Adventure Gamers - Forums

Hello all!

As I make my way through my backlist of adventure games that I have never played, I have come, finally, to Woodruff and Schnibble. Does anyone know the best option for picking up this game and actually being able to run it today? Has it been released anywhere like gog.com, steam etc? Is there a version that will run on current systems or has anyone been able to get it up and running on DOSBOX? Thanks in advance!

Daventry

ScummVM supports it. That’s probably your best bet to run it (it was a Windows game, not a DOS game).

Also, it’s awful.

I rather liked the game. Now that I know that I can play it with scummvm I think I will try it again.  There were quite a few illogical puzzles, but, some good ones too. I don’t think it is a game to totally write off…. at least try to play a little of it. Maybe my mind will change when I play it again, but, I do remember enjoying it whilst I was playing it the first time.

Note that the game has two major script bugs (none of which were fixed by ScummVM AFAIK), which led to being able to skip a section of the game and to a nasty dead end. Proceed at your own risk.

mbday630 - 04 September 2015 07:57 PM

I rather liked the game. Now that I know that I can play it with scummvm I think I will try it again.  There were quite a few illogical puzzles, but, some good ones too. I don’t think it is a game to totally write off…. at least try to play a little of it. Maybe my mind will change when I play it again, but, I do remember enjoying it whilst I was playing it the first time.

I am with you. Very special (underrrated) game, but no surprise there (Coktel Vision). Beautiful graphics, funny dialogues and sound effects. Puzzles are hard sometimes, but’s not a casual, but a weird game, so “illogical” puzzles are required ;-). Loved/hated the moment were he is completely inert. (Had no problem finishing the game 2x). Nice review at ACG, and the good old Quandary gave it also a high score (4.5/5).

Advie - 06 September 2015 07:30 AM

Only and Almost!! ,har harrr

i had written a user review at the old forums, but gladly it was one of the things that had been brought (here) from home*.
http://www.adventuregamers.com/games/view_reviews/16393

Advie dixit: “The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble holds more than 14-18 hours of gameplaying, with a great story, great humor and above all challenging puzzles that will kick you back right to the great early classic days.”

And 41/2-5 as well. As it should be! LOL, just installed it for the 3rd time after reading these messages/reviews.

I hate you all. This thread made me replay Woodruff.

(That says a lot about how awful Runaway 2 is that I’d rather replay Woodruff than get back to it.)

And I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe it’s because I could remember most of the puzzles, but I enjoyed the game more than I expected.

There are lots of things to dislike. The game is painfully unfunny, despite it being convinced that it’s hilarious (and being very smug about it). The writing and voice acting (in the original French) are porn-worthy (if that). Some puzzles are really dubious—the worst offender is probably having to re-explore the city several times to go and look for the Chinese guy. (Nice racist caricature, by the way! When was that game made, again? The 50s?) Also, the non-linear puzzle design gets really overwhelming after a while; I remember getting stuck a lot the first time around simply because I couldn’t keep every puzzle element in existence in mind. And then there are those ugly script bugs I mentioned earlier.

Still, I have to recognise that the game’s structure is impressive. The way the game starts in a restricted area but keeps expanding, the way it introduces new gameplay elements (the syllables, the spells, etc.)—it’s all really clever. As I said, I think it gets too big and complex for its own good at times, but I can’t help but be impressed by the ambition of the puzzle design. I can’t even imagine what the puzzle dependency chart for that one looked like. And, contrary to other heavily-non-linear games such as Leisure Suit Larry 7 or Day of the Tentacle, the game still manages to make the plot progress significantly at regular intervals during its course.

At a time when games tend to be more and more divided into small chapters (or episodes) with independent locations and inventories, I have to admit that Woodruff’s sprawling world and non-linear puzzle design felt refreshing.

Kurufinwe - 06 September 2015 10:07 AM

I hate you all. This thread made me replay Woodruff.

(That says a lot about how awful Runaway 2 is that I’d rather replay Woodruff than get back to it.)

And I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe it’s because I could remember most of the puzzles, but I enjoyed the game more than I expected.

There are lots of things to dislike. The game is painfully unfunny, despite it being convinced that it’s hilarious (and being very smug about it). The writing and voice acting (in the original French) are porn-worthy (if that). Some puzzles are really dubious—the worst offender is probably having to re-explore the city several times to go and look for the Chinese guy. (Nice racist caricature, by the way! When was that game made, again? The 50s?) Also, the non-linear puzzle design gets really overwhelming after a while; I remember getting stuck a lot the first time around simply because I couldn’t keep every puzzle element in existence in mind. And then there are those ugly script bugs I mentioned earlier.

Still, I have to recognise that the game’s structure is impressive. The way the game starts in a restricted area but keeps expanding, the way it introduces new gameplay elements (the syllables, the spells, etc.)—it’s all really clever. As I said, I think it gets too big and complex for its own good at times, but I can’t help but be impressed by the ambition of the puzzle design. I can’t even imagine what the puzzle dependency chart for that one looked like. And, contrary to other heavily-non-linear games such as Leisure Suit Larry 7 or Day of the Tentacle, the game still manages to make the plot progress significantly at regular intervals during its course.

At a time when games tend to be more and more divided into small chapters (or episodes) with independent locations and inventories, I have to admit that Woodruff’s sprawling world and non-linear puzzle design felt refreshing.

Great review!

I owned it for years (I might still have the copy somewhere) but never made a serious attempt at playing it on my own. I eventually tried it with a walkthrough, but even that failed me as there was likely a mistake in the walkthrough somewhere that I couldn’t figure out.

You’ve likely played it, but Machinarium is a recent game that does a great job at having non-linear sections mixed with linear sections and plot progression. Feels old-school in some ways without most of the pain.

zobraks - 06 September 2015 05:26 AM

I’ve been stuck (with the exhibitionist cat in the park ) since 2010.

Lakerz (lakerz) is the only living person I know who almost finished the game.
One of these days I’m gonna ask him for help.

You rang? 

Sadly (and probably on purpose due to the game being so horrible), I’ve forgotten most every part of that game.  I guess I should have written down some notes for future reference.  As I recall, the game was extremely linear in progress.  You had to go to each game node in a certain sequence, because one would give you an inventory item which would then lead to the next game node where that item was used and would give you another inventory item, etc.

So if the exhibitionist cat is asking for something, it is likely you need to get it at a different node first. 

The only puzzle I recall having trouble with was the game node with the owl in the tree.  You had to solve a crossword, and if you got any of the answers wrong you lose a turn and the game.  It was annoying as I found no way of skipping past the initial dialogue every time I had to restart that puzzle.  I finally got it, and that is one thing I should have written down or took a screen capture of.  My bad.

The end puzzle was the worst, and I finally gave up.  Again, each time you replay the puzzle you first had to sit through a ridiculous 8 minute cut sceen or something that I could not find a way to skip.  I just could not take the pain again and gave up.  It is the only adventure game I just finally gave up on.  The only other game I had to abandon (for now) was Trick ‘r Treat where there was a bug that crashed the game after act 1 was finished.  I did take copious notes on that game.