Zak got a bit frustrated yesterday because he forgot that he had a rug in his bedroom. It looked like a carpet so he totally forgot he was supposed to remember that it was a rug. And as you know, if there’s a rug in an adventure game you have to pull it up to look underneath.

He became very distressed that he found an alien lair underneath his apartment. And even more so that an alien locked him up and he gradually lost most of his faculties. He became so stupid! Luckily it was temporary.

He also discovered that he should pick up the cushion from the seat in front of him in the airplane. The cushion wasn’t noticeable in any particular way. So he felt a bit of a fool that he didn’t know that he was supposed to look at every pixel around him and wonder “what is” that, and that, and that.

He was ready to give up on his adventure. But just before that happened he found the latest issue of the National Inquirer. It had a lot of stories in it that made a lot of sense. It explained about the telephone company, about what was discovered on Mars, about Cash Cards, etc etc. He now believes that if he reads all of it, he will be able to make some progress. And have some fun along the way.

Of course there’s still some weird stuff going on. Like what happens when you use a pencil on a piece of wallpaper for instance. But maybe these things also become clear at some point. Anyway, too bad we don’t have an original copy of the game handy. A physical edition of the National Inquirer would be so cool! But who knows, maybe it will arrive someday.