Plotwise, it's a standard treasure hunt adventure -- we have to find a parka to stay warm, then find and reclaim a hefty fifteen treasures from the snowy Alaskan wilderness. It's a challenging adventure for all the wrong reasons -- the puzzles are straightforward once they're discovered, but many important items are hidden, some appear randomly, and the map is highly maze-oriented and designed to confuse, with identical-looking rooms that are actually different locations. I had to dig into the BASIC code on numerous occasions to find everything and solve the game; otherwise, the story is simple, and the puzzles aren't particularly difficult once the necessary elements are tracked down.
As always, I suggest that interested readers embark upon the Alaskan Adventure before proceeding here. In the interest of historical documentation, and perhaps saving others the hair-tearing aspects of actually playing this game, there will be copious and thorough...
***** SPOILERS AHEAD! *****
The game opens with Scott Adams-style introduction screens explaining the basic concept; Adams' basic "I will be your puppet" opening inspired many of his contemporaries to include similar text. The two-word parser is similar to other SoftSide adventures, though it has a few quirks of its own. The I(nventory) command, when we have nothing in hand, just stops dead after printing out "You are carrying:"
Oddly for a treasure hunt set in Alaska, we can't readily DIG SNOW -- the parser initially yields "Too cold / B-R-R-R-R." After we visit the trading post and obtain a shovel, it becomes clear that even now we can't actually DIG SNOW, but LOOK SNOW is sufficient to discover anything hidden in it. We can't discover this until we have the shovel, though, so it's a bit of a Catch-22.
The LOOK verb appears to be non-specific; actually, it falls through to a room-level inspection if there's nothing notable about the specified object. I thought for a while that we had to LOOK HUSKIE repeatedly to discover a *MAGIC IDOL, but it's actually location-based -- a simple LOOK in the right spot finds it. And we can't just GET IDOL once we've found it -- Magic idol says, "find me a container" -- so this actually ends up being the last treasure we acquire.
Once we have gathered the dogs, we can GO SLED, then MUSH (as mentioned at the start of the game) to set off across the frozen tundra.
There's a parka in an igloo found to the north after this first dog sled ride, along with a matchbook containing 4 matches, and a FROZEN ESKIMO. We can pick up some twigs nearby and burn them in the igloo to thaw the Eskimo, who gives us a *RARE COIN. What I missed on my first pass is that there's actually a second igloo to the south -- I thought I was wrapping around to the first one I found -- and an alarm clock hidden near the sled. We can use the clock to wake the SLEEPING ESKIMO residing in this second igloo -- twice! -- to steal his *PEARL, *GOLDEN STATUE, and pillow.
The map is fairly tight, with just a few rooms in each segment of the game, but each section is also rather mazelike, with inconsistent directions and lots of wraparounds. Each area's puzzles are largely self-contained, with only a few items that must be carried from one area to another.
Several puzzles center around keeping the sled dogs healthy -- they get very thirsty after a few runs, then hungry, then sick.
To water the dogs, we visit an Eskimo lodge, where the Eskimos are having dinner and exclaiming, rather incongruously, "This salad tastes terrible." We can take the hint and bring them the ESKIMO DRESSING from an adjacent room, take the empty bottle after they're done with it, and then GET SNOW at the sled's location (we can't do this elsewhere, for some reason.) We also find a WEDDING RING in the process, though it's not a treasure. We can HEAT BOTTLE over the lodge's roaring fire, get a dish from the lodge's kitchen, and POUR WATER to satisfy our trusty canine companions for the moment.
After another MUSH, though, the dogs are hungry and won't move again until we feed them. We find a can opener on a nearby mountaintop (after we CLIMB MOUNTAIN, GO MOUNTAIN does not work). A quick LOOK MOUNTAIN also reveals a cave with a locked door; BURN DOOR is interpreted as BURN MATCH by the parser, and doesn't help. But there's a SNOWBANK nearby, which we must refer to as a BANK; we can DIG BANK with the shovel to find another igloo with a key (hidden, sadly, on a DEAD ESKIMO) and a tin can of Alpo (another vintage bit of unofficial product placement.)
At the next stop, we encounter a Polar Bear, who is not particularly dangerous, but we still need to find the speargun (GET GUN, not GET SPEARGUN) and shoot the poor creature to trade its fur for the *GOLD KNIFE. We can also give the wedding ring to a crying ESKIMO BRIDE, receiving an *ALASKAN RUBY as a reward. Some sticky shoes found to the east allow us to CLIMB IGLOO to find the speargun.
The dogs seem content for the moment, but at the next stop, they are sick. There's an ESKIMO VET in an igloo, but she needs her black bag before she will help us. She also has a radio playing music; it's too large to carry (It's a console) but if we answer the phone in the igloo next door, we have the opportunity to win a prize by naming the radio station that's playing. We have to return to the vet's office to learn that we need to SAY KOOL to win the *GOLDEN RECORD, delivered by an incredibly efficient mail carrier. The vet's bag is hard to find -- it's actually well-hidden underneath our sick sled team, and we have to MOVE DOG to find it.
At the next step of our journey, we find a lake containing a dead whale (aren't they saltwater creatures?) and can GET OIL from its body. There's a TIRED ESKIMO wandering around here, wearing a *GOLD NECKLACE; giving him the pillow liberated earlier allows us to snag the treasure. We can also climb a totem pole to GET (and accidentally drop) an OPAL from a gargoyle's eye socket, then climb back down to find it in the snow below. Inside the lower section of the totem pole is a treasure chest containing a *SAPPHIRE; there's also a box nearby, handy for snagging the *MAGIC IDOL after we return home.
Next stop: A NAKED FEMALE ESKIMO chases us out of her igloo; we get a brief glimpse of a *GOLD VASE in the room, but no details on the nudity, so we know where our priorities are. She is not guarding it, really; she's just modest, so if we CLOSE EYES we can go in, retrieve it, and OPEN EYES (if we're still inside, she chases us out again.) There's a HUNGRY ESKIMO in an igloo to the south of the sled, another disguised/hidden location; we can SHOOT a low-flying SEAGULL and trade it for a *SILVER FORK here. Next we encounter a POOR OLD ESKIMO with his kayak by the river; we must give him one of our treasures to rent the kayak, but it can be reclaimed later in the naked Eskimo's igloo (implying a degree of illicit commerce in the area.) There's a MAD ESKIMO in an igloo on the other side of the river, but he's not insane, just unhappy with his unlit pipe. We can DROP MATCHBOOK to get a *BAR OF SILVER from this desperate smoker.
Another round of MUSHing the dogs, and we find ourselves back at the game's starting location. On my first time around the map, I only found 7 of the 15 treasures, but they can all be rounded up in a single trip. Fortunately, the game's inventory limit is not tight -- there's no treasure storage location in this game, so we have to carry them all with us.
I did find one parser/dictionary bug -- some confusion arises between the CAN OPENER and the OPEN CAN, and somehow I ended up with duplicate CAN items in my inventory.
As soon as we pick up the fifteenth treasure, it's time to celebrate! Or it should be, at least; the game is rather unenthusiastic about the whole thing:
I had fun solving the Alaskan Adventure, but I don't think I could have finished it without looking at the source code, so I had to treat it as a meta-adventure, with lots of notes on room and item numbers decorating my map by the time I got through. I've provided my walkthrough below the fold, and it's also available at the CASA Solution Archive.
WALKTHROUGH:
(In this first section, you will randomly encounter an ESKIMO HUSKIE - GET HUSKIE until you have a full team of 6 Eskimo Huskies)
E
E
LOOK SNOW (reveals * MAGIC IDOL)
S
LOOK SNOW
GET PLATE
E
N
GO POST
DROP PLATE (Trader trades for shovel)
S
(Wander around until you find and get 6 huskies, then find the SLED - repeating W movement should get you to the sled)
DROP HUSKIES (SLED becomes DOG SLED)
GO SLED
MUSH
D
N
E
GET TWIGS
N
GO IGLOO
GET PARKA
WEAR PARKA
GET MATCHBOOK
DROP TWIGS
LIGHT TWIGS (grateful Eskimo gives us *RARE COIN)
S, W
LOOK SNOW (reveals alarm clock)
GET CLOCK
S
GO IGLOO
DROP CLOCK
SET CLOCK
S (eskimo runs out)
GO IGLOO
GET PEARL
S, W, S
GO IGLOO
SET CLOCK
S (eskimo runs out again)
GO IGLOO
GET STATUE
GET PILLOW
S, W
GO SLED
MUSH
D, S, E
GO LODGE
W
GET DRESSING
E
DROP DRESSING
GET BOTTLE
N
GET DISH
S
S
GET SNOW
GET RING
GO LODGE
HEAT BOTTLE
S, W, W
DROP DISH
POUR WATER
DROP BOTTLE
GO SLED
MUSH
D, S, E
CLIMB MOUNTAIN
GET OPENER
D, N
DIG BANK (reveals igloo)
DROP SHOVEL
GO IGLOO
LOOK ESKIMO
GET KEY
GET CAN
S, N
OPEN CAN (dogs eat food)
DROP OPENER
S, E
GO CAVE
OPEN DOOR
GO DOOR
LIGHT MATCH (briefly see * ALASKAN DIAMOND)
GET DIAMOND
W, W, N, W
GO SLED
MUSH
D, E, E
GO IGLOO
DROP RING (crying Eskimo bride gives us * ALASKAN RUBY)
S, E
GET SHOES
WEAR SHOES
W
CLIMB IGLOO
GET GUN
D
(Find polar bear, he wanders around)
SHOOT BEAR
GET BEAR
(Find trading post - going E repeatedly should get you there)
GO POST
DROP BEAR (trader gives us * GOLD KNIFE)
S, W, W, W, W
GO SLED
MUSH
D, N, E
GO IGLOO
ANSWER PHONE
SAY KOOL (mailman delivers * GOLDEN RECORD)
S, N, W
MOVE DOG
GET BAG
N
GO IGLOO
DROP BAG
GET VET
GET BAG
S, W
DROP VET (vet cures dogs; hit RETURN to continue)
N, E
GO IGLOO
LOOK VET
GET KEY
OPEN BAG
DROP KEY
DROP BAG
GET FILLING
S, W, N
GO SLED
MUSH
D, N
GO LAKE
GET OIL
S, S, E
LOOK POLE
GO HOLE (TREASURE CHEST revealed)
OPEN CHEST
GET SAPPHIRE
CLIMB POLE
LOOK FACE
GET OPAL
D
LOOK SNOW
GET OPAL
(Wander until you see the TIRED ESKIMO, then DROP PILLOW, LOOK ESKIMO and GET NECKLACE to get * GOLDEN NECKLACE; then return to TOTEM POLE location)
S
DROP KEY
DROP SHOES
GET BOX
N, W, W
GO SLED
MUSH
D, N
CLOSE EYES
GO IGLOO
GET VASE
OPEN EYES (naked eskimo chases you out)
(In this area, you will see a low-flying seagull - SHOOT SEAGULL, DROP GUN and GET SEAGULL for later)
N, E
DROP RUBY
GO KAYAK
E, S
GO IGLOO
DROP MATCHBOOK (eskimo gives * BAR OF SILVER)
W, W, W
GO KAYAK
W, N
CLOSE EYES
GO IGLOO
GET RUBY
S
OPEN EYES
N, W
S
GO IGLOO
DROP SEAGULL (hungry eskimo gives * SILVER FORK)
N, W, N, W
GO SLED
MUSH
D (back at initial area)
N, E, E
DROP RUBY
GET IDOL
GET RUBY (for victory!)
Posts
I like how this one starts with a mundane but serious challenge. One of the classic pieces of fiction set in Alaska is Jack London's "To Build a Fire", which also is about a man who needs to get warm.
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