Slicker City is a Z-machine work of interactive fiction written with Inform 7 and is © 2016 by Andrew Schultz. Billed as Bit Two of the Alec Smart saga, this is the sequel to the game The Problems Compound. This game was entered in IF Comp 2016 where it tied for 39th place.
In this wordplay game, you again play as Alec Smart. You've been dissatisfied with yourself since the Problems Compound. Why aren't things better in real life? Then, over spring break, you break a spring and find yourself at That Thought Park.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the work.
SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of a work of interactive fiction. Please make an honest effort to play the work before reading this walkthrough.
Are you using a screen reader? no
That Thought Park (Preamble)"park that thought"
> x me. i.
> n. (or any other direction)
Bees Wood (Preamble)"would-be's"
> x bees. listen. x trees.
> n. (or any other direction)
A Feel Copse (Preamble)"cop a feel"
> n. (or any other direction)
You are interrupted by the Baiter Master.
? no
You're now at:
Cadet Space (Procrastination)"space cadet"
> x chump. x master. x pocket.
> talk to chump. (You have nothing to say to him.)
> x cots. x cold cot. x short cot. x up cot. (+1; effort token.)
> x token. put token in pocket. (+1; pocket grows and dissolves)
> talk to chump. (He's shunning you now.)
> e.
Sense Common (Procrastination)"common sense"
> x forge. in. (denied)
> s.
Delta of Delta (Procrastination)
> x bottle. x solution. x jars.
Only take one of these three items. If you try to take a second one, you must drop the one you have first. Each of these three items unlocks one of three puzzle tracks later in the the game, so once you've used one of these three items in any way, the other two will no longer be available.
The three tracks have about the same amount of content and puzzles. No track is clearly the best one.
Make your decision:
> take bottle —or— take solution —or— take jars.
Let's continue:
> x sensor. x water.
> n. n.
Back Quarter (Procrastination)"quarterback"
> x furniture. sit on furniture.
> push furniture south.
Sense Common (Procrastination)"common sense"
> push furniture west. (+1; Chump gives you a paper and you return here.)
> x paper. ("WAIT")
> wait.
> xyzzy. (You see four mists. You want and also don't wait to visit them later.)
> in. (+1. The wait paper becomes a tiger paper; the forge is now an Away Forge.)
> x paper. x forge. e.
Crazy Bureau (Procrastination)"bureaucracy"
> x coop.
> put tiger paper in coop. (+1. "APPROVED")
> e.
Purposes Cross (Procrastination)"cross purposes"
> x cross. x gully.
> x terminal. ("PRESS DON'T PUSH A LETTER"; all letters except Y.)
The disappointment terminal is your way into a completely optional section of the game. Press (don't push) D, O, M, or X here to visit one of four mists where the author fits in more spoonerisms.
> press D. ("depress", get it?)
Rust Mist (pondering)"mistrust"
Every man you see here is from a company ending in "Com"; the spoonerisms are based on words starting with "com-".
> z. (Repeat until you've seen enough.)
> n. (or any other direction)
Purposes Cross (Procrastination)"cross purposes"
> press O. ("oppress")
Ache Mist (pondering)"mistake"
Everyone you see here has the first name "Lee"; the spoonerisms are based on words ending in "-ly".
> z. (Repeat until you've seen enough.)
> n. (or any other direction)
Purposes Cross (Procrastination)"cross purposes"
> press M. ("impress")
Old Mist (pondering)"mis-told"
Everyone you see here has the first name "Les"; the spoonerisms are based on words ending in "-less".
> z. (Repeat until you've seen enough.)
> n. (or any other direction)
Purposes Cross (Procrastination)"cross purposes"
> press X. ("express")
Eerie Mist (pondering)"mystery"
Everyone you see here has the first name "Enos"; the spoonerisms are based on words ending in "-iness".
> z. (Repeat until you've seen enough.)
> n. (or any other direction)
Purposes Cross (Procrastination)"cross purposes"
Did you Lee Full PleatCom this Les Harm Enos Sil? ("fully complete this harmless silliness?")
Purposes Cross (Procrastination)"cross purposes"
> listen. (The ghost whispers the words "NO", "MODEL", and "TRACK". Each word is a clue for one the paths.)
> n.
Profit Turn (Profit)"turn a profit"
> x auto. e.
Shock Culture (Partnership)"culture shock"
You must have the bottle to enter here. Also, by entering here with the bottle, you are now firmly on the bottle path.
> x Kay.
> track laugh. (+1. You acquire a poker strip.)
> x poker strip.
> u. (not an exit)
> w. s. s.
Jungle of Law (Power)"law of the jungle"
> x net.
> use strip on net. (+1. You acquire guzzler gas.)
> x gas.
> n. n.
Profit Turn (Profit)"turn a profit"
> use gas on auto. (+1. You acquire bawl slime.)
> x slime.
> s. e.
Way of Right (Popularity)"right of way"
> x prints.
> use slime on prints. (+1)
> w.
Purposes Cross (Procrastination)"cross purposes"
Purposes Cross (Procrastination)"cross purposes"
> listen. (The ghost whispers the words "NO", "MODEL", and "TRACK". Each word is a clue for one the paths.)
> n.
Profit Turn (Profit)"turn a profit"
> x auto.
> w.
Lent-You-Corp (Partnership)"corpulent"
You must have the solution to enter here. Also, by entering here with the solution, you are now firmly on the solution path.
> x roll. x gate.
> model roll. (+1. You acquire a context device before fleeing back to Profit Turn.)
Profit Turn (Profit)"turn a profit"
By the way, Lent-You-Corp is no longer visitable, and the Solution is gone.
> x device.
> s. e.
Way of Right (Popularity)"right of way"
> x prints.
> use device on prints. (+1; you acquire a proof bullet.)
> x bullet.
> w. s.
Jungle of Law (Power)"law of the jungle"
> x net.
> use bullet on net. (+1; you acquire a light engine.)
> x engine.
> n. n.
Profit Turn (turn a profit)
> use engine on auto. (+1)
> s.
Purposes Cross (Procrastination)"cross purposes"
Purposes Cross (Procrastination)"cross purposes"
> listen. (The ghost whispers the words "NO", "MODEL", and "TRACK". Each word is a clue for one the paths.)
> e.
Way of Right (Popularity)"right of way"
> x prints.
> s.
Snipe Gutter (Partnership)"guttersnipe"
You must have the jars to enter here. Also, by entering here with the jars, you are now firmly on the jars path.
> x Terry. (He's talking rapidly.)
> comment no. (+1. You acquire an under buckle.)
> x buckle.
> n. w. n.
Profit Turn (Profit)"turn a profit"
> x auto.
> use buckle on auto. (+1. You acquire an upright bolt.)
> i. x bolt.
> s. e.
Way of Right (Popularity)"right of way"
> use bolt on prints. (+1. You acquire a worm hook.)
> i. x hook.
> w. s.
Jungle of Law ({Power)"law of the jungle"
> use hook on net. (+1)
> n.
Purposes Cross (cross purposes)
Purposes Cross (Procrastination)"cross purposes"
With nine points in your score, you are now brave enough to go down from here. You can go down right away, but we did skip over three optional rooms. You don't mind a bit of a detour, do you?
> n. n.
Production Peak (Profit)"peak production"
> x ad. g. (Repeat until you're tired of it.)
> s. s. e. e.
ArtistCon (con artist)
> x bank. g. (Repeat until you're tired of it.)
> w. w. s. w.
Protection Cavity (cavity protection)
> x rag. g. (Repeat until you're tired of it.)
> e. n.
Purposes Cross (Procrastination)"cross purposes"
Thanks for indulging me. Ready to start the endgame?
> d.
Way-Out Bluff (bluff your way out)
> look. x grate. great.
There's actually several possible verbs that'll work here, and remember, you're making a spoonerism.
> escape grate. (+1)
> s.
Bare Cave (cave bear)
> x pod. (buttons from 0a to 10z to PUSH)
Several optional combos are amusing:
> push 0a. ("ay-oh")
> push 0h. ("ho")
> push 0j. ("J.O.")
> push 0k. ("kayo")
> push 0n. ("no")
> push 0w. ("woe")
> push 0y. ("yo")
> push 1b. ("be one")
> push 1n. ("in one")
> push 1r. ("are one")
> push 1t. ("tie")
> push 1y. ("why one")
> push 0f. ("foe")
> push 0m. ("mo'")
> push 10a. ("A-ten!")
> push 10c. ("seaten")
> push 6d —or— push 10d. (dice)
> push 8d. ("date")
> push 0l. ("lone")
> push 0p. ("po'")
> push 10b. ("beaten")
> push 10e. ("eaten")
> push 10t. (urge to go mountain climbing?)
> push 8f. ("fate")
> push 8g. ("gate")
> push 8h. ("hate")
> push 8l. ("late")
> push 8m. ("mate")
> push 8r. ("rate")
> push 8s. ("sate")
> push 8w. ("wait")
> push 9b. ("benign")
> push 9d. ("denyin'")
> push 1h. (feel like flying?)
> push 10l. ("Elton")
> push 2b. ("be too")
> push 2c. ("see to")
> push 2r. ("are too")
> push 4b. ("before")
But this is the only combo you need:
> push 1i. (+1. "I WON")
A vehicle called the Snowflake Special arrives.
> x special. enter special.
*** Someone Won Some! ***
You can now look at AMUSING, CONCEPTS, ALL, SWEARS, MISSED, JUMP, ROOMS, and THINGS as well as the usual RESTART, RESTORE, QUIT and UNDO.
> amusing
This is the response to AMUSING after you've won the game:
- XYZZY?
- STRIP COMIC in Shock Culture?
- CLUB COMEDY in Shock Culture?
- TIED ROLL in Lent-You-Corp?
- BILL TERRY in the Snipe Gutter?
Cameo appearances
Mentioned
This is the response to CREDITS:
Hugo Labrande, Adri, Skinny Mike, Chandler Groover, Ham Salad, Vince Laviano, Felicity Banks and Skarn (listed in random order) tested the game at various stages before release and helped me avoid some embarrassing bugs. I also used Zarf's testing framework to weed out other bugs and check off on regressions.
Thanks to Hugo Labrande and Alex Butterfield for our games of code tennis, which is basically, try and do something every other day, or the other guy scores a point. Alex worked with me more on our IFComp 2015 post-release efforts, but since SC is the sequel to PC, a lot of things I pinged him with were relevant here. So I recommend this simple exercise to anyone who wants to write a game but who needs outside motivation. Synergy and all that.
More generally, I want to add I've been able to connect with a lot of cool people in the author's forum and who've sent transcripts, over the years. Working together on stuff is fun, and if you're a judge or just playing a game, I recommend you send a transcript or even help test beforehand. It helps the community, well, be a community. You get to see how games are made, and you get to see that other writers have their own roadblocks they can overcome. And this has motivated me to write, whether it's a text adventure or more straightforward fiction.
This is the response to SCORE:
You're in the region sector. You have scored your-score out of 11 points so far.
The sectors are: Preamble, Procrastination, Profit, Popularity, Power, Partnership, pondering, and Parting.
Points are awarded as follows:
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