Let's Play Sierra Games - Torin's Passage.

[Tawmis]

Well, easy to guess based on the forum...

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm, OK. It's quite easy to guess that the brown-robed guy is evil. He's evil, I tells ya! Evil -- <EEEVIL!!>

Let's count the clues: Never shows his face, wears a creepy robe, has an eerie-glowing-green ring that summons snakes, talks in a mocking bass voice ... hmm. Now all he has to do is grow a moustache, so he can twirl it.

(Unless it's all a bluff, and he's only pretending to be evil while being good all the time? I hope not. That would be hypocrisy).
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Anyway, let's play "Change a word, ruin the game". Let's see now ... Torin's Massage. Oh baby, oh yeah -- there, there -- n-n-no, there! (Larry? What are YOU doing here?!)

Toro's Passage. Toro (the bull from QfG1) builds an underground passage to Spielburg, so he can go shopping for apples every now and then. Hmm ... apples.

Torin's Pascal. Learn to program with Boogle!

I'd go on, but this sort of thing is liable to get annoying, so I'll stop.

[Tawmis]

OK - I've started playing Torin's Passage - it's funny, so far I just landed in Chapter 2 (and barely done anything there) - most of chapter 1 I actually immensely enjoyed. In Chapter 2 I met the Bitternuts... and... because I try to exhaust all dialogue to get as much story as I can out of everyone... this part was immensely painful. I get the parody of B&W TV show, and the recorded laugh track... but it was a tad more annoying than it was actually even funny. And I am old and completely understand the reference! hahhahah

[notbobsmith]

OK - I've started playing Torin's Passage - it's funny, so far I just landed in Chapter 2 (and barely done anything there) - most of chapter 1 I actually immensely enjoyed. In Chapter 2 I met the Bitternuts... and... because I try to exhaust all dialogue to get as much story as I can out of everyone... this part was immensely painful. I get the parody of B&W TV show, and the recorded laugh track... but it was a tad more annoying than it was actually even funny. And I am old and completely understand the reference! hahhahah

Yeah, that whole sequence fell flat for me. It's a parody of an old TV show. Okay... and? It's basically just "Remember old TV shows?! And laugh tracks?! Weren't they lame?!" It's supposed to be funny because you, like you said, "completely understand the reference". But parody has to be more than that. And it doesn't fit anywhere else in the humor of this world.

[Tawmis]

OK - I've started playing Torin's Passage - it's funny, so far I just landed in Chapter 2 (and barely done anything there) - most of chapter 1 I actually immensely enjoyed. In Chapter 2 I met the Bitternuts... and... because I try to exhaust all dialogue to get as much story as I can out of everyone... this part was immensely painful. I get the parody of B&W TV show, and the recorded laugh track... but it was a tad more annoying than it was actually even funny. And I am old and completely understand the reference! hahhahah

Yeah, that whole sequence fell flat for me. It's a parody of an old TV show. Okay... and? It's basically just "Remember old TV shows?! And laugh tracks?! Weren't they lame?!" It's supposed to be funny because you, like you said, "completely understand the reference". But parody has to be more than that. And it doesn't fit anywhere else in the humor of this world.

It's interesting - because Chapter 1, is over all, pretty easy. And you could easily see this being something that could be played with a kid and their parent.

You get to the next world, with the Bitternuts (the parody show) - and even some of the other puzzles (vulture was easy enough) - but the women in the "hot tubs" below - that's not easy. That took me awhile to remember. Which eventually leads to the tile puzzle. I quickly found a frown - and determined it had to be a face. And I had what I thought was the eyes. So I kept shifting it around and finally got the "eyes" correct.

That leads to the next area - which is really easy - although, I admit - when I fell through the tree - I thought the game was bugged, because it kept going to Torin tied, so I watched Torin get eaten several times, before I clicked on myself and realized I could bust out of the rope. Sigh. And then the music singing..................... WHO THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA? I get Al Lowe loves music and probably has a musical ear... but not everyone does. That was horrendous. Stuff like that should have what - crikey, I am going to say this - what Lighthouse had - with an "Auto Solve?"

Where if you click the CLUE thing enough times - it will say, "Would you like to skip/solve this?" And 1. You lose points for clicking for hints, and 2. it just does it for you. So there is a punishment in deduction of points. So full points can't be achieved if this is used. This would have been satisfactory. I checked if this was an option (I would have still probably tried to solve it since I eventually did) - but an option to "pass/solve" for these types of "puzzles" would have helped probably a younger audience enjoy it / pass it / finish it / not punch the computer screen.

Then it dumps you into the next work, where you wipe off the control. And the only way out is a door with no buttons. I moused over the control and I swear nothing lit up after six or seven tries - until after going back and forth - it finally did. That leads to a few easy things - but then shoots you over to the lava maze. Holy hades. I scanned - saw the answer to the left - made my way all the way over there by click, after click, after click, after click, after - hundreds of clicks.

Then see something glitter on the right. Which I can't access. Unless I make my way back. So I restored to the start of the maze, went to the right and got the wrench (which how was it not searing hot being metal?). And made my way back to the start, and had to walk away. The non stop clicking to make Torin walk here is painful.

It's like it started so strong to be a family game, and progressively got more difficult, where no kid's going to sit through it.

I will have a lot to say about this, memory beloved game, that's bringing back some painful memories.

[Tawmis]

OK - so I needed that break - and decided to create a "subscribe to my channel" video using Torin's Passage - and sure, I've only done the previous three Quest for Glory II ones, since this is a new idea and all - but... uh, I love my video for Torin's Passage. I wanna hurry and beat the game just to put this video in front of my game play. lol

I really had fun with this one.

[Collector]

hat whole sequence fell flat for me. It's a parody of an old TV show. Okay... and? It's basically just "Remember old TV shows?! And laugh tracks?! Weren't they lame?!" It's supposed to be funny because you, like you said, "completely understand the reference". But parody has to be more than that. And it doesn't fit anywhere else in the humor of this world.

It has been some time since I have played this game, but my memory is that you do not need to hear all of the Bitternut lines to continue the game, the joke is the reference to such shows rather than the entirety of the show itself. Perhaps like the Sierra games that have funny descriptions for all of the background objects, but completely irrelevant to the game itself.

[notbobsmith]

hat whole sequence fell flat for me. It's a parody of an old TV show. Okay... and? It's basically just "Remember old TV shows?! And laugh tracks?! Weren't they lame?!" It's supposed to be funny because you, like you said, "completely understand the reference". But parody has to be more than that. And it doesn't fit anywhere else in the humor of this world.

It has been some time since I have played this game, but my memory is that you do not need to hear all of the Bitternut lines to continue the game, the joke is the reference to such shows rather than the entirety of the show itself. Perhaps like the Sierra games that have funny descriptions for all of the background objects, but completely irrelevant to the game itself.

It's been a while, but I seem to remember it being more of a scene, so it goes on for a while. And it continues when you do... whatever it is you have to do there.

[Tawmis]

hat whole sequence fell flat for me. It's a parody of an old TV show. Okay... and? It's basically just "Remember old TV shows?! And laugh tracks?! Weren't they lame?!" It's supposed to be funny because you, like you said, "completely understand the reference". But parody has to be more than that. And it doesn't fit anywhere else in the humor of this world.

It has been some time since I have played this game, but my memory is that you do not need to hear all of the Bitternut lines to continue the game, the joke is the reference to such shows rather than the entirety of the show itself. Perhaps like the Sierra games that have funny descriptions for all of the background objects, but completely irrelevant to the game itself.

It's been a while, but I seem to remember it being more of a scene, so it goes on for a while. And it continues when you do... whatever it is you have to do there.

I am pretty sure you don't NEED to if you know what to do. But you do have to talk to Ms. Bitternuts until she talks about the King and Queen being "virtually neighbors" and not doing anything with them...

[Tawmis]

Finished and converting the DOSBox files (Codec issue with my editor) so I can piece it together to render the game play.
The commentary, I will have some things to say about the game... great, good, and bad and "What?" moments.

[Tawmis]

Man. I realized there was a segment I played, and forgot to record. So had to go back in and record that.

So now, I think everything's sent. A little over 5 hours total gameplay (that's with no edits... areas where I was stuck, trying to figure out the singing puzzle, etc). So it's going to take about 10 hour to render.

May also do a second version, with the stuck puzzles sped up (and the lava area! CRIKEY!) - all sped up - to make it easier to digest.

Then will render up a commentary version sometime.

I am off next week (on vacation! Not doing anything, just maxed my vacation hours, so I needed to take some). So should have time to do it all.

[Tawmis]

Here's the Torin's Passage Let's Play video. It's still rendering the HD version (as of this moment, may be done by the time you read this!) This one has another "custom subscribe" video that's pretty short - but was absolutely fun to do. This is just the game play, no commentary... eager to do the commentary... because there were parts of this game I loved (just as I remembered!) and there are parts I don't remember (or blocked from my memory out of frustration)... so I am eager to do a commentary. (Don't forget to watch that intro and make sure you can help Torin reach The Lands Below!)
Much love to you all who put up with me!

[Tawmis]

Ah, here is the Torin's Passage commentary! I talk about the great, the good, and the frustrating moments of Torin's Passage - and how, in a few places, I would have made some drastic changes if I was the game designer! Why don't come with me on our journey to The Lands Below and check out the video! If you haven't, I'd appreciate a SUB to the channel too! (The custom intro I made explains why!) If not, a view and a Thumbs Up/Like of the video will also help!
[Nix the original link]

Actually this is the better one... I noticed that the audio was off by like 5 seconds (probably because of the special thing I put at the end for the commentary). I fixed the audio sync issue in this version:

[Rath Darkblade]

I'm sorry. I've never played Torin's Passage, or even ever seen it, so anything I say would probably be irrelevant.

But the name of this game gave me an idea. Thorin's Passage! The Dwarven King digs a secret tunnel to the human camp, so he can share a smoke with Gandalf. D'you think it could work?

[Tawmis]

I'm sorry. I've never played Torin's Passage, or even ever seen it, so anything I say would probably be irrelevant.

OK - I am not surprised you've not played...

But I highly recommend it. I do some complaining in the commentary... but really only "lava land" is intolerable. The rest of the game is so amazing and charming!