It's Locked!

I have nothing witty to say here right now. This is a side blog, find me also at nesssies-girl. header by pollyestergivens!

[thebeastofblackmoor]

Nancy Drew Central

[ivy-echoed]

Well this fucking sucks.

Apparently Digital River - the company that handled HeR Interactive's digital games sales closed. HeR no longer has access to those sale records and basically can't do anything about sales beyond 5 years ago.

So I'm shit out of luck. I had the bonus edition of all the games I'm missing - you get to collect phone charms in the game and you get an award for getting them all, you got the bonus edition with pre-orders.

So looks like my collection is no longer complete and I need 3 more games. I've got them on my steam wishlist so I'll wait and see if they go on sale.

I mean it's kind of my own fault for not realizing I had to save more than the download manager. Basically for games 28 onward when you download your game from the server you download an download manager exe, which then downloads the actual install files (previous digital games had downloaded a zip file). With the servers offline those download manager files no longer work. And I didn't save the install files. I can't remember if they warn you of that or not. If not they should.

Thankfully the download managers for MID and KEY still work. I'm going to make sure the install files are uploaded to my external where I keep the ND games. Starting to think I should go back to buying physical copies of stuff tbh.

[ndconceptarchive]

All the articles online are only talking about the company's bankruptcy (which is understandable), but in terms of what HeR has to say about it, all I could find is an article from 2012. This honestly sucks for any ND fans out there who relied on the digital purchases. I'm reblogging just as a heads-up to anyone out there for whom this may apply to (and trying to see if there are any potential solutions as well).

[nancynancydrewdrewdrew]

Just an FYI you can still access the bonus versions from any copy of the game (I have all the bonus versions as physical copies but I rebought the series on steam a couple of years ago for convenience and you can pry the bonus versions from my cold dead hands)

Here’s what you do:

Press ctrl+shift+tab+c and a box shows up. Go to either ‘Flags’ or ‘Logic’ depending on the game and search for ‘Bonus’. Check the box next to the bonus version flag, they’re named different things in different games but it should be obvious. If you want the phone games do the same thing searching for ‘games’ or ‘phone’ or whatever. Check that box too and hit save. Now you once again have the bonus version that you bought and paid for!

[ivy-echoed]

!!! yes!!!! Oh I love you random internet stranger. Just tried it on Ghost of Thornton Hall and it worked great. So that's one bright spot anyway!

[nancynancydrewdrewdrew]

Woooooo!! Happy to help, fellow internet stranger! Happy sleuthing :)

[bayouette]

i wish i was joking.

[nancytoomanyquestions]

Look what I made!!

[mrs-xenia-and-dagny]

Joy: and my dad left me this stupid machine and I hate my boss she’s haunting the carousel for money coz she’s greedy

Nancy:

Nancy: I asked for an access card

[lethalneuroses]

secret after shadow ranch

[shiftythrifting]

The eyeball mug that I got for 50¢ heck YES and the mustache protecting mug my friend got at a thrift store in Montana

[nancytoomanyquestions]

Bruno Bolet would own that mug

[lethalneuroses]

nancy drew: shadow of nancy’s breathtaking insensitivity

[trapperdansneedle]

not knowing what symbols you’ve found and haven’t found

[alex-trang]

when debbie gives you more chores

[nancydrewpcfans-blog]

when you forget how to trigger an event uuughhghhhgh

[bunbun-sims-blog]

when people send you chocolates but they were actually roaches

[wade-thornton]

When you accidentally make Enrico go over the scopa rules again

[nancydrewcrew]

When big island mike doesn’t like the shaved ice flavors you give him

[youcanfindmoreeggsthanthat]

When you need a new glowstick 

[iwantakokokringle]

When you have to wait for the next hint to load.

[tinobaldouchey-deactivated20150]

RAN entirely

[opencasketbasketfries]

When you are spinning around in a circle and something is on fire, the game freezes and all you can do is FIREFIREFIREFIREFIRE NOOOOOO………

[alex-trang]

when your roomie bff tries to kill you

[franceshumber]

When you get a tattoo of an alien on your face and have to wear a mask to cover it up

[lessonsfromnancy]

the entirety of TOT

every last bit of it

[mystico-has-spoken]

Tino Balducci

[alex-trang]

when you figure out that joseph kidnapped maya when you play the tape of him testing the mic

[asharkapologist]

When you can’t figure out what to do next in STFD and are terrified and convinced that you’ve softlocked yourself

[idontwantoseeyouserena]

When Henrich can’t remember where he put the Pacal carving

[glasseyekeychain]

When you pick the dialogue in SCK original that softlocks it

[click-the-plane-ticket]

The Nancy Drew games iceberg

This link explains all the references:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U8oMaFMvYEbSDSTvLkExMLz3gYvihulluV-aP_fw4xI/edit?usp=sharing

[veronicas-cool-url]

[henrikvanderswoon]

A SCENARIO

When asking for Charleena's autograph, you recieve the following dialogue choice:

[A] "If you could have it written out, 'To Fatima,' with an 'F,' that'd be great."

[B] "If you could have it written out, 'To Phatima,' with a 'PH,' that'd be great."

You select the second option, despite Fatima's explicit instructions. You return to the museum with the signed autograph.

Now your head is merely one more coconut broken by the pick ax.

Second Chance.

[defectivenancydrew]

Hey, Clue Crew!! My Curse of Blackmoor stickers are availability in my Etsy store (link also in bio)! These ones are $5 to offset Etsy fees and because they took a bit longer to make. As always, I offer free shipping to the US and very low cost shipping everywhere else. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to keep the shop open since I will be moving soon and starting my hospital rotations, but these should be available through the end of May or until the sell out. It would mean the world to me if you supported my work by purchasing a sheet or two ☺️

THANK YOU!

[defectivenancydrew]

If you can afford to purchase and support me, please do! And if you can’t please please please reblog to spread the word! Very very pitifully few of these have sold and I printed quite a few. In the spirit of full honesty, if I can’t sell at least what I printed, I won’t be able to release another sticker set. Again, please only purchase if you can afford to do so, but everyone can afford to reblog!! Please take a moment to support an artist and student—thank you.

[apricotdeer]

Tattoo design concepts inspired by Nancy Drew games

#1 Secrets Can Kill

[apricotdeer]

Tattoo design concepts inspired by Nancy Drew

#2 Stay Tuned for Danger

Secrets Can Kill

[wanderingthroughwickford]

I made a map showing where all the Nancy Drew games (excepting Secret of the Old Clock, since I couldn’t find any concrete info on its setting) take place!

Secrets can Kill - Paseo del Mar (fictional town), Florida

Stay Tuned for Danger - New York City, New York

Message in a Haunted Mansion - San Francisco, California

Treasure in the Royal Tower - Butter Ridge (fictional), Wisconsin

The Final Scene - St. Louis, Missouri

Secret of the Scarlet Hand - Washington, DC

Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake - Moon Lake (fictional), Pennsylvania

The Haunted Carousel - Captain’s Cove (fictional), New Jersey

Danger on Deception Island - Snake Horse Harbour (fictional), Deception Island (also fictional) San Juan Islands, Washington

Secret of Shadow Ranch - somewhere outside of Phoenix, Arizona

Curse of Blackmoor Manor - Essex, England

Secret of the Old Clock - fictional town of Titusville; didn’t include since I couldn’t find any info on its location (though it might be in Illinois)

Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon - from Chicago, Illinois to Brimstone Canyon, Nevada, with a stop in Copper Gorge, Colorado

Danger by Design - Paris, France

Creature of Kapu Cave - the Big Island, Hawaii

White Wolf of Icicle Creek - Rocky Mountains, Alberta, Canada

Legend of the Crystal Skull - New Orleans, Louisiana

The Phantom of Venice - Venice, Italy

The Haunting of Castle Malloy - somewhere in Ireland

Ransom of the Seven Ships - Dread Isle (fictional), the Bahamas

Warnings at Waverly Academy - somewhere in upstate New York

Trail of the Twister - somewhere in Oklahoma

Shadow at the Water’s Edge - Kyoto, Japan

The Captive Curse - Bavaria, Germany

Alibi in Ashes - River Heights (fictional), in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois

Tomb of the Lost Queen - outside Cairo, Egypt

The Deadly Device - somewhere in Colorado

Ghost of Thornton Hall - coastal Georgia

The Silent Spy - Glasgow, Scotland

The Shattered Medallion - New Zealand

[bnc91]

Deadly Device is in Colorado Springs! I love this map :)

[daretosnoop]

Thornton hall is on. Black rock island. Don’t know if it’s fictional

[thebeastofblackmoor]

Black Rock Island is def fictional but it is in the real county of Chatham!

[obscurum-passagium]

[thebeastofblackmoor]

yo The Captive Curse was like the second game I ever played in this series I would love to hear your thoughts

yes yesyesyes okay thank you anon I am going to replay it tonight to refine my thoughts but I hope you like my stream of consciousness quasi-analysis!!

Ok so it’s all like

when Karl said “The villagers hundreds and hundreds of years ago, they knew the monster. They would leave food for him, deep in the woods. The were all terrified of him, of course--but so were the wolves. If they kept the monster fed he would not bother them, and they could raise their livestock in peace.”

when Renate said “A knight in shining armor never did nothing for nobody. He never fought. A knight in dented, scraped armor - now that's what you want.” And that her older sister died alone in the dark woods trying to save her!

and when Anja said “I was honest. I was honest every day and I worked hard at my job. I worked hard every day and no one noticed. No one cared” and when the woman from Castle Cast said that she would never have gotten the job she had if she was honest--

and when Lukas says he can see a gallows from his bedroom window, and he thinks that’s cool, because most people can only see stuff like a grocery store from their window, but the kids at school think he’s creepy because he lives at the castle and he is not afraid....

Basically, this was like the first time I played this game while playing close attention to everyone’s backstories and motivations and I finally put all of it together and realized that yes, the castle has a dark and a bloody history, and that those two things are interconnected--it is not just about a Creepy Old Castle! And ohhh, a scarey monster! I mean yeah, it’s that, too, it is a kid’s game, but because it’s a good Nancy Drew game, there’s more. The whole history of the castle is about how times were so hard and people had to fight to survive, and the world was dangerous. And in order to survive, they had to do some very bad, very bloody things, to themselves and others. They had to make a pact with the bloodthirsty monster and the knights got beaten within an inch of their lives and the innocent girls got kidnapped or killed; the innocents simply disappeared.

And it hasn’t changed when Nancy is there. Renate lost her sister, and her reward for trying to avenge her is a distrusting reputation. If Karl wants to protect the people he loves, he thinks he must be resigned to living his life in misery--because of the doppelganger’s curse he is afraid of hurting the people around him so he cuts them off and has to live a lonely life-- and Lukas is happy with the castle, but that makes him an outcast, and we are left to believe Anja was once really good but soon she realized she would get nowhere like that (she would get left behind by people like Markus and she could never move forward without playing dirty). 

So the curse of Castle Finster is not a monster but that you will become a monster or else suffer at the hands of monsters... (Or something.)

Of course, then Nancy comes along and subverts the story by being the girl from the stories and taking down the “monster” and saving the day, because it’s a Nancy Drew game, but everyone’s whole situations before she got there and the sacrificial setup Anja had planned to provide a warped kind of justice just *clenches fist* really satisfies my Gotta Think About Angsty Scary Stories brain 

anyway this used to be at the bottom of my list but now that I’ve given it a long hard look and actually kinda understand what it’s about it’s risen a lot higher. oh, and also Monster is straight up addictive.

in conclusion: talk to me about this game I got thots man

[obscurum-passagium]

i wish this was more obvious in the game because this makes it actually cool