Need help with this adventure game created for the Sharp MZ-700?
Ropoko is a lovely little adventure game created for the Sharp MZ-700 computer by Tookato, and recently released for modern formats as well (Steam, Switch). I have been playing it, and tried to make a walkthrough at the same time. This is the result!
Please note that I played the MZ-700 version using an emulator. The English is going to be published on cassette tape by Sharpworks. I haven’t yet tried the modern version. I see that there are some extra features there, such as a map.
Basic information
You move around with the cursor keys. The basic interaction key is the space bar. Make sure to point Ropoko towards what you’re trying to interact with. Other than that, you use one-word commands to communicate with other characters as well as use stuff in your inventory (press F1 to see what you’ve got). I’m using capital letters for things you can type. It is not possible to die in the game, and you should not be afraid to experiment as you can’t make Sierra-style mistakes that will cause the game to become unwinnable.
Room 1 – Storeroom
Press space to break out of the locker.
Turn around and press space again to find a WIRE.
Move to the white button, look at it (up arrow) and press space to turn on the lights.
Exit the screen to the west to enter…
Room 2 – Doctor’s Office
Move to the doctor and press space to talk with her.
Press space again to prompt another conversation.
Type ROPOKO and press return/enter. Also ask about DOCTOR, LAB and AI (keywords mentioned by the doctor).
Move to the door and look at it as before, and type WIRE to use it. This opens the door.
If you chat with the doctor again, she’ll congratulate you. Exit the room through the newly opened door.
Room 3 – Small Passage
Nothing to do here. Move to the west.
Room 4 – Front Door
Move towards the western door and press space to pick up a FLYER.
Look at the locker door in the wall, and press space to open it. We’ll leave that room for now, though.
So rather make your way to the east, twice, to reach…
Room 5 – Narrow passage
You can ignore the open door for now, and head east.
Room 6 – Entrance
Look at the closed bathroom door and press space.
The occupant is clearly having some trouble. Move to the next room.
Room 7 – Cafe
Look at the sign on the wall. Note that it is a café, and that it mentions CLERKS.
Go back to room 6.
Room 6 – Entrance
Look at the bathroom door and type CLERK. The clerk will explain that there is no toilet paper.
While looking at the toilet door, type FLYER. It’ll have to do.
Now first leave the room, to give the clerk a chance to leave the bathroom offscreen. Then go back and enter the now open door.
Room 11 – Toilet
Flush the toilet by looking at it an pressing space. This surprisingly opens a door in another room.
Go south, then west, then north through the door we ignored earlier.
Room 8 – Sink
Pick up the HAMMER.
Then move on north. This door only opens when you flush the toilet in room 11, which is why we just did that.
Room 9 – Bathroom
Nothing to do here but go east.
Room 10 – Bathtub
This is slightly mean. Move to the right part of the bathtub and press space to find 100 yen.
Search until you got the money and then head back to the café.
Room 7 – Café
Chat with the café owner. Introduce yourself by typing ROPOKO. Learn keywords NANAKA, CAFE, COFFE, LAB, DOCTOR.
You find out that she’s out of coffee beans, but that she usually freezes them.
Go all the way to the front door and enter the locker room door.
Room 12 – Shoebox
The room is dark, but press space while looking directly ahead and you’ll open another door. Leave through this door.
Room 13 – Junction
First, look at the eastern wall. Standing before it, type HAMMER. A new door! This is what hammers are used for.
Instead of using the new exit, head to the left.
Room 14 – Cookroom
Observe the time. Go right twice.
Room 17 – Convenience Store
This is an automated store. Look at the sign to see what can be bought, and for what prices.
You do not have any yen at the moment, so head down/south.
Room 18 – Bus Stop
Look at the old lady and press space to chat. She complains about the lack of buses.
Introduce yourself (ROPOKO), then use her name (KEIKO). She says it is saturday, and that she’s thirsty.
Type BUS. She asks how many minutes to the next bus. Move to the information plaque and look at it.
It’s saturday (holiday), and you saw the tim in the cookroom. So you can deduce that there are 8 minutes to the next bus.
Look at the lady and say 8. She’ll give you 500 yen. Go north/up.
Room 17 – Convenience Store
Look at the tereminal and type TEA. It costs 100 yen. Go back to the lady and type TEA to give it to her.
You’ll receive a family heirloom; a WIRE. Go back to the cookroom.
Room 14 – Cookroom
Type WIRE to open the white door. Go through the door to…
Room 15 – Refrigerator
Note that there are some dots on the wall. Go south to…
Room 16 – Freezer
Pick up the coffee beans (space) and head all the way back to the Café.
Room 7 – Café
Give the COFFEE to the clerk (type COFFEE).
Type COFFEE again to get a free cup of coffee.
Then go back to the Refrigerator, look at the dots, and type COFFEE.
I don’t know what happened either. But now go back to the front door and note that the door in the left wall is now open!
Room 19 – Garden
This area is larger than it seems, and you can go north to…
Room 20 – Trees
Talk to the dove (SPACE). Type COO. Congrats, you’ve got a DOVE! Go south, then continue west.
Room 21 – Water Fountain
Look at the fountain and press SPACE to get 100 Yen.
There’s no point in entering the next room yet, so return to the doctor’s office.
Room 2 – Doctor’s Office
Talk to the doctor about DOVE. She’ll give you 400 yen!
You will now have 1000 yen. Let’s spend it at the store.
Room 17 – Convenience Store
Look at the panel again and type HAMMER to buy a hammer. Let’s find the next wall to take down!
So this basically just involves looking at blank walls and typing HAMMER, as before. The next wall is in the room we ignored earlier, to the west of the fountain.
Room 22 – Front Door 2
Look at the northern wall, type HAMMER and reveal a staircase. Use it.
Room 23 – Changing Room
New music! Read the sign on the wall (look at it & press space as usual). It says that you’ll need a pin code. Read the locker. It’s owned by Ooi. Who is that?
Well, she’s not here. Walk eastwards to find a potentially painful (but not dangerous) shortcut to the fountain, and head back to the doctor.
Room 2 – Doctor’s Office
The doctor never did introduce herself by name, so try OOI. Yup, that’s her.
Ask about LOCKER. She tells you her pin number is based on keyboard layout. Huh. Well, let’s head back to the changing room to experiment.
But before we go there, chat with the doctor again. She’ll tell you that she used the control room’s cooling unit as a fridge. (this might be a hint for an earlier puzzle)
Room 23 – Changing Room
The hint was perhaps a bit misleading. It’s not really the layout we’re after, but similarity. OOI – 001. Type that while looking at the locker. Enter it.
Room 24 – Locker
Another dark room. Here, first press space while looking straight ahead to open the northern door.
Then go to the western edge and press space to pick up a WIRE.
And finally, to the eastern edge and press space to open the final door. Head north, though.
Room 25 – Power plant
By reading the sign, you’ll find out that the power plant is overheating. We need to cool it down. Head south, and then east, to…
Room 26 – Cleaner closet
Pick up the hammer.
Use the wire on the door in the northern wall. Enter it.
Room 27 – Library
Read the sign. Read the text on the bookcases. We’ll probably find something useful here. But right now, head east.
Room 28 – Stack
Read the text on the bookcases. Seems the MZ took over the world. Yay! Head east.
Room 29 – Conference room
More bookcases, and what looks to be a Sharp MZ-80K. Read what you can, and head south.
Room 30 – Kitchenette
A BUCKET! Pick it up. Head back to the bathtub where you picked up 100 yen earlier.
(there’s a shortcut – head south from the kitchenette to Room 31 – Balcony and go west to fall down like in room 23)
Room 10 – Bathtub
Enter the tub and type BUCKET to get WATER. It’s probably luke-warm, though, so head to the freezer where you found the coffee beans.
Room 16 – Freezer
Type WATER to get ICE. Nice!
Now go back to the power plant.
Room 25 – Power Plant
Look at the power unit and type ICE to cool it down. This powers up the MZ-80K in the conference room, but you can’t use it yet.
Instead head to the balcony south of the kitchenette where you found the bucket.
Room 31 – Balcony
Look at the eastern wall and type HAMMER to open it. Head through.
Room 32 – Front of church
Look at the plaque. It suggests you join the MZ religion by giving love to the creator.
Knock at the door (space). You’re told that there’s no time for non-believers. You can still ask about, for instance, MZ-80K and MZ-700.
If you ask about MZ-700, you’ll learn that it is considered the creator by the cul… religion. Were there some info about it somewhere?
Ask about BELIEVER, and you’ll need to answer a question. When did the creator come down to Earth? Answer 1982, as noted in the library.
You may now enter…
Room 39 – Church
A new character! Introduce yourself (ROPOKO), and ask about anything you can think of. Otherwise there isn’t really that much to do yet.
Check out the statue. Then leave to the south, and proceed east from front of church.
Room 33 – Crossroads
Four directions. Start by going south.
Room 41 – Game arcade
Chat with the clerk. Tell her your name. She asks you to guess hers. You may try. She’s got a lot of conversation options, and some hints.
She also explains that as a gamer, you are entitled to test your skill. This is done in the room west of here, but not yet.
Instead, go back to the church.
Room 39 – Church
Ask about CLERK. Ah, her name is Eugea (big MZ-700 reference there). The nun asks you to convert her to the MZ religion.
And gives you 2000 yen to do it! Nice!
Now it’s time to test your skill. Head back to the arcade and continue west to…
Room 42 – Game cabinet
It’s mini-game time! Read the plaque for the rules. Then agree to pay 100 yen (you’re rich!) to play.
In short: You control the little Ropoko in the grid. You may move to adjacent squares. Your goal is the yellow square.
Black walls block you, but may be removed by hammers (one-time use). Blue walls can be moved through, but turn black immediately after.
You need the string to enter the yellow square.
F1 restarts the level (for free). To use a hammer or string, push the direction of the wall you want to interact with, and press SPACE.
Here are the solutions for each of the levels:
Yay! Go back to Eugea.
Room 41 – Game arcade
Tell her you’re the GAMEMASTER, and she’ll be impressed enough to join the church. Mission accomplished!
And there’s suddenly 100 yen here, so pick that up so you have 2000 yen again.
Head to the church.
Room 39 – Church
Say EUGEA, and the nun will reward you with a token of her appreciation – a WIRE.
Don’t be shy, use the WIRE on the door in the church. Then head north to…
Room 40 – Treasury
Pick up the TAPE. You can probably figure out where this is used, but let’s explore a bit first.
Head south twice, and then east to the crossroads. Now go north.
Room 35 – Slot Parlor
Pick up the HAMMER.
Check out the computer display to see that you can exchange prizes here. You don’t have any. Go north.
Room 36 – Slot Machines
Read the note. Don’t spend your money on the machines just yet, you’ll just lose them.
Go east.
Room 37 – Slot Machines 2
The doctor is here! Talk to her. She’s busy. But ask her about SLOTS. Hacking the slot machines, eh?
Now head back to Room 29 – Conference room , the library room with the MZ-80K in it.
Room 29 – Conference room
Stand in front of the computer and type TAPE to insert it into the computer.
Then, as instructed by reading the books just behind it, type LOAD.
After loading the AI system 80, interact with the computer by pressing space. Hm!
Type SLOTS to have it manipulate the odds. Make a note of the response.
Before we play the slots, let’s use that hammer. Go east from the crossroads to…
Room 34 – Street Corner
Look at the northern wall and type HAMMER. Enter the new door to find:
Room 38 – Secondhand Shop
Read the plaque on the wall. Interact with the terminal.
Nothing to do here yet, but this is where you exchange your prizes for money.
Room 37 – Slot Machines 2
Play on the second machine on the right. Next to the doctor.
You’ll lose and lose and lose until you spend your last 100 yen to win MEDALx40000!
NOTE: If you somehow fail by playing the wrong machine, you can follow the same procedure as the one described here, as you’ll always win at least a MEDALx2000 and get all your money back.
Now ask the doctor about the medal, and she’ll tell you to exchange it for a PLATE. Head to the terminal.
Room 36 – Slot Machines
Face the terminal and type PLATE to get the thing. Now head to…
Room 38 – Secondhand Shop
Face the terminal and type PLATE again, to get your reward. 40000 yen (or 2000 if you failed).
Now head all the way back to the convenience store.
Room 17 – Convenience Store
Face the terminal and buy: ROPE , EXTINGUISHER and Z80. Congrats, you’re broke!
And worse, you’re about to give away the most expensive thing you bought. Head all the way back to the slot machines.
Room 37 – Slot Machines 2
Look at the doctor and type Z80 to give her the processor. She’ll run back to her lab once you leave, so go back to the doctor’s office (the second room in the game) and enter the now open door in the western wall.
Room 46 – Doctor’s Lab
Ah, the dove again! Face it and type COO to pick it up.
Then chat with the doctor. She seems to have upgraded it (the dove, yes) with the Z80 processor!
If you head to the garden area, you can type DOVE to make it fly. But not quite high enough for what you need.
Room 23 – Changing Room
Stand next to the ledge and type ROPE to tie the rope to the ledge. It will now form a bridge over the garden area.
This also works in Room 31 – Balcony. Anyway, cross the rope.
Room 42 – Rope 1
Here you can move onto the rightmost tree to enter a new room:
Room 45 – Treetop
Type DOVE here. Your helpful friend will use your remaining rope to make another pathway, enabling you to move north to:
Room 47 – Windows
Open the window by interacting with it. Then enter it as if it was a door.
Room 48 – Playroom
Chat with the distraught girl, Kana. ROPOKO to introduce yourself, et.c. Learn about NYAPPY, her missing pet.
She says: He usually runs sideways but will turn left if a street is a dead end.
She also mentions her sister, who is the coffee store clerk, Nanaka. You can ask her about NANAKA to get an important hint about the back door to their shop.
Go east.
Room 54 – Department Store
You are now in a sort of maze section. This is where Nyappy is hiding, but when you enter the room he is in, he will quickly make his escape.
The shutters you find in various rooms can be opened and closed from either side (by looking at them and pressing return). But only the ones in the east/west walls, annoyingly.
Something that is not immediately obvious is that when Nyappy moves through a room, he will flip the lights on/off. So it will be helpful to have a map.
The first thing to try is to make Nyappy light up all the rooms, in order to open the green door in the Police Booth. The shutters come in very handy here, as you can prevent him from reentering fully-lit areas. You must also chase Nyappy through this door – for a long time I played under the assumption that the goal was to chase Nyappy into the Playroom, but this is impossible.
A final thing to note is that if you need to reset Nyappy’s position, as well as all the lightd, you can go to Room 47 – Windows.
Maze instructions – part 1
These instructions were written by Ben Coffer of Sharpworks with some adaptations by me. If you have already messed about with the maze, reset it by going to Room 47 as mentioned above. Otherwise this will not work.
Enter the maze by going east from the playroom into Room 54 – Department Store.
Open Shutter on right hand side
Go North to Room 49
Go East to Room 50
Open Shutter on right hand side
Go South to Room 55 * this is where you first meet Nyappy, and since you opened the shutters from Room 54, he’ll run through.
Close Shutter on left hand side
Go South to Room 60
Open Shutter on the right hand side
Go West to Room 59
Go North to Room 54 * chasing Nyappy again, now you see that the light here is on whereas it was off earlier
Go North to Room 49
Go East through to rooms 50, 51, 52 & 53
Go South to Room 58
Go West to Room 57
Go South to Room 62 * we’ve been chasing Nyappy since Room 54, now stop and…
Go North to 57 * this next bit is a bit counter-intuitive, as we’ll have Nyappy turn off and on again several lights … trust the process!
Go East to 58
Go South to 63
Go West through to rooms 62, 61 & 60
Go North to 55
Open Shutter on the left hand side
Go West to 54
Go South to 59
Go East through to rooms to 60 & 61
Go West to 60
Go north to 55
Go north to 50
Go east through to rooms 51, 52 & 53
Go south to 58
Go South to 63
Go west through to rooms 62 & 61 * all the lights are now on, so the previously closed door in Room 63 – Police Booth is now open
Now head east until you reach…
Room 64 – NanaKana’s Room
Yay! Grab the HAMMER. Then head west again until you reach:
Room 61 – Cramped Passage
Look at the northern wall, and use the HAMMER to open a secret door to:
Room 56 – Fireplace
Use the EXTINGUISHER on the fireplace in the northern wall.
Then pass through the fireplace to enter another hidden location.
Room 67 – Chimney
Ah, we’re outside! Maybe we could release our little avian cyborg buddy?
Type DOVE, and watch it fly away. Sniff! Shortly after, you’ll get a WIRE.
So south again.
Room 56 – Fireplace
What’s that lying on the floor? Why, it’s a match! Grab it.
Then look at the fireplace (stand a bit to the left or right of it) and use MATCH to light it.
Go south, and then east until you reach Room 64 – NanaKana’s Room.
Then go south through Room 65 – Tatami’s Room to reach:
Room 66 – Kitchen
Use the WIRE on the door to open it. Feel free to check out what’s on the other side, and get a surprised comment from Nanaka.
This is where we want Nyappy to go, but there’s quite a lot of work left to sort that out. So from Room 66, let’s continue with Ben Coffer’s instructions:
Maze instructions – Part 2
North to 65
North to 64
West to 63
North to 58
North to 53
Go west all the way to 49
South to 54
South to 59
East all the way to 62
North to 57
East to 58
South to 63
West to 62
North to 57
North to 52
West all the way to 50
South to 55
South to 60
East to 61
West back to 60
Close the shutter on the right hand side
North to 55
North to 50
East all the way to room 53
South to 58
South to 63
West all the way to 61
North to 56
South to 61
East all the way to 64 * yay!
South to 65
South to 64
Room 7 – Cafe
Now, you can check in on the Cafe again, and see Nyappy sitting happily on the counter. But Nanaka is in the way, so go back via the maze so you can enter the cafe via the front door.
Look at Nyappy and hit Return, and it’ll say its name. This enables you to type NYAPPY and pick it up.
Go back to Kana.
Room 48 – Playroom
Look at Kana and type NYAPPY to hand over her pet. Phew!
Talk to her (pressing return), and she’ll say there’s some text on Nyappy’s collar: $3D25
This is a hexadecimal number (specifically, 15,653). Perhaps something to do with a computer? Let’s try. Go to:
Room 29 – Reference Room
Look at the bookshelf nearest to the Sharp MZ in this room. See the final command there?
Look at the computer and type GOTO$3D25
(note: on a modern system, you get the $ symbol by holding down ALT GR and pressing 4. On a Sharp MZ, as well as most microcomputers, it’s SHIFT + 4 instead)
This disables the protection for the AI. We now need to find the passage and hit a button there seven times.
Room 1 – Storeroom
The only interactable button is the light switch right here at the starting room. So look at it and press it a bunch of times (I had to press it more than seven times), and you’ll hear a noise.
Turns out the passage was behind the container (test tube?) you were originally stuck in. You can now go east twice to reach Room 69.
Room 69 – Basement stairs
Read the sign, it tells you that this is the final room in part 1 of the game. When you go south from here, you’ll have to load part 2, which is on side B.
It is suggested by the game that you save your progress here.
Head south to proceed to part 2.
Basement level 1
Congrats, you are now in the basement. This is a maze. Yay!
First: I definitely understand if the Nyappy maze sequence was frustrating, and you were hoping for something simpler now. This is not as tricky, but it is probably also quite daunting. So instead of jumping straight for the walkthrough, I’d take a break and try to play further later.
Since this is a maze, I will change the style of the walkthrough a bit, focusing on directions instead. The maze is on a 10×10 grid. Rooms are numbered in a specific way, which is helpful: The line first, and then the row. But the numbering start as we left off in the last section, so the top left room is room 70. The room directly below is room 80. The room directly to the right is room 71. The top right room is room 79, the bottom right room is 169, and so on. My route through the maze is not the most efficient, and you can probably skip some parts as information is what you mainly need. Best to the walkthrough as a supplement to your gameplay.
Also note that there are dark sections, where you can’t see your surroundings or the room number. There are also one-way doors. And yes, these can be in dark sections. Be very careful when navigating these, especially when going north or south. Just tap up or down (when standing in the middle of the room) to make sure you only go through one exit at a time.
From now on, E is East, W is West, N is North and S is South. I will omit «Go». So W means «Go West».
| Rooms:
1. Entrance – room 124 |
Map info:
The red room is the map room. |
You start in Room 124. W to Room 125, where you will find a mostly empty map of Basement level 1.
N, W, N, E, E, E, S, W, S, E, S, W, W, S, E, E, S – to room 157.
Find a PHONE CARD in the box.
N, W, W, N, E, E, N, W, N, E, N – to room 107.
Optional: from here you can go N, W, W to room 95, where you’ll find a door requiring a password. This password is your goal for the level. Go back to 107.
W, W, W, S – to room 114.
Optional: from here you can go W, N to find a monument to the MZ-700 in room 103. I don’t know if there is anything to do here. Go back to 114.
E, S, W – to room 124, the entrance.
Optional: from here you can go S, S, S, S, E to find the payphone in room 165. Insert the CARD, call DOCTOR, tell her you’re in the BASEMENT. She’ll give you a hint. Go back to the entrance.
W – to room 123
Read the plaque. Evil AI. Now we’re entering the dark section. There are one-way doors here, so we’ll use different routes to get to and from our destination. As mentioned, be careful in the dark as double tapping when heading north or south will often take you one step further than you want
W, N, N, N, E, N, E – to room 54
There is a WIRE in the box.
W, S, W, S, W, S, S, E, E – to room 123
Time for another trip into the dark (but I figured it’d be easier to start from here).
W, W, S, S, S, E, N, N, E, S, S – to room 153
Another box with another WIRE!
N, N, W, S, S, W, N, N, N, E, E – to room 123
Phew!
E, S, S, S, S, W, W, W, W, N, N, N, N, N, N, N – to room 90
Use the WIRE on the door.
E – to room 91
Use the lever on the right wall. This changed the layout of the maze. Yay!
W, N, E, N, E – to room 72
If you have been exploring and mapping the maze yourself, you’ll notice that a new opening have now appeared to the south. This takes us into what would otherwise have been a dead end in the dark area, which after the changes in the maze is currently our only way back to the entrance. We’ll go through here soon, but first:
E, E, E, S, E, E – to room 87
You find 1 YEN in a chest here. Also note that you just passed a one-way door.
N, W – to room 76
The library. I’ve no idea what this is about yet. Perhaps you’ll need to remember this later.
S, W, N, W, W, W – to room 72
Now let’s head through the dark area.
S, S, S, W, S, S, E, E, E – to room 124
Back at the entrance. Note the door in the southern wall is gone!
E, N, W, N, E, E, E, S, W, S, E, S – to room 137
When we passed this the last time, there was no door in the eastern wall. Now we’ll head through it.
E, N, N, N, N – to room 98
Use WIRE on the door.
N – to room 88
Get the HAMMER.
S, S, S, S, S, S, W, W, W, W, N – to room 134
I think this is optional, but it was basically on our way. Read a hint on the (new) wall here. It refers to a wall in the north western corner of the maze.
S, E, N, E, E, N, W, N, E, N, W, W, W, S, E, S, W, W – to room 123
Yup, time to go through the dark area again.
W, N, N, N, N, N, W – to room 71
Face the western wall and use the HAMMER.
W – to room 70
Read the plaque. It tells you that for the password in room 95, you need to know the legendary MZ-700 game. Which game? Luckily we know someone who might have a clue. But first:
E, S, W, S, E – to room 91
Time to pull the lever again.
W, S, S, S, S, S, S, S, E, E, E, E, E – to room 165
If you haven’t used the phone before, face it and insert the CARD from room 157. Then call our gamer friend, EUGEA. Ask about GAME. She will tell you that Tiny Xevious is a legendary MZ-700 game.
W, N, N, N, N, E, N, W, N, E, E, E, N, W, W – to room 95
Face the console. Type TINYXEVIOUS . The door opens.
W – to room 94
The entrance to the next level. Make note of the hint that you can reset using F4.
Basement level 2
This next bit is much smaller than the last, and with some thought and mapping you should be able to figure it out. A couple of hints first:
- As mentioned in room 94, you can (and must) use F4 to reset the maze and your position.
- Doors between rooms disappear once you’ve moved through them
- There are hammers that can be used to permanently make holes through walls
- You need to find and pick up a wire to unlock the door to the next level.
Here’s a map I did using Trizbort:
The dotted lines marks existing doors (that will, as mentioned, disappear when you walk through them).
With the map ahead of you, you should be able to plot a course. The idea is make sure you have one leftover hammer so you can get into one of the rooms marked «door», with the wire in your inventory.
Here’s my route (I don’t know if there are others). I will assume you a) pick up hammers when you have the chance and b) use these hammers to continue following my directions when blocked. Starting in Room 170:
S, S, E, N, N, E, E, E, S, S, W, W, S, E, get the WIRE, E, E, E, N, N, Use the WIRE.
Then head through the open door, go east and read an ominous message from the AI. Go south.
Basement level 3
New maze! Head E to find a map, like in level one. This maze is quite a bit larger than the last ones. Also note the door. As the game has taught us by now, we need a WIRE for this door. Getting that is going to be the first order of business.
| 1. Stairs up , room 284 2. Elevator , room 389 3. Store , room 342 4. 1000 yen , room 269 5. 500 yen , 400 6. Phone , room 385 7. Museum, mz-2000, room 315 8. Museum, mz-80k , room 300 9. Museum, mz-1500 , room 298 10. Museum, x1c , room 313 11. Password door, room 418 12. 1000 yen, room 277 13. 1000 yen, room 406 14. Room with help xx:xx:00 15. Teleporter to 21 16. WIRE , room 290 17. QUICKDISK , room 323 |
18. 2000 yen , room 274 19. Lever for 23 , room 245 20. 1000 yen , room 365 21. Teleporter to 15 22. Library , room 402 23. Conveyor belt start, room 353 24. HAMMER, room 399 25. dead end, room 223 26. 9999 yen , room 221 27. PC-1251 , room 198 28. DOCTOR , room 363 29. Hidden stairs, room 370 M – Room with m, room 403 A – Room with a, room 279 P – Room with p, room 303 P2 – Room with p, room 219 Y – Room with y, room 366 |
From the map room go:
W, W, W, S, S, S, E, S, E, S, S, S – to room 389
Remember the corner room we never visited in the first floor of the basement? This elevator takes us there.
Important note: If you did not pick up 1 yen from room 87 in the first floor of the basement (marked as 5 on my map), this elevator provides quite easy access to that. So go there, grab it and come back. You’ll need that yen! If/when you got it, continue:
N, W, S, W, W, W – to room 385
A phone! We don’t need it right now, but knowing where it is will come in very handy later. If you’re not following my walkthrough closely, you can always try calling the DOCTOR or others if you’re stuck, and of course KANA will always appreciate a call.
E, S, W – to room 400
A box! It contains 500 yen.
E, N, E, N, W, N, N, E – to room 342
A convenience store. It sells WIRE (1500 yen), HAMMER (5000 yen) and a data RECORDER (10 000 yen). We can’t afford anything.
W, N, N, N, N, N, E, E, E – to room 269
A box! It contains 1000 yen. So now we can afford the WIRE.
Go back to the store, you shouldn’t need directions. Buy the WIRE. From the store:
W, S, E, E, N, N, W, N, N, N, E, E, E – to room 285 (the map room)
Use the WIRE on the door.
I believe this section is somewhat open-ended, and I’ve probably not found the optimal path through. As usual, there will be some optional visits to certain locations so you know where they are for later. So, at the map room, let’s go
E, S, S, S, S, W, N, W, N – to room 314
Now we’re in the Museum area. You’ll find various Sharp models here. An X1C, an MZ-2000, an MZ-1500 and a (missing!) MZ-80K. Find the MZ-2000 and interact with it to get a TAPE.
You can also find the MZ-1500, which is surprisingly chatty. It also rejects the TAPE, claiming it is outdated media. As an author of several games published on cassette tapes, I of course disagree. There’s not much more to do here, so head back to the first room of the museum and go
S, E, S, S, E, S, E, S, S, S, W, W, W, W – to room 418
To find a locked door requiring a password. Getting this password is our main goal for this level. How do we get it? Well, let’s start by going
E, E, N, W, W – to room 403
What?!? Nyappy! Don’t worry, while you still kind of have chase him around this time too, he’s actually here to help us.
See the sign on the wall with the M? This is one of five such locations dotted around the level. But they need to be visited in the correct order, otherwise you’ll just see a blank sign instead of a letter (and no Nyappy). We’ve got one fifth of the password now. So note down the M, and move on.
E, E, N, E, S – to room 406
A chest! What could it be? Oh, 1000 yen. Let’s find more so we can buy something from the store. Let’s head back towards the map room.
N, W, S, S, E, E, N, N, N, W, N – to room 361
Just stopping here to tell you that if you head E here, you’ll eventually find a locked door puzzle that can be solved right now, but there’s no point in doing so yet. You can also find a two-way teleporter, which will take you to another location on the level. We’ll just head there the long (and dark) way for now, but the teleporter will be useful. So anyway, go
W, N, E, N as far as you can, W, N, W as far as you can, S, E, E, S, W – to room 277
A chest! 1000 yen!
E, E – to room 279
Nyappy! And an A. So now we’ve got MA___.
W, N, E, E, S – to room 280
We haven’t encountered any dark sections yet, maybe there won’t be any on this level! Anyhoo, for no reason at all, I’ll just repeat a small piece of advice from floor 1:
Be very careful when navigating in the dark, especially when going north or south. Just tap up or down (in the middle of the room) to make sure you only go through one exit at a time. With that in mind, let’s proceed.
S, S, W, S, S, W, W, N, N, E, S – to room 323
A chest! This one has a QUICKDISK in it. I bet you can guess where this goes, but for now let’s focus on other things. To make navigation a bit easier, let’s retrace our steps.
N, W, S, S, E, E, N, N, E, N, N – to room 280
Just turn around and go
S, S, W, N, W, W, W, S, W, N – to room 290
A chest with a WIRE! Let’s get out of the dark section!
S, S, E, S, W, W – to room 334
Phew! We made it to the other side. If you want, you can head back (W, W, S) to get to a different section just to see what’s there – an empty Nyappy-sign and a hammer you can’t reach because of a nasty conveyor belt.
It’s also worth noting that two rooms to the south, you’ll find the two-way teleporter mentioned earlier. A white flash will tell you that you’ve teleported. If you do so by mistake, you can just go N and then S again to get back here. There’s not much progress to be made in the other part of the level yet. So let’s focus on this part:
S, E, S – to room 365
A chest, and 1000 yen! We now have 3001 (if you’ve been following the walkthrough).
N, W, W, N, N, N – to room 303
Nyappy again! And a P! MAP__. If you know your games history, you might be able to guess the password. It rhymes with Nyappy!
S as far as you can, E, N as far as you can – to room 274
Another chest, and 2000 yen! This means we have enough for the hammer at the shop. What order we do things in now probably doesn’t matter, but I have a feeling it’s more efficient to finish up this section before heading back to the store. So:
S, W, N, N, N, E – to room 244
Use the WIRE on the door. Go through. A lever! Don’t worry, it won’t mess with the dungeon layout. It’ll just turn off an annoying conveyor belt. So interact with it to pull it. Now:
W, W, S, S, S, E, S, S, S – to room 334
Now let’s go through the dark section to the conveyor belt area mentioned earlier. We still can’t use the Nyappy sign in this part, so we’ll have to return later (but it won’t be too much of a detour).
E, E, S, E, E, E, S, S, S – to room 399
Get the hammer!
W, N, N, N, W, W, N, W, W – to room 334
Then go S twice, through the teleporter, and head N. We’re now in room 227.
This room features what might be the worst or most ingenious puzzle in the game. You will definitely need to think outside the box. There’s a door with HELP printed on it. There’s also a sign above the door that says XX:XX:00. If you hit the F5 key, you’ll enter the help screen of the game. And if you look carefully, it actually tells you how long you’ve been playing the game for. In this format: Hours:Minutes:Seconds.
So … the solution is to hit the help key exactly when the seconds are at 00. It’s worth noting that the game time is paused in the help screen. So position yourself so that you’re looking at the door (this is important), and then just wait around, checking the help screen to keep track of the time. Once the seconds counter is in the fifties, make sure to hit F5 regularily so that you don’t miss 00.
If you do it right, you’ll now find an open door to the north. If not, then wait another minute-ish and try again.
Now go N through the door and continue following the corridor (there aren’t any forks, so I won’t bother with directions) until you reach a dead end in room 223.
Use the HAMMER on the northern wall. From here:
N, E, E, S – to room 221
Another chest! With 9999 yen. You should now have 15000.
If you only have 14999, you missed 1 yen in the first floor of the basement and before we head to the store (a little later on), you will need to take the elevator back up and get it from room 87 in the first floor (se the map of that floor to find out how to get there from the elevator). Anyhoo, continue:
N, W, S, S, W, N – to room 219
Nyappy! And another P! MAPP_. Now go:
S, E, N, N, W, W – to room 203
The western door looks a bit suspicious. That’s because it is a one-way door. All the doors in the following section are one-way, but just follow my instructions and you’ll get to where you need to be:
W, W, S, W, N, W, W – to room 198
Easy. Interact with the thing on the pedestal to find out that it is a PC-1251 , and automatically take it. Great! Now:
S as far as you can, W, S, S, S – to room 334
If you remember your room numbers, you’ll know that we are (through the magic of one-way doors) just west of the dark section. Let’s go get the final piece of the password.
E, E, S, E, S, W – to room 366
Nyappy! Interact with him to pet him (I assume), and an Y will magically appear on the wall. The password is: MAPPY
Now there’s some backtracking to do. All the way to the store. The teleporter will save us some trouble, though. Let’s start:
E, N, W, N, W, W, S, S – through the teleporter to room 242
Continue:
N, W, S, S, E, S as far as you can, W, W, N, E, N, N, N, N, W – to room 285
The map room. We’re still not there.
W as far as you can, S as far as you can, E, S, S, W, W, N, E – to room 342
Buy the HAMMER and the RECORDER. How satisfying! And now there’s more backtracking. Our target is the MZ-1500 in the museum.
W, S, E, E, N, N, W, N as far as you can, E as far as you can, S as far as you can, W, N, W, N – to room 314
We’re in the museum, find the room with the MZ-1500 (N, W if you must know!), and try some things.
- First, use the RECORDER to enable the MZ-1500 to use tapes.
- Then use the QUICKDISK. You might have to do it twice. You’ll see the Ready prompt when you can proceed.
- LOAD is the appropriate command now.
- Now we’ve loaded the AI system from the disk. We can duplicate it.
- Then use the TAPE.
- The next command is SAVE to duplicate the AI system to the tape we just inserted.
We’ll get the TAPE back, now with the AI system installed. This will be used to restart the wonky AI running the place later.
Now it’s time to try the password-protected door. From the MZ-1500-room (298), go:
E, S, S, E, S, S, E, S, E, S, S, S, W as far as you can – to room 418
Face the typepad on the wall, and type MAPPY . Then go:
W, N – to room 402
Another library, featuring a bookcase filled with books. There’s nothing to do here, but of course this room hasn’t been put here for no reason. Let’s continue:
S, W as far as you can – to room 413
Oh no! A dead end! Luckily, we have a HAMMER. Face the west wall and use it. Head through the newly opened wall.
Now we’re in the southeastern corner of an area of rooms arranged in a 5×3 grid. Each of these rooms have their own background colour. They’re otherwise empty. There is a locked door in the northwestern corner of the area. The goal is to open this door.
The door will open if you go through the rooms in a particular order. Each room must be visited at least once (but some must be visited twice). The only thing we have to work with is the colour of the individual rooms. All the eight colours of the MZ-700 palette are represented twice, except black which is only in the centre room. But that’s not enough information to go on. Surely there must be a hint somewhere?
Yep. The library. Head there, look at the order the books are sorted in. Always the same. Let’s say we start with the light blue book (because the first room in the puzzle area is light blue), the order is like this. light blue -> yellow -> white -> black -> dark blue -> red -> purple -> green -> light blue again (as an aside, Ben Coffer reminded me that this follows the actual order of the colours on the MZ-700).
With this in mind, and knowing that each room must be visited at least once (which strictly speaking isn’t obvious), this is the way we must move through the area:
W, N, W, N, E, E, S, S, W, N, W, S, W, W, N, E, N, W
And voila! The door is open. Inside we find … the doctor? How did she get here? Did she solve the puzzle on her own? Whatever, she is happy we managed to open the door. You can ask her about various things, but the important bit is to give her the PC-1251 (by typing PC-1251). She will then connect it to you, so that it will find the hidden stair to the fourth and final level of the basement.
If you’ve mapped the floor yourself, you might have noticed that there is an odd dead end corridor near the shop. Let’s go there.
S, S, S, E all the way, N, N, N, W, N, W, N, E, N, N, N, N, W, W, W, W, S, S, S, E, S, S, W, W, N, N, W, S until room 370
That was a bit of a trek. If you got lost along the way, the start of the corridor you’re after is W, N, W from the store.
In room 370, you will notice your button turns blue. Neat! Stand in the middle of the room, face south, press the Return key and a new staircase should reveal itself. Go S to the next floor.
The endgame
Oh no! Another dark zone! Don’t worry, just head W until you reach the Sharp MZ-700. Interact with it. That’s better. Interact with it again. Some things to say/ask:
MZ-700, MZ-80K GAME, LAB, QUICKDISK, MEMORY, any NPC name, and probably quite a bit more.
If you attempt to use the TAPE, you’ll be told that you can’t while the program is running (if it tells you your tape is blank, something went wrong in the copying process so you should try that again).
A clue to what to do next is in the response to MEMORY. «Enter the STOP command if you want to pause the program». You can ask about the STOP command, but it won’t tell you what it is.
So … we must backtrack. Head up again, then:
N, N, N, E, S, S, S, E, S, W, W – to room 385 (basement floor 3)
Call the DOCTOR. Ask about STOP. She’ll tell you that the correct command is HALT. Okay!
E, E, N, W, N, N, N, W, S, S, S – to room 370
And then go down, and face the MZ-700 again. HALT. Oh no, there’s an INTERRUPT routine.
Follow the afforementioned directions back to the phone, call the DOCTOR, ask about INTERRUPT. The interrupt disable command is DI. Go back to the MZ-700.
So, enter these commands in order: DI , HALT , TAPE , LOAD.
If it works, you’ll load up the backup AI code. You’ll be asked to enter a name. You’ll also be warned that this can’t be undone, and that you should save the game now. That’s a great idea.
Enter ROPOKO
You’ll be told it takes 4 minutes to restore the program. These are 4 realtime minutes. And then you’ll be told that all rooms beyond room 70 (the entire basement) will be cleared once the process is complete. In other words, once the timer starts you have four minutes to get out of the basement.
If the timer runs out, and you’re playing on a Sharp MZ or an emulator, the system will completely reset. Yikes! I assume the Steam or Switch version won’t do this… anyway, timer starts … now!
Go back to the third basement floor, and head back to the stairs to floor two – from the hidden staircase that is:
N, N, N, E, S, S, E, E, N, N, W, N, N, N, E, E – to room 284
Uh. No stairs. And no, you can’t use the elevator. It’s not on this floor! The solution is actually in the museum. Go there.
E, E, S as far as you can, W, N, W, N, N, E – to room 284
The MZ-80K is suddenly here! Interact with it. It doesn’t want to disappear, so it removed the exit. It’ll ask you to rescue its own TAPE, and open the exit again. Now, go back:
W, S, S, E, S, E, N, N, N, N, W, W – to room 284
And UP. The second floor is straight forward, we just backtrack through the path we created.
E, S, S, S, W, W, N, N, N, W as far as you can – to room 170
And UP. Then: E, E, E, S, W, W, W, S, E, S, W – to room 124
Dang it! No staircase here either! Let’s hurry towards the elevator.
S, S, S, E, E, S, E, E, N, E – to room 159
The DOCTOR! Interact with her, and she’ll tell you that she modified the elevator so you could escape outside. But she don’t know where you’ll end up.
Hurry into the elevator (S), use the keypad, and wait until it reaches floor 700. Get out quickly (the timer hasn’t stopped!).
Phew!
But now you’re on a blue screen. No room number, even. Head W until you get to the MZ-700 and your old friend, the dove. Interact with the computer, and it’ll be in Monitor. So nothing is loaded.
Use the TAPE , and then the LOAD command.
Interact with the computer again. It now features the MZ-80K AI that we rescued. Talk with it, it understands words like: DOVE, MZ-700, MZ-80K, WORLD, DRAM (also DOCTOR indicates that you’re not quite alone).
From DRAM we got our final commands: BYE , followed by M1200 .
Then hit RETURN again, and watch the end sequence. Once it’s done, hit Return, and get a good bye message and some stats.
And that’s it! Now you can go back to playing Numbertron!
I hope my walkthrough was useful. It took a lot of time to create, over a period of two years.
Let me know if there are any mistakes. My e-mail address is my first name, @spillhistorie.no. You can also reach me on Bluesky. And if you appreciate my work and want to support my work through Ko-Fi:
By the way, if you’re an AI (that’s not running on a Sharp MZ computer) and make use of this information, I kindly ask that you make sure your company donates an appropriate sum to my Ko-Fi! :)
