Last Day of Summer is a Z-machine interactive fiction game written with Inform 7 and is © 2011 by Doug Orleans. As "Cameron Fox", the author entered this game in IF Comp 2011 where it took 25th place. At the 2011 XYZZY Awards, it co-won the Best Individual Puzzle award with The Life (and Deaths) of Doctor M, Playing Games, and Cold Iron for their shared hat metapuzzle.
You play as young Tolmy Cubbins, trusted for the first time to take a big basket of cranberries into town to sell to the greengrocer. Unfortunately, the bridge to town was swept away by a recent flood. The last day of summer isn't going to go quite the way either you or the greengrocer expected.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 5 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.
River Crossing
> x me. i. x basket.
> x river. x posts. x town.
> w.
Scrub
> x scrub. x knife. take knife. x hilt.
> e. e.
Mooring
> x boat. x loop. x rope.
> enter boat. cut rope. (+1)
You travel the rest of the way without incident.
Market
> x stand. search it.
> n —or— e —or— w —or— s.
Building Site
> x stones. x chapel. e.
Chapel
If you try to talk to the greengrocer in any way, the game tells you that "you don't need to converse in this story." However, that makes it difficult to tell what the triggers for this scene are.
> x greengrocer. x altar.
The greengrocer notices you and asks you to sit with him.
> sit.
The greengrocer tells you one of the Preacher's stories, about the treasure of time. The thief must reunite the two pieces and replace the treasure on the altar he stole it from.
> x pew. x door. x back door.
> stand. n.
Garden
> x sundial. (Brass rod's shadow points to 1:07 pm.)
> x rod. x weeds. x house.
> pull rod. (+1; it's a key.)
> x key.
> n. (A bird attacks you; you must retreat.)
> x bird.
> put knife in sundial. x sundial. (Shadow points to 9:37 am?)
> take knife.
> s. w.
Building Site
A man in a hat asks if you'll trade your knife for his hat.
> x man. x hat. give knife to man. (He gives you his hat and leaves.)
> wear hat.
> e. n. n. (+1; the bird ignores you when your hair is covered.)
Garden House
> x tools. x desk. open drawer. (locked)
> unlock drawer with key. (+1)
> open drawer. take book.
> x pen. take pen. x inkwell. (hardened)
> read book. (A book of handwritten stories; the last fifth is blank.)
> s.
Garden
> put key in sundial. x sundial. (It's now 2:09 pm.)
> s.
Chapel
> sit. give book to greengrocer. (+1)
The greengrocer rewards you for finding Preacher's work with a purse of coins.
*** The End ***
> amusing
Note that if you take too long in the game, eventually the sun will go down and you'll return home automatically, ending the game with whatever score you have so far. Saying "xyzzy" will force you to take a nap, making this possibility more likely.
The response to AMUSING after you win the game is:
Did you try...
- sitting beside the greengrocer?
- reading the book?
- showing the key to the traveler?
- leaving the knife somewhere?
- replacing the gnomon?
- decorating your hat?
- saying the magic word?
Mentioned:
The response to CREDITS is:
This is the IF Competition 2011 version of Last Day of Summer. Please send any comments or bug reports (preferably with transcripts) to
email redacted.Thanks to my beta testers: Theophilus Alltext, Peter Haigha Bobbin, Guen, James Edward, I.M., and Sanjo Osnola.
Special thanks to James for the spark, and Peter for the foundation.
The response to SCORE is:
[You have so far scored your-score out of a possible 5, in several turns.]
Points are awarded as follows:
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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