Ambrosia Software Web Board: Cythera without a Keyboard - Ambrosia Software Web Board

A little while ago I bought an old iMac at a garage sale with the hope of playing Cythera and other old games on it. The guy selling it told me it all worked & just needed a mouse. I had a mouse, so that's fine. We came to find out that the keyboard barely works at all. Maybe half of the keys work, but none of the useful ones like "return" or "command," and a bunch of the letters & numbers don't work either. That makes it very hard to use the computer. I want to get a new keyboard for it. But for now, I decided to try playing Cythera without a keyboard.

You can use the mouse for quite a bit of stuff in Cythera, but I have concluded that it is absolutely impossible to beat the game without a keyboard.

While you are in a dialogue, the menus are locked out, so I can't paste in text, and I can't figure out any way to type anything. (Any ideas, geeky computer experts?) This is especially troublesome in conversations where the other person demands an answer from you, like people who ask you your name before anything else. I made the mistake of entering the Odemia zone to get the Ariadne task, and the Odemia gate-guard demanded to know who I was. I couldn't say anything. I couldn't get out of the dialogue. Finally Shorty force-shut-down the computer for me because we couldn't figure out any way out. But besides these situations, I'm sure it's impossible to beat the game without being able to ask NPCs custom prompts. You need to be able to talk to Mantinea about house Comana, accuse Pelagon of being dead, and bring up the topic of your Crolna to Lindus. You need to be able to get into Odemia, and you need to be able to ask Philinus for his pan-pipes. I wasn't even able to learn magic at all, though I have an idea of how I may possibly be able to, if I try again from the beginning; but even if that's successful I won't be able to enter the 4th-8th degree halls.

Other things I annoyingly couldn't do without a keyboard:
-Customize my name
-Get Hector to follow me
-Learn to cook
-Attack a sword dummy
-Attack Eudoxus (double-clicking him opened a dialogue instead of attacking him. Even after he started attacking me. I was finally able to get him killed by hiring Meleager and asking him to attack the target, but even after that, I couldn't:)
-Make Ariadne appear
-Move anywhere if sharing a space with Meleager if his default tile was blocked. (I need to click-and-drag myself to move, and I can't do that if I'm sharing a space with someone. Clicking "pass" doesn't help if Meleager refuses to move. The only way out, that I can see, is to talk to Meleager and tell him to leave, then "pass" until he moves out of the way)
-Bash open locks

Any ideas on how I can get farther in the game without a keyboard?

I have at least two keyboards I've been meaning to get rid of. Shall I send one to you?

I don't have any ideas about how to proceed. Does the mouse have a right mouse button? (I'm guessing not) Does it work in the game? I thought most options (like attack Eudoxus or bash locks) were available under a contextual menu.

One thing you might try is setting up a VNC server and connecting to it from a fully-working machine. This site has a download for an OS 9 VNC server, though I don't know if you could set it up without a keyboard. It looks like they give the server free and sell the client, but you could get a VNC client somewhere else.

Thank you for bringing up the contextual menu! I thought I was missing that, but I couldn't figure out how to open it up, and then thought I must be getting confused with the "do" l menu that's under my character in the lower-right corner. Since you mentioned it, I looked it up in the Cythera documentation and discovered I merely need to click and hold to open the contextual menu (which I tried before but I guess I wasn't patient enough - I know, I'm as shocked as you). I can now attack whatever and whomever I want! Boo-ya! (Although, I've tried my learning-magic idea and it didn't work :()

I've never heard of a VNC client before. Does that mean I'd be controlling the iMac from a different computer? Because I think that should work, but seems kind of sloppy.

Do either of your keyboards connect to a USB port? I've found like 6 or 7 keyboards at thrift stores and rummage sales but they all have a circular connector thingy, and I don't have a way to connect that to the iMac.

BreadWorldMercy453, on 31 May 2013 - 02:54 PM, said:

Often, the contextual menu has "copy" and "paste" when you use it on a text field. Is there any chance you can do that in conversations? Otherwise you're probably stuck on magic.

Hmm, also, sometimes accessibility options let you put a keyboard on the screen, but it might get hidden behind Cythera.

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Right, that's it. Sure, it's sloppy, but if someone told me I could learn magic and the cost was that I could only use computers through a different computer, I'd probably take that deal. Just sayin'.

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Yes, they're both USB. The circular one you've found is probably PS/2; there are also PS/2-to-USB connectors around but I think they don't work with Macs.

I don't know of any way to open a contextual menu within a dialogue. But even if I could paste in a word, how would I submit it? The only way I know of to get a keyboard on the screen is to open the application "Key Caps," which isn't quite the same thing but it is quite handy.

Maybe I'll try the VNC thing, but that would mean learning how to do something new, which is scary. For now, I could play Cythera on my old computer, Miss Shinjy, but I'd have to use Classic and an external monitor (sloppy). I'm excited about playing games on this new computer, once I get a keyboard for it ^_^ Speaking of which, getting a USB keyboard from someone I trust (not just someone running a rummage sale who says "it works") sounds perfect! I'd be happy to pay shipping or whatever.

Hmm, well, I was going to mention the contextual menu, but you already seem to have found that. Is it just learning magic that is causing trouble on the dialogue or are you stuck on something else as well?

BreadWorldMercy453, on 30 May 2013 - 09:51 PM, said:

I'm stuck on all these things, & there's probably more that I haven't even come across yet.

I have a keyboard now (thanks Fiery!), so this experiment is over. Besides, I couldn't figure any any way to advance farther in the game anyway.

Well, I'm pleased to hear that the situation has been remedied.

What happened to the computer you used to play Cythera on, anyway?

Victoria doesn't turn on anymore.

Not to derail this thread (well, actually, I'm going to derail it anyhow), what were the names you used for your machines again? As I recall, Miss Shinjy (sp?) is the most recent one you use.

I used to name mine after the Apple-supplied voices in the OS. I had Agnes and then Vicki once upon a time, but they're both dead and gone. I have since stopped naming my computers.

Hi Wizzy, it's great to see you! I was worried, with the car accident & all.

It seems that every computer I touch dies within a few years. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing wrong.

Miss Shinjy was my first computer, she was a white laptop that ran OS 10.4, with Classic. I could play Cythera and some other old games that way (though of course, Classic never worked great). Miss Shinjy's screen is now completely white when she's on, I can't see anything, and the only way I can use that computer is with an external monitor. We have an external monitor, but it's a big heavy bulky thing, and it's a nuisance. It makes a little laptop take up an entire corner of the room. Also, Miss Shinjy's disc drive is broken, so when I want to play my Blue's Clues CD-ROMs, I've got to plug in the external monitor AND the external disc drive! I need an outlet-expander just to get all the peripherals plugged in. It's a real first-world problem, yo.

Next I got a hand-me-down laptop I named Gillian. Gillian was pretty cool, she couldn't run Classic, but with your help I installed SheepShaver, so for a little while I could play Cythera that way. Then she randomly stopped booting up. When I tried to start it up, instead of saying the classic "DUNNN" she'd just say "BEEP BEEP BEEP." I was told that means corrupt RAM, but I bought a new RAM chip or whatever it's called, and there was no change. So I gave up on that computer.

My new new computer is named Makkuro Kurosuke, and she works very well. She's lightning-fast (well, unless I'm trying to save a giant thread for my archiving project, but what can you expect?), and she's got all that new hardware that programs seem to expect anymore. Unfortunately, I don't have any way to play Cythera on this computer. However, with such online resources as the complete map collection and complete dialogue collection, this doesn't prevent me from checking my facts when writing Cythera-related stories ^_^

Victoria is Shorty's old computer, she runs OS 9. However, she does not boot up anymore. It's always been troublesome getting her started up since her battery died, the power cord had to be turned just right or something, but now she won't respond at all. Shorty thinks it's that could be repaired if we could find a geeky computer-repairer type person.

Karus is Shorty's new computer (which is as old as Miss Shinjy), which can run Classic. I got my first mushroom steak on there However, last time Shorty tried to open Cythera, it wouldn't work.

Kail is an old performa that Shorty found on a curb somewhere ages ago. It can run Cythera, but it's very laggy. And you can't open the window very big because the screen has a low resolution. Also you can only fit about 2 games on the hard-disk at one time :D I didn't have the patience to deal with the lag, but apparently that's how Shorty played Cythera.

And now the new iMac, which is named Lilac. I can't remember if it came with that name, or if Shorty named it that. I bought it hoping it was running OS 9, and I despaired when I booted it up and was greeted with OS 10. Not only that, but it required a password to get in! I was sure I had wasted my money. Shorty, however, corrected both of those problems easily. Don't ask me how. We now have an OS 9 computer with like 100 gigabytes of hard-disk storage @_@ And since Fiery very kindly sent me a working keyboard for it, it works wonderfully and I can do whatever I want ^_^ My only complaint is that there's a button on the front of it which turns it on. Lettie presses this button. Often.

In all, we own a lot of computers! Does anyone else want to rant about all the computers they own?

Karis is my computer's name. (With an "I" not a "U")

Lilac was nameless when we got her, I was able to use her because Tiger install disk & os9 on a flashdrive. She is a purplish iMac.

The biggest problem with Kail is that sometimes letters get stuck. His keyboard has a bad connection point. & no FPU. Not even able to simulate an FPU. He has an external ZIP drive for extra storage.

Victoria (named after the voice, I believe. Named by my brother when he first got her back around 2000.) First the audio ports went flaky, then died, then the adjacent power port went flaky, then died. I'm guessing it's a degraded condition in the peripheral department.

I think my laptops have been hauteclaire, a Powerbook G4 (2004), sauvagine, a MacBook (2007), courtain, a MacBook Pro (2009), and hauteclaire, a MacBook Air 11" (2012), which I'm currently using. sauvagine is no longer in my possession but both hauteclaires are (I recycle names).

I have three Linux computers. Under my desk is durendal, a Linux box I built to store a lot of files, particularly music. On top of it is olifan, a RasPi. Off in Chicago is florence, a virtual machine that runs sfiera.net and arescentral.org.

joyeuse and graban are work computers. There were previously a flamberge and another joyeuse.

"Lettie"? Who is "Lettie" and why does she press the button on the computer?

"Lettie" is what we call our youngest daughter, Æthelthritha. She's one year old. She likes pressing buttons with her little tiny fingers.

Edit: It looks like the thread-derail of the names of our computers is getting derailed to the names of our kids :x

This post has been edited by BreadWorldMercy453: 07 July 2013 - 10:10 PM

…there are now three miniature 453s running around?

Planet Earth is doomed.


As for returning to the main topic, I have yet to try Cythera without a keyboard, so there's not much I can say about the experience.

Didn't you know about Lettie? o.O Although the only one I'd call a miniature 453 is Jadwiga. She's similar to me in appearance and whininess.

Now that I think of it, maybe Shorty and I are the only ones on this board who have kids. Except Randy Pringle, but he was never very active. Does anyone else have kids? If so, "Cythera without a Keyboard" is the perfect topic for talking about them ^_^

Or you could talk about your computers & their names. I like Fiery's computer names, though I have no idea how he came up with them or what they mean.

I just got back from visiting St. Louis. Three of my cousins that have babies were visiting at the same time, so I got to see them. Kids are cool, babies are overrated.

I seem to recall having heard that you were pregnant again some time ago, but I don't recall hearing anything else about it.

So, no, I do not recall having known about your third daughter.

Since I'm necroing the topic, back to computer names. I used to use ship names from Babylon 5, but I ran out, so there's some Star Trek and Star Wars names in there now too. The three machines I currently use at home are named Hyperion, Excelsior, Executor, Prometheus and Icarus (two of them dual boot.) My iPads are called Traveller, Nomad and Sojourner, and my iPods are called Serenade and Aria. My AppleTV is called Galileo, but that was more of a 'viewing at a distance' meme.

Come to think of it, my phones/tablets have been chatelaîne, himeji, nijō, azuchi, and takeda (accents mandatory!). The name "courtain" has also been recycled for a server machine here, joyeuse and graban are no longer operational, and misericorde was just christened.

Pallas Athene, on 26 November 2013 - 09:22 AM, said:

Sorry Fiery, at least one accent mark isn't showing up on my Kindle ): I'll have to remember to check back after our internet is re-connected. I love the name misericorde, can you believe Shorty didn't want to name Jadwiga Misericordia? He thought it sounded miserible.

It's a macron. Sometimes Japanese is romanized as nijô on account of the accent being less common.

To be fair, the misericorde was a dagger used "to put people out of their misery."

I don't know what a macron is, but I think "nij?" is a kinda cute name itself.

So did mercy come from misery, or did misery come from mercy?

Still no sign of getting the internet back (big hole in the alley), man checking the forum on the kindle is tedious! Would it be bad for my computer if I took it to the library with me on Tuesday? It takes us about 20 minutes to walk there and it may be below freezing.