Laura Bow - Colonel's Bequest Playthrough.

[Tawmis]

Pretty sure I found a bug...

I just replayed the game and encountered this again. There is a certain command you can type where it acknowledges Lillian is in the room, but is reading so won’t talk to you. It also registers her presence if you spy through the portrait holes.

Yeah it was weird. I'd gone in the room when she was reading. Went back after a few rooms, she was gone. Wandered back - and she was back - as if reading, but couldn't talk to her, look at her, nothing.

[Tawmis]

So, my recorded play through of Colonel's Bequest ran 8 hours and 45 minutes!
This is because, at times - if the time forward triggered - I'd restore - and see if there was a better thing to see.
Like for example, walking in and seeing XYZ sleeping on their bed moved it to 7:30 - I'd restore, go to another area and see if there was a more informative trigger to 7:30.

[Tawmis]

My 8 hour and 45 minute one finished uploading to Youtube - but the processing will probably take a day or so.
So the sped up version, which is the same footage - sped up - and 2 hours and some change - will probably finish uploading and processing before the 8 hour & 45 minute one does!
I'll use the sped up version to do my commentary version - and speed up portions where I don't speak - so it should shrink the length further unless I ramble a lot.
Chance of rambling a lot has high potential.

[BBP]

When it comes to LB I've noticed the game will say she's not there when you type the command, but if you click her with the mouse, the game will see them. There seem to be multiple instances where the wrong command is given (in the barn the " kill horse" and "kiss horse" commands are switched, for instance).

[Tawmis]

When it comes to LB I've noticed the game will say she's not there when you type the command, but if you click her with the mouse, the game will see them. There seem to be multiple instances where the wrong command is given (in the barn the " kill horse" and "kiss horse" commands are switched, for instance).

I.... hadn't even considered the KILL HORSE command! Or KISS HORSE.

[Tawmis]

Super long 8 hour and 45 minute version of the play through....

[Tawmis]

Sped up 2 hours and 11 minute version.

[Tawmis]

I know this is Fifi's "changing room" - which you can walk into - but I've never seen this screen.
I can walk in, look room, search clothes, etc - but never seen this shot.
Anyone seen it before? Or is it just an unused screen?

[Rath Darkblade]

Is it this one?

(Open door)

[Tawmis]

Actually yes - that makes more sense. The resource viewer doesn't have the doors closed.

It's when Fifi changes clothes. You see this view.

[Tawmis]

Commentary version.

[notbobsmith]

I just finished your commentary video. It's harder for me to make comments on the Laura Bow games since I only played it twice as part of my "Choose My Next Adventure" thing. Police Quest and Manhunter, on the other hand, I've played countless times. The thing bugged me about Colonel's Bequest is that you could just meander through the game and get to the end without any of what you discovered or failed to discover mattering. It's a mystery where you could essentially jump to the end without having read the rest of the book. Anyway just a few comments:

26:20 That is a nice touch with the swing being broken for the rest of the game

30:00 With the person walking outside, I wonder if it is possible to figure out who it is by process of elimination if you can find where everyone else is. Then again, with people moving around unnoticed when the clock changes, there's no guarantee that you'd be right.

35:57 It's been a while, but I am pretty sure you can tell people about the bodies, but no one believes you. I seem to remember when you tell someone, he leaves the room and comes back and tells you that he didn't find anything. I think you have to phrase it "tell about [victim]". I just checked the script. It's Wilbur:
WF "Oh, no! I'd better go check on that!"
A short time later...
WF "You're crazy, girl! Gertie's not there!"


1:02:00 He really does flip him the bird, doesn't he! I looked to see if maybe it was meant to show something else, but I couldn't figure anything else except for that.

1:04:00 I seem to remember finding a body in the well. I think it was Gloria (with the feather boa). Do some of the victims turn up in random areas?

People are up really, really late. There's still activity after midnight.

I suppose Laura could have just yelled for help after finding a body.

I never quite understood the point of finding fingerprints since you can't do anything with them. I was wondering if there was a command to compare them since you have Lillian's fingerprint from her diary. I checked the script and didn't find any text that supports this, but I'm not sure if the script was extracted from the game files or not.

[Tawmis]

I just finished your commentary video. It's harder for me to make comments on the Laura Bow games since I only played it twice as part of my "Choose My Next Adventure" thing. Police Quest and Manhunter, on the other hand, I've played countless times.

I commend you for playing two of the harder Sierra games countless times!
Police Quest, you can get by not always following the rules.
But it does have some crazy parts, where if you don't do it right - you end up gunned down.
And Manhunter... phew, that can be an exercise in frustration!

The thing bugged me about Colonel's Bequest is that you could just meander through the game and get to the end without any of what you discovered or failed to discover mattering. It's a mystery where you could essentially jump to the end without having read the rest of the book.

I know what you mean. There's no indication of the moving clock/mirror/cabinets - other than hollow photos on the wall.
That hints of a secret passage - but nothing to say it's one of those four things. It's not like you ever see one slightly ajar.
So I remember playing this when it first came out, never found any of the secret passages.
Back then I was in the habit of always buying the cluebooks to use after I beat the game, to see what I missed.
Finished the game, nowhere near super slueth level.
Read the hint book - and was like, "Wait. What? Secret passages?"

26:20 That is a nice touch with the swing being broken for the rest of the game

Yeah, I thought it was cool it remembered that action!

30:00 With the person walking outside, I wonder if it is possible to figure out who it is by process of elimination if you can find where everyone else is. Then again, with people moving around unnoticed when the clock changes, there's no guarantee that you'd be right.

I think that's the difficult part, because there's some people you just won't find - or they might be outside in the creepy doll house... damn it, Lillian!

35:57 It's been a while, but I am pretty sure you can tell people about the bodies, but no one believes you. I seem to remember when you tell someone, he leaves the room and comes back and tells you that he didn't find anything. I think you have to phrase it "tell about [victim]". I just checked the script. It's Wilbur:
WF "Oh, no! I'd better go check on that!"
A short time later...
WF "You're crazy, girl! Gertie's not there!"

Hrm, will need to check that out!

1:02:00 He really does flip him the bird, doesn't he! I looked to see if maybe it was meant to show something else, but I couldn't figure anything else except for that.

Yeah, that cracked me up!

1:04:00 I seem to remember finding a body in the well. I think it was Gloria (with the feather boa). Do some of the victims turn up in random areas?

I do know that I've seen Ethel's body both in the carriage house (in the boat) as well as the rose / heart garden (just outside the manor).

I am not sure what determines where her body appears.

But like you, I could swear there was a body in the well.

So it could be random, and I ended up finding Gloria in the gazebo in this play through. But man, I vividly recall someone in the well. But I might be crazy...

People are up really, really late. There's still activity after midnight.

Seriously!

I never quite understood the point of finding fingerprints since you can't do anything with them. I was wondering if there was a command to compare them since you have Lillian's fingerprint from her diary. I checked the script and didn't find any text that supports this, but I'm not sure if the script was extracted from the game files or not.

Same, which I make mention of. But I guess, it's just to show she's thinking like a detective - but the lack of having opposing fingerprints.
Like it would have been cool to compare Lillian's finger print on the diary to the fireplace poker, for example.

[Semi-Happy Partygoer]

Some of the bodies can indeed be found in two locations. It’s entirely random (see the article about the random number generator that’s broken by the Celie crack). Others, like Gertie, Jeeves and Fifi, always appear in the same room each game.

Here’s how you can experiment…save your game outside the carriage house after Ethel disappears, for instance. Enter and you might find her. If she’s not in there, she’ll be in the rose garden. But reload and enter the carriage house and you might find her there this time.

That’s ultimately how I discovered Gloria in the well again. Usually, for me, she almost always appears at the gazebo. So I saved directly below the gazebo and walked up. I found her there about four times in a row, constantly reloading, until eventually she didn’t appear. Then I found her down the well.

[Tawmis]

Some of the bodies can indeed be found in two locations. It’s entirely random (see the article about the random number generator that’s broken by the Celie crack). Others, like Gertie, Jeeves and Fifi, always appear in the same room each game.

Here’s how you can experiment…save your game outside the carriage house after Ethel disappears, for instance. Enter and you might find her. If she’s not in there, she’ll be in the rose garden. But reload and enter the carriage house and you might find her there this time.

That’s ultimately how I discovered Gloria in the well again. Usually, for me, she almost always appears at the gazebo. So I saved directly below the gazebo and walked up. I found her there about four times in a row, constantly reloading, until eventually she didn’t appear. Then I found her down the well.

I have all my saves - so I may go back and see if I can make this happen.