Enlightenment
Enlightenment is a snack-sized text adventure set in the general neighborhood of the Zork universe, with Infocom-esque humor, sly quotes and footnotes, and a wealth of entertaining but unnecessary actions. It doesn't play like an 80s game, though: it is short, polished, and focused, with lots of clues and guidance, and probably won't take more than an hour to play.
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For some reason it doesn't work for me... Using Safari on a MAC. I can see the opening text introduction and a prompt to enter a command, but typing anything and hitting return results in white horizontal lines and no text. Am I doing something wrong?
[Edit: We had a technical problem with our Flash-based interpreter when we first published this review, which we believe has been fixed now. This problem should no longer happen. If you do see it, please empty your browser cache and reload the page. Thank you! -Jay]
I'm thinking about getting into interactive fiction, but there seem to be a lot of unwritten rules about what commands do what, that the games assume you know: things like x meaning "look at". Is there an introduction for the complete newbie anywhere, oh great bloggers of JIG?
x bloggers expectantly
Some general suggestions..
* This game has a pretty good hint system built-in, and there's no penalty for using it. Some of the required steps are.. well, less than obvious, imo.
* It is possible to completely mess up, and the game will let you know this. If you catch it in time, "undo" should be sufficient, but you may wish to save a few times.
* That said, I noticed that the game will try to avoid putting you in that situation. If something that should work mysteriously doesn't, it's probably because that step will cause you to lose something that you will need later on.
* Try everything you can think of!
Grr.
Not realizing that the bendy cross was also a sharp cross kept me from opening the sword for the longest time. And then not figuring out the precise commands needed to push the phial all the way through the gate, even though I'd guessed I needed the screwdriver and the battery, kept me stymied for equally long. At this rate I'll have to use the hints to get through two-thirds of the game. :/
Still, it's a great concept and an interesting game. I'll come back and finish it later.
joye, there are a lot of abbreviations or even 1 letter commands that most text adventures will use. Here's a list of all those I can think of.
X - Examine. Meaning you look closer at an object and may get further information about said object or find another object within it/stuck on it.
N, S, W, E - North, South, West, East. The compass directions. Just for whichever way you want to walk.
I - Inventory. Allows you to see what you're carrying on you.
L - Look. Lets you look around a room, giving you a description of what the room looks like and any objects inside the room.
Ribs -- I use Safari on a Mac, and it does that sometimes. Reloading or closing and opening the browser usually helps. Also, if you go into the hints and back to the game, the white lines will appear, which is annoying.
I'm soooo close to finishing the game, but I'm stuck on
the lamp. How do I break the filament? I already got rid of my cross -- am I doomed?
I'm with Joye. I want to like these games, but I found them ridiculously exclusive in the 80s and quit playing them then. I don't find the hint system in this game to be particularly helpful, but rather needlessly sarcastic. Too bad. I just played Galatea the other day and finally thought I might be able to enjoy IF.
actually, I managed to get into a situation I couldn't get out of:
I tried using the battery to push in the phial, and the battery fell to the floor. I figured it was just talking about the ledge, but when I tried to pick it up, it said that it was unreachable. There was no warning that I had just "lost" in any sense, but I couldn't find any other way to get it back.
I'm not really fond of this game. I gotta agree with dsrtrosy, the hint system is anything but helpful. Or rather, the hints themselves. More than half of the light hints tell you to do something with an object that you do not have, and you get no corresponding hint to tell you how to get that particular object. And I have examined and looked at every thing I could think of in the room, although there really isn't anything there in the first place.
So how people get phials, screwdrivers and what not, is beyond me.
I played Enlightenment back when it first came out and thought it was brilliant. It's good to know that this wonderful little game is still seeing the light of day.
(OK, I'm out of puns.)
Here's a link for those who might not be a familiar with interactive fiction:
http://brasslantern.org/beginners/
The second link on that page, "A Beginner's Guide to Interactive Fiction," will be especially helpful for people who want to know what the various basic commands are.
...Swing Sword... No...
Break Sword... No...
Eat Sword... Heehee... No...
For the longest time, I kept trying to stuff the certificate into the flask, hoping to use the repeller to whip up a makeshift Molotov Cocktail or something and use it to set fire to the troll... To "flame" it, if you will.
Too bad I'm just a T*** adventurer and not MacGuyver.
I copied out the "amusing" list. I only tried a few of these in the course of the game - I'm going back now to try some of the others...
search me
squeeze troll
read troll
read me (repeatedly)
turn me with screwdriver
push bridge
kill troll with water
spray can on stick of gum
burn water
burn battery
rub sword
objects
places
frotz
xyzzy
plugh
plover
quail (before and after troll dies)
show clothes to troll
spray troll with water
drink screwdriver
eat sword
wave cross
wave phial
take slab (repeatedly)
burn bridge
buy bridge
push bridge (In the presence of the troll)
search troll
turn troll with screwdriver
jump over troll
push troll
enjoy gum (repeatedly)
fondle troll
Retrieving the "lost" battery with the screwdriver
Retrieving the unpushed phial from the keyhole with the screwdriver and gum
Putting the screwdriver and the battery on the slab or in the pack separately
And one I found that isn't on the list...
"curse", mostly because it tells you to
"play nice" (which gives a more amusing message and a third suggestion,
"enlightenment"
)
I hadn't tried this kind of game before. This one is humorous, but apparently wasn't the one to try first. Sure, I could go and research the field, but that's like spending an hour listening to the explanation for a pun: you only sort of get it afterwards, it loses all of the aha, and you feel kind of dumb. Maybe I'll try another that has a leads-you-by-the-hand mode (since this one was only shipped with a sarcasm-if-you-don't-know mode). Somebody tag the former type as such so I can try them in the future?
OrigamiMarie - A great place to start is with the other interactive fiction reviewed here at JIG.
(You might even find a walkthrough on one of those pages to help you through. I know there's one for Lost Pig, which is an especially humorous game.)
The hint system of the game helps with all the items except for one: the starjewel. Can anyone provide a little guidance for it?
I've tried:
to "roll jewel," but the troll stops it with its foot. I thought maybe there was some way to use the glass fragments to deter the troll from putting its foot down, but I am not able to (at least not without some kinda protection?)
Also:
the jewel is about the size of an ostrich egg, so I tried to sit on it. It says that the jewel only LOOKS like an egg. The "falsehints" suggest making a nest, sitting on it, and acting like a goose to hatch the jewel; I realize these are jokes, but since there was no help in the real game hints, I thought there may be a clue here?
Thanks,
Dan
Jay, can you host more ifiction on your site please? My first experience with ifiction was playing Lost Pig on your site and it was great. I am glad to see that you have made yet another great work of ifiction available for play online.
I much prefer being able to play the games on your site rather than having to download Gargoyle and the games files to my own computer.
Perhaps you could host the ifiction games posted on May 31 (I think it was).
What would I like to see in a help/about section? The usual stuff.
I mean, I don't need it, I've been playing IF since before I should have been. (my brother's Infocom games, I was like 8 years old and had NO idea what i was doing, but it was still fun).
but you know, there is usually a little introductory information.
I mean, look at two excellent games from the same Early Modern-IF Era: Spider and Web (which should get an review on JiG, IMO. That game frickin' rocks.) and Anchorhead (which I believe has been reviewed here).
Spider and Web, frankly, isn't that much more friendly. It just has a short about blurb explaining the way conversation functions and talking about whether it is possible to put yourself in a losing position.
Anchorhead is much better. It has a nice little help menu that includes a "How to Play Interactive Fiction" section and even a tutorial! To be fair, I know Anchorhead has had multiple releases/revisions. The one I'm looking at is number 5. I guess it might not have been nearly so friendly in it's first release.
But so something like that. The help/about in Spider and Web should be the minimum a game should have. Anchorhead's is super nice. I wouldn't expect to see something that extensive in most games, but it seems like it would make it a lot friendlier for people who have never played IF before. And as someone who occasionally tries to evangelize for IF, it would be nice to be able to answer the question "How do I play it?" with "Just ask the game for help. It'll explain everything."
I'm going to try to put everything together in one post here, since people keep getting stuck...
Basic commands:
inventory/i - see what you have
examine/x - look at something
look - look at the room (will also show what items are on the ground, if any)
look at - look at something specific, similar to but sometimes different from examine
n/s/e/w or north/south/east/west - go in that direction. Since this is a one-room game, you won't need this until the very end.
The object of the game (you can also find this in the hints):
Get past the troll by turning out all the lights, so a grue (G***) will come and eat it. (For those not experienced with text-based adventure games, grues are creatures dating back to at least the Infocom game Zork, in which they would eat any player who stayed in the dark for too long).
So...what next?
Extinguishing the objects. Order doesn't matter for the amulet; everything else should be done after you've gotten ALL of the items by turning off the sword.
The sword
Note: YOU MUST STILL HAVE THE CROSS
The sword is battery-powered...where do you think the battery might be?
That's right - in the hilt. But you have to get to it first - right now, it's covered with a grip. But you can't cut the hilt with the sword - it's attached. What else do you have that is sharp (this may not be obvious)?
That would be the cross.
CUT GRIP WITH CROSS
Now that you've gotten to the compartment, you need to take out the battery.
OPEN PANEL - wait, you can't do it by hand.
OPEN PANEL WITH CROSS
And make sure to TAKE GRIP and TAKE BATTERY- right now the grip's lying on the floor and the battery's still in the compartment (although the sword did power off).
Finding your other items
You have more stuff than you saw when you initially typed "i", or "inventory". OPEN BACKPACK to see the rest. (You may still have to take things individually in order to use them.)
The Starjewel
You can't break the Starjewel, so you'll have to hide it somewhere.
There's a reason I put this one next.
It happens to fit in the compartment of the sword.
If you haven't gotten the battery yet, TAKE BATTERY. Then PUT STARJEWEL IN COMPARTMENT and CLOSE COMPARTMENT.
Your glow ball
This one only takes one move - either you get it or you don't.
You can't break it.
Have you tried tossing it in the chasm?
THROW GLOW BALL IN CHASMDidn't work, did it? The troll caught it...
Why don't you try throwing it in a different direction?
THROW GLOW BALL SOUTH (towards the gate where you came in)
Your amulet
You happen to have a nice compartment on you where you can hide this one.
No, not your backpack - that's too threadbare to hold anything glowing without glowing itself.
Your tinderbox is nice and watertight - and also opaque enough to block out a light source.
OPEN TINDERBOX, PUT AMULET IN TINDERBOX, and then CLOSE TINDERBOX
Your lamp
This one has two parts to it.
First, you'll have to break it open.
You can't smash it...but what if you crack the glass some other way?
Say, by rapidly cooling the hot glass? You'll have to put it down first, though...
OPEN FLASK, DROP LAMP, POUR WATER ON LAMP
By the way, you'll get some glass fragments here - they don't actually have any use.Now you just have to deal with the filament...
The obvious method would be to cut it somehow. But you don't want to burn yourself doing it.
Luckily, you just happen to have some nice, heat-insulating grip tape. But for some reason you don't feel like putting it back on the sword...
Use the screwdriver instead. PUT GRIP ON SCREWDRIVER, and then CUT FILAMENT WITH SCREWDRIVER
The Cross
This one, and the next one, involve looking around a bit.
Specifically, the cross is the only item flat enough to fit under the huge gate behind you.
PUSH CROSS UNDER GATE
That won't quite do it - you'll have to stick the cross to something else big enough and flat enough, then push that under.
Something like your certificate.
Just putting it on won't do you any good; you have to actually stick it.
And what's stickier than gum?
CHEW GUM, PUT GUM ON CERTIFICATE, PUT CROSS ON GUM. Then PUSH CERTIFICATE UNDER GATE. But you can still see some of the light...
Maybe if you got rid of the certificate somehow, the cross would slide down the hill into the next room (did I forget to mention you're on a hill?)
You know, that tinderbox actually has a use besides holding your amulet...
LIGHT CERTIFICATE
The phial
You can't break it, so you have to hide it. Again, it goes somewhere in the room you just came from...
Specifically, it's just the right shape to fit in the keyhole.
PUT PHIAL IN KEYHOLE
But you can still see it...Better push it in further.
Two other items fit in the keyhole - the battery and the screwdriver.
But the screwdriver alone doesn't push it in far enough, and the battery alone gets lost (you can get it back by doing PUT SCREWDRIVER IN KEYHOLE)
The solution? Make sure the battery is not attached to the screwdriver, then PUT BATTERY ON SCREWDRIVER to ensure it's in the proper place.
Finally, PUT SCREWDRIVER IN KEYHOLE.
The troll's eyes
First eye
You don't have many options left...
What would you hate to get in the eye?
No, not the sword...at least not yet.
How about your G*** repellent pepper spray?
SPRAY CAN AT EYE
Second eye
NOW poke it with the sword.
HIT EYE WITH SWORD
How not to die
What do you know about grues?
That's right...they hate light.
What's the one light source you have left?
Your amulet, in your tinderbox.
OPEN TINDERBOX
Now that the troll's gone...
You can do what you've been wanting to do this whole time.
Cross the bridge, of course!
GO NORTH
Amusing things to do:
--SEARCH ME
--SQUEEZE TROLL
--READ TROLL
--READ ME (repeatedly)
--TURN ME WITH SCREWDRIVER (score less than 249)
--PUSH BRIDGE (score
--KILL TROLL WITH WATER
--SPRAY CAN ON STICK OF GUM
--LISTEN TO TROLL
--BURN WATER
--BURN BATTERY
--RUB SWORD
--OBJECTS
--PLACES
--FROTZ
--XYZZY
--PLUGH (how obscure can one get...)
--PLOVER
--QUAIL (before and after the troll dies)
--SHOW CLOTHES TO TROLL
--SPRAY TROLL WITH WATER
--RUB LAMP
--DRINK SCREWDRIVER
--EAT SWORD
--WAVE CROSS
--WAVE PHIAL
--TAKE SLAB (repeatedly)
--BURN BRIDGE
--BUY BRIDGE
--PUSH BRIDGE (In the presence of the troll)
--SEARCH TROLL
--TURN TROLL WITH SCREWDRIVER
--JUMP OVER TROLL
yeah >:_>
I'm sorry, but I have to ask. I cannot save the game.
I've tried "save", and the "Create Save Game" box appears. I assume I can type a name in the "New Save" text box, but I cannot. Even if it isn't for a name, the box doesn't close (obviously). I've also set the "Local Storage" in "Settings" as unlimited, but still it doesn't work.
Can anybody help? Thank you very much.
Walkthrough given at end of game. 25 steps!
Drop lamp
Open pack
Throw ball at gate
Cut grip with cross
Put phial in lock
Open panel with cross
Put battery on flathead
Chew gum
Put gum on stock
Put star in panel
Close panel
Put grip on flathead
Put flathead in lock
Put cross on gum
Put stock under gate
Light stock
Put amulet in box
Close box
Open flask
Put water on lamp
Cut filament with flathead
Spray eye with can
Cut eye with sword
Open box
N
[Edit: Spoiler tags added. -Pam]
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Walkthrough Guide
(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)
I'm going to try to put everything together in one post here, since people keep getting stuck...
Basic commands:
inventory/i - see what you have
examine/x - look at something
look - look at the room (will also show what items are on the ground, if any)
look at - look at something specific, similar to but sometimes different from examine
n/s/e/w or north/south/east/west - go in that direction. Since this is a one-room game, you won't need this until the very end.
The object of the game (you can also find this in the hints):
Get past the troll by turning out all the lights, so a grue (G***) will come and eat it. (For those not experienced with text-based adventure games, grues are creatures dating back to at least the Infocom game Zork, in which they would eat any player who stayed in the dark for too long).
So...what next?
Extinguishing the objects. Order doesn't matter for the amulet; everything else should be done after you've gotten ALL of the items by turning off the sword.
The sword
Note: YOU MUST STILL HAVE THE CROSS
The sword is battery-powered...where do you think the battery might be?
That's right - in the hilt. But you have to get to it first - right now, it's covered with a grip. But you can't cut the hilt with the sword - it's attached. What else do you have that is sharp (this may not be obvious)?
That would be the cross.
CUT GRIP WITH CROSS
Now that you've gotten to the compartment, you need to take out the battery.
OPEN PANEL - wait, you can't do it by hand.
OPEN PANEL WITH CROSS
And make sure to TAKE GRIP and TAKE BATTERY- right now the grip's lying on the floor and the battery's still in the compartment (although the sword did power off).
Finding your other items
You have more stuff than you saw when you initially typed "i", or "inventory". OPEN BACKPACK to see the rest. (You may still have to take things individually in order to use them.)
The Starjewel
You can't break the Starjewel, so you'll have to hide it somewhere.
There's a reason I put this one next.
It happens to fit in the compartment of the sword.
If you haven't gotten the battery yet, TAKE BATTERY. Then PUT STARJEWEL IN COMPARTMENT and CLOSE COMPARTMENT.
Your glow ball
This one only takes one move - either you get it or you don't.
You can't break it.
Have you tried tossing it in the chasm?
THROW GLOW BALL IN CHASMDidn't work, did it? The troll caught it...
Why don't you try throwing it in a different direction?
THROW GLOW BALL SOUTH (towards the gate where you came in)
Your amulet
You happen to have a nice compartment on you where you can hide this one.
No, not your backpack - that's too threadbare to hold anything glowing without glowing itself.
Your tinderbox is nice and watertight - and also opaque enough to block out a light source.
OPEN TINDERBOX, PUT AMULET IN TINDERBOX, and then CLOSE TINDERBOX
Your lamp
This one has two parts to it.
First, you'll have to break it open.
You can't smash it...but what if you crack the glass some other way?
Say, by rapidly cooling the hot glass? You'll have to put it down first, though...
OPEN FLASK, DROP LAMP, POUR WATER ON LAMP
By the way, you'll get some glass fragments here - they don't actually have any use.Now you just have to deal with the filament...
The obvious method would be to cut it somehow. But you don't want to burn yourself doing it.
Luckily, you just happen to have some nice, heat-insulating grip tape. But for some reason you don't feel like putting it back on the sword...
Use the screwdriver instead. PUT GRIP ON SCREWDRIVER, and then CUT FILAMENT WITH SCREWDRIVER
The Cross
This one, and the next one, involve looking around a bit.
Specifically, the cross is the only item flat enough to fit under the huge gate behind you.
PUSH CROSS UNDER GATE
That won't quite do it - you'll have to stick the cross to something else big enough and flat enough, then push that under.
Something like your certificate.
Just putting it on won't do you any good; you have to actually stick it.
And what's stickier than gum?
CHEW GUM, PUT GUM ON CERTIFICATE, PUT CROSS ON GUM. Then PUSH CERTIFICATE UNDER GATE. But you can still see some of the light...
Maybe if you got rid of the certificate somehow, the cross would slide down the hill into the next room (did I forget to mention you're on a hill?)
You know, that tinderbox actually has a use besides holding your amulet...
LIGHT CERTIFICATE
The phial
You can't break it, so you have to hide it. Again, it goes somewhere in the room you just came from...
Specifically, it's just the right shape to fit in the keyhole.
PUT PHIAL IN KEYHOLE
But you can still see it...Better push it in further.
Two other items fit in the keyhole - the battery and the screwdriver.
But the screwdriver alone doesn't push it in far enough, and the battery alone gets lost (you can get it back by doing PUT SCREWDRIVER IN KEYHOLE)
The solution? Make sure the battery is not attached to the screwdriver, then PUT BATTERY ON SCREWDRIVER to ensure it's in the proper place.
Finally, PUT SCREWDRIVER IN KEYHOLE.
The troll's eyes
First eye
You don't have many options left...
What would you hate to get in the eye?
No, not the sword...at least not yet.
How about your G*** repellent pepper spray?
SPRAY CAN AT EYE
Second eye
NOW poke it with the sword.
HIT EYE WITH SWORD
How not to die
What do you know about grues?
That's right...they hate light.
What's the one light source you have left?
Your amulet, in your tinderbox.
OPEN TINDERBOX
Now that the troll's gone...
You can do what you've been wanting to do this whole time.
Cross the bridge, of course!
GO NORTH
Posted by: Anonymous | June 4, 2008 11:52 PM