I loved Courage The Cowardly Dog as a kid and I had no idea they made video games for it until I saw this one. This game interests me and I would love to play through it if I knew how to get past the Data Missing screens.
I enjoyed the beginning of this game, I’m a sucker for creepypasta style games that use nostalgia. However there were some choices that I didn’t necessarily enjoy, but overall decent. Well done.
This is so bizzare, thank you for uncovering this and turning it into a playable game! I'm hoping we can discover some secrets about it. I got to the room with the chairs and quit from there.. I can't seem to figure out much more than that. I read some of the files and there is a text log in there containing a creepy message as well.
so i was checking the Data folder, i found a folder called Logs, and in that folder there was a .txt file called ..txt, the text inside it is "She Followed The Rules, He Broke The Rules, The O W Was To The Right" which would creep you out, what? just me? dam..
Ok, so this game got me interested cause of its complicated plot that has been discovered so far, I must warn that never played it so i am just giving my ideas and opinion.
I have seen many people talking about the courage tv episode "hard drive courage" which someone thinks that it could be related to it, but i must disagree, i watched the episode and for my opinion it has more than nothing to do with it, i'll link it here https://www.megacartoons.net/hard-drive-courage/ and you'll might see it's a normal episode that in my opinion it has no relevant value for our story here.
Thats all, i just wanted to point out this thing, also i noticed that there will be an update on this game so we well see.
Decided to keep my video off this comment section because it seems to me like it's a place where people try to find updates, but I still wanna give a short review! This was a really nice trip down memory lane that's been turned on its head. I love games like this that are unassuming at the start, and end up leading you down a rabbit hole of secrets. I didn't get very far, but I do want to continue playing and finding these secrets as they're discovered. Overall, I had a great time playing this! Great work!
Played it yesterday, good visual style representing 'PS1 graphics', I got decently far without spoiling myself or having read any of the comments before-hand, but, after getting the DATA MISSING part, I'm gonna just imagine most of the 'puzzles' and secrets will go over my head XD But I enjoyed what I was able to achieve as short as it was for me
omg I really cried at the adorable models this game is my whole childhood I love it i was always searching for courage the cowardly dog game but i just found courage's curse and courage the cowardly pt thanks for making this game :D
To sum up where we are so far and what has yet to be figured out... Now with pictures!
// spoilers
I am going to assume that you're able to figure out the house intro and chair puzzle on your own for this summary.
First, I'm gonna talk about the sav files. You can find your save file at C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\CourageOW\Saved\SaveGames . When the game crashes at various points, it'll update the Courage.sav file so that next time you start the game, you'll be in the new location. If you open the sav files in a hex editor like HxD, most of the contents are pretty much identical except for an English string near the bottom (ex. "The Time" or "Was Good"). You can edit the string and load up the game to be loaded into the corresponding map.
The intro screen when you load a new save file tells us that there are 3 data missing scenes to find. That was our first goal. We have found all 3.
An interesting note about the sav files of the 3 data missing scenes is that before the usual sav phrase (which is always the same phrase as the map right before the data missing screen), all of them contain the strings "And Fair?" and "BeforeTheStorm". Sometimes the sav for one of the data missing scenes also contains the string "No". We do not currently know the purpose of the "BeforeTheStorm" string or if the "No" string is a bug or purposeful
The first data missing screen was found by Bryce Bucher. To find it, complete the house intro and chair puzzle as normal. Then go through the hidden wall (follow the bird sounds) and jump off the side. You will spawn in the house with no furniture. The sav phrase for this scene is "Was Good". If you wait around in the house, you'll eventually hear some Morse code. Otherwise, go upstairs, interact with the door, and then when you go back downstairs the grandfather clock will be in the middle of the room. Be sure to JUMP OVER THE RAILING into the room instead of just walking down the stairs. If you just walk down the stairs, the clock will chime 12 times and the game will crash. However, if you jump over the railing, the clock won't start chiming and you can interact with the door in the back of the house to get the first data missing screen.
The Morse code during this sequence translates to "Learn The Way Of The Old Wind". It is worth noting that the phrase "Old Wind" is pretty important. The game itself is called CourageOW (we think OW stands for Old Wind) and there is also a file in CourageOW/PortFiles/Data/Logs/..txt that says "She followed the rules He broke the rules The O██ W███ was all the way to the right". And we believe the censored words are Old Wind. I'll talk more about what we think Old Wind might mean later in the post. Side note: If you open the README file it says "When you find a dead end Just erase time", but we're pretty sure that just means that when your save is unusable (you found a data missing screen), delete your sav file.
The second and third data missing screens are both found by going to the end of the two hidden paths in the void room. To get to the void room, do the house intro and chair puzzle and then go to the end of the hidden wall path to interact with a hidden question mark. Then go north of the chairs to find a portrait of Muriel and interact with it. After the game crashes, you'll spawn in the void room. The sav phrase for this room is "The Time".
In this room, there are two invisible paths off the NW and SE of the start. As found by duckenheimer, if you run the background music through a spectrogram using a program like Spek, you'll get a map of the invisible paths. However, they're incredibly difficult to follow with lots of turns and long paths in the dark. TheBeardeDude found that you can instead use a program called Reshade to see the invisible paths by shading the display depth.
Following the SE path, you'll end up at a light that, when interacted with, will teleport you to a pitch black room with a locked camera. If you walk forward, you'll find like a cardboard cutout of the front of a house. Note this house because we'll be talking about it again during the OldWind discussion later. and behind it is a portrait of Robert Wheeler. Interacting with that will crash your game and update your sav file with the string "I Don't". You'll spawn in the house, but it's very dark. Going upstairs will start a cutscene of a humanoid creature moving towards you (the name for this creature in the files is RealWheeler). Then you get the next data missing screen.
Following the NW path, you'll end up at the chair under the spotlight. Interacting with it will crash your game and update your sav file with the string "When the World". You'll spawn in the house with a bunch of coins scattered about. Collecting some of them will slow the music and some HUD with Muriel as player 2 will appear. Then, after collecting all the coins, her portrait will darken and you'll get the last data missing screen.
If you brighten the 3 data missing screens, there are hidden phrases that says "Father wasn't home", "Mr Wheeler was there to greet me", and "It was her Eleonor". We do not currently know the significance of these phrases.
After finding the 3 data missing screens, we had the following sav phrases: "The Time", "When The World", "Was Good", "I Don't" as well as the other strings that appeared in the sav files "And Fair?", "BeforeTheStorm", and possibly "No". From attempts to make a full phrase using these, it was found that you can use the phrase "Remember" and it will load the game as if it were a new save. NeitherNathan mentioned in a discord message that the first sav phrase in the full phrase wasn't appearing in the sav files due to a bug. Currently a new sav file doesn't contain any phrase. Because of this, we believe that the "Remember" phrase is supposed to relate to the new save scene. Then, using a program called Cheat Engine to search through the running game's memory, it was found that the last sav phrase is "Do You". We do not currently know the intended solution to find the "Do You" sav phrase. So, it appears the full sav phrase may be "Remember The Time When The World Was Good And Fair? I Don't Do You". The reason for "Do You" being at the end instead of the beginning of the phrase is due to the ordering of the phrases in the memory, but I feel it may make more sense for it to be at the beginning due to the punctuation. However We do not currently know what the significance of the full sav phrase is.
Editing your sav file to use the "Do You" phrase spawns you in a greybox version of the house. The only thing you can do is go into the computer room and interact with the computer over and over. We do not currently know if there is anything else to do in this scene.
And finally, let's talk about OldWind. This phrase appears a lot throughout the game and it seems to be a central pillar of the ARG. If you extract the .pak files of the game using Unreal Engine's UnrealPak.exe and open them with UE Viewer, you'll see that the following things have filenames relating to OldWind: The design under the chair puzzle, the coins that have the same design, the darkened Muriel P2 UI, and the cardboard cutout house model. If you look at the chair puzzle design, you'll notice that you can use it to (kind of) spell out OLDWIND. We believe that there is a way to interact with the chair puzzle in such a way to input the letters OLDWIND, but have not yet been successful. Since there are missing chairs and it is unclear which chair to start each letter with, we haven't figured this one out yet. My theory is that successfully inputting OLDWIND into the chair puzzle will give us the "Do You" sav legitimately. Note that having to figure out how to input these letters would fit nicely with the Morse code that said "Learn The Way Of The Old Wind".
As for the other two files related to OldWind We do not currently know what the darkened Muriel UI nor the house have to do with OldWind. The house may be related to the clue that says "The O██ W███ was all the way to the right" since in order to get to the house, you need to go all the way down the right path in the void.
And that's about all we know at this point. NeitherNathan has recently posted on Twitter that there will be an update to the "port", so I'll be sure to revisit this once that comes out. Thanks to NeitherNathan and Chicogames for the great ARG so far! Looking forward to more.
i think i no how to get a forth missing data the qustion markes when you go in a diffrent real thereare two qustin marks one always dings as in correct the one you spawn on is not correct you got to hit some difrent charis to make it correct sohit some diffrent charis and leave the last 2 chairs u toched and tuch the qustion markes in a differnt way
Figured out what the higher question mark in the chair area is. If you do the first 3 chairs normally and then use the high question mark and then continue from the 5th chair the puzzle will complete normally. Not sure what comes after that
Wait, what? I just confirmed that this works. Not sure why though. Might have something to do with the possible letter inputs. Maybe after each letter you need to hit the higher question mark to "lock in" the letter or something? The first 3 chairs seem to make the letter V though, and that isn't in the phrase OLDWIND, so I'm at a loss. Here's an image of the chair puzzle I made btw. Might help.
Edit: Messed around with it some more and couldn't get it to make a correct noise except during that very specific circumstance. Makes me think that it's just an accidental duplicate of the 4th chair's question mark. Has the same height and everything. Would explain why it disappears after the puzzle is complete since all of them do. Still no answer for what the lower question mark is though.
the accidental duplicate of the 4th chair is exactly the conclusion i came too, hopefully we're both wrong and it actually does something because that's kinda lame :(
This game feels like being inside of a dream in an alternative timeline with a depressingly bleak and empty videogame about your favorite cartoon that you made up in your mind. Being the happiest child on earth while "playing" it, you wake up very suddenly after taking the left path and remember this for the rest of your life. Especially the music and the lack of it at later parts makes this experience very beliveable.
By editing the sav file to use the phrase "Do You", you'll appear in a greybox version of the house. Not sure what to do yet. Seems like the only thing you can interact with is the computer over and over.
We already knew most of the sav phrases, so I started up the game and on the main menu used cheat engine to search for any uses of one of those strings and looked around in the memory nearby to find it.
As for editing the sav file, you can use a hex editor like HxD to open the file and near the bottom you'll find an English string depending on which part of the game you're at. New saves don't have these strings, so you'll have to get to another scene like the void room with the hidden paths (the string will be "The Time") and edit the file then.
Can I ask you what you mean with "editing the sav file"? Did you Just write the words in the save file in a specific Place or have you done something else?
You can use a hex editor like HxD to open the file and near the bottom you'll find an English string depending on which part of the game you're at. New saves don't have these strings, so you'll have to get to another scene like the void room with the hidden paths (the string will be "The Time") and edit the file then.
I'm a touch closer than anything listed here to finding the secret fifth .sav ending. Got the first middle question mark, in the circle chairs room, to not make the "wrong answer" sound. I need a break though... feels like I've been at this for 24 hours
To sum up where we are so far and what has yet to be figured out...
// spoilers
I am going to assume that you're able to figure out the house intro and chair puzzle on your own for this summary.
First, I'm gonna talk about the sav files. You can find your save file at C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\CourageOW\Saved\SaveGames . When the game crashes at various points, it'll update the Courage.sav file so that next time you start the game, you'll be in the new location. If you open the sav files in a hex editor, most are pretty much identical except for an English string at the bottom. So far the strings we've found are "The Time", "Was Good", "I Don't", and "When The World". We haven't figured out what to do with these strings yet.
The intro screen when you load a new save file tells us that there are 3 data missing scenes to find. We have found all 3.
An interesting note about the sav files of the 3 data missing scenes is that before the usual string, all of them contain the strings "And Fair?" and "BeforeTheStorm". We also haven't figured out what to do with these.
The first data missing screen was found by Bryce Bucher. To find it, complete the house intro and chair puzzle as normal. Then go through the hidden wall (follow the bird sounds) and jump off the side. You will spawn in the house with no furniture. The sav file for this scene contains the string "Was Good". Optionally, you can choose to wait here and you'll eventually hear some Morse code. Otherwise, go upstairs, interact with the door, and then when you go back downstairs there will be a grandfather clock in the middle of the room. Be sure to JUMP OVER THE RAILING into the room instead of just walking down the stairs. If you just walk down the stairs, the clock will chime 12 times and the game will crash. However, if you jump over the railing, the clock won't start chiming and you can interact with the door in the back of the house to get the first data missing screen.
The Morse code during this sequence translates to "Learn The Way Of The Old Wind". We don't know what this means yet, but it is worth noting that the phrase "Old Wind" is pretty important. The game itself is called CourageOW (we think OW stands for Old Wind) and there is also a file in CourageOW/PortFiles/Data/Logs/..txt that says "She followed the rules He broke the rules The O██ W███ was all the way to the right". And we believe the censored words are Old Wind. Side note: If you open the README file it says "When you find a dead end Just erase time", but we're pretty sure that just means that when your save is unusable (you found a data missing screen), delete your sav file.
The second and third data missing screens are both found by going to the end of the two hidden paths in the void room. To get to the void room, do the house intro and chair puzzle and then go to the end of the hidden wall path to interact with a hidden ? . Then go north of the chairs to find a portrait of Muriel and interact with it. After the game crashes, you'll spawn in the void room. The sav string for this room is "The Time".
In this room, there are two invisible paths off the NW and SE of the start. As found by duckenheimer, if you run the background music through a spectrogram, you'll get a map of the invisible paths. However, they're incredibly difficult to follow with lots of turns and long paths in the dark. TheBeardeDude found that you can use a program called Reshade to see the invisible paths by shading the display depth.
Following the SE path, you'll end up at a light that, when interacted with, will teleport you to a pitch black room with a locked camera. If you walk forward, you'll find the front face of the house (kind of like a cardboard cutout of the front of the house) and behind it is a portrait of Robert Wheeler. Interacting with that will crash your game and update your sav file with the string "I Don't". You'll spawn in the house, but it's very dark. Going upstairs will start a cutscene of a ghost creature (with I believe Robert Wheeler's face) moving towards you. Then you get the next data missing screen.
Following the NW path, you'll end up at the chair under the spotlight. Interacting with it will crash your game and update your sav file with the string "When the World". You'll spawn in the house with a bunch of coins scattered about. Collecting some of them will slow the music and some HUD with Muriel as player 2 will appear. Then, after collecting all the coins, her portrait will darken and the music will slow even more. Then the game crashes and the last data missing screen appears.
If you brighten the 3 data missing images, there are hidden phrases that says "Father wasn't home", "Mr Wheeler was there to greet me", and "It was her Eleanor". We don't know what to do with these yet either.
I'm sure there is more stuff in the game since if you open the .pak file in a hex editor, you'll find references to a sprite called "OldWindPendant" which we haven't found yet. The only place in the game that I can think of that hasn't been full explored yet is in the chair puzzle room, there is an invisible ? near where you spawn. (There are actually 2 there when you spawn, but the higher one disappears after you do the chair puzzle which leads me to believe that the higher one is actually the one behind the hidden wall that moves after the puzzle is completed). We don't know what the lower ? at the beginning does.
Edit: I realized that the OldWindPendant sprite may actually be referring to the coins. With that in mind, the design on the coins is the same as the design on the floor under the chair puzzle. It's possible to use this design to spell out the letters OLDWIND by selecting the chairs in the right order. However, it's not easy to figure out what that order is since there are chairs missing, and the starting point for each letter is unclear.
If anyone is able to figure the order out, leave a comment! It may also have something to do with the invisible ? at the beginning.
Edit2: Editing the sav file to use the phrase "Remember" loads (what seems to be) a new save instead of hanging on the loading screen. Because of that, I'm pretty sure the full phrase relating to the sav files is "Remember The Time BeforeTheStorm When The World Was Good And Fair? I Don't". Tried editing the sav file to use that phrase, but it just loads the same as a "Remember" sav since I think the way the save system works is that it checks from the beginning of the string and loads whichever phrase comes first. So, we also need to figure out what to do with that phrase.
Edit3: Sometimes the sav file from the 2nd data missing screen will also include the word "No", so it's possible that that word is included in the phrase.
Edit4: NeitherNathan has just posted on Twitter that there will be an update to the "port". It's possible that we've discovered all there is to see in the current version due to the phrasing in the follow up tweet that says "I can't believe you all discovered everything so fast", but I think there's still a bit to figure out with the OLDWIND chair input, invisible ?, and sav phrase.
For anyone unfamiliar with ReShade, here's a quick tutorial on how to get the shader effects needed to take on the void map: - download ReShade from their site at reshade.me
- run the installer, and "Click here to select a game and manage its ReShade installation"
- click Browse and select the .exe located in the Binaries folder: - when asked to select a rendering API, choose Direct3D 10/11/12
- SweetFX should be selected by default, but in case it isn't make sure it's selected before pressing OK, and OK again to confirm the shaders included. ReShade is now installed!
- Run CourageOW and start up the void map. You should see a ReShade banner on-screen now. Press Home to open ReShade and skip the tutorial to show the list of available shaders. Select DisplayDepth (DisplayDepth.fx).
- This only seems to work in windowed mode, so if your game is fullscreen press F11 to switch and that should work:
You can also get a little bit more screen space by switching "Show Both (Vertical 50/50)" to "Normal Map".
I was trying to piece together the sav phrases and came up with "The time before the storm, when the world was good and fair? I don't [remember it]", so I tried a sav file with "Remember It" and it worked. Then I found out that the phrase is just "Remember" and you can type anything after the phrase and it'll still accept it. Also just found out that sometimes the sav file for the 2nd missing data screen includes the word "No", so the complete phrase may include that as well.
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I loved Courage The Cowardly Dog as a kid and I had no idea they made video games for it until I saw this one. This game interests me and I would love to play through it if I knew how to get past the Data Missing screens.
All Missing Files Playlist:
+1 for effort ... heh would not think to use the Engine to hack lights to see the path
I enjoyed the beginning of this game, I’m a sucker for creepypasta style games that use nostalgia. However there were some choices that I didn’t necessarily enjoy, but overall decent. Well done.
Looks nice and funny hahah. Thank you very much!
nice
Nossa parabéns pelo trabalho!
If you have to, get this funded and finish the damn game!
Thanks ,i used to love going through old hard drives found on old computers.
Not so many around these days.
I really don't know what to make of this, but it was still fun and wacky!
so i was checking the Data folder, i found a folder called Logs, and in that folder there was a .txt file called ..txt, the text inside it is "She Followed The Rules, He Broke The Rules, The O W Was To The Right" which would creep you out, what? just me? dam..
Ok, so this game got me interested cause of its complicated plot that has been discovered so far, I must warn that never played it so i am just giving my ideas and opinion.
I have seen many people talking about the courage tv episode "hard drive courage" which someone thinks that it could be related to it, but i must disagree, i watched the episode and for my opinion it has more than nothing to do with it, i'll link it here https://www.megacartoons.net/hard-drive-courage/ and you'll might see it's a normal episode that in my opinion it has no relevant value for our story here.
Thats all, i just wanted to point out this thing, also i noticed that there will be an update on this game so we well see.
I hope to have been useful in some way.
Farewell
This game and its graphics are dope as hell. what kind of shader is it?
i cant seem to download it
Decided to keep my video off this comment section because it seems to me like it's a place where people try to find updates, but I still wanna give a short review! This was a really nice trip down memory lane that's been turned on its head. I love games like this that are unassuming at the start, and end up leading you down a rabbit hole of secrets. I didn't get very far, but I do want to continue playing and finding these secrets as they're discovered. Overall, I had a great time playing this! Great work!
Game Server for everyone who wants here:
https://discord.gg/mRWtnaNf
Played it yesterday, good visual style representing 'PS1 graphics', I got decently far without spoiling myself or having read any of the comments before-hand, but, after getting the DATA MISSING part, I'm gonna just imagine most of the 'puzzles' and secrets will go over my head XD But I enjoyed what I was able to achieve as short as it was for me
omg I really cried at the adorable models this game is my whole childhood I love it i was always searching for courage the cowardly dog game but i just found courage's curse and courage the cowardly pt thanks for making this game :D
ayo
can somebody inspect game files like .dll or .cs?
maybe we would find something intresting
Does anyone have any idea who Robert Wheeler is? Or at least the man used in the picture
I want to know too!
Something tells me you may already know...
Is that you Robert? Do you know who eleanor is?
hi
I know you are the one who broke the rules
I know you are the one who broke the rules
I know you are the one who broke the rules
Oh my god! It looks good can't wait to play it!
To sum up where we are so far and what has yet to be figured out... Now with pictures!
// spoilers
I am going to assume that you're able to figure out the house intro and chair puzzle on your own for this summary.
First, I'm gonna talk about the sav files. You can find your save file at C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\CourageOW\Saved\SaveGames . When the game crashes at various points, it'll update the Courage.sav file so that next time you start the game, you'll be in the new location. If you open the sav files in a hex editor like HxD, most of the contents are pretty much identical except for an English string near the bottom (ex. "The Time" or "Was Good"). You can edit the string and load up the game to be loaded into the corresponding map.
The intro screen when you load a new save file tells us that there are 3 data missing scenes to find. That was our first goal. We have found all 3.
An interesting note about the sav files of the 3 data missing scenes is that before the usual sav phrase (which is always the same phrase as the map right before the data missing screen), all of them contain the strings "And Fair?" and "BeforeTheStorm". Sometimes the sav for one of the data missing scenes also contains the string "No". We do not currently know the purpose of the "BeforeTheStorm" string or if the "No" string is a bug or purposeful
The first data missing screen was found by Bryce Bucher. To find it, complete the house intro and chair puzzle as normal. Then go through the hidden wall (follow the bird sounds) and jump off the side. You will spawn in the house with no furniture. The sav phrase for this scene is "Was Good". If you wait around in the house, you'll eventually hear some Morse code. Otherwise, go upstairs, interact with the door, and then when you go back downstairs the grandfather clock will be in the middle of the room. Be sure to JUMP OVER THE RAILING into the room instead of just walking down the stairs. If you just walk down the stairs, the clock will chime 12 times and the game will crash. However, if you jump over the railing, the clock won't start chiming and you can interact with the door in the back of the house to get the first data missing screen.
The Morse code during this sequence translates to "Learn The Way Of The Old Wind". It is worth noting that the phrase "Old Wind" is pretty important. The game itself is called CourageOW (we think OW stands for Old Wind) and there is also a file in CourageOW/PortFiles/Data/Logs/..txt that says "She followed the rules He broke the rules The O██ W███ was all the way to the right". And we believe the censored words are Old Wind. I'll talk more about what we think Old Wind might mean later in the post. Side note: If you open the README file it says "When you find a dead end Just erase time", but we're pretty sure that just means that when your save is unusable (you found a data missing screen), delete your sav file.
The second and third data missing screens are both found by going to the end of the two hidden paths in the void room. To get to the void room, do the house intro and chair puzzle and then go to the end of the hidden wall path to interact with a hidden question mark. Then go north of the chairs to find a portrait of Muriel and interact with it. After the game crashes, you'll spawn in the void room. The sav phrase for this room is "The Time".
In this room, there are two invisible paths off the NW and SE of the start. As found by duckenheimer, if you run the background music through a spectrogram using a program like Spek, you'll get a map of the invisible paths. However, they're incredibly difficult to follow with lots of turns and long paths in the dark. TheBeardeDude found that you can instead use a program called Reshade to see the invisible paths by shading the display depth.
Following the SE path, you'll end up at a light that, when interacted with, will teleport you to a pitch black room with a locked camera. If you walk forward, you'll find like a cardboard cutout of the front of a house. Note this house because we'll be talking about it again during the OldWind discussion later. and behind it is a portrait of Robert Wheeler. Interacting with that will crash your game and update your sav file with the string "I Don't". You'll spawn in the house, but it's very dark. Going upstairs will start a cutscene of a humanoid creature moving towards you (the name for this creature in the files is RealWheeler). Then you get the next data missing screen.
Following the NW path, you'll end up at the chair under the spotlight. Interacting with it will crash your game and update your sav file with the string "When the World". You'll spawn in the house with a bunch of coins scattered about. Collecting some of them will slow the music and some HUD with Muriel as player 2 will appear. Then, after collecting all the coins, her portrait will darken and you'll get the last data missing screen.
If you brighten the 3 data missing screens, there are hidden phrases that says "Father wasn't home", "Mr Wheeler was there to greet me", and "It was her Eleonor". We do not currently know the significance of these phrases.
After finding the 3 data missing screens, we had the following sav phrases: "The Time", "When The World", "Was Good", "I Don't" as well as the other strings that appeared in the sav files "And Fair?", "BeforeTheStorm", and possibly "No". From attempts to make a full phrase using these, it was found that you can use the phrase "Remember" and it will load the game as if it were a new save. NeitherNathan mentioned in a discord message that the first sav phrase in the full phrase wasn't appearing in the sav files due to a bug. Currently a new sav file doesn't contain any phrase. Because of this, we believe that the "Remember" phrase is supposed to relate to the new save scene. Then, using a program called Cheat Engine to search through the running game's memory, it was found that the last sav phrase is "Do You". We do not currently know the intended solution to find the "Do You" sav phrase. So, it appears the full sav phrase may be "Remember The Time When The World Was Good And Fair? I Don't Do You". The reason for "Do You" being at the end instead of the beginning of the phrase is due to the ordering of the phrases in the memory, but I feel it may make more sense for it to be at the beginning due to the punctuation. However We do not currently know what the significance of the full sav phrase is.
Editing your sav file to use the "Do You" phrase spawns you in a greybox version of the house. The only thing you can do is go into the computer room and interact with the computer over and over. We do not currently know if there is anything else to do in this scene.
And finally, let's talk about OldWind. This phrase appears a lot throughout the game and it seems to be a central pillar of the ARG. If you extract the .pak files of the game using Unreal Engine's UnrealPak.exe and open them with UE Viewer, you'll see that the following things have filenames relating to OldWind: The design under the chair puzzle, the coins that have the same design, the darkened Muriel P2 UI, and the cardboard cutout house model. If you look at the chair puzzle design, you'll notice that you can use it to (kind of) spell out OLDWIND. We believe that there is a way to interact with the chair puzzle in such a way to input the letters OLDWIND, but have not yet been successful. Since there are missing chairs and it is unclear which chair to start each letter with, we haven't figured this one out yet. My theory is that successfully inputting OLDWIND into the chair puzzle will give us the "Do You" sav legitimately. Note that having to figure out how to input these letters would fit nicely with the Morse code that said "Learn The Way Of The Old Wind".
As for the other two files related to OldWind We do not currently know what the darkened Muriel UI nor the house have to do with OldWind. The house may be related to the clue that says "The O██ W███ was all the way to the right" since in order to get to the house, you need to go all the way down the right path in the void.
And that's about all we know at this point. NeitherNathan has recently posted on Twitter that there will be an update to the "port", so I'll be sure to revisit this once that comes out. Thanks to NeitherNathan and Chicogames for the great ARG so far! Looking forward to more.
Do You Remember The Time Before The Storm When The World Was Good And Fair? I Don't.
i think i no how to get a forth missing data the qustion markes when you go in a diffrent real thereare two qustin marks one always dings as in correct the one you spawn on is not correct you got to hit some difrent charis to make it correct sohit some diffrent charis and leave the last 2 chairs u toched and tuch the qustion markes in a differnt way
when you go in the difrent dimens in the two qustion marks you spawn on do all the chairs exept2 and then do the ones you spawn on in a order
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epic
Figured out what the higher question mark in the chair area is. If you do the first 3 chairs normally and then use the high question mark and then continue from the 5th chair the puzzle will complete normally. Not sure what comes after that
Wait, what? I just confirmed that this works. Not sure why though. Might have something to do with the possible letter inputs. Maybe after each letter you need to hit the higher question mark to "lock in" the letter or something? The first 3 chairs seem to make the letter V though, and that isn't in the phrase OLDWIND, so I'm at a loss. Here's an image of the chair puzzle I made btw. Might help.
Edit: Messed around with it some more and couldn't get it to make a correct noise except during that very specific circumstance. Makes me think that it's just an accidental duplicate of the 4th chair's question mark. Has the same height and everything. Would explain why it disappears after the puzzle is complete since all of them do. Still no answer for what the lower question mark is though.
the accidental duplicate of the 4th chair is exactly the conclusion i came too, hopefully we're both wrong and it actually does something because that's kinda lame :(
This really brings back memories. One of my favorite cartoons on one of my favorite gaming consoles. Nice Job! Thanks for the nostalgia.
can't wait for more to come...keep it up guys the BEST NOSTALGIC moment I had today ! 10/10
pls WATCH MY GAMEPLAY AND SUBSCRIBE BOIS!
Begone shittuber.
Begone shittuber.
😭
very cute
This game feels like being inside of a dream in an alternative timeline with a depressingly bleak and empty videogame about your favorite cartoon that you made up in your mind. Being the happiest child on earth while "playing" it, you wake up very suddenly after taking the left path and remember this for the rest of your life. Especially the music and the lack of it at later parts makes this experience very beliveable.
So wait, is the game you found a prototype ps1 game that never saw the light of day or a fan made thing?
Just found another save file
// spoilers
By editing the sav file to use the phrase "Do You", you'll appear in a greybox version of the house. Not sure what to do yet. Seems like the only thing you can interact with is the computer over and over.
Nice finding! How did you find it? Or did you just tried to insert it at random?
If so how did you edit it? Which program did you use?
We already knew most of the sav phrases, so I started up the game and on the main menu used cheat engine to search for any uses of one of those strings and looked around in the memory nearby to find it.
As for editing the sav file, you can use a hex editor like HxD to open the file and near the bottom you'll find an English string depending on which part of the game you're at. New saves don't have these strings, so you'll have to get to another scene like the void room with the hidden paths (the string will be "The Time") and edit the file then.
Can I ask you what you mean with "editing the sav file"? Did you Just write the words in the save file in a specific Place or have you done something else?
You can use a hex editor like HxD to open the file and near the bottom you'll find an English string depending on which part of the game you're at. New saves don't have these strings, so you'll have to get to another scene like the void room with the hidden paths (the string will be "The Time") and edit the file then.
Thanks bro
I'm a touch closer than anything listed here to finding the secret fifth .sav ending. Got the first middle question mark, in the circle chairs room, to not make the "wrong answer" sound. I need a break though... feels like I've been at this for 24 hours
Mind sharing how you did that? Did you use the OLDWIND letters as input? If so, which chair did you use to start each letter?
Cool
DATA MISSING in Black Site chair puzzle.
Left Path.
To sum up where we are so far and what has yet to be figured out...
// spoilers
I am going to assume that you're able to figure out the house intro and chair puzzle on your own for this summary.
First, I'm gonna talk about the sav files. You can find your save file at C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\CourageOW\Saved\SaveGames . When the game crashes at various points, it'll update the Courage.sav file so that next time you start the game, you'll be in the new location. If you open the sav files in a hex editor, most are pretty much identical except for an English string at the bottom. So far the strings we've found are "The Time", "Was Good", "I Don't", and "When The World". We haven't figured out what to do with these strings yet.
The intro screen when you load a new save file tells us that there are 3 data missing scenes to find. We have found all 3.
An interesting note about the sav files of the 3 data missing scenes is that before the usual string, all of them contain the strings "And Fair?" and "BeforeTheStorm". We also haven't figured out what to do with these.
The first data missing screen was found by Bryce Bucher. To find it, complete the house intro and chair puzzle as normal. Then go through the hidden wall (follow the bird sounds) and jump off the side. You will spawn in the house with no furniture. The sav file for this scene contains the string "Was Good". Optionally, you can choose to wait here and you'll eventually hear some Morse code. Otherwise, go upstairs, interact with the door, and then when you go back downstairs there will be a grandfather clock in the middle of the room. Be sure to JUMP OVER THE RAILING into the room instead of just walking down the stairs. If you just walk down the stairs, the clock will chime 12 times and the game will crash. However, if you jump over the railing, the clock won't start chiming and you can interact with the door in the back of the house to get the first data missing screen.
The Morse code during this sequence translates to "Learn The Way Of The Old Wind". We don't know what this means yet, but it is worth noting that the phrase "Old Wind" is pretty important. The game itself is called CourageOW (we think OW stands for Old Wind) and there is also a file in CourageOW/PortFiles/Data/Logs/..txt that says "She followed the rules He broke the rules The O██ W███ was all the way to the right". And we believe the censored words are Old Wind. Side note: If you open the README file it says "When you find a dead end Just erase time", but we're pretty sure that just means that when your save is unusable (you found a data missing screen), delete your sav file.
The second and third data missing screens are both found by going to the end of the two hidden paths in the void room. To get to the void room, do the house intro and chair puzzle and then go to the end of the hidden wall path to interact with a hidden ? . Then go north of the chairs to find a portrait of Muriel and interact with it. After the game crashes, you'll spawn in the void room. The sav string for this room is "The Time".
In this room, there are two invisible paths off the NW and SE of the start. As found by duckenheimer, if you run the background music through a spectrogram, you'll get a map of the invisible paths. However, they're incredibly difficult to follow with lots of turns and long paths in the dark. TheBeardeDude found that you can use a program called Reshade to see the invisible paths by shading the display depth.
Following the SE path, you'll end up at a light that, when interacted with, will teleport you to a pitch black room with a locked camera. If you walk forward, you'll find the front face of the house (kind of like a cardboard cutout of the front of the house) and behind it is a portrait of Robert Wheeler. Interacting with that will crash your game and update your sav file with the string "I Don't". You'll spawn in the house, but it's very dark. Going upstairs will start a cutscene of a ghost creature (with I believe Robert Wheeler's face) moving towards you. Then you get the next data missing screen.
Following the NW path, you'll end up at the chair under the spotlight. Interacting with it will crash your game and update your sav file with the string "When the World". You'll spawn in the house with a bunch of coins scattered about. Collecting some of them will slow the music and some HUD with Muriel as player 2 will appear. Then, after collecting all the coins, her portrait will darken and the music will slow even more. Then the game crashes and the last data missing screen appears.
If you brighten the 3 data missing images, there are hidden phrases that says "Father wasn't home", "Mr Wheeler was there to greet me", and "It was her Eleanor". We don't know what to do with these yet either.
I'm sure there is more stuff in the game since if you open the .pak file in a hex editor, you'll find references to a sprite called "OldWindPendant" which we haven't found yet. The only place in the game that I can think of that hasn't been full explored yet is in the chair puzzle room, there is an invisible ? near where you spawn. (There are actually 2 there when you spawn, but the higher one disappears after you do the chair puzzle which leads me to believe that the higher one is actually the one behind the hidden wall that moves after the puzzle is completed). We don't know what the lower ? at the beginning does.
Edit: I realized that the OldWindPendant sprite may actually be referring to the coins. With that in mind, the design on the coins is the same as the design on the floor under the chair puzzle. It's possible to use this design to spell out the letters OLDWIND by selecting the chairs in the right order. However, it's not easy to figure out what that order is since there are chairs missing, and the starting point for each letter is unclear.
If anyone is able to figure the order out, leave a comment! It may also have something to do with the invisible ? at the beginning.
Edit2: Editing the sav file to use the phrase "Remember" loads (what seems to be) a new save instead of hanging on the loading screen. Because of that, I'm pretty sure the full phrase relating to the sav files is "Remember The Time BeforeTheStorm When The World Was Good And Fair? I Don't". Tried editing the sav file to use that phrase, but it just loads the same as a "Remember" sav since I think the way the save system works is that it checks from the beginning of the string and loads whichever phrase comes first. So, we also need to figure out what to do with that phrase.
Edit3: Sometimes the sav file from the 2nd data missing screen will also include the word "No", so it's possible that that word is included in the phrase.
Edit4: NeitherNathan has just posted on Twitter that there will be an update to the "port". It's possible that we've discovered all there is to see in the current version due to the phrasing in the follow up tweet that says "I can't believe you all discovered everything so fast", but I think there's still a bit to figure out with the OLDWIND chair input, invisible ?, and sav phrase.
For anyone unfamiliar with ReShade, here's a quick tutorial on how to get the shader effects needed to take on the void map:
- download ReShade from their site at reshade.me
- run the installer, and "Click here to select a game and manage its ReShade installation"
- click Browse and select the .exe located in the Binaries folder:
- when asked to select a rendering API, choose Direct3D 10/11/12
- SweetFX should be selected by default, but in case it isn't make sure it's selected before pressing OK, and OK again to confirm the shaders included. ReShade is now installed!
- Run CourageOW and start up the void map. You should see a ReShade banner on-screen now. Press Home to open ReShade and skip the tutorial to show the list of available shaders. Select DisplayDepth (DisplayDepth.fx).
- This only seems to work in windowed mode, so if your game is fullscreen press F11 to switch and that should work:
You can also get a little bit more screen space by switching "Show Both (Vertical 50/50)" to "Normal Map".
Hope this helps.
Awesome, where did you get the Remember phrase idea?
I was trying to piece together the sav phrases and came up with "The time before the storm, when the world was good and fair? I don't [remember it]", so I tried a sav file with "Remember It" and it worked. Then I found out that the phrase is just "Remember" and you can type anything after the phrase and it'll still accept it. Also just found out that sometimes the sav file for the 2nd missing data screen includes the word "No", so the complete phrase may include that as well.
Mr. Wheeler was there to greet me, father wasn't home, it was her: Eleanor.