nancy drew 12: secret of the old clock
Jan. 26th, 2024 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
porticoin 2005, the character of nancy drew turned 75, having made her debut in 1930's The Secret of the Old Clock. to celebrate, her interactive's nancy drew went back in time to 1930 to solve her first ever mystery (which was actually based on 4 nancy drew books--Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase, The Bungalow Mystery, and The Mystery at the Lilac Inn.
this game does a lot of things differently from previous and subsequent games. first off--nancy can drive! yes, nancy's blue roadster finally makes an appearance, and she tools all around town in it. nancy is also carrying cash money for the first time, which she can earn by delivering telegrams, and subsequently spend on gas and assorted other sundries. of course it's 1930, so most things cost a nickel. also, nancy's DAD is here. sort of. you can call him.
nancy journeys to titusville at the behest of emily crandall, who recently lost her mom. nancy doesn't know emily personally, but through a mutual friend helen corning (who frequently shows up in the early nancy books but never the games--except for this mention). nancy sent emily a note after hearing about her mother's death, because she's a very polite young lady. emily asks nancy to visit, it turns out because she's worried that she's losing it and wants nancy to take her mother's jewelry back to river heights and stow it in her father's safe--being a lawyer, carson is the only person emily knows of who has one. naturally, disaster strikes soon after nancy arrives and the jewelry is stolen.
emily's mom gloria was the proprietor of the lilac inn. it seems to be the sort of place which is beloved locally--famed for its pies--but probably isn't majorly raking it in. gloria wasn't too worried about things because their wealthy and eccentric next-door neighbor josiah crowley had pretty much told her point blank that he would be leaving them a fortune when he died. then--surprise! he died and didn't do that.
emily is in the upper left here. she comes across as fragile and sad--understandably! however, people keep referring to her as "running a restaurant" which is very funny because we never see her out of a nightdress or wearing shoes. continuing to the right, we have richard topham, the purported psychic who moved into josiah's house at his behest to help him increase his spiritual powers, then after josiah died and a will wasn't immediately found, turned one up that claimed to have left topham everything. so he's still there, with his impressively ugly cat. next is jane willoughby, emily's guardian and the late gloria's best pal. uses every imaginable 1930s slang. finally, there's jim archer, owner of the local bank, which is definitely not in any financial trouble, no-sir-ee, despite josiah not leaving him any promised riches, either.
let's talk about JOSIAH.
josiah is the real star of this show, because you spend most of your time unraveling the puzzles he left behind. nancy never learns how josiah made his fortune, but he seems to have spent at least the last portion of his life throwing it around gleefully after anything which caught his interest. he has a personal miniature golf course (only 6 holes, but a very fun 6 holes), owns a very familiar carousel horse, and has seemingly put on any number of productions of a midsummer night's dream. we are also given hints of his other hobbies, which the game presents as a love of practical jokes but taken with everything else we learn about him seems pretty plainly to be drag. he has drag alter egos and, in fact, the game hinges on one of them. i love this queer old man.
like many other eccentrics in nancy drew games, josiah was possessing of a real misunderstanding of the things his family and friends are willing to do to solve a puzzle. and he in particular seems to have been hamstrung. he told everyone he left money to in his will that time would tell and gave them all beautiful and nonfunctional clocks, but after his death when a will was nowhere to be found it occured to none of them to look into the clocks. i guess there's a depression and everyone is distracted but. c'mon man.
new topic: interiors. whoever works at her interactive and loves art nouveau made their comeback in this game with emily's bedroom.
i can't find an image of the other side of the room which is too bad, because emily had even more mucha prints, and a gorgeous armoire. i love the way these games make wood furniture just gleam. is it realistically what a teenager from small town america would have? no, but we know that gloria lived in chicago for a long time so maybe she picked it up there. it doesn't matter but these thought processes are fun for me.
and thus ends nancy's trip to the past. the real will is found, the worthy parties receive the money josiah intended for them and, we are left to assume, ride out the 30s in some comfort. nancy chases the culprit down in her little roadster and the rest is history.
this game does a lot of things differently from previous and subsequent games. first off--nancy can drive! yes, nancy's blue roadster finally makes an appearance, and she tools all around town in it. nancy is also carrying cash money for the first time, which she can earn by delivering telegrams, and subsequently spend on gas and assorted other sundries. of course it's 1930, so most things cost a nickel. also, nancy's DAD is here. sort of. you can call him.
nancy journeys to titusville at the behest of emily crandall, who recently lost her mom. nancy doesn't know emily personally, but through a mutual friend helen corning (who frequently shows up in the early nancy books but never the games--except for this mention). nancy sent emily a note after hearing about her mother's death, because she's a very polite young lady. emily asks nancy to visit, it turns out because she's worried that she's losing it and wants nancy to take her mother's jewelry back to river heights and stow it in her father's safe--being a lawyer, carson is the only person emily knows of who has one. naturally, disaster strikes soon after nancy arrives and the jewelry is stolen.
emily's mom gloria was the proprietor of the lilac inn. it seems to be the sort of place which is beloved locally--famed for its pies--but probably isn't majorly raking it in. gloria wasn't too worried about things because their wealthy and eccentric next-door neighbor josiah crowley had pretty much told her point blank that he would be leaving them a fortune when he died. then--surprise! he died and didn't do that.
emily is in the upper left here. she comes across as fragile and sad--understandably! however, people keep referring to her as "running a restaurant" which is very funny because we never see her out of a nightdress or wearing shoes. continuing to the right, we have richard topham, the purported psychic who moved into josiah's house at his behest to help him increase his spiritual powers, then after josiah died and a will wasn't immediately found, turned one up that claimed to have left topham everything. so he's still there, with his impressively ugly cat. next is jane willoughby, emily's guardian and the late gloria's best pal. uses every imaginable 1930s slang. finally, there's jim archer, owner of the local bank, which is definitely not in any financial trouble, no-sir-ee, despite josiah not leaving him any promised riches, either.
let's talk about JOSIAH.
josiah is the real star of this show, because you spend most of your time unraveling the puzzles he left behind. nancy never learns how josiah made his fortune, but he seems to have spent at least the last portion of his life throwing it around gleefully after anything which caught his interest. he has a personal miniature golf course (only 6 holes, but a very fun 6 holes), owns a very familiar carousel horse, and has seemingly put on any number of productions of a midsummer night's dream. we are also given hints of his other hobbies, which the game presents as a love of practical jokes but taken with everything else we learn about him seems pretty plainly to be drag. he has drag alter egos and, in fact, the game hinges on one of them. i love this queer old man.
like many other eccentrics in nancy drew games, josiah was possessing of a real misunderstanding of the things his family and friends are willing to do to solve a puzzle. and he in particular seems to have been hamstrung. he told everyone he left money to in his will that time would tell and gave them all beautiful and nonfunctional clocks, but after his death when a will was nowhere to be found it occured to none of them to look into the clocks. i guess there's a depression and everyone is distracted but. c'mon man.
new topic: interiors. whoever works at her interactive and loves art nouveau made their comeback in this game with emily's bedroom.
i can't find an image of the other side of the room which is too bad, because emily had even more mucha prints, and a gorgeous armoire. i love the way these games make wood furniture just gleam. is it realistically what a teenager from small town america would have? no, but we know that gloria lived in chicago for a long time so maybe she picked it up there. it doesn't matter but these thought processes are fun for me.
and thus ends nancy's trip to the past. the real will is found, the worthy parties receive the money josiah intended for them and, we are left to assume, ride out the 30s in some comfort. nancy chases the culprit down in her little roadster and the rest is history.