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xyzzysqrlWelcome back. Last time on Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, we met some suspects, learned that I'll need to photograph rare birds to get puzzle-solving sandpaper, fixed a boat and some floorboards, and fucked around in a maze. Today we're gonna work on some of those goals! Namely, BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY.
Since Red was nice enough to pass Nancy his expensive digital camera and trust that she wouldn't sell it or make cheap internet porn with it, let's reward his trust by heading into the woods and photographing everything with wings inside a twenty mile radius.
First though, we have a NEW NUMBER in our phone book. That's right, the Hardy Boys. Since they were both published by the same enormous sausage-grinder bookmill, Nancy Drew and the Hardys crossed over a fair number of times, even sharing a TV series in the seventies. However, Nancy was clearly meant to be the "Girl Series" and the Boys were... well, the "Boy Series". I don't think I've ever read a Hardy Boys novel all the way through, actually. I know a bit about them from osmosis, but compare that to my enthusiastic writeup of the Drew books that started off this playthrough, and I think it's really obvious that I'm kind of a twelve year old girl at heart.
After calling them, it's obvious that I'm not the only one who's left them kinda high and dry. They're so bored they actually try living vicariously through Nancy, as they milked George and Bess for all the info they could get. "Pumped 'em dry!" as Frank proudly claims. There is probably fanfic about this. I don't want to know. We talk for a while and they bring up a number of intriguing points. ("Did Malone have a family?" Frank wonders. "Not that I'm aware of." Nancy admits. "Then who," counters Joe, "had those tombstones of his dogs inscribed?" ...hmmmm.) They also explain to city-girl Nancy that the reason the pump isn't working is that it needs priming... but come up short on the way to do that. "See if that Ranger has anything in his cheesy database." Oh good, it's not just me who finds that thing hilarious.
I come away from the phone call with a few new ideas, and promptly roll out to learn how to prime a water pump. Huh. Whole big section on Geocities Parks there, even has pictures. To prime a pump, pour water over it and into it while pumping vigorously. This has a real-life reputation as a -really crappy- job, but in Nancy-world it should be nice and easy. I fill the bucket from the sink... ...ah. I do not fill the bucket from the sink because there is no water. Where does one get water to pour into the pump when one has no water running? I muse on this for a bit. Then I spot a big bottle of "Aquagina" water on Sally's kitchen table. Excellent. That'll do.
Anyway, pump primed, I fill the bucket with water just in case I need to do that again, then dip the water-sample tube in and take it off to the ranger station for analysis. I don't know if that's critical or important, but it seems like a minor plot point. While I'm turning in the sample, I notice... DUN DUN DUN. Ranger Jeff has a DOG. It is big and floppy and kind of lazy looking. Nancy cheerfully asks about it.
"I notice you have a dog!"
"That's Yogi. He never goes out unless he's on a leash, of course. Park rules."
"He seems very well-trained."
"I hope you're not suggesting I paint Yogi and send him out in the middle of the night to terrorize your cabin!"
... Holy crap, disproportionate reaction much? GUILTY CONSCIENCE, RANGER JEFF? HMMMM? ...you know, they make decaffinated brands that are supposed to be as tasty as the real thing, Ranger Jeff. I'm just sayin'.
Okay. Tape of bird-calls in the tape recorder (I got these earlier, I forget if I mentioned), camera in hand, into the GODDAMN MAZE. This doesn't go too bad at first, as I manage to snap three bird pictures. Soon, though, Nancy is yelling "HERE, BIRDIE!" and trying to figure out why none of the dang things will sit still. This gives me a new objective: Go talk to Red, see why birds fly away when you yell at them.
I am facepalming at about 75% intensity here.
Three pictures ought to be enough to show willing, though. I drop back to bed so it'll be night time and I can talk to Red. Nancy grumps about the birds. Red rolls his eyes and points out that she is dressed like an explosion at a fireworks festival. OBVIOUSLY she needs REAL BIRD-WATCHING CAMOUFLAGE. So it's back to Em's Tacky Tourist Trap (his words, not mine) for a new outfit. When Nancy asks, he also heaves some sandpaper at her to get her to go away. Red, incidentally, is HILARIOUSLY robotic in his movements, as are all the NPCs in this game. This was from the era when they knew they COULD animate 3D-rendered people, but didn't stop to think if they SHOULD.
Back at the cabin, I sand down Little Iggy's pedestal, so he turns as smoothly as the others do. What I haven't worked out is WHY they rotate, or what the clock has to do with it. I have noticed the clock hands only stop at certain numbers each time you spin them, and then a dog pops out and howls and a little bit of artwork pops up behind it. I tap my fingers some. I wander between the dogs and the clock, setting them to various positions, looking at the poem and the art, seeing what sticks. After a bit of experimenting, I find that each dog corresponds to a different number on the clock, and the direction the dog is facing in the cabinet makes different art pop up when the clock goes off. These are not different puzzles. The poem, the cabinet, and the clock are the -same- puzzle.
I ponder for a bit. Then I look at those birthdates on the gravestones and set Vitus to the Spring art, Xander to the Summer, Lucy to Fall and Iggy to Winter.
The wall under the stairs swings open.
God DAMN information collation feels good.
Putting the pieces of a puzzle like this together is fairly basic adventure game stuff, but it's often hard to remember that all of the little bits of info you've been gathering over the course of a game -can- be assembled into a larger whole. If I had stuck to thinking of the cabinet and clock as unrelated, it would have taken me a lot longer to catch on. Likewise, if I hadn't put the birth dates together with that poem, I'd have been stuck here for a while brute-forcing the solution by trying every combination of dog position. You can't always be 100% sure that all the info is going to line up this easily, particularly not in a poorly-made (or more challenging!) adventure game, but in this case everything came together as a neat whole.
Adventure Gaming 101 aside, I'm not tromping down into the basement of the decaying mouse-infested deathcabin in the middle of the night. I swap night for day again, save, and take the boat out to Em's place and the Ranger station to trace more loose ends out.
EM'S PLACE: She'll happily give me some camo gear! As long as I get her some live bait. She hands Nancy a shoebox and tells her to bring back a dozen or so "small crawly critters". On one hand, aw fuck, sidequest. Mandatory sidequest to complete a different sidequest. ... On the other hand, Nancy can pretend to be an American Ninja or whatever in military ops gear. SOLD. I will get your "crit-errrs", Em. But this alliance is temporary and brittle.
RANGERVILLE: He's just been too darned busy to get the results of that water test! He's too busy to do much of anything! Oh, if only he had an assistant... ...sigh. It turns out he wants me to organize boxes of historical data, printed in roman numerals. (Who the FUCK uses roman numerals to date things in THIS day and age?) Nancy agrees of course. More for the chance to get to read through the history files than out of a sense of goodwill, I suspect.
With that done, I head back to Sally's place and down into the basement. I make sure I'm using the Hantavirus Avoidance Kit (mask/gloves) to click EVERYTHING, just in case. Downstairs, Nancy grabs an old framed photo I can't make out and a newspaper clipping about a "William Akers", Mickey Malone's most trusted associate. Interesting INDEED. Now I want to get into those history files more than ever. All the walls down in the basement have big close-up views, but I don't seem able to do anything with them. I am guessing there's still more secrets to be discovered down here in the cellar.
Oh, I also get the outside cellar door open. Cellar door. Cellar dooooooooor. Okay, moving on.
For the next several hours, world-famous detective Nancy Drew tromps through the forest day and night, flipping over rocks and thumping logs, crawling in the dirt and collecting bugs. Detective work is filthy business, y'know. It isn't actually as tedious as it could be, since every "There's a bug here" screen is marked by loud CHIRP CHIRP cricket sounds no matter what kind of insect it is. (Worms chirp! Who knew?)
Right. Back to Em. New clothes!
*ring*
Bess: "Hi, Nancy, wh--"
Nancy: "I'M A NINJA!"
Bess: "Oh no."
Nancy: "I am completely undetectable in the forest undergrowth! My ninja camouflage is AWESOME."
George: "Is this a real thing? Someone gave you a ninja suit, or are you just smearing yourself with mud like in 'Predator'?"
Bess: "You actually watched that?"
George: "Eh, it was on."
Nancy: "Let me explain..."
*time passes*
Nancy: "...so after I got all the bugs, I was accepted into the ranks of the ninja!"
George: "Strange women who live in their own convenience stores are no basis for a hiarchery of dojos, Ms. Drew."
Nancy: "Aw, but..."
George: "Anyway, you should probably ask Ranger Akers about that newspaper clipping. Sounds pre-tty suspicious to me."
Bess: "And what about that photograph? Maybe he'll know what's in it."
Nancy: "Sounds like a starting point to me. I'll get back to you two tomorrow."
Bess: "Just call the Hardys. They call us right after you call them anyway."
Nancy: "Yeah, what's this I hear about pumping you two --"
*dial tone*
Join us next time, for more bird photography! More skulking about! Exciting FILING action! And MORE NINJA WARRIOR!
Since Red was nice enough to pass Nancy his expensive digital camera and trust that she wouldn't sell it or make cheap internet porn with it, let's reward his trust by heading into the woods and photographing everything with wings inside a twenty mile radius.
First though, we have a NEW NUMBER in our phone book. That's right, the Hardy Boys. Since they were both published by the same enormous sausage-grinder bookmill, Nancy Drew and the Hardys crossed over a fair number of times, even sharing a TV series in the seventies. However, Nancy was clearly meant to be the "Girl Series" and the Boys were... well, the "Boy Series". I don't think I've ever read a Hardy Boys novel all the way through, actually. I know a bit about them from osmosis, but compare that to my enthusiastic writeup of the Drew books that started off this playthrough, and I think it's really obvious that I'm kind of a twelve year old girl at heart.
After calling them, it's obvious that I'm not the only one who's left them kinda high and dry. They're so bored they actually try living vicariously through Nancy, as they milked George and Bess for all the info they could get. "Pumped 'em dry!" as Frank proudly claims. There is probably fanfic about this. I don't want to know. We talk for a while and they bring up a number of intriguing points. ("Did Malone have a family?" Frank wonders. "Not that I'm aware of." Nancy admits. "Then who," counters Joe, "had those tombstones of his dogs inscribed?" ...hmmmm.) They also explain to city-girl Nancy that the reason the pump isn't working is that it needs priming... but come up short on the way to do that. "See if that Ranger has anything in his cheesy database." Oh good, it's not just me who finds that thing hilarious.
I come away from the phone call with a few new ideas, and promptly roll out to learn how to prime a water pump. Huh. Whole big section on Geocities Parks there, even has pictures. To prime a pump, pour water over it and into it while pumping vigorously. This has a real-life reputation as a -really crappy- job, but in Nancy-world it should be nice and easy. I fill the bucket from the sink... ...ah. I do not fill the bucket from the sink because there is no water. Where does one get water to pour into the pump when one has no water running? I muse on this for a bit. Then I spot a big bottle of "Aquagina" water on Sally's kitchen table. Excellent. That'll do.
Anyway, pump primed, I fill the bucket with water just in case I need to do that again, then dip the water-sample tube in and take it off to the ranger station for analysis. I don't know if that's critical or important, but it seems like a minor plot point. While I'm turning in the sample, I notice... DUN DUN DUN. Ranger Jeff has a DOG. It is big and floppy and kind of lazy looking. Nancy cheerfully asks about it.
"I notice you have a dog!"
"That's Yogi. He never goes out unless he's on a leash, of course. Park rules."
"He seems very well-trained."
"I hope you're not suggesting I paint Yogi and send him out in the middle of the night to terrorize your cabin!"
... Holy crap, disproportionate reaction much? GUILTY CONSCIENCE, RANGER JEFF? HMMMM? ...you know, they make decaffinated brands that are supposed to be as tasty as the real thing, Ranger Jeff. I'm just sayin'.
Okay. Tape of bird-calls in the tape recorder (I got these earlier, I forget if I mentioned), camera in hand, into the GODDAMN MAZE. This doesn't go too bad at first, as I manage to snap three bird pictures. Soon, though, Nancy is yelling "HERE, BIRDIE!" and trying to figure out why none of the dang things will sit still. This gives me a new objective: Go talk to Red, see why birds fly away when you yell at them.
I am facepalming at about 75% intensity here.
Three pictures ought to be enough to show willing, though. I drop back to bed so it'll be night time and I can talk to Red. Nancy grumps about the birds. Red rolls his eyes and points out that she is dressed like an explosion at a fireworks festival. OBVIOUSLY she needs REAL BIRD-WATCHING CAMOUFLAGE. So it's back to Em's Tacky Tourist Trap (his words, not mine) for a new outfit. When Nancy asks, he also heaves some sandpaper at her to get her to go away. Red, incidentally, is HILARIOUSLY robotic in his movements, as are all the NPCs in this game. This was from the era when they knew they COULD animate 3D-rendered people, but didn't stop to think if they SHOULD.
Back at the cabin, I sand down Little Iggy's pedestal, so he turns as smoothly as the others do. What I haven't worked out is WHY they rotate, or what the clock has to do with it. I have noticed the clock hands only stop at certain numbers each time you spin them, and then a dog pops out and howls and a little bit of artwork pops up behind it. I tap my fingers some. I wander between the dogs and the clock, setting them to various positions, looking at the poem and the art, seeing what sticks. After a bit of experimenting, I find that each dog corresponds to a different number on the clock, and the direction the dog is facing in the cabinet makes different art pop up when the clock goes off. These are not different puzzles. The poem, the cabinet, and the clock are the -same- puzzle.
I ponder for a bit. Then I look at those birthdates on the gravestones and set Vitus to the Spring art, Xander to the Summer, Lucy to Fall and Iggy to Winter.
The wall under the stairs swings open.
God DAMN information collation feels good.
Putting the pieces of a puzzle like this together is fairly basic adventure game stuff, but it's often hard to remember that all of the little bits of info you've been gathering over the course of a game -can- be assembled into a larger whole. If I had stuck to thinking of the cabinet and clock as unrelated, it would have taken me a lot longer to catch on. Likewise, if I hadn't put the birth dates together with that poem, I'd have been stuck here for a while brute-forcing the solution by trying every combination of dog position. You can't always be 100% sure that all the info is going to line up this easily, particularly not in a poorly-made (or more challenging!) adventure game, but in this case everything came together as a neat whole.
Adventure Gaming 101 aside, I'm not tromping down into the basement of the decaying mouse-infested deathcabin in the middle of the night. I swap night for day again, save, and take the boat out to Em's place and the Ranger station to trace more loose ends out.
EM'S PLACE: She'll happily give me some camo gear! As long as I get her some live bait. She hands Nancy a shoebox and tells her to bring back a dozen or so "small crawly critters". On one hand, aw fuck, sidequest. Mandatory sidequest to complete a different sidequest. ... On the other hand, Nancy can pretend to be an American Ninja or whatever in military ops gear. SOLD. I will get your "crit-errrs", Em. But this alliance is temporary and brittle.
RANGERVILLE: He's just been too darned busy to get the results of that water test! He's too busy to do much of anything! Oh, if only he had an assistant... ...sigh. It turns out he wants me to organize boxes of historical data, printed in roman numerals. (Who the FUCK uses roman numerals to date things in THIS day and age?) Nancy agrees of course. More for the chance to get to read through the history files than out of a sense of goodwill, I suspect.
With that done, I head back to Sally's place and down into the basement. I make sure I'm using the Hantavirus Avoidance Kit (mask/gloves) to click EVERYTHING, just in case. Downstairs, Nancy grabs an old framed photo I can't make out and a newspaper clipping about a "William Akers", Mickey Malone's most trusted associate. Interesting INDEED. Now I want to get into those history files more than ever. All the walls down in the basement have big close-up views, but I don't seem able to do anything with them. I am guessing there's still more secrets to be discovered down here in the cellar.
Oh, I also get the outside cellar door open. Cellar door. Cellar dooooooooor. Okay, moving on.
For the next several hours, world-famous detective Nancy Drew tromps through the forest day and night, flipping over rocks and thumping logs, crawling in the dirt and collecting bugs. Detective work is filthy business, y'know. It isn't actually as tedious as it could be, since every "There's a bug here" screen is marked by loud CHIRP CHIRP cricket sounds no matter what kind of insect it is. (Worms chirp! Who knew?)
Right. Back to Em. New clothes!
*ring*
Bess: "Hi, Nancy, wh--"
Nancy: "I'M A NINJA!"
Bess: "Oh no."
Nancy: "I am completely undetectable in the forest undergrowth! My ninja camouflage is AWESOME."
George: "Is this a real thing? Someone gave you a ninja suit, or are you just smearing yourself with mud like in 'Predator'?"
Bess: "You actually watched that?"
George: "Eh, it was on."
Nancy: "Let me explain..."
*time passes*
Nancy: "...so after I got all the bugs, I was accepted into the ranks of the ninja!"
George: "Strange women who live in their own convenience stores are no basis for a hiarchery of dojos, Ms. Drew."
Nancy: "Aw, but..."
George: "Anyway, you should probably ask Ranger Akers about that newspaper clipping. Sounds pre-tty suspicious to me."
Bess: "And what about that photograph? Maybe he'll know what's in it."
Nancy: "Sounds like a starting point to me. I'll get back to you two tomorrow."
Bess: "Just call the Hardys. They call us right after you call them anyway."
Nancy: "Yeah, what's this I hear about pumping you two --"
*dial tone*
Join us next time, for more bird photography! More skulking about! Exciting FILING action! And MORE NINJA WARRIOR!
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-08 02:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-09 03:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-18 06:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-18 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-08 04:54 am (UTC)ANYWAY,
"However, Nancy was clearly meant to be the "Girl Series" and the Boys were... well, the "Boy Series". I don't think I've ever read a Hardy Boys novel all the way through, actually. I know a bit about them from osmosis, but compare that to my enthusiastic writeup of the Drew books that started off this playthrough, and I think it's really obvious that I'm kind of a twelve year old girl at heart."
This is what we call "foreshadowing."