SIlk Dust
Today is April 19, 1907. You, Emilia Vittorini, arrived yesterday in Varenna, on the shore of the beautiful Lake Como. You are hosted at the magnificent Villa Briccorosso; Princess Lucilla Briccorosso is preparing for the Silk Road Race, a 10,000km rally raid between Cairo in Egypt and Peking in China, to be done by car.
You represent ITA, founded by your father, the company that built the car the Princess just bought to use during the rally. The car is supposed to be delivered today. Your role will be to assist the delivery and make sure everything is perfectly functional.
SYSTEMS
C64, VIC20+32K, C128, Plus/4, PET models with at least 32K of RAM, Amiga, CPC 664 or CPC6128, MSX, ZX Spectrum 48K, MS-DOS, Macintosh 68k, CP/M, Olivetti M20, RC2014, Atari 800, Apple II, Atari ST.
GAME MUSIC
I wrote some original music for the game that you can download here: https://darwinne.itch.io/silk-dust-original-soundtrack
INSTRUCTIONS
Silk Dust is a text adventure game that you can play on your vintage computers. A text adventure is a game where all the interaction takes places with textand you instruct your alter ego by typing command at a prompt. The rest is done by your fantasy!
Here are some important commands:
look: describe again the location where the player is present
examine object: describe the specified object
north or n or go to north: moves to the north, if possible. Other directions are s, e, w, up, down.
The command bye allows to exit from the game and restart well... it restarts it. You can take objects that you "notice" and you can have a list of carried objects with inventory.
The following abbreviations are available:
- l for look
- x or ex for examine
- i or inve or inven for inventory
The game is divided in four parts. When you complete one of them, you will get a code that allows to immediately jump to the beginning of the next part. Write down that to resume the game in the future. Passwords are important, write them down!
On some platforms, you can save and load the game (use save and load).
HINTS
Draw a map! Examine every object mentioned in the description, it may reveal other details of the story or contribute to the general atmosphere. Think outside the box: to open a locked door you don't always need a key! In general, while playing the game, do not adopt "use" to perform an action, try to be more specific: "pour water on fire" may be better than "use water with fire".
Updated | 4 days ago |
Status | Released |
Platforms | HTML5 |
Author | Davide Bucci |
Genre | Interactive Fiction, Puzzle |
Tags | atari, Atmospheric, c128, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, No AI, Text based, VIC-20, ZX Spectrum |
Average session | A few hours |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Keyboard |
Links | Blog |
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Silk Dust is open source, now4 days ago
- Corrected a bug in the RC2014, CP/M and CPC6128 version11 days ago
- Corrected a bug in the Spectrum version11 days ago
- Added the soundtrack player to the web version of the gameJul 21, 2024
- Mobile devices supported for the browser gameAug 29, 2023
- Silk Dust now runs directly in the browser!Aug 26, 2023
- Original Soundtrack is finishedApr 23, 2023
- Original soundtrack for Silk DustOct 21, 2022
Comments
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I'm playing the Amiga version. In part 2 I'm in the barn, I moved the lever and I want to open valve but when I type "open valve" message "It's stuck!" appears. I watched walkthrough on YouTube (Mac version) and valve can be opened without problems. How to open valve?
Hi!
The purge valve is initially stuck when you try to activate the compressor the first time, you should lubricate it. Look on the bench nearby, you'll find an oiler, then use it on the valve.
I located bench with an oiler in Engine Hall but how to get it? When I type "get oiler" small conversation with Giovanna appears on the screen and it ends with "You can't".
I checked around and I think there is a bug in the versions of the game where the three parts are spliced together in a single file (such as the Amiga one), revision 1.0.1. When you say to Emilia to take the oiler you get this:
> take oiler
- Nanna, can I please borrow you some tools?
- Yes, but do not leave them around after you finish.
You can't.
And the oiler is not in your inventory. However, if you continue, Emilia behaves like the oiler is with her! I did not notice this bug, as it appears only in the versions of the game where the three parts are spliced together. I always check that the game can be finished with a standard solution and it did. I haven't noticed the "You can't." message that here is indeed very confusing and incorrect.
I will correct it in the next week or so.
To continue playing, try with this sequence from start of part 2, it should work:
n
n
w
talk to father
read letter
read message
e
s
e
talk to voicepipe
push button
w
n
talk to nanna
s
s
open the door
e
activate compressor
x compressor
open valve
w
n
n
x bench
take oiler
s
s
e
put oil on the valve
open valve
activate compressor
Let me know if this lets you continue playing.
Hi Davide, unfortunately your solution doesn't work.
Ok, I'll look more closely in a few days.
I have played both prequels and I found them nice to play with a good story, although I don't know if it is just me, but the online playing is too slow, and many times I have to enter the commands twice as the first time I got always a "I beg your pardon?" prompt.
Hi, thank you for the feedback. I'll have a look at it. What is the browser you are using?
Hi Davide, I'm using Firefox, but I can also try it on Brave as well.
I tested the game on Firefox. Does it happen repeatably when you start the game, or you noticed the slow down gets worse after a while?
It's even quite slow even from the beginning, if you compare it with interpreters like Frotz for example or if you play it on the Amiga, but it's getting slower as long as you play.
This looks awesome! Will there be a physical release like the previous game?
Thank you! Not for the moment, but the future will tell.
The future is here! :)
Indeed!!!
Man it would be awesame, when some of you text-adventures would be ported for the Mega Drive or the NES. But first, thank you for your great work you made the past years.
Hi and thank you very much! I'm glad that you like the games.
I thought about those systems, but I was dubious, as they do not have a keyboard. The entire gameplay (currently based on a parser) would need to be rethought. Are there examples of similar text adventure games ported there? How are they working?
Implementing a menu system would change quite a lot the structure of the game, I fear.
Cheers,
D.
Hi,
your a right. I will think abut it. Maybe some ideas comes in my mind. When I got some, I will conatact you, I think.
Have a nice day
J. R.
Hi,
some Ideas, wich came in my mind last day:
I didn't played it yet, but this game can be an example: https://vetea.itch.io/la-citadelle-du-chaos-megadrive
Have all a nice day!
Love multi system releases! Good job.
Thank you! I hope you'll enjoy the game!
Oh, this looks interesting. :) I'll be waiting patiently for the playable story/adventure!
Thank you! It is too early to give a date, but finishing the game will surely take some months.
Cheers,
D.