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Adventure Game Scene of the Day — Monday 4 February 2013
Put Obsidian on your list! Put Obsidian on your list!
Obsidian already is on the list! Obsidian already is on the list!
At # 97 out of a provisional 178 (not counting (3)DS games)...
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
Sure. I’m most efficient (and deadliest) when I’m in quiet/silent. Like fart
Your post was the last one I read before I left to see how Augustin’s Kickstarter project is doing. And over there they are talking about farting cats!
Great minds think alike.
Today is Flatulence Day.
I found an interesting vlog on the subject.
Today is Flatulence Day.
Between my spouse and my dog, we celebrate it every day.
Everybody wants to be Cary Grant.
Even Me.
-Cary Grant
I found an interesting vlog on the subject.
That guy doesn’t understand the most important reason why burping is acceptable (in some cultures) and farting not!
Today is Flatulence Day.
Between my spouse and my dog, we celebrate it every day.
Heh. Spouses and dogs. Two very touchy subjects, so read my advice at your own risk.
Go paleo! Dogs were not meant to eat commercial crap, they need fresh food. Meat and bones, maybe a tiny, tiny bit of cooked vegetables. And humans were not meant to eat grains, legumes, and dairy. Meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, eggs, nuts and seeds.
Now playing: ——-
Recently finished: don’t remember
Up next: Eh…
Looking forward to: Ithaka of the Clouds; The Last Crown; all the kickstarter adventure games I supported
Been trying to get Obsidian working on my machine for over a year. I posted a thread last year and got some tips, unfortunately none of them worked.
Looks like I’ll forever be Obsidian-less.
You mean you had tried Collector’s DOSBox installer for Obsidian and it didn’t work?
I bet you have 128-bit Win 9 or something more advanced. You deserve to be Obsidian-less.
Everybody wants to be Cary Grant.
Even Me.
-Cary Grant
No one deserves to be Obsidian-less! It’s in the Universal Declaration of Adventure Game Rights.
Yes, I tried that installer and like another poster said in that thread, it installs but the game doesn’t run
What system did you try the installer on?
Everybody wants to be Cary Grant.
Even Me.
-Cary Grant
Win7 64-bit
Sorry to be bumping an old AGSD thread up but I wanted to talk Obsidian. After Kurufinwe posted this, I finally decided to give it a shot since I’ve had the disks gathering dust for quite some time (a present from a friend who knows I like AGs but not that I don’t like Myst and its kin).
I have this to say about it: adventure gaming doesn’t get any better than this, does it?! I am talking about the first part, in particular - the Bureau. An exhilarating, mind-bending ride with strong Kafkaesque flavor, the likes of which I’ve never experienced in any medium. True genius! I am mucking about in the third part now and, while still deliciously surreal, it’s lost some of its steam. But with a first part like that, who cares!
Oh yeah, and this is coming from someone who used to run very fast the other way whenever a game got compared to Myst. So if you are reading this and you are a Myst-hater, go find and play Obsidian anyway! If you’ve already played it and you are willing to help me expand my Myst-like horizons, what would you say the next step for me should be?
P.S. Oscar, I have 32-bit Win 7. I used a virtual machine running Win 98 to get the damn thing running (and I still had some issues). You might be able to get it to run under Virtual PC with XP installed (and those come free and easy on M$‘s site if you have Win7 Pro or better), if you can stomach the letterboxing.
I really want to replay Obsidian at some point. I have a 7-year-overdue post to write about it.
I really want to replay Obsidian at some point. I have a 7-year-overdue post to write about it.
That thread was a good read even if I think it spoiled the robot painter puzzle for me (which now makes perfect sense). Is it just me or did the forums use to be a slightly more intellectual place back in the day?
(By the way, when the time comes to discuss the next playthrough, I know which game I will be pushing.)
If you’ve already played it and you are willing to help me expand my Myst-like horizons, what would you say should the next step for me be?
Playing the Myst games of course (and most of all, Riven) if you haven’t already. Other than that, you could try Darkfall: the Journal which is often called a dark Myst.
That thread was a good read even if I think it spoiled the robot painter puzzle for me (which now makes perfect sense).
Sorry. I should have warned you against reading that thread until you’d finished the game.
Is it just me or did the forums use to be a slightly more intellectual place back in the day?
Not really. There are still lots of interesting conversations about games, especially during the community playthroughs. And that thread was not typical of the general tone of the forums; ultimately, it was essentially 3 people talking, two of which (Fien and I) had just joined a few months before and still had a lot of enthusiasm for discussing things in-depth (look how bitter and jaded we’ve become 7 years down the road… ).
Still I guess it’s true that the mid-noughties were more exciting times: those were the days of Fahrenheit, and Dreamfall, and Telltale’s first episodic games. It felt like the genre was finally coming out of its coma and exploring bold new directions, and that led to both long speculative discussions and to revisiting some underrated games from the second half of the 90s that had tried to break the mould back then (Obsidian, Faust, The Last Express, etc.). That was pretty different from the regressive Kickstarter-fuelled nostalgiafest we’re going through now.
If you’ve already played it and you are willing to help me expand my Myst-like horizons, what would you say should the next step for me be?
As I mentioned in the opening post, I was strongly reminded of Obsidian when playing Antichamber. It’s a puzzle game, not an adventure game (no story whatsoever), and its graphic style is an acquired taste, but it has this same surreal quality, this same way of making you rely on intuition rather than just reasoning—and that same way of telling you that your rules do not apply here.
Beyond that, Obsidian is pretty much in a class of its own. I guess Riven also has that deep bond between the world, the story and the gameplay (whereas so many Myst-style games have arbitrary puzzles), and the feeling that the game’s world is the real puzzle. And Faust definitely has quite a bit of ambition when it comes to depth, although the gameplay is often lacklustre.
I have this to say about it: adventure gaming doesn’t get any better than this, does it?! I am talking about the first part, in particular - the Bureau. An exhilarating, mind-bending ride with strong Kafkaesque flavor, the likes of which I’ve never experienced in any medium. True genius!
YES! It doesn’t get any better than the Bureau. Obsidian will forever be in my top ten.
I strongly recommend “The Official Obsidian Strategies and Secrets”, written by two people involved in the making of Obsidian. (Available at amazon for a few cents. ) I bought the guide after my first playthrough and read it while replaying the game. It offers interesting insights in the entire game concept.
If you’ve already played it and you are willing to help me expand my Myst-like horizons, what would you say should the next step for me be?
Surreal Obsidian is one of a kind. But the fantasy game Zork Grand Inquisitor is another great Mystian game with some very good puzzles and a lovely sense of humor. Check out the AG review.
That thread was a good read even if I think it spoiled the robot painter puzzle for me (which now makes perfect sense).
Oh? The robot painter puzzle was not mentioned. But the thread may spoil another puzzle for you if you haven’t finished Obsidian yet.
Is it just me or did the forums use to be a slightly more intellectual place back in the day?
Yes.
Now playing: ——-
Recently finished: don’t remember
Up next: Eh…
Looking forward to: Ithaka of the Clouds; The Last Crown; all the kickstarter adventure games I supported
Playing the Myst games of course (and most of all, Riven) if you haven’t already. Other than that, you could try Darkfall: the Journal which is often called a dark Myst.
Unfortunately, I’ve played both Myst and Darkfall. I didn’t like them and couldn’t be bothered to finish them. (My aversion has to have come from somewhere after all. ) The thing I find difficult to get over is the lightweight plot and the lack of characters, let alone character development or human drama. I think Kurufinwe mentioned in the thread he linked to above that these games tend to feel like a pretty wrapper for a bunch of puzzles. Couldn’t agree more.
Obsidian gives us two characters I’ve grown to care about, and more than a mere pretense of a plot. Puzzles are well integrated and, if they don’t advance the story forward, they provide insights into the “mind” of the antagonist.
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