Cuckoo Clock puzzle

[SadBoyHayato]

So I am watching my friend play this game, and he has beat it now. How are you supposed to know to use the screwdriver on the clock? We ended up just using a guide. Did we miss something important?

[Canti/Red]

Just hit or miss? I guess they expected people to have read or watched the Goosebumps series before going into this game.

[blurryface]

its a reference to the cuckoo clock of doom book, so its a homage for fans

[RadiCalcium]

No idea. People are talking about the book but in the book the issue is that the cuckoo bird's head is flipped backwards, nothing at all like in the game, so the book is irrelevant

Edit: Figured it out. It's not a reference to the book's plot, it's the book's twist.

In the book and show episode, the clock ages the protagonist backwards after they reverse the cuckoo's head, and in their struggle as a toddler to twist the head back forward it is implied he kicked off the 1988 plate and erased his sister from existence, hence the killing of the girl ghost.

The only clue to this obscure twist ending connection (and not the actual plot of the book) is, I presume, the internal clock checking the distance of time between the date of play and the year of 1988 and having the girl note the number of years they have lived there, in this case 34 in 2022 and presumably noting 27 at launch, again, presumably.

Brings into question if they were born in the house or whatnot based on their vague dialogue, and perhaps the game could have had a better clue *actually* linking the girl and the clock together like some sort of mention of the cuckoo, but I digress.

Can't wait until I get to a HorrorLand section and have to know to specifically ask someone about the Chicago Cubs because they get mentioned in a single sentence in the book.