Vintage Game Club

Holiday Break

brainygamer — Thur, 04 Dec 2008 04:49:42 GMT

With the holidays approaching we've decided to take a short break from vintage gaming to let everyone catch up on the current crop of games, play more old games, or maybe even take a breather from games altogether (perish the thought!).

We'll resume VGC activity on January 6, 2009. At that time we'll officially begin the process of selecting our next game to play together. In the meantime, feel free to continue discussions on the forums as you wish.

On behalf of my fellow moderators Evan, Dan, and David, I wish you Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Forum: Holiday Break

The Shadow of Yserbius

Pots_Talos — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:56:17 GMT

I don't know if any of you guys have heard of or played it but Shadows of Yserbius can now be played online once again thanks to Innrevival ImagiNation Project.

Here is an excerpt from Wiki -

The Shadow of Yserbius', originally published by Sierra On-Line, was the first of three graphical MUDs for the online community. Opening to rave reviews, The Shadow of Yserbius, according to industry critics, set the standard by which all future MUDS would be judged. The game was followed by two sequels entitled The Fates of Twinion (1993) and The Ruins of Cawdor (1995). Until recently, only The Shadow of Yserbius and Fates of Twinion were playable in offline mode.The Shadow of Yserbius', originally published by Sierra On-Line, was the first of three graphical MUDs for the online community. Opening to rave reviews, The Shadow of Yserbius, according to industry critics, set the standard by which all future MUDS would be judged. The game was followed by two sequels entitled The Fates of Twinion (1993) and The Ruins of Cawdor (1995). Until recently, only The Shadow of Yserbius and Fates of Twinion were playable in offline mode.

If anyone has played in the past and wants to get togeather on let me know. Here is the link to Innrevival http://innrevival.googlepages.com/home .
If you Download it Shadow of Yserbius and Fates of Twinion come with it, so you don't need to find the games to play them.

Forum: Off-topic conversation

Donate to Child's Play!

davidcarlton — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:12:11 GMT

We thought that it would be fun to organize a donation drive for Child's Play , the charity created by the Penny Arcade folks that donates games, toys, books, etc. to children's hospitals. I checked with the Child's Play organizers, and the easiest way to bundle contributions like that is with a service called ChipIn, so I've set up a page with them at http://vgc.chipin.com/childs-play . (Hopefully we'll get their widget added here.) They don't collect any fees, all funds raised will go straight to Child's Play.

Please donate away!

Forum: Off-topic conversation

Game 4?

davidcarlton — Thur, 27 Nov 2008 04:10:01 GMT

We're almost done with Abe's ; any thoughts about Game 4? Actually, I have two questions in that area: aside from the obvious one of what game we should play, I was wondering how people's vacation plans might affect our choice.

I'll be off of work and at home with my consoles for a week and a half after Christmas, so I was thinking I'd be up for something reasonably substantial. But then I realized that some of y'all might be visiting relatives for some of that period, and not have so much time to play.

Thoughts?

Forum: What game next?

Thoughts after finishing the game

davidcarlton — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:12:25 GMT

If you have thoughts about the game as a whole after finishing it, please post them here.

Forum: Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

Gaming's personal aspect

rjcalixto — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:05:59 GMT

I've grown up a gamer. From my younger days at an NES to the time spent at my first console, the Playstation, to times of family bonding at an N64, I can't remember a time when I wasn't really into games. But I do remember the first time a game ever made me feel something.

Kingdom Hearts, a Disney/Squaresoft game, combined Final Fantasy characters with the Disney characters I grew up watching. I fought alongside Goofy, Donald, Aladdin, and a few other characters that I was only ever able to imagine as a kid. Right off the bat, I connected with the young Sora, whose life on Destiny Island was about as simple as I thought mine to be at the time. When the Heartless came and engulfed Destiny Island in darkness, I felt the monotony of my everyday life fade away, and was thrown into Sora's shoes to face this great evil.

I invested lots of emotion into KH, and its climax still nearly drives me to tears I dont know why, but it makes me feel like a kid again. The innocence of childhood friendship, set against Utada Hikarus Simple and Clean, gives me the same wonderful feeling I got whenever I would go to Disneyland. In a sense, the fantasy worlds of my childhood dreams became real when I saw them through Sora's eyes. And as a middle-schooler living in the suburbs of California, it moved me.

There's lots of talk here about games as art, but how much do we talk about the ways games personally affect us? I know KH was not particularly artistic, but that's not why it was important to me. Instead, Kingdom Hearts let me open up my imagination as a young gamer, not only because I could see everything as it unfolded on-screen, but because I was closer to the characters, which I actually controlled and battled alongside.

Kingdom Hearts was the game that made me see that games could make me feel real emotion, not just the satisfaction of doing something fun and rewarding. I'd like to know from anybody else reading this: Were you ever emotionally affected by a game that wasn't known or recognized for having the ability to do so?

Forum: Off-topic conversation

Failure

clarkwgriswold — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:47:39 GMT

I have to admit defeat I'm afraid.

I paid for the game over Steam fully prepared to get stuck in and play through the whole thing, get involved with the discussion and post my thoughts on a classic game I've never played before.

I played through the first few levels and didn't enjoy it one bit, but I was fully prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt and followed the threads for the first two areas.

The problem is that since I also have Fallout 3, Fable 2, Gears of War 2 and Quantum Of Solace (this one's for work purposes ;)) to play through, Abe's Odysee hasn't had a look in. I honestly don't know how people like Michael manage to cram in so many gaming hours. I listen to the podcast and I remember when last year his baby was born, and he was still playing through all the Zelda games, Patapon on the PSP and others! I have a feeling he's a serial insomniac, there's no other explanation!

I'm sure I'll get round to playing it at some point. At that point I'll probably drag the thread back open two years too late ;).

Not a great start for my first foray into the Vintage Game Club I know. I'll try harder next time.

Forum: Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

Unofficial Vintage Game Club Zombie Survival League (Left 4 Dead coordination thread)

10rdBen — Thur, 13 Nov 2008 02:53:59 GMT

Attention proud members of the VGC!

Today is a grand day for all - the recent Left 4 Dead demo is well and truly out and about, with people going nuts for it all over the net, it is time to organise the resistance!

WELCOME TO THE UNOFFICIAL, VGC ZOMBIE SURVIVAL LEAGUE!

Feel free to leave your steam account names in this thread, make suggestions for small competitions (I believe I have first dibs on the brains of a certain Mr Abbott) and organise a team or two.

My Steam ID: 10rd_Ben

I'm currently a Uni slacker-bum, so I'm free pretty much anytime between Midday and 2am Australian Eastern Standard Time (GMT+10). That's roughly 8pm-10am New York Time.

I am, however, still downloading the demo so give me a good day or so of downloading and I might be right to go.

As Unofficial Team Captain #1 I hereby pick StolenName as my first teammate, for his exceptional FPSing skills and offer to send me a DVD-R with the Left 4 Dead gamefiles on it so I don't have to wait a month and a half to play. =P

Post Script: I should mention that I (and the majority) are playing on PC via Steam. Feel free to organise matchups on other platforms, but PC is the main platform as most people have it and can run it, etc...

Forum: Off-topic conversation

This game is Ben's revenge for the beaver puzzle, right?

davidcarlton — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:09:12 GMT

I just made it through Stockyard Escape; Ben, did you suggest this game just to get back at us for the woods puzzles in Grim Fandango?

I kid, I kid. But, you know, maybe it wouldn't hurt for our next game to be one that isn't a pain in the ass or a grind...

Forum: Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

Nuclear Campfire Stories

dhalgren2882 — Thur, 06 Nov 2008 12:26:01 GMT

Inspired by a post on Michael's The Brainy Gamer, the Vintage Gamer rebels who play modern games as well have decided to share their own Fallout character stories. I'm not going to put any restrictions on this, including what Fallout game your character is from, so if you haven't played 3 yet than feel free to join in with an old or current character from 1 or 2.

I do think it would be a good idea to avoid any spoilers for the third game. I think the basic premise, i.e. the search for your father, is fair game, but maybe we can avoid referencing too much after that.

If you need any direction about how to start your character's story take a look at some of the wonderful examples provided by Michael's students at the above link.

(I promise I'll post mine soon!)

Forum: Off-topic conversation

Tim Schafer's design doc for Grim Fandango

danbruno — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:21:48 GMT

This is a fantastic insight into the design of the game. Enjoy!

Forum: Grim Fandango

Unnecessarily complex controls

indstr — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:53:00 GMT

Does anyone else think this game's controls are unnecessarily complex? Perhaps I am jumping to this conclusion prematurely, as I haven't even finished the first area yet... But it seems that, in a world of simplification, the number of commands or ways to do things could be reduced in this game. This complexity, plus the unforgiving death by learning difficulty, makes the game practically inaccessible to all but the most hardcore and dedicated gamers.

If the other games in the series are like this, I'm really surprised the series has sold as many units as it has.

Forum: Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

Incoming!

GunBlade — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:46:40 GMT

Just wanted to say "Hi". I'm new here, and I think the game club is an awesome idea.

Forum: Off-topic conversation

Welcome our newest moderator

brainygamer — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:44:25 GMT

I'm happy to announce that Evan Atkin (EvanAtkin) has joined Dan, David, and me as a moderator for the VGC. His invaluable (and completely voluntary) work compiling background material for Deus Ex and Abe's Oddysee had been incredibly helpful, and his genuine enthusiasm for what we're doing here will make him a terrific member of our forum team.

So if you happen to virtually bump into Mr. Atkin, please be sure to address him as Moderator Atkin from now on.

Forum: Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

synchronizing the playthrough?

davidcarlton — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:38:22 GMT

Since the DX synchronized playthrough went well, shall we try it again with Abe's?

Some data: I looked through one of the FAQs on gamefaqs (a relatively dense one), and here's how many pages there were for the sections:

Rupture Farms: 2.5
Stockyard, Monsaic: 3.5
Paramonia: 4.5
Scrabania: 5
Stockyard Return: 1
Rupture Farms II: 3.5

One question: how many weeks do we want to take? I don't get the feeling that it's she shortest game in the world, but it's certainly a lot shorter than Deus Ex was. So probably 3 weeks would be fine if we wanted to focus on the game; but we're in the heart of release season, so I imagine we might be busier than normal with non-vintage games right now.

If we wanted to do a 5-week playthrough, I would suggest one week for each section, except combining the last two (Stockyard Return / Rupture II). If we wanted to do a 4-week playthrough, we could in addition combine the first two (Rupture 1 / Stockyard+Monsaic). Preferences? How busy do people feel right now? (4 weeks would end on November 30, 5 weeks on December 7.)

Also, Paramonia and Scrabania can apparently be done in either order. Do we want to agree on one order, or do we want to explicitly try to have some of us do one first and some do the other first?

Thoughts?

Forum: Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee