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First Things First

J. Robinson Wheeler 2001

Language:
English
Authors:
J. Robinson Wheeler
Systems:
TADS
Platforms:
TADS
Genres:
Time travel
Entered by:
Bragegatan, iamaran
Added:
30-08-2021
Edited:
12-04-2022

Synopsis

You've just arrived at home from your nightly visit to the science and invention section of the local public library, where you spend each night dreaming your dreamy dreams of one day inventing a time travel machine. Tonight, for some reason, you're especially fatigued, and can't wait to get inside and go right to bed. Seems like a good plan, but somehow you have a premonition it's not going to be that easy...

Notes

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Resources (Upload file)

Solution
by Bragegatan
Map
by Canalboy
Map
by Canalboy (trizbort)
Hints
by Canalboy (List of takeable items)
Review
by Canalboy
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User Comments

Canalboy (29-07-2025 20:03)

This game is very nasty indeed. Set across five time zones, in one section you can purchase a sandwich; there are two choices, a Cold Cuts Special or a Spicy Meatball. Much later you are confronted with a hungry architect. If you have chosen the wrong sandwich in the present day, you have made the game unwinnable. There is no way of knowing which to choose. Guess which one I went for....

Canalboy (30-07-2025 09:56)

It's not often you can catch J. Robinson Wheeler out with a bug in TADS, but attempting to push the wheelbarrow east across the cemented driveway of your house elicits:
"You can't walk across the newly-poured cement driveway. You can't walk across
[TADS-1010: object value required]
the newly-poured cement driveway.

Canalboy (30-07-2025 21:42)

Something of an altruistic spoiler below...

This game has an engaging and clever back story unfolding in five different time zones. Unfortunately it is rather too complex for its own good. If you take the money you find near the start of the game and buy a sandwich from the nearby shop you have instantly made the whole thing unwinnable as you cannot invest enough money; you won't realise until much much later. A very poor design fault in a game that strives to be user friendly. And why would the old lady in the Antique Shop give you $60 for an old wheelbarrow while rejecting a rare book and a machete as useless? You are reduced to carting every single item in a large inventory into her shop and tiresomely bartering them until you find the right things to pique her interest.

It is a real shame as a lot of work has gone into the narrative and the coding here. Laura is a very strong NPC even if the anti-capitalist hysteria is rather over-egged.