The pipe, the bowl, the fiddlers three

[The Weird Sir]

The three treasures of Daventry?

I remember playing this game called "Mixed up Mother Goose" on my Dad's CGA laptop as a kid, but it's been a while and I've more or less forgotten about it. One day, a year or so ago, I was surprised and delighted to find that it was made by none other than Roberta William. I then promplty forgot about the whole thing. Then yesterday, while I was thinking about King's Quest 1 (I've only played the Tierra version) a lightbulb went on. KQ1 and MMG share quite a lot. At first I (mistakenly) thought that Roberta must have borrowed from MMG for KQ1 but then I found out that MMG came AFTER KQ1. But still, the games are quite similar. You wander around a large magical kingdom to restore order. Most interesting is that in MMG there is a central castle which is the home of Old King Cole who asks you to bring his pipe, his bowl, and his three fiddlers.

"Old King Cole was a merry old soul
And a merry old soul was he
He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl
And he called for his fiddlers three"

Hmm, very interesting. It's the three lost treasures of Mother Goose!

Now I think I still have that game on a floppy somewhere, I wonder if it still works...

[Inkoddi]

what? you mean this?

[Andail]

I like totally dig that flying cow

[Ben]

He's jumping.

And yes.. Totally diggable.

[Domino]

Back in the day, i actually thought those graphics were great. But now, what an eyesore.

Mixed Up Mother Goose also comes with the Kings Quest Collection, if i'm not mistaken.

look at how relaxed the moon looks, its funny.

BG  

[Las Naranjas]

The creativity of the puzzles is Williams' trademark.

[DG from work]

I used to call my characters names like "FUCKWIT" or "SHITHEAD" so the parent in the intro would call out "GOODNIGHT SHITHEAD!"

[Meowster]

"Back when I got started, which sounds like ancient history, back then the demographics of people who were into computer games, was totally different, in my opinion, then they are today. Back then, computers were more expensive, which made them more exclusive to people who were maybe at a certain income level, or education level. So the people that played computer games 15 years ago were that type of person. They probably didn't watch television as much, and the instant gratification era hadn't quite grown the way it has lately. I think in the last 5 or 6 years, the demographics have really changed, now this is my opinion, because computers are less expensive so more people can afford them. More "average" people now feel they should own one."


"Roberta Williams in her own immortal, un-take-back-able words." -OMM

[TheYak]

Doesn't sound like a very kind message.  Nor does it read like a very grammatically-correct one.  I think there is some truth to her statement but I also think that many developers and publishers have been catering to the majority - those that have this deficient attention span.  However, there are some games from the past few years with a fair amount of fans that go against this instant gratification standard.  Uru, The Longest Journey, KotOR, CMI and EMI.  Those are just off the top of my head and all of them cater to those who like plot development, a decent storyline & exploration.  The quality of the aforementioned is a matter of opinion, of course.

[Meowster]

I am too tired to read or comprehend anything that you just said, but I am fairly certain that you just stated the reason that Old Man Murray ridicules that very statement every ten posts.

[AGA]

The 256 colour version of that game is pretty good looking. It was also the first game ever to be published on a CD, iirc.

[Kweepa]

Are you saying OMM is back in business somewhere?

[Meowster]

OMM hasn't been updated in maybe two years. I only recently found it, in its current defuct state, and discovered the absolute joy that is OldManMurray.com.

But they are still alive. I think one of them is still serving prison time for murder, while the other works at Double Fine Productions!

I found this out by stumbling across a website now owned by either Erik or Chet that used to post on OMM, and he mentioned how he was starting his new job at Double Fine tomorrow, and then a while later posted on what to do if you DON'T want a job as a Character Animator... fill your portfolio with pictures of SCENERY!! Something like that.

But I lost the URL.

In other news... I really want this book.

[m0ds]

"People with no intelligence didn't play adventure games, then, because then they were not affording because, their income was not brilliant. In my opinion, now games are getting better and, lower classes can afford them, so, in my opinion I believe my opinion, is that more intelligent people are, in fact, playing, in fact, adventure games." - R. Williams

[Meowster]

Dude, I think she's trying to say we were smarter back then.

[m0ds]

I thought she was starting a fight.  :

[Ben]

"People with no intelligence didn't play adventure games, then, because then they were not affording because, their income was not brilliant. In my opinion, now games are getting better and, lower classes can afford them, so, in my opinion I believe my opinion, is that more intelligent people are, in fact, playing, in fact, adventure games." - R. Williams

Was that translated to French, then Japanese, then Swedish, then Italian, then Arabic, then German, and then translated back to English?

[Pumaman]

Yeah, I think she went a bit overboard with babelfish.

To be fair, I expect that's from a live interview rather than a written one, and quoting people word for word from live interviews does tend to make them sound rather stupid.

Still, that doesn't deflect from the fact that Roberta is something of a stuck-up ponse who lucked in on a niche in the market rather than being a great pioneer who deserved it.

Considering that she's wealthy, her statement that intelligence is linked to income is laughable at best.

[Meowster]

I think what she was trying to say was that in the days of old, people had to be quite wealthy to own a computer, and the type of people that played games tended to be loners and geeks, but now computers are cheaper and games are a more widely accepted form of home entertainment... or something like that.

Except it all came out wrong.

Hilariously wrong.

P.S. Somebody recently threw an entire arm and leg to me, so I will willingly give an arm and a leg if anybody can find that site I was talking about.