Ben Croshaw Presents

Boo-yah!


Current version: 1.3

Firstly...

5 Days A Stranger, 7 Days A Skeptic and probably all my games will always be available for free download. However, times are hard and one cannot be as naively generous as I have been all the time. While you are under no obligation to do anything in return for playing my games, if you appreciate them and all the effort I have put in, a donation to my personal coffers would go a little way towards helping me stay in financial security and help me continue to make these games you like, and would generally ease your subconscious guilt at having played a good game you didn't pay for. A lot of people tell me that they do appreciate my work; well, now you can show me as well. Click the image below to make a donation to my Paypal account; all major credit cards accepted, every little helps.

What is 5 Days A Stranger?

5DAS is a medium-length free adventure game with a horror theme, made, as all my adventures are, with the miraculous AGS Engine. Since I hate it when people make promises and never deliver, I've gotten into the habit of only ever letting on that I'm making a game after I've finished it.

Special Edition

Wait just one minute there sailor! Why play the boring old regular version of 5 Days A Stranger when you can play the new Special Edition! A special present I've concocted for anyone who donates 5 dollars American or more!

The Special Edition is the full version of 5 Days A Stranger, and also includes -

- Author Commentary throughout the game!
- A new 'Interview' scene!
- Three concept sketches!
- All four music tracks in MIDI format!

Just donate at least 5 dollars to my Paypal account and I'll mail you with the download link for the Special Edition. Here it is, you cheapskates. Enjoy 5 Days A Stranger on a whole new level!

Download

Click here to download 5 Days A Stranger v1.3 from the Underdogs site (approx. 1.22Mb)

Alternative download from Acid-play: here

And another mirror (thanks Reality Blights): here

Translations

After a lot of buggering about on my part I've created a version of 5 Days which uses a different font, allowing special characters and foreign translations. Current translations are German, Finnish, Hungarian, Italian and Turkish.

Click here to download the special translations version

Changes

1.3

- Fixed scrolling room walkto problem (thanks Edmundo)
- Added sound effects, whoopee!
- Fixed occasional metal detector bug
- Added scariness to a couple of paintings

1.2:

- Made hotkeys for verbs (F1-F5)
- Made hotkey for cycling through verbs (space bar)
- Made any click on nothing act as 'walk to'*
- Added stopmoving command to basement sequence
- Added second plug socket for television
- Made some sequences cutscenes (skippable)

* For some reason, this has a tendency to bugger up in scrolling rooms.

1.1:

- Fixed swimming pool bug
- Added verb buttons to statusline
- Fixed Jim disappearing from basement bug
- Changed use inventory dialog for fireplace
- Fixed Jim and Phil not looking back down after conversations

Story

Get in, get the loot, get out... that's how it usually goes for master cat burglar Trilby. But after he breaks into the supposedly vacated country manor erstwhile of the aristocratic DeFoe family, he quickly finds that things are not that simple. Together with a group of strangers, he finds himself imprisoned by some invisible intelligence. A force prepared to do anything to keep them there. Up to and including murder...

As the killings begin and suspicion threatens to tear the group apart, it's up to Trilby to unite his squabbling companions and destroy the supernatural entity that victimises them. But what exactly is it? What is the dark secret attached to DeFoe Manor? And what is the significance of the masked maniac who haunts their dreams?

Screenshots


Luxury


Treasure


Secrets


Murder

Characters

Name: Unknown
Given name: 'Trilby'
Age: Unknown
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 13st

Mysterious, cunning and immaculately dressed, Trilby is an enigma to his contemporaries and a nightmare to his pursuers. An expert at stealth, gymnastics and lockpicking, he can get in and out of any stronghold before anyone even realises he's in the area. Having evaded the police for many years and restricted himself to robbing only the rich, Trilby has made himself out as something of a hero to the downtrodden. He doesn't make mistakes often, but breaking into DeFoe Manor may be his worst, and potentially, his last...

Trilby never goes anywhere without his lockpicks, a black velvet mask that covers his entire face, and his 'grolly' - a grappling hook launcher made to look like an umbrella.

Name: Simone Taylor
Age: 32
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 8st

An up-and-coming darling of the British Broadcasting Corporation, Simone Taylor is rapidly making a name for herself as a newsreader and correspondent. It's a cut-throat world on the way up the steps of celebrity, but she wouldn't have it any other way. She found herself trapped in the mansion after her journalistic curiosity got the better of her; it is this curiosity that may prove her own undoing.

Name: Philip Harty
Age: 28
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 10st

Harty came to the mansion for the same reason as Trilby; for wealth. He prefers to think of himself as a treasure hunter, but Trilby knows another thief when he sees one. The difference is, Philip won't let a little thing like imprisonment get in the way of his loot. He has an inquiring mind and a steely determination, but he is also brash, overly suspicious and lacking in morals.

Name: James Fowler
Given name: Jim
Age: 16
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 7st

The only reason Jim is in DeFoe Manor is because of a friend's childish dare, which is the only reason a schoolboy would need. A student at a nearby boarding school, he seems more worried about the impact of the wooden ruler on his knuckles than an uncertain fate at the hands of an unseen antagonist. He's just a directionless kid waiting for someone to tell him what to do, but an extra pair of hands is always useful.

Name: Unknown
Given name: AJ
Age: Late thirties
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 8st

Nobody in the house seems to know who AJ is. A nervous, skinny man in the remnants of an ill-fitting business suit, his motivations and backstory are extremely unclear. Is he merely a private person, or is he part of this whole mystery?

Walkthrough

Here's a little Frequently Asked Questions file, or FAQ for all you lovers of acronyms.

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