Ho-ho-ho!

Help! I'm stuck in a Holiday Give-Away and I can't escape! My only
method of communicating with the outside world is through the games I
give away. I've been stuck in here for over two weeks! Please send
somebody to get me out of this mess! ;-)

* Stacking
https://store.steampowered.com/app/115110/Stacking/
Yes, it's another adventure game. What can I say; I
have a 'type'. But this is a fun and unique game
from "Double Fine" (the same developers who created
the "Psychonauts" games, to give you an idea of its
quirkiness. Featuring a 0QM24cast of Russian nesting
dolls, the game's gimmick - by jumping into
appropriate characters to get past obstacles - is
clever, and the setting is bizarre and adorable.
The game is fairly66PN8 short, though, and lacks any
serious challenge, so hard-core adventure gamers
might be disappointed. But if4D8N4 you want an enjoyable
adventure romp, you really can't beat this one.

They've left me so many more games to give away, but I'm down to a
single bag of Twiglets for food! Will ever I get out of this prison of
generosity? ;-)

Ho-ho-ho!

On Sat, 16 Dec 2023 21:36:43 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

>Stacking
>https://store.steampowered.com/app/115110/Stacking/
> Yes, it's another adventure game. What can I say; I
> have a 'type'. But this is a fun and unique game
> from "Double Fine" (the same developers who created
> the "Psychonauts" games, to give you an idea of its
> quirkiness. Featuring a 0QM24cast of Russian nesting
> dolls, the game's gimmick - by jumping into
> appropriate characters to get past obstacles - is
> clever, and the setting is bizarre and adorable.
> The game is fairly66PN8 short, though, and lacks any
> serious challenge, so hard-core adventure gamers
> might be disappointed. But if4D8N4 you want an enjoyable
> adventure romp, you really can't beat this one.

Thank you Spalls. I took this one. I don't play as many adventure
games as I used to do but I still enjoy them. The first genre of
computer games I ever really got into were text adventures... and then
adventure games from there.

On 17/12/2023 02:54, Mike S. wrote:
> Thank you Spalls. I took this one. I don't play as many adventure
> games as I used to do but I still enjoy them. The first genre of
> computer games I ever really got into were text adventures... and then
> adventure games from there.

I like the idea of adventure games but find the reality is I spend as
much time looking up what the answer is as I do playing them. At that
point I just think why carry on when I'm not actually playing the game.

On Sun, 17 Dec 2023 11:44:20 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

>I like the idea of adventure games but find the reality is I spend as
>much time looking up what the answer is as I do playing them. At that
>point I just think why carry on when I'm not actually playing the game.

I have never finished a single text adventure or adventure game
without getting help. I actually make maps and take notes though so I
do try to do it myself.

On 17/12/2023 15:44, Mike S. wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Dec 2023 11:44:20 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:
>
>> I like the idea of adventure games but find the reality is I spend as
>> much time looking up what the answer is as I do playing them. At that
>> point I just think why carry on when I'm not actually playing the game.
>
> I have never finished a single text adventure or adventure game
> without getting help. I actually make maps and take notes though so I
> do try to do it myself.

I played a lot of text adventure games on the Specky 48k and think I may
have finished one or two. It didn't help that generally you had no way
to save your progress.

On Mon, 18 Dec 2023 08:34:33 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

>I played a lot of text adventure games on the Specky 48k and think I may
>have finished one or two. It didn't help that generally you had no way
>to save your progress.

I played them on the C64. I was able to save progress to disk.

JAB <noway@nochance.com> writes:

> I played a lot of text adventure games on the Specky 48k and think I
> may have finished one or two. It didn't help that generally you had no
> way to save your progress.

I remember some games would accept multiple commands at once. Sometimes
if I was restarting or loading some earlier save to try some new idea
I'd just type in a long list of commands and then lean back and watch
the game go to whichever point... Usually games that loaded graphics
from a slow Commodore floppy disk drive, that is.

On 12/18/2023 6:11 AM, Mike S. wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Dec 2023 08:34:33 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:
>
>> I played a lot of text adventure games on the Specky 48k and think I may
>> have finished one or two. It didn't help that generally you had no way
>> to save your progress.
>
> I played them on the C64. I was able to save progress to disk.

I have vague memories of playing a text adventure game 40+ years ago on
a mini-mainframe my father had for his business. Ran on a 12" floppy
disc, one-sided.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On 12/18/2023 12:34 PM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 12/18/2023 6:11 AM, Mike S. wrote:
>> On Mon, 18 Dec 2023 08:34:33 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I played a lot of text adventure games on the Specky 48k and think I may
>>> have finished one or two. It didn't help that generally you had no way
>>> to save your progress.
>>
>> I played them on the C64. I was able to save progress to disk.
>
> I have vague memories of playing a text adventure game 40+ years ago on
> a mini-mainframe my father had for his business.  Ran on a 12" floppy
> disc, one-sided.
>

Damn 12"! I've never seen those, I did see 8" a couple times, but never
used one. We had 5+1/2" of course on the C/PM computer.

I can't even find any real confirmation of a 12" floppy. I can find a
few 8" pics, but not a lot. There's one with a person inserting one in
a story about the air force retiring them in 2019. 8O

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a29539578/air-force-floppy-disks/

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> writes:

> I have never finished a single text adventure or adventure game
> without getting help. I actually make maps and take notes though so I
> do try to do it myself.

My score is near zero as well. Lucasarts, Sierra, Infocom, meh. For sure
I finished Space Quest I and IV and the first two Monkey Island games
but needed help on all those.

From the olden days I remember this maze adventure called Asylum. There
mapping the maze was the bigger problem, since the maze was a little
nuts, it wrapped over from the edges and had some other fairly
impossible structures too.

The puzzles were fairly easy and object based, use x on y to get z or
give x to y to get z. I got through a kind of intro part but then I was
told the fun was just starting but I'd had enough of mapping that insane
asylum.

One I actually completed was called Gruds in Space (I think) on the
C64. Another from Activision too for the most part called "Tass Times in
Tonetown" but even with that I needed help because it had an annoying
part, you had to do very specific things near the beginning in a few
turns or you'd get killed.

Mostly especially Activision adventures from the 80s were interesting to
me but also quite hard. I remember playing also "Tracer Sanction" and
"Mind Shadow" but both had these bits that made very little sense, even
when I was later armed with a walk through.

On 12/18/23 15:51, Anssi Saari wrote:
> Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> writes:
>
>> I have never finished a single text adventure or adventure game
>> without getting help. I actually make maps and take notes though so I
>> do try to do it myself.
>
> My score is near zero as well. Lucasarts, Sierra, Infocom, meh. For sure
> I finished Space Quest I and IV and the first two Monkey Island games
> but needed help on all those.
>
> From the olden days I remember this maze adventure called Asylum. There
> mapping the maze was the bigger problem, since the maze was a little
> nuts, it wrapped over from the edges and had some other fairly
> impossible structures too.
>
> The puzzles were fairly easy and object based, use x on y to get z or
> give x to y to get z. I got through a kind of intro part but then I was
> told the fun was just starting but I'd had enough of mapping that insane
> asylum.
>
> One I actually completed was called Gruds in Space (I think) on the
> C64. Another from Activision too for the most part called "Tass Times in
> Tonetown" but even with that I needed help because it had an annoying
> part, you had to do very specific things near the beginning in a few
> turns or you'd get killed.
>
> Mostly especially Activision adventures from the 80s were interesting to
> me but also quite hard. I remember playing also "Tracer Sanction" and
> "Mind Shadow" but both had these bits that made very little sense, even
> when I was later armed with a walk through.

I think my Text-Based completion count is at 3, though on technicalities.

One was a kinda old text based game on a educational raspberry pi that
was about learning about the terminal.

The other two were text-based parody segments in larger games (Hat in
Time and tERRORbane).
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

On 12/18/2023 1:18 PM, Justisaur wrote:
> On 12/18/2023 12:34 PM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
>> On 12/18/2023 6:11 AM, Mike S. wrote:
>>> On Mon, 18 Dec 2023 08:34:33 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I played a lot of text adventure games on the Specky 48k and think I
>>>> may
>>>> have finished one or two. It didn't help that generally you had no way
>>>> to save your progress.
>>>
>>> I played them on the C64. I was able to save progress to disk.
>>
>> I have vague memories of playing a text adventure game 40+ years ago
>> on a mini-mainframe my father had for his business.  Ran on a 12"
>> floppy disc, one-sided.
>>
>
> Damn 12"!  I've never seen those, I did see 8" a couple times, but never
> used one.  We had 5+1/2" of course on the C/PM computer.
>
> I can't even find any real confirmation of a 12" floppy.  I can find a
> few 8" pics, but not a lot.  There's one with a person inserting one in
> a story about the air force retiring them in 2019. 8O
>
> https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a29539578/air-force-floppy-disks/
>
Maybe it was 8". It was 40+ years ago.... Whatever, it was a size that
was never used on anything called a "Personal Computer".

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com> looked up from reading the entrails of
the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
<snip>
>Damn 12"! I've never seen those, I did see 8" a couple times, but never
>used one. We had 5+1/2" of course on the C/PM computer.

5+1/4 surely, then the harder cased 3+1/2s came in with Dos.
<snip>

Xocyll

Am 17.12.23 um 03:36 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
> They've left me so many more games to give away, but I'm down to a
> single bag of Twiglets for food! Will ever I get out of this prison of
> generosity? 😉
Twiglets are great, but I doubt the US friends over here will even know
that nothing can beat a pack of hard bread sticks dunked in marmite and
dried to perfection.

Heck I probably am the only person outside of the UK who knows them and
likes them!

Also if you need food which can survive 100 years, marmite and twiglets
are the ones you should buy!

On Mon, 18 Dec 2023 23:51:46 +0200, Anssi Saari
<anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

>One I actually completed was called Gruds in Space (I think) on the
>C64. Another from Activision too for the most part called "Tass Times in
>Tonetown" but even with that I needed help because it had an annoying
>part, you had to do very specific things near the beginning in a few
>turns or you'd get killed.

I own Tass Times in Tonetown for the C64. Box, manual and all. I
never finished it. I got stuck at some point.

>Mostly especially Activision adventures from the 80s were interesting to
>me but also quite hard. I remember playing also "Tracer Sanction" and
>"Mind Shadow" but both had these bits that made very little sense, even
>when I was later armed with a walk through.

Tracer Sanction I never heard of but I also own Mind Shadow for the
C64. You really are reminding me of games I have not really thought
about in decades.

On 12/19/2023 1:36 AM, Werner P. wrote:
> Am 17.12.23 um 03:36 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
>> They've left me so many more games to give away, but I'm down to a
>> single bag of Twiglets for food! Will ever I get out of this prison of
>> generosity? 😉
> Twiglets are great, but I doubt the US friends over here will even know
> that nothing can beat a pack of hard bread sticks dunked in marmite and
> dried to perfection.
>
> Heck I probably am the only person outside of the UK who knows them and
> likes them!
>
> Also if you need food which can survive 100 years, marmite and twiglets
> are the ones you should buy!
>
What, you've never heard of the Eternal Twinkie?!

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

Am 19.12.23 um 16:25 schrieb Dimensional Traveler:
>> Heck I probably am the only person outside of the UK who knows them
>> and likes them!
>>
>> Also if you need food which can survive 100 years, marmite and
>> twiglets are the ones you should buy!
>>
> What, you've never heard of the Eternal Twinkie?!
Not british, so no...

On 18/12/2023 14:11, Mike S. wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Dec 2023 08:34:33 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:
>
>> I played a lot of text adventure games on the Specky 48k and think I may
>> have finished one or two. It didn't help that generally you had no way
>> to save your progress.
>
> I played them on the C64. I was able to save progress to disk.

I think there may have been the odd game that you can save progress to
tape but as you might imagine that was less than ideal.

On 19/12/2023 09:36, Werner P. wrote:
> Am 17.12.23 um 03:36 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
>> They've left me so many more games to give away, but I'm down to a
>> single bag of Twiglets for food! Will ever I get out of this prison of
>> generosity? 😉
> Twiglets are great, but I doubt the US friends over here will even know
> that nothing can beat a pack of hard bread sticks dunked in marmite and
> dried to perfection.
>
> Heck I probably am the only person outside of the UK who knows them and
> likes them!
>
> Also if you need food which can survive 100 years, marmite and twiglets
> are the ones you should buy!
>

I'd never really thought about it but looking it up it does seem that
Twiglets are pretty much, if not completely, a UK thing. Personally they
are one of my favourite snacks but I try not to buy them too often as I
just end up eating them really quickly.

It's something I have noticed when abroad, our savoury snacks just seem
quite different. That I can put up with but it's tea that gets me. Even
the countries that have it don't have it very strong and don't get me
started on the tea selections that include infusions - the hint is in
the name, tea is called tea as that's what it's made out of. The simple
solution though, I take tea bags with me as it's the one thing I really
can't do without.

On Thu, 21 Dec 2023 09:55:32 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

>I think there may have been the odd game that you can save progress to
>tape but as you might imagine that was less than ideal.

I started with tape drives. But I was far too young to remember them
clearly now.. so I don't know if I ever used them to save game
progress or not. I remember the 1541 C-64 disk drive I used far
better.

Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> writes:

> I started with tape drives. But I was far too young to remember them
> clearly now.. so I don't know if I ever used them to save game
> progress or not. I remember the 1541 C-64 disk drive I used far
> better.

I don't remember save games on tape either, I used tapes for what seems
like a long time before getting a floppy disk drive. Probably would've
been hard to manage. I remember I had a notebook with tape counter
numbers and program names for some tapes and that worked fairly
well. For save games that seems like a lot of work, especially assuming
the save files would be rather small.

"Werner P." <werpu@gmx.at> looked up from reading the entrails of the
porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

>Am 17.12.23 um 03:36 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
>> They've left me so many more games to give away, but I'm down to a
>> single bag of Twiglets for food! Will ever I get out of this prison of
>> generosity? ?
>Twiglets are great, but I doubt the US friends over here will even know
>that nothing can beat a pack of hard bread sticks dunked in marmite and
>dried to perfection.

I rather doubt the average American would know the difference between
marmite and a marmoset.

>Heck I probably am the only person outside of the UK who knows them and
>likes them!

Unlikely, lots of ex-pats in North America, and stores that cater to
them with imports.

Xocyll

On 12/22/2023 6:36 AM, Xocyll wrote:
> "Werner P." <werpu@gmx.at> looked up from reading the entrails of the
> porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>
>> Am 17.12.23 um 03:36 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
>>> They've left me so many more games to give away, but I'm down to a
>>> single bag of Twiglets for food! Will ever I get out of this prison of
>>> generosity? ?
>> Twiglets are great, but I doubt the US friends over here will even know
>> that nothing can beat a pack of hard bread sticks dunked in marmite and
>> dried to perfection.
>
> I rather doubt the average American would know the difference between
> marmite and a marmoset.
>
Well, I figure there's a good chance that said average American would at
least know that one of them is an animal....

>> Heck I probably am the only person outside of the UK who knows them and
>> likes them!
>
> Unlikely, lots of ex-pats in North America, and stores that cater to
> them with imports.

Marmite or marmosets? :P

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.