walkthroughs
| z5 | 00 | 2000 IF Art Show | The Cove by Kathleen M. Fischer | [Walkthrough + map] |
| z7 | 00 | 2000 IF Art Show | Custard by Evin Robertson | [Walkthrough + map] |
| z8 | 00 | 2000 IF Art Show | Galatea by Emily Short | [map] |
| z5 | 00 | 2000 IF Art Show | Guitar of the Immortal Bard by Jason Burns | [Walkthrough + map] |
| z5 | 00 | 2000 IF Art Show | Sparky and Boots by James Bernsen | [Walkthrough + map] |
| z5 | 00 | 2000 IF Art Show | The Statuette by Ian Ball | [Walkthrough + map] |
| z5 | 00 | 2000 IF Art Show | The Visitor by Peter Polkinghorne | [Walkthrough + map] |
| z4 | 00 | 2000 IF Art Show | Words Get Twisted Round and Tumble Down by Gunther Schmidl | [Walkthrough + map] |
The IF Art Shows are run by Marnie Parker aka "Doe". Pieces in the Art Show aren't usually games in the traditional sense, so creating walkthroughs for them may be somewhat nonsensible, since there's often no way to actually "win". The walkthroughs below are by David Welbourn. See also the IF Art Show home page.
| (rescued) | ←u | Tunnel's End | ||||
| | | ||||||
| Tunnel's Entrance | Rocky Point | e→ se→ | (end) | |||
| | | s,d↓↑e,u | |||||
| o— | Beach | |||||
| Marine Terrace | —— | / | ||||
My walkthru for this game remains slightly incomplete. I'm missing one creature and one memory from my score. Possibly I should've tried "listen", "smell", and "take" more often? Is the driftwood useful for anything? Maybe try showing it to the sea lion? Throwing it?
[Rocky Point]
Despite the ASCII art compass rose, directions can be a bit confusing. From Rocky Point, east and southeast both take you away from the cove and end the game; south and down both take you to Beach. However, the return trip is either up or east.
>about. remember.
>x me. i. x purse. x cord. open purse. x bud. close purse.
>x ring. x dress. x shoes. x stockings.
>x sea. x sand. x cliffs. x cove. x otter. x kelp. x shore birds.
>x gulls. x coastline. x rocks. x beaches. x sky. x clouds. x sun.
>x beach. x barren beach. x cove beach. x foam.
>d. x view. remove shoes. d.
[Beach]
The driftwood can't be taken either north or east. And going southwest to Marine Terrace makes the sea lion go away. West is the same as "wade". The otter's appearance is random; examine him when he appears.
>remember. x sea lion. x sea. x otter. x kelp. x flies. x crabs.
>x clumps. x sand. x wet sand. x dry sand. wade. x driftwood. sw.
[Marine Terrace]
>remember. x pool. x anemones. x urchin. x mussels. x limpets. x sea star.
>x sandbar. x rock. x cliffs. e.
[Beach]
The rain will begin shortly after you leave the terrace. This will force you to go north, soon or late. Note that you pass through Tunnel's Entrance en route to Tunnel's End.
>x clouds. n.
[Tunnel's End]
Careful: A "jump" will kill you.
>x barnacles. x stones. x algae. x stone. remember.
>x rain. x wave. x shore. x dress. n. s. u. yell.
>open purse. x bud. smell bud. take bud. drop bud. remember. s.
[Tunnel's Entrance]
>remember. jump. n.
[Tunnel's End]
>remember. x gap. x ceiling. u. [Rescued!]
| Closet | → | eat pie | → | Inside Clockwork |
| | | put broom in gear↓↓d | |||
| Bakery | ← | give dollar to man | ← | Last Custard Stand |
Custard is the only z7 game that I've ever seen, and also has two of the strangest effects that I've ever seen in any ZCode Inform game. The first effect happens when you turn on the lights in the Closet: random characters fill and blink into all the empty spaces on the screen. The second effect happens when you try to type "xyzzy": the game will maddeningly insert or delete characters into or from your input line, making it very difficult (although not impossible) to actually type "xyzzy" successfully. Caution: The "restart" command doesn't work, at least in Windows Frotz 2000.
In the initial prompts, you can type in any name, and choose m or f or * as your gender. This is a setup for a joke with your uniform tag. If you choose male, your tag will have a female name with the same first initial; likewise, choosing female will get you a tag with a male name on it. Trying to fake it out won't work, either; if you pretend to be a name it knows about, it will always choose the other name.
? David
? m
>i. x uniform. x tag. x broom. x pie. x clockwork.
>take pie. eat it. x table. x moon. n.
>x breaker. turn it on. eat pie. x gear. u.
You have a choice. You can either lose your broom or your legs.
>put broom in gear. —or— d.
>x me. i. x dollar. x man. ask man about custard. ask man about me.
>buy custard. x pie.
If you still have your legs, you can turn go off the lights. Otherwise, you can't!
>n. turn off lights. s.
And this action ends the game:
>put pie on table.
| The Gallery's End |
| leave↓ |
| (end) |
The structure of Galatea's conversation system makes it somewhere between difficult and impossible to present a definitive walkthrough, since a player's actions are not handled independently from each other, but handled in context with the actions taken so far. So, um, I guess the first step is to find out which actions and topics are possible in the game. But no walkthrough just yet.
* * * TODO * * *
| A Clearing in the Forest |
| exit↓ |
| (end) |
The game's "help" command tells you about all the guitar's parts and musical styles that it knows. Shame that the game gives you this info only in that way, though.
>about. help. x me. x forest (or moon, grass, trees, moss, etc.)
>x guitar. touch it. turn it. take it.
>x head. x pegs. x neck. x fingerboard. x strings. x body.
>x hole. x bridge. x strap. listen.
>play guitar. detune it. play it. tune it.
>play blues. play jazz. play rock. play country.
>play celtic. play classical. play folk. play flamenco.
>drop guitar. exit. y.
| (end) | ||
| n↑ | ||
| Play- room | — | Living Area |
For such a small game, it has a noticeably slow response time. Anyway, Sparky is a dog, eats steak, and likes the hamburger toy that squeaks when you squeeze it. Boots is a cat, eats tuna, and likes the ball that jingles when you shake it. Otherwise, the pets act very similarly, including being too stupid to go find the water dish in the next room when they're thirsty, and being prone to narcolepsy. If they fall asleep, wake them up or wait for them to do so on their own.
At the beginning of the game, neither animal trusts you yet, so you must drop food first. Then pet them. Then more food. More petting. Then carry them to the water.
>x sparky. x boots. pet boots. x hamburger. x ball.
>take hamburger. squeeze it. [+1] take ball. shake it. [+1]
>e. x bowl. x drain. x water. drink it.
>x cabinet. open it. x tuna. take it. g. x steak. take it. g.
>w. drop steak. pet sparky. drop steak. pet sparky.
>take sparky. e. drop sparky. [+2]
>w. drop tuna. pet boots. drop tuna. pet boots.
>take boots. e. drop boots. [+2]
Now earn quick points by feeding them directly, and petting them (they should jump into your arms).
>take steak. give steak to sparky. [+1] pet sparky. [+2]
>take tuna. give tuna to boots. [+1] pet boots. [+2]
Time for fetch play. They might not cooperate if they are hungry, thirsty, or sleepy, however; in which case, feed them, put them beside the water, or wait a bit as appropriate. (Yes, I am wussing out a bit, not giving exact instructions, but the randomness in the game makes it difficult to be exact.)
>squeeze burger. g. g. throw it. [+1]
>shake ball. g. g. throw it. [+1]
Finally, get them to follow you. Take some of their food, and walk into the next room. If an animal follows, you'll get 2 points. Again, they might not follow. Sparky seems to need some extra play time with the burger. Keep feeding and petting him. If you can get him playing with the burger on his own, especially if he starts dropping it at your feet, he will follow you into the next room also when you carry some steak.
>take tuna. w. [+2] e.
>take steak. give steak to sparky. take burger. squeeze it. g. g. throw it.
>pet sparky. take burger. squeeze it. g. g. throw it.
>take steak. g. give steak to sparky. w. [+2]
When you gain the 18th point, a key appears in your inventory. Although the hints claim there's more to do with the animals, I wasn't enthuased enough to continue playing with them.
>x key. unlock door with key. open door. n.
| foyer |
There's no goal to accomplish in this one. Simply do any or all of the following actions in any order as many times as you like:
>x statue. x shrubs. x pool. touch pool. x label. take animal. x it. touch it. drop it.
You should notice pretty quickly that the descriptions keep changing; for example, the animal morphs from otter to reptile to dog and back to otter again. Likewise, the title of the piece on the label might be 'Contemplation', 'Concentration', or 'Existation'. There seems to be three different responses for each examination, plus an optional fourth 'neutral' response in some cases. Since the morphing appears to be random with some actions, and possibly sequential with others, I can only suggest repeating your actions to see as much as you can.
| Gladys' Room |
| s↓ |
| (end) |
A somewhat dull, shallow, and banal piece, where you can ask the elderly Gladys Harding about her family. Such a missed opportunity. Oh well.
>x Gladys. x bed. x cupboard. x chair. x photos. take photos.
>ask Gladys about photos. g. g.
>ask Gladys about Harold. g. g. g.
>ask Gladys about Jane. g. g. g.
>ask Gladys about Iain. g. g.
>ask Gladys about Roderick. g. g.
>ask Gladys about Isobel. g. g.
>x window. look through window.
>ask Gladys about London. g. g. g.
>ask Gladys about rain. g. g. g.
>ask Gladys about joints.
>(hit Gladys. undo.) take all. (Is this the only way to learn her last name?)
>x door. close door. kiss Gladys. s. quit.
This is a collection of poems and ASCII art, coded as a z4 file. You shouldn't need my help for this, but anyway, to navigate from the opening title screen to see the whole thing, push the following keys (any key may be substituted for the z's):
z 1 z 2 z 3 z 4 z 5 z 6 z 7 z 8 z 9 z 0 z x z q