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From: ceforma@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Christopher E. Forman)
Subject: Re: Spellbreaker bug!! (spoilers)
Message-ID: <1994Dec1.163945.105844@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu>
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 16:39:45 GMT
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Molley the Mage (mollems@wkuvx1.wku.edu) wrote:

: Also, remember that Infocom games do not implement simulation aspects.
: If you want a thing to work in a particular situation, then you have
: to code for it.  The text you get when casting Girgol on the troll was
: obviously specially written, and therefore intentional.

Yes, I realize that Dave Lebling obviously intended for players to be able
to get past the ogre using Girgol.  That is not a bug.  What I feel _is_ a
bug is the fact that, after you get past the ogre, you can Blorple a non-
magical object, wait in the Nondescript Room a few turns, then leave, and
the ogre will not rush in and attack you.  While there is text that shows
players that getting past the ogre using Girgol is a correct solution
(though not the best, since you can't win if you do), there is absolutely
nothing displayed if you use Blorple in the ogre's cave.  There is no
evidence that Lebling intended for this to be in the game as he was
programming it.

: No, if an author allows you to make a mistake which will prevent you
: from winning the game, without letting you realize it until later, it
: is a dead-end situation.  A bug is where you can solve the first
: puzzle in a way the author intended to cause the game to become
: unwinnable and then go and solve the second puzzle in an entirely
: unexpected way and still win the game.  Anything the author planned
: for and coded, whether "fair" or not, is *not* a bug.

A "bug" is defined to be an error in a program, be it a syntax, run-time,
or logic error (as is the case here).  Again, there is no proof that the
author planned for and coded the Girgol/Blorple solution to the ogre puzzle.

: This is not to imply that all Infocom games are perfect or that none
: of them have bugs; but in this case, you are wrong.  FACE THE TRUTH!!!!
: (sorry, couldn't resist).  :)

Okay, let's think through this one last time.  (Aplolgies to all of you who
are no doubt sick of this by now, but I have to get my point across.)

Infocom uses a wide variety of puzzles in their games.  Some are easy, some
are not.  Some of the solutions are very obscure, and you must pay close
attention to the game text if you are to have any hope of solving them.  But
there is one trait common to _all_ Infocom puzzles:  They are all logical.
They all make sense in some way.  Never does a player have to face a
situation in which he or she can only advance by doing something which does
not somehow fit.

That being said, let's look at the two solutions for opening the gold box
in Spellbreaker: the weed solution (the correct one) and the Girgol/Blorple
solution (the bug).

There is an ogre blocking the passage into a cave, and he won't let you past.
You plant a weed in the cave and cast a spell to make it grow.  This makes
the ogre start sneezing, and he is to distracted to block your entrance.
You know this will work, because the ogre has hay fever, which you can learn
from casting the Yomin spell on him.  This is a _logical_ puzzle.  It makes
perfect sence.

Here's the other one:  You cast the Girgol spell on the ogre to stop time,
so he can't move and can't block your entrance.  So far, so good.  But now,
once inside, you explore the mystic connections of a non-magical object,
using Blorple.  Then you wait a bit, and when you leave, the ogre does not
attack you.  But why?  There is no reason for him not to.
Some of you might be thinking that the ogre DID check as soon as Girgol
wore off, but, not finding you, he left and went back outside, so he doesn't
know you're in there.  I would give in at this point, except for one thing:
The ogre still crushes you if you hide inside the zipper, which transports
you to another dimension.  If the ogre can still find you when you're in
another dimension, do you really think he'd be fooled by the Blorple spell?

The way I see it, Lebling programmed the game so that, when the Girgol spell
wore off AND the player was still in the cave, the ogre would crush him.
Using the Girgol/Blorple solution, the spell wears off, but the player is
NOT in the cave when it does; he's in the Nondescript Room!  So the program
ignores the ogre's attack.  Then when the player exits, he's back in the
room, but the spell has long since worn off!

It would not be difficult for a programmer, great though he may be, to
overlook something like this.  There are other, more obvious bugs in some
of Lebling's games -- for instance, the Enchanter bug I mentioned, where
you stand around the Engine Room for days.  Another one that someone recently
pointed out to me was the fact that, in The Lurking Horror, if you lose the
master key in a way that makes it impossible to retrieve, you can just go
back to the Terminal Room and ask the hacker for it again, and he'll give
it to you.

Programmers make mistakes.  Companies release games that have bugs in them.
Bugs don't always crash games, but they make them behave strangely.

And that's the truth.
