Introduction

So, what's all this then?

This is Udoiana Raunes: Auf der Suche nach der Schulordnung, a point-and-click adventure released in 1998 by Stefan Zwanzger and Thomas Wagner.

But what's all this gobbledygook on my screen here?

Oh, right. Much like my last project, Unterwegs in Düsterburg, this game is in German. Now, unlike UiD, an English translation does exist, but personally, I'm not a fan of it. Actually, let me show what I mean with a little example: Check here for a demonstration using the intro. It's not strictly necessary, since I'll do the intro in the LP proper too, but if somebody wants to read me babbling about translation for a bit, there's that.

OK, and what is the game actually about?

The intro will explain the basic premise of the plot, but to give a very short rundown: We play as Udoiana Raunes, fedora-wearing, whip-swinging archaeologist-type/geography teacher, and the school we work at, the Wilhelm-Hausenstein-Gymnasium (WHG for short) in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, has been devastated by a violent student revolution brought upon by the pressure of bureaucracy. Shit's fucked, and we have to fix it. Just one problem - we don't actually know what we're supposed to do to fix it yet. All we know is that there will be pointing, clicking, and inventory puzzles.

As an aside, I'm going to call this short page on the German school system required reading. Well, not necessarily "required", but given that this is a game strongly rooted in the German school system, some basic knowledge will probably come in handy. It's not that complicated.

I feel like there's a background to this story I'm not getting.

You'd be right. To explain: Back in 1997, Zwanzger and Wagner were students at the WHG, and their geography teacher, Udo Rau, looked like Indiana Jones.



Here he is. I'm not entirely sure I'm seeing it, but whatever. Anyway, based on that, the two created the character of Udoiana Raunes and made a point-and-click adventure, which they sold at the school. It proved very popular, and in 1998, they took that game and drastically revamped it, adding more rooms, people, puzzles, the whole shebang, and called it the "Special Edition", which is what we have here. I couldn't actually find a copy of the "original original" game, so to speak, but since it seems like it's basically just the beta version of what we have here, it's probably not a big loss.

Fun fact: This game doesn't run on DOSBox. Well, it runs, but you can't actually select any of the different verbs, you can just walk around. So apart from bopping around the first room, you can't make any process. This did not help in not making this game even more obscure than it already is. So I'm employing a Windows 98 virtual machine to get around that.

I don't think there's much else to be said about this game - it's a strange little point-and-click adventure that I want to share because god knows nobody else is going to do it. Let's get to it!

Table of Contents

Update I - The Wonders Of Diazepam
Update II - Don't Lose Your Head
Update III - Become A Geography Teacher, They Said...
Update IV - Picking Up The Pieces
Update V - Ramble In The Jungle



And what's this now?

This is Udoiana Raunes: In Search for Indiana Jones 4, another point-and-click adventure by Stefan Zwanzger and Thomas Wagner, released in 2005. This is a sequel to the previous game.

So what's this one about?

Once again, we'll get a bit more explanation in the intro and first update proper, but here's a basic rundown: After restoring school regulations in the first game, our intrepid hero has spent eight years in peace and is now looking to enjoy his retirement, but little does he know that he is about to be thrust head-first into a new adventure. Again, we're not actually told what the adventure is about from what we're told going into the game, though the title does give us a pretty good guess.

What's different to the previous game?

Not much, really. Despite it being released in 2005, they used the exact same engine as last time, complete with its quirks about not wanting to run on DOSBox. Pretty much nothing has changed gameplay-wise. There are, however, some differences in other areas:

1) Every area now has different music! Believe me, that one track got old pretty fast.
2) The game is now only available in English, or at least I couldn't find a German version. And given one particular line we'll come across throughout the game, I'm certain there isn't actually a German version available.
3) The story takes a fairly large shift due to going from being about a school to being about a movie series, but it also takes a big step more towards the direction of self-awareness. Fourth wall breaking abounds in this one.

With that in mind, let's just hop right in!

Table of Contents

Update I - A Game Worth Dying For
Update II - Game Mountain
Update III - It's Like Poetry. Sort Of. They Rhyme.
Update IV - The Mix-And-Match School Of Scriptwriting
Update V - Drugging People Since 1997
Update VI - The Fall Is A Metaphor, You See
Update VII - Witty Title Pending
Update VIII - Open Heart Surgery Made Easy