Beyond the Tesseract
| Designer(s) | David Lo |
|---|---|
| Platform(s) | TRS-80, MS-DOS, Atari ST |
| Release | 1983[1][2] |
| Genre(s) | Surreal |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Beyond the Tesseract is a text based adventure game developed in 1983 by David Lo for the TRS-80. The game was notable for its unique take on the genre and approach to mathematical entities and abstract concepts.[1] In one section the player must navigate a text adventure game, inside the text adventure game. In another the player, while asleep, derives a proof using physical representations of various symbolic logic components.[1]
The game is intentionally vague using a VERB NOUN gameplay mechanic with a vocabulary of just 200.[3]
In 1988 the game was ported to Atari ST, MS-DOS and Solaris environments and, in 2003, to interactive fiction standard of machine-independent Z-code.
Original Release Notes [3]
Scenario: You have reached the final part of your mission. You have gained access to the complex, and all but the last procedure has been performed. Now comes a time of waiting, in which you must search for the hidden 12-word message that will aid you at the final step. But what choice will you make when that time comes?
The scenario for the adventure is meant to be vague. Once the adventure has been completed, the scenario will hopefully become clear.
Instructions: This adventure recognizes the standard commands for moving (N,E,S,W), taking inventory (I), maninpulating objects (GET, DROP, LOOK), and saving games (SAVE, LOAD), as well as many others. Use 2-word 'verb noun' commands, such as 'use stack' or 'get all'. Only the first four letters of each word are significant. The adventure recognizes about 200 words, so if one word doesn't work, try another.
Notes: The "stack" is an acroynym for Space Time Activated Continuum Key. You will find this object very useful. Try the command "use stack".
This adventure is abstract and a bit on the technical side. Basic knowledge of the names of interesting mathematical objects would be a definite asset in solving the puzzles. However, detailed knowledge of the technical background is not necessary, although it will make the adventure more enjoyable and reduce the amount of comments of the form "Was that supposed to be funny or what? I don't get it."
There is no carry limit, no death traps, and over 200 words in the program's vocabulary, so you can hopefully concentrate on solving the adventure instead of solving the program. The map of the adventure can be draw on a grid. All it takes is a little experimenting to put all the subsets of locations together "logically".
History: The idea of a mathematically abstract adventure came about during the summer of 1983, when I was reading the book "Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid". I had just read an article on writing adventures, and I thought about doing my own article on adventure writing. I did start on the article, and one of the examples of how varied puzzles can be is a mathematical adventure where the player has to "use a probability function to cross a field of improbability to get to a vortex." Sadly the article was never finished, although remnants of it can be found in the ADV.DOC file. I started thinking more and more about a mathematically abstract adventure, and Tesseract was born!
The very first adventure that I wrote was in 1982, titled "Hall of the Mountain King" (find the Crystal of Light). Tesseract Version 1.0 was the second of the three TRS-80 BASIC adventures that I wrote in a two-month adventure-frenzy during the summer of 1983. The first was "Project Triad" (defuse the bomb on the space station), and the third was "Codename Intrepid" (deliver a package to another agent).
Original Annotated Solution [3]
(spoiler alert)
Tesseract was meant to be a sequel to Project Triad, but when it was finished I found that it had no solid relation to Triad. The program started from an example I used when I tried to write an article on how to write an adventure. The example, as far as I could remember it, was "using a definitive function to get by a field of improbability."
The word play in Tesseract is the acrostic. The first letter of the important words in the hidden message form the word "tesseract." Since the message also contains the word "tesseract", the message can be thought of as self-containing. The "hint" to an acrostic is the stack (Space-Time Activated Continuum Key). The 12-word message is:
"The Eternal Soul Seeks the Exact Reasons and Answers of Countless Tesseracts"
The message is divided into 4 lines, with each line being presented at the end of its puzzle.
1. Book World
put disk in projector kick projector push 4 read tombstone (1)
The fractals worlds used to be vegetables beings (nursery/peach baby, "Gather No Moss" Concert/asparagus youth, hyper-lab/potato assistant, lettuce scientist) performing tasks that the player needs use in solving the puzzles. There was some humour/logic to the selection of the vegetables and beings, but the reason is so obtuse it makes the Far Side look logical.
- Peach is like a baby, pink and fuzzy. The baby was spinning a
one-sided toy.
- Asparagus is an aphrodisiac, and youths are hormone-filled. The
youth was wearing an audio apparatus.
- Lettuce is a head, hence an egghead/brainy scientist. The
scientist did nothing.
- Potato is also called spud, and Spud seems to be a good
low-ranking name. The assistant was Y'ing polyhedrons.
I was going to have dust on the mountain, then melt the snowflake to grow a fractal plant, which is the prequel to the plant-being in the mirror world.
2. Prism
break prism read tetrahedron at spectrum (2)
3. Dream World
prove supposition with postulates to get lemma prove hypothesis with axiom (and lemma) to get theorem give theorem to math (or wake math with theorem on ground) at words of fire (4)
This provides a foreshadowing of the ending.
4. Plant Being
roll dice 3 times and add numbers y dice to get 4-D solid
y strip to get bottle melt solid at plasma to get 4-D liquid fill bottle with liquid water alien (or cool coil, spin coil at monopoles, get plasma, then either melt solid at plant, or melt solid anywhere and fill bottle etc.)
get function get improbability (use sum of numbers, or .# of voices in fugue) use improbability at certainty solve integral with function insert singularity in earphones wear earphones listen to plant (8)
The TRS-80 version didn't use _Y_, which was my internal notation. The _'s were replaced with random consonants (e.g. byk, tyv, etc.) at run-time.
The function and integral is analogous to a weapon v.s. monster puzzle (the sword has many sharp points, and the monster is vicious.) During the translation, I thought of using a glider gun and a dragon curve, but somehow that was replaced by the function and integral. Originally there was no integral or function. Instead, there was a one-sided polygon that you spin to get a mono-filter.
References
- 1 2 3 "Beyond the Tesseract - Moby Games". MobyGames.com. 2008-10-31.
- ↑ "Beyond the Tesseract". Wurb.com. 2008-10-31.
- 1 2 3 Lo, Dave. "Dave Lo's Hobbies".