The Clue! - Now We’re Playing With Power

Written by MenhirMike

Last time, I ended up liberating the bones of Karl Marx, but unfortunately the police liberated my car from me. So I started this session with a trip to Cars & Vans, Wellington Road to buy a new one. You can go to the parking lot and look at available cars, which includes the cheap Fiat Topolio in various model years. But since that was only a 2-seater, I turned to the 4 seater options instead, of which four fit my budget of 1797 pounds.

• Morris Minor 1948 (29 PS, 100 km/h maximum speed, 66% condition, 40% capacity, 17% conspicuousness) for 1260 pounds

• Morris Minor 1950 (29 PS, 100 km/h maximum speed, 78% condition, 40% capacity, 23% conspicuousness) for 1490 pounds

• Morris Minor 1953 (29 PS, 100 km/h maximum speed, 94% condition, 40% capacity, 28% conspicuousness) for 1780 pounds

• Jeep 1940 (54 PS, 100 km/h maximum speed, 27% condition, 42% capacity, 76% conspicuousness) for 1010 pounds

The 1945 CJ (“Civilian Jeep”) was the first mass-produced civilian four-wheel drive car

The manual tells me that performance and speed decreases with age, and that you can only estimate the current performance value. The Jeep has the same maximum speed, but more horsepower - I’m not sure what that is important for. Faster acceleration to outrun the police?

It does not tell me what the condition actually does - the game differentiates between the condition of the motor, tyres, and body, but I don’t know what a bad condition car will do. There is a note that the car's body shape and color determines conspicuousness, which explains the high value for the Jeep - that thing is unmistakable in any color. The 1953 Morris Minor is bright yellow, while the 1948 is grey and the 1950 is white - so I guess I should get all my cars in grey?

There is a garage in which I can have the car repaired as well, but I don’t know yet why I’d do that. I can also repaint it, but don’t want to spend the money. In the end, I decided on the Morris Minor 1950 - it’s in relatively good condition, not very conspicuous, and leaves me money for tools.

I wonder if I can get an extended warranty against loss?

For my next burglary, called a Taxi and staked out my options:

• Pink Villa: Was mentioned in the newspaper last time

• Old Curiosity Shop: A shop that sells collectibles

• Old People’s Home: What it says on the tin

• Jeweller’s: Seems very lucrative

• Suterby’s: Not to be confused with Christie’s and Sotheby’s, it’s a smaller auction house

• Chiswick House: An old, aristocratic mansion

My first instinct was the Pink Villa because it was mentioned as the location in which Professor Luger was arrested, so I staked it out first. And it’s unfortunately a part of the game that aged poorly. It’s described as a transvestite club, established in 1748, and is somewhat played for laughs. Matt disapproves, but notices that there’s probably a lot of money in there. During the observation, he notes that an Inspector from Scotland Yard arrives and later on, a Lady, looking very much like the inspector, leaves. Looking back at the previous newspaper article about Professor Luger being arrested by a “French Sailor” looks like a hint that Inspector Gludo might frequent this place.

I’m not going to judge the developers of a game that came out in 1993 about their sense of humor - it was a product of its time, as evidenced by the first Ace Ventura movie a year later. I don’t know if the word is still valid or derogatory, but I do remember it being in frequent use in the 90s. I’m not complaining that Matt does not approve of the establishment, because in-character, I don’t think it would be unusual for a person in 1953 to disapprove (Alan Turing was convicted of “gross indecency” in 1952 - an injustice that stood for decades). None of that is for me to judge, but as someone reviewing the game in 2026, I have to at least document it. Ultimately, I see it as a poorly aged product of a different time and leave it at that. At least it proves that Matt is an equal-opportunity thief.

The location is interesting because it has two floors - but otherwise is fairly standard, and the total value is only listed as 430 pounds in-game. So I decided it wasn’t worth breaking into.

I looked at the other locations and really wanted to do the Jeweller’s next. This one is much more complicated: Instead of wooden doors, it has steel doors that can’t be lockpicked or broken with a jemmy. It has two alarm systems that protect each other. And it has a safe. Total values are listed as 3000 pounds.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a safe cracker with a high enough skill for the safe, so I’m leaving the documentation for this for later, as much as it pains me. I will probably try this next time though!

Any time I rewatch Futurama, I skip "Jurassic Bark"

I settled on the Old Curiosity Shop, even though it is only valued at 900 pounds. Why? Because it has an alarm system, which is a nice step up in complexity. When I visit the place and see the floor plan, I can investigate the alarm system to see exactly what it protects - this is arguably more useful in target buildings that have multiple alarms, where it’s a crucial feature.

The alarm protects a cabinet next to it and two of the display cases

Matt can handle alarms, but I need some more tools - good that I didn’t spend all my money on the car. In the tools store, I notice that they now sell a mask for 3 pounds - that would have been useful in the previous heist! In order to defeat the alarm, I need an electric kit (35 pounds). Unlike previous tools, this kit doesn’t work without power - I need either a battery (20 pounds) or a generator (340 pounds). There are some tools that don’t work off battery and need the expensive generator, like the power drill. But I don’t have that kind of money right now, so I settled for the battery.

Since this is 1953, it probably still uses Micro-USB instead of USB-C

I can also sell tools back at full price to the tools shop. This would have allowed me to sell for example the radio that I bought but not have any use for, in order to afford the generator. In fact, that’s what I’ve tried to do before in order to afford all the tools to try the Jeweller. This is good because it avoids a potential soft-lock and offers some flexibility with heists, but it also makes money a bit awkward. Money is super important, and I think I could have found a safe cracker skilled enough for the Jeweller - but they wanted 90% of the share. What’s the point of doing a lucrative heist and only getting a pittance of the loot for myself? Maybe it’s for my own pride or as a challenge run, but the economics just didn’t work out to make the Jeweller viable.

There is one thing I learned though: You can save a plan in progress, and return to it later, but only if you have all the tools that you had back then. I had started a plan, realized I needed more tools, sold some unneeded tools to afford them and tried to continue the plan. The game told me that there are tools missing and listed them out - but wouldn’t allow me to just continue even though the tools weren’t actually used during the plan. 

The three stooges forgot to bring a lock pick to a burglary

I do think that it should have been possible to evaluate the tools actually used in the plan even on a 1 MB Amiga 500, so this is unfortunate. Speaking of fortune, let’s actually look at the Old Curiosity Shop. During the planning phase, I can clearly see protected objects marked with an A, and the alarm system highlighted in red.

A bright red alarm system is very curious

But what I couldn’t find in planning mode was the connection between the alarm and the objects it protects. As said, that’s not a big deal here because there’s only one alarm system, but there are heists with multiple alarms where it’s important to keep track of which one connects to what.

Since Matt can handle the alarm, I invited Justin White back (for a 27% share) and got to plan.

As noted previously, Justin’s skill in cars had been increased from 43% to 52%

1. Matt picks the lock to the front door (23 seconds), picks the lock to the upper room (23 seconds), opens the alarm, and uses the electric kit to disarm it (105 seconds) - this takes nearly 4 minutes

2. He breaks into the cabinet next to the alarm and takes a Sanskrit book (90 pounds) and some money (300 pounds)

3. Justin walks in behind Matt, breaks open the cash register to take some money (150 pounds), walks to the top display case (which is not alarm protected)

4. Justin uses the glass cutter to cut the display case (32 seconds) and takes a curiosity worth 150 pounds

5. Justin waits for the alarm to be disarmed, then cuts into the second glass case and takes an autograph of Oscar Wilde (200 pounds)

6. Matt opens the third display case with the glass cutter and takes a bronze statue (150 pounds) and a curiosity (100 points)

7. Both Matt and Justin are back at the car at the 7 minute mark. I note that Matt is carrying a total of 21 kilograms (46.3 lbs) of loot - I don’t know how important weight is and if it will be a factor in future heists.

Is “autogramme” the British spelling, or is this a mistranslation from the German “Autogramm”?

I note that the total estimated sum is 1140 pounds, even though the observation report said 900 pounds of value. The alarm system adds some complexity because it takes a long time to disarm (about 2 minutes since I also have to open the alarm case) and I could have Justin deal with non-protected items in the meantime to streamline the time needed. 

The real heist doesn’t show the “A” indicator for protected objects

The heist goes off without a hitch and we leave very few traces - both Matt and Justin have 1% records existing and single digit percentages for the other categories. So naturally, we’re immediately getting arrested on suspicion of burglary.

I guess the fortune teller was telling the truth the other day

This is a story segment - Matt is worried that Briggs ratted him out, but Gludo had to release him after 24 hours for lack of evidence. There is no real follow up here yet - I’m in the police station and can talk to Gludo as if nothing happened. I am a bit disappointed that the game doesn’t have any ongoing/changing dialogue throughout - every character in the game is just a portrait with some stats. Maybe not a big deal for a puzzle/strategy game, but not great for an adventure even considering the one-bit nature of most adventure game NPCs.

With nothing else to do, I sell my loot. For the first time, I have something for Mrs. Parker and note that there’s a certain tedium here: I go to Holland Street and visit Mr. Pooly and Mr. Maloya, then take the Taxi to Watling Street and visit Mrs. Parker. I ask all three of them how much they offer and note down the values, then sell at the highest bidder. The manual says that a better relationship should get me better prices, but I don’t know how to raise my relationship - should I sell to someone that offers less in the hope that their relationship increases? Or always sell to the highest bidder because that might also cause their relationship to raise, making them even better?

No idea, but I ended up selling the Sanskrit Book (80 pounds) and Bronze Statue (134 pounds) to Mrs. Parker and the cash (409 pounds), curiosities (206 pounds), and autograph of Oscar Wilde (165 pounds) to Mr. Maloya - the total of 994 pounds is still higher than the initial estimate of 900 pounds.

I’m ending this session with 958 pounds in my purse and once again no real direction, so I just plan for the next heist. I hope that I can find an accomplice that can crack the Jeweller’s safe without wanting 90% of the share next time.

Times arrested: 1

One final observation is that this screen says my share of the last coup was 75% - but Justin clearly stated that she wanted 27%. I forgot to look at my money beforehand to see if this is just a display bug, or if I actually got those extra 2%. As said in the previous post, loyalty decreases the desired percentage and Justin already went down from 47% to 27%, so I assume she’s at 25% now. As good as the interface seemed at the beginning, it is showing some issues during this session.

Session Time: 2 hour 00 minutes (of which about 45 minutes was trying to make the Jeweller heist work)

Total Time: 5 hours 30 minutes