Northpole (Adventuron 2020 Christmas Jam) hint request

This is a really robust game, and I do enjoy the graphics.

Getting 5 presents to get into the Elves’ village was a neat challenge, but I spun out there.

My current inventory:

  • Woodman’s Axe
  • Elven Rope
  • Thick Socks (worn)
  • Screwdriver
  • Some Sprouts
  • Garden Dibber
  • Gold Screw
  • Cake Slice
  • item I got off someone: Lori’s Cloak (worn)

I got 5 sprouts from the border fence area by repeatedly taking them. So right now I need to find 2 more for the sprout quest from Cori.

I also don’t know how the chimney network works, and I suspect the gold screw is used on Santa’s sleigh, and I’ve read hints there is a factory, but nothing more.

This is the last of the games I haven’t solved yet from the jam, and i was heartened to see there was a 2019 Halloween jam for Adventuron too. I might poke at that once done!

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I got through it! I think there’s some guessing to figure what to do. It’s games like this that I might establish a gist for, so there’s some record of a walkthrough. Because missing one semi-tricky puzzle can get you stuck, but I had a few “oh I could’ve seen that” moments.

This is scattershot and I just realized my notes contradicted…I reuse one command. But I want to note this for later!

The trickiest of the 5 present puzzle outside the village for me was the overhang, where I was 99% sure t there was a present. I needed to THROW something, namely, the MUSHROOM that I cut with the axe.

Once you’re in the village, the snowman doesn’t give any more hints if you ASK.

For the 2 remaining sprouts I had to LOOK IN THE CLOAK or POCKETS (item) and TALK TO ELVES (place) which had been invalidated before when I wasn’t trusted. Or maybe ASK EDMOND.

I had to GIVE 7 SPROUTS to complete the sprout quest.

That got things rolling. Small guess-the-verb: SHOW VOUCHER to get past Bori.

In the room to the north I completed Santa’s quest with (I think) PUT SCREW IN SLEIGH then USE SCREWDRIVER.

Then ASK EDMOND (I think that was the subject) let me finally use the chimney.

In Edmond’s bedroom, I needed to DROP LORI’S CLOAK to get the gold present.

My notes have me saying ASK EDMOND in town square.

Then I dropped all the presents in Santa’s and I won!

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Congratulations! I did complete it at the time, but it is tricky and I needed help from the author (and I can’t remember how I did it - I admire people who are organised enough to take notes as they play).

This one is crying out for a CASA walkthrough / hints.

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I wasn’t organized the first time through :slight_smile: but the game is eminently replayable! (Also, my lack of organization crops up in my “I think something like this worked, but I remember everything I tried, I hope” comments.

Crazily, I hadn’t checked CASA in a while and a solution went up there very recently. So this topic was perhaps unnecessary! But it did spur me to think, what else is useful or could be?

It’d be neat to have walkthroughs for a lot of the Christmas Jam games.

  1. I want to avoid a walkthrough for Present Quest because, well, I don’t want to spoil it. It deserved to win. Part of the experience is playing through it.
  2. SANTAPUNK is basically a few well-clued puzzles.
  3. OK Feather I got through easy mode, but I had no guess the verb troubles.
  4. Northpole is on CASA.
  5. Day of the Sleigh is well-clued in-game. The first item is random & so that’s a procedural thing that’d delay writing a walkthrough.
  6. Solstice Sovereigns is well-clued in-game and with the hints. Still, people might miss a verb or two.
  7. A Christmas Quest: Thanks, David Welbourn!
  8. Santa’s Trainee Elf: Thanks, David Welbourn!
  9. Deck the Halls Gieves–looks like a few people got a bit stuck so it’s a good candidate as it is very fun
  10. Save Bigfoot’s Christmas! – pretty intuitive if you remember most every item has a purpose. Also you need to cause people to flee. But worthwhile to save people time.
  11. Twelve Days, One Night: I think I have a pretty decent minimum move walkthrough written that I’d like to share. Don’t really need a map, though!
  12. Jimmy’s Christmas Foul: it’d be worth mapping out the bad ending(s)!

Also I’ll check David Welbourn’s Trello card before submitting anything. If he’s got it covered, great!

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I agree. That is crazy. :wink:

(The front page news post only gets updated every so often but solutions, maps, game info etc. are added daily. New solutions are always welcomed by the admin team.)

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Well, I made sure to have my task-scheduler launch the site a few times per week to check, and I sent in a guide for Twelve Days, One Night. I want to move up from the rank of Lamp Rubber! (I’m also curious what all the ranks are. I may’ve missed a FAQ.) Perhaps writing a guide and map for Gieves in the next 24 hours will bump me to 10 and do the trick.

Also, is there any way to fix things so I don’t have to keep logging in? Do I have settings wrong on my end?

I think it’d be a neat long-term plan if several people wanted to contribute to CASA (I see familiar names) and we could coordinate and proofread walkthroughs and such, or make sure we’re not covering the same game. Maybe even give each other requests. I’d love to see CASA get more popular.

And it’s cool to see the author of Northpole stop by CASA too.

Maybe this should be peeled off into a separate topic, or I should create one. If I’m able/mindful enough to submit stuff regularly, I’d like to do that.

CASA is one of my regular stops for hints and solutions. I still mostly associate it with older games, perhaps incorrectly.

While I’m there, I often refresh the home page a few times to see the random game suggestions. A few incredibly obscure but fun games have popped up this way.

Example: The Battle of Philip against the Forces of Creation (Come on, with a title like that, you just know it’ll be fun!)

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Yes, I must admit I use the whole “refresh the homepage” thing to choose random games to research myself!

I think we do feel CASA is popular as it is… but perhaps not as well used by people over here. Yes, it’s focus is on older games but that’s just a reflection of the current (and past) interests of the majority of the users of the site and perhaps reflects the type of games that require more solutions & tips.

There is quite a diverse group of regular users. We’ve got players and admins who love old mainframe games and spend their time solving those. We’ve got contributors who spend their time playing and solving games on specific platforms, like the ZX Spectrum. There are people that keep up with modern IF, and add those titles to the site. Some users delight in porting games to their favourite retro computer. We have some specific language specialists… I think the majority of the admins are multi-lingual and capable of solving games in two or more languages.

Everyone has their own niches. My interests are anything on retro platforms (excluding Infocom & z-machine titles… simply to draw the line somewhere). I’m one of the people that spends their time researching old titles, increasing the accuracy of the database; looking for duplicate entries, and making connections between different ports and adaptations of games. Other people are much more into actually playing and solving games.

(Thanks for the twelve days solution, by the way.)

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