So Far is a Z-machine 8 interactive fiction game written with Inform 5 and is © 1996 by Andrew Plotkin. At the 1996 XYZZY Awards, So Far won four awards: Best Game, Best Individual Puzzle (opening the gate), Best Puzzles, and Best Writing; it was also a finalist for the Best Setting and Best Story awards. In 2011, it ranked 34th on the Interactive Fiction Top 50 of all time (2011 edition) list.
You play as someone in a theatre watching a production of Rito and Imita, wondering where Aessa is; she was supposed to meet you here. You will discover shadows that are portals to strange and surreal landscapes. Somewhere, somehow, you'll find Aessa again.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 6 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.
Caution: This is a "cruel" game on the Zarfian cruelty scale; it's very easy to make the game unwinnable without realizing it. There's also many red herrings in the forms of useless objects and locked doors that can never be opened.
The sequence of events:
One major theme of the game is convergence, or more precisely, near-convergence:
Another theme is negation:
Lower Theater
For the first several turns, there's really nothing to do except watch the play. When the play's over, you can leave.
> x Rito. x Imita. x me. x Tato. x audience.
> z. z. z. z. (Someone starts clapping.)
> clap. stand. clap. x old man.
> w. w. s.
Halfway Up Aisle
> x air. x crack.
> s. s.
Theater Portico
If you insist on heading south from the portico, you just go home and the game ends prematurely.
> x people. w.
West Portico
> x air. x shrubs. x doorway. x moons.
> n.
Theater Hall, South
> x crates. n.
Theater Hall, North
> listen. x crack. look in crack. x breeze.
> w.
Theater Storage
> x window. x cabinet. open it.
> x box. take it. open it. (how?)
> x discs. push discs. (nope)
> hit box. g. g. (It makes music.)
> hum. (The box resonates.)
> x breeze. look behind cabinet.
> touch shadow. enter shadow.
Abandoned Road
> x sky. x road. x weeds. x forest.
> s. (no: forest is too dense)
> n.
Abandoned Road, at Chimney
> x chimney. x shadow. enter it.
Field Behind Platform
> x gate. x platform. x hay. x shadow.
> look through fence.
> w —or— u.
On the Platform
Careful! Making noise is taboo in this region. Note that the animal in violet jumps the farthest.
> x crowd. x arena.
> z. (repeat until the show is over)
> sw.
Dusty Yard
When the show is going on, a tall man in blue and a fat man in yellow guard the open north gate. After the show, one animal is tethered to the post here, and all the others are led into the southern building. Then the men shut the gate and leave. Soon afterwards, people leave the platform as well.
> x animal. x tether. pet animal.
> s.
Musty Building
You can't open the south door.
> x green creature. x green harness.
> x violet creature. x violet harness.
> n. e.
North End of Mall
People (usually in yellow or blue) are wandering semi-randomly back and forth between the mall's shops. No one speaks or makes any noise, but sometimes they bow to each other.
> x statue.
> x shrubbery. search it.
> take ring. x it. wear it. wave it.
> s.
Center of Mall
> x building. open door. (locked)
> s.
South End of Mall
Note that the park across the river has a shadow-casting flagpole, and that its people are okay with talking and other casual sounds.
> x pedestal. x river. x park.
> n.
Center of Mall
> z. (continue waiting until a boy drops something)
> look. take square. x it.
> e.
Narrow Alley
If anyone sees you enter here, they frown or look angry. If there's two of them, then they carry you back to the center of the mall. If you are carried back, wait until they leave you, then return to the alley. In short, you only get one turn in the alley at a time.
> x statue. (see chip of clay; I assume you're carried back.)
Center of Mall
> z. e.
Narrow Alley
> take chip. (Taken, but you are carried back.)
Center of Mall
> x chip. e.
Narrow Alley
> enter shadow.
Grassy Hilltop
There's another performance happening to the west, and the best place to watch it from is up the tree.
> climb tree.
Up the Tree
> x tents. (You see several people with boxes like yours, holding them near their mouths, and tapping on them.)
> z. z. (A man in a black mask, and a woman in a white mask begin dancing.)
> x man. x woman. (The woman is launched out of the circle, then a similar "pregnant" woman in a grey mask enters the dance. I assume she is playing the same woman, now pregnant.)
> x woman. z. (The man leaps away, replaced by another man with jagged face paint, enraged. Again, I believe this is meant to represent the same man, now angry.)
> x man. (The woman, frightened, leaves.)
> z. z. (After a spinning dance, and a shriek, the performance ends.)
> d.
Grassy Hilltop
CAUTION: Stepping off the path makes a dry rattle that instantly alerts them that you're here. You don't want an angry mob chasing you yet!
> s. w.
Hill, Southwest Side
> x crack. (source of water)
> n. n. n.
Small Clearing
Be careful not to wake the man by making noise. There's no way to know ahead of time that you need the knife and the jar, but not the rod.
Because he wakes when you take a second item, just take the jar for now, fill it with water, and return for the knife.
> x man. x spear.
> x knife. x jar. x rod.
> take jar. s. s. s.
Hill, Southwest Side
> fill jar. (with water)
During the next few turns, water will visibly leak through a smudge in the jar near the jar's lip, but never seems to empty. How odd.
> n. n. n.
Small Clearing
> take knife.
The man wakes and runs southwest, but more importantly, a mob of people with pointy weapons are now running towards you.
> se. se.
Hill, East Side
> enter shadow.
Narrow Alley
> w. n. w. ne. e.
Field Behind Platform
> enter shadow.
Abandoned Road, by Chimney
> w.
Fields By Road
> x logs. x vine. take pod. x it.
> x mounds. search mounds. x scrap. drop it.
> e. n.
Road at Gate
> x gate. open gate. (uh, no)
> x wall. x pillars. x pillar. (which?)
> x west pillar. x east pillar.
Perhaps you should get closer to a pillar.
> w.
By the West Pillar
> x pillar. x hatch. (rusty)
> put pod on hatch. open hatch. (The pillar sways?)
> z. (You hear something thump inside; did something fall?)
> in.
Inside the West Pillar
> x slab. (hm, probably a counterweight. Good thing it didn't fall on you.)
> x cable. x rungs. u.
West Pillar, Top
> x roof. x vines. take pods.
> x pulley —or— x axle.
> d. out. e. e.
By the East Pillar
> x pillar. x hatch. (rusty)
> put pod on hatch. open hatch. (This pillar seems more stable.)
> in. u.
East Pillar, Top
> x pulley. (rusty)
> x slab. put pod on pulley.
> turn pulley. (no effect)
> d. out. w. w.
By the West Pillar
> push pillar. (It leans towards its mate and the gate opens.)
> e. n. n.
Branched Road
> x pipes. (Cables run through them, rusty, broken.)
> n.
South of Moat
> x moat. x iron. x arch. x castle.
> n.
Stone Bridge
The ivy is a red herring and a cliche. You're meant to try to climb it, but fail because that's not the way in.
> x gate. climb ivy. (You can't.)
> s. e.
East of Moat
> x moat. (You see pipes.)
> pull lever. (no effect)
> x castle. (You see a balcony.)
> s. w.
West of Moat
> x pipes. (looks okay)
> pull lever. (no effect)
> x castle. (another balcony)
> n. (no: too many trees)
> sw.
By Dome
> x lichen. smell it. x dome.
> climb dome. (no: too smooth)
> w.
East Crescent Chamber
> x plants. smell plant. (icy)
The depression is probably some sort of shower stall that isn't working.
> x cord. x depression. (free of lichen)
> enter depression. pull cord. (click, no effect)
> out.
Back to business:
> open hatch.
> touch plant. (This vapor protects your skin for a short time in the next room.)
> smell plant. (This likewise protects your lungs, and makes the total protection last a bit longer.)
> w.
Central Chamber
So, um, I think this is a power plant, and it's activated by moving the blocks close together but not quite touching, which is a bit of a theme in this game.
The lichen grows very quickly in here, so don't waste time with sightseeing. Just push those blocks almost together before the icy aroma wears off and the lichen start growing in your lungs! Or maybe it's radiation that kills you; I'm not really sure. This is not a fun room.
> push left block. g. g. g. g. (one inch apart is good)
> e.
East Crescent Chamber
> close hatch.
> e. ne.
West of Moat
> pull lever. (The pipes expand into a bridge.)
> e.
Balcony
> x shadow. (frost?)
If you're entering a cold zone, you probably don't want to risk the jar of water freezing solid and breaking.
> drop jar. enter shadow.
Desolation of Ice
> s.
Desolation, By Crevasse
> x bundle. take it. wear blanket.
> x pole. x crevasse. (Something can leap across, but not you.)
> w. (The game dares you to lick the pole.)
Don't lick the pole. If you do, your tongue will stick to the pole and you won't be able to leave, ever.
> w. w. w. ("Coward")
Shadow of Cliff
> x pawprints. (northeast, east, northwest, and southwest)
> sw.
Base of Cliff
> x cave.
> ne. nw.
Snowy Slope
> take key. x it.
> s.
Top of Cliff
> x crack.
Go back to the balcony, warm up, grab the jar of water, and bring it back here.
> n. se. ne.
Desolation of Ice
> x spire. enter shadow.
Balcony
> take jar. z. (The chill fades.)
> enter shadow.
Desolation of Ice
> sw. nw. s.
Top of Cliff
> pour water in crack.
> z. z. z. z. z. (The expanding ice pushes part of the cliff below.)
> n. se. sw.
Base of Cliff
> climb rubble —or— u.
Tunnel Mouth
> x glow. w. w.
Cave of Light
> x form. x shadow. enter shadow.
East of Dome
> x figures. x fence. x sky.
> x dome. x shadow. (That's the one back to the ice.)
> remove blanket.
> nw —or— sw.
West of Dome
> x dome. x shadow. enter shadow.
Somewhere (multiple locations, maybe)
> x shapes.
Hm, no obvious landmarks to go towards. Try going north, see what happens. You should feel either a sense of resistance or sense of attraction.
> n. (Repeat until the sense of resistance changes to a sense of acceleration.)
> s. (Back up into resistance.)
> w. (Repeat until the sense of resistance is too strong to overcome.)
Now try to go somewhere. If you're truly at the most resistant location, the sense of resistance becomes powerful, preventing you from leaving, and a dark figure silently asks if you will forgive them.
> n. (repeat if necessary, until the question is asked)
> yes. (No one is listening, but the shapes are now forming a ring of darkness.)
> x dark ring. enter it.
> look. (There's now a sphere of light containing a ghost-figure of a woman, and a shadow below.)
> x sphere. take it. (You can't take it, but it's circling you, following you.)
> x shadow. enter shadow.
West of Dome
A glass sphere containing a male figure drops at your feet.
> x sphere. take it.
Okay, head all the way back to the quiet circus and mall.
> ne —or— se.
East of Dome
> wear blanket. enter shadow.
Cave of Light
The glass sphere becomes a silver plaque!?
> i. x plaque.
> e. e. e. ne. ne.
Desolation of Ice
> enter shadow.
Balcony
The plaque becomes a leather-bound book.
> remove blanket.
> i. x book.
> w. s. s. s. s. s.
Abandoned Road, at Chimney
> enter shadow.
Field Behind Platform
The book becomes an ivory casket.
> i. x casket. open it. (can't)
> w. sw.
Dusty Yard
> z. (Repeat waiting until three people open the gate and enter)
> n.
In the Arena
Don't waste time here. The trio are picking up litter, but ignore them. Grab the orange thing and get out.
> take orange. s.
Dusty Yard
The trio leave the arena and close the gate. Be quick.
> cut tether. (with knife. The freed crested creature stays here for now.)
> s.
Musty Building
I'm assuming this is between performances so the creatures are here. There's a chance that they'll all be rushed out into the arena while you're here.
You can never open the southern door, so don't worry about it.
> put orange on violet creature.
> ride violet creature. (The orange straps give you the ability to stay on... for now.)
> unhook violet harness. (You're carried to...)
Dusty Yard
If the crested one was still tethered, the violet creature kills it, and you'd fall off and lose your ride.
But the crested one is free, so now the violet one is chasing it, and you're literally along for the ride!
> z. z. z. z. (and you're over the river!)
Shady Park
You fall off. Both animals are gone. The people on this side of river have no problem with chat or noise, but they appear to speak an unknown language. Don't bother trying to decode it; it's just randomly generated syllables.
> x flagpole. x shadow. x bushes.
> x people. ask people about flagpole.
> w.
Shady Park, at Pedestal
> x sculpture. x bronze disc. x wires.
> x columns. x pedestal.
> hit bronze disc. hit wire. g.
> touch left column. hit it.
> touch right column. hit it.
Your music is appreciated, but doesn't help you. The columns remind me of the towers in the previous region.
> e.
Shady Park
> enter shadow.
Darkness (rapping sound)
"X SOUND" is a very useful command in this region since it clearly lists the names of the sounds. "Distant" sounds are in adjacent locations.
> i. x fuzzy mass. (was the casket)
> x sound. x bubbling.
> take bubbling. (It's around you.)
> drop bubbling. (You don't need it.)
> w.
Darkness (bells)
> x sound. x bells.
> n.
Darkness (plip-plopping)
> ne. (Dripping blocks you.)
> x sound.
> x plooping. take it. (It's around you.)
> s. (The plooping pulls the dripping away from the northeast passage; the plooping itself fades away.)
> ne.
Darkness (voices)
> x sound. x voices.
> e.
Darkness (glassy crashing)
> x sound. x crashing.
> s. (The thudding blocks you.)
> x thudding. take it. (can't)
Backtrack to where you started in here:
> w. sw. s. e.
Darkness (rapping)
> s.
Darkness (wailing)
You'll probably encounter a thrumming chord hanging over you here or in the next room. Consider it to be a dangerous monster. For that reason, you must act quickly.
The chord wanders between here, the rumble to the southwest, and the hiss to the southeast. But once it finds you, it follows you anywhere.
> sw.
Darkness (rumble)
> x thudding. take it. ne.
Darkness (wailing)
> sing to box.
The chord is destroyed. For now. Get out of here with the thudding before the chord reforms.
> n. w. n. ne. e.
Darkness (glassy crashing)
> s.
Darkness (thudding)
The gentle thudding and the irregular thudding combine into a soft thudding that is no longer an obstacle.
> x sound. x soft.
> se.
Darkness (cacophony)
Incidentally, you can never traverse between here and the hiss to the southwest, or vice-versa. It is always blocked by some blare. It's like a locked door you're never given the key to.
> x sound. x cacophony.
> x silence. enter silence.
Caught In Metal (traces)
> x pipe. (thin or thick?)
> x thin. x thick. x traces.
> i. put pod in jar. x jar. z. (oil starts dripping out of the jar)
> z. z. (The trickle is from just above the jar's smudge.)
> x square. break corner. (flame is now coming out)
> light trickle with square. (The jar is now like a candle.)
> z. z. (The square's blue flame expires.)
Hitting the pipes make them vibrate, but you must be carrying them for their vibrations to move you elsewhere in this region. Hitting a thin pipe takes you "upward"; hitting a thick pipe takes you "downward". And you lose whichever pipe you used to travel with.
> take all.
> hit thick. (You're transported "downward" and lose the thick pipe.)
Caught In Metal (dim grid)
> take all. x grid. (The grid in the ceiling sorta matches up with the traces in the previous location's floor.)
> hit thin. (You're transported back "upward" and lose the thin pipe.)
Caught In Metal (traces)
> hit thin. (You go "up" again to...)
Caught In Metal (ridges)
> take pipe. x ridges.
> hit thin. (You go "up" further to...)
Caught In Metal (light spots)
The two light spots, besides giving you light, are yet another example of the two-who-are-near-but-apart theme running through this game.
> take all. x spots. x grooves.
You now have five thick pipes in total, so you can now go further "downward" than before.
> hit thick. g. g. g.
Caught In Metal (moss, boy)
You drop your last thick pipe on arrival.
> take pipe. (The boy grabs it first.)
> x boy.
Say anything. The boy needs to hear your voice.
> boy, hi. (He shudders, then puts the pipe down.)
> take thick.
> give thick to boy. (He shakes his head, no.)
> give blanket to boy. (He won't take any of your items.)
> hit thick.
Caught In Metal (rusted)
> drop jar. x shadow. enter it.
Somewhere Else
There's actually only five locations in this region; the abstract shapes help you tell them apart. You don't need to do anything with them.
Your macguffin is now a "ridged brown cube". At least one of the directions will alter your cube, and if you wave it around, it tells you which way to go.
I must admit, when I first played this, I simply tried every direction in turn, using UNDO when there was no change to the cube or if the cube changed back to its previous status.
> i. x my cube.
Move the cube around twice to see how it wants to change.
> turn it —or— wave it —or— move it.
> g.
One direction is singled out as making the ridges more regular. The direction will be randomized.
> go REGULAR-DIRECTION.
The ridges on your cube become more regular.
> wave my cube.
> go SHALLOWER-DIRECTION.
The ridges flatten into stripes; you have a striped brown cube.
> wave my cube.
> go FAINTER-DIRECTION.
The stripes fade to a uniform brown; you have a brown cube.
> wave my cube.
> go PALER-DIRECTION.
The brown pales to tan; you have a tan cube.
> wave my cube.
> go PALER-DIRECTION.
The tan pales to white; you have a white cube. But look: there's now a "ring of brightness" here.
> x light.
> wave my cube. put my cube in light.
> enter light.
A voice from the cube asks: "Ah, my love. Can you forgive me?"
> yes
Dark touches light. Disaster! Everything is gone.
*** All is loosed and undone ***
> undo
> no
The cube crumbles. The rings separate.
By Theater Portico
The almost-conjunction happens. And you move towards her.
*** You have won ***
> afterword
At the theater:
In the quiet arena and mall:
In the grasslands:
In the ice region:
At the dome:
In the Somewhere:
In the darkness:
When caught in the metal:
In the Somewhere Else:
Mentioned:
This is the response to ABOUT:
So Far is copyright 1996 by Andrew Plotkin. It may be copied, distributed, and played freely.
This is a shortish-to-medium-sized game. More than a short story, less than a full-length novel. Its rating is "cruel." It is possible to make mistakes which will prevent you from winning. Sometimes common sense will serve to avoid such mistakes; sometimes insight is necessary; sometimes neither will help. Save often, and keep your old saved games.
Do not expect So Far to be anything like A Change in the Weather. It's not.
This game was created using the Inform adventure development system, which was created by Graham Nelson. You can get Inform, as well as other text adventures, from the Interactive Fiction archive:
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/https://ifarchive.org/This game is free. But if you feel like sending me money, I won't refuse. If you feel like sending me comments or bug reports, I'll be ecstatic. As of the end of 1996, I am at
outdated email and postal addresses redactedFurther acknowledgements:
- Beta testing: Michael "The Inescapable" Kinyon, C. E. Forman, Neil Demause, Jools Arnold, Magnus Olsson, Gareth Rees.
- Omega testing: Kai Hesse, Lucian Smith, Jon Conrad, Mike Phillips, Matthew MacKenzie, Paul C. Trauth, David Auerbach, Michael Haralambous, Stephen Granade, Dylan Thurston, Dan Shiovitz, Admiral Jota, Mikko Vuorinen, Dylan O'Donnell, Robert Rendell, Joe Mason, Marnix Klooster, Avrom Faderman.
- Extra ideas: My brain. (Honest, it comes up with stuff all on its own. Sometimes it doesn't tell me the reasons until days later. Then I scream.)
- Dinners of some relevance: Nikki, Jen, Aleecia, Jody.
- Surreal confidence: Tom.
- DJ'ing folk music on the radio for five hours every Saturday night, thus providing me with prime working atmosphere: Mary Cliff.
- Playing incredibly funny folk music, both on the radio and live: The Foremen.
This game is dedicated. (For real.)
The AFTERWORD at game's end has even more details, should you need them.
These are the endings I found. Possibly there's more.
There are also numerous ways to make the game unwinnable, too many to be worthwhile to list.
Sounds that you take are never listed in your inventory because they surround you instead; it would make more sense to list you in the sound's inventory!
Note that you can only be cloaked by one sound at a time. However, you can also be followed by a sound that intends to harm you! All other sounds in the darkness are background scenery.
The response to SCORE is:
That's not how life works.
However, part of the AFTERWORD states:
Although there is, of course, no real score in this game, it is possible to get one point. I'll be impressed if anyone does it, even with a story-file text dumper. (No fair actually disassembling.)
I did not discover this secret point. But when consulting a walkthrough by pjg, I learned you can earn it by putting something on the "ground by the man" where the sleeping man is in the grasslands. Wait, what?
It turns out that you can't actually refer to the "ground by the man" in any normal way, such as "ground". Even if you know the thing is there, you must use deep knowledge of Inform 6 trickery to get "it" to refer to it:
Small Clearing (warm, arid, dusty)
> take all but spear
encampment: You're not in the encampment.
sleeping man: I don't suppose the sleeping man would care for that.
ground by the man: That's fixed in place.> x ground
You can't see any such thing.> x it
You see nothing special about the ground by the man.> put box on it
You can't put anything there. In fact, I'm really impressed that you got this message. Consider yourself rewarded.[Your score has just gone up by one point.]
However, the response to SCORE is unchanged. This is just a weird secret thing in the game that I doubt most players would ever find without cheating. Like, good grief, even with cheating, this is extreme.
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