Rex Nebular - LOST! (Request for Assistance)

Written by TBD.

Rex Nebular's Log: Stardate - 13th b'ak'tun.1: I finally found my way off this planet, but it quickly became clear that it wasn't exactly how I wanted to go out - can I try again?...

I'm hopelessly stuck. Last time I reported in, I'd done some exploring in the underground men's section of the planet, and had a few things I could try, one of which I was quite proud of and planned to do immediately.

My number one plan was to flood the city by blowing up the underground sea window. But that didn't work.

Aw, I was really proud of that idea too...

Without having any better ideas, I actually tried throwing my charge cases at a lot of things, and tried tying my fishing line to a lot of things.

I went all the way back to the cave I'd first found after escaping from the ocean. The game wouldn't let me go back in, which I liked because at least it limited the areas I'd have to explore. In the same cave I wondered if I could perhaps use some light to scare the bats in the cave. Like many things I had resorted to trying, I had no particular plan, and just did anything I could think of that might have some kind of result.

Sometimes I regret that this game doesn't have a 'use' verb

Another thought I had was that I could distract the service station's dog for longer by making the bones a lot harder to eat.

If I never find an item the game will let me cover with tar, I'm going to be disappointed.

I also tried things I knew damn well wouldn't work.

I've tried equally stupid things in this game - giving a door to a ceiling seems like exactly the kind of thing I'd do!

An idea I eventually had was after I read the teleporter repair list again. The teleporter in the women-only section had been mentioned as having a problem with the gender-security module. And one of the two teleporters that had been reported as needing minor adjustments had shredded my body when I went through. So I tried going there from a different teleporter, and also as a different gender.

I'm not sure if this worked due to my gender or choice of teleporter I used, but I'm alive so I don't really care.

The most clickable item in this new room are the antigrav controls.

Having no idea what these do, I press every button on the screen while wondering why an alien planet has signs, not only in English, but also using ancient Earth Roman Numerals.

With nothing seemingly happening by pressing buttons, I walk out of the door and see the two antigrav launch pads.

I wonder which ship I should attempt to use.

Inside the pristine ship I find a crack in the window, which the game suggests would need to be fixed if I wanted to leave the atmosphere, and a control panel with convenient empty slots for my target module and shield modulator.

Fortunately all future electronics use PCI cards.

Having filled in all empty slots in the panel, thus making the ship fully functional, I try to take off. The game tells me that pulling the throttle only works in low-gravity or null-gravity so I can't use the ship yet. 

I go back to the control building and activate the timer on PAD II.

Friends don't let friends walk through anti-gravity fields

After failing to put my timer module on the controls or equipment in the room, I go back to the second launch pad. As I pass the first launch pad, I take a remote control that conveniently falls off the broken ship.

After arriving at the second launch pad, and again failing to use my timer module on either the launch pad or ship, I go back to the control room now that I have a remote control and set the antigrav on PAD II to 'remote'.

Back in the ship, I activate the remote, then pull the throttle.

Now I might be able to explore more of the planet – cool... No... don't keep going up, Rex, you fool. Remember the crack in your windshield... Noooooo!

And I've finished the game with a loss. The credits roll.

Giving me a bad ending like this reminds me slightly of some other games I've played recently. I'm clearly supposed to use this ship later. Both Quest for Glory I and King's Quest VI had me get 'bad' endings when I solved puzzles in the 'wrong' order. At least this game gave me a reason to die with the cracked windscreen rather than send me to a party before berating me for not solving other puzzles I realistically would have had plenty of time to solve before the party began.

Anyway, with the game finished, there's now a new section in the main menu. It's a "Quotes" section (yes, I put quotes around the word quotes - deal with it), which is something I've seen in some games, and contains funny things the developers said/wrote during development or just made up when they realised there'd be a "Quotes" section.

So, I've officially finished the game. Hooray?!?

Except I can't leave it at that, can I?

Let's try something else...

ADVANCED MODE

So, having run out of ideas, I thought I'd start the game again in Advanced instead of Expert difficulty, thinking perhaps I'd get a clue like I accidentally did earlier with the spinach leaf pit trap and EASY mode.

I actually didn't notice much of a difference between the two higher difficulties for a while, and when I did the difference wasn't that great. 

There were exactly two times I noticed a difference.

When it came to throwing the poison darts at the monkey to get my stolen binoculars back, in EXPERT mode, I'd found a reed in the same area that the monkey was in that I could use as a blowgun.

In ADVANCED mode, the reed wasn't on the ground near the monkey. I wondered if it was something that had appeared due to my actions so I pushed, pulled and tried other things with the nearby wall of reeds hoping to knock one loose. Nothing happened. Eventually I went back to the hut I'd found the darts in.

Finding the blowgun near the darts should make the puzzle easier, but in my case it made the puzzle harder because I'd rushed through this area, having explored it before.

The one other thing I found different in ADVANCED mode was in Bruce's house. I found his safe combination simply lying out in the open on his dresser. Seriously, Bruce - you might as well not even have a safe at that point.

I haven't found out how to open the safe yet it EXPERT mode.

The safe contains a key to the video store, which I can now enter.

Watch out world – Ghandi's just discovered Uranium... and he's not happy!

Anyway, rather than continue in ADVANCED difficulty, I'm going to ask for help so I can solve the game at the hardest difficulty level, pretending to be the EXPERT I'm clearly not.

There's a lot of puzzles I know I'm stumped on, and possibly others I don't know are puzzles yet, and like most adventure games, I suspect solving one will lead to an item I need to solve another, etc.

Puzzles I know I want to solve:

1. Distract the dog at the service station
2. Get a male security card
3. Get the combination to Bruce's safe in EXPERT mode (actually I probably just need to PUSH and PULL every item in Bruce's house until I find the combination now that I know it exists.)
4. Use the boat for something... anything, really
5. Cross the stream full of piranhas on the surface

If you know or can guess how I might solve some of the puzzles I'm stumped on, I'd really appreciate the help! Just throw your solutions in the comments in ROT13 form in increasingly specific terms, and I'll be back to solving the game in no time.

Example hints:

1. Gurer'f na nern lbh unira'g rkcyberq lrg.
2. Lbh unir orra gurer, ohg abg sbe ybat
3. Lbh trg gurer ivn gryrcbegre.
4. Ernq gur ercnve yvfg ntnva
5. Gel tbvat guebhtu n qvssrerag gryrcbegre

Session time: 1 hour 45 minutes (not including ADVANCED mode)

Total time: 6 hours 50 minutes

Inventory:

• Security card (for women's base)
• Tape player
• Binoculars
• Timer module
• Shield modulator
• Bones (Animal, not Star Trek's doctor)
• Log (Captain's, not wooden)
• Chicken (Roasted, not fried)
• Twinkifruit
• Target module
• Charge cases (containing explosives)
• Repair list
• Fishing rod
• Penlight
• Fishing line (taken from fishing rod)
• Durafail cells (batteries which can be put back in penlight)
• Remote

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 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 made a desperate request for assistance which I suspect is going to be a simple case of me not noticing something I should have. Thanks!