Game 8: Tass Times in Tonetown - Final Rating

Tass Times in Tonetown is for the most part an enjoyable adventure game, but I feel it’s my duty to highlight its flaws as much as it is to praise its highlights. My gut feeling is that it’s PISSED rating is going to be on the lower end of the spectrum, but we’ll see what happens…

Puzzles and Solvability
As I’ve already mentioned, the puzzles in Tass Times in Tonetown are actually pretty logical and enjoyable. When you enter an area and are killed because it's too dark to see, it’s logical to take a glo-burger with you next time. When the Daglets inform you that they originally wanted to play a concert at the tower but that their zagtone instruments disrupted the equipment there, it’s logical to take a zagtone with you when you try to free Gramps in the tower. As you can see, the items in the game are fairly ridiculous, but their use is in most cases obvious. It’s therefore unfortunate that the solvability of the game is made drastically more difficult by the many possible dead ends. It’s really very difficult to know when the game has become unfinishable, so I’m sure I’m not the first player to waste hours aimlessly looking for a solution that just isn’t there. For that reason I’ll have to give it a 4.

Having a glo-burger with you stops this from happening, but it wouldn't be the last time I'd see those teeth

Interface and Inventory

The game successfully mixes both an interactive fiction text parser and a graphical interface, allowing the player to utilise whichever one suits their purposes at the time. I personally found the graphical interface too unruly to use properly, but that had more to do with the way I was forced to use it (mapping joystick movements to unused keys) than any issue with the game itself. I found the text parser to be adequate, but faced the same issues that I always do with games based on this technology. Ask the wrong question and you’ll get the wrong answer, meaning you can find yourself rejecting an idea that was actually correct, just because you didn’t use the right language. That being said, the ability to use the graphical interface takes this problem away, as language doesn’t come into it. The limited inventory is annoying however, particularly in those early stages of the game where you don’t know what you need and when you’re going to need it. I carried around items for nearly the whole game that I didn’t need until the very end, meaning one of my eight inventory slots was taken up permanently. When you consider that the picks (Tonetown’s form of currency) and the clothes you’re wearing take up three slots, it doesn’t leave much room for anything else. It’s a generous 5 for this category.

Oh now you want the book! Thankfully it's not one of the items I purposely dropped this time.



Story and Setting

The storyline of Tass Times in Tonetown was initially quite intriguing. Gramps is missing and the evidence suggests that he’s used a strange device to transport himself to another time or dimension. Going in after him really does give the player a sense of excitement, with a strange new world to explore on arrival. As the game goes on however, the story becomes thinner and thinner, with very little explanation as to why things are the way they are and what the player’s motivations are for their current task. Once you save Gramps, he tells you he has an important task to complete and that the player is welcome to assist, but he never explains what that task is or how to go about it. If you then try to talk to him again, he basically dismisses you and just tells you we need to deal with Snarl. Its times like this that just a few more lines of text would give the player more awareness of what they’re trying to achieve and give some direction. The ending is also very sudden, with everything wrapped up in an unsatisfactory way, leaving numerous unanswered questions such as “why are Gramps and Spot staying in Tonetown?”, “if Snarl is the combination of a pig, a raccoon and a crocodile, how did the mutation occur in the first place and how did Gramps know that sending him through the hoop would separate him?”, and “why did Snarl take Gramps prisoner to begin with instead of just killing him?”. This interesting yet incomplete story gets a 4.

Everyone seems to understand that I'm going home and they're staying...except for me.

Sound and Graphics

Sound and music in the game is minimal, although there are a couple of dodgy tunes that pop up at certain points, such as in Fast Freddie’s. At least whoever created the music knew not to use high pitched notes the way so many other early DOS games seem to, so it’s not too grating on the senses. Sound effects are limited to the occasional gurgle to inform you that a creature is nearby and various blips and blops. As for graphics, well once again PC players got the raw end of the deal, with the CGA palette 1 blues and pinks ruling the screen. It’s not completely out of place in this game, as the psychedelic colours kind of suit the oddities of Tonetown, but there’s no doubt that Amiga and Apple players had a more attractive experience. Animation is used rarely and crudely when it is, but it did give a sense of life to Tonetown, so I’m glad it was there. The game looks and sounds a bit better than Déjà Vu which I gave 2, so a 3 seems fitting.

The game looks so much more tone on the Amiga!

Environment and Atmosphere

This is where Tass Times in Tonetown does make a stand. The world of Tonetown and its inhabitants is truly bizarre and the atmosphere is consistently strange and fascinating. There’s no way that you can predict what you’ll find on the next screen when the world is filled with unusual creatures, floating telephones, burgers that glow in the dark, office corridors that never end and talking journalist canines, not to mention there’s an eye and an ear guarding a gate in the woods. The fact that you die suddenly and horribly at regular intervals gives Tonetown a constant element of threat, which also adds to the atmosphere. It’s probably this intriguing element that drove me to keep playing the game, even when the story started to diminish and the puzzles became unsolvable, so I’ll give this category a 6.

Ok that's just weird!

Dialogue and Acting

The dialogue and description found is Tass Times in Tonetown is certainly colourful (much more colourful than the CGA limited graphics). The unique language that the locals use not only acts as a reminder that you’re a long way from home; it also plays a role in at least one puzzle. When I first tried to talk to Nuyu, he responded with “far too linear – too Jonboi Waltune!” After reading about Jonboi Waltune in the newspaper and how he was made an outcast after his refusal look stylish, I realised Nuyu didn’t want to talk to me because of my appearance. After mimicking their style his response was “you look tone!” and he then hired me on the spot. There’s plenty of humour thrown in and the game’s self-referential tendencies always raise a smile. For all these reasons I’m given the game a 6 for Dialogue and Acting.

Electrolic! Indeed!

47 it is for Tass Times in Tonetown which puts in above The Black Cauldron and Déjà Vu but below the likes of King's Quest and Below the Root. This seems entirely fitting to me, so I'm fairly satisfied with the way the PISSED rating system is working. I kind of wish the scores were more distributed, but I assume that will happen over time. It's time to move onto another ICOM game and I really hope Uninvited shows some improvement over Déjà Vu, which used the same "engine". I may not be invited, but I'm going nonetheless!

Game 8: Tass Times in Tonetown - Won!

Journal Entry 2: “I did it! Well, I should say “we” did it! After much detective work, Ennio and I rescued Gramps from an otherwise empty office block where Snarl had him locked up. The three of us then set about finding Snarl with the intention of putting an end to his villainous ways. It certainly wasn’t easy getting into his house, given the strange creatures that blocked the entrances, but we eventually found a way in and confronted him. Ennio cornered him while Gramps got the hoop working (I’m not sure why Snarl had one but I was sure glad to see it) and then I finished him off with some electrical creatures I’d found in the woods called Red Devils. We then pushed him through the hoop, sending him out of Tonetown and into my normal dimension. I shed a few tears and said goodbye to Gramps and Ennio before I also stepped through the hoop and went home, but I had to chuckle when I found a pig, a raccoon and a little crocodile sitting on the side of the road looking forlorn. Apparently Snarl was a combination of the three, which I guess explains why he was so damn ugly!”

Yep, Tass Times in Tonetown sure is a strange game. From start to finish not much of what goes on gets any real explanation and I found myself shaking my head at the sheer wackiness of it all quite often during the five and a half hours it took me to complete it. Before I talk about my more recent experiences with the game, I wanted to overturn a comment I made in my previous post. I was fairly certain at the time that the game required the player to pixel hunt in the graphic window instead of being able to purely rely on the text descriptions to figure out what items are relevant. I came to this conclusion prematurely, after struggling to find the first item I needed in Gramp’s cabin due to it not being mentioned anywhere in the text. After a couple of hours play without any other instances of this happening, I decided to play through that first scene again to see whether I just missed something.  As it turns out, I’d simply failed to notice the hint that was right in front of me all along, which is that Spot was “barking at the kitchen counter”. I hadn’t yet figured out the importance of paying attention to Spot / Ennio, and if I had of simply typed look at kitchen counter, I wouldn’t have had to click on every item in every room trying to find something of use. In summary, there is no pixel hunting required to complete Tass Times in Tonetown!

I can't really blame the game for my lack of observation skills can I!

So what did I think of the game? I’m afraid that’s not an easy question to answer, as it really is a game of negatives and positives. On the positive side, the game is quirkily charming, quite funny at times, and the mystery is generally solved using a logical approach, despite the craziness going on all around you. At the end of my last post, I was thinking that if I can make myself not look like a visitor to Tonetown, then Snarl would stop killing me due to his hatred of tourists, and I was completely right. Lots of times I found that my intuition of what to do was right, which is a good sign that the game’s puzzles are fairly logical. Strangely enough, I went to bed last night after getting a bit stuck, only to wake up in the middle of night knowing exactly how to proceed (I’m sure my wife loved me waking her up to tell her that I just needed to take a Blobpet with me from Snarl’s pet store to the woods where the pile of soil was too hard for me to dig through with my bare hands). Another positive is the useful interaction between Ennio and the character, warning him when he should be careful and hinting when he should take note of something. It’s certainly the first example of companions actually being useful, which is particularly refreshing after playing The Black Cauldron with its “well, they were in the book, so they have to be in the game” characters.

Hired for my good looks! Not surprising I guess (ahem)...

Unfortunately, the game does have its fair share of negatives, not least of all the inventory size limitation. Given there are quite a few items to be found in the game and the non-linear approach means you can pick up any of them at any time, limiting the inventory to eight items is rather irritating. As I was playing the game for the first time, I had no idea whether I would ever need to use an item more than once, but I was quickly forced to drop anything I’d already used to make room for ones I hadn’t. It turns out that in almost every case, the use-it-once-and-drop-it approach was correct, except when I found out at in the finale that the very first item I dropped (the book I found in Gramp’s lab in the first scene which hinted at where he’d disappeared to) was required a second time to finish the game. Items you’ve dropped are easily visible in the graphics window and also mentioned in the text description, but remembering where you dropped a particular item can be quite a strain on the brain. Limiting the inventory in this way really forces the player to either restart a couple of times, using the knowledge you’ve gained to only pick up the items you need early on before disposing of them, or to choose one location to dump all used items into in case you’re later required to go back and get one of them.

Oh yay, some mitts! I'll just leave my camera here on the dancefloor so I can carry them

Undoubtedly the biggest flaw of Tass Times in Tonetown is the dead ends that arise due to doing things in the wrong order. The game is actually really, really short (if I played through it now from start to finish, I reckon I could do it in around twenty minutes), but it took me five and a half hours to complete it because I got stuck in situations where , unbeknownst to me, I was never going to be able to finish it. At around the three hour mark, I’d mapped every screen, was pretty certain I’d collected every item, and had saved Gramps. The only thing left to do was to find Snarl and defeat him some way, and my only two avenues were a locked gate in the woods and a well near the town. Every time I entered the well, I was killed by “mad creatures” immediately, and I simply couldn’t find any way to get through the gate in the woods, despite taking out the guards. After trying every avenue I could think of, I restarted the game, and remembering that I had actually successfully entered the well earlier without being killed, decided to focus on getting through there prior to saving Gramps. This decision eventually lead to victory for me, as saving Gramps prior to entering the well, getting onto Snarl’s property, and unlocking the gate from the inside, results in an unfinishable game. Now that I have finished, I can see several other ways that the game could be made unfinishable, which I avoided through luck alone.

What he should have said is "Don't save me now you idiot! You haven't unlocked Snarl's gate from the inside!"

Taking the above pros and cons into consideration, I think the PISSED rating system is unlikely to be particularly generous when it comes to Tass Times in Tonetown. Strangely enough though, I still quite enjoyed the game, and would recommend it to anyone that finds pleasure in interactive fiction, more so than fans of Sierra or Lucasarts style adventure games. If the dead end I banged my head against futilely all morning hadn’t left such a bad taste in my mouth, I’d probably be pretty positive about the game overall. As it is, I can’t ignore it, and will have to judge the game accordingly, which I’ll do tomorrow.

It seems the game has ended?! That's my reward!?!?

Game 8: Tass Times in Tonetown - Crocogator Tears

Journal Entry 1: “Well this day couldn’t get any weirder really. It all started when I went over to Gramps’ house to search for any clues that might help figure out where he’s disappeared to. I found the key to his lab hidden in a jar, so I decided to check it out for the first time. What I found was a very unusual hoop shaped device, and as soon as I turned it on, Gramps’ dog Spot jumped through and disappeared! Figuring this device must have something to do with Gramps’ whereabouts, I followed Spot through and was incredibly transported to a strange world called Tonetown! Not only that, but Spot suddenly goes by the name of Ennio, can talk, and is some sort of famous journalist around here! I’ve spent the last few hours walking around, checking out the town and talking to the residents. They all speak in a very strange way (they say Tass and Tone a lot!) and wear psychedelic clothes with sparkles and bright colours. They seem to use guitar picks as currency so it’s extremely fortunate that I picked some up in Gramps’ lab before coming here. Speaking of Gramps, the people here seem to know who he is, but he’s missing in Tonetown too! I guess I have no choice but to look for him here while I try to figure out how to get back home.”

Before I start talking about the game itself, I just wanted to shout out to HunterZ for helping me to get the game running properly through DOSBox. The game makes use of multiple inputs and while the only one you really need is the keyboard, it was bothering me that I couldn’t get any mouse response to make use of the graphical interface. I still can’t use an actual mouse (apparently you would have to use an old school serial mouse), but with HunterZ’s assistance I’ve managed to map some keys to joystick movements and buttons, allowing me to move around the screen and select the various actions. As it turns out, using these buttons doesn’t really add much benefit and I’ve resorted to typing commands with the text parser alone, but it’s nice to be able to click on things in the graphics window to see what they are rather than guessing with the parser. Unfortunately, the cursor is not very responsive when using the keys and it can be difficult to get it in the exact position you want, but I’ll manage.

Somehow they managed to get the description, inventory, compass, action buttons and graphic window all on one screen.

I have to admit that I struggled for quite a while to get anywhere in the game, stuck in Gramps’ cabin with no picked up items and a locked door blocking my progress. Normally in straight text adventure games, all the objects in the room of relevance will be at least mentioned in the room description (which you get by typing LOOK). That’s not the case with Tass Times in Tonetown, so it’s important that you have a good look at the graphics window and request information on items you can see, not just the ones it describes. Eventually I found the key which was hidden inside a jar in the kitchen, but it took me well over ten minutes of scouring all four rooms in the cabin, trying to find anything of use. Once I got into Gramps’ lab and got used to the interface, I’m made pretty decent progress both getting into Tonetown and making my way to various locations. I’ve been mapping my progress in Excel, writing down things of note and items I’ve discovered / purchased on the way.

If you think Spot wearing a hat is weird, wait till you get to Tonetown and he starts talking to you

As you can tell from the screenshots, the graphics are ugly due to the limited palette, but they’re certainly of a better quality than Déjà Vu. Also, while I stated in my introduction post that the graphics were entirely static, there is actually some animation on a fair few screens. It’s not all that impressive, but it’s a nice touch that makes the world feel a bit more real and tass (did I just say that?!). The Tonetown Times newspaper that comes with the game has been indispensable, not only because it’s given me an overall feel for the goings on in Tonetown, but mostly because it’s given me the names of its inhabitants that are required to talk to people. If you try a command such as TALK TO WOMAN in the game, you are informed that “we use first names in Tonetown” and therefore get no response. This form of copy protection is much more acceptable than King’s Quest III, where I was forced to spend a fair portion of the game copying down magic spells word for word and gaining stacks of points for it.

I guess it's not that unusual for the cute chick at the rock concert to refuse to talk to me

By far the biggest annoyance in Tass Times in Tonetown so far is how regularly my character is killed. I’ve been forced to save my game nearly every screen as I find myself randomly “thrown to Crocogators” or “tortured to death” by local business magnate Franklin Snarl. Often these attacks are preceded by warnings that my character hears someone muttering “I hate tourists”, so I’m starting to think I’m being punished for either spending too much time in each area or not fitting in with the general population of Tonetown. At the end of my first session on the game, I’d just purchased a typical Tonetown outfit from Tique, including a jumpsuit and hooplet, and I also noticed that I can get my hair done at Jamac Salon, so I’m wondering whether making myself look like a local will stop the constant death screens. I hope so, as being killed off every couple of minutes is really starting to get on my nerves, and makes progressing in the game a struggle.

That's a little harsh isn't it?!

Despite this annoyance, I’m very much enjoying Tass Times in Tonetown so far. It’s definitely an intriguing little mystery and I feel like I haven’t even touched the surface of this bizarre world I’ve been thrust into. Having Ennio the Legend along for the ride is a cool little touch and his warnings and background information that’s available on certain screens makes what would otherwise be a daunting environment a little less intimidating. One final word of warning for anyone that wants to give the game a shot! I highly recommend using the actual save game slots rather than just using quicksave every time. I’m going to have to start the game again this evening (not a big deal at this point) because every time a reload my quicksave, I’m confronted and killed by Franklin Snarl as soon as the screen comes up. It’s a lesson I’m glad I’ve learned this early in the game as losing the only save you’ve got a couple of hours in would be far from ideal. Have a tass and tone day and Ennio and I will report back when we’ve uncovered more secrets of Tonetown.

Don't you hate it when the game gets so big you have to sell your Flo Rink!

Game 8: Tass Times in Tonetown - Introduction

Tass Times in CGA Palette 1 Tone Town

Tass Times in Tonetown was written by Infocom designer Michael Berlyn and his collaborator Muffy McClung Berlyn. Michael had already played a role in the creation of many well-known Infocom interactive fiction games including Suspended, Cutthroats, Infidel and Zork: The Undiscovered Underground. The programming for Tass Times in Tonetown was done by Bill Heineman, one of the founding members of Interplay Productions, who also programmed the classic RPGs The Bard’s Tale III and Dragon Wars. While it has very little to do with the topic I’m covering, my research into Heineman has unveiled some very interesting information that I simply had to share. You see Bill is not only a video game programmer, he’s also the first person to ever win a national video game contest (he won the National Space Invaders Championship in 1980), an author of novels including quite a few based on The Terminator and Independence Day, and most interestingly, a woman. After he was diagnosed with gender identity disorder in 2003, Bill transitioned into a woman, and is now known as Rebecca Heineman.

Veteran programmer Bill / Rebecca Heineman

Anyway, back on topic, Tass Times in Tonetown is a graphical text adventure. That means the game is really a text parser based adventure game that includes a static graphical interface window. You can “interact” with things in the graphics window by selecting from icons representing actions such as pick up, drop, talk to etc. and then clicking the object you want the interaction to occur with. This form of intuitive GUI is combined with a text parser, but I’m yet to fully understand how the two work alongside each other. The working title of the game was Ennio: The Legend Begins, referring to the dog that appears in the game, but this was changed to the very strange Tass Times in Tonetown prior to release. The explanation behind the name is that Michael and Muffy were employed at Harvard University, which has the motto Veritas (meaning truth). The two of them had started using the phrase “very tass” to mean very true, and eventually they used the word extensively in the game, where it’s used as a replacement for words like “cool” and “hip”.

Everything about this game looks truly bizarre, including the box cover

Before I go load the game up, I should mention that I’ve found myself a PDF version of the manual and also the newspaper that came with it. I believe the newspaper acts as a form of copy protection, by making the player look up various things while playing, so it’s fortunate I’ve got my hands on it. There isn’t really a backstory to speak of in the manual, so I still have no idea what the game is actually about. There is however a song that doesn’t alleviate the feeling that I’m about to plunge into a very strange world. I’ve copied it below so you too can experience the wonder that is Are You Tass? Are You Tone? Anyway, it’s time to enter Tonetown and I’ve got a feeling I could be there a while. This sort of game can take quite a bit of time, not to mention mapping, to complete, so I don’t expect to rip through it in the sort of time the last few games have taken. Here’s hoping I get far enough into the game to report back in the next day or two.

Breaking News: Activision Makes Copy Protection Entertaining

Are You Tass? Are You Tone?

Are You Tass? Are You Tone?

Somebody's vanished -- through a hoop -- into the unknown.
Or have you been here before, under a triangular moon?
Do you wear a Troppo look or is it Jonboi Waltune?

Sleuth out the cabin. The clues may unjar you.

Where the Dogwonder leads leaping -- will you follow?
The mystery unravels in a different dimension,
But your guide by your side is none other than "The Legend."

Tonetown is hometown if you're ultra plus chic.

In need of some styling? Just visit the 'Tique.
Bangle up some hooplets, lay down some picks,
Jump on a jumpsuit, then to Freddie's for kicks.

But wait -- read the Times -- enigma on enigma.

The truth? Wrapped in darkness. Something to dig for.
And evil lurks -- snarly, underworldly-wise,
Three ways times three ways he plots your demise.

So get to unriddling, stop fiddling around.

If you're here as a tourist, Tonetown's not your town --
If you loop through the hoop, you must loop it alone.
Are You Tass? Are You Tone?

Mouse support for Tass Times in Tonetown

Does anyone know if a mouse is actually required to play Tass Times in Tonetown? I've managed to get the game to run in DOSBox, but my mouse has no effect, meaning I can't click any of the action buttons. A quick Google suggests that the game only supports an old school serial mouse, even when played through DOSBox. I don't have one and my laptop doesn't even have a port for one. I'm thinking I might be able to play the game using only the text parser if I have to, but obviously it would be much better to get the mouse working.

The below link is the best info I've found so far.

http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=22032&sid=72a4e70849d4182e1d90403e4ad89f69

Any ideas would be much appreciated.