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Obscure adventure game discussion thread

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Total Posts: 313

Joined 2014-07-01

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Refixion 2: Museum or Hospital (1992) (Macintosh)

This game is a big improvement over the first in that there is at least a bigger area to explore, some mild interaction and a bunch of FMV to watch. It takes place in a hospital of sorts and you mostly walk around and look through the slits in the doors to watch videos of the inmates.

While I’m a huge fan of weird art that is drawn, I’m not really a fan in the slightest of weird performance art so watching video after video of the developer (I assume) making weird faces at the camera and dancing around in a bunch of different animal masks got boring really quick for me. The environments are rather monotonous too. I never got to see the entire game as the game didn’t run all that well in the emulator I was using and would eventually crash, but I’m not too sad about that. Like the first game, it is Japanese, but it has instructions in English. The game has no real text or dialogue so language is pretty much irrelevant though.

The Shots:

     
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I’m not actually sure if this game is obscure or not, but it seems to be missing from some popular game databases:

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1993) (DOS)

This game is, of course, based on the Sherlock Holmes story of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is completely in English. The funny thing about it is that the gameplay only exists in your head.

You are seated at a desk with all the evidence, letters, notes and facts concerning the case of the Baskervilles and the game consists of you going through it in any order you please and trying to figure out the mystery before you come across the actual answers. In short, you are just experiencing the book in a slightly different way. The game doesn’t acknowledge any of your actions, nor does it ask anything of you. The game’s instructions merely tell you that this is the “game”. You would never know it otherwise.

The shots:

Title screen:

Your desk:

A letter about the Baskerville family:

A picture of Henry Baskerville:

An excerpt from the chronological reports:

Newspaper article:

Some text being narrated to you via an FMV:

Looking over some evidence:

     
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And another game whose gameplay only exists in your head:

The Riddle of the Maze (1994) (Macintosh)

This game is based on the 1985 book by Christopher Manson and was billed as The World’s Most Challenging Puzzle. A ludicrous claim of course, but that never stopped a marketing department before. The game is entirely in English.

The goal of the game is to find the center of the maze and return to the entrance in the fewest moves possible and figure out from all the clues along the path the answer to the game’s main riddle. Like the previous Baskervilles game, this is simply told to you in the instructions and the game doesn’t acknowledge anything you do. It doesn’t count your moves nor ask you for the answer to any of the smaller riddles or the main one.

The illustrations are nice and the story and the narrator who tells it is well done. In that sense it’s pretty good. On the other hand, finding the shortest path through the maze is rather easy and the main riddle is hard, and for me at least, the complete lack of feedback from the game makes the riddle just feel like a chore. Even if I had figured it out, I wouldn’t even know if I was right. That said, I looked up the answer online and I’m pretty sure I would never have gotten it anyway, so I’m glad I didn’t waste much time on it.

The shots:

     
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Astate: The Curse of the Templars (1990) (Amiga)

This is a French game, originally called Astate: La Malediction des Templiers, but it is an exploration/puzzle game with no characters and no text that I can recall so it’s playable by pretty much anyone.

You play an archaeologist looking for the statue of Theomorphe which has been split into five different pieces, and armed with your tools you wander the countryside looking for them. You have a handy scanner that works like a metal detector that can alert you to the presence of buried items which you can use to find the statue pieces.

It’s a short game that isn’t very difficult, but the pixel hunting can be pretty bad. I literally spent a couple minutes on several occasions trying to find the exact pixel to click on to pick up an item that I knew was there thanks to the scanner.

The game is also timed, but the game world is very small, maybe 25-30 screens in size. You could probably finish it in 10 minutes once you know where everything is. It’s not a good game, but it is a little bit different than other games from that time.

Title Screen:

Our house, was our castle and our keep:

Little pink houses, for you and me.

Just can’t wait to get on the road again:

Isn’t it good, Norwegian wood:

Too much time on my hands:

     
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Wow, some of those screens from Astate: The Curse of the Templars are gorgeous D!  Content

     

Total Posts: 288

Joined 2003-09-16

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Which emulator did you use to play Refixion 1 & 2?

I remember trying a few years back to play Refixion 1 using SheepSaver Mac emulator, but I could never get the game to even load.  Refixion 2 looked pretty cool, but I never even tried to play that one given my lack of success with the prequel.

Riddle of the Maze I did play, well an online version if I recall.  Tracked down a url

http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/holt/books/maze/

I’ve never heard of that Astate: The Curse of the Templars game.  Screen shots look interesting though.  Thanks for posting!

     
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lakerz - 19 February 2017 07:12 PM

Which emulator did you use to play Refixion 1 & 2?

I used Sheepshaver. It seems to have problems with Mixed Mode (Data + CD Audio) games like Refixion 2. The game keeps telling me it can’t read the disc and eventually just hangs. It’s possible that the read errors and the hang are unrelated though as the errors can be clicked through and I can still play but the hangs don’t necessarily happen around the same time. Everything else I’ve played has seemed to work perfectly though.

     
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After a weekend of debauchery, D’s Museum of Peculiarities and Antiquated Oddities is now open for business again…

Today’s exhibit is:

The Cactus Man (1995) (Windows)

This Japanese game, known by its partially translated in-game title as The Saboten Man is an obscure and bizarre journey through three different worlds that basically consists of clicking on things and watching rather strange things happen. Unfortunately it has no puzzles, or even an ending as far as I can tell and is also rather short in length. What little text there is, is in English though, so it’s playable by anyone.

The shots:

Title Screen:

Eat your heart out, Fenimore Fillmore:

World Selection screen:

I think I’ll pass on the tea…

Maybe I shouldn’t have clicked on that eggplant:

10 eyes are better than two:

A preview from the upcoming Cowboys & Aliens sequel:

The sun is shinin’, come on get happy!

     

Total Posts: 288

Joined 2003-09-16

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Ah those crazy Japanese!  Never heard of this Sabotenmen game, graphics looks like devs were smoking the good stuff all throughout development. 

One of these weeks, I will have to try and use sheepshaver emulator again, see if I have any better luck.  Glad to know that you used it successfully.

     
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Total Posts: 313

Joined 2014-07-01

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The School for Vampires: Garlic Alarm (2007) (Windows)

This is a game I purchased as part of my quest to complete every vampire themed adventure game ever made. It’s a German language game called Die Schule der kleinen Vampire: Knoblauchalarm, that is based off of an animated children’s TV series, which is in turn based on a book by Jackie Niebisch. It’s a short, horror comedy game based around inventory puzzles.

Sorry about the cut off screenshots but downsizing screenshots to fit the forum really destroys their quality so I’ve left them as is. View them in a separate window to see the whole image.

     
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Total Posts: 313

Joined 2014-07-01

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Moon Cradle (1995) (3DO / Saturn)

This is a Japanese language game originally developed for the Panasonic 3DO in which you investigate a missing person’s case only to find yourself embroiled in a mystery involving mind control and aliens.

It’s one of the few games to use the isometric viewpoint for exploration areas and even features a hotspot highlighting function. Much of the game consists of live action FMV dialogues with the people you encounter during your investigation. The gameplay includes dialogue, inventory, logic and sound based puzzles as well as one rather easy stealth action sequence.

Due to the large amount of dialogue, this game is pretty much off limits to those who don’t understand Japanese. Also of note is that the Saturn version is different in that the videos play full screen, possibly making it the better version to play. I haven’t played the Saturn version though, so I don’t know what, if any, other changes may exist.

All screenshots below are from the original 3DO release:

Title Screen:

Relaxing in your office:

Hotspot highlighting:

Consulting the fortune teller:

The protagonist at a pachinko parlor:

Consulting your computer database:

Any flaws in the game are now completely forgiven:

One of the game’s puzzles:

     
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Joined 2015-02-06

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Speaking of Sega Saturn have you played Lunacy? It’s a point-and-click adventure that uses pre-rendered FMVs like that of Warp’s D. Probably not so much obscure but definitely one of the lesser known adventure titles for the Saturn. From what I remember it is somewhat of a sequel to the 2 other lesser known but great point-and-click pre-rendered FMVs, Mansion of Hidden Souls and The Mansion of Hidden Souls. The first being on SegaCD while the latter on Saturn. I very much enjoyed the lot, nice graphics, nice puzzles, and good story!

Clicking on the following links will take you to youtube videos.

Mansion of Hidden Souls intro and gameplay

The Mansion of Hidden Souls intro and gameplay

Lunacy intro and gameplay

     

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Total Posts: 313

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Sir Beardalot - 25 February 2017 11:31 PM

Speaking of Sega Saturn have you played Lunacy? It’s a point-and-click adventure that uses pre-rendered FMVs like that of Warp’s D. Probably not so much obscure but definitely one of the lesser known adventure titles for the Saturn. From what I remember it is somewhat of a sequel to the 2 other lesser known but great point-and-click pre-rendered FMVs, Mansion of Hidden Souls and The Mansion of Hidden Souls. The first being on SegaCD while the latter on Saturn. I very much enjoyed the lot, nice graphics, nice puzzles, and good story!

Yeah, I’ve played all of those. I’d say they are obscure as far as this forum goes. Most people here are so DOS/Windows centric that anything outside of that is pretty unknown to them.

I don’t recall any narrative relationship between Lunacy and the Mansion of Hidden Souls games but it’s been a while since I’ve played them. It’s unfortunate that both of the latter have the exact same name though as the Saturn one is a direct sequel to the first SegaCD game and it causes confusion between the two. I believe I liked the first game better than the second but my memory is pretty hazy on that.

     
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Total Posts: 313

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Fatal Jack (1998) (Windows)

This is a weird Spanish language game in which you play a guy who turns into a wolfman whenever he’s turned on by women. It’s not an adult game though. It’s just used occasionally as a humorous game mechanic to get by obstacles. When you are a wolf you are stronger and can break things and stuff. The story has something to do with Satan and finding the pieces of an artifact blah blah blah…

Other than that it’s just a standard first person inventory puzzle based game with a tiny bit of FMV. It actually has multiple solutions to some puzzles, but has some annoying pixel hunting in places. It’s rather amateurish overall.

The pics:

Installation title screen:

Breaking into the museum and taking out the guards:

Naughty pictures on an office PC:

Seeing the above turns you into a wolfman:

A museum exhibit room:

Caught by the guards!

You can talk your way past them with a disguise:

Boozing it up with a priest at the church:

     
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D - 27 February 2017 09:17 PM
Sir Beardalot - 25 February 2017 11:31 PM

Speaking of Sega Saturn have you played Lunacy? It’s a point-and-click adventure that uses pre-rendered FMVs like that of Warp’s D. Probably not so much obscure but definitely one of the lesser known adventure titles for the Saturn. From what I remember it is somewhat of a sequel to the 2 other lesser known but great point-and-click pre-rendered FMVs, Mansion of Hidden Souls and The Mansion of Hidden Souls. The first being on SegaCD while the latter on Saturn. I very much enjoyed the lot, nice graphics, nice puzzles, and good story!

Yeah, I’ve played all of those. I’d say they are obscure as far as this forum goes. Most people here are so DOS/Windows centric that anything outside of that is pretty unknown to them.

I don’t recall any narrative relationship between Lunacy and the Mansion of Hidden Souls games but it’s been a while since I’ve played them. It’s unfortunate that both of the latter have the exact same name though as the Saturn one is a direct sequel to the first SegaCD game and it causes confusion between the two. I believe I liked the first game better than the second but my memory is pretty hazy on that.

Yeah the similar titles confused me as well. I don’t know if Lunacy is actually a sequel but the butterflies that Anthony collects, which he says, “When someone dies they’re soul comes back as a butterfly.” either ties them together or it’s just a reference to the previous games since all 3 were developed by System Sacom.

     

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