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Well, I got one crash for interacting with darkness (which coincided nicely with the appropriate message), but that looks like one of those 'first run' things as it's been okay since then.
Also,

Spoiler

My 'before' pail wasn't removed from inventory, but nothing went wrong before it was 'cleaned' on entering chapter two.

[close]

I really don't think you can.
I suspect the demo just stops at that point.
There are plausible escape strategies, but the character just doesn't want to try.
BTW, you can be abducted even with only the shampoo and key.

It seems appropriate given that many of the games discussed and even listed here will not run without DOS or some emulator for there to be a forum here with appropriate information.

I downloaded DOSBox to run on Win2k and have yet to have any success with it.

But of all the computing quirks I have to study, I'm not going to invest much time trawling the net for the arbitrary datum that makes it go
-- or indeed, for the question I would need to ask of those who already know
-- or, examining all of those forums, rules, and subtexts before I am even permitted to ask.

The information could be as accessible from here as the games that require it (as revealed after downloading), if anyone were inclined to make it so.

I like the way the interface works. It was a bit too easy to slip off the inventory window though; maybe it could be wider where it meets at the coin end and have the arrows on that side or below the item display part.

Unfortunately, Save/Restore always crashes for me, and I've had a crash on entering a new room too.
I have to find a long period in which to let all the scripted sequences run (at their own speed) and repeat everything I've previously done before I can continue.
[edit]
Although, now I've finished it, there's something to be said for playing it all in one session.

I've been trapped in non-walkable areas twice so far and had to restart.

I would expect a bigger challenge to be that of ensuring that squares behind pieces remain (easily) accessible, and that both player and game agree on which is being clicked.
Players will want to grab the pieces themselves, not the squares they stand on, in order to move them.

But about visiting Boris... I don't quite understand you, because it was my intention to let you visit Boris right away.

That's all right then
I only mentioned it because I suspected from your previous exchange with taryuu that you might have intended some kind of restriction there.

I had the yeti room problem as well after doing everything possible, with the version downloaded on 10 October (+/-1 day).
So I started again, and it worked fine.
Perhaps it's order dependent; one can easily miss bugs like that simply by doing things differently (which is especially likely if one already knows what to do).
BTW,

Spoiler

I have never been stopped from visiting Boris, even at the very beginning.

[close]

Thanks both of you. The way it decides which slots to use looks like another quirk I'd have to tackle if I ever wanted to do something sophisticated with it.

Unfortunately, my plan for a runnable basis for development will have to wait, as I haven't figured out how to get rid of the scaffolding yet. It looks as though one cannot simply specify resources, but has to import them, and once something's imported, the project is permanently altered to some extent.
Clearly, I'll have some more reading to do before I can actually get started.

Hmmm, I never realized I used similar mechanizms in both adventures...

Don't worry. It's not the mechanism that's similar, only the approach needed to resolve them.

Spoiler

Scanning a broad area for a camouflaged hotspot: the surface of Flora IV for the soft ground, and Holmes' bookshelf.

[close]

I enjoyed these games (although travelling around felt a bit slow), and look forward to more from you.

Yup. Case closed.
I'll have to watch for that in future.

Ahhh... Having just stumbled on what I needed to do for SL (and finished it. Yay), I'll have to see if the same thing works for PW.

Spoiler

last items were, um ... flowers, cocoa, sugar, rum, cookies. Something like that.

[close]

I'm obviously not seeing through Straston's riddle(s).

Never mind. I've finished it now, but it's not entirely clear what actually worked in the end, so I can't say more than that.

Thanks again.

Actually, I was mainly interested in LV because it seems to be a commonly understood reference point around here.

... or whichever version(s) are actually required to run the following under Windows 2000:

Permanent Daylight (2.15.130)
Larry Vales: Dead Girls are Easy (2.12.097)
Larry Vales: Traffic Division (2.07.069)

The insta-game manual (KillMe.html) says

Load aapalette.pcx (Location: Objects Folder) into AGS as a Background.

Done.

Go to the palette editor and unlock all the colours. The colours at the bottom of the palette editor are the colours from aapalette.pcx.

I can load over the unlocked slots without any problem.

But all I can determine from the IDE tutorial is that, yes, the first 17 colours are locked, and the remainder are not, just as they appear to be. I have yet to find anything that  changes this.

Resuming quote...

Now Lock all the colours again except the colours on the bottom and on the top (Only the black squares in between).

I can only hope that this will be clearer when I get to it.

Basically, I'm just trying to assemble a minimally complete environment from which to try things, and insta-game looks like the place to start.

[About Vitamin C]

About Vitamin C
Be sure you have a reasonable amount of iron in your diet to ensure that Vitamin C is actually effective. Smokers should also be sure of this, as smoking diminishes the body's ability to utilize Vitamin C.

Thank you very much.

It would be most helpful if game developers could be encouraged to mention the engine version in their game descriptions, but in the meantime I'll just have to download and find out which engines I need to request.