Necrotic Drift: released

Roody_Yogurt · Post by **Roody_Yogurt** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 10:02 pm

If you grab the Big Gulp before the lock breaks, it says,

"Taken.
4"

Also, what's the timeline on this? Two weeks after FoD, right? So it's assumed Trott gets his morgue job back at some point? (for that Valentine's Day story)

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 5:44 pm

Roody_Yogurt wrote:Also, what's the timeline on this? Two weeks after FoD, right? So it's assumed Trott gets his morgue job back at some point? (for that Valentine's Day story)

That's an excellent question. My intent was that the character "Trott" be working three jobs during the events described in Necrotic Drift: the morgue, the D&D store and the freelance dungeon mastering gig. I either intended to (or did) put in a line where Gibs mentions the fact that he works like 90 hour weeks or something.

I may have forgotten to put that in.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 7:19 pm

Can I make it so I can talk directly to the characters without having a choice of pre packaged sentences? I mean choice 1-4 is nice and all but I want to be able to make up my own and see where I go from there.

P.S. Liked the credits page. Attended college badly. That was V. good.

THE
NOW TO
OPEN THE JEWELRY
STORE SAFE
AARDVARK

Roody_Yogurt · Post by **Roody_Yogurt** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 7:37 pm

The three jobs are mentioned, but when the morgue job comes up in conversation, Trott, I believe, says something to the effect that he doesn't work there anymore.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 8:04 pm

AArdvark wrote:Can I make it so I can talk directly to the characters without having a choice of pre packaged sentences? I mean choice 1-4 is nice and all but I want to be able to make up my own and see where I go from there.

You can't in this game (or Fallacy of Dawn) but you will probably be able to do this for the next Hugo game I make.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 8:05 pm

Roody_Yogurt wrote:The three jobs are mentioned, but when the morgue job comes up in conversation, Trott, I believe, says something to the effect that he doesn't work there anymore.

Ah! I should really start reading these things in addition to typing them out.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 7:05 am

Excellent, Smithers...

THE
START MAKING
IT NOW
AARDVARK

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 10:41 pm

AArdvark wrote:Excellent, Smithers...

I think, to be honest, I might start writing a book instead so I can fix the greivous errors that have sort of sprung up in my life. I need to do something with some money in it, m'man.

I do hope that you've managed to have some fun with it, though. You blazing through The Pawn in front of me like Pinner blazing through a roll of magic mushrooms is one of the changelog events of my youth.

bruce · Post by **bruce** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 7:09 am

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:
AArdvark wrote:Excellent, Smithers...
I think, to be honest, I might start writing a book instead so I can fix the greivous errors that have sort of sprung up in my life. I need to do something with some money in it, m'man.

Er, writing's not real lucrative either.

Maybe try selling crack?

Bruce

Roody_Yogurt · Post by **Roody_Yogurt** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 3:06 am

When I couldn't get to sleep tonight, I figured it was about time that I got back to playing Magnetic Scrolls games and fired up The Pawn. I started off just mapping it, but it wasn't long before I was banging my head against the parser and just found myself resorting to a walkthrough.

Of course, when I played it those years ago, I missed all the pot jokes (and didn't recognize the sort of cardboard generic quality of the adventurer so I actually would feel guilty for killing him).

As it is, the game is too much of a hodgepodge of incohesive ideas strung together in an inconsistent puzzle world for my tastes. Aardvark, you truly are amazing if you beat it without hints.

Anyhow, I guess Guild of Thieves will be up next for me. It'll be interesting to see how it holds up, knowing that the imagery and what not is a bit better in GoT (IMO) but still having to deal with rather shallowly implemented NPCs (like the gravedigger) and jumping through hoop after hoop, just to get to an ending that is likely to be somewhat unfulfilling (since that's one of the things MS sort of had a reputation for).

I know several MS games are very atmospheric. I know some have some pretty damn good writing. It's my hope that I'll get to one sometime this summer that has an ending as satisfying as the rest of the game before it (not t imply that I consider most of The Pawn "satisfying"). We'll see.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 6:22 am

I needed help on the dragon, everything else just sort of fell into place. The funny part was at the time all I wanted to see was the next graphic. I didn't care about advancing the game. Remember this was on my C64, there was no walkthrough, and those stupid hint codes really didn't work, so if I did get a puzzle right and the 5-1/4 drive started up I would sit back and say 'YESSS!"

Ah those were the times. I downloaded it for old times sake and it's just not the same. I remember all the puzzles pretty well (except for Jerry Lee Louis, I never ever got those 5 points.) The new graphic screen would just pop up like nothing special. None of that 15 second delay for "LOADING..."
while I would thrill in my victory over the game. I tell you, some things are better when run slowly.

THE
T TO ELF
YOU CANT SEE AN ELF HERE
FUCK YOU
ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?
BITE ME
WHO DID YOU WANT TO BITE?
AARDVARK

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 8:17 am

Roody_Yogurt wrote:I know several MS games are very atmospheric. I know some have some pretty damn good writing. It's my hope that I'll get to one sometime this summer that has an ending as satisfying as the rest of the game before it (not t imply that I consider most of The Pawn "satisfying"). We'll see.

This would be a fantastic idea for a thread. Knocking off MS games, one per night, using walkthroughs when stuck. Excellent!

GOD WILLING, I'll make this voyage with you, Roody.

Debaser · Post by **Debaser** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 8:25 am

I think I remember playing The Pawn once, I think. I think. That's the one that started by dropping you in the middle of some generic fantasy area with no real clue where you were supposed to go or what you were supposed to be doing, right? I hate it when games do that.

Roody_Yogurt · Post by **Roody_Yogurt** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 10:30 am

I was playing it back in the day on the C64, too. Unfortunately, I was playing a warezed (but uncracked) copy so I only could play it 100 moves at a time.

As far as "games dropping one off in a generic fantasy world," last night, after being far enough into it to know that, huh, there really is less to this than meets the eye, I actually started thinking, wow, this is making Mindscape's Forbidden Castle look good!

Also, sure, anyone who's up for playing through these games with me, sure thing. I just wish the Magnetic interpreter let one set aliases so I could type >X SHIRT and what not.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 1:30 pm

UPDATE. The things will probably be shipping a week from now. The 19th, IIRC. The printers did great work with them.

I bought a banner ad on the Something Awful forums, so if you happen to see it, lemme know. Not sure when they begin the rotation.

icemann · Post by **icemann** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 11:32 am

Hey all

Been playing the game all night after downloading it from underdogs, and have made it to the part with the mummy. I figured out the way of dealin with the mummy on my own. But have been unable to figure out the correct choice of words to use the ointment (my only guess as the cure to the rott the mummy infects you with).

I`ve tried obvious things like "use ointment on self","rub ointment on wound" etc. But nothing I`ve thought of has worked and I`m at a total loss.

Shame theres no walkthrough for this game as this is the 2nd time I`ve nearly ripped every last hair on my head out in frustration from having absolutely no idea of what to do (1st time was back in the jewelery store).

Great game anyways. This is the first text adventure game that I`ve played in a LONG time and I`ve enjoyed every second of it + really liked the realness of the characters inresponse to comments you make etc.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 12:06 pm

Hey there icemann -- I think something like "apply ointment to me" ought to work. There's a few synonyms for "apply" (smear, coat, rub, spread, etc.) but I think I avoided the use of the word "use" in general as sometimes that's a tricky verb to do right. But I definitely should have included it for this instance.

Glad you had some fun with it! Sorry about the confusion for that bit.

Robb

Worm · Post by **Worm** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 5:42 pm

It's a jar of ointment, what is in it is salve. You've got to get the salve out of the jar I believe.

Debaser · Post by **Debaser** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 7:56 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I bought a banner ad on the Something Awful forums, so if you happen to see it, lemme know. Not sure when they begin the rotation.

UPDATE: A google ad for ND just popped up on Opera a second ago. Neat.

Jack Straw · Post by **Jack Straw** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 8:27 pm

needs more screenshots