solution
Colours was written in Inform for IF Comp 2001, and is © 2001 by J. Robinson Wheeler.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the game.
Related link: Colours' homepage.
| Blue Mist | — | Orange Mist | — | Yellow Mist | ||||||||
| / | \ | |||||||||||
| Purple Mist | Black Room/ Grey Room | — | The Doctor | — | The Climber | — | The Sheriff | — | Yellow Room/ Orange Room | Red Mist | ||
| | | | | | | ||||||||||
| The Seeker | — | The Naturalist | The Organist | — | The Priest | The Farmer | ||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |||||||
| Green Mist | The Secret Agent | The Carpenter | — | The Brat | — | The Politician | — | The Lawyer | Black Mist | |||
| | | | | | | ||||||||||
| Brown Mist | The Poet/ The Actor/ The Comedian | — | The Clock- maker | — | The Critic/ The Editor | — | The Pro- grammer | The Author | — | The Chef | ||
| | | | | | | ||||||||||
| Red Room/ Pink Room/ Purple Room/ Brown Room | — | The Philo- sopher | — | The Dancer/ The Gymnast | — | The Artist | — | Blue Room/ Green Room | ||||
| \ | ||||||||||||
| Pink Mist | — | Grey Mist | — | White Room | ||||||||
Blue Room
>about. help.
My walkthrough does things in a different order than suggested by the HELP. We'll use the special words first, then figure out the turtle problem, then fiddle with the coins.
>x me. i. x coin. x turtle. x egg. take egg. take turtle.
>x coin. x button. x receptacle. put coin in slot. push button.
>n.
The Author
>x author. take paper. x it.
This paper contains several hidden words that you'll need to know about. For every sentence, take the first letter of each word to form a new word, e.g.: "Peggy's annoyance lasted long into a tedious, inexhaustably vexing, evening." becomes PALLIATIVE. Also, for both paragraphs, take the first letter of each line to get two more words. These are the hidden words:
Pallative. Attempt. Feeble. Reach. Liability. Absolute. Blight. Lamplight. Able. Lasting. Missal. Essential. Lawless. Slur.
Lithe. Beatnik. Iterate. Spy. Nasty. Bray. Laity. Either. Immature. Swissmade watch.
Parallel. Lines.
You'll need to say the appropriate choice of one of these words to each person you meet, e.g.:
>say feeble. [+1]
You'll notice that usually the room is cleared by such an action: the author and his typewriter go away, and the room is now just a Clear Room. There's nothing more you can do here.
>e.
The Chef
>i. x slice. x chef. x mitt. take it. x oven. x mist.
>say essential. [+1]
>take pan. x pan. x man. x egg. n.
When you try to go north, you are blasted by the colours "black, grey, yellow, orange, red, purple, brown, pink, blue, and green." Considering that the game is called Colours, you might want to pay attention to the colours of what you find. You can't go through the mist yet.
>w. s. w.
The Artist
>x artist. x scissors. take them. say lasting. [+1] w.
The Dancer
>x dancer. say lithe. [+1; the dancer is replaced by a gymnast.]
The Gymnast
>l. x gymnast. say parallel. [+1] w.
The Philosopher
>x philosopher. say absolute. [+1] w.
Red Room
>x brown coin. take it. x slot. x button. x receptacle. n.
The Poet
>x poet. say beatnik. [+1; the actor enters.]
The Actor
>l. x actor. say lines. [+1; actor drops skull; comedian enters.]
The Comedian
>l. x comedian. x skull. take it. say reach. [+1; comedian gives you something.]
>i. x button. e.
The Clockmaker
>x clockmaker. say swissmade watch. [+1] e.
The Critic
>x critic. say nasty. [+1; editor enters.]
The Editor
>l. x editor. say either. [+1] e.
The Programmer
>x programmer. say iterate. [+1] n.
The Politician
>x politician. say slur. [+1; you get a pin.] x pin. e.
The Lawyer
>x lawyer. x books. say liability. [+1] n.
The Farmer
>x farmer. x donkey. say bray. [+1; farmer drops handkerchief.]
>x handkerchief. take it. n.
Yellow Room
>x grey coin. take it. w.
The Sheriff
>x sheriff. say lawless. [+1] w.
The Climber
>x climber. say attempt. [+1; climber drops hammer.]
>x hammer. take it. s.
The Organist
>x organist. x organ. say missal. [+1; he gives missal to you.]
>x missal. e.
The Priest
>x priest. say laity. [+1] s. w.
The Brat
>x brat. x band. take it. say immature. [+1; brat drops doll.]
>x doll. take it. w.
The Carpenter
>x carpenter. x glove. take it. say able. [+1] n.
The Naturalist
>x naturalist. say blight. [+1; he gives a leaf to you.]
>x leaf. w.
The Seeker
>x seeker. search. say lamplight. [+1] s.
The Secret Agent
>x agent. say spy. [+1] n. e. n.
The Doctor
Note: The Purple Heart medal can't be referred to as 'medal'.
>x doctor. say palliative. [+1; doctor gives Purple Heart.]
>x heart. w.
Black Room
The bottle changes colour, depending on what room it's in, taking on the dominate colour of the room. Of course, now that we've cleared most of the rooms, you're not going to see much of that effect.
>x orange coin. x bottle. take all.
>put black coin in slot. push button.
Hm. Got the coin back, but this time a number 1 flashed. But let's get back to the turtle, since the help seemed to think that was important. Navigating through the clear rooms is like a maze now, unfortunately.
>e. s. s. e. e. s. s. e.
Blue Room
We want that gold egg, and we want it open.
>cut turtle with scissors. take gold egg. [gah!]
>put rubber band on turtle. put band on mouth. take gold egg. take band.
Here's a funny bit of business:
>x man. take candy egg. put gold egg in man. take man. give candy egg to man. take all.
Yup, the turtle is takeable too. Back to business:
>open gold egg. put band on gold egg. open gold egg.
>wear glove. open gold egg. x white coin. take it.
>remove glove. take band. i.
You should now have five coins: white, black, orange, grey, and brown. For some reason, the white coin must be a bit more special than the others to be locked up quite so well. However, if you try putting any of these coins into the slot in the Blue Room and pushing the square button, you'll just get the coin back. Maybe you need a blue coin? In any case, you don't have a blue, red, or yellow coin yet, but you have a black one. Let's go back to the black room and experiment there.
>w. n. n. w. w. n. n. w.
Black Room
>put black coin in slot. [Note that the coin plunks 'happily'. This is a hint that this coin can be used here.
>x pan. take man. [The baking pan is black. The gingerbread man shouldn't be on the pan after he was brought to life, but he is, so take him.]
>put pan in receptacle. push square button. [+5]
Clear Room (the former Black Room)
The game fails to tell you that the slot and square button are still there. Oops. You've got the black coin back. Hm.
>x slot. x square button. x receptacle.
>put white coin in slot. push square button. [The Clear Room becomes a Grey Room.]
Grey Room
>take red coin. put grey coin in slot. push square button. [A "2" flashes. We need two grey items.]
>put hammer in receptacle. put scissors in receptacle.
>put grey coin in slot. push square button. [+5]
Further experimentation will show that the white, black, and grey coins plunk happily, and that the orange, brown, and red coins do not. Sometimes when the button is pushed after a happy coin has been inserted, the walls flicker, but the room remains clear. Perhaps it's time to time another coloured room.
>e. e. e. e.
Yellow Room
>put red coin in slot. push square button.
Orange Room
>take blue coin.
>put slice in receptacle. put orange coin in slot. push square button. [+5]
>s. s. w. s. s. w. w. w.
Red Room
>put red coin in slot. push square button. [We need 2 red items]
>put handkerchief in receptacle. put mitt in receptacle.
>put red coin in slot. push square button. [+5]
Clear Room (the former Red Room)
>put white coin in slot. push square button.
Pink Room
>take yellow coin. put red coin in slot. push square button.
Clear Room (the former Red Room)
>put blue coin in slot. push square button.
Purple Room
>take green coin. put red coin in slot. push square button.
Clear Room (the former Red Room)
>put green coin in slot. push square button.
Brown Room
>take pink coin. put brown coin in slot. push square button. [3 brown items needed.]
>put man in receptacle. put turtle in receptacle. put glove in receptacle.
>put brown coin in slot. push square button. [+5]
Clear Room (the former Brown Room)
>put red coin in slot. push square button.
Clear Room (the former Red Room)
>put white coin in slot. push square button.
Pink Room
>put doll in receptacle. put pink coin in slot. push square button. [+5]
Clear Room (the former Pink Room)
>put red coin in slot. push square button.
Clear Room (the former Red Room)
>put blue coin in slot. push square button.
Purple Room
We're still missing a purple coin, so let's move to the southeast corner.
>e. e. e. e.
Blue Room
>put band in receptacle. put missal in receptacle. put blue coin in slot. push square button. [+5]
Clear Room (the former Blue Room)
>put yellow coin in slot. push square button.
Green Room
>take purple coin. put leaf in receptacle. put pin in receptacle.
>put green coin in slot. push square button. [+5]
>.w. w. w. w.
Purple Room
>put heart in receptacle. put purple coin in slot. push square button. [+5]
Time to run to the opposite corner to do the yellow room, which we skipped over earlier.
>e. e. e. n. n. e. n. n.
Clear Room (the former Orange Room)
>put yellow coin in slot. push square button.
Yellow Room
>put gold egg in receptacle. put smiley button in receptacle.
>put yellow coin in slot. push square button. [+5]
You should now have four white items plus eleven coins. Time to enter the mist.
>s. s. w. s. s. e. n. e.
Clear Room (the former The Chef)
>n.
Black Mist
>n.
Red Mist
>nw.
Yellow Mist
>w.
Orange Mist
>w.
Blue Mist
>sw.
Purple Mist
>s.
Green Mist
>s.
Brown Mist
>se.
Pink Mist
>e.
Grey Mist
>e.
White Room
>put all but coins in receptacle. [sugar egg, bottle, skull, paper]
>put white coin in slot. push button. [+5; the screen flashes colours.] amusing.