The State of Adventure Gaming
Scoop
of the Millennium
Okay, I can’t hold this in any longer. For reasons
that will become obvious when we run it, we are currently sitting on an exclusive
interview with Ragnar Tornquist, the creator of The Longest Journey. One
tidbit of information that all of our readers should find most heartening, though,
was the following exchange between me and Ragnar:
JA: Was
The Longest Journey conceived with the intent of it being a continuing
series? If so, how many parts do you envision?Ragnar: Yes and no. We designed
TLJ to be a stand-alone product, with a beginning, middle and end, but
April’s story doesn’t conclude with this first game, as I’m sure you know by now.
We have the storylines ready for both a prequel and a sequel, and in the
tradition of all things George Lucas-y, TLJ was conceived–at least in
theory–as a potential trilogy.
Yes, you read that right,
two more games are in the planning stages to follow up on the best adventure game
of the year. Let’s hope that next time they receive simultaneous worldwide distribution.
Richard
Simmons, Eat Your Heart Out!
Okay, adventure gamers, we all know that
sitting around all day solving puzzles and saving the world is having an adverse
effect on our physiques. Many of us are sporting blubber butts and little rolls
around our midsections, if you catch my drift. So we here at JA have come up with
the Adventure Gamer’s Exercise Program. We can now play and exercise at the same
time.
Keeping your right hand on the keyboard, put that left hand in the
air and count off the number of Gabriel Knight games with your fingers.
One-two-three. Now put that left hand on the keyboard and use that right hand
to thrust a nacho cheese Dorito into your mouth. Now crunch the number of number
of Monkey Island games. Crunch crunch crunch crunch. Good. Now let’s work
on that midsection. Raise your right foot in the air until your big toe can press
the button on your CD drive. Now comes the difficult part–bend forward from the
waist and put that CD in the drive and then push that drive door shut with your
index finger. Whew! I don’t know about you, but I’m pooped. Time for a swig of
cola and then maybe a nap.
(The complete Adventure Gamer’s Exercise videotape
can be yours for only $19.99. Just call 1-800-JADVNTR and have your credit card
handy. Order before noon today and receive a free Exercise Walkthrough with your
order.)
It’s
Not Easy Being Me
Phone calls at all hours of the night. Hounded in
public like the Beatles in their prime. What brought on all of this notoriety?
Blame PC Gamer (sung to the tune of Blame Canada). Sure, we always
knew in our hearts that Just Adventure was the best adventure site on the Web,
but when PC Gamer says so, well, people sit up and listen! We have fought
tooth and nail for over a year to have adventure games viewed in a positive light,
and our efforts finally seem to be reaping rewards. Now it is time for us to publicly
thank Michael Wolf and Rob Smith, PC Gamer Editor-in-Chief, for recognizing not
only Just Adventure but also our legion of die-hard fans. Thanks, guys. What we
would appreciate most, though, is if you, our readers, could take a moment and
drop a thank you note to Michael at [email protected]
and Rob at [email protected]
and show them that adventure gamers can be appreciative. Now if you’ll excuse
me, it’s my turn to strut my stuff for the staff. Where’s that danged Coconut
Monkey costume?
Adventure
Island Survivor
You’ve seen it on television, you’ve read about it in
the newspapers, now join in the fun. We’ve put eight adventure characters on an
island. Now it is up to you to decide who survives. Every Wednesday we’ll provide
a synopsis of who was kicked off the previous week and what activities are planned.
You must then decide who stays and who leaves. One reader who, by August 13th
(which, coincidentally, is also my birthday–I just thought I would mention that
so you can begin your shopping early), sends us an email that correctly guesses
the identity of the lone survivor along with the most ingenious reason for that
character’s survival, will win a sparkling, brand new adventure game. Now pass
me that fried rat leg, please.
(Not)
Playing the Game Followup
Back in March when we ran our popular four-part
“(Not) Playing the
Game” articles, we received numerous emails accusing us of racism and
sexism (not to mention our participation in the Lindbergh baby kidnaping and JA’s
appearance on the grassy knoll) when we insinuated that the gaming industry was
a closed shop controlled by white twenty-something males. It was with great interest
that we read the July 1 issue of Game Business magazine containing author
Marc Saltzman’s article entitled “Game Innovation: Where Will it Pop up Next?”
Let’s get right to the nitty gritty and join in as Marc speaks with Mike Wilson,
CEO of the Gathering of Developers (G.O.D.)
Wilson believes
games are being written by a very narrow group of designers–white males for the
most part–with an almost universal interest in science-fiction, technology and
gaming. “Almost no women, almost no minorities, almost no influences from
outside our little group are targets,” he observes. “When the demographics
of the creators change, that’s when we’ll see true inspiration and innovation
geared for the rest of the world. All the other genres of interest have yet to
be explored, really–love stories, comedy, horror, music, etc. We’re just getting
started.
Gee, it seems that even the CEOs of major companies
are part of this conspiracy theory!
They Must Be Sniffing the Printer’s
Ink
Suddenly, many of the gaming magazines seem to have undergone a
complete about-face in their opinion of adventure games.
Not only does
the August issue of PC Gamer have the aforementioned adventure article
by Michael Wolf, but there is also a balanced review of Martian Gothic, and
we happen to know that a favorable review of Dracula Resurrection will
appear in the September issue.
The August issue of Computer Games Magazine
has a wonderful 17-page preview of adventure games at the E3, and the September
issue promises exclusive stories about Escape from Monkey Island and Myst
3.
Even Next Generation has a nice two-page article about Michael Crichton’s
Timeline adventure project.
Let’s just hope that, in all this enthusiasm,
these companies don’t forget where the grass-roots efforts to rejuvenate the genre
originated.
Imagine There’s No Ziff-Davis, It’s Easy If You Try
I
recently had the opportunity to deal with the two of the giants of gaming publishing–Imagine
Media (PC Gamer, Next Generation, et al.) and Ziff-Davis (Computer Gaming
World, Gamespot, et al.). Heaven and Hell have never been more clearly defined.
Imagine Media was quick to respond, attentive, and immediately answered and resolved
all of my inquiries. Kudos to Daniel Nelson, employee exemplar at Imagine Media.
Ziff-Davis’s
Director of Communications obviously is not familiar with the “Communications”
part of her title, as she responded to only one of four emails with a snooty,
“I’m not quite sure what you want,” and when my simple request was reiterated,
again there was no response. Long-distance phone calls to their San Francisco
and New York offices resulted in passing the buck and unreturned voice mail messages.
For
reasons that Ziff-Davis probably can’t fathom, my subscriptions to all Ziff-Davis
magazines have been canceled. I’ll use the refund check to send Daniel a gift
certificate for lunch.
Adventure
Games Killed the Radio Star
I’ve been told I have a face made for radio,
and on Sunday, July 30, the world will be my judge as yours truly appears nationwide
on Dave Graveline’s “IntoTomorrow” radio show. Heard nationwide on 77
stations and worldwide on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Networks, this
is one show you don’t dare miss. Adventure gamers from around the world will be
able to partake of the fun as we discuss adventure games and give away prizes.
If “Into Tomorrow” is not available locally in your area, then make
sure to link directly to the live broadcast from the Just Adventure site on Sunday,
July 30, from 3 to 5 pm EST. After Hollywood catches a whiff of my charm and good
looks, I may be offered a starring role with Julia Roberts.
Things
That Make You Go Hmm …
According to the financial statements in the
Statement of Ownership supplied by the (rumored) recently canceled Incite magazines,
Electronic Arts paid Incite $350,000 to have their newest Tiger Woods
game featured on the cover. I wonder what page the companies that didn’t ante
up appeared on?
The Letters to the Editor column in the August Next Generation
features a reader questioning the magazine’s integrity in naming a noninteractive
movie of Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 2 as best game of show at E3. Next
Generation responds that, “If someone had played it and it played like
crap, it wouldn’t get game of the show,” and stands by their decision. Bets
are now being taken as to which month Metal Gear Solid 2 will be on the
cover of Next Generation.
Maybe Next Generation should hire
the unemployed staff of Incite, and together they could produce an issue
of nothing but covers.
Cheap, Shameless Plugs
Lately, there
has been an influx of rare adventure games like Pilgrim, Queen the Eye, and
others. (By the way, if anyone out there has boxed originals of Touche, Hopkins
FBI, Treasure Hunter, or Duckman, and would like to sell or trade them,
please contact me at [email protected].
We would like to have them for the virtual encyclopedia we are constructing).
Much of this is due to adventure gamers worldwide finally linking together thanks
to sites like Just Adventure and the GameBoomers message board. Even more can
be attributed to the dedication of people like the Jensens, owners of CD
Access, who go out of their way to acquire adventure games for their customers.
Once hard-to-get games like Rent-A-Hero and Ecstatica 2 are now
readily available, and games otherwise not for sale in the U.S. like Pompeii
and The Time Machine are yours for the same price they sell for in
Europe. Not to mention that every game you buy at CD Access by using the link
from JA (cheap, shameless plug follows) helps us to not only stay in business
but to grow as we receive a percentage of that total purchase (end of cheap, shameless
plug).
Over at Playing
Games, Alan McDonald is also doing his part to supply obscure adventure games
by offering you the chance to purchase previously unobtainable games like The
Quivering, The Arrival, Spud, and The Time Warrior. Do yourself, and
us, a favor and stock up on some of these older adventure games in anticipation
of a rainy day.
Is
it Just Me?
The July issue of PSM (Playstation Magazine) has
a six-page spread of video and computer game heroines posing in their swimwear
(and less). Yep, the women of Resident Evil and Final Fantasy are
but a few of the featured bathing beauties. Virtual cleavage? Yuck. Call me old-fashioned,
but I think I prefer the real thing. Even shameless hussies need loving.
It
is rumored that the movie rights for the forthcoming Electronics Art’s game American
McGee’s Alice have been acquired by Miramax. The game is a twisted look at
the world created by Lewis Carroll and has Alice return to Wonderland only to
find it a bloody, demented holocaust. Miramax has previously produced such films
as Shakespeare in Love and Pulp Fiction. Seems they now consider
Alice Oscar material. Gwyneth Paltrow as Alice, anyone?
Waiter,
There’s a Fly in My Game
One thing that adventure gamers have never
had to suffer is buggy computer games. With the exception of the faulty seventh
disk of Black Dahlia, I am hard-pressed to immediately remember an adventure
game that needed a patch or new disk to complete. It seems, though, that the carefree
days of bug-free adventure games may be at an end. The U.K. version of The
Longest Journey has adventure fanatics in a tizzy as sound stuttering is causing
tintinnabulation on their trip to Arcadia. The problem is currently being addressed
by the programmers at Funcom. Apparently, some product also shipped with a badly
pressed disk 2. These disks are being replaced by the Empire Interactive,
the U.K. distributor.
Another recent release, Cryo’s Devil Inside, has
a show-stopper of a bug that has already been addressed with a patch on the Cryo
website. Problem is, though, that the patch does not seem to be working for everyone.
Reader Steve Armstrong did tell us that if you play as Deva during the attic sequence,
the patch works fine, but if you play as Dave, it does not. Cryo has assured me
that the US version of Devil Inside will be bug-free.
Let’s hope
this is not the start of a new, unwelcome trend, and if you run across any new
adventure games that have a bug, let us know and we’ll contact the company and
see if we can offer a solution.
Coming Attractions
Previews
of Rome, The Insider, Tales of Chivalry, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Reviews of Paris 1313, The Louvre, Pompeii, The Devil Inside, Vampire Masquerade,
and one of the neatest games I have played in years, The Odyssey. Interviews
with Ragnar Tornquist of Funcom, the Simon 3D staff, and the creators of
Stupid Invaders. A week of Monkey Island Madness with LucasArts
and special Myst 3: Exile behind-the-scenes articles. Adventure games on
the Gameboy and Dreamcast. The Just Adventure Virtual Encyclopedia of Adventure
Games, The Mother of All Adventure Quizzes (yeah, I keep fooling you on this one),
Rate the Adventure Game, and a new and improved links page. So buckle those seatbelts–we’re
on the fast track to adventure nirvana.
That’s it–be here next month for
more inane gibbering about adventure games, the world, and everything else.
