Pepper’s Adventures in Time – Back Without A Vengeance

 by Will Moczarski

Well, on to the penultimate act of Pepper’s Adventures in Time we go! Let’s dive right in...

Act 5: Pepper Visits the Constitutional Convention or The Key to an Old Ben’s Heart

In the fifth act we need to learn about gout, Ben’s raccoon skin cap, unusual uses for a kite, Ben’s role at the Constitutional Convention and eyeglasses invented by Ben. As usual, these will be necessary in order to solve the quiz at the end of the act. The objectives needed to progress to the final act are: 

* Distribute Ben’s Special Editions

* Go to the Constitutional Convention

* Get Advice from Ben

That’s fairly unspecific. Let’s see how we fare with this one! 

On the first screen we see Ben working on a new pamphlet. He wants to help the people get back to the “good old colonial ethics of hard work and diligence”. No more hippy-dippy for Mr. Franklin, it seems. Pepper asks whether Ben couldn’t just go to Penn Mansion and ask for Lockjaw, seeing that he’s a “pretty important guy in Philadelphia”. Ben turns her down, telling her that he was never on good terms with General Pugh and thus his influence doesn’t extend to his mansion. Pepper suggests they just raid the joint but Ben tells her that the Mansion is well guarded. He is positive that he can help her cross the river and sneak into the Mansion – it’s getting her out he’s worried about. Pepper then suggests that the townspeople of Philadelphia might be able to help but Ben tells her they’d need a reason to gather at Penn Mansion because they won’t rally against the General for a dog they don’t even know.

Game 162: King’s Quest VII: The Princeless Bride (1994) - Introduction

Written by Michael

The story of Roberta Williams and King’s Quest is a well-known one.  Over more than a decade, King Graham and his family have entertained many a gamer.  The series started out academic, with plots and characters ripped from classic literature, and an awful puzzle involving the spelling of one of their names.  While the references to the classics never went away, more modern sensibilities made their way into the games.  With new people helping steer the boat, the references started getting a little more modern.  Alice in Wonderland.  Beauty and the Beast.

But it’s, um, inconceivable that the title of the seventh game references the works of William Goldman and the (recently taken from us, too soon) Rob Reiner. 

Perhaps it’s because Roberta started to share the top role.  Both to be a mentor, and also for possible selfish reasons (like, say, working less or having more time for other projects), Roberta started letting other writers and producers take charge.  In King’s Quest VI, for example, former Hewlett-Packard employee Jane Jensen co-designed the game, bringing a fresh breath of air and a lot of positive reviews, especially after the venomous reviews they sometimes received for the fifth game in the franchise.  

Game 167: The Clue! (1994) - Introduction

Written by MenhirMike

Today’s game is 1994’s The Clue!, a heist game with adventure game elements - and perfectly timed for the weekend where we’re trying to steal someone’s heart all over again! Or wear a hockey mask and wonder if the NES game counts as an adventure?

We are playing as Matt Stuvysunt and tasked with planning and executing more and more daring heists. To do that, we decide on up to three accomplices (that all want part of the loot), a getaway vehicle, the getaway driver, and the actions of each of the characters during the heist. Outside of the heists, we need to acquire accomplices and tools, fence our stolen goods, and advance Matt’s personal story that will hopefully not come to an early end in an English jail, or worse.

The game idea is clearly taken from 1986’s They Stole a Million. Some sources erroneously call The Clue! a remake, but it has no plot or character details in common and none of the original developers were involved in any way - it’s a completely different game that just took the concept of planning and executing heists.

Goblins Quest 3 – Won!

By Ilmari

What the…

Universe - Final Rating

Written by MenhirMike

To quote Frodo Baggins: It’s done.

The Universe Wikipedia article has this to say about the development:

Responding to some of the criticism directed at Curse of Enchantia, Core Design described Universe as being "a lot" more logical and less linear than their first adventure game. They also described the text-based system as an improvement over the use of only icons, the benefits being that it allowed conversations between characters and simply "it works". They also acknowledged that Curse of Enchantia had "suffered considerably" due to inclusion of action sequences, something that "adventure gamers don't want in their games”, so the ones in Universe were made "short and simple" enough.

Did Universe deliver on those promises?