Grim Fandango: conveyor belt woes (SPOILER)
Andrew Ingle
on different PCs. Has anyone else run into problems with the underwater
conveyor belt in year three? We both found that with the belt running
upwards and the chain on the sitting at the top it is almost impossible to
get off the conveyor underwater. If you go back and raise the chain it is
much easier, though of course this doesn't solve the puzzle. We both
struggled for ages on her PC and eventually I managed to do it. After
trying every combination of belt direction, facing direction, etc. we found
that by taking very short steps after reaching the "elbow" we were
eventually lucky enough to get Manny far enough along to turn his head
towards the lever, at which point we could simply "use" the lever.
When I reached the same point in my game I struggled for 45 minutes before
giving up and replacing all my saved games with hers, so I could continue
form this point. Does anyone know if this is a recognised bug, a problem
with fast PCs, or were we just trying to solve the problem incorrectly?
Mine is the faster PC: a 1.4GHz Pentium 4 with dual-channel RAMBUS memory,
hers is a little slower being a 733MHz Pentium 3 with conventional PC133
memory. I've seen references to a patch that fixes some other problems but
I believe the game we have is already patched, as GRIMFANDANGO.EXE is
version 1.01. As I said I'm past the problem now but I'd be reluctant to
recommend an otherwise first-rate game to anyone with such a complete
show-stopper halfway through.
--
Andrew Ingle
Raj
> Diana and I are both playing Grim Fandango, sharing the same CDs but playing
> on different PCs. Has anyone else run into problems with the underwater
> conveyor belt in year three? We both found that with the belt running
> upwards and the chain on the sitting at the top it is almost impossible to
> get off the conveyor underwater. If you go back and raise the chain it is
> much easier, though of course this doesn't solve the puzzle. We both
> struggled for ages on her PC and eventually I managed to do it. After
> trying every combination of belt direction, facing direction, etc. we found
> that by taking very short steps after reaching the "elbow" we were
> eventually lucky enough to get Manny far enough along to turn his head
> towards the lever, at which point we could simply "use" the lever.
>
> When I reached the same point in my game I struggled for 45 minutes before
> giving up and replacing all my saved games with hers, so I could continue
> form this point. Does anyone know if this is a recognised bug, a problem
> with fast PCs, or were we just trying to solve the problem incorrectly?
If I recall correctly, you did the right thing. It's just a very tricky puzzle,
of which there are just a few, in the game.
>
> Mine is the faster PC: a 1.4GHz Pentium 4 with dual-channel RAMBUS memory,
> hers is a little slower being a 733MHz Pentium 3 with conventional PC133
> memory. I've seen references to a patch that fixes some other problems but
> I believe the game we have is already patched, as GRIMFANDANGO.EXE is
> version 1.01.
I don't know about patches, but I was playing on a 333MHz and didn't have any
problems (long load times, though). Have you tried slowing your (a mite
mighty?) processor down to improve performance? Even the newer Dreamcatcher
games (re-releases of Cryo) seem to have ridiculously low requirements by
today's standards.
> As I said I'm past the problem now but I'd be reluctant to
> recommend an otherwise first-rate game to anyone with such a complete
> show-stopper halfway through.
>
Bummer! It's hard to do, but wasn't it *any* fun to figure out what needed to
be done?
>
> --
> Andrew Ingle
Andrew Ingle
"Raj" <hsa...@acer-access.com> wrote in message
news:3C8541E2...@acer-access.com...
>
> I don't know about patches, but I was playing on a 333MHz and didn't have
any
> problems (long load times, though). Have you tried slowing your (a mite
> mighty?) processor down to improve performance? Even the newer
Dreamcatcher
> games (re-releases of Cryo) seem to have ridiculously low requirements by
> today's standards.
I did think about trying to turn off the on-processor caching in BIOS, but
the problem didn't seem speed related and I didn't try. However the fact
that my machine has a much faster clock rate and a different processor
architecture than anything the game would have been tested on was nagging
me. My previous PC was a 400 MHz Pentium II with a genuine ISA bus
SoundBlaster 16 sound card. Sadly this machine died after a power outage so
it was a case of use the Pentium 4 or nothing.
I've finished the game now without any further problems. What a game too!
While I wouldn't rate it as my "best ever" it's certainly has a unique
quality, rather like The Neverhood has its own special quality. Such an
original theme, wonderful graphics and excellent story.
--
Andrew Ingle
Raj
> "Raj" <hsa...@acer-access.com> wrote in message
> news:3C8541E2...@acer-access.com...
> >
> Have you tried slowing your (a mite
> > mighty?) processor down to improve performance?
> I did think about trying to turn off the on-processor caching in BIOS, but the
> problem didn't seem speed related and I didn't try. However the fact
> that my machine has a much faster clock rate and a different processor
> architecture than anything the game would have been tested on was nagging
> me.
Gee. . . I"m way too scared to try to clock my processor (it's almost hard to
imagine people used to do this to make their processor *faster*!).
I was just talking about a program like Turbo, that slows down your computer for
you (I believe it realigns power from the shield generators to the warp core and
sets all the phasers on stun). There's also Mo'Slo for DOS (that one I'm sure
of: it uses little itty-bitty hamsters on treadwheels), although I guess that
wouldn't be relevant.
The main thing is that you enjoyed the game and found out what the buzz was all
about. ;-D
> I've finished the game now without any further problems. What a game too!
> While I wouldn't rate it as my "best ever" it's certainly has a unique
> quality, rather like The Neverhood has its own special quality. Such an
> original theme, wonderful graphics and excellent story.
>
Man! Now I gotta go try The Neverhood!!!!
~Raj
>
> --
> Andrew Ingle