Pants on the Run is a Z-machine version 5 interactive fiction game written with Inform 6 and is © 2001 by Jonathon Fry and Kim-Loi Mergenthaler. Subtitled "An Interactive Birthday Card", this game was an entry for SpeedIF Y.
You play as a worker at Rockets, Sprockets and Pants. It's been a long week and you just want to flee for some cavorting and/or smooching.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the game.
Rockets, Sprockets and Pants: The Office
> x workers. s.
Rockets, Sprockets and Pants: The Lobby
> x Shatner. s. (A phrase "rings out" behind you, stopping you from leaving.)
I was totally baffled. This is the game that forced me to download TXD and disassemble this thing. Like, honestly. I'm expected to spontaneously use a non-standard verb* with an invisible object based on obscure cultural knowledge? EEEAGH. You don't even tell me that "Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song.
* Okay, okay, technically "happy birthday" isn't a verb. That just makes it worse. Besides, my singing is abominable.
> happy birthday. (Who do you want to happy birthday?)
> happy birthday Shatner. ("Not me!")
> x Bob Dylan. (He wrote "Mr. Tambourine Man", in case you're wondering what he has to do with any of this.)
> happy birthday Bob Dylan.
*** You have died ***
Let's pretend that's a win and move on, because that's the best we can hope for with this one.
This walkthrough is provided free of charge since I wrote this walkthrough prior to January 2015 when I began my Patreon account, and also because the work it's based on has less than fifteen locations (so I wouldn't have charged for it anyway). I've since reformatted this walkthrough to use my currently preferred style. I hope you enjoy it!
I'm still creating new walkthroughs! Larger ones too! Please visit my Patreon account if you're interested in helping me create more interactive fiction walkthroughs. I appreciate all the help I can get! Thanks again.