Part 17

Well, we have been jumping around a bit. To summarize: we went to the professor's lab to track him down, then took one of three paths.

• If we told the door robot we were delivering oil, we saved a lab assistant from a malfunctioning vacuum cleaner, got tickets to the Latverian ballet, and met one of the dancers there.
• If we told the door robot we were the TV repairman, we met a workman in the service area, who pointed us in the direction of Mercedes tracks.
• If we went in through the window, the professor's assistant told us he was working on a water-burning device; we then had the option of either tracking down Latverian ballet dancers (who were apparently asking around about the professor) or the Mercedes they drove.

Either way, we wound up in Deep Trouble, either because of a betrayal by the "Latverian" or by being ambushed by a goon at the Mercedes shop. Which brings us up to Harry. All clear now?


And now, an Action Interlude! Or as it's properly known, a minigame.

There are eight minigames in Accolade Comics, though for some reason you play through five of them in Story A and only three in Story B. You can also play them independently from the starting menu, which I didn't bother showing you.



This is Climber. Your objective is to swing from bar to bar, collecting five keys, then make your way to the lower right corner to escape. The keys spawn in one of the four corners (never the one closest to Keene, unless I'm mistaken); if not collected in a timely manner, they vanish and respawn, but you have a fair amount of time to reach them.

The bars, naturally, appear and disappear to complicate your life. Keene can hold on to even the tiniest sliver of bar, but if the bar he's holding vanishes completely, or if he tries to swing to where there isn't a bar...



...well, it can ruin his day. Fortunately, he has five lives; unfortunately, you also use up these lives if you hit a dead-end in the main, comic book part of the game.



Plus my reflexes aren't what they used to be.



And occasionally I make a mistake.



Well, maybe more than occasionally.



But that one was not my fault, dammit! I'd have needed a clairvoyant space brain, to borrow a phrase, to see that bar was appearing in time to actually, you know, swing to it. (I don't know if the game ever puts you into a situation where you literally have no chance to escape, but I wouldn't be surprised.)

Still, through the magic of perseverance (and warp speed emulation)...



...we finally make it through. Huzzah!



Which puts the pressure back on you. Do we race to the scene, or do we have time to take in the sights?

(Also, how are you liking the LP so far? Is there anything you'd like me to do differently?)