作者：Ryan Creighton

1.在耳朵里带上“宝贝鱼”

《银河系漫游指南》，1984年

这款游戏中的谜题可以说是这个列表的游戏中最出名的。宝贝鱼游戏之所以出名主要是因为它介于乐趣挫折感与完全邪恶感之间。在游戏中，无家可归的地球人Arthur Dent被带到敌人的外星船上。为了能够听懂外星语，他必须在耳朵里带上“宝贝鱼”（游戏邦注：在游戏中，只要将小小的黄色宝贝鱼放在耳朵里就可以翻译任何语言）。在原著中，Arthur的朋友Ford直接递给他这条宝贝鱼；而在游戏中，玩家却需要经历更多步骤才能得到这条鱼。

宝贝鱼(from gamasutra)

在《银河系漫游指南》（作者是英国科幻小说家Douglas Adams）中，宝贝鱼是陈列在贩卖机中进行销售，并且还规定在无法取胜之前玩家只能进行一定量的购买。以下是来自Everything2对于该谜题的描述：

当玩家按下按钮后，他便买到了一条宝贝鱼，但是随着一股冲力，这条鱼将在房间里到处乱飞，并最后撞进一个洞穴里。但是对于新手玩家来说故事的进展却是：洞穴上有一个挂钩，玩家最终决定将自己的便袍挂在上面；但是却因此让宝贝鱼撞上他的挂袍而直接滑落到地上……

……鱼会掉落到下水道里（“按压按钮和抓住鱼”并不是唯一的方法）。于是玩家决定用就近的毛巾堵住下水道口，从而让鱼能够撞在他的便袍上并滑落到地板的毛巾上……

……一个清洁机器人将会突然冲进房间清除掉宝贝鱼，并通过一个小控制板又快速离开了房间。这时候玩家便会意识到游戏在戏弄他们；因为不想被击败，他们便会用Ford Prefect的背包去阻挡机器人的控制板，但同时宝贝鱼会飞向便袍，并掉落到地上，而机器人便会拾起它，撞向背包而将宝贝鱼扔向空中……

……打扫房间上半部分的另一名清洁机器人会清除掉宝贝鱼。这个额外的谜题让玩家倍感焦急，因为游戏设置的并非显而易见的解决方法——在Ford Prefect的背包里放一些垃圾邮件，然后这些垃圾邮件便会飞散在空中，让清洁机器人忙于打扫这些垃圾而难以顾及宝贝鱼，这样玩家就能够顺利在耳朵里带上宝贝鱼。

该游戏发行商Infocom向那些解开这个迷题的玩家出售下图的T恤：

宝贝鱼T恤(from gamasutra)

虽然有点悲哀，但是也庆幸随着互联网的快速发展，我们不会再看到这类谜题了。

2.猜测地精的名字

《国王密使》，1984年

1984年还真是出现了太多让人恼怒的冒险游戏谜题。在最初发行的《国王密使》版本中，主角Sir Graham遇到了地精，地精要求Graham猜出他的名字。因为游戏中的所有角色和故事元素都来自于名著《格林童话选》，所以很明显，答案便是“纺线姑娘（Rumplestiltskin）”。但是事实却不是如此。在女巫（游戏邦注：《Hansel and Gretel》中的女巫，但是不管是人，房间还是提示都跟地精没有任何关系）房间里的一张纸上写着“有时候逆向思维也是一种好方法。”

这是你所获得的无意义内容(from gamasutra)

如果要将这个提示与地精联系起来，那就需要改变一般的想法并背离正常的逻辑。但是不管怎么样，还是有许多大无畏的冒险家迈出了这一步，他们勇敢地走向地精，猜测性地答道：“nikstlitselpmuR”，也就是反过来拼的“Rumplestiltskin”。但是系统会回应道，“这并不是正确答案”。

这时候你的脑海中会冒出许多想法，是否游戏出错了？还是《国王密使》的开发者遗漏了“Rumplestiltskin”中未发音的字母“t”？还是自己用错了动词？是否该尝试下“ANSWER NIKSTLITSELPMUR”，“SAY NIKSTLITSELPMUR”或者“TRY NIKSTLITSELPMUR”？或者我们从一开始的思路就是错误的？也许答案与提示完全无关？但是如果真的是这样，正确答案又是什么？！

“地精的名字到底是什么？”可以说是Sierra（游戏邦注：代表作包括《国王密使》系列，《英雄传奇》系列，《宇宙传奇》系列以及《警察故事》系列等著名冒险游戏）的客服热线最常接到的问题。主要还是因为这个谜题实在太让人费解并抓狂了。玩家首先应该同时写下正向与逆向的26个字母：

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

而对于RUMPLESTILTSKIN，玩家需要从逆向字母表中找出每个与之相对应的字母，就像R对应I，U对应F一样。所以最终，地精的名字应该是“IFNKOVHGROGHPRM”。

猜测地精的名字可以说是早前冒险游戏中最困难且让人厌恶的谜题设计。所以很明显，在今后发行的《国王密使》系列中，NIKSTLITSELPMUR成为了最有效的答案。我认为当时Sierra设计师（如《国王密使》的Roberta Williams）与竞争对手Lucasfilm/LucasArts设计师的最大不同在于，后者更希望玩家能够在游戏中取得成功。

3.微波仓鼠

《疯狂豪宅》，1987年

微波仓鼠(from gamasutra)

在最初的《疯狂豪宅》中，玩家可以指使Razor或者Syd偷走Weird Ed Edison的宠物仓鼠，并将其扔到微波炉中进行烘烤。而如果你将烘烤完的恶心仓鼠还给Ed时，你将会清楚地感受到对方的悲伤，而你的角色最后将变成后院里的一座坟墓。

坟墓(from gamasutra)

根据Douglas Crockford的《The Expurgation of Maniac Mansion for the Nintendo Entertainment System》记录，当这款游戏被移植到NES上时，LucasArts经历了非常严格的审查过程。尽管删除了游戏中的“pissed”这个单词以及米开朗基罗雕像，但是微波仓鼠的把戏仍然被保留了下来，直到任天堂真正意识到这个想法的荒谬性。这个谜题也未再出现于任何欧洲版本以及所有后来发行的游戏中。

4.与Boos喝酒

《决战大魔域》，1993年

这款游戏的谜题包括，一个名为Boos的醉汉会一直灌你酒，而你需要与他一起喝酒，直到灌醉他才有机会偷走他的钥匙。每次当Boos想和你一起喝酒时他都会问道：“要不要来些黑麦？当然要啦！”正是因为Boos的那种Silliwood（游戏邦注：在20世纪90年代来自Hollywood和硅谷的失败游戏集合，这些游戏主要强调浮华的产品价值并主张利用一些知名人士为游戏造势）式的表现以及不断重复的谜题使得玩家逐渐对此感到厌倦。

boos(from gamasutra)

以下是Boos的敬酒词，之前我以为这是该款游戏自己创作的歌曲，但是后来发现其实是Rabbie Burns的祝酒歌：

Here’s tae us

Wha’s like us

Damn few,

And they’re a’ deid

Mair’s the pity!

5.阅读创世神话

《粘土世界》，1996年

除了呈现出了不起的视觉效果，《粘土世界》并不能称得上是一款优秀的冒险游戏。游戏中让人抓狂的谜题其实并不能算是真正的谜题。在游戏早期，主角Klaymen发现了“粘土世界创史记（The Chronicles of Neverhood）”（类似于《圣经》那种记载上帝创造世界的经书）。它共有8册，贯穿于游戏中38个不同的场景中。大多数忠实的冒险游戏玩家便认为其中肯定包含有游戏中的重要信息，能够帮助他们揭开游戏中的谜题，所以他们仔仔细细地阅读了墙上的所有内容。

粘土世界(from gamasutra)

但是事实却是，“粘土世界创史记”只是在充实游戏的背景故事，与游戏中的谜题并没有任何关系。玩家只需要走到38个场景中的尽头，拾起目标物，再回到起始点便可。

6.伪造ID

《狩魔猎人3-血咒疑云》，1999年

我看过许多关于图像冒险游戏衰败的文章，但是其中最有影响力的一篇应该是Old Man Murray（游戏邦注：早期著名的电脑游戏评论站点，以评价苛刻辛辣著称）网站上的《Who Killed Adventure Games?》，该文章详细描写了《狩魔猎人3》中愚蠢的谜题，即让玩家为了扮演一个没有胡子的男人就必须先创造一个胡子男的伪造ID。

Murray的结论如下：

是谁践踏了冒险游戏？我想答案很明显，是冒险游戏“自取灭亡”。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Six Most Infamous Puzzles In Adventure Game History

by Ryan Creighton

1. Getting the Babel Fish into Your Ear

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 1984 Probably the most well-known puzzle of any on the list, the babel fish puzzle is renowned for walking the fine line between fun frustration (or “funstration”), and pure seething evil. Displaced Earthling Arthur Dent has been zapped aboard a hostile alien ship. In order to understand alien languages, he has to put a babel fish in his ear. In the book on which the game is based, Arthur’s friend Ford just hands him the fish. But in the game, a few more steps are required.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy text adventure, co-authored by Douglas Adams, puts the fish in a vending machine and gives the player a limited number of turns to acquire it before the game becomes unwinnable. From the Everything2 entry on the puzzle:

After the player presses the button, the fish is vended, but with such force that it flies across the room and into a hole. The sequence of events for the novice player goes as follows: Above the hole is a hook, from which the player eventually decides to hang his dressing gown; this causes the vended Babel Fish to hit the gown and drop to the floor…

… where it falls down a drain (‘press button and catch fish’ is not a valid input). The player may then decide to block the drain with his handy towel, which causes the fish to hit the gown, drop to the floor, and land on the towel…

… where it is cleaned away by a cleaning robot that dashes into the room, and dashes out again via a small panel. At this point the player realises that the game is toying with him or her. Undefeated, he or she may choose to block the panel with Ford Prefect’s satchel, at which point the Babel Fish flies into the gown, drops to the floor, the robot picks it up, runs into the satchel, and throws the fish in the air…

… where it is cleaned away by another cleaning robot, one tasked with maintaining the upper half of the room. It is this additional puzzle that caused players the most anguish, as the solution is not at all obvious – it involves placing some junk mail on Ford Prefect’s satchel, which, when sent flying through the air, occupies the second cleaning robot enough for the Babel Fish to arc gracefully into the player’s ear.

The game’s publisher, Infocom, actually sold T-Shirts for people who managed to solve the puzzle:

It’s a small sadness that, thanks to the Internet, a phenomenon like this couldn’t really happen again.

2. Guessing the Gnome’s Gname

King’s Quest, 1984

1984 was apparently a good year for infuriating adventure game puzzles. In the original King’s Quest outing, Sir Graham meets a gnome who challenges him to guess his name. The obvious answer is “Rumplestiltskin”, since most of the game’s characters and story elements are cribbed straight from Grimms’ Fairy Tales. But no – that’s not the answer. Written on a piece of paper in the witch’s house (the witch from Hansel and Gretel, whose person, house, and note have nothing whatsoever to do with the gnome), are the words “sometimes it’s wise to think backwards.”

That’s what you get for NOT MAKING ANY SENSE.

Connecting the gnote to the gnome requires more than a small a leap of faith, to say nothing of logic. But no matter: many intrepid adventurers made that leap, strode boldly up to the gnome, and guessed “nikstlitselpmuR”, which is “Rumplestiltskin” spelled backwards. But “no”, the parser responds – “that’s not the correct answer”.

A million things go through your mind at this point. Does the game have it wrong? Did the creators of King’s Quest forget that oft-unpronounced “t” in “Rumplestiltskin”? Or did you get the verb wrong? You try “ANSWER NIKSTLITSELPMUR” and “SAY NIKSTLITSELPMUR” and “TRY NIKSTLITSELPMUR”. Or maybe you were wrong the whole time? Maybe the note has nothing to do with it? And if that’s the case, then what’s the answer??

This had better be good, old man.

“What is the gnome’s name?” was, by far, the most-asked question of the Sierra Customer Service Hotline. That’s because the solution to the puzzle is unfair and infuriating. Here it is. You’re supposed to write the alphabet forwards and backwards:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

For each letter in RUMPLESTILTSKIN, you need to find the corresponding letter in the backwards alphabet. So R maps onto I, U maps onto F, and so on. The gnome’s name – obviously – is IFNKOVHGROGHPRM.

Guessing the gnome’s name is a great example of how unfair, unpleasant and unforgiving puzzle design could be in the early days of adventure games. It’s very telling that in future releases of King’s Quest, NIKSTLITSELPMUR was accepted as a valid answer. Back in the day, the biggest difference between the approach of Sierra designers like King’s Quest’s Roberta Williams and designers at the rival Lucasfilm/LucasArts shop is that the Lucas designers seemed to want the player to actually succeed!

3. Microwaving the Hamster

Maniac Mansion, 1987

In the original Maniac Mansion, you could steal Weird Ed Edison’s pet hamster and, as either Razor or Syd, put the little critter in the microwave and make it pop. If you hand the resulting goop back to Ed, realization of what it is slowly dawns on him, and your character spends the rest of the game as a tombstone in the backyard.

What did i just say about LucasArts designers wanting you to succeed … ?

When the game was ported to the NES, LucasArts endured a rigorous censorship process that is fascinatingly chronicled by Douglas Crockford in The Expurgation of Maniac Mansion for the Nintendo Entertainment System. While the word “pissed” and the Michaelangelo statue had to go, the hamster-in-the-microwave schtick stayed … that is, until the wrong person at Nintendo caught wind of it. The puzzle was excised from the European version, and all future pressings of the cart.

4. Drinking with Boos

Return to Zork, 1993 Before Internet memes made arrow-in-the-knee jokes ubiquitous, another memorable line from a video game lodged itself in the minds of gamers like a Rick Astley tune. This puzzle involves getting Boos to repeatedly pour you a drink, dumping it in the plant, and waiting until he’s soused enough to steal his keys. Each time Boos pours, he asks “Want some rye? COURSE ya do!” It’s Boos’s exuberant Silliwood performance and the puzzle’s repetition that makes the moment stand out.

Watch the video

Here’s the rest of Boos’s toast, which i thought was a Zorkism, but have now discovered is an old Rabbie Burns drinking song:

Here’s tae us

Wha’s like us

Damn few,

And they’re a’ deid

Mair’s the pity!

5. Reading the Creation Account

The Neverhood, 1996

Mair’s the pity that for its amazing visuals, The Neverhood wasn’t a better adventure game. One of its most maddening puzzles wasn’t really a puzzle at all. Early in the game, Klaymen discovers The Chronicles of Neverhood, a Biblical-ish account of the creation of the game’s clay universe. Comprising eight books, the Chronicles sprawl out across 38 separate screens in the game. Most dutiful adventure game players brought up on Infocom’s “feelies” were convinced that the Chronicles must contain important information about how to solve certain puzzles in the games, and read each and every section of the wall.

Well, gosh – THIS is gonna be fun.

The horrible truth is that the Chronicles exist only to flesh out the game’s backstory, and have nothing whatsoever to do with any in-game puzzles. The player is merely supposed to walk to the far end of the 38 screens to pick up an object, and then hoof it back to the beginning of the hallway.

6. Creating Fake ID

Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, 1999

Much has been written about the death of graphic adventure games, but one of the most influential articles on the subject is Who Killed Adventure Games? by Old Man Murray, who details an idiotic puzzle in the third Gabriel Knight adventure that has the player assembling a fake ID of a man with a moustache in order to impersonate a man who doesn’t have a moustache.

Hmm … i’m clearly gonna need some double-sided tape, and a cat.

Concludes Murray:

Who killed Adventure Games? I think it should be pretty clear at this point that Adventure Games committed suicide.(source:GAMASUTRA)