Note: If you are playing this on an eReader, using L9droid with a version which includes graphics, be sure to go into L9droid's Settings menu and change the Picture Speed to 100. The default of 10 is bearable, but can be improved; don't assume it is the eReader which can't do any better :)

You can feel, though, so pull the lever.

The lid above rises, a light comes on and a low voice murmurs beside your head, "Good Morning, Kim Kimberley. Please lie still while your metabolism stabilises: you have been hibernating for a long while. Treakly musak plays for a few minutes and then the voice returns, "Welcome to the interstellar colony spaceship, Snowball 9. As you'll have realised, you've been wakened while I am still in flight because we have a problem; my central control room has been occupied by a hijacker who is not - and please excuse my criticism of a human being - entirely sane. She seems obsessed with the idea of crashing into the sun. I've told her it's impossible but she just laughs. I'm sure you'll be more than a match for her, though, provided you avoid the Night." The voice cuts off in mid-sentence.

Get out of the coffin, go north and enter any 3-digit number (separated by spaces) into the panel. A coffin will slide out somewhere along the mortuary.

Go south to get to the coffin, go up onto it, and go up to the next level of the mortuary. You have to do this because if you exit your own mortuary, you will be found in the corridor and killed. If you go up to the next floor and exit from the mortuary, you at least stand a chance of getting to the lift and escaping.

Wait by the door (on the next floor up) until the clanking pauses outside your room, then open the door and exit. Go east (west is a very long walk, although the corridor is circular) until you find a button in the floor, press it, and enter the lift.

There are trapdoors in both the floor and the ceiling of the lift. If you leave via the ceiling, you can reach a winch room with a trapdoor in the ceiling, which you need a spanner to open.

If you leave via the floor, you can get to a grimy pit, which has a closed toolbox in it. The toolbox contains a yin-yang screwdriver and an adjusting spanner.

Once you have the spanner, you can open the trapdoor in the ceiling of the winch room and get to a significant cylindrical ledge. Going south (several steps) from here takes you to an airlock. It's not the only way to get there, though.

If you go down from the ledge (which you got to by going up from the winch room), this does not return you to the winch room, but takes you to a toroidal walkway. If you go around this walkway (east or west) you will come to a button in the floor, which if you press it, will summon the lift containing the toolbox (assuming that's where you left it).

Continuing east or west around the walkway until you find a ramp going either up or down, and taking it, then heading south, you will find an airlock. Press the yellow button and go through the southern door to the widening marblon cylinder.

The other way to get there from the lift, without needing the spanner, is to select level 0, exit the lift, and find yourself on a curving path in a 100m torus. Go east or west until you find a ramp (going up or down) and take it. You get to the significant cylindrical ledge, from which you can go south (several steps) until you find the airlock. Press the yellow button and go through the southern door to the widening marblon cylinder.

If you want the quick version of the above route (including collecting the toolbox, as you will need it later), enter the following at the very beginning of the game:

pull lever.out.n.press 1 2 3.s.u.u.n.open door.n.e.press.s.d.d.get box.u.u.press 0.n.w.w.w.u.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.press 4.s

You are now in the main part of the starship and can actually start trying to play the game :)

You always start in blue mortuary 209 (you can tell this because the first three colours on the ceiling above your coffin are red black white - see note below), and when you go up, you are in blue mortuary 208. That suggests you're on the lowest of 10 floors (assuming there's a floor zero, which of course there should be).

Thinking about this from a game-developer's point of view, I think the reason for always starting in 209 is because the 0 means you're very close to the lift and should be able to find it easily; the 9 means you're more likely to go for level 0 when you do get into the lift, and the 2 means that once you find the transpex tunnel, you don't have far to walk to find the airlock.

If you go east from 208 and enter the first green door to the north, you find yourself in green mortuary 298, but if you then continue and enter the next blue door (to the south) you are also in blue mortuary 298, so there seem to be two mortuaries (one blue and one green) with the same number. Once you get to a ramp and go up to a Significant Cylindrical Ledge, you then find there are 10 toroidal walkways lined up north and south. Therefore we seem to have 20 mortuaries in each toroidal walkway, 10 levels vertically, and 10 rings north-south, for a total of 2000 mortuaries. Each mortuary has two locations inside it (not counting the coffins…) and there's a corridor location outside each one. Therefore so far we seem to have 2000 x 3 = 6000 locations, plus some extra for the inter-mortuary gaps (20 per torus), the lifts, and the north-south Transpex Tubes. The total number of rooms in Snowball is claimed to be 6800, so we're already not far off that.

The mortuary room numbers are encoded as follows: first digit = north / south torus (0 is southernmost); second digit = east / west around torus (west increments, east decrements); third digit = lift floor.

Later on, we find out there are "Habidomes" with 3-digit codes, therefore there are presumably 1000 of these, however you can only possibly visit one, so the rest don't really exist in the game (otherwise that would mean we've got more than 7000 locations!). You can visit any mortuary you like (I have no idea how the game engine keeps track of any items you drop there…), so those 6000 locations do "exist".

Note about the coloured lights

The game expects you to know the electrical engineering resistor colour code, which, in case you don't, is (from zero to nine) Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Purple Grey White. I'm not sure I've ever seen something light up grey…

You find airlocks in several places around Snowball.

On the outside, they have one button to press, which opens the door.

On the inside, there are two buttons - yellow and green. Yellow always opens the door in front of you, and green always opens the one behind you. Remembering the electrical engineers' resistor colour code, you can press 4 to go forwards, and 5 to go back.

Put the mempak in the viewer and find out where the frozen crewmember is.

s.s.d.d.d.d.d.d.d.d.d.d.d.n.n.get mempak.s.put mempak in viewer.examine viewer

Remove the viewer's battery afterwards using the screwdriver and put it in the lamp. Fetch the leotard, then examine the airbed and get the android probe, fetching a cup of soup along the way. Attach the probe to the janitor droid and find out what it needs.

open toolbox.get screwdriver, viewer and battery.drop toolbox, viewer and screwdriver
s.s.s.examine body.get leotard.wear leotard.n.e.n.n.examine airbed.get probe.e.n.get cup and lamp.s.put cup in machine.put battery in lamp.in.attach probe to droid.drop probe

Give it the part in exchange for a useful helmet.

If the droid needs a bumble bearing: e.n.get bearing.w.s.give bearing to droid
If the droid needs a peg warp: e.get warp.w.give warp to droid
If the droid needs a maxwell sink: n.get sink.s.give sink to droid
If the droid needs a 101-way ribbon cable: e.n.n.get cable.w.s.s.give cable to droid

Put the helmet on (why not?), take the stacker lift to collect the crewmember, give her the soup, and she'll tell you the habidome code. She doesn't appear to do anything else.

wear helmet.s.e.d.n.n.u.open door.u.u.w.drop lamp.d.e.get lift.w.u.n.press.n.press 4.n.n

Go 3 x N steps north, where N is the first digit in the mortuary code for the frozen crewmember.

Then d.e.e.e.press.s

Press the button for the third digit of the frozen crewmember's mortuary code.

Get out (north) and make your way round east or west to the appropriate mortuary, one step at a time (in case you meet a nightingale).

For N = 0 to 4: go west 2 + N * 3 steps where N is the second digit of the mortuary code.

For N = 5 to 9: go east 1 + (9 - N) * 3 steps where N is the second digit of the mortuary code.

As soon as you hear quiet clanking, open the first blue or green door you find, go in (south if blue, north if green) and wait until the clanking pauses outside your room. Then open the door again, exit and continue on your way.

Open the mortuary door, enter (north) and press the codes for the last three digits of the frozen crewmember's coffin. Go north, get the coffin (using the stacker lift), return south, open the door (unless there's a clanking noise outside), and the retrace your steps back to the lift. You still need to hide in a mortuary if you hear the clanking again.

Once you get back to the lift, enter the wide entrance to the north, and give the cup to the crewmember. She'll tell you the habidome code, so you may as well go there.

drop lift.s.press.s

Make sure you hear no clanking or mechanical noise before pressing the next button…

press 0.n.e.e.e.u.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.press 4.s.s.get lamp

Sooner or later you're going to need a welding lance.

The sequence for getting it is:

• Red ticket ⇒ Red form
• Red form + Green ticket ⇒ Orange form
• Orange form + Red ticket ⇒ Yellow form
• Yellow form + Green ticket ⇒ Green form
• Green form + Red ticket ⇒ welding lance

You can't accumulate red or green tickets (other than one of each), so you do need to keep going back and forth around the stores to get this done.

Starting from anywhere in the Stores area:

s.s.s.e.e.get red ticket.n.n.n.get green ticket.w.w.give red ticket.get red form.s.s.s.give green ticket and red form.get orange form
e.e.get red ticket.n.n.n.get green ticket.w.w.give red ticket and orange form.get yellow form.s.s.s.give green ticket and yellow form
get green form.e.e.get red ticket.n.w.n.w.n.give red ticket and green form.take lance

Once you have the kevlar leotard and the bubble helmet (and, indeed, are wearing both, which turn out to comprise a spacesuit), you can leave the spaceship through the Narrowing Marblon Cylinder, and you fairly soon find yourself On The Web.

(Note: pick up the handgun along the way; it's a useful shortcut in a few moves' time.)

(Note2: take the toolbox with you, as it turns out to be vacuum airtight when shut (!?) and this becomes useful…)

The web is Snowball's version of a maze - it's not complicated, but there are 18 locations all described as "on the web", and you would need to visit 11 of them to get from start to finish.

There is an easier way - walk off the edge of the web, and when the game asks you "are you sure?" confirm with yes. A couple of "moves" (although you can't actually control your movement) later, you're about to hit the ice, and all you need to do is fire the gun (recalling Newton's third law of motion, of course) to land neatly on a snowfield.

You find yourself next to a pylon, which, if you climb it, has a shuttle platform at the top. There are eight of these platforms in total, on a circular (or at least, closed loop) snowrail.

Regarding the platform you start at as number 1, you can move from each to the next by pressing the button in the snowrail carriage. The platforms, in sequence, give you access to:

1. Flat snowfield with access to the web
2. Trodden snow with access to the "Snowball Hilton" (and a Spidroid hopper, which can be used to get quickly to and from the main spaceship, bypassing the web)
3. Churned and rutted snow where there is a broken snowdozer and (if you look around a bit) the keys for it
4. Northern ice cliff with access to the base of Jacob's ladder
5. Smooth snow, which appears to be boring
6. Trampled snow with access to a Robodome, where there are some oxyacetylene cylinders
7. More smooth snow, which is just as boring
8. Soft snow with access to a hanger containing a damaged stratoglider and some ceramic armour

The Snowball Hilton is where you find access to the Habidomes, and if you select the right one, you can visit a Forest Glade (!).

Once you've been wandering around in the snow for some time, you start to run out of air, so it's good to know that there's a flask of it in the store room south of the Snowball Hilton. You do get quite a lot of moves after "your air supply is running out" before you die.

You need the following items to fix the track on the snowdozer:

• Ceramic armour (from the hanger at platform 8), which you need to be wearing (in addition to the Kevlar leotard which you probably already have)
• Dark glasses (from the observatory down from the forest glade from platform 2), and which you also need to wear (in addition to the bubble helmet which you probably already have)
• A set of linked cylinders (from the cave down from the robodome at platform 6)
• Lance (from the stores in the main spaceship)

You don't need to connect anything together (or even light the oxyacetylene with anything); you can just "weld track"…

Once you've fixed the track, you might think you can start the snowdozer and drive it somewhere, but even once you've found the keys (they're not far from the snowdozer), it's not at all obvious how to start the thing. You can't "insert the keys into the keyhole", or "start the snowdozer", or anything else particularly obvious. It turns out you need to "turn keys".

Once you've done that, the snowdozer trundles off on its own, refuelling the starship (I didn't know until that point that it even needed refuelling…)

Note that the engine room contains a fire extinguisher, which it might be useful to fetch before the snowdozer disappears (although I don't yet know what you might need it for).

Assuming you start from the Vast Docking Bay (where the handgun is) do the following to collect the spare air and fix the snowdozer (picking up the fire extinguisher along the way):

get gun.light lamp.s.s.s.s

Confirm that you really do want to leave the web: y

s.s.shoot gun.u.u.press.in.press.out.d.d.in.press.s.press 4.s.d

At this point, enter the Habidome code you were told by the frozen crewmember.

press 1 2 3

Then enter the Habidome and fetch a couple of useful items, then return to the shuttle.

in.d.d.press.d.press 4.d.d.get glasses.wear glasses.u.press.u.press 4.u.u.u.open door.out.u.s
drop gun.get can.put can in toolbox.close toolbox.get flask.n.press.n.press 4.n.out.u.u

You're going to need a shovel to find the snowdozer keys, and they're at the same station as the waldroid, so you might as well deal with both at once…

This is certainly one of the more obscure (unrealistic / impossible) aspects of the game. In order to get past the waldroid, you have to take the paint can from the store room south of platform 2 (protecting it from vacuum along the journey) and allow it to explode in front of the waldroid, which blinds it so that it staggers away and allows you to climb the ladder…

Assuming you're still on the platform at station 2 (having just collected the paint can and the sealed flask):

press.in.press.press.out.d.d.n.n.open box.drop box.s.s.get shovel.u.u.press.in.press.press.out.d.d

(Note: pretty soon your air supply will start to run out (which is why you collected the sealed flask earlier). However, you can't pick up anything else at this point whilst you're still carrying the flask, so connect it to your helmet now, and proceed to deal with the snowdozer. We'll come back to Jacob's ladder later.)

in.d.d.s.attach flask to helmet.get cylinders.n.u.u.out.u.u.press.in.press.press.out.d.d.open door.in.wear armour
open door.out.u.u.press.in.press.press.press.out.d.d.weld track.drop cylinders,lance,armour
in.d.get extinguisher.u.out.dig.get keys.in.turn key.out.drop keys,shovel
u.u.press.in.press.press.press.press.press.press.press.out.d.d.in.press.s.press 4.s.d

Enter the Habidome code again:

press 1 2 3

Then fetch the cat and return to Jacob's ladder:

in.d.se.se.get cat.nw.nw.open door.ne.get tray.open door.sw.u.open door.out.u.press.n.press 4.n.out.u.u.press.in.press.press.out.d.d.n.n

It doesn't get much better once you've climbed Jacob's ladder - the game authors must have been on something when they decided to coat a ramp in unislime, which you have to remove by realising that the cute pussy cat found somewhere near the forest glade is actually a vacuum cleaner. You might have found this out by dropping something in the vicinity of the cat, and noticing that it "sucks up" anything it finds, but I think even this is stretching the bounds of describing it as a "cute pussy cat".

u.u.u.u.n.drop cat.u.u.u.u.open door.w.w

The game authors haven't recovered yet.

You've now come to a T-junction (which, oddly, has only two exits, including the direction you came from) where you are warned that it "looks risky". If you simply continue, "a laser blast spears out", and "sorry, you seem to be dead".

It's a good thing you noticed a brightly polished silver tray somewhere along the way and brought it with you, because this might conceivably help to deflect the laser beam…

Well, no, not unless you think to "wave tray" when you arrive at the junction. Anything else ends up with you being dead (or just not making further progress in life / the game, anyway).

Once you find the glass petrol bomb, it's good that the tray holds an electroflute, because playing it shatters the bomb, engulfing the erstwhile owner in flames and causing her to exit through a previously hidden airlock.

So, let's get on with this farce and see where we are (surely it can't be far to the end by now?)…

wave tray.w.s.open door.in.get flute.play flute.press extinguisher.w.press lever.y

Urgh :))

(Good luck with getting that data onto cassette in the 21^st Century.)

The successor to Snowball is Return to Eden.

Created with the Interactive Fiction Mapper: snowball.pdf

Source code file for IFM: snowball.ifm

Now that we've traversed (and mapped) the entire (I think) game, how many locations are there, in fact?

The .ifm file above contains 232 "rooms".

Three of these are inside a blue mortuary, and we know that there are 10 (around the corridor) * 10 (corridors north and south from each other) * 10 (toroidal walkways around the central axis of the ship) = 1000 of these.

There is the same number of green mortuaries (=2000 so far) and each mortuary has three internal locations, so we now have 6000 locations in the game.

Each curving east-west corridor (with the blue and green mortuaries opening from them) has three locations per pair of mortuaries, so that's 1000 * 3 corridor locations as well.

Each toroidal walkway has six locations around it, so that's an extra 10 * 6 = 60 locations.

Finally (?), each toroidal walkway is joined to the next by three locations along the transpex tubes, so that's another 10 * 3 = 30 locations.

Thus we can add up 6000 mortuary locations + 3000 corridor locations + 90 transpex / walkway locations = 9090 locations so far, and subtract the number of these already counted in the 232 rooms on the map (2 mortuaries = 6 locations + 8 corridor locations + 7 walkway locations + 11 transpex tunnel locations = 32 in total).

19 of the Forest locations are duplicated on the maps, depending on whether you've waved the holowand or not.

That gives us 6000 + 3000 + 90 + 232 - 32 - 19 = 9271 potential locations in the game.

However, the 232 shown on the maps are more than sufficient for completing the game.

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