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Text Adventure Playthrough #10: Bureaucracy
Your score is 21 out of a possible 21, making you a Bureaucrat.]
Which, as the InvisiClues helpfully points out, is half of 42.
There are, of course, quite a number of references to Douglas Adams. I’ve also seen references to Zork, Enchanter and - of all things - Leather Goddesses of Phobos. Steve Meretzky wasn’t even involved with this game, as far as I know!
According to the Digital Antiquarian article I mentioned earlier, there was a version of the game that made it all the way to outside testing where the villain wasn’t the nerd, but rather Britain’s Queen Mother for some reason. Don’t ask me how or why. Unfortunately that version seems to have been lost to time, and besides a couple of innocuous references to that character I see no traces of it in the leaked source code.
(I think Infocom ZIL source code is absolutely fascinating to browse through, though I find large chunks of Bureacracy harder-than-average to understand. Possibly partly an effect of so many people working on it?)
Wow.
Thank you Karlok, I’m always glad to go on an adventure with you. Thanks Luhr28, you made it work and you were charming all the way through, that’s a skill in and of itself. Eriktorbjorn provided great insight and commentary all the way through, that added something special to the CPT as well. 
To giom and lakerz: I was glad to see you join! I hope you enjoyed the thread and to see you in a future TAP. I think they’re called TAPS?
BUREAUCRACY, by Douglas Adams. An interesting experience. It was not what I expected it to be: a trope-ridden parody of random frustrations with BUREAUCRACY, but a clever and rather subversive exercise, jumping from cog to cog in the machine.
The underlying theme of paranoia (that proved to be justified suspicion 
) was handled pretty well, from a narrative viewpoint. From a mental health perspective: not so much, though it wasn’t outright mocked or marginalized either.. it was mostly the pop culture interpretation of paranoia, which is mostly fine.
(random sidebar: I was treated for an eating disorder a while ago and at some point, sitting in the waiting room, an amicable but worried-looking young man came in from another part of the facility. He told me he had to step away from his support group because things were getting too hectic for him. I have some innate ability to radiate calmness, maybe that was the reason he gravitated towards me.
We talked about his life, just being a young man, picking a college, hanging out with friends and how an unexpected psychosis had completely upended everything. How scared he was the first time it happened, how confounding and panicking it was, not just for him, but for the people close to him as well.
I’m glad he had support and was able to get help. I hope he’s well.)
Douglas Adams has an interesting mind and he wrinkled my brain on several occasions. Were the puzzles fair? I don’t know. I did get into the particular logic and information distribution of the game at some point, though that might be hubris. I would’ve probably broken down if this hadn’t been a community endeavor.
The game’s rather economic use of information helped. It was an interesting contrast with the other current CPT, which has a lot of freedom of movement, pixel hunting, searching for objectives, etc. Bureaucracy might be unforgiving, occasionally cryptic, demanding you to follow the developers particular machinations to a tee, but it’s not vague about it.
The game seemed to do some pretty clever stuff within the limitations of IF as well.
The puzzle with the muzak/speaker/wires was the most unclear to me. The only reason for engaging with that speaker was the visibility of the wires, though the omnipresence of muzak might’ve nudged us in the right direction.
The door/blood pressure puzzle was my least favourite. I think I would’ve been stuck there if it wasn’t for my CPT team.
My favourite puzzle.. I quite enjoyed pretty much all of them, actually. I’d say all the puzzles in the Persecution Complex were the best.
4/5 would TAP again.
The puzzle with the muzak/speaker/wires was the most unclear to me. The only reason for engaging with that speaker was the visibility of the wires, though the omnipresence of muzak might’ve nudged us in the right direction.
The door/blood pressure puzzle was my least favourite. I think I would’ve been stuck there if it wasn’t for my CPT team.
My favourite puzzle.. I quite enjoyed pretty much all of them, actually. I’d say all the puzzles in the Persecution Complex were the best.
That’s so interesting, I found the door/BP puzzle quite obvious with the “in your current relaxed state” comment. On the other hand some other puzzles just weren’t the right kind for my brain, yet you seemed to figure them out with no problem.
I think my favourite was the “radio connected to my brain” or the bank teller puzzle. Both of those stopped me from progressing when I played the game years ago, so I was extremely grateful to have a team of help to finally solve them!
Great playthrough, thanks everyone. Looking forward to the next TAP 
According to the Digital Antiquarian article I mentioned earlier, there was a version of the game that made it all the way to outside testing where the villain wasn’t the nerd, but rather Britain’s Queen Mother for some reason. Don’t ask me how or why. Unfortunately that version seems to have been lost to time, and besides a couple of innocuous references to that character I see no traces of it in the leaked source code.
That actually strikes me as a very Adams-ian twist, but maybe Infocom vetoed it because it might affect sales from monarchists!
Haha wow.
I’m not sure if Lèse-majesté would’ve made this a better game. I think the nerd (though perhaps unfortunately stereotypical) was a great villain. At first, he seemed like a nuisance, then he proved somewhat useful, I suspected him to be our sidekick (or the hero) at some point.. but he wasn’t some misunderstood, well-meaning savant: he was a total creep.
Douglas Adams was a fascinating figure, though. I picked up a copy of The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul in a thrift store a couple of years ago, but I lost it somewhere.. I really hope I find it again.
(I could place a digital order and have it within a couple of days, but where’s the romance in that?)
That actually strikes me as a very Adams-ian twist, but maybe Infocom vetoed it because it might affect sales from monarchists!
I don’t know. The article speculates that it was a Michael Bywater thing. Apparently he’s responsible for a lot of the game. The tester who asked about the change was apparently told that they were worried how it would look if she were to die while the game was still new. I guess that’s always a risk when you’re using real-life persons. (Some of the predictions in A Mind Forever Voyaging and its documentation didn’t age well…)
True confession: Although I didn’t have time to participate, I really enjoyed following this playthrough. It was one wacky ride, and I’m amazed how you all managed to pull it together and make it to the end. Extra kudos to Luhr for the enormous amount entailed in playing the game and posting the results.
Being a long-time fan of Douglas Adams, I did love the humor and his references to his books. The feel of the game reminds me of moments in his Starship Titanic game, a favorite of mine.
Having played only one text adventure (Thaumistry), I have a question. When you died in the game and had the choice to restore, where did that put you in the game? Did you have to load a save or did it automatically take you back to where you started the sequence of events?
Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.
RL tells me I have to go, so I can’t wait to see how the game ends. I’ll read the rest later.
Thanks Luhr, for leading the CP of this fun but difficult game. Must have been a lot of work. Thanks to Erik for providing interesting background info. And thanks to my fellow-victim VP for making me laugh a lot.
Bye for now. I’ll be back, don’t know when.
I second what Karlok said! Luhr did the heavy lifting to make it fun for everybody, while Erik dug into the source code to add a lot of extra color to the game and share some hidden info which was great. Kudos to the main players VP and Karlok and Luhr, I was a wallflower for this one but maybe next one I can be more active ...
There are some pretty bizarre ways to die if you’ve crashed the computer but didn’t send for the airplane before going to the Landing Strip. Five of them, I think. Not sure if they’re worth hunting for, though.
No one asked, but the five bizarre deaths I was talking about were these:
If you just keep waiting for the plane:
>WAIT
There is a limit to human patience. You are really fed up now, and wish you were dead. Fair enough.Dead
You are dead
If you try to go back down, you usually can’t. But if you wait long enough before trying:
>DOWN
A reasonable suggestion. A line from John Donne comes into your mind:“The grave’s a fine and private place
But none, methinks, do there embrace.”Just as you realise that this is, in fact, a line from Andrew Marvell, you die. What a bitch, eh?
Dead
You are dead
Trying to go up usually gives you a “What in?” response, but if you had waited a bit first:
>UP
You were planning to fly, perhaps? Nah, you wouldn’t want to try that without an areoplane. There probably won’t be one showing up here, since you neglected to ask for one, so you’re doomed to die here in the jungle.Dead
You are dead
And since it suggested flying…
>FLY
You flap your arms wildly and, in defiance of the laws of nature, rise slowly off the ground.>WAIT
Infocom regrets that the laws of nature were suspended for only one turn. You crash to the ground with some interesting new theories forming in your mind on the method of proof-by-induction. Unfortunately, before you can organise your thoughts into anything which would be remotely acceptable as a Ph.D. dissertation—even at Caltech—you die.Death
You are dead.
And, again, if you had waited a bit longer before trying that:
>FLY
Right-ho. You are de… Oh—sorry. Misheard you. Thought you said “Die”. Ah well; too late now.Death
You are dead.
Here’s something I’m pretty sure happened to me back when I first played the game a long time ago. Can anyone guess what I did to cause it?
Suddenly a bunch of men in white coats appear and put you in a straitjacket. They throw you in a paddy wagon and take you away to an asylum. Realising that this turn of events will mean you must fill out another set of change-of-address cards, you go completely bughouse and discover true happiness in the arms of a green llama which appears each night, high up on the rubber wall.
Death
You are dead.
Thanks for the kind words everyone. It was a joy to host this TAP for you all
Here’s something I’m pretty sure happened to me back when I first played the game a long time ago. Can anyone guess what I did to cause it?
Suddenly a bunch of men in white coats appear and put you in a straitjacket. They throw you in a paddy wagon and take you away to an asylum. Realising that this turn of events will mean you must fill out another set of change-of-address cards, you go completely bughouse and discover true happiness in the arms of a green llama which appears each night, high up on the rubber wall.
Death
You are dead.
I’m not sure but I want to know! Listening to the muzak in the airport for too long?
And, for anyone curious what happens when you swear at the game…it seems quite a lot of thought was put into it: (caution: naughty words inside)
>shit
This is a delicate, sensitive, well-brought-up game which does not recognise the word… well, whatever it was you just said that we do not recognise. What would Miss Manners say? What the hell do you think this is? Please use another, nice word instead.
>fuck
This is a delicate, sensitive, well-brought-up game which does not recognise the word… well, whatever it was you just said that we do not recognise. What would Miss Manners say? Who the fuck do you think you are, anyway? Please use another, nice word instead.
>asshole
This is a delicate, sensitive, well-brought-up game which does not recognise the word… well, whatever it was you just said that we do not recognise. What would Miss Manners say, you asshole? Please use another, nice word instead.
>bastard
This is a delicate, sensitive, well-brought-up game which does not recognise the word… well, whatever it was you just said that we do not recognise. What would Miss Manners say, you bastard? Please use another, nice word instead.
>damn
This is a delicate, sensitive, well-brought-up game which does not recognise the word… well, whatever it was you just said that we do not recognise. What would Miss Manners say, damn it? Please use another, nice word instead.
Suddenly a bunch of men in white coats appear and put you in a straitjacket. They throw you in a paddy wagon and take you away to an asylum. Realising that this turn of events will mean you must fill out another set of change-of-address cards, you go completely bughouse and discover true happiness in the arms of a green llama which appears each night, high up on the rubber wall.
Death
You are dead.
I’m not sure but I want to know! Listening to the muzak in the airport for too long?
I like that guess! But no, this is something that can happen much earlier in the game.
It happens if you type “unfortunately, there’s a radio connected to my brain” (or its counter-phrase) too many times and there’s no one around to hear you. If you type it where someone can hear you, they’ll try to respond to you instead.
Technical detail, as I understand it: Usually, the form “SOMEONE, DO SOMETHING” means you want to order someone to do something. So the game defines two global (i.e. always in scope) objects: One called UNFORTUN with the synonym “UNFORTUNATELY”, and one called INCIDENT with the synonym “ACTUALLY”. When you type those phrases, you are actually talking to these objects.
You would think that the INCIDENT object would be called ACTUALLY, or something like that. This may be a result of the late change to use the nerd as the main villain. There is a comment above it saying “INCIDENTALLY, INFOR PRINCESS DI ABOUT THE WIZARD OF OZ.” (sic) that I never noticed until just now.
Bureaucracy is probably the Infocom game that contains the most references, both to Douglas Adams and to other Infocom games. I’m sure I’ve missed things - quite possibly a lot of them - but the ones I’ve seen are:
Douglas Adams references, mainly to Hitchhiker
- One of the messages on your answering machine is directed to a Mr Barty Slartfast, which I can only assume is a reference to Slartibartfast.
- The Deep Thought Corporation.
- The Zalagaza 42 Ai-Ai. The Ai-Ai may also be a reference to Last Chance to See.
- The bookstore has Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, as well as So Long, And Thanks for All the Fish.
- At the airport, the messages on the speaker can refer to someone who dropped “no tea”, which is one of the “objects” you start with in the Hitchhiker game.
- Another airport message referes to a digital watch engraved ‘Prosser’.
- Omnia Gallia flight 42.
- Air Zalagaza flight 42.
- The sleeping man on the plane was reading Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.
- The old woman on the plane is Arthur Dent’s aunt.
- If you save your game in the maze, the game will tell you that under Article 42 of the Cambridge Convention they are required to inform you that using SAVE won’t help you to solve the maze.
- The login name in FIDUC.HAK is SLARTIBARTFAST.
Infocom references
- The adventure game for your Boysenberry is called “DORK I”.
- DORK I crashes with INTERNAL ERROR 69105. That number pops up several Infocom games, originally as the number of leaves in the leaf pile in Mainframe Zork. The best explanation I’ve heard for it is that “decimal 69 is equal to octal 105, and hexadecimal 69 is equal to decimal 105”.
- Your old boy/girlfriend is now seeing someone named Trent or Tiffany. These are the names of your sidekick in Leather Goddesses of Phobos.
- One of the airlines is called “NewZork Air”.
- There are two Frobozzco executives on the plane. Frobozzco (or FrobozzCo) is a company that’s mentioned in a couple of Infocom games, and it dates all the way back to the mainframe version of Zork.
- The password for the mainframe is RAINBOW-TURTLE. There is a rainbow turtle in Enchanter.
References to other games
- Both your mail and your answering machine has references to an adventure game that comes in a blue box. Possibly a Magnetic Scrolls reference?
I see nobody has answered this question.
Having played only one text adventure (Thaumistry), I have a question. When you died in the game and had the choice to restore, where did that put you in the game? Did you have to load a save or did it automatically take you back to where you started the sequence of events?
The game takes you back to the time and place where you saved. Modern games like Thaumistry have many interesting and useful features that ancient text adventures like Bureaucracy didn’t have. There may be exceptions but I don’t know of any.
Sometimes, when I clean the rooms, I get a little curious and… erm… you know… snoop through our guests’s stuff. - This Bed We Made
Thanks, Karlock. Luhr had to save often then, especially seeing how so many unexpected game-over events happened along the way.
Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.
You’re not wrong - I just checked and I ended up with a grand total of 58 saved game files! And I did quite a bit of overwriting of those.
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