Draconius...um...you've got something hanging out of your nose!
My home country is… Australia. Live in the best part of Sydney, the Northern Beaches. Always have done always will.
My age is… 37
The first adventure game I played was… The first that I remember playing was The Hobbit on my Commodore 64. Never got over/through the Misty Mountains. I also remember playing The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but I don’t think I even made it out of Arthur Dent’s bedroom. Damn the genius of Douglas Adams, no one else could come up with so many obscure puzzles. First Graphic Adventure game I played would have been King’s Quest 1 at a friend’s place. Loved it and was hooked on adventure games from then on. First I owned would have been Space Quest 3 for the Atari ST (hey that rhymed).
My favourite adventure game is… Hero’s Quest series. I will always call the Quest for Glory series Hero’s Quest. Mainly because of that first game. So if I had to pick one I would choose the first one for nostalgi sake. Only just now finished Hero’s Quest 5 about a week ago. I really enjoyed it too.
I've heard very conflicting opinions about game 5. Hearing that you enjoyed it gives me hope I will too!
I like my games in (a box, digital format)… A box. At least originally. Nowadays though the boxes are just DVD cases with a disc so it’s becoming less important one way or another. Loving GoG though.
When I’m not playing games I like to… Read, mostly fantasy (finishing A Song of Ice and Fire at the moment. Had to start reading it so I could watch Game of Thrones, even though I hate reading an unfinished series and having to wait years for the next book ever since the Wheel of Time. Anyone who has been reading that will know what I mean) Favourite is Tolkien from The Silmarillion to Lord of the Rings. Just love the whole mythology he created. Watch movies/TV. Play piano/sing. Collect Transformers (the original Generation 1 stuff). Oh yeah, I have a 4 year old and 2 year old twins who also keep me a tad occupied.
The collector in me wants these bad!!!
The thing I miss about old games is… Adventure games, although they are making a comeback in the Indie scene and as episodic downloads (which I hate. Just give me the whole game in one go). I also miss the big interesting manuals and extra goodies that you used to get in big boxes too. That seems to be a recurring loss for this question. But there was nothing like opening up a new Ultima game and having your cloth map, interesting books to read, seeing what little trinket you’d get this time, would it be an ankh,a coin, some stones. So much to do while you spent the required half hour installing the game from the 8 or 10 enclosed floppies.
The best thing about modern games is… The advances in tech. Don’t get me wrong, great graphics and sound don’t make a great game. I still love playing the earlier Ultima games which certainly couldn’t be said to have either. But when you get a great game now like Batman: Arkham Assylum/City where everything goes click, there’s nothing like it.
I saw this on the side of a bus once and wanted to play it. Damn marketers that use sex appeal to catch my attention!!!
If I could see any band live it would be… The Beatles. I know I can’t, still I can wish. Blind Guardian if I was going to pick someone still performing
The one TV show I never miss is… Doctor Who. I’m a bit of a Doctor Who tragic. Loved it as a kid, still love it. Have a collection of DVDs only missing 2 stories because they haven’t released them yet (oh and the series that’s only half finished of course). I’ve even got the lost episodes as reconstructions in DVD format with matching cases so they fit in nearly seamlessly with the bought stuff. And it turns 50 this year, think I might have to start at An Uneathly Child and work my way through to celebrate this year. Also love Game of Thrones. Other series I like: The X-Files, Black Adder, Red Dwarf, Buffy/Angel, Stargate, Star Trek, Alias. None come close to Doctor Who though
I must admit I've thought about watching Doctor Who from start to finish (I don't think I've ever seen one that doesn't have Tom Baker in it). Maybe Draconius and I can blog our way through it one day! The experienced and the inexperienced, traversing the universe with the good Doctor!
My favourite movie is… Lord of the Rings. The extended version. It’s one 10 and half hour movie dammit. It just has 2 intermissions.
One interesting thing about me is… To be honest I really can’t think of anything. I would hope that people I know could answer this question, but to me whatever I am is just me. I know this seems a bit of a cop out. Then again maybe I’m just boring.
If anyone else wants to send their answers and get 20 CAPs, please send them to theadventuregamer@gmail.com.
That butterfly is the one from the Ultima VII:BG intro!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I've never noticed that, and I use that pic for everything. Must have been my subconcious kicking in.
DeleteTook the pic at a mate's wedding, they relleased all these butterflies but they were all groggy and didn't go anywhere, so I picked one up and put it on my nose
Ha, I have a bunch of old Transformers G1 stuff. Mostly the ones that made it through my childhood. I have some of the G1 reissue stuff as well. Personally though, I think my "crown jewel" is my Masterpiece Starscream.
ReplyDelete*Looks out the window* High winds, about -10C, and heavy snow falling. Curse you Australians, curse you.
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't be saying that if you'd just been through our hottest January on record. It was bloody awful, especially as my air conditioner died for over half of it (how's that for first world problems). I would have loved some of that -10C on some of those days, especially the nights
DeleteNah, it wasn't that bad!
Deletehttp://www.accuweather.com/en/au/sydney/22889/january-weather/22889
There were two shocking days well into the 40s (117 Fahrenheit) , but just about every other day was mid to late 20's. Lovely weather!!!! :)
Felt like it. So how far in are we and we've resorted to talking about the weather?
DeleteTHE 40S? Humans can SURVIVE that? *shudders* Yeah, I've heard about your weather, lots of fires and such. It hasn't been to bad here, mostly only down to -10C, and only mild snow. Yeah, you don't find many Canadians thinking climate change isn't real as we just don't get snow like we did when I was a kid. This winter, total, we've gotten about a foot. 15 years ago we'd get that in a single snowfall, more then once a winter.
DeleteNow, when I was in Montreal and it was well under -30, I'd take +40 over that I think, mostly as I own a pool.
Cool, ice skating at home
DeleteTransformers and Doctor Who :)
ReplyDeleteI must admit to a soft spot for G1 Transformers. The 1986 movie is one of my most watched films of all time, it just hits that nostalgia sweet spot (it's the music as well, as much as anything else).
ReplyDeleteGlad to see a mention of Red Dwarf too, have you seen the latest series?
Must say I was pleasantly surpsrised by Red Dwarf X. Seemed to really get back to the earlier ones. I still want to know what happened after Red Dwarf VIII when Rimmer kicked Death in the nuts.
DeleteNow I'm so waiting Complete Doctor Who Blog...
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting for the Turn Based Strategy Gamer and the First-Person Shooter gamer. Possibly the Action-Adventure or Beat'em Up gamer (Beat'em ups were a genre that were basically primitive fighting games, before the one-on-one fighting games. They've made a resurgence recently with stuff like INfamous [inFamous, INFAMOUS, inFAMOUS, etc, depending on which logo you like], Prototype, a lot of the X-Men games...)
DeleteWell I plan on covering quite a few TBS games (I'm on X-COM at the moment, and will switch to XCOM (confusing) when I'm done). No chance of doing a complete history though, I don't have that dedication! I will probably be covering Fallout Tactics, Jagged Alliance 2 and more at some vague point in the future.
DeleteAs for Beat'em ups, I've been wondering why there hasn't been a new Streets of Rage or Golden Axe. Considering how successful the recent Batman games have been, I'm sure that engine could make a good beat'em-up.
Blogging through the entirety of Doctor Who though, is surely an impossibility. A lot of the old episodes have been lost completely (The BBC re-used the film because it was expensive, and they thought nobody would care!). There are quite a lot of remaining episodes though. Some sort of more wide-ranging Sci-Fi blog might be better, because I'd like to see someone blog about Blakes 7!
I'd have to change my style of blogging to take on a different game genre. Can you imagine it otherwise?
Delete"I walked towards Vega, pondering how I might avoid his Wolverine-like claws. I noticed the small symbol on his dual coloured mask, and wondered whether it had any relation to the snake tattoo that wrapped around his muscular physique. Had I seen it somewhere else in the game? Did I have anything in my inventory that might give me a hint as to what...WTF?....seriously...before I could figure out what I was supposed to be doing, the guy just started laying into me, ripping me to shreds with immense speed and brutality. I didn't even have time to bring up the manual to see if there was any information in there about what his weaknesses might be, or whether there might be a way that I could convince him that fighting was not the only option. I soon found myself lying in a pool of blood, with no other option than to restore my game and this time pay particular attention to the environment around Vega in the hope of finding clues. Who knows, maybe we can talk this out!?"
I've read that the BBC have hired an animation company to remake the missing Doctor Who episodes. I know it's not the same as seeing the real ones, but it at least gives fans the chance to fill in some gaps. I believe there are 106 episodes out of the first 253 (six years) missing though, which is a lot!
DeleteAudio tapes do exist of all episodes and there are at least fan reconstructions made from original photos and surviving footage for the lost episodes. Not perfect, but a truly dedicated Who-fans must see/hear them.
DeleteAndy: Blakes 7 would also be a good topic for blogging. Maybe someone could write a blog for British Sci-Fi shows? At least Red Dwarf and Survivors should also be included.
Haha, that would be hilarious Trickster. I think your best bet would be to record your sessions then blog while watching the playback.
DeleteAndy: I may have to start reading your blog. Once I catch up on Rokcetpunk Manifesto, Gaming Ballistics and Dungeon Fantasy.... >.>
There's only a couple of episodes they're animating. They finished the Patrick Troughton Cyberman story "The Invasion" with 2 animated eps, and The William Hartnell story "The Reign of Terror" is being released this week with two animated eps, but so far that's all they've done or officially anounced. They have announced that "The Ice Warriors" will be coming to DVD soon and it's two missing episodes will be reconstructed but haven't stated that they'll be animated. That would only leave one episode that I can imagine that they would animate which is the last episode of "The Tenth Planet". The first Cybermen story and lst William Hartnell story, thus containing the first regeneration.
DeleteSome of the fan reconstructions are really well done, often I found I forgot I was watching stills and not the real thing.
The Doctor Who blog could be interesting. There are some brilliant one's out there (eg. http://tardiseruditorum.blogspot.com.au/ for anyone interested). Maybe I'll take you up on blogging together Trick when you've finished with Adventure Games, what about 2021?
Do they use the audio tracks in combination with the reconstructed episodes?
DeleteIt must be so frustrating being a Doctor Who tragic and knowing you'll never get to see so many of the episodes. Here's hoping they find a box of tapes in someone's attic!
Yeah, they clean up the audio tracks as they were recorded on tape recorders put in front of the TV speaker, no home video back then. I keeping hopping for that big box find.
DeleteTrickster, Draconius, can I do the Doctor Who blog thing with you if it happens?
DeleteHey, I found a new Adventure game kickstarter: Ritual Dementia: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1957041092/ritual-dementia
ReplyDeleteHere is another one, a point-and-click this time: Asylum: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/agustincordes/asylum-kickstart-the-horror?ref=category
DeleteAh! I see AgustÃn has gone the Kickstarter way with Asylum. I've been keeping an eye on this one for a long time, as I was very fond of his previous horror game, Scratches. Hopefully he'll get funded and the game will see the light sooner.
DeleteI just played Scratches for the first time within the past month. I like good point and click games, but this one didn't impress me. You never knew precisely what you had to do next and there was no "quick" way to move around the map. I found a lot of stuff I was supposed to do, but not right at that exact moment. I thought the atmosphere and story were good, but the game could use a serious overhaul in the interface. Plus you had to hunt and search through every last item in the house and there were a lot of drawers and the like to check. Anyway, yeah, I'd like to see what he's got up his sleeve next.
DeleteYes, there is quite a bit of meandering about the house and IMO at least one very unfair puzzle in the second act. However I found the atmosphere and general mood to be top notch -- a big part of my enjoyment of horror adventures. Very impressive for a first game, also; I guess having Jonathan Boakes on board didn't hurt (I was very pleasantly surprised by his own Dark Fall). I'm not sure I'd call these games point'n click, though.
DeleteThere's supposedly a Director's Cut version of Scratches that came out later with several enhancements. I haven't tried it so I can't comment on the differences, but maybe they tightened the script a bit?
I explored the house from the get-go, which was nice because I took "note" of stuff, but when it came time to need it later, I'd forgotten precisely where it was. I did play the Director's Cut. I don't know if there are any enhancements, but there is a chapter you can play after the game is over. As in, a second, extremely short game. You can choose this chapter from the title screen, so if you were inclined to buy it, you have access to the "new" content from the get-go. I thought the first day in its entirely was an exercise in frustration:
Delete- Svaq gur rzcgl xrl enpx va gur xvgpura.
- Svaq n fcrpvsvp cvpgher bs gur xrl enpx jvgu n cbg haqre vg.
- Nffhzr gur xrl sryy va gur cbg naq tb svaq gung fcrpvsvp cbg. (Vs lbh unira'g sbhaq gur cvpgher, lbh jba'g svaq gur xrl va gur cbg.)
- Jnxr hc va gur zvqqyr bs gur avtug.
- Unccra gb jnyx arne gur svercynpr gb svaq bhg jurer gur fpengpuvat abvfrf ner pbzvat sebz. V thrff guvf vf rnfvre jura lbh'er abg hfvat yncgbc fcrnxref gb gevnathyngr ba gur fbhaq.
- Jnyx qbja gb gur onfrzrag, ohg qba'g npghnyyl tb va. Lbh pna'g.
- Jnaqre vagb gur tnyyrel sbe ab qvfpreavoyr ernfba gb svanyyl raq gur qnl.
But I'm with you on the mood and atmosphere. I liked the story, setting, voice acting, you name it. After exploring the house the first time, I pretty much referenced a guide. "Oh yeah, I remember seeing X. Now's the time to go do something with it." I didn't use it to SOLVE puzzles, I used it to figure out WHICH puzzle to solve. Most of the game is accessible from the beginning of the game, it's just a matter of where to go precisely when. It's extremely linear.