Well, there you were, minding your own business waiting for the train to
get to Litzenburg when suddenly this character burst into your compartment.
He muttered something about an assassination plot and gave you a document
and a carnation, mumbled something about a recognition phrase (your phrase
book will come in handy there), bled all over your carpet, and then left!
Before we start, a couple of notes. First of all, the very first screen of
text contains important information. When the agent tells you that your
contact will say "xxxxx," write it down! There are several phrases that are
almost identical, and you're going to be faced with several people saying
very similar things. If you don't know the exact phrase your contact will
use, you will be in real trouble! Also, you won't have time to fumble
around when the time comes, so look up the proper response phrase in your
phrase book and write it down, too.
Secondly, the real-time clock is JUST THAT. You can pause the action, but
the clock will continue running. This game is not very difficult. Your main
object is to "beat the clock" and accomplish things before you get killed.
Okay, here we go.
Your first job is to get rid of that blood. If someone comes looking for
the agent, the blood will be a dead giveaway (and will cause you problems
later). REMOVE CARNATION, then DROP ALL and go east to the corridor. You'll
notice some sinister looking characters north of you. Just ignore them, and
if you don't hang around, they'll ignore you. Now go south and west to the
lavatory. Hmmm, you lucked out. There's one towel left. GET TOWEL and TURN
ON WATER THEN WET TOWEL. TURN OFF WATER, go east, north, and west back to
your compartment, and CLEAN BLOOD WITH TOWEL.
Now you don't want to get caught with that document (which you can't read
by the way), but you must deliver it. If you EXAMINE BAG you'll see a
camera and a roll of film. EXAMINE CAMERA will tell you that there is film
in it and a couple of pictures left. So GET CAMERA THEN PHOTOGRAPH DOCUMENT.
You've seen those old movies about spies. One of the first things the KGB
does is to confiscate any film they find; so REWIND FILM, OPEN CAMERA, then
GET COLOR FILM and PUT OLD FILM IN CAMERA THEN CLOSE CAMERA. Now GET THE
CARNATION AND DOCUMENT. PUT CARNATION AND COLOR FILM IN BAG. DROP CAMERA.
Now to get rid of the other evidence. OPEN WINDOW then THROW DOCUMENT OUT
WINDOW, and THROW TOWEL OUT WINDOW. (For some reason known only to Mark
Blank, you can't throw them both out at once!)
You have nothing left to do now except WAIT until something happens. After
about two or three WAITs, a man in a trench coat will come in and ask you
if you've seen anybody. Answer NO and he will leave. (If you were wearing
the carnation at this point or the document was in sight you'd arouse his
suspicion and this would have dire consequences later.
WAIT again until the man returns with guards. If you've done everything
right they will search your compartment, confiscate the dummy roll of film
you put in the camera, ignore the carnation and the color film, and leave
you alone.
GET CARNATION AND FILM and go east and south twice. Once you're on the
platform, WEAR CARNATION and begin walking north.
The contact scenario is variable. You can walk about three "rooms" north
and then three "rooms" south on the platform. You will be accosted by
various characters who will say things to you in Frobnian. All of these
phrases will be very similar to the one the Agent told you about, but only
one will be exact. When you hear the exact phrase, you have about five
seconds to answer with the proper response in Frobnian. If you stop at this
point to look it up in the phrase book, your contact will walk away and
you'll have lost. The correct syntax is SAY "XXXXXX."
Once you've given the proper response the only thing left is to GIVE FILM
TO CONTACT.
You've successfully completed Chapter 1! Now type CONTINUE to go on to
Chapter 2.
Suddenly you find yourself standing on the railroad tracks. You are no
longer the businessman. Now you are the Agent who was shot! Off to the
northeast you see smoke rising into the sky. This is a good landmark, but
for now we'll ignore it. Your first course of action should be to get into
hiding, so go east into the forest. Now you have a chance to take INVENTORY.
You'll find that you have a pen and are wearing "everyday black shoes."
(Now anyone who knows Infocom knows that they wouldn't have told you about
an insignificant detail like shoes if it wasn't important.) EXAMINE PEN and
you will discover that it is a James Bond contraption which is really an
explosive device, along with complete instructions on how to use it.
Remember all the blood in the businessman's compartment? Better do
something about that arm. EXAMINE LEFT ARM will show that you apparently
have a damaged artery. TEAR CLOTHES and you'll have a nice scrap for a
bandage. TIE SCRAP AROUND LEFT ARM and you will have solved one of your
health problems.
Right about now you'll hear dogs barking. We'll have to do something to
throw them off the track. Go east twice and you'll be at the edge of a
swamp. Now ENTER SWAMP. Go north and that should be enough to confuse the
best nose in the world! Go west then northeast and you should be at a road
running from north to east with a spur leading north.
At this point you'll have to pay attention to the action. You will hear the
sound of a car periodically. That car will drive up the north spur to a
hous Two men will get out, talk to the man in the house, then get back in
the car and drive away. You will need to know where the car is. If you
arrive at the house while the men are there, you'll have to wait around for
a while. If you hear the sound of the car starting again, you'll have to
get off the road until you hear it drive away to the south. In any event,
you want to arrive at the house shortly after the car leaves.
From the branch of the roads go north and you'll be just south of a
clearing. Now you have to WAIT until the man leaves the house. While you're
waiting, you'll be told how cold you're getting. Don't worry, if you've
followed the walkthru so far, you won't freeze to death.
When the man comes out of the house, WAIT again until he's out of sight
then go north. (Sometimes the game will take control at this point and tell
you that you were worried about being seen so you went east instead. If
that happens, go northeast to get back to where you wanted to go.)
You've no time to waste here so OPEN DOOR, go east, and CLOSE DOOR. You
don't have any time to explore (one of my real irritations with this game)
so go east into the Storage Area. You'll see several items. GET WORK SHOES,
OIL AND PARKA THEN WEAR PARKA. Now OPEN DOOR. You will notice that it
squeaks loudly. You can't leave yet or you'll run into the owner, so OIL
HINGES. Then WAIT until the owner returns then LEAVE HUT, and the door will
close quietly behind you.
Go northwest, west, and northwest again and you'll come to a shed. ENTER
SHED (isn't it strange how sometimes you have to open doors and other times
you don't?) and you'll see some tools. GET BOLT CUTTER AND RUBBER GLOVES.
At this point it might be a good idea to get into some more efficient shoes
for walking on ice, so REMOVE SHOES THEN WEAR WORK SHOES. Then LEAVE SHED
and go north and northeast and you should be at the Border Zone Center. (If
you're East or West, move to the center now.)
You'd better save the game here, because you are about to attempt an arcade
game which needs split second timing. WATCH LIGHTS and you'll see on the
Status Line a display of the lights. The center light turns exactly twice
as fast as the East and West lights. You're going to have to make a mad
dash for the fence at a time when none of the lights will get you. Type an
"N" (don't hit return!), and then watch the East light. When it is pointing
SSE hit return and you should make it to the fence.
Now WATCH GUARDS and the display will show the guards moving between their
posts. This is the reason you chose the Center Zone. It is the only place
where you can be out of sight of both guards at once. You will have to
perform any actions when both guards are about half way between you and the
outside post and moving away from you. You can use the command "WAIT 1
MINUTE" or "WAIT 30 SECONDS," and so forth to speed up the action.
When the guards are in the proper position WEAR RUBBER GLOVES THEN CUT
FENCE WITH CUTTERS then BEND FENCE. At this point you'll probably have to
wait for the guards to make their round-trip back to the mid-way point
going away from you. Go north, REMOVE CAP FROM PEN, and PUSH BUTTON three
times. REPLACE CAP THEN PUT PEN ON NORTHWEST POST.
Timing is very critical here. As soon as you replace the cap you have three
minutes to finish the game. However, you don't want to get into the tower
TO soon, or they will have time to break in before the explosion. At some
point here you're going to have to WAIT. You want to enter the tower when
the timer reads about 2:18 or so. If the coast is clear, go up right away,
GET ON BRACE and then WAIT. If the coast is NOT clear, WAIT where you are,
and then go up and finish the action.
When you're on the brace and the time is right, and the guards are far
enough away, KNOCK ON DOOR. The guard will come out and put his foot on the
ladder. TRIP GUARD then GET OFF BRACE and ENTER TOWER. CLOSE DOOR THEN LOCK
IT. Now all you have to do is wait a few seconds for the explosion! Your
part of the tower will end up across the border.
Congratulations! You've now completed Chapter II. Type CONTINUE to go on.
THE ASSASSINATION
Before we start, a note. Parts 2 and 3 run in fast mode. In Part 3, it is
impossible to complete the game in fast mode if you do things in a logical
order. The only way to complete Part 3 in fast mode is to know in advance
every move to make and use some shortcuts to complete the action. Therefore,
before beginning Part 3, type SLOW to get into the slow clock mode. Keep in
mind that while your primary objective here is to prevent the assassination,
you must also protect your identity as a double agent. This means you will
have to keep anyone from discovering that you stopped the assassination,
and also avoid being caught.
In the opening screen you will discover that your contact is at Riznik's
Antique Shop. If you look at the business card in your package, you'll find
a map telling you where you'll find Riznik's. Go south three times. Oops!
There's Topaz (looks awfully familiar doesn't he?). Don't worry, if you
keep moving he won't see you. So go south again to the Soutwest edge of the
square, and then west to Riznik's Antiques. Go south into the store. If
there is another customer in the store, go north and WAIT until he leaves.
If the coast is clear when you enter, Riznik will smile at you and wave you
to the back. Go south again. Riznik will tell you that the assassination is
going to take place at noon when the Ambassador is speaking to the crowd.
He will also tell you the password to get near the sniper. He tells you
that the sniper is located in a window on the....
Yup, you guessed it! He is interrupted at that point and shoves you into
the back room. Checking the clock you see you have very little time before
noon, so go west out of the store then north, east twice, and north again.
From this vantage point you can see all the windows surrounding the square.
LOOK AT WINDOWS and you'll find that there are several open windows in the
apartment building to the east. Make note of the locations of those windows.
Now go west, north, and west again into the Lobby of the apartment building.
LOOK AT THE DIRECTORY and you'll find that the only empty apartment that
could be in the same position as an open window is 3D. That's got to be
where the assassin is. You've got to stop him, but you want Topaz to be
blamed for it, so we're going to get him to follow us.
Go east out of the building and south twice to the Cafe. YELL AT TOPAZ to
attract his attention, then go north to the cart. You don't want Topaz to
be too close, so UPSET CART then go west into the alley. You'll see a fire
escape ladder here, but it's too far away to reach. GET CAN THEN PUT IT
UNDER FIRE-ESCAPE. GET ON CAN and then go up three times to the third floor
and in to the building. Go north twice. You'll see that you're about
halfway down the hall, and you know the apartment you want has to be on the
East side of the building, facing the square.
You want Topaz to be able to follow you, so DROP MATCHES THEN KNOCK ON EAST
DOOR. When the assassin answers, SAY "RIZNIK" and he'll let you in.
Remember that at this point Topaz is after you, not the assassin, so STAND
BEHIND DOOR. You may have to wait a turn or two, but suddenly Topaz will
burst into the room and kill the assassin for you. Now HIT TOPAZ WITH GUN.
Congratulations! You have completed the assignment, and your double-
identity is still safe!
BORDER ZONE is published by Infocom, Inc. and distributed by Activision,
Inc.
