Viridian Games

Sorry about the lack of updates; I’ve been sick for about a week…and yes, that means I was sick over Thanksgiving, it was terrible.

Anyway, today’s entry comes from a suggestion from Ryan Clark.

Yes, it’s another RPG. Deal.

I’m cheating again; I’m using a much nicer-looking (and honestly, more recognizable) Commodore 64 screenshot than a DOS screenshot. But this game was available for DOS.

Name and developer, please! Bonus points if you can give me both names of this game.

And if anyone else has a suggestion, please feel free to send them in!

Whoever designed the chapter “Lowlife” in Half-Life 2 Episode 1 deserves a good swift kick in the nuts.

Combat overall in HL2E1 seems poorly designed; the designers appear to have not realized that if you make the enemies even tougher than they were in Half-Life 2, and then at the same time give the player fewer weapons with which to fight, it might make for rather frustrating combat sequences. Add to this Lowlife’s trick of there being no goddamn light in the level and it’s just ridiculous. It’s been a long time since I’ve just gotten so fed up with a program that I just Alt-F4′d out, but this game did it.

Today’s game comes courtesy of Tom Mauer. Blame him. I personally had never seen this game before.

Name and developer, per usual. Reward? Uh…I’m kinda strapped for cash…but I’m totally good for it! Really! I’ll mail you a check next week!

I was playing some Oblivion last night and going down some quest paths I didn’t do on my first game. I came across a questgiver who gave me a quest with the title “Nothing You Can Possess”, which I thought was a very clever, subtle reference to…something.

Can anybody tell me what? And can anybody give me a good guess as to what happened during the quest?

I was at a local Wal-Mart earlier picking up some stuff and figured I’d ask how many Wiis they were getting in. I actually managed to ask the question with a straight face and the lady didn’t bat an eye. She told me they already had 29 and that more would be coming on the afternoon truck. There was no line of Wii-waiters that I could see.

Which means that if funds sufficed, I could almost certainly go to Wal-Mart at midnight tonight, plunk down a mere $250, and walk out with a Wii. On launch day. Without having to camp out for days beforehand.

Good job, Nintendo.

(Of course, funds do not currently suffice. Sigh. But that’ll get fixed fairly soon.)

Update: No Wii for me They didn’t get any more on the truck, and I would guess that there were about 45 people there. It was pretty orderly; no big ruckus. The box is tiny. Just wish they’d had enough for all of us.

Here we go again…back in RPG land.

Note: I cheated on this one just a little bit. But it should still be possible to get it.

Your reward for naming the game and developer? Eternal fame, of course! Because in the future this website will obviously be preserved as a monument to my climb to greatness. You will bask in reflected glory! (Reflected glory not guaranteed.)

I am feeling much more like myself today. Should this trend continue much stuff could conceivably get done this week…possibly including a video podcast! If you guys want to suggest topics for me to talk about, feel free.

I told you I had a surprise coming for you guys in the mail.

I actually managed to dig up a copy of the original article that inspired my series of One-Page Games. This article is from The Rainbow Magazine, August 1986 issue. It is over twenty years old.

There are two old magazines that I absolutely adore and will pick up copies anytime I can find them. They are The Rainbow and The Space Gamer. And the reason I like both of them is because of the attitude they conveyed.

The readers and editors of The Rainbow were all in a state of fascination – “Look at this! This is a computer we can own! How cool is that! I wonder what I can make it do…”

The readers and editors of The Space Gamer were the same way, amazed at the stories they could tell and the fun they could have with roleplaying.

In both magazines you get a sense of childlike wonder as people explored these previously unexplored continents – one in the mind and the other in silicon.

I miss that attitude. I haven’t seen it in a long, long time. It has been replaced by cynicism and curmudgeonism. And that makes me sad.

When Steve Jackson Games started their magazine Pyramid I was hoping to see a little of that attitude come back, but I was disappointed. The feel of Pyramid was slick and professional; the attitude was almost that of people telling an inside joke – yes, we love games, but we don’t…love-love games, because that would be really dorky. Especially since we’re all over thirty now.

That’s not to say that Pyramid wasn’t an excellent magazine – it is. I was a subscriber for over three years and enjoyed reading it very much. I’m just saying that the attitude is different.

And on the video gaming side…do you remember the first game that you absolutely obsessed over? The one you simply could not stop playing? The one you could barely drag yourself away from to go to school or work, and would instantly resume playing once you got home?

I’ve had several games like that. One of them was Civilization. Another was Doom. Tie Fighter was another. And so was Fallout.

When is the last time a game made you feel like that?

This is why I adored Oblivion so much – it was the first time in years that I felt I could just fall into a game and live there for a while, forgetting everything else (well, after the chilluns were in bed, of course). But before Oblivion I’d have to go back years, practically to the Golden Age, to find a game like that.

Is the games? Or is it me?

Have I lost my own childlike wonder? I’d like to think I haven’t…

Well, I love-love games. Truly. With all my heart. Yes, that makes me a geek. And a dork. And a knucklehead mcspazatron.

This is me. I am Gabe in this comic. Except that, you know, I’ve never actually put a game down my pants.

I still think it’s incredibly awesome that video games exist and I get to play them, and I hope I never lose that feeling. I also need to get better at game development so I can make more of my own games, in an effort to help other people feel the same way.

Sniff…I love you all, guys! I love you all!

I shouldn’t have to say this. You should be responsible enough to know.

But it’s absolutely vital that everyone get out there and buy Guitar Hero 2 today.

Make your voice heard! Do it for Democracy!

Okay, this one really honestly should be tough.

I know, I know, I’ve said it before. “Got a toughie for ya!” And then someone identifies it within a few seconds.

But honestly, I’m the only person I know of who ever played this game, which is a shame because it was awesome.

Click the image for a full-sized screenshot.

Name and developer, please. Can’t offer you a shout-out any more…sorry. I know! I’ll be your best friend!