Pick Up The Phone Booth And Aisle - Television Tropes & Idioms

The Town Square
You are standing in the middle of a pretty town square in the center of a nondescript England town. Like most any other nondescript New England town, there's not much to see or do here, but maybe you'll find something amusing and enjoyable to do.

A shiny metal phone booth sits in the center of the square.

PUTPBAA is a spinoff of the minimalist Interactive Fiction "Pick Up The Phone Booth And Die

" and the differently minimalist "Aisle

". Just as in the latter, you can only make one move, and then the game ends. You have a host of other commands to choose from, and each one leads to hundreds of Alternate Endings, each one sillier than the last.

The game can be downloaded here

, or played online here.

It has also been "ported"

to Uncyclopedia.

PUTBAA uses the following tropes:

All Just a Dream: Mocked with "wake".
Anticlimax: "Yay. You jumped."
And the Adventure Continues
A Winner Is You
Becoming The Genie: Try to "Bunk In" the phone booth and see what happens.
Bittersweet Ending: Several.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Try "wave".
Cargo Ship: Invoked. Several endings imply romantic involvement between you and the booth. Others aren't so subtle.
Cataclysm Climax: Well let's see... among the "Game Overs" include death by meteor, death by the wrath of god, death by "ICE STOOOOOOORM", death by Cosmic Horror...
Cutting the Knot: >WIN "Okay." ***YOU WIN*** Or so it seems.
The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Granted, while there are over 200 endings to the game, the ending archive fails to list the word 'set' as a possible verb.
- Remember how typing "Inventory" causes your pants to explode? Try typing Disarm Pants, Disleg Pants, Throw Pants, Remove Pants, Eat Pants, and then Deactivate Pants.
The Dog Bites Back: There are a number of ways to kill the phone booth. Unfortunately, there are even MORE ways it can kill you instead.
Downer Ending: Most endings end badly for the protagonist.
- "Love Me", however, is a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
Diabolus ex Machina: "Cook Booth" ends with a safe falling on the protagonist.
- "Burn Booth" ends with God smiting you with lightning.
Everybody Lives: Many of the "Happy" endings are like this.
Everything's Better With Princesses: Type "look southwest".
Exact Words: Some of the endings like to misinterpret commands like "tie booth". This can be confusing to those who try synonyms like "fix booth".
Gainax Ending: Try "Eat". Even the parser comments on how little sense it makes.
- 'Kick' ends with a pretty Gainaxy ending too.
  - Both are references to other interactive fiction - Aisle and Losing Your Grip, I believe.
Happily Ever After: Occasionally.
Have a Nice Death
Interface Screw: After using undo as a verb, no matter what keys you press the game will type out, one letter per keypress, "drive" and execute that command, to much confusion if it was an accident.
- Even more confusing since "drive" is not one of the recognized commands in the game proper.
- This is a shout-out to Adam Cadre's Shrapnel, which pulls the same trick.
I Can't Use These Things Together: Lampshaded; if you try to perform an action with a direction, you get creative bug responses. Waltz <direction>, for example, gets you the response, 'Your new name is Waltzes with Bugs'.
It\'s a Wonderful Failure
The Hero Dies: A LOT
Logic Bomb: Type in "enter self".
Love Hurts: Choosing to "Love Booth" causes the phone booth to give you a big hug. Did I say big hug? I mean it falls on you and crushes you.
Mind Screw: Kick the phone booth.
- Also, look southeast. Could possibly be a reference to the IF game Shade.
- Try to undo without performing an action first.
Multiple Endings: The entire point of the game.
Never Heard That One Before: Try entering "xyzzy", and a disembodied voice will complain about being summoned every time someone decides to make this reference.
Non-Standard Game Over: Many times, you don't exactly die, but the game ends anyway.
Noodle Incident: Type in "walk" and the phone booth somehow impregnates you. And you end up in the Gobi desert.
Now What?
Oh God, With The Verbing!: Type "open booth".
Reticulating Splines: "Smock my knickers" gives you this phrase.
Shout Out: To lots of other Text Adventures. And pop culture. And all sorts of other stuff.
- Many endings describe the plot of movies or books.
Schrödinger's Gun: Depending on the ending, you may end up being a MIT student, Maxwell Smart, or even Superman.
Sexy Discretion Shot: 'Touch booth'.
So Once Again, the Day Is Saved: Two endings cast you as Superman of all people!
Stuff Blowing Up: Type "blow up booth" and "blow up self".
Title Drop: Do it! You'll win! Really!
The Many Deaths of You: Again, the whole point of the game.
Twist Ending: Type "Wait"
Wafer Thin Mint: Watch what happens when you type "fill self".
Wall of Text: You get one by typing "about".
Weddings for Everyone: Yes, one of the endings involves a wedding. In it, you marry the phone booth.
You Can't Get Ye Flask: Some verbs (love, undo) resolve differently depending on whether you specify the phone booth as the target or not.