phoenix/hints/solutions/PhilosophersQuest_BBC_walkthrough.txt

                               Walkthrough for

                        Philosopher's Quest for the BBC

                             by Peter Killworth

                           Written by Richard Bos


A few notes, first.

One, and most importantly, this is a rotten hard and randomly unfair game. In
fact, it has the reputation of being the nastiest of the Topologika games, and
it thoroughly deserves it. The other Topologika games want you dead;
Philosopher's Quest wants you dead _now_, and if at all possible, for you to
suffer in the process. You can die at the game's slightest whim. At least
making a typo doesn't cost a move, unlike in the original. Save often, and keep
_all_ your save files until you've finished the game.
Two, the parser is limited, but reasonable. I have not found any place where
using prepositions ("hit tree with axe") is necessary or even possible. By
contrast, the games are good at giving you less to type. If there is only one
object, simply "get" will take it; if there are several, it will assume the
first one listed. Ditto for "drop", which will drop the first object in your
inventory; and ditto for several other verbs. "Get all", however, is
unfortunately not provided. As far as I can tell, words are significant to the
usual first four letters.
Third, the game has one rather annoying bug. If you die - and in normal play,
you will die a _lot_ - and choose to play another game, you aren't put back at
the start, but in what seems to be a room off the map, apparently the location
where temporarily non-existent objects are stored, still carrying your previous
possessions, and you can't go anywhere. If you really do want another game,
you'll have to reload from the start.
Fourth, I'm not taking you past all the sights and clues. Also, this game
(unfashionably, these days) expects a lot of experimentation and learning-by-
dying to solve them, none of which can easily be done in a walkthrough. Because
of this, before you resort to reading this walkthrough you might want to try
the official hints. Floating about the 'net is a text file with the original
hint booklet for this game. Note, though, that the hints for the MS-DOS version
available on the IF Archive don't work in this version, and in any case don't
reliably apply here.
Finally, this walkthrough (including the above notes) is for the Topologika
BBC game which is available at the IF Archive. This is rather drastically cut
down from the MS-DOS version also found there, which is why its hints do not
reliably apply to this one. Many of the deleted puzzles were put into a second
game, Castle of Riddles, which is also available on the Archive.


So, let's be off, then.

You start in a shop, and face the first unfairness straight away. You are only
allowed to take two objects from the shop, but there is no reason at all right
now for you to choose any above the other - except, perhaps, the keys, which
are an adventure staple useful object. And in fact, you're going to need all
four of them. 
Take the keys, rod and aqualung. Throw the keys, then go south. No light
here, and no lamp. In this game, though (and in all games of the Phoenix
heritage) you can get objects in the dark, even if you've never seen them
before. So, get, and get again. Light the lamp - this can be done with just the
command "on". Go south.
Throw the rod, off, then go south again. Drop the aqualung, go west, nw, and
north, open door, go east. Get cup - there's your fourth object from the shop,
and note that if we'd been foolish enough to take it with us, it would not have
been here, and no indication that it could have been. Go west and north. A
quest!
Turn off your lamp and go south, se, east and north; turn on your lamp; north
and east; get the amulet; down and north.

Rub the amulet. If you go on from here as usual, you die to a variety of traps.
To avoid them, you must perform a kind of Indiana-Jones-cum-ninja dance. There
are four different traps; you'll see two of them going in and two coming back.
For each trap, you need a different verb to put in front of your direction. So,
where normally you would go north by entering "go n" or "n" (or "north", if you
like typing), you will now have to enter "run n", "jump n", and so forth. The
four traps and their respective verbs are:
  pit       jump <dir>
  blade     crawl <dir>
  sword     hop <dir>
  spears    run <dir>
In my game, the above was the order in which these traps appeared - the first
two north, the last two south - but I do not know if it is randomised. In the
original Phoenix game it wasn't, but I can't be sure that this hasn't changed.
You may or may not have to experiment. The following paragraph assumes that
this order is correct; reload your last save file and change the order in which
these dance moves occur if necessary.
So, with that assumption: jump north, take the gas mask, run south. Yes, south.
We'll be back for the other two traps (and some objects beyond) later on; right
now we just want the gas mask.
With the mask - this is important - go south, se and south again. Take the
chain. From now on, take extreme care. A single lost move and that cheese will
kill you. No, seriously.
Go north, take the cheese, and go nw, u, n. Drop the cheese here and go north.
We go on this short side trip for two reasons: to recover from the cheese, as
the game tells you, and to score some points. The chain is a treasure, and the
shop is our treasure house. Drop the chain here.
Go south, take the cheese, south again, off, south, drop cheese, west. (Since
your lamp is off, you won't waste its power by doing a just-in-case save here.
Just sayin'.) Go east, take the cheese, west, north, drop cheese, south. That
room was dark, so, to save a turn with the cheese at the cost of a turn of lamp
light, turn it on. Then go north, get the cheese and then the mouse, north
again, drop the cheese.
Now go ne. Drop the mouse and take the tusk. Go north. Hey, there's that dog!
Take it. Then go back south, west and south. That's the last we'll see of the 
cheese - phew! Turn off your lamp. Drop the gas mask here, we won't be needing
it again. Go south, nw, north, on, north. Oh, dear. Remember that name.

Off, south, se, east, north, on, north, east, down - note the footprints - and
north. Jump north, and now for the traps we haven't seen yet: crawl north.
Take the trophy. But surely the dog went this way? Remember his name? Call him
by it: enter "spot". Take the dog. By the way, I have no idea what the stars
are for.
Hop south, run south. Go south, up, north, off, north again. Drop the trophy,
amulet and tusk. South, on, south, off, south, west, nw, north, on, north.
What, again!?
Off, south, se, east, north, on, north, east, east. You can't see a dog, but
you can hear it, so it must be there, probably in the kennel: take dog. (Take
inventory for a lark.) Go nw, north, west and east. Ah, there it is!
Back to the lady: west, north, south, off, south, west, nw, north, on, north.
No more dogs - hoorah! Go north, take the will, south twice, off, south, se.
Get wood, east, drop the wood and the keys. North, on, north, and drop the will
here - we'll be back for it later.

Go east, down and west. Drop your lamp (you should now be carrying nothing at
all), then go west. You stop existing. Indeed, the game will refuse to take any
commands, since it doesn't believe in your existence any more. You'll have to
convince it that you do. How does one prove one's own existence? Descartes did
it by positing that /cogito, ergo sum/. Follow his lead: enter "think". Then go
east, get your lamp, west twice, get, se and east twice.
Go ne. Take the matches. Go sw twice. Turn off your lamp, then strike a match.
An old mariner? With a long grey beard and glittering eye? Now who could that
be... and the name of the room is? Coal ridge. Get it? Coal-ridge, hey, hey?
No? Neither do I. By the way, isn't Porlock nice this time of year? Ok, ok,
sorry, back to the game... While your match is still lit, go west. _Now_ light
your lamp, go west, get, east and ne.
Go down to the game's first maze. Somewhere in this maze is a useful person.
You should find him if you go north, south, east and west. After meeting him,
go north, south, north; take the portrait of my favourite graphic artist; and
leave by going north, south, east, west and east.
Take the bottle, then go up and north, turn off your lamp, and north to the
deposit shop. Drop the portrait, albatross and book. Go south, take the will
we'd left here, and turn on your lamp. Go west, down and east, and fill the
bottle. Then west twice to the second maze.
Go east, up and north. Off, take platypus, west. Drop the will, go east and
west, and take the cheque. East, on, and back east through the maze: west,
north, northeast; then up, north, off, and north back into the shop. Drop the
cheque and platypus.

Take the keys. Go south, on, south, off, south. Take the driftwood and
aqualung. Go south. In the water, go down. Turn on your lamp, which - in the
BBC version of the game - miraculously works under water. Down again. Go south
until you reach the wreck. Next go southeast, open the door, go west and take
the slipper. Go back east, northwest, southwest and southeast. Drop the bottle,
then get the chest. Go northwest, northeast and north.
Light a match and see where the smoke goes, then go in the opposite direction
(so if it drifts northwards, go south, and so on). Repeat this. You will come
across a gold tooth. Drop your keys, then take the tooth. Light a match then
light the wood. You will be returned to the sea bed.
Go north until you can go no further, then up once. If you go up to the surface
immediately, you get the bends. You need to acclimatise. To do this, spend one
turn for every five turns spent in the lowest levels of the sea (including the
whale's stomach). If you haven't been wasting any turns, this should be between
thirty and thirty-five turns, so (assuming the game rounds up...) go east and
west here (the command "wait" does not work in this version) for seven turns.
_Then_ go up once more, and north back to the beach.
Go north three times - never mind turning off the lamp, we're nearly there.
Drop the chest, slipper and tooth.
You now have 249 out of 250 points. For the traditional Last Lousy Point, you
traditionally need to do something trivial and unguessable; Philosopher's Quest
breaks the rule once again. What you need to do _is_ trivial, but it's been
written on the walls all along. In the south end of the long passage, a word
has been scratched on the wall. A magic word, of course. However, if you'd
tried its magic up to this point, nothing would have happened. Now, though, it
works: utter the word "blach".


And that's it. That's the sparkling finale of what, I think you'll agree, is a
truly random and unfriendly game. (It's not as if Peter Killworth wasn't a good
adventure writer, either. His Doom trilogy is at times almost as unfair as
Philosopher's Quest, but to yours truly at least a great deal more enjoyable -
probably because most of the time they do present a consistent, whole world.
Still, 250 points are 250 points, right? And on the BBC, there are 250 more to
be had in Castle of Riddles!