Shattered
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Thanks for the write up! I’m just getting started and the inventory system seems so frustrating, I’m beginning to wonder if I’m doing something wrong. It’s good to know that I shouldn’t feel bad if I need to throw in the towel and resort to a walkthrough.
BTW, am I doing the inventory correctly? I can only have 2 items on me, I need to left click on Rincewind in order to grab an item, and if I want to put it back in my inventory I need to click on Rincewind again and put it in the box? And use the luggage to juggle more than 2 items? Oof, kinda makes trying every item with everything a bit tedious.
@Tijn I believe the game was designed to be played on the numpad so you can’t turn with the arrows, only strafe. If you use the numpad the 7,9 keys turn left and right respectively. 8 moves forward, etc.
You can swap your characters around @Tijn. Right click their names to swap them. It’s a valid tactic if a front liner gets low.
Honestly I should be the last person giving EOTB tips, but here’s what I remembered doing in childhood. Equip the backline characters with daggers, slings & rocks, spells, and anything else ranged. For example I have my wizard holding multiple daggers in his belt and hand (the 3 items on his right) and when I right click it he throws one and equips the next. Then I have to pick them all up again after the battle.
I’d also consider modifying your characters stats to be as high as they can go. I did that and still finding the game challenging. Otherwise I think you’ll just find yourself camping more often. I find it very amusing that I’ll play for a minute, do a battle, then my party needs to rest for 50+ hours to fully heal, then I play again for another minute and repeat haha. These guys will be geriatric by the time they get to the final level.
No story??? Dang, that’s what usually keeps me going through these old school RPG’s. Maybe I’ll hop into 2 instead if that’s got some more flavor.
@Pix you mentioned liking blobbers. Have you played Legend of Grimrock 1 or 2? I’ve heard lots of good things about those games if you want more of a modern take on this genre.@RamB You did indeed suggest it, you can find it in the Accepted Suggestions forum at DGC Accepted Suggestions which is a link from the usual suggestions forum.
I’m also excited to try this one knowing nothing about it other than it looks like it’s some sort of puzzle adventure which is totally my jam.
Awesome! Thanks Tijn, I’ve really been enjoying these
@Tijn Great question, I see a lot of references to it being released on DOS as well as Windows. The CD I had said both “Windows-95/MS-Dos” on it. Unfortunately I’m not sure if you can run the GoG release on DOSBox, maybe I’ll try that later.
@Pix I’m so glad you’re willing to try it. I will warn you that the beginning of the game does have a little unnecessary going back and forth between the first two islands but not anything like LBA1. Also the beginning does have one of the vaguest quests. I hope you don’t mind a small hint… Pay attention to what your neighbor needs and search any shop you find for it.Oh no! You are so far along too 🙁
Apparently you aren’t the only person to have experienced this. There might be some tips in this thread and the linked one to magicball.net
If you’d like I could also hunt for a save around that part of the game, I’ve made a ton of save copies along the way. I’m playing the GoG version.
I’m almost to the end. I think I’ll beat it tonight or tomorrow but I’m using a guide to tell me where to go next. Like Martijn said it expects you to remember every detail to know where to go next and the backtracking is tedious as it is, I don’t want to explore without a guide at this point.
I will say if you can get past Temple of Bu, it’s all downhill from there. In fact I’ve been enjoying it a lot since beating that part. Save copies are your friend to get through the temple!
Thanks Martijn for the tips! I really do not remember all the frustrating game design aspects but I think I had much more patience as a child for these types of games.
The economy for picking up health and magic makes zero sense haha. It seems like it takes 100 hearts to refill your health and I find one at a time searching every waste bin and barrel.
I’m in the Temple of Bu doing my best to save scum but even the save system is frustrating. I’ll create a copy of my save but if I reload that one, I have to create ANOTHER copy or that one is ruined when I die. Having to redo that entire tedious statue moving part because you get one shot by a saw blade on the next screen is unforgivable!
I have to agree with you Tijn. I have no idea why SQ4 is some people’s favorite for the same reasons you stated. I went to Best Buy as a child to buy SQ4 and I was so sad to find out it was CD-ROM only so I had to get SQ5 instead. I wouldn’t realize it for a long time, but that was extremely fortunate because I ended up loving 5 and when I finally got to try 4 later I was extremely disappointed. By far my least favorite of the series.
@watchful I’m about halfway through the fan remake of SQ2 you posted and absolutely loving it. It’s a great scene for scene remake and like you said adds some quality of life touches. If you’re familiar with SQ2, it might be interesting to see how the mouse solutions compare to the text parser solutions.
Beat the VGA version of SQ1 this afternoon with my children (hopefully that doesn’t make me a bad parent). Even with detours such as them badgering me to repeatedly push the “DO NOT PRESS” button or walking through the lasers, we beat it in less than a couple hours. I can’t believe how short the game is when you know what to do. And I’m pretty sure I spent like $50 of 1990 money on it, but I guess that’s why the game is mean to you with all the deaths and unwinnable scenarios.
I actually had a couple false starts because I forgot some items back on the Arcadia.
It was great to relive this game again. It’s amazing how childhood memory works because even if I forgot to pick something up, I always remembered what it was when I needed it. I was able to immediately recall the solution to each puzzle. To compare that to adult formed memories, I’m also replaying Myst 4 which I played probably 15~ish years ago and I do not remember much of that game at all.
My kid’s favorite parts were walking into the shuttle bay without a spacesuit and crash landing in medieval Europe. My son was terrified of the Borat and left the room until he was gone. =)
Onto SQ2! I might also try the original SQ1, but I’m also tempted to just watch a playthrough of it.
@Pix Wow, thank you so much for linking that fan game site. I had no idea there was a VGA remake of SQ2. I’m pretty sure I’m going to need to play that this month as well.
@lmfsilva speaking of remakes, you mentioned King’s Quest and I wanted to let you know there’s some AMAZING VGA remakes of 1, 2, and 3 at AGD Interactive I played through the entire series this year and KQ4 was the only one I felt looked pretty old.I played this game as a child but don’t remember very much. I do however remember an impossible ship fight I couldn’t win at the end no matter how many times I tried. I guess now that I know your scores tie in with ship performance, it makes sense that I was never intended to beat it. How was I supposed to know?
I do remember too the red shirt guys always dying haha. My red shirt just got hit by a rock and died so I reloaded. I don’t think I would have reloaded when I was younger (which explains why I couldn’t beat the game).
Hoping I’ll get time to continue playing missions. Are you guys having as much fun with it as the other adventure games this year?
I’ve actually gotten sucked into the 2nd game and I’ll say I’m actually enjoying it a bit more than the first. While some of the puzzle solutions might be a bit crazier than the first game, I think the sequel does a better job of directing your focus. This means that you’re trying every combination of items on one screen instead of all of them which greatly decreases the permutations! 🙂
I don’t think the series so far has the charm or as interesting plot as something like Monkey Island so I don’t foresee continuing with 3, 4, or 5. I think I’d rather give Monkey Island 3 & 4 a shot and then onto their Telltale episodes, but I’ll keep them in mind if I ever clear out my game backlog (yea right). I’m glad we picked this game though so I’m aware of them and can discuss them with you all.
Phillipe Vachey has been releasing new LBA music! This is amazing!!!!
I’m definitely interested! If we get really stuck we could even see if those old 1-900 number hint lines still work and record part of that for the show! 🙂
Hi Gn0me! It was around this time last year I began playing through the entire Quest For Glory series since I had only played the first one as a child. It was pretty cool to play them all back to back carrying the same character through each one. Hit me up on IRC or here if you ever want to chat about them or any other Sierra adventure. FYI we’re playing Space Quest this year!!!
Welcome!
Hey Spoonboy! Thanks for the tips! I started the game tonight and got to the second mission. I have to rescue some scientists from a house. I blew away the 3 guards in front of it and walked in but the roof won’t go away so I can’t see how to grab them.
I pressed escape hoping for a menu to see the controls and it failed the mission for me 🙁 DON’T PRESS ESCAPE!
Can you help me figure out what to do next? Is there a way to see inside buildings or rescue scientists? I’d rather ask for help here than googling it or watching playthroughs.
That’s great to hear Tijn 🙂 I’ll keep an eye out for an email or IRC message.
I’ll volunteer or I can put together another musical voice message if someone else wants a chance to participate. Either way I’ll have a lot of fun so don’t be shy if you want to be on the show and you haven’t had a chance.
I took an embarrassingly long time to realize that the map was based on Cretaceous period earth. I thought it was some strange land on some alien planet. I saw an article the other day about ancient earth that had the same map and my mind was immediately blown that it was the same as Lost Eden *face palm*.
That and the fact I didn’t know Thugg could empty nests for you really made me feel silly. Often I would travel back to Chamaar to look for an empty nest and return to wherever I was. I was literally crossing continents back and forth just to get a nest.
Regarding the cube firefyte mentioned, I thought it was another glitch once I put them all together. I tried for at least 5 minutes to put it back into my inventory. It’s a bit strange they didn’t redraw the arrows as dark because you really can’t tell what it is for the screen or two it replaces the normal one…
*minor spoilers*
Finished as well. What a great game to play for the club. Not too long, not frustratingly difficult, but still engaging throughout.The actions for each territory were very repetitive but they were easy enough that I didn’t mind that much. I thought the worst part of the game was the maze, but I got in and out of it pretty quickly without needing to map it so it wasn’t too terrible.
Loved the soundtrack. The graphics were a bit dated but it was still interesting to watch. When my kids were with me, they yelled at me if I skipped a transition scene even if we’d seen it a dozen times already.
Funny you mentioned Myst, firefyte. My first impression was that it was going to be a lot like Myst based on moving around the first free screens. But it was more like an interactive movie than a head scratching puzzler.
Hoping we’ll play Dune some day if it’s anything like this.
I fired it up this afternoon for an hour without knowing a thing about this game. Somehow it has completely escaped my notice.
Just like Gateway, I came in with no expectations and similarly I could tell I was starting something extremely interesting.
The very first thing I noticed was this strange sounds coming out of my PC. The music caught me completely off guard, but it sounds really unique and cool.
Then I kept right clicking on the first screen to get a description and it changed to a view of a person. I was so confused so I clicked on the person and it brought up a save/load menu. Now that I understand the controls, I get it.
Really excited to see where the story goes, it’s really grabbed me so far. I have no idea if this is a game where I can die or lock myself out of finishing, but I’m hoping the latter is not the case. I can tolerate saving often to avoid death, but I have no patience for games where I’m stuck at a puzzle and it’s because I didn’t pick something up earlier and I can’t go back and get it.
Just completed my Bernard Razor playthrough getting 2 different endings 🙂 Dollarone helped me with one of the Meteor Police.
I’m even more excited that I was able to get the NES version working with the instructions from here.
ScummVM NES Maniac MansionGive this a shot if you’re interested, it’s pretty easy. You can just edit the .nes file in Notepad. Remove the beginning few characters that look like “NES aster” without the quotes and save it as a prg instead of a nes extension, and drag the folder that this prg is saved into ScummVM. Voila, you can play NES Maniac Mansion with its great soundtrack and mouse support!
I beat the remastered edition this afternoon. Felt pretty lucky, I don’t normally get a lazy afternoon of video games any more as a father but the weather’s not great outside and the kids seemed content to watch and play. I forgot about the few “damn”s in it, but they didn’t really notice.
I checked Steam and the last time I’d played through the game was in Jan 2017 which was recent enough to be able to play through the entire game without being stuck. I couldn’t find the black cat or the extension cord for about 10 minutes, but other than that the game was basically muscle memory. There were definitely parts that I knew the solution to, but didn’t really remember why they needed to be done that way. I knew Hoagie had to mail a letter, but wasn’t sure why it wouldn’t work in the present or what tells you that it wouldn’t work. Anyone else know that part?
I’d occasionally switch the rendering to the original version but my daughter would pretty quickly notice and yell “Dad! Put it back! It’s all squarey!” This new generation has no appreciation for the classics I tell you. 🙂
Thanks Firefyte, I got it working with your encouragement. I also had to change the resolution running the included winsetup command. I think this is the way I’ll complete my first playthrough. It has music (although more like DOTT music than the NES MM) and much better mouse controls. It took me less than 10 minutes to pass where I spent an hour playing on the NES emulator moving the cursor around with arrow keys. It’s so awkward and often the commands don’t register so I repeatedly have to arrow the cursor back down to the bottom and then back up to the item to redo the command.
Tijn, if you’re reading this I’m curious which characters you took with you. I’m using Razor and of course Bernard. I found it amusing he runs away from the green tentacle the first time he runs into him. I’m also totally noticing that the NES version doesn’t have the naked statues or topless calendar after reading your article. And for some reason Nintendo changed “brains sucked out” to “your brains removed”.
@TigerQuoll: This thread from 2005 looks interesting regarding where the MM files are hidden within DOTT.
ScummVM forumI just found a Maniac Mansion Deluxe Edition with updated graphics for free download available. It’s a fan made remake, I assume made with Lucasfilm’s blessing. Unfortunately it seems to be from that era between DOS and modern gaming (eg. Win XP) where it is a huge hassle to get anything running. I’ve been trying for a half hour and haven’t had much luck.
I’ve also been playing the NES version. I feel like this is way more fun than the version within DOTT. It has great music, every character has their own theme song, and the characters don’t look like weird bobble head parodies. It also lists interactable items as you cursor over them which is my biggest frustration with the PC version.
I could use some more signposting. I beat the game as a kid but I don’t remember too much. It seems like I’m just wandering around trying to figure out what to do next.
Ha! Nice article Tijn. 🙂
Here’s an important tip for anyone that wants to play the game. The game will NOT highlight or list interactable items as you’re mousing around. I believe this is another difference from the NES version.
You’ll want to select the “What is” option upon entering a room and when that’s selected, you’ll be able to hover around looking for items. The game was basically unplayable for me until I figured that out!
I’ll also be mainly focusing on Maniac Mansion this month since I could play through DOTT in my sleep at this point. For anyone interested in playing it through DOTT, you can do so after the initial sequence by simply heading up to the 3rd floor (with the two doors) and entering the right one. There’s a crazy looking dude (Weird Ed) looking at a stamp book. Simply use his computer and you can start playing.
I have fond memories of playing MM as a child on the NES version. It has a GREAT soundtrack that unfortunately I think is exclusive to the NES version. However I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo removed a few things not deemed child appropriate.
Look forward to reliving some childhood memories and beating it again! Maybe this time without a Nintendo Power guide. 🙂
On sale again until Jan 4th FYI in case you haven’t picked it up and plan on playing it this month.
BTW there’s also a DLC on sale too.
Caster of MagicIt will be interesting to hear if anyone decides to play with it. It was actually released after the DOS era *checks notes* 25 years after release in February 2020.
I would be very interested in knowing the story behind a DLC released 25 years later… I guess they’ve been paying attention to the evolution of game monetization and thought why not hop on that band wagon? Better late than never!
Beat it! Thanks for the tips guys! There was another part I was stuck at towards the end. I either missed a clue or it’s not super obvious what you need to get to the end part. Didn’t help random spear impalements led me to believe I wasn’t supposed to go a certain way, but apparently you’re just supposed to keep reloading until you can walk through? I dunno if there was logic to that part or what (going through tower basement area…)
I am really struggling to get started. Minor spoilers ahead… fair warning, but hoping one of the pro’s here can give me a nudge in the right direction or something to focus on first.
First thing I’ve done was find this girl’s teddy and give it back to her. She ran off into a dungeon below a church in which I couldn’t follow her because the opening was too small. A wizard transformed me into a frog so I used that to go into the dungeon but nothing useful was down there…
Reloaded a save because I couldn’t figure out if I could unfroggify myself. I found a pretty cool ring of stones that talked and said I needed a relic and a magic book… Guessing I’ll have to remember that later.
I brought a drunk into a store, but the werewolf tore down the door and beat me to death…
Just wandering around aimlessly getting my butt kicked by EVERYTHING haha! Someone give me a quest! eg. “Focus on doing this next Shattered!”
Thanks f2bnp! I’m a big fan of DOS Nostalgia. 🙂 Anatoly did an episode on the challenges of DOS programming I imagine several of the members of this club would find interesting. I wonder if Anatoly knows we’re playing Ecstatica this month…
Hi everyone, I found a Windows version which has a folder labeled “Ecstatica – Windows ISO” but within that folder are 4 files, one of which is Ecstatica1.img. Unfortunately when I try to mount it in Windows, it says the disk is corrupted. Did anyone else find this version and know how to get it working? I can play the DOS version, but would like the sharper graphics and the ability to turn while walking. 🙂 Cheers!
Listening to the Z episode and just wanted to mention LocoMJ and I actually did get a chance to try out multiplayer! It worked well over IPX but the game ran was a bit slower, I assume because we were thousands of miles apart from each other and each frame needed a packet. But it was definitely playable and fun! There seemed to be more room for devious strategies with being able to destroy the terrain and the ability to destroy the other’s base by sneaking in a lone soldier. 🙂 Anyways, great episode so far. I’m about half way through.
This is a Wing Commander 2 tip, but if you need to use torpedoes against capital ships, not only do you need to make sure they’re targeted (press T if you don’t see a red outline around it), but you also need to press ‘L’ before the torpedo will begin locking on. I could not figure that part out for an embarrassingly long time.
Another WC2 tip… if you need to rescue a pilot or pick up something to bring back to base, that’s confusing too. Pass the object and stop so it’s immediately behind you. Then you need to press ‘F4’ to change cockpits, then ‘G’ to change weapons to the tractor beam (or maybe ‘W’, don’t remember which).
I finished the first game and would agree that the warnings are a bit overstated if you just expect slowdowns during larger battles. I’d have to imagine the same thing happened on original hardware, but I don’t know. Anyways the tweak guide I posted above was extremely helpful for fixing stretched graphics, allowing finer manual control over slow-down and speed-up using ctrl+f11 and ctrl+f12. And it sounds really good with roland-mt32 emulation.
I fully plan on using the same person’s guide for Wing Commander 2.
Wing Commander 2 Tweak GuideNice find! Thanks for sharing. Those will just keep going up in value I imagine 🙂
How many of them are you going to play for the month? I’m planning on at least 1 and 2.
Keep these tips coming!
I had to replay mission 2 3 times start to finish over and over because I had no idea how to land.
I also didn’t know you can press ‘a’ to reach the next objective and avoid flying through nothing for minutes on end.
If someone knows some combat basics like what targetting does, what “cycle weapons” vs “cycle guns” means, how to launch missiles, etc. please help out.
I love these old DOS games because they don’t teach you how to do anything, you’re just supposed to know what to do, unless you want to read the manual or something, but as firefyte said, I think GoG is missing some important reference material.
I barely remember watching my cousin play this almost 30 years ago and one thing I do remember vividly is being blown away by the corridor run sequence. It looks so smooth and eye-catching, even to this day IMO (definitely no rose tinted glasses here). Thanks for posting that, I wonder though, can we put gifs on the site? It might be more striking to see the GIF.
I’ve completed the first two “worlds” and so far I think each world has their own limited set of unique cutscenes, but they provide multiple sets of voice-overs for each cutscene?
I have definitely felt like I’ve watched the same video of two soldiers taking off over a sand dune multiple times but once they were arguing over who gets to drive and then beginning another level it’s the same video but this time it’s one soldier criticizing the other’s driving instead.
Maybe I’m seeing things, but I just thought it was a clever trick to squeeze out as much content from limited space or dev time.
In the interest of helping anyone that hasn’t picked a method of playing yet, I’ve played through the first 2 missions on the GoG version and the original from archive.com.
Here’s my $0.02 so far. The two versions play very similarly. I think you’ll get the Z experience no matter where you play it so don’t stress the decision. Here’s the differences I’ve noticed so far in order of impact.
GoG Version plays very easily on my tablet, in fact using touch feels much more intuitive than using the mouse and keyboard on GoG or DOS version.
GoG version has a much more zoomed out game display meaning you can see more of the map at once. I think this also results in the game feeling more faster paced.
GoG is missing some of the original artwork. Menus were redone for mobile/touch and looks extremely bland compared to the original. Also the DOS loading screens have additional graphics I didn’t notice in the GoG version.
I had an easier time understanding the cutscene speech in the GoG version, but maybe that’s just a DOSbox emulator thing to tweak.
Is the GoG version a lazy PC port from what was obviously intended to be a mobile remake? Well… yes, but it’s not as terrible as the reviews make it out to be. Is it worth shelling out the money for ($7 US)? I don’t think so unless you have a touch tablet you want to play on the go or in your bed.
Haha, What’s up with the unlabeled bar graph in PC Zone comparing it to other games? No context, no units of measurement… just bars showing you which games are better!
Thanks for uploading these Pix! Apparently it had some tough competition with C&C and Warcraft II.
I didn’t even realize they made an iOS port and Steam enhanced edition which remove the frustrating tank controls. I would probably suggest to new players to use one of these to experience the game and music without the extremely frustrating isometric platforming. You basically tap or click where you want Twisen to go and he goes there himself. Not the true DOS experience, but read GOG reviews of the game if you want to see how frustrated new players can get with the original controls.
Steam Enhanced Edition
I also was sad to learn I missed a kickstarter campaign for the composer to release a new symphony recording of the soundtrack. Luckily it passed and you can still order a recording.
Symphony RecordingJust finished the first episode. I played it with my kids, I found it much more enjoyable that way. They died of laughter every time I picked up a key and heard the “YEA!!!” noise.
I liked the music of the last level, 14. Shame it was short and a bit slapped together like others commented. For instance, there’s a locked door with a key just sitting right next to it. Why?
Do the next episodes seem better put together or expand on the first? I don’t typically play pure platformers, but I really enjoyed Celeste or games with metroidvania elements thrown in like Hollow Knight. What do you all recommend? Keep going or have I experienced what the trilogy has to offer?
Somehow I missed this one the first time around, but I do remember reading about it and seeing ads. Would be interested in trying it out!
It’s available on GOG for $6 US. I’ll wishlist it in case it ever goes on sale.
#/media/File:Ween_The_Prophecy_cover.jpg)
Someone help me with the HTML to link an image from here 🙁
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prophecy_(video_game)#/media/File:Ween_The_Prophecy_cover.jpgGreat suggestion! I would replay through 1 and 2 in a heartbeat.
Philippe Vachey’s score is amazing. I have this soundtrack in my regular playlist and “Song of Gabriel” never fails to make my heart flutter.
Finally caught up with you guys and beat Gateway 2, thanks to Firefyte for a few hints in IRC. I also needed hints on what to do with the magnetic clamps in the ice pit, but otherwise it was an honest playthrough.
I really enjoyed both games! I think I had fun navigating Heechee politics in the 2nd game, but agree that it was a bit disappointing to finally see them.
I was a little confused by the Gateway 1’s explanation of why the Heechee didn’t activate the shield generators themselves. It didn’t make sense to me that there was this technology to save them, but they chickened out using it at the last second. But Gateway 2 filled in a lot of plot holes from the first game, and I found the overall story more intriguing. I got some serious Dead Space 3 vibes at the beginning and later saw some themes Soma explored with uploading personalities to computers. Deep stuff!
But yea, what’s up with those dialog options, especially in the 2nd half of the game? The character would give an eloquent lecture on the nature of humanity, then 5 minutes later have all dude-bro dialog options that really didn’t fit.
While going down the CWG rabbit hole actually looking for Jill of the Jungle content, I noticed this ad in the July 1992 issue. I really don’t remember this game at all from when I was a child, but apparently I wasn’t paying attention.
Attachments:
The PDF here has a Gateway 2 review which doesn’t have a score but seems favorable overall. I didn’t even know this website existed. The ads alone really take me back.
http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/cgw_112.pdf@Pix Do you mind elaborating why you don’t recommend mouse?
The reason I ask is because I never played Wing Commander but I did play Tie Fighter a lot and I could never get the joystick to properly do the really fine aiming required shoot down those pesky X-Wings. I have very vivid memories of switching from joystick to mouse and thinking “Wow, now this game is a lot of fun!”
I highly recommend watching this video before you get started if you go with DOSBox. You can tweak the config to speed up or slow down the cpu cycles while playing (more cycles when lots of enemies, fewer when there’s one).
I’m liking the controller so much better. In DOSBox you can press “Ctrl + F1” at any time while running the game and it brings up a key mapping tool that looks like a keyboard.
Click the right arrow key so it’s highlighted, click the “Add” button, then hold right on the controller thumbstick.
Repeat for the directions and assign buttons etc. Left shift is jump and left alt is item. I assigned jump to “A” and item to “X”. Make sure you click Save before Exit in the Keymapper!
Save and restore are a bit tricky. I added my Start button to “s” and Select to “r”. But you still need to press Enter when you save so I also added that to my “A” button. Now when I finish saving I also jump… Will have to think of another solution… I’m also very worried about saving when I mean to load and soft locking my only save in a death scene.
Did anyone else think dialog pretty awkward in the first game when someone was giving a long monologue and you had to enter a command to see the next part of the conversation? At first I was scared of typing something incorrectly and missing the next important part that I could tell was coming, so I would always enter ‘talk to <person>’ to make sure the <person> would tell me the next part. But even that was weird because the game would give a standard response to that command (eg. <person> is too busy to talk right now), then continue with their story.
What commands did you guys enter in those scenarios? I eventually just settled on ‘wait’ toward the end.
I just watched it, great video! I found it very informative and it made great use of game cuts. That must have taken a lot of effort to put it all together.
If you don’t mind sharing what tools and techniques you used to create it, I’m definitely interested.
Welp, can’t upload my dosbox file… Just shoot me a message if you’re interested.
I agree with you Pix, the huge verb interface seemed unnecessary and distracting. I used the right hand side quite a bit to figure out what a could interact with, but the left hand with dozens of verbs I never even used once seemed excessive. I had the exact same thought that it was a poor transition attempt from text based to mouse based adventure games. I also thought they just added it to save on artwork.
I fired up Gateway 2 last night, really enjoying it so far. I did have problems with playing cutscenes and saving games via Dosbox which I didn’t in the first game. I was able to solve them by putting the game in C:\Gateway2 and following some of the suggestions on abandonware’s forums. I’m happy to share my dosbox.conf file that I finally got the game working correctly with. I’ll attach it in case (or maybe someone might have an even better setup!)
Just curious… Is the 2nd VR puzzle solvable or did I spend hours there for nothing?
In case anyone’s still interested in playing, it’s on sale on GOG
GOG Epic PinballI finally beat it. I caved and looked up the part I was stuck at (pun intended?) 🙁 I don’t feel too bad though, I was attempting to do the correct action, but typed in variations that were unacceptable. Reminds me of the one time I called a Sierra Hint Line as a child. I typed ‘place gem in mouth’ and the correct phrase was ‘put gem in mouth’ (bonus points if you recognize the game and section, that part’s got some notoriety).
I really enjoyed the game. It felt both familiar as an adventure game, but unique in how it was presented. I suppose Myst has a similar slide-show presentation, but without the dialog and inventory puzzles.
Starting out I was incredibly nervous of an experience like KQ5 or Return to Zork where you can easily softlock yourself from winning. I really do not enjoy games like that, and I knew nothing about this one. Very quickly, the game gained my trust and I could tell it was more in the vein of LucasArts style. I was actually quite surprised you could die by the time I got to the 2nd planet in part two and the wildlife there made short work of me.
I liked the gritty setting and details. Newsfeeds of political strife on earth and depleting natural resources… Sending humans as guinea pigs on missions that have a 15% chance of not returning… This came out right in the heyday of Star Trek: The Next Generation so I’m glad writers were willing to make alternative visions of humanity’s future in space travel. It’s a product of its time but hasn’t aged terribly. Although there was a description of the asian scientist as “oriental” at one point. And what happened to Sylvester’s shirt in the intro???
I watched a video of someone playing on Youtube and the music sounded SIGNIFICANTLY different. I thought the intro’s music was awesome, it immediately took me back to that era, but the rest of the game’s was pretty neutral. Does anyone know if you can play Roland MT-32 Midi through Dosbox?
Thanks to whomever suggested this and for all that helped me get through the parts I was stuck. I look forward to trying Gateway 2 and doing some research on the history of how the game was made. Strange I never heard of it growing up…
Thanks firefyte. I’ve made a little progress.
There’s also a graphic for putting the net on the stump so I think that will play a part too. And you can put ashes from the Hydra’s lair on the stump. That will indicate when there’s footprints on the stump. When this happens, I feel like I’ve tried everything! Throwing the net on the stump says I hit nothing because I couldn’t see the demon (hello? footprints?!?). Swinging the sword toward the footprints was useless. Can’t put the sack over the invisible monster either. If you examine your coveralls after an attack, blood becomes an available item to use, but you can’t put it on the stump. I thought that would make the ashes stick to the demon… There seems to be no other sticky material other than the blood though, so not sure if that’s what the game is going for.
Again, I’m really impressed you guys breezed through this game. I feel like I get to these parts and spin my wheels for a week or so until I notice one minor detail I forgot (like the crib in Becker’s wreckage).
Stuck again…
Part 3
At the hydra lair. I’ve figured out you should take the sack thrown at you across the chasm. Then I filled it with the dust spewn in the mirror room. But I have no idea what to do with these ashes. I would have thought throwing them at the hydra would be the solution since the dust makes you attack yourself. Instead they hydras immediately attack me. I don’t follow the game’s logic there, but I think I’m onto something. I also notice you can scoop ashes into the sack. I think this will be useful to see the invisible demon in the cave room, but how I have no clue. There’s a graphical change for setting the sack on the stump so there has to be a reason for that, right?
Wow impressive, that means you basically lapped those of us still stuck on the first game. Do you think you’ll move onto the Gateway novels next?
rnlf, I think you’re right about the facepalm. At least it wasn’t a gopheria wrench (Monkey Island reference). Anyways, made it to part 3 and well on my way. Haven’t solved the 2nd VR puzzle, but maybe I won’t need to.
Wow, I’m impressed you finished it so quickly too. I started a couple weeks ago because I’m not really into Pinball so I thought I’d get a head start on this game.
I do like how there are no dead ends, it’s not quite the LucasArts approach to adventure games but it’s close enough to avoid frustration. I’m really liking the game so far. It’s like an adult version of Space Quest. I guess I’m used to the text parser from playing SQ2 and 3 so much so I don’t mind it. But there’s the mouse option too, so that’s nice. I agree it has an interesting plot and logical puzzles so far. Looking forward to posting more once I beat it, but stuck in part 2. (Don’t want help yet!)
Never heard of it growing up, but I’m pumped to try it out after watching its intro.
I grabbed it here free instead since it was only a single zip file instead of three.
Abandonware Gateway
Seemed to start up fine with a default Dosbox config.
