A Point-and-click ramble-o-thon

Sounds good to me. I especially would read/listen to something on Sierra’s FMV dalliances as they hold a special place in my heart.

Bung us a link to your channel.

Will you do the Lucasarts stuff?

I like the sound of this. Good luck going forward!

Love the channel dude. Quite relaxing

So I checked out a vid or two yesterday I enjoyed it so much I went back to Thimbleweed last night for the first time in a couple of years. I left it completely stuck about 12 hours in but have already made progress and thoroughly enjoying it again.

Thimbleweed is brilliant

Sounds like a great idea, and nice that you have that kind of relationship with your brother. I'll definitely have a read of whatever you put up.

Don't think I ever finished the first Discworld game come to think of it, that was a bloody nightmare in the pre-gamefaqs days.

The first game we decided to play for this was the original King's Quest. It seemed a pretty obvious choice, aside from the fact that there's no pointing or clicking in it. So more something that was shaping the genre to come. There's plenty been said about it, it's an interesting game to play; in some ways I would say it absolutely doesn't hold up (the notorious Rumplestiltskin puzzle and climbing a godawful beanstalk being the two main things that will haunt me til my annilihation) - but I was actually more surprised with what did work. For a game created in 1984 it is still very playable in the state it arrived into the world. Additionally, it surprised me with a degree of open-endedness and variety for the main challenges it asks of you. I'm glad we played it, even with the frustrations involved - I'm keen to see how the King's Quest series develops within itself, and also how it sits alongside the other games in the genre.

But the main thought I was left with was a fascination with the geography and layout of the land of Daventry, as expressed by the game. Here is the Kingdom of Daventry:



The first important point to note is that the world wraps around, so when you reach one side (or the top or bottom of one column) you loop back around to the other side. This makes Daventry fairly unique as a Kingdom that encapsulates an entire planet, possibly the smallest planet ever known (until Outer Wilds was released, at least). I did consider whether it might be possible that what we're experiencing is just a small section of Daventry; maybe just it's central area, given the King's castle is located here - but this seems unlikely as due to the wrapping I'm not sure how you might get to any other part of Daventry. So I think it's safe to assume that this is Daventry. All of it (almost - the confederated land of giants, the well and dragon cave and the leprechaun caves are not visible here, but they are all internal loops within the kingdom). This is our prize for winning the game.

So I'm curious about how this kingdom functions. I've done a quick census and the population of Daventry at the time of the game is approximately 30 people, and that is if I assume there are 22 leprechauns, which I couldn't be bothered to count (and they buggered off by the end of the game anyway). This also includes a couple of alligators, a goat and a dead giant. If we look strictly at human beings, we've got a population count of 7 - one of these is King Edward (who's days are numbered, two starving wood cutters, Graham and an evil witch. It should come as no suprise that this seems like a dysfunctional number of people to keep Daventry going, and will pose a problem in future.

Geography is an issue for future development. There are a disproportionate number of lakes, and two of the already pretty limited screens are inaccessible unless you can jump on the back of a bird. There's a surprising lack of development opportunities. In terms of existing property, there are three registered domiciles in the Kingdom - and the demographics look split fairly evenly between the aristocrats, the ramshackle woodcutters shack, and the witches cottage, which is decidedly middle-classs. I'm not including the gnomes lean-to as property, as I hate him, and he was unable to register any paperwork, on account of his insane name (which he won't give to anyone). Even if it were possible for other people to visit or relocate to Daventry, the set up opportunities are extremely limited. Hell, where does Graham even live? I'm assuming in that hole under the rock near the castle.

The principle industry of Daventry should really be woodcutting, be this seems at risk because the woodcutter is destitute and starving, and also there aren't actually that many trees, so this trade looks to be on it's last legs. I would actually argue that Daventry is primarily a service-based industry. The service in question being the various exchanges between Graham and the residents to pass through his kingdom, which typically requires the cost of at least one treasure, the only recognised currency in the Kingdom. Unfortunately, even if this picks up in productivity, business is limited by the dwindling population and lack of entry points into Daventry.

So, unfortunately, I think the best we can hope for is for sustainability. There is one field behind the castle which provides carrots, and a healthy supply of walnuts. There is also a bowl which can provide unlimited soup, which is handy. The goat is probably pretty tasty. These things should be able to keep the existing population going for a while, and I think that is probably the best that can be done.

Enjoy your new home, King Graham!
 

Woop it's back!

I remember thinking 7th Guest was a bit shonky at the time. There was another game by the same studio that I can't remember that was equally shit but they sold *loads*. The days when having FMV in a game could be a selling point. Simpler times.

Zork Nemesis tho. Now *that* was amazing. Me and the gf played that for *hours*. (Youtube shows it's aged badly, but I'm bitnoring that).

Yeah 11th Guest. That's the one. Came on about 11 CD ROMs as well iirc.

The thing which ages those Myst clones is the visuals. The pre-rendered 3D animation looks bollocks compared to what what even a cheapo phone can render in real time these days.

Edit: whereas something like Day of the Tentacle owns the limitations and makes it in to a style of its own. Like why 8 bit pixels is a chic retro style to use deliberately, but nobody wants PS1 era textured polygons.

They were very different though. Myst is nothing like T7G, as also aren't Zork Nemesis and Rhem and basically anything else you can think of.

T7G was very much... its own weird thing. The closest comparison would be The Fool's Errand, which was also a far better game - and nowadays it's free to download from the developer's website, if you wanna try it. I dare say it holds up better than almost every other game of its time (which is quite an achievement since it was made in 1987).

fools-errand.com/07-DL/emulate-WIN.htm

Return to Zork was my CD Myst-esque thing that’s forever lodged a place in my heart. I know Nemesis and Grand Inquisitor are technically way better games, but it’s like remembering your first kiss, only with grainy artifact ridden FMV. I can recite nearly every line from the opening few hours.

Just subscribed, looking forward to watching your vids when I get chance. Loved a good point n click back in the day. Operation Stealth, Future Wars, Lure of the Temptress were all particular favs of mine. Not sure how popular they were.