the-infocom-files/wishbringer-invclues

There is no time limit

Opened this issue · 1 comments

eriktorbjorn commented

In the original release, you have to deliver the envelope before 5:00 pm, and return the cat before 6:00 am. Along the way, you'll be reminded that there is only so many hours left.

But in the Solid Gold version this doesn't work. At all.

>TIME
[It's 4:59 pm. You have only 1 minute to complete your delivery.]

>WAIT
Time passes.

>TIME
[It's 5:02 pm. You have -1 hours and 58 minutes to complete your delivery.]

Wishbringer is unusual (though not unique) in that it's a game that displays time on the status line, but still keeps a score. So it uses the SCORE and MOVES variables for hours and minutes respectively, while GSCORE holds the current score and GMOVES holds the number of moves.

For the Solid Gold version, someone decided to change this, presumably for readability: The hours and minutes are now stored in HOURS and MINUTES respectively, while SCORE and MOVES hold the score and number of moves.

Unfortunately, they forgot to change the I-BEFORE-FIVE and I-BEFORE-MOONSET routines, so they still refer to SCORE and MOVES instead of HOURS and MINUTES.

I haven't checked if this is the only such error that snuck in.

eriktorbjorn commented

The bug has an unexpected side effect. The I-BEFORE-MOONSET routine ends the game if your score is between 6 and 17. (In the original release this meant that game ended at 6 o'clock in the morning, but not at 6 o'clock in the evening.)

Normally, you would have at least 20 points by the time you leave the Magick Shoppe and the I-BEFORE-MOONSET routine kicks in. But you can also get -10 points for ignoring Miss Voss and another -10 points for disturbing the leaves. Which means you can find yourself in this situation:

>TIME
[It's 6:15 pm. You have 11 hours and 45 minutes to complete your quest.]

>SCORE
[Your score is 3 points out of 100, in 76 moves.]

>GET STONE
Taken.

[Your score just went up by 5 points! Your total score is 8 out of 100.]

As your fingers close around the small stone it begins to glow with an eerie
violet-white radiance.

You watch with horror as the moon slowly sets in the western sky.

Out of nowhere, the sad voice of the old woman from the Magick Shoppe rises
around you. "Your quest is over, brave Adventurer. The moon is set, and Chaos is
no more. Too bad. I should not have placed my hopes upon a simpleton. But thank
you for your useless effort."

Oops! (Dramatic, though.)

I had hoped to be find a similar abuse for I-BEFORE-FIVE, but to do that you need to get exactly 16 points within 30 moves and I don't think that's possible.

Edit: These are the things you need to score points for to trigger the bug described here:

  • Enter the Post Office (+1 = 1)
  • Take the mysterious envelope (+5 = 6)
  • Take the old bone (+1 = 7)
  • Feed the bone to the poodle (+3 = 10)
  • Fail to take the violet note (wait until Ms Voss leaves) (-10 = 0)
  • Disturb the pile of leaves (-10 = -10)
  • Arrive at Cliff Edge (+1 = -9)
  • Give the envelope to old woman (+5 = -4)
  • Read the letter to old woman (+1 = -3)
  • Take the metal can from old woman (+3 = 0)
  • Frighten the troll with snake (+3 = 3)
  • Take the small stone (+5 = 8)