A Change in the Weather

A Change in the Weather
Developer: Andrew Plotkin Publisher: Activision Platforms: Z-machine, DOS, Mac OS Classic Released internationally: August 1995 (Z-machine) Released in US: July 1996 (DOS/Mac) This game has debugging material. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prerelease article

A Change in the Weather is a text adventure game set on a countryside trip.

As the winner of the Inform division in the first annual Interactive Fiction Competition, it was included on Activision's Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces CD-ROM.

Sub-Page

Prerelease Info

Debug Messages

The following messages are printed if the game world is in an invalid state:

• The sky is growing purple and green with orange spots! [BUG]
• The air smells of a combination of cream cheese and A-1 Steak Sauce. You are unnerved to find it appetizing. [BUG]
• The earth has spun off its tracks and dropped into the violet void. [BUG]
• Runoff water is trickling down the hill, concentrated here by some twist of geography. It puddles on the ledge, behind the fallen tree, then flows southwest. [BUG]
• You are seeing afterimages on your afterimages. Your eyes explode. [BUG]
• You see only a bright glare of hexadecimal opcodes. [BUG]
• The afterimages are gone, and I don't know how the hell you're seeing them. [BUG]
• The afterimages are standing around, chatting idly and smoking cigarettes. They see you and hastily leave. [BUG]
• Voices? You hear voices? I don't hear voices. [BUG]
• The fox crawls out of a trap-door. [BUG]
• You see hordes of gnomes busily rolling up the scenery, so that it doesn't get wet. [BUG]
• You see a troll! [BUG]
• Oops! It's actually just a strip of canvas with "Stream" painted on it. [BUG]
• You uncork your halo and dance on the surface of the water. [BUG]
• The part is a sloppy set of pen-strokes on a piece of graph paper that stretches into the distance. [BUG]
• A boulder is bouncing up and down here, screaming "Look at me!" [BUG]
• Everything under the boulder seems stuck to it. [BUG]
• A daemon crawls out of the blanket and shouts "Hey! Who soaked my blanket?!" [BUG]
• The mud curses you foully. [BUG]
• The hillside is being unbolted and hauled away by teams of swearing daemons. [BUG]
• You stretch a foot towards the gap, then stop as the stars of the Sea glitter beyond it. [BUG]
• You go to cross, but the crack in the hillside bites you on the foot. [BUG]
• The tree screams "I'm down, I'm down, don't hit me again!" [BUG]
• A daemon pops out of the lock. "Hey! How'd you close this without locking it?" He snaps the latch closed and vanishes. [BUG]
• A daemon pops out of the lock. "Hey! How'd you unlock this without opening it?" He yanks the door open and vanishes. [BUG]
• A team of daemons is hurriedly painting the shed dark. [BUG]
• The bag tears apart, and sand floats out into the Void. [BUG]
• You throw X at nothingness. It hits, tearing open the space-time continuum. Hideous elder things look out, scowl at you, and zip the hole shut again. [BUG]
• You have become God. [BUG] -- pity, though.
• Time Has Broken BUG
• Poughkeepsie [BUG]
• A glob of water is pulsating on the ground here. [BUG]

Releases

Release 4, which replaced an earlier version shortly before the IFComp deadline, was the official competition entry. It fixed a bug where in one location the sun never set, implemented a couple of new synonyms, and listed the beta testers in the credits.

Release 5, announced on 14 November 1995, fixed one bug involving the "Hit any key" prompts.

Release 6 debuted in the form of Mac and DOS applications on the Activision Masterpieces compilation in July 1996, and was added in .z5 form to the IF Archive shortly afterward. It replaced a pair of epigraphic quotations with original verse, as explained in the >about text:

1995

1996

Brief excerpts from the songs of Eric Bogle are used; they are copyrighted by him, and I use them without permission, under what I hope is fair use. Buy his albums. The excerpts are from Something Of Value, Rounder Records, Philo C-PH-1125.

The original version of this game contained brief quotations from the songs of Eric Bogle, given with credit but without permission. A small sin, perhaps, but one I have decided to repair. This version contains nothing that is not my own. However, if you wish to enhance the mood, find Eric Bogle's album entitled Something Of Value (Rounder Records, Philo C-PH-1125). Listen to "A Change in the Weather" as you begin playing the game, and "Katie and the Dreamtime Land" when you finish.

The first epigraph is shown when the game is launched.

1995	1996
Like a river my life hurries by If I jump in perhaps I might drown But if I don't then my spirit could die Before that change in the weather comes 'round -- Eric Bogle	Waiting on the shore; sand yields beneath my feet The water shouts and roars and rushes And breaks on the rocks, and Never comes near to where I wait.

The other appears after the 'you have won' message at the end.

1995	1996
I know you would have loved it, Kate, beneath these Southern stars; As the night was filled with music, sweet sounds, and soft guitars. And faces in the firelight of those we dearly love, With the Dreamtime land beneath my feet, and infinity above. -- Eric Bogle	This one night will not end, not under this sky Of stars and embers and hot tea and song And stories remembered not a moment too long And laughter, darkness, fire, the circle, and I.