Cracking the Conspiracy
1998 - Pixel Shop
W95/98/NT 4.0
1st Person Sci-fi point and click adventure
This is a true "garage" game. It was written, produced, drawn, animated,
coded etc. etc. by two brothers, Brian and David Mennenoh. At the time I
bought it way back when you ordered it directly from their website. I have
since however, seen it listed at places like CD-Rom Access.
To the Story -
There you are, minding your own business - taking a nap - when the doorbell
rings. It's the UPS man with a pkg (no, it does not contain a game) from
your long lost girlfriend Kelsey. Seems she lied about where she's been the
past 5 years or so. She tells you that instead of going to Africa she has
been in Nevada - Area 51 to be precise - doing research on cloning aliens.
Seems these aliens lost their ability to reproduce and heard we've been
cloning people since the 50's (news to me). Anyway they came to earth in
order to learn our techniques - at least that's what the researchers were
told. Kelsey finds out that what they really want is total control over the
earth. So she snuck 7 secret files into the communicator she sent you and
has gone into hiding. Unfortunately they are worthless without the passwords
to open them. So she asks you to sneak into Area 51, get the passwords,
enter them into the communicator to open the files, find the Matter
Transporter and use the coordinates she sent you to send the communicator
back to her - and then get out before you're found (seems the communicator
also has a tracking device in it that activates the minute any coordinates
are entered). Whew, not asking much is she??
All this and the game plays directly from the CD. The only thing on your
hard drive are the saves. There is also very, very little speech, but then
you're supposed to be sneaking around a top secret base - I wouldn't want to
be yakking to people either. There are however sound effects - when you pick
something up you hear "uh, huh" and there is ambient music. So we're not
talking a silent game here - just very little talking.
The puzzles run the gambit - sliders, valve opening and closing puzzles,
figure out the DNA in order to open a safe, mazes, simple math puzzles,
mazes ....... You even get to grow an alien As long as you pay attention all
the clues to the puzzles are in the game - sometimes you have to look a
little bit, but they're all there.
So if you love sci-fi games this is a must play. Even if you don't love this
type of game, play it anyway if for no other reason than to see what the
talents of two individuals can produce.
System requirements:
Windows 95/98/NT 4.0
60 MHz or faster computer
16 MEG Ram
640X480 display, high color
4X CD Rom
Windows compatible sound card
copyright © 2002
GameBoomers
