Rex Nebular - It's A Man's World

Written by TBD

Rex Nebular's Log: Stardate - 27th of Last Seed.7: I've explored the abandoned underground land of men. I have a few more items, but none of them are getting me closer to getting the vase that I'd almost forgotten about or escaping the planet. I've found some locked doors so I know I'll at least need a few more keys. And I've just had a crazy idea that I'll try soon...

When we'd last left our hero, he'd just come out of the gender bender with his original gender back in order to explore the subterranean land of men by way of gender-locked vehicle.

The vehicle gives us nine possible locations. So let's explore them in the order of... well, in the order I explored them. At each location I'll finish with a short list of what I think needs to be done there. I have no illusions that all of my suppositions will be correct, but it's what I was thinking when I left the location.

The driving requires no input from me beyond selecting my destination. On choosing the location, the car drives there for a few seconds while Rex casually taps his fingers on the console.

Driving in Rex Nebular – much less tedious than Mean Streets or Police Quest

818 WIDEPIPE LANE: ABDUL'S SERVICE STATION

Our first trip will be to Abdul's Service Station, where we find a small barking dog.

Is that a shattered window on the left, or is Wile E Coyote hiding in the darkness behind it?

I of course start by trying to befriend the dog by giving him some bones I found on the surface.

The neon sign behind me is lying - this dog is NOT my friend!

After the dog systematically turns me into a small pile of blue goo like a hungry land piranha, the death screen tells me I shouldn't have gotten so close to him. In response to that hint, I use THROW instead of GIVE.

This doesn't solve my dilemma though. The dog devours the bone as easily as it did me and continues waiting to kill me if I get close. He won't take my twinkifruit or my chicken so I ignore the side door behind the dog and look at the rest of the area.

There is an air hose here. It seems the garage was for old-fashioned cars with tyres rather than modern flying cars (MLV's). And there's a sign that points down – I don't know if that means anything or not at this point. There's also a manhole I can't open.

Things to do later:

1. Find something to distract the dog - more food perhaps?
2. Come back to inflate something deflated.

CITY PERIPHERY: NORTH SEA WINDOW

The next location I visit contains a viewport with a curious sea monster behind it.

I try to talk to the monster.

I will name him 'viewport' and I will love him and pet him and squeeze him!

I look around to see if there's anything else useful in here.

What the hell is a specimen epithet?

Dictionary result for epithet

/ˈɛpɪθɛt/
noun: epithet; plural noun: epithets
an adjective or phrase expressing a quality or attribute regarded as characteristic of the person or thing mentioned.

Well that clears that up perfectly!?!

Sometimes the creature sticks its tongue out frog-like and hits the window with it.

There isn't anything else here obvious enough to interact with, so after trying a few things I move on.

Things to do later:

1. Find something to do in this room... anything at all would be useful...

14 DRESSET CROSSING: RESIDENTIAL

In this area, the car stops outside a place called "Bruce's". I enter and explore what seems to be Bruce's interestingly designed house. Apart from the unusual colour scheme and decorations, Bruce has a wall safe.

Well, of course it is.

Looking at things in the two rooms of Bruce's house, it's obvious he's a cross dressing entertainer, and a very popular one at that. I hadn't thought of it before, but this makes a lot of sense in an all-male society. They may not trust women, but they still want to see people who look like women so cross dressing entertainers would be very popular.

I take the only takeable item I find in the house, a compact case, which seeing as it comes with the verb "REFLECT" I suspect will be used as a mirror at some point.

Things to do later:

1. Find a way to get into Bruce's locked wall safe

34 ½ LONELY WAY: THE SLEDGE MALL – SOUTH MAINTENANCE ELEVATOR

I can't find anything to do here yet. There's a card slot outside an elevator but the only security card I have is from the women-controlled section and likely won't work here. I save my game and try anyway, expecting a gruesome death.

I've never been more disappointed not to die.

Things to do later:

1. Come back when I have a male security card

14 POWERTOOL AVE: SANDBAR RESTAURANT – POLLY'S PLEASURE DOME

I think I've found Bruce's workplace.

Noting the precariously suspended boat above the entrance, I enter the Sand Bar first and take a fishing rod from the wall.

I also take a padlock key out of the cash register.

Back outside I get a hint that I'm never going to be able to enter the Pleasure Dome.

Hint taken.

Things to do later:

1. Come back in about 10 paragraphs when I've explored the rest of the city.

226 BICEPS WAY: KANE LABORATORY – MACHO PROSE SOFTWARE – BARNETT MOTEL – SID'S CYCLES

This screen has lots of buildings to interact with. Or so it appears at first. The air bike is disappointingly too rusted to use and I can't enter the hotel or restaurant.

I'd be more concerned that the restaurant that's shaped like a toilet has the seat down – IT WAS CLEARLY DESIGNED BY THE ENEMY!

I can enter the software store, so I do.

Obvious references to the game's own company of Microprose, and Sierra On-Line in here.

I'm not sure if the fourth wall is broken, but it's at least being bent here.

I take a penlight from the counter, which I can disassemble to get batteries.

The other enterable shop in the area is the laboratory. It contains a large laser and one of the more lazy attempts at referencing current-world items, a 'spinach patch doll'

I can turn on the laser, which much to Rex's delight obliterates the doll, but I can't turn the laser off. I try to throw my explosives at them, but I'm not allowed - I'm sure there's something I'll need to use the laser for, and I'll find out what soon.

Things to do later:

1. Destroy something with the laser

CITY PERIPHERY: CITY SECURITY - EAST MAINTENANCE ELEVATOR

Well, this is just the area I started at where I first found the car, so let's move right along

Things to do later:

1. Use the teleporter whenever I want to go back to the surface (or other teleporter)

MAINTENANCE ACCESS: WILLIAMS BYPASS

This is not the first time the game's made it clear there used to be wheeled cars in this city - does this become relevant at some point? Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Based on the hanging boat and the woman's torso, I'm clearly above the Sand Bar and Pleasure Palace from earlier. The boat that hung above the Sand Bar is held in place by a winch up here.

The winch controls are behind a padlocked panel. I have a padlock key in my inventory. I wonder if those two items could be used together...

Now I'll have a boat I can use!

Things to do later:

1. I suspect by dropping the boat I may already have done everything in this area!

4 MONUMENT STREET: EDUARDO'S NEWSTAND - BUCKLUSTER VIDEO

The newsstand just contains old newspapers talking about the women working on biological weapons. I try to enter the video store.

How many of these puzzles solutions are going to be simple 'come back when I have a key' solutions.

Things to do later:

1. Find a key to the video store.

REVISITING LOCATIONS

Now that I've visited all areas at least once, I go back to the sand bar to see what I can get out of the boat that I'd dropped.

Well that was anticlimactic.

I couldn't find anything to do with the boat or anything useful in the boat. But while looking through my inventory I had another thought and went back to the laboratory.

Remembering the compact mirror I took from Bruce's house, I used it to reflect the laser beam.

I was actually attempting to make the laser shoot itself in the hopes of getting some useful electronics from the wreckage, but this works too.

Getting back in the car and looking at the map, it seems the residential area is the closest to being directly above the lab. So let's go back there and see if we're right.

I doubt Bruce is up to date with his laser beam insurance premiums.

Well, it seems like if I could find a second mirror I could direct the beam to Bruce's safe in order to get what's inside. But trying to take, push or pull the vanity mirror from the next room doesn't work so I forget that idea for now.

Before doing more detailed exploring of this city I have the brilliant idea of using my fishing rod to get the piranhas out of the stream in the village above ground. I spend a bit of time and teleport back to the women's base, bend my gender again and try out my brilliant idea.

Thanks for making me think the last five minutes was a waste of my time, game!

So let's stop for now. I have a few things I can do next time I play. Apart from the short 'things to do' lists I have above, I've since thought of something to do in the NORTH SEA WINDOW section. I figure I can flood the place. As for how or why I'd do that, I have an idea...

Flood the place.

How - put/throw my explosives on the sea monster's viewscreen?
Why - I frankly have no reason to want to flood the city other the fact that I dropped a boat that seems to have no purpose without water.

Session time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Total time: 5 hours 5 minutes
Inventory:

• Security card (for women's base)
• Tape player
• Binoculars
• Timer module
• Shield modulator
• Bones (Animal, not Star Trek's doctor)
• Log (Captain's, not wooden)
• Chicken (Roasted, not fried)
• Twinkifruit
• Target module
• Charge cases (containing explosives)
• Repair list
• Fishing rod
• Penlight
• Fishing line (taken from fishing rod)
• Durafail cells (batteries which can be put back in penlight)

Rex Nebular - Meet Mr. Chainsaw

Rex Nebular's Log: Stardate - Later That Afternoon.3: I've been captured by a group of women. One of the woman keeps referring to me as scum - which is strange because usually people spend at least a few minutes with me before realising I'm scum. It seems the women want to use me as breeding stock. I'm in great peril and need to escape as soon as possible. Or maybe I should stay and have just a little bit of peril first.

When I last checked in, I'd just teleported to a facility and been met by two women, one of whom had a gun pointed at me.

The women take me on a small tour through their complex, or not so much a tour as a direct line to the prison.

My fellow prisoners.

After the ladies set up the force field to lock me In my cell, I hear a noise from the other side of the wall.

Is this guy trying to whisper through three metres of solid steel?

The voice was coming from my neighbour, a creature named Bud. His story is similar to mine – he had been investigating some strange readings before being blasted by a cloaked ship and taken from his escape pod a month ago.

Bud tells me a little about the place. It's underground, the female humans here are called 'Keepers'. The female humans above ground are referred to as 'Stock', meaning breeding stock, there was at some point something called 'The Great War' which he suspects has something to do with the lack of men.

I promise to help him get out of here and in return he promises/threatens to kill any guards between here and the teleporter. After looking at my surroundings a little, including noticing the Rex-sized air vent, the women come back.

The inverted commas around the word 'see' fill me with a lot of 'confidence' in my future survival

I'm taken to a 'hospital' and prepared for my 'examination' by Doc Slache's assistant.

The men have been gone at least long enough for this lady not to remember them.

I find out that I'm going to be used to continue their race by constantly breeding with the ladies.

By 'worse' I assume you mean only 200 times a day.

She tells me about the Great Gender War and the Gender Bender. The Gender Bender is a machine that changes a user's sex. They put one of the surface-dwelling women into the machine to continue their race when they can't capture real men such as myself. The Gender Bender's effects do wear off after some time, but the time it lasts in unpredictable. I expect this unpredicability might be the catalyst for puzzles and/or humour in my near future.

After the intern leaves I have time to take a scalpel from the nearby trolley before the Doctor arrives.

Okay. The doctor doesn't like smart alec responses. Message received.

I find this doctor creepy. To be fair, I'd find a doctor creepy if she was merely taking my blood pressure and had this expression of glee on her face.

If I put Mr. Chainsaw in the Gender Bender does it become Mrs. Chainsaw?

After a few deaths I stop using the fun answers and answer her questions sensibly. After a few questions she introduces me to Mr. Hypo and I fall asleep.

Hey – I specifically asked to be in the non-smoking section of the hospital!

I wake up back in my cell where I use my scalpel on the air vent's grate and enter it, which shows me a small map of the vent system. I can check out the other cells and talk to my cellmates or I can exit into the security room. There doesn't seem to be much to do here so having a separate screen for the vent makes me think it might just be the first of numerous vents I'll have to climb through in this game? Then again that's likely just my fear of mazes manifesting itself as the interface here is as simple as clicking on the room I want to go to.

I exit the vent into the security station. Apart from the obligatory old cup of coffee and half-eaten doughnut, the desk contains a monitor with camera views from the cells and from the village on the surface. Looking at cell 2 gives me some interesting information.

I had been informed earlier that the monster had eaten a guard, which explains why a security card is in its cell.

I open all cells, and a guard appears and points a gun at me, getting ready to shoot me. Before she can pull the trigger my new friend, Bud, comes through and violently takes care of the guard.

Ayyyyyyy!

I leave the security station and go to the monster's cell. Bud had totally ripped the monster apart (Bud's more powerful than he looks - that monster seemed strong) and I find the security card amongst the carnage.

Moving past the cells to the hospital, I take an audio tape from the smoking body of Professor Pyro.

Moving on, I find some kind of force field that I attempt to move past.

Looking at the scanner after dying gives me an important clue.

I'm much more willing to accept learning important information by dying in a comedy game than a serious game.

Not being able to go further in this direction as I'm not a woman, I try the other direction and find a strange machine which looks like a pool cue hitting an 8-ball. Stepping onto the platform activates the machine.

Doesn't the game know that the only ball you hit with the cue is the white ball?

Well, now that my gender has been bent, I'll be able to pass the security screen past the hospital. But first, I look around a bit.

I really thought the game would go with the obvious gender stereotype and have Rex know exactly what this item does after he turns into a woman. I'm not sure if this is the game stating that Rex's knowledge doesn't change with his gender or if they just couldn't be bothered coming up with two descriptions.

So now that I'm a woman I should get a bit more respect around here, assuming anyone's still alive to show me some respect.

Session time: 30 minutes
Total time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There's a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!

Gobliiins - Into The Fire

By Ilmari

Statue of Serenity - made by Joss Whedon?

Or maybe it is a statue OF him?

The level with the Buddha-look-alike was another one where I had to proceed by trial and error. I'll just quickly run through the essentials. If you really squint your eyes, you might see a faint X on the ground at the right side of the screen. By first putting the stone on the left to the X and then asking Hooter to enchant it a ladder to the statue was created.

It looks like they could have just jumped on that floating island

Hooter could turn one of the palms on the island into a pickaxe. Where should it be used?

That's where the pendulum was useful

Digging at the spot where pendulum moved led to the lair of the dragon Gemellor.

Its treasure is laughable: one chest and a cup

The room was, predictably, full of dangers.

Dwayne just keeps tripping on objects that could be easily circumvented

That's what you get when you go too close to a fire breathing dragon

The old "monster disguised as a bridge" trick

The bear trap was easily dealt with. BoBo just hit the pile of logs, releasing one log from the pile, and Dwayne then used the log to set the trap off.

For the monster trap I had to make a request for assistance, and as Mister Kerr revealed, it required more than usual amount of moon logic. Firstly, Hooter had to magically float the small red bag closer from dragon's lair, so that Dwayne could reach it, Secondly, Hooted had to turn the log into a can of deodorant. The bag was full of seeds, which at a proper part of the screen worked as a bait for a jumping foot, which was killed with the deodorant.

You have to see it to believe it

The foot had to be still roasted in the dragon's fire and then fed to the bridge.

Here boy, eat!

With this bit of moon logic behind me, I was now able to fetch a dagger, which also needed the touch of dragon's fiery breath.

Back again

The final destruction of the voodoo doll involved a mystical ritual.

Setting the Statue of Serenity on fire with my dagger

Burn you evil doll!

The result of incinerating the doll was a key. The key could be inserted in the statue's ear, making it a teleport.

Beam me up, Serenity!

The goblin king was saved, but I still have to look for something called the ultimate weapon, probably for the sake of beating the wizard Niak. We'll see how that goes in the next post.

Session time: 6 hours
Total time: 15 hours 30 minutes