Halothane, An Interactive Restoration
-------------------------------------
Interactive fiction by Quentin.D.Thompson (Ravi.P.Rajkumar), 1999
[email protected] [email protected]
=============================================================================
Two ways of solving the game, comments, and miscellaneous items of interest..
=============================================================================
NOTE: I completely realise that most of this information could just as
easily be put into the game file, halo.z5 (I still get a kick out
of that file name :-D), but I didn't want it to become halo.z8
and tempt fate at the hands of the two-hour rule - The Author.
=============================================================================
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------
1. A short walkthrough of Halothane (very few spoilers)
2. A detailed walkthrough of Halothane (PARENTAL ADVISORY: explicit spoilers)
3. Halothane: who, what, why, where, and how?
4. Future releases
=============================================================================
SHORT WALKTHROUGH (in the style of Paul.J.Godfrey)
-----------------
This is the absolute, no-fun, no-Easter Egg walkthrough for Halothane.
(If you want a detailed one, see below.)
(you begin playing this game as Harold Banks, an author)
(you start in your bedroom)
north (Or south, or any other direction...)
(Now you know you need to get to bed)
examine bed
look under bed
look under desk
get fan
put fan on chair
switch on fan
lie on bed
sleep
Chapter 1
---------
(In the operating theatre)
west
turn valve
(This is the shortest solution.)
Chapter 2
---------
(In your study)
get manuscript
throw manuscript in dustbin
(depressing, but there it is..)
Chapter 3
---------
(In the kidnappers' car)
z.z.z.z.z.z.z.z
(In the open field)
north
north
Chapter 4
---------
(Outside the house)
open window
enter window
east
x woman
say hello to Simone
(you can ask Simone about many things here; this is a sample)
ask Simone about Mr. Author
ask Simone about herself
ask Simone about Rosenberg
ask Simone about Edward/Laura/Franklin (all give the same reply)
ask Simone about future
ask Simone about halothane
ask Simone about plan
ask Simone about successors
ask Simone about novel
(you can also ask Simone about other things, including the parallel
dimension, the solution, the house she's staying in, and so on.)
z
(keep on waiting until Simone hands you a pen)
Chapter 5
---------
(Red Lake)
open trapdoor
down
(Floating on Clouds)
north
east
east
east
up
east
get bottle
x it
read it
west
down
west
west
west
open bottle
throw acid at gate (as per the inscription)
("Dissolve gate" and "Pour acid on gate" also work.)
Chapter 6
---------
(in the Saloon)
ask receptionist about saloon
ask receptionist about legend
(Strange, isn't it?)
east
look under table
get device
up
north
get manual
read it
south
south
get black disc
north
west
put disc in computer
switch on computer
read screen
(Note the two dates, and remember the manual inscription.)
east
north
table, the code is 2187
search table
get chip
put chip in machine
south
east
search bed
get letter
read it
yes
(You need to know what the letter says.)
west
down
show letter to receptionist
(the receptionist will now take out a key)
examine key
get key
ask receptionist about key
up
up
north
x vase
put pen in vase
(As suggested by the doggerel verse.)
(You play the rest of the game as Cassandra Anderson, one of Harold's
characters)
Chapter 7
---------
(outside Cassandra's house)
north
knock on door
open door
north
north
east
east
north
look
x bed
search bed
search sheet
search mattress
look
x knife
open wardrobe
x corpse
search it
get cash card
(you have to leave the house now)
south
west
west
south
south
east
put cash card in machine
(an earlier version of the game accepted 'put ID in machine' as well, but
that's a bug.)
Chapter 8
---------
(by the railway tracks)
east
east
(entering Charlestown)
x statue
south
examine black door
(you need to know the name here. Remember it from Chapter Three?)
down
east
east
south
smash bulb
get key
north
west
west
up
north
east
south
east
x woman
ask woman about Sweeney
(search woman. get knife, if you want to kill Sweeney that way.)
west
north
west
south
east
x sweeney
x coffin
put love-letter in coffin
('throw knife at sweeney', 'microphone, any' and just waiting for 17 turns
or so also work, but this is the "optimal" solution).
Chapter 9
---------
(in the hospital)
north
north
east
get gown
wear it
west
north
east
get key
west
south
south
east
up
north
unlock locker with platinum key
get mask
wear mask
south
up
north
east
get cap
wear cap
west
x student
(no points for guessing who this is)
(If you're not wearing the scrub suit by this time, the student will tell
you what to do.)
north
north
Chapter 10
----------
(in the hut)
west
kill troll with pen
("Attack troll" and "Throw pen at troll" also work.)
(At some point in the game, type "help" to call up online help.)
Obviously, if you've used this walkthrough to breeze through the game, you
mightn't have got the entire story pat. (Not to mention that you missed
out on a lot of silly humour scattered in a few of the zones.) But this
is the shortest complete way of finishing Halothane.
[Actually, it's not _the_ shortest method. It's the shortest continuous
method. A stripped-down walkthrough would omit the conversational commands.]
Below this is the verbose, prosy, Easter Egg-riddled Halothane walkthrough.
Use it only if you've got time to spare.
HALOTHANE
Or, "It's A Wonderful Book!"
Verbose Interactive Fiction by Quentin.D.Thompson.
Foreword:
Halothane is a pastiche. Each stage is written in a different style, is
set in a different environment, so be prepared to adapt a little to some
of the more obscure stages. There are no ways (as far as I'm aware) of
shutting oneself out of a win. The game also features three optional
stages, or 'interpositions'. You only get those when you're playing as
Harold (see below about the player characters) because he is the author,
after all. These stages give you a few points, and a few laughs, but they
don't really do much.
Halothane doesn't really mean much. It's a heroic quest (Save the parallel
dimension from a bunch of trolls! Kill an ugly troll! Collect *Treasures*!)
but an immensely silly one, and it was written for two reasons: one was
entertainment, the other was to try different styles of writing and puzzles.
Anything that appears serious is unintentional.
Well, let me give you a little background on the story.
In this game, you play the role of Harold Banks, twenty-odd, published
author. His first book, "Before Our Time" (very complicated SF) sold
precisely 46 copies, but Harold's not the type to get discouraged easily,
so he's writing a second book, "The Decline And Fall Of The Colonial
Empire", which (he hopes) will do better. The game opens in his
bedroom-cum-study, where he's about to call it a day:
[Harold bears little resemblance to the author, who hasn't even published
his very complicated SF novel.]
The Prologue
============
A bedroom. Nothing exciting. Let's see if we can move around first...
north (or any direction for that matter)
Too sleepy? Let's make do with "les moyens du bord", as Enrico Macias would
put it, and see if there's anything interesting in the bedroom.
examine bed
examine desk
examine bookcase
examine chair
Since we're sleepy, let's try going to sleep directly..
lie on bed
sleep
No ventilation. Now you have a purpose in life - to find ventilation. Since
you can't leave the room - and this isn't Spider and Web - the fan's got to
be nearby...
look under bed
Interesting....let's do as we're told.
look under desk
Hmm, a fan. Sounds good. But let's have a look at what's on the desk first.
x manuscript
search it
This is the first intimation that something out of the ordinary is going to
happen. Let's look into it a little closer:
read note
get flower
examine it
sniff it
Strange flower. Let's check the last piece of furniture:
open bookcase
get novel
examine it
The quote boxes in this game are few in number, and this is the first.
You could always
read the novel
but you're not in need of bedtime stories right now. Let's go to the land
of Nod now.....
switch on fan
That chair should do the trick.
put fan on chair
switch on fan
Now, sweet dreams!
lie on bed
sleep
Do you get the feeling that something's going to happen? You're quite right.
CHAPTER ONE: RESPIRATORY DISTRESS
=================================
You wake up in an operating theatre. If you've read the note in your
bedroom, the first puzzle here should be fairly simple. Well, there's
nothing here except the mask, so let's just take it:
stand (or 'get off table')
take mask
Anaesthetics can be dangerous (this game is called Halothane after all),
so let's take our precautions:
wear mask
Now let's explore the next room:
open door
west
examine cylinder
I apologize to anyone who thinks that splitting up Read and Examine is
an AGT dodge, but it's very useful in this game. The cylinder has writing
on it, so....
read cylinder
Next, examine the rest of the scenery (which isn't much, I admit)..
examine LCD panel
read it
Can you detect the seeds of a very, very bad pun? (The idea isn't original;
I pinched it from Maestro Asimov's "The Key", which also relies on a
bilingual pun, albeit a more complex one). Well, the pun is "light-producer
-> halogenos -> halogenated -> halothane". So let's let some halothane out..
open valve
(you can also type 'turn valve')
Now some letters have appeared on the panel, so read them:
read panel
Forget the negative attitude, and just touch the panel (forgive me, Ian
Finley; I wasn't even thinking of Babel when I wrote this....)
touch panel
(Actually, this is an optional puzzle. The fastest way out is not to wear
the mask, and then open the valve; the halothane knocks you out, and you
leapfrog over the stage below to land up at Chapter Two.)
FIRST INTERPOSITION: INVASION OF PRIVACY
========================================
You're outside a house. First check your bearings:
examine door
examine plaque
Now, quotes from your own works could only appear (a) in a fan's house
[and you don't have any] or (b) in a fictitious universe peopled by your
characters. The point first crops up here, but it reappears often
throughout the game. Why you have been transported to the parallel
dimension (that's what I called it myself) becomes evident after Chapter Two.
open door
No namby-pamby lock and key puzzles here. You're in the hall. There's another
note here if you want:
get memo
read memo
Feeling tired?
sit on sofa
Bummer. Check out that piece of paper. It's irrelevant, but read it anyway:
get piece of paper
read it
You could also check out the rest of the room,
examine sofa
examine shawl
wear shawl :-)
or have fun with the shelf:
open shelf
read texts
again
again
again
There are four possible texts available. Most of them are bad jokes, though.
[Except the one about highbrow writing, which was a _rant_. Give me
five minutes in a dark alley with Raj Kamal Jha and my grimoire, and I'll
frotz him until he'll never write another excrescence again.] There's nothing
more here, so head north:
north
examine arch
The arch is glowing, just like the LCD panel. Could we have an exit here?
touch arch
This is a Competition '97 joke; the game being alluded to, obviously, is
Ian Finley's fine SF game, "Babel". There's plenty of IF in-joking in the
game, as you'll see. We could go east or west here, but since this is
a detailed walkthrough, head east:
east
examine bed
examine chair
examine wardrobe
examine dresser
get letter
read it
Relax, this game isn't a Mel Gibson movie, so young Simone hasn't been
kidnapped. (You get to meet her in Chapter Four, by the way.) I tried
to put some (very dumb) atmospherics here; to get them, try
open window
look
close window
and then head west:
west
west
Voices?
Listen
again
again
again
again
again
again
again
You can listen up to eight times here; please do so, to get as much of the
story as possible. Now there's only one place left to head:
west
Any Harold could figure out that this was probably the Franklins' room. Well,
you could look around a bit:
examine bed
examine table
examine dresser
But since what you actually need to do is raise the alarm (after all, it's
their daughter, even if she does turn out to be your brainchild) you need to
switch on the light
Read the piece of text here carefully if you're following the story. Now we're
off to this game's shortest chapter.
CHAPTER TWO: ERRARE HUMANUM EST
===============================
Hmm, we seem to be back to reality again. Read the messages that appear
(they're thoughts coursing through your head), and check out the manuscript
too...
read novel
At this point (it's a scene from your _possible_ future - read the "What
really happened?" later) you think that you've written a piece of trash.
Actually, you haven't, but - hell - we all are irrational some time. Let's
dispose of the manuscript, then...
tear novel
Didn't work? Well, let's mutilate it....
crumple novel
Still not enough? Ah, let's dispose of it....
throw novel in dustbin
Something attempted, something done.......but before you can even think
of the consequences, you're whisked out of your dimension and back to
the dream-world of Chapter One, headed for....
CHAPTER THREE: DRIVING WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED
============================================
This chapter's title is derived from Don Henley's song about a French
artist, which can be found on the album "Building the Perfect Beast".
(It has nothing much to do with the game, but the first line goes
"I met a Frenchman in a field last night", and most of this stage is
an open field....)
Well, you're tied up. Let's try getting out of this mess.....
examine bonds
untie them
Stuck. Let's just listen to what the voices in the front seat have been
saying. Actually, they're discussing you, which should be fairly obvious.
listen
again
(until you're ushered out of the car)
Now you're in an open field. There is nothing to do here, except examining
some scenery:
For example,
examine wall
examine grass
lie on grass
search grass
take grass
examine fence
climb fence
When you weary of this, just head
north
Oh, great, more open field, and you without a picnic basket. Forget about
it, though, and continue your pastoral....
examine tree
examine sign
read sign
Sweeney and Stroll? The names come in handy later on, but for the moment
they're not relevant. If you want to leave this place and head for the
village, just head
north
again, but - that sign looks a bit loose. Let's adjust it a bit:
turn sign
This is becoming a habit. When you wake up, you now are in the Museum,
ready for the.....
SECOND INTERPOSITION: THINKING ALLOWED
======================================
A word of warning. This is just a silly puzzle. If you find it too annoying,
just get out of here by typing
omit
However, having got this far, you're probably interested in having a bash.
No fear - this is far simpler than your average Andy Philips Mensa Test.
To get some instructions, head east:
east
examine brochure
take brochure
read brochure
The brochure basically explains what you need to do to crack the puzzle:
reduce the machine's potential (7mV) to the minimum possible. Using the sheet,
block off the excitatory receptors and occupy the inhibitory receptors
with the relevant models, but if you're feeling lazy, here goes...
put clonidine in a2. read dial.
put propranolol in b1. read dial.
put dopamine in d4. read dial.
put ondansetron in s3. read dial.
push button
Simple, wasn't it? Now off we go, to one of the most important chapters in
the game......
CHAPTER FOUR: EVERYTHING CAN CHANGE
===================================
Try moving around; it soon becomes obvious that there's nothing constructive
to do except getting into the building. How does one achieve that?
tap window
Great, somebody's home.
again
Yes, it's safer, I agree. Let's be stealthy and _not_ knock this time.
open window
east
Scary, isn't it? (There is a potentially more 'scary' episode further
downstream, but so far...)
east
You can check out the scenery and shadows over here, but at some point you'll
want to see who the woman really is, so head east again.....
east
Well, at least she seems friendly. Let's accept her invitation, and take
a closer look:
sit on sofa
x woman
x Simone
"It's All Coming Back To Me Now", as Meatloaf's female counterpart would have
it :). Well, this stage has no puzzles. You can ask Simone about quite a few
things, or just wait around: here are some possibilities
ask Simone about her mother/father/parents (same reply, though)
ask Simone about Rosenberg
ask Simone about house :)
ask Simone about future
ask Simone about politics/war/government (I put this in for a laugh..)
ask Simone about halothane
ask Simone about Mr. Author
ask Simone about padre
ask Simone about parallel dimension
ask Simone about history/her job
When you run out of ideas (there are more; these are just the ones I remember
offhand), just keep on waiting
z.z.z.....etc.
until she hands you a fountain-pen. Before you can react, though, you're
whisked off to the next zone:
CHAPTER FIVE: THE FAR HORIZON
=============================
Floating in liquid? Let's be venturesome.
swim
Bummer. Let's be _even_ braver....
drink liquid
Interesting, but at some point you'll definitely want to get out of the
lake. To do so, just examine that trapdoor:
x trapdoor
open it
down
And curiously enough, you're now floating on clouds. You can look at the
clouds and pathway here, but if you're in a hurry, just head north:
north
Intriguing. Let's see if this is as simple as it looks:
open gate
Nope. How about force?
attack gate
Well, we'll just have to get our kicks on some other route. Let's head east
first, up to that tower:
east. east. east
x spiral staircase
climb it
east
Nice tower, isn't it? The acid and the key represent the two exits from this
stage. Since we're playing it the long, hard way, we'll take the latter:
get key
and pause to admire alchemy at work.....
x cauldron
x liquid
touch it
taste it
take it
Well, time flies when you're having fun. Back down we go now:
west. down. west. west. west
and then head north to that locked building:
north
unlock door with key
open door
north
Note that if you have the right key, you don't need to unlock and open it;
just type 'north' and the legwork is done for you automatically. Let's
explore the premises a little:
north
Intriguing. Well, what lies elsewhere?
west
x blackboard
turn it
(This is an Andy Philips easter egg). If you don't like trolls, you can
always
erase the blackboard
though you don't get a Last Lousy Point for doing so. Let's check out the
other room:
east. east
x box
search it
Aha!
get handbag
open handbag
get handkerchief
x it
Marguerite? Wonder who _she_ is.
get badge
x it
read it
wear it
Now let's try heading north:
west
north
Bingo! Under the assumed entity of the faceless Mr. Price, you are now thrown
into one of the most devilish parts of this game:
THIRD INTERPOSITION: A ROMANTIC INTERLUDE
=========================================
Aaah, a boudoir........no fear, this isn't Plundered Hearts, and you're
no pirate anyway. Since there's a bed around, let's make use of it:
lie on bed
sleep
again
again
again
again
The dreams should tell you what to expect in the next room. It takes twenty
turns or so for that door to open; you can't get it done yourself, so just
explore the rest of the room, and see if you can find the two Easter Eggs
here. I'll give you my favourite one as a favour:
look under bed
get journal
x it
read it
For the rest, just wait till the door opens, then go through it:
north
Ah, this looks interesting
x bottle
Remember your dream? Well, it has come true. Giacomo, whoever he is, is
going to croak if he drinks this saturated solution of antimony, so prevent
that simply with
break bottle
(There's a more aesthetic solution, but I'll leave you to find it out.) For
the moment, though, we're off to....
CHAPTER SIX: THE SAD CAFE
=========================
You're not sure where to go. Just hang around for a few turns, and examine
the scenery.
NOTE: The words in boldface are memories of this place (which actually
exists in your second novel.) They are purely there for continuity and plot,
but offer little help as far as puzzles are concerned.
At some point, the receptionist will start talking about his hotel, so....
ask receptionist about hotel
What old story?
ask him about story
Mouthful, isn't it? Well, as this might suggest, your puzzles here are
connected to this story. Explore the dining-room first:
east
Wonder what that could be?
look under table
Aha!
get device
Now head upstairs:
west
up
I'm deliberately not going into detail about the following sequence of
puzzles, and I urge you to try and work them out yourself; they're fairly
obvious when you come to think of it. Visit the rooms in the following
order to solve it 'fairly': Four, One, Three, Two, Three, One and Four.
For those of you who want it really bad, the solution is:
south
get disc
north
west
put disc in computer
switch on computer
read screen
Note down the two dates here. (They never change, don't worry.)
east
north
read manual
table, the code is 2187
look in table
get chip
put chip in device
south
east
x quilt
search it
get letter
read it
yes
[Adventurers aren't noted for manners anyway :)]
west
down
The old chap might be interested in it, wouldn't he?
show letter to receptionist
Bingo!
get key
Now head straight for the gold.
up
up
north
[again, you don't have to unlock and open the door if you have the right key.]
x vase
Could it possibly be that this is what Simone's fountain-pen was meant for?
put pen in vase
And enjoy the interlude. The last four chapters are a lot more hectic, with
more puzzles and stuff, and a different PC, Cassandra, who's one of Harold's
characters. You start off in.....
CHAPTER SEVEN: RECALLED FROM LIFE
=================================
You want to get home right now, so let's do just that......
inventory
north
knock on door
Strange.
open door
north
north
Stranger.
east
east
Any work to do, Cassie?
south
G***some, isn't it? :) What you need is a good night's sleep, so......
north
sleep
Bummer. Well, let's change into something more comfortable. (Is this what
they mean by m*****s?)
open wardrobe
In the words of Tintin comics, "EEEEEEEEEEEK!". Let's take a closer look:
x corpse
again
search it
That cash card is your ticket to freedom; this place ain't safe anymore. Let's
leg it from here:
south
west
west
south
south
You can go away now, so....
east
Now let's use the fictitious Ms. Bradbury's card:
put cash card in machine
It's a dramatic finale, perhaps inspired by my memories of writing BASIC
text adventures......but right now, on with the show:
CHAPTER EIGHT: WHERE THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES
==========================================
In the desert? Let's find our bearings:
x sign
read it
East sounds more promising.
east
east
Whee! A town. A ghost town, even. (The solution below is minimalist. Please
feel free to explore the newspaper archive, the shack, the kitchen, and
any other part of Charlestown.)
x statue
south
examine black door
The same Sweeney as on the statue? Let's see. That cellar looks intriguing.
down
east
east
south
x bulb
north
Oh, dear. It looks like you're trapped. No problem, just.....
smash bulb
.....and see what you've uncovered.
look
get key
Now let's find the passage back to de place we were before, mon.
north
west
west
up
north
That key unlocks the mansion further down the street.
east
south
east
x woman
Could Sweeney the mysterious have something to do with this?
ask woman about Sweeney
R.I.P. Well, let's avenge the poor woman:
get black key
west
north
west
south
That key unlocks Sweeney's door.
east
x sweeney
x coffin
ask sweeney about coffin
read it
Remember your inventory at the beginning of Chapter Seven? Could Janus's
letter have a purpose?
put love-letter in coffin
Die Sweeney! Well done, Cassandra, the hardest part is done; the last two
stages are a breeze, and I won't need to help you out here. For the
record, they are:
CHAPTER NINE: BIRTH OF A NOTION
===============================
This level is just a treasure hunt, so I can't give you much detail here.
You just need to find a cap, mask and gown, and enter ward 10. Make sure
to read those medical reports if you can find them! :)
The gown first....
north. north. east
get gown
wear it
Then the mask....
west. north. east
get key
west. south. south. east. up. north
unlock locker with platinum key
get mask
wear mask
And finally the cap.
south
up
north
east
get cap
wear cap
west
x student
A cameo. I copied the idea from good old Hitchcock.
north
north
And that's it. Now get that adrenaline up, for the final chapter....
ENDGAME: IT TAKES A VILLAGE
===========================
Voices?
listen. again. again
Not very interesting. What did Laura hand me there, anyway?
inventory
This is like a boomerang, ain't it? Let's head out of the hut:
west
Horrors! How g***some can this get?
x troll
troll, hello
troll, go away
Well, they say the pen is mightier than the sword.
kill troll with pen
And that's it. Enjoy the ending. Be sure to check out the list of AMUSING
options, and to go back as many times as possible to see if you're missing
out on something.
=============================================================================
About the game:
--------------
WHO:
---
"Halothane" was written, in its entirety - excepting the quotes from
Don Henley, Pearl Jam, William.F.Ganong and Agatha Christie - by Ravi
Philip Rajkumar (alias Quentin.D.Thompson.) No pieces of hardware except
a rather fragile power pack were harmed during the making of this game.
Programming, I'm afraid, was rather a different matter. I may be fairly
good at writing, but the last time I coded anything big was when I wrote
a cricket programme in QBASIC :-D, so most of the coding in this game
was done by Graham Nelson, L. Ross Raszewski and Jay Goemmer, and I just
filled in the blanks and wrote some corny routines here and there. So I
can't say, as Adam Cadre honestly can, that this was written and programmed
by myself.
[Translated, the above paragraph means that I've used the Inform library
and compiler, L. Ross Raszewski's Hints and Utilities header files, and
a patch for the hint system that Jay very kindly sent me a few months ago.
The actual coding, slipshod as it is, was done by the author.]
WHAT?:
-----
[The section below contains what might pedantically be considered "spoilers",
though I can't see how a game as low-puzzle as this can have spoilers. :)]
Exactly. What?
This is a slightly stoned game, I admit it - though no mind-expanding
substances were ingested by the author, either during its
production or at any other point in his life. (I have vague memories of
taking a few tabs of pheniramine here and there, but there's a whole lot
of difference between relieving one's stuffy nose and expanding one's mind.)
The philosophy behind _designing_ this game was simple; that behind _writing_ it
leaves me groping for words even now. While designing it, from a purely
"IF" point of view, I had a few clear objectives: to tell a story;
to try and integrate it into a perpetual-motion environment; to include
puzzles, but not to put them anywhere above beginner-to-intermediate level;
to create a game that the player could never make "unwinnable"; and, most
importantly, to create something enjoyable and entertaining. If I've succeeded
in at least one of these objectives, do let me know. The philosophy of
"no shut-outs" is not originally mine; its most famous exponent is
Mike.J.Roberts, the creator of TADS. (It's a little ironic that I'm using a
design system whose author's games shut me out time and again for forgetting
to pick up stuff or unlock doors every now and then, but that's life. :-D)
The writing, however, lacks cohesiveness, and that's because I chopped and
changed innumerable times before arriving at the final version that you're
playing now. I started planning Halothane as a non-stop, 100 per cent
parody, which just took a player character and threw him into a series
of weird, comical and satirical landscapes just for the heck of it. When
exactly I gave this game its underlying plot, I can't remember, but it can
be summarised thus:
"Unsuccessful author tosses the manuscript of his second
novel in the trash can, to be abandoned evermore, and is
immediately abducted by his befuddled and/or irate
characters, who have been thrown into chaos by his rash
act, and made to undo the damage he's caused."
(Cheezy, isn't it? - Ed.)
Of course, there are twists. The game's subtitle is one of them. I billed
this game as "An Interactive Restoration", which, on the surface, makes
sense....after all, the player character's objective is to restore the
balance of things in his own fictitious universe. But it can also be read
otherwise (I promise this occured to me only after I thought up the title;
I don't generally go in much for profundity); it's his characters who have
put the player character back on track; without their intervention, he might
have stopped writing, taken up a slightly more boring career (such as, as
Isaac Asimov would have it, the Presidency of the U.S. or surgery) and
led a life (as Adam Cadre put it) out of Human Resources Stories :)
Another twist occurred to me while I was playing Anchorhead (Michael
Gentry, take a bow.) My original intention was just a riff on the game,
a slightly eerie episode with the same player character, but I soon abandoned
that for an entirely new idea; in the first six chapters, the PC (in
the game, his name is Harold, and I'll just refer to him that way for
brevity's sake from now) has to overcome a series of (not too difficult)
obstacles before confronting the only two people in the parallel dimension
who have greater powers than him: one of them is the local version of
a God (but he's ersatz, purely a fictitious concept, and hence I refer to
him as the Little Tin God), and the other is just a personification of
all the authors whose works live there. After this, his talents are made
use of to create another fictitious character, who will complete the
actual quest without disrupting the separateness (or continuum, or whatever
highbrow term one wants to use) between the two dimensions. Thus, Chapters
One to Six of this game feature Harold, and Seven to Ten feature
Cassandra, his latest character. No points for guessing that Cassandra's
first adventure is heavily and semi-comically Gothic.
But all this sounds mind-bogglingly serious, and it isn't meant to be. It's
just _plot_, for Heaven's sake; it's a convoluted and involved fantasy
plot, but that doesn't mean the game is as complicated as its story. It's
a fairly even-paced game, with lots of detail, several Easter Eggs, a few
IF in-jokes and riffs here and there, and simple puzzles.
Having said this, I'm still not sure if I'm immune to allegations (my word)
of symbolism and the like. Trust me, there is nothing symbolic in this
game. (There was, but I've pruned it out.) The long tale in Chapter Six,
for example, is not a sort of nostalgic episode, but just a take on the
long, semi-supernatural stories that people in Dickens' "Pickwick Papers"
take turns telling each other. The troll in Chapter Ten doesn't symbolise
Evil (TM), or The End Of The Innocence (R), or even Human Resources
Stories (Copyright 1998, Harry.M.Hardjono), but is just a Zork riff.
Sweeney in Chapter Eight is just a corny arch-villain (and not a satire
of Jack Canfield _or_ Marshall Appleton, or anyone else) but I will concede
that this whole stage does make fun of New Age a great deal.
If this game has any message, it's this: it's all too easy to take oneself
(or one's works and concepts) seriously, but taking them a little more
lightly brings us down to earth. The pen is mightier than the
sword (ask the troll) but humour can score over both of them most of the
time.
WHY?:
-----
(following the lead given by Adam J. Thornton, author of my second favourite
parody game, "In The End 2"....)
THE ARTISTIC REASONS:
1. I sort of had a feeling that there would be at least ten experimental
games and one Rybread game this year, and wanted to make sure there
was at least _one_ straight game :)
2. While attracted to the simple-puzzles concept of Photopia, I didn't
want people to say that they could breeze through this game by
typing 'z' and pressing Enter repeatedly...
3. Games with women as player characters are so scarce I thought I'd
put a spin on it, and have both male and female PCs in the same
game.
4. I wanted to see if it was possible to commit all the nine Crimes
Against Mimesis in the same game, while not writing an Andy Philips clone.
5. I kind of liked the idea of optional puzzles, though this game isn't
a patch on Varicella.
THE REAL REASONS:
1. Bad attack of writer's block following the rough draft of my first novel;
if I couldn't write fiction, it had to be IF.
2. I was tired of seeing Inform 6.15 sleeping in its directory.
3. Having actually learnt how to write Inform without obtaining 97 compile
errors per compile, I couldn't stay still.
4. None of my other game ideas were working out. They were (for the record):
"Time Traveller", a parody of historical novels.
"Tuxedos and Sarongs", a family feud/culture-shock sitcom, with a stuffed
animal as PC and deus ex machina. (No points for guessing what game
made me give up on this idea.)
"Over My Counter", a riff on Arthur Hailey's novel "Strong Medicine".
"A Summer Romance" (originally titled "Amuse"), an NPC-intensive,
Wizard-of-Oz meets Kurt Vonnegut, puzzle-heavy adventure. A few ideas
from here ended up in Halothane, but not too many.
5. It being the summer holidays, I had lots of free time.
WHERE?:
------
The entire game, except for the first scene, takes place in a partially
unshaped parallel dimension, which explains why the settings are so surreal.
HOW?:
----
HARDWARE
--------
1. One slightly dated PC486/100MHz, which scores around 2.3 using Norton
Benchmark, with a 1.2GB hard disk, a malfunctioning CD-ROM drive and
a rather creaky mouse (The keyboard's fine, though.)
2. One malfunctioning voltage stabilizer, trashed halfway through the
filming :)
3. One dysfunctional ceiling fan.
4. A tower fan, which is a sort of poor man's air-conditioner. (And that's
an understatement.)
5. Ink and paper from various sources.
SOFTWARE
--------
1. Inform version 6.15, library version 8.
2. Library extensions by Ross Raszewski and Jay Goemmer.
3. MS-DOS version 7, MS-DOS Editor 2.0.026.
4. No Windows was used in the making of this game.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
------------
1. The complete Pearl Jam album collection, Sony Music.
2. "The End of The Innocence", Don Henley, Geffen.
3. "The Unforgettable Fire", U2, Island.
4. "Breakfast of Champions", Kurt Vonnegut. [Probably the book that started
me thinking on the author-character equation, but Kurt's not to be held
responsible for any harm arising from this game :)]
5. An untitled manuscript by yours truly. No publication date fixed.
6. "Marguerite du Valois", Alexandre Dumas. [This is a great book. No kidding.
A more complete IFication of this book, and "The Three Musketeers", is
in the works. See Future Projects, below.]
7. "The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck", Keno Don Rosa.
(which I read, irony of ironies, in French translation.)
RIFF-O-GRAPHY
-------------
GAGS (Generic Adventure Game System), Softworks.
TADS (Text Adventure Development System), Mike.J.Roberts.
Curses, Graham Nelson.
Spider & Web, Andrew Plotkin.
Muse, Christopher Huang.
Zork I, Infocom/Activision/whoever it might concern.
Babel, Ian Finley.
IRRITANTS
---------
My ISP, VSNL.
The local Electricity Board.
The weather (And changes in it).
Kattula Dheeraj, self-professed junior preacher, who's firmly convinced that
I will burn in hell for writing computer games and visiting a den of
iniquity called the (shock) Internet :)
=============================================================================
Further releases:
----------------
I've got several Inform projects lined up; at least one of them should hit
freeware stores (read: ftp.gmd.de and its mirrors) by next year, and -
for better or worse - I'll try to push for two. For the record, and so you
can be warned in advance, the games I have in development now are:
Lottery, An Interactive MiSTing
-------------------------------
This is another of those crazy MST games where I have Tom, Crow and the
gang heckle a pretty lame GAGS game by E.V.Cheney. Have a laugh.
CyberCraig: The Case of the Wide-Open Beavers
---------------------------------------------
(An Interactive Action Movie)
This is actually two games in one: the story (which is set in a world of
intelligent animals, humans excluded) is dated 3,000 years in the future,
and you - I mean CyberCraig, Paw Officer Second Class, the greenest
koala bear on old Weller's crime-enforcement panel - are sent to the
bovine planet of Lavache to clear up a series of apparently senseless
killings among the minority beaver population. From this point, based on
the choices you make, the game either becomes a classic detective game
(along the lines of, say, Guilty Bastards) or a historical adventure, along
the lines of Alexandre Dumas. It sounds like a game full of political and
sociological points, but it isn't. It's an action movie in design and
conception, full of absurdly laughable situations. This will probably
end up a .z8 file.
The French Resolution, An Interactive Authorial Responsibility(!)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[NOTE: Further development of this game depends solely on the response
to Halothane, as this is set in the same universe; so, if you don't
want this game to see the light of ftp.gmd.de, just troll
Halothane as much as you want, give it 3 or less out of 10, etc.,
etc. :-D]
Set twenty years after Halothane, this game has Harold, in the role of
successful author, writing a book with a lot of untied loose ends. Naturally,
his friends on the other side aren't pleased, and issue him an ultimatum:
come back and clear up the mess you made, or else...:-) If this goes right,
you can choose which of Harold's six characters you play in this game,
and try and set the lives of the other five on course.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for playing Halothane!
-- Quentin.D.Thompson
