We didn't tell anybody what was going on in anybody else's room.

December 9, 2018 11:35 AM

Cragne Manor is a text adventure commemorating the twentieth anniversary of Michael Gentry's Anchorhead. It's also a huge, ridiculous experimental collaboration.
posted by markx2 (30 comments total)

Man, I just bought the remastered Anchorhead last month. It’s great, but it’s a lot more like the best of the old Infocom games (or maybe Curses by Graham Nelson, only without the travel to other worlds) than the kind of games that the community has created in the last 20 years. I’ve seen it described as the greatest last gasp of those older-style games, to mix metaphors a little.
posted by pharm at 12:25 PM on December 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

We didn't tell anybody what was going on in anybody else's room

Sounds like some other software projects I’ve worked on...
posted by darkstar at 12:41 PM on December 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

Walkthrough, *please*.
posted by pjmoy at 12:46 PM on December 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

I tried to play Anchorhead a few months ago (I love classic text adventure games and knew this was a major gap in my oeuvre, so to speak) but I don't think I was in the right headspace at the time- got a little too frustrated and gave up after a few hours. Thank you for the reminder that I need to try again to tackle this one. I know it's worth it.
posted by nightrecordings at 1:13 PM on December 9, 2018

I contributed a room to this! There's a thread for hints getting started over at the IntFiction forums; I'm still trying to get into the Manor, itself. There was a really good bit earlier involving a horse, but I'll refrain from saying more.
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 1:59 PM on December 9, 2018 [11 favorites]

There was a really good bit earlier involving a horse,

I see what you did there; people these days have no tack.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:33 PM on December 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

Man I forgot about Anchorhead for like the last fourteen years...I am playing this for sure! It is weird so far. I like the scrying cup of coffee as not-exactly-hint mechanism.
posted by little cow make small moo at 2:34 PM on December 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'll definitely give this a shot. I remember Anchorhead as one of the best Interactive Fiction games of all time. I used to spend ridiculous amounts of time playing Infocom games when I was younger. I credit Infocom and D&D for gifting me with a decent vocabulary and problem solving ability.
posted by xammerboy at 4:49 PM on December 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

I obsessively played Anchorhead one summer on a beat up laptop in the cellar where it was cool. I got so close to beating it but got caught in a turn based bit near the end that I finally gave up and grabbed a walkthrough to see if I'd messed up the timing somewhere weird.

I never beat it. Something was wrong, either with the walkthrough or in the code, but one of the final puzzles always timed out on me.

Maybe I'll go back to it. Damn game is my IF white whale though.
posted by cobaltnine at 5:38 PM on December 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

I, too, contributed a room! But now I have a new baby at home so I haven't actually had time to play the finished game.
posted by eruonna at 6:45 PM on December 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

I am a few rooms into this and I am debating if I want to break out some paper and start mapping. It's ages since I played a text adventure but this is a drill which I am oh so familiar with.
posted by egypturnash at 6:47 PM on December 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Does anyone have any hints for getting the lion sex book? I must have the lion sex book.
posted by egypturnash at 7:39 PM on December 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

This resulted in a game that is ridiculous. The world the authors created is inconsistent and often nonsensical. Commands that are necessary to progress in one room might not work anywhere else. Many of the puzzles are, by ordinary human standards, deeply unfair. By ordinary human standards, this is not a good game.

Haha, you had me at ridiculous. And the paragraph just kept getting better.
posted by zardoz at 7:44 PM on December 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

The hosting site's parent page has a lot of interactive fiction written by the site owner. A lot of it also looks like fun! http://www.rcveeder.net/blog/interactive-fiction/
posted by xammerboy at 8:19 PM on December 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

The hosting site's parent page has a lot of interactive fiction written by the site owner. A lot of it also looks like fun! http://www.rcveeder.net/blog/interactive-fiction/

it is in fact very fun
posted by taquito sunrise at 8:28 PM on December 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

I just played Anchorhead this year! I am so down for this!
posted by corb at 8:40 PM on December 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Does anyone have any hints for getting the lion sex book? I must have the lion sex book.

Do you have the jacket and backpack from the library?

posted by thomas j wise at 3:38 AM on December 10, 2018

Town square, Backwater, VT (Marco Innocenti)

....The large, hexagonal-shaped square....

Look I know weird geometries is kind of a theme with Lovecraftian stuff but come on
posted by solotoro at 11:16 AM on December 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Ok, I need another hint, because I have no idea what to do with the

jacket, backpack and the book. I think I ran out of buildings to distract Bethany with, too.

posted by domo at 12:27 PM on December 10, 2018

Lion Sex Book

You can ask Bethany about more buildings than are just in the pamphlet. She's got files on a lot of them.

posted by Jugwine at 1:09 PM on December 10, 2018

Ok, but what do I do with the stuff?
posted by domo at 1:17 PM on December 10, 2018

Details

Eventually there will be so many folders it will cover the lion sex book.
Then you can just take it and leave.
Read the lion sex book to the end and there's a cryptogram. Solve it.

posted by Jugwine at 1:26 PM on December 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

The coffee cup claims I have everything I need to solve The Old Well.

The coffee cup lies. I may have every item I need, but I clearly lack the understanding of what I'm suppose to do with them.

I can see and prod the various arches, and I think I see where they all connect to each other, but I haven't found any particular order that prodding them accomplishes anything.

I also can't figure how to do anything with the rusted padlock.

The text seems to be indicating it's to be broken, not unlocked, but it doesn't recognize any items I try to break it with.

posted by solotoro at 2:10 PM on December 12, 2018

Hooray

Not out yet, but the second hint mechanism pointed me to something I could prod that was not itself an arch

posted by solotoro at 10:43 AM on December 13, 2018

Anyone else have mildew? I don't know how to get rid of it.
posted by domo at 9:02 AM on December 14, 2018

Yeah all my stuff is mildewed now. I am just ignoring it? I tried ditching the gloves but the mildew did not leave and the coffee-hinter suggested I was going to want the gloves later.

I too am stuck at the Old Well, able to do many things with the arches but not open the well yet, though I thought the moldy journal was giving me an obvious clue.
posted by little cow make small moo at 9:59 AM on December 14, 2018

though I thought the moldy journal was giving me an obvious clue.
I'm through that area now (currently trying to figure out what else I could possibly need to do in the Subterranean Tunnel that I haven't already, but my coffee still says there's lots to do) and

(short version)

It is.

(Click for more detail)

Actually it's giving you several clues

(Click for even more)

you have to get them in the right order

(Really getting spoilery now if you click)

or you're likely to die a gruesome death (I died probably twenty times before I got everything right....)

posted by solotoro at 11:37 AM on December 14, 2018

I found out how to avoid the mildew! I restarted and

put any items in my inventory that I wasn't wearing in the backpack, as well as the jacket even though I was wearing it because it didn't have the parentheses saying I was wearing it. Then I closed the backpack. Everything in my inventory had a parentheses after it. Then I picked up the gloves and then dropped them. I was able to get the key and thus far no mildew!. I will go back for the gloves if and when I need them.

posted by domo at 11:40 AM on December 14, 2018

Any luck with the cemetery?

I know there is something up with the urns/graves, but I keep placing them on headstones and opening/closing them to no avail.

posted by domo at 11:42 AM on December 14, 2018

I figured out all the Old Well stuff and am now wandering around peering into my coffee at different places. Several of the places I thought I was stuck turned out to be "look again" or "wait" kind of things.

At Cragne family plot cemetery

I don't think I did anything with urns apart from searching inside all of them...

There's still stuff I have to do there but coffee tells me I am not yet equipped for it...
posted by little cow make small moo at 6:47 PM on December 14, 2018