Hi! I'm Bart Bonte, a Belgian independent game designer and bontegames.com is where I blog about new interesting browser and mobile games. My own games are all in the left column (or at the bottom of this page on mobile). More info about me and my games on bartbonte.com.
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July 07, 2008

a bonte games flashback: free the bird

With some new bonte games to arrive in the near future, I have a little catch up to do on the bonte games flashback posts, in which I look back on a past bonte game. I often get mails from people asking me for solutions or walkthroughs for past bonte games and these flashback posts give me the perfect excuse to write down these solutions and give some inside notes.

So let's have a look at free the bird this time, which was released in August 2006 as an entry for the first JayIsGames game design competition. The goal of the competition was to create a small puzzle in just a month time. I came up with a one screen puzzle featuring the notoriously squeaking parrot from the bonte room2 and a cuckoo clock and the obvious task to give the bird back its freedom. Let's continue with the walkthrough, so you'll definitely have to stop reading here if you haven't played the game before and don't want me to spoil your fun. Squeak!

So here it is: everything you always wanted to know about free the bird, but were afraid to ask: as you click around a bit you'll find out that the only thing you really can play around with is the time of the cuckoo clock with the strings at the bottom: two to adjust the hour, two to adjust the minutes. The right handle of the clock doesn't seem to do anything (yet), the left one produces a cuckoo sound, but no cuckoo (yet) ... What time could we set on the clock? Well how about the actual time on your computer? So have a look in the right bottom of your computer screen and adjust the time of the cuckoo clock to the current time. Now try the left handle on the clock: there's the cuckoo! Move the right handle, try the left handle again: the cuckoo comes out in a different angle! Find the right handle position so the cuckoo will snap the wire attached to the cage. Now snap the wire a couple of times. Congratulations, you freed the bird :) Attention: when the system time changes during this process, you'll have to change the cuckoo time as well to make the cuckoo come out of the clock again.

40 comments:

  1. I liked this one Bart! So I've freed the bird once more :)

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  2. new bonte games? bring it on :)

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  3. Smart one... But, Did not work for me.. I'm on a computer in norway, so, it's not functioning...

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  4. time didnt work 4 me

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  5. Yea it didnt work for me either must not work on macs

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  6. i have set it to my time but it does not work!

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  7. It worked for me, even though I'm in Norway :)

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  8. Um...I have a mac too and it worked fine...you might have had the wrong time or something...I did that at first... :)

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  9. it wont work i even changed it to the time and everything it wont work!

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  10. At first I thought of setting the clock fingers to the same angles that the trees on the painting point to... that didn't do much good :)

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  11. It worked for me,I'm in KSA
    :)

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  12. Time setting does not work. Any winter time/summer time trouble? AM/PM and 24h trouble? What? Very unsatiesfying when sucking at game and have to watch into walktrough and then the walkthrough does not work also.

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  13. Thanks for pointing this out: there seems to be problem when the time is 12:XX It works fine for all other hours, I'll have to fix this bug and put up a new version!
    Cheers!

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  14. I...CANT....FREE...IT.....!!!

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  15. Works perfect.. except... The sound does not work for me on the left switch as you said it would D:

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  16. I eventually got this to work with the help of your walkthrough, but I never did get any sound, until the end. The music track at the end works, so it can't be that I've selected "no sound" on one of your other games and it's remembered. Which makes me think - any chance of putting in a visual option to replace sound cues?
    Also, is the fall supposed to break the cage open without hurting the bird? <-- over-thinking it

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  17. well...great game u should make a sequal though and make more than 1 side of the room

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  18. i cant do it and its not 12:xx oh well yaay late commenting

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  19. Yeah!! I made it.
    Only I had to see how you did it because I had no idea.

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  20. this was soooo fun freaking fun i have done free the bird more than 5 times five time can you believe that????it is soo fun 10/10*clapping*

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  21. I freed the bird but the cat was waiting and got fed.

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  22. It says "now try the left handle", but you're supposed to try the right.

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  23. The painting is a real red herring. Being able to shake the painting made me think it was supposed to draw our attention.

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  24. Amazing! Love your games. This one had the whole house stumped. I cheated and read the walk-thru. Now I'm super Mom and the family thinks I'm some mad genius! Shhhhh! Ha ha.

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  25. Amazing! Love your games. This one had the whole house stumped. I cheated and read the walk-thru. Now I'm super Mom and the family thinks I'm some mad genius! Shhhhh! Ha ha.

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  26. Hi Bart,

    "Thanks for pointing this out: there seems to be problem when the time is 12:XX It works fine for all other hours, I'll have to fix this bug and put up a new version!"

    That's what you wrote about 3 years ago.

    Well, the probelm still seems to be there...

    Love your games though ;)

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  27. it took me so long...
    but its a great game!

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  28. i still cant get the freaking annoying bird out!!! HELP!!!!!!!

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  29. it worked for me

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  30. The clock doesn't work if it's on 24hour format. I had to change it to 12hour format, but I didn't know how to do that, so I just changed the hour to something with just one digit, then changed it back when I finished the game :)

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  31. Guess what, I have just updated the game to solve the 12:xx problem, now that was about time :)

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  32. Agh!! Cant free the bird...

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  33. it is not the left handle but the right the handles do the opposite of what they are supposed to that is why it wont work some of the time

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  34. I am tired now. I am going to bed after I do my exercise. Byway, it is not the left handle in the way that means the opposite of what I'm pointing is making the bird free. It's not that I get strategic but I'm trying to click the left handle but the right handle is what I'm struggling for. I just need to know how to free the bird.

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  35. Argh! What are you thinking? If I made a game, I would make it easier. My awesome life is turning in. I guess my imagination would turn into my life. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

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  36. It has been a while since I have played Chicken Grow but why would you want to grow a chicken? Isn't it boring having to grow a chicken like is it jumping up and down the water walkthrough is helpful but the grain walkthrough is just too confusing for me. I was going to use some things and I have moved the complicated moving blocks but how do you shift the blocks? THAT'S my question. I am questioning a lot for a comment like this won't be too long in the series of The Bonte Room. It is a boring game. Why can't I become an escapee? Am I becoming an employee in 2020 when I'm only six years old? No, because I can live without water in my life to make my world wet. OK. No more silly business or could we keep having this conversation? In the meantime, I get busted by a police, so who knows if I have met a police in my school. My actual name is Leon and I am six years old. It is complicated to seem distracted in my voice or am I imagining headphones can talk? It is fro and forbidden so I could finish the game Chicken Grow.

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  37. The inside of the games are completion of what you say. They help catacalasm come to a CD when the DC is already matched up every time of grabbing the game if you don't eat true business when I have a long break on the computer and off the computer if I don't have a licence for trumpeteering or puppeteering or volunteering or a smith will be like viola jump over the house. Looks like I jumped over the wrong spike to me.

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  38. This is the solution of A Bonte Escape
    Take the piece of paper from under the doormat.
    Take the other piece of paper from under the pillow.
    Look at both pieces of paper with the magnifying glass. It reads the code: 121946
    Use this code log on the laptop.
    Have you noticed that the safe has a four digit code.
    Open the folder on the laptop.
    Read the notes on the laptop for a hint that the first digit of the notes is the digit on the first safe.
    The picture of the five spots the third one hints that the third digit is an eight.
    Enter the code: 5289
    The three balls above the sofa are circumstances and they hint that the first ball in the feeding machine is blue.
    Grab the three funnels and put them on the feeding machine.
    The second ball needs to be orange by pouring water in the plant next to the sofa.
    The third ball needs to be yellow by putting both water and orange juice in the same funnel once.
    Once you have done that, you can press the red lever and the bird will be happy and start twittering.
    Enter the colour code on the laptop:
    -green
    -orange
    -blue
    -peach
    -brown
    There is a 3 digit safe inside that safe.
    Memorize the three sticks in the birdcage.
    They will be long.
    Enter the code 315 and finally hit the key.

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  39. OK. Things are crazy here. One, I have now played Tap Tap Tap because my mum let me download it on her phone. Two, No one has a gamer licence like me. Three, It's a lame attitude u don't understand what I am saying and you might think I am telling a lie but also, this is true and I'm serious. Four, I am starting too feel astonished because it is startling my situation Urgh forget about it................and five, the most important we should learn is how to finish typing this comment. Five different reasons about how I spend time with my family.

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