Game 41: Les Manley 1 - Final Rating

I'm super keen to move onto something enjoyable, so let's get on with it and see just how poorly Les Manley rates.

Puzzles and Solvability
Well this isn’t going to be pretty! The puzzles in Les Manley are by far and away the most ridiculous that I’ve ever had to endure. It was difficult enough when I rarely had any motivation to try anything at all (To what purpose am I helping everyone at the circus? Why am I collecting items of clothing in the style of Elvis?), but the solutions to each puzzle were often bordering on impossible. Why would anyone try looking at someone’s dream, let alone try picking it up? Why would anyone randomly try touching Madame Zarmooska, let alone the lizard statue on her desk? Why would anyone try to pick the floss back up after using it, particularly when there was no reason they shouldn’t still have it in their inventory in the first place? Then there were the culturally specific solutions, such as asking for a raise at the very start, and having to type “ask for soda” (I happened to get away with “cola”) at Bobbi’s. I did much better in the second half of the game, but I’m not really certain whether that was due to the solutions becoming more logical or me becoming more illogical. I really do think I'm a bit stupider after playing this pile of excrement! I haven’t even mentioned the dead ends yet, which are absolutely everywhere. I may have only been caught out by a few, but I could see the potential for stacks more. Even with all the flaws I’ve mentioned here, it’s actually difficult to put a rating down for this category. I think I have to put it above the likes of Psycho, Captain Blood and Emmanuelle, for those games had either no real puzzles to solve at all, or were simply broken. I don't like it, but 2 it is.
Rating: 2

I really hope this is the last time I type this...ever!

Interface and Inventory
Let’s start this category with a little bit of positivity. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the movement in the game! Watching Les move around doesn’t look pretty, but the visuals are to be covered elsewhere, so...well, there you have it. Something positive! No-one can say I didn’t say anything nice! However, I certainly can’t say anything remotely positive about the parser technology spluttering beneath the game. It’s simply unacceptable for an adventure game, and particularly one that relies upon it as much as this one did, to have such a horrible parser. Not only did it fail to accept legitimate commands regularly, therefore putting me off what often turned out to be absolutely correct solutions, I also managed to break it several times. I received complete gibberish responses on several occasions, and at other times was given what was clearly a response meant for a completely different question. The most noteworthy of these was the response “I don’t see the resurrection card here”, which I received after trying to look at the water fountain in the office, but that certainly wasn’t the only example. As for the inventory, well it was a replica of the one I disliked so much in Police Quest 2, meaning it was nothing more than a list with no way to interact with anything in it. As the game went on the inventory grew in length and became really difficult to look at. For a 1990 game, the interface technology on show in Les Manley just wasn’t good enough.
Rating: 2

A jar and a lunch bag walk into a bar...

Story and Setting
If you were going to make a clone of a Leisure Suit Larry game, you could do a lot worse than making a loser protagonist go in search of Elvis Presley with a million dollar prize up for grabs. Setting the game in a circus in New York, then a casino in Las Vegas, and then finally a theme-town dedicated to The King in Texas would also be a pretty inspired idea. Throw in a bunch of busty, suggestive babes and some juvenile silliness and you’ve got a winner! Right?! Well the truth is that the vast majority of reasons why the outcome of the above plan turned out to be shite have been and will be covered elsewhere in this post. If I really think about what went on here, and I'm trying not to put too much thought into it, it was the puzzle solutions and the parser that should take most of the blame. The story and setting are by no means great, but in some ways they could be considered a missed opportunity rather than a failure themselves. That being said, a lot of the humour in the game falls completely flat, and some parts of the plot make absolutely no sense. The climax in particular didn't stick since it could have been achieved as soon as Les got his hands on the resurrection card, which occurs pretty early on (well it does if the player uses a walkthrough or is extremely lucky). Everything that took place after that time had no bearing on the outcome of events. I guess the lack of motivation should also be punished here, so I still have to go pretty low.
Rating: 3

I'm glad I wasn't alone in feeling a bit perplexed by the ending.

Sound and Graphics
The sound and graphics in Les Manley are pretty comparable to a Sierra game in around late 1988 to early 1989. There’s not much in the way of sound effects, but plenty of music. Some of that music is reasonably memorable, but that probably has more to do with how repetitive it is rather than how enjoyable. I was actually forced to turn it off while in the circus, as the repeating tune was destroying my brain cells. On the graphics front things are a cross between the first sequels to Police Quest and Leisure Suit Larry, with some really bland screens of light blue and grey (think the office hallways and Bobbi's house) dividing others containing a wide range of more attractive bright colours (the mansion for example). I guess when I consider that only Mean Streets and Accolade have scored more than 4 in this category out of non-Sierra/LucasArts games, this is really not a bad one. The girls (which let’s face it, are a pretty important part of the game’s attraction for its target audience) are easy on the eyes, the animation isn’t too bad (a bit stilted though), and I can’t recall not being able to figure out what an important item on screen was by sight (the parser had other ideas though). This category is probably the best thing about the game, so I'll dish out a 4.
Rating: 4

The Elvis moves were pretty spot on too.

Environment and Atmosphere
The environment in Les Manley is a bit of a mixed bag. In some ways it feels really incomplete, with each of the three main sections (New York, Las Vegas, Kingdom Gates) suggesting a large play area while delivering very little. The last of the three sections is the worst offender, showing a top-down view of an entire town while allowing the player to visit only two buildings, and Las Vegas contains a pool, two hotel rooms and a dry cleaner, with no sign of any gambling areas at all. The circus and the Kingdom mansion are probably the most fully realized parts of the game, but even they feel limited in their implementation. I really have to question why I wasn’t allowed to open the door leading from the dining room in to the kitchen, and the game’s only defence was that there was a “more interesting” way to get in. It’s hard to get a grip on the atmosphere too, as there seemed to be a bit of an anything goes attitude when designing it. Clearly things are not supposed to be taken seriously, but puzzles that involve putting a man the size of a mouse into a drainpipe to collect a receipt, a disappearing psychic, and being launched the entire way across the United States take things to a new level of silliness. This is probably a case where the frustration the game brings to the table pretty much takes away any opportunity for a positive atmosphere to be created.
Rating: 4

It's like they ran out of time / money and therefore had to cut out the major parts of their plan (then made the remaining puzzles way too difficult to make it seem longer).

Dialogue and Acting
The dialogue in Les Manley can only be described as a poor imitation of the work of Al Lowe. There are lots and lots of jokes throughout, but they’re rarely funny due to being overly telegraphed or just eye-rollingly corny. There are other issues too, such as racial and sexual stereotypes (Sierra isn’t innocent on this front though) and some seriously misleading parser responses. I know I’ve already caned the parser in the interface category, but that was specifically focussing on its inability to function correctly. What I’m talking about here is actual responses to questions giving me reasons to focus on things that don’t mean anything. For example, Alona made a couple of comments suggesting she wanted me to bring Helmut to her, and then had nothing to say whatsoever when I did so. Worse than that were the occasions where I was specifically told something wasn’t possible, only to eventually find out that was exactly what I was supposed to do. Madame Zarmooska told me very specifically: “You can’t take the wax”, but guess what I ended up doing! Add to all this the various grammatical and spelling issues that popped up throughout and its difficult to understand how so many game designers with previous adventure game experience could possibly have produced this.
Rating: 3

Whoever was behind this stuff was just trying too hard. It was a chore to read and rarely raised a smile.

Alright, so that's 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 3, which equals 18, divided by 60 equals 0.3, which is exactly 30 when multiplied by 100. 30!!!! That really is low! It's the same score I gave Uninvited and only a few marks higher than Captain Blood and Mortville Manor. Have I been too harsh? Maybe, but I really hated this game. There's no way I'm using my discretionary point to increase it, so 30 it is!

Did anyone predict that? Yep, Laukku absolutely nailed it! I don't feel so bad about the score now either, since many of you went even lower. I'm really happy to be done with it, but I'm also excited at the prospect of reading through all of your comments. I'll have to set aside about an hour of my time tomorrow to get through it all. Then it's onto the first remake on the list, Roberta Williams' King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown.

170 CAPs for Aperama
• Zarmooska Award – 60 CAPs - For betting I wouldn’t solve the resurrection card puzzle unassisted.
• Giant Keys Award – 20 CAPs – For answering my request for assistance regarding the keys
• Tangible Dream Award – 20 CAPs – For answering my request for assistance regarding the dream
• Luigi Vanity Award – 20 CAPs – For answering my request for assistance regarding Luigi’s moustache.
• Hitchhiking Award – 20 CAPs – For answering my request for assistance regarding hitchhiking
• Probation Explanation Award – 10 CAPs – For informing me about the in-game performance review hint
• Trade – 10 CAPs – Traded from Canageek for Crapshoot intro
• Community Assistance Award – 10 CAPs – For uniting the companions in one final push for victory

85 CAPs for Laukku
• Dream Catcher Award – 60 CAPs – For betting I wouldn’t solve the dream puzzle unassisted.
• Touche Award – 30 CAPs – For solving my Touche riddle
• Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs - For correctly predicting what score I would give the game.
• Community Assistance Award – 10 CAPs – For uniting the companions in one final push for victory
• Lovecraftian Spiral Into Madness Award – 5 CAPs – For visualising my descent into madness.
• Tricky Smackdown Fail - -10 CAPs – For betting I wouldn’t solve the soda puzzle and losing.
• Tricky Smackdown Fail - -10CAPs – For betting I wouldn’t solve the Do Not Disturb puzzle and losing.
• Tricky Smackdown Fail - -10 CAPs – For betting I wouldn’t solve the spa bath puzzle and losing

60 CAPs for Lars-Erik
• Game Over Award - -1000 CAPs – For messing with me and getting caught!
• Sponsor Award - 20 CAPs - For sponsoring the blog with free games
• Steakhouse Analogy Award – 10 CAPs – It really was awesomely done.
• Community Assistance Award – 10 CAPs – For uniting the companions in one final push for victory
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on GOG
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on GOG
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game on GOG
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game on GOG
• Resurrection Award – 1000 CAPs – For having the resurrection card at the time of getting caught.

20 CAPs for Kenny McCormick
• Game Over Award - -1000 CAPs – For messing with me and getting caught!
• Kickstarter Award – 10 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game project on Kickstarter
• Spinning Luchadore Power Bomb Award – 5 CAPs – I don’t know what it is, but it sounds painful!
• Honesty Award – 5 CAPs – “Me? I just enjoy watching him suffer...”
• Resurrection Award – 1000 CAPs – For having the resurrection card at the time of getting caught.

10 CAPs for Draconius
• Ultimate Optimism Award – 5 CAPs – For predicting the game would score 96!
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on GOG

10 CAPs for Ilmari
• Game Over Award - -1000 CAPs – For messing with me and getting caught!
• Touchy Feely Award – 20 CAPs – For answering my request for assistance regarding Zarmooska
• Community Assistance Award – 10 CAPs – For uniting the companions in one final push for victory
• Tricky Smackdown Fail - -10 CAPs – For betting I wouldn’t solve the Helmut mailing puzzle and losing.
• Tricky Smackdown Fail - -10 CAPs – For betting I wouldn’t solve the sandwich puzzle and losing.
• Resurrection Award – 1000 CAPs – For having the resurrection card at the time of getting caught.

10 CAPs for TBD
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game on GOG
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game on GOG

20 CAPs for Charles
• Game Over Award - -1000 CAPs – For messing with me and getting caught!
• Kickstarter Award – 10 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game project on Kickstarter
• Loyalty Award – 10 CAPs – I know he milking it for all it’s worth, but well, he’s just so good at it!
• Resurrection Award – 1000 CAPs – For having the resurrection card at the time of getting caught.

10 CAPs for xyzzysqrl
• Sleazy Phone Sex Award – 10 CAPs – For informing me of what the 976 thing was all about

5 CAPs for Canageek
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on Steam
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on Steam
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on Steam
• Trade - -10 CAPs – Traded to Aperama for Crapshoot intro

Game 41: Les Manley 1 - Won! (No, really, I have this time)

I thought I was done with Les Manley! I’d reached the end of the game and while it’s true the climax I experienced wasn’t the most positive piece of closure one could imagine, it was still an ending. However, once I’d posted about it, the comments started coming in. You guys weren’t happy for me now that I no longer had to endure this pile of poo. None of you cheered that I could finally get onto something better (well xyzzysqrl kinda did, bless her)! You were disappointed that I’d given up the fight, and concerned that I might treat future game climaxes with the same nonchalant approach. Most of all though, you all appeared more than a little let down that I hadn’t had a complete mental breakdown when I’d finally had the rug pulled out from under me. You wanted “seething”, “teeth gnashing” and “writhing in agony”. Well, the truth is that I was indeed a little pissed when I realised I’d missed something, but as Kenny so astutely judged, I just couldn't “give a rat’s ass about it”. It's a very good sign of just how bad a game is when the player couldn’t care less whether the protagonist lives or dies at the end. Anyway, the companions have spoken, and overnight I have come to agree that I really shouldn't leave it this way. I’ve committed to seeing this damn thing through to absolute completion!

Well at least I know the resurrection card isn't here!

I’ve not yet read any of the hints that the community (literally) left me, and I’ll say up front that my biggest fear is that I don’t have a save game far enough back to be able to restore to. I guess we’ll know soon enough. In fact, let’s try something a bit different. I’m going to play the game at the same time as posting, intermittently updating the blog so you can all (well, whoever’s awake and reading right now) see exactly what I’m up to. I’ll start by reading the first hint, which was left by Ilmari, and then see where things go from there. Hint 1: “Somebody *did* foresee a violent ending”. Oh no! That can only be Madame Zarmooska, way back at the circus! I had so much trouble with her already! Could this resurrection card be somewhere in her caravan? Where? I looked in the skull and I think I looked under the lizard too. Should I read the second hint before going all the way back there? No, the first thing I’ll do is load up the game and see when my earliest save game is. I have a bad feeling though! Nope, I didn’t have a save game in New York, but it didn’t turn out to be all that bad. I turned the game speed up to nearly max and played through from the start to Madame Zarmooska in less than five minutes. Now...let’s see about this card!

If Zarmooska foresaw it, how can I possibly avoid it? I mean, psychics are never wrong are they!?

What I'm about to write literally occurred a few minutes ago. The first thing I did was type "look at card", in the off chance that I might get a helpful response. "I don't see the resurrection card here" was all I got. I tried a few other things, but it was clear I wasn't going to be able to achieve much while Zarmooska was still around. I touched her to make her disappear, grimacing at how stupid that puzzle was once again. With her out of the way, I tried looking for the card again, and was shown a picture and description!!! "Entitles bearer (that means YOU, Les) to 1 free resurrection." At least now I knew that it was actually here in the caravan, but when I tried to get it I was told that it was "not in view". I set about examining the crystal ball, candles, lizard and skull as closely as I could, starting with the ball. I tried looking at, under and in the ball, and then tried to open and move it, but none of those commands worked. I then tried the same commands with the lizard and lo and behold, typing "move lizard" was the solution! "Touching the lizard seems to trigger a hidden mechanism." The resurrection card appeared out of the lizard's mouth! I have to ask...how on earth could anyone figure out that they were supposed to do this without help? I guess you could fluke it, but I was only able to solve it because I absolutely knew it was there, and even then it was just luck.

Who knows how I could get a description of it if it wasn't in view, but whatever.

Why of course there's a resurrection card in the lizard! Who wouldn't think of touching it to make it come out!?

I'm shocked to say that it took me about twenty minutes to play through the entire game if I exclude trying to figure out how to get the card. Once I reached the climax, I was still uncertain of how things were going to play out. Would Les automatically use the card? Would I have to use it at a specific time? It turned out the former was true. The mob still ran him over and killed him, but this time I witnessed his spirit leave his body and ascend into heaven. Once he'd reach the pearly gates, he was joined onstage by several angel musicians for a short period before waking up in hospital, apparently alive and well. The nurse of course was a blonde bombshell, and the first thing Les did was give her a photo of himself (i.e. The King) performing in heaven. The scene switched to show his boss, who would clearly now owe him a million bucks! The station didn't have the cash of course, but "Les did figure out a way for the station to pay off on the contest. And now, after taking over as owner, president and CEO of WILL, he has turned it into the highest rated station in the country. The stunning Stella Hart still works for the station but now she's Les' personal-assistant-in-charge-of-raises."

An average Saturday night turned into something much more interesting for this audience.

Actually, thinking about it, this is probably the real Elvis onstage, and Les just took a picture of him. What's your take?

Oh my. That is a pretty picture!

Oh the days before Photoshop. Everything was legit back then!

The game closed by describing what happened to all the other important characters. Col. Bob now manages his own chain of S&L's, Zarmooska got sucked into the spirit world and now makes cash channeling mortals, Helmut hosts his own talk show, Mr. Fabulous works at a burger joint, Vito plays Nintendo, Bobbi gave up her obsession with The King and is now awaiting the arrival of a Venusian spaceship and Lyla is tanning as usual. And that my friends, is really it this time! Final Rating post to come...

Oh God! There's actually a sequel to this!

480 out of 500. Don't even think about telling me that I haven't finished!

Session Time: 0 hours 30 minutes
Total Time: 9 hours 00 minutes

Game 41: Les Manley 1 - Won!

Les Manley Journal Entry 7: "The search for The King is over! That's right ladies and gentlemen! I...AM...THE KI....wait a second...what are you doing? Security! Aaaaggghhhhh......."

I think it may be fun for me too in comparison to playing this game!

I’ve seen a lot of ROT13 comments taking place over the last few weeks. I have a feeling that reading through them will bring as much entertainment as it does embarrassment. You see, I’ve finished Les Manley: The Search for The King, but the ending I’ve experienced clearly isn’t the ideal one. I must have missed something along the way and I have a strong feeling that you guys have known about it all along. My last post ended with me requesting assistance. I’d been quite sure that I needed to find somewhere to get changed, despite not knowing why I might want to do that. Once again it was Aperama who quickly provided the hints / spoiler to the situation, and it turned out I was on the complete wrong track! Hint: “You need to get somewhere else, but you have no money. Maybe you should do something you were always told not to?” Was Aperama suggesting I needed to hitchhike? If so, how was I supposed to know to do that? Leaving that question aside, I had a think about where I might hitchhike from, and the answer seemed obvious. I made my way to the front of the hotel and typed “hitchhike”. Les stuck out his thumb, and in a matter of seconds a hippy van arrived and he jumped in! (10 points) The overhead map view popped up and I watched as the van drove across country to the large house in Texas. On arrival I found myself at Kingdom Gates, with a message saying “Unfortunately, the fumes have left your memory a bit hazy. Let’s just hope that you didn’t forget anything.”

Perhaps if I'd been smoking what these guys clearly have been, I may have been able to transcend into the illogical state required to solve these puzzles.

Well, now that you mention it...

Before I go on, I need to point out that I already knew for certain that I had indeed forgotten something! The first that I knew of it was when Canageek commented: “Trickster, you are about to dead end yourself if you continue without doing something you’ve missed.” He ROT13’d whatever it was that I’d missed, but I wasn’t sure whether or not I should read it. The reason for my hesitation was that Canageek deleted the comment shortly after writing it, apparently after some consultation with other companions. For future situations like this, deleting a comment is very unlikely to stop me from reading it, since I read all comments in my email rather than on the blog. I only visit the blog itself to put up a new post or to respond to comments. Deleting a comment from the site does not delete it from my email. Regardless, I’m not cranky at Canageek for the spoiler since a) I’ve been a bit vague as to whether or not I want to know about being dead ended, b) Ilmari ended up warning me anyway, and c) this was no ordinary dead end. Literally minutes before I set out on my session, Ilmari posted three hints and a spoiler. I decided to read them because quite frankly, parts of this game have been almost unsolvable. Hint 1: “You are about to get dead-ended.” Hint 2: “Don’t you think you’d want to procure something you’ve already used, just in case it might come handy later?” Huh? There was something I used in Vegas that I would need again?

Me and the boys reversed back to Las Vegas (in other words, I restored).

I scanned my screenshots to see what I’d used and where. The only puzzles that I’d actually solved with items were at the dry cleaner (receipt), spa bath (dental floss) and hotel room (do not disturb sign). It seemed unlikely that I could get the receipt back from Susie, so I made my way to the other locations. I was able to pick up the sign off the door in the hotel room. Perhaps that was it? I decided to not tempt fate, and went back to the spa bath to see if I could recover the floss. The whole idea made little sense to me anyway, since I’d actually tied the floss to Helmut. He was still in my inventory, so surely the floss was too? I tried typing “get floss” while standing next to the spa, and it worked! I wonder if anyone has ever thought to re-pick up either of these items after using them. Anyway, I figured that I’d probably receive a different message on arriving at Kingdom Gates if I did have everything I needed, so set out to test that theory. I didn’t get the “Let’s just hope you didn’t forget anything” message, so it looked like I was good to go! It was time to concentrate on my new environment, and the first thing I wanted to find out was whether it was limited to the mansion in front of me. I stepped away from the gates and was given an overhead view of the whole neighbourhood!

It's about this stage that this form of inventory gets rather unruly.

Without warning, Les Manley became a Raiden clone (no, not really).

I could see that there were attractions, exhibits, gift shops, restaurants, restrooms, telephones and lodgings all over the place, but there was no sign of which I could actually visit. Now that I knew how big the environment was, I tried to go back to the gate but wasn’t able to. Rather than restoring, I set out to explore what I could, wandering down the road and along the path in front of the various buildings. I tried to “look” at quite a few of them, but was continually told that “This spot isn’t too interesting.” I was almost about to give up when I walked up to the front of a building in the north eastern section. I suddenly found myself standing outside a bar called Red’s. There was a telephone box out the front and when I looked at it I was told that it was “Just the kind of place Clark Kent would use”. This of course made me wonder whether I might be able to get changed in it, Superman style. I typed “put on suit” and was thrilled when Les put on the suit, the scarf, the cape and the shades! He walked out looking just like The King, only thinner. (10 points) With that done, I walked into the bar, where I was then seen standing on stage. There was a celebrity lookalike contest on, and it appeared to be my turn! I typed “dance”, and watched as Les did his best Elvis impersonation. It was terrible to say the least, and the audience and judges agreed. “Last Place has been locked up by Lester P. Manley.”

Not interesting?! It's a frickin' helicopter!

Ah-ah-ha!

Dude, that's The Bangles, not The King!

Thankfully my embarrassing effort wasn’t for nought, as I received a consolation prize on the way out. “The gates to The Kingdom have been opened especially for you.” (10 points) Ah OK, it seemed I never would have been able to open the gate and enter the mansion without visiting the bar. After satisfying myself that there were no other locations to visit on the entire map, I entered the mansion proper. There were pictures of The King everywhere, and a staircase leading upstairs from a polar bear rug. I decided to check out the ground floor before taking the stairs, so walked through the doorway at the back of the room. This led to a dining room, where I soon discovered a bowl of fruit sitting on the table. When I looked at the fruit I got “Gee...they’re not all wax”, but further examination failed to reveal what type of real fruit there was. The first one that came to mind was a banana, so I typed “get banana”. It worked, and it suddenly dawned on me that I now had the majority of ingredients to make The King’s favourite food (a banana and peanut butter sandwich). (10 points) I tried picking up other types of fruit, but wasn’t surprised to find the banana was the only thing available. Strangely, when I tried opening the door to the left of screen I was told “There’s a more interesting way to get to the kitchen.” There appeared to be nothing else of interest in the dining room, so I walked back to the foyer.

Notice all the faces are blurred out "for legal reasons". Wouldn't want to get sued by a dead guy.

Or...I could just open the damn door!

This time I went through to the hallway leading off to the right, finding myself standing in front of numerous trophies and instruments once there. I could see a microphone on one of the shelves, and since looking at it gave me a close-up view and description, I knew I must be able to procure it. However, when I tried to pick it up I was told that doing so would set off the alarm. The same thing happened with the guitar that was sitting on a pedestal, so obviously I was going to have to figure out how to turn off the alarm system before coming back to collect them. It was time to check out upstairs, and doing so revealed what must once have been The King’s bedroom. “The presence of THE KING is overwhelming, almost as though he left a part of himself here.” That was a pretty strange message, but I couldn’t find anything in the room that made sense of it. In fact, I was limited to only the very upper edge of the room, meaning I could walk along the side of the bed and that was about it. Was The King here somewhere? I didn’t think so, but I typed “give banana to king” just to see what would happen. “You give the banana to THE KING.” What? Where was he?! I tried taking the banana back, but wasn’t able to. Had I just dead ended myself by giving away an important item to someone that wasn’t there?! I came to the conclusion that I had, so was forced to restore.

Doesn't everyone have an "Awards Room"?

I thought this was a fantastic response to my request to "smash the mirror".

I wandered back downstairs, wondering where the alarm switch might be. I realised I’d not examined the polar bear rug, and lo and behold, when I looked in its mouth I found a switch! Apparently I couldn’t flick the switch myself, since “you wouldn’t think of putting your fingers anywhere you wouldn’t also put your tongue.” This was completely stupid, but I figured it must be another opportunity to bring Helmut into play. I typed “put Helmut in mouth”, and sat back while he climbed in and turned the alarm off for me. (10 points) I was getting close now, and eagerly went back to the trophy cabinet to collect both the microphone (10 points) and the guitar (10 points). Sadly, when I looked at the guitar I found it to have a broken string, but the solution to that problem was pretty straight forward. I fixed the guitar with the bit of dental floss I’d recovered from the spa bath! (10 points) Obviously this is where I would have been dead ended had Canageek, Ilmari and co. not informed me of the situation. I’d like to think that I might have considered trying to recover the floss if I’d reached this point unassisted, but regardless, it would have been very annoying to have to restore so far back. Now, what the hell was I supposed to do? I revisited the upstairs bedroom, but still couldn’t find anything to do (singing and playing guitar in front of the mirror achieved nothing). I therefore headed back to Red’s Bar and Grill to try my luck in the lookalike contest.

This game should be called Les and Helmut: Search for The King. What would I have done without him?

I guess all I can say is "Thank you...thank you very much!"

Unfortunately my dancing and singing were not improved this time around, so I made my way back to the house and then upstairs. Whatever I needed to do next, I felt like it needed to be done there. I figured I must be able to visit a kitchen, and that doing so might result in me being able to make the banana and peanut butter sandwich, but was struggling to find the “interesting” way to get in. I’d previously tried looking at the cupboard to the right of screen by using the words “cupboard” and “drawers” amongst others, but hadn’t been successful. This time I tried “look at cabinet”, and the response was “Nothing unusual about the bureau itself”. Bureau? I typed “open bureau” and then “look in bureau”, discovering a “secret mechanism” inside. I pressed the secret mechanism, and doing so caused a pole to slide out of the ceiling and pass through an opening in the floor! (10 points) Sliding down the pole took me to the exact location I’d hoped it would: The kitchen! Strangely, when I reached the bottom of the pole, Les continued to spin around and around. I typed “get off pole”, “let go of pole” etc., but nothing would work. I was beginning to wonder whether I’d come across a bug when I finally figured out that typing “release pole” worked a treat. (10 points) There was nothing to interact with in the booths, so I opened up the bench and walked into the kitchen proper. There I found the bread I needed to complete the sandwich! (10 points)

Of course! I just needed to look in the bureau!

For those severe hunger emergencies!

For once it actually was what I was looking for!

It took me a while to find the exact place I was supposed to make the sandwich, but I eventually found it. I’d expected to make it and then put it in my inventory for later use, but instead Les gobbled it up as soon as it was ready! I’d suspected earlier on that I was never going to find The King in Les Manley and that I in fact would become him. Now I knew that to be correct, as the sandwich had caused Les to gain more than a few pounds! (10 points) All that was left to do was to head back to the celebrity lookalike contest and show off my new physique. This time when I typed “sing”, Les made all the right moves, with both the guitar and the microphone being put to good use. The audience was rightfully very impressed, and a bunch of fans immediately assumed that The King had finally returned. They ran up onto the stage and mobbed me, killing me in the process. Yes, you read that right. They killed me! “What a shame. You made it all this way, only to perish, trampled under a mob of crazed fans. But while this is one ending, some believe in a hereafter.” After everything I’d been through, I still didn’t get the satisfaction of a proper ending! I guess it’s fitting that for the very first time (and hopefully the last time), this Won post will finish with a request for assistance. I know from the bug I found early in the game that there’s a “resurrection card” somewhere in Les Manley. Damned if I can be bothered trying to find where it is though. If the card isn’t in Kingdom Gates somewhere, I’m ticking this game off as finished! I'll have to watch the better ending on YouTube.

Can't say I've ever tried this combination. Might not be too bad actually!

Now I got the moves!

The end is nigh...well, an end anyway.

Session Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time: 8 hours 30 minutes

Game 41: Les Manley 1 - Seeking Some Alone Time

Les Manley Journal Entry 6: "Don't ask me why, but I've started to build up quite the collection of Elvis style clothing. Given my quest, I guess it could be somehow useful at some point. To be honest I've been a bit distracted by all the hot women that seem to be popping up all over the place at the moment. If it's not Lyla by the pool, it's that sexy Susie in the dry cleaning joint, not to mention Stella calling me out of the blue too! If I could only find somewhere to get changed around here..."

Luckily Les realised there was something important he still needed to do in the direction his head now faced.

All up I’d have to call my last session a very successful one! After all the difficulties I had in New York, the relatively small environment in Las Vegas has allowed me to knuckle down and focus on puzzles long enough to figure out what the creators were expecting me to do (or perhaps hoping I couldn't). That’s not to say it was all smooth sailing though, as once again this post will end with a request for assistance. My last post ended with me feeling the wrath of Mr. Fabulous, with his goon Vito literally ripping my head off and handing it back to me. I started this session by revisiting the pool area, but no matter what I did, the result was the same. Since there were no further locations in the hotel to check out, there had to be something I could achieve at the pool, the lobby, the dry cleaner, or the room with the maid. I decided to revisit each area, asking everyone I found about everything I could think of. I didn’t find out anything important, but did receive points for asking Susie about The King: “While doing my dissertation at Yale, I often used a modified Sicilian defense. I liked to build staggered fortifications around him with pawns. Then I’d get my bishops in a file and sneak my rooks out the back door.” (10 points) Once again the game rewarded me stumbling upon a joke, despite it offering me nothing in the way of progress.

Susie: Sexy and smart!

While asking Bernardo the concierge about Lyla, Mr. Fabulous, Susie, The King etc., I happened to examine the phone sitting on the desk in front of him. “My phone is primarily used for paging hotel guests.” Hmmm...was there anyone I wanted to page? I wanted to remove the maid from the hotel room, but typing “page maid” didn’t give me the result I was after. Then it hit me! I needed to talk to Lyla, since she may just know where The King is located. Perhaps I could page Mr. Fabulous to get him out of the way! I typed “page Mr. Fabulous”: “Bernardo finally gives in to your persistent nagging. He picks up the phone and relays your request to the hotel operator.” (10 points) When I headed back out to the pool area, I could see Mr. Fabulous on the phone in heated discussion with the operator. I wandered over to where Lyla was lounging in the sun, and found her alone as I’d hoped I would! Unfortunately, trying to interact with her in any way resulted in “Get lost, wimp. You’re blocking my sun.” With nothing else to do, I sat down on Mr. Fabulous’ now vacant sun chair. “After taking a seat next to this gorgeous creature, she finally seems ready to acknowledge your existence.” I was shown a close-up of Lyla, skimpy costume, eighties haircut and all! “You’re making me sooo hot. I’ve got to do something to relax. I just have to do something to cool myself off.” I have absolutely no idea why me sitting down next to Lyla caused her to react in such a way, but regardless, she took her sunglasses off, hopped up, and dove into the pool.

Persistence? I only asked the guy once!

I am?! Are you really that easily pleased?

Apparently Lyla is about seven foot tall as well!

This left me alone, and since I’d noticed Lyla had taken her glasses off, I typed “get glasses”. I should point out that it was next to impossible to see the glasses sitting on the table, so I imagine some players may not ever have tried this command. It worked though, and the glasses were described as looking “like they’re fit for a KING.” By now it was becoming very clear that I was collecting a bunch of clothing items that would eventually make me look like Elvis. I had a cape, a scarf, and a pair of sunglasses, and I knew there was a white suit at the dry cleaners too. I still figured I would need to find some sort of ticket to be able to claim the suit, which meant the only thing left to do was try to get the skeleton key from the maid’s cart. I hadn’t seen any locked doors anywhere where it might be useful, but with no other leads, I made my way back to the room. After a few minutes of random failed commands, I stumbled on something interesting. There was a sign on the room door that said “No Disturb-o por favor”. I’d messed up the bed to try to get the maid to enter the room and therefore leave the cart unattended. Perhaps she wasn’t going in because of the Do Not Disturb sign! I picked up the sign, and waited to see if anything would happen. Nope, she still wouldn’t enter the room!

The future looks bright!

...and very big pockets.

I found that I could put the sign back on the door easily enough, but regardless of whether it was there or not, the maid simply wouldn’t leave the vicinity of the supplies cart. I’ve stayed in my fair share of hotels, and I wondered whether there was anything on the back of the sign. I typed “turn over sign”, even though it was in my inventory at the time. It worked, and the sign now read “Maid-o Service-o por favour”!!!! (10 points) I’d figured it out, and putting the sign back on the door resulted in the maid finally entering the room to clean up my mess. I quickly walked over to the cart and tried to pick up the key: “With the stealth of a panther, you snatch the key from the maid’s cart!” (10 points) Yes!!! I was actually getting somewhere! My excitement was only negated by the fact I had no idea what the key might be for. Thankfully I didn’t have to think about it for long, as re-entering the elevator gave me the answer. “Having acquired the hotel’s skeleton key, you’re now able to go to places henceforth unreachable.” I was taken to a room I’d not seen previously, and hoped that somewhere in the room I might discover the dry cleaning ticket I needed. I could find nothing of interest in the first room, but walking to the left of screen brought me to a section with a spa bath and a staircase heading upwards. I quickly discovered that I was unable to ascend the stairs for some reason, so focussed all my attention on the spa bath.

Henceforth unreachable?

I'm sure the designers thought this was extremely modern at the time.

OK, that's funny!

When I looked in the spa I was told “Besides the drain, it’s squeaky clean. Not a hair in sight.” After re-investigating every other item in the room and finding nothing, I figured there had to be something interesting about the spa. I didn’t seem to be able to fill it up or get in it or anything one might normally do with a spa. Eventually I typed “look at drain”, since the spa description had made a point of mentioning it. “There might be something stuck in there. However, the drain is too small for even your wimpy wrist to fit.” Eureka! Helmut would be small enough to get into the drain! I typed “put helmut in drain”, but the message I received back didn’t fill me with confidence. “OK...But he’ll never be able to get back out!” I tried a few things, but it became clear that putting Helmut in the drain had dead ended me. I’d been so certain too! I restored and looked through my inventory in the hope of some inspiration. When I saw the dental floss, I had an idea! I typed “tie floss to helmut”, hoping that I might be able to lower him down into the drain. I wasn’t confident that it would work, since I didn’t believe the game would have such a clever and logical puzzle, but it did! “After you extract the final length of floss from the container, you gently tie one end around the waist of the World’s Smallest Man...being careful not to pull too tight – thus severing him in two.” (10 points)

You mean apart from the stairs right?

It's actually surprising when I solve puzzles in this game using logic.

I was shown a close-up of the spa bath drain, where I witnessed the well-dressed Helmut being lowered into the water. To my delight, the little guy swam across and picked up a dry cleaning ticket that was lodged in there! To my disgust, I found myself grinning, and feeling generally happy about playing Les Manley. Things were starting to come together nicely, with logic actually producing results and some level of satisfaction. I shook this unwanted feeling of joy out of my system, and reapplied the grimace of loathing and repulsion that had previously held a permanent place. I had the ticket, and Helmut was back in my possession too. (10 points) I rushed back to the elevator and into the dry cleaning shop to hand my receipt in to Susie. “The clerk pays little attention to the fact that you’ve just shown her a receipt almost 20 years old. She goes in the back and brings out a gold-laced white jumpsuit worthy of a king.” (10 points) Awesome! Surely now I had the entire outfit needed to dress up as The King! There was one major issue though. I’d tried putting on various bits of the costume throughout the game, but in every instance was told I needed to find a good place to get changed. Since there weren’t very many locations in the hotel, it didn’t take me long to try putting the suit on in every one of them. Even in the most obvious places, such as the bathroom in the hotel room, I simply wasn’t able to do it!

Honestly, why isn't Helmut a superhero? He's awesome!

The poor guy seems to be getting smaller every scene though!

Um...yes. Actually, you know what, I have one here that says you belong to me too.

Was there another location outside of the hotel? I really didn’t think there was, but figured I should rule out the idea before continuing my hunt inside. When I got back to my starting position, I realised I’d never gone to the right of screen. Perhaps there was something else there! “The desert. Some call it dry, lifeless, the devil’s wasteland. Others find beauty in its stark vistas. The truth is: It suck either way.” Oh great! I’ve played enough adventure games to know that deserts rarely end well. Scenes from Deja Vu II, Conquests of Camelot and Larry III came to mind, and I wondered whether this was a good time to open up Excel and start a map. I walked eastwards, and to my great surprise found a telephone box in the middle of nowhere! It was ringing too, so I walked over and answered it. Was I already hallucinating? I was shown an image of the gorgeous Stella, lying on a bed in lingerie, talking to me on the phone! Les: “H-h-hello?” Stella: “Hi, Les. It’s me.” Les: “Stella! Why are you calling me way out here in the desert?” Stella: “Remember I said I’d give you a call later? Besides, Steve wanted an excuse to show another picture of me!” Les: “I can see that.” Stella: “Well...I’ve got to go now. Good luck with your search!” Les: “Bye! Thanks for calling!” Stella: “Sure...any time, Les.” (10 points) As if Accolade hadn’t ripped off Sierra enough, now they’d gone and included self-referencing humour too!

Well who else could it be for? I don't see anyone else around here!

Sorry Steve. This didn't automatically make you a household name among gamers. Nice try though!

Sadly, despite gaining points for finding the phone, it didn’t appear to help me in any way. I began exploring the desert further, but it became apparent that the environment was simply repeating indefinitely. Even worse...walking back from where I came from didn’t take me back to the hotel. I did wonder whether the thermos full of water was needed for the desert in some way though, so tried drinking some. “Phew...I’m glad I brought this water to drink. Not only does drinking it quench my thirst and clear my sense of direction...it gives me more points!” (10 points) This didn’t help me to find any new locations, but it did allow me to find my way back to the hotel. My little excursion out into the desert had resulted in nothing but points, which meant I still had no idea where I was meant to get changed, if indeed this was what I was supposed to do next. After another twenty minutes or so of wandering around, I had to give in. I was stuck! I’m therefore requesting assistance again. I’ll be cranky if I’ve overlooked a specific spot where I’m supposed to get changed, but I think it’s more likely that I’ve missed something else completely. At least I managed to solve a few puzzles unassisted during this session, which gives me hope that I might get through the rest of the game with my reputation relatively intact. Or not!

So not finding the thermos wouldn't have caused a dead end. Not sure about the peanut butter yet though.

Session Time: 1 hour 00 minutes
Total Time: 7 hours 00 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: I've written 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 have made a request for assistance. Thanks!