(version 1.0 of this walkthrough -- 11/12/03) (by Daphne Brinkerhoff -- cendare@hotmail.com) WALKTHROUGH FOR GHOST TRAIN ----------- _Ghost Train_, by Paul Johnson, is available at http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/zcode/ghost.z8 (you may need to watch for line breaks in the above URL) This file is a little discursive, including some actions which are not necessary to complete the game. However, they should make the experience more enjoyable. The exact phrases you will need to type into the interpreter are in ALL CAPS. This walkthrough is based on Release 4 / Serial number 070503 / Inform v6.21 Library 6/10 ON THE FIRST TRAIN ------------------ Basically your goal is to wait around a few turns. READ NEWSPAPER, TALK TO INGRID, KISS INGRID, and be sure to X INGRID. She's wearing a necklace; X NECKLACE. You can take INVENTORY and X TICKET too. Whatever you do, after a few turns there will be an accident. AFTER THE ACCIDENT ------------------ Now you're in "blackness. A sleepy unconscious state." You want to WAKE. Look at the wreckage! No, really, LOOK AT WRECKAGE. You can X BODIES, X DEBRIS, SEARCH BODIES, and SEARCH DEBRIS too, but it won't get you anything nifty. Instead go SOUTH. (You could go north, but it would only take you to an endless set of tracks, so why bother?) X LIGHT and X BOX here, then go WEST, UP, and WEST again to enter the signal box. You'll see a ghostly train go by beneath you, but you don't have to worry about it. Well, you were looking for a phone, so X PHONE and it tells you how to use it. TURN HANDLE for some more atmosphere. Next, look at other things around you. X NECKLACE (look familiar?), X COIN, X LEVER, X PANEL. You can GET the COIN and NECKLACE. You can PULL and PUSH the LEVER, but I don't think it does anything useful. Notice that the panel is loosely attached--PULL PANEL, then LOOK to see what you've uncovered. GET KEY. That's all here, so EAST, DOWN, and EAST to get back to the tracks. The strange figure you saw earlier has left a lamp. X LAMP and GET IT. Go on to the SOUTH. You can X WALLS and X LICHEN for some more atmosphere, and you can even X WATER and DRINK WATER. Then go SOUTH again. See the writing on the door? READ WRITING. Then UNLOCK DOOR WITH KEY and go WEST into... THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY ----------------------- Go NORTH so you can interact with things. X CLOCK, X POSTERS, READ SIGN. Notice that the train comes at 10:30 and the clock thinks it's 10:24 right now. Then go NORTH into the waiting room. The ghost will call your name, but you can ignore it for a moment. X BOOKS, READ BOOKS, READ NEWSPAPER, X SOFA, SIT ON SOFA will all give you more atmospheric messages. Then you can deal with the ghost. X WINDOW and wait a turn, then the ghost asks "Fares Please". Then X GHOST. He wants you to buy a ticket, so GIVE COIN TO GHOST. Okay, notice the clock is ticking again--at 10:30 the train will be out at the track. But spare a second to X TICKET to see where you're going... a cemetery... brrr. Then go SOUTH and wait until the train arrives. Once it does, go SOUTH again to enter it. ON THE SECOND TRAIN ------------------- Pay attention to the colors of the carriages here, and write them down in order. It will come in handy later. In room #1 (the westernmost room) is a red door which is locked. In room #6 is a locked door. Also in that room is a Ouija board. If you hang around a moment, the spirits will spell out "HELP US" on the board. X BOARD--you can ask it about things just as though it were a real person. Sometime about now, you may get strange messages about mice running through the room, or you may hear footsteps on the roof of the train. That's okay. It's just random atmospheric stuff. Go ahead and ASK BOARD ABOUT whatever you can think of, including: ME, TRAIN, GHOST, TICKET. But to continue, you must ASK BOARD ABOUT INGRID, and the door to your east will open. Go EAST and be confronted by a dead man rotting. Make sure you read his description carefully, especially the mention of his badge. You can't actually interact with him yet, though. Notice the key--X BLACK KEY and GET IT. *Now* you've woken up the dead guy. GIVE TICKET TO GHOST and he'll leave you alone. Return to room #1 (go WEST six times) and UNLOCK DOOR WITH BLACK KEY. Then go WEST twice to enter the train's cab. You'll see a bunch of controls, which you may want to fiddle with yourself before continuing with this walkthrough. Your goal is to get the train to stop. The brake wheel looks promising--TURN BRAKE WHEEL. That slowed it, but didn't stop it. PULL LEVER to finish the job. Then DOWN to get out of the train. CEMETERY AND CHAPEL ------------------- Go NORTH to the cemetery proper. X STONES and it mentions a particular inscription. READ INSCRIPTION--you don't want it to be true, but it is. Ingrid's gone. Unless... NORTHWEST takes you to a fairy dance. X DANCERS, and then go NORTH to the chapel. X CHAPEL and NORTH takes you inside. X INSCRIPTION. X BIBLE and try to GET IT. You can X PEWS and X LECTERN too, if you want. Then go EAST to the bell room. An empty room, except for that rope. You can PULL ROPE to ring the bell, but it doesn't do much for you. X ROPE hints at the proper thing to do... You want to CLIMB ROPE. (I like to PULL ROPE again when I'm at the top of it, right next to the bell. But then, I read Dorothy Sayers' _Nine Tailors_.) The language here is a little weird. GET PARCHMENT and then X PARCHMENT. X BOOKS tells you to search for things by name... You saw the name of the church is St. Gorgon (although it was spelled differently), so SEARCH GORGON and GET EXORCISM. READ EXORCISM for some colorful language, but nothing else of use. CLIMB ROPE to get back down ("down" doesn't work, for some reason). WEST and SOUTH to leave the chapel. Now, you want to go around back. So NORTHWEST and NORTHEAST. X GARGOYLE and READ INSCRIPTION. Aha, a clue. Go back to the dancers by going SOUTHEAST, SOUTHWEST, then SOUTH. Then ASK DANCERS ABOUT GARGOYLE. The dancer will kiss you, so I like to KISS DANCERS in return. Then go back to the chapel and do what the dancers said--three times around, counterclockwise. You'll end up in back of the chapel having a chat with Satan. He asks who dares to call him back; TELL SATAN ABOUT ME. You've only got one thing on your mind, so ASK SATAN ABOUT INGRID. Uh-oh, is there any way to save her? ASK SATAN ABOUT HELL. (If this is clued, I don't know where.) Obviously you have to answer "YES". Satan gives you an hour (60 turns) to do what must be done. You end up at a funeral service, before an open grave. There's no reason to know this, but you have to ENTER OPEN GRAVE. DOWN takes you to a pair of eyes, asking about you. TELL EYES ABOUT ME and then go WEST. X HOUND to get his name. Pluto (and you can try to go down if you want, but he'll stop you). Go back EAST and ASK EYES ABOUT PLUTO. Now it's safe to go WEST and DOWN. DOWN again, and EAST to... yet another train. THE THIRD TRAIN --------------- X SWITCH to see which way the train is headed now (northeast), then UP to enter the train. OPEN BOX to get a message from Ingrid telling you your goal, then go NORTH to this train's cab. The controls are mostly the same as the other train, except that you must turn the switch to face northwest first, using the colored levers. Here's where the colors of the second train come in handy... Pull the colored levers in the order that the carriages were colored in that train (type PULL RED, PULL BLUE, etc.). I don't actually think it changes with each game--I think it's always RRBBGR (R = red, B = blue, G = green). Now you just have to get the train moving. Remember how the other one was stopped? Well, do those things in reverse. PUSH REGULATOR LEVER and TURN BRAKE WHEEL. If you read the plaque, it will give you a hint how you can escape the demon: TURN DAMPER, twice. Congratulations, you win!