Video Game / Out of Order (2003)

If out of chaos comes order, what comes Out of Order?

Ever woken up in the middle of the night to find you've been kidnapped... and so's your bedroom? Ever had to fend for yourself in the face of strangely hypnotic music, alien doctors, talking computers a-plenty and half-finished bathrooms? Ever found something unpleasant in a burger?

If so, Out Of Order should play like any other day in your life.

Otherwise, it's an experience not to be missed.
— The (now-defunct) front page of the official website.

Out of Order is a freeware Adventure Game that follows a day in the life of Hurford Schlitzing, a fairly unremarkable young British man who lives with his mother. He wakes up in the middle of a thunderstorm, gets himself a bite to eat, lets the cats out and goes back to bed.

The End.

Out of Order is a freeware Adventure Game that follows a day in the life of Hurford Schlitzing, a fairly unremarkable young British man who lives with his mother. He wakes up in the middle of a thunderstorm, only to find that his entire bedroom has been kidnapped... and relocated to 'The Town'. As he explores to find out what the heck is going on, some uncomfortable, terrifying, and just plain weird truths come to light.

This 2003 PC game can be downloaded here.

This game provides examples of:

• Chekhov's Boomerang: Hurford's Three Frank Harlons CD.
• Deadpan Snarker: You'd think the main character is being paid to do this.
• Gainax Ending: First, Hurford finds out that he's in a virtual world. Then, he embeds himself into the game's data, and reprograms the game so he can meet its creator. Then, Hurford tells the creator that he doesn't want to be forced to live in a virtual world for the entertainment of others, and asks to be taken back home, which the creator does. Except he's not really home. The creator just changed the virtual world to be identical to his hometown. Hurford breaks down crying, and Thrid puts some music to hypnotize him back into happiness. Except Hurford had swapped out the music with his own CD, so heavy metal music starts playing instead. Then the creator decides to have a party at its place. The end.
• Guide Dang It!: Some of the puzzles reach or nearly reach this point. The clues are all there, but a lot of them are presented in ways that make them seem unimportant or irrelevant.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: So many that there's even a sound effect to acknowledge them.
  • Hurford: (after stealing a battery) What's a little vandalism between neighbors? Or should I say, assault and battery? *ba-dum-ching!*
• No Fourth Wall: Several examples, particularly "A screwdriver? I was hoping we could go an entire adventure game without one of these."
• Older Than They Look: Sylvia, your human neighboor looks like a young woman. She's 114/115.
• One Crazy Night: The main character wakes up in a strange alternate reality known as the Town and wanders the night streets of Town, hoping to find a way to return to the normal world.
• Riddle Me This: Sort of. There's a computer you have to guess the password to, and it's written down in a way only the computer's owner, a riddle-lover, can understand: "YOU FORCE HEAVEN TO BE EMPTY" (U 4 7 2 B M T)
• Speech Impediment: The alien doctor hath a lithp.
• Stable Time Loop: You need to obtain a crystal battery in order to power a time machine, so that you can go back in time and take the crystal battery so that your past self won't have it confiscated when he's caught by a guard. Justified in that the machine doesn't actually send people back in time - it only creates a replica of what it predicts the person will be like in the future.
• Subliminal Seduction: A major plot point is backwards messages in songs acting as mind control. Ironically the main character overcomes it by using another song that does the same thing but for the opposite effect.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: The green alien near the restaurant is one of the roles Panel sometimes assumes.
• The Unpronouncable: The Tn you talk to at the end, L'LL'L'LLL-LL'L-LLLL KORH'Y'UML-PO'TNK-C'VEZG
• Tomato in the Mirror: The big plot twist is that you're actually a virtual copy of Hurford living in a simulated world.

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