Spectrum is a Z-machine interactive fiction game written with Inform 7 and is © 2011 by Caelyn Sandel. It was a participant in the Speed-IF Jacket 4 event.
In this surreal toy game, you are at the center of a color wheel representing 25 states of mind. Near you are a diary entry, a map, and four broken statues. Find a way to repair the statues so the diary entry makes sense.
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.
The Center
> take diary. x it. take map. x it.
> x killer. x mother. x target. x savior.
The surrounding locations are mostly vacant of descriptions and items, except for four items you will now collect.
> sw.
Loathing
> x victim. take victim.
> n. n.
Vigilance
> x purpose. take purpose.
> e. e.
Admiration
> x crime. take crime.
> s.
Terror
> x family. take family.
> w.
The Center
Hopefully you can guess that the four tokens you've just collected correspond with the four broken statues here. Also, you need to intuit that placing the tokens in the correct emotional locations should repair the statues. Your best clue as to the tokens' destinations are the descriptions of the tokens themselves.
You might also notice that the text of the diary alters to use the tokens' locations; this might be considered a second clue for where the tokens should go.
Unfortunately, the only way to be sure you've placed the tokens correctly is by returning here to the Center to see if any of the statues are now "unbroken". This doesn't really make for enjoyable gameplay.
> sw. sw.
Disgust
> drop crime. e.
Remorse
> drop victim. ne.
Grief
> drop family. ne. ne.
Submission
> drop purpose. x diary.
When all four tokens are correctly placed, return to the Center to end the game.
> sw. w.
The Center
You relive the tableau that you've just recreated, with yourself as the killer, your mother as the mother, the prime minister as the victim, and "they who called to you" as the savior.
*** You have won ***
And you also die.
This is the response to ABOUT:
This little toy/game was written for the "SpeedIF Jacket 4" Event, and is (sadly) my first solo release as an author. Much as the 2004 Will Smith movie "I, Robot" was based on the Asimov short story collection of the same name, Spectrum was based on the following blurbs:
"A vivid exercise in character-development, undermined by the fact that nobody, author and player included, has a clue what's going on." -- Sam Kabo Ashwell
"Countries with strong censorship laws would never allow this game to exist - and they are poorer for it." -- S. John Ross
"I've never seen a "one-room game" that contained so many discrete areas before." -- Carolyn VanEseltine
"What... The... Fuck?" -- Tanga
"An intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoteria." -- Roger Carbol
"An excellent argument against giving personal computers to nine-year-olds." -- Sarah Morayati
The layout of Spectrum's mindscape was inspired by this chart, which I found on the ilovecharts tumblr: http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/post/4528475185/via-wontloversrevoltnow
That's it! This was harrowing but fun. Many thanks to my domestic and writing partner, Carolyn VanEseltine, for helping me out with the chunks of code I didn't know but also for letting me figure the rest out myself.
This walkthrough was funded via Patreon with
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