Holy crap, it’s been a long time since I updated this. Since then, the developers actually released a DLC pack for this game that removes the beeps from Ransome’s speech. I’ll leave a poll at the end - if people want uncensored Ransome, I’ll buy it.
Now that we’ve gotten our map approved by the sheriff, we can use it to leave town.
Travelling between zones is one of the only annoying parts of this game. If you’ll notice, there’s a little blue figure that represents Reyes - this actually changes color if you’re playing as Ray. The figure takes time to travel between each zone, with the location on the far right side being the longest to reach. We’ll actually need to make that specific journey a few times, and it takes something like five or six seconds to “load”.. even though I’m pretty sure it’s not actually masking load times.
Welcome to the circus. There are two kinds of people in this world - JERK and Timmy. Feel free to tag yourself.
Reyes wastes no time going in by himself to arrest this killer clown.
Wait a second, that sounds like..
Oh, it’s just Ransome. I guess we can still question him, even if he’s been cursed to roam the circus until the end of time.
You know what, let’s just go with the blatant Monkey Island reference. In fact, it doesn’t matter what we pick, because..
Reyes will just kind of burst into incoherent gibberish.
: “What’s the matter, kid? Never seen a man wearing makeup before?”
: [continued incoherent gibberish]
: “Look, beepface, you’d better start talking or get outta here! I don’t need another coulrophobic beepwit pissing his pants on my doorstep!”
To progress, we have to have Reyes turn around. If Space Station 13 taught me one thing, it’s that the only thing more dangerous than a clown you can see is a clown you can’t.
: “I’m sorry about that. I guess I never got over what happened at my 10th birthday..”
: “Whatever, bozo. Does this mean you’re going to have your back to me the whole time?”
We can question Ransome at this point, but he doesn’t really have a whole lot to say - he doesn’t know anything about the murder. In fact, once we’ve exhausted his dialogue:
This is, in fact, the source of a puzzle much later in the game. Ransome will never let Ray or Reyes into the circus - even once he becomes fully playable.
Speaking of which, if we look at our character select menu, Ransome is there! Let’s switch to him now.
Ransome’s trailer really went to shit over the past decade. At least he still has his to-do list. We should really take a look at that first.
The second objective is the most important. Ransome won’t leave the circus without feeding Little Beeper, whatever that is. In fact, there’s no real hint as to where Little Beeper is. This was one of the first points at which I resorted to using a guide.
Little Beeper is a hamster that Ransome keeps in his microwave. This is one of the Maniac Mansion references I’ll go out of my way to explain, if only because it has kind of an interesting story attached to it.
In Maniac Mansion, the titular mansion was occupied by three residents, one of which was “Weird Ed” Edison, who at that time is a paramilitary survivalist nutjob. Weird Ed is actually in Thimbleweed Park - in fact, you might’ve seen him and not recognized it.
Ed is the guy directly above the kid in the red-and-white striped shirt immediately to the left of the stage.
As I mentioned in the intro post for this game, there were several ways to finish Maniac Mansion depending on which characters you chose at the start of the game. One of those characters is Razor, a punk rocker whose only real “talent” is being a dick.
The only thing Razor could do that no other party member (except one) could is stealing Weird Ed’s pet hamster and putting it in the microwave, then killing it. The fact that this was in the game caused Nintendo to balk when LucasArts tried porting Maniac Mansion to the NES, and is why the hamster’s death is not in that version of the game.
Anyway, this is how you’re supposed to figure out what to do.
Once we leave Ransome’s trailer, there’s a whole bunch of popcorn strewn about the main circus grounds. Considering that the circus apparently closed down the night that Ransome got cursed (which kind of makes no sense unless he owned it), this popcorn has been sitting there for the better part of a decade. This is what we need to feed Little Beeper.
On easy mode, Ransome will pick up the popcorn with his bare hands - but he refuses to do so on hard mode.
On hard mode, we need to collect this popcorn bag that has somehow sat perfectly still on the machine for a decade and use it to pick the popcorn up.
You might notice the rat in the background - the rats will grab a few kernels of popcorn and bring them into the big top while we’re busy walking over to the popcorn machine. Even if we manage to take every single piece of popcorn on the screen, it’ll only fill the bag up halfway, and Ransome refuses to give his hamster anything short of a full bag.
First, we’ll need to go back to Ransome’s trailer and open his fridge to find a wedge of moldy cheese.
Next, we need to follow one of the rats and find out where it is taking the popcorn. I actually did this before I picked up the cheese.
Using the cheese on the hole causes the rats to leave the popcorn as tribute, or something.
Now that the hamster is fed, we’re free to leave the circus.. except that I forgot one thing and wound up coming back for it later.
That pink thing on the bulletin board is something you might not even recognize if you don’t, say, order a bunch of imported anime figures to the point where the woman at the post office starts asking questions. Speaking of which, let’s go check my email.
Oh look, time to pay for more figures. You see this? This is why it takes me forever to put out LP updates. Anyway, the pink slip is what the post office in the US leaves when they need you to sign for a package, just in case I have any international readers.
One figure payment later, and we’re out of the circus. Now we can head into town and accomplish Ransome’s second goal of picking up his anime figures from the post office.
On the way there, we can pass the tube store to find out that its name has changed!
We also need to head to the Quickie Pal to take a map. For some reason, only the character you do the initial map puzzle with gets a map - everyone else can leave town at that point, but does not have access to fast travel. I wound up getting one for Ray off-screen after I did this update.
: “Dear Mr. Clown, we hereby return your defective samples. The wallet seems to be made out of an endangered species of bird, and the candy dispenser sparks whenever you use it. Please do not contact us again.”
: “What a bunch of beepwads!”
There’s one thing we can do with Ransome right now before we move on to getting our final character in the next update, and it happens right outside the post office. If we park Ransome right outside, we’ll find the bum who was sitting under the bridge where Boris was murdered at the start of the game. Let’s just leave Ransome there and come back with Reyes.
: “I don’t have a wallet. I’m a bum.”
: “I can see something in your pocket.”
: “Maybe I’m just happy to see you?”
: “It looks like something with blood on it.”
: “It’s not blood, just river mud!”
: “Hand over the wallet.”
: “I can’t give it to you. What would I put my money in?”
: “I may be a drunk bum, but I know my rights and you need a warrant!”
: “Find me another wallet and this one is yours. This one’s coming apart anyway. Not like those amazing Ransome the Clown wallets they used to make before his career hit the skids. Ransome was an adulterer, a cheat, and a complete beephole, but he licensed good wallets.”
It’s like he doesn’t notice Ransome standing right next to him. Anyway, there’s one other thing we want to ask him - if he has Boris’s wallet, who knows what else he might have?
: “I have a bit of premium real estate in the nicest part of the sewers.”
We don’t actually need to have Ransome there to progress, but it kind of makes this scene make more sense than if Ransome just walks on screen and psychically knows to give this guy the wallet.
: “A Ransome the Clown wallet! Thanks! Here’s my old one.”
We now have almost everything we need to fill up the machines in the coroner’s office. The last item is in the sewers, but we can’t quite get in there yet. Next update, we’ll find a self-insert who can help us get there.
Also, have a poll.
Uncensor Ransome?
- Yes
- No