July 7, 2008
NOTES:
- The post is designed in a user-friendly fashion. To see the original, go here.
- This post contains the walkthrough of the game. The game is no longer available since Adobe Flash Player has been disabled after 2020, and it did not manage to place in the Bart Bonte Collection. If you still have not played Free the Bird but know you may play it somewhere, reading beyond the second paragraph is ill-advised.
With some new Bonte games to come in the near future, I need a little catch-up on the Bonte games flashback posts in which I look back on a past Bonte game. I often get mails from people asking me for solutions or walkthroughs for past Bonte games and these flashback posts provide me the perfect excuse to write down the solutions and give some inside notes.
So let's have a look at Free the Bird this time, which was released in August 2006 as an entry for the first JayIsGames game design competition. The goal of the competition was to create a small puzzle in just a month. I came up with a one-screen puzzle featuring the notoriously squeaking parrot from The Bonte Room 2, a cuckoo clock, and the obvious task to give the bird back its freedom. Let's continue with the walkthrough, so you'll definitely have to stop reading here if you haven't played the game before and don't want me to spoil your fun. Squeak!
Here it is: everything you always wanted to know about Free the Bird but were afraid to ask.[]
As you click around, you'll find out the only thing you really can play around with is the time of the cuckoo clock with the strings at the bottom: the left two to adjust the hour back and forth, and the right two to adjust the minutes back and forth. The right handle of the clock doesn't seem to do anything (yet), the left one produces a cuckoo sound, but no cuckoo (yet)…
What time could we set on the clock? How about the actual time on your computer? Take a look in the bottom right of your computer screen and adjust the time of the cuckoo clock to the current time. Now try the left handle on the clock (appears right on your end): there's the cuckoo bird! Move the right (appears left on your end) handle, try the left handle again: the cuckoo comes out at a different angle! Find the right handle position so the cuckoo will snap the wire attached to the cage. Now, snap the wire 5 times. Congratulations, you have freed the bird :)
ATTENTION: When the system time changes during this process, you'll have to change the cuckoo time as well.
I hope you enjoy these Bonte Games flashbacks! Please feel free to leave your comments! I'll keep on flashing back in the next weeks, but, of course, there'll be new Bonte games as well!