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From: buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: (spoilers) Re: Shade: more help required
Message-ID: <G4z9qM.D5t@world.std.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2000 05:54:22 GMT
References: <908gf8$2pq@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> <8FFE5DFAEmkinyon.at.iusb.edu@129.79.6.161> <G4yFGD.619@world.std.com> <90c0af$uhg$1@news7.svr.pol.co.uk>
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Ok, here's a bunch of transcripts of how you can
experience the ending based on Adam Biltcliffe's
reminder of how to generate the message we were discussing.

Adam Biltcliffe <abiltcliffe@bigfoot.NOHORMELPRODUCTS.com> wrote:
>Sean T Barrett <buzzard@world.std.com> wrote in message
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>>* SPOILER SPACE *
>> >>>>>.
>> >>>>>.
>> >>>>>.
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>> >>>>>.
>> >>>>>.
>> >>>>>.
>> >>>>>.
>> >>>>>.
>> >>>>>.
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>> >>>>>

Here are the possibilities that I found--not multiple endings,
but just different ways you might encounter the endgame.

#1, you examine the book the first turn it's possible--there's
a daemon that delays the ending.

|  The sands quickly cover it.
|
|  >x book
|  The cover is worn now. The pages are all blank.
|
|  >z
|  Time passes.
|
|  >z
|  The tiny figure crawls out from under the sands. It's dead.
|
|  "You win," it says. "Okay, my turn again."
|
|  >...
|  Nothing left to do. Time passes.
|
|  The sun crawls higher.

Approach #2: you don't immediately examine the book, but
you only issue certain commands (look, inv, z) which don't
trigger the "nothing to do" comment:

|   The sands quickly cover it.
|
|   >z.z.z.z.
|   Time passes.
|   Time passes.
|   Time passes.
|   Time passes.
|
|   >x book
|   The cover is worn now. The pages are all blank.
|
|   >z
|   The tiny figure crawls out from under the sands. It's dead.
|
|   "You win," it says. "Okay, my turn again."
|
|   >...
|   Nothing left to do. Time passes.
|
|   The sun crawls higher.

Approach #3: You get really lucky and issue the right command
at just the right time, so the "nothing to do but wait" reads
like a clue (which is how I happened to experience it):

|   The sands quickly cover it.
|
|   >z
|   Time passes.
|
|   >x book
|   The cover is worn now. The pages are all blank.
|
|   >n
|   Nothing to do but wait.
|
|   >z
|   The tiny figure crawls out from under the sands. It's dead.
|
|   "You win," it says. "Okay, my turn again."
|
|   >...
|   Nothing left to do. Time passes.
|
|   The sun crawls higher.

Approach #4: you issue the "n" one move earlier in the above transcript,
which means you'll wait two turns before the ending.

Approach #5: you issue an "n" before reading the book:

|   The sands quickly cover it.
|
|   >n
|   Nothing to do but wait.
|
|   >z.z.z.z.
|   Time passes.
|   Time passes.
|   Time passes.
|   Time passes.
|
|   >x book
|   The cover is worn now. The pages are all blank.
|
|   >z
|   The tiny figure crawls out from under the sands. It's dead.
|
|   "You win," it says. "Okay, my turn again."
|
|   >...
|   Nothing left to do. Time passes.
|
|   The sun crawls higher.

Note that if you issue a "n/e/s/w" before the action that
triggers "the sand covers it", you get the response "you
pace around for a while"; so the message in question (Nothing
left to do but wait) is clearly specific to the final
moments, so yeah, to reiterate my original claim,
I would have reported it as a bug too, that it seems to
trigger that "clue" prematurely; if it's what Zarf intended,
I'm not really sure why, but it's not like it's hard to
figure out that final action anyway. I'm reminded slightly
of the forward/backward puzzle in Hunter, though.

SeanB
