I really love a lot about this game and the aesthetic is great, but I did want to echo some of the things louve said and chip in my two cents if it's ok as someone who has spent a lot of time in DOS.
Having to type .exe does throw me off but hopefully that's an easy fix. Fixing the tab issue might be a problem on the website but as someone playing the downloaded version it would be a very nice QOL improvement.
You mentioned you were going to add in the "man" function for command help but I believe that's the UNIX way of doing things and doesn't exist in DOS, where as louve said the expected way is "HELP FIXTEXT" or "FIXTEXT.EXE /?" both of which I instinctively tried and was disappointed they didn't work.
Thank you for this amazing work, I'm going to make sure to show it off to as many people as I can!
The man function was added in quite a while ago, I’m just adding hints and docs so people can know its there. I’m also trying to make the path more clear.
Historically, DOS wasn’t entirely MS-DOS. Microsoft was successful in throwing their weight around, but there were other variants, some with different sets of commands. In an alternate universe where Unix and Linux did not get very far, there could be a space for man in there.
Plus, the –ly switch doesn’t make sense with help. 🤣
The ‘interpreter’, to be generous, is a set of multiple functions that needs to be rewritten for fixtext /? to work properly without breaking the game further into the story, or for help to handle more than just kicking off the story.
The context for everything as it is now is: this was a funny shitpost between my kid and I that spiraled wildly out of control and now I have a few copies of the Visual DOS Concise User’s Guide on my desk, and there’s a window with bootloader code because we wanted to see if we could make it a real OS 🤣🤣
I will make QOL improvements on it tho. I keep putting it away and coming back to it.
i've been using DOS prompts since the early 00s and linux command lines aswell, this one is very frustrating (why do i have to add EXE after each program name? i remember DOS automatically running .COM and .EXE if it was part of PATH... which FIXTEXT seems to be since it works no matter which folder i'm in. so i'm not sure what's happening here).
Up arrow does not work most of the time, TAB breaks the game by changing focus on the webpage :(
I got stuck very early - typing FIXTEXT.EXE (sic) HELP.TXT prints a series of gibberish in big characters and then says "Bad command or file name", but does not prompt me for any further interaction. I do not see what else I can do with the system and I have been unable to combine commands to produce anything else (am I supposed to combine the PEM with the TXT file to decrypt it? is FIXTEXT supposed to take any other argument?
FIXTEXT.EXE /? does nothing, HELP FIXTEXT doesn't do anything either. I'm stuck at trying to understand how anything in that system works, at least coming from MS-DOS it feels extremely foreign.
Hopefully a later update makes it a bit easier to pick up and I will be happy to return to it, right now it's unfortunately a frustrating experience
I used a vax for long enough where I sometimes forget/don’t consider that DOS adds .EXE 😬
I don’t have a good solution for Tab at the moment.
I got stuck very early - typing FIXTEXT.EXE (sic) HELP.TXT prints a series of gibberish in big characters and then says “Bad command or file name”,
The gibberish big text is a cryptogram puzzle. Each letter has a text field. If you type a letter in it, it will fill it in for all the same letters to help you solve it faster. Once the puzzle is solved the story progresses and another puzzle is presented.
The news command contains additional story, and includes a hint or two on the final puzzle.
I definitely could make the description and in-game help better.
While working on making the in-game help better, I realized I really needed to update a few things that are very deficient. And since you let me know to begin with, it makes sense to let you know. :D
First: many of the system commands only have a reference in my printed help. I forgot to place them in the appropriate areas. Some commands like cd and catalog would be part of a COMMAND.COM and not show up in a system folder. Others should have really been in there, and they will be soon:
I also obviously can’t tell people to use the man command if it doesn’t work for some commands… my bad 😬. I’m working on adding more commands to it.
Once you know the stuff you need to know, the game is playable at least. And I should hopefully have this updated across platforms by end of tomorrow.
many of these are in the development logs, but they really needed to be properly shown in the game too. Otherwise theres no way to know man or restart work.
The puzzles are randomly generated from a list, and the keys are randomly generated. What I should have done was attach a unique ID to each and add them to the Concise User’s Guide.
You’ll have to give me a hint for me to give you one. Can you attach a screenshot?
If you decide to do the puzzle later by using the restart command: it should generate a new puzzle with a new key. This will also happen if you quit and re-open the game.
Cheat
You can also use the command debug ai to get the current key, which letter corresponds to which real letter.
It seems like every time I lose focus on the window/game I can no longer type even after clicking back into it :( Happens on both the web and mac versions
This fixed it! I think I glitched it by typing help once and then restarting the page (I'm on browser) - I guess it skipped the trigger to get the help.txt document or something.
did you get the transferring file "help.txt" message?
If not, try using the help command.
If you did get the message, try resetting the game using the command debug reset-game --yes-very-yes. This will cause the game to “error”, and when you refresh the game will start over.
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I really love a lot about this game and the aesthetic is great, but I did want to echo some of the things louve said and chip in my two cents if it's ok as someone who has spent a lot of time in DOS.
Having to type .exe does throw me off but hopefully that's an easy fix. Fixing the tab issue might be a problem on the website but as someone playing the downloaded version it would be a very nice QOL improvement.
You mentioned you were going to add in the "man" function for command help but I believe that's the UNIX way of doing things and doesn't exist in DOS, where as louve said the expected way is "HELP FIXTEXT" or "FIXTEXT.EXE /?" both of which I instinctively tried and was disappointed they didn't work.
Thank you for this amazing work, I'm going to make sure to show it off to as many people as I can!
Hi Cinnastar!
The
manfunction was added in quite a while ago, I’m just adding hints and docs so people can know its there. I’m also trying to make the path more clear.Historically, DOS wasn’t entirely MS-DOS. Microsoft was successful in throwing their weight around, but there were other variants, some with different sets of commands. In an alternate universe where Unix and Linux did not get very far, there could be a space for
manin there.Plus, the –ly switch doesn’t make sense with help. 🤣
The ‘interpreter’, to be generous, is a set of multiple functions that needs to be rewritten for
fixtext /?to work properly without breaking the game further into the story, or for help to handle more than just kicking off the story.The context for everything as it is now is: this was a funny shitpost between my kid and I that spiraled wildly out of control and now I have a few copies of the Visual DOS Concise User’s Guide on my desk, and there’s a window with bootloader code because we wanted to see if we could make it a real OS 🤣🤣
I will make QOL improvements on it tho. I keep putting it away and coming back to it.
well, maybe this just isn't a game for me :V
i've been using DOS prompts since the early 00s and linux command lines aswell, this one is very frustrating (why do i have to add EXE after each program name? i remember DOS automatically running .COM and .EXE if it was part of PATH... which FIXTEXT seems to be since it works no matter which folder i'm in. so i'm not sure what's happening here).
Up arrow does not work most of the time, TAB breaks the game by changing focus on the webpage :(
I got stuck very early - typing FIXTEXT.EXE (sic) HELP.TXT prints a series of gibberish in big characters and then says "Bad command or file name", but does not prompt me for any further interaction. I do not see what else I can do with the system and I have been unable to combine commands to produce anything else (am I supposed to combine the PEM with the TXT file to decrypt it? is FIXTEXT supposed to take any other argument?
FIXTEXT.EXE /? does nothing, HELP FIXTEXT doesn't do anything either. I'm stuck at trying to understand how anything in that system works, at least coming from MS-DOS it feels extremely foreign.
Hopefully a later update makes it a bit easier to pick up and I will be happy to return to it, right now it's unfortunately a frustrating experience
I used a vax for long enough where I sometimes forget/don’t consider that DOS adds .EXE 😬
I don’t have a good solution for
Tabat the moment.The gibberish big text is a cryptogram puzzle. Each letter has a text field. If you type a letter in it, it will fill it in for all the same letters to help you solve it faster. Once the puzzle is solved the story progresses and another puzzle is presented.
The news command contains additional story, and includes a hint or two on the final puzzle.
I definitely could make the description and in-game help better.
While working on making the in-game help better, I realized I really needed to update a few things that are very deficient. And since you let me know to begin with, it makes sense to let you know. :D
First: many of the system commands only have a reference in my printed help. I forgot to place them in the appropriate areas. Some commands like
cdandcatalogwould be part of a COMMAND.COM and not show up in a system folder. Others should have really been in there, and they will be soon:I also obviously can’t tell people to use the
mancommand if it doesn’t work for some commands… my bad 😬. I’m working on adding more commands to it.Once you know the stuff you need to know, the game is playable at least. And I should hopefully have this updated across platforms by end of tomorrow.
manorrestartwork.I'm thoroughly stuck on number Éleven, any hints?
The puzzles are randomly generated from a list, and the keys are randomly generated. What I should have done was attach a unique ID to each and add them to the Concise User’s Guide.
You’ll have to give me a hint for me to give you one. Can you attach a screenshot?
If you decide to do the puzzle later by using the
restartcommand: it should generate a new puzzle with a new key. This will also happen if you quit and re-open the game.Cheat
You can also use the command
debug aito get the current key, which letter corresponds to which real letter.It seems like every time I lose focus on the window/game I can no longer type even after clicking back into it :( Happens on both the web and mac versions
try clicking directly in the area where the prompt is, or pressing the tab key
Shift+tab seems to work, thank you!
NP! Glad you got it!
hi! loving the aesthetic of this game, but struggling to get past the first section. the fixtext command isn't working for me for some reason.
Thanks!
The command line was modeled after DOS. Try changing directory to documents (
cd documents), and runningfixtext.exe help.txtfrom there.Just tried this, and it didn't seem to work :(
after typing help twice, you should see a progress indicator showing a file was transferred.
Are you running the web version or a downloaded version?
I was having the same issue, but it starting working after clearing my cache/cookies. Maybe it will work for you too?
This fixed it! I think I glitched it by typing help once and then restarting the page (I'm on browser) - I guess it skipped the trigger to get the help.txt document or something.
Oh… I didn’t consider that.
There is a command to clear the storage:
debug reset-game --yes-very-yesI’ll make a real help file and stick that in it.
Finally got it working, and I'm having a great time with this game!! Super charming so far. Thanks for the help!
i cant get past the first part :(
After typing help?
If you type help, you should see a text file get placed on the drive. navigate to the text file and use fixtext.exe on it.
fixtext no work
I'm having the same issue as well, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
You have to go into documents and write "fixtext.exe help.txt"
Hi!
Try:
cd documentsThen:
fixtext.exe help.txtThe command line was modeled after DOS.
Try changing directory to documents (
cd documents), and runningfixtext.exe help.txtfrom there.is still not work
did you get the
transferring file "help.txt"message?If not, try using the
helpcommand.If you did get the message, try resetting the game using the command
debug reset-game --yes-very-yes. This will cause the game to “error”, and when you refresh the game will start over.I've had fun most of the day with this and the prequel, Integer Overflow. Thank you so much!
I’m super glad you enjoyed it!