Dr. Ego's Adventure

An interactive fiction treasure hunting adventure.

You are Dr Ego, adventurous archeologist. You navigate the jungles of New Guinea in search for the golden egg of Man-Toomba.

This is a work of interactive fiction - You control the actions of the protagonist by typing the commands to perform.

April 10th, 1940.

My journey started a few days ago. After docking at Port Moresby, it was two days of riding on the back of a truck to Kerema, followed by a flight in a small seaplane, landing near the mouth of the Maro River.

I met my guide and his canoe, who will take me to a remote and uncharted area in Papua New Guinea. It is here that I hope to find the legendary Golden Egg of Man-Toomba.

The story recognizes the verbs listed below with the abbreviation in brackets. You can type HELP while playing the story for more detailed playing instructions, or type HINT if you are stuck and don’t know what to do next.

LOOK [L]        EXAMINE [X]
GET/TAKE        DROP
INVENTORY [I]   WAIT [Z]
UP [U]          DOWN [D]
SAY             CLIMB
SEARCH          WHIP
AGAIN [G] (repeats last command)

NORTH [N]      SOUTH [S]
EAST [E]       WEST [W]
NORTHEAST [NE] NORTHWEST [NW]
SOUTHEAST [SE] SOUTHWEST [SW] 

Going in a compass direction (GO NORTH) is the customary way to get around in IF. This story additionally allows you to specify the name of a place or thing (provided you can see it). For example, if you see a HUT then you can type GO HUT. If you see a path you can GO PATH, and seeing a bridge or stairs you can GO BRIDGE and GO STAIRS.

Remember that you can GO UP and GO DOWN for stairs, ladders and trees.

Awards

Written for and placed 44th in the 26th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2020).

Playing on iPhone

Get the Frotz app.

Download the .z5 story file from Safari, and pick Frotz from the “Open In…” prompt that appears when tapping a download link. Once you have the story loaded, it should appear within the Frotz app for subsequent plays.

How do I save my progress? If you press the Home button or answer a call, Frotz will automatically save your progress. Type “restore” to load a previously saved game. These commands are available in the shortcut menu that appears when you double tap the command prompt.

Playing on Android

Get the Text Fiction app.

• Download the z5 story file on your phone
• Open the Text Fiction app
• Tap the three-dot menu icon then tap Import

Text Fiction auto saves your progress. To resume your story, tap the game menu (+ icon) then tap Restore.

The online version is playable on mobile but can be a frustrating experience, and saving progress does not work on mobile.

Playing on PC

You can play the story online. To save your progress type “SAVE”. You have to bookmark the page after saving, or not close your browser tab, as the save state is added to the page URL.

Alternatively, and to save your progress to file, you can play the old-school way using a Z-Machine interpreter. Gargoyle is one such interpreter.