Codename Iceman Wallpaper

[Tawmis]

Was messing around and decided to make this - took the screen shot then copy pasta the sides to make the rocks extend further to create the wallpaper.

[Rath Darkblade]

I've never played CNI, but this looks good.

Just wondering: if -- as part of the game -- you had to gamble (as you do in LSL1 and PQ1), would it be called "Codename: Dice-man"?

*runs away to avoid being lynched*

[Tawmis]

I've never played CNI, but this looks good.
Just wondering: if -- as part of the game -- you had to gamble (as you do in LSL1 and PQ1), would it be called "Codename: Dice-man"?
*runs away to avoid being lynched*

This is - without a doubt - the most brutually difficult and unforgiving game Sierra has ever made. Ever. Bar none.

And - as luck would have it - there is a part you do have to "gamble" - it's not required... but there's a thing where a guy on the sub challenges you to a game for his bottle of (whiskey or whatever it is).

And the kicker?

Doesn't let you save your progress during this 1 on 1 with the guy.

He will remark, "You wouldn't be trying to cheat would you?"

See: http://sierrahelp.com/forums/viewtopic. ... 116#p54116

[Rath Darkblade]

The most brutally difficult? What about "Gold Rush"?

[Tawmis]

The most brutally difficult? What about "Gold Rush"?

Goldrush doesn't even come close, in my opinion.

[Rath Darkblade]

No? Sorry, I'm confused. I haven't played either (so I should probably keep my big mouth shut ), but can you please elaborate? What makes "Iceman" harder than "Gold Rush"?

[Tawmis]

No? Sorry, I'm confused. I haven't played either (so I should probably keep my big mouth shut ), but can you please elaborate? What makes "Iceman" harder than "Gold Rush"?

Goldrush itself isn't too difficult.
Well - let me back track. You start with a little bit of money and need to buy supplies to survive which ever trek you're going on.
If you buy the wrong supplies, you dead end.
So yes, difficult in that regard.
And you CAN randomly just DIE. Just like Oregan Trail; you can just fall over dead from a disease, not that you did anything wrong.
Just a part of the realism.
Which is cool - but I wish(ed) it'd just restore from that and just have an educational message ("People often died of dysentary when crossing. Lucky for you, you can restore!" and then have a restore option to right before that random death).

Codename: Iceman... is full of dead ends. FULL. of them. Relentless cruel on mistakes.
Death comes in a thousand different ways (sub too slow, didn't dive deep enough, didn't fire the right missile, didn't use the distract bomb thing, didn't shoot the gun, etc etc).
There's so many oppotunities to die.
And the sub portion - is a submarine simulator. So, for the most part if you listen to commands given - you can usually survive the driving.
But the rest.... is pure chance.

I got Codename: Iceman when it came out. And I'd dead end so often or get sick of the subsequence.
It was not till 2015 that I beat it.

Goldrush? I've played and beat, probably 30 times (10x per route, probably). Never gave up on it.

[Rath Darkblade]

Oh, OK. I just heard about how, in Gold Rush, you could die randomly of disease etc. "You have died of dysentery! Too bad for you!" etc.

I've heard of how brutal C:I is, but .... yeesh. It's like the developers wanted you to not beat it.

[Tawmis]

Oh, OK. I just heard about how, in Gold Rush, you could die randomly of disease etc. "You have died of dysentery! Too bad for you!" etc.
I've heard of how brutal C:I is, but .... yeesh. It's like the developers wanted you to not beat it.

Yeah; the random deaths in Gold Rush are a pain. But they don't have at every turn. You might randomly die maybe once or twice. It's not every time you go into a new screen.

Codename: Iceman looks to dead end you every chance it gets.

For example - there's an area, early on. You show your ID to get into a back area. You go upstairs. The guy up there collects your ID (no idea why).
You go in, have a meeting, learn your mission and exit the room.
Now - you have to remember to ASK FOR YOUR ID back!
Because once you go downstairs - EVEN THOUGH YOU JUST SHOWED THE GUY DOWNSTAIRS YOUR IDEA NOT TOO LONG AGO - he says, "Can't let you go back there without a valid ID."

Dead end.

Just ridiculous dead ends like that.

And the sub sequence - I think they wanted to create a realistic "submarine simulator" - and it's fun. At first. Then when you need to start diving and firing specific missiles at specific times -- and the right ones at that - it quickly loses it's charm.

All of my ranting - the game, however, is absolutely beautifully done. One of the best games, graphically made for that era.

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm. Sounds as difficult as the HHGTTG game (which you can still play on the BBC now!)

But yes, that sounds ridiculous. In the real world, you'd say to the guy upstairs "All right, you've seen my ID. Now give it back."

It's an ID card, not a dangerous weapon or something that you have to leave at the door. How does that make any sense? *shrug*

[Tawmis]

Hmm. Sounds as difficult as the HHGTTG game (which you can still play on the BBC now!)

Yes! (I used to play HHGttG all the time! I had it on disk and it had to boot to the disk!)

But yes, it's like that in difficulty - but imagine it not waiting for you (like you have so long before the bulldozer comes) - it just BLAM! Shows up if you hesitate.

[Rath Darkblade]

Sheesh - I tried playing it last night, and while I picked up my bathrobe and had a look at the stuff in the pockets, and then tried to pick up the toothbrush, the bulldozer knocked my house down.

Am I not supposed to look in my robe brush my teeth?

[Tawmis]

Sheesh - I tried playing it last night, and while I picked up my bathrobe and had a look at the stuff in the pockets, and then tried to pick up the toothbrush, the bulldozer knocked my house down.
Am I not supposed to look in my robe brush my teeth?

If I remember - you have very little time. You need to turn on the light - and there's something inside the house you need to get - before you get out.

[notbobsmith]

Just adding my $0.02:

Codename Iceman is easily the most difficult Sierra game. There are the dead ends that Tawmis mentioned. And the sub sequence which is very annoying. The main problem is that the game doesn't give you much feedback as to whether or not you are doing something right or wrong. My biggest pet peeve was the parser. It's as if the game is deliberately trying to confound you. There's a scene in the beginning where you have to perform CPR on a swimmer. The instructions are in the manual. The game pretty much wants the instructions entered exactly as they appear in the manual. Slight changes and it won't accept it (and the swimmer dies). At one point you have to open a briefcase to read your orders. I open the briefcase and can seen a few white pixels which would seem to be the papers. So I type "take orders". Can't do that. "Take papers". Can't do that. "Look in briefcase" "The briefcase is empty." WHAT? No it's not. It turns out the game would only accept "envelope" for the word. Near the end I ended up having to get a hint because I couldn't find an item. I thought I saw it sitting on something so it typed "look [thing]" and it just gave a description of the thing instead of adding "There's a [item] sitting on the [thing]." (I'm redacting because of spoilers). What I needed to type was "look on top of [thing]". The game just goes out of its way to make things more difficult than they need to be. A lot of this is covered in my playthrough from a few years ago.

[Tawmis]

Just adding my $0.02:

Codename Iceman is easily the most difficult Sierra game. There are the dead ends that Tawmis mentioned. And the sub sequence which is very annoying. The main problem is that the game doesn't give you much feedback as to whether or not you are doing something right or wrong. My biggest pet peeve was the parser. It's as if the game is deliberately trying to confound you. There's a scene in the beginning where you have to perform CPR on a swimmer. The instructions are in the manual. The game pretty much wants the instructions entered exactly as they appear in the manual. Slight changes and it won't accept it (and the swimmer dies). At one point you have to open a briefcase to read your orders. I open the briefcase and can seen a few white pixels which would seem to be the papers. So I type "take orders". Can't do that. "Take papers". Can't do that. "Look in briefcase" "The briefcase is empty." WHAT? No it's not. It turns out the game would only accept "envelope" for the word. Near the end I ended up having to get a hint because I couldn't find an item. I thought I saw it sitting on something so it typed "look [thing]" and it just gave a description of the thing instead of adding "There's a [item] sitting on the [thing]." (I'm redacting because of spoilers). What I needed to type was "look on top of [thing]". The game just goes out of its way to make things more difficult than they need to be. A lot of this is covered in my playthrough from a few years ago.

I don't remember the envelope part - I can't remember what I typed. But I don't remember it being difficult there (though I would not be surprised!)

And I can't think of the item you're thinking of. Trying to think of the ending.

My thing was the earring in the beginning... and then if you don't get it translated...

As for the parser, it is sort like how in LSL2 - the airbag thing... was a nightmare.