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CYBORG
1 Forest, Canyon, Maintenance
Room and Gym
2 25 and 50 Meters Down
3 The Bottom Level and The End
CYBORG
Part 1
You'd think that with two brains you'd be able to remember who you are. That
you remember who you used to be is something, of course, but if it was NASA II,
the space agency, that made you a CYBORG and sent you on this mission (whatever
it is), what are you doing in the middle of a forest? Has an interplanetary leaf
shortage suddenly developed for you to investigate?
This is the beginning of Michael Berlyn's pre-Infocom masterpiece, Cyborg, one
of the finest fusions of literature and adventure gaming yet produced. In this
game the usual problem of accounting for the adventurer's naivete is handled by
a brilliant stroke: you have amnesia, and have no idea who you are, where you
are, or what you are supposed to be doing. Fortunately, you have a partner
through this: your other, mechanical half. Asking his opinion on objects and
locations can often be of aid, although he has partial amnesia, too, so he can
be of only limited help at first.
Anyway, here you are. Start by asking for Help, which will explain a bit more
about your situation. But just a minute now. Who's this lizard standing beside
you, asking for food? Well, you need some of that yourselves (both of you in
your own ways), but if you can't find out where you are and what's going on, you
may never find anything, so let's see if you can find some food, either for the
lizard, who may be able to help you out of this, or for one of your two halves.
Go southwest, then south. Hmmm. A nice collection of dead insects. Just what a
lizard might like. Get them, and then go north and northeast to find him again.
Feed him, then Ask Lizard. (You can Ask all four questions in return for the one
meal. NOTE: In some Apple versions, it is not possible to get the insects and
feed the lizard. However, doing this is not necessary to win the game. If you
can't get the insects, skip down to the microlaser part).
Well, we didn't learn much from that, but it's a beginning. Let's explore. Go
east. Go east again. What's this? A room full of little shelves? A storage
closet in a forest? There must be more here than meets the scanner. But the
microlaser could be useful. Get it and wear it.
By the way, what do you suppose killed those insects? To find out, go West out
of the room, South, West twice, and then South again to reach the place on the
path where you found them. Now go down, leaping gracefully over the railing.
(NOTE: In some Apple versions, you must CLIMB DOWN). Ouch! Well, now we know
what did them in.
There's a forest here that's very easy to get lost in, so just go straight
east, three times. In the maintenance room, get the matches and the sneakers.
Now backtrack west, and go north twice to a dark area. Light a match. Get the
power-pack. Ahhh! That felt good! Get the ladder, too. You never know when it
might come in useful. South, south, and east to where the matches were, and then
south twice. Get the cube. It doesn't seem to have any external features, so cut
it (with the laser) and then open it. Get the ID that fell out, but don't throw
the now-empty cube away yet.
Insert the ID in the slot, but then get it again. (Always remember to do this
after putting the ID in a slot, which you will be doing often.) Go south. Get
the Ultrafiche, which seems to be the only thing in the library you can get at.
Go west, and take a little time to admire the scenery. It makes no sense
whatsoever, but at least it's pretty.
Go west again. Insert the ID in the slot, and get the apple. Eat it. Get the ID
back, of course. Now wear the ID (it works two ways), so it won't be taking up
space in your hands.
Go north four times from the vending machine to get back to the main path. Go
west. It smells interesting to the south, doesn't it? Let's look Whoops! Maybe
that wasn't such a good idea after all. Fortunately, we have our laser. Shoot
the snake. 100 power-units is usually enough for IBM. 50 is said to be
sufficient for Apple II. However, you may have to shoot more than once.
From the snake, go north and then go west three times, noticing the
descriptions. There's a shoulder harness here; get it and wear it. Then go east
twice, north, and northeast. Cut the string to release it from the tree and then
get it. Lace the sneakers with the string and wear them. Go east twice. Climb
the tree and get the fruit. It's a little prickly, but if you cut it, to get the
skin off, you can eat it. Go back down and then north. There is more of the
forest, but there is nothing to do and nothing much to see.
At the entrance to the gymnasium, you can go right in, since you're wearing the
ID and the sneakers, so just go north. Go up to get to the top of the steam
cabinet. Open the hatch, and enter the cabinet.
YOW! That's hot! Quickly strike a match and look around. The infra-red lenses
will allow you to see in the dark from now on, so take them and wear them. Then
take the droid, who will go straight onto the shoulder harness. (He'll be making
smart remarks from time to time, which may or may not be of help.) Then go up to
get out of the cabinet and down to get back to the gym floor.
Go north to the center of the gym, and go up (climbing the rings) to the
ceiling. Smash the trap-door. Yes, you really should. Go up. There's a
frightened "togram" here. She looks scared, so pet her. Now that she feels
better, Ask the Togram all four questions.
Hmmm! So there are more humans here. And you'd better look out for the
illogical smada: it sounds like something an adventurer might be better off
avoiding. There's nothing you can do for the togram now, so go down twice, to
get back to gym floor.
From the center of the gym, go west twice, southwest, west, and north. Press
the touchplate, as directed, so contaminants from the forest ecology will not
harm the environment now facing you. (Wearing the ID is necessary here, too.) Go
north to the top of the shaft.
CYBORG
Part 2
Go down once. At 25 meters down, open the hatch, and go south three times. Get
the repair patch you find here. (NOTE: In some Apple versions, there is no patch
here; patch will be available during the arcade sequence.) Then go north three
times back to the shaft, and down to the next level.
Go northwest to the intersection. Explore the blue corridor to the south,
first. Go south, up, and south to the center of the dome. Once there, go east to
see the view, which may give you an important hint as to what's going on, and
then head back west and south to the southern end of the dome. Remove the droid,
and it will pop through the hole and return with a spacesuit for you.
Getting the suit on is pesky. Drop the matches, ultrafiche, cube, and ladder,
so your hands will be free. Then remove the laser, ID, sneakers, and harness,
and drop them, too. Get the suit and wear it. Then go north and west to the
airlock.
The next part of the game varies from system to system. (By the way, it now
becomes clear that the points of the compass are merely relative in this game.
However, judging from the layout of this ship, conventional terms such as
"fore", "aft", "port", or "starboard" would also have had little meaning, in
addition to giving away too much too soon.)
On an IBM PC, simply press the button, go west and pick up the torch. Then go
north and apply the repair patch. Afterwards, go south and east. You exit the
airlock without pressing the button, so just go east again to get to the center
of the dome.
On an Apple II, save the game at this point, because Cyborg is suddenly going
to turn into a video game for a moment. Push the button and go west. Watch the
coordinates at the bottom of the screen. You are starting at 22/13. You have to
get to 7/25. Move back, down to 7, left to 25, and forward. When you have
applied the patch, reverse the process. This section of the game is real-time,
so you don't have the usual adventurer's luxury of stopping to think between
moves. The Apple Macintosh version presumably follows one of these two schemes.
Once you are back at the center of the dome, go south to where you left
everything. Remove the suit, and drop the suit and torch (if you have one), you
won't need them any more. Get the laser, sneakers, and harness. Wear all three.
Then get the matches, ID, droid, ultrafiche, cube, and ladder. Go north four
times to get back to the intersection.
This time, go northwest on the red path three times. Drop off the ladder at the
wall and go up. If you go west, you will find yourself on the ship's bridge.
Notice what the screens show you. Then go west again. This dial is broken, and
it will have to be repaired, but there's nothing useful we can do here, yet, so
go east three times to get back to the ladder.
Go south twice to the eerily-lit room. The balance will blow you up if you
aren't careful, but if you drop the cube first you can take the power crystal.
Go north twice and drop the crystal by the ladder. Then go north twice more.
At last! The ultrafiche reader! Insert the fiche in a slot and insert the ID in
the other slot. Then turn on the reader. Now things begin to become really clear
to you, explaining what the heck that forest was all about, where you are, and
what you're supposed to be doing. And it seems there's still some more work to
do.
Don't forget to get the ID. Wear it, to prevent inventory problems. Then go
south twice from the reader and southeast three times to get back to the
intersection.
This time go north along the yellow path. That grill looks suspicious, but your
energy levels are getting low, so leave it alone for now. For now, go north
three more times (we don't have all we need for sickbay yet, so just pass that
by). Get the beaker from the laboratory, go east, and fill the beaker with
oxygen. Then go west and go south four times, back to the intersection.
Finally, take the green northeast passage to Hydroponics. Get the peach and eat
it. Then go east, get the wire, and go west and southwest, back to the
intersection again. Southeast takes us back to the tube.
CYBORG
Part 3
In the tube, go down one more level to the bottom. Go along the corridor to the
west twice, then north twice, then west. Get the power-battery. Since we're all
recharged, now, this would be a good time to take care of the robot the lizard
warned us about, and which we saw on the screen, so go back east, south, south,
east, and east, to get to the bottom of the shaft.
From there, going south will take you to the sleep chambers, and on the third
time, you will find the berserk robot. Shoot it with 150 (IBM) or 45 (Apple II).
Then smash the dead robot.
Take the power casing. Open it. Take the power cell that the robot stole from
you while you were unconscious and wear it. This will permanently solve energy
problems for your cyborg half. Drop the power casing and take the tools.
Go south twice more. Getting the sleepers' manual from the iguana is the
nastiest problem in the game, but the solution is actually simple. Remove the
sneakers, unlace them, and drop them. (You won't need them any more.) Then give
the string to the iguana and while he is playing "iguana's cradle" with it you
can take the manual.
North five times from the iguana gets you back to the shaft bottom. Drop the
beaker and matches here temporarily, and return to the dormitory area. Go west
twice, south twice, west, and north. Get the moldy bread, but don't eat it; it's
not at all good for your human half. Go north twice more. Open the locker here
with the tools. Get the solder that was in the locker. Then go south and go east
three times, back to the shaft bottom.
Drop the solder, wire, and manual here. Pick up the beaker and the matches and
go north to the cargo bay. Remove the ID, insert it in the slot, get it back and
wear it. Go north. There is a very nice maze here, and you can solve it, if you
like, but it won't achieve anything to do so. Instead, you have to clear it out.
It seems that there's a lot of flammable stuff in the debris, because if you
pour the oxygen out of the beaker and onto the debris, light a match, and drop
the match, you get a dandy explosion that opens up a way for you to the alien
ship. Drop the beaker and the matches now, because you won't need them again,
and go east twice to get inside the ship.
Once inside, feed the reptile with the moldy bread (no accounting for tastes!).
Once you have done this, Ask the Reptile. He should explain just about all the
remaining mysteries, so now pick up the small CPU you found here, and exit west,
west, and south.
South once more gets you to the bottom of the shaft. Get the manual, wire, and
solder, and go up to the 50m level and northwest to the multi-colored
intersection.
We might try to finish quickly here, but let's visit sickbay first, so we'll be
in good health at the grand finale. Go north. Remember the grill? Well, our
energy levels are permanently high now, so smash it.
Oh no! It's the smada! Shoot it with 100 if you have an IBM, or 45 if you have
an Apple II. Whew! Well, we had to take care of that anyhow. Go north twice
more, east, north, and west. Unlock the latch with the tools, and open the
panel. Enter the cylinder, close the panel, and pull the lever. This should heal
most of the damage done by various accidents and beasties along the way, so open
the panel and leave.
East, south, west, and south three times returns you to the intersection.
Northwest three times gets you to the ladder where you left the power crystal.
Pick that up, and then go up and west twice to get to the end of the bridge. Now
we're ready for that dial. Drop the wire, solder, CPU, and power crystal, and
repair the dial (you need to be holding the manual and the tools).
Now turn the dial to wake up the sleepers. Since you may have been contaminated
by something nasty during your adventures, you don't want to visit with them,
but there's no point in that anyway, because all you have left to do is go east
and throw the switch to start the automatic landing procedure, and receive the
thanks of the entire human race.
CYBORG is published by Sentient Software.
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