Inventory Screen

An Inventory Screen is the Screen where a character's Inventory Items are stored. Most PCGs use Inventory Screens in one way or another.

Overview[]

Amidsts your journey, you will invariably encouter several artifacts of use. These artifacts are called Items. This screen is a crucial part of your paper computer gaming adventure.

Every experienced and skilled paper computer game maker will include the inventory screen. This screen's sole purpose is to hold such "items" enabling you, the paper computer game player, to save them for later usage in such endeavors such as completing puzzles, solving mazes, and overcoming various plaques, etc.

Though highly crucial and mostly important there have been some avant-guard paper computer game makers that do not include the inventory screen^[1]^[2]. Their games are designed in a fashion that requires you to use items immediately.

Common Features[]

All inventory screens are screens that store the character's items.
The logo for the Inventory screen is traditionally a large E on the top of the screen^[3]. This was later modernized to be I, which is the correct first letter of the word Inventory. More recently, the E on the top has made a comeback, and has itself been modernized to be a sideways E in which the E is now a person, exclaiming 'Hey'. This is a reference to the origin of the letter E, which was originally a drawing of a guy saying 'hey'. Most recently, the traditional E has returned to its original form.
Some inventory screens are hazardous, and must be dealt with, or else they eat your inventory. For example:
- The Inventory Guy sometimes lives in one's inventory screen, and will eat any inventory items left in the wrong places. He can, however, be appeased.^[4]
- Sometimes the inventory screen ITSELF eats the items; and they can only be placed in certain areas.^[4]
- Sometimes the Inventory Screen is a physical thing, such as the inside of a creature, and is only available at certain times.^[5]

Types of Inventory Screen[]

Most inventory screens are nonspecific places; Just a list of all the items a given characters has. Sometimes it's intended to be that character's pockets, or knapsack, or even what the character's holding in his or her hands at that time.^[6]
An advanced form of this nonspecific inventory is one which is described as a mysterious box which floats after the character, inexplicably^[7].
In "Balzak Globotron", Balzak's inventory is the central metallic sphere of his body. He must rescue it and reattach it to himself in the beginning of the game.
In "Brain Alien", the strange creature has access to its stomach; Whenever it eats something, that thing goes into its inventory. However, he sometimes regurgitates his food; and there are parasites that sometimes eat the contents of his belly.
In "Tutorial Bot's Past", the Inventory is the inside of Tutorial Bot. So, if the robot is temporarily away from the main character, he can't access his inventory.
In "Quest for the Vengeful Book", Mugstra finds that her inventory is the back of a galactic starship, and that she can only put the items in its engine ports. To make matters worse, the ship is pioleted by the Inventory Guy, who sometimes sucks items into the ship to eat them, as well as blasting them off into space.
In "Pokémon Stop", Gash has a limited inventory; he can only hold Pokéballs, Poké Dollars, and a couple other specific items. Instead, he's encouraged to use his Pokémon to solve puzzles.
At least one sentient inventory screen is known to exist - Inventory Man. He was able to continue on even after the person whose inventory he was died without saying Save Game. ("Inventory Man")

Known Inhabitants[]

Inventory Screen Guy

Explanations[]

Originally, the Inventory Screen was thought to be simply a representation of all the items a character posessed; presumably, they were mainly items stored in the character's pockets^[8]. however, questions began to arise when characters would be able to hold large objects, such as ladders, in the inventory screen without becoming encumbered.

In early episodes of Series 2, a limit was placed on the number of inventory items that could be held, and large items could only be held in the section of the inventory screen which was the character's hands.

However, in Xaq to the Future, it was revealed that the Inventory Screen was a seemingly magical box that follows the character around, hovering in midair. The box may expand as needed to carry more inventory.

In certain games, this concept was expanded upon. In the Space-Balls Series, the inventory screen is the inside of Tutorial bot. In the Balzak Globotron Series, Balzak stores his stuff in one of his component Spheres, which he must first unlock. In the Soul Symphony Series, the player could find additional inventory screens.