Pajama Sam's Sock Works is a game made by Humongous Entertainment in 1997. It involves Pajama Sam solving puzzles in a factory-like setting.
Backstory
He invented the Sock-O-Matic Mark III to fold socks for him because his mother told him he needs to sort a whole basket of his socks before school. (I mean his mom was already washing them for him fr)
Sam decides to rest a bit first, but he falls asleep with them on his mind.
Sam dreams about socks and builds the ultimate, automatic sock sorting machine, the Sock-o-Matic Mark III.
Sam's Sock-o-Matic has all kinds of conveyor belts, chutes, obstacles, distractions and lots of socks. There's also a built-in Level Editor too so you can make your own wacky sorting machine.
Gameplay
You try to get the colored sock (red, green, blue, yellow) into the correct colored basket. There are things like spring pistons (switchable/non-switchable), movable (blue) and non-movable (red) conveyor belts, color dyes (red, green, blue, yellow, random), hoppers, barriers, and guide tubes.
You're supposed to match the the right sock(s) with the colored baskets. If they are mismatched or they fall off the belt, you lose.
Details Of Items
Barriers:
Barriers are "dead-ends" in the game. Socks will continue to bounce against them until you take action.
HINT:
Try changing the direction of the conveyor belt to move the sock away from the barrier.
Baskets:
The laundry baskets are where you want the socks to go. Make sure the baskets and the socks match color or you'll have to start all over!
Blue Belts:
The blue conveyor belts move socks in either direction. To tell Sam to change the direction just click on the belt.
Red Belts:
The red conveyor belts move socks only in the direction indicated by the arrows and cannot be changed.
Rotator Belts:
The small rotator belts move socks in the direction indicated by the curved arrows and can be used to move socks onto another belt, slide, etc. You can click on these belts to make them change direction.
Chutes:
All the chutes have symbols (star, circle, square, and diamond) to identify them. When a sock drops into a chute, it will pop out of a chute with a matching symbol. If no match is available, it will randomly come out of a chute with another symbol, but you won't know which!
Directors:
The yellow-and-black swing arm directors are used to open and close the pathways to other belts and slides. To switch a director arm from one side to the other just click on it.
Paint Buckets:
The paint buckets change the color of the socks as they pass through them. For example, if a red sock goes through the blue bucket the sock will soak up the blue paint and turn blue. The multi-color paint bucket changes the socks to one of four colors. The color it changes to is determined by it's original color and what's to its "right" on the 4 paint bucket colors. For example, if your sock is red it will turn blue, the color which is next, clockwise, to the red in the bucket. So, if your sock is yellow, it will turn red as it passes through the multi-color bucket and so on.
Pushers:
Sock pushers are machines that move socks in a different direction or onto a different belt or slide, on into bins or chutes.
They come in two types:
automatic
Automatic pushers have a single, green light on top, are on all the time, and bump socks whether you want them to or not, so watch out for these!
manual
Manual pushers have both a red and green light on top, push Manual pushers can be turned on or off, indicated by which light is on. To turn one on just click on it--the green light will flash and it will automatically push any sock that passes in front of it. To turn it off, click again and the red light will come on.
Slides:
Slides move socks three times faster than belts.
Slide Angles:
Slide angles help guide the socks onto and off of the slides.
Special Mechanics
Distractions:
These are funny little characters that run, fly or otherwise move across the screen while you're trying to move your socks. They add to the challenge and if you're not careful you'll find yourself watching them instead of the socks!
Paint Buckets:
There are four normal paint buckets: red, blue, yellow and green. When a sock passes through one of these, the sock will turn the color in the bucket. This adds to the fun since the bucket could be right near the desired basket, and if the sock turns a different color you'll need to be quick to stop it from falling into the wrong color basket.
Multi-Color Paint Bucket:
If a sock passes through this bucket all the socks on the level will change colors based on the current sock's color on the multi-color paint bucket which switches to the next color (going clockwise) - that's the new color. The fact that all the socks not in bins will change color can be both fun and confusing.
Title Screen
The main game menu is made up of several piles of socks, offering you the following choices:
Choose "Play New Game" if you want to start a new game. When you choose this you will start at the first level of a new set of 100 randomly-selected levels.
Pick "Continue Old Game" if you want to continue where you last left off.
Selecting "Make New Custom Levels" will let you access the Level Editor - you can build your very own sock sorter!
Choose "Play Custom Levels" to play the custom levels you've already built with the Level Editor.
"Change Custom Levels" will allow you to change any of the levels you've built.
Click on the Quit button to leave the game (to go touch grass problably).
All the other choices (except Quit) open the Player Sign-in screen.
Signing In
You have to sign in before you can start playing. When signing in as a new player, type in your name using your computer keyboard or click on the letters in the Spelling Board at the top of the screen. The next time you sign in, as a continuing player, just click on your name in the Name List box.
After you have entered your name, press the GO button to start playing. To erase a name from the list, click on it and then click on the Delete button.
As mentioned, you can click on the letters in the Spelling Board to enter your name, or type in your name using the computer keyboard. Click on the blank box following the Z to make a space, while clicking on the hyphen makes a hyphen.
The little explosion image at the end of the Spelling Board's second line will act as a backspace and will delete one letter to the left of the name box cursor each time you click on it.
The six colored, rolled socks are a color palette. With these, you can spell your name in a single color or have separate colors for each letter. Just click on a color and then on a letter. The color of the letters in the Spelling Board will change to reflect the color you have chosen.
Once you've got your name entered, click on the green ball of yarn GO button and you'll be presented with the Levels screen where you can choose a level to play.
If you decide not to play a game, click on the Go Back button to return to the Main menu.
If you try to start a new game with an old player name, Sam will ask you to confirm that you want to start over at the beginning. You'll see the Yes/No screen and Sam will wait for you to choose before letting you play. But if you start over, all the saved information for that player name will be lost.
The Levels screen is where you go between levels, and after you enter a name. If you have played through to, say, Level 25 but want to go back to another level, like Level 15, you can do that by clicking on the left arrow on this screen. This is also true when playing through custom levels you have built. Basically, it lets you change the level number to a desired one to play.
Once you've chosen the level you want to play click on the Go button at the bottom of the screen to start the current level number.
If you've decided you don't want to play or you want to go back to the main menu and do something different, click on the Stop button.