Wayne's World – Won!

by Michael

At the end of this game, we will be rescuing a princess.

Well, I have to take back some of my optimism about this game from the previous posts.  This last segment of the game made me feel as though I was constantly climbing ladders, dodging wine barrels being tossed my way.

I’m going to leave out a lot of the deliberations that went into my actions.  A lot of the puzzle solving in this last section came down to pure luck or brute force inventory application.  Sometimes, I could see where I might have been given a hint, had I arrived at a different screen first, but instead did not.

Last we saw, I found out my pookie had been babe-napped, and the money we raised to save the TV station had been stolen at the same time.

I dare you to say it three times, really fast.

Exploring the world after the tragedy, I made my way to the grocery store warehouse, where, housed within, was a meeting of the Secret Society of Sinusitus Sufferers.  Because that is the most likely place for a meeting, of course.

I could think of a better place for such a meeting.

BloodNet – Final Rating

by Will Moczarski

The time has come for the final rating of the "cyberpunk vampire adventure game" BloodNet – or is it a cyberpunk vampire RPG? When I started reviewing this game back in fall 2022, I made two predictions: there’ll be more coincidental Muse lyrics than “time is running out” in my posts before I get to pen the final rating. And “exploring the far reaches of Cyberspace” will surely be a chore. Both of them were wrong. Cyberspace was alright (although there are some who will beg to differ), and I refrained from quoting Muse altogether as far as I'm aware. Before I try to break down the sprawling mess that is BloodNet, however, let's take a look at what the contemporary magazines had to say about it. 

Missed Classic: The Hound of Shadow - By the Pricking of My Thumbs

Written by Vetinari

Next morning, I wake up to a surprise. The landlady, Mrs Bastable, announces that a visitor, a young lady, is waiting for me in the lounge.

Now, I haven't mentioned anything about a landlady up to now, and I can hear what you're saying: of course there's a landlady, all sleuths (especially ones who live in London, and in Marylebone, no less) have a landlady. No! You are thinking of Victorian sleuths! Golden Age sleuths have no landladies, only secretaries!

She's no Miss Lemon, but Nikki Porter comes a close second.

Anyway, going to the lounge I find that this mysterious visitor is none other than Yasmin the maid/assistant from the séance. She says that her real name is Vivienne Powers and that Harry Pelham, a.k.a. the Adept Karmi, has not been right since the other night. Nightmares, headaches, depression, the whole package that you can expect after having had a close encounter with occult and malevolent forces.

Homeworld - Spirits and Spies

By Reiko

Previously, we discovered Convergence was the head of a secret society who had leads on where to find the items necessary to fix the ship so we can return to Earth, but we still need the TransWarp drive from Solifluction to get back in time to stop the Assassins. So we have to contact his son Raphide again and also find Astatine in Fogram's lab. The Aesthemis constellation unlocks the door to the lab, so I step inside.

Please note that this post has fewer screenshots than normal because we have many lengthy conversations in which the only image is the exact same picture of the character having the conversation with us.

Sneaking into Fogram's secret lab.

There's a lot of mysterious equipment in here, but the most interesting things are a visor and a strange device on a pedestal. I think I remember something about the visor, so I look at the device first. It sort of looks like a belt but with a piece of metal attached. I reach for it to pick it up and fiddle with it, but instead it zaps me. Ow! Then the screen on the wall lights up, and we see an Ancestor, who says, "Who are you? Do you belong here? Get out! I'm at a delicate stage in my experiments and I will not tolerate your interference!"

Wayne's World - Welcome to Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse

by Michael

This logo reminds me of another adventure game publisher...

So, last post, I said the game wasn’t as bad as I expected.  And that’s still true.  But it is far from the “Pinnacle of Entertainment Software” as their logo in the game loading sequence claims.

I probably could have finished the game in this session, but I really needed to take a break.  

Recapping from the last time, we’ve crossed 5 of the 10 items off of our to-do list.  So let’s see how to handle the rest of them.  First, my thoughts before I started out:

• Advertising - I’ll need to find the mascot mouse or a replacement to pep up the ad agency staff

• Volunteers - I need to befriend the biker gang

• TV air time - I’ll need to steal the time slot somehow from the gadget guy

• Electronic totals board - I’ll need to use the remote control to commandeer the televisions/computers from either the TV studio or the invention business

• Pizza ingredients - need to be obtained, somehow, from the supermarket

And it turns out that I’m right on 4 out of 5 of these.  Let’s see how I worked this out.

Missed Classic 129: Valhalla (1983) - Introduction

 Written by Morpheus Kitami

Its time for a marathon. Today's topic, Eldritch Games, the company behind The Hound of Shadow and Daughter of Serpents. Two horror adventure games that got missed the first time through, and seemingly ones that deserve the title Missed Classic. But an astute reader will have already noticed that this isn't The Hound of Shadow. Like all good stories, it does not start where you think.

Wait, what do you mean Vetinari started up Hound of Shadow? Serves me right for first writing this entry in 2022.

The principal team behind Eldritch Games consists of Chris Elliot, Richard Edwards, Mike Lewis and Carl Cropley. Mr. Elliot did not do anything before Hound of Shadow, at least that I know of. Lewis and Cropley were friends long before, and we'll get to them quickly. Today's title covers a game Richard Edwards had a hand in, the Norse mythology driven Valhalla...which is an adventure game with real-time gameplay. Can't I get a game without some annoying aspect like that?

And this game has combat. Not sure how extensive it is, but that is apparently part of the game. I remember someone once telling me adventure games were generally not violent. I can't help but feel like I've never seen one that was about non-violence...uh..Leisure Suit Larry...?

BloodNet – WON!

 by Will Moczarski

Whatever the case: I’m back. Those are the words I ended my previous BloodNet post with, and they are just as suitable for picking up on it again. That was on May 19, 2023, so it almost took me a year to be “back” this time, hopefully for good. Now I could bore you with long explanations why it took me so long but I think it doesn’t matter at this point. Whatever the case: I’m back.

Last time, I finally jumped over the huge stumbling block that was the fight inside Grant’s Tomb. The spike in difficulty had been unprecedented at that point and the remainder of the game was comparatively easy. I finished BloodNet on May 22, 2023 riding high on my previous success, clocking in at 28 hours. Fortunately, I recorded my playthrough. Also, I wrote much of this post back then but because I had to get back into the plot (as is probably the case with you) I decided to rewrite most of it (you'll notice by the shift from past to present tense when the new introduction ends).

So, where were we? I won the fight at Grant’s Tomb, killing Abraham Van Helsing in the process. Also, I freed Alexander Tennant only to see him die on me. To make things worse, he told me that Van Helsing was not really dead. I’d have to stab his heart to make sure. From looking at my notes I figured that was fair game since I hadn’t managed to find Deirdre yet (my main objective once upon a time). It was time to shape up and tie up with some loose ends.

Now going back out into the streets felt strangely satisfying having spent so many hours inside that damn tomb (although the in-game time hardly advanced, naturally). I stocked up on ammo at Vince’s and only then did I notice (or remember, really) that my proud party of six had shrunk to only three members. Rymma Fizz and Monique St. Clair had stuck it out but the others would never come back from the tomb. 

I decided not to repeat the fight hoping for a better result as I still had some potential party members waiting for me out in the streets. Also, I had been stuck in cyberspace, not being able to continue with the “lost kids” plot. Going over my notes I figured that Chuck was likely the right person to talk to, so I went out to add him to my party. (I had tried that in some of my earlier save states but he didn’t seem like a good fighter to me. Maybe he’s of more use to me in the cyberspace.)

Now especially during the endgame I was quite happy that I had been really thorough at keeping notes. I could quickly look up where to find other party members such as Garrick Fizz who’d finally be reunited with his wife Rymma now. He was on the same street corner as Chuck, too, which was kind of convenient...

Missed Classic: Hound of Shadow - A Murder is Announced

Written by Vetinari

Whoever may have had an however fleeting or passing acquaintance with other famous Lovecraft-adjacent games (or even just stood downwind of someone who had), when faced with a title like The Hound of Shadow knows exactly what to expect: one of the most iconic creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos, the Hound of Tindalos.

The main characteristic of these creatures is that once a human becomes known to them as a prey, they will pursue the victim through anything to reach their quarry.

Say hello to my little friend.

So, starting the game proper I had quite a good idea of what I would be facing, at least in terms of the main antagonist. Something relentless, that would hunt down the investigator without mercy wherever and whenever he would be.

Wayne's World - Whoa, We're Halfway There

by Michael

So, how to start off this post?  How about a shocking thought:  this game is nowhere near as bad as I expected.

I'm not saying it's great.  I'm not even saying that it's good.  But there's actually a few things in here so far that are actually an improvement over the last game I played for the blog.  A LucasArts game, remember.

For example, some commenters on that last review were distressed by the lack of tool tips or mouse-over item descriptions.  This game has both.  It has icons that function very similarly to that of old-school LucasFilm games, where you can select an action, and then whip around the screen, the names of items showing at the bottom of the screen.  Not only do most items have a description when you look at them, but often, different descriptions when either Wayne or Garth is looking at the item.

Missed Classic: Urotsukidoji (うろつき童子) - Won (And Summary)

 Written by Morpheus Kitami

Last time, we finished a meeting with Kudo, and we were going to go to class 3-C. Probably.

That's Akemi, but it isn't anyone I recognize. Wasn't she missing? Oh, it is Nagumo, but wait, who was the guy the first time? I guess a member of the student council? Jaku asks about the Choujin, Nagumo says he always asks about that, when in the world is he going to get new material? Now two different people are stealing my lines...I have Jaku talk to Nagumo again, and again, Nagumo mocks him and now Akemi is joining in on the fun. I'm going to click on talk to Nagumo again, Jaku, are we going to talk to him normally? He asks him what's going on, nothing much. How about Akemi? Well, she asks Jaku if he's seen Kumiko, he says yes, but he's cagey about it. Probably because she's dead. Jaku tells Kuroko to watch Nagumo.

Yuuchi is in 3-B. So if Kudo isn't in 3-B or 3-C, where is he? Yuuchi is still pinning over Akemi, and to be honest I sort of don't care about this plotline much. Seemingly, it might just be carryover from yesterday, hopefully that's not a technical issue. I briefly search the rest of the rooms on the third floor, before deciding to speed things along. Which is good, because I didn't examine the Information Room on the third floor enough. Examining it three times reveals that Jaku can hear someone's voice, and because this is the only way we're getting any plot right now, we search the LL room, then I have to go to 3-A, 2-C and 1-B. A green voiced person is saying something about making war in 24 hours...and then eating a bento. On the first floor, Jaku then gets an ominous atmosphere.

To the school infirmary, where a yellow voice says something ominous, and another, this time purple voice, says something mysterious. Jaku enters and...

Veil of Darkness - A Weapon for Every Being

Written by Zenic Reverie

Thanks for hanging around.

The mace I found at the monastery was quite effective against the skeletons, and good thing too because no other weapon made a mark on their bones. Combat beyond normal wolves and bats has required a dedicated weapon to deal damage. This has led me to cautiously approach new enemies, and keep most weapons handy. I dispatched them one at a time, retreating to heal at the gypsy camp. With those two cleared I was clear to explore the graveyard and collected some betony. I found there wasn't much else to do without a means to banish the guardian in front of the crypt. Next location of interest was a crossroads that connected the towns. Here was the man hanged for the murder of Eduard. His soul, still attached to his body, had much to say. He warned me to stay away from a nearby hut that was home to an old crone.

I promise I won't give it to the witch unless it's part of the quest.

Ambrose, the hanged man, wanted his soul redeemed. Finding the true murderer was necessary. Continuing to claim full innocence, he elaborated that the magistrate had to make an example of someone to appease the Dark Lord Kairn. While in this limbo state he communicated with the spirits of the monks from the monastery, blaming their deaths on the nearby witch. The key she sought from the monks unlocks their library where a book called Etheric Rites is held. How Ambrose came by the key wasn't covered.

Missed Classic 128: The Hound of Shadow - Introduction (1989)

Written by Vetinari

The Hound of Shadow is the first of two games created by British developer Eldritch Games and based on the Cthulhu Mythos by Lovecraft.

This game is a bit of a precursor to the other Lovecraftian games which were all the rage in the first half of the 1990s, such as Alone in the Dark, Shadow of the Comet or Prisoner of Ice, but still it was published two years later than Infocom's The Lurking Horror.

Eldritch Games was the child of software designers Chris Elliott and Richard Edwards, who created the company specifically to develop the Timeline computer games series, of which unfortunately only this game and its later sequel (Daughter of Serpents) were ever created.

Elliot and Edwards. I doubt that this was taken during a normal day at the office.

The other credits for this game are Mike Lewis, who is credited with the lion's share of the programming, and Carl Cropley as the graphic artist.

Black Sect - Final Rating

By Ilmari

The story of Lankhor is over in our regular game list, although I might return to do some of their older games as Missed Classics. The company did continue its existence to 2001, but all they did after this was some racing games. I can’t help, but feel a bit sad. Still, I’ll try to maintain my objectivity when rating the Black Sect.

Missed Classic: Johnny Castaway (1992)

by a Random Reviewer

The other genres get all the credit, even though adventures have always been the superior genre.  So many action games have inspired movies, such as Doom, Tomb Raider, Need for Speed, and the Super Mario Brothers series.  Heck, they even got people to pay to see a movie that was really just an advertisement for Mario 3!  

But there’s very few adventure games that have succeeded in that way.  In fact, there’s only one.  (Rumor has it that Les Manley was copied to make a Steve Carell film, but I don’t buy that.)  

Enter today’s game, Johnny Castaway, a 1992 classic from the team at Sierra On-Line.  Dynamix lead Jeff Tunnel did much of the work, causing the game to be noticed by filmmaker Robert Zemeckis, taking a break from directing the smash hit Death Becomes Her. Tom Hanks didn't take much convincing to star in it. According to the press at the time, he took one look at the game and instantly signed on to the movie project.

Homeworld - Gravity's End

By Reiko

Interrupted, just when it was getting good!

Last time we attended a mysterious rendezvous and met Macropterous, a member of a secret religious sect among the Heechee. He believes we can help each other, so he gave me the course code to the sect's headquarters. However, I have to follow some ancient Heechee prophecies in order to gain access, because our meeting was interrupted before he could tell me how to do it.

History of an obsolete religion.

I have put the course code into the ship and now activate it to travel to a new location. A rocky hill is crowned by the ruins of an ancient temple. Oddly enough, this seems to be a tourist destination, as a guidething (bot) wakes up when I arrive and begins telling me about the "ancient site of the Temple of Sterigma." The ancients who built the site worshiped the elements and focused on religion as much as science and technology. Yet their scientific studies were the undoing of their religion: as they learned to understand the world around them, they ceased to worship it. That's reasonable.

Missed Classic: Beyond Zork - Finally Finding the Plot

Written by Joe Pranevich

Welcome back to Beyond Zork! I admit that I have struggled with this game. It's not that it's a bad game, but I have difficulty motivating myself to play or write about it. Every time I try, my attention drifts elsewhere and I find something else to do. I'm almost surprised I haven't opted to paint my bathroom by now. This should be impossible – this is a Brian Moriarty game! This is a Zork game! This is Infocom! I've played my fair share of duds for this blog — and I'll admit, a bad game can be charming in its own way. Every one of them inspired me to write, sometimes too much. Beyond Zork is the first game where my primary feeling is one of mediocrity. It should be a better game and my energy is sapped. This session at least ended well and I hope that I can keep up this positive motivation to finally finish and rate one of the final games in our marathon. 

Last time, I needed hints to progress, including a major one for solving the riddle at the lighthouse entrance. After navigating the structure and battling interesting monsters — from replicating dust devils to a creature with countless eyes — I opened a chest at the very top. What happened next was unexpected: I was teleported to a celestial realm filled with unicorns. They didn’t like me much and banished me back to earth with a warning that they would not be so friendly next time. I still have many unsolved puzzles, with perhaps the largest being that my character hasn’t “found the plot” yet. We (the player) know what is going on and that we’re questing for the Coconut of Quendor, but all my protagonist knows is that she had a sudden urge one day to do a fetch quest for a cook in a nearby inn and before she knew it she was trying on armor and being insulted by unicorns. What is her motivation?

This week, as the title suggests, we’ve finally discovered the plot. Let’s get on with it!

Game 141: Wayne’s World - Introduction (1993)

By Michael

Last week, we wrote a blog post looking forward to the next “Year Ahead” post, when we choose the games to be played for the blog in the future.  Today, I’m cursing the 1993 post.  Yes, I’m looking at you, Andy Panthro.  See, he spent 200 of his valuable, hard-earned, CPU-harvested CAPs to force an unsuspecting TAG reviewer to play a game that normally wouldn’t have been on the list.  This is, of course, the 1993 adventure game Wayne’s World from Capstone Entertainment, not to be confused with two different action platformers released the same year, also under the same name.

Capstone Entertainment... that sounds vaguely familiar (and also is likely an oxymoron).  Hmmm... oh, yeah, they also produced the critically-acclaimed Beverly Hillbillies game, based on a TV series from the 1960s that Ilmari recently played here.

Before you count this game out, though, let’s talk about the Saturday Night Live skit turned movie that brought us here.  After all, this movie shows up right next to The Blues Brothers as the top-rated SNL movie of all time.

Black Sect: Won! (Or Is It a Tie?)

By Ilmari

That knight armour will be important later

The Year Ahead - 2024

By The TAG Team

Our reviewers, admins, and commenters

Okay, so that title isn't a mistake.  We want to talk about the blog, and what's to come this year.  We missed celebrating The Adventurers Guild’s 12th birthday, but there’s still a lot to celebrate, and a lot more planned for the future.  But it’s been a few years since we talked about the blog, so we wanted to take some time to get caught up with each other.

Some things may have slowed down here a little in the few years since the pandemic.  Many readers and reviewers had their lives changed, including having more or less time to spend on their hobbies.  Some of our past reviewers haven’t been able to keep up their previous schedules, but we’ve also seen a couple of newer writers join our ranks.

Two writers have recently taken on some of the administrative behind-the-scenes work on the blog.  We’d like to welcome Morpheus and Michael to our list of admins, and while there haven’t been any formal announcements until now, they’ve been polishing some of the pages and spreadsheets that weren’t given all the attention they needed recently.  The other admins are still also maintaining the blog and connections, including Ilmari, Joe, and Will, who have been keeping the wheels turning since the transition from Trickster’s original project.

We’re trying to keep the reviews and playthroughs coming, and have some goals for this year.  Perhaps it’s a little late for New Year’s resolutions, but better late than never, right?

First, we’re trying to ensure that we have posts at least once a week, sometimes more often than that.  We love the community that has developed here, and look forward to it growing bigger and bigger.

Second, we have a somewhat ambitious (but maybe not completely realistic) goal of finally finishing the 1993 games this year.  You’ve been earning all those CAPs with your score guesses, comments, and other contributions to the blog, and what could be better than a year ahead post for 1994 to spend them on?

It’s for this goal that we need your help.  Help us write a review of a game!  Test the waters (and hone your writing style) by first writing a playthrough of a missed classic.  A game from your past, or a game from before 1993 we didn’t play yet (but should have).  Email us at adventuregamer@googlegroups.com with your ideas.

And even if you can’t help write a review, there are many ways you can help us grow the community and make it better.  Share links to your favorite TAG blog posts on other sites, and encourage others to join the conversations.  Comment on the posts, let us know you’re there, and tell us what you enjoy reading about, so we can adapt.  Constructive criticism?  This is a perfect post for those comments.  Just remember, this is a volunteer-run blog, so not everything is possible, but we’re open to new ideas... but we need your help to do it.

Thanks for making this blog something we look forward to reading and writing every time!

Discussion Point: Linear Games

 Written by The TAG Team

While not really adventure games, the Grand Theft Auto series are sandbox games, which by definition is not linear.

Continuing with our series of discussion questions, let's have a chat about game worlds.

In some adventure games, you have to complete area A before you can have access to area B.  In other games, you have free rein to go nearly everywhere you want, exploring along the way. 

Sometimes, it was done for logistical reasons.  Leisure Suit Larry 2, for example, was specifically designed to avoid disk swaps, with each area fitting on a different floppy.  When you advanced, you would change the floppy, and not have to flip disks back and forth.

In Maniac Mansion, you could explore nearly everywhere in the mansion from the beginning, although sometimes you might get caught by the Edisons and get to visit a special room in the basement.

Some games are a hybrid.  In The Legend of Kyrandia, for example, you can explore a large area, and then when you solve a puzzle, you can explore the previous area as well as a new large area combined -- and you need to go back and forth to solve some puzzles.

Does a linear path make the game easier?  Harder?

Is there a thrill in opening up new areas, or more joy in seeing things you can’t access yet?

Which games handled their choice well?  And are there any games that handled it poorly?

There’s pros and cons to each approach, but what are your thoughts?

In Leisure Suit Larry 2, you can't access one area until you finish the previous one.

Black Sect - Infiltrating the cult

By Ilmari

Well of the devil

Discussion Point: Arcade Sequences

 Written by The TAG Team

What happens if I put playing cards into the spokes?

Back when the blog became a collaborative team effort, we started posing questions to you, the readers.  If you don’t remember about this, that’s understandable.  It’s been a little bit longer than we anticipated since our last post.

But we’re back, and plan to make this a regular feature of the blog once again.  And we’d like to start the conversation with one of the most polarizing additions to adventure games: the arcade sequence.

They started creeping into our genre back when computers weren’t quite so powerful, so maybe they weren’t as challenging.  Or were they?  No mice, instead just clunky keyboards that went click-click-click.  

So many questions:

• Did they add any value to the adventure games?  

• Would the games be as fun or as well revered without them?

• Are they better or worse than gambling sequences?

• What were some good arcade sequences?

• Are there any games that could benefit from having them added?

Or, what other thoughts do you have?

Some arcade sequences seem to, ahem, DRIVE gamers crazy.

Black Sect - Village of fetch quests

By Ilmari

What I like about Black Sect, compared to Le Secte Noire, is that from the start there’s things to do and try. The black cat seems still just decoration, but I did manage to open a window and find some cheese and a metal bar.