Uninvited 2: Searching, Searching . . .

I've actually been playing a little bit for a couple of days, but am only now getting around to blogging about it.

Searching, searching, searching the house for stuff. I actually remember literally every screen I've seen so far, but then, I played this so many times 30 years ago that that familiarity isn't surprising.

I did look at the color version for one shot. This is what happens if you stay in the car too long:

Oopsies!

As we know, it's fairly easy to die in this game, so save early, save often.

Found another nice ghost! But how to get rid of him. Try everything. If you don't have the required item in your inventory yet, you can leave. He will still be there when you get back. Once you vanquish him you will get what looks like a rather useful item.

EEK!

Other than that, I've just been exploring the house. Have found some nicely done rooms--well, nicely done for a 30-year old game, at least. Really, these were impressive graphics at the time.

Master bedroom. Items are here!

The master bath with original decor

And I had forgotten about this way to die:

Nice description here.

I think I'm getting pretty close to going outside. I have one more clue to go back and note down (involving atomic numbers of elements). But which path to take?

Is it a yellow brick path?

I might have some more time to play tomorrow, although I'm getting to the end of Dickens' Dombey and Son, so I might be reading instead. I'm doing a Dickens immersion, getting through all the books I haven't read (well, other than the short stories, which I'll get to when I need a Dickens fix). That might take precedence!

Next Entry.

Uninvited: Playthrough of my First Adventure!

I already did a blog entry about this marvelous game here. That link has a YouTube let's play of this game.

Uninvited was not only my very first adventure, it was my very first video game! It hooked me. It is the underlying reason this blog is here and I have this hobby.

Finally somebody coded the game to work on modern computers, and Steam has it (plus the old Deja Vu series, which I also have and will play sometime). It was even cheap! Of course I got a copy, which turns out to have both the old black and white version from the original Mac game and a color version. Well, it hardly takes up much disk space. It was published in 1986, but I played it in '89 when I got my first Mac (yeah, the old one with the 9-inch black and white screen. That one.)

I've tried both and I want to do the original. It's nostaligic for me, and frankly I think the color version looks cheesy. 

And it's still the same game!

Comparison:

Mac version opening screen

And in color

Mac living room

And the other one

Note that the Mac black and white version is oriented a bit more to the left on the full screen than the color version, but nothing is cut off. It was made in grayscale and I'm sticking to it.

I've done a bit of exploring of the living room area and surrounding and have found some obvious clues to later puzzles. I'm remembering to open everything that will open and examine everything that is clickable. 

I recall that this game gets rather rough in spots. It's actually scary, although I remember exactly how to solve the first major puzzle. This one:

Scared the daylights out of me in 1989

And of course, when the game kills you, it lets you know:

Comes with audio!

I've only just started. I'm exploring the second story. This shouldn't take me too long even though of course I've forgotten most of it, probably. 

But I'm gonna have fun!!

Next Entry.

Machinarium 11: We have Escaped!

Finished! Well I did a lot of it myself, especially the bug destroying game.

But . . . OK, I looked up the snake puzzles.  I was just not in the mood for that. However, after you beat those the game actually does give you some clues about what to do next. And that got me to the bug game.

You enter a maze in which you really can't see much. First we get a key, then find a lock, and in the thing you unlock you find a gun! We use that to traverse the entire area shooting the red bugs. They also shoot at you but there are abundant blue crosses that restore your health.

I figured that had to be the solution because really there was no way out. But once you get them all you have only one more serious puzzle (in the elevator again) and then it's all environmental stuff. 

The top of the city!

I admit that it took awhile to find out how to get the last puzzle to work. Hint: the hint isn't in this room. Well, actually the hint to the hint to the hint isn't in this room. 

But you can find it. But then we have a musical puzzle, and I don't see any option for deaf players. My sister could have done that thing on the first try. She's musical; I'm not. 

The last little puzzle is probably the easiest of the game, and we're off in to the sky!

Escape!

If you look, you can see all the achievements you've earned. Don't have to go to Steam for this! Anyway, I got this game on GOG.

Of course you earned them! Can't finish without all of 'em!

This game is not easy. It's very sweet, however, and superbly imaginative. I adore the artwork all the way through. 

Now I have a few other games in mind that I want to tackle! Onward!

Machinarium 10: Heading to the End!

So Wow! I got through the logic puzzles. Those really are excellent puzzles. I admit that I did look at a solution for just the first part of the final puzzle. After getting things into better position it was pretty straightforward.

And that led me to the elevator, which really isn't too difficult as long as you really do click on absolutely everything there. 

Don't ignore anything!

And that gets us to a nice compilation of stuff! In the "lobby," as I call it, you have to figure out how to use that vacuum to good effect. Hint: there is more than one thing you have to do with it.

What to do? What to do?

But once you do that, you find yourself facing the bomb that the bad guys have attached to the building.

But how do you get to it?

I got to it (really imaginative there!)—but when faced with the bomb puzzle I just immediately threw up my hands. First, it's timed. You've got five minutes to figure out all that mess. I went straight to the WT.

OK, so I could have taken a screenshot and spent an hour or so figuring out all the wiring. And then been wrong. So I just got by it and have headed on.

Am now at the top of the tower. There are a couple of puzzles there that I haven't tried yet. I'm convinced, however, that I must be pretty close to the endgame. I want to finish pretty soon, because although I'm really enjoying this, I have several other games I'd like to get through, both new and old, and very, very, very old.

The imagination of this game still continues! It is doable, but sometimes pretty tough!

Next Entry.

Machinarium 9: Invading Space

Just a quick update.

I am really, really bad at games like space invaders. However! Once I figured out that I could use the keyboard (space bar and arrow keys) to play the game, it only took me about five or six more tries to win! 

Easy game for most but not for me.

Really, it took me days to do this.

Persistence matters.

Now there's another arcade game, but it has nothing to do with action. It's a nice logic puzzle. I like logic puzzles. Sometimes they take awhile but I can almost always crack them.

So! Onward! (Although it may take me a few days to do this)

Next Entry.