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Quest for Glory I - The Hero of Information Dump Central

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The 'who will I play as' poll is complete. And you voted to have me play as all three characters in the game. So be it. I wouldn't go to the extra effort for just anyone, but for you Adventure Gamer Blog Readers, I'll do it!

Final results:
ALL THAT I CAN BE - 38%
MAGIC-USER 28%
THIEF – 23%
FIGHTER – 9%
Deep breath - okay. I'm read to be all that I can be!

I'll play it similarly to how I played three characters in Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2. I'll start a post as one character, then play the same section with the others and note the differences. But as the Quest for Glory characters have no pre-defined personality I decided to give them rudimentary RPG-style personalities. Is this a waste of my time? Most likely, but it helps me keep them separate in my mind rather than just being 'me solving puzzles slightly differently'.

We'll start by meeting our three protagonists in a future adventure I like to call “Stuck In A Dungeon”



We have Frodo the Fighter, Martak the Magic User and Trevor (pronounced Treevore because fantasy characters pronounce their names weirdly) the Thief
Frodo followed his companions into the abandoned castle. Distracted by a shiny glint at the far end of the room, he noticed neither his companions screaming something at him nor the door slamming ominously shut behind him.

MARTAK – What part of 'hold the door' don't you understand?
FRODO – I'm sorry. I didn't hear you properly
MARTAK – Between the two of us we must have screamed 'hold the door' at least twenty times and you just stood there like a giant fool.
FRODO – You were drowning each other out. I missed the whole middle of your sentence
MARTAK – But that still doesn't...
TREVOR – Do you guys know the only other exit to this room is completely blocked?
FRODO – This door won't open either. It's too strong.
MARTAK – Great.
FRODO – Well, if we're going to be stuck here for a while...
TREVOR - ...forever...
FRODO - ...maybe we should trade stories. I could tell you all about the time I became Hero of Spielburg
MARTAK – Wait, I'm the Hero of Spielburg
TREVOR – Yeah, who isn't. I think they hand those things out like free Garlic Bread with a Pizza
FRODO – I'm sure I'm the real Hero...
MARTAK – Just tell your story, Frodo. I'm too tired to argue.
TREVOR – I'll see if there's another way out.
FRODO – Well, it all started when I arrived at the town gates after an arduous journey...

FIGHTER

Frodo the Fighter Journal Entry #1: I went to Spielburg to become a hero. I started my heroic quest by talking... a lot!










I increased Strength, Agility, Vitality, Weapon Use and Parry. This guy's a fighter and nothing else.

I started as a fighter, partly because the manual claimed it would be the easiest, and partly because when I started playing he looked to be losing the vote and I felt sorry for him.

Not a lot happened during this first part of the game, as I largely just explored the town and randomly wandered the wilderness. I got a LOT of exposition though. I suspect the correct way to play the game, and the way the game originally played when using the parser is to explore early and ask people information after you know you need it. With the new point-and-click interface, I can get seemingly all the information from the beginning. It's possible there'll be more information I can get later after finding more out about the world, but I suspect not, or at least not much. We'll find out later.

The start of the game has us entering the town of Spielburg and being greeted by the Sheriff

Note my score is 1 before I get to do anything – ACHIEVEMENT!

The big guy is said to be playing with a yo-yo, but it seems more like some other kind of toy to me – it rolls back and forth on the string and he can throw it off the string and catch it again

The sheriff tells me that the town could use a hero due to all the monsters and brigands.

The big dumb assistant, called Otto Von Goon is from an Ogre-like race called Goons and he is also a goon! Never let it be said the game is being too subtle

The sheriff dumps a lot of info on me, in a screen I'll be seeing a lot of in the first section of this game (in triplicate, thanks to your voting!)

Clicking on any of these, apart from the last one, has the sheriff tell me about the subject. Some also then give me another similar 'Ask about' menu with more options.

I've already noticed a slight annoyance about this dialogue tree system. After clicking on something and reading what the sheriff has to say, I then have to click on him again with the 'talk' icon to be able to ask him something else. It's not gamebreaking at all, but most games, even in this era, did it a lot better by leaving us in dialogue until we clicked the 'enough already' or similar option.

I get a lot of info about the land I'll be adventuring in,. I won't get into the details until they become relevant, but he mentiones the places I should visit in town: the GuildHall, the Magic Shop and the Inn. I don't particularly care what places he suggests I visit, because I know I'll be visiting everything that's visitable anyway.

There are three doors in the first screen. Two of them are locked, and the door to the left is the inn.

HERO TALE INN

I enter the inn, and find a cat-man inkeeper.

I picked up another point somewhere. I'm on a roll! 498 to go!

Shameen is a Katta, and his people live in the southern desert town of Shapeir. He suggests I sit at the table if I'm hungry. I'm not hungry, but I sit anyway and Shameen's wife, Sheema appears from the kitchen

Mmmmm. Free coffee....

Some things I find out from Shameen and Sheema that I suspect may be of use:
  • I can sleep here (and dream – relevant?) for 5 silvers 
  • Coffee (1 silver) will bring me to full alertness 
  • There is a guest staying here, a merchant called Abdulla, who has recently been robbed. He should be back around suppertime 
I leave the inn and go to the left. The screen to the left of the starting screen contains a magic shop, which I'll go into more detail of when I play as a Magic User, a house with a sleeping woman in front, who won't wake up, and the guild hall.

GUILD HALL


This guy fell asleep while polishing his sword... I hope.

In the guild hall, I can sign my name in the log book, talk to the guild master or check out the bulletin board.

The bulletin board has six quests on it
  • Return Baronet Barnard von Spielburg – reward 50 gold
  • Spell components needed – inquire at the Healer's
  • Provide proof of Brigand Leader's identity – 60 gold and title 'Hero of the Realm'
  • Capture or Kill Brigand Warlock – 30 gold
  • Return lost ring – inquire at the Healer's
  • Safe Return of Elsa von Spielburg – reward 50 gold

From this bulletin board we can conclude that Baron von Spielburg's children are worth 50 gold apiece and the Healer refuses to agree on a price before delivery

Wolfgang the Guild Master, when we wake him up and talk to him, has something to say about all the monsters, but where I was hoping to get useful information on how to fight the different creatures, he didn't seem to have much helpful information to impart

Okay, so beware of something coming out of nowhere? Thanks for the help. I'll use that information wisely

Wolfgang told me he used to adventure with the Baron, but after he angered Baba Yaga, the Baron goes nowhere and sees no one. I suspect I'll be solving the Baron's agoraphobia problem before too long.

He also says that after Stefan von Spielburg killed one of two dragons, some people still see his companion high overhead occasionally. I suspect we might be meeting that dragon later.

Wolfgang also gives me a clue for one of the bulletin board quests.

I'll probably find Barnard or his body near the nest of a clawed creature – perhaps the aformentioned second dragon

Space Quest reference

Courage – sure. Brains – ah, pass. Skills – yeah, why not.

I then take a short trip outside the gate.


Not wanting to overwhelm myself with excitement, I go back to town and find the sheriff and Otto are no longer there. I go back to the inn and see a sad man with his head on the table. I speak to him.

Abdulla Doo? Any relation to Scooby and Scrappy?

Abdulla tells me that he was ambushed by about twelve brigands, including a minotaur. The wizard (likely the Brigand Warlock I read about on the bounty board) blinded them before attacking.

The wizard has capsicum spray?

Abdulla gives me some potentially useful information
  • The leader's voice was high pitched. A woman, perhaps? 
  • The wizard was short and giggled a lot – perhaps the bandits are children who obtained access to some powerful magic. Seems far fetched so I'm confident I'm wrong here.
  • Abdulla had a Magic Carpet among the stolen goods. I'm sure I could find a use for that item!

Exploring to the north of the sheriff's office, I find a market with a teenage centaur called Hilde manning a vegetable stand.

She gives me some potentially useful food-based information that is likely just flavour text (get it?) so I won't detail it now and will bring it up if it becomes useful later.

She does tell me that the robbers ran away to the southwest after attacking her father, so now I have an approximate direction to find the bandits who've been bothering everyone in town.

I buy 10 apples for a silver coin and move on.

Next to her stall is the dry goods stall, run by Kaspar.

Well, that's not promising

There I can find some general adventuring items.

I don't buy any of these yet but take note in case they'll be helpful later.

And Abdulla told me that one of the brigands was a minotaur – hmmm

Yeah, I know. '...until he took and arrow to the knee'

You can't tell from the screenshot, but the small alley has a glow coming out of it. Seems inviting.

In fact, it seems too inviting. I save the game before entering the alley.


Seems all above board to me. What do you think, Admiral Ackbar

"Looks safe to me. I'd go ahead"

Thanks for the tip, Admiral. I'll take your advice. First, I look around. There are curious marks on the north ends of the buildings. I hold my breath and go ahead. A dagger suddenly whizzes past my ear.

A trap! What a surprise!

The thieves demand my money for my life. Being the brave fighter I am, I pop into my inventory and use my broadsword on one of the thieves. But the game won't let me. I feel a sudden calmness and sense of peace when I consider thoughts of violence. There's certainly no way they're getting my money, so I try to leave instead.

TIP: I skimmed through the manual again and found nothing about how to deal with thieves

After reloading, I go to the only other enterable door, the tavern. The butcher and baker are playing cards and the barber's drunk at the bar – no wonder most of the shops are closed.

There's a note on the floor. I pick it up and read it.

I have no idea what this means, or who B is, or who B is.

The butcher suggests that there isn't enough meat in town for him to butcher but suggests that if someone were to bring down the stag in the forest that might change... do I sense another mission?

I try to talk to the goon, Crusher, a few times, but he doesn't like that and throws me out.

I feel it's time to go to sleep. I go back to the inn and pay my 5 silvers for a bed.


MARTAK: Well, that was a boring story. You just talked to people all day.
FRODO: But I got killed
MARTAK: …
FRODO: I got better. What do you think TREVOR? A good start to an adventure?
TREVOR: I don't know. I stopped listening half an hour ago.
FRODO: I've only been talking for 20 minutes! 
Trevor had been attempting to get the door open and has managed to wedge various items in the small crack including pebbles, multiple daggers and a small smooth piece of wood with intricate runes carved on it. 
MARTAK: Is that my wand?
TREVOR: We're stuck here – possibly forever. Is now really the time to argue about personal property?
MARTAK: Yes. It's mine and I want it back. We may need it later.
TREVOR: Okay, but if we never get out of here we know who to blame. 
Martak takes the wand and puts it back in his backpack that still looked like it hadn't been opened. 
MARTAK: Nice work, thief.
TREVOR: I AM a professional.
MARTAK: Anyway, I had a similar experience in Spielburg, but you missed the best parts. Let me tell how my adventure began...

MAGIC USER

Martak the Magic User Journal Entry #1: I spoke to a large number of people who are beneath my notice, and one of the faery folk who ran the local magic shop. I learned my first spell – the first of many I'm sure...









I increased Intelligence and Magic, and also put points in Luck and Vitality to hopefully keep me alive longer

As Martak the Magic User, I did most of the same things as the fighter. I spent more time in the magic shop, unsurprisingly, so we'll focus on what I did there.

Magic Shop

The Magic Shop contains a gargoyle like creature and many of the kind of items you expect to see in a magic shop, such as scrolls and potions. As I approach the counter, the gargoyle awakens and Zara, the proprietor, appears. She makes a point of saying that the items in this shop are designed for those skilled in the use of magic. The gargoyle-like creature is her familiar, Damiano. Zara is part human and part Faery Folk.

And when you can take the pebble from my hand, then it will be time for you to leave

Zara gives me a lot of useful information.
  • Zara mentions that there is a place in the distant south that I must journey to after I become a hero here.
  • Erasmus is a Wizard who lives in a tower northeast of town
  • I can buy a Power Potion that restores my magical energy for 75 silver, a Healing Potion for 50 or a Vigor (Stamina) Potion for 25.
  • Importantly, she tells me that there is an Aura protecting this town from danger and there can be no act of violence or cruel magic within most of its walls – why she specifies most, I can surmise due to my fighter's experience in the dark alley.
  • Baba Yaga is a powerful and wicked Hag who cursed Baron von Spielburg and all his family PIC176


  • I need to know the rhyme to enter Baba Yaga's hut, but Zara doesn't know it.

I'm not sure what this means, but it might become clear later

These are the spells I can buy

  • Perhaps importantly, her description of the Open spell tells me that it unfastens locks and knots. I suspect it will be used to undo a knot in a rope at some point.
  • She also mentions that I can also find another spell if I can learn the secret of Erana's Peace. There is supposed to be a gift there for clever Magic Users. Sounds like a place I should find.

 Let's move on.

I attempt to buy the Fire Dart spell, but don't have enough money. I'm guessing 10 silver pieces makes one gold piece, but then my inventory specifies 4 gold and 10 silver so I'm not completely sure. I can buy the open spell so I do so, hoping ot open some of the locked doors I found in town with my fighter. I now know my first spell, but only have 1 gold and 10 silver pieces left. I assume I'll be able to get more by solving some adventurer's guild quests so I'm not too concerned.

Now, armed with my new spell I go to one of the locked doors in town.

Bugger.

It seems my spells won't work in town due to the protection spell which works all over town apart from the dark alley.

I go to the dark alley again, expecting a similar result, and this is when I realise something I hadn't noticed before -  it had been night-time when I got here with my fighter.

This time there's no glow that I could see from outside the alley, and a new character instead of the killer thieves.

Alms for an ex-leper

I give him some money and can talk to him. Like everyone else in town, he has a lot of topics. Unlike most others, after answering a bunch of questions he shuts up until I pay him more. I exhaust his dialogue tree after three payments, then consider reloading because he didn't tell me anything interesting (chargebacks for the win)

Actually he does tell me I can get a job cleaning the Castle's stable which is good to build up muscles or have a space to spend the night. Free bed and extra strength – sounds useful – maybe I shouldn't reload to save money.

One of many modern-day Earth references/jokes in the game

Now that I can look at the alley in the light and without the looming danger of a dagger in my back, my character notes that the back wall reminds him of a time he thought about climbing. Methinks I've found a use for the Climbing skill. I don't have that skill with my mage, but my thief will have the skill. There's something to try with my third character.

I go to the tavern, and this time I don't talk to Crusher the Goon and therefore don't get thrown out. I do notice that he's standing on a trapdoor. I wonder what would happen if I cast my 'Open' spell on the trapdoor while he's standing there.

Bugger
  • TREVOR: So... that's it. The only thing you did differently to Frodo was buy a magic spell.
  • MARTAK: I... I also met a beggar.
  • FRODO: And I'm so disappointed I missed that riveting conversation.
  • TREVOR: Well it seems I'm the only one of us who walked out of town with more money than I came in with.
  • MARTAK: Oh, do tell us how the noble thief saved the poor people of Spielburg.
  • TREVOR: If you insist. Like your stories, it starts with me talking to everyone in town, but really gets interesting once the sun goes down...

THIEF

Trevor the Thief Journal Entry #1: I heard the town of Spielburg was looking for a hero. I'm sure that's something I can do, so I'll give it a go – and perhaps make some extra coin on the side for my trouble.










This time I upped, Luck, Agility and Vitality, Dodge, Stealth, Pick Locks, Throwing and Climbing.

Once again, my Thief playthrough began with me talking to everyone about everything. I didn't buy any spells this time obviously, and nothing unusual happened until night-time.

I did have the option to ask some people in the tavern about the 'Thieves' Guild', but didn't get much in response. The bartender told me he was an honest establishment but Crusher the Goon has something to say.

Boidbath?

I'll need to find the password somewhere. My guess was that the beggar is a member of the guild, but I can't ask him about it, so wasted 4 silver talking to him for nothing.

Perhaps if I break into a house I might get their attention. If I attempt to use my lockpick on one of the locked doors during the day the game admonishes me for attempting to break in in broad daylight. That's fair, so I wander randomly until nightfall.

After nightfall, I attempt to enter some of the locked buildings. Some are barred from the other side, so I can't get in, but the game tells me my lockpicking skill increases for trying anyway. After many failures I eventually succeed in lockpicking a door.

This small bit of text made me very happy. I'd achieved something!

I ended up in a house where I could hear snoring behind the doors. The occupants turned out the be the sheriff, Otto and the sheriff's wife.


I can steal 3 silvers from the drawers under the candlestick, steal the candlestick itself, get the vase, move the painting, then lockpick the safe under the painting until I succeed. It sounds like I've been quite clever but everything I've just written is solved by clicking the 'hand' icon on stuff.

There's a bit of randomization in the lockpicking mechanism – the first time I attempted to open the safe, I failed multiple times and eventually the noise woke the sheriff up.

Being intelligent and quieter will consist of getting some good luck with the randomizer and opening the safe earlier.

After reloading, I open the safe on the first attempt.

I'm rich!

I close the safe and put the painting and vase back to hide my tracks, and attempt to take the music box on the small table in front of the fireplace.

For some stupid reason instead of taking the box, my thief decides to open the box, and what happens when one opens a music box?

A goon with a teddy bear turns it off without noticing the caped invader standing directly in front of him in a heroic pose

After this, I can take the music box without incident, so I do.

I didn't see anything else I can take, and if I use the hand icon on any of the doors the occupant finds me and I go to jail. My favourite is when the sheriff's wife hits me with a pillow, knocking me over the bannister before Otto bursts through his door.


On writing this I thought of something else I could try here, which is to attempt to put my guy into sneak mode, but I'll try that later and if it works discuss it in a future installment.

The only other house I found I could enter was the one next to the adventurer's guild that earlier had a sleeping old lady outside. I break in, and ransack the house while her kitty-cat looks on.

I get 20 silvers from a purse, a single silver in a drawer, some candlesticks, and a string of pearls from a knitting bag. I open an inviting chest, but it contains nothing of value.

There's a covered birdcage that, if uncovered wakes the sleeping woman who just tells her cat to stop bothering the bird.

At some point I step on the wrong spot and the cat gets annoyed. It transforms into a panther and jumps on me, surprisingly not killing me.

Nice kitty???

The panther licks me until the old lady awakens (was it licking me all through the night?) and calls the sheriff.
MARTAK: Yes, a much better story than mine. You end up in jail... at least five times!
TREVOR: That was just me embellishing the story for effect. That's what would have happened if I wasn't as skilled at lockpicking and being stealthy as I clearly am.
FRODO: Speaking of lockpicking, do you think you can do something about the door we're stuck behind.
TREVOR: I'll keep working on it. You two are welcome to come up with some ideas yourself you know.
FRODO: Actually I'm tired.
MARTAK: Yes, let's have a rest. Next time I'll tell you about what happened outside the town. That's where most of the excitement took place.
TREVOR: Maybe the great magic user will actually cast a spell next time. Or the fighter might actually fight something. I'm the only one who's used one of his skills so far. But yes, let's stop for now.
And that's it for our first foray into the land of Spielburg. Tune in next time when we'll climb a tree, fight a bandit and maybe even cast a spell! And yes, we'll talk to some new people as well.

FRODO Inventory:
  • 4 gold, 9 silver
  • 4 food rations
  • 1 broadsword
  • 1 leather jerkin
  • 1 shield
  • 10 small apples
  • 1 paper piece
MARTAK Inventory:
  • I dagger
  • 1 leather jerkin
  • 4 food rations
  • 1 gold piece, 5 silver pieces
  • 1 paper piece
TREVOR Inventory:
  • *10 gold 59 silver
  • 4 food rations
  • 1 leather jerkin
  • 1 dagger
  • 1 lock pick
  • *5 small rocks
  • *2 healing potions 
  • 1 fine porcelain vase
  • 1 candelabra
  • 1 music box
  • 1 paper piece
*I did things out of order with Trevor so at this point the cash should be a bit lower and I won't have rocks or healing potions

Time played: 2 hours 40 minutes
Total time: 2 hours 40 minutes

Missed Classic: Sorcerer - Bootstrap Paradox

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Written by Joe Pranevich



Welcome back! Last time around, we descended into the Great Underground Empire to locate our lost guildmaster, Belboz. Or, at least, that’s what I think I am doing because the game seems to have largely forgotten its plot, instead opening up into a Zork-style dungeon crawl. It’s been a lot of fun, although some of the sense of urgency has evaporated. Because we used a teleport scroll, we know Belboz is around here somewhere, but exactly where is a mystery. Thus far, we have explored an amusement park, dried up a river to discover a “bat cave”, and defeated a bunch of mimics through the copious application of bat poop. I also have a “yonk” scroll which will supercharge one spell, but I have been saving it carefully so as to avoid a walking-dead situation. As I ended last time, we had just discovered a large glass maze and I fell to my death by walking into a section with no floor.

I had expected to beat the game this week-- four posts is quite enough for a Missed Classic-- but for reasons that will become apparent, I wanted to let the puzzles breathe a bit. I haven’t had this much fun for a while. I have to hurry and finish documenting this game, but rushing through Sorcerer feels wrong somehow. There is also no new “Road to Seastalker” bonus post this week; I am thoroughly enjoying Tom Swift and His Atomic Earth Blaster, but I need more time to finish it.
It’s hip to be cube.

The Glass Maze

Since I fell to my death last time, I resolved to explore the maze again with more care. Rather than walking off the edge, I cast “izyuk” to fly and this allowed me to survive what would have been a deadly fall. This actually opens up some options because I can either cross the room to the east or descend into another room below. When I descend, I also discover that sometimes I can fly up through the ceiling of the rooms. Since everything is clear glass, it’s impossible to know what directions have glass panels and which ones just have open air. I have to keep bumping into the walls (and ceiling) to know what is there. To make matters more difficult, “izyuk” only lasts around two turns so I have to keep memorizing and casting it over and over again. Taking each room one slow step at a time, trying every direction, I am able to build a map of the environment. The path below where I died leads to a dead end, as does the next room which has a hidden way to fly up. Step by step I make it through until I hit an obstacle that I cannot pass: a path up in the northeast corner of the maze extends up two “rooms”. My “izyuk” spell is enough to get me to the top, but not from there to any point of safety. I inevitably fall to my death. Is there where I am supposed to use the “yonk” spell to supercharge my flying ability?

Before I try that, I remember that I already have a second flying spell: “fweep”, the one that turns me into a bat. In my bat-form, I cannot carry anything so I have to leave a pile of items behind, but I can go for a longer distance. Even better, the bat’s built-in sonar detects which panels are glass and which are empty air without my having to feel my way through one direction at a time. If I had realized that, I could have saved a lot of time! With that spell, I am able to easily finish mapping (revealing the whole location as a three-by-three cube) and find an exit into a hollow in the cliff face.


Is that a muppet?

The hollow itself turns out to be nearly empty except for a brick structure with a square hole in the top-- obviously a chimney-- and a parchment scroll. The scroll contains the “swanzo” scroll which will “exorcise an inhabiting presence” which I immediately take as something I can use in the haunted house. I go to copy the copy but realize that I didn’t actually bring my spell book with me. I can’t fly it here nor will I be able to get the scroll out since I’ll have to become a bat again. What to do? Well, drop it down the hole! I had found a hut with a chimney not far from the glass maze, so I assume that is where the chimney leads.

But this is where I realize this is a trap: when I pick up the scroll to drop it, I hear an evil laugh and the glass maze shifts around. Even worse, a dorn beast emerges from the cliff and begins to run after me. I would like to tell you that I quickly transformed back into a bat and ran away, but I didn’t memorize another “fweep” spell so mostly what I did is run back into the maze and fall to my death. I had to restore, memorize yet another “fweep” spell, and play through the whole mess again. Once I did that, I can become a bat and race back into the maze. The walls did change locations and so I have to map it on the go. Fortunately, the solution to my “dorn” problem comes very quickly: just at the end of the first hallway, the floor drops two stories. I have no problem flying down, but dorns apparently cannot fly so my assailant doesn’t live through the landing. From there, it’s a simple matter to map my way out of the maze (restoring when I run out of fweep-spell) and eventually arriving back at the start. The “swanzo” scroll ends up being in the hut, exactly as I suspected, but it does nothing useful in the haunted house. Oh well. I copy it to my spell book anyway.


Does anyone have a canary I can borrow?

The Coal Mine

I am stuck again. I re-explore the whole environment and poke at odd corners here and there. I find a floor waxer that I missed before, but nothing to do with it. Eventually, I come to the realization that the only thing I know about is the dragon sculpture that I skipped. When I tried to animate the statue last time, it didn’t work before my spell was not powerful enough. I have been saving the “yonk” scroll for when I didn’t have any other option… and now seems like it’s time. In Enchanter, there was a similar one-time scroll that looked like it was needed in many places, but would make the game unwinnable if you used it in the wrong place. Is “yonk” the same way? It doesn’t matter. I cast it to strengthen my “malyon” spell, then cast that on the dragon. It works! The dragon wakes up and moves enough to reveal a long-hidden passage. Did I just make the game unwinnable? I have no idea, but at least I’ll press forward for now.

Behind the dragon is a sooty room which leads into a coal mine. As soon as I enter, the passage behind me collapses and I am trapped. Worse, the air is filled with coal gas and seems to be slowly poisoning me. Is this the coal mine from Zork I? I do not know, but at least that one didn’t have collapsing doors and killer air. (Actually, it did have killer air: there was a room which would kill you if you brought a torch. Fortunately, I just have my glow-in-the-dark calendar which doesn’t have an open flame.) I quickly explore and realize that I only have two rooms: a “Coal Bin Room” and a “Dial Room”. The bin room is covered in a layer of coal and has two chutes in the northern and southern ends of the room. The northern one leads down from someplace above, while the southern one leads down to who knows where. The dial room contains a combination-locked door and a note that the foreman has the combination. That is not immediately helpful. Before I get much farther, I die of too much coal gas and have to restore.


This floor needs a good waxing. 

Fortunately, I have a potion for this occasion: “vilstu”, the one that I picked up from the mail order offer way back at the guildhall. I drink it and immediately someone pops out of the coal chute! He looks like me, only much dirtier and disheveled. He’s also having difficulty breathing. A moment later, he gasps out that the combination is “46” then looks expectantly. I don’t know what he wants, but a moment later he motions that he wants my spell book. What the heck? I hand him my book and he dives into the chute heading further down. Using that combination, I have no problem opening the locked door. Just on the other side of the door is a climbable shaft with a rope at the bottom. I grab the rope and climb up only to discover that, like in Zork, the mine is a maze. I have to quickly map it while running out of air. It takes a few tries (during which times I notice that I get different combinations), but I find that it’s only five rooms, two of which are unique: the shaft room and the top of the chute. I also find a piece of timber in the mine.

Now, astute readers will know that this is the third time we’ve seen these specific objects and a chute. The first time was in mainframe Zork where the several items were used to solve one of the palantir puzzles: we tied the rope to the timber, dropped it at the top of the shaft, and we climb down the rope to find a hidden room in the middle of the slide. This puzzle was not included in Zork I even though the shaft and all of the items were kept; I assume it was just too difficult for a beginner game. Zork III seemed like it was planning to go there, again having all of the items and a shaft to use them on, but this was a red herring. Perhaps Marc Blank and Dave Lebling considered adding the puzzle there and decided against it. But, here we are: at the shaft puzzle again. While it seems to be the same, the puzzle appears to be more difficult this time around. For one thing, you have to be explicit: “put timber across chute” and “drop rope down chute” rather than have those actions be implicit in the original. I also have to drop all of my stuff to keep from slipping on the rope-- including my light source.


They’re actually identical cousins. 

Climbing down, I find the hidden room just as expected but it’s not the one from Zork. This time, I find a lamp with an open and empty compartment, plus a smelly scroll. The scroll is for the “golmac” spell to “travel temporally”. That explains my twin! I grab the spell and head down but I quickly break the laws of time and the scroll disappears. I restore back and try again, this time casting the spell in the lantern room. Nothing seems to change at first, but then I notice that the lantern contains a “vardik” spell to “shield a mind from an evil spirit”. I grab it and continue down the chute, this time discovering my younger self waiting at the bottom. I ask him for my spellbook then jump down the chute, only to die in a time paradox. What did I forget? The combination! I try it again and give him the combo and this time I am able to finish the scene.

I emerge from the bottom shaft free of the coal mine: I am on the Lagoon Shore. It’s good that it is light out because my calendar is now long gone, left with almost all my remaining items in the mine. All I have is my spell book and the new scroll. I’m probably going to have to restore back, but then I realize that I have a bigger problem: I am getting thirsty. The anti-hunger and anti-thirst potion I drank in the beginning of the game is finally wearing off. If I don’t find the end soon, I’m going to have to replay it all again to get here faster.

Before I end for today, I just want to comment on how amazingly cool these two puzzles are. The glass maze is one of the most interesting mazes we’ve seen in an Infocom game: it’s not particularly hard, but the realization that we had to solve it as a bat just made my day. The dorn chase is also nice and adds some nice tension, just like a similar scene at the end of Planetfall. The coal mine puzzle is a fantastic homage to mainframe Zork, but integrated into an absolutely amazing “bootstrap paradox” puzzle and a time limit before we run out of air. They don’t seem particularly well integrated into the game, but I’m certain these are my two favorite puzzles of the series so far.

Next week, I’ll finally win this thing and write a rating. But for now, I’d better get back to work on Sherlock Holmes.

Time played: 2 hr 35 min
Total time: 7 hr 40 min

Inventory: spell book, smelly scroll
Spell book: gnusto, vezza, pulver, izyuk, yomin, rezrov, frotz, gaspar, meef, fweep, malyon, swanzo

Missed Classic: Sorcerer - Won! And Final Rating

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Written by Joe Pranevich



Hola, sailor! We’re back to close out the adventure that is Sorcerer, the fifth official Zork game. Last time out, we successfully navigated a glass maze and a wickedly cool time travel puzzle in a coal mine to emerge, mostly empty-handed, on the shore of a lagoon. All we have left is a spell book and a “smelly” scroll. My anti-hunger potion is finally wearing off and I have no idea where I am relative to the remainder of the game. This week, I’ll start by exploring the lagoon and we’ll see where that takes us. I just hope I do not starve before I get to the end of the game. I can replay to do the rest of the game faster, but it would be an annoyance that I would rather avoid.

While I am working through this game, I admit that I have become extremely curious about our upcoming Implementer, Jim Lawrence. He’ll be joining Stu Galley for Seastalker, but he was already a forty-year veteran of young-adult literature, comics, and even radio dramas. I am trying to assemble a complete list of his works, made all the more complicated by the fact that he didn’t write most of them under his own name. (Plus, there are two other “Jim Lawrences” that write or work in comics so it is far too easy to confuse his work with theirs.) I have put together an increasingly-correct list on my blog and I hope that you will take a look and provide any thoughts or corrections. I’d like to get all of my biography details straight before I cover his first game and your help is appreciated. I do not think anyone has sat down to try to build a complete list of his output before. Enough of that, let’s play!
Too cheerful to be ominous. 

The lagoon turns out to be smaller than I expected: only four rooms from north to south with cliffs on all sides. There is no obvious routes back to the rest of the game, except for a vine-covered cave in the far north that I will need to explore. In the far north, we also find a river cascading down a waterfall to outlet into the ocean. Far above the waterfall, we can just make out the ruined fortress. We haven’t gone very far, but we are very far below. It’s nice scenery! The vines at the mouth of the cave appear to be psychic, constantly calling me to get too close and (I expect) get trapped and eaten. Being the vindictive sorcerer that I am, I cast “meef” on them to kill them all. I guess I have a black thumb. As I do this, my “vilstu” potion from the beginning of the game fully wears off and I find myself exhausted, unable to even hold my spell book. I rest on the beach, but I am cutting this game far too close.

While my character is resting, I would like to discuss some confusing geography. This game has us on the west edge of the Flathead Ocean and the descriptions in-game tell us that there are “magical beings and priceless treasures” on the other side of the ocean. In Zork III, we stood in front of this very same ocean and looked out to the west so that must have been the opposite shore. But, that doesn’t make sense. We’re running around the Great Underground Empire now. There are references to Flatheads and zorkmids. Did the Empire straddle both sides of the ocean? If so, why is the opposite shore seen as mysterious? I suspect this was just intended to be some color text and an offhand reference to a previous game, but detail-oriented nitpickers like me can never let something like that slide. What do you think? Am I misunderstanding something?

Well-rested, I head into the cave and die immediately because I forgot to bring a light. I restore back and try again (with a lighted spell book), but this time I die immediately because the cave is a grue lair filled to the brim with mutated grues that don’t mind the light one bit. On the bright side, I get a good look at their slavering fangs before dying. Unfortunately, I am now stuck because there is nowhere for me to go. Did I leave an item that I need behind in the main part of the game? Do I have to do the whole coal mine again? I can’t even think of anything there that might be useful.


It’s beautiful except for the whole no-graphics thing. 

It takes me longer than I care to admit to discover that I can swim! I paddle out into the lagoon and spy a clump of spenseweed underwater. I feel like I should know something about spenseweed. Was it in Enchanter or a different game? I swim down and try to pick the weeds, but that doesn’t do any good. I try to cast “meef” again only to discover that my spell book and scroll are both soaked and unreadable. I restore back and leave them on the beach. Casting “meef” here is strange because I cannot cast it on the surface of the water-- I have to dive down to do it. I have always imagined the spells in this game as spoken-word so casting underwater feels wrong somehow. In any event, the weeds die and I find a hidden black crate. I have to surface for air, but I am able to get back down to drag it to the shore. Inside is a treasure trove of deux ex machina: a can of grue repellent, a “grue suit” for protection, and a brass lantern. I think we know what to do with those.

I put on the suit and spray the repellent and I am now easily able to cross the grue lair. The other side is the “Mammoth Cavern” (a sideways reference to Colossal Cave?), the base of operation for the big bad of the game. Inside are vats for the creation of mutated grues and plenty of other evil machines to keep mankind down. I must have discovered-- completely by accident-- the demon’s lair! If only I had come here deliberately! The cave has three exits, but two of them are more like Sartre’s “No Exit”: the “Chamber of Living Death” and the “Hall of Eternal Pain”. Both of them kill me (or rather, fail to completely kill me) in amazingly terrible ways. I am forced to restore.


And you thought I just make pop culture references.

The final white door leads me to where I wanted to go all along: Belboz’s chamber. He appears to be asleep (lucky me!) and he is only a few feet from an elaborate ornate dagger. Should I take the violent approach? No! I use “swanzo” to exorcise an inhabiting spirit (this is the spell that I received in the hollow at the center of the glass maze), but that doesn’t quite work. The demon leaves Belboz… but invades my brain instead. I become the instrument that he uses to take over the world. I remain conscious but unable to act as atrocity after atrocity are committed by a person that looks like me and which I cannot look away from. This game likes its tortures! I restore and try killing Belboz instead but much the same happens. I can’t even probe the demon’s mind because it wakes up and tosses me in the Hall of Eternal Pain. What am I missing?

Well, it’s obvious: the smelly scroll from the coal mine. That contains the “vardik” scroll (and I completely forgot to write it to my spell book earlier) which shields a mind from an evil spirit. I use that on me and then “swanzo” on Belboz and the demon is cast out! Better yet, he has no ready vessel to occupy and so dissipates in the magical wind. Belboz wakes up and transports us back to the guildhall where we celebrate. He also appoints me as his successor as guildmaster, a position that surely will come in handy in Spellbreaker. The game is over!


What was the floor waxer for?


Did I miss anything in the amusement park?

Time played: 1 hr 10 min
Total time: 8 hr 50 min
Total Zork Marathon Time: 96 hr 45 min


Final Rating

What a great game! I’m writing this now a few days after I beat the game to allow my brain some time to settle. I am not sure how this will fare in the PISSED rating scale, but I loved it. Having played all of these Infocom games in order now, I feel very invested in the universe. Steve Meretzky is obviously a guy that loved that his job was to play with fantasy and sci-fi toys. This game beautifully ties together the Enchanter and the Zork styles, glueing the series together, while showing that he was aware even of their early mainframe work. He also succeeded in making the Great Underground Empire feel like a almost-real place instead of rooms with puzzles randomly scattered through them.

Puzzles and Solvability - Mr. Meretzky’s puzzles are some of the best in the business. The coal mine is potentially the best puzzle so far in the series, made all the better because of the way it layered in the time limit (coal gas!), time travel (bootstrap paradox!), and the chute puzzle from mainframe Zork. The glass maze is similarly an amazing puzzle, especially the tense chase at the end when you are fleeing the dornbeast and the maze has reorganized itself around you. The matchbook puzzle at the beginning feels unfair, especially if you didn’t realize until near the end of the game that you needed the potion that it grants you. I also did not appreciate all of the random deaths when you entered certain rooms, or the randomness in general with the casio and the haunted house. This made it more difficult to know if I was on the right track. Did I die because I was unlucky? Or because I cannot go that way yet? Those flaws hold this grade back a bit. My score: 6.


Imagine match-related pun here.

Interface and Inventory - Another game with the Infocom parser, another great work. Not too much to add since this is pretty much the same engine as Enchanter. My score: 4.

Story and Setting - I’ve commented already how much I loved the setting, but the story here is far too easily forgotten. We stumbled on the end by accident, as if Mr. Meretzky wasn’t quite sure how to get us hints to lead us to our destination; he just figured we’d get there eventually. Great setup but poor follow-through. My score: 4

Sound and Graphics - No pity points this time. There was no ASCII art anywhere. My score: 0.

Environment and Atmosphere - I loved the mood of this game although it never had the tension that it should have. The new realization of the Great Underground Empire is fantastic and makes an impossible idea seem almost plausible, in a magic-fueled fantasy world. The game is never as evocative as Zork III or as tense as Planetfall, but it does a lot of things right. My score: 6.

Dialog and Acting - The prose was consistently good, but I would have appreciated more characters to interact with. My score: 5.

Let’s add it up: (6+4+4+0+6+5)/.6 = 42. I am granting a single bonus point for being the game that defines the Zork series to me. Worldbuilding is tricky-- trying to add sense to someone else’s universe after four games is nigh impossible. With that, we land at a final score of 43!


A score of 43 places this game above every other Infocom game so far except Planetfall and that seems fair. Planetfall had both a plot that continued through the whole game as well as solid character development for Floyd. This game feels like a well-written homage to the earlier style; I just wish the plot hadn’t been completely forgotten until nearly the final room.

With an average score guess of 45, I think we’re all pretty much in the same place about where this game fits. Alex Romanov gets the gold with his guess of the same! I need to put the Zork Marathon to bed for a while to work on some main-line games, but Voltgloss will be bringing us another Missed Classic very soon. Our next Infocom game will be Seastalker but the next real Zork game won’t come until Wishbringer in five games. See you in two days as I kick off the playthrough of The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes.

The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes - “Murder,” He Wrote

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Written by Joe Pranevich




It’s very strange coming back to graphical adventures after playing so many text ones, but it is time to take a look at my next main-line game: The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes. Based on your score guesses, this is a fairly well-regarded game and I am curious how my experiences will stack up to yours. Mythos Software is such a “young” team in 1992 without any major game credits; if they could have come out of nowhere to have a top ten game, I will be very impressed! Last week, we watched as a young woman was assaulted behind a theatre by an unknown assailant. Scotland Yard is investigating her murder, but they have requested the assistance of Sherlock Holmes to help crack the case. That is where we come in! As the game begins, Holmes and Watson are in their flat on Baker Street ready to head off into the world and explore.

Before I run out, I spend some time familiarizing myself with the interface. The game is clearly Lucas Arts-inspired with a small set of clickable verbs on the bottom of the screen. Names of objects appear as we mouse over them, which is a nice touch, but even just poking around the flat I can already tell that some things will be a pixel-hunt. My starting inventory consists of a stack of Sherlock Holmes business cards and the letter from Scotland Yard requesting help. The most unique feature that I see so far is the “Journal”, but I’ll have to explore it more later. As best I can tell immediately, it logs conversations and events that Holmes has in the game, plus it is searchable and printable. Since the only thing in there is the introduction, I will have to come back to it in a few hours to see what it looks like when it has more stuff in it. I’m awfully impressed by it, but let’s play the game!
Watson has already started recording the case for posterity.

If I have learned one thing from playing adventure games all these years, it’s “explore your starting area no matter how dumb that seems to be”. You live there, right? Why would you need to see if you have a really important item in your dresser drawer? In that spirit, I check our our Baker Street flat. As I search through desk drawers and stuff left on tables-- even a hidden stash of cigars hidden behind the coal skuttle!-- I’m left with the impression that I am missing a ton of references to Holmes stories. The “VR” in bullet holes, for example, come from a fit of boredom during “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” (1893). Beyond that, I am certain I am missing ten references for every one that I get. If we have any readers playing along that can comment on the lore, I would appreciate it very much. (Plus, there will be plenty of delicious CAPs in it for you!)

I talk to Dr. Watson next and find that the game has dialog trees with multiple options to choose from. I wish there had been voice acting, but the animated character portraits are a nice touch. I ask Watson if he read anything about our case in the papers, but he has not. When I talk to him again, that option has changed to a different color to show that I already talked about that. It seems like a good system so far.


Holmes and his deerstalker. 


Outside our flat. 

With nothing further that I can find to do inside, I head out to the London streets. Wiggins is hanging around outside; in this version, he’s a young man. As you might expect, he is one of the “Baker Street Irregulars” and when I talk to him, he tells me that he has eight guys all ready to go to wherever Holmes needs. We reply that we don’t need them quite yet, but it is good to know this option exists. There is also a newspaper stand outside, except this one sells both current and old papers. That sounds like it will also come into play later! The proprietor is thrilled about all the Jack the Ripper murders because they are moving a lot of papers; murder is good for his business.


Baker St: A short walk from two parks; great for young couples.

At first I am confused, but walking off the side of the screen takes us to a map of London where I can find both Holmes’s residence as well as the alley where the murder took place. The map is huge and there is plenty of room for new places to explore to be added later. I’m not very familiar with London, but I will have to check later how historically accurate it is. I select the theater and a little representation of Holmes and Watson in a carriage travels to the scene. Nice touch!




Lestrade greets us at the theater and asks Holmes for his opinion of the murder. We set to work examining the body and its surroundings. The poor young woman had her jugular slashed, plus she had non-fatal wounds on her abdomen, abrasions on the back of her neck, and scratches on her left ring finger. She smells of cheap perfume. We discover a key in her handbag, but it’s evidence and Lestrade won’t let us take it with us. How… accurate? How many detective stories have you seen where the amateur just walks off with police evidence without thinking twice? A closer inspection of the woman’s neck suggests the she was wearing a necklace which was ripped off. The same goes for the now-missing ring. Lestrade provides us with further details: the woman was an actress named Sarah Carroway. She had a sister, although she lived by herself. Lestrade does not know how to find the sister. One disappointment: despite being a doctor, Watson has absolutely nothing to add about the body’s medical condition. Shame.

In some nearby crates, we find a common brand of cigarette butts. We can tell that he waited there, but his preference won’t narrow our suspects down. Holmes deduces that the man wore heavy shoes or work boots and judging my how many cigarettes he worked through while waiting, he probably has fingers stained by nicotine. Nothing in the crates themselves appear to have been disturbed, although there is a playbill on the ground. Did the attacker watch the show? Or was that just blown in by the wind? I read it more closely and discover that it was not for tonight’s show, rather an older playbill containing a message for “S” from “B” asking her to meet outside for important news. “S” is probably Sarah, but who is “B”? Did she know her attacker?

I look over everything once again. I pick up a rusty iron bar-- no idea why I want that. This time, I also notice that there is white powder on the victim’s coat next to her first wound and that she was killed by a serrated scalpel. Lestrade is convinced that this means that is a copycat crime rather than an original Ripper one. The criminal stole jewelry to mimic what the Ripper did. Lestrade will now let us in to interrogate the witness and he also provides us the address to Sarah’s flat. We head into the theater through the back door.



Despite being given directions by Lestrade, the scene shifts directly into the women’s dressing room. There doesn’t seem to be any way to explore the rest of the theater. Waiting inside are Shelia, the witness to the murder, and Henry Carruthers, the stage manager. Unfortunately, now I do not know if the “S” on the playbill was for Sarah or Sheila. Tricky!

Before talking to the pair, we look around the room. Sarah must be fairly popular because there are two gifts for her on her dressing table: a bottle of perfume and a bouquet of pink carnations. Holmes is very interested in the perfume for some reason. It still has a ribbon on it, so it may have been a recent gift. Was it the perfume she was wearing tonight? There’s also a label with the manufacturer’s address if we wanted to check that out for some reason. The flowers on the desk have a card from a “secret admirer”, but Holmes thinks the card is written by a woman given her handwriting style and because guys apparently don’t draw little hearts as the dots about the i’s. The card has the “rose by any other name” line from Romeo and Juliet, but it gets it wrong. That could just be an error in the game or it could mean that the admirer isn’t an actor (or actress). Since it’s about roses still smelling as sweet, could it connect to the perfume bottle? That makes sense if they are both gifts from the same admirer. Holmes snags the card and one of the flowers for later analysis. The rest of the chest of drawers is locked, but it looks like someone tried to pry it open. Henry doesn’t have the key and suggests that Sarah probably kept one someplace. My guess is that is the key in her purse, but Lestrade won’t let me borrow the evidence to check.

While we were exploring, Henry has been hard at work doing something with the door. I finally head over to talk to him and discover the lock on the dressing room door has been forced. Lestrade seems to think that the attacker came inside and dragged Sarah out, but that is contradicted both by the cigarette butts outside and the opening cinematic. Then why would someone have broken in here? Did someone break in during the show looking for something, fail to find it, and then confronted her after? That would explain the attempt on the lock on the drawers as well. Searching further, the clothes in Sarah’s wardrobe have also been ransacked. Someone was looking for something. Did they find it? Something doesn’t seem quite right about this explanation because we also find a stain on the door jam where someone hit their head. There’s even a black hair there and hair oil! How did that happen? Did the attacker remove someone else from the room? Was he just careless and hit his head somehow? This doesn’t connect yet. In my searching, I also find a spring from the lock on the ground and hand it to Henry so he can finish his repair.


Hurry, hurry, hurry before I go insane.

We finally finish interrogating Henry. He doesn’t have much to add except that there was a boy outside asking about Sarah’s address. He had refused to give it to the boy, but the young man offered the stage manager money for the information and told him he could be found at the Moongate. Is that an Ultima reference? A real bar? A real bar that Lord British used for his Ultima series? I have no idea. We cannot really talk to Sheila because she is too hysterical, but Dr. Watson gives her a sedative (because that seems like a good idea…) and she calms down enough to talk to us. She claims that she saw a man in a cloak run away and then she saw Sarah’s “insides”. Shelia also tells is that Sarah had recently received a pendant from her sister, named either Anna or Hannah. She’s not sure. She also tells us that she doesn’t know Sarah’s secret admirer but it is someone that Sarah had in the room before. Finally, Sheila reveals that the note in the playbill was for her and from her fiance.

With that, I think I’ve found all that I can find tonight. Next time, I’ll leave the crime scene and try to check out Sarah’s apartment if I can.

A few theories for me to be embarrassed about later:
  • Is Sarah a lesbian? That would explain the “secret” admirer and the flowery handwriting. Or was the admirer really just Sarah’s sister (Anna/Hannah) and she was being cute?
  • Was Sheila lying about the playbill being for her or was she involved somehow? She was the understudy and stands to gain with Sarah dead. She also said that she saw Sarah’s “insides”, but her wounds didn’t really let you see in. Was she just exaggerating?
  • The whole crime was probably just a ruse to steal the pendant. The attacker searched the dressing room during the show and couldn’t find it so he waited outside. He pounced when he could and stole it off of her neck, making the whole thing look like a Ripper killing. (Alternatively, he didn’t get the real pendant and I can find it when I unlock the dresser… eventually.)


Before I close for tonight, I want to give the game some serious credit. While researching the map, I realized just how historically accurate the game designers are trying to be. This game was created by an American company in Arizona in 1991 with no access to the internet as we know it today. And yet, someone bothered to look up a reasonable idea of what Baker Street might have looked like in the 19th century. There was no real address of 221B Baker Street in Mr. Doyle’s time, but thanks to tourists you can go there today. Take the look, the comparison is shockingly close:




221B Baker Street in 2017. (From Google Maps.)

The artist is unlikely to have managed that on his or her own, so I am guessing that they had a photo reference. The balconies are different, but the ground-level architecture is nearly the same with the white archways, although the real street has more windows and the nine-paneled windows are on the first floor rather than the ground. I’m quite impressed!

The map of London is similarly well-done, even placing Baker Street in its actual location near Regent’s Park:




Lovingly borrowed from Google Maps

This is a fairly good representation of London, even if somewhat simplified. Of course, I have no idea what might have changed since the 19th century, but it’s likely the authors were working against modern maps as well anyway. You can see Regent’s Park just northeast of Baker Street, just as in real life. The Regency Theatre where the murder took place is right off of Regent Street, although in modern times there are no theaters there. I was just crazy enough to do some Googling and yes, that was a popular (if seedy) area with theaters and entertainment in the late 1800s. Someone did their research!

I don’t know whether I will keep cross-checking locations like this in future posts, but it makes the point just how much effort the developers are putting into this game. I am enjoying it thus far but it’s very slow to pick through all the clues and try to make sense of anything. If all of the rooms are this information-packed, it will be a challenge to describe everything. Onward! We have a mystery to solve!

Time played: 1 hr 5 min
Total time: 1 hr 5 min

Inventory: message requesting help, business cards, iron bar, perfume bottle, pink carnation

Missed Classic 47: Cyborg - Introduction (1981)

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Written by Voltgloss



Time to return to the worlds created by Michael Berlyn! As discussed back when we explored Oo-Topos, Mr. Berlyn had published two text adventures through Sentient Software: that game, and Cyborg. With an Apple II emulator up and running well, I’m ready to dive into the shoes of a half-human, half-machine.


Before starting the adventure proper, it’s worth discussing the story setup and unusual interface mechanics Mr. Berlyn put in place for our adventure. The game itself is a character here - the “machine half” of the protagonist, with the player comprising the “human half.” In the game’s own words, “we” have malfunctioned and our power units badly drained, such that both our short-term and long-term memories have been damaged. Yes, it’s an amnesia plot, but with the promise of memory restoration if we can get ourselves properly recharged. The only “organic or silicon memories” we have is that, in us, human and machine are “permanently linked. We are separate entities sharing an organic and metal shell, two minds in one body. A cyborg.” Working “as a team” with our mechanical half, can we find power or will we cease to exist?

As to the interface: we have two “levels” power - a “cyborg level” for the machine half and a “bio level” for the human half, and can assess both with a “body scan.” Instead of the “look” or “examine” commands, we can perform an “area scan” or an “item scan” to get information about our surroundings and objects we find. A “full scan” combines all those scans together in a screen-refreshing full-status update, which also lists our carried and worn inventory. “Help” provides a detailed help menu which resides in-game; it’s essentially the human half asking the machine half for information and assistance. Some of that “help” menu includes basic adventure game instructions, but other options also exist where the machine half can give its opinion on various items and obstacles we’ve discovered. It’s an in-game help mechanic, and one that’s linked to our status - let your cyborg level drop too low, I’ve found, and those help and scanning systems start to malfunction. I’m intrigued by the setup and curious to see how much, if at all, they may change over time as we recharge or otherwise change our cyborg status.


Plop

We start our journey in an area that seems incongruous to a sci-fi story - on a dirt path through a forest, with exits east, west, and north. A “tiny lizard wearing a silver spacesuit” greets us from an even “tinier crutch,” asking for “food” in exchange for the “truth.” OK, so that’s two goals clear right off the bat - find power to recharge ourselves, and find food for the lizard to learn the “truth.” We’ve got no starting inventory, a “cyborg level” of 1000 and a “bio level” of 1000, and 0% damage. Let’s get exploring!

Exploring east first, we’ve moved only two locations before we’re suddenly in a room full of “empty, dusty shelves” instead of in a forest. A room within what? We didn’t see any sort of building or other structure discovered in the forest or on the path - we were just walking down the path and suddenly we’re in a room with metal walls and welded seams. Odd. More importantly, we’re now armed: there’s a “microlaser” here! Scanning it explains that it’s an attachment for our forefinger. We scoop that up, wear it, and with no other obvious exits available from this room, return to the lizard.

Trying the west path next, we sense “sweet and alluring” smells from the woods to the south. But it’s a trap! Heading that way subjects us to attack by “a snake with two heads and three arms” exuding a mesmerizingly sweet odor. We come to our senses when it spits venom at us, bringing our damage level up to 3%. Shooting the snake with the laser seems obvious, but when I do I get a prompt I wasn’t expecting: the question “how much energy should we charge the laser with?” Apparently this laser casts from hit points. Without any reference point, I try “20” but only deliver “glancing wounds” - to which the snake responds with a deadly poison bite that immediately brings us to 100% damage, ending our first foray prematurely.


Essentially this, plus three arms.
Trivia question: what’s the source of this image?

The game then… offers to resurrect us, a la Zork. I wasn’t expecting this in a sci-fi game, but now’s as good a time as any to see what this entails. I take the game up on its offer and am back at the start location with the hungry lizard. A “full scan” reveals that it’s not a full restart though - our cyborg and bio levels are still what they were at the time of death (the cyborg level slightly lower - I guess that’s what I used to power the laser), and we’re at 28% damage. I head to the laser room but it’s empty. I head back to the snake, which spits venom again, and the microlaser is there on the ground. So this isn’t a rewind of time - our inventory seems to drop in the place of our death and we come back to “life” mostly but not entirely intact. I wonder if this is going to be used as a puzzle element somewhere down the line.

In any event, the snake doesn’t stop us from re-acquiring and wearing the laser. This time I try shooting with power 50 and the snake “slithers off to die in peace.” Serves it right! I also realize during all this that our cyborg and bio levels both slowly but steadily decrease as we move around. Better find some power soon to keep those topped up, or even resurrection isn’t going to do us much good.

Back to exploring! Killing the snake doesn’t seem to actually help other than by removing a threat - the path there ended in a thicket through which further movement “is impossible.” Back to the path, I check out a “clearing to the north” and find a pipe leaking water into a small puddle. I can’t drink or take the water, but the game recognizes my efforts to interact with it, so presumably I’ll be back here with a container of some kind. I return to the path again and take it all the way west and find myself in yet another incongruous metal passageway. This time the game comments that we passed through “a doorway my logic circuits say can’t exist, rising from the path like a portal into another dimension.” The writing is already impressing me compared to other games of this era. Small wonder, that being Mr. Berlyn’s stock in trade.

The metal passageway leads to three discoveries. The first is a “shoulder harness” that we can wear, with “four tiny foot-stirrups mounted on its top.” I have trouble visualizing this or how it will help us in the future, but hey, more stuff to get. The second discovery is a passage to a “huge, round, wooden-floored room,” that I cannot pass through - an “invisible force” scans us and blocks us from continuing. And the third discovery is a door to “Detox Station 1,” warning that I need “proper ID” for “processing.” Not sure what that’s about as I can pass through the door just fine. The problem is, the other side is dark! Heeding the game’s warning that continuing would be unwise, I try to retreat but it’s too late… “something snuck up on us” and we’re back at 100% damage and death. “Find a light source” is now our third goal.


“Something” snuck up on us, indeed.

I resurrect again and check out the far north end of the path where we started. This ends at a door to yet another “huge, wooden-floored room” - probably the same one I saw earlier, as I again can’t enter it thanks to an “invisible force.” No other exploration options clearly present themselves, and I also realize belatedly that I’ve lost my laser - I guess I dropped it in the dark room when I died and now can’t safely retrieve it. Time for a full reboot of the game and a rethink on my apparently limited options.

The answer comes when trying the old “brute force the exits” trick - I’m not limited to the path for exploring the forest. In fact, I quickly learn that the forest is laid out in a 5 by 5 grid of locations, through which I can freely move without regard for paths. Canvassing the area I discover make three more discoveries. The first is a “piece of string” that I can’t retrieve, as it’s “in a tangled mess and looped around the tree trunks.” Neither untying it nor shooting it with the laser seem possible. I ask my cyborg half for its opinion and it comments the string is “very strong” - guess I’ll have to come back here later with a better suited tool.

The second discovery is a “power-unit.” Picking it up doesn’t put it in my inventory, but rather automatically installs it and boosts our cyborg level by 425, with the game commenting that this helps but we still need “the permanent one.” Our bio level remains unchanged.


As the game itself says, “More power for the Borg!”

The third and most important discovery is a new location: a raised ramp heading south out of the forest, enclosed by a metal railing littered with “a quantity of dead insects.” Sounds like an electric fence! We follow the ramp south into another sudden shift from bucolic forest to sterile metal passages. Here we’re first greeted by a “vending machine” with a “narrow, horizontal slot.” I can’t seem to do anything with it yet, but my cyborg half comments that there might be food inside. Food for the lizard perhaps?

Further down the passageway leads us past a picture-window showing “a distant, snow-capped mountain range and a verdant valley” - which a closer scan reveals to simply be a hologram. I’m getting the sense that we’re inside some kind of spaceship or space station, with the forest area being either some kind of simulation or a self-contained “garden” of sorts, like the forest area from Starcross.

The passageway ends in what is apparently a library, with a bookcase on the east wall and an “ultrafiche” we can acquire - which my cyborg half tells me can hold up to 2.6 GB of data. Oh, how the future marches on. :) We try reading it but its printing is too small without “the proper equipment.” We also can’t seem to do anything with either the bookcase or a “metal partition” on the north wall, which sports a small slot and a “maintenance personnel only” sign. My cyborg half comments that “force isn’t going to work” to open the partition.

I backtrack and focus my attention back on the electric fence over the raised ramp, as the game makes a point of describing a clearing below. The solution here is simpler than I thought: simply going “down” from the path gets us over the fence and down to the clearing, with just a bit of sizzling (and another 3% damage). There’s a paved path heading east from here, and we also can’t seem to return to the ramp as it’s too high to reach. Having learned my lesson from the beginning of the game, I try other directions instead of heading east first - but this time I’m immediately “lost in the forest.” Blundering around in random directions eventually dumps us back out into the clearing. I’m not sure if this is a maze to be mapped or just something to be avoided; if I run out of leads I’ll come back here.
For now, heading east down the path brings us to two more metal passages. The first heads into darkness - at least this time with advance warning - so I back up and try the other passage. This leads to a storage room with a pair of sneakers (that I can’t seem to wear) and a pack of 15 matches. Is the light source problem now solved? Maybe, but the passage hasn’t ended yet; up some steps to the south I find a “metal cubicle” the size of an “ancient telephone booth.” Inside is another metal partition with a slot - maybe this is the other side of the partition in the library? - and a “black plastic cube” that I can take, but with no immediately apparent features or function.


Not this kind of cube. Hopefully.

I return to the dark room I’d just found and try lighting a match. Success! I’m at an alcove with another “maintenance personnel only” sign and discover a power-pack and a step ladder. The power-pack gives us another 425 cyborg level, and the step ladder proves to be our ticket out of here - bringing it back to the clearing and dropping it gives us the boost we need to return to the ramp.

That’s all for now! Next time I’ll be heading to the other dark room to try my matches there, and from there maybe exploring the forest maze or tinkering further with the cube. I’m intrigued so far and looking forward to where this leads.


My explorations to date.

Inventory: Microlaser (worn), shoulder harness (worn), ultrafiche, pair of sneakers, pack of matches (14 left), black plastic cube

Time played: 1 hr

And of course, please don't forget to get your score guesses in, as well as any bets that I won’t solve a particular puzzle. Thanks all!

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There's a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no CAPs will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. As this is an introduction post, it's an opportunity for readers to bet 10 CAPs (only if they already have them) that I won't be able to solve a puzzle without putting in an official Request for Assistance: remember to use ROT13 or some other appropriate cipher for betting. If you get it right, you will be rewarded with 50 CAPs in return. It's also your chance to predict what the final rating will be for the game. Voters can predict whatever score they want, regardless of whether someone else has already chosen it. All correct (or nearest) votes will go into a draw.

Quest for Glory I - That Which Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Weaker

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Written by TBD

Firstly, apologies for taking so long to get this second post out to you all. Thankfully Joe and Voltgloss have been keeping us all entertained with Sorcerer, Sherlock Holmes and Cyborg posts.

I did lots of exploring this time, so rather than babble on more at the start, let's get to it. We'll start with where we left off last time - with the thief.

THIEF

Trevor the Thief Journal Entry #2:After my night-time exploits in town that gave me a lot of coin, I did a lot of exploring outside of town. I didn't find much to steal, but I found a lot of things that wanted me dead.










After being jumped by a panther and taken to jail last time I tried to steal the old cat lady's stuff, I reloaded and stole her stuff but avoided walking too close to the cat before leaving. It was simple, it worked, and I escaped with my ill-gotten booty. A good night's work for a thief.

Despite now being rich, I decided the thief wouldn't want to pay for accomodations, so I went to sleep inside the town gates and woke up in the morning.

Why pay for a bed when I can rest here for free!

I leave town and go north, finding a house with a tree in front of it. In the tree is a nest with a weird red bird in it. Knowing that nests in computer games often contain treasures, I of course climb the tree.



It took many attempts, and when I finally made it I felt as proud as I look!

After I climb up, the bird flies away, giving me free access to its nest. I use my hand on the nest, taking a ring. I climb back down.

Due to a serendipitous mouse click, I also use my hand on the ground outside the house, which has me picking up a few rocks. They could come in useful. I throw the rocks at the nest for a while to increase my stats.

With all the throwing and climbing I've done, I've increased my Strength, Intelligence, Agility, Luck, Vitality, Climbing and Experience, but decreased my Stamina. I feel like I can take on the world! But don't worry, that feeling won't last long.

I enter the house, which I find out belongs to the healer. I talk to her for a while, and among other things, she tells me about her lost ring, and offers a gold reward. Not being one to turn down gold, I give her the ring I got from the nest outside and she gives me 6 gold and 2 healing potions.

I get the feeling if I stayed I might have had to fill out sexual harassment paperwork

I explore around the forest a bit more and am (seemingly randomly) attacked by a bandit. He walks from the left. If I'd wanted to I would have had time to run away but I wanted to see what happened.

I sense his hostile intent by the spear he's just thrust into my crotch

I fight the bandit, confident about my newly increased skills. I lose and die.

Oh, don't worry about me game. I saved!

I restore my game and run away when the bandit attacks. I also get attacked by a green velociraptor-looking thing called a Saurus, but I win so don't need to restore this time.

To the south of town I find an archery target, where I practice throwing my dagger.


Southeast of town I find a waterfall next to a ledge. There's a door on the ledge. I take a drink below the waterfall, which I think slightly increases my stamina, then climb the ledge (much easier now that I've practiced with the tree) and knock on the door. The door opens and pushes me off the ledge.

Look down, you bearded fool! (at least I hope that's a beard)

I try again, this time moving to the right after knocking and am invited into 'Enry the 'Ermit's house.

No, but I'm guessing you'll say exactly the same thing if I come back later, so nice way of avoiding writing multiple lines of dialogue, game!

His cave contains many items, such as an Egyptian pot and and Indian basket. I'm not sure if Spielburg is supposed to be on Earth or not. I suspect not, and they're just throw-away references.

As always when I meet someone that isn't trying to kill me, I ask him about everything I can. He offers me a TRIGGER spell. According to 'Enry, “It's the spell wot sets off uther spells.” I can't get it because as a thief I don't know magic, but I'm sure Martak will be able to use it when I come back as a magic-user.

The bandits have a mirror that sounds useful

When I consider taking stuff, the game tells me I should wait until the hermit is asleep before checking his place out. If I keep trying, 'Enry gets annoyed and teleports me to the top of the waterfall outside, killing me.

This man has 2 seconds to live.

After a reload, I keep talking to him, and he offers to let me sleep there for some rations. I keep that in mind for later, and continue exploring the outskirts of town.

I meet and kill a goblin. I'm not sure if I'm getting better at fighting or if goblins are just easier to beat than bandits. My fighting tactic is to do lots of dodging followed by stabbing. It seems to work so far...

A successful fight, but my stamina points are dwindling, which will become important later

The goblin has 7 silver pieces on him, which I take. It looks like I'll be able to make some money fighting so if I make a few poor purchases I can recover by having a few fights.

To the west of town I find a cemetery, with a mandrake root growing next to a tombstone. I can take the root, but it shrivels in my hand, so I don't think I'm doing it correctly. After checking my previous screenshots I found that I have to take the mandrake at midnight, so I'll come back at night-time.

I also find a white stag. I startle it, and it goes west (life is peaceful there). I follow it for a few screens until it stops behind a tree. When I get close to the tree, a dryad, who is part of the tree, climbs out and asks me a question

Ray, when somebody asks you if you're one with the woods, you say “YES”

After telling her I'm definitely one with the woods, despite being pretty sure I'm not, she asks me to bring her a rare seed from the Spore Spitting Spirea of the North.

I agree, then proceed to prove I'm one with the woods by attempting to throw my dagger at the stag and cut the dryad tree.

Wouldn't being one with the woods make me by definition a woodsman?

Having failed in my desecration of woodland flora and fauna, I continue exploring and mapping.

I'm not sure when it started, but at some point the game started annoying me. I don't solely blame the game for this as a big part of my annoyance was directly related to blogging the game rather than just playing it. My blogging requires me to often have my character stand still while writing a note or updating my map. And often while doing that a random enemy will appear on the screen and make a bee-line for my character, forcing me into a battle.

So mapping these outskirts areas ended up being an exercise in frustration. Each time I fight, it drains my stamina until eventually I collapse and die during the next battle. I've been wondering if I'm better off spending a few ingame weeks just fighting until my stamina gets low, then sleeping and repeating the process. This used to be a big part of the gameplay in 80s and early 90s RPGs, and as this game attempts to be a hybrid adventure/RPG and is from that era, it's not surprising that it uses the same process. That, of course, doesn't stop it annoying me.

And I know I can buy a stamina potion, but I'm the guy who finishes every RPG with hundreds of potions because I'm saving them for a time where they might become important later. Games from the 80s and 90s taught me that items are scarce and need to be hoarded and never used if you want to complete the game. And I can't just blame RPGs for this - Sierra taught me exactly the same lesson, and it's a lesson I should have grown out of but somehow still haven't decades later.

The cynic in me could point out that after removing much of this grind with scarce money and statistics for fifteen years or so, modern games are putting it back in specifically to cause the frustration I'm currently feeling, and then adding in the ability to pay an extra $20 to buy more experience points and decrease that frustration.
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It wasn't until I was writing this post that I thought of pressing the menu button as soon as I reach a new screen or want to make a note, thus pausing the game. That would still be a little bit time consuming, but would decrease my frustration at reloading after getting into a fight I wasn't ready for. I really wish I'd thought of that sooner. I should point out that some fights are unavoidable as when the enemy enters the screen from the same direction I'm coming from a fight will start immediately.

Anyway, now that I've pointed out a negative that I could largely have avoided with some simple forethought, here's a map of my explorations in this post. It's a mess, and I changed pen colour at some point, but I feel it has more personality than it would if I had transferred it neatly to a spreadsheet or mapping program.

If you want to hire me to draw your maps, I'm surprisingly available!

In my explorations I found a few other places of interest.

  • I found a ring of mushrooms.



  • A goblin sneaking around in a bush while his friend watches from behind a rock

I can go into sneak mode too, suspicious moving bush
Everything I try with the bush; poking it with a sword, throwing a dagger or rock at it, or touching it results in a fight with the goblin. I've had a few fights by now, and my stamina is not what it used to be.
This happens a lot between game reloads
  • I find an area with small furry creatures called 'meeps' living under a bunch of rocks.

I'm guessing Meeps reappear in the Coles' new game, Hero-U. Meeps for sale
The green meep happily crawls out from whatever rock he's been living under and talks to me.

He, like, talks a bit like Shaggy from Scooby Doo.
He offers me a scroll, but I can't do anything with it before it fades away (I remind myself to return when I'm a magic-user.) He also lets me take some of his fur.
Armed with some green fur, I continue to explore.
  • I find Baba Yaga's hut, and talk to a green skull outside

By the power of greenskull
Greenskull blatantly tells me how to enter the hut – I just have to say “Hut of brown, Now sit down”, but won't let me into the gate unless I give him some cool glowing eyes like all the other skulls have.

Yeah, but the other skulls can't talk and haven't achieved sentience, so think about someone else before you start complaining about your own situation.


  • I find the spitting spirea area that the Dryad asked me to get a seed from.
The four spirea plants sit atop rocks and spit the seed from one to the other.

As a thief, I can climb the rock and catch the seed if I time it right.
Score check: Trevor 1 – Spitting Spirea 0

As I continue mapping and exploring, it isn't long before each fight results in me dying because I have no stamina. Having gotten sick of reloading each time, I decided to continue mapping as a fighter, working on the theory that he'll be able to last for a lot more battles.

FIGHTER

Frodo the Fighter Journal Entry #2:I've fought obscure creatures including antwerps, spitting spirea , bandits, goblins and even a troll. Fighting is easy.











Exploring south of the city, I find a weird bouncing... jug? bubble?


It's an antwerp – I heard about these things from the adventurer's guild, so I decide to hit it with my sword. As I get close to it, it bounces high into the sky and doesn't return.

On the next screen, I hear a noise like a bomb falling from a plane, and the antwerp lands on me, killing me


I quickly think of a potential solution, so I reload and attempt to use my sword on the antwerp as it comes down. The result wasn't quite what I expected. I hold my sword up above my head, and the antwerp hits it, splitting into many tiny antwerps.


I can't attack the baby Antwerps, so I leave them bouncing around and continue exploring.

After more exploring, I find what I suspect is the lair of the bandits I keep hearing about

I wonder if they'll be my friends

I try what I think will work, which is using my shield to protect me from their arrows, but the game won't let me try that. The death screen suggests either I'm not ready yet or there's a better way to accomplish my mission, so I decide to take the death screen's advice and come back later.

My fighter also goes to the areas my thief had been to.

He told the Dryad he was not one with the woods, and it didn't seem to make a difference as she told me the same thing about getting the seed. I go to the spitting flowers to get the seed.

As I can't climb as a fighter, I have to solve this puzzle a different way. What would Frodo the Fighter do? The obvious answer is to poke things with a sharp metal stick. I stab all the flowers with my sword

Score check: Frodo 1 – Spitting Spirea -3

By destroying these flowers, I get the seed that will prove that I'm a friend of nature!

Even though I get the seed this way, I lose points by killing the flowers, so I'm guessing there's another way. I reload and once again take note to try again later.

Fortunately, as a fighter I can last a lot more fights as I won't have the same problem with stamina that I had as a thief...

Damn.

Ignoring my inability to fight more than three things without needing a nap, I go north to the place called “Erana's Peace” where I pick some flowers. There's a flat stone with writing on it that I can't move so I ignore it. This place also looks like a good place to sleep, but the game won't let me sleep here during the day.

Near Erana's Peace, which I called 'meadow' on my map, I find a cave with some kind of red troll in front of it. He kills me quite easily, but he's easy to dodge past so I'll kill him later when I'm more powerful.

Inside the troll's cave is a bear chained to a rock. I can give the bear an apple, which makes him happy.


I can't unlock his chains, so I move further into the cave.

In the next room I find a sleeping kobold with a brass key hanging around his neck. I expect that is the key to the bear's chains. There's also some food (mushrooms?) on a table. When I get close to the kobold he wakes up and kills me with magic.


Taking the hint, I reload and leave to come back later. I do remember the hermit mentioning a magic mirror that reflects spells back to the caster so I think I know one place that item would be useful.

I find a centaur, who is the father of the vegetable stand vendor. He talks to me, giving me more information on the town and its surroundings, or not so much more information but a slightly reworded version of the same information I already have. As I mentioned in my “Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2” posts I like it when game characters give me the same information in their own way – it helps improve the characterization of the people/centaurs and reiterates the information in case I play without taking hundreds of screenshots I can refer to later.

There's only two streets in town – is the other one called NotMarket Street?

The most interesting thing Heinrich had to say was that after he was attacked by bandits, the leader gave him a healing potion and carried him to the Healer's house. I'm getting the distinct impression that the bandit leader is being controlled by someone else. It's definitely obvious he's not your stereotypical bandit. I have the same feeling about the bandit wizard. I think I'll end up working with those two or at least one of them at some point.

I go to the healer's house, and once again use different skills to get an item I'd gotten while climbing as a thief. As a fighter I threw rocks at the bird's nest and took the ring after I callously destroyed the bird's house.

I may be heartless, but I didn't lose any points and I have a cool new ring!

I meet a frost giant named Brauggi who asks me to barter with blade's clash or bargain with him. So he wants me to fight him or give him something.

I'll mellow your mead horn, if you know what I mean.

As Brauggi has offered me a glowing gem, and having a glowing gem for an eye will make Baba Yaga's Greenskull happy, I give him all my apples, but it isn't enough. I once again decide to come back – maybe a different meal will make him happy. Before leaving, I decide to fight him by using my sword on him. He promptly defeats me, but unlike other battles I've had I'm not dead.


Another hint that I need to increase my skills before doing something. I'm starting to think the game's implying I'm not powerful enough to solve many of these puzzles.

Hmmm. A blonde guy with a red cape fighting a Frost Giant seems familiar... did someone steal a scene from this game to make their movie...?


To the east I also find the entrance to the wizard's castle, but I'll leave that area for later.

Here be wizards

Speaking of wizards, let's see what Martak the Magic-user has been up to.

MAGIC-USER

Martak the Magic-user Journal Entry #2:Unlike the others, I did much of my outskirts exploring at night. It's much more dangerous, but I'm a wizard with an 'open' spell, so I'm not concerned.










As the wizard, I popped outside of town on the first day, and after it got dark attempted to go back to the city to sleep, but instead noticed that the city gates are now closed.

Seeing as this gives me an excuse to explore at night-time, I do so. I go to Erana's Peace to sleep, but before I do I finally have the opportunity to use my “Open” spell. I cast the spell on the rock I couldn't move as a fighter or thief, and find a scroll of “Calm”


Now that I have a new spell, I decide against sleeping and I explore parts of the land I'd explored with other characters, including the troll/bear/kobold cave. I can cast my new “Calm” spell on the bear instead of offering it an apple, and do the obvious thing of casting “Open” on his chain so he'll hopefully go outside and kill the troll.

I'm really starting to regret buying this spell.

At night, I also meet some interesting new monsters, such as the Cheetaur

I'll need this guy's claws, but I know I won't be powerful enough to beat him so I run away for now.

Knowing from my previous adventures that I'll be able to pick up the mandrake from the cemetery now that it's night, I head there, only to meet my death to a quartet of ghosts.

Don't look at it, Marion. Keep your eyes SHUT!

Another animal I didn't meet during the day is a very strange winged worm/bug/moth creature.

I run away from this battle before it goes on too long

The mushroom ring also has a new night-time surprise for me too – fairies! The fairies want me to dance, and have the power to force me to dance


I don't appear to be able to talk to the fairies, but when I enter the circle they get angry and force me to dance until I drop dead – I keep finding new ways to die of exhaustion.

After reloading, I go back to Erana's Peace, where I sleep for the rest of the night, waking up to a graphical glitch that I thought might be part of the game until I noticed it happened everywhere


THIEF AGAIN

Trevor the Thief Journal Entry Addendum:Hi. Me again. Just thought I'd let you know I went back to the dryad to see what reward I'd get for the spirea seed.










With my thief, I took the spirea seed back to the dryad.

She rewards me with a Star Trek reference

Now that I'm a friend of the forest she tells me of a prophecy – a prophecy that a hero will bring a young human from out of the darkness. The healer will be able to make me a potion to break enchantments which will help me in this task. For this potion I will need:

  • Flowers from Erana's Peace (already taken)
  • Green Fur (Got it from the meep)
  • Fairy Dust (Need to find a way to not dance to my death)
  • A Magic Acorn (which the tree spat out as soon as the dryad went back into it)
  • Flying Water (water from the flying falls, I expect)

How is giving me extra work after I did my job well in any way a reward? You're a crappy boss, Dryad!

I mentioned earlier that I thought the bandit chief might be controlled. I'm guessing this potion I'm now collecting ingredients for will help me defeat the bandits in the future.

Before finishing this section my thief tries to get some water using the vase he stole the night before.

Yeah, stupid of me to think a vase would hold water. My mistake

Oh well. I'll come back after sleeping until the provisioner opens up in the morning.

Here is a short to do list of things I hope to accomplish in my next Spielburgian day.

QUESTS I NEED TO DO

Thief:
  • Find thieves' guild password (perhaps in cemetery)
Magic-User:
  • Get spirea seed (I suspect after buying a fetch/telekinesis spell)
  • Get Healer's ring (Again, I feel telekinesis is the answer)
  • Find a way into the hermit's cave
Fighter:
  • Find a way into the hermit's cave
  • Get spirea seed, hopefully without murdering the plants
All three:
  • Get Fairy Dust from mushroom ring without dancing to death
  • Get flying water (after buying an empty flask from the provisioner)
  • Get mandrake root (after buying Undead potion from healer)
  • Do something about the antwerp – it's not bothering anyone, but I hate that it exists and want it dead!
  • Get better at fighting

Tune in next time when I do some of those things as well as visit a wizard and enter a castle.

Here's my current stats for my three characters... (My fighter has the wrong name - try to ignore it)




MARTAK: So I see you two are afraid to leave the city after dark
TREVOR: Not afraid. I was busy working in the city after dark. Did you see all the stuff I picked up from those houses?
FRODO: I think I have more money than you. I take it off the corpses of my enemies.
TREVOR: Yeah, but I have more things. I have a candlestick... and a music box... and a vase...
MARTAK: ...a vase that doesn't hold water.
TREVOR: I don't want to talk about this anymore. Let's get some sleep. My stamina is getting low
MARTAK: Same here
FRODO: Isn't it always
Finally, a note about my current feelings on the game. Despite my whingeing about the grinding of this game, I'm still keen to see what happens next. In comparing this game with the other Sierra game I've played for the blog, King's Quest V, I like that I have quests I need to complete and come up with a planned strategy for rather than just solving problems by randomly collecting everything I see.

Session time: 4 hours 5 minutes (I'm surprised. I really thought this number would be longer)
Total time: 6 hours 45 minutes

The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes - “P” is for Pixel Hunting

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Written by Joe Pranevich



Last week, we started into this “Lost File” of Sherlock Holmes, investigating a murder possibly committed by the infamous Jack the Ripper. We searched the crime scene and interviewed the witness, discovering a complex (and richly detailed) case involving an attack by a man wielding a serrated scalpel, a broken-into dressing room, a secret admirer, and an actress that stood to gain by the death of her partner. We also found oily black hair samples on the doorframe. There are so many clues to sift through and sort, I hardly know where to begin but Holmes (with our help) is piecing it together. Already, he is pretty sure this isn’t a “Ripper” case, rather something much more interesting. We shall see!

After ending last time, I replayed the whole first section again just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. This game is a bit of a pixel-hunt and I managed to find and pick up some white powder residue from the corpse that I missed before, as well as some cigarette butts. The game suggests that Holmes might be able to analyze the sample back at his flat so we take off, not to the dead woman’s home as I intended to last time, but back to where we started.
Is this where Holmes mixes his “special” medications?

Back at home, I remember that there is a lab table in the upper right hand corner. By using the residue there, I get a close up of the instruments. I try adding the residue to the tube and Holmes adds sulphuric acid instead. I can then light the burner with the matches before Holmes adds zinc that he pulls off the shelf and the residue itself. The whole thing plays like a copy protection scheme that they took out at the last minute as we have to keep “using” the residue and it causes Holmes to move to the next step in the process. I can easily see how we might have had to select the correct chemicals off the shelf and add them to get the result, but it’s all solved for us here so it becomes an exercise in clicking. Once all this is done, a black “mirrored” surface appears on the sides of the test tube and Holmes confidently tells us that it means that the powder contains arsenic. Why would the attacker have had arsenic on his blade, enough that we could even take a sample well after the murder?

As I have been playing, I have been in the habit of checking Watson’s journal now and then. Completely by accident, I checked it at this point and it revealed that Holmes found Becoeur’s Arsenic Soap, a “common preservative”, on the blade. Now, he didn’t actually say that out loud (only that he found arsenic), so it’s either just some dialog that was missing or a small bug. It doesn’t matter but I’ll have to remember to keep checking the journal just in case there’s something else in there that I might miss otherwise.


Not exactly the lap of luxury.

With my side trip over with, I head to where I was planning to go from the start: Sarah Carroway’s flat. Glancing at my map, she appears to be living quite close to Paddington Station, so London-philes out there might be able to intuit something about her financial station from that. As for me, I just wonder if she’s ever met Paddington Bear. (Answer: No. Paddington Bear wasn’t created until 1958.) Her room is tiny and poorly furnished, more “starving artist” than successful actress. Exploring around, I immediately discover that someone recently forced the door open. The police? Or someone else? Sarah’s books next to her bed may have been disturbed as they are scattered and a few of the spines are broken, although perhaps they were just well-loved. Searching the rest, I learn that the fire escape is still barred, so likely no one went in or out that way. The teapot looks like it might have been used only 24 hours ago, so Sarah was probably at her flat the afternoon before she went to work at the theater. In her laundry basket is a man’s rugby sweater, from the Kensington Ruby Club. It has the same oil and black hairs as the door frame back at the theater. It doesn’t take Holmes long to deduce how a man’s sweater might have ended up in a young lady’s laundry. I’m just disappointed that she’s not a lesbian, despite my theory last post. Continuing, I discover that Sarah hid a bit of loose change in removable brass bedknobs, but not enough to really mean much. The coup de grace comes when I have Holmes open Ms. Carroway’s umbrella: out pops a small key! Could this be to the drawer back at the theatre? Or something else? Thinking on this, I’m still confused how the hair and oil ended up on the top of the door frame at the theater. Am I supposed to imagine that the mysterious boyfriend is very tall? Was he potentially kidnapped and carried out by someone else, bumping his head in the process? I honestly have no idea.

Before leaving, I also chat up Dr. Watson to see what clues he sees that I might have missed. I should not have bothered as he only complains about the victim’s poor housekeeping skills and the police’s poor searching skills. Holmes replies that he does not think the police are the only ones who searched her flat. The plot thickens!

I take the key back to the theater to try it out on the dressing table, but I have no luck getting in. Scotland Yard has left, leaving behind only a chalk outline of the body. (Watson helpfully tells us that the body was probably moved to the morgue.) Worse still, the door is locked and apparently we can’t actually enter in the front way to ask to look around. I’ll have to come back later.


I now know even less about rugby.

I check my map and I have only a few new places that I can go: the morgue, South Kensington Field, and a perfumerie. I pick the field, just in case it lets me find out what became of Sarah’s boyfriend. Is he a victim or a suspect?

I arrive to a coach barking practice instructions to a team that appears to desperately need practice. An injured player on the bench refuses to talk to me. The waterboy is more forthcoming, but even after bribing him he doesn’t have anything useful to tell me: he’s never heard of Sarah and he doesn’t get to talk to the players much. It takes five attempts with the coach to get to speak to him all as well, but he won’t help me at all unless I can name the player I want to meet. Since I do not know his name, I’ll have to come back later. He also explains to me that his players are too busy for a lovelife so this mystery man couldn’t possibly be dating the victim.


Do you happen to know a guy named Igor?

My next stop is the Southwark Morgue, far on the other side of London and to the far right of my game map. When we arrive, the coroner invites us to look around a bit as he finishes his work. There are two dead bodies in the room, not counting the subject of our investigation, and both seem to be Ripper murders. Eventually, I talk to the coroner again and ask him to show us what Sarah was carrying at the time she was killed. He does so, revealing a few key items in a manilla folder: facial powder, a large key, a charm bracelet, and a silk handkerchief. The bracelet appears to be a birthstone, suggesting that the owner was born between January 20 and February 18. But is that Sarah’s birthday or someone else’s? I have no idea. Before leaving, the coroner explains that he found a while power on the body but he hasn’t analyzed it yet. Holmes is faster and tells us that not only did he find the powder, he also analyzed it. Before we think that might be related to Sarah’s death, the coroner smacks down that line or reasoning: arsenic was not the cause of death. So what was it for?

This whole time, Inspector Gregson has been off in the corner going over files for an unrelated suicide. Holmes asks if he can release some of Sarah’s stuff to us, but he has to say no since he doesn’t have the authority. We’ll have to speak to Lestrade at Scotland Yard before we can take anything. When I leave, I now see Scotland Yard on the map, but that’s not where I want to go next. It’s time to buy some perfume.


Perfume: almost as good as a bath.

As I arrive at the perfumerie, I go back through my notes. I’m here to find out who the “secret admirer” is that sent Sarah the perfume. If the rugby player is leaving clothes at her place, he’s probably not a “secret” admirer, plus the note appears to be written with a feminine hand. The place itself is divided into two parts: a perfumery and a clothing store, although there’s nothing I can buy at the latter yet unless I want a designer dress. A cleaning lady will not talk to us for fear of being fired, but the main saleswoman, Belle, is nice. We learn from her that the purchased perfume was their “Eau de Seine”, a moderately-priced brand. She asks me to describe the man that I am looking for so I give her what I have: oily black hair, probably quite tall, and that’s it. She recalls a rugby player that matched that description bought some perfume, but she does not remember his number. She also is happy to sell me some perfume but I decline. Maybe I will need some later? This seems to be a dead end so I will head to Scotland Yard now.


The first place important enough...

The only place left to go is Scotland Yard, to get approval to take Sarah’s stuff from the coroner. Outside is an “apparently” blind vendor with the “apparently” added in his mouse-over description itself so that must be important. Other than saying hello, there isn’t anything we can do with him. A constable is blocking the door and he tells me that, because of new security restrictions, he cannot let us in without being invited. Holmes responds that Inspector Gregson gave us permission, but that’s not enough. We need to talk to “Inspector Palmer” to get permission. Palmer who? Now, I can talk to the beggar again, but he just tells me that he cannot help me get into the building. I’ll have to do something else.

I backtrack to the morgue and talk to Gregson again. He’s miffed that the Yard wouldn’t let us in on his word and offers to come back there with us to get through the door. He takes us back and talks to the constable, eventually convincing him to let us in. Horay!


To have two screens!

Inside the Yard, we can see Lestrade in the bullpen, working very hard. We have to talk to Sergeant Duncan at the desk first, but he tells us that Lestrade has his orders not to be disturbed. We leave, dejected. Another dead end? No! Because on the way out we can talk to the blind fruit vendor again and ask for his advice. He says he will help us, for a fee, but Holmes simply threatens to expose his blindness as a scam if he doesn’t help us. (Holmes caught his eyes moving behind his glasses, plus noticed that his apples were arranged to keep blemishes out of view.) He tells me that Sergeant Duncan is susceptible to flattery. Armed with that, we head back in.

This time, when Holmes talks to him, he butters him up with flattery and tells him that someone as senior and important as he is would obviously be able to tell when something is important enough to countermand an order. He thinks on this for a second and calls over Lestrade. Holmes chats up the Inspector and requests dispensation to take some of Sarah’s belongings. Lestrade agrees since he believes the police are done with them as this is an “open and shut case” involving the Ripper. He writes us a pass that we can show to the coroner. We leave. Embarrassingly, we have to come back again immediately because when we get to the coroner, we still can’t take the stuff. I had to talk to Sergeant Duncan again to get the pass. Oops.


I had no idea that they had manilla folders in the 19th century.

Now that we finally have the pass, I show it to the coroner and he lets me take some of Sarah’s things. Unfortunately “some” is only the large key as the facial powder, charm bracelet, and handkerchief are still being used for the investigation. Still that’s what I needed. With luck, that will let me open the theater door so that I can try the small key that I found in Sarah’s apartment in her locked desk in the dressing room. Either that, or it will open something else entirely. I have no idea! But either way, I am going to end here for now and will resume my explorations in a few days.

After a very intensive first segment, this area of the game has been a bit slower. We had several dead ends and the largest puzzle so far simply involves dealing with the police bureaucracy! The only real investigation we performed was in Sarah Carroway’s apartment and all we found there was that she’s sleeping with a rugby player. (Not a lesbian, unfortunately.)

My theories and questions:
  • We’re spending a lot of time searching the victim’s boyfriend. Is he a suspect? Or another victim? Was he the one searching the dressing room? Why did he bump his head on the doorframe? (And who wrote the feminine love note? Or is he a very sensitive rugby player that draws hearts over his i’s?)
  • The small key hidden in the umbrella is a huge clue, and one Ms. Carroway didn’t want anyone to find. What could it open?
  • Who else was searching for her flat and did they find what they were looking for?
  • Why exactly was there arsenic on the murder weapon? My guess is that the scalpel is used for taxidermy since presumably that needs precision and maybe hides are cleaned with arsenic soap, but I admit I have really no idea.
Still a lot of fun, but I hope whatever this key opens sends me off into another part of the adventure

Time played: 2 hr 20 min
Total time: 3 hr 25 min

Inventory: message requesting help, business cards, iron bar, perfume bottle, pink carnation, card, sample of powder, cigarette butts, analysis results, a brass key, and a large key.

Happy Anniversary!

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By Ilmari

The complete history of The Adventure Gamer - now available in your local bookstores
Exactly six years ago, Trickster published his first post for TAG. I wasn’t yet there to read it and probably most of you weren’t either. It wasn’t until couple of months later, when I heard about Trickster’s project on CRPG Addict’s place, that I became aware of the new blog. I had been lurking around Addict’s for quite a while, but since I hadn’t really played that many CRPGs I never really had the need to comment on anything. With adventure games it was different, and when I felt Trickster hadn’t been fair to Black Cauldron, I tried to show that the game hadn’t been that bad Trickster had said it was. Ever the gentleman, Trickster took my criticism with dignity and invited me to comment more on the blog. And comment I did.


The mysterious person behind the blog

I wasn’t the only one to drift to TAG from Addict’s, and in a short time a bunch of more or less regular commenters had gathered to cheer Trickster in his efforts to go through the notable bits of adventure game history. Although the basic idea of the blog wasn’t new, you shouldn’t think this was just some pale imitation of Addict’s blog. No, because Trickster achieved something far greater. He built up a community for adventure gamers, with clever innovations like the CAP system, which spurred us all to help Trickster, play along, comment on the games and generally just keep the discussion alive.

When it was time for Trickster to move away to new challenges, I was glad to see the community I had learned to love so much take on the responsibility for carrying the project further. Although at first I took much of the administrative responsibilities, I don’t want to take any primary credit for the renewal, since for me it was from the start a community project. It wouldn’t have been possible to continue the blog without TBD, who bravely volunteered to be a partner in administering the blog and has been a faithful companion ever since, and it wouldn’t have been possible without Joe, who has always been a fountain of creative ideas, like the introduction of Missed Classics and various interviews of game developers, and who eventually became a part of our administrative staff.

Kudos also for our first few reviewers, who kept writing high-quality reviews during the first year, when we were just getting acquainted with the whole community blogging. The blog couldn’t have moved on without the acerbic wit of Aperama and his love-hate relationship with the French adventure gaming. It couldn’t have been same without the gore filled GIFs of Deimar. It would have been a much duller place without the innate sense of humour of Alex and his eternal nemesis, Jim Walls. It would have been a one-sided experience without Reiko and her acquaintance with modern interactive fiction.

And let’s not forget people who guest blogged a few games during that first year: Mad Welshman, who gave us an intriguing, albeit never completed glimpse into Wonderland, Kenny McCormick, with his impeccable taste for creating controversy, and Andy Panthro, a connoisseur of computer and video games in general. Heck, we should also mention the very first guest reviewer of the blog, Zenic Reverie. They all were long-time gaming professionals and the blog was fortunate to get them share their experiences with us. Remember that you are always welcome to do more reviews for TAG, if your personal projects just leave you any time for it!

The current year has brought us a bunch of new reviewers: a longtime commenter from the very beginning of TAG and our token French, Alfred n the Fettuc; a KGB connoisseur from the land of fjords, Torch (no relation to Fantastic Four); and a man who knows Infocom games inside out, Voltgloss. It’s great seeing new blood flowing to TAG, because it makes me certain that when in a hopefully distant future I will finally confront a puzzle too big to solve by human means and end up in an insolvable dead end, the torch of this great blog will be taken forward by new people.



The reason I am so fond of this blog is that I feel we’ve managed to achieve so much. I am not really talking about quantities here - we’ve reviewed thus far 92 official games and 47 Missed Classics, and stuff like that. The things I am speaking about have been happening behind the scenes. Our little reviewer community has gone through a lot. We’ve encouraged one another through hard times in our personal lives, and we have cheered, when one of us has hit some high point of life. We’ve seen people get their PhDs, find new jobs with more responsibilities, move to new homes, breed and raise up new generations of adventure gamers.

We’re also constantly trying to reinvent TAG, and one attempt you can see now before your eyes. There has previously been discussions about changing the colours, and with our new scheme, we are trying to retain some of the classic look of TAG, while still making the text more readable. If you find a post that has a broken image or colors after this redesign, let us know and we'll reward you with CAPs!

In addition, we have separated our past and present Active Reviewers from the CAP leaderboard to their own scoreboard (the more games you've reviewed, the higher you are on the list; Missed Classic are worth half of Main Games). Reviewers will still receive CAPs, of course, but they will be now more in the background and not on display (we thought of renaming CAPs anew as Commenter/Reviewer Assist Points, but the acronym seemed unpalatable). With this renewal, we can bring more of our dear commenters to the leaderboard and hopefully create anew that feeling of the early time of TAG, when getting on that leaderboard was a sign of a diligent commenter.

I’ve spent now a lot of time telling my story about TAG. It would be awesome if everyone of you who has been part of the journey of this blog - as a reviewer, as a commenter or even as a lurker - would be encouraged to reminisce and share their favourite memories about TAG with all of us. We’ve been through six years of this blog, let’s hope it will last at least sixty years more!

The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes - The No. 1 Gentlemen’s Detective Agency

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Written by Joe Pranevich


Returning to the scene of the crime.

Welcome back! Last week, we continued our exploration of Sarah Carroway’s alleyway murder, eventually navigating the crippling bureaucracy of Scotland Yard to secure the release of a key that she was holding when she died. Holmes seems to think that this is an important clue as it will let us back into the theater where she was murdered, to explore unhindered and to see if the key that she had hidden at her flat goes to anything there. As of right now, I feel as if we are in the early days of the investigation. We do not have a motive other than robbery, nor do we have anything that leads up anywhere near the suspect. All we can do is further investigate Sarah’s life and look for connections. I would like to apologize for this post being a bit late. Truth is, that I am stuck on the game and while it’s not “Request for Assistance”-level yet, I had hoped to make a bit more progress before sharing the next post. Nonetheless, here we are and I hope I manage to make some headway on the case soon.

I return to the scene of the crime, hardly pausing to notice the chalk outline or the pool of the blood that remains on the ground as I headed for the door. Our new key works and I can get into the theatre! Why we keep insisting on entering via the stage door, I have no idea, but in a few moments we are back to the dressing room. I expected to find it empty and explore in peace, but that was not to be.
Knock, knock… er… you did it wrong.

Back at the dressing room, we are surprised to find that it is not empty: Henry Carruthers, the stage manager, is there sitting at one of the desks. Why is he still hanging out in the ladies’ dressing room? Does he dream of being an actress? Or just is too shocked and depressed by the turn of events to move? I had been knocking on the door earlier and not getting a response; why didn’t he let me in? I’m not sure if there is a clue here or if it’s just that the game designers felt I needed to do a bureaucracy puzzle for the heck of it. In any event, we startle him and he sits at the desk while we resume our explorations of the scene.

I go first to the locked dresser, to try the key that we discovered hidden in the umbrella. That works! Most of the stuff in the drawers is theater flotsam, but Holmes locates a pair of season tickets to the opera. Holmes seems impressed that Ms. Carroway would be such a patron of the arts, but the tickets are extremely expensive and beyond the means of a starving actress. Watson also expresses displeasure that we are essentially stealing the tickets from a dead woman-- and we even get the option to return them to the drawer-- but I have Holmes respond that they are to further our investigation. Surely Watson knows that Holmes wouldn’t steal from a murder victim!

Without my input, Holmes asks Henry what he knows about the tickets. We learn that they are for the Chancery Opera House and that Sarah’s sister, Anne Carroway, is a lead performer there. Henry seems surprised that Holmes didn’t know of her sister already, but she hadn’t come up yet. I wonder if she is the female “secret admirer” that gave her sister the flowers. It could have been a knowing joke between the two of them and it’s easy to see how Anne might want Sarah to “chin up” and not lose faith that her theater life isn’t glamorous yet. We try to wring anything else out of Henry, but he says nothing useful. At least we have a new location on our map: the opera house!


No phantoms here!

We arrive at the Chancery Opera House in short order and are stopped at the entrance by an usher and the general manager. We chat up the usher and learn that the performance for this evening is “From on High”, but all tickets have been sold out for the next three weeks. We inform the manager, Frederick Epstien, of our investigation but he isn’t immediately very helpful. He knows Sarah Carroway and had met her a few times, but he has not seen her recently. Her sister, Anna, is out sick today with a sore throat. Suspiciously, he tells us that she moved recently so he does not have her address, plus she “called in sick” via telegram so he hasn’t heard from her directly. Is that suspicious or did everyone in this time period “call in sick” via telegram? We ask to search Anna dressing room but the manager refuses multiple times. I’m actually not sure why Holmes wants to check out her dressing room, but perhaps he expects there will be a hint there that will lead us to her current address.

With nothing else to do, I show the usher our (really Sarah’s) tickets and he directs us to a second usher who can help us find our seats. We interrogate him momentarily but he has nothing to add so we just head to the seats. The show is about to begin!


Do we look like vagrants to you, miss?

We arrive at what might easily be the best seat in the house: boss seats just above the stage. An elderly lady is already in the box and she initially assumes that we went to the wrong seat. Once we show her our tickets, she demands to know how we got them. It turns out that she is Mrs Worthington, the owner of the theater and a good friend of Sarah’s. She and Sarah would watch operas together in this box. We tell her of her friend’s death but that doesn’t seem to dissuade her from trying to enjoy the show that is about to start. We interrogate her quickly and learn that Anna recently gave her sister a pendant, possibly the same one that was stolen in the attack. Mrs. Worthington also reveals that Sarah would keep the pendant under her shirt at all times, so if it was the target then the attacker must have known where to look. Sarah’s boyfriend in particular did not like the pendant and, in passing, Mrs. Worthington happens to mention that his name is “James”. Eureka! After that, the show is about to start and we need to leave. Mrs. Worthington at least gives us a permission note to search Anna’s dressing room.


This dressing room is much nicer than the last one...

Even with the note, the manager lets us in only begrudgingly; he does not like that we went over his head at all. To make this all the more difficult on us, after we get there, he watches us like a hawk. We cannot touch or take any of Anna’s property or the opera house’s. We can look around but touch nothing. Under those constraints, I search the room and do not find much. There are pictures and a coat rack, even a gigantic walk-in closet, but little beyond Anna’s dresser that attracts much interest. Any time we go near the drawers in the dresser or a jewelry box that is sitting on top, Mr. Epstein takes special notice and stops us. In the end, we come up with absolutely nothing.

As soon as we are back outside, Watson volunteers an idea that I wish he would have had five minutes ago: he will distract the manager to let us investigate more carefully. We ask to be taken to the dressing room again, but this time Holmes asks Watson to search the closet for a particular dress. With Mr. Epstein in the closet with Watson (ahem), I can quickly search the jewelry box and drawers. The box turns out to be empty except for some cheap costume stuff that Holmes dismisses out of hand. The drawers are filled with normal drawer-stuff, but we do manage to find (and pocket) a set of keys from the middle drawer. Strangely, there are things that seem to immediately trigger Mr. Epstein and Watson returning: trying to pick up the jewelry box or inspecting a hairbrush. Each time, I have to send Watson on a different crazy errand in the closet. I leave with the keys but I have no idea what they open. I assume they will come in handy if I ever find Anna’s flat.


Bond. James Bond.

Now, here’s where I am more or less stuck. I can return to the rugby pitch and say that I want to talk to James, but that doesn’t get me far as that name is very common among the players. Even with a full description, the coach isn’t able to identify our player. He also asks if I know what brand or cigarette James smokes-- as if that would narrow it down!-- but I don’t even know that James smokes yet. I just tell him that I don’t know. We end by asking to interview every James on the team, but that is turned down. And since the coach says that none of the players are allowed to have girlfriends due to their distracting-nature, we must be barking up the wrong tree. I don’t really believe him, but what can we do?

I re-play and re-visit every location to see what I can find. The only other lead I have is that I can ask Wiggins to track down the flower vendor for me that sold the flower given to Anna, but Wiggins claims it to too common to track down. Dead end and this is where I will remain stuck for now.

Updated Theories:
  • My new guess is that Sarah’s sister is her “secret admirer”. I was hoping for a lesbian lover, but I think that Anna supports her sister’s acting career even though it has not taken off yet.
  • The key macguffin will be Sarah’s pendant. Anna must have gotten it from somewhere and passed it off to Sarah, not knowing that it was desired by someone else. This whole case is just a ruse to deflect suspicion from the real attacker.
  • Anna might be dead. Her telegram was suspicious and whomever killed Sarah may be after others that might be connected to the pendant. James might even be in on it, but I doubt it. I need to find the guy first.


A night at the opera!

Before I close, I did a bit of research on the opera house. While there is no Chancery Opera House that I could find, the map suggests that it’s near Chancery St. so that makes some amount of sense. Looking at pictures of 19th century opera houses, I can clearly see the “box” style that I found when visiting Mrs. Worthington’s box. I remain impressed!

Time played: 2 hr 45 min
Total time: 6 hr 15 min

Inventory: message requesting help, business cards, iron bar, perfume bottle, pink carnation, card, sample of powder, cigarette butts, analysis results, a brass key, a large key, opera tickets, and a note to enter Anna’s dressing room.

Quest For Glory I - Baba the Hutt

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Okay. Time to see what I've been up to lately in the land of Spielburg...

Martak the Magic-User Journal Entry #3:I finally met a wizard whose skills rivalled my own, and beat him at his own game on only my second attempt (as far as he knows). I also made a deal with a Frost Giant and a witch, who I now have a plan for dealing with permanently. I just need to deal with those pesky bandits...





I left off last week with a to do list for each character. One of the things my magic-user needed to do was get a spirea seed, which I thought I'd need a Fetch spell for. I still couldn't afford a Fetch spell, having avoided fights with my mage, but trying my rarely useable Open spell on that screen told me I didn't need the Fetch spell for this puzzle.

Much more satisfying than the usual response of “The spell has no effect.”

One thing I haven't yet mentioned is that, apart from the skills for attributes and abilities, my magic-user also has skill levels with each spell, that increases each time I use the spell. I checked my Open spell skill, which was 19.

Rather than practice the spell until I ran out of spell points, sleep and repeat (which I tried but got killed in my sleep) I decided to pay a visit to the castle instead. Being faced with a closed portcullis I found the perfect opportunity to practice using my Open spell

Sigh


The solution was simply to click on the portcullis, which has the guard, Karl, open the door for me. Karl also tells me the familiar information on the Baron's children disappearing and Baba Yaga's curse.

Inside the castle I can talk to a weapon master who won't train me because I'm not a fighter, and find the stables, which I can clean.

Computer game hero, ladies and gentlemen

I get a fun little cutscene of me cleaning, taking a break, being yelled at and cleaning again, then getting 5 silvers and being able to talk to the stablemaster.

Um... the only horse here is the exact opposite of black, pal.

I can sleep in the stables for free now that I've cleaned it, but after I wake the stablemaster demands I work again. That doesn't bother me as it nets me an extra 5 silver, which I'll need for more spells.

I can also check out the barracks to the west, and when I touch the guard, I get dragged into the dungeon.

That's a harsh penalty for trying to get someone's attention, but okay.

I can't open the barracks with either my hands or my Open spell, and I can't enter the castle proper, but I'm sure I'll be able to once I recover one of the Baron's children.

I leave the castle area and do some plant gathering in order to make some money, selling my plants to the healer. She buys my fairy-ring mushrooms and my Erana's peace flowers, giving me enough cash to buy another spell.

Fetch spell here I come....

I buy the Fetch spell, and now only need to buy the Flame spell, which I can't yet afford. I go to the nest outside the healer's house in order to get the nest and her missing ring.

I see this message a lot. I seem to be constantly short on Magic Points or Stamina.

Instead of sleeping the night I take some advice from Kus of the Valley and Fenrus, who commented on my previous post that I should be able to rest instead of sleeping for the night. I can, but have never considered it before purely because I always only considered resting when my points were empty and thought I should sleep until morning to increase my points back to maximum

This is the sleep screen. This time I went for the 60 minutes option.

The small rest took me from 3 Magic Points to 15 Magic Points, which is easily enough to cast a Fetch spell.

Fetch spell in action. Now to learn Sit, Beg and Roll Over.

I take the ring, leaving the remnants of the nest on the ground, and go inside for my gold reward. I use my gold to buy the Undead Unguent in order to hopefully be able to survive the cemetery at nighttime.

I then go back to the spitting spirea plants and cast my open spell again, which is now at 34 points of expertise. This turns out to be enough to open the plants, which has them spit the seed onto the ground.

I am now one with the woods!

I take the seed to the dryad, who asks me if I'm willing to give her the seed. I say no, just to be annoying, but all that does is make her retreat back into the tree until I give it to her. I leave the screen, then come back and give her the seed.

I also get the meep fur, which my thief got last week, and the meep gives me a Detect Spell scroll that my fighter and thief was unable to get.

Time to visit the 'ermit! Using my trusty hand-drawn map, I return to the waterfall and cast my new Detect Spell spell near the hermit's cave. I'm not sure I would have thought of doing this if my thief hadn't been told that there was an invisible magic ladder on the cliff-face, so I'll take it as an advantage of playing with all three characters. Thanks, Trevor the Thief!

The ladder should be there even if I can't see it. Why couldn't I feel it? Adventure game puzzles I suppose - required to make the game fun - ah, fair enough.

I climb the ladder and cast the open spell on the door. But when I do 'Enry the 'Ermit just says, “'ello” and closes the door before I can go in. Being too stupid to think of the obvious solution, I leave and make my way to the cemetery

Before the ghosts kill me at the cemetery, I rub the unguent on my body, which makes the ghosts ignore me, then take the mandrake root.

You're going to make me time this perfectly aren't you, game?

I recall being told something along the lines of getting the mandrake at midnight, and when I check the time am told the night is still young.

I take a 60 minute rest, but the night is still young. Annoyingly, the game won't let me rest twice in a row.

And not allowing me to pass time until I get to do something fun is supposed to make me LESS impatient?

I walk around randomly for a little bit (I think I need to expend a few points of stamina before it will let me rest again) including a few lost fights and reloads, and after a few 60 minute rests it is 'the middle of the night'. I go back to the cemetery, nervous that time will tick over or my unguent will wear off before I get there, but it all works out and I get the mandrake root successfully this time. I also notice I have an empty flask in my inventory – I don't know how I got it but I'm not one to look a gift flask in the mouth so after spending the night at the meadow of Erana's peace I get back to exploring.

I go to the troll cave (which I find out is actually an ogre cave) that I went to last time and cast Calm on the ogre so I can get past him. He's easy enough to walk past, but I figure it never hurts to get spell experience. I cast my spell again to calm the bear and get into the kobold section of the cave. Armed with my Fetch spell I use it to try to get the key from the sleeping kobold. It unfortunately wakes him so not only do I not get the key but I have to dodge his lightning bolts. After doing so for a while hoping he'll run out of magic points, I die.

Reloading, I cast my Detect Spell spell in the kobold section, which notes the magical key, as well as an invisible chest at the south of the cavern. The chest is trapped, which I can avoid by casting a Fetch spell, but not without waking the kobold. I leave to come back later.

I go back to the hermit's cave and use the empty flask that I somehow acquired to get flying falls water and once again attempt to enter the hermit's cave. I try various things to get the hermit to notice me after magically opening the door and run out of magic points in my attempts before the obvious solution hits me...

I knock on the door.

It works.

I feel very very stupid.

I talk to 'Enry the 'Ermit with the only difference to my thief's conversation being that I can learn the 'Trigger' spell.

I go back to the healer's with all the items she needs apart from the fairy dust, which I can only get at night.

I then spend a bit more time flower collecting to raise money and casting various spells before resting to increase my skills.

In my travels I meet a fox who's stuck in a bear trap. I can rescue it with either my hands or my open spell and it gives me some extremely useless information...

And now you know what the fox says!

I'm already working for the Dryad so I saved the fox for nothing. Okay, I saved the fox because I'm a nice guy, but that's probably the same liar of a Fox who ate the gingerbread man so Screw You, Fox.

I was hoping I'd be able to take the bear trap, but I can't do anything with it, so I explore more and attempt to deal with the Frost Giant.

As has become my habit, I cast all my spells on any screen of interest, largely to get spell practice. My Detect Spell spell detects magic from the glowing gem on the Frost Giant's belt. When I try to cast a spell in order to win a fight with him, such as a Calm spell, my character stupidly runs right up to him before attempting to cast the spell.


Having the game make me run up to him in order to cast the spell, thus enabling him to kill me, annoys me. A better solution would be for him to throw the axe at me while I'm casting the spell – it would achieve the same result but not have my character do something I clearly didn't intend.

Anyway, I continue to explore and visit the mage Erasmus' castle.

It's only a model

A gargoyle at the mage's tower entrance asks me three questions before he'll let me enter.

Any fan of the excellent Monty Python and the Holy Grail can guess the first two questions I'm asked. The third seems to be random and usually another pop culture reference, which I enjoyed.

If I answer honestly, I'm invited in. I start off in a room full of magical items. If I try the wrong thing, such as touching a glowing orb, it annoys the dragon head.


I'm teleported back to the tower path's entrance. I return, and this time my character is physically exhausted and collapses at the entrance. After regaining consciousness, I'm once again asked three questions.

I was very tempted to go with the Guybrush Threepwood line, but after already tiring myself by walking here twice I go with the first option instead.

Instead of touching Erasmus' stuff, this time I go straight upstairs to meet Erasmus and his familiar, Fenrus the rat. I talk to Erasmus and he randomly inserts punny jokes into the conversation, and has a friendly ribbing relationship with Fenrus where they keep making jokes at each other's expense.


The most interesting thing he has to say is that there's a countercurse to the curse that Baba Yaga's put on the Baron.

My guess: Me!

My guess: a dispel magic potion on the bandit minotaur

My guess: a dispel magic potion on the bandit wizard

My guess: get rid of Baba Yaga

That gives me another nice list of things I need to do. I like having a clear purpose in adventure games. Onward!

After talking to Erasmus for a while he offers to play a game with me and if I win he'll teach me the spell “Dazzle”. To play I need to already know Fetch, Open, Flame Dart and Trigger. The only one I don't know is Flame Dart and I still can't afford it yet.. Apparently the “Dazzle” spell will cause anyone looking at it to be blinded for awhile - sounds useful.

I try to stand up and Erasmus gets upset and sends me back to the beginning of the path. Which is fine with me because I was ready to leave anyway.

I decide to visit the antwerp, who looks like it might be made of water. I try the 'Open' spell, thinking maybe if I open it its insides might spill out. But I'm surprised by what happens instead.

I found a camoflaged door I hadn't noticed.

I should mention that when you cast most spells in this game, you just cast them on the screen and the game guesses what you meant. In this case, it guessed wrong but told me something I needed to know. Thank you, game! The game mentioned my Open spell skill wasn't high enough, so I leave for now and do more exploring, skill increasing and money earning.

At the entrance to the town, I find a thief throwing his knife in the air. He offers information for money, so I save my game and give him some money.


He also offers special information for two gold. If I give him the two gold he tells me the rhyme to get into Baba Yaga's hut, but I already got that info for free elsewhere. I reload, because I'm not giving that thief my hard-earned money for useless info. Besides I have just enough cash to buy the Flame Dart spell.

I buy the Flame Dart spell, leaving me with a coin pouch full of nothing.

Who needs money when I have a full spellbook?

Now that I have all the spells I need, I make the long trek back to Erasmus' tower, answer the gargoyle's three questions (including the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything) and prompty lose my first game of Mage's Maze

I had only a few magic points when I started this game – not a good idea

Having no idea how to play the game, I decided to come back later after sleeping to refill my magic points. I had a few other things I wanted to try anyway, so I went to the Frost Giant, confident that a flame dart would be the best way of dealing with a being of frost.

Disappointment rose in me as my character walked right next to the giant before casting the spell.

I was all the way to the left of screen when I pressed the Cast Flame Dart spell button and directed it at the Frost Giant.

Well, it was a nice idea. After a reload, I decided to see what the manual had to say about Erasmus' Mage's Maze game.

After reading this I still wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing.

With the instructions fresh in my mind, I returned to the tower, answered the gargoyle's questions, including turning the tables when he asked me the mean air speed of an unladen swallow, and challenged Erasmus to a game.

I'm still confused

One of the biggest problems I had with this Mage's Maze game was that, despite two pages of instructions, the game or manual never told me the actual objective of the game. To quote the manual, “The object of the game is to encourage your bug to finish the game first.” This might be helpful, manual, IF YOU TOLD ME WHAT FINISHING THE GAME ACTUALLY ENTAILS! Should I try to get to the cave the other bug started at? Should I attempt to lock the other bug in a cave with a boulder? Is there a part of the map I need to reach that is essentially a finish line?

What I eventually worked out was that finishing the game consists of getting to the bottom right of the screen. (Come on, that wasn't too hard to explain, game manual!)

I think the game is making a joke, guessing that most players will save the game at the start of the maze and actually make many attempts before succeeding – like I did.

I do give the game credit for allowing me to save the game while in the maze. Many games would not allow it, adding to the frustration of trying to win the mini-game. I appreciated that touch, game – thank you!

Now that I have the Dazzle spell, and have earned some more money, I go to town and but a lot of fruit and vegetables in an effort to buy the glowing gem from Brauggi the Frost Giant. I give him my 50 apples, and he seems content.


Brauggi went back home, now that he had a handful of apples, and I take the gem to the skull outside Baba Yaga's hut.

I put the gem into his eye socket, and as promised he opens the gate. I then talk to the hut and say the rhyme, “Hut of Brown, Now Sit Down.”

The hut sits and I enter, then watch as the witch turns me into a frog. She offers not to cook me in exchange for a mandrake root.

Technically, I already have a mandrake root, but along with my clothes you must have turned it into part of a frog.

She sends me outside and turns me back into a human. Having the root already, I immediately re-enter her hut and give her the root. She can now make her greatest creation, Mandrake Mousse!

As a reward, she doesn't kill me but threatens to do so if I return - she really knows how to make a guy feel appreciated. I guess that I'll need the magic mirror that the bandits have in order to reflect her spell back at her, but go back in after saving just to see what happens.

This pun confirms my suspicions. So I know to come back after dealing with the bandits.

I go back to the antwerp scene, and try to kill it with my new flame dart spell. It has the same effect as attacking it with a sword - it flies off the screen and reappears above me on the next screen. I use my dagger to turn it into many small antwerps, but can't do anything with them despite trying a bunch of spells. I leave them for now and try to open the camoflaged door the antwerp was in front of. With some more Open Spell skill, the door now opens.

Inside the cave is a troll. I'm immediately put into a fight, and knowing my troll lore from other games or legends I try to kill it with fire.

Fire does absolutely NO damage to this troll. This is going to be a problem.

I can't escape this encounter, so after dying I reload.

Now I attempt to vist the other place I haven't solved yet in this game – the bandit area. I attempt to cast a spell, but the game won't let me.

This message annoyed me more than it should have.

Let me try to explain why I was annoyed. This is what happens when I first enter the screen...



This whole sequence takes about ten seconds, and for that entire time I'm unable to access my spells or inventory.

One thing I tried due to the death message was moving around before casting a spell. That didn't work though. I got particularly annoyed that the game made fun of me for stopping for so long before attempting to cast a spell when it was the game itself that refused to allow me to act while the archers slowly appeared and drew their bows at me.

Anyway, I reloaded and went back to the antwerp screen with a new plan. Here's my thought process...
  • The antwerp moves away from me whenever I get close to it. 
  • On that screen I have an open door that leads to a troll cave.
  • I cannot damage the troll.
  • Perhaps the antwerp could kill the troll for me. 
I attempted to herd the antwerp into the troll cave but when it got close to the door it just manoeuvred around to the other side of me instead. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Despite my recent failures, I feel I achieved a lot this time. And rather than go into detail on what my Thief and Fighter have been up to and making this post too long I'll deal with their adventures next time.

Here's our updated to do list after this section

Magic-User:
  • Get spirea seed (I suspect after buying a fetch/telekinesis spell) 
  • Get Healer's ring (Again, I feel telekinesis is the answer) 
  • Find a way into the hermit's cave 
  • Get Fairy Dust from mushroom ring without dancing to death 
  • Get flying water (after buying an empty flask from the provisioner) 
  • Get mandrake root (after buying Undead potion from healer) 
  • Do something about the antwerp – it's not bothering anyone, but I hate that it exists and want it dead! 
  • Get better at fighting (magic) 
So we've achieved 6 out of 8. Not bad. Let's add a few more things to our list
  • Deal with troll cave (real troll cave this time – I thought the creature outside the bear/kobold cave was originally a troll, but now know it's an ogre 
  • Deal with Ogre/Bear/Kobold cave 
  • Deal with Bandits 
  • Get even better at magic
Tune in next time when we visit the guild of thieves and hopefully get rid of the annoying kobold shaman and bandits.

Here's my magic-user's current stats, including his expertise in each spell. Most of his skills are much higher than last time, which makes me feel like I've achieved something - ACHIEVEMENT! INCREASED SKILLS.

Spell skill expertise:
Open: 50
Detect Spell: 26
Trigger: 14
Dazzle: 10
Zap: 20
Calm: 18
Flame Dart: 12
Fetch: 28


MARTAK: And that's my story. A lot of action, fun, spell casting, winning a battle of wits against the area's eminent wizard.
TREVOR: But what about our story? We don't have time for you to hear about my time in the Thieves' Guild headquarters...
FRODO: Or how I managed to cleverly get to the hermit's cave without either spell or climbing ability...
TREVOR: You probably just threw stones at it until he opened it in annoyance
FRODO: Fine, but I'm going first next time.
MARTAK: Fine with me.
TREVOR: I can't wait. Just be sure to wake me when you finish.
Session time: 5 hours 50 minutes
Total time: 12 hours 35 minutes

What's Your Story - Limbeck

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Answers: Limbeck
Introduction and captions: TBD

Limbeck has recently begun commenting and following our blog in real-time, joining us with Joe Pranevich's playthrough of The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I give a whole hearted WELCOME! It's always good to hear that new people are coming here and reading our blog.

Among other things, limbeck is an archaic term for an alembic - which is in itself rather archaic

And now, over to Limbeck...

Hello there,

I have been slowly catching up with the posts in this blog, but I noticed that there are some games I really enjoy in a row, so I have broken away from my OCD and read those posts. Therefore, I don't think I have much to lose by sending you my story.

My home country is...

Greece, but I am currently living in Ireland and enjoying a smaller range of temperatures than my home country. And the beers and whisk(e)ys and the landscapes and ... well I cannot complain.

If you turn Ireland sideways, it kind of looks like a furry puppy

My age is…

37. No more, no less

The first adventure game I played was…

That's kind of hard to remember. I do recall that I was once at a friend's house and he fired up Secret of Monkey Island, but my English was not that good at the time (I was I think 11 or so), so we didn't get that far. A few years later I was at my cousin's and we played Legend of Kyrandia. Argh! so annoying, but we managed to beat it.

My favourite adventure game is…

I will not say anything radical. I am a LucasArts fanboy and Secret of Monkey Island (when I finally improved my English to a sufficient level to play it) has offered my hours of entertainment. However, I also have a very soft spot for Full Throttle for its setting, the music and THE BUNNIES.

Coming to an adventure gaming blog near you when we reach 1995!

When I’m not playing games I like to…

...read books, play rpgs and hike, not necessarily all at the same time.

I like my games in (a box, digital format)…

No preference. While I enjoy some nice boxed sets with comprehensive manuals and other goodies, digital format is way too convenient for a hoarder. However, as I am moving houses a lot, having boxes and stuff is becoming more of a nuisance.

The thing I miss about old games is…

...the lack of multiplayer. I don't like the fact that many of the recent games (mostly AAA to be fair) seem to focus on multiplayer and online play and neglect the single-player campaign. I don't like playing with others, unless it is hot-seat.

The best thing about modern games is…

Good question. I like the resurgence of indie games and the concepts that they are allowed to bring. Not sure if I am making myself too clear and I might also sound like a grumpy old guy. But I like the unique puzzles of zachtronics, for example, or the roguelike-lite elements of rogue legacy and binding of isaac.

According to these review numbers, Limbeck isn't the only one who likes Zachtronics games

The one TV show I never miss is…

I don't really watch that many tv shows now, but if I had to pick one, that would be Battlestar Galactica (the new one). Oh yes.

If I could see any band live it would be…

I think I will go for Pink Floyd playing at Pompei.

And now I know that Pink Floyd at Pompei was a thing...

My favourite movie is…

Well, there is not a single favourite movie. I really like Brazil, Die hard, The Shining (yes), 12 angry men, One flew over the cuckoo's nest and I also get that guilty pleasure of watching Commando with Arnie once a year. There's also a Greek one very high on the list, but I'll spare you that, since I have never found a version with English subtitles. However, I cannot pick a single one as my favourite and I certainly forget a few.

One interesting thing about me is…

I never learned how to ride a bicycle.

When riding, it's important to wear a helmet, but not to wear pants, apparently

And with these questions, my friends who are silently reading this blog will instantly recognise me.

Quest for Glory I - Smokey and the Bandits

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Written by TBD.

Once again I spent most of my playtime as one character. Last time it was as Martak the Magic-User. This time it was Frodo the Fighter. There's a lot to get to, so let's get to it...


Frodo the Fighter Journal Entry #3: As they say, "we've a long way to go and a short time to get there." I've become a much better fighter since I last wrote in this journal. I was able to dispatch many goblins in a row, a large number of bandits and even a cheetaur or two. I'm also rich and have upgraded my armor! Things are certainly looking up for my adventuring career.







The first 'quest' I wanted to solve in this section, was getting into the hermit's cottage next to the waterfall. I'd been there as the magic-user by casting my 'Open' spell. My thief had gotten there by using his 'Climbing' skill, but I had neither of those as a fighter. I do have some 'Throwing' skill though. I thought I'd try throwing rocks at his door to see if that gets his attention.

What light from yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and 'Enry the 'Ermit is the sun.


'Enry triggers the ladder to appear and I climb up to talk to him. I get no different information than I got as a thief, but I now have a place to spend the night in exchange for some rations.

I leave the cave and decide I need to improve my skills. I wander around looking for fights, I throw stones at the archery target south of town, and I go to the place I found earlier with a goblin hiding in a bush. I fight and kill the goblin, looting him afterwards. When I 'look' at the place, I'm told that it's the “Goblin Central Combat Training Zone”.

If I leave that screen and come back, the same thing happens but this time I fight 2 goblins.

Double the goblins means double the experience!

The second goblin waits until the first dies before trying to fight me, which is rather sporting of him. I silently thank him as I rifle through his goblin pants for 4 silvers, then leave as it's become dark and I'm still scared to wander around at night.

I sleep at Erana's peace, then decide to see if I can do anything about the spitting spirea without killing them. I figure if I can't come up with a good solution. To recap, the plants take turns spitting the seed at each other. My backup solution will be to try to kill one of them just as it receives the seed so I don't lose four times as many points by killing them all.

Before going to my backup solution, I decide to try throwing a rock at the seed while it's in between plants. I line up and throw, and nothing happens apart from a slight increase to my throwing skill. I keep trying – even if this isn't the solution I'll increase one of my skills, so why not spend a bit of time.

Somewhere on this screen is my rock, hurtling towards the glowing seed that's about to land in the open spirea plant.

I eventually hit the seed, making the spirea plants dormant, then pick up the seed without harming the plants – thumbs up for fauna conservation!

Feeling confident, I go back to the goblin training ground and collapse from exhaustion while fighting the third goblin in a row. I'll keep working on that. I'm now regularly taking 60 minute rests during my day instead of waiting until I can sleep for a whole night. This strategy makes fights a lot easier as my stamina and hit points increase enough by an hour rest that I can usually survive at least one more fight.

I do more fighting, occasionally taking on the goblins again. Each time I fight them the fight consists of one more goblin. I also do more resting and dying/reloading, and my skills are slowly but surely increasing.

Five dead goblins – definitely time to take a bow

I take the spirea seed back to the dryad, then take all the ingredients for the 'Dispel' potion back to the healer, apart from the fairy dust that I still don't have.

After all the fighting (and plant picking, but that doesn't sound nearly as heroic) I go back to town and attempt to buy some chain armor. I expect the chain armor might help me survive the hail of arrows I'll hit when I go back to the bandit lair. Unfortunately I'm still a long way short of the 500 silvers I'll need, having only 12 gold and 133 silver. Just so the trip isn't wasted, I buy a dagger for 20 silver and head to the castle to make more money. I clean the stables a few times, then meet the sword master. He gives me largely useless fighting tips.

This tip is somewhat useful, but is very hard to do in the field as often as soon as I attack the bandit pops his shield back up.

As I'm a fighter, I'm able to train with him for 1 gold. I give him the cash, and we fight for a short time.

For that price, they'd better have increased by a lot!

Much like the magic-user I can't enter the barracks or castle yet, so I leave and spend another day or two practicing my fight/rest/die/reload/sleep/fight routine.

Six dead goblins, laying on the floor, and if one dead goblin should accidentally fall...

Feeling confident in my fighting abilities, I go back to the ogre/bear/kobold cave and fight the ogre instead of walking past him.

Come on ogre, work through the pain. Two more situps and you can have take a break.

Next to the ogre's body is his treasure chest with a heavy lid and strong lock. I force the chest open with my sword and find 1 gold and 43 silver.

This can be interpreted in multiple ways – I prefer to interpret it in the violent way.

I enter the cave and attempt to fight the bear but lose. Thinking that fighting the bear probably isn't the best way to go on anyway, I give it an apple, and go ahead to try to fight the kobold.

I throw a rock at him, which only seems to wake him up. I can keep throwing rocks at him which just makes him teleport from one ledge to another. I find I can also try using my sword to fight him which brings up the fighting interface to the bottom right of the screen, but no health/stamina/magic bar for either me or the kobold. I keep hitting him with my sword, which again makes him teleport. When he shoots a lightning bolt, I sometimes hit the 'Parry' button but I'm not sure if it does any good.

Eventually I'll be hit with a lightning bolt and die. For some reason I decide to persevere, not knowing if it's even possible to defeat the kobold this way. After many deaths, I eventually do kill him by by using this strategy. He drops a glowing key, which I take. I also take his food (mushrooms?).

Taking advantage of information I gained when my magic-user cast 'Detect Spell' in this area, I walk to where the invisible chest is.

Thank you, those of you who suggested I play as all three characters

The chest is locked, but I open it with my sword. I also knew the chest was trapped from my magic-user playthrough, but was willing to take the risk. I'm sure I took damage from the explosion, but I survived so took the 10 gold and sixty silver coins and moved on. Back in the bear's section, I tried the kobold's key on the bear's chain, hoping he'll leave but help me in some manner in the future, when he transforms into...

Manimal?

It seems that without knowing I was doing it, I'd just rescued the Baron's son, Barnard. He's not a very appreciative rescued victim, but that's royalty for you.

Um... what about us? Remember? King's Quest V???

Good point, insect royalty. Sorry for lumping you all in the same basket. It won't happen again.

Anyway, now that it's night, I go back to the mushroom ring and try to do something about the fairies. I dance for them...

When your dancing impresses the fairies, that's when you know you've got what it takes!

A few posts ago I danced for the fairies and they made me dance to death. I hadn't come up with a plan for this encounter but it turns out I didn't need to. Last time I'd died after encroaching inside their mushroom ring. This time I simply didn't do that. After dancing for them I could speak to them.

One of the things I can ask them about is 'Fairy Dust'. When I do so, they argue about it for awhile, and eventually, Mikey the Fairy, who'll touch anything, is roped into giving me some dust


Having sorted out another of my quests, I decided to see what I could do about the troll cave next to the antwerp. I went there, figuring that as I was strong enough to open chests I'd also be strong enough to force open the rock door. I wasn't. Or if what I suspect is true, I'll need to find a key to unlock the door before forcing it open. It's still possible I can force it open with more strength, but the failure message of “Despite your mightiest efforts, the rock does not move” doesn't fill me with confidence that I can force it open without a key.

Once again I do some more fighting/resting/dying/reloading, including killing 7 goblins in a row! I come up with an error...

The black message in the middle is unreadable, but when I get it at daytime it says “Invalid Palette”

I've noticed that with both this error and the weird colour glitch that occasionally happens when the game transitions from night to day, I can avoid it by reloading the game to before it happens, then quitting and restarting the game and loading my save – it's probably some kind of memory leak or something. It does remain on saved games so quitting before it happens seems to be the best solution. I expect the ScummVM version doesn't have this problem, as well as allowing more than 20 saves, so I'd recommend that for anyone who wants to play the game purely for fun.

After getting back into the game and reloading my save I decide to spend the night at 'Enry the 'Ermit's house. This time I don't need to throw rocks. Once I know there's an invisible ladder there I can climb it even without having the climbing skill.

It turns out 'Enry's house isn't the best place to sleep.

For some reason I also sleep in a really weird position when in 'Enry's house – it's actually the same as part of the 'climbing' animation.

I left 'Enry's 'ouse (sorry, house) in the morning, and went straight to the healer's now that I had the last ingredient for the 'Dispel' potion. I give her the fairy dust

I wonder if 'later' refers to actual time or will take place when I've passed a particular plot point.

I then go to the castle to collect my reward for rescuing Bernard the Bear Baronet from the Kobold Wizard.

The castle guards also play in a jazz band on Friday nights.

Good – because I was counting on you expressing your gratitude with lots and lots of gold

I ask the Baron the usual questions. One thing he says piques my interest. He mentions that Yorick was the court jester, and the one who went off to find his daughter. I may have heard this information before, but now was becoming more certain of where his daughter and the jester are. The Bandit Wizard has been described as someone who laughs a lot and uses sneezing powder – seems like a jestery thing to do, and the Bandit Leader has been described as having a high-pitched voice, perhaps a woman as opposed to the child I'd previously expected – or possibly both as I'm not sure how old his daughter is.

He also mentions that apart from the ambush the bandits have set up for any who approach, there is rumoured to be another way into their fortress. This gets my mind thinking as well. Perhaps the troll cave near the antwerp leads to the bandit hideout and is a better entrance than the ambush I'd been killed at before. As a fighter though I wasn't (yet?) able to open the door to the troll cave so it might be worth taking the front entrance if I can work out how to avoid the arrows.

I also talk to the Baronet

I think I'm starting to side with the kobold wizard on this one

I spend the night in the castle then take my 50 gold reward back to town in the morning, picking up my now-ready Dispel potion from the healer on the way.

The 50 gold is exactly what I need in order to buy the chain armor.

Kaspar wears a fez. Fez's are cool.

Let's see how that chain armor helps me with some of the places I've failed at before. First stop, the Frost Giant cave...

Perhaps a hint that there's a potion of embiggening or something, or just a hint that fighting isn't as good a solution as buying 50 apples.

While exploring I also see a sea monster in what appears to be an Easter Egg

I don't remember this from our Conquests of the Longbow posts – Alex! Sexy Robin! Anyone!?!

Speaking of people who are good with a longbow, I go back to the bandit ambush to see if I can come up with a solution (Going somewhere without a plan has worked twice so far this post, can we make it a third?)

This time I feel that perhaps my new chain armor will have arrows bounce harmlessly off it. Do you care to take a guess as to whether or not I succeed?

If at first you don't succeed, reload reload again

I continue with my plan of just walking through the arrows Neo-style. This time, when I reach the log barring my way, I click the hand icon it it, and watch as my character valiantly vaults over it ready for battle

I hope you bought tickets for both the archery AND the hurdle events!

After my athletic showing, I find myself in a battle with four bandits (possibly three – it's hard to tell based on my screenshots.) They're too much for me.

This was the last bandit – I was so close

I tried a few more times, but kept failing. Time for some more grinding.

I wandered around again, and killed my fair share of bandits, goblins and sauruses, including a full 8 goblins at their training ground. My skills had improved quite a bit so I had another unsuccessful attempt at Brauggi the Frost Giant. I take another lesson with the castle's Weapon Master. I even killed a cheetaur...

Noooo. Not the face. Anywhere but the face!

With all this extra fighting experience under my belt, I felt confident enough to take on the bandits, and this time I did. After defeating the four (three, sir?) or three bandits, I was at a gate guarded by a minotaur.

This seems like a clue, but I'm not sure it's relevant to my fighter

I fight the minotaur, but I expect a thief would be able to sneak past him instead. Inside the dead minotaur's flail are 50 silver pieces, which I pocket.

The door has a bell next to it, so naturally I ring it...

… and naturally, I'm mudered for my politeness

I come up with what I feel is a clever solution. I hide behind a bush and throw stones at the bell, hoping that a bandit will open the gate to see who's there when nobody is visible to shoot with arrows. It doesn't work. It's possible that this is a possible solution and my throwing skill just needs to be higher, but after a bunch of unsuccessful tries I have another, more brute force idea.

Because smashing stuff won't attract the bandit archers for some reason

I breathe in heavily then run at the gate as fast as I can. I flatten myself on the gate before comically sliding down. The gate then casually swings open anticlimactically

I'm brought to another room, where a myriad of traps remain.

How many traps can you find in this picture?

Let's go through the traps in this room...
  • Directly ahead is a pit trap under the fur rug
  • The bridge to the right has a sign on it that reads “Step Here” an obvious trap, so I use the other bridge
The bridge is unstable and wobbles as soon as I step on it, dropping me into a pit full of dead heroes
  • Going around the barricades to the right shows a tripwire trap that pops up a jester head – this doesn't seem to kill me so that's okay.
  • After passing the barricades the archers start shooting and will get me if I travel in a straight line, forcing me to switch to 'run' mode
  • The second tripwire trap summons an antwerp that jumps on me after I trip on it.

After unsuccessfully trying to climb the barrels or wagon, I notice that 'look'ing at the wiretraps gives me the message of “Now that you know it's there, you can easily avoid it by stepping over it.”

The successful solution consists of the following steps, all taken quickly to avoid dying...
  • 'Look' at both tripwires.
  • Walk past the barricades to the right
  • Take the right-hand bridge
  • Switch to run mode and move erratically to avoid arrows but not too erratically to avoid falling down the chasm
  • Take the door to the north
Avoiding all those traps takes me to the next room, where I have to similarly work out what to do in a situation where failure means death.

Another fun room of multiple puzzles to be solved in order

The first thing to do is close and bar the door on the approaching bandits, but only after they actually approach, as doing so too early makes them appear from the western door.

Then you must put the chair over the right-hand door.

Then you have to... oh, damn.

Maybe you don't need to be so passive-aggressive about it after I've died, death-screen.

The death screen contains an obvious hint. This time I wait until the bandits leave the southern door before barring the eastern door.

I also push over the candelabra, purely because I can, before the three stooges enter the room.

Remind me to kill you later

They come at me and kill me, but again the death-screen gives me a hint. It tells me that they figured out to go around the cable beFORE they ran all the way up to the fallen candelabra. I try again, this time not pushing the candelabra until they were almost upon me.

It takes a few more attempts, but eventually I time it all correctly so that I topple the candelabra not-too-early and not-too-late then climb the table at the right time and grab the chandelier rope at the right time.

This all results in my kicking the stooges over, then dropping the chandelier on them, trapping them indefinitely.

I've made a lot of noise - I think the fake shemp on the table must be dead.

I have to leave the room immediately or more bandits arrive, so take the north by northwest door out of here.

In the next room I find the bandit wizard, who I'd only recently surmised is also Yorick, the court jester.

Did anyone think a joke like this was NOT forthcoming as soon as we heard the name Yorick?

He tells me that Elsa, the Baron's daughter, is indeed the Bandit Leader, and that she's been ensorcelled. I have to break her from the spell before they leave the valley when the snow clears or she'll never be disenchanted. I doubt timing will be a problem but I wonder if anyone's tried playing the game for 365 days just to see if the seasons change.

Anyway, I also find out that it was ten years ago that Yorick went looking for Elsa, and after two years he found her, posing as her warlock since then to keep her safe. Toro, the minotaur, has been Elsa's only other friend in this band of bandits – I'm now more confident that there's a way to spare the minotaur, but I'll leave that to the thief or magic-user to work out.

For now, I have to work out his warlock's maze. I try all the doors, press all buttons and pull all chains I can find, but haven't found a solution yet. Each door just leads to another door Scooby Doo style. I'm sure there's a solution, but I'll find it next time... I hope.

Looking at my stats at the start and end of this section, I'm pleased to see the significant improvement. Now I have to work on doing the same for the magic-user and thief, but I've taken enough time and will leave it here for now.


A significant improvement in all fighter-relevant stats. I'm quite pleased!
TREVOR: But now we don't have time to see what I've been up to... AGAIN!
FRODO: Don't worry. You can have a turn next time.
TREVOR: And your title doesn't even make sense.
FRODO: I was going to refer to the bear as 'Smokey' so the movie title reference works, but when I didn't it was too late to change the title, so...
MARTAK: You're seriously breaking the fourth wall, now.
TREVOR: At least let me tell you how I got access to the Thieves' Guild password
FRODO: Probably the same way I did. By using your hand on the thief that sometimes hangs out just outside the town gate
TREVOR: Why did you even think of doing that?
FRODO: I use my hand on everything.
MARTAK: Me too. I'm using my hand right now.
TREVOR: Okay. Stop. I don't want to hear any more. Let's finish up and continue later.
MARTAK: Agreed.
Session time: 5 hours 20 minutes
Total time:  17 hours 35 minutes

The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes - Fer-de-Fléchette

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Written by Joe Pranevich


Grab your magnifying glass, it’s finally time to get back to The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes. Last time around, I ended on a down note: I was stuck after tracking down the name of Sarah Carroway’s, our murder victim’s, boyfriend “James”. Even with that, I wasn’t able to figure out which James he was on a rugby team that seems to have been filled with them. I also discovered that her sister, Anne, was a famous opera singer and may have gone missing or worse. I had many leads to follow, but none that the game particularly wanted me to follow and I was stuck. After failing to get anywhere, I asked for help and a few faithful commenters set me on the right path. I didn’t even need to look at their rot13-clues, it was enough to know that I needed to focus on the flowers from Sarah’s “secret admirer”.

My breakthrough came when I tried to study the flowers in Holmes’s private lab: we discovered, to no surprise at all, that the flowers were artificially dyed. However Mr. Holmes was also able to identify that they were dyed using an industrial cleaner with an iodine base. Armed with that analysis, we were able to ask Wiggins to focus in on flower-sellers that used that technique around the theater where Sarah worked. In almost no time at all (just had to leave the screen and come back!), he located the florist in question and we have a new destination on our map. Will this let me track down the “secret admirer”? Let’s find out!

I’m saving those for paper and string.

Before I go on, I’d like to pause here for a second. I am having some difficulty pacing these posts because the game doesn’t quite play like a typical adventure. I’ve sunk around six hours into the game so far and have found tons of clues and a few puzzles. Yet, I have no idea how far along I am. Am I still in the beginning section? Or am I on the verge of discovering the murderer and reaching the endgame? I have no idea. At least thus far, the game doesn’t provide a sense of rising tension, just a cycle of places to explore and conversations to be had. This isn’t a criticism, but it means there are few natural breaking points. I am just going to play until I get stuck, find something that seems like an “act” change, or just decide to stop.

The flower-seller that Wiggins identified for us is just a few blocks east of Baker Street. It’s on a block with two other stores, a “palmist” (which I suspect is a fortune-teller) and the Moongate Pub. Eagle-eyed players may remember that Sarah’s secret admirer asked the stage manager to meet him by the “moongate” if he had any information, so I think we are on the right track. Shame that we couldn’t just have looked up the name in the local London directory and found it that way instead of having to track down a flower-seller by what industrial cleaning agents she uses. It seems like that wasn’t the easiest approach somehow. I have Holmes chat up the vendor, a very young girl named Leslie, and he buys some flowers for Mrs. Hudson with a generous tip. The girl agrees to talk to us, but she doesn’t know Sarah Carroway. She asks for a description of the man that bought the flowers, but we do not have that yet. We show her the signed card instead and she immediately recognises her own writing and remembers the incident. She says that the man purchasing flowers for his crush was quite strange, hitting on her even as he was buying flowers for his girlfriend. He even tried to convince Leslie to go to the pub with him-- what a pervert! When she turned him down, he dropped any polite veneer and swore at her, flicking a cigarette into her barrel before seeming to get angry at his sleeve for some reason. Did he get some of the dye on it? Is that how I will track him down?

Crap-baskets?

My dream that Sarah was secretly a lesbian is quashed since it is the flower-seller’s handwriting on her “secret admirer” card, but this exchange asks more questions than it answers. It doesn’t seem like a real admirer would be trying to score a date with a flower-girl while wooing his beloved. What was the point of that charade? Was he trying to get Sarah to trust him? To come outside at a certain time? Something is missing here.

I turn my attention to Leslie’s barrel, where she dyes her flowers. If we can find out what brand the man smokes, we may be able to compare that to what we found in the alley. There is a basket of flowers being dyed on top of the barrel, but we remove it and search. Nothing in the flowers themselves, but there is a shiny thing at the bottom of the barrel that we can’t quite seem to reach. I assume that Holmes refuses to reach in himself because this is an iodine-based industrial cleaning agent, but the game doesn’t say that directly. We’ll have to get the shiny thing some other way. A cork in the side of the barrel seems promising, but Leslie gets mad at us when we consider emptying her barrel. It takes me some trial and error, but I eventually work out that you can “use” the flower basket on the barrel: Holmes fashions the wire basket into a hook and uses that to fish out whatever is on the bottom. It’s a cufflink! Even better, it’s a cufflink with the initials “G. B.” on it. That gets us farther, but we don’t know any “G” names.

I was hoping this would be The Blue Boar.

With nothing left to explore outside and Leslie not having any new answers, I resolve to finish exploring the area, starting with the Moongate. Since we know the admirer (or whatever he is) told the stage manager to meet him there, he might be inside right now.

The bar is a dirty joint with a bouncer at the door and drunk men sitting at the tables. The “publican”, a fancy British way for saying bartender, is behind the bar. I explore a bit first, grabbing a white feather off of the floor, and looking at the bartender’s pictures. On the bar, he keeps a picture of himself and his mother from 1867 at Queen Victoria’s jubilee. Behind is a picture of the same man in 1865, as a newly-joined member of the First Bangalore Fusiliers in India. Holmes helpfully provides that the regiment was famous for having long tours of duty where the soldiers would be unable to return for years except in “death or disgrace”. The alcohol in the bar seems of dubious quality and it looks like someone may have been stabbed against one of the pillars at some point in the past, but Holmes doesn’t find too much else interesting so I turn my attention to the barman.

I have Holmes sidle up to the bar and order himself and the publican a drink. We ask about the feather and learned that one of his customers runs an exotic animal shop; he must have brought it in on his clothes by accident. I show him the cufflink and he recognizes it immediately as a customer named “Blackwood”, the so-called “best taxidermist in London”. Aha!! Way back when we started, I said that I thought the serrated scalpel might have been used for taxidermy, and I will be thrilled if I guessed correctly. Is he the murderer? Even though he’s the best, the bartender has no idea where his shop is or even the name of the shop. We have no way to find this “best taxidermist”, but the tavern-keeper tells us that one of his specimens was recently sold to a nearby tobacco shop. Maybe someone there will be able to tell us where Blackwood’s shop is?

After that, the tavern-keeper refuses to say anything else but we have a few options: Holmes can tighten the screws on him by accusing him of some crime or we can play him in darts. I accuse him and immediately see what he is trying to hide: the picture with his mother was too soon after the picture from India. He was a coward and returned to London before his tour of duty was over. He relents when we threaten to tell his patrons of his disgrace and will tell us about Sarah’s admirer. I expected to hear about the taxidermist again, but instead he says that her admirer is a delivery boy for a chemist (pharmacist) that works on Hattington Street. What? That makes no sense. We already established that the admirer was the taxidermist that lost his cufflink, so who is this delivery boy? If they are different people, is it the biggest coincidence in the world that they both admired (or pretended to admire) Sarah and they both drank at the same pub? Something doesn’t connect yet. Did I misunderstand one of my clues?

Practicing throwing doesn’t work as well as in QfG1.

Even after wringing out the information through coercion, I still get the option of asking for information after a friendly game of darts. Just in case I would get different information, I challenge him, but he refuses. He says that before he will play me, I will need to win three rounds against three different bar patrons. They all look pretty drunk, so that should be easy! I have to talk to each to figure out who will play me first (one guy demands that I know his name first and the other is too superstitious to be the first challenger), but it’s simple enough. I’m shocked that when we play, it really does open up a minigame! I was expecting Holmes to just be an expert on darts like everything else, but we’re on our own. You might remember that I have very mixed feelings on minigames after the disasters of Operation: Stealth and Star Trek, but I grin and bear it.

The game doesn’t tell you the rules of darts, but I didn’t remember them before I started playing. My first round or two were just trial and error, but I eventually give up and search Wikipedia for the rules. Essentially, my opponent and I start with 301 points and have to count backwards to zero without going to far. Each round we are given three dice and our score will be deducted from the target based on what areas of the board we hit: each region has a clear number on it, but the outer ring is a doubler and the inner ring triples the score. Hitting a near-bullseye nets us 25 points, while a real bullseye is 50. We “aim” by using the two meters on the left and bottom of the screen. We only get one shot-- the target area does not move back and forth like in some games-- and the dart will roughly land at the X/Y coordinate that we stop the cursor on. It takes a lot of practice: I find 6, 11, 20, and 3 to be relatively easy to hit because they are in the “middle” on one axis, but most of the other numbers are quite hard to hit. (By the nature of the game, it’s easy to see the middle of the meters and so stopping there and getting a bullseye ends up one of the easier things to do.) Incidentily, the game does not implement the “double to win” rule from real darts. I suspect that would make the game much harder than it already is.

It takes me more than an hour and about 30 games of darts to break through all three drunks and the landlord, but it was all for nothing since he just repeats what he knows about the delivery boy. At least it was fun!

I’m going to retire and raise bees in the countryside? Impossible!

Before I leave, there is one more place to explore: the nearby fortune-teller. We head inside and quickly discover that she is only interested in reading our fortune; she doesn’t seem to know or be involved in the murder in any way. Holmes seems to want to explore her office in the back room, but she won’t let us in there. Is that a hint that I will need to come back later? The house has a second floor, but Holmes deduces by the amount of dust that no one has gone up or down those stairs in some time. There seems to be nothing else of interest here so I pack up and head back to the main map.

A Møøse once bit my sister... No realli!

Just as I expected, I find two new locations on my map: Bradley’s Tobacco Shop and Hattington Street Chemist. Since I still suspect the taxidermist, I chase that lead first and go to the tobacco shop first. It’s a shame they haven’t invented the whitepages yet because this would be much easier if I could just identify how many Blackwoods have taxidermist shops.

We find the specimen immediately on arrival. In grand (Sierra?) adventure game tradition, the animal in question is a moose. The boy working the counter says that the owner is away on business and will not be returning soon and he cannot tell me anything at all about the moose-head. We find that there is a label on top of it, but Holmes cannot read it because the head blocks it from our angle. Do I need to use a mirror-on-a-stick or something? A ladder? Why is Holmes even letting this get in his way? It seems silly to give up on this now, but I leave. I’ll have to find a way to see that label some other day.

“How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? ” ― Albert Einstein

We arrive at the chemist next. Once again, there isn’t much at all to explore other than talking to the owner. He seems nice enough, but time is money and we’re not allowed to talk to his delivery boy/stockboy. Just like every other time in this game, Holmes loosens the chemist’s lips through money, buying some medication we do not need. After that, he suddenly has no objections to us talking to Richard.

Unfortunately, the boy also appears to be a dead end. He claims to not know Sarah Carroway, but he does admit that he delivers regularly to Covent Garden. He denies everything up until we have Holmes tell us that she has been murdered. That opens his mouth to say that he was the secret admirer, but only from afar. He fell in love during a performance of Love’s Labour Lost, but now that she is dead he is completely heartbroken. He cannot even talk to us anymore. We leave empty-handed, except for some random medication that we do not need. Score?

With that, I am stuck again. [Note: Just got unstuck! You don’t need to give me hints.] I have no new locations to visit or any leads to follow. We cannot analyze (or have Wiggins search for) the feather or cufflink. I can’t even be sure I completely understand the plot because I was sure that the secret admirer was “G. B.” and not “Richard”. Was there two admirers? Was the “G. B.” admirer just pretending? If so, isn’t it an amazing coincidence that she also has a real admirer? And that they frequent the same pub? If this is what is going on, I hope they explain this because right now it makes very little sense.

She has a horcrux under her turban.

Before I close, let me update you on my predictions and thought process:
  • Richard is what he claims to be, a love-struck fan. If this is to make any sense, then I have to guess that he was talking about his crush at some point in the Moongate Pub at Covent Garden. Perhaps he mentioned Sarah’s necklace and it perked up the ears of the real criminal? Notice that the “secret admirer” note has a quote from Romeo and Juliet, not Love’s Labour Lost, further underscoring that he didn’t request the note. 
  • Mr. Blackwood knows that Richard is a fan and decided to use him as an alibi. By making it seem like the flowers came from Richard, Blackwood might have hoped to have escaped suspicion in her murder. That entails the police connecting the flowers with the murderer and I do not think that is likely at all. 
  • Sarah Carroway’s boyfriend, James, has nothing to do with any of this but finding him might lead us to Sarah’s sister, Ann. Her sister is in danger and possibly already dead. 

In conclusion: Mr. Blackwood did it in the alleyway with the serrated scalpel. Now, all I have to do is find him, find his motive, prove his guilt to Scotland Yard, and stand back. That should be easy, right?

Time played: 3 hr 15 min
Total time: 9 hr 30 min
Inventory: message requesting help, business cards, iron bar, perfume bottle, pink carnation, card, sample of powder, cigarette butts, analysis results, a brass key, a large key, opera tickets, a note to enter Anna’s dressing room, cufflinks, wire hook, feather, Catarrh Preparation

Quest For Glory I - Practice Makes Perfect

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I played a lot in this section but have surprisingly little to show for it puzzle-solving wise. I do have a lot to show for it statistic wise though, so let's see what I've been up to while trying to increase my characters' attributes.

Trevor the Thief Journal Entry #3: I found the thieves guild, where I bought a license in order to be able to steal in town without the sheriff being tipped off. Is now a good time to tell the guild master I've already stolen everything there is to steal in town? Can I get my license fee back now that I don't need it? Oh well. I'm still not sure how to make my way to the bandits using my special skills but I'm sure I'll either come up with something or temporarily become a fighter if I have to. I hope I won't have to become a fighter...







It's been a while since we've seen what our thief has been up to, so here's the list of quests I had to complete last time we met him,

Thief:
  • Find thieves' guild password (perhaps in cemetery)
  • Get Fairy Dust from mushroom ring without dancing to death
  • Get flying water (after buying an empty flask from the provisioner)
  • Get mandrake root (after buying Undead potion from healer)
  • Do something about the antwerp – it's not bothering anyone, but I hate that it exists and want it dead!
  • Get better at fighting/thieving
and when I add to them other quests I'll need to complete...
  • Deal with troll cave
  • Deal with Ogre/Bear/Kobold cave
  • Deal with Bandits

Having done much of this with the other characters, we know we'll be able to get the fairy dust, flying water and mandrake root easily – and something I didn't know at the time but now do, is that after using the undead potion at the cemetery in order to get the mandrake, we'll have an empty flask in our inventory, so don't need to buy one – it's easily affordable, but if I can get one for free I'm sure as hell not paying for one.

Let's start at the beginning and try to get the thieves' guild password.





As I mentioned in previous posts, Bruno the thief sometimes appears outside the town gate and will give us some information in exchange for gold. The information isn't helpful, and he actually gives us the wrong information at one point, which puts us in danger.

And if we go to the cemetery at night without an Undead Potion, we get killed by ghosts - glad I paid good money for the tip, Bruno.

Talking to him is just a waste of money, but if I use my 'hand' icon on him...

Adventure Game Hero rule number 3: Touch EVERYTHING!

I read through the manual again to see if there was any mention of using the 'hand' icon to give someone a thief's sign, or even a mention of a thief's sign, but didn't find one. Was there some kind of indication within the game that I should use my hand on people I suspect are thieves?

Anyway, my compulsive need to touch everything had Bruno give me the information that to get the guild password I have to speak to Sneak in the alley at night.

As an aside, I can get the same information by using my hand on Bruno with my fighter or magic-user – as for how they will know the thieves' sign, perhaps Bruno is blind and assumes that everyone who touches him is a thief. Let's ignore this nitpick for now.

I go into town and wait for nightfall. In the alley, as before a knife whistles past my ear and the thief tells me to pay Sneak all my gold. Instead I use my 'hand' on Sneak.

Does this guy work for the Orbs?

Sneak gives me the password, 'schwertfisch', then threatens me for good measure. I go to the bar and tell Crusher the password. He then opens the trapdoor to the thieves' guild headquarters.

Is Crusher in two places at once, or is nobody guarding the trapdoor in the tavern?

I meet the guild master, whose name is 'Chief' and Boris, who works behind the metal door and can sell me a license, another lockpick or a thief''s toolkit.

To work in town I need a license. But in order to afford a license I need to steal some cash in town. If you were an android I could make your head explode due to this paradox!

Chief suggests I steal Otto's yo-yo, but that seems like he just wants to get me in trouble – and when I do try this later, the game suggests it isn't possible. Anyway, I buy a license for 25 silvers, and also a tool kit for 100 silvers. I'm not sure what the tool kit does, but I don't have one so I assume I want it. I have plenty of cash so it's not going to burn much of a hole in my medieval pocket.

The license allows me to steal in town, but also provides fencing services and flowers on my grave.

I don't think there's anything else in town for me to steal, but the fencing service could turn out useful. I sell some of my stolen goods for quite a bit of coin.
  • Pearl necklace – 500 silvers
  • Candelabra – 150 silvers
  • Vase (that won't hold water) – 40 silvers
  • Candle sticks – 100 silvers
I'm now quite rich and don't have anything to spend my money on – I suppose I can buy more daggers at 20 silver each, but don't see much need for now, or a 500 silver chain armor, but as a thief chain would only slow me down and make noise, so I figure I should stick to leather for now.

The one stolen item I don't sell is the music box - I'm guessing it can at some point be used as a distraction, and I don't need the money anyway.

Now that I'm a guild member, Chief will talk to me. He tells me that he suspects someone in his organisation is a spy for the brigands. I don't know if I'll end up finding the spy, but I suspect not. He also tells me that if I get good enough with a dagger we can play a game. Sounds like fun. Let's get to it – just let me save my game first. I expect to lose at first, not knowing how to play.

Practicing throwing works better than in a Sherlock Holmes game

I win my first game, increasing my throwing, luck, agility, strength, intelligence, and vitality skills in the process. I'm a little disappointed I only bet 5 silver on myself.

As for how to play, unlike Erasmus' Mage Maze, it's a very simple mini-game. My hand starts in a random position and I have to adjust the angle and force appropriately to try to get close to the centre of the target board. We both get three throws, and I always go first. My score is denoted by blue beads on the bottom of the screen while chief's score is denoted by red beads.

Chief won't let me bet 500 silver, or 99. I can bet 50 though so I try again. Is Chief just playing with me, playing badly while the stakes are low then playing well when I bet high? Having just saved my game, I don't care in the slightest. I win again. After a few more games, I get better at the game and keep winning - Chief always seems to do at least one bad throw.

I haven't lost a single game to this guy, and when I started my throwing skill was less than 33.

I finish with my 'Throwing' skill at 44 and my cash up to 81 gold and 201 silver. Having a stamina of zero, I attempt to sleep in the guild, described by Chief as my 'home away from home'

And if I try to go to sleep in my 'home' I get thrown out by a large goon.

Now that I'm rich, I pony up the 5 silver to sleep in Shameen's inn.

The next day, I decide to increase my skills. I did this last time with my fighter by increasing my fighting skills. My thief will attempt to increase his lock-picking, throwing, climbing and stealth skills. I spend the next part of the game permanently in sneak mode.

After I become Hero of Spielburg, I'm going to have to hire a good chiropractor

I killed a goblin at the goblin training zone, then just walked back and forth in the area for a while, knowing that now that the goblin is dead, I won't be attacked by a wandering monster in this screen

This went on for quite some time

After doing another little test on this screen, I discovered that simply standing still in sneak mode increased my skill as well, so sneaking back and forth was unnecessary. I left the game open and made a cup of coffee.

After about 20 minutes of sneaking, my sneak skill had gone from 18 to 69. Three cheers for me letting the game play itself. Hip hip... okay, that WAS a bit cheap of me, but hey, it's in the game, and wasting the game's time is better than wasting MY time so deal with it.

I could have done this for longer but wanted to do more questing, so I continued forth, attempting to save the Baronet/bear from the kobold, all while remaining in sneak mode.

Despite having a sneak score of 74, I couldn't sneak past the bear, so I had to go back to town to buy an apple.

I went to the frost giant to see if I could throw a rock at him David/Goliath style, and wasn't even slightly surprised to find my character slowly walking (sneaking!) up to the giant before trying to throw the stone...

This will not end well

In order to continue increasing my thief skills, I practice my throwing outside the healer's house by picking up rocks, throwing until I'm out of rocks, picking up more rocks, etc.

This goes on for quite some time

I climb the town gate at night and practice my lock-picking on all the locked doors, saving after each couple of tries, as I still fail often enough for it to be annoying.

I go from house to house for quite some time

With my sneak skill now in the 90s, it seems I can avoid most wandering monsters

I appreciate being able to avoid random encounters by sneaking

At some point I noticed that my 'Sneak' skill had advanced to 100, and wasn't increasing any more – it looks like I've found the skill limit.

Being a bit bored of skill grinding, I decide to try the antwerp/troll cave.

With my increased lock-picking skill, I can now unlock the rock door, but I can't open it because I'm not strong enough. I check my Strength, which is a paltry 31. If I leave the screen and return, the door is closed again, so I practice a bit more lock-picking here, which is better than doing it in town as failure doesn't result in me going to jail and reloading a saved game. I also note that trying to open the door increased my Strength to 32. You can guess what I'm going to do next. I keep using my hand on the rock door, which eventually gets my Strength to 36 and the door opens.

With my now-100 sneak skill, I sneak into the cave, hoping to be able to sneak past the troll and test my theory that this cave is the secret entrance to the bandit hideout.


I console myself with the thought that my skull will forever be attached to a trolls' loincloth.

Well, perhaps I can sneak past the bandits from their ambush instead.


Or perhaps not!

Oh well. It was worth a try. Having bought some apples from town, I head back to the bear cave. Despite my 100 Sneak skill, I still can't sneak past the bear, but I give it an apple and sneak into the kobold lair. My Sneak skill finally decides to be useful, as I can now sneak right up to the kobold and steal his key.

I can do this to a kobold wizard, but I still can't sneak past an ogre, troll, bear or bandits

Still sneaking, I purposely bump into the invisible chest at the bottom of the cave, and use my lock-picking skill to unlock the chest and disarm the trap. I take the money and the kobold's mushrooms, and leave the sleeping kobold.

I rescue the baronet by using the kobold's key on the bear, go to the castle and collect my reward, then go to the healer's to return the rest of the ingredients for the Dispel Potion, that I've gathered in my travels.


This... concerns me...

And here's where I'll soon be asking for assistance. I'm not sure when I last saved before stealing her potions, but it was a long, LONG time ago. And I've done a LOT of skill grinding lately.

I didn't even have a screenshot of me stealing her potions, as it was just a case of me using my hand on everything I see (which has earlier resulted in me knowing how to get the thieves' guild password) – I do recall the game saying something like, “While her back is turned, you take some healing potions” and me ending up with an extra two healing potions. But I didn't think this could create a dead end as the manual itself told me to act as the character would act. A thief would steal potions in order to save the land, surely... hopefully... please... Sierra...

In hoping that perhaps after another day to cool off, she'll be more accommodating, I keep playing the game. I try to break into her house in case that might help me somehow – at least perhaps she'll let me pay for the potions if she finds me standing above her bed in the dead of night...

That really wasn't a good plan anyway.

While waiting for tomorrow to come, I climb back and forth over the town gate to increase my climbing skill.

This goes on for quite some time

So I end my thief's section today with some concerns, and a request for assistance.

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE!

I have two questions I'd like to know the answer to.
  1. Will the healer's annoyance stop me from finishing the game?
  2. Will my thief have to practice his fighting skills in order to defeat either the troll or the bandits?
I shouldn't need detailed hints here. Just a simple Yes or No will likely suffice. If you wish to leave further hints encoded in ROT13, feel free – If I don't end up needing them I can always read them after finishing the game.

Note that I don't mind if I get a 'bad' ending with my thief character - perhaps not having a Dispel Potion will mean I'll have to kill the Baron's daughter instead of saving her, but as long as I can get an ending I'll keep playing as is. Not having an Undead Potion will also stop me being able to help Baba Yaga, but perhaps I can only go there after already getting the Magic Mirror and therefore turn her into a frog instead.

Anyway, here's my current Thief's skill levels...



Martak the Magic-User Journal Entry #4: I didn't solve many more puzzles, but I practiced spell casting... A LOT! Oh, and I out-magicked a kobold wizard and killed a troll.












A comment I received on a previous post by Torch made me think a bit about how I was going about the game.
"I see you sometimes apply adventure game logic to situations where rpg logic would be more suitable. As your spell skills increase, the effectiveness of some spells will increase too."
I'd already somewhat come up to this conclusion myself, but this made me think that some solutions were unavailable to my character due to his skill levels, and that there were times when I had the right solution, but not the right skills. I decided it was time to rectify that.

One particular example is the Flame Dart spell. When I last played as a magic-user, my skill level with that spell was 12. It appeared to be the main combat spell, and combat seems to be a necessary way to proceed in parts of this game, so let's practice the hell out of Flame Dart!

Like the fighter, I get into a lot of fights, this time using Flame Dart instead of Parrying and Striking. After a while, I get the idea that, perhaps like the thief practicing skills, I don't actually need an enemy to fight in order to level up the spell. It works.

Take that, random patch of grass!

I also practice my other spells, and with a greater 'Fetch' spell skill attempt to steal the kobold wizard's key without awakening him. It works, I once again use 'Detect Spell' to find the invisible chest, and cast an 'Open' spell on it.

This confirms the theory that increased spell skill has different effects. Earlier in the game casting the 'Open' spell just opened the chest while still springing the trap which awakens the kobold.

As with the fighter, then the thief, I rescue the Baronet and get my reward from the castle, practicing spells along the way. I have another go at fighting the troll in the cave.

I lose the fight, but not by a lot. My 'Flame Dart' spell is now 71, and does noticeable damage to the troll when I cast it.

Because I only just lost the fight, I try again a few times – after about the fifth attempt, I succeed.

Low on hit points and magic points, but victorious!

I take the troll's beard, which I know the healer wants for some reason. I travel through the cave, and my guess that it's another way into the bandit stronghold turns out to be correct.

I always like it when my guesses turn out right – and I always ignore it when my guesses turn out wrong

I cast the 'Calm' spell, which makes the minotaur yawn and sit on a rock. I also cast the 'Open' spell, which makes the gate hasp open. When I attempt to go towards the gate to open it, the minotaur wakes up, and I'm stuck in a fight

Hmmm. Zero magic points and only a few hit points. I'm sure I'll be fine.

At this point I have a thought. Knowing that spells have different effects when my level with them is higher, I guess that perhaps with a higher 'Calm' spell the minotaur might actually end up in a deep sleep instead of just resting on the rock. My current 'Calm' skill is 24.

I go back outside the cave to where the antwerp bounces and continue wandering around the forest, casting 'Calm' on everything I find. I find one place where I can cast the 'Calm' spell a few times, then leave and come back to try again after resting to regain magic points.

Calm ogre, wait, calm ogre, wait, run out of magic points, go west, rest for 60 minutes, go east, calm ogre... repeat...

As the ogre starts a distance from me, and the game gives me the warning that the ogre has recovered, and I have to click out of that warning before he can start moving again, this is the perfect spot to practice the 'Calm' spell without danger.

I do this for a while, at some point day turns to night, and I meet a monster I haven't seen before.

Bowser?

I run away from that super-saurus. I recall someone in the game mentioning something about this monster but couldn't be bothered finding out what. - I was too focussed on my mission to improve my magic skills. I also found out that mantrays aren't affected by 'Calm' spells, or at least not at my current 'Calm' spell level of 58.

At some point I got my 'Calm' spell to 73. I've also been practicing my other magic skills.

My current plan with my magic-user is to either 'Calm' the minotaur, with the backup plan of either 'Dazzle'ing the minotaur, or 'Open'ing the bandit gate with a higher open skill, which may allow me to get to the door without alerting the minotaur.

Which brings me to what I see as the major disadvantage of Quest for Glory's skill system from a pure adventure game playing perspective.

In most adventure games, I'll get an idea, then I'll test that idea and immediately either find out it works or find out it doesn't work and I need to think of another idea.

In this game, I get an idea (in this case, an increased 'Calm' spell will put the minotaur out of commission) then I have to work on practicing the 'Calm' spell for an hour or two, then I get to find out if my idea was right or not and either move on to the next puzzle or come up with another way of solving this puzzle. The many hours practicing the 'Calm' spell could well end up wasted. And the only way to find out (without someone who knows the solution telling me) is to spend those hours of repetition in order to find out.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for hints here. The last thing I want is for people in the comments to say anything like, “You won't need more than a 65 of 'Calm' or a 50 of 'Open' in order to solve all the puzzles in the game” as a big part of my plan is to play the game as I would if I got it in 1992, and be able to experience it and rate in under those limitations.

And so I feel inclined to practice my skills. But I've written enough for now, and practiced WAY too much for now, so I'll stop and continue trying to solve these puzzles next time.

Here are my magic-user's current skills. If nothing else, I'm definitely pleased at the number of spell points and the 'Flame Dart' skill level I now have.

Spell skill expertise:
Open: 59
Detect Spell: 30
Trigger: 15
Dazzle: 12
Zap: 29
Calm: 73
Flame Dart: 77
Fetch: 33


MARTAK: And thus I improved my magic abilities significantly
TREVOR: But not enough to help us out of this mess we're currently in
MARTAK: At least I made my way to the bandit camp. You're still wandering the forest with no idea what to do.
TREVOR: I'll get the help I need. Don't worry.
FRODO: You really should have gotten the Undead Potion and Dispel Potion before stealing from the healer.
TREVOR: The healer doesn't even have proof it was me. She just suspects me at this point.
MARTAK: And didn't you say you were rich? The healing potions are worth, what, only 20 silver or something
TREVOR: It's the principle of the thing. I'm a thief - I steal. It's like asking you two not to fight or not to... magic-use...
FRODO: Well, you'd better sort yourself out soon. I'm expecting both of you to have entered the bandit wizard's maze in your next section.
MARTAK: Count on it.
TREVOR: I'll get there. Now let's rest for a time.
Note that while I spent a lot of time in this section not achieving much, I've still been having fun (though, to be fair, not 9 hours worth of fun) - there's something I find rewarding about improving my character's stats - though I'm not even completely sure why.

Session time: 9 hours 25 minutes
Total time: 17 hours 45 minutes

The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes - The Secret of the Old Smock

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Written by Joe Pranevich


Welcome back! I ended last week stuck: I confirmed that Ms. Carroway’s “secret admirer” wasn’t directly connected to the murder, although it is still suspicious that he and the murderer hung out at the same pub. The tavern keeper at the Moongate pointed me in the direction of the man I believe to be the real killer, a taxidermist named Blackwood, but he didn’t know where the man’s office was and there appears to be no 19th century equivalent of the Yellow Pages that we can search. (Kids, ask your parents.) My only lead was a single taxidermied head hanging in the local tobacco shop.

I’ll spare you all of the random wandering as I found the solution right where I expected it to be. I had been imagining something overly-complicated like mounting a mirror on a stick, but the solution was actually just to move some packing crates across the room and stand on them. Obvious, right? It was not quite that easy because the store clerk initially refused to let us, but Holmes is very persistent and we talk him into it eventually. That doesn’t quite get me what I wanted since the plaque just says that the head was given to John Bradley, the store owner, in 1885. It was a let down, but not a permanent one as we can use the “move” command to look behind the head and find a label on the back of the mount: Oxford Taxidermy, 188 Oxford St. We have a new map location!

Lions and tiger and bears… all dead!

The new icon on my map takes me to a crowded taxidermist’s shop. A man in a smock is busy stuffing a gazelle or whatever it is a taxidermist does. It’s grim business and I am probably better off not knowing. Since I do not know if the man doing the carving is the murderer or not, I start by exploring the room. The walls are covered with preserved animals of all stripes (literally), but I do not see any large white birds that would match the feather I found at the pub. I sift through the tools on both the main table and one off to the side. While most of them are uninteresting, I find what I am looking for: a serrated knife, looking very much like a scalpel, is one of the tools of the trade. I pocket it and hope that the taxidermist doesn’t notice.

Across the room is a second smock, this one much bloodier, that doesn’t seem to fit the man doing the taxidermy now. I finally start to interrogate him and am relieved that he is not the Blackwood that I am looking for, rather an apprentice named Lars Sorenson. His boss is out and he doesn’t know where he is. We ask him about the serrated knife and he tells us that it is for cutting through skin. Holmes fires off at him that it might be a murder weapon, but Lars has never heard of Sarah Carroway and doesn’t seem to be involved in the crime. We keep pushing and he admits that the bloody smock is Blackwood’s and only when he is threatened does he finally tell us that his boss is at an appointment at the Surrey Commercial Docks. He helpfully tells us that his boss has a medium build, gray hair, a top hat, and a monocle. Is it the guy from Monopoly?

Unfortunately, Watson tells us that the docks are too big of a place and without knowing more of where Blackwood is, we can never find him. He suggests that we get Toby, a crime-fighting dog, to help locate Blackwood’s scent. Is that why I needed the smock? It seems like a good idea so we head off on our way.

A private little menagerie.

That gives us yet another new location, “Old Sherman’s” on the south side of the Thames. For all that the taxidermist was filled with dead animals, this place is filled with live ones. What kind of place is this? It looks like an animal warehouse. Toby, or as the game puts it, “Your canine friend, Toby” is laying by the door with Sherman sitting at a nearby table. We make some small talk and Sherman lets us borrow the dog. He hands us a leash and when we use it on Toby, we are automatically taken to the docks. Incidentally, neither Sherman nor Toby are new to this game, both appear in The Sign of Four. I have no recollection of either of them.

Good dog!

Toby leads Holmes through the docks and up to a specific door. Before approaching, I search around and find a hammer and rope in a nearby shed. I can also see that there is a pail sitting far above the door in question. What is it for? This isn’t going to be some comical thing where I set it up that the pail will land on the murderer’s head and everyone has a laugh, right? I explore further. There is a nearby ship which Holmes confirms is used for smuggling. In any event, the door is locked and Watson will not let me break it down using my hammer (because we have no idea what danger may be behind it) so I will have to think of something else. I also learn that Watson left his revolver back at Baker Street and we do not have time to go back there and pick it up now.

Starting to piece it all together, I move a barrel first which lets Holmes climb up to grab the pail. Why I need it, I still do not know. When I pull it down, a rag falls onto the ground and I pick that up too. I try to have Holmes look through or open the window, but it is too dirty. Aha! Is Holmes supposed to clean the window with the rag? I try that and it doesn’t get me anywhere, just moving around the dirt, but I think I am heading in the right direction. If I then use the pail on the nearby river, I can scoop up some water and then put water on the rag. (How clean was London’s water at this time, I have no idea.) With that, I can clean the window and look in. Two men are having a business transaction, including Mr. Blackwood. He is handing over Sarah’s pendant! What to do? Eventually, I realize that now that I know what is going on behind the door, Watson will let Holmes smash it with the hammer and we run in together.

And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you detectives and that mangy dog.

Holmes rushes in and we are greeted with a brief cutscene. I can’t do anything but watch as the fence escapes but Holmes and Watson capture Mr. Blackwood. As fast as it starts, it is over and we are back at Baker Street. Games over? No! We have some dialog where we learn that Lestrade has him and can hold him on a charge of possessing stolen good, but not the murder of Sarah Carroway. Our case isn’t over. We have the murder weapon and the murderer, but no motive and nothing to prove that he was the one that did it. Holmes recommends that we go talk to the prisoner.

I will spare you the details, but we have another brief bit of Scotland Yard bureaucracy where we have to visit the jail, be told that we’re not permitted to see the prisoner, head to Scotland Yard to get a pass, and then back to the jail. It adds nothing but makes the game longer so let’s just skip to the chase.

See? Nothing to it.

We interrogate Blackwood and he is at first very reluctant to talk to us. He tells us that he didn’t intend to kill Sarah, only that he had been hired to steal an envelope that she was supposedly carrying. He was the one that had ransacked both her dressing room and her home looking for it. He only killed her by mistake, but once he did he knew that he needed to make it seem like the Ripper had done the deed. He would have fooled Scotland Yard too, if it wasn’t for me. He claims to be a small-time crook doing work for hire like blackmail. That is the first time that he ever killed anyone.

He also admits that he killed the wrong person: it was Anne Carroway that was carrying the letter, not her sister. The guy that hired him only gave him her last name which seems stupid, especially because he says that when he went back to the mysterious person that hired him, he knew that she had a sister and was very upset that the wrong one was killed. Holmes gets him to admit that the guy that hired him was named “Fitzroy”, but that may have been an alias. Finally, Blackwood will not reveal who he was selling the pendant to. He may have just info-dumped a bunch of stuff, but he’s not going to sell out his friends in the underworld too.

As exciting as this sequence is, I am stuck again. Lestrade and Scotland Yard have nothing new to say, even if the suspect admitted to us that he killed Ms. Carroway, we cannot return to the docks to look for clues, and time still hasn’t passed at the Opera to let me get more information about Anne. I’m carrying around the murder weapon and absolutely no one seems to care. I even check at the rugby pitch to see if Sarah’s boyfriend was named “James Fitzroy”, but that doesn’t work either. I am stuck.

Never underestimate the power of the underclasses.

So, with regret, I turn to another one of the hints from two posts ago, this time from Alex Romanov. There was a plot thread much earlier in the game that I failed to follow up on: There's someone who can help with the cigarettes, but that person is under supervision, you need to distract someone first to get the info.

And of course, it’s obvious when you think about it. I had noted that the game would now let me buy different fragrances and I even picked up one or two, only to restore my game in the event I was spending money that I didn’t have. If you look closely at the counter, you can see that one of the fragrances (“La Cote de Azur”) is all sold out. I then ask for that fragrance and the sales woman has to duck into the backroom to retrieve a bottle. I use that time to interrogate the cleaning lady and she remembers that the person that bought that perfume smoked “Senior Service” cigarettes! It doesn’t seem like much, but I take that information straight to the rugby coach.

Smoking is bad for your complexion.

The rugby coach is finally able to help us: even though there are multiple tall players named James who have oiled dark hair, there is only one tall player named James with oiled dark hair who smokes Senior Service cigarettes. Eureka! Unfortunately, James absolutely refuses to admit that he was dating Sarah Carroway because doing so would land him in trouble with the coach over team rules. I am eventually able to get him to talk to me by showing him the perfume which he purchased for Sarah as a present. He partly admits defeat and claims that it is his roommate that is courting Sarah, not him. But he’ll gladly give us his address so we can go interrogate the roommate. That’s good enough for me!

We meet James at his room and he’s there, alone. We do a quick walk through and it’s clear that while he does really have a roommate, he is interested in chemistry and not rugby. Given that we found rugby clothes in Sarah’s flat, we know already that he is the real boyfriend. Thankfully, he is, although he does not want to talk to us much. He assumes that we are trying to ruin his career by getting him kicked off the team for socializing with the ladies. Unfortunately, he simply does not believe me that Sarah is dead. We have to give him proof, but I do not yet know how to do that. I can find a copy of her death certificate in the morgue, but I am not allowed to pick it up. I suspect I will have to steal it, but I do not see how yet. I’ll leave that as a problem for next time.

Here are my conclusions so far:
  • I was right about the killer, but the “real” killer is whomever hired him. Someone wants an envelope that Anne Carroway is hiding and we need to track it down soon.
  • Anne is in imminent danger. We need to find her soon. I am hoping that her calling in sick today was her knowing to hide.
  • I am not sure if the pendant is a macguffin or a key item in this investigation. Holmes seems interested in tracking down Blackwood’s fence, but I don’t quite see why yet. We might want to recover the lost property, I suppose.
  • James is dimwitted, but once I prove that Sarah is dead, he will help me locate Anne. He has to know where her new address is, right?


Time played: 3 hr 15 min
Total time: 12 hr 45 min
Inventory: message requesting help, business cards, iron bar, perfume bottle, pink carnation, card, sample of powder, cigarette butts, analysis results, a brass key, a large key, opera tickets, a note to enter Anna’s dressing room, cufflinks, wire hook, feather, Catarrh Preparation, serrated scalpel, bloody smock, leash, hammer, rope, wet rag, La Cote de Azur perfume

Missed Classic 48: Elves ‘87 (aka The Elf’s Christmas Adventure) (1987)

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Written by Joe Pranevich


Merry Christmas! Can you believe this is our fourth Christmas since the relaunch? It’s also our fourth look at classic Christmas adventure games. Thus far we have looked at 1984’s Merry Christmas from Melbourne House and A Spell of Christmas Ice, plus 1986’s Crisis at Christmas. Holiday games are a special bunch; except Merry Christmas, they have all been produced by smaller developers. They have also been a global bunch, having been produced in Australia, England, and Scotland. Our next game will continue both of those traditions: Elves ‘87 (subtitled God Bless Frosty the Snowman!), a fantastic Christmas tale written in Nova Scotia by independent software designers Bruce MacKay and Marlene Abriel and distributed on their short-lived Atari ST BBS, “Burned Out Adventurers!” (or “BOA!” for short).

This is also a game with a unique history, pulled along by the friendly competition between adventure authoring systems. Although Bruce and Marlene did not intend the game to be commercial (instead a springboard to subsequent game ideas that they were brewing), it was unofficially ported and re-released as an advertisement (and sample code) for David Malmberg’s “Adventure Game Toolkit”, a rival development system. That release, retitled The Elf’s Christmas Adventure, is the one that I suspect most players are familiar with.

This Christmas marks the 30th anniversary of Elves ‘87 and I can think of no more fitting time to dig in and explore this piece of holiday cheer. So, spike some eggnog and pull up a chair by the fire, it’s time for a Christmas adventure!

Visit beautiful Halifax! (Photo by Tony Webster)

To start the story of Elves ‘87, we have to start before the beginning. In 1986, David Betz, a programmer best known for writing XLISP, a popular freeware LISP compiler, released “AdvSys” an adventure game authoring system. AdvSys, like the MIT-developed Infocom interpreter, was based around LISP as that language seemed especially suited for the types of challenges inherent in processing human text. (Having never developed anything in LISP myself, I am not quite sure why. I hope someone here and chime in and enlighten us.) This new system happened to support the Atari ST, the platform of choice for some aspiring game developers outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Enter Bruce MacKay and Marlene Abriel. In June 1986, they started work on Elves (later called Elves ‘86), a holiday-themed game based on AdvSys that they could share with their friends in the local Atari users group and perhaps even post to USENET. Bruce was a self-taught programmer, working part-time to port Citadel BBS to Solaris, a popular UNIX variant, for the Bedford Institute of Oceanography. Bruce was also a consummate BBS-er and spent countless hours (and dollars) dialing long distance to remote systems back in the day before they were all connected via the Internet. He eventually set up a Citadel BBS of his own (running on an Atari ST), “BOA!” or “Burned Out Adventurers!”. Bruce and Marlene collaborated on the game, with the latter contributing most of the story and prose of the game, while Bruce worked on the technical underpinnings. By Christmas that year, Elves was just a toy, a “pretty boring” game by Bruce’s own admission, where you could run around and interact with some objects. They considered the game a flop, but not everyone agreed. In Bruce’s words:
I think it was the '86 version that found its way to California. One December evening just as I sat down for dinner, I received a phone call from Neil Harris, then Product Marketing Manager for Atari. He just wanted to say thanks for the game and to let us know that everyone in their office was playing it and having a good laugh. You have to remember that this was the '80s. No internet. We were in shock that anyone that far away would have seen the game, much less taken the time to get in touch. I suspect Neil had my number because I was registered in their developer program. I don't remember how it would have gone public, perhaps Atari had a BBS that I might have uploaded it to, or maybe I put the files on USENET's comp.atari.st feed.
Around this point, Bruce had also started running Elves as a “door game” on his BBS, a game that anyone logged into the BBS could play through their terminal software. This would later serve as the inspiration for a never-completed second game, but more on that in a bit. Of course, BOA BBS only supported a single phone line so the number of people that could play the game that was was limited, even if they were willing to call long-distance.


Over the next several months, Bruce and Marlene continued to update and improve Elves, to make it the game that they envisioned. They considered porting it to a different authoring system, or even to try and write an engine from scratch, but two events pushed them to stay with AdvSys: in April, Bruce discovered an updated runtime for the system while doing some very long-distance BBSing to Minneapolis, and then the following month, David Betz had a feature about his system in the pages of Byte magazine. With better documentation and sample code, Bruce was able to build libraries that supported the features he wanted in his game. With a more solid foundation, work resumed on Elves ‘87 in earnest that August.

Even with new features and improved documentation, expanding the game was a slog. Time and again, Bruce and Marlene hit resource limits or bugs which prevented them from advancing. Bruce had to invent a new system that he called “floors” to allow the engine to swap in and out items, to get around size restrictions. By the time the game was complete for Christmas, the pair had built the game all the way up to the system’s limits: it could support no new objects, no new synonyms, and they had to remove a handful of things at the last minute to squeak under the wire. That is the version that I will be playing for this review.

In the months that followed, Bruce and Marlene started work on their sequel project, Inca. Marlene had begun the background research, but the vision was to produce a multiplayer text adventure (similar to a MUD) and that simply wasn’t possible with the technology available to them. Before long, both developers moved on from gaming. Bruce transitioned into general software engineering (and eventually IT) while Marlene became a database administrator for a local hospital. Marlene unfortunately passed away a few years later. The Elves ‘87’s story doesn’t quite end there as it will be adopted and ported to create The Elf’s Christmas Adventure, but I’ll talk about that more after my review.


This is the first of our Christmas games that appears to involve (at least if the subtitle is accurate) a character that I loved in my youth: Frosty the Snowman. Frosty, like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, was a product of American commercialism and the power of advertising. The character originated in the “Frosty the Snowman” song, written by Walter Rollins and Steve Nelson. Both artists were accomplished country musicians with Mr. Rollins having previously found success with the Easter-themed “Here Comes Peter Cottontail”. The song was recorded by Gene Autry, country music superstar of the 1930s through the 1950s. Mr. Autry had a repertoire of holiday music as well, including not only Frosty and Rudolph, but also “Here Comes Santa Claus” and others.


Both the song and an associated story book (in the “Little Golden Book” series) were released in time for Christmas 1950. Frosty arguably would become more famous thanks to the trilogy of films created by Rankin/Bass Productions: Frosty the Snowman (1969), Frosty’s Winter Wonderland (1976), and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979). (The last of which is a fairly Avengers-esque teamup of Rankin/Bass’s two most famous Christmas icons.) There were also two additional Frosty films created (in 1992 and 2005) by the successor rights holders to the character, although not in the original films’ continuity. I doubt that the writers of this game were thinking about any of that when they were putting it together, even less so that Frosty was a licensed character. We’ll see how (and if) Frosty makes an appearance in the game itself.

Enough of that! Let’s play the game!

I’ve heard of contagious yawns… but sneezes?

We start the game in an octagon-shaped room filled with identical sneezing elves. Well… that’s one way to start the game! We are immediately told that we are a retired elf, among the oldest and wisest, and we have been summoned to the North Pole to help save Christmas. Despite the fact that we are in a room with eight sides, some trial and error shows that we can only head west to arrive inside of the elves’ bunkhouse at Santa’s Workshop at the North Pole. Whatever teleportation got us here was one-way since I can’t get back to where I came from by heading east.

I explore my surroundings and there is a ton to see: a mirror, a dresser, a closet to the south, and more. Working my way through the dresser, I find a lantern of “elfish” design in the top drawer. Score one for a Zork reference right off the bat! (Although in Zork, it is the sword that is elvish, not the lamp.) The middle and bottom drawers are locked and I’ll need to find the key. I enter the walk-in closet and there’s no light switch so I have to turn on my lamp. Inside is a parka which I put on, after some initial confusion. There is no “wear’ verb in this game and so picking it up is the same as wearing it. Being the seasoned adventure gamer that I am, I root through the pockets to discover a gold key in the left pocket and a brass key in the right. Very convenient!

I start trying the keys and the brass key immediately breaks in the lock on the middle drawer. Is this the kind of adventure with dead ends? Probably. I restore and don’t use it in that drawer, but it does successfully open the bottom drawer where I find “idiot mittens” and long johns. The latter are far too big for an elf, but I won’t question how Santa’s underwear ended up in an elf’s dresser. The “idiot” mittens are like the ones that you little kids wear, with a string connecting the two mittens so that they cannot be easily dropped or lost. I had to look up this definition so it may be a regional term.

My map of the North Pole

Rather than walk through every room as I come to it, let me give you the rough flavor of what I encountered in the workshop:
  • The main workshop room was just to the west of the elves’ bunkhouse. That’s where all of the hard-working elves are building gifts for all the good little girls and boys. It also seems to be the center of the complex. There are a ton of items listed in the room description, most of which I cannot pick up, but I do manage to snag a pile of toys.
  • Just to the west is Santa’s garage where the sled is presumably kept. I cannot seem to get the door open (and the game insists there is no door), but there is one of those white styrofoam coolers in there containing some beer. After I open it, I get a message in a few turns that our beer got warm. No one wants warm beer! Just in case I screwed something up, I restore and leave the beer there untouched for now.
  • South of the workshop is gift-wrapping, where all the presents get the fancy wrapping and bows. Like before, there are tons of objects references in the description, but I am only able to pick up some cheap plastic poinsettias and some “To/From” cards.
  • Further south from there is Santa’s personal office. There is a ton of unread mail there (which I can pick up but not open), an Atari ST computer with a weather report calling for dense fog, as well as a locked desk and filing cabinet. The gold key from the parka works in the desk but I’ll have to keep looking to find a way to open the filing cabinet.

These days, an Atari ST can most easily be found in a museum. (Image by Ranma, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Inside Santa’s desk is what may be a key item: Egbert’s diary. Egbert, it seems, was an elf from a few years back that documented his life at the North Pole and the secrets that he discovered. Every time you read from the diary, you turn to a random page. I found a few entries before they started to repeat:
  • October 5, 1871 - Reveal of a Penguin Colony in the Antarctic with some important items and the recommendation that you never go there without a map.
  • December 24, 1871 - The most perfect Christmas Eve on record.
  • December 12, 1873 - Explanation of how Santa fits into the chimneys. He has the ability to shrink and blow by filling himself (or draining himself) of air like a balloon.
  • December 3, 1899 - Explanation of how Santa’s sack works. It’s matter-to-energy transmission to another dimension, of course. That should have been obvious. (Or maybe you just thought it was a Bag of Holding?)
  • February 1, 1901 - The elves just finished a month of vacation and have to resume working for next Christmas.
  • December 15, 1901 - Explanation of how Santa visits all the kids in one night. It’s because he lives in a higher energy sphere, able to move at 36,000 times the speed of an elf.

Now, how much of this is important and how much is flavor text? I honestly have no idea. The bit about the Penguin Colony seems suspiciously like it’s a hint, plus the note about another dimension if you try to enter Santa’s sack. I’ll be on the lookout for both the sack and an Antarctic map or penguin.

Now, let me backtrack a bit and talk about the parser. Overall, the parser isn’t terrible. It supports full sentences but not as robustly as the Infocom one. We cannot use pronouns, “wear” things, or “look under” them, for a few examples. Figuring out what you can interact with is a chore. The gift wrapping room listed tons of items and yet I can only pick up two and most of the time the game doesn’t even know the words for the others. In the main workshop, I lose a sentence or two of the room description because it scrolls off the screen before I can see it. It may have been slower on an Atari ST, but some pagination would have been nice. I should also mention that the game makes use of Canadian English terms which I had never heard before. Did you know that a “two-four” of beer is a 24-pack, for example? I already mentioned the “idiot mittens” as well, but there were a few other places where the noun seemed a bit strange; I am sure this reflects some regional terms that I hadn’t heard before. I blame this on our Halifax-based development team, but it really wasn’t too much of a problem.

Fun Fact: The North Pole at Christmas is approximately -40 degrees Celsius.

Scattered around the Workshop are three additional structures, all arranged around a circular soapstone path:
  • South of the Workshop is Santa’s personal cabin, a gingerbread house. Outside is a thermometer showing the current temperature to be 10 degrees Celsius. That is too warm for Christmas at the North Pole! Santa is inside, running around drinking mixed drinks that he’s making in a blender and searching for a belt to hold up his pants. The image is… charming, to say the least. He asks us repeatedly for a belt so I expect that is one of the puzzles. I don’t have a belt, but I do manage to steal Santa’s blender.
  • A runway is to the west, complete with a reindeer barn. Unfortunately, it’s not designed for warm-weather operation and so it’s too muddy. Even worse, I discover Rudolph ill in the reindeer barn, his nose completely failing to glow.
  • At the farthest end of the runway, whatever warming is affecting the North Pole seems to begin to fade and there is just enough snow to make a snowman. Naturally, I do! He doesn’t come magically to life.
  • In the far north is, naturally enough, the North Pole although there’s nothing obvious yet to see or do there.

The reindeer barn has an “interesting” feature. When you enter the barn, it’s just empty. It is not until you “search” the barn that you get an interesting message: “Odd that you didn’t notice the enormous set of double doors leading to the northeast into the corral.” I can’t say that I like this much because I only typed “search” because I wanted to see if there was something hidden in the straw or whatever. From here, I go back and type “search” in every room just to make sure there’s isn’t a similar “joke” anywhere else, but I do not find any.

I have explored everywhere that I can find to explore, so I set off to solve some of the puzzles. At this point, my key leads are the middle drawer in the dresser, the filing cabinet in Santa’s Workshop, the cooler with the beer, and Santa’s belt. In all of this, I managed to leave my lantern on so I had to restart the game anyway and that gave me a chance to look over it all again. Giving Santa the beer didn’t help, even if I dragged the cooler there so it would be cold on arrival. Nothing I do seems to help Rudolph or to make “Frosty” come to life. I struggle for a bit with the mittens to see if I can get the string out, possibly to give them to Santa as a belt, but no good.

Just as I am about to give up and take a hint, restarting reminds me of the octagon room and how I never got back there. This time, I notice the mirror in the elves’ bunkhouse and try to enter it. Is that how I got here? It works and I am transported to a much colder winter wonderland: the South Pole.

This is hard to read, but single walls are passages and double walls are deadly.

We emerge at the South Pole next to an ice door. Exploring around, we realize that we are surrounded by two mazes: a traditional “drop items to map” maze and a complicated path through a series of ice floes to the north. Picking the wrong exit in each room plops you into the frozen water so it’s not recommended. Behind the ice door is a dead end, with a little joke that every adventure game has to have one. “Searching” there nets me a map of the floes-- including several rooms marked with asterisks-- which I appreciate very much.

The ice floe area is also the area with the biggest surprise of the game so far: Percival the Penguin. Up to this point, every character in the game has been static, no more of a character than a light fixture. Percival is different, a scripted character that randomly walks around the ice floes, occasionally stops to fish or to give us a nice little kick, and-- if you keep following him for long enough-- he gets pissed at you and knocks you in a random direction where you are almost certain to die. All in all, he is pretty well-written, even given only a few bits of dialog. He’s the most “mature” aspect of the game so far. He also has pockets in his tuxedo which I cannot seem to access (since the game mistakes me asking about the pockets in my parka) and is happy to (permanently) take any object that I hand him. I spend a good amount of time trying to find some object that he will react to, I take off the parka and try to access his pockets that way (but die of exposure in the cold), and try to survive being kicked and find him again to see if he does something differently. In the end, I had to give up for now.

Percival aside, exploring the floes rewards me with two special rooms (the ones marked with asterisks): a crystal garden where I can find a magical locked orb containing an ice flower, as well as a “Great Ice Hall” where I can find an “old silk hat”. When I am ready to leave, I have to take the northeast exit which somehow returns me back to where I started from. I take the mirror back to Santa’s Workshop.

Alas, no Penguin Village. I was hoping to meet Arale.

Back at the workshop, I bee-line to Frosty and put the hat on his head. He wakes up and starts to walk around! I follow him for a while, but he seems to just be moving randomly in and around the workshop. I get excited when he walks to Santa’s room or the North Pole, but I do not find any room that has a scripted event when he arrives. What am I supposed to do with him? I give him items, but none of them do anything except permanently go away and then I have to restore.

I return to trying to solve puzzles, eventually realizing that the brass key (for the elves dresser) amazingly opens the orb and I can remove the ice flower that is inside. That hardly makes sense, but sure. I try planting it at the North Pole, giving it to Santa, giving it to Frosty or the Penguin, etc. Nothing seems to do anything.


After struggling for some time and not getting any farther, I remembered that Christmas doesn’t wait around. It was time to take a hint, but in this case there wasn’t anyone (other than Bruce) to ask. Instead, the distribution of Elves ‘87 that I downloaded had the original source code in a readable LISP-like language. With apologies to anyone that was hoping I was going to solve this on my own, let me walk you through the final puzzles:
  • The first puzzle you are supposed to solve is Santa’s belt. In this case, I was right on thinking that the mittens’ string had something to do with it, but I was using the wrong verbs. If you “untie mittens”, you remove the string and can hand it to Santa. He then thanks us and reveals why he summoned us here: we have to get Rudolph’s nose to glow because of all of the fog. I should have figured this out and feel dumb now that I missed the verb.
  • The next step was that I missed some pages in the diary that I found in Santa’s workshop. One of the pages that I missed said that if Rudolph’s nose ever stopped glowing, I can solve it using a potion made of pureed poinsettia blended with the first snowflake of Christmas Eve. I don’t have either of those items, but I do have a blender. I didn’t try reading the diary enough times after the pages started to repeat.
  • Frosty is the solution to my poinsettia problem: once he is brought to life, he will bring the plastic poinsettias to life if you hand them to him. That is the only object that he will do anything productive with and I do not think this was hinted anywhere. I had given him a TON of objects to see what would happen, but I must have missed this one. I figure out on my own that you can use the blender to create poinsettia juice from the plant.


We saved Christmas! Again!

The “final” puzzle is the hardest. Everything else I could have solved by being more careful or thorough, but this one… I doubt it. The trick is that we have to make the North Pole cold again so that snow falls. How do we do it? By using the thermometer and the cooler. Yes, you place the thermometer in the cooler and it gets colder so, somehow, the environment gets colder. Once it’s in there for a few turns, it starts to snow and you can collect the first fallen snowflake-- even if you are indoors at the time! You put it in the blender and take it to Rudolph and we win!

Time played: 4 hr 05 min

OMG! An actual title screen!

The Remake

Before moving on to the final review, I’d like to pause for a second to take a deeper look at the remake. (Don’t worry! I’ve already jotted down my scores so that it won’t bias me in any way.) I reached out to Mr. Malmberg and he doesn’t have any strong recollections of the update, only that he felt that the original was a very good game. (And I agree!)

The history of the remake is somewhat tricky to piece together, but it started in 1989 when David Malmberg took the original AdvSys source and ported it to his “Adventure Gamer Toolkit” under the name The Elf’s Adventure. I have not looked at that version in specific, but it may have been the more common version pre-Internet as I find a review of it as late as 1993 in Red Herring magazine. In 1992, with the release of the Master’s Edition of the Adventure Game Toolkit, Mr. Malmberg took another pass at the game to produce The Elf’s Christmas Adventure and included the source with copies of the Master’s Edition that he sold through Softworks. This is the version that I just finished playing. At some point prior to 1994, subsequent iterations of the “Master’s Edition” stopped including the Christmas Adventure as one of the sample games.

The remake was explicitly designed as a technical demo, to show off how much more powerful AGT was than its predecessors. Even so, you can tell there is a lot of love that went into this conversion, done by someone that knew the game fairly well. Many of my interface issues have been resolved, with room descriptions clarified and an easier time telling what you can interact with and what you cannot. There are also more verbs, including that we can “wear” the parka now, and exits are easier to find. The layout and interface makes good use of color and the game plays some tinny PC-speaker-style Christmas music to keep you in the mood. I managed to keep it on for almost five minutes before hitting “mute”. The introduction is clearer with more help to guide a novice adventurer. The most egregious addition is that there is now a sign just outside Santa’s Workshop that is a three-page advertisement for the “Master’s Edition”. Commercialism at Christmas!? Blasphemy! Overall however, this is a more mature product.

A note in the game materials also stated that David Malmberg wrote a solution for this game, selling it for “no charge” plus $1 in shipping. I reached out to Mr. Malmberg and unfortunately he no longer has copies of this solution. If anyone purchased one back when the game was new, I would love to see it.

A newly written help system.

Even a menu mode!

While the focus of this review is not on the AGT system, I was especially impressed by the optional “menu mode”. When this is turned on, all navigation and commands are done through a menu selection system rather than by being typed in. It even provides lists of objects in each room that you can interact with. It was a nice touch and while my own text adventure-playing is still back in the mid 1980s, it’s nice to see that the form was evolving. We’ve seen an almost identical system in Spellcasting 101 and other Legend Entertainment games, but I had not realized the form also appeared in purely text games. There is also an option to play in a “graphical” mode that permitted you to change the size of the text.

Gameplay-wise, the story works out mostly the same. It is clear that AdvSys still had some advantages over AGT as my two favorite interactive-characters from the former, Percival the Penguin and Frosty, are much less interactive this time around. Percy now stays with you throughout the ice floes, rather than wandering around himself. Frosty is now completely stationary at the end of the runway, a sad testament for a snowman that likes to dance around! Puzzle-wise, it appears that they realized the final puzzle was a bit too tough and offered an alternative: the ice flower in the orb is now a poinsettia and I suspect you can use it for the final concoction, although I did not try that myself. Everything else appears to play out identically.

As much as anything else, this has convinced me that I need to spend more time learning about text adventure builders of the 1980s and 1990s. I have indirectly reviewed several (AdvSys, The Quill, and Tartan’s Adventure Builder System) and the differences are fascinating in terms what they were were trying to accomplish. AGT’s “Master Edition” is by far the most mature of the several that I looked at, although it is also chronologically the latest.

The updated ending scene. Note the old version name.

Final Rating

Now that I’ve played it, we come to the difficult part: the rating. I’ve let the game stew for a couple of days and so I think I can be objective. The truth is, this is a tremendously promising game and a fantastic freshman effort. In the end, I think the designers were let down by the poor quality of the parser more than anything else and much of the time they could have used for polish and playtesting instead went to trying to work around parser bugs and limitations. Just a few more hints here, a few more alternate verbs, and a bit more work on some of the prose and this would have been a commercial-grade effort. As it was, it was still quite good.

Just a reminder that we forego our usual “PISSED” rating system for the suspiciously-similar holiday themed rating system: “EGGNOG”. And for new readers, keep in mind that we are scoring against an idealized graphical adventure game. A “low” score doesn’t mean a failing grade, especially with text adventures already being handicapped by not having graphics.

Enigmas and Solution-Findability - There is a ton of good ideas here, but the reach exceeds their grasp somewhat. The setup of the game was creative and the ice floes are a fantastic take on a maze; I could easily have imagined that in an Infocom game. I also loved the diary as a way to hint at the puzzles, although I was unlucky and missed one or two of the critical pages. I score this category low for two reasons: first, that I do not believe this game to be solvable in its current state and second, that there are too many “fake” puzzles that don’t go anywhere. The first is just a polish issue as a hint here or a clarification there would have gone a long way. Was there any hint to the thermostat puzzle? To Frosty’s transmogrifying powers? What was up with the ice flower? Or Percival and his many pockets? So many good idea, but they needed a bit more time. My score: 2.

A diary page about Santa’s incredible balloon powers.

Game UI and Items - The AdvSys parser is decent, although by 1987 not quite up to commercial standards. It’s obvious both from the source and from speaking to Mr. MacKay that it wasn’t up to the task of a game that was as complicated as this one or with as many moving parts. In the end, there are just too many missing verbs and phrasings that the game does not understand. My score: 2.

Gameworld and Story - Here’s where the game starts to shine: the diary is fantastic! It would have been nice for a bit more hand-holding to get you started in the game since I didn’t even solve the “first” puzzle to fully understand the story, but that is probably as much my fault as the game’s. I wish there had been more to Frosty and Percival. My favorite aspect was one that was in the diary entries that I missed: there is a suggestion that Christmas troubles are somewhat cyclic. We are dealing with Rudolph II (or III?), for example, as the previous generations once had the same problem and the original Rudolph was from the 19th century. I just wish that the rest of the game incorporated this brilliant backstory a bit better, and had it connect to the South Pole puzzles or something else. My score: 3.

Noises and Pretty Pixels - I loved the ASCII-art map, but there’s no other graphics to speak of so we have to give this category the same score as every other text adventure. My score: 0.

Overworld and Environs - The authors depict a great little Christmas world complete with cute explanations for some of Santa’s secrets. I also am particularly fond of the South Pole segment and the whole thing manages to feel like a Christmas game. My score: 3.

Gregariousness and Thespianism - The prose was decent throughout and I especially loved how much personality they could get out of Pervival with only a few lines of code. This category takes a hit because there just isn’t much NPC dialog, except a few lines from Santa about his belt. I would have loved to have Frosty talk, for instance. My score: 3.

I am going to use my discretionary point to add one more because the above doesn’t quite feel like it captures the true charm of this game. It’s nicer than it should be and it’s just that it is a bit too difficult (or incomplete) to really be all that it could be. Let’s tally it up: (2+2+3+0+3+3)/.6 + 1 = 23 points!


That places it just under last year’s Crisis at Christmas, but that’s a fantastic placing for a first-time developer working on tools that just weren’t good enough. I would love to travel back in time and see what they could have accomplished with a more mature parser. It’s always dangerous to play “what if”, but it seems to me that both Bruce and Marlene were competent game designers and might have easily found a spot in that industry had they have been based in Boston, for example, rather than Halifax. Bruce in particular seemed to have a real talent for learning and improving complex systems; I hope he made use of that in his future career. I can’t help but feel that I’m grading this game low but I don’t see any obvious scores to change. It certainly is sticking with me more than previous Christmas games have.

The 1992 remake would have scored better on the puzzles thanks to clearer room and object descriptions, user interface, and the additional of the background music. I would have scored that a 27.

I hope you enjoyed this look at a fantastic Christmas adventure. I had a ton of fun. I especially want to thank Bruce MacKay who provided me an insane amount of information for us to use in my write-up, as well as David Malmberg who was kind enough to answer a few questions. I look forward to seeing what kinds of Christmas mischief we can get ourselves into next year. Merry Christmas!

Missed Classic: Cyborg - Feeding the Machine

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Written by Voltgloss

Apologies to all for the delay in continuing our Cyborgian adventures. Rather than dwell on the issues driving those delays, let’s dive back in where we left off:


 
Our map from last time.

With light source (matches) in hand, we head off to our clearest lead: that dark area in the northwest corner of the map. This brings us to a “detoxification chamber,” where a sign informs us to “press the touchplate” in order to “cycle detoxification procedure.” But trying to do so has no effect; our computer half suggests we are lacking “the proper ID.” There’s also a partition to the north, but we can’t seem to walk through it or open it. And then when we go to leave, apparently our match went out without my noticing and we unceremoniously die in the dark. Well, that’s an auspicious start.


Reloading, I decide to ask our computer half for assistance. With the command “HELP” I can ask its opinion on things in our inventory or that we can see… or on our present location. Cycling through our inventory, though, doesn’t offer any sort of useful insight. I tour around the locations we’ve visited but again our machine half is of no real help. All the while, our “bio level” is steadily ticking down, with more and more dire warnings. Finally, when bio level reaches 500, I get a “hunger level critical” message and the game unceremoniously ends, wishing me “better luck next time.” Well, thanks for nothing game!


An example of our machine half’s idea of “help.” TREES TREES TREES TREES TREES TREES


I was actually stuck here for quite some time. Nothing feels quite more annoying than being stuck early in a game, confined to a small potential solution space, with what feels like an exhausted supply of options. Eventually, and to move things along, I broke down and checked the early parts of a walkthrough to figure out what I was missing. I discovered two things:
  1. The food that the lizard wants (from our starting location) is the dead insects by the electric fence. That makes sense. But I tried to pick those up and couldn’t! Turns out there’s apparently a bug (har har) in some Apple II versions that doesn’t LET you pick up the insects, so you can’t feed the lizard and learn what he has to say. Thankfully, I’m assured by the walkthrough that this isn’t a necessary step. But it leaves a bad taste in my mouth (har har)
  2. To get the string looped around the trees, I need to cut it. ...Cut it? Cut it with what? I don’t know, but I wander over and yup, we can cut it just fine and I now have “string in pieces” as an item. What’s going on here? With some experimentation and reloading I realize that I’m using my microlaser to cut the string. (Not that the game says this, but if I don’t have the laser, I can’t cut it.) Well… that would have been a really helpful thing for the game, or my computer half, to tell me I could do upon scanning the laser or asking for help about it.
Well, anyway, we now have “string in pieces.” What can we do with that? I try to repair it with “tie string” and get an OK message. Checking my inventory I realize I’ve done a lot more than fix the string… I now have “laced sneakers” as an item. Oh, the sneakers didn’t have laces? That also would have been nice to be told! And now I can wear them. Does THIS help me any? Touring the world again (and reloading after I inevitably die of hunger), I discover that I can now enter the “wooden-floored room” where a force field had kept me out before. Turns out it’s a gymnasium. I guess you can’t go in the gymnasium without proper footwear.


Proper gym attire is important.

At the south end of the gym where we came in, there’s a “massive cabinet” making strange noise and leaking steam. I can’t seem to open it, but asking my computer half for help finally bears fruit: it comments that rungs lead up its side. Climbing up, I find a hatch that I use to get inside. It’s dark, but our matches give us light; we find a set of lenses and a “mini-droid.” I nab both and retreat out before the steam inside does us any more damage. The droid’s purpose isn’t clear (other than that it seems to fit in our shoulder harness… I guess without the harness we couldn’t pick it up), but the lenses I can wear; they apparently have “infrared and other features.” I sense another grand tour in my near future, to see what the lenses could reveal for us.

Exploring further, I map out the rest of the gym. The west side has another exit, with links back to the previously blocked exit over by the detoxification chamber. The north side has bleachers with which I can’t seem to interact. The east side is empty. And both the north and east sides tell me I feel a draft coming from the roof in the center of the gym. In the center I find rings suspended on ropes overhead. We’re apparently quite fit as going up has us effortlessly scale those ropes, to a trapdoor overhead. But the trapdoor seems rusted shut or is otherwise beyond our strength to open; shooting or cutting it has no effect either.

Before making a grand tour with the lenses, I resolve to try a cutting spree as well (now that I know my laser does this). First I try my inventory, and am surprised when cutting the plastic cube slices a seam in it! And inside is an ID card! Perhaps now I can activate some of the machines I’ve been finding in the corridors outside the forest area. OK, let’s backtrack! (After reloading to stave off hunger, of course.)


The preferred solution for all intricate puzzles.

First stop: the vending machine. My ID goes in the slot and an apple bounces out! Chowing down boosts our bio level by 500. Hooray, immediate starvation averted! A second try informs us the machine is empty. Moving over to the nearby partition, our ID again gets us through… but this is disappointing as we find ourselves back at the cubicle where we found the black plastic cube. Although maybe that’s not so bad, as this allows us to retrieve the stepladder (that we previously couldn’t remove from its area as we needed it to climb back over the electric fence). Retrieving my ID each time (it gets ejected onto the floor after each use), I return to the detoxification station to test that. And as I arrive, our droid suddenly speaks up, telling me to “try the plate!” Maybe this is another built-in hint source? I touch the plate but get the same “don’t have the proper ID” message; after tinkering around a bit I realize we can also wear the ID, whereupon touching the plate cleanses us with antiseptic mist and opens a door to the north. Onward!

We find ourselves at the top of a zero-gravity chute leading down into darkness. Heading down one floor there’s a hatch leading into ventilation ducts, but most of those are too narrow to enter and I can’t seem to do anything useful there. Down two floors we find a network of corridors with colored stripes heading off in four directions: red (NW), yellow (N), green (NE), and blue (S). Experimenting, I discover that this entire area is dark and our infrared lenses are letting us see. Let’s see where each stripe leads us. I’ll address red last for… reasons… but here’s a quick description of the other three:
  • The yellow stripe leads to a sickbay, with medical supplies scattered about and a latched and locked tall glass cylinder. There’s also a chem lab that seems to have suffered an explosion; I pick up an empty beaker here and find a ruptured pipe leaking “liquid oxygen that boils in a puddle.” My droid comments “Kaboom!” and I decide to leave quickly. We also pass a grill on the wall here, which my machine half says has a lifeform behind it; but there’s no obvious way to open it.
  • The green stripe leads to a hydroponics lab with a bunch of smashed tanks. We find one surviving peach to eat, giving us another bio level boost. There’s also a ripped-out wall section exposing a bunch of loose cables, along with a bunch of wire we can take with us.
  • The blue stripe leads up a ladder into a domed room through which we can see stars. The edges of the room present a small exit through which we can’t fit, but beyond which we can see a “small, white room with rows of hooks on the wall”; a button for cycling the airlock; and an observation bubble where we can see another planet, “definitely not Earth.” Seems the way to exit the… yes, clearly a spaceship that we’re on; but without proper precautions and gear, exiting to space seems unwise.

As the game tells us if we cycle the airlock: “Oops! Vacuum City!”

And what about that red stripe? That leads us to a high steel wall - which our machine half recommends we try getting to the top of, but no clear means to do so exists. The stripe bends north and south from there as well. Heading south we find a “trip balance,” a set of scales with a “power crystal” on it. Seems important, but just grabbing it proves lethal as the scales go out of balance and we get blasted by a hidden laser. Do we have anything that could balance the scales? Some experimentation reveals… that we can place ANY object here (the matches, the remains of the black cube, the ultrafiche, etc.) and safely take the crystal; we just need to leave at least one object here to keep the scales weighted down. I leave behind the cut-open cube assuming it won’t be helpful later, and move on with power crystal in hand.


The ancients did it better. These new-fangled future scales weigh everything the same.

What about following the stripe north? That leads to a damaged cabin with… an ultrafiche reader! Maybe now we can read our ultrafiche to find out what’s going on? But getting the reader to work is fiddly. There’s two slots and no clear means of using the thing. I try “inserting” the ultrafiche, which gets an OK response, but I can’t “read” it or “use reader.” Asking my machine half for help prompts me to “try ‘activating’ the reader,” but doing that tells me nothing happens and suggests maybe the reader is broken. I spend a while here before realizing… the reader has two slots. Is it waiting for me to insert something else? And what else have I been inserting in other places? My ID! Inserting the ID and the ultrafiche finally lets me “activate” the reader:


I wonder if these were Oo-Topan aliens.

The story seems clear now. *We* are the cyborg captain of the ship, and it’s our job to fix the thing and land it safely. This seems a logical stopping point but there’s one last thing I want to try first before ending this post… can our stepladder get us up and over the high wall? Turns out it can! And that leads to an area full of controls, viewscreens, switches, and dials. Our machine help comments this must be the bridge. There’s a switch for an auto-landing sequence with a flashing red light; but throwing it does nothing (yet). I suspect we’ll first need to resolve the three issues I see on nearby viewscreens:
  • A “berserk” cleaning robot wandering around;
  • A  hull breach in the cargo hold; and
  • Rows of “sleepers” - our precious cargo, presumably of humans.

Nearby is a dial with two clear and helpful settings: “sleep” and “wake.” The dial is currently on “sleep” and, once other threats are resolved, will I’m sure need to be set to “wake.” But the dial is broken and does nothing when turned; my machine half comments that it needs some parts. Our machine half tells us that the power crystal’s shape indicates that it goes in the dial, so that’s one part; but I can’t seem to fix the dial with just the crystal, so there must be more to gather.

So… deal with a berserk robot; fix a hull breach; and fix a dial to wake up our cargo. All in a day’s work for Captain Cyborg. And that day… will be the next post. For now, I’ll leave things off in the bridge, surrounded by blinking and beeping switches, lights, and knobs.


Blinking and beeping and beeping and blinking and I CAN’T STAND IT ANYMORE
THEY’RE BEEPING THEY’RE BLINKING AND… I’m all right. I’m all right.

Inventory: ID card, pack of matches (12 left), ultrafiche, empty beaker, bunch of wire, microlaser (worn), laced sneakers (worn), mini-droid on harness (worn), set of lenses (worn)

Cyborg level: 918
Damage %: 21
Bio level: 1128

Time played: 3 hr 50 mi

Missed Classic 49: Return to Eden - Introduction (1984)

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By Ilmari

It's time for our annual change of the year game, played through the final week of 2017 until New Year. This time, I shall take a look at Return to Eden, a sequel to Snowball by British text adventure company Level 9. Since Snowball has been the most intriguing game of the company, I have high expectations of this one. Sure, the previous Level 9 game I played, Lords of Time, wasn’t really my cup of tea, but I’m blaming the rookie game developer. Now, the Austin brothers, who founded Level 9, are back in charge and hopefully will beat their previous high score of 31.

Is that a futuristic guitar? If so, is he a space hippy?


   
 Like here

The story continues immediately from the end of Snowball. As you might recall, that game told a tale of an EEC sleeper ship Snowball, so named because it was essentially built into a huge ball of ice. The ship was meant to fly to binary star system Eridani A and especially its planet Eden. One of the few humans awake on Snowball had some kind of nervous breakdown, killed her colleagues and directed the ship toward one of the suns of Eden. Fortunately, the ship awakened a special operative, Kim Kimberely, who killed the saboteur and changed the course of the ship back to Eden.

Eventually the rest of the frozen crew woke up and started to wonder what on Eridani had happened. The video records appeared to show Kim throwing a bomb to the control room. Verdict: guilty. Punishment: getting thrown out of airlock. Kim didn’t just want to accept her death penalty, so she escaped with a lifeboat and landed on Eden. This is where the game begins.

The manual of the game goes a little bit farther in describing the setting or the planet Eden. Before the sleeper ship, EEC (former name of Europan Union) had sent to Eden robot-manned ships, which have been busy mining the Eridani system and building new starships meant for the future generations of humans in Eden. On Eden, the robots had built a city called Enoch, meant for the upcoming settlers. Surprisingly, the indigenous flora and fauna of Eden didn’t like the intruders and became hostile. The robots couldn’t just pulverize the planet with nuclear weapons and poison gas, because that would have the world uninhabitable for humans. Instead, they built a wall around Enoch, which meant a sort of stalemate in the war between nature and technology.

All of this sounds quite intriguing, let’s see what the game is like! Note that Return to Eden is the first Level 9 game, in which the original version of the game already had graphics. This means that I’ll be discarding the text-only versions I used to play with a BBC emulator and only use a C64 emulator.





The game begun, when I had just crashed my stratoglider on the surface of Eden. After couple of turns, I heard something.

Kim Kimberley, you are guilty of murder. Your sentence will now be carried out. Prepare to die.

After some more turns, Snowball fired its engines toward me and I died. Now that’s how you begin a game!

I restarted and began mapping the immediate surroundings. My stratoglider consisted of three screens, one of them being a cupboard with a load of items: radsuit, watch, calculator, compass, geiger counter and tent. Unfortunately there was an inevitable inventory limit. Since Snowball was probably hitting me with atomic weapons, the radsuit and geiger counter were an obvious choice. Compass seemed also nice, because it showed all the exits in a room (don’t ask me how it does that). I supposed I just had to come back for the other items later.

Outside the glider I found a meadow, surrounded in cardinal directions by four rooms with extreme exits circling back to the room. That is, if in a room south to the meadow I moved south, I returned back to the room south to the meadow. This is common trick in early text adventures by which the game world seems larger than it really is and which Level 9 has used often.

I got killed a lot, I restarted a lot. Finally, I noticed that a room with a molehill is described as having very soft ground. That’s often a sign you can dig, so I tried to do that and uncovered a passage leading underground.



Going underground wasn’t protection enough, since the blast waves of the bombing covered me with sand. After another round of mapping I found a comfortable cave where I started to yawn and finally fell asleep.


Is this a premonition of the later game?
Will I have to stop the destruction of the indigenous life on Eden?

While the cave protected me, the blast had completely destroyed the exit through which I had come. I tested if I could haul back all the inventory items to safety, before the eventual bombing, but to no avail. Either I had just missed an obvious solution to a puzzle or then the tent and other stuff had been just red herrings.

I started mapping and now found a spade (no idea what it was doing beneath the surface of an alien planet) and another exit that just needed some digging. When I tried to go up, my geiger counter emitted a warning sound and I had to decide whether to wait before ascending.


Of course I had to see what would happen if I chose incorrectly

The new exit took me back to the surface. In terms of game plot, it was supposed to be the same place where I had been before, but now just a bit more charred. In terms of programming, though, I was facing new rooms.


Wasn’t I here before?

Although the map was otherwise identical to the map of the same place before bombing, instead of molehill I found a blasted heath, in which I could move east towards a forest, where ferocious flora and fauna had been rumored to exist.

This is a great place to stop playing. So far, I’ve been pretty satisfied with the literally exploding beginning. I hope that the producers manage to keep the same drive in the later parts of the game. Meanwhile, don’t forget to guess the score for the game. To aid you in choosing the score, check out the scores of previous Level 9 games in the guide below.

Quick guide for Level 9 Games

Games already played on The Adventure Gamer:
  • Colossal Adventure (1983, PISSED-score 25): Almost a direct copy of original Adventure, with an extended end game
  • Adventure Quest (1983, PISSED- score 25): A sequel to Colossal Adventure, which is also supposed to continue the tale of Lord of the Rings by introducing yet another Dark Lord that is threatening Middle Earth; Tolkien would have loathed the game, because it mixes extraneous elements to his creation; it could have definitely been a smaller game
  • Dungeon Adventure (1983, PISSED-score 29): Final part of the "Middle-Earth -trilogy", although the connection to Tolkien's work is even more non-existent; a very traditional treasure hunt, but with occasional intricate puzzles
  • Snowball (1983, PISSED-score 31): A sleeper ship has been hijacked and about to crash into a star, unless an undercover agent can fix things; a game with an interesting background story and a female hero, but it has some lackluster puzzles and fails to keep a serious face throughout the game
  • Lords of Time (1984, PISSED-score 24): Evil Timelords are plotting to destroy the fabric of time and you must collect several objects from various historical period to magically stop them. Underneath the plot is a basic treasure hunt with too many mazes and unfair puzzles.
Games still to be played:
  • The Saga of Erik the Viking (1984)
  • Emerald Isle (1985)
  • Red Moon (1985)
  • The Worm in Paradise (1985)
  • The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ (1985)
  • The Archers (1985)
  • The Price of Magik (1986)
  • Knight Orc (1987)
  • The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (1987)
  • Gnome Ranger (1987)
  • Lancelot (1988)
  • Ingrid's Back: Gnome Ranger 2 (1988)
  • Scapeghost (1989)
Compiled trilogies: 
  • Jewels of Darkness (1986): Colossal Adventure, Adventure Quest and Dungeon Adventure (all the Tolkien references have been removed)
  • Silicon Dreams (1986): Snowball, Return to Eden and The Worm in Paradise
  • Time and Magik (1988): Lords of Time, Red Moon and The Price of Magik

Missed Classic: Return to Eden - I Don’t Know How To Do It, But It’s Got To Be Done

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By Ilmari

In my previous post I had just started Return to Eden with a bang. Kim Kimberley’s stratoglider had crashed on Eden and the sleeper ship Snowball nuked the remnants, because the crew thought wrongly that Kim was a terrorist trying to destroy the ship. Kim managed to survive by burying herself underground. My aim now was to survive the deadly forests of Eden and get to the safety of the robot-made city Enoch.


Texas?

My first task was to map my new surroundings. There were few random encounters. On occasion, helicopter gunship flew over me, but it didn’t do anything. I also met some little animals - at least a squirrel and a rat - which attacked me, but couldn’t get through my radsuit. I decided to see whether they would kill me without the suit. They didn’t. In fact, they were completely uninterested of me, when I was completely naked. The fauna of the planet were supposed to be hostile, but perhaps they didn’t recognise me as a threat without any technology on me. Another encounter was a huge parrot that came after a certain number of turns and stole some of my inventory.


Maize is no typo. But how come a parrot on an alien world speaks English?

My whereabouts were surrounded on east side by a huge cliff. I tried climbing down, but that led only to my demise. Well, actually I was resurrected.


I’m beginning to think there’s something more to the hostility of the animals. Perhaps there’s a planet-sized intelligence trying to get rid of the robotic intruders, which sees me as a possible ally?

The northern side was limited by a river, which I couldn’t cross by swimming.


Map of the place

Beside the random encounters, there was plenty to wonder in the local flora and fauna:
  • Stone fruit. It weighs a lot, but otherwise I’ve seen no use for it
  • Seed of an air-bush. Again, I haven’t find any use for it, but the name suggests I might be able to get some air out of it.
  • Bean. Eating it gave me more strength, that is, increased the amount of inventory I could carry.
  • Manna-geranium. I could eat it and it tasted yummy, but otherwise I have no idea what to do with it.
  • Fig leaf. I could wear it.

Am I meant to be the new Eve?

  • Wishbone. Shaped like Y.
  • Stem. It looked like a canoe.
  • Tubers. They were paddle shaped so of course I could use them with the stem on the river. Unfortunately a leviathan stopped me quickly.

By Hobbes?

  • Log. It was sodden, but I saw nothing to do with it.
  • Dry bulb. Again, nothing to do with it.
  • See bee. This peculiar creature appeared at the cliff and dropped a telescope. I could then use the telescope at that screen and see the defenses of Enoch: a fence along the forest edge, a zone guarded by sensors, a minefield, a high wall and finally an impenetrable dome over the city. I couldn’t carry the telescope anywhere else, but had to return it to the bee.
  • Sweet pea. When I picked it up, a brick-coloured bird crying “Ouija” appeared. When I fed the pea to the bird, it laid a brick that was starting to sprout.

I know Ouija board, but does any of this have anything to do with it?

Brick egg was starting to sprout, so I planted it and it sprouted into a small house plant. Inside the house I found some fish fungus. Now who could want some fish tasting fungus? Leviathan, of course! The old monster went away with a full tummy and I could finally cross the river.

For some reason, when I had reached the other side, my hair started to fall and after a short while I died from radiation sickness. Fortunately, I quickly found a pill-fir with a pill meant just for this. I also found some foxgloves, which you can apparently wear like proper gloves.


I’m amazed I didn’t mace myself at this point

The main attraction of the other side was a maze made out of maize. It wasn’t that difficult to map, but it still felt like a pointless way to lengthen the time. At the center of it I found the parrot’s nest and the stuff it had taken from me.

At that point I was stuck. I had still plants I did not know how to use, but that didn’t take me far. It was time to check the official clue sheet.



I haven’t really explained what the Level 9 clue sheets are like. As you can see, it’s full of numbers. First, the sheet contains in a numbered order most of the objects and the locations in the game. Every object and location in the sheet refers to two numbered answers - where to find it and what to do with/in it. Then we have few general numbered questions, like ”how to beat the game”. Finally, we have the answers in a numbered order. Thus, if you wanted to check what to do, say, on the river, you’d search for river on the list of locations, check out what number it has for the use of river and search for that number on the list of answers.

When looking at the clue sheet, I usually have some definite puzzle to consider, so I look at the location of the puzzle. In this case, I didn’t have any particular puzzle to wonder, just a general confusion what to do now. Thus, I started peeking on the items I still had found no use of. The answer was the dry bulb. I should have watered it by squeezing the moist log - something I would have never considered doing.

When the dry bulb was moistened, it grew into a shoot with umbrella-like projections. It was quite evident what should I do. I picked up the para-shoot and jumped off from the cliff, landing safely to jungle below.



I could not climb back up. Still, the previous area wasn’t completely closed off. I found some vegetable balloons, which I could grab to float back to the cliff. This is a good indication how Level 9 has usually provided the player a possibility to return and retrieve items from earlier parts of the game.

Interestingly, while the helicopter gunships had fluttered above me quite harmlessly when I was above, now they appeared to kill me often, if I didn’t HIDE myself when I heard them. I don’t know whether this has been just random or whether the ships truly are more vigilant, when I get nearer to Enoch. Why are robots trying to kill me, you ask? There’s no indication in the game itself, but the manual suggests that the robots considered the first attack of Snowball on me as a hostile aggression of an alien spaceship, which has made them even more paranoid than usual.

Although the robots were trying to stop me, I had to get to Enoch, through all the defences. I could already see the first line of defence - a big fence on the eastern side of the jungle. Fence wasn’t the only limit of the new area. I also found some quicksand that prevented me moving forward at the northern side of jungle.


Mario Bros would feel at home here

Again, I found some more or less interesting things:
  • An army of ants.
  • Rubber band in a rubber tree. I could connect it with the Y-shaped wishbone to form a catapult.
  • Roots. This was bit of an accident. When I had been stuck, I had read at the clue sheet that I would have to use shovel at four different places, so I was pretty much using it everywhere now and at one point I found these.
  • Clingy vine.
  • Low branch on a woodpile. I could throw the vine on the branch and climb up, revealing a completely new area - a giant greenwood tree.
  • Two platforms, which could take you back to the ground from the giant tree, if levers on them were pushed.
  • Green hum-bug with a sonorous drone. I guess it’s meant to be used in getting through the defenses of Enoch.
  • Twigs resembling drum sticks.
  • Cold leaf, which was literally so cold that I had to wear foxgloves while holding it. I got the clever idea of trying to freeze the quicksand with it. Surprisingly, it worked.
  • Cloak. It was draped on a bush in a treacherous fenland behind quicksand. Again, this seemed like means for breaking in robot city, because it was described as reflective.
Again I had stumbled on point, where I just had no idea what to do. I knew I had to cross the fence, but I had no idea how to do it. Consulting the clue sheet again, I found a suggestion how to go forward. Apparently the two platforms, supported by vines over a pulley, were connected. If I pulled a lever, the lighter platform would go up and the heavier one down. I might have figured that out, but the problem hadn’t completely disappeared. I had to figure out how much weight I had. Luckily the clue sheet told me that I weighed the same as five ordinary objects. I am really perplexed how the producers thought the player would find that out, since I can’t imagine many players making studious tests by carrying different amounts of stuff to a platform.

After loading one platform with enough objects, I went to the other platform and rose to the top of the tree. At first I found a blueberry which the game described was more like a glue berry. The glue of the berry was amazingly good enough to fix a broken branch. Behind this branch I found a fruit, which was as big as a green pineapple, and a stalk, which was shaped like a drum.

I quickly noticed that it was possible to play the stalk/drum with the twigs I had found. The only persons who might be interested of this kind of entertainment were the ants. When they had heard some marching music, they kept following me. I thought I’d lead them to the fence, and that army of small insects marched over the fence and broke it.


I also had to have the sonar bug with me to avoid sensors

Since I’ve now crossed the fence and left jungle, I think this is a good spot to stop for now. A certain theme is starting to emerge, namely, the battle between organic jungle and mechanical robots, and it will be interesting to see where the plot is heading. The puzzles have a bit too much relied on silly puns. Some problems have not had adequate hints as to what to do. I just hope that the game will improve this aspect in later parts.

Missed Classic: Return to Eden - Gonna live like a king on whatever I find

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By Ilmari


The dream of Trump was finally true - no living being could get behind the wall

Last time I had just managed to break through the fence surrounding Enoch, robot built city in the planet of Eden. Unfortunately, the fence wasn’t the only defense, and I was quickly obliterated by a minefield. The solution was luckily near. I had picked up a fruit that looked like a pineapple, but was actually a cherry bomb (hey producers, Piers Anthony used that pun way before you). All I had to do was to use my catapult made out rubber band and y-shaped bone to hurl the bomb to the mine field.

I still couldn’t just walk to the city, since it was surrounded by a huge wall. The animals and plants of Eden tried constantly to attack the wall, but were promptly lasered to death. I had to find another way.


Moving around the wall wasn’t also an option, since I soon encountered a beach, where carnivorous piece of seaweed gulped me, if I walked too far. The solution was pretty obvious. All I had to do was to hitch a ride in autoscythe - a fancy word for an automated rubbish truck. It drove to the other end of the beach and dumped its load - including me - to ocean, where I managed to swim back to the shore.

I still couldn’t get forward. There was a wheat field ahead of me, but when I tried to enter it, a watchtower noted some movement and evaporated me. The solution was quite familiar - now I just had to hop on a feeder and wait till it had drove to a better place where I could continue my journey.


Dihydrogen monoxide - deadly in enormous quantities

Having crossed the wheat field, I came to a river. When I entered it, the weight of my stuff draw me underwater. Luckily I had found earlier something called suck seed (yeah, it sounds really disturbing), which apparently contained enough air for me to stay alive. With its help, I could follow the river, which finally flowed under the wall circling Enoch.


The robot city, finally!


Of course you’ll find credit cards floating in a river. What’s more strange, in the game’s backstory USA is not on good terms with EEC. Would they be using credit cards of the former in a colony of the latter?

Under the city wall, I could go either south or east. Taking first the southern route, I met a gang of Hell’s Angels who killed me.

After loading the save game, I went instead east, where I met Graunch, the golem, who was willing to bet 100 credits that I wouldn’t be able to solve his riddle:

I am the genii in the box, I think but I am not. I have no arms or legs and yet, I work until I’m hot. To talk to me you hit my head, and coffee makes me fail. I have no mouth and so I must, eat my food through tail.

I had to check the clue sheet to get the solution, but on retrospect, it’s not that difficult - 5 CAPs for the first person who gets this. Most of the riddles of Graunch were more traditional, but I still had to look up the answers for some of them. In the end, I had 1300 credits in my account.

With nothing else to do, I again tried the southern passage. This time, I didn’t see the Hell’s Angels and so I could walk a bit farther. I ran into something hard.


A metallic bouncer guarding a junction

I saw no alternative, but to give the robot my credit card, which I hoped to get back later. I moved west east into a ventilator system. I found first a flask full of water and then a plug, taking the power to the Big Robot. I pulled the plug and went to retrieve my credit card. Unfortunately, another robot took it and ran away.

Taking the west route from the junction I found roots welcoming me - well they welcomed me, if I was carrying some roots with me, otherwise they strangled me. This seems a bit weird. It has become obvious that the organic life of Eden is waging war against the robots. Wouldn’t carrying dead roots to a room full of live roots be as great an offence as taking a severed ear of a British captain to a House of Commons? In any case, I found some cutters here.

Going finally south from the junction, I found a great hall, which was filled with robot tramps and at the center of which burned a fire. I couldn’t cross the fire to the southern end of the hall, and trying to go around it led to me bumping into the crowd of tramps. The solution was to push some nearby pillars, which led to a collapsing ceiling cutting the cables providing energy to the robots.


Behind every successful fortune, there is crime

With the way clear to the southern end of the hall, I came face to face with Godfather, whose henchman had stolen my credit card. The mafia boss was also a robot, so I decided to throw my flask of water toward him. His bodyguard took the hit for him, but Godfather became so afraid that he let me have my credit card.


I reach you brother!

After getting my credit card back, I entered yet another air duct. The duct had two exits, which essentially led to the same area - I could use my cutters to open a grating or I could bribe a busker to open a hatch for me.


Herbert!

The ticket inspector above was the most serious thing to find around the new area. At least the metallic man offered an understandable challenge - find a ticket. The rest of the new area was a completely different matter and showed again that the producers of Level 9 have some serious issues with whimsy. I know it’s part of the British national character, but does it have to play so huge a part in every game of the company? Ever since getting in the robot city, the tone of the game had veered toward the not so serious, but now all-around-playfulness just took hold of everything. Well, to be fair, whimsy did fit the theme, since I had just come to an amusement park.



To be more specific, this theme park was dedicated to various fictional places (of course, most of these places were only one room in size):

Combining three book references in one small piece of text


Laura Ingalls Wilder has bought a TV

The most problematic was that all these fictional places were empty. What was I supposed to do? With nothing else to try, I turned to the clue sheet and read this:

Many places in the Theme Park are sponsored by shops. Search or Listen to discover an advert which gives the address.

Really, that was it? Why couldn’t I found out this anywhere in the game? It’s one thing to put vital information just in the manual, because you can’t fit it in the game itself, but it’s utter bollocks to put it only in a clue book! Well, at least I knew what to do now - listen and search in every screen, to find the sponsors:
  • Tropical hothouse was sponsored by friendly police force
  • Fountains of Paradise advertised talking bank
  • Dream Park ad tried to sell a Wimpish prestige family habiviron
  • Broken Lands advertised B&O tools for DIY needs
  • Old Curiosity Shop was sponsored by Grindpin & clone, unisex dental stylists
That was it. I’d found out five addresses (two- or three-digit codes), but that was all the progress I had made. After studying my map, I noticed I had tried only the cardinal directions, which the game usually uses. With some remapping, I discovered new places to visit in the theme park:


So, Laura Ingalls Wilder was an anticommunist?

  • I could enter the little house at the prairie, after admitting to a chef that I liked nuclear weapons. Within the house, I found a bevomat, where I could insert my credit card and get a koala with a clever name.
  • I had already found in theme park a statue with a crack in its base (I have no idea what book this is supposed to come from). When I carried my new koala near it, it wanted to get free and it then found in the crack another ad saying “For a holiday you’ll never forget”.

This isn’t the only work of fiction with a character whose name is inspired by Pepsi
  • By moving up from Broken Lands, I got to its sequel, Black Mountains, which was sponsored by BOOTY hospitals (“We can rebuild you”).
  • By digging at a beach of many-coloured sands I arrived at Vermillion Sands naturist reserve, full of nudibots, who drove me away, if I had any clothes on me. It was sponsored by Lost Property dept.
  • I could actually enter the Fabulous Riverboat, which took me to a casino on the Island of Mighty. Here I could play a simple game, where I just had to choose either black or red. Whatever I chose, I won the first five or so rounds and after that I started to loose.
  • Finally, I could enter the Well at the World’s End, which just happened to be Well of Souls. Entering it I heard an ad that I should give generously to charity. Within the well I found a packet of washing powder. On the back of the packet, I finally found a free train ticket.

Walking on rails can be hazardous to your health

Taking the train I immediately noticed an emergency cord. If I happened to pull it, I could stop the train, leave it, and instead of using the train, walk to the next station without getting hit. I was pretty certain this feature was there for a reason, in other words, some station could be reached only by this method.

The first station after the amusement park was a kind of office building with an elevator. The elevator used the codes I had found in the park. There isn’t any sense in making a map of the building, so I’ll just describe the rooms I found:
  • Sharkey’s Travel Agents. My ticket had been valid only for a one ride, but here I could buy a permanent travel pass. However much I had money on my credit card, buying the pass would require all of it. Thus, I had to leave this place as the last I would visit, if I wanted to use money anywher else.
  • Orange-Cross Charity Shop. If I entered this place, I lost all my money to charity.
  • Lost Property dept. I guess I could have found here stuff I left somewhere at the city.

Gonna crack my knuckles and jump for joy, got a clean bill of health from Doctor McCoy
  • Hospital. If I entered it, I was instantly killed
  • Grindpin and Clone, unisex dental stylists. I couldn’t enter this place, since my character ran away from the dentists.
  • Mssrs Bodger, Bungler and Co, D.I.Y. products for the amateur handyman. I found here a screwfinger, that is, a small screwdriver worn on finger.

Stiff man putting my mind in a jail
  • Cop shop. I could get a Pan-galactic wine-coloured Euromart passport here.
  • Bank. If I had a passport, I could get a loan.
  • Conman, Swindler and Crook, Estate Agents. If I had got a loan, I had money to buy myself a habihome.
  • My new habihome. I really didn’t find anything to do here. 



It still seems like a nice place

Now that I had searched through the building, I returned to the station and entered a train. It drove pass the next station, but I knew what to do - I pulled the breaks and walked.



Here I found City Hall, which was off limits for everyone but home-owners - at least there was some purpose in me buying a habihome.


Judge bang the gavel and say no bail

It turned out that I had walked in right at the beginning of the election, and being the only human on the planet, I was both the only voter and the only candidate. It’s no surprise what the result was.


It’s almost like in 18th century England  as is told in Blackadder

I was now one of the councillors of Enoch and could walk further into the corridors of power in the City Hall. I met the City Fathers, all robots, and since I was the only representative of people - or in this case, representative of a person - I was naturally nominated as the Mayor.

There appears to be no power involved in becoming a Mayor. I did gain an access to a computer system that seemingly bestowed me powers to do quite a lot, but the machine is broken and produces only gibberish. Oh well, the plot is becoming more and more ridiculous and this feels like a good place to stop.
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