External Links


Aug4.z8
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
Aug4Solution.zip *
solution
Walkthrough and map
by David Welbourn
* Compressed with ZIP. Free Unzip tools are available for most systems at www.info-zip.org.

Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

Playlists and Wishlists

RSS Feeds

New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page

Augmented Fourth

by Brian Uri!

Fantasy, Humor
2000

Web Site

(based on 64 ratings)
6 reviews

About the Story

WANTED: Amateur musicians to serve the Royal Court. Must provide own instrument and be inured to copious constructive criticism. Impress your friends! Meet the King! Apply in person at the Castle, located on the south side of the volcano in sunny Central Papoosen.


Game Details


Awards

Nominee, Best Puzzles; Nominee, Best Individual NPC - 2000 XYZZY Awards

Editorial Reviews

Baf's Guide


A light fantasy romp about a luckless (and talentless) musician who ends up chucked in an oubliette after offending the King. The result is a puzzle-solving exercise with a humorous touch in the mold of Sorcerer or Frobozz Magic Support. Mild hints are provided by Hitchhiker's Guide-type reference books. The puzzles are creative, but for the most part not too difficult; it's possible to get trapped in one area, but you are warned about this. Surprisingly solid for a first release.

-- R. Serena Wakefield

Brass Lantern
Despite a reliance on absurd and silly descriptions ("the fish grenade" springs to mind), breaking-the-fourth-wall humor, and IF in-jokes (typing Undress garners the reply: "Wrong game. Papoosen doesn't even have any interstates.") as its main motifs, the game is imaginative and entertaining. Several reference texts litter the game, providing clues for the puzzles and a well-developed backstory. The NPCs (fairly numerous) are the usual IF fare: not terribly interactive, yet responsive within obvious parameters. The game appears impossible to get into an unwinnable state; the puzzles are reasonably challenging and integrated. The story has multiple levels of detail. Taken all together with its interesting structure and themes (more on this later), the games is remarkably cohesive, providing an entertaining gaming experience...if you can forgive all the abuse the ducks, hamsters, fish, and armadillos take.
See the full review

IF-Review
An Undiminished Chord
Augmented Fourth is a fairly easy puzzle romp whose appeal lies in wackily charming worldbuilding and sly jokes/reworkings of classic IF and fantasy tropes. It's well-crafted and polished (going to show, perhaps, that there's no reason an author's first-ever release can't be competently assembled) and I encountered no bugs. It did, however, have some irritating patches, mostly related to the design of the puzzles.
See the full review

SPAG
[...] the best humorous IF relies on absurdity and fourth-wall humor rather than jokes as such, and Augmented Fourth fits that category: the funniest bits rely on the reliable trope of the Ridiculously Stupid Adversary, and the world you end up discovering is replete with cartoonish humor. The humor, in other words, has technically been done before, and yet it works: this author has an unerring ear for comic style, whether in the form of simple absurdity or barbed IF reference.
See the full review

Tags

- View the most common tags (What's a tag?)

(Log in to add your own tags)
Tags you added are shown below with checkmarks. To remove one of your tags, simply un-check it.

Enter new tags here (use commas to separate tags):

Member Reviews

5 star:
(22)
4 star:
(35)
3 star:
(6)
2 star:
(1)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 6
Write a review


Most Helpful Member Reviews


7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Marvellously polished but the tuning could be improved, March 7, 2013

The first and only work ever published by author Brian Uri, Augmented Forth is an astounding debut piece. Coded via Inform 6, its half-a-megabyte source code is a testament to levels of dedication and attention to detail that are extremely rare.

I often comment that a game could use more polish -- not here. Augmented Forth may as well be lacquered! Its interaction is extraordinarily smooth and fairly gleams with charm and wit from every angle. I found myself marveling again and again that the author had covered the situation with some special bit of flair, whether it was one of the many small jokes sprinkled throughout or just a simple variation on standard wording to show that you were still "within bounds" of the planned interaction.

I can't stress enough how impressed I am by this aspect of the game, and this alone makes it worth playing to experience. If you've ever tried your hand at writing IF, you know how much work all of these little details add up to, and my hat is off to Mr. Uri here. The only places I found any hiccups in the flow were in cases where there is a vocabulary overlap between objects that causes undesirable disambiguation requests, a notoriously tricky issue to handle using Inform 6's parse_name routine.

However, having spent some time admiring this beautiful instrument, I was a little disappointed with actually playing it. As Emily Short pointed out, there are "irritating patches, mostly related to the design of the puzzles", places where the expected final nudges (or even telling silences in the form of careful omissions) are not forthcoming, even though I had a partial solution.

Thinking about this, I came to believe that, in such instances, the tremendous level of polish actually works against the gameplay. In a typical work of IF, the "shininess" of world interaction is itself a form of hinting: Often, one knows one's on the right track by virtue of the differences from more general default responses. The richly embroidered surface detail of Augmented Forth magnificently camouflages any such hinting, leaving the player sometimes at a loss to differentiate between threads of plot and threads of whimsy.

Most puzzles are relatively straightforward, sometimes of the physics (or silly physics) variety and sometimes along "hey, let's see if this new spell can do that" lines. There were only a few that didn't work for me(Spoiler - click to show):

#1 the fern -- (Spoiler - click to show)The hinting in the description about it is misleading. This isn't one of those "help the plant thrive" puzzles. (Spoiler - click to show)The responses to basic actions are misleading. They give the impression that you shouldn't be dealing with the fern now (but maybe should later) when it definitely is relevant in the immediate context. (Spoiler - click to show)First, you have to understand the basic goal here, which means you should have already visited the other cottage and gotten to understand its inhabitant a bit. (Spoiler - click to show)The framed music gives a strong hint of the goal here. (Spoiler - click to show)If you want these two to fall in love, the first thing you have to do is get them in the same room. (Spoiler - click to show)She's a bit too wrapped up in her book to move, but he is just waiting at her beck and call. (Spoiler - click to show)What will make her call him? (Spoiler - click to show)Well, he's a butler, what do butlers do? (Spoiler - click to show)Yes, they introduce visitors... except here. Yes, they bring food and drinks.... except here. (Spoiler - click to show)Maybe you've noticed he's really tidy? Might he tidy something up for her? (Spoiler - click to show)Now even if you have the right idea, you're up against a guess-the-verb challenge. Try the most basic verbs. (Spoiler - click to show)Not "spill soil" or "knock over pot" or "throw dirt" or "break pot" (another misleading response)... just "push plant" is the magic command. This particular interaction is so antithetical to the rest of the work's tone that I really don't understand how it was left as is during playtesting.

#2 the safe -- (Spoiler - click to show)The basics here are easy enough to understand, you need to get on the platform to access the safe, and additional weight on the platform sets off a trap. (Spoiler - click to show)No problem, there's a spell for that right? (Spoiler - click to show)Only it doesn't work. Even though there's a presumably heavy safe on the platform, and increasing gravity should add quite a bit of weight. (Spoiler - click to show)Put something heavy on the platform instead, like one of the big books lying around. Again, this one just kind of leaves me shaking my head, as it would be trivial to implement the alternate (and, in this game, perhaps more natural) solution.

#3 Moilan -- (Spoiler - click to show)This one can't be solved until you have made some progress gathering music, so stop here unless you've been to all the initially-accessible places. (Spoiler - click to show)He's a gate guard, and you want through the gate, a common type of puzzle. (Spoiler - click to show)So you have to bribe or divert or disable him, of course. (Spoiler - click to show)You should pick up some clues that he has a favorite kind of food from one of many places. (Spoiler - click to show)Where can you find some of that stuff? (Spoiler - click to show)... that he doesn't eat the moment you try to get it? (Spoiler - click to show)No dice on finding any, huh? Maybe you can trick him? (Spoiler - click to show)Anything that looks like fudge around? (Spoiler - click to show)Perhaps something brown with a thick texture? (Spoiler - click to show)Bring him some mud in the cup. (Spoiler - click to show)You might have to make some mud first, using magic. (Spoiler - click to show)It's a bit indirect, but stand in the Center of Volcano and use "Rainy Day" to cause a storm, then gather mud in the quarry ("fill cup with mud"). Here, the design issue is the very weak link between fudge and mud. ANY kind of relevant hint would have worked here, such as an infinite supply of fudge that he never stops eating (to clue you that getting him to ingest something fudge-like might be possible) or changing his food mania to coffee (especially strong black coffee, sometimes referred to as "mud", and which, unlike fudge, is served in a cup).

Also, I encountered only one bug in the game, but it is something of a doozy(Spoiler - click to show): As Levi Boyles mentions in another review here, in Release 2 it is possible to defeat the obstacle of one puzzle (involving learning a difficult piece of music) by removing it from your inventory via a method other than dropping it. In my case, I put it back on the stand and got the same effect -- being able to play the music without learning it.

Inspecting the source code, this appears to be due to the way it is handled programmatically: An array of booleans is used to track whether you can play a particular song, and the relevant boolean is not set to false for all verbs which allow its written form to leave your inventory. Thus this logic thinks you are still holding the sheet music even when you are not.

Since this is only piece that requires any effort to learn (and the puzzle structure prevents you from having both its sheet music and your trumpet at the same time, so it's the only time when the ability to play a non-memorized tune is meaningful), it probably would have been better to just test the world state directly (is the sheet music in inventory when the trumpet is played?) instead of trying to track this state of affairs with the same variables used to track memorization. Oh, well
.

These (subjective) flaws left me with a much lower opinion of Augmented Forth as a game
, but your mileage may vary.

Finally, I want to point some special attention to the handling of time in this game, which I thought was very well done. (Spoiler - click to show)Rather than being dependent on turn count or the default clock, time in Augmented Forth is plot-driven, with completion of certain puzzles advancing you to the next nebulous period of the day (e.g. "early morning", "midmorning"). Each advancement is coupled with a brief cutscene, filling you in on activity elsewhere in the game world in a plot arc with which your actions will intersect during the end game.

I don't know if this is the first work of IF to use this particular combination, but the well-written cutscenes together with the loose timekeeping produce a powerful synergy. With the cutscenes decoupled from turn count, the player is in no danger of being left behind by the outside events' timetable. With the resolution of time being so fuzzy, it doesn't seem as obvious that external events are waiting for your key actions (an illusion that the cutscene writing, with its indefinite pauses between scenes, is careful not to dispel).
The net effect just seems to work for the purpose of telling the story in the IF medium in a way that is subtle, but wonderful.

Other reviewers have commented on the copious spoofy humor, and I agree that it only serves to add flavor for those who get the reference without excluding those who don't. Sometimes, the touch is so light that you might not even realize there was a joke unless you know what it refers to(Spoiler - click to show), such as the casual mention that you're feeling hungry at the start of a game (very topical in a time when the presence of a hunger puzzle was considered exceptionally stale and bitterly despised). Others are so blatant as to be inescapable today(Spoiler - click to show), like the presence of "Mollug" and a very amusingly-described ring.

All in all, this work is significantly above average in quality and sure to be fun to play for most people. Though the few problems I encountered were minor, they seem terribly out of place in a work that gets almost everything right (from an old school perspective). Consistency rates highly in my book, and these missteps knock off enough of a star to bring it just short of 4 star territory.

As a reminder, my ratings are unusually harsh, and 3 stars counts as a very good game. I would eagerly play another piece from Mr. Uri, should he publish one in the future, and old school fans should definitely try this one if they haven't yet.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | View comments (4) - Add comment 

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
The Jig Is Up, As In Thumbs Up!, February 23, 2013
by mrudis65
Related reviews: music, magic, charm, wit, satire, humor

You know it's going to be good when the game rewards you with the following: "Your score has gone up by one point for Stomaching the Requisite Cliched Fantasy Reference." This was my first IF by author Brian Uri, and if you enjoy Emily Short for her masterful storytelling or Andrew Plotkin for his fantasy creations, or "Violet" by Jeremy Freese for the sheer single-mindedness of the main character...then you are in for a treat with this one. If you don't know who those folks are, read on.

The author hides the solutions to the puzzles in "plain sight" but not so immediate that you don't have to get into the spirit of the story in order to find them. For this reason, not one of the puzzles was so hard that it became frustrating. However, not once did I feel like my intelligence was being insulted. In fact, quite the opposite was true. The nature of the puzzles employs word play, so while there perhaps is some guessing involved, I found the use of logic, semantics and a good dictionary to be most helpful. There is magic, and the game requires a lot of suspension of disbelief, because of the tongue-in-cheek nature of the entire drama. Humor and satire are behind every encounter.

What about references that only veteran IF players, or keepers of odd trivia would understand? These enhance the experience and can lead to certain "Easter Eggs" but even if new to IF, the player will find the story intriguing enough on its own. As for the theme of instrumental music, while there are frequent references to music, no knowledge of the subject is necessary to complete the game. I will admit that having played an instrument enhances the experience.

Who will want to move this to the top of their list of IF to try? Fans of Monty Python, Looney Tunes, The Kids in the Hall, or Saturday Night Live who also have a subscription to Games Magazine drop everything now and play it! I enjoyed the fact that score was kept throughout the game, and at the end you were informed what the total possible score was.

Unique to this IF was that I actually WANTED to go back and start over at the end in order to try some of the "extras" I missed.

The ONLY downside, if there is one, is that certain puzzles are "blocked" so that you cannot complete them until you accomplish other things in the game - things that are completely unrelated. So if you *think* you have the solution, and it doesn't work… my advice is to go do something else and come back to it. Still, I never really felt stuck to the point where I thought I had "tried everything".

Summary: This was the best IF game I have played to date.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
"But if we throw the Cat in the barrel first,..., June 28, 2021
by Rovarsson (Belgium)
Related reviews: Puzzler, Fantasy

...then how will the Aardvark learn to swim?"

A small taste of the sometimes absurd sense of humour that pervades Augmented Fourth

King Goosen of Papoosen did not enjoy your rendering of "Ode to a Duck". Consequently, you and your trusty trumpet are thrown down the pit, where you discover a community of sorts living at the bottom of the volcano.
Determined to make it back top-side, you must now overcome the obstacles that stand between you and the closed off ladder to the castle. You have your wits and your magically enhanced trumpet.

Instead of memorizing magic scrolls, in Augmented Fourth you must obtain and learn music sheets. Each of the melodies has its own effect on your surroundings and as such functions as a wizard's spell. This magic system is worked out in detail. If you play a particular ditty in a location that is not the intended puzzle-room, the surroundings will still react, sometimes hilariously. The actual effects of the spells are mostly natural phenomena (rain, gravity, ducks...), so it is not too difficult to judge which spell/song to play to solve a particular puzzle.

The game keeps a nice balance between magical solutions and more prosaic adventuring puzzles. Along with summoning ducks through trumpet-playing, you will also need to do the usual bit of exploring of the cave and manipulating of the objects.

The cave under the volcano has a splendid map. The adventure starts off in the center of the volcano, also the central hub of the area. All directions save one are open for exploration from the beginning, and multiple puzzles are accessible from the start. Almost without noticing though, you will have less and less options to pursue, effectively pushing you to the bottleneck in the northern quadrant. From there on out, the game shifts gears and the story gets on fast-moving railroad tracks to the hilarious finale.

A finale that is foreshadowed throughout the game in small amusing intermezzos narrating what is happening with the King up top, who is spiraling down to ever more insanely funny despotic madness.

Modern IF is often lauded for the way the puzzles are seamlessly integrated into the story. Augmented Fourth turns this on its head: the story is woven seamlessly around the puzzles, which are without a doubt the real reason of existence for this game. In many of those puzzles, well-known adventuring tropes are averted, subverted, completely avoided or twisted in a knot. Breaking down the player's expectations often leads to fantastically comic situations, when a certain build-up of tension is suddenly relieved in an unforeseen direction.

There are also a number of playthings that are just that: items to play around with. They're not even red herrings (of which there are also a fair number...), just opportunities to idly while away the time. In the same vein, there are a number of books that provide hints; they mostly provide page after page of completely unnecessary sillines.

A very silly, moderately difficult and very smoothly playing puzzle-romp.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

See All 6 Member Reviews

Augmented Fourth on IFDB

Recommended Lists

Augmented Fourth appears in the following Recommended Lists:

My Top 10 List (Not In Order) by Sami Preuninger

My new walkthroughs for February 2019 by David Welbourn
On Wednesday, February 27, 2019, I published new walkthroughs for the games listed below! Some of these were paid for by my wonderful patrons at Patreon. Please consider supporting me to make even more new walkthroughs for works of...

Games that made me smile by MathBrush
I wanted to do a list of comedy games, but I think people rarely think "I want to play a comedy game"; to me, the phrase brings up some kind of jokey, goofy game, like many of the poorly made Twine games that people make now. Instead,...

See all lists mentioning this game

Polls

The following polls include votes for Augmented Fourth:

Games that most resemble an Infocom work by David Cornelson
If you've played a game that "feels" like an Infocom game, add it to the list.

long games for beginners by Cygnus
so… you know how savior fair is long and awesome, but also, like, complicated? and.. cruel, as the ratings out it? I think the first thing that goot me INTO IF was anchor head. kinda that difficulty. recently played d’arkun and that was...

Best IF Titles by Fredrik
No doubt you have played some great games with great titles, or been disappointed to find games with great titles that did not hold up to expectations. What are the best titles of IF? They can be funny, elegant, evocative, or whatever...

See all polls with votes for this game




This is version 13 of this page, edited by Zape on 29 June 2020 at 3:55pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page