Adventure Games save me again

[MillsJROSS]

True story...

So I parked my car on top of a drainage grill thing, and I got out a air pump because I was going on a long car drive the next day. As I was sitting there I got a phone call, so I answered it, and put the cell in my lap. After the tire was pumped sufficiently I got up. My cell phone didn't agree with this decision and decided to plunge for the drain. I was outside my friends complex because I was going to play poker that night, so he came out and I asked him to call my phone, because it was dark and I still had an ounce of hope that maybe the cell phone was under my car. So I watched through the grill as my phone began to light up, mocking my existence. I wasn't so concerned about losing my phone as much as losing all the numbers programmed in my cell.

So using my keen puzzle logic skills attained from our cherished adventure games, I quickly went to the task of trying to extract my phone. It was about four feet down in the drain and luckily it was dry in there. Okay so I needed something long...find long stick or pole. My friend had a broom handle...it was just long enough to reach the bottom. Good. Now I need something to grab phone. Duck Tape! The best invention of mankind, came to the rescue. OK. So the phone sticks, but I can only lift it about two feet before it falls. So I obviously need to get some more surface area. I cannabalize a tissue box and wrap the tape around it, then somehow attatch it to the broom handle...after a few minutes of work my cell phone extractor is complete. So in goes the pole, up goes the phone, and down goes the phone when it hits the grill. So I assess the situation again. Someone needs to put there hands in the grill and grab the phone. I already have a group of friends watching the whole process, and one of them is a five foot girl with small hands. Perfect! And with correct cooridination we manage to get the cell phone out!

It was totally worth dropping in the drain!

-MillsJROSS

[LGM]

And your cell phone didn't suffer any shock damage?

IMPRESSIVE!


MILLSJROSS QUEST                23049 out of 100000000 points.  *score!*

[Gilbert]

Let me phrase it into a more readible form for us adventurers:

- You're now outside your friend's house, it's late so it's quite dark here, your car is parked over some drainage grill thing.
* Look at car
- It's your car.
* Look at car's tires
- Since you're heading for a long drive, you may need to get them pumped.
*Open car
- The rear compartment door of your car is now open, nothing interesting inside. An air pump gets into your sight when you're about to close the door.
* Get air pump
- You pick up the air pump and put it into your front pocket.
* Use air pump on car's tires
- When you're about to inflate the tires your phone rings.
* Interact with phone
- "Hi. This is from Margata, your faithful agent, do you care for an awesume to..."
- You hang up the phone, put it on your lap, and continue with pumping.
- Meanwhile...
- The car's tires are now sufficiently pumped.
* Stand up
- You stand up... OMFG!1! Your phone manages to slip through and falls into the darkness below, can it be heading for the bottomless abyuss of the drain? It's too dark here so you can't make sure about it. Bad move, you should have saved your game before standing up, anyway, you still have another chance, as there's an alternative solution to this puzzle.
* Use flashlight
- Too bad your flashlight is out of battery, nothing happens.
- Mills' friend 1 opens the door of the house, walks out and askes, "What's happening, my good old friend?"
* Talk to Mills' friend 1
* Select dialog option 3
- "I'd just dropped my phone, can you go back inside and call me, so I can find out where it is now?"
- "Gotcha!"
- Mills' friend 1 goes back into the house, closes the door.
- Meanwhile...
- You hear your phone's ringtone.
* Whatis
* Whatis car tires
* Whatis lawn
* Whatis drainage grill
* Whatis light coming up from below drainage grill
* Look at light coming up from below drainage grill
- Aha! There it is, it must be the light of your phone. So it's really fallen into the drain, can it be worse?
* Open door of the house
* Walk to doorway
- You're now in the living room.
* Walk to right
- You're now in the kitchen.
* Get broom
- You only need the stick so you discard the broom's head into the sink and put the broom stick into your front pocket.
- You still need something that can grab your phone firmly.
* Open cupboard
- Nothing interesting here, except... DUCT TAPE!1!
* Get DUCT TAPE
- You pick up DUCT TAPE and put it into your front pocket.
* Walk to left
- You're now in the living room.
* Walk to down
- You're now outside your friend's house, it's late so it's quite dark here, your car is parked over some drainage grill thing.
* Use broom stick with DUCT TAPE
- What're you going to do? Poke a hole in the tape?
* Use DUCT TAPE with broom stick
- Clever! You put the DUCT TAPE on the broom stick to make a cell phone grabbing device!
* Use cell phone extractor^TM with drainage grill
- The best invention of mankind, comes to the rescue! You're able to reach the phone with your new invention. OK. So the phone sticks, but you can only lift it about two feet before it falls. So you obviously need to get some more surface area.
* Open door of the house
* Walk to doorway
- You're now in the living room.
* Get box of tissues
- You pick up a box of tissues and put it into your front pocket.
* Open box of tissues
- You cannabalize the tissue box and discards of its contents.
* Use DUCT TAPE with torn box
- You wrap the tape around what was before, a tissue box.
* Use torn box with tape with cell phone extractor^TM
- You attatch it to the broom handle...
* Walk to down
- You're now outside your friend's house, it's late so it's quite dark here, your car is parked over some drainage grill thing. Mills' friend 1 and Mills' freind 2 are now standing here, and want to know if they can help.
* Use improved cell phone extractor^TM V1.2 with drainage grill
- Like before, the extractor reaches the phone, this time even able to pull the phone up...
- "DAMN!1!" The phone falls back into the dark tunnel when it hits the grill, seems that you don't have enough hands to operate the extractor and grab the phone at the same time.
* Use improved cell phone extractor^TM V1.2 with drainage grill
- You pull the phone up to just under the grill, but you don't have an extra hand to grab it.
* Change Player Character to Mills' friend 2
- You're now Mills' friend.
* Get phone
- You pick up the phone from the extractor.
* Give phone to Mills
- The phone is now back in Mills' inventory.
* Change Player Character to Mills
- Congratulations!1! You have just solved a hard puzzle, and are rewarded with a grand score of 15 points!1!

[Kinoko]

Mills, that is ingenius and the best story I've heard today.

You've made me wanna do something I havent in a long time - Drop my phone down the drain! ... I mean, play an adventure game!

'Course, I might just keep eating these strawberry Mentos things...

[MillsJROSS]

And your cell phone didn't suffer any shock damage?

IMPRESSIVE!

My phone is fairly robust...I drop it all the time. Knowing the I was clumsy, I chose a phone that could take a few hits.

-MillsJROSS

[The Ivy]

Haha, this is great.  I once had to break into my own house and I couldn't have done it without some adventure game-inspired logic.  First I had to hop over a fence or two, since the gates were locked and thinking "get key" didn't work.  I tried knocking on the back door to wake up anyone inside, but they were all too sound asleep and I was scaring the hell out of our dog.  That's when I knew I'd have to get onto the roof.

I collected a bench, a smaller bench, and a window box and stacked them carefully; this was a very wobbly solution, but I survived with my inventory intact.  I crawled along the roof to my window, but couldn't get it open (probably just as well ).  Then I thought I'd have to climb onto the balcony (which would have meant swinging over a railing, something I wasn't feeling quite agile enough for).  For a minute I just debated sleeping on the roof, as I was coming back from an overnight and had been up for about 24 hours.  But I wasn't going to give up that easily.

I didn't know if anyone was actually home, but I decided to try my luck.  I pounded on the window over the stairs, hoping I wouldn't wake up the neighbors and make them call the cops (that would've been game over  ).  Luckily, I woke up the girl who had locked me out in the first place, who managed to walk right by the window without seeing me.  I veeery carefully tried to get her attention, because it was 6am and startling her could have ended with somebody falling down stairs.  Gotta love high-stakes adventure in real life. 

[Mugs]

Wow!Ã,  Maybe someone should do an actual game about these life/adventure storiesÃ,  .

[Phemar]

I had to break into my house once too, Ivy! It went like this:

1. Search pockets. Note absence of key.
Damn.
2. Try vainly to open the front door several times.
3. Go round to the back of the house where there are no burglar-bars.
4. Try to open any of the windows.
Damn.
5. Try to open back door.
Damn.
6. Check back door keyhole.
Bingo! A key! Now to get it out ...
7. Break twig off tree-branch.
8. Carve it with pocket knife to right shape.
9. Try to push it through the keyhole to push key out.
Damn, the key is turned slightly in the keyhole.
10. Reach through catflap and fetch broom.
11. Grab hold of broom in odd position and bang it through the catflap against the key in hopes of turning it straight.
Damn.
12. Try again.
Damn.
13. Try again.
Damn.
14. Rest.
15. Try again.
Bingo! The key is now straight.
16. Push carved twig through keyhole.
Bingo! The key fell out!
17. Pick up key through catflap.
18. Open door.
Damn, there's a latch in place! No matter ...
19. Try other keys on keyring in family room door.
YES! And I'm in ...

That was a long afternoon!

[TheYak]

Those would definitely make for more interesting game puzzles than mine:

1) Locked out of house (by roommate), key inside, roommate is home (sleeping).
2) Check front and side doors / all windows
3) Pound on door in hopes of waking roommate
4) Pound on window in hopes of waking roommate (to no avail, he'd sleep through armageddon)
5) Return to garage.
6) Sleep
7) Roommate wakes 3 hours later.  Enter house.  Sleep comfortably.

That's what I get for having fairly secure locks and windows.

[Helm]

Mills, your life design is really outdated. You didn't even have to use an inflatable duckie or say, mustache wax... elementary and trite, sorry. I am hoping Mills Quest 2 has better lateral puzzles.

[Babar]

I dropped my phone down the toilet once. Had to get it out wearing a plastic bag on my hand. Somehow it didn't quite feel so "adventurous".

[Nikolas]

Somehow for some reason, my real life adventures don't resemble adventure games alot!

It seems that I'm always missing a rope, or a money with a tale as a handle, or a strange ornated key, or something else. Not to mention that ctrl+s does not work!

I do recall breaking down a door. Simply! No key, no nothing, and for some reason in our fillded with alcohol head we decided that it was better to break the lock and not callthe locksmith.

Success! 100% !! In case that you don't know the best way to do it, is to put all your force (usually a kick) where the lock is. Although it is quiet difficult to break the door, it is a lot easier to break the part of the door where the lock is...

Now the price for a new door was 310 euros!

All I need is a congratulations!

[Akumayo]

Not really saved me, but still cool:

Me and a friend travel to his dad's house to pick up his XBox.Ã,  His dad isn't there, so we try the doors / windows on the ground floor, all locked.Ã,  House is protected by ADT, nice...Ã,  We leave, to the street, and climb onto a rock wall surrounding the property.Ã,  From there, we leap to the roof of the garage.Ã,  Walking carefully across the tin, we come to another jump, below us is a slavering rotweiler (mean dog).Ã,  We make the leap, and land on the roof of the house, above the guest bedroom.Ã,  We make our way to the middle of the roof, where we find the proplem of making it up to the third floor rooftop.Ã,  After much consideration, I, being lighter, was lifted by my friend onto the third floor roof.Ã,  I reach down and help him up.Ã,  Now we seek out the back window, for it is the only one on this floor, and is unprotected by ADT.Ã,  We get around to it, it's locked, of course...Ã,  Using our amazing adventure skills, we check our pockets.Ã,  A wad of cash, some quarters, a pen, a paperclip, and a pocketknife.Ã,  Nice...Ã,  We first try the paperclip, jamming it into the lock.Ã,  I gets stuck, perfect...Ã,  :PÃ,  .Ã,  Ã, We use the pocket knife to unjam the paperclip from the lock.Ã,  It comes out, except for the end, which sticks in...Ã,  We grab the pen, and extract it's ink cartride.Ã,  We shave the cartridge into a thin point (ink is everywhere now) and use it to push on the bit of paperclip in the lock BINGO, the lock snaps.Ã,  Covered in ink, we climb inside, disable the ADT system, grab the XBox, reenable the system, and leave.Ã,  Our scars?Ã,  Lots of ink on the XBox now, that's gonna take a while to clean.

[Mugs]

 :o

[vict0r]

How... did you get the clip to open the lock? I tried lotsa times picking my lock with a paperclip or something like it, but it never works I dont really remember any cool stories, but sometimes i actually locks myself out from the house and puts the key in a selflocking window, just to see if i can get in without the key

[Akumayo]

It was an old lock, and when the paperclip peice went all the way through, it tripped the bolt, and popped the window open.

[Tuomas]

As we see, playing about with andventure games encourages people to do crime. that's why I like it so much, I used to open the lock in my diary with a paperclip because I lost the key... though I never wrote anything on it, it was just fun to pick the lock

Once I came home and no-one was there. I had no key, because we usually kept the doors unlocked when someone's inside, and usually there is someone inside. but, not to worry my friends, there was a key to the cellar door in the carage. (I won't tell if it's there anymore just for security reasons). I cunningly fetched the *key* and placed it into the hole.
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, Then I started thinking what I should do with it. After a while I ended up turning it, as I usually do with keys... Nothing. I tried again... Nothing, it wouldn't turn. Then I tried to push the door a bit to let the lock open freely... Nothing. I rammed the stupid door with my feet and twisted the key, nothing.
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, So... then I got this brilliant idea: I leaned backwards and gave the key in the hole a good strong kick, bending it shapeless. The key stayed in the lock, I couldn't get it out anymore. That was a laugh. So, I sat down on the stairs in front of the house and waited for an hour for my mom to come. Then I had to explain why the key to the front door was jammed into the cellar door

Well, after that I introduced myself to the world of AGS and there are a lot of heroic stories that I cannot remember at the moment, but if I should soon, I'd tell you... never had such a trouble after AGS

EDIT: to Vict0r, I always thoght breaking in to a house is a crime, I may be mistaken. Yes, sometimes you are justified to break in your own, but the fact that you most often are able to do so provokes you to try other houses too. Mwahhahaa, and while you're there, why not take some stuff with you.. like an Xbox...

[vict0r]

I cant see any criminal acts above!

[ManicMatt]

Also these games encourage us to go up to complete strangers and have a conversation with them... followed by emptying our pockets and handing them everything until a positive response is given. Also, we never walk off when talking to someone without saying goodbye every time, even if they live in the same house as us...

[Akumayo]

Mwahhahaa, and while you're there, why not take some stuff with you.. like an Xbox...

...It was my friends XBox, it just happened to be in his dad's house...