Game 29: Leisure Suit Larry III - Weaving the Dope Rope

Passionate Patti Journal Entry 1: “How could this be? As soon as I find the man I’ve always dreamed of, he disappears from my life as quickly as he came into it! Oh Larry…we made such beautiful love! Where have you gone? I am determined to find him, if for no other reason than to get an explanation for his disappearance. I think I saw him enter the bamboo trees through my telescope, so that’s where I've headed. It was torturously hot in there, but I eventually found my way through the maze and have since spent my time using my ever-decreasing clothes as tools to scale cliffs and cross large fissures. I can’t begin to imagine how Larry got through all these obstacles, but I can’t see where else he might have gone. I really hope I find him soon!”

Finally I get to experience what it's like to be inside Patti. Hey, get your mind out of the gutter!

I survived my boy’s weekend, but only just! I’m seriously getting too old for two days of drinking games and next to no sleep! One could say that I’m too old for video games too, but everyone here knows that’s not true, particularly when the game in question is part of the Leisure Suit Larry series. So where was I before my brief hiatus? Oh that’s right, I’d just switched from Larry (after he ran off into the bamboo forest, discouraged with life in general) to Patti, and was about to set off in Pursuit of his Pulsating Pectorals. This was like starting a new game entirely in one way, as I had a single goal and no inventory, but then I knew all the locations and characters prior to beginning. I set out to find Larry, but did what any good adventurer would do to begin with. I searched my starting room!

I really want this apartment!

The bottle that previously contained wine was still sitting next to the bed, so I picked that up. (25 points) At this stage I was still walking around wrapped only in bed sheets, so getting dressed also seemed a good idea. Looking at the clothes revealed a bra, some panties, some pantyhose, and a dress, so I put them all on in that order. (70 points) I tried interacting with the piano but got nowhere, and I’d already used the bed for its obvious two purposes, leaving nothing to do but leave. My destination seemed pretty obvious, being the bamboo forest that I’d previously come across as Larry, but hadn’t been allowed to enter. That’s where I saw Larry go through the telescope. However, since Chip ‘n’ Dales was on the way to that screen, I thought I would see if it was now finally open and ready for business.

All dressed up for a stroll through the jungle!

Once I was standing outside Chip ‘n’ Dales, it was obvious that something had changed. There was a doorman standing outside the adult entertainment club that hadn’t been there before. I wandered over and tried to get in. “Hello, sir. Could you give me some information about the show inside?” The maître ‘d responded with “Tonight’s show is offered at the special low rate of only $25.00. Of course, with tax, that’ll come to $42.95 exactly.” A quick look at my inventory suggested I didn’t have any money on me, but I tried to pay up anyway. The game informed me that I was broke, so I began thinking about how I might get some cash. I’d seen nowhere in the casino where you could actually gamble, and nowhere else on the map jumped out as a possibility. I decided to head off to the bamboo forest, assuming that things would work themselves out eventually. I made my way over to the cliff face with the bamboo next to it.

Isn't that the same Maitre 'd that works at the casino showroom? He sure gets around!

As Larry, I had not been able to enter the bamboo, but as Patti, I was able to walk up to and then into it. It was immediately apparent that this was going to be a maze, so I opened up Excel in preparation. It was a good thing I did too, as this maze twists and turns all over the place, quickly making me lose my bearings. It also quickly became apparent that I wasn’t going to get very far through the maze without some form of hydration. Patti went from walking upright, to lurching forward with arms drooping in exhaustion, to crawling on all fours, to finally lying face down in the dirt…dead! I’d managed to map a fair bit of the maze before that happened, but it seemed obvious that I was going to need to fill the wine bottle with water before entering the maze. I just needed to figure out where to do that. My first thought was the fountain!

I kinda thought having Patti on all fours would be more exciting, and less game ending.

I restored my game to just after leaving the hotel and went straight to the fountain. I was actually pretty surprised when I wasn’t able to fill the bottle with water there. “This is not the correct place to do that.” Why not?! So where else might I get some fresh water? I remembered seeing a little fountain in Native Inc. that was filled with previously bottled water, but this thought was squashed when I was told that there was no reason for Patti to enter that building. I then had a “eureka” moment! The sink at the cabana! I rushed over there and successfully filled the bottle with water, wondering how I hadn’t thought of that earlier. (37 points) Once I had it, I went straight back to the maze and continued mapping, drinking the water just before losing consciousness. (20 points) I was able to map a fair portion before finally succumbing, but was forced to restore a couple of times before I could finally get through it all. Strangely, and perhaps testament to the maze designers, the moment I completed the maze was the same moment I finished mapping it. (100 points)

If a woman makes it through a maze in the jungle but no-one was there to see it...

Once out of the maze, I found myself next to a stream. I drank the water, assuming I would still be parched after my recent ordeal. (42 points) The screen to the north showed that the stream ran off a cliff into a waterfall. I didn’t seem to be able to pick anything up in this screen, or the one just to the east, so started experimenting with the cliff. Either swimming or walking off resulted in a screen showing my body plummeting to the earth far below, so that wasn’t the answer. I had very little in my inventory, but the pantyhose caught my eye. Could I use them to lower myself down off the cliff? It turned out the answer was yes! I took the pantyhose off (20 points), tied them to a rock next to cliff (40 points), and then stepped off. Unfortunately, the pantyhose broke when I was only halfway down the cliff face, but it was apparently far enough down that the fall wasn’t fatal. It sure looked like it would have been though!

Taking the palm tree into consideration, I estimate the fall would have been close to 30 metres!

When I finally peeled myself off the ground, I was standing on a “small ledge projecting from the face of the cliff.” I had to laugh at the sight of two round holes in the ground where Patti had made an imprint! There was no easy way off the ledge, but the two palm trees looked like they might hold the key. I climbed one all the way to the top, where I was able to collect two coconuts, which the game described as “a pair of large brown hairy nuts.” (25 points) At this point I have to admit that I was a little flummoxed. I couldn’t do anything else with the trees, nor could I open the coconuts or interact with them in any other way. There was a rock in the distance that seemed a prime candidate for throwing some sort of rope over, but I didn’t have one. It was then that I typed “look” again and noticed that the description made a point of mentioning “plants with unusually shaped leaves”. I typed “get leaves”, and watched as Patti collected numerous marijuana leaves! (10 points)

It's all so juvenile, so why do I find it so funny!

I had no idea whether making a rope out of marijuana leaves is something people do in their spare time, but I thought I would give it a go. “Cleverly remembering that an original, legal use of marijuana was in the manufacture of hemp rope, you take the marijuana you harvested and carefully weave it into a rope.” Awesome! (100 points) I walked over to the cliff and typed “throw rope at rock”. After a couple of lame attempts, Patti finally lassoed the hemp rope around the rock on the other side and pulled it tight. (40 points) I then tied the rope to the tree and typed “climb on rope”. Patti then wrapped her “long, delicate fingers” and her “long, delicate legs” around the rope and moved out over the canyon. The screen then shifted to a sideways view, making the distance between the two cliff-faces appear a lot bigger! Patti had only made it about a fifth of the way across when I was informed that “your hands rapidly tire from holding your body’s full weight on the rope.” Shortly afterwards Patti simply couldn’t hold on any longer and fell to her death. Bummer!

"...an experience not wholly unfamilar to you!" (This is a running joke in the game while controlling Patti)

Thankfully the game gave me a bit of a hint as to what I was supposed to do to avoid death by excessive gravity. The game over message was “If only you had some way to secure yourself to the rope. Your hands have certain skills, but rope grasping is not one of them!” OK, so I all I needed to do was to use something to connect my body to the rope to take some of the load. Once again the only items I had at my disposal were pieces of clothing, but the bra did seem like a good option. I tried using the bra on the rope, and while it appeared as though it was working, Patti still fell to her death. In fact, no matter what I typed, if it included the words “on rope”, Patti would make her way out and fall, which was pretty annoying. I have to admit that it took me half an hour to get past this puzzle, and I tried all sorts of ridiculous things involving phrases that I absolutely knew wouldn’t work. It’s funny what you start trying when you get desperate. Was I missing an item altogether? No! I just wasn’t using official climbing terminology!

I seem to be losing clothing on every screen!

All I had to do was type “make harness”, after which Patti ripped off eight inches from the hem of her dress and made a harness out of it. (50 points) It seems damn obvious in hindsight, but I just hadn’t been able to come up with the word when I needed it and didn’t believe that the game would require such specific terminology. Most puzzles are solved by using things on things, so “make harness” is not one of the first things that popped into my head. Anyway, having the harness allowed me to climb all the way across the makeshift rope to the other side. Interestingly, at this point I received a message saying “You did it, Patti! But, now you wonder if there was something you forgot before you left.” Hmmm…does that mean I did leave something behind? I couldn’t think of anywhere since entering the bamboo maze that I hadn’t thoroughly explored! Suddenly I realised that it was looking more and more unlikely that I would return and therefore be able to enter Chip ‘n’ Dales. Was the end of the game rapidly approaching and I’d dead ended myself by not finding the $42.50 I needed to enter?

A hint that not all is well...or an off-hand comment with no real consequence? Time will tell!

I’ve decided to continue on for two main reasons. Firstly, I’m not entirely sure if I am dead ended. Perhaps whatever happens in Chip ‘n’ Dales is solely for points, or perhaps I can go back there later somehow. Secondly, if I have indeed missed a critical item, I should get a pretty good idea about what it is when the time comes that I need it. So am I still enjoying the game? Yes, despite the trouble I had with the harness puzzle and the fairly lengthy maze. As I’ve said a few times previously, I don’t mind mazes, as long as they are mappable and there aren’t too many of them. If there’s only one significant maze in a game, then I can forgive that, especially as the RPGer in me does enjoy getting the trusty spreadsheet out every now and then. I’m keen to finish the game in the next day or so and tie things up by the end of the week, so hopefully my dead end fears don’t cause me too much trouble.

I'm totally committed now! Well, not really...theres always restore!

Session Time: 2 hours 00 minutes

Total Time: 6 hours 30 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: I've written 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 points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!