Integrity Project this is the new They Might Be Giants - Let's Play Apollo 18+20

In 1992 these two nerds who had a nerd rock band released a nerdy album that all the nerds loved. Twenty years later some of these nerd fans created a tribute album in the nerdiest way possible: as text adventures. This is that album.


Apollo 18 is They Might Be Giant's fourth studio album. Like its predecessor, Flood, it became a fan-favorite and was often played in its entirety during live shows. What's is like?

John and John describe it for themselves. (You should probably watch this.)

Apollo 18+20 is a collaborative collection of Interactive Fiction games made by some big names in the community. Each song was interpreted by a different author and turned into a short game.

Of special note is the song "Fingertips." This piece is a collection of very short (as in just a few seconds long) bits of other (nonexistent) songs. It's pretty wild. Each bit got its own track to take advantage of the then new CD format. The liner notes encouraged the listener to play the album using their CD player's fancy new shuffle function so that the Fingertips songs would randomly pop up between the proper tracks. Each Fingertip song also got its own game, with the stipulation that they be won in a single move.

To honor the spirit of the album we'll play through the tracks as they appear in their original order, but with the Fingertips randomly distributed in-between.

I don't know if you've ever heard of They Might Be Giants. It's unlikely that people on a Video Game forum would be taken by their particular blend of whinny moan and accordion, but I'm hoping that between the great music and brevity of the games this will make for a punchy and fun LP. Let's get to it.

1. Dig My Grave


(Click to play song)

Lyrics
Dig my grave
Dig my grave

Every time I look in your eyes
I see St. Peter wave

Dig my grave
Dig my grave

Every time you call my name
I hear the angels say

Dig my grave
Dig my grave
Dig my grave
Dig my grave
Dig my grave




Dig My Grave was written by Ryan Veeder, winner of last year's Interactive Fiction Competition with his game about crime, Taco Fiction. He also made the album's cover art.

You are out by yourself in the woods.

>

Dig My Grave is a slight song, a jokey prelude to the rest of the album. I guess it's catchy, but it's no Theme From Flood. Likewise, Dig My Grave the game doesn't strive to be anything more than mildly amusing.



The game's shtick is you've got this other voice who pops in at the top of the screen when you type commands. Let's try examining ourselves again.

>x me

Hold on a second.

>yes, what?

(I forgot to put in the title)



>x me
A little scuffed up from the walk out here, but looking better than your friend over there.

Ha ha ha.
Tell that guy to shut up.

>x body
It's a dead body. Its clothes are dirty (on account of being dragged through the woods). Its eyes are open, but they aren't looking at anything.

Yeah sorry if I seem a little aloof.

>talk to body
The corpse is unresponsive.

Yeah! Because I'm DEAD!

>i
You are carrying:
a shovel

Call it a wild hunch, but I think we need to dig this fellow's grave. But let's have some fun first.

>kiss body
You can only bring yourself to give it a little peck on the cheek.

what
is wrong
with you

>take body
Having decided that this is the right place, you don't need to carry it any further.

Come on!!!

>hit body
You give the corpse a stiff kick. To make sure.

Cut it out, jerk!

>w
There's still work to be done here.

Hold on, idiot!
Where do you think you're going?

>x dirt
It's too dark to be sure, but this is probably just normal dirt.

Listen to this guy, trying to be funny.
Tell him to shut up.

>x tree
The trees crowd around you. They almost seem suspicious.

Don't worry about the trees.
They're just trees.

>take tree
The trees don't require your attention right now.

HEY. GET TO WORK.

Okay, okay. Let's get to business.

>take dirt
Picking dirt up with your hands is no way to go about this.

>put dirt on body
You need to be holding the dirt before you can put it on top of something else.

>hold dirt
Picking dirt up with your hands is no way to go about this.


Hmmmmmmm... this is trickier than I thought. Maybe we could get rid of the body if...

>eat body
Not that I'm not down with cannibalism--It's not my place to judge--but this guy isn't exactly fresh.

I guess our only option is manual labor.

>dig in dirt
You begin digging. Soon you've excavated an area about as long and broad as the corpse, and a few inches deep.

All right! That's a good start there.

>dig again
You dig some more. The hole gets deeper. Piles of turned-up soil are forming around its perimeter.

Nice, nice. Still a little shallow though.
Keep going.

>dig some more
You manage to excavate a little more, but after all this digging you're exhausted.

Hey! Why'd you stop? Keep digging!

Whew! Who knew that covering up a murder would be so much work? (We did murder this guy, right?)

>wait
Time passes.

Well, now your arms are starting to feel like they could handle some more digging.

>then dig that grave!
You return to your task with renewed vigor. The hole gets deeper.

Great! Almost there!

>dig with the might of a thousand moles! ...murderous moles
You continue to dig until the hole has become more or less a proper grave. Congratulations.

Perfect! That's perfect.
Now get going and bury me!

>x grave
It's a grave. You dug it. Hooray.

>push body into grave
You push the corpse to the edge of the grave and then you shove it in. It hits the bottom with a thud.

You cover it up with dirt until you get bored and walk away.

We did it! We won. Score 200/200. "Which gives you the rank of Master Grave Digger and super cool dude!" Oh, wait...

And now...

And now I'm in charge! Thanks for putting my spirit to rest, sucker!

You can go ahead and press a key.



>x me
Who cares what I look like? It's the afterlife! I look like whatever the heck I want!

>x gate
It's this huge gate, made out of a gigantic pearl. It's pretty amazing. I wish you could see it. But you can't, because you're alive!

I don't really care whether you see it or not!

>x peter
He's this dude in a robe, with a beard, that kind of thing, and he's carrying some keys. He's waving at me, because he knows we're gonna be best friends.

>x cloud
Yes obviously there are clouds here. Duh.

>talk to peter
Hey, Peter! How about letting me in, man?

He's not saying anything. He's just getting something out of the copious folds of his voluminous robe.

Oh, hey, it's a medal! For me! For being so great! Thanks, Pete!

>x medal
It's this awesome gold medal, and it says "AMICISSIMUS DAMNATORUM," which is Latin.

Hold on, Peter is talking now. Press a key, will you?

*** You have died ***

Well yes, obviously. That was a while ago. So how about opening that gate?

*** Sorry ***

What do you mean, sorry? Come on!


Wait, what's going on?


NO



*** The End ***



Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT or UNDO the last command?

Yup, that's it. Guy was a jerk, got killed, ended up in hell.

They Might Be Giants, everyone!

27. Fingertips: Who's Knockin' on the Wall?


(Click to play song)

Fun fact: Who's Knockin' on the Wall is the shortest TMBG song clocking in at a whomping four seconds! That's the same amount of time it takes Adam to bang his girlfriend WOAH-HO!

I'm not familiar with Melvin Rangasamy, but he did five of the Fingertips so I guess we'll get to know him pretty well by the time this is done.

Remember, all of the Fingertips games are ended in one move.



Blah blah blah. The game lists 15 clues, I didn't print them all here because you'll see.


So, who is knocking on the wall?

Oh boy, a logic puzzle. I usually just use my picarats on these and move onto some thing more fun, like a slider puzzle. Ho-boy, guess it's time to make a chart.

Wait! Maybe if we...

>hint
You decide that despite your sleuthly accoutrements, you're not up for the task of figuring it out.



*** It wasn't so elementary! ***


Would you like to RESTART or QUIT?

Looks like we've got to do this the hard way. Restarting rolls up a new set of clues. Here's our puzzle:

1. Grundy has a Yellow House.
2. The person who plays Aotearoa lives next to the person who has a Black House.
3. Jean is Scottish.
4. Casey has a Black House.
5. The person in the middle plays The Chinese Room.
6. Quinn has a Silver House.
7. Casey lives directly to the right of the person who is Lithuanian.
8. Fessel lives directly to the left of the person who likes skateboarding.
9. The person who is French likes bowling.
10. The person who plays Three More Visitors lives next to the person who likes painting.
11. The person who plays The Chinese Room has a Navy House.
12. The person who is Albanian has a Blue House.
13. The person who plays Colossal Cave Adventure is Norwegian.
14. Fessel plays Child's Play.
15. The person who is Lithuanian lives directly to the right of the person who likes fishing.

So, who is knocking on the wall?




Here's the easy to glean information. Not much to go by.

Likewise, we also have some information on what isn't possible.




Now we're onto something. This means that Jean (which in my experience is not a very scottish name) must play The Chinese Room, live in a Navy house, and be in the middle.

This gives us every house color except blue, which defaults to Fessel, and that in turn means he's a dirty Albanian. And so on.




Now, I'm no expert at these but I think we're at the point where we've got to slot the Lithuanaian nationality onto either Grundy or Quinn and see how it plays out.

This is as far as I can get before having to guess again, and I don't like guessing on a guess. Maybe setting up Quinn as the Lithuanian will be more fruitfull.




While I was filling out this one I realized that since we know what the two right houses are, we now know what the two left houses are. This lead to a cascade of logical relations until I hit a snag. Following this path has Casey playing Three More Visitors and Bowling, which violates rule 10. But let's go back to Grundy as Lithuanian and see what happens now that we know the house positions.




This points to Fessel as the only possible answer. But I made a mistake before on Casey's path. I had read clue 10 as "Three More Visitors also likes painting," not "lives next to the person that likes painting." This still makes for an error though, as that would mean Grundy likes painting when she (he?) already skateboards, so I think we're okay with guessing Fessel. Let's see...

>Fessel
You head confidently over to the row of houses and see someone working on a wooden wall and making knocking sounds in the process. It is of course Fessel, as you so rightly predicted! Once you have ruled out the impossible, whatever woodworker that remains, however improbable, must be the one.



*** They don't call you a master detective for nothing! ***


Would you like to RESTART, QUIT or Display CREDITS?

Yay... we did it. Maybe I'd feel better about this victory if I hadn't spent two hours trying to solve a puzzle that was generated from 4 seconds of song.

BLEGH. Anyway here's the credits we earned if you care about such things.

>credits
Fingertips - Who Is Knocking On The Wall
Part of the Apollo 18+20 Interactive Fiction Tribute to They Might Be Giants.

This game has been brought to you by Melvin Rangasamy.

Beta Testers: Dan Efran, Jack Welch, Ruth Alfasso and Andrew Schultz.

General thanks to Kevin Jackson Mead for putting this whole thing together.

Extra special thanks go out to alpha tester, Joey Jones.

Prediction:

The guy who's grave you dug was the same guy from When Will You Die?

31. Fingertips: I Don't Understand You


(Click to play song)

I Don't Understand You is one of the more robust Fingertips. In a nice bit of circular parallelism, Thy Dungeonman 3 will sometimes print the lyrics to this song if you type something stupid. As for I Don't Understand You the game, it's writer, Matt Weiner, takes the obvious route.

Fingertip
Tell me what you want to do.

>say "Hello, Sailor."
I didn't understand that.



*** The End ***



Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, read ABOUT the game, or get an EXPLANATION of what's happening?

E-yup, anything you type gives the same response. Classy. But what could Matt possible offer in way of an EXPLANATION?

> explanation
In the spirit of the song from which the game takes its title, none of your commands are understood. Anything you type should yield the same response.

Only the obvious.

>You really are a weiner, Matt.
I didn't understand that.



*** The End ***

Fun fact: Apparently this "game" had three beta-testers. I can't even imagine what purpose they served.

This is a weird thing I am okay with.

This should prove to be interesting reading

This is cool. I'm not much of a TMBG fan, but the idea of having a bunch of mini-text adventures and relating each one to a track on an album is really intriguing. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

I kind of want to see an IF game based on Canajoharie now.

However, the fact that there is an IF game based on Statue Got Me High is enough for me.

2. I Palindrome I


(Click to play song)

Lyrics
Someday Mother will die and I'll get the money
Mom leans down and says, "My sentiments exactly
You son of a bitch"
I palindrome I (I palindrome I)
I palindrome I (I palindrome I)
And I am a snake head eating (snake head)
The head on the opposite side (snake head)
I palindrome I (manonam)
I palindrome I (manonam)
See that bulletproof dress hanging from the clothesline
See the medical chart with the random zig-zag
Now I'll help it decide
I palindrome I (I palindrome I)
I palindrome I (I palindrome I)
And I am a snake head eating (snake head)
The head on the opposite side (snake head)
I palindrome I (manonam)
I palindrome I (manonam)
I palindrome I (manonam)
I palindrome I (manonam)
"Son, I am able," she said
"Though you scare me." "Watch"
Said I. "Beloved," I said
"Watch me scare you, though"
Said she, "Able am I, Son"
See the spring of the grandfather clock unwinding
(Egad, a base tone denotes a bad age)
See the hands of my offspring making windmills
(Egad, a base tone denotes a bad age)
Dad palindrome Dad
I palindrome I (I palindrome I)
I palindrome I (I palindrome I)
And I am a snake head eating (snake head)
The head on the opposite side (snake head)
I palindrome I (manonam)
I palindrome I (manonam)
I palindrome I (manonam)
I palindrome I (manonam

This song isn't even a palindrome. Terrible. The game was written by Nick Montfort who's best known for Ad Verbum, a well regarded wordplay game. Guess what route he decided to take for his adaptation.



This one's weird, it's writen in HTML and you've got minimal interaction. It's less a piece of IF than it is a simple word puzzle. And as a puzzle its pretty lackluster. There's nothing to do until you figure it out, and once you figure it out there's nothing left to do.

Most any response returns:
... NOW, THINK! What action? What words? What action? What? THINK NOW! ...

It seems like nothing is accepted, but the obvious answer is that we should be entering commands as palindromes (or technically, chiasmi, since it's just the words which must read backwards and forwards, not the letters). However, normal IF commands entered all palindromishly like "Climb down climb" or "X me X" still don't work. Even something that is logically correct like "view canyon view" is wrong. Can you figure it out? I'm ashamed to say it took me far too long.

The clue is that entry field. It's literally a blank spot that needs to be filled in. What we have to do is complete the palindrome so that the entire room descripition reads backwards and forwards.

CANYON VIEW
Rocky outcropping, unspectacular by itself, overlooks canyon. Canyon overlooks itself by unspectacular outcropping, rocky.
> VIEW CANYON

With the palindrome chiasmus completed we're rewarded with another.

One point ... four more, four. Point one!

COAL MINE
Mysterious darkened corridors. Alone, all alone. Corridors, darkened, mysterious.

Once you've got it, the rest of the game is just busy work.

COAL MINE
Mysterious darkened corridors. Alone, all alone. Corridors, darkened, mysterious.
> MINE COAL

Two points ... three more, three. Points: Two.

BAGGAGE CLAIM
Luggage coming and going; Belts running to connect to running belts. Going and coming, luggage.
> CLAIM BAGGAGE

Three points ... two more, two. Points: Three.

BOOK-LINED STUDY
Many books, blank and printed. One ruled: One. Printed and blank books, many.
> STUDY LINED-BOOK

Four points ... one more, one. Points: Four.

ROUND CHAMBER
Targets everywhere, circles all around. All circles, everywhere: targets.
> CHAMBER ROUND

Five points won! You won! Points: Five.

*** YES, YOU HAVE WON! HAVE YOU? YES! ***

That's it. Entertaining enough for the five minutes hours it'll take you to figure it out, otherwise kinda a waste considering the potential of the source material.

28. Fingertips: All Alone, All By Myself


(Click to play song)

All Alone was writen by Joey Jones, who co-authored The Chinese Room which took 5th place in the 2007 Competition. You play in and with various philosophy concepts. I haven't played it, but I've heard it's fun.

All alone, all by myself...

Fingertips - All Alone
A decision by Joey Jones
Release 1 / Serial number 120324 / Inform 7 build 6G60 (I6/v6.32 lib 6/12N)

Outside The Garden Mart
I'm outside the garden mart, in between that old cadillac and the window where I work. Just walking along, east to west, nothing to see here. I'm real glad I'm all alone, all by myself.

Remember, all the Fingertips games end in one move.

>x me
I'm, well, I'm me, right? Nothing special. I've taken off my ugly red uniform and I'm wearing the same jeans from three Christmases ago and that jumper that Granny gave me.

However, some authors had different interpretations of what "one move" means. In All Alone we can look around and such and the game doesn't end until we take an action.

>i
I am carrying:
a lighter
a pair of jeans (being worn)
a hideous sweater (being worn)
some flat shoes (being worn)
some lots of cash

>x sweater
The sweater is hideous. Granny gives me one every year and I don't have the heart to tell her I hate them. Doesn't stop me from wearing them though...

>x cash
There must be over five hundred dollars stuffed into my jeans.

>x lighter
It's a cheap plastic lighter. I use it for burning things when nobody's about. The preparations have been made though, you know, for what I was going to burn with it.

Now we're getting somewhere.

>x window
The window is smashed, the fuel set, all I have to do is set it alight.

>x cadillac
The cadillac is bright red and always seems to be sitting out here.

This is what I love about IF. Just from one simple description we're given insight into a character, a whole story suggests itself, and a choice is presented.

Judging by my experiences with places that end in "mart," this place deserves to burn.

>light lighter
I casually flick the lighter.

>throw lighter in window
Suddenly, I lose courage. A familiar shyness overwhelms me even though there is no one around.



*** My Courage Fails ***

Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT or UNDO the last command?

This is what I don't like about IF, when my intentions and commands are ignored. Sometimes, rarely, it can work, like in the brillant Rameses. Here, though, it's just a cock-tease.

Let's see what other actions are avaliable, just for shitty giggles.

>burn me
I'm alone, not suicidal!

>light car
I intend to steal this tonight.

Now's the moment! I smash the window, climb in and fiddle with the wires below the wheel like Cousin Vinnie showed me. It roars into life and I'm free, out on the open road.



*** I Stole Somebody's Cadillac ***


Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT or UNDO the last command?

> undo
Outside The Garden Mart
[Previous turn undone.]

>drive car
That's not a verb I recognise.

>open car
Suddenly, I lose courage. A familiar shyness overwhelms me even though there is no one around.



*** My Courage Fails ***


Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT or UNDO the last command?

> undo
Outside The Garden Mart
[Previous turn undone.]

>throw lighter in window
Suddenly, I lose courage. A familiar shyness overwhelms me even though there is no one around.



*** My Courage Fails ***


Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT or UNDO the last command?

> undo
Outside The Garden Mart
[Previous turn undone.]

>light window
The window is smashed, the fuel set. I put a light to it all and run back as it swiftly catches fire.



*** I've Burned All The Intercoms ***


Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT or UNDO the last command?
Interesting, looks like the author wasn't ignorning our intentions for the sake of character, rather it's just crummy implementation. Oh well. The "courage fails" ending is the default for any action Joey Jones didn't account for, which is many. Really the only thing left to do is

>west
So I keep on walking. It's just a normal night. Nothing to see here.



*** Nobody saw me, right? ***

After this boring and badly made game, I'd hope to escape unnoticed too, Joey.

Wait, so what's the "correct" solution to All Alone? I do at least like how, as you said, the game establishes the character/"voice" really quickly.

And, aw, I liked the palindrome game. Well, I guess I can see how it could be annoying as a game (once you've figured out the trick, there's nothing to it), but the location names that could be reversed into commands were creative.

This is awesome Loki! I love Apollo 18 and now I kind of want to get into IF. Keep it up!

*fyi*

Moved to 'Abandoned'