Sorry for the delay in getting this one up! Between old DOS game emulator weirdness and questionable capture software weirdness, I had to re-record some sections and then fight with the video editor in the end.
I hope you enjoy this bizarre, colorful game. It's laden with mazes and terrible arcade sequences, but it's still surprisingly big on charm and weirdness and some truly fantastic art for the era.
First LP of the new year!
Em from Abnormal Mapping and I are kicking it off with a game I thought was way too risky to blow a couple weeks' allowance on in the 90s. But I'm glad we're playing it now -- what a UX. My god.
I hope you'll enjoy this interactive, multimedia CDROM adventure with us. It's a truly wild time and we're just getting ...
2024-01-02 05:39:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Can you have a favorite game that you haven't played in nearly 30 years? I think so. But this month we put it to the test and return to a game that is probably the most reinstalled and replayed game from my childhood.
Look present an interesting and elegant counterpoint to the traditional Lucasarts adventure. There are no items to collect, cram together, and then force back into the environment. The closest thing to an item is the Elder Weaver's distaff, which is less inventory and mo...
So, I know I said that this month we'd be doing Eric the Unready by Legend Entertainment, but I got halfway through and the vibes were just off. It was a long month leading up to November, which was an even longer month leading into December. I wanted something that I remembered as having pleasantly chill vibes, and not clashing against me the way Legend's famous UI was doing.
Well, I was almost right.
This month's ultimate selection was a game I remembered as a laid-back, low s...
¡Feliz Día de Muertos!
Amusingly enough the amount of difficulty I had both with this game having catastrophic glitches and the sheer volume of clips making exporting a touch-and-go process, this entry is arriving not on Halloween, but the more appropriate Day of the Dead proper.
Grim Fandango was a weird one. As rich and vivacious as the characters and dialogue are, the plot felt drawn thin, as much as the game was abrupt with cutscenes and narratice beats the puzzles and act...
20 years ago my computer crapped out and nuked my save files while I was in the middle of this game. I was so close to the end of the game (apparently) but I refused to replay the game up to the mazelike interiors of the final run.
So, now, two decades later we're back to do the whole thing!
There are some really forward thinking ideas in this one, and also some so backwards they're anathema to the way Lucsarts was making games at the time.
How you'll enjoy the episode!
This week we head on down to BONETOWN to discuss SKELETONS and how good SKELETONS are and gosh there sure are a lot of SKELETONS in this world.
2023-09-22 13:59:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Is Edo the real monster? Or is the deranged Frenchman pulling our leg? Who is this nightmare child? How many episodes will it take for Sumio Mondo to finally leave the hotel? Will he ever be a morning person? All this and more is left unanswered by the end of this episode, but the vibes are impeccable.
Want to rewatch an episode? Find the entire series here
2023-09-18 13:57:03 +0000 UTC
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After exhaustion and big robots taking up all of our time, Trevor and I return to Lothric to track through a poisonous swamp filled with slugs and weird swamp people and giant terrifying swamp people and feral swamp people and big swampy vibes. Also there's a giant wolf, a giant sword, and a whole lot of Artoriases.
Come along with us as we channel the power of the victorious Philadelphia Eagles to crush Farron Keep in one episode! Go birds!
2023-09-16 04:08:16 +0000 UTC View Post
ICMYI: I got invited to talk with Em & Jackson from Abnormal Mapping about one of my favorite bad 80s OVAs -- Demon City Shinjuku!
2023-09-16 04:01:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Code came after the embargo, so I spent the past two weeks playing catch-up with everyone else's reviews. The last time an Armored Core was current, not only was I not active in the game space, I was barely gaming at all. So it was both exciting and extremely nerve wracking to return to thinking about mechs and writing about them and my feelings about Armored Core in any way.
In the end I had 27 (I counted) different Google Keep notes, of varying lengths and complexities and sitti...
2023-09-16 03:58:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone!
There's a new BONUS episode of the FSR LP with Em! As mentioned in the last episode, we decided to sit down and read the entire guidebook in one big whack rather than piecemeal as we played the game. This was honestly one of the best decisions. If you liked the time in Space Quest IV where we talked about consumer electronics while reading the catalog at the Space Mall, you'll love this episode.
Even if you're not up on the FSR LP, I'd recommend giving this a s...
2023-08-30 18:07:58 +0000 UTC View Post
A Haunting in Lospass. Let's do a fashion shoot with a pink alligator in an Italian chair with a German camera. Mysteries abound, and lost items are found. There's math and wonder, and calamity! We make psychic connections with the beyond this week...maybe? Enjoy!
2023-08-28 04:24:11 +0000 UTC View Post
I wanted to write about the second of this month's installments of Adventure Gamers' Clubhouse, but every time I sit down to think about Code Name: Iceman I just become more and more irate.
The only games I can think of where I had a more miserable time playing them were games that ended up being 40-80 hours long. But if we equalize the playtime, it's this one. It has to be this one. Predominately because, there is no game here. The adventure game components of this are so flimsy ...
2023-08-28 04:07:58 +0000 UTC View Post
EcoQuest is a game that I've been meaning to revisit for close to a decade now. I just never had a good excuse to sit down and breathlessly play it from start to finish in one long weekend whack the way I first received it.
I remember it was a miserable late July day in Virginia, the kind where even mosquitoes and horseflies lose their life-saving celerity (though none of their bite) it's so muggy. We'd just gone to the mall for the sake of doing something in more powerful air condition...
2023-08-20 20:38:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Trevor is back, so we dive right in to the Cathedral of the Deep! This episode is a classic "podcast" joint, where we go deep in mycelium and Arthuriana as we make new enemies and meet old friends and then some!
2023-08-20 08:59:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Now that Gabriel Knight 2 is done, Em and I are moving on to our next adventure game!
After falling wildly in love with Suda51's millennial anxiety visual novel The Silver Case which I played for a podcast with Trevor Strunk, I had always intended to play through this properly, but I kept failing to stick with it for various reasons. Em h...
2023-08-14 21:50:37 +0000 UTC View Post
It's time to bid farewell to Gabe, Grace, and the many Boyfriends of Germany. There's theatrical hijinks as Grace tries desperately to pull off a secret Wagner opera, catch the Black Wolf's latest incarnation, Gabe's rich boyfriend — Baron Von Glower.
There's a terrible maze, disguises, and all kinds of OSHA violations!
We had a tremendously fun time doing this LP and we hope you all enjoyed it!
If you missed any episodes or want to catch it from the beginning, 2023-08-14 21:44:31 +0000 UTC View Post
We start out with one of the purest Dark Souls invasion moments I've ever experienced, and then the episode quickly unravels in a staggering number of deaths, full tilt surliness, and eventually we drag ourselves across the halfway mark.
Happy Derby Day to all who celebrate!
This month we conclude our time in the Caribbean fantasy of Monkey Island with the beautifully animated, CD-ROM third installment of Monkey Island. A freshly demonic'd LeChuck and a golden girlfriend send Guybrush off on a wacky adventure through islands new and old!
It was a real blast to revisit this whole franchise, but seeing how much I remembered (and misremembered, and remembered out of sequence) in this episode was a total blast.
I hope you have as much fun watching as ...
Hey everyone,
Just wanted to let you all know I published a new piece over on Paste.
It's my review of THE BANISHED VAULT, a punishingly brutal space survival management sim from Bithell Games' new studio extension, Lunar Division.
If you've listened to my guest appearance on RTFM then you know I've gotten bit once again by the "Guys having a bad time in a boat" bug and this absolutely scratches that itch in a tremendous way.
Really enjoyed writing this piece (wh...
Hey! It's the latest episode of our Gabriel Knight 2 LP!
This week Em and I become prisoners to Grace Nakamura's wildly inconsistent moods as we explore the depths of Jane Jensen's Complete Bibliographies on Richard Wagner and Ludwig II of Bavaria.
It's a pixel hunting hellscape as we're trapped in the worst museums in Germany trying to find an event trigger that will let us end the chapter! Come join us for a truly fun adventure!
2023-07-25 04:03:48 +0000 UTC View Post
This week we interrogate why we find this swamp so boring, and then we merc the hell out of the boss. Also, there's a tower.
No Cartridge Patreon: http://patreon.com/nocartridge
Trevor's Book - Story Mode: www.prometheusbooks.com/books/9781633886803
Follow Trevor on Twitter: 2023-07-21 15:56:19 +0000 UTC
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Happy Derby Day!
This week Trevor and I return to do the second half of The Road of Sacrifices. We talk about baseball and baseball games, wetland taxonomy, we spin off on various lore tagents with more questions than answers and we make some Big Decisions about Big Weapons.
Hope you enjoy it!
When a new murder darkens Munich, Gabriel must apply his rakish American charm to brute force a friendship with Der Kommissar...
And that's just before all the business with the cuckoo clocks and Bavarian boyfriends (it's extremely gay)
Also, as promised in the episode, here's Gabe's Bavarian Boyfriend on the Polish Dancing with the Stars: https://youtu.be/s15zcTgyfi8
Enjoy and check out these links: &nbs...
We're back!
This week, we have zero technical difficulties, and Grace begins her deep dive into the werewolf goings-on in Rittenberg, home to Gabriel Knight's Shattenjager family history.
Things heat up with Gerde and Grace as the werewolf investigation continues...
Will they realize they don't need this swagless guy and hook up with each other? Tune in to find out!
If you need to recap, here's Episode 3: 2023-06-27 04:06:57 +0000 UTC
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Hey Adventure Gamers!
We're back with the sequel to the inimitable Monkey Island!
This time Guybrush is in vivid VGA graphics, a robust score built on the powerful and innovative IMUSE system, and even facial hair!
Hope you enjoy this month's installment! Next month we'll be doing Curse of Monkey Island, the originally divisive sequel made without Ron Gilbert.
If you missed The Secret of Monkey Island and want to start at the beginning, head on over here for that...
2023-06-25 17:52:22 +0000 UTC View Post
This week Derby demolishes a tree. Derby makes a new friend! And our thief returns with a long-lost surprise... What could it be? You'll just have to watch and see! Which you can do because this week we actually have video again! It's a Derby Day miracle!
2023-06-15 16:34:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Welcome to the first episode of the Adventure Gamer's Club House, the new $1 tier where I'll be revisiting classic adventure games of personal significance and diving into treasures (or trash) that I may have missed!
And to kick it all off, we're starting out with a free for all two parter LP of one of the most pivotal games in baby Dia's life -- The Secret of Monkey Island!
Plenty of games have done before and since and left their own impacts, but together with Brian Moriarty's...
Em and I return to München to guide Gabriel Knight through his continued investigations into the Werewolf Murders!
We bamboozle Tomas, we mail a letter, we visit our lawyer a half dozen times, and we make a new boyfriend...
And then right at the end, a fantastic twist!
Hope you enjoy the episode!
2023-05-29 14:33:20 +0000 UTC View Post