Jigsaw, by Graham Nelson

One of the true classics from the post-commercial era and only recently I came to seriously put an effort to play it. Previously I’d only reach inside the monument and that’s about it. (I’ve always been a console action gamer without much patience for puzzles)

I’m about 42 points through and loving it. Loving it so much in fact that I went on and checked an old Spag review by Adam Thornton.

There he mentions the sketchbook. huh?

got nothing of the sort. However, I do have a pencil! I got it but got no use for it so far so I kept wondering… makes sense now and it must be close. So I restart and yeah, there it is, right next to the pencil. How in the name of holy would I know a stool can be opened?

in other words, I’m restarting it, now with the thing. It bogles the mind that I could reach a possibly less satisfactory ending just by missing it entirely… but perhaps it’s just a bonus…

thankfully, all solutions and whereabouts are still fresh in my head…

Perhaps there was a comp for earliest unwinnable state? (Yes, it’s unwinnable without that object–you need it for literally the very last puzzle in the game.) Enchanter’s >FROTZ ME would still take first.

Oh yeah. Not to forget Zork II’s casting Frotz on an unsuspecting player.

Namekusejin - I get how that would be horribly frustrating, and I got into the habit of checking the walkthrough AFTER finishing a sequence to see if I’d missed anything (then I got into the bad habit of checking the walkthrough to actually get puzzle solutions… it’s a snowball. The endgame was finished thoroughly without any input from my tired brain).

I actually didn’t have any problem with finding that item in any playthrough. I know that piano stools open. But even if I didn’t, the description specifically says the seat is hinged

EDIT - Here follows some general comments I had to say about the game. Though I didn’t spoil any puzzles, it was only too late that I realised I was spoiling the fun of getting to some sections for the first time. Spolierising now.

[spoiler]I really, really, really wanted to solve the Enigma machine on my own. And I almost did it, but I failed to grasp an important part of it: steckering. I’d also failed to grasp the mechanics under which [steckering + trial and error + what I already KNEW to be true] would give me the answer. So close and nowhere near close enough, that hurt.

But by then, the puzzles had begun to weigh on me. I solved what I believe is a substantial amount of the game on my own, through persistence (= stubborness) and experimentation (= fiddling about until I had a lightbulb moment or a lucky combination) and some logic/planning ahead…

…but eventually it got too overwhelming. Really, my brain got tired. I think I gave up on the Pankhurst scenario - oh, the things I tried, and they all seemed to make sense. And the actual solution was so… so… bah, I don’t remember any more. But I think that’s when I truly threw in the towel for the first time.

And then I gave up entirely on the plane, from that point on it was hints in hand all the way.

On the whole though, it was a brilliant, brilliant ride. And whenever I hear of the Wright brothers in the real world I always, always remember that pair in Jigsaw. I especially remember the mandoline [/spoiler]

hmm, no more spoilers – I don’t plan on using any walkthrough. Though I already knew about the Enigma machine (not the solution) and is certainly understandable as it’s been of capital importance in the development of compsci, after all…

I guess I didn’t actually examined the stool! I sitted on it, moved it, but didn’t do the basic tenet of IF!

in my defense, there’s a timer going on! There was not enough time to check everything and I understand some scenes do indeed need several runs until you get what’s going on and what you’re supposed to do. Observation, then action.

anyway, I’m planning on getting back to just before my last checkpoint tonight.

Whoops, sorry. I knew I wasn’t spoiling puzzles - but I didn’t realise I was spoiling the fun of getting to those situations for the first time. My bad!

Well, my basic strategy is saving at the beginning, then exploring at leisure. If I do something which is important, like getting an item or scoring a point or soling a puzzle, I restore, replay my way to that action in the least possible time, and save again. It’s a method that has served me well.

that’s key, no doubt

got not into that yet. I enjoyed the characterizations of Guggenheim and Alexander Fleming. Lenin is too silent, the Beatles only seen from afar…

the scenes just stick, I guess

I had nine saves so far. One per episode.

Saving is your friend, don’t be afraid to end up with a hundred save files! I think I did.

hmm, I’m halfway through it but am letting it rest for awhile - I’m on a white steppe and Black seems to imply something I did wrong started a nuclear winter in 1975 or so it seems. I’ll retrace later some of the previous episodes to see what I missed.

Turns out I restarted reading A Game of Thrones again. Halfway through book 1 too. I multitask like this among my favorite hobbies - good thing I’m able to resume later just from the point I left.

I’m also halfway through Bach’s English Suite 2 prelude on piano

see you guys on my next IF fit

Actually, FYI, you haven’t missed anything, no need to retrace or replay.

Hope so