It's late, you've been watching the drove all day, and you just want to get back to the comfort of your cave. You count up the pigs and realize, to your dismay, that one has gone missing. Your boss, upon hearing about your shortcomings, sends you on your way, declaring that you ought to return with the pig or not at all. With bitter resignation, you wander into a dense forest. You're not really sure in which direction the pig headed; you only know that those rustling bushes may hold a clue...
This is where Lost Pig begins, a text adventure of interactive fiction that earned its author, Admiral Jota, first place in the IF Comp last November, and Best Game in the Xyzzy Awards in March.
You play as Grunk, a rather dim creature who works on a farm and who, evidently, loses a pig. Using your best typing skills, you must find your way through the forest and beyond to retrieve that darn swine. It won't be easy, since pigs in Grunk's world are not cooperative. Utilize your intuition (and maybe a little luck) and you'll find your way out of Grunk's mess in this hilarious and enjoyable game.
If you're not familiar with Interactive Fiction, it's a genre of games with roots back to the 1970's (thanks Wikipedia!). There are no graphics, just a description of your surroundings and available exits accompanied by a text prompt. Type commands into the prompt to navigate through the world—Lost Pig, like many other games in the IF community, provides you with a list of very basic commands to get you started, just type "Help."
You can't die in Lost Pig, but your adventure won't be an easy one. Since the pig is reluctant to join you back on the farm—and who can blame him—you'll have to work out how to catch him. You can gather clues from your environment, but Grunk's thoughts won't always give you as much help as you might think; his lack of intelligence manifests itself in some pretty hilarious ways. There is also a scoring system, with points given for doing certain things within the game. Some of these points come from doing very basic actions to get you through the game, while others are more obscure and may not be necessary to complete the game. The best thing you can do is be inquisitive and try everything!
Analysis: I love Interactive Fiction, a genre I was introduced to when Floatpoint was reviewed here about a year ago. What's great is that Lost Pig is on the lighter side. I found myself laughing most of the time while I gleefully wandered around. Grunk narrates the game in caveman-like diction, but this element never became annoying to me. It really serves to absorb you into the amiable character. The game isn't very long but offers up a relatively good challenge, particularly if you are unfamiliar with the genre.
Thankfully, there is a hint system to help you along. Unfortunately, I had to use it a few more times than I would have liked, because there are one or two points in the game that aren't very intuitive. The game world is also fairly small, and I tend to like IF games that span at least a few areas. This doesn't hurt the game, though, since there's quite a bit you have to do. There are even a few actions you can do with easter-egg-like results—and they really are terrific.
Lost Pig is unique and hilarious, stuffed to the rafters with personality. Don't be deterred by the lack of a graphic interface, just give it a try. Play Lost Pig.
The links above point to JIG's internally developed Flash-based Z-Machine interpreter (thanks asterick!), with the story files hosted here by permission of the game's author, Admiral Jota. Basically that means you can now play these games in your browser rather than having to download and run the game in a standalone interpreter.
If you would rather download the game, you may do so at Admiral Jota's website. If you choose to download the game, you will need an interpreter to read the z-file, just like most IF games. I use Gargoyle for Windows. You can use Zoom for Macintosh and Unix.
If you like "Lost Pig," take a look at other Interactive Fiction we've reviewed.
Lost Pig walkthrough now available!
Comments (may contain spoilers)
Oh god, oh god this is such a good game!
Posted by:
Snowy 
|
April 7, 2008 8:34 PM
:)
Grunk not know that word. Sound like magic, though.
(the same happens for plugh)
Posted by:
generic geek girl |
April 7, 2008 9:10 PM
Boo.. my line feeds didn't work. Anyway..
Cute game, even if I haven't really gotten anywhere yet.
Posted by:
generic geek girl |
April 7, 2008 9:13 PM
"take off pants"
OK, Pants off.
Pig look other way.
xD
Posted by:
Vault |
April 7, 2008 9:14 PM
Grunk am orc. Get it rite or Grunk make you eat ded kitteez.
Posted by:
Ryan McCue |
April 7, 2008 10:18 PM
where do I
I can't get the game to load through the Jayisgames.com reader
:/
really sad this sounded like alot of fun.
Posted by:
Roberta |
April 7, 2008 11:35 PM
What's the problem Roberta?
(OS? Browser version? Flash Player version?)
Posted by:
Jay |
April 7, 2008 11:39 PM
It loads to the cover art of Lost Pig and then loads for about thirty seconds more and then my browser says done.
I have the latest version of flash and I use the newest version of FireFox.
I don't know what's happening and I'm on dial up.
Posted by:
Roberta |
April 7, 2008 11:53 PM
I am experiencing the same loading problem as Roberta. It shows the pig splash screen, and then nothing happens. I'm on broadband, though.
Well, I managed to catch the pig .. but burn the entire forest and the farm down :D hahaha.
Posted by:
Alek |
April 8, 2008 12:11 AM
OH I got it to work - I just typed a few keys on my keyboard randomly (In mild frustration :)) and then the text prompt appeared! It says "outside"... Looks like I'm in bizz-nassss!
When the title screen is displayed, you may need to click on it to give the game focus, THEN PRESS ANY KEY
Posted by:
Jay |
April 8, 2008 12:40 AM
About the missing page:
Generally speaking, the hints built into the game are excellent. I mean, not to discourage anyone from asking here, but you may get your answer a bit faster :)
Posted by:
generic geek girl |
April 8, 2008 12:50 AM
Oops. I suck. Ignore my last answer.. that's for the book. It's late, and I should sleep :)
the missing page (for real this time!):
Posted by:
generic geek girl |
April 8, 2008 12:54 AM
Grunk is funny LoL. But seems I'm stuck.. I got:
whistle
2 half brick
torch (black and sooty)
pants (all wet)
and the green pole that I put in statue's hand (hoping that lightning will somehow happen in the room and strike the pole then make something happen to the north wall).
Just like Anonymous, I've found the book and returned it to the gnome just to find out that a page was missing.
Posted by:
jojo |
April 8, 2008 12:59 AM
Jojo:
Posted by:
generic geek girl |
April 8, 2008 1:26 AM
General hints:
Posted by:
generic geek girl |
April 8, 2008 1:34 AM
Generic geek girl:
yup, I've been figuring out how to
And while trying to
Posted by:
jojo |
April 8, 2008 1:52 AM
The IF competitions always have a few good games - I've been playing IF since my dad bought a TRS 80 (all 4k woth) years ago.
This one is a good one, be prepared for something that takes longer to finish than a point and click game.
hooraaay I'm out! Only got 6 out of 7 points though, but I think it's good enough for me ^^ Thanks Jay for the link and thanks everyone for the hints!
Posted by:
jojo |
April 8, 2008 2:19 AM
'plugh'.....hahaha...hooray to Lost Pig for remembering something so ancient and wonderfully dorky...
Posted by:
1101 |
April 8, 2008 2:30 AM
"I love Interactive Fiction, a genre I was introduced to when Floatpoint was reviewed here about a year ago."
Scramble125, are you saying the first IF game you've ever played is Floatpoint?!
I suddenly feel very, very old.
Wow, I'm stuck! I love text based games, but I'm out of ideas. Maybe I'm just tired but I can't get out of this cave thing. I have a tube, the pole, the key (I've unlocked the chest but I don't know what the powder is for) And I have the book, and of course pants. I think my main problem is I can't figure out how to relight the torch. Where is this gnome you all are talking about? does the statue come to life...I'm lost, so I'm spending most of my time talking to the pig, which is fun.
Ok wow I figured out a lot more, might write a walkthrough if I finish soon.
about relighting your torch
Haha, that was hilarious! And the in-browser application is pretty nifty too.
Posted by:
Architectonic |
April 8, 2008 7:11 AM
I told Grunk to
And the undo won't work...
But I shall persevere...
Posted by:
Tom |
April 8, 2008 8:20 AM
Pig look worried.
Tee hee.
>CRAP
Grunk not have to go right now.
XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD
Here is a walkthrough for Lost Pig and it's the first I've ever written so I'm sorry if it is redundant or something isn't worded right. I have split it up with titles so you can play the game yourself, and click on the solution if you get stuck in a certain place. Hope it helps:
- Try to go N or E (Grunk won't go because he doesn't want to get lost in dark forest, He won't go anywhere else either) You have to wait until you hear rustling in the bushes.
- Listen *1 pt*
- Go NE, you will fall in a hole, there is no other way to go.
- Get torch (it has gone out, you will need to re-light it later)
- look at stairs
- Get metal thing (whistle)
- E (fountain room, Pig should be there)
- Look at fountain
- Get coin *2 pt*
- look at curtain (hint about exiting)
- SW (table room)
- get chair
- E (Closet)
- There will be a weird noise. sing, or type in grr, or shout and the gnome will wake up.
- There are about a million questions you can ask the gnome and it is fun to play around with that.
- Ask gnome about the metal thing
- (whistle)
- (The whistle isn't really essential to gameplay but if you blow it it annoys the pig, and the gnome will tell you about looters which is a hint on how to get all 7 pts.)
- E (Shelf Room)
- Get pole
- drop chair
- stand on chair
- look at top shelf (you were too short to see before)
- get book
- get down
- get chair (you have to put it back where you found it)
- Go to table room (once you have been to a place or know where something is, you don't have to use directions, you can just type go to "place" or "thing" like "go to pig")
- drop chair
- look at metal box
- put coin in slot
- pull lever
- get brick
- shake metal box
- get coin
- repeat to get 3 bricks, after 2nd brick, coin will fall out with brick. (hints: ask gnome about metal box to find out what it is, ask gnome about brick, brick= some kind of food. Show brick to pig, pig is interested)
- break brick
- break whole brick
- break whole brick
- How to get the pig:
- (You now have 1/2 bricks that you can give to the pig to distract him and grab him. If you don't drop all the bricks for the pig at once, you will have to start over and get more bricks so he will be interested in them enough for you to grab him when you are ready. So it is better to have more 1/2 bricks than you might need than to have to come back here later. You can get the pig now, but you'll just have to carry him around for a while. You have to drop the bricks for the pig to eat a certain way and then you can get him easily)
- go to fountain room
- N (statue room)
- look at statue
- look at hat
- get hat
- go to fountain room
- E (cave with stream)
- look at reddish thing (Grunk won't cross stream, can't reach it, can't swim)
- get red thing with pole (green pole from shelf room)
- (ask the wizard about pole if you want to know why this works)
- Get key (red thing)
- get water with hat (what was it shaped like?)
- Go to chest / Go to shelf room
- open chest (Grunk will unlock it first, saving you the trouble of telling him to) *3 pt*
- look in chest (black powder)
- pour water on powder
- (again, ask gnome about powder if you want to know why this works)
- light torch
- put pole in powder (it gets black and sooty, fire will probably go out, you can re-light it the same way if needed later)
- Go to hole
- look at crack (now you can see because the torch is lit)
- get paper with pole (missing page in book)
- drop whistle
- Go to statue
- put torch in hand (of statue, Oh! A door! remember the curtain?) *4 pts*
- Go to gnome
- give gnome paper
- ask gnome about ball (glowing orb)
- give gnome book *5 pts*
- type wait, or ask the gnome a question, he will glue the missing page back in the book and then you can continue
- ask gnome for orb (He needs some light source in exchange first)
- go to statue
- get torch (if it has gone out you may need to re-light it with water from the stream, pour on the powder etc.)
- If the torch is still lit here: put hat on statue
- Go to gnome
- give gnome torch (he will give you the orb, which you need in order to leave later)
- ask gnome about turning orb off (you might need the magic words if it should go out later.)
- go to shelf room
- drop key
- drop pole (you should have already put the chair back in the table room)
- go to pig
- (you need to have at least 4 half-bricks for this to work)
- drop brick
- drop brick
- drop brick
- (Pig will eat bricks, either type wait, or keep dropping bricks to continue until it says: "Pig look happy with brick. Eat and eat and eat. It not even notice Grunk at all anymore.")
- Grab pig *6 pts*
- (If you don't get him you will need to get more bricks with the coin and repeat, if you type I for inventory it should say pig (not happy) lol. Now that you are carrying the pig it will have some sort of funny action every time you move)
- You need to put everything back the way you found it, that means the chair, the pole, the whistle etc.
- Go to fountain room
- put coin in fountain
- type I for inventory, You should ONLY have:
- pig (not happy)
- ball (that make light)
- pants (Grunk wearing them) (unless you took them off at some point, which is possible in this game)
- If you have extra bricks you can feed them to the pig. I am not sure if they matter.
- Go to statue
- N (windy cave) (You needed the orb of light because the torch would have gone out and Grunk would not have gone any further without light)
- Close door (To ensure 7th point)
- N
- You are now in sort of a maze, and I don't think it really matters what directions you go, you can walk around and read what Grunk says, and subsequently what the pig does, or just wait and the gnome will show up dragging his trunk.
- Follow the gnome, SE
- Probably New Tunnel *7 pts*
- The gnome will say a bunch of stuff, and if you have put everything back where it belongs and closed the secret door behind you, he will say he is impressed and thank you, and you will get one more point, otherwise it is possible to finish the game with only 6 points.
- Follow Gnome
- Follow Gnome
- You are back in the forest, Game Over.
Posted by:
Aurabella.ella 
|
April 8, 2008 10:01 AM
Tom
If you swallow something you didn't mean to, what actions could you take to get it back?
Tom:
Posted by:
Jetamo |
April 8, 2008 12:17 PM
Zug: I think that at some point, I had correctly written "re-introduced," because no, it's not the first IF game I've played! That was probably a mistake on my part.
Posted by:
Scramble125 |
April 8, 2008 12:36 PM
>fart
Pig put one foot over nose.
Posted by:
Bloatedsack |
April 8, 2008 3:35 PM
I'm somewhat disappointed by your comment there, Scramble! I was actually hoping that Floatpoint WAS the first IF game you'd played. If that was the case it would mean the genre is actually getting new fans and players. For the longest time I was convinced that the only people playing modern IF were people that had cut their video gaming teeth on Zork back in the day and/or crazy English/Comp-sci nerds . . . or, wait, that last group is the people *writing* IF, I guess. But anyway, I hope that having review of games likes this on JiG may be bringing IF to a new audience. It's neat stuff.
Posted by:
fnord3125 |
April 8, 2008 4:54 PM
The first IF I played was...erm.. Discworld MUD in 2005. First text adventure.
So yes, new fans.
Posted by:
Jetamo |
April 8, 2008 5:14 PM
Oh, I loved this... We need more IF!
Posted by:
Invi |
April 8, 2008 5:42 PM
Anyone else catch the in game reference to Order of the Stick? It's a great webcomic -- if you've never heard of it you're in for a treat.
Getting the pig isn't quite as hard as the walkthrough makes it out to be.
drop all brick works much better than typing in drop brick a bunch of times.
Posted by:
Einar |
April 8, 2008 7:04 PM
This game is ridiculous. I'm a huge fan of interactive fiction games, but I couldn't stand the lack of any correct grammar whatsoever. I know it's supposed to be like that because it gives the game a little personality, but there's only so much of it I could take.
This game is lovely, and a lot of fun.
Not sure if that deserves spoiler tags, but you never know, someone might be disappointed to be deprived of the joy of finding it out for themselves :P
Xixen:
Posted by:
generic geek girl |
April 8, 2008 11:39 PM
Hello
will you release the flash player so that other people will be able to use it on their website? It looks interesting, especially when it can read glulx games!
[Edit: The interpreter is still very much a work in progress, so we are not releasing it at this time. Also, it is a Z-machine interpreter, not Glulx. -Jay]
I don't want to nitpick, Jetamo, because this really isn't the place for that kind of discussion anyway... but... a MUD isn't really an IF. :) Text based yeah, but not an IF. Not that there is anything wrong with MUDs. I love MUDs and other varieties of MU* and even played Discworld MUD myself several years back. But its not IF. :) But if it brought you to IF, that's totally awesome. I never imagined really thought that kind of connection would be one people might make... that's pretty sweet.
Posted by:
fnord3125 |
April 9, 2008 1:42 AM
I've really liked the last 2 IF games that have been posted.
The only other IF game that I extensively played was in my youth--some shareware program where I couldn't go the village (until I paid--which my family never did). I did start off in the house with the requisite flask, go up the mountain, trigger an avalanche, and I made it into some kind of palace where I got stranded on an island with a lake full of piranha. I wish I knew how the dumb thing ended, but I don't even remember it's name...
Posted by:
delzoup |
April 9, 2008 2:34 AM
Also, if you are at all lost in this game type "hint", and go to the bottom selection.
There is a very robust hint system in game
Posted by:
delzoup |
April 9, 2008 3:06 AM
A couple of corrections for the walkthrough:
You have to "search bushes" at the beginning after having listened, before you can go north east.
You don't need to "get key". You get the key automatically when you "get red thing with pole".
Posted by:
ThemePark |
April 9, 2008 4:26 AM
Sorry about the non-spoilers. I had put spoilers, but my internet connection hiccupped, so I had to go back, and I guess it didn't read the sp and pre tags, that the spoiler tag had been converted to.
Posted by:
ThemePark |
April 9, 2008 4:31 AM
There were so many times where I thought, "No way... This is a really stupid thing to try, it won't work anyway..."
Like "hug gnome" and "eat gnome". That makes me laugh! I can save the game, (by typing save), but I don't know how to open the game again. Help? I tried to save on both that flash one and on Gargoyle. Neither works for me.
Posted by:
kieran |
April 9, 2008 5:50 PM
Oh! Never mind. "restore" was the command I was looking for.
Posted by:
kieran |
April 9, 2008 6:04 PM
>eat grunk
Grunk taste salty.
bahahaha :D
Oh my god.. This was so fun.
I was stuck when
I traded the torch for the ball
BEFORE opening the secret exit, and the gnome won't give the torch back!
So I tried to
put the pants on fire, and put that on statue's hand.
And it worked! LOL
It was so funny seeing
pants (on fire)
in the inventory.
Posted by:
Gendron |
April 9, 2008 8:32 PM
WALKTHROUGH AMENDMENT:
(About getting full points.)
Posted by:
kieran |
April 9, 2008 8:40 PM
Maybe my favorite game on JIG yet. And, for those that were discussing it earlier, this is perhaps only the second IF I've ever played. I love them!
Posted by:
Shifterred |
April 10, 2008 3:57 PM
Funny
Grunk shout at gnome, RAAARRRRR!
Gnome flinch. Him say "has anyone ever told you that you have terrible breath?"
Fantastic game! I've never tried this type of game genre before and so far, I'm impressed.
On that note, I've played Aunts and Butlers and it's been a joy to go through it all :)
Let's hope there'd be another thing that Grunk has to find in the future!
Posted by:
Jacqui |
April 11, 2008 2:05 AM
I used to feel like such a nerd for loving these kind of games. Has anyone ever played Humbug by Graham Cluley (sp?) It's an older one (1990 maybe so not that old) but its my all time favorite!
Posted by:
Aurabella.ella |
April 11, 2008 8:53 PM
I dont know if anyone has said this aleady, i could not be bothered to go through them all, but you all have really intresting comments! :P Anyway, has someoe tried typing 'La' if you are persistent, he will tell you a story!
how do you close the door? I cant close it- It just comes open again- and then I cant get my 7 points. How do you get it to close? It doesn't have anything about it in hints...unless I did something else wrong and you can get 7 points from just shutting it and having it come open again?
Posted by:
SahBeh |
April 12, 2008 7:52 AM
such a lovely game...
Pig laugh. Grunk wonder if pig make it happen somehow. Sneaky pig.
lol!
Posted by:
nami |
April 13, 2008 1:51 PM
Walkthrough Guide
Here is a walkthrough for Lost Pig and it's the first I've ever written so I'm sorry if it is redundant or something isn't worded right. I have split it up with titles so you can play the game yourself, and click on the solution if you get stuck in a certain place. Hope it helps:
Posted by: Aurabella.ella
|
April 8, 2008 10:01 AM