In this sci-fi espionage wordplay game, you play as Agent Quintrell, armed with a portable reverser that can reverse maps into spam. Seven agents have been reversed by your adversaries into inanimates. Your mission is to infiltrate their compound, locate the reversed agents, and rescue them.
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.
You are to locate the reversed agents and rescue them by reversing them back. Time is limited.
>> 1(ask ... captured)
>> 1(concede the point)
>> 1(ask ... cagey)
>> 1(confirm ... ready)
Kay gives you a device and asks you to REVERSE the MAPS.
> i.
> x reverser.
> reverse maps.(They're now spam; sensor light comes on.)
You can abbreviate REVERSE to R.
> r spam.(sensor light goes out)
>> 1(... small)
>> 1(... reverse anything at all)
>> 1(... preserving life still applies)
>> 1(ask how exactly ...)
>> 1(Ask why Kay ...)
>> 1(... for so long)
>> 1(review the rest ...)
Kay gives you a wireless headset; you can CONTACT Kay with it.
>> 1(re emergency kit)
>> 1(... ready to go)
> x nav.
> out.
Alley
> x dog.(stray labrador)
> x plate. x door.
> x dumpster. x logo.
> r door.("rood" isn't a word?)
>> 1(trying to get past the door)
>> 5(don't guess)
Kay says she's coding a patch so "rood" is understood.
>> 1(Can you do that?)
She tells you to re-enter the van.
> enter van.
Inside the Van
> give reverser.
> x list. x kit. x lockpick. x van.
> r door.(not this one)
> out.
Alley
> r door.(It's now a rood.)
> e.
South End of the Barracks
> x desk.(hutch and stack of papers)
> x papers.(They're recaps.)
> r recaps.(They're now a spacer.)
> x spacer. take it.
> x left bed. x right bed.
> x left chest. open it. x tops.
> r tops.(They're now a spot.)
> x spot.(You can hide there.)
> n.
North End of the Barracks
> x pinup.
> x left bed. x right bed.
> x left chest.(scuffed)
> x right chest.
> open left chest.
> open right chest.(dress; sensor on)
> x dress.(One of the dots must be Tod.)
Kay tells you the barracks camera will be active in five minutes.
>> 2(stop it?)
>> 1(ask what to do)
You need to get out of sight.
> take dress. s.
South End of the Barracks
> enter spot.(You hear the camera scan.)
> x dots. contact Kay.
>> 1(I'm fine, but)
>> 2(... part of a dress)
>> 3(... knew you were coming)
>> 2(... open like this)
>> 1(... do now)
>> 1(admit ... alone)
>> 1(... move forward)
> out.
> r rood.
> e.
Corridor
Kay interrupts.
>> 1(what)
New info. There's a guard in the security office to the northeast. A second door there is in the cafeteria. Also, if you try to approach the vault door, he'll see you through a window.
>> 1(... know this before)
>> 1(re other way: no, incapacitate the guard)
>> 1(... need a gun)
>> 1(... act of violence)
>> 1(wonder if he's reversible)
>> 1(apologize)
>> 1(how to incapacitate without a weapon)
>> 1(doing now: reading a magazine)
>> 2(re light: it detects local mismatches not carried by you)
>> 1(why on in an empty hallway: the cam)
>> 1(re other surprises)
>> 1(bye)
> x guard. x chair. x magazine.
> x doors.
Eventually you see the guard sip coffee from a mug.
> look through window.
> n.
Mess Hall
> x tables. x benches. x buffet.
> x dishes. x tealights. x camera. x side door.
> n.
Kitchen
> x limes. take limes.(One is Emil.)
> x stein. x rack. x knife.
> x machine.(off; no receptacle)
> x sink. x counter.
> x fridge. open fridge. x strawberries.
> x freezer. open it.
> take part. yank part.
> close freezer. close fridge.
> w.
Pantry
Because you took a "part" from the freezer, you don't need another "part" from here. You also don't need to reverse parts into a strap, the yam into May, the pot into a top, nor the sugar into ragus.
> x shelves.(peach, yam, jars, pot, parts, bag of sugar)
> open pot.(too high up)
> x implements.
> x stool. open it. stand on it.
> open pot.(One of the oats is Tao.)
> take pot.
> take jars.(One of the jars is Raj.)
> eat peach. x pit.
> r pit. x tip. read tip.("WC")
> talk to Kay.
>> 3(re else)
>> 1(re "WC": tungsten carbide)
>> 1. 3(done and done)
> stand. fold stool.(taking it)
> e.(no: the pot is too cumbersome)
> put oats in jars. close jars. drop pot.
> e. e.
Shore
This location will be used for the endgame.
> x beach. x waves. x sand. x door.
> w. s. s.
Corridor
> r part. x trap. put trap on heavy door.
> knock on door.(The trap catches and knocks out the guard.)
> x guard.
> take cam.(no: too high)
> open stool. stand on it.
> take cam.(no: yank it)
> yank cam. stand.
> r cam.(no)
> take stool.
> ne.
Security Office
You won't take the tissue.
> x map.(That's Pam.)
> take map.(no: pins fasten it)
> r pins.(no: snip isn't a thing)
> open stool. stand on it. take map.
> stand.
> r map.(no)
> x desk. x monitors.(seven screens)
> x seventh screen.(of vault inside, but too dark to make out details)
> x mug. x magazine.
> x notepad. read it.("The average between my and Julie's birthdays.")
> open boxes.(They contain leets.)
> x leets. r leets. x steel. take it.
> x shrub. x wastebasket. x tissue. x snot.
> talk to Kay.
>> 3(re something else)
>> 1(re plant: of genus retama, so it's a "retem".)
>> 1(re birthdays)
>> 1(probably guard)
>> 1(re vault door)
>> 1(done)
>> 3(really done)
> r retem. take meter. x it.
> read numbers.(from 0 to 1538)
> sw. e.
Outside the Vault
> x door. x keypad.(needs a 5-digit number)
> r door.(no, but it is "steel")
You may want to talk to Kay about this first for an extra clue.
> put steel on door.
> r steels.(the steels become sleets)
> s.
Inside the Vault
Eventually the sleets melt into standing water.
> x head. take head.
> x slag. x drawer.
> open drawer.(nothing inside)
> r drawer.(Your reward is a paper.)
> x paper.(It's a lien; there's a sticky note)
> x note. take note. take lien.(It's Neil.)
> r lien.(no)
> x list.(Still missing Meg/gem.)
This sequence is nearly impossible to guess, and even talking to Kay gives no hint towards it.
> put spacer in head.(new: sledgehammer)
> x hammer.
> put tip in hammer.(new: tool)
> x tool. r tool.
Your "loot" is a gem, a pile of coins, the smashed up remains of a clockwork canary, an antique violin, and a sealed canister. (The meter makes a noise.)
> x gem. x coins. x canary.
> x violin. x canister. x meter.
> look.(The canister is now a mutagen; the coins are wons.)
> r mutagen.(Negatum is nothing.)
> take wons. take gem.
When you pick up the last reversed agent, Kay starts to curse.
>> 1(what)
>> 1(alright)
>> 3(re escape route)
>> 1(re without her)
>> 2(good luck)
> n. w. n. n. e.
Shore
You lock the door behind you. This is the endgame.
> open kit. x spool. x strop.
> r spool. take loops.(red and green)
> drop loops.
> r red loop.(It's a pool.)
> r loop.(Now there's pools.)
> r pools.(Now there's a sloop.)
> x sloop. x sails.
> enter sloop.(no: get the boat to sea)
> push sloop.(no: too heavy)
> x engine.
> r wons.(Snow!)
> z.(The snow melts, making an ebb stream.)
If you didn't bring the wons, your only option now is to reverse the strop; the ports also connect you to the sea, but at the expense of manifesting sailors! Oops!
You now hear voices from the building.
> enter sloop.
*** Mission accomplished. ***
> amusing
> credits
Extras
Amusing
This is the response to AMUSING after you win the game:
For your amusement, have you tried...
reversing Kay? the nav? the dog? the van? the tin? a bed? a room? the yam? the sugar? the pins? the snot? the wons? the mutagen? yourself?
finding the air freshener?
petting the dog?
opening the spam and dropping it in the alley?
wearing the dress?
swimming in the pinup's beach?
getting coffee from the coffee machine?
eating the spam, strawberries, yam, sugar, or ragus?
drinking the coffee from the mug or coffee machine?
drinking water from the pinup, sink, melted sleets, pools, or sea?
digging the sand?
saying XYZZY, PLUGH, or PLOVER?
Characters
Special Agent Valerie ("Val") Quintrell is the player-character and a recently-designated immutable agent.
Kay is a tech expert, a good friend, and your backup in this mission. Your wireless headset keeps you in contact with her.
An enemy guard is stationed in the security office. He's thin but quite muscular.
Enemy agents try to capture you as you flee the compound during the epilogue.
Julie is someone mentioned on the notepad found in the security office.
Credits
This is the response to CREDITS:
Conceptualized, written, and programmed by Charm Cochran.
Special thanks to my testers, who deserve much credit and no blame: Lee Burton, Julia Byrne, Drew Cook, Josh Grams, Lionstooth, Dana Montgomery, Steve Nealon, Tabitha O'Connell, Nathan Ray, and Tommy Sullivan-Lovett.
It was originally planned for SeedComp! 2025. It was based on the seeds "One Small Change" by Amanda Walker, "Reversible" by JoshGrams, and "The Search" by okushimo.
Other inspirations included many interactive fiction classics, including Counterfeit Monkey by Emily Short and Spider & Web by Andrew Plotkin.
It includes the following extensions:
Hybrid Choices v7.1 by AW Freyr;
Deluxe Booleans v1.0.250113 and Hiding Behind v1 by Charm Cochran;
Basic Screen Effects v8, Glulx Text Effects v6, Locksmith v13, Modified Exit v6, Punctuation Removal v5, Room Description Control v14.1.220524, Skeleton Keys v1, and Tailored Room Description v13.2.240108 by Emily Short;
Alternatives v3.0.150410, Bulk Limiter v9, Epistemology v9, Hiding Under v4, and Underside v6.1 by Eric Eve;
Enterable Underside v2.0.200926 and Prepositional Correctness v2.0.200926 by Gavin Lambert;
Far Away v5.0.160517 by Jon Ingold;
Simple Multimedia Effects for V10 v6 by Mathbrush;
Basic Plans v3.0.211124 and Planner v3.0.240130 by Nate Cull; and
Title Case For Headings v1.0.170902 and Undo Output Control v6.0.220529 by Nathanael Nerode.
Object Response Tests v7 by Juhana Leinonen was used during testing.
Additionally, it includes snippets of code by Andrew Plotkin and Zed Lopez, along with code from Computers v8.2 by Emily Short, Large Game Speedup v4.0.140731 by Andrew Plotkin, and Modern Conveniences v5 by Emily Short, but not the extensions themselves. It runs using Mathbrush's Bisquixe interpreter, which is based on Andrew Plotkin's Quixe.
It also includes snippets of code by Graham Nelson, pulled from Inform Recipe Book Examples 36 - "Brown," 217 - "Dinner is Served," 226 - "Four Cheeses," 328 - "Western Art History 305," 370 - "Walls and Noses," and 413 - "Alpha."
Inventory
Initial items
a reverser. Kay gives it to you during the prologue.
This is the most important item in the game. With it, you can REVERSE things into other things that use the same letters in reverse order.
The new item must be a valid English word or a proper name, like Spam.
Some archaic words might not be initially supported. When you try to reverse the door in the alley, you learn that the reverser doesn't know "rood". Give the reverser back to Kay and give her a few turns to program that option into it.
The limitation on archaic words may only apply to the names of created items. The reverser has no trouble reversing a retem into a meter, or leets into steel. "Retem" and "leets" are hardly common words, but "meter" and "steel" are, so it's fine.
Some items may be unreversable by their base name because they're too strongly associated with their full name. Which means that when you can reverse a door into a rood, you might not be able to reverse a vault door into a rood because the universe considers it's more of a "vault door" than it is a "door". Such finnicky pseudo-science!
New items must be physical in nature. You cannot reverse pins into a snip, nor a yam into the month of May. Kay admits there may be a few edge cases, though.
New items almost always replace their originals, but when you reverse the drawer inside the vault, you get a reward, but the drawer somehow remains.
When you reverse a container, anything that was inside it is lost forever. For example, if you reverse a mug of coffee into gum, then back into a mug, the coffee has vanished.
You are forbidden to create new life using the reverser. You are, however, permitted to restore people or creatures that were previously reversed, such as your fellow agents. It's possible that you might accidentally create new life, but don't you dare do it on purpose.
You are forbidden to reverse people or creatures for any reason.
a reference list. You're carrying it.
Read it to learn (or remind yourself of) all the names of the reversed agents that you need to rescue.
You won't open the kit until you're in an emergency situation.
After you've acquired all the agents (in their transformed forms), Kay alerts you that the enemy is coming and you need to escape on your own. On the shore, open the kit. It contains a spool and a strop.
Leave it on; it lets you consult Kay whenever you like, at least until she has to make her own exit from the vicinity.
Reversed agents
a dress. It's in the right chest at the north end of the barracks.
Keep it; one of the dots on the dress is the reversed agent Tod.
a plastic bowl containing some limes. It's on the kitchen counter.
Take either the bowl of limes or just the limes and keep them; one of the limes is the reversed agent Emil.
some jars. They're on a high shelf in the pantry; stand on the step stool to reach them.
Put the oatmeal (from the pot) into the jars; the jars are easier to carry than the pot, and you need both the oatmeal and the jars. One of the jars is the reversed agent Raj.
Because the pot is too awkward to carry, put the oatmeal into the jars. You need to keep the oatmeal because one of the oats is the reversed agent Tao.
a security camera. It's mounted on the ceiling in the corridor.
Before doing anything with the camera, you must disable the guard; see trap.
Drop the step stool in the corridor, stand on the stool, then yank the camera to acquire it. Keep the cam; it's the reversed agent Mac.
a schematic map. It's pinned to the wall in the security office.
Drop the step stool in the office, stand on the stool, then take the map to acquire it. The pins are lost forever. Keep the map; it's the reversed agent Pam.
a lien. This paper appears in the vault's drawer when you reverse the drawer.
a spare part and a spare part from the freezer. You can take a part from pile of parts in the pantry, or yank a part from the inside of the kitchen's freezer.
Reverse one of these parts into a trap. You won't make more than one trap.
Stand on the opened stool to reach high out-of-reach things. You automatically fold the stool whenever you take it. You automatically drop the stool whenever you open it.
In the pantry, stand on the stool to reach anything on a high shelf (jars and pot).
In the corridor, stand on the stool to reach the security camera.
In the security office, stand on the stool to reach the pins holding the map to the wall.
a mug containing some coffee. It's on the desk in the security office.
After putting a trap on the side door in the mess hall, go the corridor and quickly reverse the mug into gum then reverse the mug back into a mug, effectively emptying the mug. Now wait. The guard leaves the office via the mess hall door to refill the mug from the coffee machine in the kitchen and get trapped.
NOTE: You're unwilling to carrying the wad of gum.
some leets. They're inside the boxes in the security office.
In the corridor, put the trap onto the heavy door to set it. Then go east. The guard sees you through the window, and gets trapped as soon as he opened the heavy door.
some steel. Create it by reversing the leets in the security office.
Outside the vault, put the steel on/against the vault door, which is also made of steel. Reverse the steels into sleets, which gets rid of the vault door. The sleets soon melt, and water now floods that end of the corridor.
some wons. These coins are part of the "loot" created by reversing the tool.
At the beach during the endgame, and after creating the sloop (see loops), reverse the wons; they become snow. After a turn, the snow melts, forming an ebb stream that now connects the sloop to the sea.
two loops (one red, one green). Create them by reversing the spool.
Drop the loops and reverse each loop separately; there's now pools. Reverse the pools to crate a sloop. That's your escape vehicle. Now reverse either the wons or the strop to connect the sloop to the sea.
Junk
a spam. Create it by reversing the maps.
In the alley, open the spam and drop it. The dog happily eats the contents, leaving an empty tin behind.
a tin. It's what's left of the spam after the dog eats its contents.
The tin is useless to you. Put it in the dumpster, why don't you?
a knife. You may take a knife from the rack in the kitchen.
You don't need the knife.
a stein. It's on the kitchen counter.
You don't need the stein, but you can put the stein in the coffee machine, turn the machine on, and fill the stein with coffee, from which you can take one sip.
a pot. It's on a high shelf in the pantry; stand on the step stool to reach it.
Open the pot; it contains dry oatmeal and you also now carry the pot's lid. The pot is too awkward to carry anywhere, so put the oatmeal into the jars.
a notepad. It's on the desk in the security office.
Read it to learn that the vault's door code is "the average between my and Julie's birthdays". Feel free to ask Kay about birthdays, but ultimately you need to find another way to open the vault door; see steel.
a meter. Create it by reversing the retem in the security office. You learn that the shrub is a retem by first examining the shrub, then asking Kay about it.
The meter has a needle and numbers; the numbers go from 0 to 1538. It only reacts to the mutagen.
a sticky note. It's attached to the lien, but easily removed.
The note explains that the lien is your "reward".
the remains of a clockwork canary. It's part of the "loot" created by reversing the tool.
You have no use for the canary.
an antique violin. It's part of the "loot" created by reversing the tool.
You have no use for the violin.
a mutagen. It's the canister that's part of the "loot" created by reversing the tool.
The mutagen is dangerous; the meter reacts to its presence. You refuse to open the canister.
Reverse the mutagen into negatum, which is nothing.
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