it. x slots.
There's five missing pieces and you have five tiles. This is straightforward:
> put all tiles in slots.
With the last tile placed, a purple portal is formed.
> x portal. enter portal.
During your adventure, your faithful scanner scanned and catalogued several things, leaving it completely satisfied.
*** You have won ***
By the way, if you do a speed-run and scan as few things as possible during the game, your scanner will be "slightly disappointed" at the end, but your win is otherwise unchanged.
Mentioned:
The response to the CREDITS command is:
Special thanks to the people who took the time to test The Cube:
- Gord Hill - Professional of Professionals
- Etienne Domingue - DM Extraordinaire
- Matthew Thompson - The Grimmest of Grins
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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