The Clue! - Das Kapital

Written by MenhirMike

Before I start, I wanted to thank a commenter on an earlier gameplay post who clarified that “jemmy” was indeed a proper term for a crowbar used by burglars in British English. So I’ll take back my criticism on that. I still think there are some translation issues, but apart from “prey”, nothing really stood out as terrible. And definitely nothing that broke the game or made it hard to play. With that out of the way, back to our regularly scheduled content.

We robbed the Aunt Emma Store and went back to our hotel room, about to celebrate with some great Bill Haley music on the radio. Instead, there’s a special news broadcast going on: Burglars have tried to steal the crown jewels from the Tower of London! And they almost succeeded, if not for their conspicuous car: A silver car with a blue fish painted on it. The police arrested one of the burglars when they entered the Fat Man’s Pub and are hopeful to arrest the other burglars soon.

Needless to say, Matt is shocked when he remembers Briggs saying that the codename will be Blue Fish. Is Briggs going to rat us out? Matt decides to do the only thing that makes sense here: Continue as usual. Nothing else to do, and if Gludo wants to arrest us, we can cross that bridge when we get there. 

Coincidentally, I once knew an ornamental droid that had similar misfortune with the password “FISH”.

King’s Quest VII - If You Believe They Put a Man on the Moon

Written by Michael

Guess I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue...

Welcome back to the saga of the Ladies of Daventry!  This installment is rather short compared to the last two, so let us get to it.

What does a newt say when you catch it in a lie?  I amphibian.

When we last were with the queen, she had entered the cave behind the Aztec-looking door, and was confronted with a large lizard of some type blocking her in the passageway.

Pepper's Adventures in Time – Final Rating

 by Will Moczarski

When I started playing Pepper's Adventures in Time for the blog (way back when) I singled out the manual as a true labour of love. I stand by my assessment. However, I also remarked: "This is beginning to sound like work, or worse - school." And if I ask myself the pertinent question: was the game fun and did it meet its goal of teaching me something as well? I'm not sure what to answer. Did I learn something? Yes, lots of trivia. Would I have learned more had I known next to nothing about US history? Possibly but...the game tends to work sort of like an old-school museum. The "TRUTH" button is a stand-in for reading the plaques, and you learn a lot about the artifacts but not so much about the broader strokes of history. Your mileage may vary but I felt that a kid playing Pepper will pick up a lot of tidbits and facts which means that the most absurd ones will probably stand out and continue to linger in the back of their head. The game is edutaining, but is it educational? I doubt it.

On the other hand, TAG regular Vetinari claims he learned a lot about history when he played Pepper around the time of its release. Maybe I'm wrong but the TRUTH button sure felt a bit like the Neuschwanstein episode in Gabriel Knight 2 at some point - I fear it belongs in a museum.

But we're not here to rank a game based on its educational merit but rather to see how it fares with our six PISSED categories. Let's do that instead of waxing didactic, shall we?

The Clue! - One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Written by MenhirMike

Last time, we burgled a Kiosk and stole 380 pound sterling worth of loot. But let’s travel back in time and explore what I could have done differently, because the game actually offers alternate approaches.

First, I could have gone to the Hotel and said that I reserved a room under the name Mark Goldberg, who is apparently a millionaire. Doing so gets me into the hotel room, but without getting Gludo’s identification card - I do not know what the ID card is useful for, so I have no idea if this is a good or bad thing.

Another option would’ve been to go to the police station and insult Gludo instead, which gets me kicked out without the 10 pounds, but with the identification card. Since I don’t have money for a hotel room, I eventually ended up at Cars & Vans, where a Mr Danner thinks I’m a relative of Sir Henry of Yorkshire and insists on giving me 20 pounds. So this gives me both the ID card and an extra 10 pounds.

Excuse my French.

20 bucks is 20 bucks…

King’s Quest VII - The Saga of Mimi and Drew

Written by Michael

I haven’t had lasagna since last Christmas.  It’s been too long.

Remember when we first started this game, and mother and daughter were separated?  Rosella was stolen away by a hand that looks like it belongs to a cartoon dog named Spike.

So we head off to chapter 2.  Something about trolls.

Goblins Quest 3 – Final rating

By Ilmari

My experiences with the Goblins trilogy have been a mix of charm and frustration. The quirky humour and the intriguingly innovative gameplay have been a strong backbone of all of the three games. Then again, the first game had a frustratingly hard interface, with a diminishing health bar forcing you to replay the levels until you nailed it perfectly, and the second game was just too long and repetitive. I feel like the third game has nailed it, since there really was nothing to annoy me – even the length of the game was spot-on, the end coming after the most ingenious levels. We’ll see how far that gets with the PISSED rating.

Let's see where we'll land

Pepper's Adventures in Time – Won!

 By Will Moczarski

400 points in my pocket, and one more act to go. This time around we need to find out how meat was cooked in colonial households, learn about colonial cures for fleas, compositions for the glass armonica, blue dye, and taxation without representation. Sounds like a wicked school day to me.

Actual objectives are as follows: 

• Get into Penn Mansion,
• Rescue Lockjaw,
• Prove General Pugh's a Fraud!

Time to tie up all these loose ends, it seems. If you think back to act 5 you may remember that it involved a bit of time-travelling to the year 1787. Instead of witnessing the Constitutional Convention firsthand we learned about Ben Franklin's troublesome gout. Then we went back in time to 1764 again, which is why middle-aged Ben now looks quite young to Pepper. The jolly founding father, not knowing about our time travel shenanigans, takes that as a compliment, of course, and then the chitchat makes way for some serious plotting. Ben hands Pepper a custom-made kite and wants her to go windsurf across the river with it. After that, she is to distract the sentries at the front bridge with food. While Pepper proceeds to sneak into Penn Mansion, Ben will rally the colonists in order to put pressure on the General. (He does not acknowledge that it was us who did all the legwork for the rallying in the previous act by performing some mind-numbing...well, what's the opposite of a fetch quest? A spread quest?)

The Clue! - They Stole a Hundred Bucks

Written by Menhir Mike

We’re starting the game at Victoria Station and have a first look at the interface. The game has essentially two different modes: Exploration and planning/executing a burglary. I can control the game with either the keyboard or a mouse, but the keyboard is significantly more efficient.

Exploring the surroundings at Victoria Station.

In exploration mode, I can walk to another location, wait (to advance the clock), talk to people (if anyone is around), look at surroundings or people, investigate (more on that later), and think. The “Look” command mostly gives some flavor to a location or person, whereas the “Think” command gives information about everything Matt knows, like how much money we have (3 pounds) or any people that we know (we don’t).

Since there is nothing to do here, I am calling a taxi to go elsewhere. And as luck would have it, we’re the one millionth customer of the taxi company! Our reward is a full year of free taxi rides, which is a very convenient mechanism to make sure we’re not wasting money driving around (and potentially softlocking ourselves) that thematically fits in the game.

King’s Quest VII - Eh, What's Up, Doc?

Written by Michael

More links in this post than you can swing a stick at.

Well, last time we landed in the middle of a desert with the Queen of Daventry, a character we’ve never played before.  In previous games, we’ve controlled King Graham (3 times), his son Alexander (twice), and his daughter Rosella (just once).  No expectations yet about how she will behave.  Will she be as stuffy as Alexander was in the previous game?  Or as easy-going as undercover peasant girl Rosella was in the fourth installment?  Let’s find out.

So, we’ve just been nearly run over by the Daventry equivalent of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, or whatever world we’re in right now.  We’re deposited on a desert screen, and as I walk to the east, my dress gets caught on a cactus, ripping off a swatch.  I’ll pick that up, and I already have a comb in my inventory.  If I try to use the comb on myself, I break down into tears, because it belongs to Rosella (“My daughter!”) who got separated from us during the trip to this world.  

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? 

Goblins Quest 3 – Fairy chess

By Ilmari

French opening?

Universe - Won!

Written by MenhirMike

We left the Mekalien crawler with a cloaking device in our hand, where we can insert the Power Gem. This results in a device that’s powerless and devoid of life - wow, for all the trouble we went through to get the Power Gem, it’s been pretty underwhelming so far. Since the Mekalien didn’t give us any direction, I figure that making my way to the Mekalien Defense Outpost one more time would be the way to go. After all, if the Emperor is leading his fleet to war, a defense outpost sounds like a perfect place to meet him and maybe use the cloaking device to sneak aboard his flagship?

Alas, it was not meant to be, there is nothing except for empty space on the defense outpost. Not even a “Go away or be blasted out of space!” warning one would expect when approaching a military base in the middle of an active conflict. While flying around aimlessly again, I finally ran into a Colossus prison ship when entering the Mekhallantor Galaxy, which showcases yet another great piece of artwork. Neat, so maybe I’m going to use the cloaking device to spring Malinaa and Silphinaa out of prison and escape with them in tow?

If only the writing was as good as the art.

Goblins Quest 3 – Day and night

By Ilmari

I had almost forgotten that Blount was supposed to be a professional reporter. I guess the newspaper articles of the events have been penned by the goblin himself, but it’s so easy to forget that when you don’t see the actual process of putting them down. Of course, it has been a tradition since at least Tintin that the famous reporters do more of the hero business than the actual job they get paid for. In any case, Blount had just found an opportunity to do an interview with queen Xina, when something dreadful happened.

It’s full moon again

Universe - The Door into Summer

Written by MenhirMike

We begin this session in the spaceport after our daring escape from Baron Kaleev, ready to buy a ticket out of here. The only ticket is to the Mekanthallor Galaxy, and the airline doesn’t even guarantee that we get there because it’s a conflict zone. I tried to see if the high security ID would buy me a ticket elsewhere, but it cannot be used at all here. I had pretty high hopes when I got it, but so far it’s been completely useless.

I am surprised that Silphinaa’s ID still worked to buy a ticket on a space ship - I guess that Science Fiction authors of the early 90’s couldn’t foresee the TSA? But no such foresight was needed, 1990’s Total Recall had better airport security and required at least a disguise.

It also gave us the awesome shot of an animatronic head opening.

With the ticket in hand we’re entering the landing shuttle that brings us to the freighter, just in time before Kaleev’s droids catch up to us. If the Baron is directly ordered by the Emperor King to chase us, why didn’t he lock down the spaceport to prevent escape? I wonder if Kaleev learned all about law enforcement practices from the Lytton police department. (Thinking about it, Keith and Kaleev do sound somewhat similar, so the theory might have legs.)

Goblins Quest 3 – Up the nostril and into the ear

By Ilmari

So there I was flying…

What was that?

Oh fu…

Pac-Man 2 - Final Rating

How I might have felt getting this for Christmas 30 years ago...

Written by Michael

Well, this game wasn’t quite the adventure we hoped, but that doesn’t make it a bad game.  So how will it fare in the scoring?

Universe - Have Space Suit - Will Travel

Written by MenhirMike

I made my way back to the Pfallenop cluster and ran into Snorglak again. I could trade the narcotic carvite with him, and he said that we’d need to finalize the trade on Wheelworld. There was a short arcade section where I needed to dock with his docking clamp (not a euphemism), and it took a moment and some bouncing off the clamp for me to realize I needed to press the right mouse button to engage the clamp, and off we went.

I must have hit eighty-eight miles per hour with this baby.

That explains what the excursion was for, and one could argue that the setup was there: We don’t have enough fuel in our PTV to get to Wheelworld from Pfallenop ourselves. We meet a trader with a big ship that wants to trade, but we have nothing to trade for. We are left alone and find something to trade, and we arrange a trade that gets us to Wheelworld. The game doesn’t hand hold us to the solution and lets us figure it out ourselves. That’s great, isn’t it?

Goblins Quest 3 – Mixing potions

By Ilmari

The game’s definitely getting more and more complicated. This time, I faced a three-room level with an intricate puzzle sequence involving alchemy. But let’s start at the beginning. As you might remember from the last time, I was heading to the grocer, who supposedly had another way of transportation for me. Let’s take a look at the surroundings.

Pac-Man 2 - Won!

Written by Michael

Not how my mother taught me to greet others in polite company.

We’ve played through three of the four levels in this game so far.  Perhaps it's time to finish this off?

Is he related to Uncle Pennybags?

After restoring Junior’s guitar, dad sits in his bean bag chair and turns on the television.  Before we discuss his viewing habits, let’s just take a moment to check out this room, now that the rest of the family isn’t blocking our view.  First, inside the house shaped like Pac-Man is a table shaped like Pac-Man.

How many of you have human-shaped tables?  30 bonus CAPs to anyone who sends in a picture of themselves standing next to their family’s human-shaped table. 20 extra CAPs if a computer with the TAG blog is visible in the picture.  (No cheating with AI, please.)