Key & Compass presents:
On the Farm
by Lenny Pitts

• Map
• Walkthrough
• Extras
  • Artwork, Characters, Credits, Endings, Inventory, XYZZY
• Thank You to my Patreon supporters
• Support me on Ko-Fi
• External links:
  • This game at IFDB, IFWiki, and ifwizz.
  • Tweet about this walkthrough on Twitter.

Map

Note: All directions from the Corn Fields but east return to the Corn Fields. If you try to map the Corn Fields with dropped objects, you soon learn it's just one location. If you spend too many turns there, the game will flat out tell you that the farm is to the east.

Walkthrough

Would you like to review the author's game notes?
Press [Y] to display notes, or any other key to begin the game.
y

Porch

Grandpa asks if you can help get Grandma to forgive him.

> yes.

> x Grandpa. x chair.

> x bin. look in it. take magazine. x it. read it.

You're now in reading mode:

> A > B > C > D > Q

Paper goods can be destroyed by water in this game, so after you've done reading something, I suggest either dropping it or putting it back where you got it. And here's another option:

> give magazine to Grandpa.

> x planks. x door. x stains. x handrail. x chime.

> n.

Sitting Room

At some point during your chat with Grandma, she'll ask if you've read a book yet this summer. Answer yes. Otherwise she'll keep asking until you answer her question.

> hug Grandma. x Grandma. ask Grandma about Grandma.

> ask Grandma about Grandpa. (He forgot her birthday.)

> ask Grandma about birthday. kiss Grandma.

> ask Grandma about mother. ask Grandma about farm.

> ask Grandma about me.

> x lamp. ask Grandma about lamp.

> ask Grandma about knitting. no.

> ask Grandma about house. ask Grandma about screen door.

> x sofa.

> u.

Upstairs Landing

> x picture. w.

Grandparent's Bedroom

> take dentures. x them.

> x bed. x stand.

> e. e.

Guest Bedroom

> x mattress. x window. x bear. hug bear. (It stabs you?)

> x bear. take diary. x it. read it.

You're again in reading mode:

> N > N > N > N > N > N > Q

> put bear and diary on shelf.

> x books. x stuffing.

> w. d. w.

Dining Area

The rug here is the one mentioned in the diary.

> x table. x chairs. x rug.

> e. e.

Kitchen

If you try to take a knife, Grandma will rush in and stop you.

> x basin. take it. x knives.

Note: You can't open the stove while Grandma is in the kitchen. If necessary, wait until she's not there.

> x stove. open it. x fire.

> pour water on fire. x stove. take log. x log.

If Grandma finds you with the log, she'll shoo you out to the front yard. Let's assume she's done that.

Front Yard

> x grass. x chrysanthemums. x geraniums.

> drop log. n.

Porch

I'm taking the spring now just to make the walkthrough a bit shorter. We'll need a spring later, trust me. You can't take the spring unless the door is open.

Grandma may close the door after you open it. Grandma's randomness makes writing a walkthrough for this game far more difficult than it otherwise would be.

> ask Grandpa about screen door. ask Grandpa about spring.

> open door. take spring. close door.

> s.

Front Yard

> take log. w.

Vegetable Garden

We'll collect these veggies up later.

> x carrot. x beet. x spinach. x onion.

> n.

Outside the Cow Pen

> x blocks. e.

Windmill

> x shaft. x clutch. x control arm. x lever.

> x generator. x gauge. x wires. x shelf.

> e.

Outside the Outhouse

You are unwilling to enter the outhouse.

> x outhouse. read board. ("PUTPBAD")

This is a "Pick Up The Phone Booth And Die" joke:

> take outhouse.

*** You have lost ***

> undo

Moving on:

> n.

Rusty Tractor

Note: Red wire is on positive terminal, black on negative.

Caution: Don't take the battery while the bees are here.

> x bees. x battery. x weeds. x cover.

> put log in hive. (The bees and hive are gone.)

> take battery.

> w.

Haystack by the Side of the Barn

> x hay. search hay. x needle.

> w.

In Front of the Barn

> x barn. x door. x runner.

> n.

Inside the Barn

> x rope. take it. (too big)

> untie rope. (need a pointed tool)

> untie rope with needle. x rope. (Still attached to the ball.)

> cut rope with dentures. (Not in your hands.)

> wear dentures. bite rope. remove dentures.

> take rope. x rope.

> x ladder. u.

Hay Loft

> x door. open door.

> x farmhouse. x windmill. x fields. close door.

> x vane. x arrow. x rose. x stand.

Remembering what you read in the diary:

> pull tail.

> x picture. x arrowhead. x nickel. x card. read card.

These treasures are fine right where they are.

> close stand.

> d. s. s. e.

Windmill

> put battery on shelf.

> connect red to positive. connect black to negative.

> connect spring to lever. (This must be done while the lever is down.)

> push lever. z. z. z. z. (Needle at 5, smoke?)

> pull lever. take battery. w. w.

Inside the Cow Pen

> x sign. x ladder. x stalls.

> x button. x shelf. x wires. push button. (Fan has no power.)

> x slits. look through slits. (You see a hook.)

> put battery on shelf.

> connect red to positive. connect black to negative.

> push button. d.

Manure Pit

Don't stay here too long, even with the fan running. The fumes will kill you if the fan stops.

> take hook. x manure. u.

Inside the Cow Pen

> x hook. x shoes. (They're filthy now.)

> e. n. w.

Large Oak Tree on the Riverbank

> x tree. x river. x wildflowers.

> tie rope to hook. throw hook at branch.

> climb rope.

You've entered rope mode:

> S

Across the River

> smell susans. take susans. e. J

River Shallows

Caution: If you stand on the stone, you'll fall in the river and get soaked. Oh wait, you're already soaked.

> x river. x stone. x moss. x shoes. (wet, but the manure is gone)

> fill basin. x clean water.

> e.

Muddy Embankment

> x grass. x mud.

> e.

Vegetable Garden

> take all. e. n.

Porch

Grandma will not let you back in the house if your sneakers are filthy with manure.

Grandma will automatically take the vegetables from you as soon as she sees you with them, either here or inside the house.

Grandpa will automatically take the flowers from you and then he asks about your forehead welt.

> yes. give dentures to Grandpa.

This is your last chance to ask Grandpa about topics, such as:

> ask Grandpa about bees. ask Grandpa about haystack.

> ask Grandpa about tractor. ask Grandpa about windmill.

> ask Grandpa about barn. ask Grandpa about loft.

> ask Grandpa about vane. yes.

> ask Grandpa about mom. ask Grandpa about dad.

> ask Grandpa about river.

Eventually Grandma will come out and tell you that she's started the soup but needs fresh water from the river poured into the pot. Or you can go inside and find her and she'll tell you there. Feel free to ask her about any topics you're curious about. For example:

> give needle to Grandma. ask Grandma about soup.

> ask Grandma about garden. ask Grandma about chime.

> ask Grandma about teddy bear. ask Grandma about rug.

When you're done talking, head to the kitchen. I'll assume you're still on the porch:

> n. e.

Kitchen

> pour water into pot.

Grandma cooks the soup. She puts it on the table, and Grandpa gives her the Susans. Awww.

> SPACE

Thank you for playing On the Farm.

Extras

Artwork

These are thumbnails of artwork in the game. To see the images at full size, please play the game.

• The farm picture is displayed before the first description of the Porch.
• The sunset picture is displayed at winning game's end.

Characters

• Grandpa is on the porch. Grandma's upset with him because he forget her birthday.
• Grandma is busy in the house. She seems to be quite fond of wildflowers. Grandpa and Grandma are your mother's parents.
• A hive full of bees blocks your access to a battery in the rusty tractor.

Mentioned:

• Susan Page (your mother), a horse named Scout, Samuel (Sam) and his younger brother Jeff, and her pony Little Joe are all mentioned in the diary.
• No one likes talking about your Dad if you try asking about him.

Credits

This is the response to CREDITS:

Special thanks to:

Claire, my wife
For putting up with me spending lots of free time working on this when I should have been working in the basement.

Michael J. Roberts
Michael J. Roberts has made TADS freely available to interactive fiction developers. His TADS manual is well written, and was invaluable to me in the making of this game. He has also made the source code from his games "Ditch Day Drifter" and "Deep Space Drifter" (with Steve McAdams) available for others to study.

Stephen Granade
First, I would like to thank Stephen for running the 1999 Interactive Fiction Competition. I would also like to thank him for making the source code for his 1998 IF Competition game "Arrival" available. I enjoyed playing "Arrival" immensely, and found his source code to be a great resource for learning TADS. Additionally, I was inspired by this game to make my PC a little kid. I like the idea of dealing with certain objects that could be problematic to code, by simply explaining to the player that as a child "you are not allowed to touch that." Lastly, Stephen hosts a great web site at About.com for people looking to learn more about interactive fiction. http://interactfiction.about.com/

J. Robinson Wheeler
I would like to thank Rob for helping me with the opening graphic for my game. The photograph came from the US Government National Archives and Records Administration Archival Information Locator (NAIL) web site. Rob took the black and white image and colorized it for me, and added a few touches to make it look like a photograph in a picture book.

Beta Testers - Doug Jones, Peter Berman, J. Robinson Wheeler, Simon Stapleton, Dan Schmidt
These are the guys who did the dirty work, and I can't give them enough credit. The game is one hundred times more playable now, than it was when I first turned it over to them.

#TADS Help - Dan Shiovitz, Neil deMause, John McCall
Many thanks to this trio for helping me over several bumps I hit while climbing the TADS learning curve.

TADS Modules - Suzanne Skinner
I would like to thank both Suzanne Skinner for making her TADS module asktell.t available on GMD.

David Glasser
I would like to thank David Glasser for hosting the Wacky Mini-Comp. The ideas he sparked finally got me motivated and committed to finishing this project.

R. Noyes
I would like to thank Spatch for granting me permission to pay tribute in my game to his epic one room IF work, "Pick Up the Phone Booth And Die".

Regarding the above:

• For more about TADS, see tads.org.
• The interactive fiction section of About.com shut down quite some time ago. Some of the articles that were there migrated to Stephen Granade's Brass Lantern website; see brasslantern.org.
• GMD ("Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung" - National Research Center for Computer Science) used to host the IF Archive. The IF Archive is now independent and at ifarchive.org.
• To search the US National Archives, visit archives.gov.
• For more about WackyComp, see the WackyComp article on IFWiki.
• For more about the games mentioned, visit their pages on IFDB, the Interactive Fiction Database:
• Arrival, or Attack of the B-Movie Clichés by Stephen Granade.
• Ditch Day Drifter by Michael J. Roberts.
• Deep Space Drifter by Michael J. Roberts and Steve McAdams.
• Pick Up the Phone Booth And Die by Rob Noyes.

Endings

• You have lost
• if you pick up the outhouse (and die);
• if you take the battery from the tractor while the bee hive is active;
• if you try to touch, hit, eat, or pour soapy water on the hive;
• if you spend a turn in the manure pit without the fans on;
• if you're near the battery when it explodes (the battery can explode if you overcharge it).
• Thank you for playing On the Farm.
• if Grandpa has the Susans and if Grandma's made her soup.

Note: You can make the game unwinnable by overcharging the battery, making it explode.

Inventory

• your sneakers. You're wearing them.
• In the Manure Pit, your sneakers will become filthy simply by being there. This is a problem because Grandma won't let you in the house if you're wearing filthy sneakers.
• You must either wash your sneakers at River Shallows or swim from the large oak to get the filth off your sneakers.
• your jeans and a t-shirt. You're wearing them.
• Keep your clothes on and ignore tbem.
• a magazine. It's in the mail bin on the porch.
• Caution:: If you get the magazine wet, it becomes unreadable.
• Read the magazine, particularly article D which warns you that manure pits can fill with deadly gas and you should turn on any exhaust fans before entering the pit.
• Grandpa's dentures. They're on the night stand in your grandparents' bedroom.
• Inside the barn, after untying the giant ball of twine with the knitting needle, wear the dentures, then bite the rope to cut it loose from the ball. (Yes, there are knives in the kitchen, but Grandma won't let you take one.)
• Remove the dentures and return them to Grandpa when you're done with them. This is optional.
• a teddy bear. It's on the shelf in the guest bedroom.
• Take it and hug it then examine it. You'll find there's a diary inside the bear.
• a diary. It's in the teddy bear; hug the bear to notice it.
• Caution: If you get the diary wet, it becomes unreadable.
• Read the diary; it's your mother's. It tells you how to use a hook and rope to swing across the river, that your grandma likes Black-Eyed Susans (which are yellow), and that you can open the weather vane by pulling its tail.
• a plastic yellow basin containing soapy water. It's on the kitchen counter.
• When Grandma isn't in the kitchen, open the stove and pour water on the fire. Now you can take the burnt log that's inside the stove.
• At River Shallows, fill the basin. The basin will now contain clean water.
• In the kitchen, pour the clean water into the iron pot so Grandma can make soup. I'm not exactly sure when the pot shows up, but probably only after you've left the house with the burnt log.
• a knitting needle. Acquire it by searching the haystack.
• Inside the barn, untie the twine ball with the knitting needle. This produces a length of rope.
• Give the needle to Grandma when you're done with it; this is optional.
• a rope. There's a giant ball of twine inside the barn, too big to pick up, but you can get some rope from it.
• First, untie the twine ball with the knitting needle. This produces a length of rope, but one end is still attached to the giant ball of twine.
• Wear the dentures, then bite the rope to cut it loose.
• Tie the rope to the metal hook to create a grappling hook.
• a picture of mom, an arrowhead, a buffalo nickel, and a baseball card. They're all inside the weather vane's stand; pull the vane's tail to open it. You know to do this if you read the diary.
• Just examine these items, and you can also read the baseball card. You don't need to solve any puzzles with them. If you show them to Grandpa, he suggests giving them to Grandma, and if you show them to Grandma, she suggests putting them on the shelf in the guest bedroom. And you can do that, but it has no side effect.
• a long spring. It's on the screen door.
• When on the porch side, open the door, then take the spring.
• Take the spring to the windmill. When the lever there is down, connect the spring to the lever.
• a burnt log. There's a log in the fire in the kitchen stove.
• You can't open the stove while Grandma is in the kitchen.
• Pour water on the fire, then you can take the log.
• Note: Grandma will shoo you out of the house if you're carrying the log when you enter a room where she is: "You are filling the house up with smoke!"
• At the rusty tractor, put the log in the hive to get rid of the bees. Now you can take the battery.
• a battery. It's in the tractor, but you need to get rid of the bees first (see log).
• Charge the battery from the windmill. First put the battery on the shelf. Connect the red wire to the positive terminal and the black wire to the negative terminal. When the lever is down, connect the spring to the lever. Push the lever to start charging the battery.
• Caution: Don't overcharge the battery! Pull the lever when the needle's at 5 or less. If you see smoke, pull that lever! When overcharged, the battery explodes, becoming an exploded battery, and if you're there when it explodes, you die.
• Take the battery inside the cow pen and put the it on the shelf. Again, connect red to positive and black to negative. Push the button to turn the fan on. Now you can visit the manure pit without passing out from the gas.
• Caution: The battery's charge will run out quickly and the fan will stop. Don't dilly-dally in the manure pit.
• a metal hook. It's in the manure pit. To visit there safely, you'll need to turn the fan on (see battery).
• Tie the rope to the metal hook to make a grappling hook.
• a grappling hook. Make it by tying the rope to the metal hook.
• At the riverbank, throw the hook at the branch. You can now climb the rope and swing across the river.
• Black-Eyed Susans. They're on the other side of the river. Swing across using the grappling rope to get there and back.
• Grandpa will automatically take the Susans from you when he sees them. He will give them to Grandma when the soup is made.
• a carrot, a beet, some spinach, and an onion. They're all in the vegetable garden.
• Grandma will take all your vegetables from you automatically when she sees you carrying them. She'll chop them up and put them into the iron pot.

XYZZY

By the way, this game has a special feature accessed with the XYZZY command. XYZZY opens a numbered menu of all the locations in the game that you have visited. Enter the number corresponding to the place you want to go to, and you'll teleport there instantly.

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

This walkthrough was funded via Patreon with

• the support of Robin Johnson, Ville Lavonius, Andrew Schultz, Kenneth Hon, Carl Muckenhoupt, Mark Musante, and Phil Tatro;
• the generous support of Janice M Eisen and Matthew Foxley;
• the very generous support of Karl Ove Hufthammer;
• the extremely generous support of Emily Short, Allen Garvin, Jesse McGrew, Jacqueline Ashwell, Marius Müller, Jennifer Rexrode, Durafen, and Rus Whang;
• and the invisible support of several anonymous patrons.

Ko-Fi is a way to send me small one-time donations. Every little bit helps, and thank you!