The Wonderland Board

Happy Birthday, Wonderland!

The party is going on. Will you join in?
Have fun!

Plugh!

All those memories, of rickety old bridges, dwarves and mighty treasures.

Well, as in the good old days, trolls are best ignored. I didn't even need him to get the canary out of the egg.

This level being #26 and having tested so far up to level #23 of the Sagas of Rainbow Islands, I assume there are 2 more to come.

Xyzzy to you and all!

Cool, another level of yours!
I enjoy your levels, but I can't beat them.
I'm going to try this one!

Fantastic level! The egg puzzle at the start was very entertaining.

I got killed by a grue. That is basically what happened on my first try. This was an awesome level!

I got killed by a grue.

Next time make sure you don't keep your lamp burning outdoors - save fuel and use it only underground where it is dark!

Hi LCD
Try to find out where the grue starts. Then you can solve a big part of the puzzle without his nasty presence...
(...and save a lot of fuel for your lamp. )

(...and save a lot of fuel for your lamp. Laughing )

Sorry to mislead you with my poor memory: the lamp runs on batteries, not on fuel, and if it runs low, there is vending machine inside the maze where you can get replacement batteries (but then you will not come out with gold).

It's about time but I finally got it! I tip my hat to you, Chip. This was an excellent and fun to solve level.

Hi, Wonderlanders
The setting of this anniversary level and most of its text are taken from the opening locations of 'Zork'. This was the first adventure game available for PC: Text only, no graphics and no music - just the keyboard and you, but nevertheless fun and exciting. 'Zork' is the mother of all PC-games, and a lot of its features (like the boarded front door, the grue or the XYZZY) are cult. Patrick often refers to this giant, knowing that all game designers are standing on its shoulders. Choosing 'Zork' as theme for this birthday level was my way to express, that we all are standing on Patrick's shoulders.

If you like to have a look at the original 'Zork': Wikipedia offers links to free downloads and free online games.

The hints:
The forest and the eggs

1. Push the steel box R.
2. Go through the forest (closing the green gate again) and get the coin on the white button.
3. Then go L and 3xU. Step R to enter the left yellow TP.
4. Wait until the silver egg stops, then step U through the right yellow TP to get the coin on the yellow button.
5. Step back U through the left yellow TP and go 2xR. Push the golden egg D. Both buttons are covered.
6. Enter the left white TP from L to get the last coin here.

The canyon and the waterfall

1. Wait for a good moment to press the upper timer and to get onto the blue button. Wait here.
2. The next wave will send the central boulder into the pond in the center of the open field.
3. Wait for a good moment to stop the two remaining boulders on the conveyors.
4. Then quickly steer U with the lower raft and go 2xU, 1xL and 1xd to push the boulders D.
5. One of them will cover the blue button and the other will fill the pond in the center of the open field.
6. Use the rafts to collect the coins on the water and to reach the open field. Collect the coins there.

The woods and the grue

1. Push the central box 3xL just in front of the left cyan TP.
2. Get one of the upper three boxes and push it R just in front of the right cyan TP.
3. Get one of the lower three boxes and push it (without making a step D) aside another box.
4. Push (still without making a step D) the single box into the cyan TP and follow to get the first coin.
5. Return, go straight away through the forest and push the outer of the remaining boxes D. Oops, a grue appears!
6. To evade the grue... No, this isn't Mother Goose! This is Zork, and you have to deal with your grue on your own.

Good luck and have fun!

The setting of this anniversary level and most of its text are taken from the opening locations of 'Zork'. This was the first adventure game available for PC

Zork is a later version of the original game "adventure", which was available on the PDP-11, before PC's were invented. I used to play it around 1980.

Zork was published later for DOS under "The Lost Treasures of Infocom", which I still have. It was however too enhanced and lost some of the simplicity of the original "adventure" and even of the original version of "zork" that appeared later for the PDP-11.

Another similar game that came probably together with "adventure" was "aardvark", but it didn't turn up that famous and so have probably been lost.

There were however earlier computer games and even graphic ones in the 1970's, although they only ran on dedicated experimental computers. Controlling those games was via a small set of flaps that could be move up or down.

More text-only games can be found in "ifarchive.org".

Zork is so "enhanced" one could say it's a totally different game, it's very heavily revamped. "Colossal Cave Adventure" was more similar to the original game.

 
What an entertaining variety of challenging puzzles!

Amnon wrote:Well, as in the good old days, trolls are best ignored. I didn't even need him to get the canary out of the egg.

Same here, Amnon. But it was fun escaping his crafty maneuvers.

Looking back to a time before video solutions, I see the classic model that has evolved into the Chipperoo 2000 of today!

Thank you, my friend.