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... Now futanari on the other hand. . .

One quick Google search later.... AH! MY EYES!

Actually, I've seen this before. I just didn't know that it went by that name. From what little Japanese is still rattling around in my head from years back, I was expecting something else. Like centaurs or something, I guess.

Frankly, I'm utterly baffled by it, but hey, you know, whatever turns your crank, you know?

I have a friend who has a bunch of manga with this stuff in it. I'm sure Freud would have a field day with her. She's big into the "yaoi" manga too. The latter I "get," even if it's not my thing. If you don't mind, lo_res_man, what is the appeal of the futanari stuff? I'm not criticizing you. I'm not grossed out by it either (saw too many German and Japanese video nasties while I was in the service to ever by grossed out by anything again, I suspect). I just don't "get" it. Google returned a hell of a lot of stuff, so there must be a market for it. What's the appeal, dude?

And on the BDSM topic, it seems to me that the shock value of S/M was played out a long time ago. Once super models starting strutting the catwalks in fetish gear, any "underground" cred it still had evaporated overnight. Hell, even Brittney Spears laughably tried out the look.

Now that S/M is becoming mainstream, what's the next taboo?

Futanari, I suppose? Maybe lo_res_man is on the cutting edge of the next big thing?

- Ponch

For those seeking another gloss on these games...

http://yesterdayssalad.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/screen-5-7-5/

A Barn Runner haiku! I don't think anyone has ever done that before. Neat!

- Ponch

When will you realize that everyone likes you, Dave!

I was completely indifferent to Dave until this very moment. But if everyone else loves Dave, than I don't want to be left out. So now I love Dave too... possibly a little too much

Congrats on the nice writeup, Dave. Always nice when an AGSer gets some attention by the folks who inhabit the bright, sunlit world outside my cave.

All my love,

Ponch

Paranoia or not I still think the US is Jonesing for a skirmish with the Russians...

God, I hope not. I used to be in the military once upon a time (got out a few years after the first Gulf War). The thought of any conflict between the U.S. and Russia (even a limited one -- though who can say that it would remain such for long!) is the stuff of nightmares. The projected casualties for the Fulda Gap alone were staggering.

Limited conflicts have a way of spilling over into full blown wars (some of the bloodiest wars in history were triggered by seemingly unimportant events that no one foresaw the consequences of). Unchecked war is even more likely if one side or the other has something to prove. Putin (president or not) seems to be in need of the world's respect (born of fear) that Russia enjoyed in the "good old days" of the USSR. And Bush... well, what more needs to be said, really? Plus, the U.S. land forces and supply logistics seem stretched pretty thin right now. Outside of parking a carrier group nearby and starting an air war, I'm not sure what options are available to America right now.

Let's all hope this ends quickly before European history enters a new, unpleasant chapter.

- Ponch

Well Ponch after all 5 chapters are released I hope you do a mega-walkthrough that includes everything to do in all chapters in order to see EVERYTHING there is to see.

That's the plan. Next year marks my 5th anniversary of the Barn Runner games (and using AGS), so I have a special game in the works to celebrate that particular milestone, along with a few other things (full walk throughs amongst them).

That's assuming I'm not hit by a truck or something before then, of course.

- Ponch

I have a VERY important question about the ending:

Spoiler

I played through the ending twice, in the first I bought the monster food and answered all questions truthfully. In the second I got the burgers and lied in all the questions. That resulted in getting two different codes at the end to use in chapter 2. It syas there are side quests and so on. So, exactly how different will it be for me to play with the different codes? should I try a few more approches int he end to get more variations in chapter 2?

[close]

Most of the unlocked plot bits are just throwaway jokes to give a sense of continuity as the story unfolds over the chapters.

Spoiler

If you managed to get a perfect score on the gun range, then the trophy Prick receives will appear in his apartment in chapter five. It doesn't do anything, it just fills out the world a little.

[close]

Some of the bits are very important and will make your progress much easier in later chapters. For example:

Spoiler

How much battery life is left in the nite lite. If you spoke to Earl. Whether or not you gave the air bag to Roy in the police station. How much of her rather kinky personal life you got Dr. Noriko to reveal. And bunches more stuff.

[close]

Some of these bits unlock content in subsequent chapters right away. Other bits are like pieces of a puzzle you don't know you're collecting. If you also unlock the other, not-too-obviously related bits in later chapters, then even more content is unlocked down the road, assuming you collected all the pieces of the story puzzle.

And, just to make the codes harder to crack, there's also a randomizer built in. Some of the letters may mean nothing if you unlocked nothing related to that particular slot. It will just display a random letter or number.

Thanks for playing and posting such a nice review. Next game comes out in October!

- Ponch

I plan out as much of the game as I can before hand (which requires lots of thumbing through the story bible -- which I should have organized better back when I started doing this). That cuts down on the "what do I do now" that tends to creep in if I'm just winging it.

I try to space out the writing and drawing duties evenly so that I only spend a few days on one before I go back to the other. That way I avoid feeling burned out. Especially on background art.

The real grunt work for me are in the miscellaneous interactions. Look at item responses, use inventory on hotspot, that sort of thing. Lots of little coding that just gets a little tedious after a while. But it makes the world breathe a little bit more, so it needs to be done. My early games don't have much of that and it really shows, especially on subsequent playings.

My favorite bit? Besides the sketching all the rooms and actors (with pencils! On a drafting table! I'm old!!)? Dialogs and voice overs. If anything, I go overboard with that. I love to write conversations.

- Ponch

Well, I could go for Ponch his Barn-Runner games go unnoticed for what I could call Larry Vales incarnated.

Considering that it was Larry Vales that drew me into the zany world of AGS to begin with, that's just about the nicest thing anyone could say about me and my games! Thanks.

I do feel like I'm often flying along under the radar here, but that's fine. My games aren't filled with devious puzzles of the sort that keep threads going for days and weeks. If anything, my games (to steal a line from Dr. Evil) are the Diet Coke of adventure gaming. But those are the sort of games I like: light, fun, and easy to pick up and play without dedicating all your free time to if you hope to complete it within a single lifetime.

Would I like to have a huge enclave of AGSers dedicated to all things Ponch? My own personal army, willing to do my bidding, and crush all who oppose me? You bet I would! But I'm content to keep telling myself that mine is the sort of questionable talent that will one day inspire lifelong devotion in the armies of adventure gamers that the machine overlords of the future will surely populate the world with once we're all connected to the Matrix. You know, the sort of marginally talented person who only becomes famous years after they died alone, unmourned, and in a manner that was extremely humiliating. (I plan to die in the men's room of an all you can eat buffet a few years from now, when I'm older and no longer give a damn about what size pants I wear. Roll on mid-life crisis!).

As for my vote on the unsung heroes of these forums, I'd say Rui was a really big help when I was new here. He didn't make many games, but he was a friend to newbies everywhere. Also Frodo. She's always in the Hints and Tips forum, offering, well... hints and tips.

And at this risk of this turning into some sort of group hug, ProgZmax doesn't get the love he deserves. (He's also right about Yahtzee, AGS's Stephen King -- runs hot or cold, but always lavished with praise.). MashPotato deserves a higher profile too, in my opinion, if for no other reason than that awesome bumble bee avatar of hers.

Just my two cents,

- Ponch

________
p.s. I would have said The Ivy too, but apparently people have suddenly started throwing money at her. Which, in the world of freeware games, is really an accomplishment! Woot!

Sweet! Congratulations!

- Ponch

Last problem is that my favicon is no longer working since I updated the site. The header code and the icon (png format 32x32) have not changed at all in my upgrade. In my troubleshooting I have tried different header codes and using a 16x16 .ico instead to no avail. This is probably a simple fix I am overlooking.


The site through NCState:
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~sgcosoli/index.html

The site through redirect:
http://www.ncsulodge.org

I used the first link, and the Fav Icon worked just fine for me on Firefox.

- Ponch

I just played the game again, and I found new things.   

Spoiler

Earl the ghost had already mentioned moonshine, and said I could take it.  So I went back to logbridge, and used the stick on bridge to get moonshine, and it was still there, after all these years.   

[close]

Thanks again for such a great game.   

Who knows? The item might prove useful when chapter five rolls around!

Thanks to everyone for the nice posts. And thanks to ProgZmax for the review. 4 cups!

- Ponch

Thanks, Frodo.    But what I meant was:

Spoiler

Why am I not allowed to leave the lobby and go back out onto the street until I've solved the elevator puzzle?  I mean, I guess there's no point in backtracking since going up the elevators is the only way to make the game move forward, but it seemed odd that I couldn't leave at all even if I wanted to.

[close]

Strange Visitor,

That's a side effect of my feeble game design skills! Most of my games allow you to backtrack and wander around. Other games, like this one, are more tied down by the requirements of the story, so every other area is sort of a one-way choke point to prevent you from going back to areas that are solved and locked off, or from moving ahead to an area that isn't ready to be unlocked yet.

I'm not crazy when a game tells me where I can go (and when), but I couldn't find any other way to focus the story and make sure the jokes (and Prick's slowly dawning realization about what was really going on) unfolded in just the right order. I'm sorry to say that the same thing happens in chapter two. However, chapter three is wide open, with lots of wandering around.

I hope I managed to justify most of it in a way the player can accept.

Spoiler

Example, Prick can't go home or to the police station until he delivers the luggage, so his car is just a background prop in that scene. Also, once he goes through the Bum-B-Gone force field into the RitzPlex lobby, he doesn't want to go back outside until he's completed his delivery, because the RitzPlex staff doesn't want him in the building to begin with! He probably couldn't manage to lie his way inside a second time!

[close]

I hope stuff like that didn't frustrate you overly much. I try to avoid it where ever possible, but I really couldn't find a way out of it this time around.
What can I tell you? If I were better at this, I'd be doing it for a living

Other than that, I hope you enjoyed the game!

- Ponch

[Click Here to See the Hot Wire Solution]

Try this:

Click Here to See the Hot Wire Solution

Hope that helps, and thanks for playing the game!

I hope the walkthrough you promised on your website will contain the hidden side quests and easter eggs you've hinted at. It'd be great if there was a way to make sure I've seen all there is to see.

There's a ton of hidden stuff in the series, especially in this first chapter. The Director's Cut unlocks some of it, such as Earl the ghost. The Adult Mode patch unlocks even more. Plus, some of the side quests you can unlock in this chapter won't even be revealed until much later in the series.

For example:

Spoiler

If you give the Used Air Bag to Roy at the Police Station, it will make Dr. Noriko's life much easier in chapter five.

[close]

Also:

Spoiler

Talking to Earl the Ghost (especially with the Adult Mode patch on) gives you even more options in part three when you confront the woman who was involved with him in the love triangle that resulted in his death.

[close]

And those are just a couple of examples.

Spoiler

I didn't even touch on the LobbyBot and his very strange hobby / collection.

[close]

I put in a lot of work over the last few years tightly plotting this batch of games out. That's why I went to all the trouble implementing the campaign code.

And thanks to Frodo and Strange Visitor for their comments on the cutscenes. Those things were a hell of a lot of work. No flics or AVIs were used. It was all done in game!

A simple walkthrough goes up on my site next month. I haven't decided whether or not to release the Easter Egg / Trivia list next month, or once the whole series is done (since so much of it is interconnected and a list now would really spoil much of what's to come).

Anyhoo, I'm glad the game is being received so well. Feel free to give it high marks on the games page if you're so inclined.

- Ponch

p.s. Strange Visitor, the two recipes in the Trivia List are my own concoctions. They're quite tasty!

[Our hero looks down on a city soon to be in flames]

After far, far too long in development limbo, I shovel onto this forum Barn Runner 5: The Forever Friday 1. Chapter One in an episodic five game series

Our hero looks down on a city soon to be in flames

This medium length game follows Detective Peckard through the worst day of his life. Laughs and hi-jinks are sure to ensue as Prick watches the sad scraps of his life swirl down the drain. It's funny because it's not happening to you!

Fortunately, things turn around for our down-on-his-luck hero when the world suddenly ends. Now everyone is in the same sinking boat as Prick, and he's just the sort to find solace in other people's misery. All this wonderful schadenfreude might just give him the nudge he needs to save the world.

This game is only part one of a much larger series (five chapters in all) that will be released quarterly over the next year, making this the biggest Barn Runner game ever! (I'm so sorry about that. Seriously.)

Will Prick save the world? Will the player be overwhelmed by the sparkling and shiny new interfaces? Will the author manage to provide distinct voices for each of the three player characters? Can all five games possibly ship on time? How long will Prick insist on showing you his bare bottom? Why did I even bother to draw it?!?

All these questions and fewer will be probably be answered in a very drawn out fashion as Barn Runner 5: The Forever Friday oozes and seeps out onto the net over the course of the next year. Yet another game of questionable quality, available from TackyWorld Interactive, where the quality of our freeware is almost worth the price!

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD (RAR Format) (11.7 Megabytes)

System Requirements:
Windows 95/98, 2000, ME, XP, or Vista
1 gHz Processor
256 Mb of RAM
DirectX compliant sound and video cards
100 Mb hard drive space

Rated "T" For Teen (not really, but it probably should be)
This game contains:
Midly Suggestive Adult Themes
Mild Profanity
Brief Nudity (You know that dream where you show up for work with no pants on?)
Cartoonish Violence

Plugins and other helpful things Used by this game
Andrew MacCormack's Save/Load Functions (the old AGS magazine one!*)
Steve McCrea's OtherRoom plugin
Scorpiorus' Rain and Parallax plugins
Andreas vogel's flashlight plugin

So, if you want to make me happy and make me feel as though I haven't wasted these last four and a half years developing this thing, then download the game! It's sure to bring meaning to my life!


Ponch

_______
*It's been in development for a long, long time!

* Added Global Variables pane to editor, to allow you to easily declare global variables for the script instead of having to do all the import/export rubbish

Oh, thank God! My prayers have been answered at long last! Seriously, I could organize a (most likely rather disappointing)religion around you right now for that little feature! Thanks CJ.

- Ponch

People from all over the world come to the Red River Gorge/Natural Bridge (Slade, KY). Has anyone from this forum been here?

I've been there. As I recall, it was pretty nice. My sister lives in KY and, over the years, I've seen lots of the state. Aside from the horrible humidity, the Bluegrass State is very green and filled with unusually friendly people.

- Ponch

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Personally, I don't think a singular world government will come to be in my lifetime or at any point in the next few centuries. However, I agree with you that it would probably be a terrible idea, though a well-intentioned one. I have absolutely no faith in humanity to create something like the Federation from Star Trek without it turning into the evil empire from Star Wars.

Still, to be one the safe side, I go to sleep every night with my head wrapped in tinfoil. And, of course, a towel under my pillow... just in case the apocalypse sneaks up on my while I'm asleep.

- Ponch

I like a good CG intro. The Playstation really introduced me to the concept. FF7, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 2, etc.

Even cheesy ones:

Danger Girl (PSX)

I still have that game!

Sigh. Much like the old cartoons I loved as a kid, that game intro held up so much better in my mind.

Stupid memory! Remembering things rendered with so many more imagined polygons than there ever were in real life! Way to let me down, brain cells! Makes me afraid to sift through YouTube for the old N64 Shadows of the Empire.

- Ponch

[EXTREME!!!1!!]

Well, I vote for TAGS. Though of course, it's not too late to call it AGS II: Adventure Boogaloo. Or possibly AGS EXTREME!!!1!!. Or Adventure Game Hypercube 3.03D

Just my two cents.

- Ponch