Bureaucracy

Graeme Cree's Bureaucracy bugs page
  1. In version 86, OPEN MAIL picks up the mail without searching it for the interesting piece. If you then READ MAIL or do something else that should find it, you get the normal message with garbage in place of the name of the interesting piece. In the Infocom interpreter your main inventory is then emptied.
  2. In version 86, you can get the cheque back from the bank. If you try to deposit cash, but write the wrong name on the deposit slip, then the teller gives you back the cheque. Your account balance stays the same, and the cash you gave her is gone. You can use this to get as much money as you want.
  3. In version 86, if you leave the airplane not wearing the parachute but put it on while falling, then you don't score the point you should get.
  4. In version 86, the power saw acts strangely if you remove it from Gaol. Leaving doesn't unplug it, and the description still tells you it's plugged into the generator. You can also UNPLUG SAW and PLUG IN SAW anywhere.
  5. In version 86, if the parachute is present then EXAMINE STRAPS says, "The parachute's straps are hopelessly tangled in the tree.", even before you leave the airplane.
  6. In version 86, you can EXAMINE BUTTONS in Galley or Rear of Aeroplane and get the same description of the buttons (which aren't there!) as if you were in your seat.
  7. In both versions, using the verb SEND followed by two visible objects without a preposition, as in SEND NERD LETTER, crashes the program. Frotz exits with the message, "Fatal error: Stack overflow".
  8. In both versions, you can put the wallet inside itself, by putting it in the small case and saying EMPTY CASE INTO WALLET. If something else was already in the case, this crashes the program. Frotz exits with the message, "Fatal error: Stack overflow".
  9. In both versions, there's another way to cheat the bank out of unlimited amounts of money. If you deposit cash with a deposit slip filled out for $75, then your balance increases by $75 regardless of how little cash you actually give the teller.
  10. In both versions, outside the llama farm, you can PUT several unusual things UNDER or BEHIND PEN: HAND, FOOT, ME, POCKET, or WEST (or another direction). If the mailbox is open, you can also PUT any of these things BEHIND BOX, making them slide into the trough. EMPTY any of these things INTO PEN or BOX has the same effects. You can PUT all of these UNDER or BEHIND FENCE, except HAND or FOOT. You can also drop these objects anywhere using EMPTY them INTO BOOK. If you lose your pocket in any of these ways, it comes back when you take inventory.
  11. In both versions, you can drop objects you aren't even carrying, if you PUSH them UNDER WATCH. You can even do this to locations. For example. PUSH RESTAURANT UNDER WATCH works if you're standing outside the restaurant. After you do this, the room description includes, "There is a restaurant here (providing light).", and when you go to the actual location its name isn't listed. You can often do this to your current location, such as PUSH ROOM UNDER WATCH on the first turn, and the next command locks up the program.
  12. In both versions, if you have money in your wallet or pocket and you withdraw some money from the bank, then the money you already have disappears.
  13. In both versions, EMPTY BOOK INTO something moves the 3 pages there, but you still don't see them.
  14. In both versions, if your wallet is open and you're not holding it, trying to interact with its contents makes you pick it up first. This works even if you can't otherwise pick it up. For example, if you've dropped your wallet in the llama's pen you can pick it back up with READ BEEZER, assuming the wallet is open and contains your Beezer card.
  15. In both versions, the airline seat pocket is closable. When it's closed, the room description still lists its contents, but you can't interact with them.
  16. In both versions, PUT something UNDER PERCH fails; you only anger the macaw. The second time you try, he "shreds the mail", and the third time he "gobbles up the shreds". Even after the mail is gone, he "gobbles up the shreds" each time you try this.
  17. In both versions, on the airplane, PLUG PLUG IN SOCKET plugs in the headphones, unless you have the power saw. Then PLUG PLUG IN SOCKET asks, "Which plug do you mean, the headphones or the power saw?". Answering HEADPHONES gives, "You can't see any headphone plug here."
  18. In both versions, if you DROP EAST (or another direction) you get, "You'd have to take the direction off   Trophy room first." in the Infocom interpreter. Frotz says "object#67" instead of "  Trophy room".
  19. In both versions, in some unexpected locations such as Front Room, ENTER DUCT says, "You're already in the Duct."

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Page last updated 01-Aug-2015. List maintainer: Nathan Simpson