When old people get nostalgic, their sentences start with “I used to love…” or “I still remember well…”
I still remember well playing the Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken pick-and-point adventures in the early 90s. I never finished any of them, not even Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade or Secret of Monkey Island later on. With which I have just listed practically all the successful games by and/or with Ron Gilbert.
Other sentences from old people can also begin with “If someone had told me back then…”.
If someone had told me back then that I would be doing my bit to see another game by Ron Gilbert and company produced, and that I would even be featured in the game, I would have looked more than incredulous and confused. But thanks to the crowdfunding campaign for Thimbleweed Park on Kickstarter, it has come true!
Which is where I need to take it down a notch. I have nothing to do with the plot of the game and could “only” buy me into two in-game accessories. The first is the phone book and with that combined a voice message on an answering machine that you can call in the game. My number there is 7709!
The second accessory is even more mundane and refers to the evil clown’s swear jar. It’s so mundane that I couldn’t even remember it when I was at that point in the game. Maybe I’ll go back to it.
It was also very liberating to be able to clear my conscience, if not my karma. Having illegally acquired all the games I mentioned at the beginning in my youth, my conscience is now clear… well, a little clearer. This does not include Indiana Jones and Zak MacKracken:
Now that I’ve spent ages describing how much I’ve enjoyed supporting this game, let’s get to the point: It was worth the effort!
I got what I expected. A classic click-and-point-adventure, just like in the good old days. Another thing old people like to say.
The typical jokes and lots of references to the old games mentioned above, and endless hours of searching until you finally get a little bit further. In the old days you had expensive walkthrough books, most of which were copied. Now there is a HintTron 3000™ in Thimbleweed Park, which can be accessed by dialing 4468 (HINT).
Before we get to the trailer for the game, I would like to strongly recommend that you buy it (karma!). The game is available for almost all platforms, including smartphones.
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