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the-infocom-files / zork2

Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz
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If you're killed in the Alice area, it seems you can't get back? (Possibly by design) #29

Open eriktorbjorn opened 5 years ago

eriktorbjorn commented 5 years ago

If you get killed in the Alice area, the bucket will be stuck at the top of the well, and I don't think there is any way back.

Is this deliberate? Hard to say...

There is a timer, I-BUCKET, that causes the water in the bucket to evaporate. That could indicate that the bucket is supposed to return to the bottom of the well if you get killed up there, or if you send the bucket to the top without being inside it.

But the timer doesn't send the bucket down, it just removes the WATER object and sets the EVAPORATED flag. The EVAPORATED flag is tested (to see if the bucket should be sent down) in BUCKET-FCN when RARG is M-END. But that only runs when you are inside the bucket.

So that seems to indicate that the game doesn't want you to get stranded up there.

On the other hand, getting killed in the Alice area can "mung" the room, and you'll never see that if there is no way to get back up afterwards.

On the third hand, the munged room probably makes the game unwinnable anyway, if you haven't already solved the puzzles up there.

So this is once again another "this looks a bit unfinished" issue. I'm not saying it should be fixed, but if we ever make a list of game quirks...

arcanetrivia commented 3 years ago

To go by the Invisiclues, it sounds like they intended that it should be possible to get stranded in the Alice area:

How do I get back down from here? The reverse of the way you got up. If the bucket has gone back down, you're stuck. The water evaporates in 100 moves.