WHO TOOK THE BOOKS
It's just before Christmas, and Santa needs to know...
WHO TOOK THE BOOKS?
This is the sequel game to WHO STOLE THE COAL? - a Pico-8 holiday game from Dec 2020.
A LONG LOST, UNRELEASED GAME!
There was a video game crash, with tons of unsold/unreleased cartridges for the ATOMI 3600 console being buried in the desert in 1983.
Years later in 2014, they were excavated. Amongst the cartridges was a finished sequel to WHO STOLE THE COAL?, which was the original immensely popular game when released. But by the time WHO TOOK THE BOOKS? was finished, the market has collapsed, and it never saw the light of day.
But ATOMI rose from the ashes, recently releasing the ATOMI 3600+, and on it, WHO TOOK THE BOOKS? finally got released to the public. Game players and historians rejoiced!
Primitive now, it was a technological feat for its day. But puzzle game fans and secret-finders will still love it!
CONTROLS
Arrows move.
Z/X: Swing canemaul. Santa's not happy till he has his canemaul!
To move across ice, you must find the FASKATES, which are, not surprisingly, fast skates. You can't steer skating across ice, but they let you cross it! You may have to BUY them at the SHOPPE. (New FASKATES cost five DIAMONDS!) WORTH IT!
You also run across SHAKY BRIDGES cuz they might collapse! Approaching from the side, you can walk UNDER bridges...
STORY
Santa recovered his coal from the Abominable Snowbeast in the past. But this year, he woke to find his NAUGHTY AND NICE BOOKS stolen! Plus his REINDEER and coveted COOKIES!
Sneak into the Snowbeasts lair while it's asleep! Recover the BOOKS. Rescue the REINDEER. And grab them COOKIES!
Winning means you find at least four books, so Christmas isn't totally a loss. Once you can "win", your sleigh will appear where you started. You can just go do that, or, you can try for the...
PERFECT ENDING!
Find all nine books, rescue nine reindeer, and find all eighty cookies! Also don't be naughty!
Buckle up, Santa! Can you SAVE CHRISTMAS?
Naughty Hint:
Don't canemaul snowfolks, elves, or reindeer!
Cartridge Cover Art: Father Christmas Skating on Duddingston Loch by Carol Lawson
Intro art: Toby Hefflin (mangled by me to add beard)
Music: Gruber
Label dithered with DEPICT.
Testing: Bikibird (thanks!) and Squirrel!
UPDATE: 12/30/23 - fix two edge-case softlocks, and early exiting with sleigh.
Comments
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fun game!! i beat it before i realized there was more to collect (-;
lovely world design!
Thanks! Yeah I need to add a confirmation dialogue or something. Glad you had fun!
how do i exit the intro screen using keyboard? i dont have a game controller attached
Either hit Return/Enter on your keyboard or refresh the page in your browser.
NOTE: the game does NOT save your progress (I hit the code token limit) so you can also click the pause button next to the right side of the game window, then continue in that tab later.
If you are on mobile, that little rectangular button above the O/X buttons is like pressing Return.