Trinity is a Z-machine commercial interactive fiction game written with the Interactive Fiction Plus™ Development System and is © 1986 Infocom, Inc. It was written by Brian Moriarty. The game came with several feelies: a comic book called "The Illustrated Story of the Atomic Bomb", a cardboard replica of the sundial described by the game, instructions on how to fold a paper crane, and a map of the Trinity Site (which includes an inset map of the McDonald Ranch House floor plan). The game was voted 10th place in Interactive Fiction Top 50 of all time (2011 edition).
You play as an American tourist visiting Kensington Park in London, England, when the city is vaporized by the beginning of World War III. You escape the city's destruction and enter a surreal landscape that appears to be a giant sundial peppered with toadstools. Your task will be to visit the sites of several atomic bombs throughout history and thus determine the fate of both the Earth and yourself.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 12 of the game. This version of the game was available on the Masterpieces of Infocom CD. TRINITY and Interactive Fiction Plus are trademarks of Infocom, Inc.
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Note that UNDO isn't available, so SAVE often! And you can't use X for EXAMINE; that abbreviation hadn't been invented yet. Also using IT is awkward since it refers to the last item mentioned in the text, including moving shadows, lemmings, skinks, and roadrunners.
α • ♂ • ♎︎ • ♆ • ♇ • ☿ • Ω
Palace Gate
We also have a credit card, but I prefer to examine it later.
> verbose. (The game is in "brief" mode by default.)
> i. examine watch. (It's 3:30:00 pm.) take coin. examine coin. e.
Flower Walk
> examine memorial. examine blossoms. take ball. (+1) nw.
The Wabe
> examine sundial. examine gnomon.
> unscrew gnomon. take gnomon. (+5) nw.
Broad Walk
> examine woman. examine pigeons. buy bag. (+1)
> take bag and coin. feed birds. take ruby.
A roadrunner takes it and runs east! The woman yells, "It's time!" And a strong wind now blows towards the east.
The woman is the only NPC in the game that you can talk to. You can ask her about several topics and show her most of your inventory.
> ask woman about roadrunner. ask woman about ruby. e.
Round Pond
Roadrunner runs east! Don't forget to take the paper bird; you absolutely must take it.
> examine boats. take bird. (+3)
> examine bird. open bird. read paper. ("Long Water, Four O'Clock")
> nw.
Black Lion Gate
> examine pram. open it. look it in. (It's empty.)
> push pram east.
Inverness Terrace
> examine boy. push pram east.
Lancaster Gate
> examine woman. (She loses her umbrella in the tree and she leaves.)
> throw ball at umbrella. take umbrella. (+5)
For what it's worth, you can exchange ball for umbrella and back again, but never have both.
> push pram south.
Lancaster Walk
Roadrunner runs east!
> examine notice. e. (The grass itself forces you back.)
Note that bicycles are allowed on the grass; it's only walking on the grass that's denied.
> enter pram. open umbrella. (You zoom across the grass!)
Long Water
Whatever extra time you might have had before 4 o'clock is gone.
By the way, the comic book feelie explains that this statue is of Peter Pan, "the boy who would not grow up".
> take all but pram. examine statue. (A missile is in the sky!)
> examine missile. (You spot a door above the water.)
> e.
Wading
> e. (The roadrunner proceeds you through the door to somewhere else...)
Meadow
Who just spoke to us? I have no idea, but that voice will return at odd moments during our journeys, whispering comments in our ear, like an unseen sidekick. The roadrunner is nowhere to be seen.
Since we just saw the title card screen, would you like to see the secret credits screen?
> $credi (I have no idea why they hid the credits that way.)
Since we don't have unlimited carrying capacity, we'll want to put small items into our pocket and drop larger items somewhere convenient when we're not using them. I suggest using the Bottom of Stairs as our cache location since it's the obvious central point of the Wabe.
What's a "wabe"? It's the plot around a sundial, at least according to the poem Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.
> save. i. fold paper. examine meteor.
> put paper and coin in pocket. examine watch.
> take card. read card. put card in pocket.
> n.
Summit
As will become obvious, the toadstools are a symbolic representation of the mushroom clouds that are caused by atomic blasts. And since the landscape is a huge sundial and its geography represents different moments of history, the increasing number of toadstools here in the west represent the increasing use of atomic bombs over time.
> examine toadstools. ne.
South Bog
The first thing I want is this splinter; it's a lightsource.
> examine log. take log. examine splinter. take splinter. (+1)
> e.
Bottom of Stairs
I'm going to drop stuff here that I don't need right away and doesn't go in my pocket.
> drop bag. drop umbrella. u. u.
Vertex
Also note that it's cold up here.
> examine shadow. examine sundial. examine symbols.
> examine rose. examine hole. examine ring.
> put gnomon in hole. (The screw threads of the hole and gnomon don't match.)
> d. d. s. sw. e.
Arboretum
The arbor is a Klein bottle, as suggested by the sculpture and inscription.
> examine sculpture. reach in it.
> n. u.
Top of Arbor
You'll need a lightsource, such as the splinter, to see the axe here.
> take axe. (+1) examine axe.
> s. d.
Arboretum
Passing through the top of the arbor, either from North Arbor to South (or vice versa) will flip us around left-to-right. However, from our point of view, everything else flips around: west becomes east and east becomes west, and most written text (that we're not carrying) appears to be backwards. You can tell if we've flipped by seeing if the inscription is now backwards.
> w. ne. n. u. u.
Vertex
> put gnomon in hole. (+5; a lever appears, and the ring twinkles.)
> push lever. (The shadow stops moving across the land.)
> turn ring. (The sun moves!)
The ring lets us easily select which symbol we want the gnomon's shadow to point at. This is important since the larger shadow of the giant gnomon will point to the corresponding toadstool, and when that toadstool is so selected, its white door opens. (I realize we haven't explored the land enough to know that, but take my word for it.)
Since aligning the screw threads is the only useful application of the flipped world, I'm going to revisit the arbor to flip us back and then ignore the arbor thereafter. It's less confusing that way.
> d. d. s. sw. e. n. u. s. d. w. ne. n.
Bottom of Stairs
And we're back to normal. The axe has several uses, but it's heavy, so let me deal with the first and most obvious use: chopping down a tree.
> nw.
North Bog
Don't put anything into the flytrap; it swallows up anything and you'll never get it back. And you can't even cut it; the axe just bounces off of it!
> examine flytrap. e.
Chasm's Brink
> examine tree. examine chasm. examine mesa. examine toadstool.
> chop tree. push tree north. (+3)
Go back to the stairs and exchange axe for umbrella.
> sw. e.
Bottom of Stairs
> drop axe. take umbrella. w. w.
Waterfall
Assuming you left the shadow pointing to the second symbol, then this toadstool's door is open, but don't enter it yet.
> examine waterfall. w. enter waterfall. search waterfall. w.
Ice Cavern
Note: If you've already given the umbrella to the Japanese girl, you can still get an icicle by throwing the spade at the icicles. The axe isn't long enough to reach.
> examine icicles. hit icicle with umbrella. take icicle. (+1)
We want to take the icicle all the way over to the Crater on the east side of the wabe where there's a hot lump of metal. But the icicle won't survive the trip there—it melts—unless you go via the Vertex, where it will reharden in the cold upper air!
> e. e. e. u. u.
Vertex
The icicile hardens again.
> d. d. ne. e. e.
Crater
Objects containing iron, like the umbrella or gnomon, are attracted to the lump. It's a strong magnet.
> put icicle on lump. (+3)
> take lump. (+1) examine lump. w. w.
Under Cliff
Don't disturb the bees just yet. They're dangerous.
> examine hive. sw.
Bottom of Stairs
> drop lump. drop umbrella. w. w. n.
Cemetery
Don't try to open the crypt with the axe or umbrella; they'll break and become worthless. And make sure we have a lightsource, like the splinter, whenever visiting the barrow.
> examine crypt. read crypt. open crypt.
> examine statues. examine barrow. n.
Barrow
A spiked door now blocks the south exit. And there's a dangerous barrow wight here. A wight is like a grue; it'll attack if you don't have light. The wight will also kill you if you try kissing it. (It's a funny message, though. Save before trying it.)
> examine wight. examine hole. examine door. n.
Ossuary
> examine bones. search bones. take key. (+1)
> examine key. s.
Barrow
Once the key is in the hole, it stays there. Turning the key opens a way down.
> put key in hole. turn key. (+1) d.
Ice Cavern
Using the skeleton key is the other way to find the ice cavern. You don't need to search the waterfall from this side.
> e. e. n. n.
Promontory
A much larger version of the boy first seen at Inverness Terrace is here, still wearing headphones and blowing soap bubbles.
> examine boy. examine bubble. examine wand. examine dish.
> examine headphones. talk to boy.
If you climb him, he'll throw you away. If you climb into his dish, however, you can float around in a soap bubble for a few turns. This'll be useful later.
> se. ne.
Bluff
> examine cottage. knock on door. open door. e.
Cottage
> examine map. examine cauldron. look in cauldron. smell.
> examine book. read book. (Your last three commands will be listed.)
> examine pedestal. turn page. read book.
> examine magpie. examine cage.
Listen to the magpie for several turns and you'll hear this odd recipe:
Milk and honey, fresh whole lizard
Killed in the light of a crescent moon.
Mix 'em with a pinch of garlic
Then stand back! 'Cause it go BOOM.
> z. (Repeatedly until you've heard the entire recipe.)
After you've learned the recipe, you don't need the magpie anymore, but you do need its cage.
> open cage. (The magpie flies away.)
> take cage. (+1)
> open back door. e.
Herb Garden
The toadstools with white doors all look the same.
> examine herbs. examine fence. examine thyme. take thyme.
> examine refuse. search refuse. take garlic. (+1) examine garlic.
> examine toadtool. examine white door.
We can get the honey now too. Leave the cottage's doors open.
> w. w. se. w.
Under Cliff
Be careful with the hive. Getting stung three times by the bee will kill you. You can also be killed by a swarm of bees if you, for example, hit the hive with the umbrella.
> put hand in hive. (You are stung by a bee! An angry bee is now following you.)
> w. w.
North Bog
The bee is swallowed by the flytrap. Hooray.
> examine flytrap. e. e.
Under Cliff
> put hand in hive. (+3; your hand is covered by honey.)
> e. nw. e.
Cottage
> put honey in cauldron. put hand in cauldron. (+1; honey added to cauldron.)
It's time to start tackling the toadstool doors. It's impossible to know what you'll need and what situation you'll find yourself in without experimentation. SAVE before entering any toadstool door.
However you should know this: once you enter the past, you're in a race against the clock to do whatever you're supposed to do and escape before the explosion. And the site of the explosion will always be right where the door is.
I'll start with the Moor's toadstool; it corresponds to the sixth symbol, Mars, on the sundial.
As a god of war, Mars is fitting for representing an act of war. We'll need the umbrella and the paper that used to be the paper bird. We'll lose both of them but gain a spade.
> w. se. sw. w.
Bottom of Stairs
It's best to get into the habit of travelling light. You don't want to go into the past and have trouble picking up stuff because your inventory is full.
> drop garlic. drop birdcage. drop splinter. take umbrella.
> u. u.
Vertex
> turn ring to sixth symbol. d. d. e. e.
Moor
> save. enter door.
Thin Air
> open umbrella. (Yes, the ol' umbrella as makeshift parachute trick.)
Playground, in a sandpile
Careful not to go either north or south from the playground. As an obvious stranger and intruder, discovery will be a fatal mistake.
> take all. examine teachers. examine children. e.
Shelter
> examine spade. take spade. (+1) w.
Playground
> z. (Wait or examine things until a girl finds you.)
> give umbrella to girl. (She takes it and goes into the Shelter.)
This is a possible example of a bootstrap paradox. We can safely assume that this girl grows up to become the old woman who loses her umbrella in Kensington Park. We got the umbrella from her, and we gave it to her, so where did the umbrella originally come from? Perhaps she lost the umbrella sometime in her life and bought a new one just like it in London, but that explanation's not nearly as fun as a temporal paradox.
> e.
Shelter
> give paper to girl. (+3; you now have a paper bird again.)
> w.
Playground
The paper bird enlarges to the size of a car!
> ride bird.
Thin Air, on the giant bird
> enter door. (You return to Moor.)
Moor
> w. w. w. w. n.
Although your character doesn't recognize the corpse at all, I think it's clear that since we're "Wabewalker" (as implied by the book in the cottage), and this is Wabewalker's corpse, we're actually robbing our own corpse.
And this time, the bootstrap paradox is harder to ignore. Whoever laid us in our crypt could give us a new shroud and coin; those are common enough items. But the boots appear to be unique items. It seems bizarre to think that after we die, our old boots will be replaced with new ones that look and act just like them.
> open lid with spade. (+3)
> look in crypt. examine corpse. examine bandage. take bandage.
> examine mouth. take silver coin. (+1) examine silver coin. put it in pocket.
> examine boots. take boots. wear boots.
> examine shroud. take shroud. (+1)
> examine corpse. kiss corpse. ("Sicko".)
> s. e. e.
Bottom of Stairs
Next, tackle the Ossuary toadstool, which corresponds to the third symbol, Pluto. The god Pluto was the ruler of the underground, so we're going to need light. Take the splinter. We will lose the splinter, but gain a lantern, a walkie-talkie, and a skink (a type of lizard).
> drop shroud, bandage, spade. take splinter. u. u.
Vertex
> turn ring to third symbol.
> d. d. w. w. n. n. n.
Ossuary.
> save. enter door.
Underground (east end)
> examine cylinder. take lantern. w.
Underground (middle)
> turn on lantern. drop lantern. w.
Underground (west end)
Note: you can't hold the skink inside the birdcage; it slips out.
> put splinter into crevice. take skink. (+3)
> put skink in pocket. (It won't stay in your hand, but it likes your pocket.)
> take splinter. (Can't. The crevice is too deep.)
> e.
Underground (middle)
Leave the lantern on! We still have to get past the wight again.
> take all. (+1 for walkie-talkie; lantern also taken.)
> e. e.
Ossuary
> s.
Barrow
> turn key. d. e. e. e.
Bottom of Stairs
Since I don't want to carry a skink indefinitely, the next toadstool to do is the one at the Waterfall, corresponding to the second symbol, Mercury. We'll need the skink, the lump, and the axe. We'll lose the lump and sadly kill the skink in this section.
> turn off lantern. drop lantern. examine walkie. drop walkie.
> take axe and lump. u. u.
Vertex
Head next to the Promontory, not the Waterfall. We also need a soap bubble.
> turn ring to second symbol. d. d. nw. n.
Promontory
> enter dish. z. z. (Wait until you're floating inside a bubble.)
> s. sw.
Waterfall, in a soap bubble
> save. enter door.
Earth Orbit, in a soap bubble
Need skink, lump, and axe. Timing is particularly critical for this section.
> take skink. kill it. (+3; The lump is pulling you to the satellite.)
> examine satellite. (The lump attaches itself to the hull.)
> examine stars. examine door. break bubble with axe. (You're thrown through the door at the last possible moment.)
Waterfall
> e. e.
Bottom of Stairs
Next, tackle the Mesa toadstool, which corresponds to the fourth symbol, Neptune. Neptune is a god of the seas, and this bomb site is a very small island in the middle of an ocean. We won't need any tools for this one, and we'll gain a coconut.
> examine skink. drop skink, axe. u. u.
Vertex
> turn ring to fourth symbol. d. d. nw. e. n.
Mesa
> save. enter door.
Scaffold
> d.
Bottom of Scaffold
> open box. examine switch. push it. (You have seven minutes.)
> push button. s. nw.
West Beach
The fin/dolphin will follow you after you first see it.
> examine islet. examine tree. w. examine crabs.
> examine fin. look. w. examine coconuts.
> point at coconut. (Tide isn't high enough.)
> examine tide. g. g. (The coconut floats away from the islet.)
> point to coconut. (The dolphin tosses it to your feet.)
> take coconut. (+3)
> se. n. u. enter door.
Mesa
> s. w. se.
Bottom of Stairs
Now that we have the coconut, we can finish the magpie's recipe. Grab the axe, dead skink, and garlic and revisit the cottage.
> take axe, skink, garlic. ne. e. nw. e.
It's essential to chop the coconut in the Cottage. The milk dribbles out too fast to do the deed anywhere else. (Also you can't eat the cracked coconut; chopping it again reduces it to fragments which, of course, aren't implemented.)
> drop coconut. cut coconut with axe. (+1)
> take coconut. pour milk in cauldron. (+1)
Make sure the cage and any other loose items you might want aren't left in the cottage.
> put skink in cauldron. (+1)
> put garlic in cauldron. (+1) w.
Bluff
> z. (Boom!) e.
Cottage
The book, pedestal, and map are destroyed.
> look in cauldron. examine emerald. take emerald. (+1)
> put emerald in green boot. (+1; the boot seals up and grows wings.)
> w. se. w. sw.
Bottom of Stairs
Next: the Herb Garden toadstool which corresponds to the fifth symbol, Libra. I suppose Libra was chosen for the Russian bomb site because of the phrase "balance of power". Take the cage; we're going to get us a lemming. Why? Um, we just are, okay?
> drop coconut, axe. take cage. u. u.
Vertex
> turn ring to fifth symbol. d. d. ne. e. nw. e. e.
Herb Garden
> save. enter white door.
Platform
> d. ne. ne.
Cliff Edge
> look in fissure. take lemming. put lemming in cage. (+1)
> close cage. sw. sw. u. enter door.
Herb Garden
> examine lemming. w. w. se. w. sw.
Time to tackle the Islet toadstool which corresponds to the seventh symbol, Alpha. This will be the final toadstool and the most difficult one.
You need the shroud, silver coin, the boots, the walkie-talkie, the lemming, the lantern, and... the bag of breadcrumbs? Okay, fine.
Don't weigh yourself down with inessentials. You'll need to be speedy.
> take shroud. wear it. take walkie, lantern, and bag.
> save. u. u.
Vertex
> turn ring to seventh symbol. d. d. se.
The River
Any time you die in the game, you end up here and ride the dory. The oarsman won't normally let you on unless you seem to be dead, so you'll need to wear the shroud and pay him the silver coin. (You may find it amusing to give your credit card to the oarsman first.)
> z. (Wait however many turns it takes for the dory to land.)
> enter dory. give silver coin to oarsman.
Sand Bar
> s.
Islet
The roadrunner, still carrying the ruby, runs into the open white door!
> drop shroud. (We can't afford the extra weight.)
> enter door.
Shack
Because of the voices outside, you can't go further than Tower Platform for several turns. There's lots of stuff up here: a light bulb with chain, a screwed panel, and a paperback book. I'm interested in an item inside the book.
> save. (When you're playing this, you'll definitely want to restore back to this point too.)
> open book. take slip. (+1) examine slip. examine diagram. (+3)
The diagram legend is randomized and looks like this:
RD=DET BL=GND ST=INF WH=POS
I'll tell you now that the two-letter codes are wire colours (RD means RED; BL means BLUE; ST means STRIPED; WH means WHITE), and the three-letter codes are wire functions (DET means DETONATOR; GND means GROUND; INF means INFORMER; POS means POSITIVE).
> drop slip. w.
Tower Platform
You can't go down safely until you hear and see the jeep leave to the south.
> d. d.
Base of Tower
It's our old friend the roadrunner! With winged boots, we can run fast too! Note there's a padlocked box here, but ignore the box for now.
> take ruby. (+1) put ruby in red boot. (+1)
> nw. nw. nw.
Paved Road
> open jeep. in.
Jeep
Inside the jeep is a wallet with a photo of a familiar-looking boy holding a wand. But ignore it; we can't waste time.
> examine radio. examine dial. (+1) set slider to DIALNUMBER. (+1)
> pull antenna. turn on walkie. out. se. se. se. se. se.
Northwest of Ranch
> open gate. se. s.
Hallway
> open door. e.
Kitchen
> take knife. (+1) e. n.
Assembly Room
CAUTION: Staying in the same room as the rattlesnake is fatal. You can save yourself by retreating, but that won't help your mission. Enter the closet instead.
> n.
Closet
> close door. open cage. (Lemming leaves the cage.)
> open door. (+3; snake kills the lemming and takes it away.)
> drop cage. s.
Assembly Room
> search workbench. take screwdriver. (+1)
> open front door. e. e. se.
South of Reservoir
> u.
Edge of Reservoir
We need to drop anything that might be damaged by water immersion, except the lantern which we need anyway. The lemming will drown (if you still had it). The walkie-talkie will short circuit. The bag of crumbs will become soggy. Your watch, however, is waterproof.
I'd prefer to drop stuff at South of Reservoir, but we have to keep the crumbs away from the roadrunner a little bit longer.
> drop walkie and bag. d. ne. u.
Windmill
> turn on lantern. take binoculars.
Instead of taking them, you, the binoculars, and everything you're carrying (lit lantern, screwdriver, and knife) fall into the reservoir.
Reservoir
> d.
Underwater
It's normally totally dark here underwater, but the lantern should let you see the binoculars.
> take all but lantern. (Leave the lantern; it'll die soon anyway and it's heavy.)
> u. u.
Edge of Reservoir
> take all. s. w. w.
Southwest of Ranch
Heading into the desert is slightly risky, but you should intersect with the north-south road easily enough, then run south down the road.
> sw. sw. s.
Behind the Shed
General Groves leaves.
> look through binoculars at shelter. (+3; see key in padlock.)
You may have to wait a turn or two for the roadrunner to show up.
> point to key. (+3; roadrunner gets key for you.)
> take key. (+1)
> examine thin man.
> n. n. n. n.
Base of Tower
> unlock box with key. (+1)
> examine panel. pull breaker. (Note which line on X is mentioned over the walkie-talkie!)
"[...] Ask the kid if he reconnected the [detonator, ground, informer, or positive] line on X after the continuity check."
> close breaker. (+1)
If you don't reclose the breaker immediately, you'll be caught.
Also, note this line:
"[...] If it dies again before the sequencer takes over, we're gonna have to scrub."
Now you know when it's safe to cut the wire: after the sequencer takes over.
> sw. sw. sw. sw.
Outside Blockhouse
Wait until the roadrunner arrives.
> examine dog. examine searchlight.
Once the roadrunner appears, drop the bag of crumbs. This is a timed diversion to get the searchlight beam off the tower. Run back to the tower before the crumbs run out!
> drop bag. ne. ne. ne. ne.
Base of Tower
The searchlight beam sweeps away.
> u. u.
Tower Platform
The beam returns. You were almost spotted.
> e.
Shack
Don't leave the shack again; you will be spotted.
> examine enclosure. examine panel. unscrew panel. (+3)
> look in panel. (The interior is dark.)
> turn on bulb. look in panel. (You should now be able to see four wires.)
If you're following my walkthrough closely, we're at Zero minus seven minutes, or close to that. We'll need to wait until the sequencer is on until we can make our move. Pay attention to the walkie-talkie messages.
At Zero minus five minutes, people are told to "assume safe positions".
At Zero minus two minutes, there will be a siren.
At Zero minus forty-five seconds, the auto-sequencer will activate.
Things to examine while waiting: bulb, rope, hardware, sphere, cables, book, poem (on the cardboard slip), the wires.
> z. (Wait repeatedly until the sequencer is active.)
Using the steak knife, cut the correct colored wire. You want to cut the wire that corresponds to the line that the locked box breaker controlled, and you know which colour that is based on the legend printed on the back of the cardboard slip you found inside the paperback book.
> cut COLOUR wire. (+5)
The mysterious voice congratulates you, and says not to be worried about the apparent paradox you've created. The next thing you know, you're back at the Palace Gate in Kensington Park where this whole adventure started.
Palace Gate
Feel free to do what you like. I'll just re-do what I did originally, with a few minor variations since, you know, there's a bomb coming. Again.
> i. (Your original inventory is back.)
> e.
Flower Walk
> take ball. nw.
The Wabe
> examine sundial. turn gnomon. take gnomon. nw.
Broad Walk
> ask woman about roadrunner. ask woman about ruby.
> give card to woman. buy bag. take bag and coin.
> feed birds. take ruby. (It's happening again. All of it.)
> e.
Round Pond
> examine boats. take paper bird. open bird. read paper.
> examine watch. nw.
Black Lion Gate
> open pram. push pram e.
Inverness Terrace
> take dish. push pram e.
Lancaster Gate
> examine woman.
*** The End ***
This game loves its box quotes.
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