Jigsaw: Chasing an attractive stranger through the 20th century

And that's why you don't LP games after midnight.

It was the intercept after all, which is weird because the parser usually does ask you what specifically you want to look at if you use vague terms, and the intercept was never referred to as a "message", and yet the thing on the pinup was and...argh.

I kind of preferred the "Black is trolling you" explanation.

Is the actual message on the pinup anything important, though?

I can't quite remember, actually, but I don't think so. I think it's more of a backstory thing.

There needs to be a list of "awesome things you do in Jigsaw." It's one of the few games that can overtake Trinity in the sheer variety of wonderful things the player gets to do.

So far, you've cracked codes in Bletchley Park, wandered absinthe-blurred Parisian streets, discovered penicillin, rearranged deck chairs on the Titanic, disguised yourself as a Soviet officer, put out an engine fire on a Superfortress, made out during a Beatles rehearsal. played the mandolin for the Wright brothers, and assassinated Archduke Ferdinand.

I'm not counting the nuke scene because defusing a nuclear weapon is the most boring, ordinary adventure game thing you've done!

And we get to keep all of the awesome swag! We still have Orville's Mandolin, you know.

Even though the nuke scene is (relatively) the most boring part of the game, it was quite riveting the first time I played because of the mystery of what happened to cause that weird white area right before you got dropped into the snow. Plus, suddenly finding an underground missile silo was very cool.

So can you just whip out the mandolin and play it whenever, or does the game tell you that you don't really want to do that?

Because that sounds like fun.

That is a wonderful segue into my next post.

We play beautifully. Too bad there's nobody around to hear us.

Now, we have a problem. We are currently at approximately 70% fuel capacity, we are missing an engine, and we have no idea where we are. So what do we do? We try to land the plane of course (and this next turn of the events just proves that White has nerves of steel and is just all-around awesome).

This is the dial readout at the moment:



Alt is altitude, speed is self-explanatory, fuel is going down every turn, Brg is bearing, and I'm not quite sure what Psn is, but it doesn't come into play (and for some reason it was cut off partially in Gargoyle). What we need to watch right now is Altitude. We're at 25000 feet, and we need to take a pretty steep dive. Good thing the B-29s were pressurized.

Eventually this is what the readings look like.



Notice how the fuel has decreased. That's about nine turns' worth, and we've dived 16800 feet in that time. We have to keep going, though.

Yeah, I think I neglected to mention that we're over the ocean right now. If we go too low then we run the risk of getting slapped down by those waves.



We finally sink to just about 500 feet up, but there's still no dry land in sight, so now we wait.

And we finally see land! We've only got about 20% of our fuel left by this time. The next thing to do is to lower the landing gear and keep our eyes peeled for a clearing.

Yessss! We rock!

You can actually use the distance in the poster to help you steer your way to the Soviet base. The distance given, combined with bearings on the radio and the position (cut off in Gargoyle) makes this section easier. (I remember that I just used a walkthrough when I played...)

So we landed the plane and ended up relatively unharmed. Now we just have to get out of here.

That opens the east bomb bay and releases the safe. We still have to see what's in there, after all.

Uh-oh. Looks like this is where the Soviet nuclear test was taking place. That means that they'll have noticed us landing this big fat superfortress inside of their super-classified testing area. We don't have a moment to lose.

Whenever the game tells you that you have a good idea where x item comes from, it might as well have a BLACK WAS HERE painted on it.

Also, the name is a reference to an old Infocom game (Enchanter) where "Rezrov" was an unlocking spell. Pretty much tells you what the device is supposed to be used for.

We don't have much time.

They're almost here!

We could've read the mysterious beige folder later, but I decided to take the risk and open it up.

BLAAAAAAAAACK! Did he learn nothing from that episode during WWII? When we find him we're giving him a piece of our mind.

The Soviets are climbing out of their trucks. Time to stuff everything back in the bag and hope they don't decide to look at it too closely.

Oh no...

Well, at least you can have a conversation with Black soon, right?

Aww, crap. D: That went pear-shaped pretty quickly.

Oh, sorry? Why am I looking at you like this is all your fault? I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Black~ 0:)

D:

Those bastards aren't going to get away with this.

Oh god, Black. You were just trying to end the Cold War and bring both sides to an agreement. ;_;

Black's too drugged up to hear us. We have to get him out of here before the guards come back.

Okay, what can we pull out of our pockets to help us get out of here?

They took our stuff!

Well that's...convenient. What are the chances that the time portal just happened to show up right where we needed it?

Ha! Suckers.

Poor Black. Both sides were too stupid and stubborn to end the Cold War just like that.

Hmmm, Black doesn't seem to be in here.

No new area this time, so it's back to the Monument.

Whew. So we got one more jigsaw piece.

Only two more to go until the board is complete.

I wonder if Black is okay...

This would be the best book.

But then we wouldn't actually get to do all of these things!

Though I suppose this LP is sort of like a book version of the game.

(Pssst, Para, how's that picture going? :P)

Was working on it but then my mom took the iPad away. I think I'll just finish it off as line art. Shame since I colored the chibis for it. Wait, I have time now, off to the tablet~

:D You rock, Para.

Okay, we have a choice of where to go next.



Here's what the board looks like right now. There's three pieces we haven't done yet: Moon, Barge, and Lady (which we just got).

We're going to leave the Barge for later because of reasons, so your choices are Moon and Lady.

Where should we go?

Moon then Lady.

Some games have antagonists with no common sense, but few have ideas that are as spectacularly bad as Black's. Stop the discovery of penicillin so that somebody else will "do it better?" Check! Accidentally launch nuclear missile? Check! Take away the Beatles? Check! Sabotage secret messages that are being sent on the Titanic without actually saving people? Check!

But what harm can Black possibly do on the moon, huh? I guess we'll find out.

Kidnap it? yes yes he can't quite do that while he's on the moon but I wanted to use a movie reference

Ohmigosh, Para, you are the BEST. That look of surprise in the second pic is wondrous.

Yeah. You've gotta wonder what Black would do if White wasn't around, huh?

Also, we should add "Land a decrepit B-29 bomber in the middle of nowhere and then escape a Soviet holding cell" to the list of Awesome Things You Can Do In Jigsaw.

Nice foreshadowing there, Ferdie. ;)

That was my first thought, anyway.

Hahaha, not quite. But you'll see, all in good time.

So I remembered that Black has a time machine as well (the "elegant pocketwatch"), so I went back to see if I could look through Black's pockets for it while we were captured.

The narrator has a wonderfully dry tone of voice. Kudos, Graham Nelson, that made me laugh out loud.

To the moon it is! Lemme just put on some appropriate music.

Okay, out of all of the cool places we've been so far, this takes the cake. Guys, we're in the Apollo lunar lander, meaning that we're most likely in space!

But it seems we're not alone in here.

Whoops, I actually forgot that that was still on.

And Black has no idea that we saved his bacon. Still, that's pretty adorable.

Pfffft, that's cute. I can see Black being really into going to those types of protest rallies.

Because they weren't killed! The Apollo 1 fire happened on the ground, Challenger was a whole different incident, and everyone on Apollo 13 survived despite potential disaster. This doesn't make any sense.

Uh...Black? You ever seen Othello? How about something more cheery? It can even be from another Shakespeare play. Like the Viola, or the Orsino, or the Prospero. Just don't choose someone from a tragedy. It's a bit too on the nose for something that could easily blow up and kill us both.

There's one thing that we can take in the cabin, so let's do that while Black drives.

Hmm, maybe the Littrow Valley is in the Atlas.

Wait a sec, those aren't the same coordinates that Black is using!

Oh god. We nearly crashed. The Othello nearly lived up to its name.

Hmph.

That is so awesome I can't even, it would be a fantastic movie scene.

It would, wouldn't it? Here, have the docking sequence from 2001. The movie with some of the greatest space scenes ever.



Actually, I was thinking the other day that Jigsaw would make a fantastic movie. It would need an enormous budget to do everything justice, but if the director could pull it off then I think it would be a very good movie. They'd have to cut out a lot of the random stuff-collecting of course, and there'd have to be more characters. Though that wouldn't be especially difficult. Just have all sorts of cameos from famous historical figures. Though Black and White would still be the only characters that would be able to move from one time period to the other.

Also, PARAdoxial, I just wanted to reiterate how much I love your pictures. Thank you very much for making them. <3

So, we're on the Moon. But why are we on the Moon? And how does Black have a lunar lander? Those things are hard to come by, not to mention expensive. Time to ask the tough questions.

Kaldecki bought the thing? How rich was that guy? He managed to create two time machines, an untold number of other devices, a pyramid, a park, and now a lunar lander plus rocket fuel and the means to get it into orbit. Not to mention that he must have an enormous network of people working for him throughout the past. And yet he chose Black head his history-changing scheme...

Guess Black doesn't want to talk about it.

Seems like Black conveniently forgot about those exploits during WWII and the Cold War.

Now let's ask about that weirdness with Black insisting that the Apollo mission ended in a disaster.

Whoa, it all makes sense now, Black is from some sort of parallel universe! In Black's timeline, the Apollo 17 mission ended in the astronauts' deaths, but in ours (the best of all possible timelines?) it didn't, meaning that we can help Black out this time!

We're on the same side for once. Feels pretty good.

[quote="Nebty, post: 320413, member: 911"
Uh...Black? You ever seen Othello? How about something more cheery? It can even be from another Shakespeare play. Like the Viola, or the Orsino, or the Prospero. Just don't choose someone from a tragedy. It's a bit too on the nose for something that could easily blow up and kill us both.
[/quote]

Maybe he's thinking of the board game Othello, with the pieces that are white on one side and black on the other?

That makes sense. (And is a really fun game.)

Okay, if that's the case then that's really sweet. <3

My mind just instantly leapt to Shakespeare.

Before we descend to the Moon's surface, I want to try showing Black something to see if it would elicit a reaction. How about the file about "Agent Pluto".

*sigh*, we really have to deal with these self-esteem issues. I mean, how can White not see how awesome she is? We've even got a list of incredible feats of badassery around here somewhere. Plus, (Fem)White is about to become the first woman to walk on the Moon, beating out Dr. Wendy Jacobson by 4 years (forgot to mention that we're in 1971 right now).

This whole Black romance thing is such a tease.

So if we fail to change (or not change, from Black's point of view) the course of history in this segment, does the game-over message refer to this at all?

Heh.

It really is, but that's part of the fun. :P

I was wondering that myself. Let's check.

What? So...the western world is ruled by some sort of military junta all because the Apollo 17 mission failed? I guess it's implying that it had some sort of impact on the Cold War, but this can't be the same as Black's timeline. It's too dramatic a change.

Anyways, let's reload and do something to keep these astronauts alive.

Aw.

This is so cool!

While the suit may look awesome, it's pretty bulky, so let's use this rover to check out our surroundings.

Oof. That pun actually hurt.

Before we get back into the rover, there's something that I've always wanted to try.

Whoo!

I don't get it.

"No man is an Island" is a famous line by the poet, John Donne. A Gnomon is a piece of equipment used by geologists. "Gnomon is an island"...get it? (it's a terrible pun)

ohhh, now I get that line in about a boy.
and yes, that's terrible.

One side's white and one side's black, but which one's on top?

(totally innocent curiosity)