- Richard Bos (31-08-2014 21:04)
This thing is massive. It was written for the 128K Spectrum, and it uses just about all of that. The mixture of modern in-jokes and low fantasy doesn't always work, but it's still quite enjoyable. Presentation is good, too: good pictures for an 8-bit machine, and a proportional font - in the PAW!
- Canalboy (02-09-2024 12:48)
And today's frustrating parser award goes to.....Tower Of Barad.
In Shed.
Take bottle.
You can't see the bottle of vodka.
Take weedkiller.
OK.
Open weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Out (to a location with a mass of overgrown weeds).
Empty weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Kill weeds.
Please be more specific.
Kill weeds with weedkiller.
Please be more specific.
Pour weedkiller on weeds.
You can't do that.
Pour weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Examine weedkiller.
You see nothing special.
Sm
- Canalboy (02-09-2024 12:58)
And today's frustrating parser award goes to.....Tower Of Barad.
In Shed.
There is a high shelf with a bottle of weedkiller on it.
Take bottle.
You can't see the bottle of vodka.
Take weedkiller.
OK.
Open weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Out (to a location with a mass of overgrown weeds).
Empty weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Break weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Unscrew weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Kill weeds.
Please be more specific.
Kill weeds with weedkiller.
Please be more specific.
Pour weedkiller on weeds.
You can't do that.
Pour weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Examine weedkiller.
You see nothing special.
Use weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Empty weedkiller on weeds.
And so on and on and on......
Maybe you need something else to open the bottle but there is no hint of this as a possible reason for not being able to carry out a simple action.
Given the ineptitude of the game I sure hope I can open and drink the bottle of vodka when I find it.
- Canalboy (02-09-2024 14:22)
Another odd flag in this game - if you don't search for an object it doesn't exist! So for instance if you KICK SHED without having previously used SEARCH SHELF the structure collapses but the bottle is non-existent. If you do SEARCH SHELF first and spot the weedkiller then it ends up on the floor beside you when you kick the shed. And of course the shed is still described as being structurally sound when you leave it and the graphics draw it as virgo intacta.
In other words SEARCH just about everything before attempting to interact with anything.
- Canalboy (02-09-2024 16:51)
Having made zero progress I found myself in a stream with a crocodile. All I have found is the weedkiller and a small stick. If you examine the crocodile he has his jaws wide open.
"Aha!" says I. Wedge the stick in the bugger's mouth. And.....off on another (s)parser experiment.
Put stick in jaws, nope. Jam stick in jaws, nope. Throw stick at jaws...errr...Throw stick at crocodile...Insert stick in jaws.....
After fourteen attempts "Insert stick in crocodile" seems to be the only command that works. This seems to be a game where only one exact response is ever going to work, and maybe my mind works in a mysterious way but that would hardly have been my first choice. Or indeed thirteenth.
- Canalboy (10-09-2024 13:50)
This game doesn't so much strain credulity as leave it in a truss with a double hernia. There are a set of lilypads across a swamp that you are told you shouldn't cross. If you cross holding just a dagger you sink into the swamp and die. If you drop the dagger and cross you survive. That must be one hell of a heavy dagger.
- Canalboy (10-09-2024 14:59)
"...You see a dead balrog."
EXAMINE BALROG
"There is no Balrog here!"
..."There is a rickety wooden bridge here (with a large gap in it.")
REPAIR WOODEN BRIDGE WITH PLANK
"There is no Bridge Of Rope here."
Life is too short for rubbish. Some people excuse this kind of tripe by saying that all attempts at some form of creativity are justified, no matter how humble. Presumably they endorse dining at bad restaurants. I wonder.
- Canalboy (02-02-2025 15:31)
This game becomes odder by the minute. If you perform a certain action Farmer Piles will give you five groats. The game doesn't seem to acknowledge their existence though. They appear in your inventory but you can't drop them, examine them or indeed interact with them in any way. Proof of their meta existence can be given by the fact that you can cross the swamp whilst holding them; the swamp only allows safe traversal if you are empty-handed. Even more strange, if you attempt to pay the ransom to the troll with the groats you receive, "The Ruffles, the gentleman thug isn't here."
I'll have a pint of whatever the programmer was on.
- Canalboy (11-02-2025 15:25)
Ok read the desription below and see if you can guess where a key might be hidden...
"You are inside the small but comfortable home of Dingo Doggitt, which consists of just one room which serves as a bedroom, kitchen and lounge. You can see a pack of vicious dogs, a wooden chest and a stove." On the stove? No. Under the chest? No. Henry the mild mannered janitor? No.
And....roll of drums....it's under the rug. What rug? Maybe the thing that looks like a white rectangle leaning against the wall. No. Maybe it's the thing that looks like a reflection from the window. Could be.
This game has minimal graphics which appear in about ten percent of the locations but it appears to have made the solution of some puzzles predicated on the manipulation of unmentioned items.
A way of upping the difficulty quotient without having to think up clever puzzles? Ooh I am cynical.
- Canalboy (11-02-2025 15:30)
The rug puzzle segues effortlessly into a piece of moon logic. I just took a key from under a rug eh? Let's try TAKE RUG. The parser says: "The dirty glasses isn't here."
It's rubber room time.
This thing is massive. It was written for the 128K Spectrum, and it uses just about all of that. The mixture of modern in-jokes and low fantasy doesn't always work, but it's still quite enjoyable. Presentation is good, too: good pictures for an 8-bit machine, and a proportional font - in the PAW!
And today's frustrating parser award goes to.....Tower Of Barad.
In Shed.
Take bottle.
You can't see the bottle of vodka.
Take weedkiller.
OK.
Open weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Out (to a location with a mass of overgrown weeds).
Empty weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Kill weeds.
Please be more specific.
Kill weeds with weedkiller.
Please be more specific.
Pour weedkiller on weeds.
You can't do that.
Pour weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Examine weedkiller.
You see nothing special.
Sm
And today's frustrating parser award goes to.....Tower Of Barad.
In Shed.
There is a high shelf with a bottle of weedkiller on it.
Take bottle.
You can't see the bottle of vodka.
Take weedkiller.
OK.
Open weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Out (to a location with a mass of overgrown weeds).
Empty weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Break weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Unscrew weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Kill weeds.
Please be more specific.
Kill weeds with weedkiller.
Please be more specific.
Pour weedkiller on weeds.
You can't do that.
Pour weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Examine weedkiller.
You see nothing special.
Use weedkiller.
You can't do that.
Empty weedkiller on weeds.
And so on and on and on......
Maybe you need something else to open the bottle but there is no hint of this as a possible reason for not being able to carry out a simple action.
Given the ineptitude of the game I sure hope I can open and drink the bottle of vodka when I find it.
Another odd flag in this game - if you don't search for an object it doesn't exist! So for instance if you KICK SHED without having previously used SEARCH SHELF the structure collapses but the bottle is non-existent. If you do SEARCH SHELF first and spot the weedkiller then it ends up on the floor beside you when you kick the shed. And of course the shed is still described as being structurally sound when you leave it and the graphics draw it as virgo intacta.
In other words SEARCH just about everything before attempting to interact with anything.
Having made zero progress I found myself in a stream with a crocodile. All I have found is the weedkiller and a small stick. If you examine the crocodile he has his jaws wide open.
"Aha!" says I. Wedge the stick in the bugger's mouth. And.....off on another (s)parser experiment.
Put stick in jaws, nope. Jam stick in jaws, nope. Throw stick at jaws...errr...Throw stick at crocodile...Insert stick in jaws.....
After fourteen attempts "Insert stick in crocodile" seems to be the only command that works. This seems to be a game where only one exact response is ever going to work, and maybe my mind works in a mysterious way but that would hardly have been my first choice. Or indeed thirteenth.
This game doesn't so much strain credulity as leave it in a truss with a double hernia. There are a set of lilypads across a swamp that you are told you shouldn't cross. If you cross holding just a dagger you sink into the swamp and die. If you drop the dagger and cross you survive. That must be one hell of a heavy dagger.
"...You see a dead balrog."
EXAMINE BALROG
"There is no Balrog here!"
..."There is a rickety wooden bridge here (with a large gap in it.")
REPAIR WOODEN BRIDGE WITH PLANK
"There is no Bridge Of Rope here."
Life is too short for rubbish. Some people excuse this kind of tripe by saying that all attempts at some form of creativity are justified, no matter how humble. Presumably they endorse dining at bad restaurants. I wonder.
This game becomes odder by the minute. If you perform a certain action Farmer Piles will give you five groats. The game doesn't seem to acknowledge their existence though. They appear in your inventory but you can't drop them, examine them or indeed interact with them in any way. Proof of their meta existence can be given by the fact that you can cross the swamp whilst holding them; the swamp only allows safe traversal if you are empty-handed. Even more strange, if you attempt to pay the ransom to the troll with the groats you receive, "The Ruffles, the gentleman thug isn't here."
I'll have a pint of whatever the programmer was on.
Ok read the desription below and see if you can guess where a key might be hidden...
"You are inside the small but comfortable home of Dingo Doggitt, which consists of just one room which serves as a bedroom, kitchen and lounge. You can see a pack of vicious dogs, a wooden chest and a stove." On the stove? No. Under the chest? No. Henry the mild mannered janitor? No.
And....roll of drums....it's under the rug. What rug? Maybe the thing that looks like a white rectangle leaning against the wall. No. Maybe it's the thing that looks like a reflection from the window. Could be.
This game has minimal graphics which appear in about ten percent of the locations but it appears to have made the solution of some puzzles predicated on the manipulation of unmentioned items.
A way of upping the difficulty quotient without having to think up clever puzzles? Ooh I am cynical.
The rug puzzle segues effortlessly into a piece of moon logic. I just took a key from under a rug eh? Let's try TAKE RUG. The parser says: "The dirty glasses isn't here."
It's rubber room time.