#macventure

[hardcore-gaming-101]

Beyond Shadowgate (2024)

While the ICOM MacVenture series may have begun on the Macintosh, it’s fair to say that most gamers experienced them through the NES ports. Shadowgate was the most popular of these, leading to a 2015 Remake and a 2021 VR spinoff. But 2024’s Beyond Shadowgate deepens the nostalgia, being a true sequel to the original NES game, done in the style of the original NES game. To create this game, Icom rightsholder Zojoi collaborated with indie team GrahfMetal Games, who created two point-and-click adventures based on the NES MacVentures, Spectacle and Infested.

Read more...

[krissiefox]

Games Starring The Grim Reaper

The other night Ashley and I were watching Ahriman play Vampire Survivors and got into a fun discussion were we tried to name as many games as we could think of that featured The Grim Reaper. I thought it would be fun to share the list we came up with! Full list below:

Castlevania

Conker's Bad Fur Day

Death Jr.

Discworld

Grim Fandango

Guitar Hero

Killing Floor

Manual Samuel

Shadowgate

The Sims 2

Vampire Survivor

[thefreecheese]

The Free Cheese Episode 581: Uninvited

This week on The Free Cheese, point and click. The car has crashed and we’re at a haunted house. Everything is black and white and—oh, that’s the nature of the Macintosh. In Uninvited, we’re finding the secrets in every corner of every room and learning the truth of sorcery trapped in the walls of this house. Will we find our brother and escape alive? Maybe. Eventually… Reviews Joe Uninvited…

[laurarolla]

My random game poll has four slightly spooky titles up for vote this time!

I have a decent number of horror-esque games, so I figured I'd put together a poll of some this time.

[ziperacethesentimentpuppet]

Does anypony Remember this Game?

It had been my Favorite Horror Game during my Foalhood :D

It's called....

I Love the Story and Graphics!

It was Inspired by the MacVenture games: Uninvited, Deja Vu, and Shadowgate

Warning: The game's universe is based on the My Little Pony cartoon show. If you don't approve of this decision, I'm sorry. Please understand that I'm doing this for fun.

Octavia Melody and Vinyl Scratch are an odd pair of friends. Their different backgrounds in life might make others believe that they don't like each others at all. However, on Nightmare Night, a holiday filled with treats and harmless spooks, these two will put their friendship to the ultimate test. Vinyl and Octavia find themselves trapped in a desolate house, thought to the location of rowdy party. The two are separated, leaving Octavia to face the horrors lurking inside the many rooms. She will need wits, cunning, and bravery to escape the cold hand of death, save her friend, and put a stop to a power-hungry necromancer for the sake of ponykind.

Here's the Link to the Original Website

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/ags-games-in-production/on-hold-octavia-and-the-underworld-s-cello/

I'm planning to play the game Myself when i have time.

[maximuswolf]

Who remembers Shadowgate?

Who remembers Shadowgate? I'm doing some research for my latest article, and man, it makes me wanna break out my NES just to play it again. Do you love it? Hate it? What about the other "Macventure" games, Deja Vu and Uninvited?Also, if you have recommendations for other (possibly more modern?) titles with that Shadowgate vibe, let me know! Submitted June 25, 2024 at 09:52AM by Timely_Juggernaut_69 https://ift.tt/u7MwVm8 via /r/gaming

[classic-games]

Ripple Island

Developer: Tokai    Publisher: Sunsoft    Release: 01/23/88   Genre: Adventure Kemco’s NES ports of the MacVenture point and click games sparked my love of adventure games. But while the pickings were slim for the NES in the West in Japan they were spoiled for choice. Thanks to the wonders of emulation and the fan translation community a whole new world of options are now available to fans of the…

[nickolashx]

Uninvited (1986)

Uninvited is a horror-themed point-and-click adventure game developed originally for the Macintosh by ICOM Simulations released in 1986 by Mindscape. The game uses the MacVenture engine. The player regains consciousness from a car crash in front of a large, old mansion. The player's sibling is gone, and the car is soon lost, as it bursts into flames. The only option is to enter the mansion looking for the lost sibling. It is not long before the player is greeted by the first undead dweller.

[mendelpalace]

From Beyond Prologue

About This Game: In the winter of 1910, professor Crawford Tillinghast mounted an expedition into the mountains of Europe. He went searching for a lost village shrouded in the myths and rumors of a bygone era. This is his story... 

A Point and click adventure horror game, presented to you with haunting Nintendo inspired graphics and sound. Featuring: 

8-bit NES era graphics and sound Classic Macventure style gameplay Larger than the original Shadowgate 

@saint-j92000 @lunaticobscurity

[ludicroussnipe]

I spent so many hours playing this game as a kid

[jaesonma]

We out here 🔥 #LA #venturecapital #vc #eastwestventures #macventures #watertowerventure #tenonetenventures #siliconbeach (at Beverly Hills, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/COjrebupJqD/?igshid=1uf9mkcr19a61

[kinsie]

Dash cams, eh?

[blastoisemonster]

Deja Vu I & II: The Casebooks Of Ace Harding

MacVenture point and click games have always intrigued me: I absolutely love old graphic adventures in general and since this genre is best played on PC, I’m mostly alternating between that and the Game Boy when playing favourite titles. So, when I saw not one, but two MacVentures released together on a GBC cartridge, I was immediately captured! And here it is: Deja Vu and its sequel, following the chronicles of hard-boiled detective Ace Harding, set between Chicago and Las Vegas during 1941.

The first installment got originally ported to NES in 1992, fully colourized in its 8-bit graphics, then in 1999 this collection got released for Nintendo’s colorful handheld. Comparing it to the NES version, this port holds up fantasticly! Enviroinment pictures are so nicely drawn perfectly conveying mystery or tension, and in particular instances, they’re very gritty and decadent yet still colorful and rich. Not many characters are shown (Ace is seen only through brief scenes), yet they’re appropriately portrayed as handsome or disturbing depending on their role. Its menu system is, instead, not very intuitive, although it’s a given that you’re supposed to take a look at the game’s manual first (which I didn’t get as this EBay listing was cartridge only); I instead checked a small guide to learn how it works, and while it does take a bit of practice, it becomes definitely easier to use after a while. Musics are also entertaining, and the story succeeds in capturing and intrigue the player, positively triggering their sense of exploration and logic. Most of the times I’ve also felt sympathy for the rather unlucky Ace, which turns out to be very amiable (this guy’s actual name is Theodore. Teddy Harding! Makes me wanna pinch his cheeks! x3).

It’s not a mystery point-and-click adventures are way better played on a console that provides keyboard and mouse instead of one with a few buttons, but at the same time, it is undoubtly impressive to see how the Game Boy Color handles such genres, especially if they’re looking, sounding and playing so good as this (or maybe I’m biased as I’m a huge sucker for detective stories and characters... hmm xP). A second MacVenture released for GBC, ShadowGate, is fantasy centered, while the last, Uninvited, is exclusive to computers/Famicom and famous for its very gorey and morbid imagery. I always confused the latter with Deja Vu, so I was expecting this game to be much more horror-centered.

[prokopetz]

My husband broke his left elbow yesterday and needs something to distract him, do you have any recommendations for games for the computer or any Playstation generation that can be played one handed? He especially likes horror, sci-fi/fantasy are good as well.

Yeeowch. I’d recommend staying away from games with any significant action elements if the injury’s that fresh – major arm injuries can play merry hell with your hand-eye coordination even if you’re using the non-injured arm. Point-and-click is going to have to be our UI of choice!

I’m afraid most of the point-and-click horror titles in my library are pretty retro, but if that’s not a deal-breaker, you could have a look at any of the following:

Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller - This one’s more of an investigative thriller – I’m stretching the brief so I can include more than one game with modern graphics, in case your husband isn’t a pixel art fan! It’s an episodic title about a police detective with the power of post-cognition (i.e., the ability to see the past) tracking down a series of serial killers.

From Beyond Prologue - A meticulously faithful retroclone of the old MacVenture games (e.g., Shadowrun, Uninvited, etc.) with an improved inventory UI and slightly less obtuse victory conditions. This one trades its inspirations’ Hammer Horror influences for a healthy dose of H P Lovecraft. As the title suggests, it’s only the first episode in a planned series, but it’s also only three bucks, so it’s hard to fault it for brevity.

Kathy Rain - A 1990s-era small town detective story about a journalism major returning home to investigate her grandfather’s mysterious death. The introduction of the horror elements is kind of a slow burn, but it’s worth the wait. Includes a free demo if you want to try before you buy.

The Room - A Myst-esque room-escape puzzler with a cosmic horror twist. That’s pretty much all there is to say about this one; if your husband likes Myst clones, he’ll probably like this one. Otherwise, maybe not so much! Part of a series, but it doesn’t much matter where you jump in – they all stand on their own pretty well.

The Rusty Lake Series - You’re probably thinking this looks like a repackaged Flash game, and, well, that’s exactly what it is, but it uses the medium to very good effect. Lotsa body horror. The series begins with Rusty Lake Hotel, but I’d recommend starting with Rusty Lake Roots (linked), then going back and playing Hotel if the backstory entices.

Unavowed - An adventuresome horror yarn about a protagonist who joins an occult-fighting secret society while on the run from the authorities due to atrocities they committed during a year-long demonic possession. Includes a limited ability to choose your own appearance and backstory, which is a novelty for the genre.

We Know the Devil - Let’s throw in a visual novel, just for the hell of it. This one’s about a trio of girls at a Christian summer camp who’ve been forced to participate in a bizarre ritual that culminates with fighting the literal Devil. Basically a choose-your-own-adventure novel in video game format; lots of reading to do, a variety of player-facing narrative decision points, not much gameplay as such.

The Witch’s Isle - A short horror-themed puzzler about a witch and a curse. The gimmick here is that you can have the camera follow various NPCs to see what they’re up to when they’re out of your sight, and the information you gain by doing so is necessary to solve several puzzles. There’s a time limit on each playthrough, mind, albeit not a harsh one; definitely give it a pass if timed puzzles irk.

[demonfox38]

Completed - StarTropics

So, whaddya think? Playable character, assist trophy, or back into the void of nostalgia?

A rarity among NES games, “StarTropics” was developed and released exclusively for western audiences (released in 1990 in the US and 1992 in PAL territories.) Set in a chain of tropical islands, it stars Mike Jones, all-American doofus. The adventuring teen sets out to rescue his uncle from monsters and aliens using little more than his wits and a yo-yo. Ya know. What you’d expect from a 1980s teen action-adventure movie.

The easiest game comparisons to make for this title is in reflection to Zelda games--specifically, “Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.” World navigation is laid out in a zoomed-out fashion, pulling in for dungeon navigation (which, in terms of layout, is more like the first Zelda game.) Like a typical Zelda game, your goals involve collecting weaponry (well, sports equipment, anyway) and health boosts in the shape of hearts to navigate and conquer dungeons. So, basically, Mike’s like an early-90s Link with a couple of significant flaws.

Namely, Mike plays like an amnesiac tank.

Mike’s response time is sluggish. It takes him a moment to get moving. Longer still, to pivot to a new direction. He also can’t do diagonals, but even that could have been compensated for if the dude could just get his giddy up. Everything outside of his yoyo gets dropped at the exit of a dungeon. So, burn what you’ve got because you won’t be able to keep it (especially potions.) Because of these characteristics, Mike is a frustrating person to play, especially when the game requires quick, precise platforming. I say he’s like a tank, but honestly, actual tanks on the NES can outperform him. (”Blaster Master”‘s Sophia the Third comes to mind, in particular.)

Coupled with Mike’s frustrating playstyle is the game’s difficulty and learning styles. Most NES game difficulty can be pinned on one of two elements—physics quirks and game designers being assholes. The former can result in awesome games with steep challenges—your “Ninja Gaiden”s, “Castlevania”s, “Super Mario Bros”s, and the battery of platform games that dominated the console. The latter results in shit like the “Dirty Harry” adaptation’s trap room or MacVenture/Sierra deaths, where you are punished for doing a bad thing that perhaps you didn’t know was bad at the time. Being the bold game that it is, “StarTropics” decides to have both!

Like, wonky physics, okay. I can learn wonky physics. However, it’s frustrating to have to deal with obstacles like being kicked from a dungeon because you took the wrong flight of stairs or finding the path of progression by pixel hunting or Mike drowning because he doesn’t have the foresight to learn how to swim before visiting a goddamn island. Some of the issues I had were due to my own putziness, but the game isn’t completely obtuse. At the very least, monster behavior is easy enough to learn and handle. Still, given how perfect you need to be to clear a map with any decent amount of health, you may find yourself repeating the same rooms over and over again.

The penalties for failure are exhausting.You might as well treat your first life as your last in this game because death will kick you back to a previous checkpoint with three hearts tops. Also, your weapon follows NES Zelda rules in terms of strength, so it’ll be at your weakest when you need to use it the most. That’s not even mentioning relying on potions that don’t fully restore your health at later levels, relying on random drops for health, and running into items that can steal your lives. Oh, and instakilling enemies, too! And saving is auto-controlled by the game! Because what loser needs control over that?

No judgment here if you want to use save states or reset your game on your first death. I mean, it’s humiliating how much save rotation I did on my NES Classic.  

Having said that, the greatest struggle I had with the game was in Chapter Three. If you make it past that chapter, you’ll have it in you to finish off the game. (Mostly, because you’ve become numb to failure and death by then.) While most chapters have one or two dungeons to challenge, Chapter Three has five. That’s a lot of shit to process, especially with a spike in difficulty. I suppose it’s that front-loaded because of the security lock that happens in Chapter Four, but yikes. That’ll scare the kids off way before the copy protection would.

Oh, yeah! You know about the copy protection for this game, right? You’re given the number on a piece of paper that was included with the game’s packaging that reveals the frequency 747hz, which is what your submarine and its navigational robot use to locate your uncle. To view that number, you’re supposed to dunk the letter in water. Yep! That’s something that’s going to survive the test of time! Wet paper! (Granted, you can still brute force your way out of this lock, but pour one out for the poor kids that started at 000.)

If this game is either a malevolent bastard or a frustrating putz, what’s the point in playing it?

For as twisted as its guts are, “StarTropics” does have a neat face. Its overworld sprite work isn’t the prettiest, but the dungeon sprites are big and colorful. (The hairline cracks and tiny pixel hints for secret places can be missed, but I’m chocking that more up the malevolent bastard design than any aesthetic flaw.) In particular, the game really shines when it pulls out its large character portraits and detailed ending artwork. No surprise this was made by the developing team for “Punch-Out!!”, with art like that.

You know, this game could have had a King Hippo fight.

The music for “StarTropics” is both cool and busted. It has a noticeable groove to it (particularly, the dungeon music, which thank God.) However, something is wrong with one of the channels in the overworld tune. Just let it sit for a minute, and you’ll hear the echoing channel either drag or drop out completely. It’s weird that this error exists, given it’s one of the first tunes you hear. However, the rest of the music is swinging and unique enough to forgive that oversight.

“StarTropics” also does its darnedest to hold its plot and themes, too. A lot of it feels like a Spielberg movie, especially with kids taking the lead, aliens running amok, and that whole Captain Bell subplot involving a giant pirate ship and an elaborate musical keyboard unlocking a dungeon. However, it is original in its progression and setting. It even tries a hand at humor, although it’s pretty juvenile. Like, appending the suffix -cola to every town’s name, finding creative uses for bananas, and getting magicked into looking like a girl to get through a town of Amazons. But, hey! Who doesn’t like a creative use for a banana, now and again?

While interesting as a twist in Nintendo’s publishing history, I would not recommend suffering over “StarTropics.” If you’re not the resilient type (or at least, not the kind that would throw your progress in the trash repeatedly just to do a task better), it may be for your benefit to just watch a long play of this game on YouTube. That way, you can enjoy the game’s aesthetics without suffering to its traps. However, if you have an incredible amount of patience (or skills specific to NES-Zelda games), you might have a decent chance with this game. There is something satisfying on working around this game’s bullshit, but it is entirely a masochistic feeling.

I doubt you’ll see Mike in a Smash game any time soon, but I do think he could steal Lucas’ lunch money and stuff him in a locker. Which, really, most Nintendo characters could.

[ryotaiku]

I finished some games this year and I thought I'd try writing about them

Digital Devil Saga 2 (and 1 but I played that last year)

When I played through DDS1&2 I don't think I actively enjoyed them all that much. But after I beat them I ended up writing a copypasta.

Hello do you have a moment to talk about the holy gospel Digital Devil Saga? The cult classic duology for Playstation 2 developed by Atlus and based on the flagship Megami Tensei franchise?

These games are fan-fucking-tastic. It uses the press-turn system from the mainline games, only it uses established party members with no demon fusion. It's the perfect stomping grounds to get used to Megaten difficulty without being overwhelmed. If you've only ever played Persona and want to experience the rest of the franchise, these are the best gateway drug.

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

I played this in 2019 before the remaster came out, then put it down for a while. Then I picked it up again after beating Persona 3&4 in 2020, aaand put it back down with the intention of going back to it. During by break from the game, this remaster got announced, and I decided to wait for that.

After the remaster came out, I beat it in a week.

Nocturne is hella rad, but it's also janky. But a good kind of janky. And also bad. Here's a list of jank:

Physical is objectively superior to magic. Not only does it keep scaling where magic doesn't (in fact it gets weaker if you level past 99), you can learn piercing skills to ignore physical resistances other than reflect. And even then some physical skills do almighty damage.

The mid-point of the game has a lot of backtracking, but old locations don't get new enemies. And since fusing low-levels with high-levels is inefficient, you're basically stagnated in power for a good chunk of that point. This is probably the only game I've played that'd benefit from encounter scaling.

Random encounters are absurd. You can get encounters within literal inches of each other back-to-back-to-back. I'm so glad the newer Megaten games just put enemies on the overworld.

Puzzle Boy

But otherwise the game was fun. I went for the True Demon Ending and had a good time.

Resident Evil Village

It was more Resident Evil 7, which is all I really wanted. If you just wanted Tall Lady you'll probably be disappointed that she's only in the first quarter of the game, but I got my fair share of what I wanted.

Deja Vu

This is a point & click adventure game originally released for Mac in the 80s. I played a ported re-release that also included the Apple II GS variant.

The MacVenture games are some of my favorites. They're probably most famous for the NES games, but I watched just about every Let's Play of each game that ever got posted to the internet. This was my first time beating Deja Vu myself, and I definitely wouldn't have done that if it wasn't burned into my skull. Now Deja Vu 2 is the only one I've yet to finish...

From Beyond: Prologue

An adventure game inspired by the MacVenture series. I played this because there's two MacVenture fan games called Infested and Spectacle that I enjoyed quite a bit, and I stumbled across this game while revisiting them.

It was... interesting. The game was short, probably beatable without a walkthrough. I had fun playing it at least, give it a try if you're into those kinds of games.

Halo 3, Reach, and 4

With Infinite coming out I decided to finish the Halo games I'd yet to play. I went through these with the Master Chief Collection, which I've heard mixed things about, but they didn't feel particularly off to play. (if you're curious, I played Halo 1&2 on Xbox; original hardware)

Halo 3's pretty great. I didn't like it as much as Halo 2 (hell I might need to talk about Halo 2 sometime that game was fantastic), but there were still some great awe-inspiring scenes, and it had a way better ending. It also has some great explosive weapons.

Halo Reach is the best one, for one and only one reason: Every single gun feels good to shoot. Halo games tend to be 50/50 in weapon quality, but somehow Reach manages to make everything a blast to use... except for the Needler. That thing is a lost cause.

Halo 4 wasn't as bad as everyone says it is. Promethean weapons are fun, sprint isn't all that intrusive, and I loved using the Mantis. The only thing I didn't really like was taking out the plasma rifle, and I'm especially pissed that Halo 5 and Infinite never brought it back. Goddammit 343 the pulse carbine isn't a fucking replacement!

I also played ODST but it was poop, so I didn't finish it.

Final Fantasy 1, 4, and 5

The Pixel Remasters came out, and I got a free $100 for getting vaccinated, so I bought Final Fantasy 1-6. I'll write a longer thought dump on these games on Taiku Reviews when I play and finish FF6 when that comes out, but here's my short thoughts on the ones I finished:

FF1 was good. Before this release I heard the PS1 was the closest to how it was on NES, but I think this is even closer now. It fixes all of its bugs (unfortunately including the peninsula of power) and I think also rebalances it a bit? But otherwise feels like OG FF1. Far as I'm aware the only difference between this and the PSP (not counting the bonus content) is whether magic uses spell slots or MP. So you can pick whichever system you prefer more.

FF4 is an excellent starting point to the series. It's the first one to start really feeling like a Final Fantasy game, and it does so with one of the most absurd plots I have ever seen to a JRPG. Besides that though it's not a bad game. Party is all fixed classes and hop in & out as you play, and apart from the magnet cave it's a fun ride to the end. There's also a 3D remake, but it's much harder and not quite the same game. I'd say play the Pixel Remaster first before jumping into that one.

FF5 is the best in the series. The job system is great, not feeling forced like it was in FF3, and encapsulates more Final Fantasy elements than any other game in the series (apart from maybe XIV). Its only negative is the endgame grind suuuuucks. Beating the final boss basically requires you to grind for something; be it chemist ingredients, raw levels, or just points in other jobs to increase your survivability against its attacks. Even worse is there's no one spot to grind both EXP and ABP, but I'm already saying too much. I'll talk more about FFV on Taiku Reviews, just sit tight till FF6 PR comes out.

Creeper World 4

This may be the single best RTS I've ever played. I call it an RTS, it's more like a hybrid of RTS and Tower Defense. Rather than fight another warring faction with similar skills, you instead fight an ever-encroaching biomass that slowly covers the map. The goal is territorial control rather than eradication, and it's one of the most engaging experiences I've ever had playing a video game.

It has 20 story missions (and a secret one!), 26 challenge missions, a mission generator, complete mod support, and thousands of custom community maps.

You can probably play this forever.

I probably will play this forever.

Phantasy Star 1

I wrote a longer post on Taiku Reviews about this game.

Tomb Raider

I picked this game up a couple times but only this year did I finish it. And man, it was a wild ride.

Despite it's age, the game is remarkably accessible. I played the PC port, which by default runs in DOSbox, but after tweaking it to run the Windows version it's a damn solid foundation. This game was made for 90s-era hardware and it runs natively on my gaming rig with parts as recent as 2019. And every Tomb Raider game up to Chronicles runs this well.

On top of that, it's also surprisingly understandable to play. It's basically a cinematic platformer (Another World, Oddworld, Flashback) but in 3D. That means rigid movements and baked animations, but there's an odd charm to games like that. The puzzles also aren't terribly out-there, and you could probably beat this without a walkthrough if you're observant enough.

Unfortunately the combat sucks ass, and there's way too much of it to overlook. But it's not horribly unbearable, so I'd still recommend the game if you can push through it.

My New Year's Resolution

I want to write about games more. After getting the Pixel Remasters I started writing my thoughts on each one in some Discord servers I'm in, and now I want to keep writing stuff like that. So starting next year I'm gonna make a note of every game I play this year, write reviews of the ones I finish (which I'll post on Taiku Reviews), and make a post like this at the end of the year for all the games I didn't complete. Maybe expand to movies and even music maybe? I dunno. I just want to write more.