By request, I'm starting another collaborative interactive fiction thread. This one will have us playing the highly-rated game Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin. Comments by me are written in italicized red text. Here is an excerpt from the game's help:


Here we go...



On the whole, it was worth the trip. The plains really were broad and grain-gold, if scarred with fences and agricultural crawlers. The mountains were overwhelming. And however much of the capital city is crusted with squat brick and faceless concrete hulks, there are still flashes of its historic charm. You've seen spires above the streets -- tiny green parks below tenements -- hidden jewels of fountains beyond walls. Any bland alley can conceal balconies wrought into iron gardens, fiery mosaics, a tree or bed of flowers nurtured by who knows who.

This alley, however, is a total washout. It ends in flat bare dirty brick, and you've found nothing but a door which lacks even the courtesy of a handle. Maybe you should call it a day.

Spider And Web
Interactive Fiction
Copyright 1997-8 by Andrew Plotkin.
(First-time players should type "about". For credits, "credits".)
Release 4 / Serial number 980226 / Inform v6.14 Library 6/6
Standard interpreter 1.2

End of Alley
It's a narrow dead end here, with walls rising oppressively high in three directions. The alley is quite empty, bare even of trash. (Your guidebook warned you: the police are as efficient about litter laws as about everything else they do.) You can retreat to the south.

A plain metal door faces you to the east, near the alley's end. It's firmly shut.

Well, let's take the advice given...

> ABOUT

And, to get some more information...

> LOOK AT ALLEY
> LOOK AT GROUND
> LOOK AT ME
> LOOK AT DOOR
> LOOK AT WALL
> LOOK AT BRICK
> LOOK AT SKY
> LOOK AT SUN
> LOOK AT CLOUDS
> INVENTORY

And for all objects in the inventory:

> LOOK AT {object}

That should give us a better idea of the current situation.

ABOUT only produces the initial help text I copied above and some metadata that won't help us in the game, so I'm omitting it here.

>LOOK AT ALLEY
You can't see any such thing.

>LOOK AT GROUND
You can't see any such thing.

>LOOK AT ME
Just yourself, as usual.

>LOOK AT DOOR
It's a naked sheet of metal, a foot taller than you, as wide as your outstretched arms. No handle, no keyhole, no label, no sign. No obvious way to open it at all, unless the black plate embedded beside it will serve.

>LOOK AT WALL
The walls are brownish brick, not recently washed. They stretch at least two stories above you.

>LOOK AT BRICK
The walls are brownish brick, not recently washed. They stretch at least two stories above you.

>LOOK AT SKY
You can't see any such thing.

>LOOK AT SUN
You can't see any such thing.

>LOOK AT CLOUDS
You can't see any such thing.

>INVENTORY
You are carrying nothing of importance.

Aaaah! The ground is invisible! THE GROUND IS INVISIBLE!

> LOOK AT BLACK PLATE

Wait... can we take advantage of that?

> LOOK UNDER GROUND

And, just in case...

> CLIMB WALL

>LOOK AT BLACK PLATE
A featureless, dull black rectangle is embedded in the bricks beside the door. It's about the width of your palm. No fool could doubt the plate has something to do with opening the door, but it doesn't bear a clue about how to do it.

>LOOK UNDER GROUND
You can't see any such thing.

>CLIMB WALL
The bricks are narrowly mortared. There's not a bit of hold to grasp.

Wait... why are we trying to get into this door in the first place?

...

Let's try something.

> TOUCH PLATE

That will become clear before long.

>TOUCH PLATE
Nothing happens.

By the way, I spent some time mapping out the game. It was kind of a pain, as there are a number of curving corridors, one passageway is inexplicably one-way (though it's easy enough to get back), and late in the game another corridor suddenly leads to a different location than it did before. I suspect the latter two issues are bugs, but I never noticed them when I first played. Anyway, here's your map thus far. An X indicates a passage with an obstacle you have not yet overcome, such as locked door.


Exciting, I know. Also, it's probably worth mentioning that, being an espionage story, this game is full of deception. Expect to have to cope with conflicting information.

>PUSH PLATE

And if that fails, let's try this...

> STEP BACK
> GET A GOOD RUNUP
> CHARGE
> SMASH DOOR

>PUSH PLATE
Nothing happens.

>STEP BACK
That isn't a direction you can go in.

>GET A GOOD RUNUP
You can't see any such thing.

>CHARGE
That's not a verb I recognize.

>SMASH DOOR
You scrape your knuckles without result. There isn't even any sound; it's like knocking on the side of a mountain.

>GO SOUTH

Mouth of Alley
You're in the entrance of a narrow brick alley, which runs further in to the north. To the south a broad street courses by, congested with traffic and bicycles, although none of them seem to notice you.

> GO SOUTH

>GO SOUTH
You leave door and alley behind, and set off to see what else this fine city might hold.

-- glaring light...

Interrogation Chamber (imprisoned in the chair)
You blink away sharp edges of memory, and the dim walls slowly emerge into your sight once again. Dark metal walls and air uncomfortably cool. And cool metal bands around your wrists and feet and forehead.

He leans forward over his desk, through the glow of his monitors and controls. Impatience tightens his face.

"Don't be absurd," he says. "You're no more a sightseer than the Old Tree in Capitol Square; and if you'd had enough sense to walk away from that door, you wouldn't be here. You don't and you didn't and are; we caught you. And you're going to start by telling me how you got through that door. Do you understand me?"



So I'm going to go ahead and spell something out here, since it tends to confuse some people and it's not really a spoiler. As you can see, you are actually being interrogated and forced to relive past memories, while the interrogator sifts through what you've shown him and tries to determine whether you've told him the truth. If the interrogator doesn't believe what you're saying (i.e. what you're doing in your "flashbacks"), he will force you to repeat the memory until he is satisfied. For example, he knows you didn't simply leave the alley without entering the complex, since you're inside it right now being interrogated. So a big part of the game is trying to relive the memories so that the interrogator buys what you're saying.

For your convenience, I will keep track of your current (non-flashback) objectives, what the interrogator wants to know from you, what you've told him that he's accepted, and what he knows you've lied about and why:

Objectives:

• Avoid saying anything that might get you killed
• Escape interrogation
• Complete your mission

The interrogator demands to know:

• ...how you got through the door to the complex.

What the interrogator has accepted:

• nothing yet

What the interrogator knows you lied about and why:

• You did not leave the alley without breaking into the complex because you were caught inside.

As for speaking with the interrogator when your consciousness returns to the interrogation room, as previously mentioned you can say YES or NO, or simply WAIT without saying anything.

One additional difficulty with mapping that I can tell you now: When your description of the action convinces the interrogator that you're telling the truth, he'll send you on to the next memory. However, he doesn't always take you back to the same room you were in before or even an adjacent one. So until the connections become clear with exploration, the map will be fragmented. Here's how it looks thus far:

Ooooh! I just got goosebumps

>Yes.

>YES
The man nods briefly -- a man satisfied with the least important detail. He touches a control. Once again, a faint whine begins to drill through your temples.

...glaring light --


On the whole, it was worth the trip. The plains really were broad and grain-gold, if scarred with fences and agricultural crawlers. The mountains were overwhelming. And however much of the capital city is scarred with squat brick and faceless concrete hulks, there are still flashes of its historic charm.

This alley, however, has no time for charm. It ends in flat bare dirty brick, and a door which lacks even the courtesy of a handle. Not that you'll wait on courtesy.

End of Alley
It's a narrow dead end here, with walls rising oppressively high in three directions. The alley is quite empty, bare even of trash. (You're sure the police are as efficient about litter laws as about everything else they do.) You can retreat to the south.

A plain metal door faces you to the east, near the alley's end. It's firmly shut.