Pepper’s Adventures in Time – One Taste & You Get It.

 by Will Moczarski

Welcome back to Pepper’s Adventures in Time! Last time we managed to make Ben Franklin lose his no-good hippie ways by taking him along for the kite/key experiment. It worked like a charm: lighting struck, and Ben is back to his own self again. Thus, act 4 begins, and the hot tub is...let’s just say it reminded me of this:

Source

I manage to salvage quite a lot of items from this mess: Ben’s backscratcher, his fan, a lever, a stepstool that seems too big for Pepper to carry around, and his paddles. His book of “Hindu Meditations”, unfortunately, is ruined. Being primed by the well-hidden item in the previous act I keep on pixel-hunting for a while before I re-enter the Franklin Mansion. 

The objectives of this act are to 

•  find proof of General Pugh’s dishonesty,
•  rescue poor Richard.

Not a long but a tough to-do list. But as I wrote before it’s really all smooth sailing from here on.

Hand of Fate - Circle in the Sand (or Volcanic Ash)

Written by Michael

That sandwich is well guarded.

So, after my last session, I took a break, had a sandwich (or two or three, it has been a few days since that last post) and I’m ready to hop back into the game.  When we last controlled the young mystic, I was wondering how to pay for my cruise trip and even how to spring my suitor stalker friend co-worker Marko from jail.

The first was surprisingly obvious to me on a good night’s sleep, and the second came just after!

Missed Classic: The Dark Half - Won and Final Rating

 Written by Morpheus Kitami

Welcome to Miriam's Apartment in scenic New York (MAY NOT ACTUALLY NEW YORK IN THE GAME) where we, who are definitely not George Stark, will investigate Miriam's death. There are a lot of objects I can examine here, but I suspect a flowerbed is the only one I can do anything with. Oh, well, inside we go.

No wonder Miriam got murdered, she lives in Vincent Price's apartment building.

I'm not so sure Stark wasn't doing the world a favor, apparently Miriam really likes green. 10 CAPs for your best explanation of why this room looks like this. The couch, the trashcan and the sign aren't really important, but since we already know that the paper is useful, we'll take it. Inside her apartment we go.

Police Quest: Open Season - Looks Like We’ve Got a Cop Killer On Our Hands

By Alex

Oh, baby, this game is throwing the kitchen sink at us. We’ve got rappers! Nazis! Murderous backstabbing women! Shoes! A shoot-out! Pixel hunts! Another dead cop! Things are total chaos in L.A.! What’s a cop to do?

I’ll tell you: stay alive and solve puzzles!

Hand of Fate - In Your Head, They are Fighting

Written by Michael

We could call in Rosella, and the dwarves could give her gemstones as payment for cleaning.  Or, we could just play the first game in this series, and get as many gemstones as we want.

Last time, I had just gotten inside the city gates.  Now, it’s time to explore.

The Year Ahead - 1994

 Written by The TAG Team

Sadly, "It stinks!" could be said about way too many of the games Morpheus has played.

1994 was a year of missed release dates.

Discussion Point: Interesting Inventory Items

Written by The TAG Team

You are carrying: Nothing.

An adventure game wouldn’t be an adventure without a character walking around and picking up anything he sees that isn’t nailed down.

So, what’s the most unique item you’ve picked up in a game?  Or the funniest?  Or the most disgusting?

Maybe something grosser than the mucus of Largo LeGrand from a pole in the bar?

Sometimes, items are homages.  Larry Laffer starts his first game with lint in his pocket because of Infocom games.  There’s a monkey named Guybrush you can interact with in The Longest Journey.

What items stand out in your memory?

Police Quest: Open Season: Welcome to the Jungle

By Alex

Exciting police action! I spent three hours playing, and did a lot of questioning witnesses and gathering evidence and taking notes. I mean, legitimate, real-world by hand notes. I really feel like a cop! I even got to shove a reporter!

No, not in real life, sadly. That was in the game.

Missed Classic: The Dark Half - I am Definitely Sane

Written by Morpheus Kitami

How are things going in the land of poorly pixelated Timothy Hutton?

Beaumont picking a bad time to start up a X Japan cover band.

Well, whenever I reload a game, I'm not sure if the game is crashing, which is a good sign. Seriously, there's an in-game moment before the sequence starts, which is just confusing as hell. There also seems to be just one long music track, which isn't bad, but it's just one for a significant area, it seems.

I pick up all I can from the shed, which is a rope and a flashlight. The way out from the graveyard is left from the start. We're not doing great with area transitions.