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Key & Compass presents:
A Good Breakfast
by Stuart Adair

A Good Breakfast is a Z-machine interactive fiction game written with Inform 6 and is © 1997 by Stuart Adair. It was an entry in IF Comp 1997 where it took 23rd place.

In this small game, you wake up late to the sound of the mail arriving. You remember last night's party; thankfully, you don't have a hangover. But you're positively starving! Get something to eat, and soon!

This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 2 of the work.


Map

n turn around n put cartridgein computer swim d u (to backyard) Street Street Porch Neighbours'Porch Computerroom Hall Livingroom Bedroom Landing Kitchen Utilityroom Bathroom Northof theRhaneshka On thebridge Southof theRhaneshka (else)

Walkthrough

Bedroom

The bed's drawer can never be opened.

> verbose.

> x me. i. stand. (Naked and empty-handed.)

> x bed. open drawer. (Can't.)

> x posters. x cracks. x wardrobe. open it. look in it. (empty)

> e.

Landing

> open bathroom door. (Probably someone in there and sleeping.)

> d.

Hall

> read postcard. (Water cut off today for repairs.)

> take envelope. x it. (It's for your neighbour.)

> open it. x photos. (Of him and his secretary.)

> x cups. x letterbox.

> w.

Computer room

> x computer. x printouts. x disks.

> search disks. x screwdriver.

> take disks. yes. (You get one.)

> x cartridge. put cartridge in computer.

South of the Rhaneshka (playing Zkwork VII)

> full score. i. (carrying nothing)

> x river. n.

On the bridge (playing Zkwork VII)

Any other command on the bridge results in you getting pushed back to the south shore.

> turn around. (You're now facing south, so the guard pushes you north!)

North of the Rhaneshka (playing Zkwork VII)

> n. (+1; the Last Lousy Point)

You have won Zkwork VII, but the computer is now fried.

Computer room

> x chair. push chair e. push chair s.

Kitchen

If you stand on the untightened chair, you fall off and drop everything.

> x shelf. x box. take box. (Out of reach)

> turn chair. (This tightens it.)

> stand on chair. take box. (+1)

> stand. open box. x cornflakes.

> search cornflakes. (You find nothing.)

> eat cornflakes. (Too dry!)

> count cornflakes.

> x fridge. open it. (empty except for green yoghurt)

> x dishwasher. open it. take dish. x it.

> pour box in dish. (But dish is dirty!)

> s. (You vow never to open that door again.)

> e.

Utility room

> x machine. open it. (Can't.)

> open machine with screwdriver. x clothes.

> wear clothes. (+1) x me.

> x dryer. look in it. (Empty.)

> w. n. e.

Living Room

> x Suzy. (Robot with button.)

> push button. (You start a game of Onny-Offy.)

> x display.

I wish I could tell you how to solve this 4×4 variant of a "Lights Off" puzzle every time, but I just fumble through it. Your goal is to have only "off" dots on the display, and no "on" O's showing. When you touch a square, all its immediate neighbours (horizontally, vertically, and diagonally) flip from on to off or vice-versa, but the touched square itself doesn't change its state.

If your current game is too hard, feel free to push reset. If you reset her game often enough, Suzy will give you an easy board.

Ideally, you want something like this happening:

   O . . .     1  2  3  4
   O O O O     5  6  7  8
   O . . O     9 10 11 12
   . O O O    13 14 15 16
   

> push 5

. O . . 1 2 3 4 O . O O 5 6 7 8 . O . O 9 10 11 12 . O O O 13 14 15 16

> push 11

. O . . 1 2 3 4 O O . . 5 6 7 8 . . . . 9 10 11 12 . . . . 13 14 15 16

> push 1

. . . . 1 2 3 4 . . . . 5 6 7 8 . . . . 9 10 11 12 . . . . 13 14 15 16

When you win: +1, spoon dropped, and Suzy shuts herself off.

> take spoon. x it.

> x bottles. x packets. x rolls.

> x tv. turn on tv. x string. turn off tv.

> x cone. take cone. (Don't want to.)

> w.

Hall

> open door. n.

Porch

> close door. (This also locks the door!)

> x birdtable. x bird. (Mechanical on sliding switch.)

> push bird. (It jerks its head upwards.)

> x thinking. x sitting. x digging. x laughing.

> n. (+1; dish cleaned by rain.)

Street (outside your house)

I haven't the slightest idea what SA4JW means. You do get a different response if you try using it before reading it here.

> x symbols. ("SA4JW")

> sa4jw. xyzzy.

> e. s.

Neighbours' porch

> x milk. x pad. x door. x letterbox.

> push doorbell. z. z. (Jeff answers the door.)

> x Jeff. show photos to Jeff. (+1)

> ask Jeff for milk. (+1; you get milk; he takes the photos)

> n. w. s.

Porch

Okay, so you need to solve a puzzle with the gnomes and the bird to unlock your front door. The gnomes can face in each of the four cardinal directions, and you have to find the right combo. To help you figure it out, whenever you turn a gnome, the bird will either jerk its head up or down.

Unfortunately, it's not as simple as "up" meaning "correct" and "down" meaning wrong. Nor are you looking for which gesture is the odd one out per gnome. Oh no, it's more tricky than that.

No, you're supposed to read the author's mind and understand that the gnome-code is a four-digit base-4 number where North means 0, East means 1, South means 2, and West means 3. And the bird's upward motion means the target four-digit number is higher than the current setting, and downward means the target number is lower.

So, it's vital that you solve this from left to right: from thinking gnome to laughing gnome.

Start by turning the thinking gnome four times, noting the bird's reactions:

> turn thinking. g. g. g.

From north clockwise to west, which elicited the last upward movement? That's the THINKING-DIRECTION.

> turn thinking THINKING-DIRECTION.

Do the same with the next two gnomes.

> turn sitting. g. g. g. turn sitting SITTING-DIRECTION.

> turn digging. g. g. g. turn digging DIGGING-DIRECTION.

Now it's just a matter of turning the laughing gnome until the door opens.

> turn laughing. (Repeat as necessary.)

The bird jerks around, and the door unlocks and opens.

> s.

Hall

> close door.

> pour cereal in bowl.

> open carton. pour milk in bowl.

> eat cornflakes. (+1)

You also find the magnet, and you need to vomit somewhere!

> x magnet.

> u.

Landing

> x door. x bolt.

> put magnet on door. move magnet. (+1; door unlocked)

> open door. s.

Bathroom

*** You have won ***

> amusing


Extras

Acknowledgements

From the game's Acknowledgements submenu:

I'd like to say a big "thank you!" to the following people:


Amusing

Regarding the "PUT various objects IN COMPUTER" suggestion, the response is, if the computer is still working and the object is not the cartridge:
No matter how hard you try, you can't get the computer to play ...


Characters

Mentioned:


Endings

Also, within the Zkwork VII minigame, its endings are:


Inventory


Score

You have so far scored your-score out of a possible 10, in several turns, which means ranking.

Rankings:

In the Zkwork VII game, the response to full score is:

You have so far scored 99 out of a possible 100 in 1024 turns, giving you the rank of Homecoming Hero.

You've scored points for: aiding the abbot; bashing the bishop; crushing the canopy; delivering the diamond; enchanting Elvis; flaming the forest; gnudging the gnu; hanging the hangman; injuring the idiot; jousting with Jasper; killing the klairvoyant; leaping to the ledge; mashing the monster; nailing the nail; observing the occult; peeling potatoes; quizzing the queen; roasting the rabbit; slapping the squirrel; testing testosterone; unseating the unbeliever; vaulting the vegetables; winding the wood; xyzzy; making the yak yawn; and zapping the ziggurat.


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