Shivers 3: Memories

Just some quick play tonight. Poked around in the office and found background material, newspaper article about missing teens, Windlenot's scrapbook and a letter from his wife about his son Geoffrey. A tape recording that appears to include Windlenot getting bitten by an ixupi, plus more instructions about what we're supposed to do in the game.

Navigation is kinda slow, which worries me about the ixupis. If you turn away from them right away they can't bite you. But this game doesn't react very quickly. Best thing is to stay away from them, which I normally used to do anyway. They make a unique sound before they bite, and if you react quickly enough you should never get bitten.

But still.

Problem is, I keep remembering where the darned things are, and sheesh, they are all over the place. There's the ash one in the fireplace in the office. That one's easy. Then I remembered the wood one in the woodworking area off the office. Then there's the water one, but only once you've filled the fountain in the lobby. Then there's the metal one in the iron horse, the sand one in the plant room.

Darned things are everywhere. And that's just from my memory.

Nevertheless, I've already solved a puzzle! Yay! Kinda easy, actually, the drawers puzzle in the woodworking room, which yielded a pot. Also found a lid in Windlenot's desk. Swapped that for the pot. Then found another lid in the bird heads on the wall in the lobby, and another pot in the plant room, which I didn't take. I'm keeping notes about all these. Later, I'll find the icons in the library that tell me which is which.

I wandered into the Atlantis room. As I recall there is one there, but it's pretty much out of the way, and I remember that there are at least three puzzles in there. Also remembered to push the little buttons at the entrance of each exhibit room--you get points for that.

I'm having a real problem with this thing running in half screen. Have to get my nose right up to it to see some details properly, and to read stuff.  Still, it's the Shivers I remember, so I'm mostly happy.

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Shivers 2: Out of the Basement

I'm out of the basement! Of course I remembered where the professor's desiccated, dry body was, and got the "Hieroglyphs Explained" book (I will certainly need that later). 

Then we have the task of moving the boat. I knew there was a trick to it, but I finally noticed that the cursor was pointing down at certain points. That's the problem with this half-screen view--you can't see everything as well as you should. However, I found the trick, and "rowed" the boat across the basement lake (I mean, how many folks have a lake in their basement? It's a museum of the "strange and unusual," after all). The shape of the cursor also can give clues.

And halfway across, the water ixupi jumps out and grabs some of my life essence. I know there's no way to avoid that. Once Dad managed to get that bit of life restored quite by accident later in the game, but I have no idea how he did it.

So I watched the professor's little video which tells you basically what you need to do in the game, and headed off down the next maze. Really not much of a maze, because this one has clues: you can see the direction of the lighting source. Follow that, no worries.

And I faced the first of the elevator puzzles. These are really kinda nifty. This one only has four squares so it's much easier than some others I remember, but it's still a little bit of a challenge! Solved it, rode the elevator up to the office, and saved there.

The stuff that made this game so good were the really excellent puzzles, good variety of puzzles, the outstanding graphics, especially for its time, and that little bit of fright factor from the ixupis. Plus, you can wander around at will once you open up new areas. In fact, you have to access the whole museum in order to win the game. It's important to take notes about where you left the pots and lids, because you can only carry one at a time.

Ah yes. This is as much fun as I remembered! Except for the half screen view, which appears to be unfixable.

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Shivers 1: Back to the Old Days!

NOTE: 
A complete 2018 replay of this game begins here.

I first encountered adventure gaming when I was given a copy of the old 1985 Mac game "The Uninvited," a floppy-disc effort that worked with my first computer, an old Mac SE with the 9-inch black and white screen. It was a black and white graphic little game, in which you negotiated a haunted house. It played in a tiny square in the small screen, so I would have my nose almost touching the screen. When I encountered my first ghost, I jumped in my chair, it scared me so much.

Uninvited Screenshot. The beginning of graphic adventures.

So that was it. I was hooked on adventuring right then. 

I managed to finish The Uninvited, and replayed it enough that I finally wrote my own movement-by-movement walkthrough for it. That was a real accomplishment, because it was before the internet, or at least years before I was on the internet, so there were no walkthroughs to consult. I got some other adventures for that old Mac, but can't remember much what I did with them until I finally got an old Performa with my job at the university and played Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within because it had German in it. That grabbed me. Somehow I got a copy of Shivers. I either played it on that Performa, because it's in color, and that's the first color machine I had, or when I bought my blueberry iMac after I moved to New Hampshire.

Anyway, it was The Beast Within and Shivers that really grabbed me for adventure gaming, with Shivers grabbing me for puzzles (and excitement with those dangerous ixupis!). Great graphics, excellent puzzles, many of which really made you think hard, and some thrills when the ixupis jumped out at you. In fact, the graphics still look good even today.

I played it with Dad when I first moved back to Oceanside, and he loved it too, although he never could figure out how to move around. But I always had an amazing amount of fun with it, it was so replayable.

My old system 9 iMac has developed a terrible buzz in the sound system, so I've retired it until I can afford either repair or a "new" one on E-Bay (I have so many system 9 games that I'll really have to replace either the part or the computer). But I wanted to play Shivers again now, darnit. I just got the bug for it. I now have this great old vintage IBM Thinkpad running Win98SE, so I went back to E-Bay and got a good copy of the game for a little over $6.00. Even though I'm seriously poor right now, the $6.00 isn't going to hasten my demise too much, and it'll keep me in a happy mood.

It runs great, except that for whatever reason, it won't go full screen, which is seriously annoying. But aside from that, there it is! Actually Shivers!

So I'll blog this next, because it was the game that cemented my love of adventures. They don't make 'em like this anymore, but these old games haven't lost any of their punch.

I skipped most of the opening movie, because the opening and ending "movies" with the teenagers are just lame. However, I got the letter from the dragon's head by the gate, looked at the sign outside the front of the museum, climbed the stairs and found two of the colored symbols I'll need to get in, listened to the door announcement, and headed to the back and the entrance puzzles. 

The voiceover work really is great in this game. I dunno who that guy was, but he milked his lines right in line with the spooky but slightly humorous spirit of the game, and adds a lot to the gameplay.

I remembered where to look for the other colored symbols, but I didn't remember how to open the gazebo puzzle. It has a three-number combination. I went looking for numbers. Looked in the letter, which has a three-digit number in it, but nope, that didn't work. I trekked back up to the museum entrance, but nope, no numbers there. Finally I tried manipulating one other thing that is manipulatable, and there was a two-digit number. I plugged that in, starting with zero and voila(!), the puzzle opened! Solved! 

But now I faced what really is a toughie, one that I always took several tries before I solved it when I played the game before. I did remember the trick, but that trick still won't work unless you do everything right. The Gaming Gods were with me--I solved it on the first try! Wow! I know I never did that before! After all these years!

So I trekked across the stones to get to the Stonehenge puzzle. I remembered the colors of the symbols. Again, my ancient memory of this game must have helped, because I solved that easily too. I got the lights turned on, and saved at the beginning of the maze that leads to the underground lake. (I'm still not actually in the museum, just under it.)

If only I could get this thing to go full screen! I can't understand why it won't. It's a Win 95 game that ought to run just fine under Win 98. It has a "full-screen" option, but clicking it just doesn't have any effect. Very strange. 

Still, so far it's meeting my expectations. I can play Shivers again! And it's been so many years since I've played it that I know I'll have trouble with some of these puzzles. I never did solve the chinese checkers puzzle--always had to follow a WT for that. However, that's quite a ways ahead. 

Obviously, I can't put any screenshots here, because the old Thinkpad isn't going to be compatible with my state-of-the-art Mac now. But I will blog my progress anyway, with cute cat pics.

To the Museum!

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Lights Out 10: Done!

So I was able to finish after all, but only because I found that director's cut walkthrough. I mean, honestly. The director's cut eliminated the spitfire hot spot that takes you back to 2004? Why make the player navigate that maze in 2090 over and over again? 

Sigh.

I might have found it on my own, because I went back through the maze to the elevator, but even though I'm well aware that navigation is awful in this game and looked thoroughly, I still didn't find the hotspot that would have led me back to the brick wall on the other side of the 1912 boiler. Needed the WT for that too.

Well. I went back to the stone age because I knew I'd missed something. I should have found at least one inventory item there. But where? Fortunately, the WT solved that for me too. I really was pretty thorough the first time I was in that time zone, but the item is in such an out-of-the-way spot that I can't imagine too many people finding it on the first try. 

This is not where the item is

Once I had that item things went well. I even found another glowing colored circle pattern. And then another. I never did see Polly White's eye in the keyhole--maybe that was changed too, but she did speak to me.

A ghost encounter

Of course I had to go back yet again to 2090 to make the remote controller work and get that last clue. Then back again to the stone age, where I knew I'd find the endgame.

Approaching the Endgame

I had hoped I'd like the game better this time. Maybe if Jonathan hadn't eliminated that easy travel option I would have been happier, but I still can't see the plotline in this. We start with Jonathan's usual ghostly tale, the kind of thing he does extremely well, but we end up with science fiction that really doesn't explain much. Plus, the audio in the endgame is only barely intelligible, so we don't even get that much of a payoff.

Things I liked:

• The graphics. Nicely done.
• Great atmosphere, especially in 1912.
• More ghosts in the director's cut. Good.
• The creepy audio.
• Good puzzles for the most part.
• The start of an intriguing story.

Things I didn't like:

• Difficult navigation--probably because of a low budget.
• The ghost triggers never go away, but repeat and repeat. If you start an encounter with a ghost, you have to finish it.
• Easy puzzles to start, but the final puzzle is nearly impossible without a WT to guide you. Not enough clues as to what's important, and what to do with the clues that we find throughout the game. OK, we know they're clues so we take notes, but putting it all together is one daunting task.
• We have to take notes.
• The intriguing story becomes incomprehensible. We need much more information on how the probe causes the ghosts, or sends people into madness. Why? 
• Eliminating the easy travel in the director's cut was a deeply bad idea.

So all in all, I'm glad I played the director's cut because I want to see all of Jonathan's games, but my opinion of the storyline hasn't changed. We just never get enough information for it to make any real sense.

Nevertheless, how many game designers take the time to thank their players?

In the credits!

And thank you Jonathan, for another good effort, even if this one wasn't quite up to your usual standards. It had plenty of great moments though!

Lights Out 9: Over and Out?

Alas and alack. I fear I have a corrupted copy of the game.

I hunted around again and found the hotspot I missed in the little medical clinic and found more glowing numbers.

Then I decided I ought to go back to the prehistoric time because I didn't look around quite enough there. Got lost in the caves and might easily have missed something. After all, I didn't find an inventory item there. Seems as though I should have found something.

But I couldn't find a way back. I remember that you're supposed to be able to use the goggles on the pic of the spifire in the lunch room, but that doesn't work. I went back through the maze and go to the elevator, but couldn't get down, or up, to go back through the brick wall in the 1912 lighthouse.

Finally I looked at a WT. And it confirmed what my memory had said: in the 2090 lunchroom there is a picture of a spitfire. You're supposed to use the goggles on that, and it will take you back to 2004. 

But that doesn't work. The hotspot isn't there.

As far as I can tell, that's the only way out of this time zone, because I tried going back through the maze (twice) to get out the way I came in and there's no hotspot there either.

Result: I am stuck in 2090 and cannot finish the game.

So maybe these Amazon downloads aren't that great after all.

I will try to re-download the game and see if the problem gets fixed. I shouldn't lose my saved game, because the saving system is so primitive that it's stored in the documents.

If I can't fix it, that will not be good. I think I'm pretty close to the endgame.

Alas.

Update: I tried removing my game completely (renamed the savegame file so I wouldn't lose that) and redownloaded the game from Amazon. Relaunched. The savegame worked, but the game still has that glitch. My only option now is to try it on my Dad's Vista computer--I might be able to transfer the savegame file via my little USB drive, and/or asking Jonathan if he has a patch or a fix I could use.

Stay tuned.

Up-Update: Good news! I found a WT for the Director's Cut version. It seems that the spitfire pic is not animated in this version. Instead, I have to go back through the maze (for the third time, this will be) and click on a certain portion of the elevator wall to get back to the 1912 lighthouse. I've tried that twice and couldn't find the hot spot, but apparently I missed it, which is easy to do in this game. Navigation, if I haven't mentioned before, is a bitch. So! I CAN finish the game if I can find that hotspot, and the Amazon download's reputation is saved. 

But not for a few days yet.

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Lights Out 9: Fun in the Future

I've been gone a long time. Dad, at age 94, passed away. I've been dealing with financial stuff and some rush Kirkus books, along with just missing Dad. It's time I took a bit of relaxation for myself, so I have returned to Lights Out.

I did take a brief trip to 2000 B.C., and found some clues. Also hunted around and found Malakai, the space probe from the future that I know is the cause of all the trouble. What remains to be seen is: how? We never learned that in the original game. I doubt we'll learn it now, as Jonathan tends to leave his games just a bit too loose-ended, but we'll see. 

I note that navigation is still difficult. Didn't think I'd ever get out of that cave. But I did, and I found some glowing numbers on an island, along with some decorations on a stone-age necklace that should not be in 2000 B.C.

The Stone Age

Then I went to the far future, the games fourth time period, in 2090. No lighthouse survives on the site (although the children of one of the programmers are having nightmares about a lighthouse there. Uh oh!) Instead, there's an undersea (why?) base where they manage their space probes that will try to retrieve dark matter from deep space. One of their space probes, Malakai, has gone missing. And indeed, just as Drake was captured, the handyman on this base has suffered the same fate.

A room in the undersea pod

I took a different route getting to the future this time. Probably I did this once before, because a few things looked familiar, but I really had to figure things out! (Actually, I think I may have exited this way in a previous game). I went through the back wall of the 1912 lighthouse, and had to make my way up, or perhaps it was down, through a maze-like series of ducts, into the base.

Once in the base I had myself a grand time! There were plenty of clues to find, plenty of hot spots to click on, lots of things to do. I remembered just a bit of it, but I'm really stuck on one item. In one of the rooms is a robot with a remote control that has five colored buttons. Five is too many to hack your way through, but I can't find the verdamnten clue to the puzzle. So I stopped there. Couldn't find anything do to in the little first aid station either. Why let us in there if there's nothing to see or do? I must have missed something.

First Aid Station

But I sure did have fun, and played for quite awhile this afternoon.

Next stop: more searching. I have missed something. (I did enjoy seeing an "old" sci-fi magazine with David McCallum on the cover. Hah! He did a series in the UK called "Sapphire and Steele" which I never saw. I'll find it someday. Netflix used to have it but they deleted it before I could get it.

Also, there was a poster on a wall about "The Dowerton Experiment: new adventure game!" Nice reference to DarkFall 1: The Journal. I always enjoy finding these references to his and Matt's other games. Nothing wrong with a bit of self-promotion!)

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