Zork Nemesis community playthrough - now underway!
 

Lena and I are starting up Zork Nemesis. It is a replay for me, but a 'new' game for Lena. Anyone want to join in a community play through?

Just to clarify: I'm Lena.

;) :D

I recently got a copy of ebay, as I haven't played ZN in like 11 years. It runs pretty slow in dosbox for me, though. My desktop is like 6 years old, and I can't seem to get ZN to install in XP. So, I need to try it on my newer laptop, and if that works better I'm in!

Oops! Sorry :frown: :).

Excellent!
I'm using an old win 95/98. It's great to have a gaming machine for the old games.

No worries! :D

I've only played it once (a couple of years ago), and I remember enjoying it quite a lot – apart from numerous timing problems, due to my idiotic decision to try to play it under XP rather than DOSBox.

Unfortunately, I have a lot of work at the moment, which leaves me very little time for playing games – let alone posting about them. So I'll try to join the playthrough, but I'm not promising anything.

Colpet and I will use only the weekends to play Z.N, due to both being really busy with work. So there won't be any speedy playthrough. :)

Don't forget to use a CPU killer to slow down the game if you're playing it on a newer system. I played it in XP and that helped me.

Also, you can use these instructions to play it off your hard drive (and forgo disc swapping).

I may try to join in. I have a couple of games I need to play for review, but I'll try and fit Z.N. in there as well. :)

I've currently finished at the Temple (got the 4 elements), and did what I had to do at the Monastary (made iron). If anyone else is playing, I can help out with hints and discussions if needed.

I'm still inside the Temple where I have checked out each and every corner. I know what I need to do in there but have only found one element yet. I will have to do some more playing before I can bring it out from the place where I found it.

I now have two elements (fire and earth), chasing for the wind element, but I haven't figured out how yet. :frusty:

I had a really hard time solving the water puzzle.

Spoiler:

After having struggled for hours I had to check a hint and discovered I was supposed to hear different sounds by the water fountain, opposite of the flute. I only have the background music at that location. After having downloaded a patch with subtitles I managed to solve it since I got subtitles for the sounds of the fountain. I didn't find any patch to get me the actual sounds though

All and all that puzzle was a really fun challenge. Now I only have the last element left. That'll be tomorrow.

I decided to load it up, it's been donkey years since I played this game.

Had a bit of trouble getting it to run at a reasonable speed and ened up using Dosbox and copying the CD's to the hard drive to speed up transitions and FMV. (inferno's guides are great)

Anyway, this is probably the darkest and moodiest of all the Zork games (I miss the humour that is usually associated with the games) There were a couple of chuckles (picture of gru in it's natual habitat brought a chuckle) however most of it is sombre and serious.

Played through the temple section, got the 4 elements (air was the hardest) and saved at that point.

p.s just to say that the dead alchemists son has nothing to do with my username.

:D I actually wondered about that earlier today.

Sorry to hear about the patch, Jelena. Hopefully the rest will play smoothly.
I'm at the Conservatory. I'm very impressed with the acting in the FMV sequences.

Spoiler:

Kaine and Sophia in the bathtub was quite a scene,, as well as the sexual tension between Alexandria and Lucien seen when you find the trinket box in Alex's sleeping quarters.

I did find that some hot spots change into pick-ups once certain things are triggered (much to my frustration).
I found a lot of humor was in the manual.

Spoiler:

When you get to the Conservatory, be sure to play both records forward and backwards.

wow, i loved this game, it was one of the first I played when I bought my first PC...*SIGH* memories....

I loved the Grue references, and the trip to Dr. Sartorius' lab(i think that was his name),

Spoiler:

with the talking head, and all the severed limbs

....very freaky!!


btw, what DOES happen when you

Spoiler:

play the records backwards and forwards

?? Don't remember that part at all.

Update:
I have finished with the Conservatory.

Spoiler:

I was less sure of what to do here in Sophia's lab. I didn't know what the 'puck-like' thing was that came from the green crystal 'fish'. In retrospect, I guess it was some copper metal.

On to Irondune.

Spoiler:

When you play 'Introduction to the Orchestra' backwards, you get the usual wierd noises, interspersed with what sounds like phrases from the Nemesis and Sophia. When you play 'Alexandria's Debut' backwards, you get a more rockin' tune. I didn't catch all the words, but I'll bet they're intwined in the story

Played it for a bit this morning.

First world I visited was the world of Irondune. All military tactics and weapons. You learn more about Lucien, his love for Alexandra, his likeness for painting nudey women and his relationship with his father (what a tosser he is. Torture chamber and all)

I'm liking the attention to detail and the mature storyline so far. The fmv are a tad ropey even by the standards of the day, but the 360 environments are well realised.

Next up the frozen asylum. (gory heads and corpses gallore)

You guys will have finished this game before I even leave the temple. :frown:



;)

I won't find some gaming time until this evening.

Part of my marathon playing has to do with the glitch that occured at the beginning. I'm playing this on my Win98. After finishing the Temple, the game froze. By the time I got it sorted out, I lost my 2 virtual drives, one of which had the game on it. Luckily my C drive is still functional, so I'm playing the game on that. At some point, I'm going to have to surrender the tower to my guru. Hopefully, he still remembers enough to fix it.
I know I can play it on my XP, but I'm loathe to fiddle with it. I like the simplicity of load and go.

About the game:
I like how the story starts to unfold At first at the Temple, there's these 4 people who were brutally murdered. As you visit their domains, you find out different layers to the story, and start to see that they weren't very nice. It says a lot about the level of intricacy and detail in the game, that you can visit each of these 4 places in any order, and still feel like the game flows smoothly.
Because of my inopportune reinstall, I found out something interesting.
When I first played, I got the Earth, Water, Fire, then Air. Everythime you get an element, the person associated with it comes back to life for a bit and tells part of their story. When you get the last element, the Nemesis shows up to try and thwart you, so you miss the last person's testimony. When I had to replay it, I did them in a different order, and had a chance to hear Malveaux say that Alexandria was his daughter.