Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb

Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb
Also known as: Erben der Erde: Die große Suche (Germany) Developer: The Dreamers Guild Publisher: New World Computing Platforms: DOS, Mac OS Classic, Amiga Released internationally: 1994 This game has unused areas. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden level select.

A classic point-and-click adventure game.

To do: Explore the rest of the room IDs, and document any which don't appear during normal gameplay. Try bringing Okk and Eeah onto screens that they can't enter during normal gameplay, and see if they have any unused 'talk' dialog. Record unused dialog. Poke through the game's asset files directly, to see if there's anything that still isn't accessible. (The 'magic hat' seemingly lets us access every scene, but not necessarily every item, dialog, animation, etc..)

Hidden Debug Item

Just outside the first room of the game, a debug item can be found on a table, obscured by a canopy. The only indication that it's there is a subtle change in the status bar when it's moused over (the active verb is nudged slightly to the left by a space character, and the 'look at' verb highlights).

Once this "magic hat" is in the player's inventory, they can use the 'use' verb on it, then type any number followed by the enter key, to travel to the room internally assigned that number. (If there is no room corresponding to the entered number, the game will crash.)

(Source: http://www.furryvideogames.org/ite-easteregg.html)

Unused Rooms and Dialog

Certain screens accessible via the debug item cannot be reached normally during gameplay. These include 'daytime' versions of screens normally seen only at night. At least one of these screens (#6) includes written and recorded dialog triggered by speaking to Okk and Eeah that cannot be heard during normal gameplay.

Mac OS Resources

Several development leftovers can be found in the Mac version.

MENU 136 and ALRT 255 were used for debugging.

cicn 128 is a strange variation on the debug alert's icon: a skull speaking a moldering letter C.

ALRTs 261 and 262 refer to monochrome support not present in the final game.

The "Growf!" creature from Quintette and PGA Tour Golf—now in color—follows Robert McNally to another project.

DITL 220 has no corresponding ALRT or DLOG.

Non-Error Message

The list of error strings making up ERRS 256 ("Out of memory", "File not found", etc.) contains this curious entry:

No error. (huh?)