The Ludicorp Mystery is a Z-machine text adventure game written with Inform 6 and is © 2006 by Cal 'Bees' Henderson.
In this game, you play as a concerned citizen, very likely a gamer, exploring a large office building. Ludicorp is very overdue with their next game release. You're worried that something has gone wrong at the Ludicorp offices, so you decide to visit them and investigate the situation.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on release 12 of the game.
Front Of The Office
Okay, here's the plan for the first part: Go everywhere you can reach outside; you get a point for every location visited. Pick up everything that's not nailed down; there's no inventory limit. Turn on the electricity for the delivery bay gate so you can get inside the building.
> verbose. x building. s. se.
Corner Of The Carpark
> x car. open it. in.
Car
> x car. smell it. x gun. take it.
> out. nw. n. e. e. s. e.
Storage Shed
You only need the ladder, but it doesn't hurt to just take them all. I have no idea what the story is with the dragon statue; I assume it's an in-joke.
> x ladder. x pots. x wire. x statue. take all.
> w. s.
Abandoned Well
> x well. x footprints. x plants. d.
Bottom Of The Well
> x water. touch it. take it. x fuse. take it.
> u. n. n. w.
East Of Office
> x bushes. s. s. d. ne.
Generator Room
> x label. x generator. put fuse in generator.
> sw. u. n. n. w. n.
Main Entrance
You earn a point for every location you visit, so try to visit every location, even if there's nothing of importance there.
> x door. open it. s. w. w. e. e. s. w.
The Delivery Bay Gateway
> x gate. x panel. x button. x grill. push button. w. n.
Storeroom
The boxes themselves aren't important, but we'll need to come back here for the clingfilm later.
> x boxes. x clingfilm. n.
Long Corridor, West End
For the ground floor, we'll tour every location, going roughly clockwise through the building. The important things to pick up on the way are the key from the garden shed, the paper from the copier, the knife from the security room, the cup from the lobby, then back to the storeroom for the clingfilm.
> n. n.
Vault Door
> x keypad. e. n.
Kitchen
The cupboards are locked; you can't ever open them.
> x cupboard. open cupboard. x counter. e.
Meeting Area
Every water cooler in the game is identical and empty.
> x cooler. s.
Garden (North Side)
There's nothing at the top of the paper tree; just a point for visiting the location, as usual.
> x trees. x flowers. x paper. u. d. e. s.
Garden Shed
> x key. take it. w.
Garden (South Side)
This is the only source of drinkable water in the game.
> x fountain. x water. n. n. e.
Copier Room
> x copier. x tray. open tray. take paper. x paper. e.
Stationary Cupboard
> x shelves. u.
Top Of The Shelves
> x pen. take it. d. s.
Office
There are several Office locations in the game which are all pretty much identical and boring.
> x desks. x chairs. x computers. s. w. s. e. s.
Security Control Room
> x cupboard. unlock it with key. open it. x knife. take it. n. w. w. s.
Entrance Lobby
Oddly, you cannot unlock the front doors from the inside either. Although you can drink the coffee, I'm going to ask you not to because we need some liquid for a puzzle later. If you must drink the coffee, refill the cup with water from the garden fountain.
> x desk. x cup. take it. x coffee. n. w. w. s.
Storeroom
> cut clingfilm with knife. x patch. x knife. n. e. n. u.
Stairwell (First Floor)
For the first floor, we have to circle around counter-clockwise. Stupid for the floor not to be a complete loop.
> s.
Landing
If you were wondering what the gun is for, I think it's merely to test the claim that the window glass is bulletproof.
> x window. x carpark. shoot window. e.
Project Space
I'm gonna start ignoring chairs and windows and tables for the rest of the walkthrough.
> x whiteboard. x marker. take it. write on board with marker. s.
Crawl Space
> x toner. take it. n. e. e. n. n.
Board Room
Up until now, the PC might as well be made of balsa wood for all the emotion and personality he exhibits. But we finally get a reaction from the PC: he drools at the sight of a plasma screen.
> x screen. n.
Card Room
We'll need to return to this machine later.
> x machine. w.
Chocolate Room
The PC is "impressed" by Cadbury chocolate? Seriously?
And, oh yeah, the author programmed the chocolate bars as fifty identical items. You have no game need for any of the chocolate, but you may take them all, eat them all one at a time. You will not get sick.
> x bar. take bar. eat bar. w. w. s. w.
Bathroom
Going through the bathroom is the only way to reach the rest of the rooms on this floor. Bad enough that the meeting rooms are throughspaces, but the bathroom?
> x cubicles. s.
Gangway
Oh yes, the narrow corridor. What a fiendish puzzle. Not.
> drop all. s.
Janitors Cupboard
> x dispenser. push button. x blank card. n.
Gangway
> take all. n. e. n. e. e. e. s. s. w.
Printing Room
> x printer.
> x slot. open it. put toner in slot. close slot.
> x tray. open it. put sheet in tray. close tray.
> x light. x button. push it. x sheet. (The combo is always 1739.)
This is combo to the vault door. We might as well return there and see what we can see.
> e. s. w. w. w. n. d. s. w. n. n.
Vault Door
> x keypad. push button 1. push button 7.
> push button 3. push button 9. push button enter. n.
The Base Of Wintermute's Tower
Assuming you have the ladder from the Storage Shed, you will automatically drop it here; it will no longer be takeable.
> u. w. u.
Tower Control Room
Foolishly, you're not allowed to take any of the papers. You can't open the door yet.
> x door. x papers.
Let's head back and up to the second floor.
> d. e. d. s. s. s. e. n. u. u.
Stairwell (Second Floor)
> s. w.
South West Corner
The "city" is the only in-game object that directly informs us that we're in Canada. The real Ludicorp offices are in Vancouver, BC.
> x city. n. n.
Waste Disposal
CAUTION: Putting anything into the machine destroys the inserted object.
> s. s. e. e.
Games Room
> x arcade. play it. x pool. play it. s.
Balcony
CAUTION: Going down is fatal.
> n. e. e. n.
Maintainance Bay
> x duct. x pipe. put patch on pipe. n.
Eric Control Centre
This seems to be an in-joke of some sort.
> x console. n.
Server Room A
Ugh. More PC drool.
> x servers. w.
Server Room B
> w. x door. open door. w.
Airlock
You don't have the card for this slot—yet. Let's head for the roof.
> x slot. e. e. s. s. s. w. w. w. n. u.
Roof (Stairwell)
> w. ne. se.
Roof (East)
If you drank the coffee, you can fill the cup with water from the garden fountain and pour the water in the drain instead. The security card can't be called a "card" because of possible conflicts with the punch card, so, it's a "pass" instead. Don't forget to circle around the roof to make sure you visit all the locations.
> x drain. pour coffee in drain. x pass.
Off to the airlock...
> sw. nw. e. d. s. e. e. e. n. n. n. w. w.
Airlock
> close outer door. put pass in slot. w.
Robot Chamber
> x robot. x plaque.
Time to punch that card; race you to the Card Room, northeast corner of first floor.
> e. put pass in slot. open outer door. e. e. s. s. s. w. w. w. n. d.
> s. e. e. e. n. n. n.
Card Room
Don't bother trying the other two code samples you saw on the tower papers. The robot only recognizes the middle code line. I'm guessing that if you bungle punching the card, you'll have to destroy it in the waste disposal machine, then get another card from the card dispenser, but I haven't bothered to try that.
> x machine. punch cat_robot->desist(); on blank card.
> s. s. s. w. w. w. n. u.
> s. e. e. e. n. n. n. w. w. close outer. put pass in slot. w.
Robot Chamber
> put card in slot. s.
Store Room
It's all anti-climactic from here on. Grab the keys, run back to the tower, and unlock that final door.
> x keys. take keys. n. e. put pass in slot. open outer. e. e. s. s. s. w. w. w. n. d. d.
> s. w. n. n. n. u. w. u.
Tower Control Room
> unlock door with keys.
You free everyone from the tower; the robot had locked them in.
*** You have won ***
Also mentioned:
In the order acquired in this walkthrough:
You have so far scored your-score out of a possible 150, in several turns, earning you the rank of ranking.
Rankings:
This walkthrough is provided free of charge since I wrote this walkthrough prior to January 2015 when I began my Patreon account. I've since reformatted this walkthrough to use my currently preferred style. I hope you enjoy it!
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