Puzzle Pirates Distillery
| Puzzle Pirates Distillery | |
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| Info | |
| Published | December 8th, 2003 |
| Platforms | Windows, Mac, Linux |
Puzzle Pirates is a 2003 top-down 3d[1] rpg and puzzle game. It features a variety of minigames used to gain new items, level up your character, etc. etc.
Distillery
The distillery minigame provides the player with the ability to turn raw materials such as iron and wood into rum. Additionally it creates hemp oil and mugs. The gameplay centers around 10 columns of round pieces representing alcohol. There are three types of each piece: white, brown, and black (plus spice pieces and burnt variations). Two pieces can be swapped if certain criteria are met. The objective of the game is to get as many white pieces to the far right column as possible. If half or more of the pieces in this column are white at the end of a turn, the entire row moves upwards into the still. Otherwise, it moves down into the furnace, and the player is punished by more black pieces.
The game itself is highly complex despite its basic appearance, and ultimately, it's rewards are great enough to entice people to learn how to play it. Thanks to this, many players have created and shared instructional videos on how to maximize alcohol output.
Associated Media
The SonnyZ Distilling Tutorial 2 Part 2[2] is a 2006 tutorial on techniques for distillation. XykoZ (assumedly formerly SonnyZ) outlines advanced techniques regarding distillation. These tips include: "The Racetrack", "CC7's and Beyond", and "Newton's Cradle" among others.
Audio Quality & Associated Sound
The most important form of comedy in this distilling tutorial is the sounds. Firstly, the sound quality is very poor, something which is already relatively funny. However, it only gets more extreme. Each distillation technique is prefaced by a title card in blue, which introduces them by number (i.e. Tip #8) in a robotic voice and via text. The robotic voice is harsh and hard to understand. Additionally, the rest of the audio is muffled. It's hard to understand XykoZ's voice through the degraded quality.
Arguably the most important aspect of the sound in Distilling Tutorial 2 is the noise made when different pieces are swapped on the board. A rather loud 'thumping' noise is generated upon the swap, along with the sound of bubbly, moving water. The sounds in of themselves are funny, but the comedy is further elevated thanks to the swift movements XykoZ preforms. Being a skilled distiller, he can quickly move many pieces across the board, making the noise play multiple times over and without stop.
Racial Implications
A lesser noticed form of unintentional comedy within Distilling Tutorial 2 is the racial implications of some of the things Xykoz is saying. The terms noted are not designed to be racially charged, but due to the nature of referring to game pieces as "whites", "blacks", and "browns", it comes off as such.
Xykoz speaks on "keeping the blacks at the bottom", and "making sure to keep the browns and whites separate. These phrases are usually unable to be heard, due to the intense laughter of those reacting to the distilling noises, but subsequent viewings can reveal their existence.
