Dwarven Machine Room
The machine room is one of the rooms that are able to be visited from the Dwarven Factory Complex.
Clicking on various parts of the picture allow you to interact with those parts. There are four hoppers, each of which takes one type of item, two controlling machines, and a "Gnomish Vacuum Chamber Supply, Ltd." contraption that can operate on various things from your inventory (possibly losing them).
Contents
Machines
A Strange Chamber
This is a large metal box with a door on the front and a button. A little plaque in the corner reads "Gnomish Vacuum Chamber Supply, Ltd.", and the floor in front of it is dusted with a layer of black soot.
It looks like you could load something into it, if you're of a mind to.
After inserting N lumps of diamond:
- You load the diamonds into the box and push the button. There's a loud wooooshing noise, then a *ping!* You open the box and discover that your worthless diamonds have been converted into lumps of valuable coal. Wow, good deal!
![]() | You acquire N lumps of coal |
After inserting any oyster egg:
- You load the <oyster egg> into the box and push the button. There's a loud wooooshing noise, then a *fwoom!* You open the box to discover that an interesting transformation has occured[sic].
![]() | You acquire an item: oyster egg balloon |
After inserting any other item:
- You load the <item> into the box and push the button. There's a loud wooooshing noise, then a *ping!* You open the box and discover that nothing much has happened.
A Control Panel (left)
This looks like a control panel of some kind, but the only bit you recognize is some pictures of various kinds of equipment, with a button underneath each.
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A Control Panel (right)
This looks like a control panel of some kind. There's a slot that looks like you could feed some kind of card into it, and a big shiny red button.
Feed the Slot |
Press the Big Red Button (1) |
If you do not have a punchcard to feed the slot:
- You don't seem to have anything that fits in the slot.
If you feed the slot with a punchcard:
- You feed the punchcard into the slot. It makes a loud *click*.
With a punchcard in the slot:
- You see the punchcard sticking slightly out of the slot; you try to take it, but it's locked in place.
Upon pressing the big red button:
- If you have not set the machine correctly:
- You punch the big red button, but nothing seems to happen. Hmm.
- With the machine correctly set:
- The button makes a satisfying *click* when you push it, and all around you machines come to life. The room shudders as pistons crash up and down, and you are nearly deafened by the noise of grinding gears and roaring furnaces.
- After a couple minutes, you hear a *ping!* and then a *clunk* as something falls into the bin next to the control panel, and the machines power down.
- You see your punchcard get sucked into the machine, and hear a low grinding sound. This is followed by a festive fweeee! noise as a puff of confetti blows out of the slot. Congratulations! It's a shame that was your only punchcard and there's no chance of you ever finding one again in this lifetime, but still, congratulations!
A Set of Gauges
This looks like some sort of control panel -- it's got four gauges of some kind, and four dials beneath them. In the bottom corner is a little label reading "Gnomish Cognsole Supply Ltd." and the rune has been engraved across the top of the panel.
Change Settings |
A Hopper
This looks to be some sort of hopper for raw materials. A label on the front reads:
If nothing has been put in the hopper:
- It is currently empty.
With some of the correct items in the hopper:
- It currently contains N <items>.
If you attempt to put the wrong kind of item in the hopper:
- It doesn't seem like that is the right material for this hopper.
If you attempt to put more than 40 of an item in a hopper:
- Adding that much would overflow the hopper!
Bin
This is a small bin at the end of some big system of machines and conveyors. It looks like whatever it is these machines make would end up here.
You look inside the bin, and find...
If the machine has not produced anything:
- ... Nothing. Well, darn.
If the machine successfully produced something:
- ... A shiny new piece of equipment! Score! And your mother said you'd never make anything for yourself. ... Wait, or was that "of yourself"?
![]() | You acquire an item: dwarvish war helmet |
![]() | You acquire an item: dwarvish war kilt |
![]() | You acquire an item: dwarvish war mattock |
Notes
- All the dwarven words on the hoppers, gauges and factory warehouse boxes are randomized for each player, so the runes you see on this page will be different to the rune words you encounter.
- Machinery can still be operated while falling-down drunk.
References
- The Vacuum Chamber is reminiscent of the strange machine in Zork I, which served the opposite purpose (turning coal into diamonds).
- The oyster egg balloon is a play on words referring to the easter egg balloon and is obtained by a similarly undocumented method.
- The message shown after inserting N lumps of diamond is a reference to a comment made by Professor Hubert Farnsworth from Futurama.