<![CDATA[NDW - Blog]]>Sat, 18 Oct 2025 14:14:10 -0600Weebly<![CDATA[Website Update 04.18.2025]]>Fri, 18 Apr 2025 17:33:36 GMThttps://www.ndwalkthroughs.ca/blog/website-update-04182025Hello fellow sleuths! My oh my, do I have an exciting update to share with you today!
I finally found the root cause of error in the various mini games that weren't working on my site! Turns out, several of the mini games required an extra file called an XML file which featured various pieces of information. Some files had links to download awards or navigate to purchase the games, or even just text used in the game itself. I had a lot of trouble over the last couple days to figure out what the error was, find the XML files, and then edit the SWF's code so that the game would know to look for its specific file within my website instead of another location. Once I found out how to make the fix, things became really easy. I had never broken into an SWF file before and it was a joy to see what was inside. In case you don't know what an SWF file is, that's the exported version of the game, similar to how the ND PC games are exported as EXE.

Here's something really cool I extracted from the Danger by Design mini game:
These are all the dialogue lines from the game! How cool is that? These were recorded specifically for this mini game and can't be found in any other piece of Nancy Drew game media!

Anyways, enough about the behind the scenes of it. I'm sure most of you are dying to finally be able to play the mini game for Warnings at Waverly Academy again! Go run the snack shop and have fun!

That about wraps up today's post. Until next time, detectives!

Huw
]]><![CDATA[Website Update 04.05.2025 and Other Updates]]>Sat, 05 Apr 2025 16:12:11 GMThttps://www.ndwalkthroughs.ca/blog/website-update-04052025-and-other-updatesHello fellow sleuths! We haven't talked since... January? And now it's APRIL? Oh my, how time just flies!
I'm really not sure how many people (if any) actually read this blog, but if anyone does, then I'm excited to announce a new little post for you! Today, I'll be talking about some various updates I've made to the website lately.

Press Release Additions

HeR Interactive has published 2 press releases in 2025, both of which have been added to the Press Room page. Go check them out!

Game Pages

A few changes have been made to several game icons and header logos/text on both the Shelved Games and All Games pages. I really updated the ones on the Shelved Games page to keep the style continuous with the All Games page. On a few individual pages, there have been a couple minor changes. Specifically, the game page for McKenzie & Co. More Friends and The Vampire Diaries, I've updated the logos to be slightly more accurate than they used to be.
I think there may have been a few other updates along the way, but if there were, I've completely forgotten what I did.

April is fan month from HeR Interactive which is pretty cool! On Instagram, they've been sharing a few images from their infamous vault of HeR Interactive history. Below are the first 4 images they've shared. They'll be adding images all month long, so keep an eye out on their socials for the latest posts!
I personally LOVE seeing all this stuff and am always looking forward to what kind of things they decide to share! I know they've got a contest running right now and they've got other plans for the rest of the month, and they shared a really neat behind the scenes video which actually had some never-before-seen behind the scenes footage from the development of Ghost of Thornton Hall. See if you can spot it! (hint: it's at 0:34)
Finally, a project I was working on for a little while and finally shared on Instagram yesterday was a brand-new fan design of the HeR Interactive! HeR hasn't had a new logo since 2009, so I really wanted to give it a new, fresh take to see how it would look. The finalized logo is below, let me know what you think!
Picture
As per usual, there still isn't any news on a new Nancy Drew game. Hopefully we will hear something by the end of next year, but it's really hard to say for sure. Stay tuned and I know something will come out, eventually!

That about wraps up today's post. Until next time, detectives!

Huw
]]><![CDATA[Another Month, Come and Gone]]>Wed, 29 Jan 2025 16:50:03 GMThttps://www.ndwalkthroughs.ca/blog/another-month-come-and-goneHello fellow sleuths! I can't believe we're already at the tail-end of January. Time goes by WAY too fast and I realized I haven't had a new post up here since the beginning of the month!
I haven't put a whole lot of time and effort towards Nancy Drew projects because I've actually been in the middle of putting heavy focus on another massive project. It's completely unrelated to Nancy Drew, but it's something I'm very passionate about and very excited to release this year! I won't say too much other than it's been something I've been working on-and-off on for the last 11 years. It's very personal because of how much time I've spent on it, so I want to put as much care into making it as perfect as possible before sending it out to the world.

As for the few Nancy Drew projects that I have been working on, one of them is already up with new content in the works for it, but as of right now I'm not going to tell you what it is. If you do some extreme sleuthing, you'll be able to find it! I started this project about a week ago and am very excited to continue it and finish it in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

I also have been making very small and very minor updates to the website, too. I will say, however, that these updates are so small that I've completely forgotten most of them! I know that about 10 minutes ago I added proper screenshots to the game page for Ghost of Thornton Hall Mobile, but other than that... yeah, I've got no idea what else I did.

Speaking of Ghost of Thornton Hall Mobile, I uploaded the full walkthrough for that earlier this month! You can check it out on the game page or on the YouTube playlist!

HeR Interactive hasn't shared any new updates lately either, but I suspect their Valentine's Day contest will be coming very soon. Knowing them, it'll probably be announced on Saturday. But who knows?

Other than that, I don't think there's anything else that's new! I've really been working hard on this project I mentioned in the first paragraph, and I foresee it to be taking up most of my time and attention for the coming weeks, probably months as well. I'll be releasing more updates as time goes on!

That about wraps up today's post. Until next time, detectives!

Huw
]]><![CDATA[A New Year's Revelation]]>Sat, 04 Jan 2025 20:39:53 GMThttps://www.ndwalkthroughs.ca/blog/a-new-years-revelationHappy New Year, fellow sleuths! I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday and got to spend time with family and friends.
I personally had an awesome holiday, made amazing memories, ate delicious food, and got amazing gifts! What was the best part of your holiday?

We are now officially a week into the new year. How crazy is that? A few days ago I was working on extracting all the game files for the beta versions of Trail of the Twister, Shadow at the Water's Edge, and The Captive Curse (generously donated by Calina Herman of StoryRetold) and made some interesting discoveries. For instance, can you believe that about 1/4 of the audio files from The Captive Curse were taken out when the game shipped in 2011? I can't wait to play the game through and see how much is different!

The other day, I had a realization which turned into a revelation. Do you remember the mini-games that HeR Interactive used to have on their site? I played through all of them on YouTube which you can check out here! They ran on Adobe Flash which is no longer available. Through the amazing power of a program called Ruffle, not only have I got them up and running again, I've actually implemented them into my website! You can go play most of them right now by clicking on the button called Extra+ on the website navigation bar, then clicking Mini-Games! I'm SO excited about this, especially because the ones that work will actually also work on mobile devices! This means that for the first time ever, you can play Scopa exactly as it is in the PC game on your phones and tablets.

Now, I will say that not all of the mini-games work. Some won't even start while others only make it to a specific point before malfunctioning and will refuse to progress. I'm not sure why this is the case, but my goal is to keep working at trying to figure out why they aren't working. Anyways, the list of all the mini-games that are currently inoperable is at the top of the page.

In other Nancy Drew news, I will start uploading the walkthrough for the mobile version of Ghost of Thornton Hall starting on January 15th! Channel members get to view the walkthrough early, so if you're super keen you can become a member now to view it before it goes public! The first 3 episodes are now available for all channel members.

Finally, I re-uploaded the soundtrack to Mystery of the Seven Keys because I just want to have it up on my channel again and implemented into the game page on the website. I quietly uploaded it and it can now be viewed here:
I also realized today that I never actually recorded a proper walkthrough for Mystery of the Seven Keys! I only ever recorded and uploaded a blind playthrough. Time to add that to my list of things to do!

That about wraps up today's post. Until next time, detectives!

Huw

NOTE: I started this post on Jan 4, 2025 but posted on Jan 7, 2025. That is why the publish date says the 4th instead of the 7th.
]]><![CDATA[Three Cheers for 2024!]]>Tue, 31 Dec 2024 15:00:00 GMThttps://www.ndwalkthroughs.ca/blog/three-cheers-for-2024Hello fellow sleuths! 2024 has been one CRAZY year. I want to do some summarizing as we head into 2025!
When I started 2024, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know that HeR Interactive was going to release a new game. I didn't know I was going to be doing the least amount of content creation I've ever done. Life always has plans that we can NEVER anticipate.

For those that have followed me and my YouTube channel with devotion, I'm sure you'll have noticed my disappearance off and on this year, especially starting after KEY launched. I gave my reasons here and there, but I did have a proper reason for my disappearances which is still my reason today. If you know you know, but if you don't, then you'll have to keep on guessing! Regardless, I want to say that I haven't disappeared completely, and I haven't gone away because I don't want to make content anymore. I've just been in the middle of a LOT of real-life stuff which has been such a joy to experience. I still follow the latest HeR Interactive news very closely despite not being as involved in the community as I have been known to be. I've also been working on stuff behind the scenes, and one project in particular for the last few months that I'm VERY excited about. I'm hoping to release it next year. I've been dreaming of this project for several years and am excited to finally have it underway. Next year also marks the 10 year anniversary of my channel which continues to blow my mind, so I've got some stuff planned for that, too!

HeR Interactive, on the other hand, has had a bit of a... tumultuous year. They launched Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys on May 7th. It was one of the most highly anticipated games that they had ever launched. They had a crazy marketing campaign that spanned more than a year, and some fans started to express strong concern about how long it was lasting without a definitive end. When the game finally released, it had a bit of a rocky start as there were game-breaking bugs that happened within the first 10 minutes of the game when it launched in a specific game mode. They also didn't launch the game immediately on Steam or open physical pre-orders until the following month. On top of that, when the game launched on Steam, it was getting several negative reviews VERY quickly. To this day, the steam score sits at about 60% giving the game a "Mixed" rating on Steam. The physical copies had several issues, too. The biggest concern for fans was that the pre-order copies were all "made to order" which means that they opened pre-orders for a set period of time, calculated how many copies to make based on how many pre-ordered, then got them printed. It took several months for the physical copies to actually print and get shipped. It was a little distressing for some fans as HeR Interactive would never provide a concrete date or give solid updates on the production. When the games finally did ship in September, Digital River cancelled about 7% of the pre-orders because they couldn't actually authorize the credit card purchase for some customers. HeR Interactive released a statement about the unfortunate situation, and some fans felt that HeR was putting some of the blame on fans for not having updated their credit cards, not having enough funds, etc. Just to cap it all off, Digital River stopped paying their clients and HeR Interactive switched storefront hosts earlier this month. I cannot wait to see what's in store for HeR next year!

In short, I think that because of all the craziness that conspired because of the launch of the 34th game, HeR Interactive might have some ground to cover in terms of fixing things with their fanbase. KEY didn't surpass fan expectations, and for some, didn't even come close to meeting the bare minimum of expectations. I even saw a multitude of fans say they preferred Midnight in Salem over this game. Personally, I really loved Mystery of the Seven Keys. There were some things I didn't love about it, but there were other things I thought were fantastic. I know that HeR took all the feedback from MID and did their best to translate it into the new game. I'm hoping they do the same with game 35, while also really taking into account why the first 32 games were incredibly successful compared to the last 2 releases. I really want to make a video talking about all the things I liked and disliked about KEY, and I need to finish making that list of stuff (it is a work in progress, I promise!).

Anyways, I still love Nancy Drew and I still love HeR Interactive! What kind of things are you hoping to achieve in 2025? Is there anything that you are hoping to see from HeR Interactive? I would LOVE to hear all the things y'all have in your plans, so let me know in the comment section down below!

I want to say, too, just how thankful and humbled I am to have the most amazing community surrounding me. I couldn't have ever expected to have had stumbled upon such an incredible group of people, and I've been so blessed by it all. Thank you, and I cannot wait to share in more amazing adventures next year!

That about wraps it up for this post. Until next year, detectives!

​Huw

P.S. - I'm still trying to get a job with HeR Interactive. I feel like I'm making slow progress, but we'll have to see!
]]><![CDATA[Website Update 12.28.2024]]>Sat, 28 Dec 2024 16:28:55 GMThttps://www.ndwalkthroughs.ca/blog/website-update-12282024Hello fellow sleuths! Today I'm launching the final website update for 2024.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been working on adding all of HeR Interactive's press releases to my website. Today, I finally finished the project and this website is now the greatest repository of HeR Interactive press releases on the internet. You can view every press release shared by HeR Interactive from 1995 until 2024 on a single page. All future press releases will be archived on this website.

To find the page, you can press Extra+ in the navigation header bar, then press Press Room. You can also click here.

I'm very proud of this page and am very happy with the work that was put in to compiling everything into one space. Now there's no need to go through various iterations of the HeR website via the Wayback Machine to find all this information. As someone who's incredibly interested in the history of HeR Interactive, I believe this page to be a fantastic resource for researching the company.

Here's a little fun fact for you: I had a really hard time trying to figure out what to call this page. For the longest time, I was just going to call it Press Releases, and more recently I considered calling it Heights Nine News. As I was perusing the old versions of HeR's website, I discovered they used to call the page Press Room and I loved it right away. I remade the header image and used the same color from the 2009 website and implemented that into the header of the page.

Anyways, I just wanted to provide a little update about the progress of this project. I'm SO glad it's finished, it's been preying on my mind for years. I hope it can be of use to Nancy Drew fans and enjoyed by everyone!

That about wraps up today's post. Until next time, detectives!

Huw
]]><![CDATA[Hot Off the Press]]>Sat, 21 Dec 2024 15:38:59 GMThttps://www.ndwalkthroughs.ca/blog/hot-off-the-pressHello fellow sleuths! I'm popping in to provide an update on another element of the website that I've been very slowly working on and have been putting more effort into!
I know I mentioned that another big priority of mine was to finish adding voice samples to each of the characters on each game page, however this particular project is one that I've had in the works since about 2019 when I was making the very first iteration of this website on Google Sites (yuck!).

One thing I hope my followers have learned about me is that I LOVE to preserve old data about Nancy Drew and HeR Interactive. I'm a bit of a data hoarder in that sense. I also love being able to provide people with an easy means of accessing archival data. This project is archiving all of HeR Interactive's various press releases that have been posted to their website. I'm pretty sure this will end up being the most in-depth collection of HeR Interactive press releases in one place as I've got announcements that date back to 1995. I've got several more press releases to add into the page, but I'm making quick work of them which is fantastic. Hopefully will have this project finished before the new year arrives! I'll keep everyone updated on how things go.

In other news, I recorded a new walkthrough for a Nancy Drew game I haven't played for the channel yet! Channel members will get early access to the episodes and then they'll be up for everyone else later. Stay tuned for that!

Finally, Christmas is just days away and I'm so excited! It's my favorite time of year and I love being able to celebrate the holidays with family and friends. It's always so warm and cozy with amazing memories and fantastic food. How do you celebrate the holidays (if you celebrate them at all)?

That about wraps up today's post. Until next time, detectives!

Huw
]]><![CDATA[Bundled and Warm! (Website Update 12.17.2024)]]>Tue, 17 Dec 2024 16:23:46 GMThttps://www.ndwalkthroughs.ca/blog/bundled-and-warm-website-update-12172024Hello fellow sleuths! Is it just me, or is it getting colder out there?
We're now officially halfway through December and that much closer to 2025! The snow is building up (where I live, at least) and the presents are filling up beneath the tree. It's wild to think about how fast time flies during the holidays. Always blows me away.

Anyways, I'm not going to lie, but this post isn't actually referencing snow and winter and cold stuff. Instead, I'm announcing a new page on my website! It isn't finished yet, but I've had it as a work-in-progress page for about... oh my goodness, I just checked the creation dates on some of the files and they date back to 2022! Wow, talk about procrastination! That is incredibly embarrassing. It makes it feel a little more exciting to have it published then! (As I'm writing this, I just discovered I actually made the first blog post about it back in FEBRUARY of 2022. That's disgusting.)

I really struggled with how much information I wanted to include on this page. I didn't know if I should write up a bunch of stuff or keep it simpler. I decided to go with the latter which I think makes the most sense. I also was really trying to figure out how I should organize everything on the page. The way it's setup right now isn't exactly the most economical and it makes the page very long, but Weebly doesn't always allow for things to be super simple and organized.

One thing I do want to highlight that I'm VERY proud of is the fact that all the little icons for all the physical bundles were all hand-made by me in Photoshop. I didn't want to necessarily use photos from Google because they can sometimes be inconsistent with sizing and quality. I figured I'd put myself through the hard work to remake everything from scratch. They aren't all perfect, but there are a couple that I'm particularly proud of:
As I mentioned earlier, I'm still in the process of getting the page finished, but I was really wanting to get it published for everyone before the holiday and I'm very glad I was able to.

To navigate to the page, click on the Games+ button in the header, then click Game Bundles. Alternative, you can simply click on this text to go to the page!

Let me know what you think! Is there any information missing that you'd be curious to know about for each bundle? I'd love to hear it, and if you've got any other info to contribute, please either comment below or shoot me an email and I'll add the info (and your name) to the page!

That about wraps up today's post. Until next time, detectives!

​Huw
]]><![CDATA[Stay Tuned for Color]]>Sat, 14 Dec 2024 16:20:32 GMThttps://www.ndwalkthroughs.ca/blog/stay-tuned-for-colorHello fellow sleuths! I want to bring y'all back to the turn of the century in today's post and talk about the second Nancy Drew game!
How many of you have been following HeR since 1999? I personally wasn't introduced to the company until six years later, but with the power of the internet, I'm able to travel back in time to see what things were like way back then! Whether it's using the Wayback Machine or purchasing games off eBay, I've got a pretty solid understanding of the visual evolution of the box art for the Nancy Drew games. One of the most interesting things to me is how the first two games underwent multiple box art iterations before landing on the versions still being used today.

Below are the three versions of the box art for Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill from 1998, 1999, and 2000 when HeR Interactive started working with cover designer Mark Tolleshaug to create all future box and cover art.
Nancy Drew: Stay Tuned for Danger didn't have three different styles, but it did have two versions of one style. Below are all three styles (in the best quality I have in my archive).
You'll notice the two versions on the right are almost identical. Almost. There are a few differences here and there, but the most glaring difference is the color. I've had the pink version in my archive for some time now, but the red one is one that's always been a little more difficult to track down. I've tried recreating the color for it in the past to no avail (see my failed attempts below hahaha)!
Turns out, my little 18-year-old brain was far less superior than my nearly fully-developed 24 year old brain. And as of today, I'm proud to announce that I've FINALLY recreated the coloring as best as I can! I'm incredibly proud of this feat and I can't wait to use it in some projects I've been planning! Check out an official release from DreamCatcher on the left and my color treatment on the right.
Picture
Now, I know mine isn't a PERFECT recreation. I know there are some slight lighting and color differences, but I'm happy with what I've got, and if I decide to make any adjustments later, I'll just pop open the Photoshop file. Maybe one day I'll try and perfect it (I often do), but for now, I'm happy. EDIT: I did end up making some more changes to make it look a bit more like it's supposed to and now I'm even more pleased with the result than before.

Do you have a favorite version of the cover art for either Secrets Can Kill or Stay Tuned for Danger? My preferences are the 1998 release of SCK and the red version of STFD. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for both of them.

Also! HeR Interactive is having a winter sale on right now! You can go to their website and use code HOLIDAY24 for 50% off all games (except Mystery of the Seven Keys and the game bundles). If you want to get Mystery of the Seven Keys on sale, you can use a separate code to get 20% off! At checkout, use KEY24 only on HeR Interactive's website! This isn't an ad, it's just a great sale and I think I'll be grabbing a few games to add to my digital collection before the new year!
Will you be picking up any games from HeR this holiday?

That about wraps up today's post. Until next time, detectives!

Huw
]]><![CDATA[Trying to Play Old Books]]>Wed, 11 Dec 2024 19:36:50 GMThttps://www.ndwalkthroughs.ca/blog/trying-to-play-old-booksHello fellow sleuths! Something I've been really wanting to accomplish is being able to play the old Mobile Mysteries: Shadow Ranch game, but have had no success...
...until today's discovery. I've tried to find an emulator that can run the game but haven't had any success with that. Today, I came across an iOS emulator that has been designed to run old iOS apps as early as iOS 2.0. The Shadow Ranch app was designed for iOS 3.0 and later which makes it the ideal candidate for this bit of software.
Picture
Sadly, when I try to open the app, I see the loading screen for a total of about 0.3 seconds and then the entire emulator crashes. On the app's website (https://touchhle.org/), there is a list of games that the software is able to run as well as how capable they are of running. Unfortunately, Shadow Ranch isn't on the list of games at all. I'm optimistic that it will be able to run on here because the software can actually recognize it as an app, it's just a matter of finding someone that is able to get it up and running.

The amazing thing about this emulator is that it's open source which means anyone is able to download the source code to make their own contributions in order to get it to run the apps of their choice. The app is written in Rust, which is apparently a very difficult programming language to learn. THAT BEING SAID, if anyone reading this is able to program in Rust and is willing to give this project a go, please contact me at nanwalkthroughs@gmail.com because I would LOVE to work with you to make Shadow Ranch playable on here! I'll also be trying to reach out to the developers to see if they're able to get it up and running, so hopefully something amazing happens by the end of the year or in the new year!

Anyways, I'm super excited about this new prospect and really want to record a walkthrough for this game. I'm crossing my fingers that this will be the opportunity to do so! I know myself and many others have wanted to play this game, so I can't wait to see what the future holds. Would you be interested in playing it if it were to become compatible with the emulator? Did you play the game back when it was originally on the app store? Let me know!

Also, here's a little fun fact: HeR Interactive still has the game page up for the game despite having been discontinued for over a decade! Check it out here!

That about wraps up today's post. Until next time, detectives!

Huw
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