Pixel Perfect Memories: Nord and Bert Couldn’t Make Head or Tail Of It

Release Date:  1987
System:  PC, Macintosh, Apple II, Amiga, Commodore 64, Atari ST
Developer:  Infocom

 

Have you ever wanted to get a nice juicy steak, but all you had was a stake?  Have you ever wanted to literally kill two birds with one stone?  Or have you come across a pretty girl and it made you long for a gritty pearl?  Then you should definitely help out Nord and Bert, because they truly can't make hails or teds of it.  Wait, um...

Still my favorite language based game ever, this game has you playing with homonyms, spoonerisms, idioms, and other plays on our language and culture in order to help save the town of Punster from total chaos.  There's no real story.  No illusion of purpose behind any of the puzzles.  Just dig in and get your lexicon dirty.

You can play this, or any Infocom here at this site for free.  Unfortunately, while you can save the game while the browser is open, it's gone when you close.  Otherwise, you can look for it on abandonware sites or purchase the game at on-line stores from private sellers.  It doesn't look like Activision (who I believe still holds the rights) is selling them anymore.

By the way, CDX from last month still isn't working.  Sorry for that, fellas.  I'll keep checking periodically and let you all know if it comes back.

Next month I'll get back to a console game.  In the meantime, whatch ya'll playin?

31 thoughts on “Pixel Perfect Memories: Nord and Bert Couldn’t Make Head or Tail Of It”

  1. I finally played Half-Life. I'm not very good at FPS, so after a few levels I put it in God mode. I still enjoyed the heck out of it. Great game, ahead of its time.

  2. I just picked up Mass Effect 2 again. It's pretty great, but I have this habit of leaving it alone for 2-3 months at a time, then playing the hell out of it for a week or two.

    PlayStation Plus has been entirely too generous lately, and I got the first three Resident Evil games free last week. They're still a rush, but the save system is beyond horrible.

    I just got God of War III in the mail - it seems a couple companies still think I work at my old job. Well, good for me. I also decided to play Final Fantasy IX again a couple of weeks ago, but for once, it seems the number of games I'm really playing right now isn't astronomical.

    I still have to replace LittleBigPlanet 2, which I was loving, but Sour Cream was trying to pull out of the box...she snapped it in half.

    1. yeah...the second one is a little less repetitive and less talky, though the puzzles seemed even easier

  3. I just got Punch Out for the Wii. I never played the original Nintendo version, so I'm still trying to figure out how to beat King Hippo. I got it basically as a fun way to exercise, and it has been that.

    1. Heh. Yeah, the guy has the same weakness in every game. Before the days of online walkthroughs, my brother figured it out on accident. And then he figured out how to beat Bald Bull in a dream. No kidding.

      1. My brothers and I were stuck on both of them for quite a while on the original NES. I really need to get back into that game. I got pretty far and then haven't touched it for 7-8 months.

        The wife and I are playing Epic Mickey some, which is a pretty fun puzzle game, though it is intended for a bit younger audience. Other than that, I've been pretty much done with games for a while.

        1. The wife and I are playing Epic Mickey some, which is a pretty fun puzzle game, though it is intended for a bit younger audience.

          I'm not so sure about that. That game is difficult.

          1. Is it good, though? Linds and I were thinking about picking it up.

            Speaking of games the wife and I play on occasion (shut up), we're on literally the last level of New Super Mario Brothers Wii definitely a reccomended play if you ever want a divorce.

            1. It's a lot of fun. Tons of collection, if you're into it. Occasional camera issues, but in a 3D platformer they sort of come with the territory. Surprisingly difficult.

              We have New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but have yet to play it together. My vid skills are beyond the Milkmaid's to the point where we can play games together, but it's better if they're games like the LEGO series, where nobody ever really dies.

              We tried this great, unknown gem called The Adventures of Cookie & Cream on the PS2 near the beginning of that game generation. It gets screamingly difficult, and my patience with her wore thin, so I know what you're going through (and what she's going through).

              1. Linds can beat me in precisely one game: Tekken. I don't even know how that's possible.

                New Super Mario Brother Wii is a must play if you're into platformers at all. It is the game that I wanted when I was seven - a Mario game where I don't have to wait for the other person to die to have my shot at playing. But when you accidentally grab both powerups, accidentally jump off someone else's head (sending them into the abyss), or worse yet, pick them up, then throw them into the abyss, nerves get frayed. During a playthrough, both of you will do this to each other multiple times (I'm pretty sure I did it to her almost as often as she did it to me).

                1. Oh, I'm well into the game - we just haven't played it together. It's great.

                  As much as multiplayer on SMB may have seemed like a good idea, the reviews on it haven't been. It's pretty standard among the critics that the game is great but its ostensibly "best" feature is its worst.

                  1. I've beaten the game single player. It's wonderful.

                    The idea that the multiplayer is bad is absurd. What are the arguments against it? It can be a jumbled mess at times, but it's a glorious jumbled mess. It's a little easier, but the game is still damned difficult, so that's not a big deal. Why do the reviewers hate?

                    1. What I've read is that it's prohibitively difficult for the type of person who would want it the most. These reviews are going back a bit, though, so if any misremembering was going on I wouldn't be surprised.

              2. Stef and I can play beat 'em ups together like Streets of Rage and Final Fight. We're about equal skill level on those games.

          2. It hasn't been too bad so far, but haven't gotten to the really hard part. Mostly, I was referring to the kiddie graphics.

            1. I definitely love "kiddie graphics" if the art style fits. I found it pretty captivating - it's definitely in the early Disney art style, but it's thematically dark.

              Once the difficulty spikes, you'll know. It's very sudden rather than gradual.

    2. If you want to try to figure out King Hippo on your own, don't watch this. But if you want the spoiler, Tosh.O can help you out.

      httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YkLdzSYpwk

      1. Classic. I had already figured out what they show there. I couldn't figure out for the longest time how to not get knocked out when he bum rushes you. I finally beat him today, though. I was pretty pumped. It definitely seems to be working to get me some extra exercise without feeling like I'm exercising.

  4. I picked Red Dead Redemption back up the other day to see if I could get past the horrible race that had me stuck and annoyed. It ended up being really easy this time, so now I'm working on finishing this one up before I jump back into Assassin's Creed II and Bioshock, because holy crap is Red Dead Redemption a great, great game.

    1. Seriously. I got to just about the end, then decided I wanted to spend some more time with it, because I love just about everything about the game... the setting, the combat, the story, and (especially) the characters.

      No spoilers, but once you beat the game, make sure you keep playing for a bit.

  5. As mentioned, I recently beat Red Dead Redemption (top 10 game, easily).

    My wife picked up Gears of War 3 for me, which I've also beaten, but I want to go back over that one on a slightly higher difficulty, since it seems like they made it easier to not game over on the lower levels. It's a great game, though. If you liked the first two, I'd say just about everything about this one's better.

    I also picked up Viewtiful Joe (and the sequel) for the PS2 for $2 a piece, and my brother in law got me Deus Ex, so I'm booked again.

    1. Viewtiful Joe is going to make you want to kill something. It's funny and interesting and beautiful, but it's the hardest game I've ever played, bar none.

        1. It's great, but wait for some boss battles. And then a boss battle where you face every boss back-to-back-to-back without any extra health. Horror of horrors.

          I don't want to scare you off. It was still in my top 50 ever. It's just...wow.

        1. I've been meaning to play it for this exact reason, but haven't gotten around to it. Game Informer said something like "There's certainly a sense of accomplishment in this game, since every fight feels like a boss fight."

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