Posted May 13, 2021
I got to thinking about this game today after listening to an old podcast from 2007. The Fool's Errand was a "point & click puzzle game" from some time in the 80's I believe. The original was on the Mac, but there were versions on other computers (I had a DOS version myself).
Well, I did some searching and found the website for Cliff Johnson, the programmer of the game. The website is http://www.thefoolandhismoney.com/ and from there you can download THREE of his games for free! They work on Mac or Windows. I only played the Windows version, and I only tried it on my WinXP machine (that PC comes in handy!) It's not a Windows native game... it runs in a Macintosh Emulator (Mac vMini or something?) and looks like the GUI from the old Macs.
Initially the screens are really tiny, but if you press CTL+M it will magnify the entire GUI until it's probably big enough for you to play (it was for me, anyway). There are 3 free games.... The Fool's Errand, At the Carnival, and 3 in Three. FE is in b&w, but the others are in color.
I think it's a 32-bit executable, but I may be wrong. Probably won't work in Win10 64-bit but you might try it? You can save your progress in a filename of your own choosing. The puzzles run the gamut from scrambled images, like a jigsaw, to bespoke word puzzles using shapes or just letters to rearrange. It's a LONG game, comprised of many, many different puzzles, and every time you complete a puzzle you get a "new piece" for a meta-puzzle... a large map showing the path the Fool followed.
I think some of the imagery is from Tarot cards, but you can read all about the history and background if you visit the site above. Oh, and he has a "NEW" game you can purchase for about $40 called "The Fool and his Money" and you can buy that there, too.
I've been looking for a "legit" way to get this game for a long time, and I figure this is pretty legit. You read and decide for yourself. Happy puzzling!
UPDATE: By the way... it was another post that got me to create this reply, and I believe the poster said that The Fool's Errand was pretty unique without any modern counterparts. That is a true statement. However, I recall there was ANOTHER game that was similar (in my dusty cobweb memory) to the game, called "Are We There Yet?" You are traveling across the country visiting different amusement parks and roadside attractions, solving puzzles at each one.
I'm REALLY HAZY on how AWTY? actually looked, but I remember at the time I played it, thinking it was "similar" to Fool's Errand. I might be wrong.
Well, I did some searching and found the website for Cliff Johnson, the programmer of the game. The website is http://www.thefoolandhismoney.com/ and from there you can download THREE of his games for free! They work on Mac or Windows. I only played the Windows version, and I only tried it on my WinXP machine (that PC comes in handy!) It's not a Windows native game... it runs in a Macintosh Emulator (Mac vMini or something?) and looks like the GUI from the old Macs.
Initially the screens are really tiny, but if you press CTL+M it will magnify the entire GUI until it's probably big enough for you to play (it was for me, anyway). There are 3 free games.... The Fool's Errand, At the Carnival, and 3 in Three. FE is in b&w, but the others are in color.
I think it's a 32-bit executable, but I may be wrong. Probably won't work in Win10 64-bit but you might try it? You can save your progress in a filename of your own choosing. The puzzles run the gamut from scrambled images, like a jigsaw, to bespoke word puzzles using shapes or just letters to rearrange. It's a LONG game, comprised of many, many different puzzles, and every time you complete a puzzle you get a "new piece" for a meta-puzzle... a large map showing the path the Fool followed.
I think some of the imagery is from Tarot cards, but you can read all about the history and background if you visit the site above. Oh, and he has a "NEW" game you can purchase for about $40 called "The Fool and his Money" and you can buy that there, too.
I've been looking for a "legit" way to get this game for a long time, and I figure this is pretty legit. You read and decide for yourself. Happy puzzling!
UPDATE: By the way... it was another post that got me to create this reply, and I believe the poster said that The Fool's Errand was pretty unique without any modern counterparts. That is a true statement. However, I recall there was ANOTHER game that was similar (in my dusty cobweb memory) to the game, called "Are We There Yet?" You are traveling across the country visiting different amusement parks and roadside attractions, solving puzzles at each one.
I'm REALLY HAZY on how AWTY? actually looked, but I remember at the time I played it, thinking it was "similar" to Fool's Errand. I might be wrong.
Post edited May 13, 2021 by tritone