The Cube in the Cavern is a Z-machine interactive fiction game written with Inform 7 and is © 2017 by Andrew Schultz. It was an entry in IF Comp 2017 where it took 39th place.
In this puzzle game, you play as someone with a Ph.D. in both Psychokinetics and Psychohistory. You have found an ancient-looking cave containing a large floating cube where each face has its own gravity pulling you towards the cube's center! What could be in there? You have a mood ring, a map, and some rope to help you find out.
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.
(pre-game)
...using a screen reader? yes —or— no (as appropriate)
Upper Face, center
First, see what's here and check out your inventory. Make a note of the beacon color here; it's randomized:
> x beacon. x me. i. x ring.
> x map. read map. x rope.
Explore the rest of this face, starting at the north edge and walking clockwise to the northwest corner:
> n. e.
Upper Face, northeast corner
> x transponder.
> s. s.
Upper Face, southeast corner
> x transponder. w. w.
Upper Face, southwest corner
> x transponder. n. n.
Upper Face, northwest corner
Okay, so there's a dark transponder at each corner of the upper face.
> x transponder. touch it.
Next, I'm going to ask you to traverse the rest of cube, since you must visit everywhere to obtain the best ending. By the way, at some random point in the traversal, you'll find a dried cherry which you'll automatically take and eat. Don't worry about where that happens.
Go to the northern face, going over the edge:
> n.
Northern Face, upwest corner
The transponder here is the same transponder you just saw at upper face, northwest corner. There's only eight transponders in total, each at the very corners of the cube. Each transponder can be seen from three neighboring faces.
Orientation on the other cube's faces is a bit confusing at first. Traversal on the northern face uses UP, DOWN, WEST and EAST directions.
At some point soon, the game will tell you about the GO TO command, or GT for short, that will let you travel directly to anywhere on the cube's surface.
> d. d. e. u.
Northern Face, center
Again, make a note the beacon color. It's random.
> u. e. d. d.
Northern Face, downeast corner
Walk over the edge to the eastern face:
> e.
Eastern Face, downnorth corner
Traversal on the northern face uses UP, DOWN, NORTH and SOUTH directions.
And as I'm sure you've guessed by now, there's a beacon in the center of each face, and a dark transponder at each corner.
> u. u. s. d.
Eastern Face, center
Note the beacon color.
> d. s. u. u.
Eastern Face, upsouth corner
Walk over the edge to the southern face:
> s.
Southern Face, upeast corner
Traversal on the southern face uses UP, DOWN, WEST and EAST directions, just like on the northern face.
> d. d. w. u.
Southern Face, center
Note the beacon color.
> u. w. d. d.
Southern Face, downwest corner
Walk over the edge to the western face:
> w.
Western Face, downsouth corner
This face uses UP, DOWN, NORTH and SOUTH directions, just like on the eastern face.
> n. u.
Western Face, center
Note the beacon color.
> s. u. n. n. d. d.
Western Face, downnorth corner
And walk over to the bottom face:
> d.
Bottom Face, northwest corner
Let's spiral to the center this time:
> e. e. s. s. w. w. n. e.
Bottom Face, center
Note the beacon color. You should now know all six beacon colors, and which sides they're each on.
Make use of the GO TO command to return to Upper Face, northwest corner:
> go to unw.
Upper Face, northwest corner
Time to play with your mood ring and this transponder.
> x ring. summon air. (Your ring turns white.)
> touch transponder. (The transponder turns white.)
> summon fire. touch transponder. (It's now yellow.)
> summon water. touch transponder. (It's now blue.)
> summon earth. touch transponder. (It's now red.)
Hmm. Note that the colors didn't mix at all; you always replaced the color. Leave this transponder red and try to turn all the other transponders on this face red.
> e. e.
Upper Face, northeast corner
Because the mood ring's color fades back to black over time, I want to make sure it's red by recharging the ring with redness. You can just say the color you want instead of explictly summoning an element.
> red. touch transponder. (fail!)
Hmm. Try the southeast one:
> s. s.
Upper Face, southeast corner
> red. touch transponder. (That works.)
By the way, if the beacon on this face is also red, you'll hear something happen at Upper Face, center. But ignore that for now if that happened.
> w. w.
Upper Face, southwest corner
> red. touch transponder. (fail!)
If you experiment more, you can confirm that adjacent transponders cannot be lit at the same time. You can only have at most two lit transponders on a face, and they must be diagonally opposite each other.
> n. n.
Upper Face, northwest corner
> clear. (This command clears all transponders, turning them all black again.)
Next, I want you to try to light up the northwest and southeast transponders so that their colors, when added together, equal the color of the beacon on this face.
To be more explicit:
So, um, do that:
> FIRST-COLOR. touch transponder.
> se. se.
Upper Face, southeast corner
> SECOND-COLOR. touch transponder.
If you did it correctly, you'll hear something happen back at the beacon. Go there now.
> nw.
Upper Face, center
A tunnel leading inside (down) has replaced the beacon. Note that the tunnel has the same color that the beacon did.
> x tunnel. d.
The Very Center
> x gold. (It's projecting a 6-color rainbow.)
> touch gold. (It hums.)
> take gold. (Can't.)
> u.
Upper Face, center
> clear. (All transponders are black again and the beacon is back.)
Now I want you to do something very clever: turn all six beacons into tunnels. You need to visit four transponders either at (UNW, USE, DSW, and DNE) or at (UNE, USW, DSE, and DNW) and strategically turn them to the colors they need to be. You'll use each of WHITE, RED, BLUE, and YELLOW exactly once.
If you don't need explicit instructions on doing that, set the transponders accordingly and jump to all tunnels open.
Okay, now for the explicit instructions, and my apologies, but they're gonna be ugly. First, determine which four transponders you need to use.
(setting transponder group one)
Start with the upper face.
If the upper beacon is red and the northern beacon is orange or purple:
Else if the upper beacon is red:
If the upper beacon is orange and the northern beacon is red or purple:
Else if the upper beacon is orange:
If the upper beacon is yellow and the northern beacon is orange or green:
Else if the upper beacon is yellow:
If the upper beacon is green and the northern beacon is blue or purple:
Else if the upper beacon is green:
If the upper beacon is blue and the northern beacon is green or purple:
Else if the upper beacon is blue:
If the upper beacon is purple and the northern beacon is red or orange:
Else if the upper beacon is purple:
Now do the bottom face.
If the bottom beacon is red and the southern beacon is orange or purple:
Else if the bottom beacon is red:
If the bottom beacon is orange and the southern beacon is red or purple:
Else if the bottom beacon is orange:
If the bottom beacon is yellow and the southern beacon is orange or green:
Else if the bottom beacon is yellow:
If the bottom beacon is green and the southern beacon is blue or purple:
Else if the bottom beacon is green:
If the bottom beacon is blue and the southern beacon is green or purple:
Else if the bottom beacon is blue:
If the bottom beacon is purple and the southern beacon is red or orange:
Else if the bottom beacon is purple:
Jump to all tunnels open.
(setting transponder group two)
Start with the upper face.
If the upper beacon is red and the northern beacon is orange or purple:
Else if the upper beacon is red:
If the upper beacon is orange and the northern beacon is red or purple:
Else if the upper beacon is orange:
If the upper beacon is yellow and the northern beacon is orange or green:
Else if the upper beacon is yellow:
If the upper beacon is green and the northern beacon is blue or purple:
Else if the upper beacon is green:
If the upper beacon is blue and the northern beacon is green or purple:
Else if the upper beacon is blue:
If the upper beacon is purple and the northern beacon is red or orange:
Else if the upper beacon is purple:
Now do the bottom face.
If the bottom beacon is red and the southern beacon is orange or purple:
Else if the bottom beacon is red:
If the bottom beacon is orange and the southern beacon is red or purple:
Else if the bottom beacon is orange:
If the bottom beacon is yellow and the southern beacon is orange or green:
Else if the bottom beacon is yellow:
If the bottom beacon is green and the southern beacon is blue or purple:
Else if the bottom beacon is green:
If the bottom beacon is blue and the southern beacon is green or purple:
Else if the bottom beacon is blue:
If the bottom beacon is purple and the southern beacon is red or orange:
Else if the bottom beacon is purple:
Jump to all tunnels open.
(all tunnels open)
Verify that all six tunnels are open:
> gt uc. d.
The Very Center
I'm going to assume all six tunnels are here; otherwise, you'll need to leave the center and fix up whichever transponders you got wrong.
> x gold. (Note the rainbow ordering hint.)
Leave by the red tunnel:
> EXIT-RED-TUNNEL-DIRECTION.
(red tunnel entrance)
You next need to thread the rope through all the tunnels in rainbow order. Because of the random setup, I cannot give exact directions; I can only describe them.
> drop rope. (This anchors it.)
> ENTER-RED-TUNNEL-DIRECTION.
The Very Center
> EXIT-ORANGE-TUNNEL-DIRECTION.
(orange tunnel entrance)
> gt YELLOW-TUNNEL-ENTRANCE.
(yellow tunnel entrance)
> ENTER-YELLOW-TUNNEL-DIRECTION.
The Very Center
> EXIT-GREEN-TUNNEL-DIRECTION.
(green tunnel entrance)
> gt BLUE-TUNNEL-ENTRANCE.
(blue tunnel entrance)
> ENTER-BLUE-TUNNEL-DIRECTION.
The Very Center
> EXIT-PURPLE-TUNNEL-DIRECTION.
(purple tunnel entrance)
Now return to where you anchored the rope:
> gt RED-TUNNEL-ENTRANCE.
(red tunnel entrance)
> tie rope.
The cube breaks. The gold sphere pops out. It opens. You have visions. You have solved the cube!
*** YOU HAVE ACHIEVED KNOWLEDGE ***
Look at Endings if want to know what those words in all-capitals mean.
This is very much a solo adventure without any other characters or creatures in it. For completeness's sake, though:
This is the response to CREDITS:
Thanks to, in alphabetical order, Brian Rushton, Mike Souza, Mike Spivey, and Marnix van den Bos for suffering through the early bug-filled variations of this game and for their support in a bit of a time crunch.
Thanks to Genstein and Jason Lautzenheiser for creating and developing Trizbort, which has helped me organize and visualize other games in addition to this. http://www.trizbort.com has this app, though it's Windows only.
Regarding the full vision in the best ending: you'll see three words capitalized and separated by slashes. There are four possible sets of those three words. You'll have to win the best ending multiple times to see all four sets. If you stack the sets of words in the correct order and read the words top-to-bottom, left-to-right, you'll discover a twelve-word sentence of dubious wisdom. The initial letters of the words in the secret sentence are B C W R M I T A T O A C.
Also note, if you do CLEAR in The Very Center, all the tunnels vanish and there's no way out! Congratulations, you have made the game unwinnable and you're entombed until your assistant rescues you, if they ever do.
| + | White | Blue | Red | Yellow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | White | Blue | Red | Yellow |
| Blue | Blue | Blue | Purple | Green |
| Red | Red | Purple | Red | Orange |
| Yellow | Yellow | Green | Orange | Yellow |
Honorable mention:
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