Zeusthecat

The Big LucasArts Playthrough

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You still have at least one thing you need to purchase from the pawn shop.

 

Should that be a spoiler? I don't even know.

 

Oh yeah, I finished Last Crusade the other night and got 506 points for my episode score and the maximum 800 points for the series score. I actually had no idea how to obtain both the best and worst ending because it seems to have been a problem with my PC being too fast back then as indicated by Thunderpeel's guide. So there was no way to grab the grail before Elsa just instantly picked it up. I thought that was what was supposed to happen anyway. Certainly is the most eventful way to get to the ending.

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Hey guys, just a heads up, I'll be starting Loom soon, hopefully in the next couple days. Lots of other life priorities right now with the new baby and all but we are settling in nicely and I should start to have some bursts of free time here soon. To answer your question Udvarnoky I plan to play the version of Loom that came with the LucasArts Adventure Pack on Steam unless someone recommends otherwise.

 

Also, I wanted to ask, should I continue to post about my progress in the same manner as I have been or would people prefer if I condensed things a bit? I totally understand if anyone has found my lengthy posts to be obnoxious and I want to make sure things stay interesting without being irritating. I personally enjoy reading long posts about people's experience with games but seeing as how mine have tended to be much longer than others in some cases I worry that I may be pushing it. Anyways, let me know what you guys think and I'll see you soon!

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Thanks, Synth. I just finished the game - once I figured that one out it was smooth sailing until the end. I loved the infamous ending way mor than before, enjoying especially all the cool foreshadowing and hints at what was coming. The final battle was just so much fun. This game is AWESOME. And I love that you guys gave me such super vague hints. They really worked to get me in the right direction, while still leaving all the actual puzzling to me.

 

OK, my next adventure won't be Lucasarts. After all this old school gaming, it's time to delve into modern German adventures. My next one will be The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav. Been looking forward to that for some time!

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Yeah, the long posts about how you're playing through the games are a bit much. Maybe you should put them in a separate thread dedicated to playing through adventure games?

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I tried to play Deponia recently but my computer wasn't fast enough for the HD video. ;( I guess I'll wait. I do have Gray Matter installed so that'll probably be the next modern adventure I played. Chains of Satinav looks cool as well. This game seems to have a very similar style, but I don't think it's a sequel.

 

 

Yeah, the long posts about how you're playing through the games are a bit much. Maybe you should put them in a separate thread dedicated to playing through adventure games?

 

Wait what? I stopped posting in recently completed games because you made it seem not very useful because of how hard to index it was.

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Yeah, the long posts about how you're playing through the games are a bit much. Maybe you should put them in a separate thread dedicated to playing through adventure games?

 

Hmmm... good idea. I wonder what I should call this thread?  B)

 

Point taken though, I guess my paranoia is a little un-warranted.

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Yeah, the long posts about how you're playing through the games are a bit much.

 

I thought that was the entire point of this thread.

 

My personal preference for Loom is the original floppy disk version, for two reasons: the original EGA graphics are brilliant in the way they transcended their limitations (Mark Ferrari and co. did all kinds of crazy sleight of hand to pull off effects and generally make a 16 color palette look like way more) and of course accurately represent the game's presentation upon release (though that argument could have been made for Indy3 and Monkey1 as well), whereas the art update came years later.

 

The second reason is that you get the game's original script.  While the voice acting in the Steam version is excellent, the technology was young and apparently forced the developers to stuff it all as a CD audio track (rather than something more compressed).  There were two consequences to this: music is embedded with the big dialog scenes rather than manifesting as standalone tracks, and the dialog had to be rewritten a bit in a condensed way (by new writers) in order to conserve space.  Trivia: Orson Scott Card participated in this re-write.  Finally, this version cuts out the great character close-ups (think Monkey Island 1) due to difficulties the artists ran into with lip-synching.

 

Know that the game is still intact no matter which version you play, so there's no wrong choice, but I do sort of see the Talkie version as an "alternate" version that I love and recommend as a curio but can't ever view as definitive.  The rare FM-Town version drops the voice acting but contains the original dialog and has (slightly better, even) VGA graphics, so objectively speaking it's still best one, but I always defer to the original, low-color artwork.

 

And don't forget to listen to the

!

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Keep posting like you're posting. It's fun and great and you made the thread so you get to do whatever the fuck you want. ):<

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Toblix was joking, as this thread is obviously intended for posting about playing adventure games..

And yes, your lengthy posts are awesome and fun to read. Keep doing that. Keep it up being awesome and fun to read.

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I prefer the FM Towns version of Loom for all of the original graphics, dialogue, and close ups, but there are also a few added scenes to the CD version as well. I think while the CD version has great voice acting, you spend way too much of the game in silence. FM Towns version has more constant music if I recall. But most people who have ever played Loom seem to have only played the CD version with the voice acting, so maybe that's for the best?

 

But yeah, like Udvarnoky said, you should probably listen to the audio drama first. It kind of helps the player understand a lot of what is going on much earlier in the game.

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Cool, thanks for the advice. And no worries, toblix's sarcasm was easy enough to recognize.

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I am finally starting

 

Loom

 

Per Udvarnoky's recommendation, I've listened to the audio drama and am playing the original EGA version. I saw that there are three difficulties and decided to go with the standard difficulty on this one. I assume this is a good level to go with?

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The difficulty setting affect only the "musical" parts, since the spells are tunes, so it depends on you musical abilities? I play on Easy since I'm practically tone deaf. I think hard mode give you the tune and you have to figure out the notes by yourself?

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The difficulty level merely influences how "decorated" the distaff is, thus making the notes easier to identify.  There's really no reason not to choose the lowest difficulty.  It's not like Monkey Island 2 or 3 where there are actual difference in the puzzles; the content of the game doesn't change.  You'll be fine with standard though.

 

Playing through the game in expert mode does reward you with a "new" (though I call it alternate) scene that amounts to an extra bit of animation, but we can just tell you what it is after the fact.  I actually like the way the sequence plays without it better.

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I actually was never able to determine what the new animation was supposed to be. I tried expert mode on the CD version long ago but didn't see any difference.

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I actually was never able to determine what the new animation was supposed to be. I tried expert mode on the CD version long ago but didn't see any difference.

 

I believe it's only included in the original version of the game.

 

It comes from the scene where Cobb peers under Bobbin's cloak.  The way the scene plays out by default is we cut away to Bishop Mandible complaining about "all that screaming in there," before cutting back to find Cobb gone.  In Expert mode, instead of cutting away, we're shown Cobb getting absorbed into Bobbin's head.  It's a nifty bit of animation, but I find the first version to be more effective. 

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Perhaps you're right, it's been awhile since I played the CD version.  But whatever version of events the CD version depicts, it only happens the one way.

 

EDIT: I went watch it; you're right.  The CD version basically conflates the original two possibilities.

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Strange, that finally explains my confusion on why playing Expert mode never resulted in any differences. It's more confusing because the manual mentions the extra animation. I always figured it would be something at the end of the game.

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I finally have an update to post on my Loom progress!

So as I mentioned before, I am playing the original EGA version on the standard difficulty and already listened to the audio drama (thanks for linking that, definitely a good listen). Once I gained control of Bobbin (kind of a hilarious name in my opinion) I was immediately confused by the absence of the verb bar that I had grown so accustomed to.in all of the other games so far. I knew I needed to head to where the elders were but it wasn't immediately clear how I was supposed to interact with the world aside from clicking around to move from point A to point B. One thing I did immediately appreciate though was the window that pops up in the bottom-right corner showing interactive objects as you hover over them. In fact, I think that might be my favorite way interactive objects have been highlighted out of all of the games I have played so far.

After exploring the island for a little bit, I made my way to the elders and listened in as they tried to dole out punishment to Hetchel. Apparently they failed and she became a cute little duck (I loved the closeup of that duck) in an egg instead and everyone else on the island turned into swans and flew away. I still don't fully understand if the Loom turned them into swans or if the elders were just retarded or if it was Hetchel's doing but at least I got a sweet magical staff out of that ordeal. Once I got the staff I finally started to understand how I was supposed to interact with objects in this game and quickly used my recently learned "open" spell on the egg to free Hetchel-Duck. After talking to her I learned that I would need to leave the island.

With the staff obtained (and the book that I had picked up in Hetchel's hut), I went back through each area on the island to see what else I could do. As I was going around trying to "open" things I ended up learning a "dye object green" spell which I subsequently used on all of the tapestries and wool cloth that I could find on the island. I also "opened" a clam near the pier which prompted one of the seagulls to fly down and eat the meat inside. From there I went to the cemetery and, while on route, found that one out of the four trees with holes adjacent to the cemetery was missing an owl. When I entered the cemetery I saw the missing owl sitting on a tombstone and got him to fly into his hole after a rabbit ran out from the thorns that were nearby. Once that happened, I read the tombstone inscription which gave me a not-so-subtle hint to "open" the sky near that tree at the starting area. So I headed back to the tree and picked up the "see in the dark" spell from the owls on the way there.

After "opening" the sky and watching the tree explode, I was finally able to get off the island by using the big tree branch as a boat. Unfortunately I didn't get far due to a waterspout that was in my way. I clicked on it and saw that there was a new spell to be learned (I assumed it was a "twist" spell) but I didn't have enough experience to use it and had to go back to the island to explore some more. Once I got back to the island, it didn't take too long to figure out that I needed to use the "see in the dark" spell in the darkened hut. After doing that I was able to learn the "turn straw into gold" spell from the wheel inside the hut and had finally gained enough experience to be able to cast the "twist" spell from the waterspout. As an aside, I'm not sure if it was necessary to open the clam, dye the wool, etc or if experience is merely gained through learning new spells but it was fun to see which ones worked in various places anyways.

Now that I could access the new note, I hopped back on my branch and floated back to the waterspout. This is where my first cool moment happened with this game. When I tried using the "twist" spell, Bobbin commented that it was twisted up enough already and that I needed to find a way to un-twist it. I pondered this for a couple minutes and had an interesting thought cross through my head. I thought, "Maybe if I play the "twist" spell backwards the waterspout will un-twist itself." I was absolutely delighted when I saw that it actually worked and quickly realized I could get similar results if I did the same thing with other spells. That was definitely a cool eureka moment.

Now that the way was clear I was finally able to move on and found myself on a new landmass that had a bunch of glassmakers and shepherds. I tried to take one path and was stopped by a group of invisible shepherds that insisted that I prove my wizaaaaaaaardly abilities. I tried all of my spells on them but did not have any success so I was forced to move on to the area with the glass city (and I made note of the "turn invisible" spell that those guys used). I didn't find much there beyond a diamond chalice thingy, some glass tombstones, and a room with a big sickle that I was promptly kicked out of. However, one scene did show a guy demanding a crystal ball that would enable him to see 8 hours into the future instead of the 4-6 hours that the existing crystal ball was capable of. I figured I needed to get to that crystal ball by going through the room with the sickle and that I would somehow need to use my "turn invisible" spell to get through.

I made some more progress after this point but I am going to stop this post here as it is quite long enough already. I'll make another post a little later today or tomorrow with the rest of my progress. So far I am really liking this game. It is very unique and is charming as hell. That and the art direction is fantastic as was mentioned by others earlier.

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Wow, that's a lot of progress all at once. Definitely good you figured out the weaving of spells backwards early on. The extra stuff you can cast spells on is just there for "tutorial" purposes I suppose. If I recall you can also cast all of the spells backwards on the straw or cloth just for fun.

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Um, I completed Loom. It ended up being a pretty easy game as far as the puzzle solving was concerned and I managed to finish it in about 4 1/2 hours. I started my third play session yesterday and it seemed like the game was just starting to kick into high gear and then it was over. As short as it was I did really enjoy everything about the game.

 

From where I left off in my last post, I was trying to figure out how to get past the guys in the sickle room. After exploring a little bit more I noticed I could interact with the glass city spire containing the sickle and ended up trying my "turn invisible" spell which was successful. After that I was able to pass through and use the crystal ball to learn the "flame dragon" spell that I needed to cast to get past the shepherds blocking my path. Once I did that I got to the pasture and learned the "make sheep run away spell". I also saw that I could dye the sheep green. After making my way through the field I got to the hut where I learned the "heal" spell and also learned about the dragon that kept eating all the sheep. Once I went back into the field and saw all the sheep I turned them all green (this was my first thought as I don't think the "dye green" spell had come into play yet, plus it seemed like it would confuse the dragon based on the story the girl in the hut told me). After doing so, the dragon swooped down and carried me back to her(?) nest.

 

Once the dragon finished talking to me I was stumped for a few minutes. I quickly found that I could turn the gold to straw but it didn't seem to do anything and there was nowhere else I could go. So I basically went through my spells and luckily casted what I thought was the "flame dragon" spell on the straw. As it turns out, that spell was really a "catch things on fire" spell and I was just an idiot. Once I did that the dragon flew off and I made my way through the caves, learning the "reflection" spell in the process. At the end of the path I found a twisted staircase with a broken bridge at the end. It being interactive and "twisted" made it pretty obvious that I needed to cast the "un-twist" spell to fix it. Once I did so I crossed the gap and made my way into the land of blacksmiths, which is where I stopped playing during my last session and where I picked up again yesterday.

 

After talking to Rusty Nailbender at the entrance to the blacksmith area and watching him go back to sleep I went to the city where I was denied access by the asshole guard. There was nothing to interact with here and nowhere else to go but back to the previous area with Rusty and the tombstones so I headed back. At this point, there were a pretty limited number of interactive objects so I went to Rusty and cast a few spells on him before finding that the "reflection" spell was the solution to entering the city. Once I traded clothes with rusty I was able to enter the city and was told some guy was waiting for me. So I just walked forward until I found the guy and after he told me how pissed he was he locked me in a cell and took my staff. Once I fell asleep in the cell and the staff was thrown in the furnace, Hetchel-Duck then came and gave me my staff back. After I finally regained control of my original form (thanks to the dragon killing Rusty) I cast "open" on the door to get out and move on. Riveting stuff, I know.

 

The next room ended up being pretty easy to get through. The only two things I could interact with were the Bishop/Foreman and the sword that was being sharpened. So I listened to them talk and then figured I needed to cast the opposite of the "sharpen" spell on the sword. However, it was too loud in the room so I needed to find a way to get the blacksmith to stop pounding the sword so I could cast the spell. I clicked on the Bishop/Foreman again and saw that their dialog with the blacksmith gave me the break in noise that I needed to cast the spell. After doing so I was captured and found myself locked in a cage. After a few exchanges I was out of my cage and got to see Cobb, the biggest idiot I've ever seen in a video game, essentially commit suicide by trying to peek under my hood. Now that I was free I went up to where the archbishop was and watched him also commit suicide (I saw that one coming from a mile away). After grabbing my staff, I went back to the jail cell and looked into the crystal ball a few times making note of the "swan" spell in the process and witnessing a cooked Hetchel-Duck. Then I went back out and up the stairs where that green dragon forced me into the portal.

 

The rest of the game was a very straightforward trek. I went through each portal, healed the people or watched a dialog scene, then went back through and moved on to the next portal until I reached the starry swan pond. Then after the revelations from my swan mother, I went back and closed each portal before finally going past the starry swan pond and into the final portal that brought me back to Loom Island. The final exchange with the king dead guy was pretty simple and I just cast the opposite of whatever spell he cast until Hetchel-Duck was disintegrated. Then I used the "disintegration" spell to destroy the Loom and escape back to the, um, starry inter-dimensional place. Finally, I turned myself into a swan using the final "swan" spell and the game was over.

 

So, as I mentioned, I did really enjoy this game but wish it was a bit longer and had more challenging puzzles. This was the first LucasArts game that I completed without any help whatsoever from the internet or anyone here but it didn't feel like too much of an accomplishment because it was pretty easy after figuring out the whole "cast spells backwards" thing. I am also very glad I played the original version because, as Udvarnoky stated, the artwork with the limited color palette was pretty impressive and I liked going through the experience without any spoken dialog. I assume there were originally plans to make a sequel(s) because it definitely ended on a cliffhanger and there seemed to be a lot of unexplored possibilities given the lore they created for this game. I will definitely play through this again at some point to experience the updated visuals and voicework but that will have to wait until later.

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Now I am really fucking excited because Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is the next game up. I have heard so many good things about this game from the podcast and from everyone here so I'm really looking forward to starting it. I also remember one or two other people (maybe SecretAsianMan if I remember correctly?) saying that they would play through this one again once I got to it so please let me know if that's the case. Assuming I'm the only first-timer on this game I'll probably start it asap without waiting for others since it will likely take me much longer solving things for the first time.

 

I assume there are multiple versions of this game out there so which one do you guys recommend for a first playthrough? I have the version from the LucasArts Adventure Pack so that is the version I plan to play unless I hear otherwise, as with the previous games.

 

Also, now that I am into the "golden era" of LucasArts adventure games I will be going to considerable lengths to solve these without any hints so please be super cautious about putting them into spoiler tags from here on out.

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Loom is definitely the easiest LEC game.  Probably the shortest, too, although Full Throttle may have it beat there by a photo finish.  It's quite ahead of its time in the sense that it was designed for most people to be able to finish it.  At any rate it's an anomaly in the catalog, the only straight-up fantasy adventure game LEC ever did, and a real gem.  Glad you liked it.

 

Wow, that's a lot of progress all at once. Definitely good you figured out the weaving of spells backwards early on. The extra stuff you can cast spells on is just there for "tutorial" purposes I suppose. If I recall you can also cast all of the spells backwards on the straw or cloth just for fun.

 

To some extent the dicking around is necessary to induce the "F" thread.  I don't think it's a specific set of things that increases your experience, but simply doing enough of them.  Opening the clam and dyeing stuff are definitely among the things that can trigger it, but you need it to clear the waterspout.

 

Once the dragon finished talking to me I was stumped for a few minutes. I quickly found that I could turn the gold to straw but it didn't seem to do anything and there was nowhere else I could go. So I basically went through my spells and luckily casted what I thought was the "flame dragon" spell on the straw. As it turns out, that spell was really a "catch things on fire" spell and I was just an idiot. 

 

Actually, what you did was cast the sleeping spell on the straw.  When the dragon snored she inadvertently snorted smoke and ignited the dry straw. 

 

After a few exchanges I was out of my cage and got to see Cobb, the biggest idiot I've ever seen in a video game, essentially commit suicide by trying to peek under my hood. 

 

And now his cameo in Monkey Island 1 will make sense to you!

 

 

The Steam version of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is completely faithful to the original release, I believe.  Enjoy it!

 

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