Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse

Chapter 1: The Penal Zone

This starts out at the end of the story (I think), where Sam and Max send General Skun-Ka'pe, a space gorilla trying to take over universe and find the Toys of Power, to the Penal Zone to stop him. I have no idea what the Penal Zone is. It serves as a tutorial on how to use items and some of the psychic powers.

But it's just a vision of the future that Max saw after finding a pair of those toy viewer goggle things. They are one of the Toys of Power that Skunkape is looking for, and Max has the Gift o being able to use them. Skunkape lands on Earth and is acting all peeaceful, but Sam and Max don't trust him, presumably because of the future vision where he was trying to destroy the Earth.

Anyway, here begins the traditional adventure game practice of examining every object and talking to every person in the environment, picking up whatever you can, and trying various item combinations until something works.

However, the ability to enter Max's mind and use his future vision at any time gives things a new twist. Without it progression would be random and almost impossible to decipher. For example, at one point I was talking to this guy and getting no where. So I looked into his future and saw him getting hit in the head with an axe, which gave me the idea of giving the hard hat I had obtained from an obliterated Mole-Man (long story). The light on the hat enabled him to see the peanuts in his spaghetti, which caused him to get up and avoid the axe. He was saved and gave me a note that helped the story along.

Anyway, my first main objective was to revive the disembodied alien brain on Skunkape's ship, which I did with the aid of an elaborately obtained lotterty ticket, among other things. I now have to collect more Toys of Power before Skunkape finds them. Doesn't sound like a lot but it took me about two and a half hours with all the talking and examining of items.

Oh that episodes stupidly easy was pretty fun though.

So I teleported an old sailor into a Mole-man processing room to get his badge, and dropped an ape on top of another ape to get inside Doctor Momma Bosco's lab. Then with the aid of some mole sweat, an interdimensional rift generator, an all-in-one copy-fax-scanner, a paddle and ball, a banana peel, and a pigeon with a ravenous appetite, I managed to seal General Skun-ka'pe back in the Penal Zone.

Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak

Sam and Max discover the skeletons of Sammoth and Maximus, their respective grandfathers. They also find some reels of film and a projector. The projector gives Max the power of astral projection, allowing him and Sam to take control of Sammoth and Maximus within the films.

There's 4 reels and they're out of order, so you can't do some of them because you need to know stuff from the previous ones to progress. I eventually found the first one. A dude is offering a pair of tickets to Egypt to the tomb of Sammun-Mak to anyone who beats his challenge. I can't beat it yet. There's also a Can o' Nuts, but some elves stole that. I went to get it back but I need to come up with a great toy idea to trade for it. I went to talk to the mole woman, but she wasn't much help. She was concentrating on putting a wumpire curse on the elves.

I also got some cookies from an old guy. I learned how to read the heiroglyphs too, so I think my next step is to go back to the first reel I tried, because in that one Sammoth and Maximus died because of an inability to read heiroglyphs.

Whereas the future vision was the big thing in the last episode (and I saw some stuff which still hasn't happened yet), this episode looks like it will center around switching between the reels to progress through each one as you learn stuff from the other ones.

Okay, right now I'm in the tomb of Sammun Mak. The Devil's Toybox is right there but an old moleman put a protection spell on it which means I can't get it, so I need to get him to put a bad luck curse on me so that when I walk through some door a big sword will cut the statue I'm holding in half, because I need to put the two halfs in two little holes to make the wall paintings kneel down so I can walk across them to get to the marquee of heiroglyphic blocks that are keeping the protection spell going so I can mess them up. The statue is a bust of Sammun Mak that I took from a plynth which was cursed and turned me into a wall painting. Luckily I knew that the God's deride cucumbers cut lengthwise, so I was able to escape.

I have some of my own blocks which I nicked from the old mole's chamber after sneaking in there by projecting my voice into a sarcophogus which propelled the nearby Baby Amelia Earhart into the old mole's arms, distracting him. My voice was cursed at the time with the Sexo Rejexo Hex, hence the propulsion.

Oh, I have psychic ventriloquism now too, hence being able to project my voice. I got it from a little ventriloquist dummy that a mole girl had. I shrank into a can of nuts that her snake ate and then barfed up onto her table. Then she turned Max into a cow briefly, but it wasn't a problem.

So yeah. I just need to make the moleman hate me enough to curse me, somehow. Still haven't found that great toy idea either, although I met a future version of the elves that already have the idea, but they won't tell me. I need to find a kid so they can test the idea, but Baby Amelia Earhart isn't cooperating. One of the elves is a vampire now too.

Aha! Reading the love letter from the mole girl to the effeminate European guy gave me the hint that grandpa mole hates people from Stuttgard. I'm off to get cursed.

Also I need to find some milk to help me get into Kringle's room.

Of course! Use the Sexo Rejexo Hex to propel Baby Amelia Earhart to the elves so she can test their toy so I can find out what it is at last! And get the little mole girl to turn Max into a cow again so we can get some milk and get into Kringle's room and get the damn toybox back!

Episode 3: They Stole Max's Brain!

Someone has stolen Max's brain.

The new thing in this episode is interrogation. When someone is talking you have a buch of ways to interrupt them and question them. Interrupt in different ways at different times to get different results and different information.

After interrogating a space gorilla, a rat, and a European tourist, I found out that Skunkape had somehow escaped from the Penal Zone and stolen Max's brain and the Devil's Toybox (all while Sam was in the toilet). But there's also another mysterious figure who seems to have stolen the Toybox from Skunkape.

The clues from the interrogations have led me to the Museum of Mostly Natural History.

Okey dokey. Skunkape and Papierwaite were fighting over Max's brain and the Toybox at the museum. I tried to sneak in and take Max's brain but they spotted me and joined forces because to defeat me. Afer giving the guards the slip I was free in the museum and had to find a way to break up their partnership.

So first thing's first, I took the Pharaoh's brain from the Egypt exhibit and put it in Max's body. Luckily the Pharoah was also psychic, so I had some powers again. I had the Pharaoh transform into a miniature Hindenburg so I could shoot him down and set fire to the tapestry of Yog Soggoth, which made Papierwaite mad at Skunkape because he blamed Skunkape's guards.

Next I had the Pharaoh transform into a miniature model city, and annoyed a space gorilla so that he would start shooting at the city. Then after cleverly switching the security guard's headset with the guided tour headset, I directed him to the bizarre and got a fight to break out. Seeing Skunkape's guard beating up his own guard make Papierwaite even angrier and the alliance broke down.

I snuck in to take Max's brain, but the Pharaoh walked and took the Toybox and all the Toys of Power for himself, revealing himself to be Sammun-Mak. So now Sammun-Mak has altered reality and history to make himself ruler of the world and no one can remember anything except Max, who is now just a brain in a jar.

Next step, take down Sammun-Mak.

I'm stumped. I need to get 3 Accessories of Power to get into Sammun-Mak's inner circle so I can remove his brain with a brainscrew. I got one by having Max transform into a storm cloud to make Grandpa Stinky's knees ache so that he couldn't kneel down in praise of Sammun-Mak properly and I called him out as a heretic.

A rat has another of the Accessories, and I think I can win it from him in a bet, but I need to get his credit card from him somehow. And for the third Accessory I need to give Sammun-Mak a one of a kind gift. No idea what that is at the moment. The future vision isn't helping much either this time.

Well, I gave in and looked up the solution of how to get the last two Accessories. Should have got the credit card one myself. I had the exact right idea. I figured I had to get Sammun-Mak to hate credit cards somehow to that Frankie wouldn't be able to use his and would have to bet his Accessory. I just never thought to have credit-card Max knock over the Pharaoh's cornndog pyramid.

Anyway, after a battle with Sammun-Mak I gt Max's brain back in his body and restored reality. Then a bunch of Sam clones wearing just underwear burst in.

When this is done I'll do Back to the Future (another TellTale game), since that was free with Plus this month.

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

When this is done I'll do Back to the Future (another TellTale game), since that was free with Plus this month.

I finished that its stupidly short. Was pretty fun though. I find these games enetertaining while i play them but absolutely nothing i ever want to bother playing ever again. Its pretty much i dentical to sam and max. Although if you like BTTF you'll probably prefer that.

You bought the whole series of BttF?

If your'e doing telltale shit, play Jurrasc Park. It got some bad reviews but it was exactly what I expected and I liked it

I'd have to buy Jurassic Park.

Episode 4: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls

Sam & Max take refuge from the army of Sam clones in Stinky's diner, with Stinky and Grandpa Stinky. With the Sams trying to break in, it's a classic zombie siege, and we need to find a way out.

Luckily, I know from The Penal Zone and Stinky has a secret passage, but it's not working now. Using Max's mind reading power I discover Stinky's back up passage, which leads to massive cavern where the Sams are being produced. There are two other tunnels leading out of the cavern.

One leads to the museum, and Papierwaite. Confronting him, I learn the truth. When he tried to summon Yog Soggoth in the episode 2, he succeeded. Sort of. Yog Soggoth is growing out of his chest, a la Total Recall. Yog Soggoth reveals himself to be the mysterious Dr Norrington who helped Max in the last episode (did I mention that?). He explains the origins of the Toybox and why it must be destroyed. I look in the bin and find Sal's resignation form, with a forwarding number, which conveniently allows me to teleport to him.

The other tunnel in the cavern leads back to Doctor Momma Bosco's lab, but she's out. Harry the Moleman is unsuccesfully trying to contact her with a seance. I guess I'll have to make the seance work somehow, but I don't know how just yet.

I teleport to Sal's new job, where I find Charlie Hotep, the dummy that gives Max psychic ventriloquism powers. I also meet Bluster Blaster, an arcade cabinet recently back from a trip to Vegas with Momma Bosco's son, Bosco. He gives me a letter from Bosco to Momma Bosco. It doesn't help just yet.

Having explored everywhere, I go back to Stinky's Diner. Flint Paper is interrogating Stinky. Turns out Grandpa Stinky hired him months ago to find out what Stinky was up to, since she's been texting a mysterious Mr S since episode. She lies and says Sam is Mr S, and that they've been planning a birthday party for Grandpa Stinky. Sam goes along with this because it seems more likely to reveal the truth than interrogating Stinky.

But how am I going to find out what Grandpa Stinky's favourite cake is? Well I could read his mind I suppose. But how am I going to make the cake? Well I could just find a picture and transform into it I suppose.

That was easier that I expected.

Also, the Sams are after the Toys of Power, which makes sense of the future vision I saw in episode 1 where Sam was blindy chanting "Toys toys toys". Still haven't reached the future vision where Sam says "I'm not going to rest until I find the guy who killed my partner".

Well after the very small birthday everyone leaves Stinky's Diner. I can't go back there so I guess it's out of the story. Stinky and Sal turn up at the cloning facility though. Turns out Sal is the mysterious Mr S. They are secret lovers, and apparently are up to something completely unrelated to the clones. But they're also in on the clones. They've been brainwashed by the Master and are maintaining the facility.

So I shot out a light on the central control panel to get Sal to go over there and open the glass window, then I shot the coffee mug to get Stinky to go over there. She shut the window and knocked Sal into the gaping chasm below. But no one seemed to care. Now I can teleport to the central control panel, and... nothing. There's an override for the clone controls but it needs a specific hand print.

Oh well, back to the seance. I scam Harry into thinking his dead uncle hid his stamp collection in the statue of liberty, which helps the seance along somehow and brings Momma Bosco back. Turns out she built the clone machines and only her handprint can take control of the facility. But she's a ghost. So I clone her a body using DNA gathered from one of her hairs and her sons spit from the letter, she activates the clone controls, and I tell the clones to fin the Toybox. I follow them to the docks, but get spotted. The Master is revealed to be Charlie Hotep, the ventriloquist dummy.

So the final scene is set. Charlie clones a bunch of Sams because a large sacrifice is needed to merge the Dark Dimension with this one, which he wants to do to bring Junior back, a dark God or whatever who used to play with him. Max gets his full psychic potential unlocked and does battle with Charlie, tricking him into destroying the Toybox, which stops the ritual. But ax has become infected with something from the Dark Dimension and transforms into a giant rampaging monster.

Well, Back to the Future is on hold. Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space was on sale I bought that. It's the whole 2nd season (Devil's Playhouse bein season 3), so that's 5 more episodes to play. Now that I'm not playing Tomb Raider as much I'll get on with episode 5 of this.

You really aren't very clear when you express you like a game.

How do you mean?

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

How do you mean?

You sounded like you were playing this game for the sake of it when it was free then ended up buying it.

You downright sounded like you hated TR: Underworld then bought the trilogy. This confuses me.

Did you read all of the Underworld topic? I started liking it pretty quickly.

Episode 5: The City That Dares Not Sleep

So the Max Beast is on a rampage through New York. The only way to save the city without killing Max is go inside the Max Beast and remove the dark stuff mutating him. To do that, Samn puts together a rag-tag bunch tough bastards to complete the mission. Or rather, himself, Papierwaite and Norrington, and Sybil, a friend of his who just got back from her honeymoon. She's married to a statue of Abe Lincoln and is currently 13 months pregnant.

Now to get Max to eat the DeSoto (Sam's car), he has to turn it into a gant corndog. So after I get Grandpa Stinky's Demon Dog recipe, I use a hole in the groun near a busted water main as a mixing pot. I trick Max into picking up aton of corn mix and dropping it into the hole. I go up to the roof where there's a vat of vegetable oil I need, and trick Max into knocking it into the hole. Then I get a rooster to lay me an egg, for binding, and finally I'm ready. Satan was involved in all that somewhere too, but it's complicated.

I turn the car into a giant corndog and get Max to eat it. Luckily Max's insides are nicely furnished so getting around is easy. I take tube from the stomach to the brain and discover a giant tumour that's making Max he way he is. However, Max's psychic powers stop me from doing anything to it. So now I have to knock Max unconscious somehow so he can't stop me from doing anything. Which means getting control of his power and taking him down to the electrical plant to electricute him.