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Has anyone here heard of or played Woodruff and the Schnibble? Graphic oopsies, logic errors, typos galore, and a voice acting crew comprised of five people, but it’s still an okay game. Unfortunately, even though I have a legal copy of Woodruff, I lack the Glossary/Manual that apparently comes with the boxed version of the game (I just have the jewel case). I was wondering if anyone has this Glossary and if it could be uploaded here in some form. I am curious to see what it’s like.
Thanks, Akril -
(re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…) I’ve heard of it, but never played it. Who made this one?
Woodruff & the Schnibble was in development / promoted / released about the same time as Torin’s Passage, I think. I remember watching the promo movies for this game and Torin’s Passage on the KQ7 CD. At the time, I never got either of them. Now, I got a jewel case only of Torin’s Passage and am enjoying it, but I haven’t seen this one around. -
(re: re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…)
I think Corktel made it. (Or is it Coktel?)
How far are you in Torin’s Passage? I thought that was a really great game. It seemed to move a little quickly at the end… but I think the second chapter (the one where you gather the tiles) is a really excellent example of creative, fun gameplay. Be warned though — this game requires a patch, and if you don’t apply it you’ll probably hit a glitch at somepoint that corrupts all your saved games. It’s not a huge deal because you can start at any chapter, but then you don’t have all your points…
Sorry to go off topic, guess I have a lot to say about Torin’s Passage this evening!
-emily
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(re: re: re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…)
I won Woodruff on ebay. It was made Coktel Vision, a French company that Sierra bought. They were also the ones that did the Goblins series. Some have called Woodruff the 4th Goblins, but there is nothing officially that says it is. It has much of the same quirky humor that the 3 Goblins had.
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(re: re: re: re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…) I purchased Woodruff & The Schnibble of Azimuth when it was released in the UK. To me it was indeed Goblins 4. It has very very similar humour and graphical presentation 😉
Unfortunately it was just as hard as the Goblin’s games and I never actually finished it! One day I’ll load it up and try again 🙂 -
(re: re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…)
I’ve heard of Torin’s Passage as well, in fact I created a webpage dedicated to it.
And I don’t know about Woodruff being a sequel to Goblins 3. It’s definitely in the same style, but the “true” Goblins sequels had a definite connection to their predecessors (mostly having to do with the king and his son, as well as numerous character references/cameos), but Woodruff is quite different. All of the humanoid protagonists of the Goblins series had pointed ears…and Woodruff’s are rounded. That’s a big enough difference for me.
By the way: I guess my primary question wasn’t clear enough. I wanted to know if anyone had the manual that came with Woodruff and if it would be possible to upload it in some form. There’s no copy protection in the manual or anything similar, I just want to see what it’s like.
Akril
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(re: re: re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…) Whether it carried the story from Goblins 3 or not was fairly irrelevant. People who saw both titles on a shelf together would almost naturally tie the two together!
I do have the manual (just checked, it’s a 30 page dual language format – French & English). Unfortunately if it’s not on the CD, I don’t have it in electronic format 🙁 Maybe one day I’ll buy a scanner! Also included the box was a small leaflet with hints to starting the game. -
(re: re: re: re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…)
I have the manual. When I get some time, I will scan and upload it. Mine is the US version, 24 pages and is only in English. For now I include a low res scan of the the cover. I also have the Official Hint Book. Since it is a 162 pages long, I will not be scanning it, but here is a scan of the cover.
Woodruff Manual Cover
Woodruff Hintbook Cover -
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(re: re: re: re: re: re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…) I don’t remember why the Goblins series was renamed to Woodruff and the Schnibble…
The games were developed by Coktel Vision, a subsidiary of ours that was based in France.
Here’s a few comments on Coktel:
Coktel Vision was dominant in education software in Europe. They had a series of products called “ADI” that were curriculum-based educational software. The ADI series had hundreds of individual products each targeting a different grade level and subject matter.
I always wanted to launch the ADI software in the US. We spent years converting the software, and did launch it – and sold almost no copies. In Europe, (or, at least the portions of Europe we targeted) all schools had rigid curriculums. All students learn the same thing at the same time, from the same books. The ADI series was meant to exactly mirror the in-school studies. No such rigidness exists in the US, which made it tougher for us to adapt the products to the US market. Also, my staff didn’t like the project, and grumbled about working on it. I’m not sure we ever gave the project our best effort. I would be curious to see one of the old ADI boxes if someone has one and wants to scan it.
The name Coktel Vision was a strange one. At the time, I thought it must mean something in french, which I now know that it doesn’t. I remember asking Roland, Coktel’s founder, years after we acquired them, where the name came from. His response: “I was having a drink one day, thinking about starting a software company, and voila – I had the company name and the idea.” Why he misspelled Coktel, I do not know.
Many Sierra divisions tried to do Adventure games, but it is harder than it seems. None of the divisions ever shipped a hit. Dynamix tried with Rama and Coktel with Goblins. The closest to success was the Dr. Brain series done by our Brightstar division in Seattle. I loved the Dr. Brain games! Actually, Brightstar did another series that I thought was incredible: EcoQuest.
-Ken W -
(Woodruff & Torin)
Hey everyone. I’ve been reading a lot of talk about Woodruff and the Schnibble & Torin’s Passage. I actually have the videos that are talked about – the previews of Woodruff & Torin – laying on my hard drive. So I’ve uploaded them to my website in a zip file, around 18.6mb.
The file can be downloaded at:
http://www.nameyourdeals.com/sierravids.zip I’ll probably leave the file up for a little over a week, just b/c I only have 50mb on the server. I also have a similar type video of Phantasmagoria if anyone is interested in that.
Hope this helps.
– “I miss the old Sierra” :`(
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(re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…)
Just to refresh your memory Ken, both Dr. Brain and EcoQuest were started at Sierra in Oakhurst. The first EcoQuest was co-designed by Jane Jensen and Gaino Haine as I recall, and Dr. Brain was worked on by Cory Cole. They were both beautifully done. EcoQuest 2 was also done in Oakhurst, designed by Gaino Haine. I was the producer on the wrap-up and shipping of the game. Seems to me there was a Dr. Brain 2 also done in Oakhurst, designed by Jon Bock maybe . . . not sure on that one. -Cheryl
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(re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…) Cheryl:
Thank you for the correction! And, good to hear from you! As I suspected, only Oakhurst ever shipped hit adventure games for Sierra. Not sure why.
I’ve just upgraded your account to reflect your ex-employee status. It will give you access to an area of the site that is just for us ex-employees.
I heard you were back in Oakhurst. Hope all is well….
-Ken W -
(re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…) One more comment on this topic (whether or not there was ever a hit adventure game shipped from ANYWHERE, by Sierra, except from Sierra’s headquarters in Oakhurst).
Roberta just corrected me. She says that Shivers was a 100% Brightstar (our education subsidiary in Seattle) innovation, and sold very well. Roberta did the original Shivers game, with Marcia Bales as co-designer.
-Ken W -
(re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…)
Ken — I am still up here in Seattle. Have lunch with Al on a semi-regular basis, keep in touch with quite a few of the ol’ Sierra gang… we should have a reunion! =)
Thanks for the upgraded status, I’ll check it out — this site is fun, and I have sent it to a few of the ol’ gang who are enjoying it too.
-Cheryl
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(re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…) “Woodruff and the Schnibble” is one of the first games (if not the first) I bought when I got my first CD-ROM.
It was EXTREMELY hard, and I never managed to finished it. Years later, I used a walkthrough and managed to finish it. It is extremely long. It is quite funny.
One thing that annoyed me about this game was that the first few milliseconds of each sentence were always cut-off! (good thing there were subtitles).
I have the original manual (european version, but it is in English), and also the offical “hint-list” that came with the game (2 pages of hints for the harder parts).
I’ll try to scan it this weekend. -
(re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…)
Subtitles?!? Looks like that’s ANOTHER thing I missed out on…but I’ve encountered a few games with that amputated-dialogue syndrome. Like in SQ6, on Delta Burksilon, the subtitles say “Heck, you can’t even say liftbay-relay outlay-array!” but Gary Owens says something like “-ck, you can’t even say…(etc.)”, and when you look at one of the cages in the NanoTech lab, the subtitles say “You see…(new dialogue piece)…a crip thrip.” But Gary just says “Crip thrip.” Don’t you just hate it when that happens?
But one of my beefs with Woodruff’s voices is that in a couple cases when you give something to someone and get something in return, after they’re through talking, as they’re giving the item to you, they start repeating whatever they said initially, but they stop talking once the item is in your possession. Strange.
And a belated thank-you to those of you who have volunteered to scan their manuals. I’m deeply grateful.
Akril
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(re: re: Not a “pure” Sierra game, but…)
I uploaded a PDF of the (US version) manual to the museum in the misc games section. I also upped a couple of JPEGs of a pamphlet that was also in the box. It is a sort of mini hintbook. I thought you might also like to have. Enjoy.
I have several games that I got used without box or manuals. I would love to eventually get the missing documents, even if only in electronic form, if it is of high enough quality.
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Speaking of…Gobliiins 4 official site opened
February 26, 2009 –
Snowberry Connection (Russia) has launched the official International
site for the PC game Gobliiins 4. The new site, located at http://www.goblins4.ru,
contains a variety of screenshots, artworks and game information for
the upcoming game. Russian and English languages are supported.
English version located at http://www.snowball.ru/g4-eng/The games mix elements of adventure and puzzle gaming. In essence, the
player must find the solution to each level, in order to progress to
the next. An original aspect of the series is that the player usually
controls multiple goblins as player characters, each of whom has a
unique set of abilities (the number of letter it’s in the word ‘Goblin’
of the title indicates the number of characters that the player may
control). The player may only control one character at a time but,
depending on the specific scene, may switch characters at will.
For further information about the game and for interview opportunities,
please contact Alexander Souslov at Snowberry’s Moscow office available
at Alexander.Souslov@snowball.ru.
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