THE MISSING SCIENTIST

A brilliant scientist working in a remote location, conducting a top secret experiment for the Futurion Corporation, started sending more frantic and more unhinged messages. Then suddenly, he stopped communicating.

 

Codenamed Project Glow Worm, his work was at the edge of science. Futurion got backing by various governments on thought-exercise projects related to hyperdrive, time travel, advanced weaponry, and other concepts. All concluded and results secretive. But this new work was not theoretical -- they BUILT something.

YOUR JOB

You've been hired by Futurion to find out what happened to their scientist. You head to the Dolomites in Italy...

You journey from the local town, San Candido, hike with a guide through rocky paths, then take the Futurion snowmobile left for you the rest of the way. Arriving, the mountain looms above you. Far ahead, you spot the door of the secret facility. A blizzard threatens. Who knows how you will get inside... and what you will find within... and where is the scientist gone mad?

Your only clue, found stuck on a nearby tree: a torn page from a notebook....

HOW TO PLAY

To do things in a text adventure, type two word commands like GET PAPER and LOOK DESK. There are one-word exceptions, like the directions N, S, E, W, U, D. Type I or INVENTORY to see what you have.

The game knows as many verbs as can fit:

•  GO/ENTER
• GET/TAKE/GRAB/REACH/DRAG
• DROP/PLACE/PUT/INSERT/FEED/GIVE
• PRY/LIFT LOOK/READ/EXAMINE/X
• TURN/PULL/PUSH
• OPEN/UNLOCK
• TOUCH/PRESS
• TYPE

Just try stuff!

Other important commands:

• SAVE. Save the game state
• RESTORE. Restore your save
• ALLCAPS. If you have trouble reading lowercase letters...
• MENU. Get back to the Pause Menu. 
• HELP. See this list of commands

Have fun!

PRO-TIPS:

• To save typing trouble, you can just type the first FIVE letters of verbs and nouns. Sometimes that may cause confusion, but better for the overall player convenience
• IMPORTANT! The numpad on some AZERTY keyboards doesn't work with Pico-8 it seems. Just use the number keys! Or make sure NUMLOCK is on (on PCs, on Macs, press Clear).

NOTE: Photosensitive Warning. Some flashing screen elements involved.

ADVENT CALENDAR OF GAMES

Part of the yearly ADVENT CALENDAR OF GAMES in Pico-8. One new game every day! Check out the other games here! https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=153178

CREDITS

Game by ThatTomHall

Additional content by Voxeledphoton, Gruber/kc00l.

Testing by Bikibird, Kevin(tm), Doriencey, NarcolepticFrog, and all the folks working on the 2025 Advent Calendar. Thanks for the suggestions and testing!

Special Thanks to Will Crowther&Don Woods, Scott Adams (the text adventure guy, not the comics guy), the folks at Infocom, newer IF authors, and the folks at LucasArts for all the inspiration. And to my mom, thanks for playing text adventures with me, and playing all my early games, and always trying "PRY". Miss you.