NEWS.md

This is an attempt to document the most notable fixes. Typos and other adjustments to the text are usually not considered notable, nor are informing the player when a room goes dark after the last light source has been removed, or the numerous changes made to reduce the size of the final game.

Release 15 / Serial number 210307

• Added WRITING as a synonym for the crypt, for "READ WRITING".

• The library books now all get TOUCHBIT if you open one of them. Before, opening the purple book would cause it to be listed after the white book, even though the white book refers to the purple book in its description.

Release 14 / Serial number 210225

• The debris from the explosion is now just a text, not a proper object. Since the only synonym for the object was KREBF (some sort of in-joke, since it's also a spell name in Enchanter?), this seems like a small loss given the space it saves.

• KILL object WITH ME no longer kills you.

• The game now implements VOWELBIT, so that the sword is listed as "An elvish sword" rather than "A elvish sword".

• New bug fixed: The syntax for the PUT action now allows you to put objects that you aren't carrying, though it's almost always disallowed by a pre-action. The exception is PUT SERPENT IN object that I had previously changed. Judging by the full game's response ("Impossible for many reasons."), it wasn't a mistake as I first thought.

• OPEN BUCKET is now handled the same way as CLOSE BUCKET.

Release 13 / Serial number 210220

• The Fry spell no longer works on the dog collar after you put it on Cerberus. (In the full game I would have expected something more creative, but I did the simplest solution to save space.)

• The ENCHANT and DISENCHANT verbs can no longer be used to interfer with the magic spells. The game used these actions so that objects could respond to spells. Typing the commands manually caused strange responses sometimes. These actions are now $ENCHANT and $DISENCHANT, and new dummy actions for ENCHANT and DISENCHANT have been added.

• PUT object IN KEYHOLE no longer respondsw ith "It already is!" if the door is unlocked. The game was treating this as if you had typed UNLOCK DOOR WITH object.

• It is no longer possible to remove the collar from Cerberus by using the Fry spell.

• When the Wizard uses the Float spell on you, it's no longer possible to pick up objects from containers in the room, or picking up objects automatically.

• X can now be used as a synonym for EXAMINE.

• The Freeze spell no longer prevents you from saving, restoring, restarting and quitting.

• DROP ALL and similar commands no longer prints messages about objects inside containers that you already dropped.

Release 12 / Serial number 210219

• If the Wizard appears in a dark room, and then immediately retreats because he sees you carrying the Black Crystal, only one message is printed. In the full game it printed two slightly different messages, which made sense. Here it was printing the exact same message twice, which made it look like a bug.

• When dying, valuable objects are now moved to the Carousel Room, not the Gazebo. This was obviously the intention, but it incorrectly checked if the object still had a non-zero VALUE, not if the object had a VALUE property. (The VALUE is zeroed when you pick up the object so that the score is only awarded once.)

• TAKE object FROM LIZARD was handled as TAKE object. I assume that was meant to be that TAKE LIZARD FROM object is handled as TAKE LIZARD, e.g. TAKE LIZARD FROM DOOR.

• It's no longer possible to open or close the aquarium.

Release 11 / Serial number 210218

• New bug fixed: The robot once again dies if you ask him to pick up the red sphere.

• When you shrink down in the Tea Room, all objects in the room are given TRYTAKEBIT because they're too large to be picked up, even automatically. But when you grew to normal size, it would indiscriminately remove TRYTAKEBIT from the objects. Now objects that already had TRYTAKEBIT from the start get to keep it. This wasn't much of a problem before, but I've added TRYTAKEBIT to some objects to work around other possible bugs.

• Don't print garbage when typing ENTER while under the influence of the Fall spell.

• Pouring water on a lit match now only prints one message about the match being out.

• ATTACK object now defaults to using the sword if you are carrying it. This was obviously the intention, but V-ATTACK checked if you were in the sword instead of the other way around.

• Throwing the bomb at the aquarium now makes it explode immediately.

• When casting a spell on Cerberus, the game would print a message about him snapping at you when the spell wore off, seemingly for no reason. Now it prints the default message (if any) instead.

• When using the Float spell on Cerberus, don't show him as floating in midair afterwards.

Release 10 / Serial numbe 210217

• New bug fixed: You shouldn't be able to get rid of your hands any more.

• Don't allow tying the rope to the hook if it's already tied.

• INFLATE BALLOON WITH object now prints the same message whether you're inside the basket or not.

• The balloon's description wasn't printed when looking after landing on either of the volcano ledges. This was because DESCRIBE-ROOM used to stop after calling the room's action routine (if it had one), so it would never reach the part where it calls the vehicle's action routine with the M-LOOK parameter.

• Certain actions surrounding the balloon (e.g. putting objects in the receptacle) were only handled correctly if you were inside the basket, even though the actions could be carried out from outside. Not they should work as intended in both cases.

• Only handle existing exits in the Carousel Room, i.e. don't print that you're not sure which direction is which on IN, OUT or LAND.

• Only print "The match has gone out." if you can still see the matchbook.

• Made it possible to DESTROY object without specifying with what. The game often handles MUNG and ATTACK as the same thing, so it seemed strange that you could attack without a weapon but not destroy without one. The main reason, though, was that the game can now actually respond to DESTROY SPHERE while you are dead.

Release 9 / Serial number 210215

• New bug introduced: In an attempt to simplify things, I accidentally made it possible to get rid of your hands in several ways.

• New bug introduced: The game tried to handle PUT SERPENT IN object, which the parser rejects because you're not holding the serpent. I incorrectly assumed that maybe it should handle PUT object IN SERPENT instead, but in retrospect that feels wrong.

• LEAVE GAZEBO now works as intended. This is actually handled by the DROP action, not the LEAVE action.

• It's now possible to DRINK FROM STREAM.

• SWIM no longer prints garbage.

• EXAMINE ALL and similar commands now only examine carried objects and objects in the room, not every global object in the world. (Some of which are system objects that you shouldn't be able to interact with at all.)

Release 8 / Serial number 210213

• DRINK WATER no longer prints garbage in some cases.

• It's now possible to DRINK FROM POOL. It's also possible to refer to the pool as WATER. (In the full game it's a pool of tears, but here it's regular water.)

• The debug verbs can now be easily disabled by setting DEBUGGING? to <> in mini2.zil. Historically these debug verbs are enabled in Infocom games, but disabling them saves a tiny bit of space if necessary.

• Use FDESC, not LDESC, on the baby sea serpent so that its description ("There is a baby sea serpent swimming in the aquarium.") is printed. Otherwise it's just listed as something the aquarium contains.

• The parser no longer handles time of day, e.g. 8:25. This is a type of number, and parsing numbers is only used for debugging anyway.

Release 7 / Serial number 210211

• It's now possible to put objects in the chasm. (The CHASM-F routine assumed that the chasm was a pseudo-object, but it's a proper object.)

• The Wizard will now only tear his beard if he's present to see you give treasures to the demon. (You can chase him away before that by attacking him.)

• Attempting to throw an object that couldn't be thrown would print double messages.

Release 6 / Serial number 210210

There were no visible bugfixes in this release.

Release 5 / Serial number 210208

• Added <ORDER-TREE? REVERSE-DEFINED> to hopefully match the object creation order of the original a bit better. This is mainly for the library books, where the descriptions refer to other books.

• New bug introduced: The robot no longer dies if you ask him to pick up the red sphere.

Release 4 / Serial number 210207

There were no visible bugfixes in this release.

Release 3 / Serial number 210207

• The Fantasize spell wasn't working correctly. Hopefully it does now.

• The full score for winning the game was only 392. It has been rebalanced slightly to make it an even 400.

• Casting Float on an object in your inventory now moves it to the room.

• Casting Float on the collar now only tries to levitate Cerberus if he's been collared.

• The game no longer prints garbage if you point the wand at an object and then don't cast a spell.

• The menhir was described incorrectly while it was floating in the air.

• It was still possible to interact with the menhir in the Menhir Room, even if the demon had removed it from there. (He will if you ask him to take it or give it to you.)

• Don't let the Wizard see the demon after it has departed. This would only happen if you attacked the Wizard (causing him to leave the room) before asking the demon for a favour.

• After the carousel has been deactivated, no longer mention any whirring sound in the adjacent rooms (Dark Tunnel and Deep Ford).

• The oak door can no longer be locked or unlocked when it already is.

• Made the Topiary less deadly. A bug meant that if you were unlucky, it could skip straight to the instant death, without going through the creepy warning messages first.

• The wall etchings now use fixed font.

• ENTER GAZEBO no longer causes you to hit your head against it.

• The bucket can no longer be closed.

• Burning a carried object is now fatal again. It was obviously the intention, but the object was removed before it checked if you were holding it.

• The entrance to the Dusty Room is now blocked after it collapses, just like the description says.

• LIGHT object no longer automatically picks it up. Otherwise, LIGHT FUSE would cause you to take the fuse out of the bomb.

• Only describe the dragon as blocking the north exit when he's at home, not when he's following you.

• The princess is no longer described as being in a trance after she wakes up.

• The balloon is now moved to the correct location when leaving a ledge.

• When giving an object to the dragon, check if it is valuable, not if it has TREASUREBIT. Only the dragon statuette had TREASUREBIT, and there was no way you could get that while the dragon was still alive.

• It was impossible to open the balloon receptacle, making the entire volcano section inaccessible.

• The game no longer prints garbage when the key falls from the place mat.

• The game now prints the correct direction (southeast, not south) when the princess moves from the Dark Tunnel to the Formal Garden.

• The Formal Garden and Topiary are now lit. They are in the full game, and without light it makes little sense that the Gazebo itself is lit. Also, if the rooms were dark I-GARDEN would have to check before printing messages about the unicorn. (The Wizard's Workshop is still dark, unlike the full game, but I think that case is less clear.)

• Added a missing map connection from the Guarded Room back to the Carousel Room.

• Incorrect use of the PICK-ONE routine would cause the game to crash (at least with modern interpreters) when leaving the Carousel Room, describing the Wizard's Quarters, or picking a hallucination for the Fantasize spell.