Soup cans

From IFWiki

A derisive term for a puzzle that makes no sense within the plot of a game, thus compromising mimesis. In a sequence in "The Seventh Guest" (Trilobyte/Virgin, 1993), the PC must shuffle cans of soup on a shelf in order to spell out a message, which will will.. uh... because the PC would have been in the kitchen at the time and... well, because the pantry needed some sort of puzzle, and... er...

Well. There you have it -- the eponymous soup-cans puzzle.

The term arose from a comment made by Russ Bryan in the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction: "I mean, what the hell kind of villain thwarts the hero's progress with soup cans in the kitchen pantry (Seventh Guest)?"

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