No Fragments Archive 10: Diskmags/nf_archive_10.iso/MAGS/NEWSDISK/NEWSDSK1.MSA/SOLUTION_CYBORG.ASC

Text File | 1989-12-31 | 14KB | 261 lines

                         Cyborg              Part I

You'd think that with two brains you'd be able to remember who you are.
That you remember who you used to be is something, of course, but if it
was NASA II, the space agency, that made you a CYBORG and sent you on
this mission (whatever it is), what are you doing in the middle of a
forest? Has an interplanetary leaf shortage suddenly developed for you
to investigate?

 This is the beginning of Michael Berlyn's pre-Infocom masterpiece,
Cyborg, In this game the usual problem of accounting for the
adventurer's naivete is handled by a brilliant stroke: you have amnesia,
and have no idea who you are, where you are, or what you are supposed to
be doing. Fortunately, you have a partner through this: your other,
mechanical half. Asking his opinion on objects and locations can often
be of aid, although he has partial amnesia, too, so he can be of only
limited help at first.

 Anyway, here you are. Start by asking for Help, which will explain a
bit more about your situation. But just a minute now. Who's this lizard
standing beside you, asking for food? Well, you need some of that
yourselves (both of you in your own ways), but if you can't find out
where you are and what's going on, you may never find anything, so let's
see if you can find some food, either for the lizard, who may be able to
help you out of this, or for one of your two halves.

 Go southwest, then south. Hmmm. A nice collection of dead insects. Just
what a lizard might like. Get them, and then go north and northeast to
find him again. Feed him, then Ask Lizard. (You can Ask all four
questions in return for the one meal. NOTE: In some Apple versions, it
is not possible to get the insects and feed the lizard. However, doing
this is not necessary to win the game. If you can't get the insects,
skip down to the microlaser part).

 Well, we didn't learn much from that, but it's a beginning. Let's
explore. Go east. Go east again. What's this? A room full of little
shelves? A storage closet in a forest? There must be more here than
meets the scanner. But the microlaser could be useful. Get it and wear
it.

 By the way, what do you suppose killed those insects? To find out, go
West out of the room, South, West twice, and then South again to reach
the place on the path where you found them. Now go down, leaping
gracefully over the railing. (NOTE: In some Apple versions, you must
CLIMB DOWN). Ouch! Well, now we know what did them in.

 There's a forest here that's very easy to get lost in, so just go
straight east, three times. In the maintenance room, get the matches
and the sneakers. Now backtrack west, and go north twice to a dark area.
Light a match. Get the power-pack. Ahhh! That felt good! Get the ladder,
too. You never know when it might come in useful. South, south, and east
to where the matches were, and then south twice. Get the cube. It
doesn't seem to have any external features, so cut it (with the laser)
and then open it. Get the ID that fell out, but don't throw the
now-empty cube away yet.

 Insert the ID in the slot, but then get it again. (Always remember to
do this after putting the ID in a slot, which you will be doing often.)
Go south. Get the Ultrafiche, which seems to be the only thing in the
library you can get at. Go west, and take a little time to admire the
scenery. It makes no sense whatsoever, but at least it's pretty.

 Go west again. Insert the ID in the slot, and get the apple. Eat it.
Get the ID back, of course. Now wear the ID (it works two ways), so it
won't be taking up space in your hands.

 Go north four times from the vending machine to get back to the main
path. Go west. It smells interesting to the south, doesn't it? Let's
look Whoops! Maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all. Fortunately,
we have our laser. Shoot the snake. 100 power-units is usually enough
for IBM. 50 is said to be sufficient for Apple II. However, you may have
to shoot more than once.

 From the snake, go north and then go west three times, noticing the
descriptions. There's a shoulder harness here; get it and wear it. Then
go east twice, north, and northeast. Cut the string to release it from
the tree and then get it. Lace the sneakers with the string and wear
them. Go east twice. Climb the tree and get the fruit. It's a little
prickly, but if you cut it, to get the skin off, you can eat it. Go
back down and then north. There is more of the forest, but there is
nothing to do and nothing much to see.

 At the entrance to the gymnasium, you can go right in, since you're
wearing the ID and the sneakers, so just go north. Go up to get to the
top of the steam cabinet. Open the hatch, and enter the cabinet.

 YOW! That's hot! Quickly strike a match and look around. The infra-red
lenses will allow you to see in the dark from now on, so take them and
wear them. Then take the droid, who will go straight onto the shoulder
harness. (He'll be making smart remarks from time to time, which may or
may not be of help.) Then go up to get out of the cabinet and down to
get back to the gym floor.

 Go north to the center of the gym, and go up (climbing the rings) to
the ceiling. Smash the trap-door. Yes, you really should. Go up. There's
a frightened "togram" here. She looks scared, so pet her. Now that she
feels better, Ask the Togram all four questions.

 Hmmm! So there are more humans here. And you'd better look out for the
illogical smada: it sounds like something an adventurer might be better
off avoiding. There's nothing you can do for the togram now, so go down
twice, to get back to gym floor.

 From the center of the gym, go west twice, southwest, west, and north.
Press the touchplate, as directed, so contaminants from the forest
ecology will not harm the environment now facing you. (Wearing the ID is
necessary here, too.) Go north to the top of the shaft.

Go down once. At 25 meters down, open the hatch, and go south three
times. Get the repair patch you find here (NOTE: in some Apple versions,
there is no patch here; patch will be available during the arcade
sequence). Then go north three times back to the shaft, and down to the
next level.

 Go northwest to the intersection. Explore the blue corridor to the
south, first. Go south, up, and south to the center of the dome. Once
there, go east to see the view, which may give you an important hint as
to what's going on, and then head back west and south to the southern
end of the dome. Remove the droid, and it will pop through the hole and
return with a spacesuit for you.

 Getting the suit on is pesky. Drop the matches, ultrafiche, cube, and
ladder, so your hands will be free. Then remove the laser, ID, sneakers,
and harness, and drop them, too. Get the suit and wear it. Then go north
and west to the airlock.

 The next part of the game varies from system to system. (By the way, it
now becomes clear that the points of the compass are merely relative in
this game. However, judging from the layout of this ship, conventional
terms such as "fore", "aft", "port", or "starboard" would also have had
little meaning, in addition to giving away too much too soon.)

 On an IBM PC, simply press the button, go west and pick up the torch.
Then go north and apply the repair patch. Afterwards, go south and east.
You exit the airlock without pressing the button, so just go east again
to get to the center of the dome.

 On an Apple II, save the game at this point, because Cyborg is suddenly
going to turn into a video game for a moment. Push the button and go
west. Watch the coordinates at the bottom of the screen. You are
starting at 22/13. You have to get to 7/25. Move back, down to 7, left
to 25, and forward. When you have applied the patch, reverse the
process. This section of the game is real-time, so you don't have the
usual adventurer's luxury of stopping to think between moves. The Apple
Macintosh version presumably follows one of these two schemes.

 Once you are back at the center of the dome, go south to where you left
everything. Remove the suit, and drop the suit and torch (if you have
one), you won't need them any more. Get the laser, sneakers, and
harness. Wear all three. Then get the matches, ID, droid, ultrafiche,
cube, and ladder. Go north four times to get back to the intersection.

 This time, go northwest on the red path three times. Drop off the
ladder at the wall and go up. If you go west, you will find yourself on
the ship's bridge. Notice what the screens show you. Then go west again.
This dial is broken, and it will have to be repaired, but there's
nothing useful we can do here, yet, so go east three times to get back
to the ladder.

 Go south twice to the eerily-lit room. The balance will blow you up if
you aren't careful, but if you drop the cube first you can take the
power crystal. Go north twice and drop the crystal by the ladder. Then
go north twice more.

 At last! The ultrafiche reader! Insert the fiche in a slot and insert
the ID in the other slot. Then turn on the reader. Now things begin to
become really clear to you, explaining what the heck that forest was all
about, where you are, and what you're supposed to be doing. And it seems
there's still some more work to do.

 Don't forget to get the ID. Wear it, to prevent inventory problems.
Then go south twice from the reader and southeast three times to get
back to the intersection.

 This time go north along the yellow path. That grill looks suspicious,
but your energy levels are getting low, so leave it alone for now. For
now, go north three more times (we don't have all we need for sickbay
yet, so just pass that by). Get the beaker from the laboratory, go east,
and fill the beaker with oxygen. Then go west and go south four times,
back to the intersection.

 Finally, take the green northeast passage to Hydroponics. Get the peach
and eat it. Then go east, get the wire, and go west and southwest, back
to the intersection again. Southeast takes us back to the tube.

In the tube, go down one more level to the bottom. Go along the corridor
to the west twice, then north twice, then west. Get the power-battery.
Since we're all recharged, now, this would be a good time to take care
of the robot the lizard warned us about, and which we saw on the screen,
so go back east, south, south, east, and east, to get to the bottom of
the shaft.

 From there, going south will take you to the sleep chambers, and on
the third time, you will find the berserk robot. Shoot it with 150
(IBM) or 45 (Apple II). Then smash the dead robot.

 Take the power casing. Open it. Take the power cell that the robot
stole from you while you were unconscious and wear it. This will
permanently solve energy problems for your cyborg half. Drop the power
casing and take the tools.

 Go south twice more. Getting the sleepers' manual from the iguana is
the nastiest problem in the game, but the solution is actually simple.
Remove the sneakers, unlace them, and drop them. (You won't need them
any more.) Then give the string to the iguana and while he is playing
"iguana's cradle" with it you can take the manual.

 North five times from the iguana gets you back to the shaft bottom.
Drop the beaker and matches here temporarily, and return to the
dormitory area. Go west twice, south twice, west, and north. Get the
moldy bread, but don't eat it; it's not at all good for your human half.
Go north twice more. Open the locker here with the tools. Get the solder
that was in the locker. Then go south and go east three times, back to
the shaft bottom.

 Drop the solder, wire, and manual here. Pick up the beaker and the
matches and go north to the cargo bay. Remove the ID, insert it in the
slot, get it back and wear it. Go north. There is a very nice maze here,
and you can solve it, if you like, but it won't achieve anything to do
so. Instead, you have to clear it out. It seems that there's a lot of
flammable stuff in the debris, because if you pour the oxygen out of
the beaker and onto the debris, light a match, and drop the match, you
get a dandy explosion that opens up a way for you to the alien ship.
Drop the beaker and the matches now, because you won't need them again,
and go east twice to get inside the ship.

 Once inside, feed the reptile with the moldy bread (no accounting for
tastes!). Once you have done this, Ask the Reptile. He should explain
just about all the remaining mysteries, so now pick up the small CPU
you found here, and exit west, west, and south.

 South once more gets you to the bottom of the shaft. Get the manual,
wire, and solder, and go up to the 50m level and northwest to the
multi-colored intersection.

 We might try to finish quickly here, but let's visit sickbay first,
so we'll be in good health at the grand finale. Go north. Remember the
grill? Well, our energy levels are permanently high now, so smash it.

 Oh no! It's the smada! Shoot it with 100 if you have an IBM, or 45 if
you have an Apple II. Whew! Well, we had to take care of that anyhow.
Go north twice more, east, north, and west. Unlock the latch with the
tools, and open the panel. Enter the cylinder, close the panel, and
pull the lever. This should heal most of the damage done by various
accidents and beasties along the way, so open the panel and leave.

 East, south, west, and south three times returns you to the
intersection. Northwest three times gets you to the ladder where you
left the power crystal. Pick that up, and then go up and west twice to
get to the end of the bridge. Now we're ready for that dial. Drop the
wire, solder, CPU, and power crystal, and repair the dial (you need to
be holding the manual and the tools).

 Now turn the dial to wake up the sleepers. Since you may have been
contaminated by something nasty during your adventures, you don't want
to visit with them, but there's no point in that anyway, because all
you have left to do is go east and throw the switch to start the
automatic landing procedure, and receive the thanks of the entire human
race.