The State of Adventure Gaming
By Randy
Sluganski
October 1998
September stared with a whimper and ended
with a bang as a late flurry of adventure games jostled for space on the store
shelves. Morpheus, Redjack, Cydonia, Nightlong and Abyss all have
the newsgroups once again buzzing with activity.
October, though, promises
to be the month we have long awaited. Grim Fandango, Redguard, Enemy Zero,
Silent Hill, Quest for Glory V and The Blackstone Chronicles are all
scheduled to be released by month’s end.
What’s up for JA? Well, we will
soon have an exclusive interview with best-selling horror author John Saul. His
Blackstone Chronicles looks to be a real Halloween treat for horror/adventure
fans. Speaking of my favorite holiday, I thought it might be fun to conduct a
poll to see what our readers think is the scariest adventure game of all time.
Also, don’t forget to check out our excellent daily news column by Matthew Arcilla.
Matt puts a lot of work into his column and it shows! Plus, I am sure that the
Dungeon of Shame and the Clearance Bin will both put in another appearance before
month’s end!
Recently some unusual e-mails came across the desktop of our
newest reviewer, Stuart Yoder. Before I share these letters with you, let me preface
them by saying I think it is time for adventure gamers to take a stand. We alone
can change the industry’s view of adventure gamers and this would be the perfect
opportunity:
Dear Stuart,
Thank you for your recent email.
I am pleased that you have found DOGDAY to be a quality adventure game. It received
adventure game of the year here in Australia. However we found that 90% of the
editors that reviewed DOGDAY hated the game and thus DOGDAY was a complete failure
in the North American territory.DOGDAY II has been put on hold for this
reason, even though this is certainly a much better game than the first. I am
biased because I loved DOGDAY I. So anyone that loved the first version will be
absolutely blown away with DOGDAY II. In fact, in my opinion, the ideas and concept’s
in the game are first time features. Taking the adventure genre to a new level.
However DOGDAY II may be reinstated early next year. It would be nice if you could
tell the DOGDAY fans. It would also be nice if you ran a poll, for your adventures
those who want DOGDAY II and those that don’t care. Perhaps you can feed us the
results.One bit of good news is that we are finalizing a Sony Playstation
version of DOGDAY. It is in for approval of Sony America, this will utilize the
new Dual Shock controllers and the ending has been changed. You now play a character
by the name of “Cracker”. Who is a cool dog!!!! It would be also good
to know what the adventure community thinks of a DOGDAY PSX. We feel their is
a very broad audience on a console and we may have a different response, what
do you think?Thank you very much for your support.
Sincerely,
Mark
Bracken
President
IMPACT Interactive Publishing Pty Ltd* * * * *
Dear Stuart,
I’m the one that has put DogDay II
on hold because the returns from DogDay have not been good enough. We are self
funded here at Eyst, so if I don’t think there is a good probability of at least
getting the investment back or preferably making a little then I simply can’t
afford to do it.If you think you can convince me otherwise then I’d be
glad to listen. I had some very cool plans for DogDay II which may eventually
surface as another adventure later, even if DogDay II doesn’t happen.Regards,
Ben
Moss
Eyst
Bottom line: we all bitched when Blizzard canceled
Warcraft Adventures–well, this is a chance to show our support! Once again
an adventure game stands to be canceled because magazine editors in North America
do not like adventure games. I know for a fact that only one store in my city
even carried Dog Day and that two two weeks later it was relegated to the
$10 bin. What can we do? E-mail Stu
and he will forward your support to Ben and Mark. Call a local store in your area
and ask them if they have DogDay I in stock or if they plan to carry DogDay
II. If you find a copy of DogDay I for $10, buy it! Invade the newsgroups.
Even if you did not like DogDay, show your support for the adventure game
genre or pretty soon we won’t have any games to support.
Finally, I know
I usually pound on the mainstream computer magazines every month, but Jeff Green
at Computer Gaming World has to be the funniest gaming columnist I have
every read. He shares the love of adventure games that we at JA have, but he also
seems to realize that, hey, they’re still just games let’s not be so dead serious
all the time. If you haven’t read Jeff, check out the last page of CGW every month.
Oh yeah, he’s also a big Temujin fan and is running a contest to give away his
extra copies!
‘Til next month … spooky gaming!
