Anyone played "What is that?"

[lakerz]

Hi, just curious to see if anyone else has played this game that was posted to this site a little while back?  I'm stuck and out of things to try.  To be honest, there aren't that many inventory items nor active objects to use them on.  Any help would be great.  8)

Right now I have a transmitter and need to find a hard hat (I'm guessing).

[Alun]

I have, in my obsessive way, been going through downloading every game listed on the AGS site (well, every game for which I could find a download link that works, anyway), and playing them.  Right now, I've gotten through all the Short games and am working my way through the Medium-length games.  (My two favorites so far, for what it's worth: Spellbound and Rob Blanc III.)

I admit that sometimes, in my desire to get through all the games, I have on occasion resorted to walkthroughs or to checking the Hints and Tips forum for some of the games, though I've tried to get through the games without them.  (Both Spellbound and Rob Blanc III, for what it's worth, I managed to get through without any help.)  But one way or another, I've managed to work my way through all the games.  Or almost all of them.  There are a few games--very few; only three or four so far--that have gotten me so sick of their illogicality, their bad implementation, or their just plain unplayability that I have decided to just leave them unfinished and move on.

What is That is, alas, one of those games.  (Although I'm not sure whether maybe I actually did solve it and the game just didn't bother to have an ending... see the hidden text below.)

So no, I can't really help you with it... but at least I can tell you you're not alone.

Well... maybe I can help you a little.  Have you found the guru?

Spoiler

Go north from the room with the guy in the box.  It doesn't look like you can, but you can, near the middle of the screen.  You'll end up in a snowy area.  Keep going east from there... I think maybe at some point you need to go more southeast... and you'll eventually meet another NPC who, like pretty much every NPC in the game, looks exactly like you.

Unfortunately, the guru doesn't give you a hard hat, or do anything else particularly helpful.  He will, however, tell you what the thing you're carrying is called, which is after all stated initially as the goal of the game, so I guess it's possible that after finding this out from him you've won (even though the game doesn't end or otherwise give any indication of this), and the construction zone and the guy in the box are just pointless red herrings.  The whole game is put together clumsily enough that I really can't tell...

It might be worth noting, by the way, that the game is still in debug mode, so you can use Control-A and the other debug keys.  You can probably make use of this somehow to see what else is in the game, but I got fed up enough with it I didn't feel like bothering to try.

[close]

[lakerz]

Heh, no I never did find the guru.  I had no idea that one could go north from that screen you described.  It must be tough to do because I know I've tried walking through what looks like a hole in the wall. <shrugs> 

As to your wondering about what exactly is the end of the game, you may be right.  Who knows!  Unless there is another random area to get to that neither one of us has found, I'm in agreement with you that the game is over.

Thanks for getting back to me!