Walkthrough
1. INTRODUCTION
2. CONTROLS
3. AREAS
3-1. INTRODUCTION
3-2. BUILDING MACHINES
3-3. LOGIC GATES
3-4. ROCKY'S CHALLENGE
3-5. FLIPFLOPS
3-6. ROCKY'S CHALLENGE
3-6-1. FIRST ROOM
3-6-2. SECOND ROOM
3-6-3. THIRD ROOM
4. VERSIONS/CREDITS
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1. INTRODUCTION
Rocky's Boots, by Warren Robinett, is a children's educational game about
logic circuits. It was going to be a sequel to Adventure, but the way it is,
it's clever and fun even if you don't get anywhere in the actual puzzles. You
walk through a big maze of rooms that give instructions and introduce you to
various logic concepts. The puzzles at the end require you to hook up a boot
to a logic machine so that it kicks certain shapes but not others.
At first you just learn how to move your cursor and toggle the sound. Later,
you learn about or, and and "not" gates, and though the game doesn't use XOR
gates, a later puzzle asks you to construct one. Still the early puzzles will
be "purple but not crosses" so you can figure what to do pretty easily. The
final bit uses flip-flops (1 of 2 configurations) and delay boxes (2
different signals, 1 can be held) and clockers(sends a pulse once for each
shape.) The later puzzles, which use these new machine parts, are very
complicated and their names reveal less or even tease you--"after purple"
without having a purple sensor would be an example.
You can't actually ever lose in Rocky's Boots, but you can walk away feeling
pretty dumb. While this is a children's game, some of the later puzzles are
decidedly difficult. Warren's Widget in particular is a clever one where you
need to kick the boot every three shapes.
Terminology note: on asimov.net, Rocky's Boots has two versions. The knife
splits wires in one version, the splitter in others. They have no
funcitonality difference.
2. CONTROLS
IJKM moves your box by its width, ctrl-IJKM moves a pixel. Space picks up or
puts down an item. To link two parts of a machine, you generally have to get
close and the node/arrow you can link up will flash to the part it can
connect with. This is where you can use control characters.
You can pick up the splitter to separate machine parts. They'll rattle around
a bit and sit a bit apart. Leave the splitter away from the machine.
One final weird bug is that if you drop the splitter and it is partially in
the room above, it may appear there.
3. AREAS
3-1. INTRODUCTION
There's nothing special here for puzzles, but this is sort of cute. You can
put a hat on Lincoln or unlock a closet. The map is linear and not worth re-
creating.
3-2. BUILDING MACHINES
You learn about electricity and sensors and hooking things up here.
start
v
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start
3-3. LOGIC GATES
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to start
Here you learn about logic gates.
The NOT gate has electricity if its node doesn't.
The OR gate has electricity if either node does.
The AND gate has electricity if both nodes do.
Later rooms allow you to go through and mess with gates and objects floating
by, to turn a clacker on and off.
You can also see a loop through a NOT gate and examples of oscillators.
The map is linear, but west of the first practice room is a secret passage to
a room with an alligator. It will peck you to death if you are slow, but
leaving the room restores your cursor.
In this room you can create a machine that will punch the alligator.
<-green sensor
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v
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puncher |
^ v
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When the alligator touches the sensor, he'll be punched and split in two--til
he goes off the screen.
3-4. ROCKY'S CHALLENGE
games
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s-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
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start
Section 4 contains some basic puzzles which should not be too hard. They work
with introductory logic gates, and the puzzle names tell you what to do. Your
goal is to get 24 points, and none of these are terribly complex, but they're
pretty fun.
I won't mention any cleanup work you have to do, as there's no real order to
do things in, and besides, changing the puzzle resets the rooms. If you want
to clean up a puzzle you didn't solve, change to another room and change
back.
It should not be too hard to clear stuff away. Your main instrument for
cleaning stuff off is the splitter. It's the blue snakelike thing. You should
place it on connections between machine pieces to disconnect them. You'll
likely need to do so after each puzzle.
Sometimes I will forget to mention to hook the boot up at the end. I think
you'll be able to figure it out, though.
THE BLUES
(diamond, blue, green)
--hook the boot up to the middle(blue) box.
CIRCLES
(purple, blue, circle)
--hook the boot up to the circle.
UN-GREEN
(blue, purple, green)
--hook a "not" gate (orange one) to the green box
--hook the boot to the "not" gate
BLUE TRIANGLES
(blue, triangle, purple)
--hook the up arrow to the triangle
--hook the "and" gate(circle/square) to the up arrow and blue box
--hook the boot to the and and arrow
DIAMONDS OR CIRCLES
(diamond, circle, triangle)
--hook the up arrow to the circle
--hook the "or" gate (circle with wedge) up to the diamond and the up arrow
--hook the boot up to the or arrow
BLUE CROSSES
(diamond, blue, cross)
--hook the up arrow to the cross
--hook the "and" gate to the blue and the cross
--hook the boot to the "and" gate
DIAMOND OR GREEN
(diamond, green, circle)
--hook up the "or" gate to the diamond
--hook up the up arrow to the green
--hook up the boot to the "or" gate
NON-CIRCLES
(diamond, circle, triangle)
--hook up the "not" gate to the circle
--hook up the boot to the "not" gate
3-5. FLIPFLOPS
This introduces the more complicated timing-related circuit elements. Flip-
flops can be in one of two states, clockers send a pulse once every time a
shape goes by, and delays allow you to retain a charge in one node until the
other node fires. The puzzles are tougher here, but the sandbox is more
varied. Sadly I couldn't find any secret room. You may find yourself coming
back here if the puzzles in the next section are too challenging.
s-x
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3-6. ROCKY'S CHALLENGE
OK, this is the final part of the game, where you have the toughest rooms and
puzzles. You don't get many hints, and the previous sections don't go into
detail with the how-to.
3-6-1. FIRST ROOM
These aren't any harder than in section 4.
PURPLES
(green, cross, purple)
--hook up the boot to the purple
CROSSES
(green, cross, blue)
--hook up the boot to the cross
DIAMONDS OR CIRCLES
(diamond, circle, cross)
--hook up the up arrow to the circle
--hook up the "or" gate to the circle and diamond
--hook up the boot to the gate
BLUE TRIANGLES
(green, triangle, blue)
--hook up the up arrow to the blue
--hook up the "and" gate to the blue and triangle
--hook up the boot to the gate
UN-GREEN
(green, blue, purple)
--hook up the "not" gate to the green
--hook up the boot to the gate
BLUE OR ROUND
(blue, circle, triangle)
--hook up arrow to circle
--hook "or" gate to blue and circle
--hook boot to gate
THINGS WITH CORNERS
(green, circle, purple)
--hook "not" gate to circle
--hook boot to gate
PURPLE CROSSES
(blue, purple, cross)
--hook up arrow to cross
--hook "and" gate to purple and arrow
--hook boot to gate
3-6-2. SECOND ROOM
This forces you to use more than one logic gate. It's rather tricky at points
but if you persist, you should be able to put everything together.
CIRCLE, DIAMOND OR TRIANGLE
1) hook a down arrow to the circle
2) hook an "or" gate to the triangle and circle
3) hook a left arrow, small up arrow, and arrow to the diamond
4) tie things together with an "or" gate, then join the boot at the end
CROSSES OR BLUE CIRCLES
(blue, circle, cross)
1) hook a down arrow to the blue
2) hook an "and" gate to join the circle and blue
3) hook a left arrow, then an up arrow, then a small up arrow to the cross
4) hook the wires with the "or" gate, then hook the boot to the machine
blue: down arrow
circle: "and" gate
cross: big left arrow, up arrow, small up arrow
bring the rest together with an "or" gate, and join the boot at the end
NON-GREEN TRIANGLES
(gren, triangle, cross)
1) hook a "not" gate, then a down arrow, to the green box
2) hook a left arrow to the triangle, then an up arrowm
3) join 1 and 2 with an "and" gate
4) hook up the boot
UNPURPLE NON-DIAMOND
(green, diamond, purple)
1) hook a "not" gate to the diamond and the purple
2) hook an up arrow to the purple wire
3) hook an "and" gate to bring the wires together
4) hook up the boot
BLUE OR GREEN CONVEX
(blue, purple, cross)
1) blue or green = not purple, so put a "not" gate in front of the purple
2) convex = no angles over 180 degrees. Of the four shapes, only a cross is
nonconvex. Put a "not" gate in front of the cross.
3) use an up arrow after the cross "not" gate, then hook the wires with an
"and" gate
4) put the boot on the end.
BLUE CIRCLES NIX
(green, blue, circle)
1) hook the "and" gate's bottom node to the circle
2) hook a down arrow to the blue
3) hook up the "not" gate to the "and" gate, then hook up the boot
GREEN DIAMONDS OR BLUE TRIANGLES
Here the game relies on a bit of a trick; it has only diamonds or triangles,
so diamond = "not triangle." It's easy to visualize what to do here, but
building the machine is another matter.
(green, triangle, blue)
1) hook an up/down wire to the triangle
2) hook a "not" gate to the upper bit of the wire
3) hook an "and" gate to the lower bit of the wire
4) hook left-wires to the "and" gate and the green box
5) hook a medium-down arrow to the green wire in 4)
6) hook an "and" gate to the "not" gate and the medium-down wire
7) hook a medium-up arrow to the blue
8) hook an up arrow to the left arrow on the bottom
9) hook an "or" gate, then hook the boot to the "or" gate
DIAMOND OR PURPLE, BUT NOT BOTH
(purple, diamond, purple)
There's no explicit xor(exclusive or) gate so the game fudges things a bit.
The two purples are a hint.
1) hook an up/down wire to the diamond
2) hook an "and" gate to the upper wire in 1)
3) hook a medium down arrow to the upper purplemm
4) hook a "not" gate to the "and" gate
5) hook the top of another "and" gate to the "not" gate, and hook the boot
too
6) hook the "or" gate to the bottom of the wire in 1)
7) hook a medium up arrow to the bottom purple
8) hook a left arrow then an up arrow to the "or" gate
3-6-3. THIRD ROOM
BLUE AND ON
(cross, blue, circle)
1) hook up the white part of the flipflop to the blue
2) hook up the boot to the flipflop
DIAMONDS UNTIL CROSS
(green, cross, purple)
This is a bit of a tricky one as you can't do anything with a diamond box.
Basically, you start things in motion just after the purple, and you end it
with another purple. So you really only use 1 box.
1) hook up a left arrow to the purple box.
2) hook up a node(2 arrows) to the left of the 4 arrows right in the screen
above.
3) hook a delay box into the note and a "not" gate into the right of the
delay box.
4) use a small up arrow to create a loop. Hooking the boot to the end won't
give enough of a delay, so you need to tack on another delay box.
5) tack on a delay box, then a clocker above it, then the boot to the left.
??
BEFORE BLUE TRIANGLE
1) hook an up arrow to the triangle(the other way, blue down, causes a
glitch)
2) hook an "and" gate to the blue and triangle
3) hook the bottom white bit of a flipflop to the blue triangle
4) hook the boot to the upper bit of the flipflop
5) turn the upper bit of the flipflop on
CIRCLES AFTER PURPLE
(circle, purple, diamond)
1) hook the bottom of a flipflop to the purple and touch the top bit of the
flipflop
2) hook a left arrow then a down to the circle
3) hook a small left arrow to the bottom flipflop
4) hook the boot to the and, and hook that to the wires
DIAMOND FOLLOWER
(triangle, diamond, cross)
1) hook up the right side of a delay box to the diamond
2) hook up a clocker to the top of the box
3) hook up the boot to the box
DOUBLE CROSS
(cross, cross, cross)
1) hook a left arrow to the bottom cross
2) hook the right of a delay box to the middle cross, then a left arrow down
3) hook an "and" gate and a boot to them
4) hook a circular?? to the top of the delay box
EVERY OTHER ONE
(triangle, triangle, triangle)
"Not circle" describes pretty much everything here. Problem is, you have to
find a way to get the boot to kick only every so often. Start running once
the "not" gate lights up orange.
1) hook "not" gates to the bottom triangles
2) hook the right of a delay box to the bottom triangle
3) hook the boot to the delay boxk
BETWEEN BLUE AND GREEN
1) hook a left arrow to green and a down arrow to that
2) hook a delay to blue and a clocker to the delay
3) join green and blue with a flip flop, started in the upper position
(if you forget this, your first attempt will fail)
4) attach the boot to the lower bit of the flip flop
TERI'S TEASER
Only kick non-blues after circles.
1) hook up a delay to the circle sensor, then a clocker to that
2) hook up a down arrow to the delay box
3) hook up a "not" gate to the blue sensor, then an "and" gate to link the
two wires
4) hook up the boot to the contraption
ANN'S ENIGMA
Don't kick anything after blue.
1) hook up a "not" gate to the blue sensor, a delay box to that, and then a
clocker above the box.
2) hook up the boot to the delay box and watch it go.
CORI'S CATASTROPHE
Kick everything between the purples.
1) Get a 2 way node and attach it to the purple.
2) Turn a flip-flop to the upper part active and connect the lower bit to the
upper node of the 2-way wire.
3) hook a small left-arrow, then a medium down-arrow, to the bottom of the
flip-flop
4) hook a "not" gate to the bottom of the purple 2 way node.
5) pull the wires together with an "and" gate and hook the boot up to it.
If things fail, touch the top of the flip-flop and start again.
BUMBLE'S BOGGLER
Here you want to avoid the second green. This is where you can use a glitch,
but I bet you can also use a delayand a not gate.
1) hook a not gate to the green sensor, then a left arrow, down arrow, the
four medium right arrows, a and a down arrow
2) merge this with the blue sensor via an "or" gate
3) hook the boot to the "or" gate
RICK'S RIDDLE
Blue should toggle whether or not you kick something. The apparatus should be
turned off before starting, or you'll get it all wrong. On the bright side,
next time you'll get it all right.
1) hook two big left arrows to the blue sensor. this may not really be
necessary, but it stops the machine from getting overlapped by the sensors.
2) hook the top of the delay to the arrows in (1)
3) hook a 2 way node to left of the delay box
4) hook the boot to the top of the 2 way node and the four right arrows to
the bottom
5) hook a medium up-arrow to the end of the wires leading right
6) hook a not gate right of the delay box to complete the circuit
JACK'S HIJINX
I suspect there was an easier way to do this, but what I have worked. I
thought of it as, blue triangle or whatever comes right after triangle.
There's probably an easier way to do this with delay boxes.
1) put a 2 way node next to the triangle and medium down arrow next to the
blue sensor.
2) hook them up with an and gate, then left with two small left arrows, then
two big down arrows.
3) from the bottom of the triangle 2-way, 2 left arrows, medium down arrow, 4
medium right arrows, down arrow, medium left arrow.
4) from the green, medium left arrow.
5) hook the green wire with the long wire via an "and" gate
6) hook the two and gate results with an "or" gate
7) hook up the boot
WARREN'S WIDGET
This is a doozy--every three circles. It's easy to see the pattern but how to
get through it? When creating your big structure, you may need to move it
around for clarity. If its bottom right is the screen's, you should have
enough space. Be careful you don't hook the final delay up to the "normal"
pull tab. Though you can use the splitter to pull things away, it's a pain.
Once you've built the machine, when do you kick the boot? There's a one in
three chance you'll get things right randomly.
A good time is one cycle AFTER the clocker faces down and combines with the
delay charge to send a charge left. You can probably establish this by trial
and error in that one of the twelve possibilities must be right.
1) hook the clocker to the top of a delay box. Then hook the left of the
delay box with the bottom of a flip-flop. Hook a "not" gate behind the delay
box.
2) Hook a medium down to the bottom of the flip flop. Hook four medium arrows
right, then a medium arrow right, then a smapp one, then a medium up to
create a loop.
3) From the top of the clocker, hook a medium arrow left and an arrow down,
so it joins the top of the flip flop
4) From the left clocker, take a big and medium arrow left.
5) tie up the loose wires with a delay and put the boot on the left.
