LucasArts Day of the Tentacle Remastered

[MRY]

Record is always a red circle, at least on every device I've ever used, and including software like Sound Recorded. In this case, I assumed the square was red because they wanted to emphasize stop for some reason. I literally spent 30 minutes on this puzzle until I found the diagram above showing that they got it wrong. It's pretty inexplicable.

 

[Mozg]

I understood that as they intended it immediately due to the color, but you seem to be right about the square vs. circle thing.

 

[Blackthorne]

They fucked up. Seriously, record is always the red circle. It's fucked up in the original game, too.

WORST GAME EVER NOW. I retroactively hate this pile of garbage.

Bt

 

[MRY]

I remain totally baffled as to how such a mistake makes it by (1) designer; (2) artist; (3) coder; (4) testers, all of whom presumably would've looked at this.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I remain totally baffled as to how such a mistake makes it by (1) designer; (2) artist; (3) coder; (4) testers, all of whom presumably would've looked at this.

It's the early 90s man. Chances are designer, artist, coder and testers were the same person.

 

[MRY]

Nah, DoTT had a huge staff: more than 25 dev team members, plus a dedicated testing squad of about a dozen, plus a huge support staff. By '93 team size was already bloating and the adventure game death cycle had begun. The really small teams were late 80s, but even then you're not talking a one-man team but an eight-man team or so.

 

[Blackthorne]

Yeah, I wonder why and how this passed muster.... twice.


Bt

 

[Mozg]

Never forget the Brothel of Slating Intellectual Lusts

No instant Google image search, no dictionary.com. The '90s were a dark age.

As far as leaving it in the "remake" - did they change anything on a level beyond running the graphics through a filter and retransfering the audio at a higher fidelity?

 

[MRY]

I think "Slating" is different -- I believe I was the first person to note the typo back on the old BIS boards, and it prompted an surprisingly extended discussion of whether it was intentional in some way before finally Chris stopped by to say it was just a goof. But it's not provably wrong like the VCR; it certainly seems wrong, but since PS:T is both weird and erudite it's understandable that players would be uncertain of their initial "this seems wrong" vibe. By contrast, the VCR is just dumb. You wouldn't need image search because everyone still had VCRs in 1993. DVD players were years later, and laser disc ownership was pretty slight.

 

[Mozg]

Feels exactly like a mistake I'd make, since I've never noticed the square/circle convention in my life vs. complete comfort with the idea that red = record and nothing else. Perhaps you've uncovered some systematic '90s Lucasarts bias towards primary color prioritizers vs. shape noticers.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I made a huge fit about the VCR symbols when this game came out a year ago.

Another part of DoTT that made me stop and think is how sloppily the endgame is written (Yesterday). There you are, trying to prevent Purple Tentacle from taking a drink from the Sludge-O-Matic, yet neither Yesterday Green or Purple Tentacle are anywhere to be seen. HOWEVER we have dozens (if not hundreds) of Evil Purple Tentacles around, but we only need to dispatch 11 of them and casually flip the switch to be able to successfully reverse the timeline? What's stopping a lone Evil Purple Tentacle from just hiding out of sight until the three protagonists have left, then just stealthily turn it back on?

And who says Purple Tentacle has to drink the sludge in the manner portrayed in the intro? Why not grab him and force him to drink a glass of it? It will have the same end result, right?

And that's before we get to the fact that in order for the time machines to be ever used, Purple Tentacle must drink the sludge, therefore that event becomes a temporal paradox that cannot be undone...right?

 

[Boleskine]

I literally spent 30 minutes on this puzzle

How????

If you went into the puzzle knowing the goal is to record Dr. Fred entering the safe code then rewind and play the footage, none of that changes when you realize the record button is the square red one and the stop button is a circle. I'm not defending the mistake - anyone old enough to remember VCRs knows that record was a red circle and stop was a square.

But how did it take you 30 minutes, especially when the screen shows green text like "STOP", "PLAY", or "REC" when you press any button? After you press the circle and see "STOP" instead of "REC", that's enough information to make you realize what the record and stop buttons are even if their shapes are swapped from buttons on actual VCRs (but red still means record). The artist or designer's mistake doesn't change the solution or logic of the puzzle.

 

[MRY]

It is possible that I am an idiot, but this is how I recall the interaction:

(1) Rewind.
(2) Press record button.
(3) VCR does some behavior -- I think it might be that the VCR UI closes.
(4) Reload VCR UI.
(5) Rewind.
(6) Press play.
(7) Long period of static that ends with seeing the professor enter the final number in the last few frames.
(8) Assume that the tape is malfunctioning in some way.
(9) Try switching from EP to LP.
(10) Try again.
Etc.

IIRC, you cannot actually push the "stop" button (i.e., the circular real record button) while it's playing [edit: confirmed], and pressing the stop button when it is not playing wouldn't have any functionality, so there's nothing that cued me in. But it's possible I got tunnel vision and was missing some kind of cue.

 

[LESS T_T]

In this 2017 GDC talk, Double Fine's Oliver Franzke and Shiny Shoe's Mark Cooke cover the history and process of remastering the classic adventure games Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango.

 

[Ivan]

playing this for the first time:

holy shit does this game fill up your inventory with tons of objects. so far I'm trying to figure out how to get gold and vinegar. trying to figure out what I need to use with the horse to get his teeth...

I find it odd that I can't switch to Laverne just yet, is that intentional?

 

[Blaine]

I find it odd that I can't switch to Laverne just yet, is that intentional?

Nice try. No hints for you.

You must finish the game from beginning to end or turn in your adventurer's guild card.

But yeah, prepare your asshole for a good reaming, because this game is real bitch.

 

[Anomander Rake]

So is the remastered worth it?

When getting the remastered, do I get the original too?

 

[Ivan]

So this is the first adv game I'm going to force myself to play through without resorting to hints. It's actually pretty cool keeping a notepad with me and seeing my train of thought.

Also, found a very Deponia solution (the only hint I used): pushing a woman sitting a rolling chair down the stairs....I just wouldn't even think like that lol it's one of those eye-roll solutions but heh, gotta tune my thinking I guess. Act like I'm watching Loony Tunes or something.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Act like I'm watching Loony Tunes or something.

That's the spirit.

 

[Ivan]

making good progress, some impressions:

the game drowns you with items and doesn't always remove them from your inventory after you've used them. I wonder if were're meant to hold on to these just for the fuck of it.

the method in which you "unlock" Laverne is super cool

they did a neat job hiding the hints behind the mummy (only relevant to Bernard?)

Currently aggrivated by: Benjamin F's Kite. It looks like you're meant to interact with the pocket but Hoagie just drops the kite. to make matters worse, you can't interact with the kite since it's always in Ben's hands.

Spoiler

DUH OF COURSE

Most bizarre puzzle solution so far: a horse is a horse of course

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Most bizarre puzzle solution so far: a horse is a horse of course

Denny Delk's distinctive voice. I can hear it while reading this. He was probably the most prominent voice actor on Lucasarts titles from the 90's. He also voiced Purple tentacle.

 

[Ivan]

Wow, this wrapped up very quickly. Aside from a few puzzles/interactions, this wasn't as hard or obtuse as I thought it would be. Loved the interplay between the different time threads mechanically and the cast were all great. Particularly loved the puzzle behind unlocking Laverne. Some things I missed/wouldn't have figured out by myself:

Spoiler

there was an object in Ed's office that I missed because I had used "Use" instead of "Pull" on a drawer; "pushing" edna; freezing the hamster; I completely missed the sleeping guy's keys, It took me a while to learn that you could close and open doors after you entered them, although it's only relevant for this one puzzle

great stuff, I switched back to the original graphics halfway through end ended up preferring this chunkier look. I will def be using this style when I play Monkey Island (will be replaying 1 and re-start 2, don't remember where I dropped that playthrough)

 

[Darth Slaughter]

great stuff, I switched back to the original graphics halfway through end ended up preferring this chunkier look. I will def be using this style when I play Monkey Island (will be replaying 1 and re-start 2, don't remember where I dropped that playthrough)

Monkey 1 SE old graphics takes the voice out. It's a more early 90's purist kind of experience, since Monkey Island was voiced only after the 3rd installment. But I really dig dominic armato's as guybrush and Earl Boen as LeChuck, and the cast in general, that I really recommend using the voice overs.

Well, I did some quick google and found this:

http://gratissaugen.de/ultimatetalkies/monkey1.html

I didn't try or test it, but I leave it here as a suggestion.

Monkey 2 SE on the other hand can have voices in either mode.

 

[Ivan]

Thanks for the info. I actually recoiled when I saw the new art for Monkey 1, so I think I'll be going for a purist playthrough w/voice

After this, I'll try out the Sierra games, haven't touched any of those so far.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Ye olde graphics are the best