Wizard's Help

Option 1 Ignore the final puzzle. Just solve individual puzzles scattered around Wizard's Den. This is fairly easy to do by using the tools described at the hint page.

If you are a casual gamer, this is probably best. You'll get almost all of the flavor of the game without the pain.

Option 2 Work on the individual puzzles as in Option 1. Use all the tools described at the hint page. Keep a detailed list of the steps to solve each puzzle. Figure out the order to solve all the individual puzzles so that you have everything you need when you arrive at the door to the final puzzle.

The final puzzle itself is trivial; however, you must go from start to finish in one session without using the main shortcut tool described on the hint page. This will require perhaps half an hour. You will need to focus on every move. Usually, at least once, I'll do something like go to a room with an item I need, then leave without picking it up. Most of the time, you can recover from such a mistake if you notice it soon enough.

Some mistakes either can't be recovered from or you discover them too late to recover from. Then, you have to start completely over.

If you are a hard core gamer, this is the challenge for you. Good luck.

Note that there are around 100 rooms, 60 items, 40 verbs. The effect of each changes as the game progresses. Checking every possible combination would take more energy and time than I have.

*** I have played the game through successfully to the end lots of times. If something isn't working, if a message doesn't make sense, if something goes haywire, take a different tack. You can complete the game.

*** During development of my games, I do make programming mistakes. One time, in this game, the game kept repeating the same move over and over forever until the browser intervened and told me my game was a runaway and offered me the chance to regain control. While I fixed that mistake, there are undoubtedly many uncaught mistakes still lurking in this code. If the game stops responding to input and the browser offers you the chance to quit, do so and don't repeat the sequence of moves that led to trouble.

(Of course, some gamers like to find an error and exploit it. One time, I got to a cave in the sky in a game and there was a message waiting from the developer, “How did you get here?”)

In spring, 1984, at University Computing Company (a real, private company, not a university; its pieces were later merged into other companies), I played a computer game called Adventure. The name Adventure eventually graduated to being a category name and the game itself is now commonly called Colossal Cave. The Fortran source code was readily available and it encouraged anyone to modify the code and pass it on. (In those days, the programming community was a small, friendly fraternity that did not need voluminous license agreements.)

In the data is the following history, "This program was originally developed by Willie Crowther. Most of the features of the current program were added by Don Woods. The program was adapted to the CDC 6000 system by Bill Lee. This version was adapted to the NOS/BE operating system by Mike Trahan."

I have a copy of the original code which I made available for download on my web site for a while. I also planned to translate the game pretty much as is from Fortran to C or C++ or C# or Java. Then, I decided to first make a small, teaser version in HTML for my web site. Then, the HTML version grew. Most of the puzzles will be recognized by anyone who played the original, but some are new puzzles and most of the settings for the old puzzles are new. Finally, I decided the HTML version was good enough. I wanted to move on to a real 3D game using webgl. So, I dropped the idea of doing a translation of the original program.

Main Game page where you can choose a different game to play.

Come to this help page.

Dictionary page. How to build a command. Extra information and shortcuts for some words.

Emulating the mentor I had to guide me, here be hints.

If you are playing the game and have a question about how something works and you click the help button, Help

, you will go to the help page all right. But, when you return to the game page, you will have to start all over. You will lose any work you have done.

Better is to set up two tabs in your browser.

Now, you have the game page on the left tab, the help page on the right tab.

Click the game page tab to play the game.

If you have a question click the help page tab (not the help page button). When you are done reading the help page, click the game page tab (not the game page button). You will return to the game and resume playing the game where you left off.

(You can navigate among the various help pages, Help, Words, Hints, at the right tab and the game will wait patiently, undisturbed at the left tab.)

Often, I will be executing a bunch of moves I've done lots of times. I don't bother reading the description of the result of each command in the group since I know nothing bad will happen. Except once in a while something bad does happen.

I decided a sound effect could provide an extra alert that I need to pay attention. But, then, I realized you might be playing the game in the library where you need to be quiet. Thus, a better idea would be to put an alert in large-sized, colored letters.

Ultimately, I compromised.

+++ Two sounds apply to the lamp. One tells you that you are in the dark and need to turn on the lamp or find daylight immediately. The other tells you that you just moved from a dark room to one with daylight and can safely turn off the lamp to conserve the battery.

+++ Other sounds tell you when you are freshly under attack, when a door is opening or closing and when the klaxon starts blaring.

Mute The first time you start the game, the speaker icon has a red X over it. Sounds are silenced. If noise won't bother anyone, you can click the speaker icon to allow sounds.

Volume You can adjust the volume with your computer's speaker controls.

Or you can enter a number between 0 and 100 for Object, then click the game's speaker icon.

Note clicking the speaker icon only (no number for Object) changes the mute setting, but leaves the volume level unchanged. If you are in a room with others, you can click the speaker icon to silence the game, then when you move to a room where you are alone, you can click the speaker icon to restore the sounds.

On the other hand, setting the volume (speaker icon + number) will change the volume setting and may also change the mute setting.

Note that each game sets the mute and volume for its own game.

In this game, the sound is set by clicking the speaker icon and, for volume, additionally entering the volume in Object.

It may appear that the sound control is inside the game. No. The game and sound are separate. It is simply a convenience to have game commands control mute and volume. No other game command affects mute or volume.

Local Storage If the above line says local storage is supported, then your setting for the speaker (mute and volume) should be automatically saved and reloaded the next time you play the game.

For a bit more on Local Storage, click here.

If you make a mistake which you can't recover from and need to start over:

*** Option 1: Click help button Help

in upper right corner to go to Help page. There, click game button Game

in upper right corner to reload Game page.

*** Option 2: Click "Reset" (and click “Yes” if you are asked, “Are you sure?”) The browser should reload the Game page.

Usually games have a save capability.

This game does not have a save option. (I have save capability for sound volume and mute now and I may, someday, extend that to the rest of the game.)

You can try the save option in your browser if you want. (Right click somewhere on page and select Save Page as ....) I haven't found this to work.

If you want to save the finish page of the game to prove you completed it, you can use your computer's Print Screen option. For my computer, click the funtion (FN) key + the Print Screen (PRTSC) key. This puts a picture of the current screen on the clipboard. Open any paint program, paste (the clipboard image into the working area), save it (File, Save as) in bitmap (.bmp, very large file) or jpeg (.jpg, reasonable size file but a little fuzzy). (For the keys to Print Screen on your computer, see your user manual.)