Yeah, I know... already finished it a couple times a while ago

In case you try it, always play on the hardest mode available - it's both more fun (way too easy otherwise) and you also get a few extra cut scenes which look quite good.

As for the game: it is called Loom and it's an adventure where every acton you can do is detemined by a melody you have to play on your staff... I should still have a copy of it somewhere at home...

Why is that so strange? I don't think the two are very much related? Rhythm is maths basically, and I'm not that good at maths...
When I was following music lessons, melodic dictation was just a melody with no really 'difficult' rhythms in it; rhythmic dictation however was just handclapping (with complicated rhythms), and I remember learning pages and pages of common rhythmic figures by heart, but listening two or three times was never enough for me to get it right (unless I used a metronome, which was not allowed of course). Therefore I often have to rely on trial and error when trying to note rhythm (this doesn't happen that often - for example using guitar tablature doesn't require 'real' rhythmic notation, and I do have a sense of rhythm, it just gets screwed up in the notation). I don't have many problems reading rhythm though; but figuring it out myself can be challenging.

How can one's rhythmic be worse than melodic? Strange...

I did one this morning with my younger brother at the piano... 10 out of 10! My rhythmic hearing was never that good but melodic seems to be okay.

Hearing, like every 'talent' has to be trained...

Can't say for sure I still am for the simple reason that I don't have to do these dictations anymore, but that doesn't mean I lost my sense of hearing, does it?

You used to, yes

Hey, I used to be quite good at what we call (literally translated) 'melodic dictation'. Never scored less than a 9 out of 10...

Yes, people without a sense of hearing indeed shouldn't play it

Okay, so my suspicions were right... I indeed never played it, didn't want to either actually.

That picture shows Bobbin Threadbare and his assumed mother. Can't remember anything else.

Edited by Mr Creosote at 19:07 on January, 10th 2003

Well it looks kind of self-explanatory, but still, I don't feel like taking a guess... I assume the name is related to the machine shown in the screenshot?

I don't remember, either

Great! But what game is that screenshot from? Don't remember ever seeing that; must be a LucasArts adventure I've never played... or something even older maybe? Looks cool though.

[Edit: please don't shoot me for not knowing/remembering it. ]

Edited by The Mole at 18:52 on January, 10th 2003

Another related mystery uncovered - see attachment.

Absolutely correct

I also think the second part is just an inside joke. As Otis says: "Time once told me that Dave said that Ron wanted to know why 'a third shadow is nigh'." Tim is obviously Tim Schafer (designer of Day of the Tentacle, Dave is Dave Grossman, Ron is Ron Gilbert, the lead designer of MI. These three are credited for 'programming' MI, so they're basically the ones who made the whole game. Kind of a 'cameo appearance'....

Finding the demo was more trouble than I would've expected, but here it is:

"Ah, but a new faculty Shadow is nigh."

The first part about getting a new faculty advisor, that you get from the voodoo lady, is a reference to the scene in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (one of my all time favourite games) where you have to get rid of all the students. If you happen to know if the second part has any significance, please tell me; as far as I can tell it's just an inside joke from the creators...

Yes, it is from a demo, you're right there. I never claimed it is from the full version Now back to the question