Lost in Time - Pondering Prunelier in Pursuit of Power, Plumbing, and Probate

Written by Michael

I have written and rewritten the introduction to this post, because I can’t seem to make any sense in my writing. You see, I noticed in the last session that I was ignoring the plot of the game, and instead just going pure adventure gamer and simply looking to pick up everything not nailed down, and to solve any puzzles I could find, without any regard to the game or plot.So the plot, as I understand it so far, and what’s been revealed to me: I’ve awoken, somewhat dazed, in what appears to be the cargo hold of a ship, in 1840. I’ve found a slave named Yoruba being held down here, and we are both down here because of a man named Jarlath de la Pruneliere. Playing around with inventory items lets me explore a further level of the ship, and I encounter an officer in the Space-Time Patrol, who prompts me to tell him about the events that led me here. It seems my memory is back, so I start to tell a tale about inheriting a house in 1992. I was trying to get into my house at the end of the last post. We haven’t really gotten to anything listed on the back of the box yet.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not necessarily saying this is a bad thing. In this session, there’s more problem solving, and less 15-screen dialog sessions, so all in all, I felt this was a lot more enjoyable to me.

Yes, I know this clip is from game 7, and I don’t care.

Not to take any thunder away from the upcoming playthrough of Leisure Suit Larry 6 by Alex, but with how sarcastic the game is at times, our featured program would benefit greatly from borrowing the narrator from that game. Who apparently also voiced Wally in the Monkey Island 2 Special Edition. I can hear his words clearly in my head, making the sarcastic descriptions even more snide. But I digress; let us return to a slightly less titillating experience.

Well, well, well, now that’s a deep subject...

After breaking into our own backyard, it’s time for a detailed look. I move closer to the well and water spigot, and find one of them too deep to see into, and the other not yet working. There’s a door into the building, so that’s the obvious place to go next.The door handle snaps off into my hand as soon as I try to open the door, and it appears that the key is in the inside lock. Oh, and there’s a hotspot labeled as a space under the door. Well, I suspect the puzzle trope for this would be to put a blanket or paper or something under the door, push the key out, catch it on the paper, and then pull it back. Except I don’t have a suitable paper/blanket/whatever. I did keep the note on the gate, but instead of it being in my inventory, it’s in my diary, so I can’t access it. The game tells me the foil in my cigarette carton is too small, and I don’t have anything else yet. Must keep looking.

Speaking of keeping looking, I look above the door at the round portrait of someone, probably some distant relation. It wasn’t nailed down, so I took it. There’s also a stack of logs next to the door, so I take one.Seriously, it does kinda look like that. I wonder why I’m comparing everything in this game to an Al Lowe program.

I wonder if I’ll need to rescue a girl from the tower?

There’s nothing more to do here, so I explore further into the property. I hit a crossroads with paths to both a strange building and a lighthouse. Given a maze, I always choose left first.

Follow the butterflies

Before I leave this screen, I need to point out a nice touch by the designers. Every now and then, butterflies flutter through this screen, and from different entry points. This sort of random, added animation isn’t on every screen in the game, but there’s been a few nice ones so far. Detracting a little from the nice effect, however, is that the butterflies are hand drawn rather than photorealistic, so slightly more noticeable than perhaps they should be.

On the other screen, a bird flies through. Again, nice little touch.There’s an entrance door, with no handle or switch, and a hole in the stairs. That hole looks suspiciously the same size as a random picture I found hanging outside my new palatial estate, so let’s try that.And a new puzzle, but an easy one. I subtract the years to figure out the age of the decedent, punch in the numbers on the two sliding digit places, and click the cross to let me in.That brings us to the elevator, which apparently isn’t working right now. The buttons do nothing. The railing is firmly attached, and is a clickable item, but doesn’t seem to do anything, so I might need to combine something with it later.

Oddly, you can click on the back of the elevator to move your POV to inside the elevator, and it shows a video of a closeup of the back wall getting closer. Of all the things to waste time animating... most of the other animations have been acceptable, or even borderline well done, but this one just seemed a little useless to me.

I haven’t mentioned the animations much until now, but many (but not all) of the times you take or interact with an object, a small window shows a video of you performing the action. Normally, it’s of the bottom two-thirds of you, without the face, performing the deed. Sometimes, it’s just an arm, like when you take one of the apples from the basket on the tractor.

The resolution, given this is a floppy disk game from 1993 meant to run on 640x480 screens, is not awful, and does benefit from having an attractive model as the protagonist. Unless the image is skewed in this release interview with Ms. Tramis, the assertion by fanboy commenter SpanishCoktelVisionFanClub that the model for the main character is based on her is probably correct, of course using a slightly shapier model.

Again, where is Neil Ross when I really need him?

Back to the game at hand, I’ll give up on the elevator for now, and check out the lighthouse. Hey, look — a door I can’t open! Something new, I guess.

This game has a barrel, an apple, and a bottle of wine. Are they copying from Leisure Suit Larry 1 now? I had better not find a blow-up doll anytime soon.

To the right of the door, against the building is a barrel and a bottle of wine. It’s not nailed down, so...Later on, I should have realized this was a hint. It took me a while. We’ll get there soon, I promise.I’ve been civil in this post, but this annoys me a little. See, back on the ship, I was only able to remove the cork-like knot with a cork remover, because the other tools I had were not sensitive enough for the job. But for this identical puzzle, I was able to use the dart I had to remove the cork, spilling all the contents of this aged rum barrel onto the ground.And then, we are able to stick this massive, huge thing into our inventory. I feel like I’ve done this before.Now that the barrel is out of the way, we’ve exposed a basement window. Looking closer, I see that there is something behind the window. Much as if I was getting a bottle of Spanish Fly, I feel the need to break the window. I didn’t find a hammer in the dumpster, so I try everything in my inventory that might do the trick, but nothing works yet, so I will keep this in the back of my mind.

At this point, there’s nowhere else to go and no other items I missed, unless I missed some pixel hunting. So I look at my inventory again. Something has been nagging my brain... why did I keep the empty battery, after removing the acid?

And I remember the description of the wine turned into vinegar, and I remember that vinegar has an acidic taste. So, could it be a replacement for battery acid?We will forget the fact that I haven’t charged the battery, and we’ll assume that it will just work. Video game logic.Now, I’m able to combine more inventory items. And I’m confused. It seems I’ve acquired an inventory item at some point, which I don’t remember picking up. It’s a wire. I replayed what I’ve done, and figured out that after I put the portrait into the steps below the elevator, I must have removed the wire it was hanging from and kept it. But the game never mentioned it, animated it, or otherwise made me aware that part of the portrait was kept in reserve.

Wrapping the wire around the door handle and connecting to the battery is a basic electromagnet. I think I might have made one of these in middle school.

With this, I don’t need a paper to shove under the door, I can suck the key out magnetically. The game won’t let me use the pipe to push the key out, claiming fragility, but I can use the ever-useful dart. Then, using the magnet on the space below the door, I get a key, and replacing the handle onto the door again, I can enter.

I’ve inherited a really swell AirBNB.

I’m in the living room, which is the only room I can explore, at least right now. There’s a fireplace, a small box, a trunk, a fire extinguisher, an oar, and a rod leaning against the wall, among other things around.

Unlike the massive barrel, when I try to take the rod with me, I can’t, because it’s too heavy to carry around. But I’m able to use it in the fireplace, and when I do, it’s staying there for good. I wonder what puzzle I inadvertently solved? And the game lets me pick up the oar and carry it around. So I’ll be good if there’s a flood, I have a barrel and an oar that together I can use as a boat.

In the fireplace is a roasting spit, which is a smaller, bent metal item. Taken. The small box contains sand, but other than feeling it, I can’t do anything with it right now. There’s also some discs on the sides of the fireplace, I assume to spin the roasting spit, but the game doesn’t allow me to do anything with them.

Let’s see what’s IN the box...

Looking at the small box, it is tied closed with a copper wire. Taking that, inside there’s a container of resin, which the game tells me is good for repairing the hull of a ship, and some fuses, including one that’s busted and not installed. I suspect that might be what’s wrong with the elevator.

What do I have that can help with the fuse? Finally, a use for the foil inside my box of cigarettes. We use that to nestle the fuse with inferior contacts into the hole, and something has been repaired.

Again, some inspiration. I’ve just picked up a couple of bulky items that might help me break the window. I head back over, and try the oar, but the window is “sturdier than it looks.”The roasting spit, however, does the trick, and nets me a hose for my efforts. I would connect the hose to the spout on the house, but there’s no reason to yet. Someone hasn’t paid the utility bill.Well, time to test my theory about what the fuse controlled. Off to the elevator, and pressing the button does something now, it brings me into the crypt. The description of the room is likely a hint -- I’m told that it is rather cold here. Pixel hunting the screen, I find an opening, some bottles and a container, both out of reach, and another locked treasure chest. Clicking on it a second time brings up an interface where I’ll need to enter a combination of colors and murder weapons, but I haven’t seen any hints to this yet. As for the items I can’t reach, the oar doesn’t help (but I would have liked to knock the item onto the floor!) but the game does allow me to use the barrel with a hard-to-see hotspot called “the floor”. It’s in a rather specific area just below the bottles. I’m able to climb onto the barrel and obtain some cider. It’s corked -- that’s a hint -- and in my inventory, the cork is shown as a separate but included item in the bottle.

Checking out the opening, more hints I suppose: it’s at ground level and looks out at the well. I suppose that’s a hint that I’ll need to interact with the well from here?

I try to use the barrel again to get the container from the upper ledge, but it’s still too far to reach. And why the oar isn’t working is beyond me. But, let’s follow a hint: the corked bottle of cider. The cork might be something I can throw at the container, and maybe knock it off its perch.I wasn’t expecting that. I guess the bottle was pressurized (hard cider perhaps?) so I used the cork as a bullet, to do as I just planned but with a higher velocity. I now have a spray can of rust remover.

And with this, I’m going to put a cork in this gameplay session. I really don’t know what I’m going to do next, but a good night’s sleep might make the difference. (Of course, like most people, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in many years, but still, optimism.)

Session Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Inventory: Roasting spit, hose, copper wire, barrel, oar, fire extinguisher, rust remover, resin, small pipe, and the cigarette carton, containing a matchbox.

Game Completed: 22%