Retro Gaming Nerd Power!

[eredien]

I really was supposed to be productive this evening.

Really.

And I kind of was.
I took out the trash and managed to respond to a few of my emails and renewed my library books and tried to find a recycling container that a.) wasn't as big as an ox b.) didn't cost $200 with custom-installed cabinets and casters and c.) had dividers for cans, bottles, stuff to return for deposit, paper, etc.

I spectacuarly failed to find, let alone order, the proper kind of recycling bin, but I am now the proud high bidder on an Ebay auction for a computer game.

The evening, you see, was spent in retro-land.

I don't talk about this much, but I am an Adventure Gaming Nerd.
You know the kind, who stay up till three am trying to kill the giant or stop their house from getting run over by a bulldozer or simply trying to talk to the flower. (It's red, you see, the only colorful thing onscreen at that scene of the game. And you've tried everything else. So it must be important.)

I blame Lotusblosm, though I don't think she knows this.

It was 1994, and my church was holding a garage sale. Lotusblosm and her family were there, getting rid of some old stuff. Some of which included the (then-recent) early 1990's remake of King's Quest I.
I bought it, installed it, and later may have mistakently bought stock in Sierra Games using bits of my soul as collateral.

So, what did I find on my travels around the internet, squeeing over 16-bit graphics and lamenting that my sound card is now too advanced to play tunes from "Sorcerian?"

1.) There is a collective of gaming nerds who took it upon themselves to update the graphics and gameplay of Sierra's classic games King's Quest I and II, and Quest for Glory.
2.) They based their remake on a game engine that anyone can download, for free, off the internet. And use to create your own adventure games. Some people have posted theirs. Some of them look awful. Some of them look amazing. I can't wait to try it out, which scares me.
3.) Some other nerdly people have taken it upon themselves to design, write, program, etc. the next game in the King's Quest series, as it ought to have been. For free. Just because they like it. They even auditioned voice actors last year. In keeping with the proud "King's Quest: Yet Another Dorky Fantasy Pun" tradition, they're calling it "King's Quest VIII: Every Cloak Has a Silver Lining."
4.) I am feeling an urge to try to beat the "Rama" or "Robot City" games once more. Please hit me over the head until this urge stops.
5.) I have discovered that there is going to be a sequel to the best recent adventure game (sorry, not "Myst"), "The Longest Journey." The graphics are gorgeous.
6.) Unfortunately, I think I have fallen in love with the character design for the acolyte, who is obviously Fated and Brooding.
7.) There is a Czech game company which created a game based on the surreal Russian holiday family folklore classic, "Morozhka" (aka "Jack Frost," which is not accurate). I am going to order it eventually after I email the developers to ask where it is and how much they sell it for. After downloading and playing the demo, I can now recite such classic Russian adventure computer-game dialogs as:

That is a scythe. We cut things with it--wheat, weeds, corn. It is broken. Usually the smith fixes our scythe but he has been missing from the village for two years now.

It is a beautiful spotted cow.

Sister, the apothecary in the village says that anyone who eats too many sunflower seeds will have their feet turn black.

I must be careful climbing down the ladder so I do not slip and fall.

I must be careful climbing up the ladder. It is so very high.

Father, how is your back?
It is a little better. I like sitting.

Hello, M.V. Maxhalin. How are you?
My beet! My beautiful beet! It has been stolen. So much work. Lordy, lordy.

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[jcfiala.livejournal.com]

My wife adores Syberia, and is now working her way through Syberia 2.