# The Betamax tape is a cruel red herring **URL:** \ **Category:** Development/Design\ **Created:** [September 19, 2017, 10:12am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664 "2017-09-19T10:12:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stric\_Matic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Stric\_Matic](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Stric_Matic)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 10:12am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/1 "2017-09-19T10:12:44Z")
I found the great majority of puzzles in the game to be very logical and well designed, but one particular item/puzzle seems to only serve to lead the player to a dead-end avenue of thought - at least it did with me. Namely, the Betamax tape, the MovieTron, and the Security Camera in the Quickie Pal. Unlike the other red herring items in the game (which are just stuff that’s easily picked up along the way, can be thrown into a trash can and have nothing in their description to hint at their importance), the Betamax thing is given much more ‘prominence’, leading the player to believe it’s an item crucial to progressing in the game. It’s the only red herring item that has an entire dedicated ‘puzzle’ to obtain (pizza coupon, having to replace the vacuum tube on the MovieTron), and the coupon for it is featured on a pizza flyer that gives vital clues/information to the player (the seckrit meeting, the electric fence, the code for the fence). There’s also the fact that Leonard has some lines of dialogue early in the game that hint at Betamax tapes being used in the Security camera, and how his boss is gonna be mad if the tape is stolen/replaced - another prominent ‘exposition’ of how important the Betamax thing will be further into the game. All of that, imo, tends to really lead a player into believing that the Betamax thing is a crucial part of a larger future puzzle and that it surely can’t be a red herring since it’s much harder to obtain and is given much more attention in the game than the random junk you pick up along the highway and such. Even when the characters said that there aren’t any Betamax players in the game, I understood it as a hint that the exact opposite was true. If any developers read this, was this originally meant to be a larger/crucial puzzle that was then cut out at the least moment and sort of awkwardly and misleadingly kept in the game as a red herring/dead end? I loved the game and most of the puzzle design in general, but this one really stood out as problematic and misleading to me. ---
**Author:** ![ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/zakphoenixmckracken/32/41_2.png) [@ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/ZakPhoenixMcKracken)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 10:22am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/2 "2017-09-19T10:22:33Z")
> [@Stric\_Matic](#): > > If any developers read this, was this originally meant to be a larger/crucial puzzle Hi, you got a good point here. The camera system in the Quickie Pal should have been part of a puzzle, involving another Tron Machine, where the user could use the recorded images to find some evidence, by zooming, move forward and backward, etc. In the final version, this puzzle has been cut, together with the CameraTron Machine. ---
**Author:** ![DZ-Jay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@DZ-Jay](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/DZ-Jay)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 10:47am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/3 "2017-09-19T10:47:20Z")
Yeah, Mr. Gilbert also mentioned that there was an _EnhanceTron 3000™_ as part of the design to manipulate the photo, but was discarded for various reasons. dZ. ---
**Author:** ![rarog4k](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/rarog4k/32/1359_2.png) [@rarog4k](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/rarog4k)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 10:47am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/4 "2017-09-19T10:47:36Z")
Good observation. I also noticed the seemingly cut content and wondered, what it might be. Perhaps one day this will be readded as optional puzzle just like the arcade hall is now open and can be visited and used. Or it’s the puzzle is functioning all along and just nobody discovered how to solve it. 😱 ---
**Author:** ![Someone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@Someone](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Someone)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 11:00am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/5 "2017-09-19T11:00:57Z")
Betamax is the new chainsaw! ---
**Author:** ![Gffp](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/gffp/32/12183_2.png) [@Gffp](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Gffp)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 12:12pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/6 "2017-09-19T12:12:04Z")
> [@ZakPhoenixMcKracken](#): > > The camera system in the Quickie Pal should have been part of a puzzle, involving another Tron Machine, where the user could use the recorded images to find some evidence, by zooming, move forward and backward, etc. @RonGilbert That’s the chance you were waitin’ for to keep on working on the game after October, adding new features and puzzle chains! Haven’t you said that also point and click adventures could get DLCs? 😁 Something tells me that it won’t happen… 🤔 And I don’t think it will be a bad thing… The only thing I’m concerned about is the puzzle with the baloon animal and its reference in the future. ---
**Author:** ![ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/zakphoenixmckracken/32/41_2.png) [@ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/ZakPhoenixMcKracken)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 12:38pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/7 "2017-09-19T12:38:01Z")
> [@Gffp](#): > > The only thing I’m concerned about is the puzzle with the baloon animal and its reference in the future. The Wayback Machine may still work in 30 years… [https://web.archive.org/web/\*/http://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/](https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/) ---
**Author:** ![milanfahrnholz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@milanfahrnholz](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/milanfahrnholz)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 12:45pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/8 "2017-09-19T12:45:23Z")
I like the assumption this is based on, that people will still play Thimbleweed Park for the first time long after, youtube, google and all the other websites have gone out of business.🙂 The game Startropics for the NES had a part where you had to put a piece of paper that came in the game box under water to reveal a hidden code. Nowadays nobody has the box more, especially those who play the game on their NES Classic Edition. But the code is always the same, so people just can look it up online. I think there will always people there to people, even when the blog and the original video are long gone. ---
**Author:** ![ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/zakphoenixmckracken/32/41_2.png) [@ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/ZakPhoenixMcKracken)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 12:48pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/9 "2017-09-19T12:48:41Z")
> [@milanfahrnholz](#): > > I think there will always people there to people, even when the blog and the original video are long gone. Elders will hand information over the youngers. Word of mouth. ---
**Author:** ![LowLevel](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/lowlevel/32/48_2.png) [@LowLevel](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/LowLevel)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 7:13pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/10 "2017-09-19T19:13:05Z")
My personal experience about the Betamax tape is that at the beginning I thought it was a puzzle but the more I played the game the more I was convinced that there wasn’t much to do about it. At that point it felt to me as an abandoned puzzle. ---
**Author:** ![Nor\_Treblig](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/nor_treblig/32/216_2.png) [@Nor\_Treblig](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Nor_Treblig)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/11 "2017-09-19T20:42:09Z")
We talked a little about the Betamax tape here: > [@(SPOILERS) Which Easter-Eggs have you found?](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/spoilers-which-easter-eggs-have-you-found/928): > > WARNING: Major Spoiler Alert! You have been warned. I’ve played the game a few times and every time I try to act in a different way or look for new things within the game. I’ve read in this forum about some Easter-Eggs and alternate endings, but I haven’t managed to find many, so I wanted to invite others to share their discoveries here. I expect it’ll get very spoilery around here, so if you haven’t finished the game or wish to discover everything by yourself, then I strongly urge you to le… Note that the tape is also a reference which is probably the main reason it wasn’t removed. ---
**Author:** ![LowLevel](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/lowlevel/32/48_2.png) [@LowLevel](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/LowLevel)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/12 "2017-09-19T20:47:17Z")
The issue with the Betamax tape was also discussed in the following thread: > [@When did you follow the wrong the track?](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/when-did-you-follow-the-wrong-the-track/401): > > How often and when did you think [image] only to find out you were completely wrong? I didn´t read a poster on Thimblecon and thought I had to win prize money to pay the lawyer. I thought I´d have to open chuck´s grave to get his fingerprint. I thought Franklin had to do something with frozen fountain water. I expected to find something in the fridge in the sewer. I tried to fingerprint the body, which makes zero sense. I thought Doug and his shovel might become important at some point. … ---
**Author:** ![milanfahrnholz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@milanfahrnholz](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/milanfahrnholz)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/13 "2017-09-19T20:54:36Z")
\> I thought Doug and his shovel might become important at some point. Hah! ---
**Author:** ![LowLevel](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/lowlevel/32/48_2.png) [@LowLevel](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/LowLevel)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 8:57pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/14 "2017-09-19T20:57:32Z")
This ever-changing content-expanding game makes our impressions obsolete. A year from now even this thread might become interesting only for videogame historians. ---
**Author:** ![milanfahrnholz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@milanfahrnholz](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/milanfahrnholz)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/15 "2017-09-19T21:01:43Z")
But by then, will it actually still be the same game, or something completly new ála [the Ship of Theseus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus)? ---
**Author:** ![seguso](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/seguso/32/1232_2.png) [@seguso](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/seguso)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 7:36am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/16 "2017-09-20T07:36:15Z")
Imagine an expansion pack where you control Ransome and you need to do mean things (like pushing the stilts guy ). Or Doug and you only have the verb “use shovel”. (or “dig”) or many verbs, all related to the various shades of using the shovel (dig out, bury, turn over, destroy, push…) ---
**Author:** ![milanfahrnholz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@milanfahrnholz](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/milanfahrnholz)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 11:42am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/17 "2017-09-20T11:42:19Z")
> [@seguso](#): > > Or Doug and you only have the verb “use shovel”. (or “dig”) Don´t forget “teleport”! ---
**Author:** ![ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/zakphoenixmckracken/32/41_2.png) [@ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/ZakPhoenixMcKracken)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 1:02pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/18 "2017-09-20T13:02:20Z")
![immagine](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/thimbleweedpark/original/2X/c/c8be5531980d1ed1d201b9e0797c56bda88b3a38.png) ---
**Author:** ![DZ-Jay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@DZ-Jay](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/DZ-Jay)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/19 "2017-09-20T16:08:04Z")
You forgot a verb: decapitate. ---
**Author:** ![ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/zakphoenixmckracken/32/41_2.png) [@ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/ZakPhoenixMcKracken)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 5:40pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664/20 "2017-09-20T17:40:56Z")
Poor me! No way! 😅😅 [Next page](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/the-betamax-tape-is-a-cruel-red-herring/1664.md?page=2)