[Fien]

Originally Posted by zobraks

I guess all this means we have to...

Spoiler:

... do something with the 'Flyboy' magazine (seems that, beside penguins, the authors of this game are obsessed with flies, and specially with their 'excremental activities' ). I tried sending the dirty magazine to Lao but Gary wouldn't part with it (he has to 'browse' it a couple of more times)!

Still, my efforts were not in vein since I discovered another hot spot with something to collect

Spoiler:

(unscrew, that is)

later.

You're on the right track.

Spoiler:

If Gary refuses to part with it because he wants to browse it, maybe you should listen to him. I bet you haven't actually browsed it yet. Hehehe...

[zobraks]

Originally Posted by Fien

I bet you haven't actually browsed it yet. Hehehe...

What if I have done so?

[Luna Sevithiainen]

Originally Posted by Fien

Millenia, hint:

Spoiler:

there are 4 things to record if you're high up. And you can get an object there too.

Just wondering, does this game have dead ends, and if so, did I just ran into one of these?

Spoiler:

I've been upon the cupboard, got the flyboy magazine, and got down after that, without recording anything (didn't have the cables connected then), and now I can't get on the cupboard again...Gary just pulls and lets go again...

Edit:

Spoiler:

I replayed it, and now I just can't up the cupboard at all (loaded a savegame on which there was nothing on the hook yet). What's going on here, does anyone know?

Edit: never mind, I was being stupid. I did it right by accident, and it took me a while to realise what it exactly was I did.

[Fien]

Originally Posted by zobraks

What if I have done so?

Then you're not stuck and your problem is solved.

[millenia]

Oh dear, it seems I cannot load. The screen just goes black. Tried with all kinds of different settings and tried to make a new save to load. Nope, all go black.

I could easily catch up but I won't be doing that catching up every night...

[Fien]

Sorry to hear that both you and Matt are having problems with the game. I'm a technical nitwit, so let's hope someone else can offer a solution.

[zobraks]

Originally Posted by millenia

Oh dear, it seems I cannot load.

It's a long shot, but have you looked into the game directory on your hard disk (c: \zes't corp\gag\ on my disk) to check if the save game files (GAG000.GSF, GAG001.GSF and so on) are actually there?

[millenia]

Originally Posted by zobraks

It's a long shot, but have you checked the game directory on your hard disk (c: \zes't corp\gag\ on my disk) to see if the save game files (GAG000.GSF, GAG001.GSF and so on) are actually there?

Yeah and I moved them all away and tried to make new ones just in case there was something wrong with them.

Tried different compatibility modes now, no luck, only XP let's me play, others freeze before the starting screen (new game/save/load/etc). There is very little info about this game in the internet but I guess I'll try to google just loading problems in general or something...

[zobraks]

Originally Posted by millenia

... seemed to work fine in my Win7

Originally Posted by millenia

... only XP let's me play, others freeze before the starting screen (new game/save/load/etc).

I suggest you use Win XP to play GAG on. The newer the OS is the more likely you're going to have troubles.

GAG is very obscure so I doubt the Internet search for technical help with it would be of much use.

[Luna Sevithiainen]

Actually, it is running like a charm on windows 7 for me. Millenia, am I correct in assuming that you also run it on windows 7? In that case you may want to check something with administrator rights. I don't know what exactly, but most of the time, making sure you are allowed both read and write acces to a file from within a game is the solution for problems like that.

[millenia]

I gave the admin rights but will see about the details again. I was going for reinstall and almost had an heart attack since I had huge troubles getting it to install again. Will try some more stuff now. And yes, Win7 and no problems before this.

Reinstall seemed to work - at least for now .


All right, on the castle grounds now. I should like stop now?
Managed to get forward with the second hint without exposing any more spoilers, (and I actually understood the logic there too, didn't stumble onto the solution by accident) yay me. At least I don't feel so horribly stupid anymore seeing that other people get stuck all the time too .

[Matt Berkeley]

My system is running XPSP3... 3GB RAM...Q8200 quad processor (I've even gone so far as to set the gag process to have affinity for a single processor, btw)... nVidia 8800GT...

I'm pretty sure it is a codec issue. [b]zobraks'[b] mention of the "Starship Titanic" Intel bug gives me something to try so I will look into telling ffdshow to either manage (or not, whichever is the obverse of the current setup...) and things like that...

Any further suggestions are welcome.

[Matt Berkeley]

Okay... well none of the fooling around with the codecs worked, but while investigating (I'm in a better mood so I was able t continue to look deeper) I found that I had some processes that had not shut down. One of which was "mstsc" (aka Microsoft's "Remote Desktop Client") which to say the least alarmed me... it's been a while since ran that but I do recall having run it this session.

Anyway, I needed to reboot. Along the way the processes I ws suspicius of all came out and admitted they were hung. (Another one was a firefox session).

So I'm feeling better about that whole situation though I will remember to check it later.

How does all this relate? Because with my freshly rebooted rig Gag runs. At least through the rockandroll intro and into the starting menu.

At which point I quit to verify another successful launch before playing. So, I came in here to ramble on like this during the interim.

I shall stop now and start playing in a bit and see you all back here at some point.

...

And I'm back to report that the re-launch went well; I am running this on XPSP3 with only the 256 and 640x480 (I prefer to use as much screen as possible as long as it doesn't become too pixelated -- and it looks fine).

First things first: Slingshot Dress! This looks to be fun already. Now I can go back and read through this thread a little more to find out how we proceed as far as timing, spoiler-proofing, and the general group-playthrough ways and means.

[crabapple]

I just had the misfortune of encountering Gagboy.
There's no way I'm going to be able to get 66 points on that.
The best I've been able to do is 12 points.
It doesn't work like Tetris at all and when you mess up you have to start all over again.

My favorite thing so far is the chicken flying around the ceiling fan.

Edit:
After discovering the Pause button, my current best score for Gagboy is 52 points.
Still a ways away from 66, but not so pathetic as 12.

2nd Edit:
Got it!
Won with an 86, though it doesn't matter so long as it's more than 66.

[Fien]

Congratulations, crabapple.

A few tips for Millenia, who has already entered the castle grounds, and the rest of you who are eagerly anticipating the moment they can start playing Gagboy.

Tip 1: According to Alexander Tait (reviewer at JA), you run into a gamestopping bug if you don't play Gagboy early on in the game. According to Fien (playthrough leader at AG), the game refuses to let you play Gagboy on CD 1. So start Gagboy as soon as you enter the castle, that way you'll hopefully avoid both bugs.
Tip 2: Turn their little bottoms up the moment they start dropping down. That way you increase the number of possible positions.

I've always found it strange that the winning score is 66. Yeah, the Dark Brothers and all that, but I still say 69 would be more appropriate.

[Luna Sevithiainen]

Finished the first part in a few hours, mostly because I've played this part of the game before but got stuck at those attempts (due to for some reason the cd-switching failing because the system I played it on back then spat cd 1 out too slowly and then the game would complain and crash or something like that).

So all in all not many surprises here. I like the way your environment responds to mouseclicks (especially the posters ) it is so random and insane, almost hilarious. Not to mention how travel and sleep are timed. (And those err...artistic animations at the travel sequence ). I think it is this spontaneity that is one of the reasons the game is so much fun to play.

I can't say much about the puzzles at this stage, as I've already played through this part before. I do remember it taking a lot longer to complete than now though.

And now I can finally do what I've been looking forward to ever since I started playing the game (when I was still under 16 and innocent, so maybe it's better I never really found out how it worked back then): the gagboy.

Just in case the goal is in the manual (I can't check, as the one belonging to the copy I play is a few hundred kilometers away from me) and players will have the fun of finding out what they are supposed to do themselves (I know it caught me unawares and threw me into a laughing fit) I'll put the next bit in spoilers (if I'mbing to cautious, juuuust let me know):

Spoiler:

playing the gagboy should definately be beatable for me (made it twice to 64 points), but I would make it a lot easier for myself if only I'd stop intuitively making those male-male and female-female pairs

[seagul]

I finally left the apartment and am now prowling around the castle.
Had much fun till now - an wait to beginn with Tetris.....
And how sweet to see a little reminder of Myst (how does he pee - or is this also part of his problem???) and Phantasmagoria.
I'm a bit disappointed that the content is really mild... But ok.

[zobraks]

Originally Posted by Luna Sevithiainen

... due to for some reason the cd-switching was failing because the system I played it on back then spat cd 1 out too slowly and then the game would complain and crash or something like that.

I read somewhere that there's a problem with disc-swapping in GAG, so the best way to play it (if you have two or more CD/DVD drives on your computer) is with both CDs in drives. I play GAG with disc images mounted in two virtual drives, so it plays fast and safe. If you use virtual drives just make sure (as always) that your virtual drive letters are before the letter of your physical drive (in alphabetical order). For instance, my virtual drives are E and F, and my DVD drive is (aptly) Z . It's always a good idea to assign your physical drive the last letter of the alphabet, so that any letter you assign to a virtual drive is (naturally) before it.

Originally Posted by Luna Sevithiainen

I've already played through this part before. I do remember it taking a lot longer to complete than now though.

Hey, you're a ringer (a pro in disguise)!

Originally Posted by Luna Sevithiainen

And now I can finally do what I've been looking forward to ever since I started playing the game (when I was still under 16 and innocent, so maybe it's better I never really found out how it worked back then): the gagboy.

I can hardly wait to play that too .

Originally Posted by seagul

I finally left the apartment and am now prowling around the castle.

I'm there too. I like...

Spoiler:

... the pool with the giant plug and a shark in it .

Originally Posted by seagul

Had much fun till now - an wait to beginn with Tetris

It's 'Sextris'!

Originally Posted by seagul

And how sweet to see a little reminder of Myst (how does he pee - or is this also part of his problem???) and Phantasmagoria.

I played (real)Myst six years ago, but I didn't get the toilet bowl reference.

Originally Posted by seagul

I'm a bit disappointed that the content is really mild...

My thoughts exactly! If it weren't for that magazine we would hardly see any flesh (like Lao! ).
I guess we'll all have to beg Fien for that +58+18 version she's got.

[diego]

Good thing you all managed to overcome technical issues, me myself got save game mysteriously eaten but i wasn't far into game anyway

Thanx for hints, i managed to contact Mr. Hillarious "MAST'R GARY!" Accent, since i missed to spot at first

Spoiler:

handle which opens the lift

Now, it's frustrating that

Spoiler:

i can't take picture from the wallet to put it on fake ID

I also think that

Spoiler:

i should record more videos but i was unable to peep on all that stuff you mentioned, i guess i'm a lousy Peeping Tom

But it's 40°C today, so the only (semi )naked ladies i'll be looking on will be at a local river beach and after that i'll be back to MAST'R GARY!

[zobraks]

Originally Posted by diego

... me myself got save game mysteriously eaten

It never happened to me in all my days of adventuring.

Originally Posted by diego

Thanx for hints, i managed to contact Mr. Hillarious "MAST'R GARY!" Accent, since i missed to spot at first

Spoiler:

handle which opens the lift

Originally Posted by diego

Now, it's frustrating that

Spoiler:

i can't take picture from the wallet to put it on fake ID

Forget about

Spoiler:

the wallet.

You'll have to look for

Spoiler:

Gary's photo

...

Spoiler:

... somewhere else. But good luck in finding out where and how - it almost made my brain hurt!

Originally Posted by diego

But it's 40°C today, so the only (semi )naked ladies i'll be looking on will be at a local river beach

Be careful not to get dizzy of all those pretty pictures you're about to turn in your head!