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Text Adventure Playthrough #10: Bureaucracy
Yes, thanks eriktorbjorn. I wonder if the scrollback on Frotz will display the text loop, because that’s what I’m copy/pasting to the thread.
Probably not. The screen is divided into two windows: An upper fixed-font window, which is mostly used for the status line, and a lower window (which may use a proportional font) for the game text. (The registration form at the beginning of the game is just a really fancy status line.) The text I mentioned is printed in the upper window. If there is scrollback, it’s almost certainly for the lower window.
In earlier versions of the Z-Machine, the status line was hard-coded, and the only game that used a simpler form of screen splitting was Seastalker. (I remember being a bit disappointed when the Mac version I first played didn’t support that, because not having it made parts of the game much more tedious.)
Surprised, that it wasn’t implemented in Z-Machine (or that they didn’t use it) and add to resort to a macro running an empty loop.
As I mentioned, the Z-Machine version used here should have been able to do it without the delay loop. There are optional parameters to the instructions that read text or key presses so that after a certain time they will time out, but they’re not used in this game.
[off-topic]Question for erik if he’s still here: You said you were going to play Make It Good, did you? And did you like it?[/off-topic]
No, it’s still glaring at me from a mountain of unplayed games. At the moment, I’m playing through some Telltale games (now that Wine has matured enough that they work out of the box for me on Linux). So far I’m quite enjoying the story of Back to the Future, even if gameplay can be a bit repetitive.
Before that, I was working on better support for the 16-color Macintosh versions of Loom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. (Adding a black and white rendering mode may have been overkill, but it was requested.)
Edit: I also had to replay Monkey Island 2 because of some unrelated ScummVM fixes for the Macintosh version. So that kept me busy for a while.
Okay, so inserting either cartridge crashes the game with a “stack underflow” message, so erik might have been right… however I managed to get it working on a different interpreter so we’re good for now *fingers crossed!*
No, that’s a bug I’ve never heard of before. This is my spoiler-filled bug report.
>meditate
[You must have special permission to use the word “meditate” in this story.]
[Your blood pressure just went up.]
>take a nap
[This story can’t understand the word “nap” when you use it that way.]
[Your blood pressure just went up.]
>nap
This is no time for resting.
>smoke a bowl
[The word “smoke” hasn’t been approved for use in this story.]
[Your blood pressure just went up.]
>hum a melody
[hum -> mum]
[This story isn’t allowed to recognise the word “melody.”]
[Your blood pressure just went up.]
>eat a salad
You can’t see any salad here.
>
[Blood Pressure: 175/107]
>
[Blood Pressure: 175/107]
OMG that’s pretty high. Can we take a relaxing walk outside or doesn’t the game approve of trees, birds, flowers?
>e
>open door
>out
Is time important in the game? I remember next to nothing about the parts of Bureaucracy I played 25+ years ago. So far only the llama treats rang a bell.
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
>e
Front Room
>open door
You open the front door.
>out
15 Utopia Avenue
You’re standing on a well-kept sidewalk to the east of your new house. The street bears north and south. There’s an overgrown alleyway to the east.
There’s a mailbox here.
>
[Blood Pressure: 173/106]
Is time important in the game? I remember next to nothing about the parts of Bureaucracy I played 25+ years ago. So far only the llama treats rang a bell.
I’m not sure! I’ve noticed our blood pressure seems to go down occasionally, as long as we don’t do stressful things. But there’s no sign of a time limit or anything like that.
There’s a mailbox here.
Aha, one of the Zorky mailboxes. This one may not be the loving little mailbox from Wishbringer coming alive and following me around (good memories), but I bet there’s a Zorky leaflet in there. Yes, I’m psychic.
I’m not sure! I’ve noticed our blood pressure seems to go down occasionally, as long as we don’t do stressful things. But there’s no sign of a time limit or anything like that.
I thought you’d played this game before?
>x mailbox
>open it
>l in mailbox
>get leaflet 
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
I thought you’d played this game before?
I have, but like you, it was some time ago. And I didn’t get very far!
>x mailbox
It looks as if the mailbox is closed.
>open it
Yes, there is some mail in the mailbox. No, it is not the cheque from Happitec which you were expecting. It’s a leaflet, and it’s addressed to 14 Utopia Avenue. There’s obviously something wrong with the city mail delivery system (installed at great expense by the Deep Thought Corporation last year).
You are feeling hungry.
>look in mailbox
You see a leaflet in the mailbox.
>get leaflet
You take the leaflet out of the mailbox.
>read leaflet
The leaflet is an irritatingly enthusiastic mail-shot for some computer game. “Now available for your Boysenberry!” it says, pointing out that (a) the game comes in a blue box; (b) if you had a Daktari S/M you could have truly amazing graphics; and (c) if you had a Cormorant Honcho you could have utterly incredible sound. Since the Boysenberry has neither sound nor graphics, you wonder what on earth the marketing manager was thinking of. The mail-shot is addressed to 14 Utopia Avenue. The sender used a postage stamp.
>
>read leaflet
The leaflet is an irritatingly enthusiastic mail-shot for some computer game. “Now available for your Boysenberry!” it says, pointing out that (a) the game comes in a blue box; (b) if you had a Daktari S/M you could have truly amazing graphics; and (c) if you had a Cormorant Honcho you could have utterly incredible sound. Since the Boysenberry has neither sound nor graphics, you wonder what on earth the marketing manager was thinking of. The mail-shot is addressed to 14 Utopia Avenue. The sender used a postage stamp.
I’ve always wondered if the “blue box” thing was a reference to Magnetic Scrolls. At least The Pawn, The Guild of Thieves, and Jinxter were released in blue boxes, and while I don’t remember any “incredible sound” (I think the Amiga versions had title music, and that was about it?) they were famous for their graphics (among other things).
I’m a bit sharper today, so hopefully I won’t be expediting our cardiac arrest.
A game that gives you higher blood pressure when attempting to meditate.. that is brutal.
Maybe sitting down to eat might give us some relief? We should probably avoid salt at this point.
We only have llama treats and they do not sound appealing.
>get (or remove) postage stamp
(I hesitate to give the game too many commands, as the wrong commands are apparently punishable by slow death)
>remove postage stamp
What’s the stuff? Glue; that’s it. Yes. Amazing. The stamp is actually glued to the leaflet.
>
Haha alright, point taken.
Let’s check out the neighbourhood.
>n
@eriktorbjorn: is the Boysenberry based on any particular computer of the time?
>n
14 Utopia Avenue
You see a rather run-down restaurant to the east, and one of those bookstores which looks as if it wouldn’t have anything you want to buy to the west. The street continues north and south.
>x restaurant
You can’t see anything special about the restaurant.
>x bookstore
You see nothing special about the bookshop.
>
>read leaflet
The leaflet is an irritatingly enthusiastic mail-shot for some computer game. “Now available for your Boysenberry!” it says, pointing out that (a) the game comes in a blue box; (b) if you had a Daktari S/M you could have truly amazing graphics; and (c) if you had a Cormorant Honcho you could have utterly incredible sound. Since the Boysenberry has neither sound nor graphics, you wonder what on earth the marketing manager was thinking of. The mail-shot is addressed to 14 Utopia Avenue. The sender used a postage stamp.I’ve always wondered if the “blue box” thing was a reference to Magnetic Scrolls. At least The Pawn, The Guild of Thieves, and Jinxter were released in blue boxes, and while I don’t remember any “incredible sound” (I think the Amiga versions had title music, and that was about it?) they were famous for their graphics (among other things).
Yes, they came in a blue box, except Wonderland. And Myth, the only one I haven’t played. I had a Daktari S/M Atari ST in those days and the leaflet is certainly right about the amazing black-and-white monitor, sharp and very easy on the eyes. The Atari was also completely silent thanks to its external cooling. Great computer. I don’t remember if the Commodore was famous for its incredible sound, never owned one.
We only have llama treats and they do not sound appealing.
Let’s try them anyway, the game didn’t punish us last time, and who knows, they might do wonders for our blood pressure.
(I hesitate to give the game too many commands, as the wrong commands are apparently punishable by slow death)
I’m sure Doctor Luhr will save our health.
>eat treats
>x stamp
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
@eriktorbjorn: is the Boysenberry based on any particular computer of the time?
Our half-digested (yuck) Boysenberry must be based on the half-eaten Apple.
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
I was thinking the Blackberry, but the game was made way before then.
>eat treats
There are obviously better things to eat.
>x stamp
The stamp on the leaflet is worth 42 Zalagasan Wossnames (the Zalagasans were too idle to think of a name for their currency) and shows an extremely bad picture of an Ai-Ai. The Ai-Ai is of course a terribly, terribly rare sort of lemur which is a rare sort of monkey so altogether pretty rare, so rare that nobody has ever seen one, which is why the picture is such a blurred and rotten likeness. Actually, come to think of it, since nobody has ever seen the real thing, the picture might in fact be a really sharp, accurate likeness of a blurred and rotten animal.
>
Let’s explore the bookstore. Where we can deliver the leaflet to its rightful owner…? But if that’s not good for our blood pressure we should get a bite to eat.
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
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