Companions of Xanth – Roc and a Hard Place

By Ilmari

Last time, I had just arrived in the magical world of Xanth. Without any idea what I am supposed to do, I ask my companion Nada Naga for advice.

Ah, the good magician Humfrey. No trip to Xanth would be perfect without a visit to the Good Magician’s castle. Originally a human with no talents, but a lot of curiosity, he eventually enrolled in a demon university and earned a degree of a magician of information. After a long period as a king of Xanth, Humfrey retired into a castle, but people began coming up and asking him questions, since he knew so much. Eventually, he decided to ask anyone visiting him for a year’s service – even his future wife, Gorgon (yes, the one with snakes as her hair and a petrifying look), when she wanted to know if Humfrey would marry him. Relatively recently in Xanth history, Humfrey and his family went missing and the place of the magician of information had to be temporarily assumed by Grey Murphy, magician with the talent of magic nullification and the son of an evil magician Murphy (the famous one with the talent of making things go wrong, if they can go wrong). Humfrey was eventually found in the anteroom of Hell, where he had gone to ask the demon X(A/N)TH release her previous wife, Rose of Roogna, whom he had forgotten due to drinking a lot of forgetfulness potion after her disappearance. Eventually X(A/N)TH conceded, but also returned Humfrey’s all earlier wives (now up to five and half) back to the world of the living. Since Xanth allows only monogamous marriages, Humfrey’s wifes have to take turns in living with Humfrey, while others reside in Hell.

Sometimes the Xanth series seems like one big soap opera.

Game 153: Jack in the Dark (1993) - Introduction

Written by Andy Panthro

The mysterious toy shop.

On this Halloween night, a young child by the name of Grace Saunders (age 8) is lost in the big city. She chances upon an old toy shop, and after knocking, the door opens. Upon entering the door shuts behind her, trapping her in this strange place full of weird, wonderful and downright creepy toys.

Happy Halloween everyone! It’s time for…

What do you mean it’s December? What a strange turn of events!

A very brief introduction.

Yes, while this game is set on October 31st, it was released in December of 1993, as part of a promotion for Alone in the Dark 2. Even the opening image of the toyshop has a Christmas tree outside! So it’s only fitting then that I should play this now, in the run up to Christmas, and with Alone In the Dark 2 not too far off in the future (I guess I have my work cut out for me).

I briefly played this many years ago, but I don’t think I ever finished it. In a change from the usual Alone In The Dark games, this one has no combat, but rather is more of a traditional adventure game, albeit in 3D which was not yet common. This is packaged with Alone in the Dark 1 on GOG.com, and was available in the 90s as part of the CD releases of both AitD 1, and AitD 2.

The toy shop interior, with a menacing looking jack o’lantern in the upper right

I’ll keep this first entry quite short, as this is probably going to be a short adventure (I hope so, my time right now is a little limited!). Our character, Grace, is in the now-locked toyshop, and can wander about freely, with a few objects in view to take a look at. There are only “search” and “close” options available as actions for now, but this does change when you pick up new items. We’ll get into more of the story and themes of this little adventure next time, which get revealed upon searching the area.

So we leave our young character for now. She is alone (apart from the toys), and in the dark (apart from the lights of the toy shop)... Who can guess what the rating will be?

Hand of Fate - Final Rating

Written by Michael

Hand of Fate has proven to be a fun game to play for the blog.  I don’t remember if I ever finished it back in the day (lazy 15-year-old me might have used a walkthrough to see the end) but that’s more a reflection on me than the game.  The commenters predicted very high scores for this game, possibly even cracking the top ten list.  Getting to it, in my usual style, the first few categories are going to be very heavily worded.  You wouldn’t expect any less from me, right?

Companions of Xanth – Man from Mundania

By Ilmari

The plot device

In the deep end, then. I wonder what a complete newbie to the Xanth lore would understand about this discussion of two demonic figures with weird names. And what’s that Mundania they keep talking about?

Game 150: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (1993) - Introduction

By Zenic Reverie

Soon...

What is the draw to horror? In the intro to Veil of Darkness, I mentioned that this kind of entertainment was not my cup of tea, at least at the time it was released. I enjoyed a good mystery and had some interest in supernatural fantasy, but gruesome and especially gory art turned me away. So, once again, I probably would have passed on this game if the box were the only thing to go by.

Hanging body? weird looking face? no thanks.

The back of the box promises something a little more in line with a thriller than outright horror. A story steeped in voodoo, a generational curse, and unnerving nightmares. It gets my mind racing with possibilities. How were the Shadow Hunters formed? Why do they exist? Are there others? Is the curse triggered by some recent or future event, or has he had these nightmares throughout his life? I guess there's only one way to find out.