the world according to clay

The Neverhood. It's an old adventure game. I won it as a prize in... something. I'm not sure what. Maybe it was an IF Comp prize one year?

I could never play it, though, because I couldn't get it running on my machine. It was designed for Windows 95, I think, with quite complicated graphics requirements for that time (I expect, what with all the animation and stuff) and just wouldn't work on whatever computer I had, which was well past 95 but probably didn't have exact compatibility with whatever the game was looking for.

At the moment, we have it running in Linux. Under WINE. Which does work.

It is a strange game. We have not played much, so I can't say much. It is all Claymation, and cutely so. It appears to be one of those deathless games - you can get things wrong, but you're never permanently stuck or dead. There is a poisonous mushroom, and if you keep trying to eat it, the character belches for increasingly long amounts of time in the hope that the player will get sick of it and stop.

It is also an argument for games as art. You can't play this and NOT think it's art. It's... WEIRD. And clay! And full of bizarre visual design and bizarre world design and the interactivity is part of the art, you could easily put this in a modern art museum.

Of course, we've also just found a very strange section where there's an INCREDIBLY long hallway covered with writing on the walls. The writing is stories, that don't seem to mean much but are funny and are not just Ipsum Lorem. But there are so many of them that story-lover though I am, I got sick of reading them and wanted to get on with the game (Especially since the interface for reading them is clumsy). The walkthrough I've glanced at says "You can read all this if you want, but it might take you a month or two." So... How do I feel about completely optional content? I feel bad for walking away without devouring every last drop of it, and I expect we'll probably come BACK and read more of it later... (annoyingly, the game makes you walk all the way to the end of said hall anyway, to pick up an item, then back to the beginning.)

War of the Worlds

Comic book version, readable online.

My other half has the WotW PC strategy game around somewhere, which obviously has a slightly different plot, in order to make a decent fight out of it. And uses the Jeff Wayne music, which I'm quite fond of, but in small repeating loop format as someone plays a strategy game for days can get irritating...

friendship babies!

Okay, I just glanced at the wikipedia entry for Harvest Moon DS Cute.

... PLEASE, somebody, find out if the US version includes 'best friends' you can have babies with? I HAVE TO KNOW!


edit: Unfortunately what little I can find so far suggests that they removed it, at least for the US. Bah. Despite my boredom with Rune Factory, I could not resist buying something that let you marry adorable girls together. :)

time for a rundown

So, there's an article about games from the 80s. I was around in the 80s, but rather small for some of them. How many of these games will I actually have played?

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9472&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0

Raid On Bungeling Bay - Never heard of it.
3D Deathchase - Never heard of it.
M.U.L.E. - Heard of, never played.
Impossible Mission - Heard of, never played.
Scramble - With a name like that, I can't even tell if I've heard of it.
Lode Runner - I'm fairly sure I've played either some version of this or a clone of it. Maybe. Actually, I'm not sure.
Star Raiders - Nope.
The Sentinel - ... If there's going to be a lot of Spectrum on this list, I'm sunk.
Lords Of Midnight - see above
Pinball Construction Set - I have seen that cover art.
Emlyn Hughes International Soccer - I don't think I have *ever* played a soccer game. And I like it that way.
Ballblazer - Nope. Where are the Coleco games?
Thrust - Nope
Out Run - I don't know if I've played it or not, I certainly saw it around the arcades.
Missile Command - Yes. I am sure I have played this coinop. ... I think.
Dragontorc - The WHAT?
Archon - Aware of. Didn't play. I'm not doing so well at this, am I? I blame the fact that I was not in the UK in the 80s, and this author clearly was.
World Class Leaderboard - ... I can't say that I have never played a golf game, but I can say that I have never paid for one.
Zork - Embarassingly, I haven't actually played the original. Certainly familiar with it though.
Star Wars - No.
Exile - I've heard of it.
International Karate+ - No
MS Pac-Man - I think I can fairly say I've played it at SOME point...
Lunar Jetman - Enough with the Spectrum already!
Mega Man 2 - Finally, something on a system I owned! ... But no, didn't play this either.
Ikari Warriors - No
Ant Attack - I have heard storied legends of it. But no.
Koronis Rift - Never heard of it.
Final Fantasy - ... actually, no.
Uridium - The what now?
R-Type - I think I may have played Super R-Type.
Boulder Dash - YES! Finally something I can say with certainty. I had the Boulder Dash Construction Kit. I made levels.
Robotron: 2084 - Nope. Probably why I didn't go gaga over Ultratron.
Rainbow Islands - This review is nuts. I played Bubble Bobble. People I knew were familiar with Bubble Bobble. Rainbow Islands was completely unknown to us.
Metroid - ... No.
Paradroid - Not familiar with it at all.
Contra - Definitely familiar with. Probably never played.
The Legend Of Zelda - Well, of course I played that! What do you take me for? :)
The Hobbit - Yes. And it drove me insane. And I never won. I still have nightmares involving >HIT THE GOBLIN WITH THE SWORD ... Okay, that's a lie.
Ultima IV: Quest Of The Avatar - No. Never played any Ultima.
Dungeon Master - ... nope.
Maniac Mansion - The NES version, yes.
Prince Of Persia - I think my dad put a pirated version of the very early game on a PC I owned. In CGA. Not knowing much of anything about it, I didn't play more than a few minutes.
Sim City - No.
Defender - Coin-op, at some point.
Donkey Kong - And FINALLY the author mentions the existence of the Colecovision! Yes, I played Donkey Kong.
Tempest - No, but I'm certainly familiar with it.
Super Mario Bros 3 - Played it, bashed it to pieces with a Game Genie. Not literally.
Tetris - Can you actually avoid playing Tetris? I think it's like a virus.
Elite - The what? :)

get it while it lasts

Fatal Hearts is the Easter freebie at Giveaway Of The Day. So, for the next few hours, you can download it to play for free. Miss it and it's gone.

the beast of continuity

Remember back when I mentioned that board game?

buckles and velvets and silks, oh my!

By the last stages of Jojo's, you get goth clothes too. Whee!