Spoiler-free questions

[Zzaped!]

Hello.
Also congratulations to all on another classy piece of work.
Just redownloaded to double-check on my wrong bug report, must just never have clicked on the icon box when anyone else was in the room in the early parts of first run through.
Serious question though, been through the game once, almost 11:30 that time around, couldn't think of anything more to try and find in time, so just let it run over the limit. Nothing much happened or changed. Is the 2 hr 20' in-game limit just a limit on accusing suspects?

[Sashanan]

It is - or is supposed to be - a limit on cracking the case. Letting it run past the deadline should end your game. If it didn't, I guess we testers missed something.

[Zzaped!]

Thanks for the reply.
It didn't end the game (it is 2 hr 20' from 9.10, isn't it?) the first time I tried it.
Since then was trying to find a crash condition that popped up once, but didn't want to reappear (tried two or three times so far, no crash), and trying to work out what to do with certain objects. Will try going over the time limit again tomorrow.
Not letting Snide do much (or anything at all) might have something to do with both.
Also, I deleted my earlier comment about the icon block, but the 'question' icon does seem a little buggy (not in any way that really detracts from the game), sometimes it is there when there is no other living character about, pretty sure it wasn't there a couple of times when other living characters were about on my first go.

[Zzaped!]

Neither the overtime thing (the game was over on the dot on the four or five times I got to 11.30
and properly went back to the start screen when just let run)  nor the freeze state (tried a few
times, was at about 9.45) has shown up again. 'Question' icon on the pad also was there when
other living or ghostly things were in the room, and not there when they weren't, the last might
have been due to inattention on my part.

[headkaze]

I don't think anyone has tested the game all the way through to the limit. So are you saying it doesn't end at 11:30? It should! LOL Okay something I will need to look into..

The question icon only shows when someone is in the room.

EDIT: Okay I just set the game to end earlier and it works as expected. If you leave the game you will be "shot by an unseen assassin" at 11:30. You must solve the game in 2 hours and 20 minutes. It's tough I know but that is like the original. The original didn't have saving so it should be easier.

There is a bug that causes a nasty crash but it's so random I could never figure out what was causing it. It seemed to happen once and then go away so I have my suspicions that it is caused by EFS.

[Zzaped!]

Game going overtime: only saying that it appeared to happen once (only). My comment about the icon pad was probably from careless observation. The crash was definite (interaction screen became scrolling question marks and fleurs de lis only, main graphic screen froze and cycled through three or four different patterns of pretty regular scan distortion with brief clean views of frozen screen in between), tried to reproduce all quite a few times and haven't seen any recur yet, even after reloading the original file and starting again.

Looks good, Snide is so pretty in green, does get a bit frustrating when you can't work out anything else to try, but then, it goes with the genre.

[headkaze]

It is a tough game.. Have you checked the Professors room? Have you found the book in the library yet?

[Zzaped!]

Checked that room well before this. No, I haven't found the book in the library but tried twenty or more variants on the reply that seems to be a clue plus the direct name in the clue today before seeing your message.

Do have a good report on three bugs.

The first is very simple, if you load a saved game before anything happens, Bentley will still say 'This way to your room sir'. Text ticker should be reset.

The second is harder to say without making it a spoiler, but if you do the thing on the landing outside the ghost's room after you have done it the first time, the visual results are the same (but you can't pick the thing up).

The third is about the crash state, the game time was roughly quarter to ten the first time, probably exactly the same as this time, that seems to be the main thing, pretty sure it depends on the game clock.

Text input window here doesn't like long messages, so I'll make another with the details.

[Zzaped!]

Crash state

Game time
About 9.45 the first time, probably exactly the same as the 9.45.46 on the second.

Places
Just outside Dingle's room (1st), vestibule with grandfather clock, between the drawing room and enclosed balcony (2nd), so probably irrelevant.

Crash effects (second time, didn't take notes the first)
Upper screen: Frozen, clock (in the room) was blank, the display repeatedly went through this cycle: blank, clean display, first scan-distortion pattern, briefer clean display,scan-distortion pattern or patterns, clean display for an instant, scan-distortion pattern or patterns.

Lower screen: Frozen, text ticker stopped, no question marks, icon pad blank, 'Headsoft' and 'The Detective' still on display, copyright message just had '(C) 20'.

Have only seen it twice (after playing through several times and letting it run to the end well over ten times), so not a common state, but think the time is the key, no idea what else causes it.

[headkaze]

Appreciate your feedback. I'm not really sure what I can do about it without going through the entire code line by line. The bug never appeared in No$ and appears to be random. It may be related to an event triggered in time but it's hard to say exactly. The DS is quite a hard machine to debug but I'm sure the bug is something simple to fix. I am quite busy lately so not sure when I can look into it but hopefully one day I can.

[Zzaped!]

Got the book, a timing condition probably prevented that when I tried after first finding the clue.   

Since then, got much the same crash condition at a different time (just after 10.20). Anyway, the game is playable (seven pieces of evidence now). Also busy from tomorrow, have to forget games for a few days.

[Zzaped!]

The crash bug doesn't seem to be entirely random, pretty sure the first and second (of only three) times I got it were at the same time. Would guess the reason it hasn't cropped up again is because I've mainly been playing from the saved game with the most evidence.
Think I got another bit of evidence last weekend but had been drinking and was very tired, game timed out and can't remember exactly what I did. If it wasn't a dream, I haven't managed to replicate it.
So another spoiler-free question, just in general, how much can making the game impossible by, say, doing something too early become a factor? Played it enough to see this is true for some obvious things (like staying in certain rooms), but what about just picking things up?

[Sashanan]

I got word from a reader on my guide for the original game last week stating that the "correct" time for ending the original game was not 11:30 - as I have written in my huide - but 11:03. I haven't doublechecked this yet. Obviously in this version it's 11:30, but if that was based off my guide, this may just be my goof.

[headkaze]

People could probably do with some of the extra time!

[Zzaped!]

Finally sat down and finished the thing. Kudos to the team again.

Three comments: timing is tight at the end, got misled into trying quite a few wrong things after trying the right thing but being too slow. Got the crash bug again (this time just after 10.15), but was the first time I'd seen it since earlier posts. 'MMIX' on the final screen is a nice play.