Rex Nebular - It's A Man's World

Written by TBD

Rex Nebular's Log: Stardate - 27th of Last Seed.7: I've explored the abandoned underground land of men. I have a few more items, but none of them are getting me closer to getting the vase that I'd almost forgotten about or escaping the planet. I've found some locked doors so I know I'll at least need a few more keys. And I've just had a crazy idea that I'll try soon...

When we'd last left our hero, he'd just come out of the gender bender with his original gender back in order to explore the subterranean land of men by way of gender-locked vehicle.

The vehicle gives us nine possible locations. So let's explore them in the order of... well, in the order I explored them. At each location I'll finish with a short list of what I think needs to be done there. I have no illusions that all of my suppositions will be correct, but it's what I was thinking when I left the location.

The driving requires no input from me beyond selecting my destination. On choosing the location, the car drives there for a few seconds while Rex casually taps his fingers on the console.

Driving in Rex Nebular – much less tedious than Mean Streets or Police Quest

818 WIDEPIPE LANE: ABDUL'S SERVICE STATION

Our first trip will be to Abdul's Service Station, where we find a small barking dog.

Is that a shattered window on the left, or is Wile E Coyote hiding in the darkness behind it?

I of course start by trying to befriend the dog by giving him some bones I found on the surface.

The neon sign behind me is lying - this dog is NOT my friend!

After the dog systematically turns me into a small pile of blue goo like a hungry land piranha, the death screen tells me I shouldn't have gotten so close to him. In response to that hint, I use THROW instead of GIVE.

This doesn't solve my dilemma though. The dog devours the bone as easily as it did me and continues waiting to kill me if I get close. He won't take my twinkifruit or my chicken so I ignore the side door behind the dog and look at the rest of the area.

There is an air hose here. It seems the garage was for old-fashioned cars with tyres rather than modern flying cars (MLV's). And there's a sign that points down – I don't know if that means anything or not at this point. There's also a manhole I can't open.

Things to do later:

1. Find something to distract the dog - more food perhaps?
2. Come back to inflate something deflated.

CITY PERIPHERY: NORTH SEA WINDOW

The next location I visit contains a viewport with a curious sea monster behind it.

I try to talk to the monster.

I will name him 'viewport' and I will love him and pet him and squeeze him!

I look around to see if there's anything else useful in here.

What the hell is a specimen epithet?

Dictionary result for epithet

/ˈɛpɪθɛt/
noun: epithet; plural noun: epithets
an adjective or phrase expressing a quality or attribute regarded as characteristic of the person or thing mentioned.

Well that clears that up perfectly!?!

Sometimes the creature sticks its tongue out frog-like and hits the window with it.

There isn't anything else here obvious enough to interact with, so after trying a few things I move on.

Things to do later:

1. Find something to do in this room... anything at all would be useful...

14 DRESSET CROSSING: RESIDENTIAL

In this area, the car stops outside a place called "Bruce's". I enter and explore what seems to be Bruce's interestingly designed house. Apart from the unusual colour scheme and decorations, Bruce has a wall safe.

Well, of course it is.

Looking at things in the two rooms of Bruce's house, it's obvious he's a cross dressing entertainer, and a very popular one at that. I hadn't thought of it before, but this makes a lot of sense in an all-male society. They may not trust women, but they still want to see people who look like women so cross dressing entertainers would be very popular.

I take the only takeable item I find in the house, a compact case, which seeing as it comes with the verb "REFLECT" I suspect will be used as a mirror at some point.

Things to do later:

1. Find a way to get into Bruce's locked wall safe

34 ½ LONELY WAY: THE SLEDGE MALL – SOUTH MAINTENANCE ELEVATOR

I can't find anything to do here yet. There's a card slot outside an elevator but the only security card I have is from the women-controlled section and likely won't work here. I save my game and try anyway, expecting a gruesome death.

I've never been more disappointed not to die.

Things to do later:

1. Come back when I have a male security card

14 POWERTOOL AVE: SANDBAR RESTAURANT – POLLY'S PLEASURE DOME

I think I've found Bruce's workplace.

Noting the precariously suspended boat above the entrance, I enter the Sand Bar first and take a fishing rod from the wall.

I also take a padlock key out of the cash register.

Back outside I get a hint that I'm never going to be able to enter the Pleasure Dome.

Hint taken.

Things to do later:

1. Come back in about 10 paragraphs when I've explored the rest of the city.

226 BICEPS WAY: KANE LABORATORY – MACHO PROSE SOFTWARE – BARNETT MOTEL – SID'S CYCLES

This screen has lots of buildings to interact with. Or so it appears at first. The air bike is disappointingly too rusted to use and I can't enter the hotel or restaurant.

I'd be more concerned that the restaurant that's shaped like a toilet has the seat down – IT WAS CLEARLY DESIGNED BY THE ENEMY!

I can enter the software store, so I do.

Obvious references to the game's own company of Microprose, and Sierra On-Line in here.

I'm not sure if the fourth wall is broken, but it's at least being bent here.

I take a penlight from the counter, which I can disassemble to get batteries.

The other enterable shop in the area is the laboratory. It contains a large laser and one of the more lazy attempts at referencing current-world items, a 'spinach patch doll'

I can turn on the laser, which much to Rex's delight obliterates the doll, but I can't turn the laser off. I try to throw my explosives at them, but I'm not allowed - I'm sure there's something I'll need to use the laser for, and I'll find out what soon.

Things to do later:

1. Destroy something with the laser

CITY PERIPHERY: CITY SECURITY - EAST MAINTENANCE ELEVATOR

Well, this is just the area I started at where I first found the car, so let's move right along

Things to do later:

1. Use the teleporter whenever I want to go back to the surface (or other teleporter)

MAINTENANCE ACCESS: WILLIAMS BYPASS

This is not the first time the game's made it clear there used to be wheeled cars in this city - does this become relevant at some point? Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Based on the hanging boat and the woman's torso, I'm clearly above the Sand Bar and Pleasure Palace from earlier. The boat that hung above the Sand Bar is held in place by a winch up here.

The winch controls are behind a padlocked panel. I have a padlock key in my inventory. I wonder if those two items could be used together...

Now I'll have a boat I can use!

Things to do later:

1. I suspect by dropping the boat I may already have done everything in this area!

4 MONUMENT STREET: EDUARDO'S NEWSTAND - BUCKLUSTER VIDEO

The newsstand just contains old newspapers talking about the women working on biological weapons. I try to enter the video store.

How many of these puzzles solutions are going to be simple 'come back when I have a key' solutions.

Things to do later:

1. Find a key to the video store.

REVISITING LOCATIONS

Now that I've visited all areas at least once, I go back to the sand bar to see what I can get out of the boat that I'd dropped.

Well that was anticlimactic.

I couldn't find anything to do with the boat or anything useful in the boat. But while looking through my inventory I had another thought and went back to the laboratory.

Remembering the compact mirror I took from Bruce's house, I used it to reflect the laser beam.

I was actually attempting to make the laser shoot itself in the hopes of getting some useful electronics from the wreckage, but this works too.

Getting back in the car and looking at the map, it seems the residential area is the closest to being directly above the lab. So let's go back there and see if we're right.

I doubt Bruce is up to date with his laser beam insurance premiums.

Well, it seems like if I could find a second mirror I could direct the beam to Bruce's safe in order to get what's inside. But trying to take, push or pull the vanity mirror from the next room doesn't work so I forget that idea for now.

Before doing more detailed exploring of this city I have the brilliant idea of using my fishing rod to get the piranhas out of the stream in the village above ground. I spend a bit of time and teleport back to the women's base, bend my gender again and try out my brilliant idea.

Thanks for making me think the last five minutes was a waste of my time, game!

So let's stop for now. I have a few things I can do next time I play. Apart from the short 'things to do' lists I have above, I've since thought of something to do in the NORTH SEA WINDOW section. I figure I can flood the place. As for how or why I'd do that, I have an idea...

Flood the place.

How - put/throw my explosives on the sea monster's viewscreen?
Why - I frankly have no reason to want to flood the city other the fact that I dropped a boat that seems to have no purpose without water.

Session time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Total time: 5 hours 5 minutes
Inventory:

• Security card (for women's base)
• Tape player
• Binoculars
• Timer module
• Shield modulator
• Bones (Animal, not Star Trek's doctor)
• Log (Captain's, not wooden)
• Chicken (Roasted, not fried)
• Twinkifruit
• Target module
• Charge cases (containing explosives)
• Repair list
• Fishing rod
• Penlight
• Fishing line (taken from fishing rod)
• Durafail cells (batteries which can be put back in penlight)