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[Dunnet Guide] A guide for those who struggle with the game Dunnet on Emacs. #game

Dunnet Guide

First, you start with this command in CMD / Bash--

emacs -batch -l dunnet

--and then you get this prompt.

Dead end
You are at a dead end of a dirt road.  The road goes to the east.
In the distance you can see that it will eventually fork off.  The
trees here are very tall royal palms, and they are spaced equidistant
from each other.
There is a shovel here.
>

Huh? What do I do here?

Or maybe you got along nicely until the part where you get to the UNIX computer, and you figure out that you have to stuff the CPU you found earlier into the VAX to get it to work:

> PUT CPU IN VAX
As you put the CPU board in the computer, it immediately springs to life.
The lights start flashing, and the fans seem to startup.

Yaaaaay!

> TYPE

UNIX System V, Release 2.2 (pokey)

login:

What? Am I supposed to know the login for this? Maybe the username is root.

login: root
password:

Oh well, its asking me for the password, so maybe the username is correct. But what's the password?


That's why I am writing this tutorial. It took me AT LEAST ten tries to beat the game, and yes, I looked at PLENTY of spoilers along the way; but none of them were organized very well and many of them were incomplete. Some of this tutorial was actually provided by others; for example, the Maze map was provided by Christopher J. Madsen. Much as I would like to provide a nice reference manual for those playing Dunnet, I don't want to be the one to be spoiling a nice game, so while I am providing directions, You will still have to do certain things (i.e. writing down things, figuring out passwords, etc.)

Directions


{

These directions assume that you are starting at the beginning of the game; also, the directions are capitalized, but you should type them lowercase.

DIRECTIONS LEGEND:

E	 :	East
W	 :	West
N	 :	North
S	 :	South
U	 :	Up
D	 :	Down
NE	:	Northeast
NW	:	Northwest
SE	:	Southeast
SW	:	Southwest

Note that the words in the brackets [ ] are comments and should not be typed.

}

First Section

  • TAKE SHOVEL,

  • E, E

  • DIG, LOOK [ What did you find? ]

  • TAKE CPU

  • SE, TAKE FOOD [ Don't eat it! ]

  • SE, EXAMINE BEAR [ He's a beauty, isn't he? Write down what type of bear it is.]

  • FEED BEAR

  • LOOK [ What did it leave behind? ]

  • TAKE KEY

  • NW, NW

  • NE, DROP KEY

  • NE, IN

Oops, you need that key that we dropped earlier. Go get it yourself. OK, you have the key, and you are back at the front door of the old house.

  • IN
  • E, EXAMINE BINS [ WRITE DOWN these name ]

Maybe one of those people have an account on their computer.

  • W, W
  • PUT CPU IN CABINET
  • TYPE

Now we are at the UNIX login prompt. Try each of the names we wrote down earlier and see which one had an account on the computer. HINT: People sometimes use their lat name as their username and their first name as their password. Could that be the case here?

OK, now you logged in, we are at the UNIX $ prompt.

  • $ ls [ List all out files here, you are in the /usr/toukmond/ directory. ]

See all those files that end in the .o extension? Those are the items in your inventory.

Second Section

Until now, everything was realistic. Here we venture into the depth of the surreal part of Dunnet. Before, we walk around, feed ferocious bears, pick up shovel, dig, find hidden bracelets, etc. Now, we are going to roast ourselves in a Sauna, walk around INSIDE a UNIX computer, teleport ourselves around the ARPANET, explode jars of dynamite without an inch of harm to ourselves, etc etc etc etc. All kinds of things are possible. Be prepared for things to get really strange.

Back to the UNIX prompt.

  • $

You see, we are going to teleport ourselves to another IBM PC called GAMMA. But if we go there, we will lose all our objects, including the ones we need. To move our inventory to GAMMA, we need to ftp our inventory there like so:

  • $ ftp gamma

Now we get our login prompt, but we don't have the password. The password it stored on a file in the UNIX computer in a compressed file. We need to uncompress it and read it.

  • ftp> login: idontknowwhatistheusername
  • ftp> Password required for user idontknowwhatistheusername.
  • ftp> Password: idontknowwhatisthepassword.
  • ftp> Login failed

Now we got out of the ftp and are back to UNIX.

  • $ uncompress paper.o.Z [ type it as paper.o.Z, not paper.o.z with a lowercase z ]

  • $ cat paper.o [ oops, that does not work ]

  • $ exit

  • INVENTORY

Now you see, the slip of paper has magically appeared in our inventory.

  • READ PAPER [ Write down the word that the paper tell you to remember. ]

  • TYPE [ Back to the UNIX prompt. ]

  • $ ftp gamma

  • ftp> login: anonymous [ The username is anonymous ]

  • ftp> Guest login okay, send your user ident as password.

  • ftp> Password: ***** [ Type the word on the paper we read earlier. That is the password. Actually, the password is not really required. ]

  • ftp> Guest login okay, user access restrictions apply.

  • ftp> type binary [ Remember, we are sending our inventory as .o binary files, which will arrive as a worthless pile of protoplasm if we don't set the type to binary instead of ASCII. If you want to see what happens, after you have sent everything, type type ascii and send the paper.o file to satisfy your curiosity.]

  • ftp> send bracelet.o

  • ftp> send lamp.o

  • ftp> send shovel.o

  • ftp> send key.o

  • ftp> quit [ We're done! ]

Now we are going to teleport ourselves.

  • $ rlogin gamma
  • $ Password: [ What was the word on that paper? ]

Then you read the following:

You begin to feel strange for a moment, and you lose your items.
You step back from the console.
Receiving room
You are in a round, stone room with a door to the east.  There is a sign on the wall that reads: `receiving room`

Let's continue from here.

  • TAKE ALL
  • E, N, E
  • TAKE PRESERVER
  • DOWN
  • DROP PRESERVER
  • DROP SHOVEL
  • DROP BRACELET
  • DROP KEY
  • UP, TAKE WEIGHT
  • DOWN
  • PUT WEIGHT ON BUTTON [ Write down how many pounds the weight weighs ]

Ok, now I am going to give you the map, and you figure out how to get through here. (This maze is very interesting -- you have chambers that lead into each other) Note that as you move, the description of the chambers change.

Map


N S E W NE NW SE SW UP DOWN You Move
0 Weight room . . . * . . . . . 1 Down
1 Maze button room . . 1 1 1 (2) 1 1 0 1 NW
2 little twisty 2 2 2 2 2 2 . 2 3 2 Up
3 thirsty little . 2 2 3 3 3 4 3 . 2 SE
4 twenty little . . . 2 . . . . . 5 Down
5 daze of twisty little . . . . . 6 4 . . . NW
6 twisty little cabbages 2 2 2 2 0 7 2 2 2 2 NE or NW
7 Reception area . * . . . . 3 . . .

What do I do with this map? Now, just follow the directions on the map under the header You Move.

Actually, just follow my directions here.

  • TAKE ALL
  • NW, U
  • TAKE STATUE
  • TAKE FLOPPY
  • SE, D, NW, NE
  • W, DROP FLOPPY
  • S, E
  • TURN DIAL CLOCKWISE
  • TURN DIAL CLOCKWISE
  • TURN DIAL CLOCKWISE

What happened?

  • EXAMINE DIAMOND

  • TURN DIAL COUNTERCLOCKWISE

  • TURN DIAL COUNTERCLOCKWISE

  • TURN DIAL COUNTERCLOCKWISE

  • W, N, TAKE FLOPPY

  • E, D, NW

  • U, SE, D

  • NW [ Or type NE if you need to get back to the Weight Room. ]

  • S, S

  • INVENTORY [ Check that you have the life preserver. ]

  • SAVE mygame [ Save your game, just in case you die; if you do die, open Dunnet again and hit RESTORE mygame ]

  • SWIM, S

  • PUT BRACELET IN CHUTE [ You just scored! ]

  • PUT DIAMOND IN CHUTE [ You scored again! ]

  • S, TAKE GOLD, E

  • E, N, D

  • SLEEP, D, SW

  • E, U, DIG

  • TAKE PLATINUM

  • D, W, W

  • D, E, TAKE TOWEL

  • D, S, S

  • PUT FLOPPY IN PC, RESET

Now you are typing on a Pre-Cambrian MS-DOS PC.

  • A> Enter a new time: [ Enter whatever you want for the time. ]

  • A> dir [List all the files in the current directory. Why is this so slow? ]

  • A> type foo.txt

  • A> [ Write down everything in the file. ]

  • A> exit

  • N, N, N, N

  • U, EXAMINE BOX

  • PUT KEY IN BOX

  • U, U, NE, NE

  • TAKE AXE

  • D, N, D

  • S, PUT GOLD IN URINAL

  • PUT PLATINUM IN URINAL

  • FLUSH URINAL

  • SAVE mygame

  • N, U, W

  • [ Type the combination that you wrote down. ]

  • CUT CABLE WITH AXE

And BOOM -- you magically appeared at the UNIX computer again.

  • $ exit

  • TAKE KEY

  • E, N

  • TAKE ALL, W, N

  • E, E, E

  • E, E

  • N, TAKE ALL

  • N, W, W

  • W, TAKE EGG

  • N, E, E

  • E, IN

  • W, W, W

  • W, W, S

  • S, S, NW

  • OUT, N

  • TAKE BONE

  • E, N, TAKE ALL, E

  • TAKE GLYCERINE

  • SOUTH

  • TAKE ACID

  • SWITCH SWITCH

  • W, N, EXAMINE BONE

  • S, W, S

  • IN, SE, N

  • N, E, E

  • E, E, OUT

  • PUT ACID IN JAR

  • PUT GLYCERINE IN JAR

  • DROP JAR [ BOOM ]

  • IN, N, N

  • D, TAKE ALL

  • UP

  • PUT AMETHYST IN DISPOSAL

  • PUT RUBY IN DISPOSAL

  • PUT SILVER IN DISPOSAL

  • PUT EGG IN DISPOSAL

  • PUT COINS IN DISPOSAL

  • D, NE [By now, you should have 90 points. Find out by typing SCORE. ]

  • EXAMINE [ Isn't this pretty? ]

  • SW, U, U

  • W, S, W

  • W, S, SE

  • S, E, S

  • W, TYPE

  • $ rlogin endgame

  • TAKE ALL [ You probably won't be able to carry everything. ]

  • S, S, S, S

  • [ At this point the game will ask you some questions, the answers are at the end of this tutorial. Along the way you will find a $100 bill, pick that up too.]

  • [ Drop all your treasures here in the Treasure Room. ]

  • N, N, N, N

  • TAKE ALL, N

  • N, TAKE MONA LISA

  • S, S, S, S, S

  • SCORE [ The score you say that you have won if you did everything right. ]

There is still more to the game:

The game is over, but if you want to change some things, you can get in wizard mode. To do this, start the game again and go to the computer room. TYPE and then set the variables you want. The first time it sees the '=' symbol, it will ask for the wizard password.
-- sunwukong

Question Solution
password on pokey robert
password during ftp worms
places to put treasures 4
login on endgame toukmond
price of the shovel 20
bus company mobytours
last name stock / collier
character on towel snoopy
author of EMACS stallman
memory on CPU 2
U.S. state vermont
street over subway fourth
corners in town 24
type of bear grizzly
found by digging platinum / CPU
network protocol tcp/ip

Credits


The Maze map is Copyright 1994 by Christopher J. Madsen. Permission is granted to distribute verbatim or modified copies of this hints file, provided that this copyright notice remains intact. You can reach him at ac608@yfn.ysu.edu.

The Question/Solution table was written by a nice guy named sunwukong, who wrote a guide similar to my own and put it up on the Internet.

@aviators99
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So, the ftp password is unrelated to the piece of paper. As in any anonymous login, it does not matter what you put for the password (you must put something if you want to win the endgame). But it doesn't have anything to do with the password on the paper.

@DarkMinerULTRA
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what happens when you eat the cpu? everyone is saying "oh i had lots of fun eating the cpu" but im like "oh god what is gonna happen" so can someone tell me??

@danya02
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danya02 commented May 19, 2022

@DarkMinerULTRA

what happens when you eat the cpu? everyone is saying "oh i had lots of fun eating the cpu" but im like "oh god what is gonna happen" so can someone tell me??

Here's what happens. This is encoded in Base64 to avoid spoilers, use some decoder like this one to read it.

Rm9yawpZb3UgYXJlIGF0IGEgZm9yayBvZiB0d28gcGFzc2FnZXMsIG9uZSB0byB0aGUgbm9ydGhl
YXN0LCBhbmQgb25lIHRvIHRoZQpzb3V0aGVhc3QuICBUaGUgZ3JvdW5kIGhlcmUgc2VlbXMgdmVy
eSBzb2Z0LiBZb3UgY2FuIGFsc28gZ28gYmFjayB3ZXN0Lgo+ZGlnCkkgdGhpbmsgeW91IGZvdW5k
IHNvbWV0aGluZy4KPnRha2UgY3B1ClRha2VuLiAgCj5lYXQgY3B1CllvdSBmb3JjZWZ1bGx5IHNo
b3ZlIGEgY29tcHV0ZXIgYm9hcmQgZG93biB5b3VyIHRocm9hdCwgYW5kIHN0YXJ0IGNob2tpbmcu
CgpZb3UgYXJlIGRlYWQuCllvdSBoYXZlIHNjb3JlZCAwIG91dCBvZiBhIHBvc3NpYmxlIDkwIHBv
aW50cy4K

@DarkMinerULTRA
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oh, so it just says that. idk why, but if everyone is talking about something in a game i just started and i have no idea what it is, i just assume its something bad LOL

@danya02
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danya02 commented May 21, 2022

It's just an unusual interaction that you wouldn't expect, and people (especially the kind of people who are the intended audience for this game) tend to like it when a game exhibits Developers' Foresight (warning, TVTropes link)

@DarkMinerULTRA
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yeah, i'm not that kind of person

@bitten2up
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what happens when you eat the cpu? everyone is saying "oh i had lots of fun eating the cpu" but im like "oh god what is gonna happen" so can someone tell me??

you become the computer

@DarkMinerULTRA
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(this is a line from Deltarune)
Can You Imagine What Would Happen If Computers Became Sentient?
Oh Wait LMAO They Already Have

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