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the-infocom-files / hitchhiker

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
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You can get the satchel fluff without the Ford scenario registering as completed #42

Open eriktorbjorn opened 4 years ago

eriktorbjorn commented 4 years ago

To get the satchel fluff back to the Heart of Gold, the FLUFF-TO-GOWN variable needs to be set. The actual move happens in LEAVE-DARK.

FLUFF-TO-GOWN is set as soon as you give the fluff to Arthur. See ARTHUR-F.

The scenario is registered as completed by setting REVISITBIT on COUNTRY-LANE. This happens if FLUFF-TO-GOWN is set when the Earth is demolished. Funnily enough, it happens regardless of whether or not you survive. See I-VOGONS.

So if you give Arthur the fluff, and then immediately kill yourself ("KILL ME"), you are returned to the Heart of Gold with the fluff. But you can still revisit the Earth as Ford.

I guess the easiest fix for this would be if LEAVE-DARK checks both FLUFF-TO-GOWN and REVISITBIT before moving the fluff to the gown.

As for why the scenario is marked as completed even if you fail to leave the Earth... I don't know. Maybe Steve Meretzky isn't as cruel about time paradoxes as Sorcerer would have you believe. You also don't need to buy the peanuts to complete the scenario, even though failing to do so should mean that Arthur died on the Vogon ship.

eriktorbjorn commented 4 years ago

Speaking of the Ford scenario, I noticed that if the dog isn't fed it will follow you all the way to Arthur's house. It doesn't do that when you play through that part as Arthur.

I'm guessing that this is deliberate to draw attention to the dog, since the game is giving you a second chance if you didn't feed it at the start of the game. So I'm not going to report this as a bug.