So... because my last classical-music-(and-Jet-Set-Willy-)inspired puzzle giveaway went so bloody fantastic, I've made another one. No need to decipher musical scores this time, no need to get past any ballroom bunnies; there's just one game on one end and your patience on another. And maybe a pencil to skew the balance a little bit.

The prize is Trine 2. Best of luck! http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/oLOqYj6s

Hints.

Q3: A literary reference. The answer is not found in the game.

Q4: A reference to a 22-year-old game. The lisp that you're looking for is the one that turns your alveolar sibilants into post-alveolar ones. Remember that the spider would still be lisping when saying its name, just as it's lisping out its location. The spider is indeed a keen one, and its name is one of the self-assumed monickers of that character.

Q5: As is usual in Dizzy games, the things you hear are usually spelt out for you.

Q8: A follow-up to Q7. A literary reference as well (primarily because there are no mediæval poets in the game).

Answers

Q1: (The) abyss

Q2: Saved Daisy

Q3: George Gordon (Noel) Byron / (Lord) Byron

Q4: Billy Blazhe

Q5: Sky is the limit

Q6: (Frying) pan

Q7: Beatrice

Q8: (Mount) Purgatorio / Purgatory

Eventually making your way here: http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/EFnWW/trine-2.

12 years ago*

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It's Dizzy!

12 years ago
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Aye, I thought you lot missed him last time. )

12 years ago
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Note to me:The answer to Q2 is not Fap.

12 years ago
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Ah, if only he weren't wearing boxing gloves...

12 years ago
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Thanks, but no thanks :)

12 years ago
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Gonna try it again. I really tried your Jet Set Willy puzzle, but was too hard for me (except Q2).

12 years ago
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I hope this one's easier. I so want to have someone actually get Trine 2 and enjoy it. )

12 years ago
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Already got Trine 2, but I might try this one just because the last one was so much fun. Thanks for sharing a great game! :)

If it's not spoiling anything, can I ask now what the answer to part 2, question 1 was on the last set? I tried a bunch of stuff to narrow it down, but most of my googling was either turning up huge lists of composers that would have just been an exercise in brute-forcing since I didn't have enough knowledge to know what to exclude, or lists of the best classical music to listen to while high ("joint"). ;) Just curious, since I never figured it out.

12 years ago
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Aw. No bother at all, it's Charles Gounod. The piece is 'Ave Maria', which Gounod improvised the vocal part for based on Bach's first Prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier. Hope it gets you some sleep. )

12 years ago
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Thanks! I thought I'd really blown it when I first read that because I'm familiar with Ave Maria (any other West Wing fans here?), but Wikipedia informs me that the version I know is by Schubert, and a separate composition from the Bach/Gounod one.

As to the question below, I'm not really sure. I just saw them pop up in Google results for a couple search strings I tried but didn't click through. I generally assumed anything under a marijuana.com or grasscity.com domain name was probably not exactly what I was looking for. ;p

12 years ago
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On a side note, what were the #1 classical pieces on those spliffy 'high' lists? )

12 years ago
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Aye, it's a safe bet. I guess making a puzzle out of those wouldn't be such a great idea after all.

12 years ago
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The questions aren't so bad. But it's always one question that gets me... Stupid spider.

12 years ago
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But, but, but... spiders are wonderful!

12 years ago
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Guess a more helpful comment would be in order. )

So... a vague hint then: there are several spiders in there. How do you know it's the right one?

12 years ago
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I thought I had a good lead, but maybe I don't really know where "there" is. Still banging my head on it though.

12 years ago
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Naah, it's as simple as it sounds. I mean there are several spiders in the game. But the question refers to 'the keen lisping one'.

12 years ago
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I'll try later. I don't download things on my desktop, will have to boot up my laptop.

12 years ago
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No worries. It's not the patience of the puzzle that's being put to the test here. )

12 years ago
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Hints ahoy!

12 years ago
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D: The game glitches out and I keep jumping... Or is that how it is?

12 years ago
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I didn't have any problems like that when I played.

12 years ago
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Sorry to hear about that. (

Does pressing 'up' help (the trustworthy method against sticky keys)? If not, I could try fixing you up with a rebinded patched version.

12 years ago
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I'm stuck on Q3, Q4 and Q8. Should I look for the answers exactly in that game ("Dizzy and a half") or in entire Dizzy universe? There's not so much info in the game.

12 years ago
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Nope, no need to know any Dizzy lore for those (well, maybe except knowing that Dora is Dizzy's sister may have pointed you in a vaguely helpful direction). These three questions are somewhat remotely related to the game: Q3 is a literary reference (should be easily googlable (is this a word?)). Q8 is also a literary reference, and this one should be obvious once you've answered Q7 (also, the names of in-game locations are supposed to be sowing hints for Q8). Q4 is a reference to an old game, the hints being the location of the spider, the word 'keen', and my original post.

Hope this helps you through. )

12 years ago
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Thanks! It helped a little. Only Q4 left.

12 years ago
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Dizzy! :D

12 years ago
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And a half!

12 years ago
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I'm stuck on Q4 and Q5.

For Q4, I think I know the (20+ years?) old game, but can't find the right name.

For Q5, I'm not sure what we're supposed to be hearing.

12 years ago
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Re Q4: yup, it's the one. Now to apply the right kind of the lisp! )

Re Q5: sorry for being so cryptic. The answer is the message you're getting afterwards.

12 years ago
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re: Q5: Oh, derp. I was trying to describe the sounds. Well, no wonder I wasn't having any luck!

re: Q4: I think I have the right lisp, I just can't find the right name to apply it to.

12 years ago
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Should've included 'Ow! Ow!' as an optional answer to Q5. Blast. )

As for Q4, think simpler. I'm not that cruel to make the poor spider lisp out Polish last names. )

12 years ago
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Is it an actual name? Is it a first-and-last name, just one of those, or something else? Is it the name of the hero, or one of the enemies? (I even tried lisping the name of the enemy that looked most like a spider)

I even tried lisping the name of a famous author who wrote a book that shared the title of the old game, haha. No dice. You say think simpler, and you must be right because it feels like I'm over-thinking this, haha.

12 years ago
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Well, as I mentioned earlier, it's not the Polish part. But the character is the same. )

12 years ago
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Gathered up the hints in the original post. Guess that's about as much helpful as I get.

12 years ago
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To the lad/lass trying to solve the Jet Set Willy puzzle: that Trine 2 giveaway is long over. I hope you're having fun already. )

12 years ago
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3 days to go, 2 entries. Hop in!

12 years ago
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Still very much lost on Q4 - even with the clues!! Also doesn't help guessing random names =D.

12 years ago
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Aww. It's pretty simple, really. Think up the right game. Think up the character. Apply the lisp. You're there. )

12 years ago
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I want to ask more about Q4, but I don't want to reveal what I've tried already. I don't know what would be too much of a reveal.

12 years ago
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I'll try my best without 'spoiling' things (although at this point the question must be such a pain in the neck that any kind of a spoiler will probably feel like top-class massage). The name of the spider is one of the self-assumed monickers of that character. His real last name sounds Polish (I think I've read somewhere that that's because it is).

If you think you've got the right character and the right game, that's likely so. If your answer is still not accepted, it's one of two things: you're either picking the wrong monicker (the one with no sibilants in it) or you're lisping it wrong. Remember, alveolars into post-alveolars, all two of them, like if you're missing some teeth on your lower jaw (or like if you're doing a Sean Connery impression). )

12 years ago
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If I'm thinking of the right character, his middle name has one sibilant but his first name doesn't (neither version). Last name polish, game from 22 years ago, I pretty sure I'm in the right area, but ...

Alright, he has more than one monicker. The more common one has no sibilants. His father's new last name has a sibilant. None of his names have two that I know of. This is my problem, haha. I'm pretty sure I have the right game, but you say there are two sibilants in his monicker.

12 years ago
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Aye, his 'fiery' new last name has just one alveolar sibilant. If you lisp it, you should be set. I was just referring that there are only two of them in English. )

So... yes, a monicker where the first name is a shortened version of his real first name and the last name has a sibilant that is different from the one in the name of the location that the spider is lisping. I can almost hear you breathing!
(Er, no, sorry, that's not intended to be a lisping reference.)

12 years ago
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got the game. got the character. absolutley stuck on the lisping! tried several combinations! probs won't make it! well, clues certainly making more sense :)

12 years ago
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You can do it!

12 years ago
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Indeed, you're too close to give up. )

Get the first-name/last-name monicker and apply a Sean Connery to it. There's still time!

12 years ago
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A-and it's done. Well done to all those who participated. I'm a bit shorry about the shpider, but his 'fiery' new lasht name was the besht hint I could give. He'zh a keen one indeed.

I've added the answers to the original post for the curious few.

12 years ago
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Oh no, too late. I was working on it now... I got quickly the first three answers... I'm not sure I could solve Q4, maybe the game is Commander Keen but I didn't know it. The Dizzy game is cute though, it works fine (unlike the previous one). Did you develop it? Very nice.

12 years ago
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Aww. It is, indeed, Commander Keen, and I think you'd eventually get it, after going though several iterations of William-Joseph-Blazkowiczes. Oh well. I'm sure you'll come upon a stray copy of Trine 2 soon enough. )

Thanks, I'm glad Dizzy works better than Fuse. There's hardly any merit on my part in that, however: I made that gamelet with DizzyAGE, which is a free engine. Sure, scripting and writing takes a while, but anyone could do that, really. )

12 years ago
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No, to be precise Fuse was okey, but Jet Set Willy has maybe compatibility bugs or so, it was crashing after some seconds when it wasn't active window. A bit annoying. :-)

12 years ago
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What? Billy Blaze? WTF? Why?

12 years ago
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'Marooned on Mars' was the title of the first game in the Commander Keen series. The name of location of the 'keen' spider is a lisped spelling of that title - 'Marooned on marsh'. Well, the hint about it being a 22-year-old game is pretty specific in this regard as well.

Then you take a Commander Keen character that had a Polish-sounding last name (the Keen himself), pick the one monicker of his that has a sibilant in it (Billy Blaze) and 'lisp' it the same way the location is lisped - Billy Blazhe. I did check the question against being look-uppable and it seemed pretty Google-friendly (Google even prompts 'Did you mean: marooned on mars' when you try bruteforcing the locations). But aye, the question did turn out too pop-referency and overly convoluted. (

12 years ago
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yeah, that had me stumped for a little while - mainly because i googled 1980 instead of 1990 - massive math fail and resulted in a misleading direction.

aww man! i was -replacing- the z with alternatives. that's where i failed!

12 years ago
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Commander Keen was my first association but I've dropped that idea because there's no spiders in Commader Keen 1990 episodes. I was looking for a spider with a name in 1990 games. And Billy's last name doesn't sound Polish.

That one question ruined the whole puzzle.

12 years ago
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It was definately more of a riddle than literal question regarding the spider.
from wiki... William Joseph "Billy Blaze" Blazkowicz II, a.k.a. "Commander Keen" or "Keen"

12 years ago
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Closed 12 years ago by Svipur.