So, good fun when things go well! I played for awhile this morning and made lots of progress. I'm really getting into the meat of the story now, except, I'm not sure the game is going to allow me to make the actions I know I need to make. Although I've tried slowing the speed (there's an option for that), you need to act in a split second to get the stuff done.
But first, the fun stuff. I just breezed right through Day 5. It was pretty much unchanged from the remake (or, heh, visa versa). I found Crash, talked to Gran, which led me finally to call Uncle Wolfgang in Germany.
Then on the beginning of Day 6 you find the professor. Only the lecture hall is different from the remake. Frankly, I like this one better.
Nice Lecture Hall
I went through the snake attack scene at the Voodoo Museum, and almost couldn't do the action before I got killed. I did get killed on the first try.
I may be seeing this a lot later
Finally I was able to hit the spot to stop the attack, but it was a very close thing.
My problem now is that I have to get the police to move out of the station so that I can sneak into Mosely's office with the key he left me. The remake changed this so that Gabe breaks in through a street window, and I'm pretty sure I know why they changed it. In fact, I remember having a lot of trouble with this puzzle when I first played the game.
The Begneigt dealer comes back. The cops go out. The desk sergeant just leans out the door and tells me not to do anything. Immediately, I have to get the door icon and click it on the gate to get through to Mosley's door. I have the key ready to grab, but the sergeant only gives me about one second, if that, to get there and that just isn't enough time.
Gabe talks the begniet dealer into going back to the police station
The very first time I tried this it seemed as though there was enough time. I've saved the game and hope that finally I'll be able to do it, but five or six more tries just aren't working yet.
This problem does not bode well for the future. It's an old game. I wasn't meant for modern processors, even though it's been modified to work on them, and so far has worked just fine. But actually, I had the same trouble with this in 2001 when I first played it, and that didn't have too much to do with the speed of the computer. (Um, actually it did. It's just that 2000-era computers weren't quite fast enough yet to spoil the game.) Also, I've read on forums that folks had a lot of trouble with this puzzle.
But, even if I can get through this, later in the game there's an infamous puzzle that nearly defeated me. It's in the Snake Mound in Africa. You are attacked by mummies, and you have to grab the "operate" icon and click it on a vine in order to keep from being eaten. In the remake they made it much easier, but in this version you really have to just keep trying because you have only a split second to get it exactly right.
Same problem here. I'm a bit encouraged because the first time I tried this it looked as though I had enough time, and if I had remembered what I had to do I probably could have done it. That means that eventually it ought to work.
I think I'll try it tomorrow, though. That's enough for tonight!
UPDATE: I did a bit of online research, and found out that yeah, modern processing speeds are way too fast and nobody can do this puzzle. There is a patch that is supposed to get you plenty of time for this puzzle and for the Snake Mound puzzle later in the game (which clearly, will be impossible as things stand now. Well, this one is impossible). However, I know zero about installing patches, so I'm going to set this game aside until I can see my computer-wizard nephew on Christmas. He'll be able to fix it for me. Until then, I'm going to move on to GK2, which is also a fantastic game!
Apparently there's also a way to slow down the DosBox speed, but that's really out of my league! (And apparently not possible. When I go to DosBox configuration I don't get the option you're supposed to get to change the speed.)
Aha, further research says that all you have to do is press CTRL+F11 to slow the DoxBox speed, and F12 to increase it! Except that, on my computer (a Dell Inspiron), that only changes the screen brightness. Up-Update: Turns out different computer brands change the function keys. On Dell, you press Alt+Fn+F11 to slow things down, BUT it also turns out that on really fast computers that doesn't help much. And it didn't.
Such are the hazards of playing very old games. I'm just glad it's still possible for some folks. And, if nothing works here, I have an old, old laptop that runs Win 98. I have this game on it, running natively, without DosBox, because Win98 has a native Dos configuration that's easily accessible. I can play it on that one for sure! Only problem with that is that I would have to start all over. But I might!
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