'Solaris' text adventure game - Softel 1983

paul2015

Its a fairly trivial topic but I just wondered if anyone else has encountered this problem with this game. Played this text adv game many years ago in the 80's on original spectrum computer with the original game on tape and managed to get so far with it before giving up as it is a fairly difficult adventure. I downloaded the game from internet, probably this site, about 15 years ago, when I first went online, and using z80 emulator managed to get game up and running but got stuck at a fairly early stage and nothing that I typed in seemed to work. 15 years later I have looked at it again and this time looked up the solution using a walkthrough of game but doesn't work. its the 2nd screen of the game where you enter the airlock and need to stand on a pressure pad to open the airlock. on typing 'exam floor' this should reveal pressure pad but instead it just says 'nothing special here'. Either the walkthrough is incorrect or the game has been altered so that it can't be solved. Its very easy to change the coding as it was written in Sinclair Basic and just need to press break button to access program. I have looked at the coding and all indications are that the walkthrough solution at the 2nd screen is correct so that leaves the possibility that the coding has been altered before it was uploaded to the archve site. Has anyone ever played this game on an emulator and if so have they come across same problem ? if not maybe they have a different version of game and I would be interested in obtaining a copy, if possible.

Timmy

I know I should be doing other things like updating the Games List, but I also like a nice challenge.

Anyway, I've just decoded the game, and I can tell you that the walkthrough is incorrect at that point.

There's a command missing there, and I'll leave you to figure out what it is, because I have the feeling you might want to solve this yourself.

But if you just want me to spoil the solution then just ask, and I'll try to answer it tomorrow.

paul2015

Thanks for your reply. Haven't managed to figure it out yet but at least know now that problem isn't with game itself but just myself rubbish at text adventures lol.

Timmy

No problem. While the game can certainly be progressed, I don't think it's because of you being rubbish at this game either. It's just an 1983 adventure game with a pre-1983 design. With verbs and nouns not visible in game, but can only be found by pure guessing, this is a game that you can only progress by guessing what the creator had in mind. Or by hacking, and decoding the code, which is usually the only way to finish these games.

There are a lot of great adventure games from the 80s for the Spectrum, while most of the games from 1987+ were great, but before that you will have to cherry-pick them.

Timmy

I don't know if you have solved it, but just for posterity, there is also an easter egg in that room:

Spoiler:

"Open Rear" will kill you in that room. (Note that obviously the game didn't mention that there is a Rear, or that it can be opened or closed.) (Note 2: You might have to do something first before you can open it.)

Note that the above text is a spoiler.

Also note that there are two different versions of the game in the Archive. One of the version is a demo version where you cannot save.

paul2015

Haven't solved it yet and haven't looked at spoiler yet but I thought I might do it the hard way lol by hacking into the game and dry running it to find solution. This would have been fairly straightforward if I hadn't run into a snag during the subroutine which processes the input commands. There's a Randomize Usr line which calls up the most important part of this process but I'm not that familiar with z80 code, so I've been revising z80 assembly and using a disassembler to get the code in a readable form. Next step is to find location of basic variables in memory to decode the program. Think this might be more interesting exercise than the original puzzle lol. Thanks for your help though.

Battle Bunny

This reminds me of Souls of Darkon, where sometimes it appears that you can't go a certain way, but you're not told that this is just because there's a closed door in the way. Then there's seeing in the dark, which requires the character to use an ability when there's no way of knowing that they have it, other than perhaps the statement in the intro that they have "technical know-how", which might be considered to be the vaguest of hints, I suppose, as there are no objects in the game which help in this regard, not even your plucky (and doomed) robot companion, Komputa.

Battle Bunny

Solaris hint: If you've just entered an airlock, what's something that you should do before opening the other door?

Hacking hint: Once into the main game, if BREAK resets, load $FF00 with $B4 and $FF01 with $12, then BREAK to return to BASIC safely. Or, to be even safer, get the ERR_SP address from $5C3D,$5C3E (which will probably be $FF00), and load that address with $12B4, then BREAK.

The solution on Tipshop omits a necessary EXAMINE in the decontamination room as well.

paul2015

The only problem is now, if I start working out solution from your hint, it makes redundant to some extent the more interesting problem of hacking game to find answer. I've already inadvertently clicked on 'show' to reveal spoiler but tried not to look at it lol.