Myst – Under the Jaguar Sun

 Written by Vetinari

Welcome back to Myst.

Interestingly, when loading a saved game, Myst presents you with the image of an open book with the picture taken from whatever world you saved your game into, which is a nice thematic consonance with the fact that you are effectively being transported in the world described inside that book. The entrance in the new world is completed with a sinister sound effect which represents you getting whisked inside the world represented inside the book pages.

Problem is, the first time that I loaded my game, I was presented with the above picture, and I had no idea what I was looking at, and where I would end up when entering this book.

Problem is, I am an idiot.

Game 144: Cosmic Crusade (1993)

 Written by Morpheus Kitami

 Okay, I'm glad to have Urotsukidoji and Loremaster in the rearview mirror, its time to play some normal, western graphic adventures which don't involve spending hours at a school for no reason. Cosmic Crusade, never heard of this one, and I've been trawling abandonware websites for nearly two decades. Let's see what Wikipedia has to say...

In his adventures, Linus leaves Linoleum (using a fake ID for Larry Flynt to compete in a bumper car contest), quashes a robot revolution in Detroitica and gets gas from an abandoned space station.

Missed Classic: The Paradise Threat – WON! (with Final Rating)

 

Written by Will Moczarski

Did I say I was stuck? Well, that didn’t last long. Just a short recap to get you up to speed: My protagonist had reached a room with a sleeping dragon who ate me when I woke him up by attempting to talk to him, climb him, or attack him. I found out rather by coincidence that I was able to plant the seeds from the beginning once more here, causing a giant plant to grow right away. However, when I tried to “climb plant”, the dragon woke up and ate me. When I tried again...it worked! What had I done wrong?

This is how it's done.

It was a typo! In my transcript I could see that I typed in “climb plano” which caused the parser to understand “climb [wrong word]”, assuming I’d want to climb the dragon. In other words, it is vital to type “climb plant” and only that will work. Be very wary of typos, kids, or the dragon will eat you. It’s an educational game!

Myst - If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

Written by Vetinari

Previously on The Adventurer's Guild, we were on a dock on a Myst-erious island, and we were preparing to explore our surroundings.

Right at our side when we start, there is a submerged ship that is at the moment unaccessible.

A pirate I was meant to be...

At the end of the dock we find a lever, which we can pull without any apparent effect. On a nearby hill there is a big cogwheel, near which another lever is present. Throwing this also has no effect.

The background music turns ominous here, for no apparent reason...

Continuing towards the interior of this small island, we find some stairs that lead us higher on a gently sloping hill. Right before we arrive at the first building (a sort of circular neo-classical rotunda) we find a letter laying on the grass.

Missed Classic: Sherwood Forest - Won! (with Final Rating)

Written by Michael

So, when we last spent time together, I was doing my best imitation of an angel at Christmas.  So, I’m in a tree, with an ax.  I try the obvious.  CHOP TREE.  The game thinks, just maybe, that might not be the best plan while I’m still in it.

Huh.  Guess you’re right, game.

Missed Classic 133: The Paradise Threat (1982) – Introduction

 

Written by Will Moczarski

We’re back with our odd little company from Chapel Hill, NC, still going by the name of Med Systems in 1982. Although the company’s final adventure game was Asylum II they went on to release the three final games by the unusual and quirky game designer Jyym Pearson. If you’re interested in Pearson’s always surprising work you may want to read my coverage of his first six adventure games for this blog: 1 2 3 4 5 6. With Pearson’s two final games, the Med Systems marathon comes to a close, and I’m excited to have simultaneous coverage with Jason Dyer from over at Renga in Blue once again! Be sure to read his take on The Paradise Threat as well!

Once again, you say? Yes, we already teamed up for Lucifer’s Realm, you see, and The Paradise Threat is not only Jyym Pearson’s next game but a direct sequel to it! A quick reminder: In Lucifer’s Realm, our protagonist died right at the beginning of the game only to be sent to hell where Satan begged him to help him get rid of Adolf Hitler who had plans to overthrow the place. Because of our good deeds towards Satan (!) we are starting the next game floating up to paradise where a group of valiant men now needs our help way up there because Adolf Eichmann, one of Hitler’s most notorious followers, is causing trouble with the infernal Deecula Statue. 

Homeworld - Endgame Escape (Won!)

By Reiko

We're in the home stretch, having used the TransWarp technology to rendezvous with the Artifact en route to the Assassin homeworld. I need to stop the terrorists and escape before we arrive there.

When I exit the Heechee ship, I find myself back in one of the blue-metal Heechee corridors of the Artifact. A bulkhead door is closed in front of me, but there's a button next to it, which I press, opening the door. Proceeding down the corridor, I quickly find myself back in the familiar cargo bay area from earlier, with Diana waving at me from the storage area ahead.

Diana and I are both happy to see each other.

I climb up the ladder and talk to her. She's so excited but also puzzled to see me.

Missed Classic: Sherwood Forest - Cats Always Land on Their Feet

Written by Michael

This will be a shorter post than you usually get from me.  I was too busy hitting on the ladies at a hotel bar.

Sorry for the absence! I stepped aside to allow a couple of other games to finish up, and some important ones to start. But I haven't forgotten my beatnik hero trying to win the hand of the beautiful Maid Marion.

When we last left, I had just picked up my snazzy new suit from the tailors.  Will it do the job and get me past the bouncer at the river crossing?

Game 143: Myst (1993) - Introduction

 Written by Vetinari

Myst.

I hate Myst.

Missed Classic: Daughter of Serpents – WON! (plus alternate paths and Final Rating)

Written by Vetinari

We have left our heroes on the verge of rushing in towards the temple. We take the cultist by surprise, and Cameron tells me to take the scroll from the high priestess and burn it, which I do.

Burn baby burn.

This has a pretty dramatic effect on the priestess, since she immediately turns first into a serpentwoman, and then directly into ashes.

Missed Classic: Loremaster - Won! (And Final Rating)

 Written by Morpheus Kitami

Up until this point, I've been playing far ahead of the CRPGAddict. I started very early in May, and it took a little while before he started up. You know character creation? Yeah, he figured out how to get that working. create [charname] (case sensitive, so daniel is daniel but Teal'c is Teal'c) [password] [class]. Characters are visually distinguished by might and magic. (actually, everything, but I didn't care enough to check it that thoroughly)

LanHawk, who I don't think actually posts here but is probably reading, sent me a textfile from a pirate release of the game, which is undoubtedly the closest thing to a manual we'll ever get. It was mostly useless, except for the most important aspect of all. I can move with the keyboard now, it's the numpad, it's a numlock issue. Even better, I can go diagonally.

Homeworld - Purloined Personality

Written by Reiko

Last time we had a number of lengthy conversations with Raphide and Astatine and then helped Raphide put Astatine out of his misery. Unfortunately, Raphide didn't know anything useful about the TransWarp drive theories that I need in order to intercept the Assassins before they destroy Earth.

First I return to Convergence to see if he has any other leads. He's back to hiding in his hood but speaks to me readily enough. The dialogue choices here are amusingly varied, from straightforwardly telling him what happened with Raphide, to gossiping about Raphide's mistakes, to accusing him about his own inaction, to playing it cool.

Some of these options are meaner than others.

I don't want to rat out Raphide to him, really, but I tell him about the dead end. Convergence's response is curious, though: "Did you say the [sic] Fogram had Solifluction STILLED? That's not the same thing as murder. We might still have a chance!"