A Case of the Crabs

Nick's Office, the Docks, and two restaurants

the inkpad? I've looked all over the office.

• When a crab salesman throws your door open and immediately gets stabbed, you know something's up. So I got to work. First of all I picked up a crab that had wandered out of his crate, as well as the knife in his back, a book on fingerprinting in my bookshelf, and my expired library card from my desk. Not much else of interest.

• 500 Easy Steps to Fingerprinting was so thick I couldn't even begin to read it, so I cut it down to size- literally- with my knife. Now it was much more readable. I read the first step: make sure the victim has hands. I checked out Arthur's left hand; yep, it most definitely looked like a hand. I also took a good look at the crate, which had come from a company called Shiny Barnacle. I decided to go there next.

• The docks were a bit peculiar. The man sitting on the pier was too busy to notice me until I rigged his bucket with my crab, at which point I enjoyed a short conversation from him. Now I swiped a sea sponge from a nearby crate, and used the same crab to frighten a squid. The second step to fingerprinting was to get an ink pad, and by dipping the sponge in the fresh puddle of squid ink, I got one. I wasn't done at the docks just yet, though. Using my knife to open a crate of crabs, I looked at the crab inside; it was a fake! After that I picked it up and returned to my office.

• Step three: swab the victim's finger with ink. Ink pad to hand. Step four: press it against the fingerprint card. My library card worked just fine. Now I had a fingerprint and not the slightest idea what to do with it, so I headed out on the town once again. This time I went to the Blue Crab Café.

• The Lonely Guy poster near the Café made me weep, so I used my knife to cut out a picture of his face. Then, for a reason I wasn't sure of at the moment, I stuck the picture onto my library card next to the fingerprint. But on to business: an ID card needed to be scanned to enter the Café, and thankfully my new fake ID card worked just fine. Inside, I spoke to the waitress, then headed back to the kitchen.

• Ugh, that chef was depressing. I talked with him; apparently he knew a lot. I then swiped a piece of cheese from the kitchen and left through the back door, only to be confronted by a thug who pointed a gun at me. I hadn't had a gun pointed at me in almost two weeks! I went along with him and became acquainted with the Boss. He was fat, ugly, and untouchable. I needed evidence.

• Evidence. First I grabbed some sliced tin cans from the trash can, then left and headed back to the Café. The back gate was open this time, so I went in, shoved an empty crate aside, and picked up the business card that rested on the floor. I then used my crab to disable the fusebox, pickpocketed two wires that had fallen out, and ducked inside for just enough time to steal the chef's Victrola.

• Now it was finally time to visit Jim's Shack O' Crabs. He wouldn't speak to me because he was busy with a rat, but by combining some cheese and a toy crab to create a rat trap, I was able to take care of that problem. I spoke to him, and he needed someone who was a good exterminator. A thug is as good an exterminator as any, so I handed him the business card I found in the alley.

• Back in front of the Boss's, the thug was busy with the phone. I hooked up my can halves with some wires, then used it to listen in on the conversation on the other side of the window. Then, I added the victrola to the mix, and used all that on the window. It was time to confront the Boss now, but he just had to ruin everything and shoot my evidence to kingdom come! I hate types who put up a fight.

• So what was I to do? Shoot him? No, I don't have a gun. Stab him? No, too messy. Throw a crab into his pants? Hey, that actually worked!

• ...Damn, for a large man, he sure fell slowly.

Nick's Office:

Shiny Barnacle Shipping Docks

Blue Crab Cafe:

Inside the Blue Crab Cafe

After Meeting the Boss

Collecting Evidence

Final Confrontation

Part 1: The Office
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A Case of the Crabs starts out with a rather funny joke. It kind of caught me off-guard that a game was making me smile in the first five seconds. ;) You'll get a bit of the story from the game's main character, Nick Bounty.

A man will soon walk in with a box of crabs. After talking for a few seconds, he'll fall over dead… I think the knife in his back might have something to do with it. Pick up the crab that is wandering around the floor by using the "get" command. Then, take a look at the box the murdered dude was carrying. It came from a shipping company on the "south side". Nick will decide fairly quickly that he should go check that place out. Good idea, Nick.

You can also pick up the knife jetting out of the dead guy's back. I suppose a knife could be pretty handy, eh? You also need to pick up the library card and the book on fingerprinting. The card can be found laying on Nick's desk and the book about fingerprinting can be found on the bookshelf. Use your knife on the book about fingerprinting to make a much nicer little leaflet. You have just about everything you can get and have done everything you can do for now, so exit via the door. You'll arrive at a city map. Head to the only other available area aside from the office, the Shiny Barnacle Shipping Docks.

Part 2: Shipping Docks
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Arriving at the docks, you'll see a man polishing one of the sections of the only visible dock. His name is Bill and you can try to talk to him, but you won't get too much of a reaction out of him. Check out the small stack of crates and you'll notice that they're all just like the one that the dead guy brought into your office. You can use the knife that you pulled from Arthur's back on one of the crates but there will just be more crabs inside. You already have a crab in your pocket, but you might as well look at this one. Nick will discover something so horrible, so devious… that he will shudder uncontrollably. After this gruesome discovery, pick up the toy crab.

To the right of Bill is a box containing some sea sponges. Pick one of them up. Is that Spongebob on the box? Sweet.

Next, put your live crab in Bill's bucket. The next time he puts his hand in he will get a little surprise. Of course, the guy's mad, so you'll have to explain yourself. You'll get four choices of things to say. Pick the first three. So good old Arthur had a boat down here, eh? When you want to stop talking, pick the fourth option.

Use your crab on the crate of squid. The crab will frighten the squid and a fountain of ink will go spraying out of him! Then, mop up the ink with your sea sponge to make an inkpad. Awesome. Now, let's go back to the office.

Part 3: Office Part 2
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Look at your new fingerprinting leaflet. The first step is to check to see if the victim has hands. Well, go ahead. Look at his hands. Okay, so he has them. Great. Look at the leaflet again to get step two. An ink pad? You've got one of those in the inky sponge! Use the inkpad on Arthur's hand to make his hand all inky and stuff. Then, look at the leaflet again and place the library card on his fingers to get a nice set of fingerprints. THERE! You've finally got a nice looking fake I.D… almost. Head to the Blue Crab Cafe.

Part 4: Blue Crab Cafe
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First thing you'll want to do here is cut the "Lonely Guy" flyer off the wall using your knife. Then, place the picture on your fake ID NOW you have a genuine fake ID! Congrats! Use the card on the ID scanner in front of the Blue Crab Cafe.

Once you enter, you'll notice that the place seems rather empty. Think it could have something to do with the rigorous security they have? Eh, maybe. A waitress will come running up and tell you the menu. Ask her about counterfeit crabs and she'll say that that's the reason business is so bad. Sure. Anyway, you can talk to her about the other three things, but nothing will really come of it. Tell her the fourth option and she'll leave you alone.

Walk up farther into the Blue Crab and you'll end up in the kitchen where some rather ancient music is playing. Pick up the piece of cheese that's sitting on the kitchen counter. Then, exit via the door to the right. One of the E Street Band will stop you and bring you to Bruce's place… err.. forget I said that. Apparently this fat chubby little guy is actually the head of the crab counterfeiting operation. He'll tell you to stay out of his business and then you'll be thrown out of his office.

Outside of his office, pick up two of the can halves from the garbage can. Not much else to do here, so use the exit that's to the left. Then, head back to outside the Blue Crab Cafe. The gate that was locked earlier is now open, because you just came from there. Use your real crab on the fuse box. Now the power will be out in the kitchen. After that, move the empty box that's to the left of the three stacked up boxes to find a business card. Pick it up and look at it. If you squint, you can make out the name "Wilbur Thug" on the card. Interesting. Take those wires hanging from the fuse box as well.

Go back inside and talk to Gutman. Talk to him about every single thing that comes up, and eventually you'll convince him that listening to the blues doesn't help. Thus you'll be able to take his Victrola. We've taken a bunch of stuff lately, haven't we? Next, head over to Jim's Shack O Crabs!

Part 5: Jim's Shack O Crabs
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You can't talk to Jim right now, because he's deathly afraid of that large rat that's tormenting him (I wonder if he locked himself out too?). So, make a nice little rat trap by combining your cheese and toy crab. Use your trap on the rat and away he will go. Jim is still suffering a bit of a twitch though. Talk to him to help get rid of it for him. Speak to him about all three topics.

Hmm… sounds like something we could help with.

Give the poor man Wilbur's business card. He'll call him up, giving you a nice shining opportunity to use some stuff.

Next, we'll need to go back to the boss' office.

Part 6: The Boss
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Once you get here, combine the can halves and the wires to create a "state of the art" listening device. If you try to use it on the window to hear what the boss is talking about on the phone, Nick will tell you that he's having an "incriminating conversation". So, combine your Victrola and hearing device to create a perfect spy machine. Use the machine on the window.

After Nick gets all the evidence he needs, he'll dump the spy equipment and you'll be left with a record. Head inside to the Boss' office and confront him. However, the Boss would rather not be thrown in the slammer, so he does away with your evidence! Pretty soon, he points the gun at you! Select "Shoot", Nick will unfortunately inform you that he has actually never had a gun! So instead, throw the crab you've had all this time at him.