Talk:Where's an Egg?

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Contents 1 Character themes 2 Multiple endings 3 Locations, suspects, and items 3.1 Locations 3.2 Suspects 3.3 Items 4 Item Talk 5 Painfully dumb question... 6 Too many colors 7 Screen shot 8 Maid 9 Ending Screen 10 Suspect and location images 11 Names of People, Places and iTems 12 The Manual 13 Musie Theater? 14 Glitch or not? 15 Jack Orlando 16 Dead People Tell Tales? 17 5 Time win with no intention 18 Fabergé eggs? 19 Strategy shortcut 20 Subtitles? 21 Music 22 Ron Cumberdale

Character themes

I just noticed something. Every character has their own variation on the theme that plays in that person's presence. Whenever you ask a character about another character, or they answer a question about that character, that character's theme will be played along with the theme of the character you're speaking with. But when only items and places are involved in the question (or the occasional super-bad liar who answers a question with him/herself when it's patently not true), you'll hear only the one character's theme. --Jay (Talk) 16:53, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Though sometimes it'll fail to play both themes together... --Jay (Talk) 16:57, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Oh, yeah, and when you win, it'll play what sounds like all the themes together. --Jay (Talk) 17:03, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Multiple endings

I've found that depending on how quickly I finish the games. So far, I've found four:

• Fireworks only — 900 seconds or less left
• Fireworks and a white satellite-looking spaceship — 901-940 seconds left
• Fireworks, a white satellite-looking spaceship, and a yellow/brown spaceship — 941-970 seconds left
• Fireworks, a white satellite-looking spaceship, a yellow/brown spaceship, and a gray/green spaceship with an alien coming out — 971 or more seconds left

I'm unsure whether there are any other endings for amounts of time left much smaller than the above. Trey56 17:12, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

My guess is that the 3rd one is a space lab and the "alien" that comes out is a cosmonaut performing a space walk.

I managed to win a few times just by shooting at everyone immediately. My best time is 994 and all I get is the sputnik, the rocket and the space lab.

Nsayer 18:08, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Those aren't just any "spaceships", those are definitely meant to refer to the Sputnik satellites.

The first is Sputnik. The second is probably Vostok 1, with Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. The third is Voskhod 2, with Aleksei Leonov, the first human to perform a spacewalk. CaseyG 01:55, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Dead on - good work! They definitely appear to be celebrating Russia's "firsts" in space. First man-made satellite, first human in space, and first spacewalk. -ReverendTed 02:17, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Just to let you know, I let the time run down to 96 before getting bored, and nothing unusual happened when I shot the culprit. So it doesn't seem there are any other endings. Why the heck they think people need as much time as they give is totally and utterly beyond me - the amount of time is ridiculously high and takes forever to run down! - but whatever. --Jay (Talk) 05:30, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I let it run down to 001 and shot the culprit — just the normal ending. Also, I agree: 1000 seconds is unnecessary. I will say, though, that the first time I played it I was completely clueless, so it was nice that I could take my time stumbling around and trying to figure out what was going on. Trey56 08:46, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

This is Forum fodder primarily, but I'll briefly add that being timed out when learning a game is really frustrating and turns me off, and that may be a reason behind TBC's use of such a long timeout. - Qermaq - (^T/C)  09:17, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Locations, suspects, and items

Here are my attempts at identifying the locations, suspects, and items. I'm not sure of all of them, especially the ones with question marks. Trey56 18:36, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Locations

• Aquarium
• Forest
• Museum (?)
• Siberia (thanks, 70.116.132.84)
• City
• Desert
• Beach
• Movie theater
• Pier

Suspects

• Butler
• Blue hat man
• Maid
• Blonde woman
• John McEnroe (I think — recall that Homestar previously dressed up as him)
• Mechanic
• Old Woman
• Kid Speedy
• Red hat man

Items

• Egg
• Potted plant
• Strawberry
• Beer
• Pencil
• Bomb
• Duffel bag
• Monkey wrench
• Slingshot
• Cat

I think once the locations, items, suspects are re-ordered, we can pull the stub tag off the article. Lots of great info and we have the basics now. wbwolf (t | ed) 22:19, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Item Talk

I have noticed, if people talk about an item when you question them about the egg, talk about the item. They will then tell you a person, and a place. If the person is at that place with the item, they usually have the egg. If they ARN'T at that spot, the one who gave you the info usually has the egg. Anyone have this not happen? (Notice I said USUALLY)--Bobmuffins 18:35, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

This is true, because all characters either always lie or always tell the truth 68.54.84.110 19:40, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Painfully dumb question...

How do you play the game if you don't speak or read Russian?

Actual game play requires no knowledge of Russian, since it done completely with pictures. The Russian writing is meaningless or poorly done, anyway. wbwolf (t | ed) 19:21, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

- Hey; erm, I have no real idea about wiki ettiquete but I just wanted to say that the Russian is all more or less correct and certainly not meaningless. Here goes: The title, 'gde yaitso' indeed means 'where is the/an egg?' (although the dash in the middle is not needed) - the reference to 'gde yaichko' that is made on the corresponding wiki article on this topic is wrong; 'yaichko' is a diminuitive form roughly equivalent to 'eggy'. 'Gde yaitso' i.e. as written in the game is the best translatoin for 'Where's an Egg?'. On the loading screen, 'televizionniy elektricheskiy' - 'televisual electrical' is fairly senseless but apart from that, the rest of the russian is correct. When you shoot the egg-haver, 'vinovnik' (criminal) appears, and then 'pozdravlenie' (congratulations). If you get it wrong, 'vinovnik' again appears, followed by 'gulag' (russians tend to use the simpler word 'lager but gulag is a russian acronym) and then 'igra zakonchenniy' - the only real example of incorrect grammar. It means 'game over' but should be 'igra zakonchennaya' to account for the feminine gender of 'igra'. Hardly 'meaningless or poorly done'. I was pretty surprised with the quality of the russian, to be honest

Since it clear you know Russian, and I definitely do not, I would bow to your superior knowledge. In this case, I would say writing up this information in the wiki directly would be much appreciated. (Perhaps under a translation section?) wbwolf (t | ed) 20:36, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

The Russian text is only used for the title screen and the "congraturatory" address. "Dialogue" in the game itself is handled through pictograms ("Blue Rabbit's Climate Chaos" comes to mind, although this is much more simplistic). Basically, you go around "investigating" each area, confirming which characters are where and which items they're holding, and questioning the characters about other characters and items; if you find someone who's lying, odds are he/she is the culprit, and you do what any good renegade Russian detective would: you shoot them! ^_^--Tenka Muteki 19:22, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I find that about half the suspects lie, whether they have the egg or not. But really, since everyone either always lies or always tells the truth, all you have to do is find someone who gives you a clue about the egg and says even one other true thing. (Don't bother asking anyone, truthteller or liar, about him/herself or his/her own item, though.) --Jay (Talk) 20:20, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Too many colors

When you hover over a button, it gradients from gray to yellow (and back again when you remove) Thats waaaaay too many shades of yellow for a game like this. Maybe put this in remarks or goofs. I have bad edit etiquette :P

Screen shot

Since the game is out for reals and looks different from the preview shot that was originally up, shouldn't we use a screen shot of actual game play? Do we include both images on the page? wbwolf (t | ed) 20:47, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

I went ahead and replaced the old image with the new one, since that's what we did with Kid Speedy. — Has Matt? (talk) 21:02, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Maid

Which person is supposed to be the maid? Process of elimination of all the other characters left a person who appears to be a butcher.--Another Freakin' Guy Named Daniel 21:26, 16 July 2007 (UTC) Also, which one is supposed to be the movie theater? Process of elimination left what resembles the Lincoln Memorial.

I think the one with the red rope and yellowish wall is the movie theater.- 70.243.66.159 16:09, 17 July 2007 (UTC) (Everybody! Sorry, forgot to sign in...)

Ending Screen

That's not a police station, it's Lenin's Mausoleum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenin%27s_Mausoleum)

Apparently we don't know too much 'bout Russia. Thanks for pointing that out! — Has Matt? (talk) 21:47, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Also the word vinovnik (виновник) would be better translated as "guilty person". Criminal is prestupnik (преступник) in Russian.

We would probably use "culprit" in English.--Tenka Muteki 23:35, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

That "uniformed man" looks like Stalin [1]. Well, as much as 'good graphics' can allow, anyways ;). It's got his mustache. Given that the game seems to be set in Soviet Russia, there is more than a good chance that it's suppose to be Stalin. What does everyone else thing? — 67.71.64.144 (Talk | contribs) 23:28, 17 July 2007 (UTC) (left unsigned)

I'm all for it. It looks enough like him to me, and it certainly fits with the Russian theme. Trey56 23:57, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

It seems very likely. Bluebry 00:00, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Does anyone not think it's Stalin?

I think it could be, but are we sure enough for this not to be considered undue speculation? — It's dot com 01:07, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

To me, it has the following point for it being Stalin:

the setting is Soivet Russia

the medal is given out at Lenin's Mausoleum, and Stalin stood atop of Lenin's Mausoleum during the post-WWII victory parade (it's the kind of place a Soviet dictator would give out a medal)

The mustache and uniform look like Stalin's, and not like any other Soviet dictator (No other Soviet dictator had a mustach like that, although Lenin did have a goatee, he wasn't known for wearing a uniform and would, persumably, be in his tomb)

Stalin might actually want someone shot for stealing an egg (and I'm only half joking on that last one)

I don't see any points against it being Stalin. I cannot discount it being some other uniformed mustachio'd Soviet authority figure, like some head of the KGB or something, but no others come to mind

Does anyone know someone else that might fit that discritpion?

Suspect and location images

While the suspect and location images were originally icons, they have now been overwritten with full-sized images. Personally, I prefer the icons for three reasons:

1. The full body characters are much taller than the rest of the images, which makes the table look a little lopsided.
2. The icon images are pixel-for-pixel, whereas there are some cropping issues with the full-sized images (compare the butcher icon with the full-body butcher) (fixed)
3. We don't need to illustrate every component of the game completely, just give an icon for identification purposes.

Does anyone agree, or are we happy with the staus quo? Trey56 22:30, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

I think the table is fine as is, especially with the ability to expand the locations to a larger size. Perhaps making the size of the icons closer to the same size (using the item icons as a guide)? wbwolf (t | ed) 22:36, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

The icons are fine by me, alhtough the cropping issues can easily be fixed. If you think reverting back to icons is the better choice, by all means, go for it. I don't see a problem with keeping the locations as full shots, however. —FireBird|Talk 22:42, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Names of People, Places and iTems

Using a decompiler, the names are Jessifer, Pall, Brodermaker, Mancuso, Damella, Deark, Gubby, Les and Joeff. The places are called Seward Lane, Hollway, A Room, Gym, Bank, Gumption Road, Upstairs, Nearby and Under. The items are called Bottle, Ball, Butterfly, Dog, Gym Bag, Fanny Pack, Frying Pan, Candlestick and Laptop. Not sure which is which. I might have another look later on when I'm home from school. Loafing 22:42, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

That's crazy :P Especially since some of those names bear little resemblance to the items... Trey56 22:55, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm more surprised they put all the names there. By the way, nice work on the looking old reference. --TotalSpaceshipGirl3 23:57, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

I have a Flash decompiler and I'm not finding these names anywhere in the image files. Where are YOU finding them? --Jay (Talk) 02:13, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Never mind; I found them, but I see no indication of which is which, unless they define them in numerical order as the images appear (and who could tell - there aren't any bottles or balls to be seen anyway!) --Jay (Talk) 02:19, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

The Manual

The manual page is really funny in the way, that its English translation is more correct then the original Russian text :)

• The word at the top of the page "Узнать" (Uznat') is correct, it really does mean "Find out";
• The line "Кто лежит?" (Kto lezhit?) is a mistake and actually means here "Who is lying on the ground?" rather then "Who is telling lies/lying?". This is because in English the verb "to lie" can mean both of those things, but in Russian it's "лежать" (lezhat') for "lying on the ground" and "лгать" (lgat') for "telling the lies/lying". So the line should be "Кто лжет?" (Kto lzhet?);
• The line "Кто говорит правду?" (Kto govorit pravdu?) is correct, it does mean "Who tells the truth?";
• The line "Кто имеет яйцо?" (Kto imeet yaico?) is a bit incorrect and means "Who owns an egg?". "У кого яйцо?" (U kogo yaico?) could be translated as "Who has the egg?"

Another note: The Arbat ST. (location of the seller) is a well-known street in Moscow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbat_Street).

This would be excellent information for the Some Type of Online Auction page, where the Arbat Street reference is already noted. wbwolf (t | ed) 00:33, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Musie Theater?

I'm quite confident that the image given the label "Theater" is actually the museum. It looks just like an art museum display and... not at all like a movie theater. The other one's kind of ambiguous as to WHAT it is, but I'm quite sure on the "Theater". --Jay (Talk) 00:40, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

The other one looks like some kinda government building. Maybe if someone could translate the Russian on the building, it would shed some light on this? — Has Matt? (talk) 00:47, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

For now, I swapped the Theater one (pictures with a velvet rope) in the correct place. (Compare with the theater in the movies) I did notice that the one current marked "Museum" has some Russian writing on it. If someone would translate that, in addition to finding out what how the image is marked internally, for now it's probably better to leave the images where they are. wbwolf (t | ed) 00:51, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

You... you swapped it from my swap. The one with the ropes looks more like an art museum. Why would the ropes be so close to the pictures otherwise? --Jay (Talk) 01:15, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

I have seen plenty of movie theaters that have velvet ropes along the walls; they are used when they have people line up before the start of movie for a major opening. The other picture is clearly not a movie theater, so we need to wait until we have further info. wbwolf (t | ed) 01:20, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

But who was it that called it a "movie theater" in the first place? US! There is no "further info" besides maybe someone with a flash compiler or a translation of the pillar building. --Jay (Talk) 02:05, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Know what? Forget it. I don't want an edit war. I'm compromising with simple descriptions no one can dispute. --Jay (Talk) 02:35, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

It looks from above that one of these (probably the one with the pillars) is a bank, but who knows with the weirdness of the rest of the names. Trey56 00:58, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

If the one current marked as Museum is indeed a bank, I would have no problem making the other a museum. Right now, it's unclear. wbwolf (t | ed) 01:29, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Ok, so can we call the one with the velvet ropes a "Museum" now? -ReverendTed 03:50, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

I think that sounds reasonable. At first, I thought it was a movie theater, but the more I look at it, the more those look like pieces of art. Especially the one on the left. Trey56 03:57, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

And y'know - who named that last one a "pier"? Looks more like a bridge to me. -ReverendTed 04:15, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

The gray one with what looks like "bEPER" on it is a bank. "берег" is Russian for "bank" according to some online English-Russian dictionary I just Googled. I submit that the one with the velvet ropes is an art musuem. -ReverendTed 02:44, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

About the museum one, I think it's an art museum. Homestar-Winner (talk) 12:16, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. — ^Sam_{Fisher (Come in, Lambert.)} 12:23, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Glitch or not?

Someone on the forums mentioned a glitch where, if you click on the top left corner a lot of times as the game starts, you can win with a timer score of 000. This is only if the person in the aquarium has the egg. I tried it and it worked, but I'm not sure if it's really a glitch or not. Thoughts? —Shwoo 03:55, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Additionally, each time I've done it (by clicking the area of the screen where the Aquarium icon and gun icon overlap) the timer freezes at 000, but at the "Win" screen the timer reads 999 and all three spacecraft appear. -ReverendTed 04:23, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Just reproduced it myself, although given other Flash-related artifacts like this, I imagine that the way-way-way-way-way-too-generous timer starts at 1000 and it just chops off the first digit... and perhaps drops it down to a normal value afterwards. --Jay (Talk) 08:22, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Don't know if it's really a "glitch" if it only works when the suspect in the aquarium has the egg. That would make it more a matter of luck. — ^Sam_{Fisher (Come in, Lambert.)} 12:39, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Glitches that only happen under specific circumstances are still glitches. --Jay (Talk) 15:53, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes, but if the person in the aquarium has the egg, all you need to do is keep clicking the top left to finish the game in less than a second. That combined with the explanation you gave earlier about the timer actually being 1000 seconds, I think, completely disproves the glitch theory. — ^Sam_{Fisher (Come in, Lambert.)} 19:34, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Jack Orlando

Can anyone confirm the "Jack Orlando" Real-World Reference? The screenshots I've seen of that game look absolutely nothing like this one. -ReverendTed 03:59, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Dead People Tell Tales?

When I play the game, I killed someone and ask him about something and he replyed with a + sign. This should go into remarks I think. - Toonypie from the Fanstuff Wiki.

It's a red cross - they're only capable of answering questions with requests for medical aid, seeing as how they've been shot and all. Nsayer 18:45, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

5 Time win with no intention

I won 5 times in this game just by going around and shooting 3 random people. It was awesome. YOU should try it!-MikeControl

I think more people would be interested if you told them on the IRC channel. Homestar-Winner (talk) 19:29, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

You have a one-in-three chance of getting it right by shooting random people. Those aren't terrible odds, so your five times in a row was just luck. --Jay (Talk) 00:13, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

That was sheer luck. I accidentally got 998 by clicking the gun after clicking the aquarium. --Jnelson09 01:52, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Fabergé eggs?

When you talk about Russian eggs being stolen, it's almost certain that this is a reference to Fabergé eggs. Nsayer 18:36, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

I guess it could be a reference to Fabergé eggs. But it could also be TTATOT. Sam the Man 18:40, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

I think the egg being stolen is just a joke (because no one would shoot a person to get back a stolen egg). Homestar-Winner (talk) 19:04, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Strategy shortcut

Because they cannot provide you with useful information, it is worthwhile to shoot the first two suspects you know to be lying. One of them might just have the egg.

I'm not sure why this keeps getting removed. It seems like a reasonable strategy to me. After you've played the game a bit, you know you really only need one bullet. The other two are just going to waste. Why not use them on the liars? Their info is no good, and you may get lucky and finish with a better time. If it doesn't work out, then you've still got your last bullet to use in the conventional way. — It's dot com 21:32, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

What's a waste of time is shooting suspects who may not have the egg. It's much better to be sure who the real culprit is than to leave it to luck, even if it turns out to be someone you've seen before. Like this trick I use. — ^Sam_{Fisher (Come in, Lambert.)} 21:37, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

It takes just over one extra second to shoot the liars. That seems an acceptable tradeoff for the amount of time it would take to keep going normally. — It's dot com 22:44, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Well of course you can use any other strategy and just shoot any liars you come across. But that doesn't make this a strategy in itself. Any player could simply decide to do that; it doesn't take any real thought. — ^Sam_{Fisher (Come in, Lambert.)} 22:50, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

No real thought? Au contraire! The suggestion is not to shoot people indiscriminantly, but to shoot the first two liars you see (which takes some determining). You're not going back to a location where a liar is anyway—unless you have to confront the egg holder there. You could save a lot of time by going ahead and using your spare bullets before you leave the location. — It's dot com 00:53, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Subtitles?

I don't know if Where's an Egg? is one of the games that can be subtitled, but if so it could be neat to include approximate translations of the Russian...

My guess is that it's not possible to subtitle, though... Trey56 21:48, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Your guess is wrong. DEI DAT VM^┌_{datvm center}\^{super contra}_┘ 22:24, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, partially — I was only able to subtitle part of it, since the rest of the text is embedded in movie files, I think. Trey56 22:26, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Music

At the begining, when the Videlectrix logo apears, but before the guy shoots at it, the music playing is The Volga Boatmen's Song, traditional Russian song.

That's awesome. (I just verified it) Great find! Trey56 00:39, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Ron Cumberdale

The character listed as "Kid Speedy" has red hair, but the real Kid Speedy has brown/gray hair. Ron Cumberdale from Peasant's Quest, however, has the same shirt AND red hair. Edit? 75.119.20.104 01:34, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree. I think "Kid Speedy" is just an updated version of Ron Cumberdale. On second thought, I disagree. Look at these three photos.

WAE? suspect

Kid Speedy

Ron Cumberdale

The skin tone, dark red shorts, same darkred/white striped shirt, and red shoes all match. It's Kid Speedy. Bluebry 01:37, 18 July 2007 (UTC)