The Adventure Game - Common Tasks

Common Tasks

The contestants had to complete a number of tasks in order to achieve their overall goal (e.g. regain their crystal and return to their ship). Many tasks involved the drogna, a small transparent plastic disc containing a solid geometric figure, which was the currency of Arg. The value of a drogna was its numbered position in the visible spectrum multiplied by the number of sides of the figure. For example, a red circle is worth one unit, an orange circle is worth two units, a red triangle and a yellow circle are both worth three, and so on.

Tasks which often appeared included:

• • A mnemonic would be given to the contestants, together with the actual items it referred to. The challenge would be to “solve” the Mnemonic, and arrange the items in the appropriate order. EG: Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain would be the clue, accompanied by tokens representing the colours of the visible spectrum. The solution would be to arrange the tokens in the order of “Red - Orange - Yellow - Green - Blue - Indigo - Violet.” (There were only 5 colours used)

• A simple computer game where Dogran the 'dog' had to be guided around a maze.

• Belts around the contestants' waists attached to cords tying them to the wall; there was a predictable function governing the maximum distances of all the cords, which had to be discovered by induction.

• The Drogna Game, which came in the middle of the programme, giving the contestants their opportunity to regain the crystal. The game is played by two players: one would be a contestant and the other would be a creature known as the Red Salamander of Zardil. This game became so popular that Acornsoft released a version for the BBC Micro home computer, which was written by Patrick Dowling.
  • The floor is marked out with symbols similar to those described above on drognas; the players stand at opposite sides of the board, and the crystal is placed in the centre.
  • There is a rule determining whether a user is allowed to move from a particular drogna to another drogna. (One common example is: A player may move to any drogna with the same colour or shape as the one on which they started the turn. For example, you may move from a red triangle to any red shape or a triangle of any colour.)
  • A player may only move to an adjacent drogna. However, a player may move across multiple drognas in one turn provided they all meet the given criteria. Hence, the drogna on which the player started the turn is not necessarily the drogna they have immediately left.
  • If a player breaks the movement rule, the crystal retracts such that it cannot be taken.
  • If a player becomes adjacent to the crystal and it is not taken or retracted, the player may take the crystal.
  • If, during the move of the player not carrying the crystal, that player can legally step onto a drogna currently occupied by the player holding the crystal, they may take the crystal from their opponent. This is known as the Hargraves Rule.
  • A player wins by reaching the edge of the board while carrying the crystal.

• How many Argonds around the pond. This was a game played just before the Vortex (possibly a time filler, if the contestants completed the whole game too fast, as it was not always played every show) The winner(s) (everyone had a chance to win) received a Green Cheese roll to triumphant fanfare. This Green cheese roll was of use when playing the Vortex (see below). Gandor would compère the game, it would start on a table with a number of drogna inside a velvet bag with draw strings. He would shake the bag and withdraw some drognas and place them on the table, then asking the first contestant "How many Argonds are around the pond?" The contestants would start by adding the sides or points of the solid geometric figure that the drognas had and fail to guess the right number. The key was that Gandor would place his fingers on the table top as he said "How many Argonds are around the pond?" The number of fingers he would place down on the table would be the correct answer. Most people did not guess the answer, or they would just happen to get it right by mistake.

• The Vortex (series 2 - 4). This was the last task in the programme. To return to their ship, the players had to jump between a grid of points, taking turns with the Vortex, another "player" (shown by a video effect generated pulsating column in series 2, and a computer-generated flashing column in series 3 & 4). If the human player jumped into the Vortex (which they could not see), it would explode and the human, who would lose the game, was said to have been "evaporated", meaning a long trip back home which had to be walked by foot along the interplanetary highway (Earth is a long way from Arg!). While the player can lose by stepping into the Vortex, the Vortex could not move onto the player's space. The important difficulty was that the human player could not see the position of the Vortex on the grid. Players would sometimes be permitted to buy Green cheese rolls or food with their leftover drognas, and this food could be thrown onto suspect squares to test for the presence of the Vortex. Players would sometimes put their Arg Crystal down to test the suspect square, except the Arg Crystal was never evaporated and not a good indicator of the vortex's position. Milk used in this way would, of course, become evaporated milk. In spite of the Vortex being the most recognizable game in the series (and one of the best remembered), the total lack of information for the human player means it is in fact purely a game of chance in the later seasons, when the vortex has the first move and the players have to react to an 'opponent' they can't see. In season 2 however, the players got the first move, and thus there was some strategy that could be applied by encouraging the vortex player (who would often be one of the team accused earlier of being the 'mole', and would be out for revenge) to copy their moves, making it easier to judge where the vortex had been in order to step on a freshly vacated point that would now be 'safe'.

To play the Vortex game well and to guarantee survival one must realize that it is not a game of chance or psychology, but a game of logic; unfortunately most contestants did not realize this. No matter who takes first turn you can guarantee survival (and win) using only a single sandwich. Number nodes left to right top to bottom (European) reading order. Then move 24, 21, 17, s14, s13, s10, s9, s6, s5, s2 (s moves involve throwing a sandwich ahead of you). If the sandwich disappears then you know where the vortex is, and can easily plot a route to the end.