This Old Haunted House — 9 of 21

Part 3 - The World

Chapter 1 - Engine Rooms

[% These room names are all artifacts of the early design for "THE EXIGENT SEASONS". The room names themselves never come up in play, though, so even though they didn't fit what the game was becoming, I never bothered changing them.]

The Present is a room with printed name "On the set of THIS OLD HAUNTED HOUSE". "Or at least, that's how you picture the opening credits once the episode is finished, but you have to record the thing first. You're already in position across from the Property Boo-thers themselves, Hoary and Terry.[paragraph break]Your producer Han has been gushing about them all day. He calls out from behind the camera: 'I just love the [italic type]Property Boo-thers[roman type] formula so much, the competing choices, the RIVALRY of it all, so we had to have you do the same when visiting our show, right? Wouldn't be much of a cameo otherwise, right?? Don't want the Halloween Foreign Press Association saying we just got you for your gorgeous faces!!'[paragraph break]The boo-thers do not respond to this.[paragraph break][italic type](For more information about the game, please type ABOUT at any time; CREDITS are also available.)[roman type]". The Present has some text called the crisis summary. The crisis summary of the Present is "Something's about to happen." The Present has some text called the crisis term. The crisis term of the Present is "ONCOMING STORM". The Present has some text called the weather. The weather of the Present is "It's mild." [% The weather is also a leftover from a much earlier mechanical design of these games that I never got around to deleting, apparently. The crisis term and crisis summary are values that update during the crisis scenes, so these default values should never come into play.]

The Future is a room with printed name "THE HOUSE IS COMPLETE...?".

The reset button is a device in the Future. ["If this future is not satisfactory, a figurative reset button here will revert your decisions over the last two years. Events will play out in a different sequence, and if you make different choices, you will most likely bring about a different future."] It is fixed in place. The reset button is scenery.

Report switching on the reset button:

say "[one of]'Let's take it from the top!' Han calls from behind the camera. 'We're still rolling.'[or]Han calls out, 'Let's run it again from the top!'[stopping]" instead.

Understand "press [something switched off]" as switching on. Understand "activate [something switched off]" as switching on. Understand "push [something switched off]" as switching on.

The End of Exigencies is a room with printed name "A FINISHED HOUSE". "[one of]'Cut!' Han calls out. 'Let me see how this is looking.' He reviews the footage you've just recorded.[or]'Cut!' Han signals a pause in taping while he reviews again. Nothing to do now but wait.[stopping]"

Instead of waiting in the End of Exigencies:

say "Han finishes his review of the footage.";

now the player is in the Future.

FINAL is a path in the End of Exigencies. Understand "the" and "final" and "path" as FINAL. The selectedness of FINAL is 1.

Instead of taking FINAL:

If the player is in the End of Exigencies:

try waiting.

Instead of pathing while the location of the player is the End of Exigencies: try waiting.

Every turn when FINAL is not in the End of Exigencies:

if the location of the player is not the Future:

now FINAL is in the End of Exigencies;

otherwise:

now FINAL is in the Future.

The Rest of the House is a room with description "Whoops, that's a bug! Send your transcript to count.fibula@gmail.com for a tester credit!". The Rest of the House is up from Present. The Rest of the House is up from Future. The Rest of the House is up from End of Exigencies. [% "The Rest of the House" makes more sense in "THE EXIGENT SEASONS", which takes place in a basement.]

Before going to the Rest of the House: try disembarking instead.