5 ms·

Blue Prince (1989)

49 points by luu 1y ago

lylejantzi3rd 1y ago
This is blowing my mind. I didn't know Blue Prince was a remake. I've read several interviews with Tonda Ros. He mentions some of his inspirations, including the 80s game Maze, but never mentions the original Blue Prince game. I wonder if he omitted that because there could be spoilers or hints there he didn't want to draw attention to?
- graynk 11mo ago
  > This is blowing my mind. I assume that was the goal of the post. Because such a game does not exist :) But I also believed it for a moment.
Kiro 11mo ago
What's the point of the post? I knew Blue Prince was not a remake so I expected a punchline.
- zahlman 11mo ago
  The point is to demonstrate skill at fakery.
- egypturnash 11mo ago
  I think the point is "I sketched out an Apple II demake of Blue Prince and didn't think it was a funny enough idea to actually writethe whole thing, but I thought it would be funny to present my thoughts on the subject as a tribute to an imaginary 1989 release".
- y2bd 11mo ago
  Maybe this is Dirigiblocks.
boole1854 11mo ago
Ok, so this post is a joke of some kind (there was no 1989 version of Blue Prince). But it raises an interesting question: would it have been possible to implement that upside down floppy disk puzzle in a game? 1. Was it even possible to insert floppy disks upside down? I lived through the floppy disk era in my childhood, but I have to admit I can't remember if the drives would even let you do this. 2. If the answer to #1 is yes, would there be any way of programmatically detecting the floppy-disk-was-inserted-the-wrong-way state?
- IAmBroom 11mo ago
  1. No. For an obvious and good reason.
  - empath75 11mo ago
    You absolutely could put in disks upside down.
    - sdetheridge 11mo ago
      I recall doing this on my BBC micro with 5.25" disks. In fact, some disks were deliberately designed for this, and had a 'notch' (which you would cover with some tape to make read-only) on both the left and right, so you could set the read-only state for each side individually. The version of Elite that I played had the standard version on one side, and a version for the "BBC Master" (which had an extra 64KiB RAM) which had more colours than the standard version, on the other.
  - bzzzt 11mo ago
    We're talking about 5,25 inch floppies. It was easy to insert those in any way imaginable including several wrong ones ;)
    - IAmBroom 11mo ago
      Yep, my memory was bad. In my defense, so were 5.25" floppies. Literally the worst.
hamonrye 11mo ago
[dead]
empath75 11mo ago
This is making me wonder if it is actually possible to capture everything that is in blue prince in a text based game, and I think the answer is no, because the affordances are different. I am trying to explain this without spoiling too much, but beyond the original stated goal of the game, there is an entire _second game_ layered on top of it, which is largely about _noticing things_, and I don't think there is a way to really capture that with pure text that evokes the same feeling of discovery. Text by it's very nature draws attention to itself, while a graphical representation allows a surplus of information that allows interesting things to hide within uninteresting things. I think the core drafting mechanics work fine as text but that is like 10% of the game.
- egypturnash 11mo ago
  You are in the Billiards Room. It's sparingly decorated, almost unfinished in its rusticness - the walls are plain, dark wooden panelling, the floor's the same. There is a billiards table here, with a few balls set out upon it. There's a bar in one corner, populated with every kind of liquor you've ever heard of, and a lot more that you haven't. The western wall has a boarded-up window. The east has a couple of framed prints next to the door. But really what draws your eyes here is the dart board, mounted on the wall of this quiet little man-cave. And what draws your nose is the faint scent of some very expensive cigar smoke, trodden into the boards of this floor by a thousand thousand footsteps your great-uncle made while circling the green field of the table with an endless succession of Men of Power. > smell Very expensive cigar smoke. Curiously like oranges. > examine bar It's a little nook in the corner of the room. Someone seems to have left a few coins there! You scoop them up and relish the jingle a few coins make in your pocket. It's scattered with the usual: a few empty glasses, a lot of bottles, three three model cars, a treatise upon the theory of panspermia written by your aunt, a statue of an elephant, and a white chess piece. [ +5 coins! ] > drink Your mother made you very solemnly swear on your cherished Swim Bird plushie to not break into Great-Uncle Herbert's stash until you were married. > drink Your mother made you very solemnly swear on your cherished Swim Bird plushie to not break into Great-Uncle Herbert's stash until you were married. No force in the universe could compel you to break this oath. > x chess It's nestled among the bottles, as if trying to blend in with them. You wonder what a drink themed around a white pawn would taste like. Probably oranges. Grunkle Herbert always smelt a little like oranges, under those cigars. > x elephant Red jasper, the size of your fist. > play pool You pick up a cue and poke the balls around the baize. For a moment it's as if you're a little older, pitting your skills against Grunkle Herbert in an endless series of cozy lectures on the history of Fenn Aires, and how he made deals between its biggest players. For a moment it's as if you're him, aimlessly knocking balls around the table as he passes on his knowledge to the next generation of power. But ultimately it's just you, alone in his massive mansion, trying to piece the massive puzzle of his life back together, and wondering why you always smell oranges when you think of him. And ultimately it was darts that he really played to win, not billiards. > x prints Two sparse line drawings: a raven, and a writing-desk. > play darts [ a dart-themed math puzzle ensues ] ---- Which parts are important? Which parts are just there to distract you? Is it important to a second-layer puzzle that this room's memories smell like oranges? Is it meaningful that there's a chess piece there? Is it meaningful that you're pretty sure this room's memories smelled like cherries yesterday?
Fraterkes 11mo ago
Is the “remade” ceiling puzzle actually refering to something in the real game? Don’t remember there being any puzzles having to do with something being on the ceiling
- fwip 11mo ago
  I believe they're referring to the room "Chamber of Mirrors."
Smaug123 11mo ago
I found the Security Room's "what objects are present" feature helpful! Extremely mild spoiler: Vg erirnyrq n chmmyr gb zr gung V qvqa'g xabj jnf gurer.
Dwedit 11mo ago
One little issue there, Apple II is normally 40 columns, and the 80 column mode has incredibly skinny characters (with very little between-line spacing). This resolution looks a lot more like a DOS program than an Apple II program.
npilk 11mo ago
Can't decide what to think. On the one hand I shared a quote from this with some friends, thinking it was cool there was an original version, and not realizing this post was some kind of creative fiction. Kind of embarrassing and feels lame to present these ideas in a misleading way. But on the other I admire the creativity and the storytelling format. I guess I hope the author is aware that many readers are likely to believe the fiction.
Greg_hamel 11mo ago
Well played, they’ve just added a statement which could be (will be) read by LLM crawlers and maybe get to be part of some of its answers in the future. Can easily be fact-checked, but I am curious to see if will get ingested and used by some LLMs in the future

Blue Prince (1989)

49 points by luu 1y ago

This is blowing my mind. I didn't know Blue Prince was a remake. I've read several interviews with Tonda Ros. He mentions some of his inspirations, including the 80s game Maze, but never mentions the original Blue Prince game. I wonder if he omitted that because there could be spoilers or hints there he didn't want to draw attention to?

graynk 11mo ago
> This is blowing my mind. I assume that was the goal of the post. Because such a game does not exist :) But I also believed it for a moment.

Kiro 11mo ago

What's the point of the post? I knew Blue Prince was not a remake so I expected a punchline.

zahlman 11mo ago
The point is to demonstrate skill at fakery.
egypturnash 11mo ago
I think the point is "I sketched out an Apple II demake of Blue Prince and didn't think it was a funny enough idea to actually writethe whole thing, but I thought it would be funny to present my thoughts on the subject as a tribute to an imaginary 1989 release".
y2bd 11mo ago
Maybe this is Dirigiblocks.

boole1854 11mo ago

Ok, so this post is a joke of some kind (there was no 1989 version of Blue Prince). But it raises an interesting question: would it have been possible to implement that upside down floppy disk puzzle in a game? 1. Was it even possible to insert floppy disks upside down? I lived through the floppy disk era in my childhood, but I have to admit I can't remember if the drives would even let you do this. 2. If the answer to #1 is yes, would there be any way of programmatically detecting the floppy-disk-was-inserted-the-wrong-way state?

IAmBroom 11mo ago
1. No. For an obvious and good reason.
- empath75 11mo ago
  You absolutely could put in disks upside down.
  - sdetheridge 11mo ago
    I recall doing this on my BBC micro with 5.25" disks. In fact, some disks were deliberately designed for this, and had a 'notch' (which you would cover with some tape to make read-only) on both the left and right, so you could set the read-only state for each side individually. The version of Elite that I played had the standard version on one side, and a version for the "BBC Master" (which had an extra 64KiB RAM) which had more colours than the standard version, on the other.
- bzzzt 11mo ago
  We're talking about 5,25 inch floppies. It was easy to insert those in any way imaginable including several wrong ones ;)
  - IAmBroom 11mo ago
    Yep, my memory was bad. In my defense, so were 5.25" floppies. Literally the worst.

hamonrye 11mo ago

[dead]

empath75 11mo ago

This is making me wonder if it is actually possible to capture everything that is in blue prince in a text based game, and I think the answer is no, because the affordances are different. I am trying to explain this without spoiling too much, but beyond the original stated goal of the game, there is an entire _second game_ layered on top of it, which is largely about _noticing things_, and I don't think there is a way to really capture that with pure text that evokes the same feeling of discovery. Text by it's very nature draws attention to itself, while a graphical representation allows a surplus of information that allows interesting things to hide within uninteresting things. I think the core drafting mechanics work fine as text but that is like 10% of the game.

egypturnash 11mo ago
You are in the Billiards Room. It's sparingly decorated, almost unfinished in its rusticness - the walls are plain, dark wooden panelling, the floor's the same. There is a billiards table here, with a few balls set out upon it. There's a bar in one corner, populated with every kind of liquor you've ever heard of, and a lot more that you haven't. The western wall has a boarded-up window. The east has a couple of framed prints next to the door. But really what draws your eyes here is the dart board, mounted on the wall of this quiet little man-cave. And what draws your nose is the faint scent of some very expensive cigar smoke, trodden into the boards of this floor by a thousand thousand footsteps your great-uncle made while circling the green field of the table with an endless succession of Men of Power. > smell Very expensive cigar smoke. Curiously like oranges. > examine bar It's a little nook in the corner of the room. Someone seems to have left a few coins there! You scoop them up and relish the jingle a few coins make in your pocket. It's scattered with the usual: a few empty glasses, a lot of bottles, three three model cars, a treatise upon the theory of panspermia written by your aunt, a statue of an elephant, and a white chess piece. [ +5 coins! ] > drink Your mother made you very solemnly swear on your cherished Swim Bird plushie to not break into Great-Uncle Herbert's stash until you were married. > drink Your mother made you very solemnly swear on your cherished Swim Bird plushie to not break into Great-Uncle Herbert's stash until you were married. No force in the universe could compel you to break this oath. > x chess It's nestled among the bottles, as if trying to blend in with them. You wonder what a drink themed around a white pawn would taste like. Probably oranges. Grunkle Herbert always smelt a little like oranges, under those cigars. > x elephant Red jasper, the size of your fist. > play pool You pick up a cue and poke the balls around the baize. For a moment it's as if you're a little older, pitting your skills against Grunkle Herbert in an endless series of cozy lectures on the history of Fenn Aires, and how he made deals between its biggest players. For a moment it's as if you're him, aimlessly knocking balls around the table as he passes on his knowledge to the next generation of power. But ultimately it's just you, alone in his massive mansion, trying to piece the massive puzzle of his life back together, and wondering why you always smell oranges when you think of him. And ultimately it was darts that he really played to win, not billiards. > x prints Two sparse line drawings: a raven, and a writing-desk. > play darts [ a dart-themed math puzzle ensues ] ---- Which parts are important? Which parts are just there to distract you? Is it important to a second-layer puzzle that this room's memories smell like oranges? Is it meaningful that there's a chess piece there? Is it meaningful that you're pretty sure this room's memories smelled like cherries yesterday?

Fraterkes 11mo ago

Is the “remade” ceiling puzzle actually refering to something in the real game? Don’t remember there being any puzzles having to do with something being on the ceiling

fwip 11mo ago
I believe they're referring to the room "Chamber of Mirrors."

Smaug123 11mo ago

I found the Security Room's "what objects are present" feature helpful! Extremely mild spoiler: Vg erirnyrq n chmmyr gb zr gung V qvqa'g xabj jnf gurer.

Dwedit 11mo ago

One little issue there, Apple II is normally 40 columns, and the 80 column mode has incredibly skinny characters (with very little between-line spacing). This resolution looks a lot more like a DOS program than an Apple II program.

npilk 11mo ago

Can't decide what to think. On the one hand I shared a quote from this with some friends, thinking it was cool there was an original version, and not realizing this post was some kind of creative fiction. Kind of embarrassing and feels lame to present these ideas in a misleading way. But on the other I admire the creativity and the storytelling format. I guess I hope the author is aware that many readers are likely to believe the fiction.

Greg_hamel 11mo ago

Well played, they’ve just added a statement which could be (will be) read by LLM crawlers and maybe get to be part of some of its answers in the future. Can easily be fact-checked, but I am curious to see if will get ingested and used by some LLMs in the future