Thank you for making this. My mom just passed away this last year, and this reminded me of all the fun we had together solving this mystery on our Apple II, sitting on the floor in the living room.
Could you imagine if one of the most important clues was a small bit of paper rolled up inside one of the capsules and you were the one kid who just immediately took them?
I used to love the old infocom text Adventure games. Thanks for this one! I had never heard of it before. I'm a little bummed you didn't go through the process of deduction that got us from accusing Dunbar and Baxter to arresting them. Looking forward to King's Quest! BTW if you ever do think you want to do another infocom game you could do the infamous hitchhiker's guide. I think about that one often and the ridiculous things you need to do to avoid being soft locked
I have this game in it's original box. It has the real pills in an evidence bag. I don't remember ever playing this game. I have a lot of old Infocom games. I loved Planetfall and Ballyhoo.
Thanks for covering this, it was cool to see. Interactive Fiction games from this era are a mixed bag but this seems to be quite a high quality one. It would be quite interesting to see an analysis of the writing and all possible events/endings, apparently the game can go on for quite some time following the ending you got here.
Since I wasn't a very good typist as a child, I figured out you can use 'look' instead of 'examine'. 'look teacup' for instance. At least for some other Infocom games, I know the engine changed a bit over time.
Interesting story ! Probably the first text aventure I laid my hands on was 'Jinxter' by Magnetic scrolls back in.... 1987 ? I think. That's a cool surrealistic story too. i remember it had a grim ending
I'd love to see pretty much all the Infocom, Magnetic Scrolls or Level 9 adventures covered this way. Most of what is on youtube is either playthroughs with zero explanations or reading the at the time necessary feelies. I tried playing Enchanter and a Mind forever voyaging and would just get stuck or lost, but I still feel like I want to experience them in some way. Infocom's later games get even less mention, there is one japanese channel that posted a dungeon crawler Quarterstaff
Interestingly, the setup of the plot is a bit similar to the film Knives Out. Probably a coincidence as it's very unlikely that the writers of that film know about this ancient game.
I love your playthroughs! My suggestion is to not read all text outloud verbatim as we can always pause it and read the screen as needed. Your commentary, however, is golden!
I don't want you to kill your voice but if the text weren't read out loud I doubt I would watch the video. That said, I would *love* to see more infocom videos like this one!
English isn't my native language so i don't read as fast and having to constantly pause would ruin the video. Maybe he could work on such long play of textually heavy games as a side project so as to not get burnt out from reading so much out loud and just publish it whenever it's done. Tbh, text adventure games aren't really that interesting anyway since they're just no more than just "interactive" books (in the sense of finding what convoluted sequence of commands and actions did the dev come up with to further delay reading this book ? ).
@@dntbther9298That's a little uncharitable. I think you might be surprised at how complex the world models and game states are for some of these titles, especially ones made on more modern engines.
Downside of text based games: Not visually interesting. Upside of text based games: These videos can function as podcasts. I enjoyed this one. Very interesting how intricate the game seems to be, though I suspect I would have found all the trial and error to solve the case a bit maddening.
Thank you for making this. My mom just passed away this last year, and this reminded me of all the fun we had together solving this mystery on our Apple II, sitting on the floor in the living room.
I'm glad you were able to recapture a bit of that magic.
I loved Deadline as a kid. I ate the "pill" that came with it haha ... I miss Infocom games, they were awesome.
How was it
@@MichaelCoorlim It was just made out of sugar.
For the last 40 years I thought George was the killer. Thank you for giving me closure on this mystery I could never quite solve as a kid.😎
Just shared this with the IF community. Thanks for playing an old Infocom title!
Thanks for sharing! It's a huge help!
There's an Infocom community???
Interactive Fiction community, spread out a bit but intfiction.org/ is a good starting point
IF community?
Interactive Fiction.
This was a fantastic way to showcase this great piece of interactive fiction. Thank you for your efforts.
Agreed!
Thanks! Glad you appreciated it.
I love this and I wouldn't have gotten to experience it without this video, thanks
That's a major reason why I do these videos - I play them, so you don't have to.
Really great video, would love if you kept making content like this, showing really old games mixed with the feelies and everything.
Definitely planning to do more. Next week I'll be covering Sierra's King's Quest.
@@MichaelCoorlim excited to see it!
I loved this game. I had difficulty and couldn’t solve without help. But I did solve the later release, “Suspect “, without help. Quite satisfying.
Could you imagine if one of the most important clues was a small bit of paper rolled up inside one of the capsules and you were the one kid who just immediately took them?
I used to love the old infocom text Adventure games. Thanks for this one! I had never heard of it before. I'm a little bummed you didn't go through the process of deduction that got us from accusing Dunbar and Baxter to arresting them. Looking forward to King's Quest!
BTW if you ever do think you want to do another infocom game you could do the infamous hitchhiker's guide. I think about that one often and the ridiculous things you need to do to avoid being soft locked
Hitchhiker's was actually one of the better "based on a book" interactive fiction games.
I have this game in it's original box. It has the real pills in an evidence bag. I don't remember ever playing this game. I have a lot of old Infocom games. I loved Planetfall and Ballyhoo.
Thanks for covering this, it was cool to see. Interactive Fiction games from this era are a mixed bag but this seems to be quite a high quality one. It would be quite interesting to see an analysis of the writing and all possible events/endings, apparently the game can go on for quite some time following the ending you got here.
I'm thinking about going back and doing even deeper dives like that, when I have the time. Trouble is, I don't know if I'll ever have the time.
Since I wasn't a very good typist as a child, I figured out you can use 'look' instead of 'examine'.
'look teacup' for instance. At least for some other Infocom games, I know the engine changed a bit over time.
lmao That's kinda like me.
Some of the later games let you type 'x' for 'examine' and that's my natural instinct.
Awesome video! Love seeing these old gems that I haven't heard of before. Great Stuff Michael, I'm a huge fan of older mystery and whodunnit games.
If the channel gets popular enough my goal is to post these videos for the *really* obscure titles, including some that never saw US release.
Well, well... Looks like I know what I'm going to watch this weekend.
2:40
My immediate suspicion is the guy who sent this letter is the killer.
same
Good stuff.
Keep doing more.
On it!
@@MichaelCoorlim Fr, you're the best new UA-camr out there when it comes to games, at least.
Hey, thanks!
Interesting story !
Probably the first text aventure I laid my hands on was 'Jinxter' by Magnetic scrolls back in.... 1987 ? I think. That's a cool surrealistic story too. i remember it had a grim ending
I want to play these games now.
I'd like to cover the Magnetic Scrolls and Level 9 text adventures at some point.
I'd love to see pretty much all the Infocom, Magnetic Scrolls or Level 9 adventures covered this way. Most of what is on youtube is either playthroughs with zero explanations or reading the at the time necessary feelies. I tried playing Enchanter and a Mind forever voyaging and would just get stuck or lost, but I still feel like I want to experience them in some way. Infocom's later games get even less mention, there is one japanese channel that posted a dungeon crawler Quarterstaff
I ate mine, and they tasted like sweet tarts.
You're braver than I would have been!
Was just watching some Columbo lol
Interestingly, the setup of the plot is a bit similar to the film Knives Out. Probably a coincidence as it's very unlikely that the writers of that film know about this ancient game.
Yeah, it's a pretty standard detective mystery setup.
I love your playthroughs! My suggestion is to not read all text outloud verbatim as we can always pause it and read the screen as needed. Your commentary, however, is golden!
May take that advice going forward, this was murder on my vocal chords.
I don't want you to kill your voice but if the text weren't read out loud I doubt I would watch the video. That said, I would *love* to see more infocom videos like this one!
English isn't my native language so i don't read as fast and having to constantly pause would ruin the video. Maybe he could work on such long play of textually heavy games as a side project so as to not get burnt out from reading so much out loud and just publish it whenever it's done.
Tbh, text adventure games aren't really that interesting anyway since they're just no more than just "interactive" books (in the sense of finding what convoluted sequence of commands and actions did the dev come up with to further delay reading this book ? ).
I probably simply won't cover them as often as other games. It's hard to make them visually interesting.
@@dntbther9298That's a little uncharitable. I think you might be surprised at how complex the world models and game states are for some of these titles, especially ones made on more modern engines.
Downside of text based games: Not visually interesting. Upside of text based games: These videos can function as podcasts.
I enjoyed this one. Very interesting how intricate the game seems to be, though I suspect I would have found all the trial and error to solve the case a bit maddening.
I loved these games as a kid, but I could never finish them.
characters have their own schedule and do different things through out the day, how about that....this game is basically shenmue
Majora's Mask too
Helps you get into that mindset where time is an important dimension
You should review TRINITY.
Oh and The Lurking Horror, too.
A Mind Forever Voyaging?
All three are solid suggestions.
interesting...
Those three are on the list, along with Planetfall, Stationfall, and Suspended.
I had Deadline. It didn't interest me in the slightest so I never played it. I solved Enchanter though.
Enchanter was great, so were the sequels Sorcerer and Spellbreaker
A fair assessment. Enchanter was great.