Author: mpklamerus

An Intro Guide to Loom

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This is a spoiler-free guide for people who wish to check out the game Loom, a point-and-click adventure game designed by Brian Moriarty and developed and published by Lucasfilm Games in 1990. This is not a walkthrough and is just meant as an intro to inform people what the best version of the game is and help get started playing.

a character in a tent with a cauldron and potion

Why Should I Play It?

Loom is a must play for fans of point-and-click adventure games. Unlike other games from the era, including other adventure games by Lucasfilm Games, there is no inventory and all the puzzles revolve around spells you cast using musical notes created by your staff. It’s a fascinating system for an adventure game and was a joy to play as someone that was a fan of other Lucasarts games. The game also features wonderful art in the EGA version and the version of Swan Lake that plays throughout the game is very well done. All the puzzles felt very logical to me and it’s shorter than other games by Lucasfilm Games, making it easy to recommend to people new to the genre as well. I only played the game for the first time a few years ago and felt that it held up very well. There are no deaths or (as far as I know) any dead ends you can hit in this game, which makes it another reason why it’s a great game for adventure game beginners.

How Do I Get Started?

Unfortunately, the version available on Steam and GOG is not the one people generally prefer, which is the EGA version of the game. While the EGA version has less colors, the art is still superior to the later cd-rom VGA version, which is the one available today. In addition to this, the VGA version made room for the voice acting on the cd by cutting many lines of dialog, closeups of characters talking, multiple puzzle solutions, and censored some cutscenes. My recommendation would be to download the EGA version of the game from your illegal software download site of choice, but buy the VGA version of the game on Steam or GOG so you still own a copy legally. If you are curious about trying the game with 256 colors, I would recommend finding the FM-Towns version. While it does not have the voice acting that the cd-rom version has, it does not cut nearly as much as that version.

Before you start playing the game, I would strongly recommend listening to the audio drama prequel here. This was a cassette that came with the original release of the game. It’s fun to listen to, provides some important background information before you play, and it’s only 30 minutes long.

Once you have the game downloaded and have listened to the prequel, you are ready to play. The game runs well in both ScummVM and DREAMM. If you’re unfamiliar with DREAMM, give it a shot. It was created by Aaron Giles, a former employee at Lucasarts, and is an emulator exclusively for Lucasarts games that aims to be a more accurate emulation of these games, including using the original save and load menus.

Tips for Playing Loom

There’s a couple things to keep in mind while playing the game that will help you full appreciate it

Take Notes
The spells you learn in this game are not saved to any sort of in-game notebook, so make sure you write them down instead of trying to memorize it all. Many of the spells are randomized so you will not be able to just look it up in a walkthrough later.

Hints Are Ok!
If you’re struggling with a part of the game and it’s getting in the way of you enjoying the game, it’s ok to look up hints! I think this guide on UHS Hints is good for giving hints for what to do next, without giving away the entire solution.

Some Neat Games (May 15-21)

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Here are some games I played this week that I think a lot of people missed but are pretty cool.

Firmament
After many years in development Cyan, the creators of Myst, finally released their newest game. I’m still playing through it but it’s really everything I would want from a game by this studio. The puzzles have been very solid. it’s a beautiful game, and I’ve been enjoying the world building. I heard some complaints from people saying it’s too easy but given that Cyan gets so much criticism for all their other games being too hard, it just feels like they can’t win at this point. I’ve also been playing this on desktop, where I heard the VR version is a little buggy but they’ve been working on bug fixes this last week and pushing updates quickly so hopefully that’s resolved soon.

Blue Suburbia
Blue Suburbia is a demo for an upcoming game by Nathalie Lawhead. The game is about their experiences in the games industry. They go into more detail about that on their blog so I won’t bring it up here but I thought Blue Suburbia was an incredible experience and I’m interested in the full game. It’s technically very interesting too and wild to see playable Bitsys implemented in the Unreal engine.

VIVIDLOPE
VIVIDLOPE is a fun puzzle game that feels like a lost Dreamcast game. They perfectly nailed everything about the aesthetic of games from that era and it’s just a well made game outside of that. It has a demo if you want to try it out.

There were a couple games I haven’t played but seem really neat. HRO looks like a fun interactive fiction game set in space. I enjoyed the stream I watched of it. Glypha is a remake of a Joust-inspired game from the Macintosh era and I’m glad they kept the black and white graphics. Hand of Doom is a first person rpg that does a fantastic job capturing the weird aesthetics of mid 90s PC rpgs. The same dev made a game for the first Dread X collection in a very similar style (this may just be an expanded version of that?) and I really liked it at the time.

An Intro Guide to Blake Stone

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This is a spoiler-free guide for people who wish to check out the series Blake Stone, two first person shooter games developed for DOS by JAM Productions and published by Apogee. This is not a walkthrough and is just meant as an intro to the series to help people get started playing the games. The two games are sci-fi first person shooters made with the Wolfenstein 3-D engine where you play as a British spy named Blake Stone and must stop the evil Dr. Goldfire. The first game, Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold, was released one week before Doom in December, 1993. The second game, Blake Stone: Planet Strike, was released a year later in 1994. Planet Strike is a sequel similar to how Spear of Destiny is a sequel to Wolfestein 3-D, where there are not any major overhauls but it changes the graphics for the enemies and makes a variety of little changes. The first game had strong sales until the technically superior Doom came out and Planet Strike struggled to sell with it still using the dated Wolfenstein 3-D engine. The development studio shut down fairly soon after the release of Planet Strike.

screenshot of the player shooting a gun at the guard

Why Should I Play It?

Even though it was quickly overshadowed by the superior game Doom, I think there’s still a lot to appreciate about this series. It has a lot of features that weren’t in either Wolfestein 3-D or Doom such as vending machines, friendly NPCs you can interact with, a silent weapon for not alerting other guards, being able to travel back to previous levels, and it did some things before Doom like an auto map and textured floors and ceilings. If you’re a fan of retro FPS, you will probably enjoy playing this series.

How Do I Get Started?

It’s easy to get the games running on modern computers. If you don’t have the series, you can buy them on GOG or Steam. While they run well in DOSBox, I recommend the BStone Source Port. This adds a some nice features like customizable key bindings and improves the graphics a small amount. Just download the latest release here

Tips for Playing Blake Stone

There’s a couple things to keep in mind while playing the games that will help you avoid some headaches people can run into with this series, and to fully appreciate them.

Search for Secret Walls
If you’re unfamiliar with early 90s FPS, one important thing to know is that they frequently had secret rooms filled with health and ammo hidden behind walls. The way to discover these is pretty much by spamming the Open Door button while walking along walls.

Save Often
You will want to save regularly. Encounters with enemies can go poorly and may require reloading, especially since there are some enemies that can drain your health very quickly.

Read the Manual
There’s nothing too important in here. I just think the comic they included as the backstory is kinda neat.

An Intro Guide to Realms of the Haunting

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This is a spoiler-free guide for people who wish to check out the game Realms of the Haunting, a first person shooter and adventure game hybrid developed by Gremlin Interactive and published by Interplay in 1996. This is not a walkthrough and is just meant as an intro to the game to help people get started playing it. Gremlin Interactive was a British software developer that had been around since the 80s. In the mid 90s they developed a 3D engine that they used for a first person adventure game called Normality and then used the engine to develop their FPS/adventure hybrid Realms of the Haunting. The game plays a bit like a 90s fps but also features inventory items and puzzles, mazes, and journals to read. The game reviewed very well at release but as far as I can tell, was not a huge commercial hit. You can read a good review of the game and its history here.

first person view of a player shooting a monster in an old house

Why Should I Play It?

If you’re someone who has an interest in both adventure games and first person shooters, I think it’s worth playing. While the game isn’t without its flaws (see review I linked to above), there still hasn’t been anything like it since then. Even with the massive retro FPS revival happening right now, I haven’t seen anyone developing a game that lists this as its inspiration even though I think the FPS/adventure combination is very novel. There’s also a lot of FMV in the game which I find very charming. You can listen to the Adventure Game Club talk about it here

How Do I Get Started?

It’s easy to get the game running on modern computers. The game runs pretty well on DOSBox if you already own it. If you don’t have the game, you can buy it on GOG or Steam. I strongly recommend the UK to US patch. The patch allows the user to change the difficulty and also the key bindings. This is really important because by default the controls for this game are pretty clunky and you may want to switch the keys to what every other FPS uses.

Tips for Playing Realms of the Haunting

There’s a couple things to keep in mind while playing the game that will help you avoid some headaches people can run into with this game, and to fully appreciate the game.

Save Often
You will want to save regularly. Encounters with enemies or traps can go poorly and may require reloading, especially since there are points in the game where the game isn’t generous with health pickups. As far as I know, there are no softlocks in this game that require you to restart the game because of something you missed or action you took.

Don’t Save on Moving Platforms
There are a couple parts in this game where you have to do some platform jumping. Due to the clunky controls, people will be tempted to save each time they make a successful jump. Do not do this! There is a bug in the game that will cause you to fall to your doom as soon as you load a save on a moving platform. Just save before and after each platform jumping segment and use multiple save files.

Conserve Ammo
Even though there’s technically no softlocks, the game can feel like it’s impossible to complete if you’re not careful about your ammo and health. Early on in the game, try to use your melee weapons when possible so you’ll have lots of ammo. Also consider redoing an enemy encounter if you lose a lot of health.

Read the Manual
When I played the game, I didn’t realize you could easily switch weapons using keybindings and I played the entire game switching weapons through the inventory screen. Don’t make the same mistake I did! This great review of the game at The Genesis Temple mentions that there’s also a patch floating around that gives the game WASD + mouse controls.

It’s Ok to Use Hints!
Adventure games can be tough and puzzles that make sense to one person may not be easy for someone else. If you’re feeling frustrated by being stuck on a puzzle too long and it’s becoming less fun, consider looking up a hint. I feel like the guide on UHS Hints is good at helping the player without giving too much away.

Some Neat Games (May 8-14)

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Here’s some games on Itch.io that came out last week that I liked

8th Knight

8th Knight is a game created for the TweetTweetJam. The goal for this jam is to create a game in 500 characters. Generally people go with PICO-8 but other things are allowed too. It’s just a fun little procedurally-generated platforming game and I enjoyed reading the source code on the Itch page

PocketBolo

PocketBolo is a remake of the shareware game Bolo Ball from 1992 created for the TIC-80. It’s a pretty straightforward remake, I just had fun revisiting a game from my childhood.

Four Color Art Jam Zine

Technically this is a zine, not a game. But it collects a lot of games and art from the Four Color Art Jam where people made games and art using four specific colors. I thought it was a really cool way to highlight submissions from the jam and now I kinda want to do something similar for the DOS Games Jam.

Lets Make a Froggy Games

While this is a pretty simplistic game with some cute art, the highlight of this is actually the development stream that was done to help beginners learn Unity. You can check out the game, stream, and project assets here. The developer has made a few games I really like such as Cr1me Fr0g and By the World’s Wind which are on their Itch page.

An Intro Guide to Zork Nemesis

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This is a spoiler-free guide for people who wish to check out the game Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands, a first-person point-and-click adventure game developed by Zombie LLC and published by Activision and released in 1996. This is not a walkthrough and is just meant as an intro to the game to help people get started playing it. During the 80s, game developer Infocom created many text adventure games, with Zork being their most famous series of games. Towards the end of the decade, Infocom made some poor business decisions and it also become tougher to make text adventures commercially viable so they were acquired by Activision and eventually closed. However, this didn’t mean the end of the Zork series and there were three commercial Zork games released in the 90s, Return to Zork in 1993, Zork Nemesis in 1996, and Zork: Grand Inquisitor in 1997. At the time Zork Nemesis was a bit of a divisive game, it did well critically and sold well but a few fans were put off by the game’s darker tone, which was a change from the heavily comedic tone of the previous game or two in the series. Some people were also put off by the game being influenced by Myst, a highly popular adventure game at the time. It seems like people have come around since then and appreciate the one-off change in tone, which still has dark humor but isn’t as silly as the games before and after it.

Why Should I Play It?

If you’re an adventure game or Zork fan, I think it’s worth playing. I think Zork fans will appreciate the change in tone while still feeling like a Zork game but even if you’ve never played a Zork game, fans of the genre should find it enjoyable. There’s a lot of variety in the environments, the plot is interesting, the acting in the FMV scenes is the right level of camp, it has an incredible soundtrack and for the most part the puzzle feel challenging but fair. If you’ve never played a Zork game before, the game does make references to the world established in previous games and you might get a little more from the game if you’ve played other Zork games, but it’s very standalone and doesn’t rely on playing other games to understand the story..

How Do I Get Started?

It’s easy to get the game running on modern computers. If you already own the game, you just need to copy the files to a directory and open it with ScummVM. If you don’t have the game, you can buy it on GOG or Steam and copy the files into ScummVM from there. The versions on those sites use DOSBox and I heard people say they ran into some bugs from there. I also strongly recommend the subtitles patch. The sound mixing in the game is sometimes a little off and it makes it hard to hear dialog while playing the game. The patch also makes the audio puzzles a little easier, which may or may not be a plus for you depending on how you feel about that style of puzzle.

Tips for Playing Zork Nemesis

There’s a couple things to keep in mind while playing the game that will help you avoid some headaches people can run into with this game, and to fully appreciate the game.

Save Often
You will want to save regularly. There’s a few points where the player can die and a reload is required. As far as I know, there are no softlocks in this game that require you to restart the game because of something you missed or action you took.

Take Notes
During the game, you will come across journals and other things that are used in puzzles in other parts of the game. I highly recommend having a notebook or paper to write notes and diagrams in so you have something to reference for these puzzles.

It’s Ok to Use Hints!
Adventure games can be tough and puzzles that make sense to one person may not be easy for someone else. If you’re feeling frustrated by being stuck on a puzzle too long and it’s becoming less fun, consider looking up a hint. I feel like the guide on UHS Hints is good at helping the player without giving too much away.

Some Neat Games (May 1-7, 2023)

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I just did one of these a week ago but a bunch of cool things have come out since then that I’ve played and I think they’re worth checking out.

Gobliiins 5

a bunch of various goblins and potato people on a snail-like thing

After many years, we finally have a new Gobliiins! Gobliiins is an adventure game series that started in the early 90s, by French game designers Pierre Gilhodes and Muriel Tramis. After three games, they moved onto other things (like the wonderful Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth) and then eventually the studio Coktel Vision closed. Years later Pierre released Gobliiins 4 in 2009 but I bounced off of this due to the ugly 3D graphics and early puzzles. I’ve heard it improves later on so I’ll have to give it another chance. Unfortunately I’ll have to do it from my physical copy since it’s not legally available on any digital stores.

Which brings us to 2023 and a new Gobliiins game after being crowdfunded on a couple sites. I had pretty low expectations but it’s actually a nice little game and everything I wanted as a fan of the original trilogy. It’s rough around the edges due to it being a solo dev game and Pierre’s first game in Adventure Game Studio, but it has everything I wanted like nice art, weird sound effects playing all the time, and goofy little guys. I don’t know if it would be the first game in the series that I would recommend to new players, that might still be Goblins 3, but I do think 5 is a solid entry in the series and worth checking out if you were a fan of previous games.

Undrium

a person hopping on paintings

Undrium is a free platformer by BitGlint Games, a small studio (single dev?) who has been remaking ZX Spectrum games and doing homages to that era for a while. To be honest, Rob does a much better explanation of the game and why it’s so good on his blog. So all I’ll really add is that as someone who was too young for that whole era, I just think it’s a really good game even when I have no nostalgia for that time and nothing to compare it too.

Dinocar

dinosaurs drawing a map at a table

Dinocar is a really cute tabletop rpg where you play as dinosaurs driving cars and build a little dinosaur city in the process. I played this with my 3 and 6 year olds and we all had a great time, even if my 3 year old had no interest in following the rules. The art is great and the layout and game structure made sense to my 6 year old and I. The same designer also made the game Sprouts which I keep meaning to play as well.

Indiepocalypse #40

I’ve talked about it a billion times by now but the new issue of Indiepocalypse is out and as usual, very good. I just think Indiepocalypse is doing very good curation work and bringing more attention to a lot of neat indie games while helping some others get made in the process. I’ve discovered so many games through the zine and this issue is no exception. At the moment there’s also a little PWYW bundle ($1 minimum) where you can get a bunch of games that were commissioned for the zine. It’s good! Go check out an issue! You can buy them in cassette form now!

Aseprite 95

the layout of aseprite redesigned to look like a windows 95 app

This isn’t a game. I just think it’s a nice theme if you use Aseprite and also have an attachment to Windows 95 because of nostalgia.

Doom II RPG

Technically it’s not a new game, it’s a port of a mobile game from over a decade ago. But the mobile version has been unplayable on iOS for a very long time now because Apple absolutely doesn’t care about games preservation so I’m very happy it exists. Back when mobile phones were starting to have more complex games on their platforms, John Carmack created a few turn-based rpgs using the Doom and Wolfenstein properties. Ars Technica goes into the history a bit more and how you can download it here but they’re actually very good games and worth checking out if you’re a fan of Doom or rpgs like Eye of the Beholder.

April 2023 Indie Game Roundup

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There were a lot of really cool indie games in April! Here’s some things you might be interested in! I hate writing intros!

The Aching

a person falling into a pool of green stuff

One of the games I was most excited for this month is The Aching. It’s an adventure game inspired by 80s Sierra adventure games but without the things in those games that annoy me like frequent softlocks, poor parser, and hugely problematic writing. I don’t mind deaths in adventure games but this doesn’t have those either and it actually has some fun puzzles that involve great harm happening to your character. I love the art and how it runs on basically everything, including DOS. It started as an entry in the DOS Games Jam I organize and it’s cool seeing how far it has come. It’s the first game publisher by DOS games publisher Hadrosaurus Software and hopefully many more will follow.

Breathe

a bird and text saying "I get that in some regions they are an invasive species, in direct competition for resources with the"

Breathe is a relaxing walking simulator (their words, not mine!) by PRINCESS INTERNET CAFé. I was a huge fan of one of their previous games about a dying MMO, Running Back to You. I was impressed how this was made with a heavily modified version of Bitsy. It’s fun seeing how much people have changed Bitsy and I’m curious what they’ll do with it next.

Barren Planet

top down screenshot of two space armies fighting

Barren Planet is another DOS game that came out this month! I love seeing games come out for platforms that are supposed to be dead but people continue making exciting things for them. Barren Planet is a turn-based strategy game where two corporations battle on another planet. The campaign starts off pretty simple but introduces new mechanics and units with each level. I also got to beta test this one too!

LesbiAnts

two women french kissing

LesbiAnts is a rpg for the Game Boy with erotic elements. You play as a colony of ants investigating mysterious seed pods and fighting mutated insects. Not only do I love seeing games for “dead” platforms as stated above, it’s exciting to see queer games that Nintendo would never approve of being made for their platforms. The Itch page also has a playable demo in the browser if you want to try it out.

DOMINO CLUB Dream Gallery Jam

a computer desktop that looks like it's from the 90s

We also got a batch of new DOMINO CLUB games this month! DOMINO CLUB is a collective of game developers who anonymously create experimental games during jams that occur 1-2 times a year. Each jam has games doing really exciting and new things and there’s always a couple games in each jam that I absolutely love. If you’re looking for a place to start, why not try im doing better now or TRAUMAKT~4.SEXE

Making Niche Games Popular

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I keep seeing a post on one of the social media sites that instead of trying to make niche genres like Interactive Fiction more mainstream and financially viable, people should just focus on the craft instead. And since people keep sharing this weird take that I strongly disagree with, I guess I have to explain why I don’t like it.

I really don’t think it’s unreasonable to want interactive fiction to be more mainstream and commercially viable nor do I think it’s an unobtainable goal. A lot of people read so why couldn’t reading with some interactivity be commercially successful too? It was a financially viable genre for like, 10-15 years, and could still be considered one if you’re talking about companies like Choice of Games and games like Lifeline being huge hits. Depending on your definition of the genre, visual novels are a part of IF and are massively popular.

Obviously capitalism is bad and there’s more to making games than if they can make a lot of money but why shouldn’t we push for more visibility of games that are only considered “niche” because don’t pander to some bro gamer culture. If we’re talking about games made with Twine and Ink, it’s one of the most approachable ways to make games and one of the genres where I see the most queer stories. I really think that the thing that keeps IF from being bigger, especially with non-parser IF, is that a lot of people who love to read just don’t know about it.

New Haven Pizza

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Ever since I went to New Haven, Connecticut a few years ago and discovered the city has it’s own style of pizza, I’ve been a huge fan and eat it every opportunity I can. If you’re unfamiliar with New Haven-style pizza, it’s a coal fired Neopolitan pizza. There’s a place near me that makes this style of pizza and it’s very good, but not quite as good as the places in New Haven, and I haven’t found anywhere else that does it so every time I’m in the area to visit family, I must get pizza.

Anyway, now that I’ve tried all the big pizza places in New Haven, here’s my ranking that no one asked for. There are no losers in this list because they’re all very good.

  1. Bar
  2. Pepe’s
  3. Sally’s
  4. Modern Apizza

Another thing I’ve noticed is that two of these places offer pizza with potato on it (mashed potato at Bar, almost a scalloped potato at Sally’s). They’re both very good but it’s not something I’ve seen elsewhere.

Anyway, I just needed to document my love for this pizza somewhere