In this adventure game for beginners, you play as a back-alley amateur archeologist. You even got a fedora like that guy in that movie. Your plan is to find (steal) an emerald skull from a maybe-haunted maybe-booby-trapped maybe-Mayan pyramid, smuggle it out of this stupid country, sell it, and never work again.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 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.
> turn on lantern.(The main part of the tutorial is over.)
> take lantern. x it. read sticker.("Nev-R Die")
> x me. x fedora. x razor.(too dull)
> x mirror. x can.
> x cot. x trunk. open it. x rope. take it.
> s.
Outside Tent
> x jungle. x vines. x trees.
> x tent. close flap.
> sw.
Jungle Path
> x alpaca.(shaggy, may spit for dominance)
> spit at alpaca.(+10; it leaves)
> nw.
Muddy Bank
> take oar. x it. x canoe. x river.
> get in canoe.(You travel...)
Upstream
> x greenery.(You continue to...)
River (three locations)
When you see a muddy beach to the west, go there! Don't go over the waterfall!
> z. z. w.(+10)
West Bank
You no longer have the oar.
> x cliff.(see a ledge below)
> x waterfall. x mist. x palm tree.
> tie rope to palm. d.(+10)
West Balcony
> x cliff. x waterfall.
> e.
Behind The Falls
> touch water.
> n.
Quiet Chamber
CAUTION: Making any noise here is deadly, unless you first deaden the shrunken head's ability to hear.
> x head. x boulder. x hatch.
> take can.
> squirt cream into left ear.
> squirt cream into right ear.
> put can in kit.
> open hatch. d.(+10)
Key Room
> x key. x pedestal. x ladder.
> take key.(+10)
> u. s. e.
East Balcony
> x vines. u.
East Bank
> x canoe. n. ne. e.
Pyramid Base
> x pyramid.
> e —or— u.
Platform
> x jungle. x slot.
> put key in slot. turn key.(+10)
You fall deep below the earth and drop everything (but the fedora). You hear the lantern smash.
Lava Room
> x lantern. take kit and torch. x torch.
> x statue. x water. x drain. x foot. x hand.
> x lava. x stairs. x chute. x smoke.
> light torch with lava.(+10)
Scout around, see what's down here.
> w. sw.
Boat Room
Okay, this is your escape route, once you have the emerald skull and this door open.
> x door. x boat. x oar. x logs. x stump.
> ne. e. u. e.
Temple
CAUTION: Don't open the jar! If you open the jar, a cloud of moths eats the majority of your clothes.
> x altar. x jar. x carvings.
> take jar.(okay)
> e.
Vestibule
> x obsidian. take it.(It's a knife.)
> w. w. w. u. n.
Narrow Passage
> x mummy.(He starts to approach you.)
> open jar.(+10. The moths attack the mummy; its skeleton collapses into bones.)
> x bones.
> n.
Dead End
The floor tips down like a see-saw. The doorway you saw is now one floor above you to the north.
> look. e.
Middle Hallway
> x statue. x beam. x quartz.
Careful. Don't break that beam. Backtrack to Central Chamber and go north from there:
> w. s. s. d. e. n.
East Hallway
> x boulder. w.
Middle Hallway
> put mirror in eye.(The beam is safely nullified.)
> w.
Dead End
This is the same dead end you saw north and down from where the mummy was, but now that teeter-totter ramp is the ceiling here.
> e. e.
East Hallway
> push boulder west.
Middle Hallway
> push boulder west.
Dead End
The boulder is now wedged under the ceiling.
> e. e. s. w. u. n. n.(+10)
Engineers' Room
> x table. x mallet. x ladder.
> take mallet. take ladder.
> s. s. d. e. s.
Lava Room
> hit foot with mallet.
The statue breaks, and the water now falls onto lava, cooling it significantly.
> put ladder over chasm.
> s.(+10)
Rocky Platform
> s.
Skull Room
> x pedestal. x skull. x net.
> cut net with knife. x tangle. take it.
> take skull.(+10, but you've triggered something elsewhere)
Don't worry. That was the boat door opening.
> n.
Rocky Platform
> put tangle in lava.
> n. w. sw.
Boat Room
The door is now open.
> hit stump with mallet. enter boat.
The boat inches forward across the logs.
> take oar. z.(+10)
Cave River (two locations)
> x river. w. w.
Riverbank
A squad of policemen and the now-deputized alpaca are waiting for you. They confiscate the skull, and tell you to leave the country and never return.
*** You have "won" ***
Extras
Characters
An alpaca blocks your way in the jungle. It's white, shaggy, irritated with you, and asserts its dominance by spitting.
A shrunken head sits on the boulder in a quiet chamber behind the waterfall. It has a top knot of hair, sewn-shut eyes, and oddly-large ears.
A mummy in a narrow passage is a tall, menacing figure with glowing red eyes. It's wrapped in tattered strips of yellowed cloth.
A cloud of moths are trapped inside the temple's clay jar, eager to dine on cloth.
A squad of policemen are waiting for you when you emerge from the pyramid you desecrated. You better have something excellent to bribe them with!
Only seen in losing endings:
Tiny monkey skeletons with glowing red eyes may tear you apart in the quiet chamber.
Large black snakes may bite you several times, paralyzing you with their venom, if a particular blue beam is interrupted.
A school of piranahas may welcome you for dinner in the cave river.
Mentioned:
A buyer back home will pay you handsomely in exchange for the emerald skull.
Credits
This is the response to ABOUT or CREDITS:
Ransack! A text adventure game by Charles Moore, Jr.
Release 1. Serial number 260430.
Dialog compiler version 0m/03. Library version 1.0.0-dev.
In-game help is available. The command HELP WITH can be used with an object multiple times to obtain progressive hints. The FULL SCORE command will list all of your accomplishments and give you a ranking.
Special thanks to Allyson Gray, Gianluca Girelli, Jake Moore, Daniel M. Stelzer, Drew Cook, and Garry Francis for input and beta-testing.
Endings
You have died
if you go over the waterfall (with or without the canoe).
if you're attacked by hundreds of undead monkey skeletons (either because you made noise in the quiet chamber and the shrunken head heard it, or because you touched the head in any way).
if the mummy drains your life force.
if hundreds of large black snakes bite you (because the blue light beam broke), and your body paralyzes and stops breathing.
if you try taking or pulling the net instead of cutting it. The net triggers an avalanche and you're buried alive.
if you're eaten by piranahas (by swimming in the cave part of the river of death).
You have lost
if you escape from the pyramid without the skull.
You have "won"
if you escape from the pyramid with the skull.
Inventory
a fedora. You're wearing it.
Leave it on and ignore it. It is a container you can put small things into if you're desparate to do something with it.
In the middle hallway, put the mirror in the eye of the statue, so that the blue beam isn't broken when you push the boulder into that location. When the boulder is in the dead end, feel free to take the mirror back.
In the quiet chamber, squirt some cream into both the left and right ears of the shrunken head to deaden its ability to hear you open the wooden hatch.
a lantern. It's in your tent.
Turn it on and leave it on. You need its light in the key room beneath the quiet chamber.
When you enter the pyramid (see key), you fall down a chute and drop everything you were carrying. Unfortunately, the lantern smashes and becomes a broken lantern. Leave it where it fell and use the torch instead now.
a coil of rope. It's in the steamer trunk in your tent.
On the west bank, tie the rope to the tree. Now you can go down to the west balcony.
an oar. It's on the muddy bank.
Take the oar before entering the canoe. When you see a place go west from the river, do go west, and you must have the oar to do that. When you leave the canoe, you also leave that oar behind.
"Another" oar is in the boat in the boat room. After you enter the boat, take the oar. When the boat reaches the cave river, you use the oar automatically when going east or west on the river.
a key. It's on the pedestal in the key room.
On the platform on the top of the pyramid, put the key in the slot then turn the key. The platform opens beneath you like a trapdoor, and you fall and slide down a chute into the lava room. The key is left behind, but you no longer need it.
an unlit torch. It's in the lava room.
Light the torch with lava; it's now a lit torch. Hold onto it for the rest of the game. Most of the underground locations are unlit, and you need the lit torch if you want to see what's in them.
CAUTION: If you try to burn the mummy with the torch, he just bats the torch out of your hand.
a clay jar. It's on the altar in the temple.
Take the jar, but don't open it until you get to the narrow passage where the mummy is. Open the jar there. The moths destroy the mummy's wrappings, then fly away. The embarrassed skeleton collapses into bones.
The jar is now empty, and you may now put small things into it, if you wish to.
a mallet. It's on the table in the engineers' room.
In the lava room, hit the foot of the statue with the mallet. The statue topples and breaks, and the water falls into the lava, cooling it quite a lot.
In the boat room, when the door is open (see skull), hit the stump with the mallet. The boat will soon start rolling down the logs and into the cave river; enter the boat before that happens.
a ladder. It's in the engineer's room.
In the lava room, after the lava is much cooler (see mallet), put the ladder over the chasm. Now you can cross the chasm, using the ladder as a bridge.
an obsidian knife. It's in the vestibule.
In the skull room, cut the net with the knife.
a worthless tangle. It's what's left of the net in the skull room after you cut the net with the knife.
It is worthless as advertised, but I dropped it into the lava just to watch it burn.
an emerald skull. It's on the round pedestal in the skull room.
The skull is initially covered in a net. Cut the net with the knife.
When you take the skull off its pedestal, you hear the sound of the boat door opening in the distance. This is a good thing.
Carry the skull outside the pyramid to win the game.
You cannot conceal the skull inside the kit, jar, or fedora; the skull is too big to fit inside any of those. The police will always take the skull from you at game's end, assuming you have it then, of course.
Score
This is the response to SCORE:
You currently have N points out of a maximum of 120 in T moves. This gives you the rank of your-rank.
The FULL SCORE command tells you how points were awarded:
10 points for spitting at the alpaca.
10 points for making it down the river.
10 points for getting to the balcony.
10 points for getting into the key room.
10 points for getting the key.
10 points for entering the pyramid.
10 points for lighting the torch.
10 points for defeating the mummy.
10 points for getting into the Engineers' Room.
10 points for getting across the lava-filled chasm.
the support of Robin Johnson, Ville Lavonius, Andrew Schultz, Kenneth Hon, Carl Muckenhoupt, Mark Musante, Phil Tatro, Allyson Gray, and Daniel Stelzer;
the generous support of Janice M Eisen, Matthew Foxley, Thomas Insel, Brian Long, and Andy Volk;
