2008 Review; 2009 Prospects

Posted on January 1, 2009 by Multimedia Mike

Here I am at the start of a new year. 2008 really didn’t see that much gaming activity from me but hey, it’s not like this is a job or anything. According to the Master Play List, I only played (or made blog posts for) around 40 games (vs. about 150 for 2007). However, according to my notes, I actually played several games that just bored me to the point that I couldn’t bring myself to compose a proper blog entry or MobyGames record. Who knows, maybe I will get to those in 2009. I only managed to amass around 2500 MobyGames points in 2008 vs 7500 points for 2007, though I suppose that still represents a significant amount of effort, so I can’t be too hard on myself there.

I have something ready to go for the new year– I have a good number of console games to cover (many are already in the database but need screenshots). These include mostly Sega Saturn games, but also some PlayStation 1 & 2, Dreamcast, and GameCube games. While there are excellent emulators for most video older (say, ROM-based) game systems, screenshots from more modern (say, optical disc-based) consoles are pretty difficult to obtain. I have long struggled to capture video from these consoles through different TV capture cards and most recently via a DV capture bridge. These solutions work adequately but the biggest problem is playing the game while capturing. All of the capture solutions introduce a slight lag which makes gameplay incredibly frustrating.

However, I finally thought of a solution: an S-video Y-splitter. Once I thought of the idea, I visited Amazon to verify that such a device exists. Thus, for a game console that has S-video and stereo RCA outputs, split all 3 outputs, sending one set to a real, lagless television for playing and the other set to the DV capture bridge.

It’s all a bit tedious to set up (hauling the TV into the same room as the computer, setting up all the cables), but once it works, it works well. The capture process, I mean. First, I have to suffer as the Sega Saturn CD console (pictured above) struggles to validate the old, used collection of Saturn games. Mostly I get the familiar Gouraud-shaded VU cubes playing the red book CD audio tracks.

But I’m pleased to report that I did get some games to work, and that once a few games worked, some previously rejected Saturn games started working as well (perhaps the console needs to warm up). It’s a real pleasure to play without input delay. Further, I have already discovered a few gems among my old Saturn stock that I look forward to writing up, and have captured hours of footage. The only problem I am struggling with now is properly capturing still images (software likes to squeeze the images to the wrong aspect ratio). I am confident I will work through that soon and transform myself into a console screenshot capturing machine. Ideally, I will be able to put together some decent gameplay videos for posterity as well.

Phantom of the Knight

Posted on December 30, 2008 by Multimedia Mike

Since the last 2 discs I tried were kind of a bust, I moved swiftly on to another recent procurement: Scooby-Doo: Phantom of the Knight. This is part of a series of 3 mystery adventure games published by The Learning Company circa 2001. The other 2 are Showdown in Ghost Town and Jinx at the Sphinx (I bought the latter at the same time as Phantom but carelessly forgot to verify that a CD-ROM was in the sleeve; missing media is a real problem at this thrift store).

Scooby-Doo: Phantom of the Knight -- the gang's all here

The game begins when the Mystery Van has an encounter with a fireball. Deciding to pull over and assess any heat damage, the gang takes refuge in an old castle nearby. The castle is named Joust For Fun and is sort of a medieval theme park. They quickly learn that the place is being haunted by the Black Knight, believed to be the spirit of the castle’s original owner (which, BTW, was originally built in Scotland and later disassembled and reassembled over here, where “here” is presumably the U.S. or possibly Canada).

Anyway, the player meets a colorful cast of characters including the owner, one Jane McHaggis who, surprisingly, is not a crude Scottish stereotype despite her name. It seems that Pizza Palace is very aggressively trying to buy up the property but Old Lady McHaggis is holding firm in her choice not to sell. I’m sure that’s just a red herring regarding the true motivation behind the Black Knight.

So the game has the player wandering around the castle, interacting with random objects during the traditional adventure game pixel-hunt, and engaging in various minigame puzzles. This is the first such puzzle, necessary to gain entry into the castle:

Scooby Doo: Phantom of the Knight -- flag puzzle

It just entails clicking on the flags down below in order to cycle through the flag patterns so that they match the patterns on top of the drawbridge. Pretty straightforward. Night quite as odd as the minigame that requires solving when first meeting Sir Lacksalot, a surfer-accented actor who is just trying to make ends meet with this knight acting gig:

Scooby Doo: Phantom of the Knight -- Sir Lacksalot's armor puzzle

You have to move all the armor that has fallen on the klutz, but the armor is an entangled mess. You have to tug at various pieces with the mouse cursor until something finally gives. At various junctures, Lacksalot has the temerity to address me as “dude” with the utmost incredulity. That made it all the more satisfying to exit the room with the whole gang and leave him trapped. However, I had to come back later and give it another shot when I realized the game wasn’t going anywhere until I dug him out.

Honestly, I was a bit disappointed when I finally got the armor off because it meant that I had to continue playing the game. But it wasn’t much longer before I was very, unequivocally stuck and thus had an excuse to put the game down and start on this post and my first new MobyGames entry in months.

At MobyGames:

Scooby-Doo: Phantom of the Knight

Cribbage Vixens

Posted on December 30, 2008 by Multimedia Mike

I know I vowed not to procure anymore games until I made a significant dent in my existing unentered stock. But really, how often do I find myself in the public library in Marina Del Rey, CA browsing a Friends of the Library merchandise section with the opportunity to buy a CD-ROM for a dollar? Ordinarily, I wouldn’t be too hyped about cribbage, a game with which I have absolutely no familiarity. But Cribbage Quest caught my eye because it comes from ZEMNOTT, the creators of My Fantasy Wedding. So I guess what I’m saying is that I laid down the dollar so that this obscure game company could have better coverage in MobyGames. Because that’s what I’m all about.

So I thought I would make that my year-end game. Guess again. Cribbage Quest is very non-functional on my system. All I get are a series of graphically-glitched screens. I think the thing is written all in Flash 6, too:

At least I learned a little about the game of cribbage since I felt it prudent to do a little Wikipedia research on the matter. I figured the game would at least feature some kind of tutorial but that turned out not to be the case. The title screen only presents the player with story mode and adventure mode.

After I broke down on my little vacation and bought that dollar CD-ROM, I really fell off the wagon and returned to my favorite thrift shop. In my absence, they managed to accumulate an alarming number of games that MobyGames and I have never seen. The most curious disc I picked up just had some feminine silhouettes along with the print: “The Longer Lasting Axe / V.I.X.E.N.S.: Very Interactive Xtremely Entertaining Naughty Supermodels”. I had no idea if it was a game (“interactive” is promising) but I had no shame in purchasing it in the same stack as 2 more Barbie games.

When I popped in the disc, some Axe brand body spray wanders across the screen, transparent against my desktop. Then Naomi (“do you know what ‘Naomi’ is backwards?”), apparently my hostess for this experience, describes how women will start appearing randomly, like this one doing some gymnastics on the water of my desktop wallpaper:

The Axe Effect: V.I.X.E.N.S. Introduction

So I install V.I.X.E.N.S., hoping to find some kind of gaming content. But I’m pretty sure it’s not there. Long story short, this seems to be a viral effort from the folks at Axe. When you install the largely Flash-based program/background service, the program trains itself on your voice using the following romantic passage:

The Axe Effect: V.I.X.E.N.S.; speech recognition training

The upshot is that you are supposed to be able to speak various trigger phrases and see hot women show up at your beckoning right on your computer desktop.

Since I lack a microphone, I was unable to receive the full experience. However, if you would like to try it for yourself, the V.I.X.E.N.S. program is still freely available for download from the original, official site (about 340 MB); clearly, they also distributed it as a CD-ROM, probably through select periodical publications. Even though V.I.X.E.N.S. is apparently a background service, Spybot Search & Destroy thankfully does not peg it as any kind of spyware/malware.

See also:

My thorough coverage of My Fantasy Wedding, also from ZEMNOTT
Cribbage Quest Archived at Internet Archive

Negative Progress; Alanna

Posted on November 30, 2008 by Multimedia Mike

I remember when I first set out on this Gaming Pathology journey. According to my master spreadsheet at the time, I had around 80 games in my collection that were not in the database. My MobyGames records state that I contributed 106 games in 2007 and 30 games so far in 2008. Yet, my spreadsheet currently reports that I possess around 110 unentered games. Therefore, I recently resolved to not purchase anymore games until I have made a significant dent in the unentered games in my stock. And then there’s all the screenshot recon to be done!

So I have been reorganizing my computers recently. Most notably, I have decommissioned my Windows XP machine that was my central hub for this Gaming Pathology experiment. In its place, I have created a Windows XP VMware session on my Mac Mini. VMware Fusion for the Mac is supposed to have some nifty features for emulating DirectX so that gaming in a virtual computer won’t be such a drag. However, the virtualization program was quick to tell me that my budget-minded Mac Mini, with its economy class Intel graphics chipset, does not necessarily support all the latest and greatest features.

Somehow, I don’t think that this will be much of a problem given the types of games I often play, the bulk of which seem to be based on Macromedia Director. In fact, I thought I would eschew covering a new game for the time being and try one that I have been wanting to play for awhile: The Lost Island of Alanna, a Cherry Coke promotional game.

Unfortunately, as a result of my recent attempt at a full-on Mac conversion, I am still at a loss with regards to a decent graphics workflow. At the same time, I am also fighting with the newer image capabilities of the WordPress blogging software driving this site. Please accept this single screenshot that highlights what happens when running this 1998 vintage title on Windows XP without setting the compatibility mode to Windows 95:

X, not marking the spot in this cola-themed adventure

X, not marking the spot in the cola-themed adventure

As mentioned, this game came out in 1998. I was excited to snatch this up for cheap on eBay, even though the game has a decent entry already (refer to said entry for better screenshots, which do not vary significantly from the ones I could post). I should have read the MobyGames entry a little more thoroughly. It seems that this game was heavily dependent on materials available at a now-defunct cherrycoke.com URL. I can certify that the game’s eponymous island is pretty much impenetrable without the clues on that website. The Wayback Machine doesn’t help much since I can’t find any front pages for the site that mention Alanna.

Again, though, I should have done a little more homework before my purchase, for there is a complete walkthrough available, listed through MobyGames. Not only that, but the walkthrough author saw fit to post an entire copy of the game at the top of the walkthrough. So, by all means, download it and give it a whirl, especially if you thought Myst was an unparalleled masterpiece.

While the walkthrough reveals every single detail needed to complete Alanna, it also contains a specific deep link into the old Cherry Coke website. This is invaluable for web forensics via the aforementioned Wayback Machine and thus I was able to locate the original online companion materials for this game. Behold: The Standlake University of Cultural Anthropology project on Alanna.

The Standlake University research notes appear eerily authentic. This represents a marvelous impersonation of a dry, boring academic website. Keep in mind that there are some people who believe that video games are supposed to be fun.

I’m ecstatic to report that I finished this adventure game, including the sliding tile puzzle, and I am unashamed to admit that I followed the walkthrough to the letter. I wasn’t going to bother until I noticed that the walkthrough actually had a 71-step process for solving the sliding tile puzzle. The same website, apparently specializing in adventure game walkthroughs, even has software for solving sliding tile puzzles.

See also:

Myst, Alanna’s most obvious influence
Taco Bell Tek Kids— now here’s a company that knows how to do promotional tie-in video games

At MobyGames:

The Lost Island of Alanna
Pepsi Invaders, another Coca-Cola video game

Clothing Raid

Posted on November 9, 2008 by Multimedia Mike

I actually decided to explore some other sections of my favorite thrift store. In particular, I wanted to see what kind of sweat shirts and hoodies were on offer. My motivation for doing so was the recollection of a conversation with a coworker long ago who appeared one day in an apparently never-been-worn sweatshirt from some obscure university.

Me: Nice sweatshirt. Where is that school located anyway?
Him: I don’t know.
Me: … so… how did you come to obtain that article of clothing?
Him: I found it at a thrift shop.
Me: I certainly respect that.

So I raided the clothing items and oh, wow! There is some fun stuff in those racks. Some shirts for a random security service. A long-sleeve shirt with a patch that apparently proudly certifies that the wearer is ISO-certified. A sweatshirt that simply, humbly, and rather quizzically says “Crate & Barrel: Safety 2002″.

But the crowning piece was a hooded sweatshirt for a varsity cheer squad. The back had a Tinkerbell character talking some smack about how the team fully intended to dominate Nationals ’06. And you know I would have paid the 3 dollars for the item if it wasn’t 2 sizes too small for me.

Hey, if I’m going to buy any of these clothes, they’re going to be things I can wear. Honestly, I could start an entire other blog documenting the strangest thrift store finds. The only problem is that, while the cost would be negligible, the storage requirement for all of this junk would not be.

G-Nome Horse Reckoning

Posted on November 3, 2008 by Multimedia Mike

I sometimes need to remind myself that, when I have some time to play a game, I don’t necessarily have to play a game that is not yet in MobyGames. I have an impressive backlog of games that are already in the database but just require screenshots. So in the interest of screenshot recon, I played 3 completely unrelated titles whose records just needed a few screenshots for posterity.

The first is G-Nome. It made me realize that the only thing that could possibly frighten me more than a real-time strategy game, complexity-wise, is a mech simulation. Perhaps Steel Battalion was onto something when they opted to package a gargantuan custom controller with their game. My only guide to the controls was the configuration screen, which went on for pages. I got just enough of an idea, launched into a training mission, and then backed out to study up on more controls. Unfortunately, I am ill-equipped to play G-Nome as it appears that the game requires most of the keys of an extended keyboard, including the keypad. I have an abbreviated, laptop-style keyboard for my desktop (hey, my cat needs the extra space on my desk for sleeping).

So I did not collect too many screenshots for G-Nome. I was able to figure out how to make my mech walk, turn, and shoot. I found the base, or something, shown below since my radar seemed to think it was a target. All the shooting in the world didn’t elicit a reaction.

It’s mildly disheartening to realize that I’m woefully out of my element when not playing a very simple game. So let’s move on to another game in the popular (because there is more than 1 title) Let’s Ride series of equestrian simulators (not to be confused with the Time To Ride series), Let’s Ride: Friends Forever. In the last episode I covered, I couldn’t find anything more to do than tend to my horse (as a girl) and race around the same 3 darn barrels. At least in Friends Forever, the series has expanded to include a male player character. Regrettably, there is even less to do in this version. I’m not even sure if it’s possible to mount the horse:

A game like this features braindead simple controls on which it tutors you every step of the way. When it came time to go outside with my horse, it was not at all obvious how to mount the horse. So I can only conclude that doing so is impossible in this game. Indeed, the entire game appears to revolve around caring for your horse and prepping it, and yourself, for the equestrian beauty pageant. The things I put up with for this gaming project.

After all that, I thought maybe I deserved an enjoyable, action-oriented gaming experience with another recent acquisition called Dead Reckoning. You would think I’d learn by now that all the good games are already in MobyGames along with lots of illustrative screenshots. I pegged this as a Descent clone and I was right, though this game is grievously unfit to carry on the legacy of that series.

The object of each level appears to be to play a 3-on-3 death match against a squad of blue fighter craft. You are the leader of your red team and can give orders to your wingmen. I won a few rounds through no fault of my own.

The graphics are busy yet uninspired and the play control is awkward. Maybe I’m being too hard on it and should do better to consider the period. However, the period excuse won’t work for the awful music. Have you ever opened a creative program, like a music editor or painting program, and starting toying around? Would you ever submit that first round of experimentation as a finished, commercial product? I ask because the music reminds me of someone’s first session with a computer music program, toying with every effect and stereo position without regard to sanity.

I caught this item in the stat screen for the Beetle fighter craft:

I guess I assumed that the people who made The Last Starfighter would have some kind of trademark or other intellectual property protection on the term “Death Blossom”.

See also:

Let’s Ride: Corral Club, another entry in the apparently popular series
There was actually an NES game that claimed to be The Last Starfighter

At MobyGames:

Gaming Pathology

Piles Of Games, Copious Free Time, No Standards

Author: Multimedia Mike

2008 Review; 2009 Prospects

Phantom of the Knight

Cribbage Vixens

Clothing Raid

G-Nome Horse Reckoning