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I'm sympathetic -- I know how it feels to have a frustrating user interface element that makes a task I care about not flow the way I want it to. It can be really irritating, not that any one instance is the end of the world, but having to keep encountering it over and over. Sometimes it might feel like it's a use case that's unique to me, other times it seems like something that large swathes of users would do. Either way, it's no fun. That said... I think there may be some extreme statements here. "Important flaw", "jumbled mess", "tragic waste", "throwing away"... This is a pretty unusual use of the journal system -- it was designed for quick note-taking of important information, not for recording literally every dialogue in the game -- and yet it still works effectively enough, for that purpose, that you prefer it over using a dedicated text editor. Which is fine -- things don't have to be used as their designer expected them to be; more power to you! But if it doesn't work perfectly for that purpose -- which it wasn't designed for -- that's not really a flaw, it just means it's not a great fit for this other task that it wasn't designed for. Ditto for the deletion issue. Again, I can totally understand the annoyance, but this hardly causes the story to be "wasted" or "thrown away." You have options here: you could save and reload after deleting, you could just use a text editor, you could record fewer entries to begin with. There isn't a perfect option for you, but there are options. (Relatedly, and still sympathetically: "this game made by a huge development team did it this way, why can't your one-man development outfit do that?" is I think a question that answers itself.)

For an alternate jumpstart for someone: Ess observed privately that this was actually a very kind scramble, and he's quite right. There are a relatively large number of some low-frequency letters, and a small number of some higher-frequency ones (with the obvious exception of 'A'). So how would I start? Probably by doing a count: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, EEEEEEEE, IIIIIIII, OOOOO YYYY, WW, LLLLLLLL, RRRRRRRRRRRRRR, HHHHHHHH B, CC, DDDD, GGGGG, J, KKKK, MMM, NNNNNNNNNN, P, SSS, TTTTTTTTTT, V, ZZZ I'd then go after the obvious names connected to the letters that appear more than expected, particularly K, Z, and Y: Khyryk Zakary Barzahl And I'd add three more names that seem completely impossible to leave out, given their relevance to three games: Litalia Alwan Greta Those all fit and that leaves: AAAAAAAAAAAAAA, EEEEEEE, IIIIII, OOOOO Y, W, LLLL, RRRRRRRRRR, HHHHHH CC, DDDD, GGGG, J, K, MMM, NNNNNNNNN, P, SSS, TTTTTTTT, V, Z B has been eliminated completely. But Ess brings up a good point, that the B could instead go to Akhari Blaze, who actually overlaps with Barzahl in a number of letters. Akhari Blaze would also claim the last 'K', though. Is there any other significant figure who would want that K? I can only think of one: Trajkov. Trajkov would himself claim the only J and the only V. So let's think about those: are there any other big names with a J or a V? I can't think of any. Somebody like Pirik doesn't rise to the level of these other names (and she uses two rare letters, anyway). Taking Trajkov off: AAAAAAAAAAAAA, EEEEEEE, IIIIII, OOOO Y, W, LLLL, RRRRRRRRR, HHHHHH CC, DDDD, GGGG, MMM, NNNNNNNNN, P, SSS, TTTTTTT, Z The single letters are now Y, W, P, and Z. Who seems most indispensible for each of those letters? Y - Taygen? Rydell? W - Rawal? Y and W - Diwaniya? P - Learned Pinner? (Who knows about "Learned", but it does use up an awful lot of letters with big piles -- OTOH, there's always Learned Darian.) (Phariton would be a weird inclusion, I think.) Z - Eliza, maybe, though Moseh is a bigger deal, and Shaftoe's out entirely due to never having an F. Of course, some of these letters could also be in the Spidweb member. The W and P might be in Spidweb, the Z might be in Randomizer, the Y might be in Slarty, or W and Y in Edgwyn, to pick on a few recent posters. Choices, choices...

That Game Boy gargoyle you mention is Firebrand. Here's his SNES sprite, which is likely closer to the graphics quality you're describing: Is there any possibility that you're remembering elements of a few different games, bled into each other in memory?

I'd say I'm usually in Kel's camp -- Hard -- but there are some SW games that become painfully unchallenging with optimized builds, even on harder difficulties. Geneforge 1-3 and A2:CS are good examples. I'll also say that Torment is usually tormenting at the very beginning, and then quickly becomes less excruciating. There are definitely games where I'll start on Hard for sanity, then switch to Torment after a few level ups.

Out of those 16 total names, 14 are correct. Please do! I mean, maybe pick something more interesting. Nothing against Sliths, there just aren't 30 major ones.

DM2 would be a real-time dungeon-crawler. DM1 pretty much originated that genre. (And you do start on your own.) The thing about the flakes is google turns up literally nothing with any RPG + flakes search I can think of except for you posting this question on three different forums 🙂 Can you give any more concrete details about any of these memories? 1) What did the demon/devil look like? 2) What did the flakes look like? Color, size, distribution within the clear bag? 3) Was interaction with the demon/devil done via a text menu or something else? 4) Do you remember anything about stats, character classes, etc.? Hmm. Seeing the enemy at a distance and having to run into them (or them you) sounds like Might & Magic or Dungeon Master. The choices of fighting, talking, bartering, etc. sound like Wizardry. But none of those did both, that I am aware of. Anything look familiar here? https://www.neogaf.com/threads/can-we-talk-about-old-school-first-person-dungeon-crawlers.469298/

A clear bag, i.e. plastic, seems awfully out of place in a medieval setting! Are you sure it couldn't have been a flask (even a flask with flake looking things inside)? That said: clear containers with stuff in them + trees + NPCs with pointed ears + raining + dungeon crawler immediately brings Dungeon Master II to mind. It had some colorful interface elements as well:

That's a long way of saying "Game Genie" That's pretty different -- although it does "patch" the game at runtime, it literally patches a couple of bytes, and it doesn't use a premade patch -- you enter a code that just tells it which single byte to patch. So that's more of a patcher than it is a patch itself. It's also limited to a few extremely tiny modifications. Not really relevant here, that's all.

Do you remember anything more concrete about the flakes in a bag? Was there an icon, or was it just the name of an item with no visual depiction? What color was it? etc.

I did not say the second part, and I in fact linked to a Wikipedia article that states: "while redistributing complete games with adaptions most likely does not fall under fair use, distributing the modifications as a patch might be legally permissible; however, that conclusion has not been tested in court." I definitely did say the other part though. Asking Jeff would be the courteous thing to do, for a small-time designer that is pretty good to his fans. If he says go for it, you're definitely in the clear legally; and if he says no, then you can't share it here regardless of anything else.

There are two that sort of fit in that category, depending on what you mean by "take on."

I googled the flakes and immediately found... what appears to be you asking this question some years back, hehehe https://www.dosgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20339 With that added info, like flakes possibly being water flasks, this sounds an awful lot like Ravenloft: Stone Prophet. https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/ravenloft-stone-prophet/screenshots - first person view - space-time portals in intro - start near an NPC's tent - given dagger at start of game - water flasks are apparently quite central - bags are also a thing - early on, you can randomly encounter a dust devil, who can blind you, which would explain your experience of always missing -- as would its immunity to weapons with less than a +2 magical bonus

There are 5 joinable factions in G5. Bandits are not one of them.

But scrambling member names seemed both limiting in audience, and probably too easy. Instead, I've chosen to celebrate the remake of Geneforge 1 by scrambling the names of 18 major characters from the Geneforge series. ...and one Spiderweb member, just to keep things interesting. Have at it! Can you untangle all 18 Geneforge characters? DOLANNERAYAVTRGYNZDO GTYAMAMERNAIWKARAHIL ILNHAIAAOLERTLCEZTAR AHHNRLTAARHHSBANTWPD ERKAORLIOAAZGITYHERI SADNRNTHEKKRCMNJTIAR TSGAGLAE

Yup, you're welcome to ask here.

Because it's a game from 2001 interacting with an OS from nearly two decades later. It had no way of anticipating what that OS would do in response to things that were normal in 2001.

It's probably permission to write to where save game files are stored. Geneforge doesn't actually ask you that itself, by the way -- the box you see is either from Windows Defender or your antivirus software, which jumps in to double check when an app requires write permission to a sensitive area. Geneforge 1 is old enough that it may still have been dropping saved games in the system folder somewhere, rather than in a user folder, which could be why you don't see this with the others. (Nethergate is older still, and still used individual save files rather than save slots.)

Hmm. Do you have the same issue in other browsers? If so, do you want to post a quick screenshot?

Try clearing your cache. I believe some of the icon loading logic shifted slightly in an IPB update, fixing a few uncommon problems that had existed with them before.

aetuzcu, I notice you said you killed "the" Altered Giant. Normally, the following sequence of events takes place: 1) Kill first Altered Giant 2) Enter grassy area, which is empty 3) Spring trap - gate closes (with you INSIDE), six Altered Giants appear 4) Turn wheel (in hidden passage on north wall) to reopen gate 5) Push button just north of gate to open the next passage Is there ANY possibility that you entered the grassy area in combat mode? Perhaps even while fighting the first Altered Giant. I ask because in your screenshot, there is a giant visible in the grassy area -- but there will not be a giant there until the trap has been sprung. If you wandered into the grassy area in combat mode, then left before ending combat, that could have caused this. It's possible that the trap will only trigger at the end of a round of combat, or maybe even when combat is over (probably to avoid having party members end up on different sides of the gate). Alternately, if you triggered the trap, thought you were stuck, and used a cheat like "exitzone" or "backtostart" to get out, that could also create this predicament. Or, if you visited the Final Gauntlet earlier in the game, but then used "backtostart" instead of reloading from your save at Sulfras's cave, that could also explain things. https://homepages.uni-regensburg.de/~mim09509/Avernum/AvernumEscPit/Towns/FinalGauntlet.html

Pity about Evasion. Anatomy was a lot more interesting -- with the GF1 Guardian being able to do tons of damage, but also being more vulnerable due to having to be in melee range (and enemies also having stronger melee attacks).

Ranged weapons are generally pretty good in Avadon, and excellent in Geneforge. (They are mostly sub-par in Avernum.) If you want an actual archer with bows and arrows, definitely pick Blademaster, and put all your stat points into Dex.

On that note, this topic is locked. @qwerttz, welcome to the forums! I know it is not screamingly obvious when a thread is super ancient, but the date is always listed -- please try not to comment on really old posts unless you have relevant information to add. Thanks! Ok, mod hat off.

"The first version of Rosetta, introduced in 2006 as a component of Mac OS X Tiger, allows PowerPC applications to run on Intel-based Macs. The second version, introduced in 2020 as a component of macOS Big Sur, is part of the Mac transition from Intel processors to Apple silicon."

We could argue how much room there truly is for a "lowly Hand" to question Redbeard's choices, but I'll grant that the player, at least, can do that to his face a few times without anything bad happening to you. But that "lowly Hand" is expected to be treated with absolute obedience by those outside Avadon. Those outside Avadon clearly fear retribution being visited upon them if they too openly express disapproval of Avadon's actions. No matter how "lowly" you may feel within Avadon as a Hand, the PC is not Everyman within the Pact. This is emphasized so heavily in the games. The PC's power situation, including their ability to speak and express opinions freely, has no bearing on the power situation of the vast majority of Pact citizens -- certainly including the malcontents. And, um... I mean, I'm not sure that option is "realistic" for every Hand -- there are after all only three Hearts, and many Hands. But it's certainly zero percent realistic for Pact citizens who are not an appendage of Avadon. You're going to hate me for saying that this immediately invoked, for me, "the solution to poverty is to work your way up from nothing" -- but the system dynamics are exactly the same. If the grossly unfair situation that puts you at a great disadvantage isn't being addressed, you should simply work your way up to the top of the system from that point of great disadvantage. "Realistically."