#clue 1985 inspired

[the-most-lamentable]

Hello fellow Mischief fans, I’ve written a magic goes wrong fic as I noticed a serious lack of them in the wild (I’ve only found one I think), hope you enjoy murder mystery comedies. (it’s a comedy I promise, don’t look at the tags, it’s super funny and not heavy at all (LIES IT WILL EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATE YOU))

Read it here!

[strawberrystainedd]

you just can’t fucking remake movies from the 70s and 80s you just can’t do it

[whatsintheboxmh]

Artwork for the Fic:

A Naked House @carlos-in-glasses

HAPPY BIRTH DAY CIG♡! You’re such a kind, incredibly talented gem of the fandom. Hope your day is as amazing as you are!

Lemon @lemonlyman-dotcom asked me to create some art for Cig’s birthday, inspired by her fic. Such a sweet gesture! I’m grateful you thought of me for this. Thanks a lot!

Note from Lemon🍋: Cig, I adore you and, as you know, A Naked Fic is my absolute favorite fic of yours! I had so much fun conspiring with May to make this incredible art for this delightful little story of yours. I hope you enjoy this and another prezzie coming later today also inspired by this fic 🥰 Thank you, May, for bringing this vision to life so gorgeously!! 💕

〔ref〕〔ref〕

I had no idea about Clue, so I watched the 1985 movie. It was so hilarious! I’m glad I understand why TK wants to be Miss Scarlet. haha!

Without Cig’s fic and Lemon’s request, I probably would have never seen it. Thank you!

[hardlyinteresting]

I've been thinking about Hotch playing poker / cards. Hes so competitive 😂 imagine having game nights with him

You're so right.

Hotch isn't the world's greatest poker player, but so long as Reid isn't in the game he can manage to hold a winning streak. Rossi invites him to a lot of his poker nights, but he rarely accepts, he prefers to spend his nights off with family. But, when he does get roped into evenings of whiskey, cigars, and card games that will surely hurt his wallet he admittedly enjoys himself. Plus, the satisfaction of taking money from Rossi is impossible to resist sometimes.

Aaron is too good at clue. While it's basically a game of probability, he's far too good at spotting patterns and two turns in he's figured out the mystery just based off of the cards in his hands, and the questions the other players have asked. He tries to be a good sport about it and hold back to let everyone else have fun, but he wins every time. (Side note: Aaron Hotchner is absolutely a fan of the 1985 film inspired by the board game. It's quirky and hilarious and camp. It gets him laughing every single time).

He's ruthless when he plays monopoly. He's got hotels built, and he's claiming rent on half of the board. He's a mastermind and it's fascinating to watch but it doesn't make it any less painful when you have to hand over stacks of colourful bills to him for landing on one of his properties. He also pouts every time he lands in jail or misses a turn.

Scrabble is fun. He's a nerd and not enough people take the time to notice that about him. He has a wide ranging vocabulary, but he takes more satisfaction in playing silly words than he does in spelling out big fancy words. Emily and JJ have definitely convinced him to start playing words with friends. When you find him glaring at his phone or his iPad on a Saturday afternoon there's a very good chance one of them just got a high word score. When the two of you play each other a glass of wine in your hand he's all smiles. He spells out I LOVE YOU with the pieces when you're getting ready to put the the board away for the night

No one on that team should be allowed to play uno. They played once at a gathering with a deck JJ brought from home. Never again. They can hunt serial killers, face trauma, and get held at gun point together, but none of them can play uno without spitting out threats or insults.

[foone]

My wife (@mrsfoone) is watching Clue (1985) again and it inspired me to look up clue on AO3. And while I'm disappointed there's only 112 fics, I do have to share one for being a great idea with an even greater title.

It's a Muppet version of the film, titled "It's Not Easy Being Mr. Green"

[thatthingilovewith]

hi!! i'm curious about the ballad of who and how? (fantastic name!!)

Thanks for the ask!

Ok, so the ballad of who and how? Is a whodunit inspired by the 1985 Clue movie.

"When Detective Baird and Officer Digg's car breaks down outside the infamous Snow Manor during a storm, the last thing they expected to find was a deadly dinner party inside. Coriolanus Snow is dead and with tensions among those in attendance rising he may not be the only one by the end of the night. With lives on the line its up to them to figure out if the killer lies among the Capitol guests or District staff. When everyone has a motive the only questions remaining are who and how?"

Starring

Lucy Gray Baird & Jessup Diggs as the Police

Coriolanus Snow as his own corpse

Marcus as Mr. "Boddy" the butler

Sejanus Plinth as Wadsworth

Felix Ravinstill as Professor Plum

Festus Creed as Colonel Mustard

Hilarius Heavansbee as Mr. Green

Livia Cardew as Ms. Scarlett

Tigris Snow as Ms. Peacock

Arachne Crane as Mrs. White

Brandy as Yevette

& Reaper Ash as The Cook

*the roles they play in the film are inspired by these characters in the original

This AU will not have the same ending as the film as the film itself has multiple endings if you didn't know.

[myhauntedsalem]

The Unexplained Mystery of Granger

A young man, Granger Taylor was a mechanical genius that was self-taught. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade, however, at the age of only fourteen he built a one-cylinder automobile which is now on display the Duncan Forest Museum along with a steam locomotive that he hauled out of the woods and restored. At age seventeen he overhauled a bulldozer that no one else could repair. He built a replica of a World War II fighter plane that was snatched-up by a collector for $20,000.

Granger always wondered how Flying Saucer were powered. He built his own out of two satellite dishes, one top and one bottom, as an inspiration. His “flying saucer” became a home-away-from-home with couch, TV and a wood stove. He would often sleep in his “space craft”.

He later said he was in contact with extraterrestrials that were going to show him how their technology works. He told everyone he was going for a trip on an alien space ship. Then one night in November of 1980 he disappeared and left a note for his family. To this day, despite an RCMP investigation, he has never been found, nor have they found any possible clues as to his whereabouts.

The Granger Affair is certainly a great Canadian mystery. Surely a man of his obvious mechanical talents would not go unnoticed had he simply slipped away in the night. After a four year investigation authorities haven’t a single lead to where he might be.

The Granger Taylor Flying Saucer rests on stilts in the backyard of the Taylor home at Duncan on Vancouver Island. It is a mute memorial to its builder, young Granger Taylor.

“He built his spaceship out of two satellite receiving dishes and outfitted it with a television, a couch, and a wood-burning stove. He became obsessed with finding out how flying saucers were powered, spending hours sitting in the ship thinking and often sleeping there,” wrote Douglas Curran in his book: In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space (1985).

Then one November night in 1980 Granger Taylor simply disappeared.

He left behind a yard strewn with old tractors; machine engines, vintage automobiles, a bulldozer, as well as a note which read:

Dear Mother and Father, I have gone away to walk aboard an alien ship, as recurring dreams assured a 42 month interstellar voyage to explore the vast universe, then return. I am leaving behind all my possessions to you as I will no longer require the use of any. Please use the instructions in my will as a guide to help. Love, Granger.

The forty-two months were up in May 1984 and his parents, Jim and Grace Taylor, leave the back door unlocked in case their son shows up. But he never has.

Granger Taylor left school in the eighth grade and found work as a mechanic’s helper, showing a flair for repairing machinery. At the age of fourteen he built a one-cylinder car which is on display at the Duncan Forest Museum. He constructed a replica of a World War II fighter plane, and he left behind his silver-and-red flying saucer.

He told a friend a month before he disappeared that he was in mental contact with someone from another galaxy and that he was in receipt of an invitation to go on a trip through the Solar System.

“On the night that Granger disappeared, ” wrote Curran, ” a storm struck the central part of Vancouver Island. Hurricane winds were reported and electrical power was knocked out. Granger vanished, along with his blue pick-up truck.

“After four years of ‘exhaustive checks’ of hospital, passport, employment, and vehicle records, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have not uncovered a single clue as to the whereabouts of Granger Taylor. ‘I can hardly believe Granger’s off in a spaceship, ‘his father said. ‘But if there is a flying object out there, he’s the one to find it.’ ”

[rollercoasterwords]

hiiiiiii!! i don't have the brain to do or watch anything atm but i would LOVE some movie recs please 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

YAY ok assuming this is coming from the 80s movie post so. here r some of my favorite 80s movies:

ridiculous campy fun:

earth girls are easy (1988) - fucking LOVE this movie!!! such a fun time. horny aliens crash their spaceship on earth + get taken in by a human woman. also it's a musical comedy + the aliens are played by jeff goldblum jim carrey and damon wayans

hell comes to frogtown (1988) - also. obsessed w this one. post-apocalyptic world where society is a matriarchy + humans need 2 repopulate. protagonist is a Manly Man who has been discovered to have a Mega-High Sperm Count, making him a government asset so a sexy military doctor locks him up in a chastity cage 2 conserve his precious sperm. also there are mutated frog people + they kidnapped a bunch of ~fertile~ human women to keep as sex slaves so Manly Man needs 2 accompany sexy military doctor + sexy soldier to go rescue the ladies from Frogtown so he can fuck them <3 also his name is Sam Hell. hence. 'hell comes to frogtown'

clue (1985) - based on the board game!! murder mystery comedy w wacky characters + an ending that is oh-so-fun

weird dark fantasy:

the company of wolves (1984) - the movie that inspired my 80s movie post 2nite <3 creepy fairytale retelling of red riding hood w a bunch of stories-within-a-story so that it ends up feeling like some sort of fever dream matryoshka doll

labyrinth (1986) - one of my FAVORITE movies of all time!!!!! david bowie is a goblin king who kidnaps the protagonist's baby brother as a favor 2 her + then when she's like actually i want him back he's like ok solve my maze then <3

return to oz (1985) - sequel to 'the wizard of oz' that is like. 10 times darker + weirder + creepier + definitely scarred me + my twin when we watched it as children lol. dorothy won't stop talking abt oz so she's taken 2 a mental institution for electroshock therapy. queue dramatic storm + sudden return to oz except the city is in ruins + dorothy needs 2 save the day

horror:

aliens (1986) - sequel to alien (1979) which just missed the cutoff for making this list + i also recommend--but u don't NEED 2 watch it 2 watch this movie. outer space creature feature meets slasher survival horror. xenomorph i love u <3

the thing (1982) - another sci-fi alien horror but this time it follows a group of researchers in the arctic who encounter an alien that can change shape 2 look like any of them. queue paranoia. there's also a more modern remake of this movie if i'm not mistaken

day of the dead (1985) - probably romero's least well-known zombie movie lol but a fun one nonetheless! good if u like 80s movies + zombie movies which. i do <3

the shining (1980) - oooh artsy spooky hotel horror.....a classic to be honest....

animated:

the last unicorn (1982) - ANOTHER favorite movie of all time for me!!!! unicorn who lives in isolation in a forest overhears two humans talking about how there are no more unicorns in the world + is like what i can't be the only one left...so she sets out on an adventure 2 try and find out what happened 2 all the unicorns <3 another movie that scarred me as a child bc of how creepy + dark it was

nausicaa of the valley of the wind (1984) - studio ghibli <3 this is one of my fave ghibli films. post-apocalyptic wasteland where giant bugs roam the earth....amazing

castle in the sky (1986) - more ghibli! girl w mysterious magic necklace meets boy who is searching for castle in the sky. also they are being chased by pirates + creepy government agents. FUN

kiki's delivery service (1989) - aaaaand more ghibli. teenage witch sets out 2 make her way in the world + encounters existential dread <3

classics:

heathers (1988) - veronica decides that she's sick of her mean-girl popular friendgroup + at the same time meets Mysterious New Boy. when she complains 2 him abt her friends he starts killing them <3

the princess bride (1987) - based on the book (which i also recommend!!); i feel like everyone knows this movie but. basically fairytale-esque romance abt a girl named buttercup who falls in love w a farmboy named wesley but then wesley gets murdered by pirates...or so it seems....

ferris bueller's day off (1986) - teenagers decide 2 skip school + run amok in chicago. wahoo!!

[justforbooks]

Things you didn't know about board games

Many of us loving playing board games and people have been playing them for millennia. Here's some fun facts about this excellent pastime

1. We have been playing board games for millennia

Chess, checkers, backgammon and Go all have origins in the ancient world. King Tut was buried with multiple sets of an Egyptian game called senet. Hundreds of pieces of Greek pottery depict Ajax and Achilles hunched over a board in the midst of play. And the Ashanti people of Ghana are believed to have created a board game called wari, which you may know as the count-and-capture game mancala.

2. It wasn’t until the 19th century that board games began to be sold commercially

The first, The Mansion of Happiness, came out in England in 1800. The “mansion” was heaven, and players raced to get there. Decades later, an American named Milton Bradley reworked— and rebranded—it as The Checkered Game of Life.

3. Ludo has roots in ancient India, where it was called pachisi

Pachisi is from the Hindi word for “twenty-five,” the highest possible outcome of a single throw. But whereas Americans only tweaked the name to Parcheesi, the British decided to call it Ludo (‘lew-doh), Latin for “I play.” So when Englishman Anthony E Pratt developed his murder-mystery board game in 1943, he called it Cluedo, playing on Ludo. (In some countries, it’s called Clue.)

4. Around the world, the colourful cast of Cluedo can look quite different

Professor Plum was originally called Dr Orange in Spain. Mr Green goes by Chef Lettuce in Chile. Mrs Peacock is Mrs Purple in Brazil and Mrs Periwinkle in France, and in Switzerland, she’s Captain Blue, a man.

5. Board games occasionally inspire screenwriters

There’s the 1985 mystery Clue, the 2012 action movie Battleship and the 2023 fantasy film Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves.

6. At least one board game is being adapted into a television show

The game's creator was a famous French filmmaker , Albert Lamorisse, who wrote and directed the 1956 Oscar-winner The Red Balloon, also created a board game he called La Conquête du Monde (Conquest of the World).

Parker Brothers, an American toy and game manufacturer, introduced it to the US soon after, and renamed it Risk.

7. Another game inventor, Alfred Butts, called his game a couple of other names before Scrabble

Butts first called his creation Lexiko, then Criss Cross Words, before settling on Scrabble—a word that means “to hold on to something.” The hugely popular game has been translated into 29 languages and more than 150 million sets have been sold around the world.

8. Over a game of Scrabble, Canadians Chris Haney and Scott Abbott came up with the idea for their game, Trivial Pursuit

Its success launched a years-long legal battle with an American encyclopedist who claimed Haney took trivia from his books, something Haney readily admitted to doing. In the end, the courts decided you can’t steal trivia and dismissed the suit. During the 1980s, Trivial Pursuit outsold even Monopoly, racking up $800 million in sales in 1984 alone.

9. At the highest levels of play, it’s not all fake money

The winner of the World Chess Tournament takes home up to 60 per cent of the €2 million purse, with the runner-up receiving the smaller share. Even the Monopoly world champion takes home real cash: US$20,580, the amount that comes in a standard Monopoly game.

10. Arguably the wrong person is credited with the creation of Monopoly

The American who sold Monopoly to Parker Brothers in the 1930s, Charles Darrow, often receives the credit for creating the game. But it was another American, Elizabeth Magie, who, decades earlier, earned a patent for her invention, The Landlord’s Game.

Players purchased railroads, paid rent and occasionally ended up in jail. Ironically, Magie’s aim with the game was to show the evils of accumulating wealth by bankrupting others.

11. Monopoly was a polarising game in communist countries

Fidel Castro banned it in Cuba, and it was also banned in China for much of the 20th century. But an even more dramatic bit of board game history occurred during the Second World War. Since prisoners of war in Germany were allowed board games, American troops hid maps, compasses and real money inside Monopoly sets to help them escape.

12. The idea for the kids’ classic game Candy Land came from Eleanor Abbott, an American polio patient

In 1949, Abbott wanted to create something for children to play in quarantine. In fact, illness has served as game inspiration many times. In the British mobile-app-turned-board game known as Plague, players take on the role of deadly diseases trying to mutate and spread across the world. Conversely, in Pandemic, created by an American, players try to contain the spread of diseases and discover cures.

13. Thousands of new games are released each year and there's annual awards for the best

How can you tell which ones are worth buying? One reliable indicator is the Spiel des Jahres (“Game of the Year” in German), a prestigious award given each summer by a jury of (mostly German) game critics who volunteer to play and vote for the winning games. Previous award recipients include Settlers of Catan, Dominion and Ticket to Ride. 

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[crowsfinal-thought]

Letters to my Beloved

I did say I’d be writing something soon :) it’s not IWITS, but I got a burst of inspiration. I won’t be divulging who these two lovers are, but there are little clues. Here’s the first letter

Read on AO3

December 15th, 1985, the year of the dark lord

Amore, it pains me to be so far from you, but this is a necessary sacrifice. Sister was too close to finding out, sending you away was the only way to keep you safe. My fratello has been appointed to Cardinal, it is only a matter of time until he takes my position as Papa. Hopefully by then we can finally be reunited. I’ve explained our situation to your pack, and while they miss you, they understand. Orion sends his regards, as well as your brother. I cannot wait to finally see you again.

The holder of your heart,

-S. E.

[spiders-hth-is-an-outlier]

Surprising absolutely no one, I have strong feelings about Grease, and the ditch I am most prepared to die in is that the Millennial Commentary Industrial Complex is fundamentally wrong about the end of the movie and it's mostly Disney's fault.

Oh, no, it's a bad message! It tells girls that they're responsible for changing themselves to suit a boyfriend! Danny should have told Sandy that it was okay to be herself, he should have loved her for who she was! Respectfully, this is the opinion of a fool. I love you, but it's fool talk.

I know that the Inspiring Message of every single piece of media for children made from like 1985 on was "you should be yourself." And that's fine! In some ways it's good. And I don't want to get too deep into whether or not it's good for teenagers to cling to a specific sense of Self and worry a lot about their personal style and mannerisms adequately showing the world their True Selves lest they betray Who They Are -- I think that's worth interrogating, but I also think a range of positions on that question are possible and probably even valuable.

But Grease is not a show about everyone finding and actualizing their Truest Most Distinctive Self. If it were, the main characters probably wouldn't all wear matching jackets the whole way through. Grease is a movie about how being cool is rad. The clue is in the title! Grease is the word -- the protagonists ("greasers") inhabit a subculture that's specifically contrasted to the nerdy earnestness of the poodle-skirted 50s mainstream. They are bad kids, they are burnouts, they regard "trying things" and "caring a lot" as nerd shit. They are also fucking fun. They look cool and they get laid and the show (produced in 1972) is not making the argument that it's acceptable to be a greaser if your soul so compels you, it's arguing that it's desirable.

Everybody gets an arc in Grease. Sandy falls in with these Bad Kids and discovers that she likes them, that they are good friends and that she has fun when she's with them. She interrogates the person she has been up until now and decides she doesn't really like that person, who is nervous and naive and acclimated to the uptight and judgmental parts of her society. The reason she quits dressing like Patty and starts dressing like Rizzo is that Rizzo is a better person to be like than Patty is. Grease is positing a vision of the 50s where conformity to the mainstream is a weakness, and Sandy discovering that the Bad Kids are objectively better -- braver, more honest, loving and loyal and fun -- is how she is liberated. She doesn't become a Pink Lady to please Danny, she evolves far enough that she's worthy of being a Pink Lady.

There is a character whose arc is to realize that he has to be his own individual, and it's Danny's. Danny steps out of the self-imposed box of the Alpha Greaser to actually try hard at something and admit he cares about someone. The movie gives him a kind of a Third Road, saying that he can absorb some of the better qualities of the jocks he disparages -- some of the earnestness, some of the achievement -- without having to stop being cool. Sandy already had those qualities, and she adds being cool to them once she gets over her fears.

In either case, you have to take it as a point of worldbuilding within the story that it is cool to be a greaser, not just for some people, but objectively cool. Particularly in the movie's directing choices, it does find some fondness for characters like Eugene and Patty, who are doubtless being themselves, but it's never going to argue that it's equally good to be Kenickie and Eugene, or Frenchie and Patty. Grease as a text definitely assumes that some of these people are more aspirational figures than the others.

I just feel strongly that if you come at it with the lens of "don't change for anyone else, be yourself," you are missing what is actually happening in the story. Danny does already love Sandy even when she's a hopeless dork, that's the starting point of the show. His story is about not being too afraid of what other people will think to admit that. Her story is about not being too afraid to let herself have the freedom her friends have. The narrative sense of the whole thing depends on both of them wanting a goal we want them to have -- not dating each other, that's a plot goal, but the story is in Danny letting love make him more vulnerable so he's a good enough partner for her, and Sandy stepping out of her shell to experience the freedom and joy that she's so attracted to in the people around her. No part of it is about getting Danny to like Sandy more; he doesn't like her more after her transformation, he already liked her the maximum amount before that.

It's about Sandy becoming better, and to grok the ending you have to understand that the show isn't defining better as "more like the Platonic Ideal of Sandy," it's outright saying that "Sandy but a Pink Lady" is better. As the audience you can agree or disagree about that, but the show stakes out that position and holds it consistently.

[reddie-ao3feed]

This is Getting Serious

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/7YHXszS by beartigerry The Monday before Halloween, Richie Tozier, fake 100% real psychic extraordinaire, receives a fancy invitation to a party in his honor. The catch? Richie isn’t exactly the most honorable person around. Immediately, Richie’s spidey senses psychic senses are tingling… activated(? Richie’s still working on the verbiage for this kind of profession). Something’s afoot. So, what else is he to do but go along with the letter completely? Richie is nothing if not committed to the bit, after all. Words: 8707, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Series: Part 1 of Richie, don't be the psychic in a comedic procedural crime drama. Fandoms: IT - Stephen King, IT (Movies - Muschietti) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: M/M Characters: Richie Tozier, Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough, Wentworth Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, Stanley Uris, Patty Uris Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier Additional Tags: Pre-Relationship, Halloween, Alternate Universe - Psych (TV), Inspired by Psych (TV), Bullying, Minor Character Death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Inspired by Clue (1985) read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/7YHXszS

[acquired-stardust]

Game Spotlight #2: Mother/Earthbound Beginnings (1989)

Inspired by the Japanese release of Mother 34 years ago this week, Ash gives one of her favorite games a (very long) feature on Acquired Stardust! Much has been made of its difficulty, though modern advancements in emulation including ROM hacks (in particular we recommend the excellent 25th Anniversary Edition) and a wonderful release as part of Nintendo Switch Online’s selection of classic game offerings have reduced this particular pain point (that may or may not exist in the first place!) and provide excellent entry points into one of 1989′s, and all of gaming’s, most enduring icons.

An eerie low synth is quickly met by a gentle sequence of piano keys as the phrases ‘produced by Nintendo’ and ‘presented by Shigesato Itoi’ appear across the screen. It is at once lonely and beautiful sound that matches with the logo containing a shot of Earth from space, and it sets the tone perfectly for what is to follow after being prompted to name several characters. A text scroll begins describing an unsettling story taking place in the early 1900s, 80 years before the events of the game, set in rural America, and it is here at this incredibly early point where it starts to become abundantly clear that this game is decidedly different than many other games of its time and platform. Indeed, a clue in the very first few seconds of the game practically call it out - we have a name prominently associated with this game.

It’s hard to imagine now, but video games were not always this way. Industry wide, credit was a rare thing for developers to receive and they often resorted to pseudonyms, the identities of which they allude to often being lost to time, and often were explicitly disallowed from being credited. In fact, two of the largest video game publishers today (namely Activision and Electronic Arts) were founded in part due to frustrations with companies such as Atari that, in an effort to reduce individual footprints on games and therefore make their talent less likely to be poached by rivals, did exactly that. Nintendo luminary Shigeru Miyamoto isn’t explicitly advertised in 1985′s Super Mario Bros. as being its creator either on the title screen or in a credits sequence at the end of the game, and even contemporary Nintendo Entertainment System role playing games of the time such as 1986′s Dragon Quest only features specific individual credits at the end of the game, and 1987′s Final Fantasy only credits the game to the company that produced it rather than any individuals in the creative process.

Mother, alternatively known as Earthbound Zero or Earthbound Beginnings in the west after its more famous namesake, 1995 Super Nintendo RPG Earthbound leads with something very much breaking in tradition of early eras of gaming in that it is explicitly, unavoidably from someone. An individual with a name. It is this that is especially striking to me before we even get to the surprisingly creepy opening text scrawl that sets up the backstory of Mother.

Born in November 1948, Shigesato Itoi is something of a renaissance man who became a bit of a celebrity in the incredibly unlikely position of copywriting, which is essentially another word for ‘advertising’, and one of the earlier examples of celebrity game developers in Japan that come to mind off the top of my head. Having created a number of famous ad slogans and campaigns including a 1982 anti-war ad featuring two armed soldiers standing opposite each other, beckoning their Prime Minister forward onto the front lines before them, Itoi’s ads often feature bold imagery contrasted with short phrases that manage to provoke vivid emotion in the viewer, and this maximizing of such little material makes two things abundantly clear: Itoi is not only an extremely effective communicator of ideas, but his specific skillset of utilizing images and sparse but provocative text is perfectly suited not only to video games but especially the world of NES role playing games which feature incredibly strict limitations, especially by today’s standards, though even by 1989 Japan had started to see more powerful systems such as Sega’s Mega Drive console having released a year prior. Befitting of its celebrity-via-advertising creator, Mother has one of the absolute coolest commercials I’ve ever seen with the slogan “no crying until the ending”.

Mother is a famously difficult game, for which I think it gets somewhat of an unfair reputation. While it does require copious amounts of grinding to increase one’s level and stats (as was standard for role playing games of the era and even for many years after) and see plenty of steep and extremely sudden curves in battle balance, there are no game overs in Mother. Upon defeat in battle the player will simply be returned to the last physical location at which they saved with all of their experience points acquired up to the point of defeat intact. There is no loss of items either, only a loss of money you currently have on you, which isn’t an especially big deal in part due to money not accruing in the player’s inventory by default (it is instead obtained from ATMs via a credit card at department stores) as well as the abilities protagonist Ninten unlocks through leveling up often being more useful and far less limited in use than purchasable items are. In this way there are shockingly few consequences for dying in Mother, with even many games decades later returning you to the title screen to load the data you last saved, with players who aren’t mindful of saving often being able to potentially lose hours of progress at a time. Just as well, grinding becomes significantly easier with the inclusion of additional party members and guest characters that enter the party occasionally. The only particular pain point of Mother is another common feature of role playing games of this era, where actions taken applying to an enemy who has died before said actions have occurred will miss as opposed to applying to the next enemy in the encounter.

Instead of traditional difficulty, Mother is a perfect example of games of its era in that it’s a perfect Nintendo Power game. Players are given very few directions and objectives, the world is extremely vast and dialogue with townspeople is often inane and not particularly helpful. It is very easy to become lost literally and figuratively, wondering where exactly you are in the game world (despite a rather useful map being built into the game from the start) or even what you’re meant to be doing, only to resort to a walkthrough and find out you were supposed to purchase a canary egg, hatch said canary who is described as having “sad eyes”, and return it to its mother somewhere. Suffice it to say Mother is a very cryptic game that takes the tone of a light parody of genre tropes and features a shockingly wide array of ways in which the player can interact with the world and events that can occur completely irrelevant to the actual story of the game to the point that I feel like you could make up a bizarre lie about something in the game as a playground rumor and someone would conceivably believe you no matter how outlandish it was. This is the sort of game that strongly encourages and rewards spending time with it. Getting lost in it. Having your own experience with it, and forming your own genuine connection with it.

It is exactly this sort of nature that makes the game stand out so much coming from an individual as opposed to a game designed by committee. Sometimes things just happen, such as a talking penguin questioning why he came to a gathering of monkeys in an underground maze, or catching a cold from a townsperson that must be cured at a hospital. Just as well the game contains a frankly shocking level of interesting and even emotionally gripping story content (much of which does come towards the end of the game). Mother is a game unavoidably art from an individual artist and everything in the game is included because it was specifically intended by its creator, and it’s this fact permeating the entire experience that makes it so attractive to people. Aside from the scenario and general happenings of the game, composers Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka provide what has my vote for the strongest soundtrack top to bottom on the entire platform, even being featured in a vocal album containing English lyrics that may be saccharine and cheesy but are also very genuine and vulnerable. Several of the songs have been used throughout the series and are easily recognizable to gamers who haven’t even ever touched the series.

A point of particular interest for me is all the similarities between Mother and Pokemon, with many people picking up on visual similarities between the final boss of Mother, Giegue, and Pokemon’s final optional battle in Mewtwo. Much of the structure of the game is also similar, with a young protagonist leaving his ostensibly single mother on a coming of age journey obviously inspired by 1986 film Stand By Me (itself based on an earlier story by Stephen King), which is also referenced pretty directly on a television set in the Pokemon protagonist’s house. Speaking of traveling, as mentioned before the world of Mother is indeed incredibly vast and much like Pokemon is both a contemporary setting (as opposed to a fantasy setting or a historical setting) and also traveled through almost completely seamlessly, whether it be on foot or by train. It is through this railway, the Paradise Line, that one can start to appreciate just how big the game world actually is. There’s even a sidequest in which Ninten must find an old man’s missing dentures, also featured in the first generation of Pokemon games. It’s an odd series of things that line up very well, and we’re not done there. Composer Hirokazu Tanaka actually ended up heading Creatures, Inc. which has worked in tandem with Gamefreak and The Pokemon Company on various aspects the Pokemon franchise since at least 1998, potentially even earlier. Just as well, Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri famously referring to Mother as “not very kind” in its design in an October, 1989 review, nearly 7 years before the Japanese release of the first wave of Pokemon games.

There is so much I could say about this game, and indeed so much I have already said, but the purpose of Acquired Stardust is less to give you the minute to minute plot points (particularly in story-based games, we would rather you experience these for yourself than spoil the experience for you ahead of time) and more so about giving you a recommendation. To that end I can only tell you that Mother has Acquired Stardust’s endorsement as well as my own personal endorsement. Despite its age it manages to feel shockingly modern in many ways, not the least of which due to its deep influence on the indie game scene in which ‘quirky RPG Earthbound-inspired RPG about depression’ has become a scene unto itself, and games like Yume Nikki which have made their own marks on the medium which in turn has spawned a scene unto itself.

Mother is one of the games that made gamers the world over think of game developers as artists first and foremost, a notion that largely is patently accepted in today’s scene. It features an incredible plot punching far above its weight especially in the latter half, likely the best top to bottom soundtrack on the NES, rewarding exploration, and much of the supposed difficulty is mere intimidation or remedied by emulation features such as savestates, ROM hacks, fast forwarding and rewinding. 

There are plenty of misconceptions and talking points ready to assure you that Mother isn’t a very good game and that Earthbound supersedes its predecessor entirely, but that’s a very western-centric viewpoint often born of a particular fusion of recency bias and nostalgia, given that predecessor Mother was never released outside of Japan and sequel Earthbound is the title most people who know the trilogy started with, and that sentiment I promise you simply isn’t true. Both games are different enough and well worth your time, as is 2006′s Mother 3. If you have even a passing interest in video games as an art form, Mother is a vitally important divergence point between ‘games as distraction’ and ‘games as art’, and an incredible milestone for the medium. It is something that changed the way we think about games and the way we interact with them, both directly and through the countless games it’s directly influenced. Just remember: no crying until the ending!

A gem hidden among the stones, Mother is unquestionably stardust.

--Ash

[cluedoteaser]

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐖 𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐂𝐇

Innocence is something that you forgot many years ago. The concept seems like a distant, sweet, sense memory, like recalling the birthday cake your mother made for you when you turned nine. When you pontificate about this to others, they murmur in agreement, lamenting the loss of their childlike wonder and sense of a just world. You don’t know how to tell them it’s far beyond that for you. Your childhood innocence departed so long ago, but you sacrificed a deeper, more dire sense of the word. One that would come into question in a court of law. The antonym of this innocence is not worldly, it is guilty.

You are guilty. You know that and you’ve been trying to hide it for years now. But someone found out faster than you could have imagined for how well you covered your tracks. An unmarked envelope landed below your mail slot one Sunday evening and detailed every last fact of your crime. In return for their silence, they demanded you pay them ten percent of your monthly salary. You could hardly afford it, but you could afford the truth getting out even less. So you agreed. And for the past year, you have been dropping cash at the locations assigned to you. Whoever your blackmailer is they are careful and professional. All of your attempts to track them down have been fruitless.

𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄, 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓,

Not only are you guilty, but you are also strange. It’s an affliction you’ve had since childhood and it’s only grown. Your supernatural abilities frightened even your parents and you learned quickly to keep quiet about what you can do. You know that if word got out about your psychic capabilities you’d be the victim of a witch hunt and you’d have far more to worry about than a single blackmailer. But you’ve slipped up more than once and the beast within you has crawled to the surface; fighting out of pure, beautiful instinct. Those moments saved your life but always threatened to ruin you as well. Still, you’re thankful, it’s a cruel and dangerous world and you’ve been given the upper hand in so many ways.

You would think that such abilities would help you to track down your blackmailer. But they seem to be immune to your abilities. You’ve only met a few other people in your life who have that same shroud around them which protects them from your powers. Every thought of them is cloudy, every attempt to pierce through the veil and locate their mind is unsuccessful, and every time you try to find them they are two steps ahead of you. You’re no fool, so your adversary must be some kind of genius.

𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐘 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐄

But what kind of anonymous genius invites their victim to a face to face dinner party? The usual letter arrived last Sunday night and you expected to open it to find the address of a new drop site, but instead it was a formal invitation to a dinner party that coming Saturday evening. It outlined the expectations: you are to arrive at six p.m., you are to dress for a black tie event, and you are to go by the alias assigned to you. Your alias is a simple single word: a color. Nondescript and vague, it suitably matches the anonymity of your host: Mr. Boddy. The invitation is an odd departure from the routine, but you know better than to refuse.

So on Saturday evening you dressed in your finest clothes and departed to seek the address written in the letter. Lightning cracked overhead as a steady onslaught of rain hammered your windshield; your headlights barely piercing through the Stygian evening murk. You do not know what this evening will hold but there is a prickle at the back of your next. Extra-sensory perception screams at you: DANGER! But it’s too late to turn back, you are already guilty, and your only option now is to dive deeper into the night.

– ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE  

CLUEDORPG is a 21+ murder mystery roleplay inspired by Clue (1985), House of Danger, and Stealing Shadows. Featuring a cast of eight criminals with psychic abilities who’ve been blackmailed for the past year the rp will follow the classic ‘dinner with an unknown host’ storyline, but with a twist. This is a writing-heavy roleplay, with some ttrpg mechanics. The rp will be mature and dark; focusing on themes of murder, morality, money, and desperation. The story is set in 1959, but will only represent the aesthetics and technology of the era.

UPDATE: MAIN HAS BEEN UNLOCKED @cluedorpg!

                                 TEASER BLOG  ✧ QUIZ

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

Today, on November 4th, 1985 - Queen Story!

"One Vision" / "Blurred Vision" released in the UK

👉 The idea of writing a song together came from Freddie Mercury.

👉 For One Vision, the band decided on a joint credit, which would become the norm from next album The Miracle onwards.

🔸Cover album

The artwork for the single features a portrait taken by famous photographer David Bailey backstage at Live Aid, while the accompanying video was filmed in September at Musicland studios while the band were working on the album there. Shot over a period of weeks, the video offers a rare insight into Queen at work in the studio and also enjoying free time.

Though it appeared six months ahead of the LP, in November 1985, 'One Vision' (coupled with the non-album instrumental piece Blurred Vision) was the first single issued from the album. Produced by Queen and Mack and recorded at Musicland in Germany, it was notably the first Queen single written jointly by the band. Inspired by their acclaimed performance at Live Aid several months earlier, universally regarded as their greatest concert triumph of all, Queen returned to the studio with renewed vigour to come up with this much loved track. The artwork for the single features a portrait taken by famous photographer David Bailey backstage at Live Aid.

(➡️ source queenonline.com)

🔸"Freddie was on the phone, and he wanted to go back into the studio and do some more recording. So, in the end, we went back into the studio, and we actually recorded another single. It was his idea, really, that we could go in and actually write a song together. In fact, I was late getting to the recording sessions because I was on holiday at the time, but it's credited as a Queen composition, but to be honest, I would say it was mainly Roger, Brian, and Freddie that did most of the writing for it."

- John Deacon

Interview 1985, Greatest Video Hits 2

🔸"The original words were actually about Martin Luther King, Jr., and now I haven't got a clue what it's about! Somebody said it was about Bob Geldof, but I don't think it is."

Interviewer: Do you know the meaning of the original set of lyrics?

Roger: "No, not anymore! Well, they changed my words!"

Interviewer: Who did?

Roger: "That rotter Freddie!"

- Roger Taylor - 1986

📸 Pic: Cover Album

[autisticempathydaemon]

Hi love! A few of my mutuals have put these beautifully done matchups on my dash and I figured I'd give it a whirl! Especially since despite being here for a while I don't really talk to the community members that much!

I'm gonna try to do as many of the questions as possible so warning for the LONG ask! What song are you fixated on at the moment? What lyric or verse, and why? Keeping You Around - Nothing But Thieves, specifically the chorus! Your lips want anyone else / Mine taste like everyone else Oh, that's a tragedy / Try not to pity myself You fall back into yourself / Oh, what a mess we're in I've got more hope of killin' war / Or seein' sound, ah-ah Than I've got of keepin' you around / Of keepin' you around, of keepin' you around Honestly this song reminds me of pre-confession Gavin and that grey area of the Freelancer's relationship with everyone else at that point during the cost.

Do you love gargantuan Youtube video essays, and if so, which is your favorite and why? Yes!!!! I love watching them with my long-distance partner while we do parallel play and stuff on video call. We tend to cycle between Nexpo who does video game/internet horror long video essays (my ABSOLUTE favorite is his cinematic movie that retells the story of Ben Drowns called Ben Drowns Again) and Speedrunning videos like Summoning Salt or SmallAnt

If you had to change your name, what would it be, and why? (In tandem, if you have changed your name, why did you pick that one?) I have changed my name many times! I have ultimately landed on a new first and middle name! Damien Agro, both are in some part inspired by the channel however they mean more to me than the original inspiration. Damien is probably one of my highest kins (i say that like he's not in fact my highest kin) and also the name is the first one to really FEEL like me, especially after I re-labled as a transman instead of nonbinary

What is your favorite of Redacted’s audios, and why? Damien and Huxley's Solstice Comfort. It was the first time Damien really opened up about the Inversion to Huxley in a video as Damien and Huxley's after shocks took place on different days and Damien's was during Huxley's trip back home. I think it was a really important moment for the two of them and hearing it is a little to close to home sometimes.

What Redacted boy holds no appeal to you, and why? Like, not the one you hate but the one who you don’t get the hype for. (I won’t judge, I promise.) Sam, and I think its partially because I was there for his original introduction during the Bright Eyes series, in which he was not the person that Darlin' fell for. I know Erik had personal reasons for ending that series, but a part of me will always feel like it's because Darlin' would never had fallen for someone who said the things Sam had.

Tell me about that one book/movie/tv show you know all the words to. Clue (1985)!!! This movie has been my favorite ever since I was a little kid and I love it now. On days where I'm super overstimulated I really love going back to this movie cause it's familiar! My partner and I quote it on a daily basis

Which Redacted boy are you platonically attracted to? Like- forget dating, which dude do you want to be your best friend? I want to have the t-boy swag that Asher exudes and I want to be his best friend. We'd share transition tips and he can help me cut my hair.

Do you have a go-to thing you ramble about when you’re tired, and if so, what is it? (For example, my boyfriend knows I’m ready to sleep when I start talking about space.) PLANES PLANES ITS EITHER PLANES OR MARINE LIFE I WILL RAMBLE ABOUT SHARKS OR PLANES OR STINGRAYS OR ANYTHING OCEAN OR AIR RELATED

Tell me your go-to gas station and drink combo. Dr. Pepper (I quit energy drinks 2 WHOLE YEARS ago) or Cheerwine, and probably an Almond Joy or a mini Ice Cream

Tell me about your favorite playlist at the moment.  My Dasher playlist and my Damien and Huxley playlist ;w; those lil guys mean so much to me

What’s your guilty pleasure media, and why? Longplays with no commentary, I love video game ambience and I will just put on like a full playthrough of Five Nights at Freddy's just to hear the noises.

And whatever else you think tells me about who you are! I think I've told you a good amount that calls for more questions if you have them! But thank you so much for having this little game going! -Damien

Ooh, an opportunity to pontificate about one of my favorite ships. I know we all love HuxDami, lord knows I do, but if I’ve got a Damien kinnie on my hands, I’ve got to let you know how sweet you’d be with Gavin.

First things first, we love a t4t couple. I think it’s super cute, and it can be so lovely to share a life with someone who has firsthand experience with what you’re going through. That said, I am so incredibly passionate about Gavin and his choosing of his own name and refusal to change how he looks to please anyone as a trans allegory. Thus, a gorgeous t4t couple who has all the transition tips for each other and would have the best thrift-shopping trips for the best fits. It can be so fun but also so harrowing to shop for clothes that feel gender-affirming while also looking good, and I think Gavin would be an absolute master of that, like having your own personal stylist who you also get to kiss.

Second things second, I think y’all could have a really cute, sweet, domestic life together. We get the idea that Gavin drifted a lot before he found a reason to settle into Dahlia, so I think there’s nothing he’d love more than staying home and binging Nexpo videos. I can imagine lots of chill, cozy nights in with him distracting you both while cooking, lazing about the couch in casual, unsexy underwear, him stealing your Cheerwine because he’d never tried it before he met you and he’s addicted to it now.

Song:

You're sitting on the chair/ Wrapped inside a bedsheet/ Playing with your hair/ Watching people on the high street/ If I wished myself a superpower/ I would make this moment last for hours/ If I had my will, time would just stand still/ Wait for me until I find some magic film/ To take a photograph and live inside

One, we love Cody Fry. What a darling. Two, I love how this encapsulated those cozy, loving, domestic nights that I was telling you about. A bittersweet three, this works especially well with Gavin or any of the other d(a)emons who know they won’t have forever with their human lives and would want this, want to preserve those moments as best as possible.

Runner-ups:

Camelopardalis would be a sweet runner-up, because I think he’d really like your vibes. I can see you infodumping about the ocean or watching your long gameplay videos being both relaxing but also fulfilling for him. Lasko, I love as a runner-up because his story also strikes me as a trans allegory and I think you could be a good influence in getting him to quit caffeine. Bless his heart, that boy does not need it.

note: again congratulations on yours and Pickle’s engagement 💕

Read this post and send me an ask if you’d like a match-up of your own! 💌