Counterfeit Monkey

January 7, 2013 8:51 AM

> examine mourning dress
A black vintage gown trimmed with much lace and dripping with jet beads.

> wave U-remover at mourning dress
There is a flash of psychedelic colors, and the mourning dress turns into a morning dress. An outfit of striped trousers and fancy coat, such as men sometimes wear to fancy weddings in the morning...

Counterfeit Monkey: a game of word manipulation.
posted by Iridic (53 comments total)

Metafilter: a game of word manipulation.
posted by Fizz at 8:56 AM on January 7, 2013

True fact: this is actually how laws are made in my great state.
posted by gerryblog at 8:58 AM on January 7, 2013 [9 favorites]

I spent most of my free time this weekend playing Counterfeit Monkey. It's quite amusing to play an interactive fiction in which object manipulation is word/letter manipulation.
posted by Prince_of_Cups at 9:00 AM on January 7, 2013

This is awesome, by the way. Thanks for the link.
posted by gerryblog at 9:09 AM on January 7, 2013

Perhaps inspired by the "T-removing machine" in the 1986 Infocom text adventure Leather Goddesses of Phobos, which was capable of turning a rabbit into a rabbi. And Nord And Bert Couldn't Make Head Nor Tail Of It (review here) was apparently constructed entirely out of puns.

See also Lost Consonants.
posted by pont at 9:21 AM on January 7, 2013 [4 favorites]

Perhaps I'm totally missing it, but what do I do at the front page? I don't have a text input and can't click on anything.
posted by codacorolla at 9:22 AM on January 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

"To play a work like this one, you need an interpreter program: many are available, among them Zoom for Mac OS X, Gargoyle (for Mac, Windows, or Linux), or Windows Git."

You'll also need the story file itself. I would expect an online implementation at some point, but I think the game is a little too large and fancy for the standard in-browser interpreters of the moment.
posted by Iridic at 9:27 AM on January 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Looks as though there is a JavaScript Glulx interpreter called Quixe. And here's a direct link which passes the game's GBLORB file straight to Quixe. Took a little while to load up on my 7-year-old laptop, but seems to work!
posted by pont at 9:35 AM on January 7, 2013 [3 favorites]

I saw that a minute or so after I posted. I'm playing it right now, and it's very fun so far. I think it'd be cool to see in an FPS engine.
posted by codacorolla at 9:39 AM on January 7, 2013

I am going to play the hell out of this when I get home tonight.
posted by xbonesgt at 9:48 AM on January 7, 2013

Hey, thanks for the shout-out!

I hope it's not out of order to stick my head in here to offer a cautionary note. Due to the size and heavy computation features of Monkey, Quixe is likely to a) run reallllly slowly and b) not show the graphical map, if that matters to you. It may also be wonky about retaining your achievement list. (I haven't tested that because I found it otherwise unplayable on Quixe.)

So I recommend a downloadable interpreter instead.
posted by emshort at 10:08 AM on January 7, 2013 [6 favorites]

Something I just learned: For those of you with Frotz on the iPhone, you can play this by clicking on the .gblorb file in Safari and selecting 'open with Frotz'. It does run a bit slowly and there's not a lot of screen real-estate, but if you've played a lot of interactive fiction games on the iPhone, you're likely used to that.
posted by Jugwine at 10:11 AM on January 7, 2013

I'm totally stumped on how to get the girl out of the hostel room. I'm also bad at text adventures with parsers.
posted by codacorolla at 10:19 AM on January 7, 2013

Imagine how you'd fare in a text adventure *without* a parser!
posted by TonyRobots at 10:29 AM on January 7, 2013 [2 favorites]

When you figure it out, codacorolla, "stumped" is going to be a really funny choice of words.
posted by zjacreman at 10:30 AM on January 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

I love the sound of this. I'll have to play it as soon as I have time.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:31 AM on January 7, 2013

When you figure it out, codacorolla, "stumped" is going to be a really funny choice of words.

Maybe a slightly bigger hint?
posted by codacorolla at 10:45 AM on January 7, 2013

Okay, I'm only a little way into this thing, but it is goddamn great, at least so far. I'm playing on Gargoyle, as the Git page appeared to be MeFied into submission.
posted by Malor at 11:11 AM on January 7, 2013

For codacorolla, ROT-13:
Jura lbh svefg rapbhagre ure, fur gnyxf nobhg n frevny xvyyre jub jrag sebz lbhgu ubfgry gb lbhgu ubfgry xvyyvat tveyf naq chggvat gurve obql cnegf vagb gur ybpxref.

Lbh'yy fpner ure njnl vs lbh fubj ure rivqrapr bs guvf. Gurer'f fbzrguvat ng gur puhepu tvsg fubc gung fubhyq uryc.
posted by Jugwine at 11:13 AM on January 7, 2013

I found an alternate way to get rid of her, but now I'm stuck again. I think I'm just going to resign myself to the fact that I don't like playing "guess the syntax" very much and just give up. Cool concept though.
posted by codacorolla at 11:50 AM on January 7, 2013

There is a useful "how to play IF" resource at People's Republic of Interactive Fiction. But, yeah, I've found that generally it takes a little while in a game for me to figure out which verb an object wants.
posted by Prince_of_Cups at 12:04 PM on January 7, 2013

Yesterday, my choice was to post either this or Mastaba Snoopy. My idea was to post this one today, but I see Iridic beat me to it.
posted by JHarris at 12:04 PM on January 7, 2013

I realized that there were a bunch of different ways shortly after I posted that. It's a fun game, but familiarity with the tropes and syntax of inform games is very helpful in places.
posted by Jugwine at 12:04 PM on January 7, 2013

OK, I'm going to ask for another hint. How in the hell do I refill this tube so I can get rid of the lock?
posted by codacorolla at 12:06 PM on January 7, 2013

OK, it sucks that you can instantly lose this game by experimenting. Trying to restore things to their original condition can end your game, and it claims that Gargoyle does not support undo.
posted by Malor at 12:11 PM on January 7, 2013

For those of you with Frotz on the iPhone, you can play this by clicking on the .gblorb file in Safari and selecting 'open with Frotz'.

Sentences like this help remind me I am living in the future.
posted by dhartung at 12:27 PM on January 7, 2013 [8 favorites]

How in the hell do I refill this tube so I can get rid of the lock?

Lbh pna'g. Gel nygrevat gur ghor vgfrys.
posted by Iridic at 1:02 PM on January 7, 2013

dhartung, specifically you are living in the future after Apple relaxed their policies about apps that run virtual machines enough so that Frotz passed testing.
posted by JHarris at 1:35 PM on January 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

At least Frotz exists for iOS. Is there a good Z-machine for Android?
posted by Elementary Penguin at 1:43 PM on January 7, 2013

Elementary Penguin, haven't run it much yet, but try JFrotz.
posted by JHarris at 1:48 PM on January 7, 2013

Oh also, to emshort: how on earth are you so consistently ingenious?
posted by JHarris at 1:50 PM on January 7, 2013 [6 favorites]

Z-machines for Android: JFrotz, Twisty, ZMPP Free, Hunky Punk. (In descending order of star rating.)
posted by pont at 2:03 PM on January 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

This isn't a ZCode game, pont, this needs a Glulx interpreter.
posted by Malor at 2:39 PM on January 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Isn't this based on an old Electric Company cartoon? Why, yes. Yes it is.
posted by JeffK at 2:47 PM on January 7, 2013

Well, pont was answering my poorly-formed question. Thanks, pont.

Twisty has a nicer interface than the others
posted by Elementary Penguin at 2:53 PM on January 7, 2013

It took me until just now to realize that the graphic on the left is the map! So gorgeous.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 3:02 PM on January 7, 2013

Yeah, that map is really something special. I'm really digging this game.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:31 PM on January 7, 2013

I really enjoyed this over my New Years break, though I got stuck when Waterstone closed his door.

I would also say I'm glad I was using software that supported undo when I accidentally killed myself. Given the feel of the game, it seems like "bad things and happen and you die... IF you had actually done that, which would be silly" would be better than actually killing off the player.
posted by 23 at 4:45 PM on January 7, 2013

though I got stuck when Waterstone closed his door.

Ever make it past that? It's been driving me crazy.
posted by dragstroke at 5:20 PM on January 7, 2013

No, I spent an hour trying to solve it or do completely different things and haven't gotten to spend time with the game since. Things I tried to do / did instead (ROT13):

- Ena gur cevag wbo naq ernq Jngrefgbar'f rffnl nobhg anhtugl jbeqf
- Gevrq gb unaq Jngrefgbar n zrzore be pbpx ohg ur whfg vtaberf xabpxvat
- Hctenqrq zl yrggre erzbire ohg nofgenpgvbaf abg urycvat
- Pbhyq abg svther bhg jung gb qb nobhg gur cnffjbeq
posted by 23 at 12:21 AM on January 8, 2013

Yep, stuck at the same place, same stuff. And today I might just have to do work instead. Oh well...
posted by dragstroke at 7:10 AM on January 8, 2013

I've verified that the game works, with UNDO, in Glulxe as compiled with glkterm in Linux--though there are not to my knowledge any binaries circulated in this form. glkterm means the game is running in text mode. I know you can compile Zoom on Linux as well, and that would be graphical, but I haven't tested that one.
posted by LogicalDash at 7:20 AM on January 8, 2013

There's a hint thread for this game here, if that helps.
posted by emshort at 2:22 PM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Cool, thanks for that - I managed to worm my way out of the Waterstone thing on my own, but used the hint thread for a later section.

WONDERFUL game, one of the best text adventures I've ever played! Thank you!
posted by dragstroke at 7:49 PM on January 8, 2013

Help. I'm trying to save the teenagers, but I missed my chance while the officer was distracted. Now I can't seem to distract him again. Am I stuck, forever being desperately looked at by two young idealists?
posted by Tsuga at 10:38 PM on January 8, 2013

Did you try changing the signet back to a sign?

In all honesty, I'm not sure if I completed that bit perfectly, but I did get past it.
posted by TonyRobots at 10:45 PM on January 8, 2013

Can't reach it.
posted by Tsuga at 10:49 PM on January 8, 2013

Is there something you could use that might do the job at a distance?
posted by TonyRobots at 10:51 PM on January 8, 2013

The rifle, but I can't get the rifle without first distracting the officer.
posted by Tsuga at 10:53 PM on January 8, 2013

Hmm, I can't help you then -- I got it while he was up climbing around...Sorry about that!
posted by TonyRobots at 10:54 PM on January 8, 2013

4 Copy Editors Killed In Ongoing AP Style, Chicago Manual Gang Violence
posted by LogicalDash at 4:26 PM on January 9, 2013

I can't get the car to move. I gave it gas and fuel but it's telling me I need a mechanic. Now what?
posted by Mchelly at 1:15 PM on January 14, 2013

Look on High Street for a potential mechanic shop.
posted by team lowkey at 1:51 PM on January 14, 2013