The Big LucasArts Playthrough

[SecretAsianMan]

Spoiler for Grim Fandango

 

Not exactly the same, but I remember having a really hard time with an early door puzzle in Grim Fandango.  It's getting into the mail room.  There's a mail demon who's fixing the system you messed up, but you can't get into the room because he locks the door behind him when he leaves.  The solution is to turn the deadbolt on the door while it's open that way it doesn't close as the demon leaves.  That puzzle took so incredibly long for me to figure out.

[Thrik]

Haha. Yes. That puzzle has led to me having the title beneath my name for the past nine years.

[Zeusthecat]

Hah, that was quick! That was the fucking part I was stuck on for so long as a kid. Compulsively closing doors behind you when you enter rooms just seems to be a non-puzzle. But yeah, Monkey Island 2 pretty much prepared you for that crappy "puzzle." Which of two liked hiding stuff behind doors? Grossman or Schafer?

Yeah, I'm not too fond of puzzles where they hide something behind a door. Making you look in a stupid place doesn't leave you very satisfied when you do solve it.

[SecretAsianMan]

As a result of looking up a puzzle in Grim Fandango (see spoiler above), I am now re-reading the Grim Fandango puzzle design document that got put up on the internet a few years ago.  Man, this thing is amazing.  Besides describing all the puzzles and solutions, it's full of background info and random side notes and comments from Tim.  It really makes me appreciate the game even more.  I want to see the design docs for all the Lucasarts games.  I also really REALLY want to play Grim Fandango.

[thorn]

As a result of looking up a puzzle in Grim Fandango (see spoiler above), I am now re-reading the Grim Fandango puzzle design document that got put up on the internet a few years ago.  Man, this thing is amazing.  Besides describing all the puzzles and solutions, it's full of background info and random side notes and comments from Tim.  It really makes me appreciate the game even more.  I want to see the design docs for all the Lucasarts games.  I also really REALLY want to play Grim Fandango.

 

I really wish Tim would/could release the Full Throttle design doc. Apparently there's a full third of the game that got cut from it.

[Ben X]

I know there was a peyote hallucination sequence that got cut. Was there a lot more than that?

[syntheticgerbil]

The Peyote hallucinations was the whole third. It was just going to be like the Mystery Vortex in Sam and Max stretched out for hours.

[thorn]

I know there was a peyote hallucination sequence that got cut. Was there a lot more than that?

 

The peyote sequence was cut because LucasArts management insisted it was inappropriate. I'm working from memory here, but I think that the third I was talking about was cut for budget/time reasons.

[Ben X]

The peyote sequence was cut because LucasArts management insisted it was inappropriate. I'm working from memory here, but I think that the third I was talking about was cut for budget/time reasons.

 

What was in that third? I can't find anything about it. (Synth, I assume you're joking!)

[Thrik]

My memory of Full Throttle is it lasting like an hour. I just can't consider it a classic in my head because of that despite everything else.

I was surprised by how much was cut from Grim Fandango, though. That game is already long as knackers, although that partly comes from there being so much incidental stuff to look at/talk about. I wouldn't have minded meeting Manny's alcoholic brother!

[thorn]

What was in that third? I can't find anything about it. (Synth, I assume you're joking!)

 

Nobody knows but Tim.

[Roderick]

The third act of Full Throttle got pretty weird:

Ben ends up in a strange carnival as a kid, bullied by his big sister Maureen. Some major Gilbert influences there.

[syntheticgerbil]

It turns out that there was a giant robotic monkey in the Cavefish hideout all along. Boy were we fooled.

[Zeusthecat]

Some more good progress made the other night.

 

I sent a bunch of unused shit to Hoagie and discovered that I could use the vacuum cleaner flier in the suggestion box to make a vacuum cleaner appear in the future (although I can't get to it yet with Laverne). I also discovered that I could give the Help Wanted sign to Red to get the lab coat which I was then able to give to Ben Franklin so he could make a new kite. While I was in Red's lab I noticed that I had overlooked the left handed hammer so I picked that up and exchanged it for the right handed hammer that one of the twins was using. That caused him to fuck up the statue and then the twins traded places causing the statue in Bernard's time to be flipped.

 

With Bernard I was finally able to push Edna out of the room and was able to record the footage of Dr. Fred opening up the safe. After slowing it down I was able to see the combination and finally got the contract out of the safe. It was too late to mail it so I sent it back to Hoagie and threw the stamp on it. Unfortunately it still needed to be signed so I was unable to send it out and am still trying to figure out how to get the signature filled out. I think I'm also still at the same point with Laverne as I was before.

 

With these recent discoveries I have a few new thoughts for how I need to progress now. First, I need to find a small metal object to attach to the kite so Hoagie can help Ben Franklin. I've tried the fork and scalpel but neither worked so I assume I don't have what I need just yet. Next, I need to figure out how to get the contract signed so I can mail it, get a bunch of money, and order the diamond. Maybe I need to get Red or Zed or someone else to sign it and then use the white out to alter the signature to read "Fred" before mailing it. Then I still need to figure out how to stop the teeth from chattering and how to get the toy mouse with Hoagie so he can send it to Laverne. I also need to figure out where my frozen hamster is and what I can do with that stupid horse (I even tried using white out on his yellow teeth but cartoon logic failed me there). And I also started messing around with that machine containing the three holes. I'm starting to wonder if maybe I am supposed to use the vacuum with those somehow.

[thorn]

With respect to the kite and the contract, use less video-game logic. It's a lot more straightforward than you think. And try to remember what Hoagie's overall goal is in the past.

 

As for the teeth... well, that does need a bit more video game logic.

And the horse.

[Patrick R]

I probably would never have 

 

<spoiler>

 

gotten the horses teeth

 

without my older cousins telling me what I needed to do.

[SecretAsianMan]

I probably would never have 

 

<spoiler>

 

gotten the horses teeth

 

without my older cousins telling me what I needed to do.

 

That was one of those puzzles I got by trying every item until one worked.  Even after I found the correct one, it didn't make sense to me at the time because as a kid

 

I didn't know that people who wore dentures take them out when they sleep so I thought the horse was removing his teeth for no reason.

 

Now that I think about it, that happened a lot.  There are a bunch of puzzle solutions that didn't make sense to kid me, not because they were illogical but because I lacked the real world experience to know or understand them.  I think the one that made the least sense to me was washing the buggy.  I washed it because the game told me I should since I had a bucket of water, soap, and a brush, but I didn't get the joke about it raining after you wash your car (that is the joke right?) so the whole sequence of events made no sense to me.

[Twig]

I think I also solved that puzzle by trying every item...

And then learned from it that people take out their dentures when they sleep. Heh.

Ah! Forgot to spoil. Sorry.

[Tanukitsune]

I'm pretty sure someone in the game commented on how nice teeth the horse had, so I knew I needed them.... besides, it's an adventure game you take everything that isn't nailed down, right?

[thorn]

Is it obvious that the horse's teeth are dentures rather than a large set of natural teeth? I can't remember.

 

Either way, it is kinda confusing that there are three sets of teeth in that game.

[Gormongous]

Is it obvious that the horse's teeth are dentures rather than a large set of natural teeth? I can't remember.

 

Either way, it is kinda confusing that there are three sets of teeth in that game.

 

Teeth are funny. You use them to smile. The more teeth in a comedy, the funnier it is. Teeth!

 

 

This is my first post in this thread. I really like your recaps, Zeus.

[SecretAsianMan]

I love having entire conversations hidden behind spoilers.  It's like a secret club you gain membership to by completing a game.  Anyhoo...

 

I don't remember if there was any dialog that specifically calls them dentures, but visually it's impossible to tell because of the exaggerated art style.  Even after putting them on the mummy I don't think they look like dentures.

 

I think the only real visual clue is the glass of water the horse puts them in, but it's an adventure game which means that glass of water could be for anything.

[Ben X]

If you compliment him on them, he says "thanks, I paid a lot for them".

 

Plus, if you look at the glass, you get:

 

Hoagie: It looks like someone's dentures were in here.

Horse: Hey, I've got to put them somewhere.

[Zeusthecat]

I look forward to going back and reading all of those posts after I finish. I just can't bring myself to click on any of those spoilers yet since progress has been pretty steady and I haven't been stuck for too long yet. Also, last night I made a couple more key discoveries. I think I'm very close to finishing the game now.

 

When I started playing last night, I wrote down a list of all unused items I had in my inventory and then mentally went through all of the areas in the game that I hadn't had any real interactions with yet. I started fooling around and ended up focusing on the textbook with Hoagie. I had already had him read it to pretty much everyone and I remembered how they all told me how boring it was and how it was going to put them to sleep. However, I hadn't yet tried it on the horse and I thought maybe I was supposed to read it to him to impress him since he had been pretty condescending before and implied that I was stupid. So I started reading it to him which instead caused him to fall asleep and put his dentures in the glass. Once I picked them up I knew those had to be the teeth I needed for Laverne so I sent them straight to her and switched back to the future.

 

With Laverne I put the horse dentures on the mummy and finally won the beauty competition which netted me a trophy and dinner certificate. From my previous interactions I knew the dinner certificate would most likely be for the tentacle guarding the Edisons and after giving it to him he took off leaving the Edisons unguarded. I turned off the force field and tried to free them but they refused to leave because they knew they would get caught by the tentacle guarding the clock. I didn't see any way to make further progress with Laverne at this point so I switched back to Bernard.

 

Shortly after switching to Bernard I made my second big discovery. I toiled for a little bit at first and then focused on the suicidal conventioneer guy. I had already tried to use several items on him before but since he seemed to be too far away I had convinced myself that I would somehow need to shrink Bernard to get in there. Then I went back over my list of unused items and realized I hadn't tried that letter that Hoagie had talking about the recipient being a genius and that they should come to Boston immediately. So I sent that over to Bernard and was finally able to trick the suicidal guy into taking off by giving him the letter (I hope he doesn't kill himself when he gets there and realizes it was a hoax). Now that I had access to the room I finally picked up the flag gun and immediately went down to the other conventioneer guy. I wasn't able to use it on him but I found that I was able to distract the guy and exchange the flag gun for the lighter gun he kept using on me. Then I talked to him again and was able to get one one of his exploding cigars without it blowing up in my face. I then sent these items back to Hoagie since I thought maybe I could use the lighter gun to burn the log that Jefferson was holding on to.

 

As Hoagie I found that I couldn't use the lighter gun on the log. However, the game did hint that I should probably use it with the exploding cigar so I gave it a shot with each of the founding fathers. I didn't have any luck with Hancock or Jefferson but Washington was a different story (it should have been obvious since he was already smoking a cigar). Once I gave it to him and lit it, his face imploded and his dentures disappeared into the ether. He asked me to find them so I gave him the chattering teeth instead which tricked Hancock and Jefferson into thinking he was cold and prompted them to start a fire. With the fire started, I picked up Hancock's blanket and had a little chat with him. We talked about the canary for a bit and based on the conversation it seemed like I would need to block the chimney to force the "fire alarm" to go off. So I ran up there, threw the blanket over the chimney, and got to see the founding fathers jump out of the window. With the room clear I went back down and found that I could pick up the gold plated feather pen that Jefferson had prevented me from grabbing before. Since it had gold on it I took it back down to Red who finally made my battery. Once the battery was done I picked it up and tried to plug it into my time traveling toilet but found that it needed to be charged. So I ran over to Ben Franklin, put it in the kite pocket, and threw the kite in the air which was then hit by lightning. This left me with a charged battery that I could finally plug in to the toilet. With pretty much everything done in the past (except the mouse toy and mailing contract parts) I switched back to Bernard again.

 

Once I was back in control of Bernard I started running through each area again. Once I made it to the attic I found that the IRS guys were in there doing paperwork and Dr. Fred was locked in the adjacent room. So I went down to the fireplace, climbed up to the roof, and went through the window to get to him. I saw that he was tied up so I picked up the rope that had him secured. At this point I figured I had found the solution to my contract signing problem. All I would need to do was wake him up and get him to sign the contract so Hoagie could mail it. So I tried putting the funnel in his mouth to give him the coffee I had but it didn't work. I wasn't sure what to do to wake him up at this point but I was pretty sure I knew what to do with the rope so I went back out the window and successfully used it on the pulley. It was late at this point so I had to stop playing.

 

I think I am really close to the end now. I'm guessing I need to use the pulley to hoist up the bird bath which might be able to break one of the windows and wake Dr. Fred up. With him awake, he can sign the contract, Hoagie can mail it, and I can use the money to order the diamond and power up the time machine. With Laverne I still need to find some way to convince the Edisons to leave which will hopefully cause the tentacle guard to leave his post and give me access to the old lab. Then, maybe Hoagie can use the rope with the pulley in the past to rig something up with the squeaky bed to distract the cat so I can get that mouse toy. I think Laverne will be able to use the toy to distract the future cat and then somehow, between distracting the cat and powering up the machine, that frozen hamster will magically appear and I can thaw him out with the microwave to run the hamster wheel. I think that vacuum will also come into play at some point during this process.

[syntheticgerbil]

I like that there is a pixel reserved the cat's butthole. I'll never forget that.

 

Zeus, your detailed posts are a living proof against the naysayers who exclaim adventure games are devoid of gameplay and are just a series of events the designers ask you to do to get to the next cutscene. I mean, just look at all of this.