solution
A Night At The Museum Forever was written in TADS 2 and is © 1995 by Chris Angelini.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release ?? of the game.
A few quirks to watch out for:
(1) The game doesn't know some of the common verbs, like listen, smell, or swim.
(2) Going east from the Foyer in any time period is bad until you have the ring, but it's especially bad in the present day, since you aren't given the opportunity to undo in that case.
(3) A hunger daemon starts at turn 200, which is unfortunate, since there's no food in the game. I assume that this was a default behaviour of TADS that wasn't turned off.
| Glass Blower's | — | Future Expansion |
| | | ||
| Lake | ||
| | | ||
| Exhibit Hall | ||
| | | ||
| Foyer | — | exit |
| | | ||
| Corridor | — | Time Platform |
Museum Map | ||
[Foyer] (present)
>i. x hose. x disruptor. x walls. n.
[Exhibit Hall] (present)
Note that when you try to take the ring, it doesn't quite exist yet. You task is to make it exist.
>x plinth. x pieces. disrupt case. take ring. n.
[Lake] (present)
>x lake. x bridge. s. s. s.
[Corridor] (present)
Note the hint that you need something sticky to take the setting.
>x crack. x setting. take it. e.
[Time Platform] (present)
>x machine. x panel. x dial. x lever.
>turn dial to 1. pull lever.
[Time Platform] (past)
>w.
[Corridor] (past)
>x crack. n.
[Foyer] (past)
>n.
[Exhibit Hall] (past)
>x exhibits. x plinth. n.
[Lake] (past)
Unfortunately, when you put the hose in the lake, there's no feedback to tell you that the hose is draining the lake, slowly, of its water.
>x bridge. x sand. take it. put hose in lake. n.
[Glass Blower's] (past)
>x machine. put sand in chute. look in hopper.
>x cover. take it. e.
[Future Expansion] (past)
Note that you can't just "take gum", you have to look under the chair to get it.
>x stick. take it. x chair. look under chair. x dirt.
>w. s. s. s. s. e.
[Time Platform] (past)
Note that the dial on the time machine is marked differently in each time zone. This might be a little confusing, at first. It's best to think of them as three different machines. Once you've turned the dial in the past to '2' and the dial in the future to '1', you won't have to turn those dials again, only the dial in the present.
>x dial. turn dial to 2. pull lever.
[Time Platform] (present)
>w.
[Corridor] (present)
>put gum on stick. put stick in crack. [+10; you now have the setting]
>e.
[Time Platform] (present)
>turn dial to 3. pull lever.
[Time Platform] (future)
>w. n. n. n.
[Lake] (future)
You must have drained the lake in the past before the shovel appears in the future.
>x shovel. take it. n. e.
[Future Expansion] (future)
>x chair. x coal. take it. x dirt.
>w. s. s. s. s. e.
[Time Platform] (future)
>turn dial to 1. pull lever.
[Time Platform] (present)
>turn dial to 1. pull lever.
[Time Platform] (past)
>w. n. n. n. n. e.
[Future Expansion] (past)
>dig dirt with shovel. put coal in hole.
>w. s. s. s. s. e.
[Time Platform] (past)
>pull lever.
[Time Platform] (present)
>turn dial to 3. pull lever.
[Time Platform] (future)
>w. n. n. n. n. e.
[Future Expansion] (future)
>dig dirt with shovel. x diamond. take it.
>put diamond in setting. [+10] x ring.
>w. s. s. s. s. e.
[Time Platform] (future)
>pull lever.
[Time Platform] (present)
>turn dial to 1. pull lever.
[Time Platform] (past)
>w. n. n.
[Exhibit Hall] (past)
>put ring on plinth. [+10] put cover on plinth. [+10]
>s. s. e.
[Time Platform] (past)
>pull lever.
[Time Platform] (present)
>w. n. n.
[Exhibit Hall] (present)
>take ring. s.
[Foyer] (present)
>e. [+10; win!]