Messages

Yeah, Sam Cooke.

I listen to some old music, of course. Beatles, Doors, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, Family,...

But there's also so much great modern music, like Sufjan Stevens, Mars Volta or Mother Tongue (sadly outside of Germany, where Mother Tongue has a loyal following, they're not too popular).

I never escaped in to the past to find great music. Instead I looked harder what's new out there.

[by any means]

Based on what you've listed I'd avoid games like Bud Tucker in Double Trouble (it's a really, really intensely boring back to the future pseudo-spoof), Innocent Until Caught (involves aliens and conspiracies), Woodruff and Schnibble (really sophomoric zany humor), and Jack Orlando (just generally a really boring game).

Some of the others mentioned you may like, as well as Rex Nebular (if you are fond of a better written space quest knockoff with far less sadism and a lot more sexual humor).  I was pleasantly surprised by it, at any rate. 

It's a shame you don't like action in games, because otherwise I'd highly recommend the first four quest for glories for the sheer volume of options for solving puzzles (and a welcome departure from Sierra's typical sadistic design model).

Have you considered Eco Quest 1/2?  I'm not a proponent of Sierra by any means, but after many years of avoiding this series I found it to be rather enjoyable, if childish (it is geared for kids, after all).

KGB is a good possibility, since you mention you like mysteries and more serious gameplay.    I will say that it's difficult to get into, but you may find it worth it.

Bargon Attack is one that I thought I'd bring to your attention but I'm doubtful if you'll like it since it has 'aliens'.  The game itself has really well-executed visuals and animations, though, and takes an interesting approach to gameplay.  Again, it may not be for you.


Dreamweb you may like, and it focuses largely around a virtual reality system and conspiracies.

Bloodnet puts you in a future world with vampires where early on you're infected and are slowly turning into one.  The game focuses around your investigation to save yourself and also to solve a series of crimes.  I enjoyed it when I played it years ago, but it may not be as good as I remember.

It Came From the Desert is probably one of my favorite Amiga games ever, and it was ported to the pc.  This is another one you may or may not like since it does feature some combat (mainly shooting giant ants) but the 50's horror movie vibe is great.

Two games I highly recommend for you are the Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes games.  The Case of the Serrated Scalpel and The Rose Tattoo are both pretty brilliant for adventure games and feature (for the most part) logical puzzles and allow you to deduce solutions through research.


That's about all I can think of right now.

Well, Woodruff certainly isn't everyone's cup of tea, but since it is very similar in terms of style to the Goblins series he may like it. It certainly has its fans and I think it's underrated.

Bargon Attack.......well, I like that too, but the pixelhunting may annoy some people. It's not that bad since you are mostly limited to one location before you go to the next, but it's not exactly fun either.

Dreamweb...........either you love or loathe it. The recent Adventure Gamers review showed this clearly.

You could browse through the database at adventuregamers.com though they stretch the definition of adventure game.

Hm, I'm not exactly sure why you think that. Contrary to Just Adventure, Quandaryland or Four Fat Chicks they don't test crossover titles.

I also agree with scotch.
You know, I can't draw a thing on paper, except ugly heads.
Yet I think I produce solid low-res pictures. Nothing special or attractive, but it won't scare anyone away either.
I would recommend Paint.Net to you.
It's also free and ideal for low-res images, and makes the work so much easier. It allows multiple layers, so you don't have to think about how the table continues behind those chairs, for example. You don't have to fill in the gaps in your head. You can draw the full table and then lay the chairs on top off it.
I also think that you should import a character so that you can measure how big everything should be relative to him.
Of course, you should keep in mind that the character gets smaller the deeper he stands in the picture.
Personally, I'm a bit allergic against graphics that obviously ignore the concept of a vanishing point. So, imo, you should draw the room outline and objects with depths against a vanishing point.

I think that should be enough to produce solid graphics. Well, and don't use garish colours!

BTW, when you start Paint.Net it is set to smooth pixels. You can change this though to "hard", blocky ones, just like in Paint.

[Gene Machine]

Woodruff is basically Goblins but as full-fledged adventure. I love it!

Personally, I am a collector of odd games so I might recommend you the one or another interesting game.
It sounds like you are well versed in the adventure genre, so you may know already some of those titles I will tell you about.

Gene Machine - This is a fantastic game. It starts out in London in the 1880s. You are an adventurer and just came back from travels to North America. As you come home a talking cat comes by and tells that she escaped from the evil Dr. Dinsey who built a Gene Machine and strives for world domination.
Okay, you have the cliched bad guy here, but the rest is wonderful. The game is a satire on the culture of London at that and as you could expect it's very witty as a result. It uses many motives of Jules Verne novels, like a journey to the moon. It has beautiful graphics, logical puzzles,.....well, I love it! MobyGames

The Quivering - This is a very obscure game, sadly. From a visual perspective it's 1st person, but from a narrative one it is not, since you don't play as yourself, no. You control Spud, who spouts many sarcastic remarks along the adventure.
I have to be honest, I played the game only for some minutes and hadn't time for more, so I can't tell you if it's really good. Head to MobyGames for more info, and to Legacy for screenshots!

The Adventures of Valdo & Marie -  I got attentive to this game because I searched for earlier titles of Michel Ancel. Well, actually he isn't responsible for this one, he is only thanked in the credits. Well, I'm too lazy and tired to write about it now (it would only result in gibberish anyway), so I redirect you to Mobygames. And yep, it's an adventure for kids and has educational content, but rest assured that it is far from boring. Even as an adult I thought it was interesting. Worth a look!

This should be enough for now. I think you shouldn't know all of these.

Amazing! I'm glad to see that the RON community is still capable of releasing such a quality game!!

I can also recommend it for newcomers since it contains a funny and informative exposition. For now my favorite RON game.

Yeah, I'm also a friggin' lazy bum.
I mean, can I change it? I was born that way, raised that way, what should I do?

Well, of course I can! I kick myself in the ass everyday to do something, though I don't want to really. I also had to learn to be more nice and social to people.

With your same line of argumentation you could also excuse the behaviour of murderer, paedophile,...
I mean, they feel this way, they can't help themselves, but they have to kill people or molest small children.

All human beings are different. For some it's harder to behave in a social manner than for others. We might help those, but I at least won't accept recklessness and intolerance.

Hell, Agatha Cristie's world-famous classic novel, "Ten Little Indians" was originally called "Ten Little Niggers"

To be honest, I'm not tolerant towards intolerance.

That's a paradox. If you're not tolerant towards intolerance, that makes you intolerant, which means if I was to follow your sentiment I shouldn't be tolerating your intolerance towards intolerance. And you shouldn't be tolerating my intolerance for your intolerance for intolerance. If that makes sense. So, basically, everyone should kill each other.


We all have our little intolerances. It's natural. My uncle's lactose intolerant... I'm not all up-in-arms about that...

Yeah, I'm sure the world would be a much better place if we would be all tolerant towards racism, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, misogyny...
Sure.

[are]

Well, if the source files get released so that an easy parody is possible, then I'm all for it.

To be honest, I'm not tolerant towards intolerance. It would weaken tolerance.
There are controversial topics you could make a game about, without being racist, homophobic,...

When Larry came out sex in games was a controversial topic (and still is in the USA, see Hot Coffee...).
Or you could broach the issue of incest, paedophilia...
But in a mature manner, not in the way "fuck as many school kids before time runs out" or something like this...
And macabre, dark humor is always welcome!

[does]

[offtopic]
Yeah, that's probably the difference why the Silver Lining project is still alive and the SQ7 one will never get released.
But, Josh Mandel lying to us, that's not possible, is it? 

Maybe they wanted to surprise everyone.
It's just so sad that their low-profile marketing tactics turned against themself.

I guess you got suscipious because it seemed that for a long time nothing got done. Probably there was progress, but only silently for no one to see.
The Broken Sword 2.5 project is already for far longer in production than SQ7 ever was, but you got steady updates, so you knew it got along.
Just because no promotion snacks got released doesn't mean that they weren't working. This seems kind of silly.
A good, polished game does take a long time. I guess you know that yourself.

A german adventure called "Goin' Downtown" has a release date for March 2008, but the only things that are released to this date are some story infos and concept drawings...
[/offtopic]

Your game looks good. While I'm not such a big fan of fan games, it seems like you know what you're doing. Good luck!

Ah, this looks like one of those games I always wanted to make myself.
On the one hand it's great to see it to come alive, on the other hand I feel unimaginative myself now.
Well, I would never get around doing one anyway.

I wish you much luck with your project!!

Wow, very cool drawing style.
And it sounds like a fun premise!!
I wish you much luck with this game!!!

Download doesn't work!?
Firefox loads and loads, but the server doesn't respond, as it seems.
Anyway, a polished-up version is a very nice idea.
Still, I think that this Death sprite is just ugly.
I prefer the old, painted over Davy one.

Or you can disable the services (firewall, security center) per msconfig.

Actually, I thought the interaction editor was much too complicated.
I always got straight into scripting, because it always looked so intimidating.
I won't miss it, for sure.

I signed too, but I think your partner is already leading.
That and I wasted 20 seconds.

Before I continue, are YOU people joking about ordering and stuff? I didn't expect my first game to get this much attention...

We're 100% serious, what did you think!?

Oh, by the way, the link to the cover art doesn't work (anymore)...and you should convert images to png or some other small image format before uploading them.
It's bandwidth friendlier.
Probably, you should also replace the Roger sprite. Sierra might sue you!!

Thank you very much for releasing a RON game.
Not just because it's great for the community, but also because it takes a bit the pressure off me to release my own one.
I don't know why, but I felt and maybe still feel responsible to release mine as soon as possible, though I don't have time for it, really.
I will play it and tell you if it breaks continuity. I know RON pretty well.

Edit: Well, lol, it's like you tried to emulate the typical average and amateurish RON game. The reuse of backgrounds and objects is hilarous.
But the dialogues are good. And I liked the photo idea.

Man, I think my heart made a jump when I saw these new and modern screenshots in the Games Showcase on the frontpage.
What an unexpected sight!! My eyes were so accustomed to the old ones that it seemed scary. :o
So, how regular will it get updated!? Sooner than 2 years?

Ehm, the pixel hunting at the gate with those colored, eh bells? is annoying.
It may be one thing to figure out how it works, but I don't want to search for the random 1x1 pixel spot to press them.

On the positive side, the game seems to have an unusual fast pace.

Gray cheese?
Not very appetizing, is it?
I also think these line holes on the bright yellow cheese at the front and two similar ones on the left look a bit weird. I never saw those on cheese.
It's interesting that you have only holey cheese.
There are so many kinds...

But on the whole, I like it very much. It is bright, looks very fun, and has some little details. Neat!