Easter Egg Listing (more like trivia, really) for Barn Runner: Field Guide v2.1 (C) Tacky World Interactive Games, 2003 & 2008 by Scott LeGere _________________ The icing on the delicious cake of Adventure Gaming is the unexpected discovery. This document points out most of the hidden jokes and tidbits of gaming you might have missed if you didn't play the game with an especially curious mind. DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU ARE THE SORT WHO ENJOYS SURPRISES! _________________ * Time Stamped --------------- The "About this Guide" entry shows that William Chang created this thing for his new right hand man, Prick on 2/21/2081. This date shows Chang did this only few weeks before the clocks stopped and he went missing. * Bad History --------------- Obviously, many of the entries, such as the one on Cajuns (who lived nowhere near Kentucky prior to the Big Oops), reflect Chang's poor understanding of the history of the BGCZ and it's inhabitants. Chang had no real interest in this place (as stated in Xmas 2 "Wreck The Halls") and disliked going there. Prick, however, has a real liking for the BGCZ and has become something of an expert, collecting stories in his travels, and assembling them into something approaching the truth. * "A Number One!" --------------- The entire backstory of the Duke of Kentucky, the outlaw Skunk Pisscan, the lost President, and the treachery of the Vice President to purge his former boss from the records are, in addition to terribly unsubtle references to "Escape From NY" (one of my favorite movies), are actually cannon story elements taken directly from the Barn Runner Bible. However, with the exception of this eBook, they will probably never be mentioned in any of the games in the series. The notion of an area made officially a non-existant zone following a war which would later be rendered even more non-existant explains why the Gun Towers ringing the perimeter of the BGCZ were also not destroyed in the Big Oops (though they were hit by "Splash" damage). But it's all terribly confusing unless you're looking at a timeline. Explaining it clearly in dialogue is just too tricky. Thus, those elements have been quietly passed over. * Best toy gun ever! --------------- The Falchion is the same gun found in the barn in "The Case of the Runaway Robot." What can I say? I loved that toy as a kid! * Arbalest --------------- An early plot thread that was dropped was Prick's burning desire to get his hands on one of these guns. It was dropped when Debbie was cut from The Armageddon Eclair (her debut was moved to Don't Jerk The Trigger of Love, by which time I had really grown fond of the Spatha). The Arbalest will still appear in a later game, but I'm not fond of the design I used for it here and I've since changed it to something beefier and cooler looking. * Space... The Final Frontier --------------- An early plot point dropped before development began in earnest was Prick's thwarted desire to join the space faring forces of R.O.I.D. -- he dropped out of training when he learned how incredibly difficult it would be to maintain his muscular physique in zero gravity. Even though this bit of backstory was dropped completely, I really liked the notion of an incredibly expensive and utterly pointless military program eating away at all the surviving arcologies budgets. I guess growing up in the 70s and 80s had a permanent impact on me, which is why R.O.I.D. is still a part of the Barn Runner universe, even if just a tiny part of backdrop. * "Programmed by John Smith" --------------- One entry details the CEO of WasteCo., mentioned in passing if you look around "I Can't Believe I Can't Taste It" in part one of The Armageddon Eclair. Clearly, his name is a play on founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard. Originally, I had planned to take a real swipe at this organization and their leader through the Arc 19 equivalent of their wierd religion "Chronotolgy," but in the years since I began this opus, the South Park guys did it much better than I could have. But my parody of him and his outfit are still part of the Barn Runner world, as far as I'm concerned, even if I no longer plan to use them as a key story element. * Learning Curve --------------- The second eBook in this series, The Spatha Owner's Manual has a cleaner interface, a custom mouse, and sound (this first Barn Runner game to have sound, by the way). This first attempt is obviously much cruder.