9.11. Clocks and Scientific Instruments

| Chapter 9: Props: Food, Clothing, Money, Toys, Books, Electronics |

| 9.11. Clocks and Scientific Instruments

The simplest form of clock is a wrist watch. Here is a choice of analogue or digital:

> The player wears a wrist watch. The description of the wrist watch is "It is [the time of day in words]."

> The player wears a digital watch. The description of the digital watch is "It is [the time of day]."

Better clocks would allow us also to set the time, and to stop and start them: see Tom's Midnight Garden.

Scientific instruments provide sharper versions of our own senses. In the case of vision, they allow us to see closer up, or further away. It's a convention of IF that people can normally see only the current location, that is, they cannot see from one location into another. The boundary of the current room is like a horizon, even out of doors (though it's true that there are ways to disguise that with a continuous outdoor landscape). Ginger Beer provides a telescope able to see into other rooms.

Witnessed 2 provides a meter which measures how close a ghost is to the player.

See Continuous Spaces and The Outdoors for more on seeing into adjacent locations

See Heat for infrared goggles

288
| Example Tom's Midnight Garden A clock kind that can be set to any time using "the time understood"; may be turned on and off; and will advance itself only when running. Time on the face is also reported differently depending on whether the clock is analog or digital. |
WI

Time can also be understood as a token, and the time parsed will be recorded as "the time understood". So therefore, if we wish for clocks which may be set: "Tom's Midnight Garden" A clock is a kind of device. A clock has a time called the current time. A clock can be analog or digital. The current time of a clock is usually 9:01 AM. The description of a clock is "It shows the time to be [if analog]about [the current time to the nearest five minutes in words][otherwise][the current time][end if]." Understand "set [clock] to [time]" as setting it by time. Setting it by time is an action applying to one thing and one time. Instead of setting a clock to something: say "[The noun] can be set only to a time of day, such as 8:00 AM, or midnight." Carry out setting a clock by time: now the current time of the noun is the time understood. Report setting a clock by time: say "You set [the noun] to [time understood]." Every turn: repeat with item running through switched on clocks: now the current time of the item is one minute after the current time of the item. The Hall is a room. The grandfather clock is a fixed in place analog clock in the Hall. The travel clock is a switched on digital clock in the Hall. When play begins: now the right hand status line is "[time of day]". Test me with "examine grandfather clock / set it to midnight / switch it on / wait / wait / wait / examine it / set travel clock to 4:12 / examine it".

351
| Example Ginger Beer A portable magic telescope which allows the player to view items in another room of his choice. |
WI

180
| Example Witnessed 2 A piece of ghost-hunting equipment that responds depending on whether or not the meter is on and a ghost is visible or touchable from the current location. |
WI

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