Carry a mouse with you, which in turn requires devising a solution to the killer cheese. (There’s a legend that elephants are afraid of mice. Don’t know if that’s unique to the anglosphere or not…)
This was a very fun post (especially since I’ve already decided this one is much too tough for me). I think it’s kind of interesting how some of these older games work with a limited vocabulary, like how just holding an object will sometimes count as using it or how you never need any further information about an object other than its initial description. Once you get used to that, there can be something oddly elegant about the game design.
Yes, the Phoenix games had a certain knack for making maximum use of the primitive parser. One rarely runs into the frustrations or even the inelegant kludges one finds in other two-word games. One interesting thing about the Phoenix games, which may have contributed to this, is that they actually had a relatively sophisticated world model for the time. This combination of primitive parser/sophisticated world model is quite unusual. Usually it’s all in one way or the other.
As I am making my way through your blog I often stumbles on entries like these – I don’t read it from the start, I go for titles and links – and this game, along with the first doom game, made me allergic to there games! How was I to know to chuck an item out or even get those things in the dark! Walktroughs don’t work on these games even to being a guide only! As for the doom game, no walktrough help me get all the way into the forest, but there I am stuck for 7 years and nothing helps! Have z code versions, as well as the other on the fdb sites, also had a cd that a friend borrowed me that had thousands of games on that was apparently sold in a chain store here in the early 2000’s, but never seen it again, but I’m off the topic! These games turned me off IF for a while, but as I said I am allergic to them now and unless someone can give me a fool (which apparently I am here) proof walkthrough I will look at these games as ‘What am I missing”
Thanx
PS – thanx for giving me a place to vent these thoughts as the wife hates these games (maybe her background to the late 80’s and 90’s being a programmer and work on that side of the fence is the reason)
One of the most striking puzzle solutions predicated upon English cultural awareness that I have come across is the bottle marked “London Dry” in Philosopher’s Quest’s stable mate Acheton. I suspect not many outside England would know that London Dry is gin or that even more specifically it applies to gin that hasn’t been sweetened after distillation. Its intoxicating and consequent muscle relaxation properties are needed to solve a problem in the game.
Tale
November 9, 2012 at 10:41 am
How does one fend off the elephants?
Jimmy Maher
November 9, 2012 at 11:00 am
Carry a mouse with you, which in turn requires devising a solution to the killer cheese. (There’s a legend that elephants are afraid of mice. Don’t know if that’s unique to the anglosphere or not…)
Felix
November 9, 2012 at 5:15 pm
It’s not. At least in Romania I’ve heard jokes and seen cartoons about it.
matt w
November 9, 2012 at 6:51 pm
I suppose that the solution to the killer cheese can also be found in these screenshots?
Jimmy Maher
November 9, 2012 at 7:34 pm
A gas mask, natch!
Jonathan Blask
November 10, 2012 at 12:23 am
This was a very fun post (especially since I’ve already decided this one is much too tough for me). I think it’s kind of interesting how some of these older games work with a limited vocabulary, like how just holding an object will sometimes count as using it or how you never need any further information about an object other than its initial description. Once you get used to that, there can be something oddly elegant about the game design.
Jimmy Maher
November 10, 2012 at 10:26 am
Yes, the Phoenix games had a certain knack for making maximum use of the primitive parser. One rarely runs into the frustrations or even the inelegant kludges one finds in other two-word games. One interesting thing about the Phoenix games, which may have contributed to this, is that they actually had a relatively sophisticated world model for the time. This combination of primitive parser/sophisticated world model is quite unusual. Usually it’s all in one way or the other.
Gerhardus Grobbelaar
August 7, 2015 at 4:08 am
As I am making my way through your blog I often stumbles on entries like these – I don’t read it from the start, I go for titles and links – and this game, along with the first doom game, made me allergic to there games! How was I to know to chuck an item out or even get those things in the dark! Walktroughs don’t work on these games even to being a guide only! As for the doom game, no walktrough help me get all the way into the forest, but there I am stuck for 7 years and nothing helps! Have z code versions, as well as the other on the fdb sites, also had a cd that a friend borrowed me that had thousands of games on that was apparently sold in a chain store here in the early 2000’s, but never seen it again, but I’m off the topic! These games turned me off IF for a while, but as I said I am allergic to them now and unless someone can give me a fool (which apparently I am here) proof walkthrough I will look at these games as ‘What am I missing”
Thanx
PS – thanx for giving me a place to vent these thoughts as the wife hates these games (maybe her background to the late 80’s and 90’s being a programmer and work on that side of the fence is the reason)
Roger Durrant
June 2, 2023 at 12:37 pm
One of the most striking puzzle solutions predicated upon English cultural awareness that I have come across is the bottle marked “London Dry” in Philosopher’s Quest’s stable mate Acheton. I suspect not many outside England would know that London Dry is gin or that even more specifically it applies to gin that hasn’t been sweetened after distillation. Its intoxicating and consequent muscle relaxation properties are needed to solve a problem in the game.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin_Craze