rube

January 15, 2005 8:33 AM

If Terry Gilliam and Rube Goldberg made flash games, they may go something like this.
posted by onkelchrispy (75 comments total)

Oddly compelling
posted by ColdChef at 9:09 AM on January 15, 2005

Agh! Can't power the generator fast enough. Curse this touchpad! Although, I wonder if I'd be able to get it going fast enough with a real mouse, even...
posted by Watsonne at 9:09 AM on January 15, 2005

When the ball dropped to the ground, it just disappeared, and it doesn't look like there's anything left to click. Is it a work in progress?
posted by Bugbread at 9:10 AM on January 15, 2005

I "won" it. Just click a lot to power the generator.

Wait for the ball to keep falling. Eventually, it'll catch up.
posted by ajpresto at 9:12 AM on January 15, 2005

Truly beautiful.

Thanks.
posted by LinnTate at 9:14 AM on January 15, 2005

Sorry... I meant, spin a lot to make the generator go.
posted by ajpresto at 9:14 AM on January 15, 2005

I don't think I had any problem with it hitting the ground, but I can't figure out what to do with the flying bicycle. The traffic light doesn't seem to do anything. Otherwise, very nice.
posted by krebby at 9:16 AM on January 15, 2005

Flying bicycle? Are you supposed to keep it aloft in the "stop" position of a traffic light or something?
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:21 AM on January 15, 2005

Not just keep it aloft...and forget about the traffic light.

Finally got through it. It looks like it was incorrectly loading the first few times I played it (I didn't get numbers on the piano keyboard, the screen didn't scroll down when it should have, etc.), but there were no crashes or error messages, so I thought it was working fine. Upon refreshing the page to retry it, the whole "falling to the ground and disappearing" problem went away.
posted by Bugbread at 9:26 AM on January 15, 2005

I made it! But I guess I was too late...

So which one you ran of with the treasure?
posted by Timeless at 9:28 AM on January 15, 2005

very, very creative...
posted by fluffycreature at 9:31 AM on January 15, 2005

Worthful?
posted by Zurishaddai at 9:32 AM on January 15, 2005

It's not made by a native English speaker, so some spelling / grammar oddness is to be expected.
posted by Bugbread at 9:38 AM on January 15, 2005

wow that too cool!
posted by freudianslipper at 9:40 AM on January 15, 2005

Play the piano corectly?
I'm stuck after sequence of keys 5,8,12.
The last time I encountered this I lost interest before I knew I didn't need a shower.
damn ADD!
posted by page404 at 9:42 AM on January 15, 2005

Fun. But that generator thing is killing me. Can't seem to go fast enough to light even the first bulb.
posted by destro at 9:48 AM on January 15, 2005

Very cool! The bike is a little tricky trying to figure out what to do but other than that most of the other puzzles were straight forward, very creative.
posted by asterisk at 9:50 AM on January 15, 2005

I'm stuck at the generator with destro.
posted by ursus_comiter at 9:51 AM on January 15, 2005

With the generator, try holding down your mouse button (that's half a hint)

With the piano, look at the sheet music.

I thought this was very charming, pity it wasn't longer!
posted by nelleish at 9:51 AM on January 15, 2005

so i'm spinning and spinning, and i'm not sure how long i need to keep spinning the generator. the little "i want light" fella keeps saying yes, then faster, then i want light. i'm really missing something.
posted by rude.boy at 10:01 AM on January 15, 2005

wow even with my wacom pen I can't spin that generator fast enough.....
posted by dabitch at 10:05 AM on January 15, 2005

bugb -- I just spent about 3 minutes keeping it aloft. Either mine is buggy, or there's something else.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:09 AM on January 15, 2005

Yeah, I know how to spin it. Just not getting results.
posted by ursus_comiter at 10:09 AM on January 15, 2005

Very nifty! I got stuck early and checked the comments and thought, "What freakin' generator?" Got through to the end though, really neat puzzle. Thanks, onkelchrispy.
posted by lobakgo at 10:19 AM on January 15, 2005

I had no prob with the generator. Piece of cake. Hold down the mouse button and spin it. When the ball fell to the ground it disappeared. I waited for several minutes, but it never appeared again. I finally exited and didn't feel like starting over. Very cool, though.
posted by wsg at 10:30 AM on January 15, 2005

I managed to spin hell out of the generator by just spazzing on my touchpad. Eventually all three bulbs lit.

The traffic light distracted me for ages, but when I read the hint to ignore it completely, I ended up accidently doing what was needed. My ability to hover the ball is not particularly well-developed...

Cool art project.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:34 AM on January 15, 2005

Ah, I finally got the bicycle figured out. You don't just have to keep it aloft, you have to keep it aloft at the top of the screen. Then the birds are released.

As for the generator--you don't need to speed up, just get a steady rhythym going while holding down the mouse button and all the lights will eventually light up.

My treasure box was empty. :(
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:35 AM on January 15, 2005

wow. intriguing and creative.

[this is good]
posted by mrplab at 10:47 AM on January 15, 2005

I hope you will be the King someday.
posted by patgas at 10:51 AM on January 15, 2005

I got down below the piano and there's nothing there! What do I do?
posted by grouse at 10:52 AM on January 15, 2005

This was very cool. :) Thanks!
posted by zarq at 11:00 AM on January 15, 2005

Regarding the piano: if you get stuck, just start experimenting with numbers 1 through 14 after whatever part of the sequence you have already figured out. Suggest you do them in order, so you don't lose track.

That's how I had to get the last number, since when you get to the end of the sheet music there's still one note left to play....
posted by zarq at 11:03 AM on January 15, 2005

played for 20 min. couldn't get past that generator part!

Apparantly, a 500MHz G4 isn't enough to play this game. When I tried it on my PC (3GHz) it worked like a charm.

nice game.
posted by skyway at 11:05 AM on January 15, 2005

A little samarost-ish, yes? Simpler and yet more bizarre at the same time.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 11:08 AM on January 15, 2005

[spoiler]: 5-8-12-5-2-4.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:27 AM on January 15, 2005

Or something like that.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:27 AM on January 15, 2005

I have a few mouse buttons, what is holding any of them down going to do? I have a steady rythm, pretty fast, and just got seriously bored after "spinning" that generator for ten minutes straight...
posted by dabitch at 11:33 AM on January 15, 2005

ehm.. that didn't come out right and makes no sense. Anyway, spinning is hard. ;)
posted by dabitch at 11:36 AM on January 15, 2005

Very beautiful, I love little worlds like this. Maybe I should finally get around to playing Myst and Riven.
posted by substrate at 11:40 AM on January 15, 2005

Very inspiring. I loved the art and the tune was really... catchy. Thanks for the link.

(Did I finish? Yes.)
posted by C.Batt at 12:00 PM on January 15, 2005

Yes! Samarost!!! I was trying to remember that, and was about to post to ask. Thanks, Jack Karaoke!
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 12:12 PM on January 15, 2005

This was most excellent, and I did finally make it to the end, but I'm going to feel like stoplights everywhere are mocking me for at least the next week.
posted by abiku at 12:23 PM on January 15, 2005

skyway, my 600mhz pc handled the generator just fine. it just takes patience and very small, quick circles.
posted by zarq at 12:39 PM on January 15, 2005

My treasure box was empty too :(

Gorgeous game, though.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 12:56 PM on January 15, 2005

Also, for the one guy left who hasn't seen it already, Fly Guy.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 1:06 PM on January 15, 2005

Thank-you onkelchrispy, my wife and I really enjoyed that. Great Post!
posted by Hanover Phist at 1:37 PM on January 15, 2005

So uh, there are no web sites about Terry Gilliam on any of the internets?

The game is really cool, though.
posted by Sibrax at 1:45 PM on January 15, 2005

Grouse: If there's nothing past the piano (the ball just drops to the ground), it's probably because the game loaded incorrectly. If there were no numbers on the piano keys, that's definitely the problem. Reload the screen (hit refresh, don't open it anew), and try again. If it loads correctly, when you get to the piano, the keys should have numbers, and the rest will work.
posted by Bugbread at 1:53 PM on January 15, 2005

it just takes patience and very small, quick circles.

The same advice I'd recommend for good foreplay...
posted by five fresh fish at 1:56 PM on January 15, 2005

After the piano, I just see what vaguely resembles two hands lifting the groud. Is this right?
posted by of strange foe at 2:43 PM on January 15, 2005

That was neat, thanks! Took forever to get past the traffic light guy, though.
posted by LeeJay at 2:52 PM on January 15, 2005

is everybody who is unable to complete the generator using a mac?
posted by destro at 3:04 PM on January 15, 2005

Thanks. Great artwork. Reminds me of Eastern-European animation shorts.
posted by fubar at 3:07 PM on January 15, 2005

of strange foe: Nope, that's the badly loaded version. What you should see is the camera continue to scroll down, until the hands are no longer visible, and the red ball is in front of a frog.

Since this seems pretty prevalent, time to post specs:

I had that problem (camera scrolled down to two hands lifting ground and stopped) running:

Firefox 1.0 on
Windows 2K

Refreshing the page (F5) caused it to play correctly.
posted by Bugbread at 3:08 PM on January 15, 2005

oh i LOVE this!
posted by kamylyon at 4:04 PM on January 15, 2005

It kept failing for me in Firefox until I made my browser larger than 1021x760. Try making that window as big as you can (in Linux, I resized it bigger than the screen) to see if it helps.
posted by mendel at 5:00 PM on January 15, 2005

Destro: I couldn't use the generator either on my iBook. I will try it with my PC now and see what happens.

On the iBook, I was only ever able to get the first bulb to flicker.

Great post, by the way.
posted by synecdoche at 5:29 PM on January 15, 2005

Worked on my Win2K machine but not my Apple laptop.
posted by synecdoche at 5:37 PM on January 15, 2005

If you're having trouble, right click, hit Play, then right click again, and hit Back.
posted by armoured-ant at 5:40 PM on January 15, 2005

That background music makes me happy.
posted by thanatogenous at 5:45 PM on January 15, 2005

That was great, and short enough that it didn't drive me crazy. Thanks.
posted by fungible at 6:36 PM on January 15, 2005

The point of the journey is not to arrive.
posted by Eideteker at 7:04 PM on January 15, 2005

bugbread: Thanks for the tip. Reloading also fixed some other strange confusing artifacts.
posted by grouse at 7:09 PM on January 15, 2005

The "Game" is not about anything more than the inherent beauty of a self-contained world. I loved it, and had very few problems navigating it before I looked at any of these comments.


So uh, there are no web sites about Terry Gilliam on any of the internets?

Uh, you know, Sibrax, that's not the right answer.

Instead of kvetching about the darkness, you could always light a match.
(That last link is gorgeous and will keep you occupied for a long time too.)

You'd do good to learn that, Sibrax, in life as well as in here.
posted by chicobangs at 10:09 PM on January 15, 2005

So sad . . . li'l macintosh won't spin quick enough. So very sad.
posted by Uccellina at 2:32 AM on January 16, 2005

Excellent game, love the music.
posted by Orange Goblin at 4:00 AM on January 16, 2005

yeah thanks bugbread , I never get any numbers on the piano.... Also, my mac just can't spin fast enough (firefox and safari on osX tried...) bummah!
posted by dabitch at 8:05 AM on January 16, 2005

chicobangs, I wasn't trying to be snarky. If it was a broken link, I would have offered the right one, but the link is totally blank. I was curious as to what specific site onkelchrispy had in mind, and why no one else brought it up. No biggie.
posted by Sibrax at 8:41 AM on January 16, 2005

Works great on my Mac.
Very fun.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:43 AM on January 16, 2005

My eleven year old played it easily. Takes a child's mind...be curious and open to anything (her quote).
posted by trii at 4:55 PM on January 16, 2005

Precious! There's nothing to it really--that's a good little game.
posted by PuppyCat at 5:24 PM on January 16, 2005

Great game! I didn't have any problems with it loading, on IE6 on an NT machine.

I also would have enjoyed it going on for a while longer - treasure or no treasure - as I just felt I was finally getting in the groove of being able to second-guess the logic behind new sections.

And chicobangs, thanks for those great Gilliam links, but sheesh, where'd that preachier-than-thou tone come from? Weird.
posted by soyjoy at 5:56 PM on January 16, 2005

soyjoy (and sibrax, and everyone), sorry about the snark. It's just when someone starts a comment with the word "Uh,..." or "Um,..." and then complains about something that's easy to fix, my reaction tends to not be one of patience.

A Terry Gilliam link was missing from the FPP, sure, but perhaps they could have maybe asked about the missing link instead of what sounded like stifling a yawn while waiting to be entertained? (I merely googled his name, checked the first dozen links, and posted the best three. )

Regardless, I apologize for my attitude. I don't want to derail this thread any further.
posted by chicobangs at 7:19 AM on January 17, 2005

What is the genorator? I can't seem to figure it out!
posted by kozad at 7:44 AM on January 17, 2005

I also had trouble the first time using IE 6. Reloaded and it was fine, though.
posted by mai at 3:55 PM on January 17, 2005