the-infocom-files / ballyhoo

Ballyhoo
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You can follow Eddie before you know who he is #71

Open eriktorbjorn opened 4 years ago

eriktorbjorn commented 4 years ago

Chuckles real name is Eddie, but you're not supposed to know that until later. But the game is a bit inconsistent about it:

>WEST
Back Yard
You're standing in front of the turnstile entrance to a fenced-in area, which is
south. To the west stands a droopy tent, and the field continues north and east.

A tall and lanky clown in baggy pants trudges out of the tent and toward the
turnstile. Comrade Thumb follows behind.

Adjacent to the turnstile to your south is a vertical cage.

>EXAMINE EDDIE
You don't know anyone here by that name.

The tall clown, whom you now recognize as Chuckles, barks a hello into the cage.
You hear an electronic buzz from the turnstile and Chuckles passes through.

>FOLLOW EDDIE
The turnstile won't budge.

Comrade Thumb performs an impromptu handstand.

That's because EDDIE-F handles the FOLLOW action before checking if you know the name:

           (<VERB? FOLLOW>
        <COND (<EQUAL? ,FOLLOW-FLAG 2>
               <DO-WALK ,P?SOUTH>)
              (<EQUAL? ,FOLLOW-FLAG 3>
               <DO-WALK ,P?WEST>)
                  (<EQUAL? ,FOLLOW-FLAG 4>
               <DO-WALK ,P?EAST>)>)
           (<NOT <FSET? ,EDDIE ,RMUNGBIT>>
        <TELL "You don't know anyone here by that name." CR>
        <RFATAL>)

I'm not sure which of these cases can happen before you know his real name and which can't. But would there be any harm in checking RMUNGBIT before handling FOLLOW?