Timeout Walkthrough Welcome to the benevolent Computer. As the game begins, you are summoned to the Briefing Room, but have no idea where one would be. It is your job to find your way through the catacombs of Plastic Factory K. If you do not in enough time (10-15 turns), you will be found by an escort bot who will ensure your arrival at the briefing for the mere price of one of your lives. You are warned you have six in all, and so to be extra careful around Alpha Complex. In order to preserve one of your clones, the secret path to the Briefing Room from your position on the Assembly Line is {s,e,u,e,e,s}. During the briefing you learn that you are to lead your stalwart band of six on a delivery of "Zah boxes," ie, pizza to an undisclosed location. Thus begins frustrated task number two. Actually, it is your final goal, so once you deliver the Zah the game will end. All the other puzzles are merely ways to run your score up in the meantime. The final destination of the Zah is one of six locations, randomly chosen by The Computer. North of rooms beginning with the trigram SSR is room called CMT SCM in which is a slot for you to place the boxes into. Pick up the boxes and let's get started. You'll notice once you leave the Briefing Room you have to go to PLC and to Research and Development, neither of which do much for you except provide color-text and potential amusement. To endure these, head e,e,s,w. Once you head west, there is no way to get back to PLC or RND. In fact, once you return to the location of the Briefing Room you'll discover it's no longer called "Briefing Room," instead taking on the name "NOM ORE." A dossier is on the table, which contains a coded message. It can be decoded with the decoder ring found {n,e,n,w} of the ex-Briefing Room. Turn the left dial on the ring to 'K' and the right dial to 'S' for the message. My wife is named Kristin and my name is Stephen, hence the correct labels on the dials. In LSD DSL {e,s,s} of NOM ORE you will find a bottle of HapE PilZ. To get one, hand the bottle to your Morale Officer. It is yet another way to gain a little happiness, if only temporarily. From now on, the {*} notation is a series of directions from NOM ORE, the central staging area of the game. Be careful eating the slop that drops from the chute in the Dining Hall {e,n}, for it may be food poisoned. To get the slop, place the lunch tray on the target. The button summons a serve-bot, but alas Red troubleshooter, it is not your place to be served. Red herring. In PUR PLE {s,s,s,w,s}, is an old man who dies before your eyes. It is possible that one of your fellow troubleshooters will turn you in for failing to report the death. Alternatively, you can dispose of the body in the trash can in 4MO SSS {n,e}. Remove the gloves from the old man and put them on to get the Tube o' Goo in KMI KIL {n,w,w,d}. The goo doesn't really do anything, but if you ever need to lube a bot, you'd be set. You can try to go north of B17 46G, but every time you do a laser will try to shoot you. It is a wonderful way to waste clones. The laser pistols you are equipped with by the tricky dwarf in PLC doesn't do anything either. They're just Plastic Factory K's reject guns. The paperwork exists to occupy a space in your inventory. Isn't that always the case! The trusty purbotnitz is merely a metaphoric representation of your pride. It is not necessarily needed for anything, especially in Plastic Factory K. Never return to the Assembly Line if you are summoned over the loudspeaker! It is merely a plot to kill off one of your clones. If you are summoned to Atomic Restructuring, make sure you report at least five things to The Computer beforehand. As a Troubleshooter, it is your job to report traitors. The screw in 218 IMO {n,w,w,d,s,w} is also not really for any real use. But it is another way to deliver a demeaning passage to the player, which is part of the point of the world. I don't personally like the idea of turning players off to games, but for this particular world it is necessary. The orange phone in {n,w,s} is for Orange level cleared personnel only. Do not lift the receiver. There are more little secrets in the game, and you'll have to find most of them to receive the full 60 points. Be pleased to score 50 or more. Enjoy! Stephen Hilderbrand 16 September 2001