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Time Machine Series: Difference between revisions
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{{work}}
[[File:wehikul_1287.png|frame|The series logo. [[Portal (
If you're looking for the classic novel by H. G. Wells, see ''[[The Time Machine]]''.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Can't Take Anything
* [[Changed My Jumper]]: The protagonist is always careful to take clothes appropriate for his destination; when he time-travels into different eras entirely, some people may casually comment on his weird clothes.
* [[Choose Your Own Adventure]]
* [[Continue Your Mission, Dammit!]]: The hints occasionally chastise you for even considering certain options that won't bring you closer to your goal.
* [[Covers Always Lie]]: At least in the Polish edition, the back covers sometimes feature a situation from the book and hint that you will have two choices in that situation (and that if you choose wrong, you'll end up stuck in a time loop). Most of the time,
** The Polish cover for ''Mystery of the Atlantis'' deserves a special mention: it claims that the Olympic games featured in the book are the ''first'' Olympic games, something that isn't mentioned in the book... [[You Fail History Forever|and this claim on the cover is accompanied by a huge headline stating "it's the year 400 BC", while Olympic games actually started at least two centuries earlier!]]▼
▲** The Polish cover for 'Mystery of the Atlantis'' deserves a special mention: it claims that the Olympic games featured in the book are the ''first'' Olympic games, something that isn't mentioned in the book... [[You Fail History Forever|and this claim on the cover is accompanied by a huge headline stating "it's the year 400 BC", while Olympic games actually started at least two centuries earlier!]]
* [[Edutainment Show]]
* [[Groundhog Day Loop]]: Supposedly, if you break the time travel rules, you risk being trapped in one of these. In practice, an easier way to end up in one is to [[Unwinnable
** Since bad choices make you re-read pages you've read already, the protagonist technically falls into a few short loops (with two or three iterations, tops) on his every adventure. (Since some of them involve arduous weeks- or even months-long trips, it's probably not pleasant...)
* [[Hint System]]
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* [[Time Travel]]
* [[Time Travelers Are Spies]]: Commonly happens to you.
* [[Unwinnable
* [[What Year Is This?]]: Not only that, but the protagonist also tends to be surprisingly oblivious about pretty much everything about the era where he's going. Rarely does this get him anything worse than a weird look.
=== The individual books: ===▼
=== Search for Dinosaurs (1984) ===
The protagonist must take a picture of an Archaeopterix, the first bird. Most of the book consists of figuring out ''where'' and ''when'' the Archaeopterix lived, by hopping back and forwards through the Mesozoic and piecing together information.
* [[Apocalypse How]]: You get to witness the Cretaceous mass extinction, which is a class 4.
* [[Big Creepy
* [[Everything's Better
* [[Never Smile At a Crocodile]]: especially 30-feet Cretaceous crocodiles.
== Sword of the Samurai (1984) ==▼
The protagonist accompanies Captain Phips in the seventeenth century in order to find the wreck of ''Concepcion'', a Spanish ship carrying colossal amounts of silver.
* [[Fortune Teller]]: Old, blind, but oddly knowledgeable black woman who gives you cryptic hints (and is one of the few persons to know about your time travel.)
* [[Futureshadowing]]: The very beginning of the book has you meet a man who [[Have We Met Yet?|mentions meeting you before]], and is talking about things you'll do much later (from your perspective), while time-travelling into the past. [[Temporal Paradox|Strangely, it's possible to finish the adventure without ever actually doing the things the man mentions you doing...]]
* [[Go Mad From the Isolation]]: The pilot from ''Concepcion'' after [[Robinsonade|being alone for a]] ''long'' time.
* [[Jerkass]]: Jim Teal.
* [[Pirates]]
=== The Rings of Saturn (1985) ===
An [[Oddball in
* [[Air Vent Passageway]]: Used to escape from the nasty [[Space Pirates]].
* [[Cyborg|Cyborgs]]
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* [[Veganopia]]: No meat to be seen around, just vegan food.
* [[The X of Y]]
=== The Mystery of Atlantis (1985) ===
Travelling through [[Ancient Greece]], the protagonist is trying to find out [[Captain Obvious|the mystery of]]... [[Atlantis|some place I can't remember right now.]]
* [[Atlantis]]: {{spoiler|But not really. It's just Crete.}}
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* [[Galley Slave]]: You can temporarily become this.
* [[Something They Would Never Say]]: If you try and tell a suspicious city guard that you are a Scyth, he will promptly quiz you on a piece of Scythian culture (since he is a Scyth himself.) You fail, at which point he decides you're a runaway slave.
* [[The X of Y]]
===
The protagonist heads to the late nineteenth century to accompany Henry Morton Stanley in order to find out what is the source of Nile.
* [[Arc Words]]: "Buala Matari". What's it mean? Why is Stanley called that on his tomb?
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* [[Great White Hunter]]: Sir Mortimer P. Quimby III. Subverted - this particular hunter is content merely to track down the animal and aim his rifle without actually shooting, solely for the satisfaction of outwitting the beast.
* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Do not call Henry Stanley "captain". Or else he will... uh... chastise you mildly.
=== Blade of the Guillotine (1986) ===
The protagonist finds himself in the times of [[French Revolution]], seeking a [
* [[Blind Alley]]: Used to escape an angry royalist blacksmith.
* [[MacGuffin]]
* [[Riddle Me This]]: Subverted. When given a cryptic answer about the necklace's location, you have to interpret the "riddle" literally. If you try to be smart and go for the metaphorical meaning, you'll just end up in trouble.
* [[The X of Y]]
=== Quest for the Cities of Gold (1987) ===
The protagonist heads to America in the sixteenth century in order to investigate the rumors of the supposed "cities of gold" searched for by the conquistadors.
* [[Go Look At the Distraction]]: Used to escape an Aztec guard to avoid fate of a [[Human Sacrifice]]. [[Unwinnable
* [[Never Smile At a Crocodile]]
===
The protagonist travels through ancient Britain, attempting to find the original inspiration for the [[King Arthur]] tales.
* [[Human Sacrifice]]: Almost done to you by some druids at one point.
* [[Made a Slave]]: A farmhand for a Saxon.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:The Eighties]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Time Machine Series]]
[[Category:Literature]]
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