The Phoenix Rises from the Ashes! Coolness!

I have acquired my brand new 21-inch iMac desktop 'puter. It is a thing of great beauty. It has 8 gigs of RAM and a 2T hard drive. (I also acquired an iPod classic, which fortunately cost considerably less than 400 monies.) As I'm making more money from Kirkus, I ought to be able to pay Dad back in about six months. Am alllmost halfway there already.

It arrived, I unboxed it, and of course the first thing it asked me to do was to download all my data from my time capsule. That took all night, 12 hours, but when I got up the next morning, there was my old 'puter right there on the new 'puter! It copied and installed my wallpaper. I didn't have to reload the printer software--it just worked. It even saved my progress in a stupid little match-three game I had going. Everything. No data lost at all, and I only had to click one button.

But the coolest thing is that instead of having my Windows XP on Bootcamp, now I have it in a virtual machine. I got VM Fusion instead of Parallels because it had a $30 rebate, and the two are virtually identical in what they do. This thing loaded the XP program easily. It uses the Mac mouse (the new, spiffy magic mouse, with just a flat smooth surface that scrolls up, down and sideways). I can drag and drop stuff between the Mac and the XP window. I can have it go full screen, or run in a window. I can take "snapshots" and reload those if I want to undo some problem. I can just minimize the whole XP window and surf on my Mac while stuff loads.

The only problem is that two of my older games have bad color depth. But they run fine. Newer games look perfect.

I'll have to start Ghost in the Sheet all over again, but here's something fun. I can play the game in an XP floating window, and have this blog open to write as I play! Hah! (Addendum: no, I can't. The game captures the cursor. Might as well run it in full screen, then.)

First though, I have a copy of the Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events game. I've had it for years and insist that I will play it because I adore Tim Curry's voice work. He narrates the game, brilliantly, just as he read the books, brilliantly--the kid actors are another story, alas. It would never load on my former bootcamp XP. However, it loads on Fusion (although with lousy color in the animations--the rest of the scenery is fine--it's just that the Beaudelaire children glow even with the brightness turned down). I tried playing it on my Dad's HP laptop with Vista and it seemed to run fine, but it turns out that it left out whole areas, and stopped cold when I was about halfway through. I won't know if the problem is in the disc, or if it was incompatibility with Vista until I get to that point.

It isn't the type of game I really like much. You have to use the keyboard and the mouse, and it's a bit of a shooter, jumper style thing like the Harry Potter games. But I've had so many false starts with it on the laptop that I'm now pretty good at the combat. I should be able to zip through to the halfway mark in a day or two. [Edit: I got through it! I think there may be something wrong with the disc at that point, because the background color looked unstable, but the game let me into the tunnel where it had frozen on the Vista laptop even after reloading. So I can probably finish! Hooray!]

But you cannot revert to an earlier saved game. The game saves at set points, and that's where you start. If you missed anything, too bad. Lousy game design. However, I did miss something, so I just reverted to an earlier snapshot on my virtual machine!

I am loving this. I don't have to restart the whole 'puter and have my Mac unavailable to me while I'm in Windows. Now I have both running right on the same screen.

And Fusion even gives you a free one-year subscription to McAfee security.

So I'm set! Let the games begin! Again! (Um, after two more Kirkus books and Lemony Snickett)

Tragedy Strikes

It isn't the hard drive.

It's the whole 'puter.

It is dead.

It won't even power on. It's lonely little round light comes on, but no Mac tone, and the little light goes out in a few seconds.

It was a wonderful 'puter. It got me through four tough years.

Alas. Sad. Mourn.

Next Wednesday I'll have the $$$ to get a new 'puter. Can order it right from the Apple website. As I'll have to do that the day before Thanksgiving, I certainly won't get it until the following week.

But perhaps I'll get back to Ghost in the Sheet.

More 'puter troubles

Alas, we again are on hiatus. The brand new 1tb hard drive put into the 'puter only seven months ago has crashed. The people who put it in for me are still in business but are not doing repairs anymore, so I have to find another tekkie.

I'm told the drive has a two-year warranty, so I should be OK there. Wonder if I can get 'em to pay the labor?

Ergo, no cute animal photos. I may continue with Ghost in the Sheet, as I was able to download it again from Big Fish and I'm gonna have to start over anyway. I like that download feature, a lot. May be better than owning the CD, as it turns out.

Anyway, until the 'puter comes back, I'm stuck on the awful HP laptop.

Lord but I hope I get the 'puter back before Bracken Tor is released!

Ghost in the Sheet (2): Questioning Ghosts

Copied the instructions on the wall to the gas pipe puzzle, but as there didn't appear to be anything available to manipulate, I went exploring. Found lots of new areas in the factory, but mostly, I found other ghosts.

Alas, the first was the hapless soul I met earlier. He seemed to be a bit angry at me. I presume calming him down was a puzzle, but if so, all one has to do is choose the right dialogue question.

Anyway, we talked. Quite a lot. Oh dear, the voice acting in this game is primarily script reading. Well, it's a low-budget indie game, so I won't complain. Big publishers with big budgets have no excuse for lousy voice work, but cut the little guys some slack. (Also makes me appreciate the little indie operations who do use decent actors.)

I did quite a lot of wandering around. Still haven't found anything to manipulate, but there are some intriguing things. A pipe with something stuck in it, but I can't see what it is. No doubt we'll be going back there somehow. The door to the boss's office opens, but so far I haven't found the route to that yet.

Found the monster that was hiding behind the junk in the first factory room. But right now I'm just exploring. We'll see the monster again later, obviously.

Met two more ghosts in the dressing room. One the old fireman, who's now taken up residence in his locker with his pipe. The other the only lady involved, Larissa, who doesn't know she's dead.

Long conversations, but I didn't really learn anything that would give me a clue for my next action. I know I have to fix the gas lines, and I have to fix the fan in the lobby.

But how to do those things must remain a mystery for now!

Ghost in the Sheet (1): Beginning

As Halloween is coming up, I thought I'd try the little game, Ghost in the Sheet, which I first noticed mentioned on a few adventure game sites. Seemed like an intriguing title, then I found that Big Fish has it for cheap, so I downloaded a copy over on my XP side. Looked at a review which says it's a short game. I have a few days before my next delivery of Kirkus, so I thought I'd try it while I'm waiting for Bracken Tor.

At first I thought I wouldn't be able to play it. The ghost is supposed to have special powers, which you can pick by using the function keys. But my function keys don't work on the XP side, except for their normal Apple functions such as changing brightness. But I'm OK. All the special functions appear in the upper left corner of the screen, so all I have to do is click on them. Shoot, I'd rather do that anyway, as a mouse addict.

The first scene is a simple-as-pie find-the-way-in puzzle. Once I realize that I can access the special powers, in this case telekinesis, in the corner I have no difficulty at all getting in.

I go ahead, then! Hmm. It certainly is low budget, but that's fine with me if it's got imagination. I've only seen one other game that has just one scene per location, the even-lower-budget Intrigue at Oakhaven Plantation. However, the screens are really well done. It's a bit difficult to see everything so this is going to take the usual strategy: explore everywhere.

OK. Forward. I'm in a cable-car bay, and my character says he's supposed to get in the car and cross the chasm. Click on the hole in the floor and that's where I just was. So, I go to the left and find a new room. Looking around, I find that the next room beyond that has a machine that's obviously a puzzle. I figure out how to push the buttons, but nothing happens. Back up. Ah! I can move the odd, glowing brick. Under that is a diary. This gives me some good number codes and a bit of backstory. Plus, I find the diarist's employee card with some useful-looking numbers on it. Also, throughout the diary they keep changing the "cellar door codes." I notice a pattern in the progression that ought to help later on.

Keep looking around and I find some instructions for the machine on the wall in the office. Lights have to be on? Maybe that's why I can't get it to do anything.

I go back to the cellar and examine the fuse box more carefully. OK. There it is. Sure enough, now I can get lights on the machine. It isn't straightforward, but it doesn't take me too long to solve it.

I wonder what the ladybirds are?

So, I'm off across the chasm! My, this is low budget indeed. But so far the puzzles haven't been too tough or solvable within 10 seconds, so that's fine.

I think the lead character here is voiced by our old friend Klemens Koehring from the Lost Crown. I'm sure of it. Sounds exactly like him: same accent, same intonations.

Speaking of intonations, I see that some of the written English in the game is just hilarious. Examples: "Empty papers" instead of blank papers. And a real gem: "Wooden door leading to the factory entrails."

And looky! I have acquired a new special power up in the left corner.

Oops! By clicking "exit to the station" I wind up on a cable car ride back to the original location. So I go back.

We have acid dripping from a pipe. I can lift a pot, but that doesn't help. I click it on everything, but make no progress. I do manage to open the gate (good misleading graphics on the numerical pad), but can't get through the door. Look around, look around, look around.

Ooohhh. I find an "asbestos sleeve." So by this I see that some of the hot spots are teensy. I try the sleeve on everything, and find where it goes. I try the pot on everything, and find where it goes. I try that on everything and find out what that does.

But I still can't get through the door. Oh, there it is. I just missed a teensy cursor change.

So I'm in Hall A. Hey! I find a real person and have a conversation that ends with the first (intentional) good joke of the game. Laugh out loud. I look down the rest of the corridor, but the thing that needs to be done here appears to be the gas line puzzle.

So I'll save here and go take care of Dad.

Black Circle (3): Endgame

Oh dear, I am speedy. Yup, I was at the endgame, or just a few steps from it, anyway.

I am mad at myself for looking at a hint before trying all of my items at one point. I just assumed I didn't have the item, but you never know that in this game. Mostly, though, I got through it without actual hints--I think I only looked at two or three. I did look at locations several more times, though. It does get tedious when you don't know where you need to go, although often just finding an inventory item will help clue you in to that. Aha! There's what I need to get into that thing! And off you go.

There is some suspense at the end, but it isn't like you could get killed, or anything. (Is it? Heh.)

Lovely graphics, as always. Except for the wallpaper. Carol said she chose that stuff. Ouch.

There was one weird thing. At one location in the woods there indeed is a circle of black stones. One would think that would have something to do with the title of the game. But we never do anything with it at all. We can't even look at it closely. I presume "black circle" referred to the cult that was operating in the game. Anyway, that was strange.

So, I have no excuse now but to finish the Kirkus books. Well, get 'em done, and then maybe I can find something else to play while waiting for Braken Tor!

The next question is, when is Mikael Nyqvist getting his next game out? Sure hope this isn't the end of the series. This one seemed shorter to me, but it probably wasn't. Had I played all day as I did with the other one, I'm sure it would be about the same length.

And again, it has a much better ending than the earlier games. Didn't just stop. The music added a nice touch of suspense too. Ya never knew when the bad guy was gonna turn up behind you when you were in certain locations.

So, fun as usual, and pretty. Not too challenging, just most enjoyable--for women of a certain age.

Black Circle (2), Having Fun

And I'm having fun with Black Circle. I'm pretty far into the game. Could be approaching the endgame already, but I still have quite few inventory items that are unused, so maybe not.

It's a typical Carol Reed mystery, although Mikael had a bit more fun with this one. First, he himself appears in the game as a transvestite (I recognized him from an earlier game). That had to be fun.

Also, he had Jonas showing around attendees at an adventure game convention who wanted to visit sites used in games in Norrköping. However, Jonas doesn't play those games, because they're just for women. Actually I'd imagine that's true. No doubt I fit the demographic perfectly, too.

But I progress. Finding the janitor's notebook was quite a challenge. Plus, it was only by accident that I found a key I needed. Sometimes I do get lucky. I'd grabbed the contraband buried in the floor, but aaaaalmost missed the key!

I must say that I'm getting rather sick of derelict buildings, though.

Interesting for an American to see all of these Swedish apartments, too. All of them seem extremely small, especially the bedrooms and kitchens. The views are nice, but the only place I wouldn't mind owning is the house in Time Stand Still. At least it had a modern bathroom, much nicer than mine, actually. Plus, they're always, always messy. Guess there's just not enough room to stash stuff. I'm not accusing--my place usually is every bit as bad. I do wonder how Mikael convinces his friends to leave their apartments in their natural state when he photographs them, however.

Anyway, I have explored the possible bad guy's house and retrieved keys of many colors (wait, wasn't that the last game?). I'm ready to go exploring the mine and perhaps enter the sanctum sanctorum of the cult.

Till tomorrow!