This case has more twists than a Martini drinkers’ convention. You’re Al Club, private eye, and you’ve got to grab a beautiful heiress from the gang that snatched her.
From Softalk, November 1982.
Hayden Publishing company was founded in the early 1950s (trademark registered 1954) as a technical publisher, generally associated with electronics and mathematics, although they branched into other subjects including language arts.
From The Mathematics Teacher, March 1965.
They were well positioned to enter computers as well, starting in the 60s. As far as games goes they re-published what is arguably the first “commercial” CRPG in the second edition of William Engel’s book Stimulating Simulations, which includes the CRPG Devil’s Dungeon. (The 1977 self-published 1st edition does not include it but a self-published 1978 booklet does, which was folded into Hayden’s first version in 1979.) They also published non-books around this time like Sargon II and Sargon III, two of the most important early chess programs. Relevant for our purposes today, in late 1982 they published two Apple II text adventures by Daniel Kitchen, Crystal Caves and Crime Stopper, the latter also giving story credit to Barry Marx.
Crystal Caves was written first (people of this era tended to copy the fantasy of Adventure before branching out), but they don’t form a series, I’m not being that picky about chronology as long as I’m playing within a year, and I’m still needing a break from Adventure Quest, so: hard-boiled crime it is.
Dan Kitchen, a New Jersey native, got his game-design start in handheld toys, making Bank Shot and Wildfire for Parker in 1979. He obtained an Apple II that year:
I was a big fan of Microsoft Adventure and all of Scott Adams’ games … I fell in love with text adventures instantly and knew I wanted to make my own.
With his brother Garry Kitchen he co-founded Imaginative Systems Software and got a contract with Hayden (also in New Jersey) for six games.
The idea for Crime Stopper came from one of my brother’s friends, Barry Marx, a writer and a brilliant chap. He suggested he write the story and I would make it interactive using my Crystal Caverns engine. And he’s responsible for the Sam Spade pun.
You start in your stereotypical office, with a telegram urgently summoning you:
Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten to the actual crime-solving part of the game. If you climb to the roof of the building your office is in you cand find a “hanky”…
…and if you go out into the street you can find an ice cream shop and a diner.
However, to get to the building mentioned in the telegram (2nd and 50th) we need to ride the subway, but the subway requires cash, and our protagonist has no cash.
I’ve very thoroughly examined every object described in every room, I’m still stuck with just the HANKY and the TELEGRAM. I tried GIVE HANKY in the ice cream parlor (…maybe they’d give me something I could get money out of?…) but the game responded I didn’t have any money, suggesting it thought I was trying to buy ice cream instead. To be fair trading a hanky for ice cream isn’t logical but when I’m stumped already I’m willing to try anything.
There’s hints out there — Crime Stopper is even a featured game in the Kim Schuette book I’ve re-visited in this blog many times — but I’d very much like to avoid spoiling the very first puzzle in the game, as that makes me much less likely to hold out for anything later which might involve solving an actual mystery.
My map of the city streets so far.
Renga in Blue 
I’m impressed at the amount of text, for this era that seems rare outside of the big names and mainframe games. Unfortunately, I’m getting some real wall of text syndrome from this. I think it either needs a better font or better paragraph spacing.
Having not played the game, I wondered if the solution is…znlor gur jebat ireo? Gel fryy unaxl?
I have an upcoming post about text as ui again. Wanted to wait until I got farther.
I dunno how many fits my ocr software will throw but I may do some future bits as text rather than screens
Haven’t left the first room yet, but are you playing with the sound on? it seems to be hinting something you haven’t done yet.
…oh and you need to LOOK at some more objects.
completely spoily (no spaces), ybbxqrfxbcraqenjre
but this is something you can definitely do without help. the comment I made about the sound isn’t relevant to your immediate issue.
Agh sound
Yeah, I often am hanging out with other people while playing, and apple II sound is generally bad so I usually have it off
I have to wonder if there’s something about the versions we’re playing though. I was playing a version on the internet archive, and I did something that would certainly fall under the heading of examining every object in every room. So I’m not sure if you could have missed it, or if it’s just bugged in your version? Or different?
sI haven’t looked at the rot13 yet but
the desk has nothing special
the window has some interesting description but nothing helpful
the coatrack has nothing special
the TV set has nothing special
the telephone has nothing special
(you can try to ANSWER TELEPHONE at some random point but if you don’t do it the first turn there’s nobody on the other end)
I found the picture in the secretary room has some safe instructions behind it if you MOVE it (if you look it just is a picture of your mother, if you try to take it says it is fixed in place, so why can you move it?)
I also found LOOK UNDER works as a verb but nothing good with it yet.
Nothing special about the file cabinet, desk, or water cooler in the secretary room either
I assume there’s a safe hiding but wurf
Maybe you need to switch to the archive version? Because according to http://mattweiner.net/crimestopperdesk you ought to be getting something out of one of these things.
(Or… maybe the description I just screenshot was added to avoid this particular frustration, and in your version you are supposed to interact with an object that is implicit in one of the things you mention? That was what I had fired up the game to test.)
Bad dump! Bane of my existence. Should take another swing tonight.
I just realized that the URL I made for the picture blatantly spoils the object in question (not that it matters in this case!)
Anyway I was wondering if, as with the undescribed pockets that are not in this game, there was an earlier version that expected you to think of “OPEN DRAWER” without telling you there was a drawer. But I guess it was just a bad file.
just to be clear, THIS is the one that does NOT work
https://archive.org/details/CrimeStopper4amCrack
this is the one that DOES work
https://archive.org/details/wozaday_Crime_Stopper
so even saying “I got it from the Internet Archive” doesn’t quite narrow it down enough
You want the one uploaded in 2019, not 2018!
However you can still “open drawer” in the 4AM crack.
Also sorry for not providing the link!
Huh. You have no pockets? No safe or other things you could open in your office? Can’t get to your apartment I guess to see if you have any cash stashed there? idk what’s with the price tag on the hanky… if there were a department store or something I’d think of trying to return it for a refund…
I should _always_ check pockets. I still forget. None in this game but it is startling how many games from this era put undescribed pockets.
Might not do new post until this weekend, but it was a disk issue.