#playfirst

[wanderingwillowsarchive]

Hello and welcome to Wandering Willows Archive!

This is a sideblog of @torchickentacos where I'm archiving everything I can of the game Wandering Willows. It was released by Playfirst (a now defunct company) in 2009, with most people finding it through BigFishGames (also dead). While some physical copies (disks) of the game remain, they're very hard to come by- not to mention the lack of disk drives on modern computers render many copies of the game useless.

But just because the game is incredibly hard to find and has been for some time does not mean it's not worth archiving. This game i sincredibly nostalgic, witty, and fun, with a whimsical art style and a lovely OST. My goal here is to preserve that. I'll upload screenshots, music, and info about characters and such, and my goal is to create a fully-fledged archive and guide of everything in the game! From the craft recipes (some of whicha re food, for which I'll add actual recipes!) to sewing to everything in between, if it's in the game it'll be here. This is a longer term project, as this game is actually incredibly full of things, but I intend to preserve it the best I can!

[fictionz]

New Fiction 2024 - October

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo (1955)

Don’t read this book if you want happy endings. Do read this book if hope and loss are a part of the tragic miracle of existence.

El huésped by Guadalupe Nettel (2006)

The you that you are can sometimes be a certainty, but sometimes there’s a nagging possibility that you’re not just you, but a village of you, and there may come a time when another you decides you’ve had enough.

"Taxi" by Kousuke Oono (2017)

Real I Saw the Devil behavior.

Dr. Franken II dev. MotiveTime (1993)

At first glance it's a basic 2D platformer with some clunky controls, and it appears to repeat what the first game did. But then the game expands into a complex Metroid-esque adventure full of item hunting and backtracking. They don't always make it clear what the player needs to do next, and the manual points out that it's best to create a map, so perhaps that's the intended slightly frustrating experience. But I still found it to be an impressive effort with good visuals for a Game Boy game and enough meat on the bone to keep a player engaged for some time.

Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster dev. Amazing Media (1995)

I played it because it features Tim Curry, and there was certainly Tim Curry throughout the experience, but by the end I wish there had been more Tim Curry. I feel like there must be hours of cut footage because the game clearly gets cut short in various places as the devs decided they needed to wrap it up. Without Tim Curry, it's a Myst-like adventure with convoluted item hunting that leaves the player hunting for the one piece of paper containing a note that triggers the next story event, or fiddling with contraptions that have to be manipulated in very precise ways or they reset in frustrating ways. The saving grace is a save system that allows for infinite save scumming. Prepare for weeks of exploration with this one.

Escape from Frankenstein's Castle dev. PlayFirst & Spark Plug Games (2010)

It feels like a standard object hunt/adventure game on the surface, but it's not as demanding of the player in terms of finding objects in each room and plays like a first-person adventure game with some mini games sprinkled throughout. I like the mood it sets and though the cutscenes are simple they go a long way toward conveying the story.

The Wanderer: Frankenstein's Creature dev. La Belle Games (2019)

A singular work in the medium, and particularly as an adaptation of Mary Shelley's original story. The gameplay isn't as expansive but it serves the need of the beautiful narrative, art, and music that is expertly woven together. The few puzzles that appear throughout the experience aren't overly challenging and do reward the player's exploration of the environments. Just an overall amazing game and I'm so glad I played it.

Transformers One dir. Josh Cooley (2024)

There's no accounting for the disaffected.

Monster Summer dir. David Henrie (2024)

A classic tale of don't trust adults.

A Different Man dir. Aaron Schimberg (2024)

Satisfaction is the unattainable illusion.

All Hallow's Eve dir. Damien Leone (2013)

Stitching together bits and bobs into something grotesque.

Frankenstein vs. The Mummy dir. Damien Leone (2015)

You wait and wait and it doesn't really hit, does it?

Terrifier dir. Damien Leone (2016)

A series of unfortunate encounters with clowns.

Terrifier 3 dir. Damien Leone (2024)

The lore is so deep at this point. At least now I know what I'm getting into with these.

Allá en el Rancho Grande dir. Fernando de Fuentes (1949)

Making a go of the hard life.

Donde nacen los pobres dir. Agustín P. Delgado (1950)

If we can't understand each other, when does one side demolish the other?

La Hora Marcada - "Concierto Para Mano Izquierda" (1988)

The hand that cons.

La Hora Marcada - "El Hombre de Negro" (1988)

You did nothing wrong.

La Hora Marcada - "El Juramento" (1988)

You can just leave.

La Hora Marcada - "Un Viaje de Buena Voluntad" (1988)

They're not coming after you, they're coming with you.

La Hora Marcada - "La Visita" (1988)

The best of the bunch so far.

La Hora Marcada - "Larga Distanica: Hawaii" (1988)

Not my brother's keeper.

The Terror - Season 1 (2018)

They may not find you, but they'll never let you rest.

[kadokawaelectronicarts]

Kadokawa Electronic Arts media partners:

1. Rockstar Games

2. Electronic Arts

3. Playgendary

5. Elecbyte

6. Lockwood Publishing

7. Wayforward

8. ufotable

9. Studio Bones

10. Sergeant Keroro PlayFirst, Inc.

11. Disney Television Animation

12. ZagToon

13. Cartoon Network

14. Studio Trigger

15. YandereDev

16. Pixar Animation Studios

17. Ankama

18. Saito Productions

19. Bandai Namco Filmworks (Sunrise)

20. Playrix

21. Moonton

22. Zodiak Kids

23. Netflix

24. Spindlehorse Toons

25. TheSoul Publishing

26. Autumn Games

27. 505 Games

28. Walt Disney Animation Studios

[limbusleaks]

Discord? Give it to Me

SpongeBob SquarePants Diner Dash is a SpongeBob SquarePants arcade/computer game released on May 11, 2006, and was published by the San Francisco-based publisher PlayFirst. It was developed by Snap2play and is the SpongeBob version of the original Diner Dash game. As the player goes through the game, they will have to serve customers in the limited time they have. If the player fails to serve them in this limited time, they will have to leave.

[jvstcamp]

Justin Campoverde

Zoetrope 

My final project consists of a zoetrope powered by a dc motor using an h-bridge. It has a button that turns it on or off and to change directions, and it has a potentiometer to make it go faster and slower 

Parts 

Code

#include "SoftwareSerial.h"

SoftwareSerial mySerial(10, 11);

# define Start_Byte 0x7E

# define Version_Byte 0xFF

# define Command_Length 0x06

# define End_Byte 0xEF

# define Acknowledge 0x00 //Returns info with command 0x41 [0x01: info, 0x00: no info]

# define ACTIVATED LOW

int buttonNext = 2;

int buttonPause = 3;

int buttonPrevious = 4;

boolean isPlaying = false;

void setup () {

pinMode(buttonPause, INPUT);

digitalWrite(buttonPause,HIGH);

pinMode(buttonNext, INPUT);

digitalWrite(buttonNext,HIGH);

pinMode(buttonPrevious, INPUT);

digitalWrite(buttonPrevious,HIGH);

mySerial.begin (9600);

delay(1000);

playFirst();

isPlaying = true;

}

void loop () { 

 if (digitalRead(buttonPause) == ACTIVATED)

  {

    if(isPlaying)

    {

      pause();

      isPlaying = false;

    }else

    {

      isPlaying = true;

      play();

    }

  }

 if (digitalRead(buttonNext) == ACTIVATED)

  {

    if(isPlaying)

    {

      playNext();

    }

  }

   if (digitalRead(buttonPrevious) == ACTIVATED)

  {

    if(isPlaying)

    {

      playPrevious();

    }

  }

}

Alternate (that worked)

Code 

int motor=9;

void setup() {

  pinMode(motor, OUTPUT);

}

void loop() {

  digitalWrite(motor, HIGH);

}

[zooinformblog]

Компьютерную игру — симулятор зоомагазина выпустил Games Incubator

Новая игра — Pet Shop Simulator, разработанная польской компанией Games Incubator, предлагает пользователям стать владельцами зоомагазина. Игроки могут запустить торговое предприятие, обесп��чив широкий ассортимент товаров, хорошие условия содержания предлагаемым в торговой точке животным, а также пристраивая нуждающихся в новом доме собак и кошек. В игре можно потренироваться в составлении бизнес-плана зоомагазина, оценке и приобретении объектов недвижимости для развития торговли. Ранее этот же разработчик представил игру, в которой надо управлять приютом для животных. Игрок должен не только ухаживать за кошками и собаками, но и обеспечить финансирование, наладить уход за животными, их пристройство в семьи и т. д. Animal Shelter Simulator была доступна на консолях ПК и Xbox, а с 3 марта 2023 года игра появилась на PlayStation 4 и PlayStation 5. Разработчики игр нередко уделяют внимание зооиндустрии. Например, фирма PlayFirst предлагает Pet Shop Hop, в которой игрок должен управлять зоомагазином. Компания Upjers представила My Zoo, где необходимо создать зоопарк и руководить им, активно сотрудничая с другими игроками. Creative Mobile создала ZooCraft, также предлагающую побыть директором зоопарка, а Nintendo выпустила Animal Crossing – виртуальную ферму, на которой живут разные животные. Источник: Playground и Зооинформ Читать по теме: Компьютерная игра-симулятор приюта для животных Animal Shelter Simulator стала доступнее Виртуальные питомцы: коты появились в известной игре Skyrim В игре PUBG MOBILE героями стали пристраиваемые животные Read the full article

[apklooks]

King of Avalon Mod Apk

King of Avalon Mod Apk is a free-to-play, open-world, action RPG game developed and published by PlayFirst for iOS and Android devices

[zykatekb]

Boys Love - Series and Movies.

Love with Benefits

🏳‍🌈  BL - Thaïlande

Synopsis : Play et First, deux jeunes acteurs, doivent jouer un couple dans une nouvelle série.

Mais il y a un problème, Play et First ne s'entendent pas vraiment.

Pour que leurs rapports s'apaisent, ils sont contraints de vivre ensemble pendant 10 jours. Mais après plusieurs jours le résultat est la... 

Play et First sont toujours en difficulté malgré ce dispositif, la production décide alors de convier Pluto, un autre acteur plus populaire, afin d’essayer de détendre l’ambiance qui règne dans l’appartement.

Les trois acteurs vont donc devoir vivre sous le même toit pendant une dizaine de jours pour permettre à la production de voir et de choisir qui formera un couple à l'écran...

Fiche et lien de visionnage (Vostfr) sur mon blog => ICI

=> Au total la série compte 5 épisodes. <=

Un BL court (Trop court) mais l’histoire est assez sympa.

[hexalt]

What's the Latest?

Let’s talk about the Wadjet Eye Games Wizard of Oz film noir point and click, Emerald City Confidential; new releases like Emily is Away <3 and Life Is Strange: True Colors; and learn User Experience design from Disco Elysium.

[emritcheson]

The Rise and Fall of PlayFirst Inc.

In the early 2000s, quality options for casual games were limited.  You basically had Cubis, Bejeweled, Jewel Quest, and a few thousand Mahjong games.

But in 2004...or 2005, depending on which Wikipedia article you’re looking at, a little company known as PlayFirst Inc. published Diner Dash, effectively changing the world of casual gaming as we know it.

The original Diner Dash was actually developed by Gamelab, who before then had only done a lot of online LEGO games from the look of it, but PlayFirst quickly acquired the rights to the game after they realized they had the golden goose sitting right in their lap.

The story of Diner Dash begins with Flo, a young woman who is fed up with corporate bureaucracy and strikes out on her own to run a restaurant.  Which ends up as a whole chain of restaurants, each with a different theme.  Now, I use the term “story” loosely because all that really pertains to a story here are a couple of comic book-style screens at the beginning and end.  It’s all very standard “follow your dreams” stuff, but trust me, it wasn’t as cliché back then as it is today.

What’s really to talk about here, though, is the gameplay.  It’s deceptively simple, gets more challenging with each level, and - as any review of the game will tell you - it’s highly addictive.  You seat customers, take customers’ orders, bring customers food, customer leaves a nice fat tip, you clean the table.  Lather rinse repeat.  But!  Dining parties get larger and arrive faster as the game progresses, and they also come in more colors, which are matched to seats for bonus points.  But you also get perks that help you, such as complimentary drinks and a podium to entertain customers waiting to be seated.  All in all, it’s a perfect time waster game.  And even if you make it to the end, you still feel compelled to get the expert score on every level.  At least...that’s the way I feel.

After Diner Dash cemented itself as a classic, PlayFirst dedicated most of their lifetime to milking this cash cow for all it was worth.  The game itself received four official sequels: Restaurant Rescue, in which Flo helps her restaurateur friends revamp their kitchens and pay rent; Flo on the Go, with the added gimmick of getting to change Flo’s clothes after she loses her suitcase on vacation; Hometown Hero, in which Flo visits her Grandma Florence and - what else - helps to revamp the local restaurants to their former glory; and BOOM!, in which Flo’s Diner is flooded with so many customers that it literally explodes and the money you earn goes toward rebuilding it.  They also put out some more novelty titles like Seasonal Snack Pack and Flo Through Time, but these seem to be regarded as lesser installments.

(And did I mention the Spongebob version?)

But of course, one can’t mention Diner Dash without mentioning...the spin-offs.

In addition to the proper Diner Dash series, PlayFirst released several other “Dash” games following the same general formula, but set in different businesses with different protagonists.

The most successful of these was Wedding Dash, starring Flo’s friend Quinn who tries to make it as a wedding planner.  It was so successful that they actually made three sequels.

Then came Doggie Dash, Dairy Dash, Parking Dash...(that seems like an oxymoron).  All of which were fun in their own right, don’t get me wrong, but by no means lived up to the original.  And you can tell that not all spin-offs really had the same budget, especially when it came to art and animation.

There was also Cooking Dash (which if you ask me was just Diner Dash trying to be Delicious, but that’s an article for another day), DinerTown Detective Agency which served as the obligatory hidden object game, and DinerTown Tycoon.

Amazingly enough, though, the Dash empire was not PlayFirst’s only claim to fame.  They also worked on Chocolatier, a tycoon series in which you travel back in time to run a chocolate company, and the Dream Chronicles series, equal parts hidden object and puzzle that actually had a really good story set in a world of fairies.

PlayFirst also had some great little standalone games.  In 2006, they released Plantasia, a crazy time management-slash-puzzle game where you use magic to bring gardens back to life.

They actually made this in collaboration once again with Gamelab who, despite having effectively sold the rights to their own personal gold mine, actually weren’t doing too bad for themselves.  They ended up developing the first two Jojo’s Fashion Show games and the highly underrated Miss Management.

Then in 2009, PlayFirst collaborated with Wadjet Eye Games (one of my very favorite game developers) to make Emerald City Confidential, a point & click adventure set forty years after the events of The Wizard of Oz.  And while Wadjet Eye’s CEO Dave Gilbert expressed significant creative differences between the two companies (watch his game commentary on YouTube), I still think the final product is amazing.

And in the same year, if you can believe it, PlayFirst took all that Wadjet Eye had taught them and released Avenue Flo, a fully-voiced point & click adventure based on Flo and the other characters of DinerTown, complete with a singalong theme song!  And wouldn’t you know it, it even got a sequel.

Unfortunately, the Avenues Flo were pretty much the last good hurrah for PlayFirst.  They just kept stretching and stretching and stretching the spin-off thing as far as it could go and the magic just wasn’t there anymore.  They weren’t really adding anything of substance to their new games - only making them gimmickier.  The reason I loved Avenue Flo so much was because it gave me a slice-of-life view of the characters of DinerTown; actually let me talk to and learn about them, rather than just shuffling them through a diner or a fitness center or a freaking soap opera shoot.

(Don’t get me wrong, Soap Opera Dash is still rad.)

The other thing that really sent PlayFirst on the path downhill was that they became very diligent about porting their games to mobile.  At first, these ports were pretty successful.  I mean, duh.  Why wouldn’t they be.  You port Diner Dash to anything, it’s going to be successful.

(Except for...most things Diner Dash was ported to.)

They were so successful, in fact, that in 2012, PlayFirst officially announced that they would cease production of all computer games to focus their efforts on the mobile market.  Which means any games in progress were cancelled, which means we never got Dream Chronicles 6, and I’m still bitter about it.

Then...tragedy.

In 2014, PlayFirst Inc. was purchased by Glu Mobile.  (You know, the company that makes the Kim Kardashian game?  Yeah, those guys.)  Most of their titles understandably went on backlog and are now only available through third-party sellers.  Which, thank God, there are a lot of.

But Diner Dash, cash cow that it is, kept being developed for the modern audience.  Which means the game got way more complicated than it needed to be, with weird power ups, too many new restaurants, and Flo and her friends getting really, really ugly makeovers.

Like, is that supposed to be Grandma Florence?

And that’s about when Gordon Ramsay got involved and the dream well and truly died.

But no matter what the bloodsucking Glu cronies are trying to do to our beloved Flo, PlayFirst will always live on in memory as one of the giants of the casual gaming world.

[ollamhproductions]

There's always time to help two people find love... after destroying the possibility that is. What, can't a detective have a bit of fun?

[urcoachmelanie-blog]

Spending quality time with my daughter, without worrying about what else needs to be done.

[usagi-otome]

Love & Death: Bitten Sequel Petition

For those of you who played Love & Death: Bitten (2010) and would like to finally know what happened to Damon and Victoria, click here to sign a petition for PlayFirst to make a sequel. Unfortunately, it seems like PlayFirst has decided to move in a different direction since the release of this game and it can no longer be found on their site. Well, it doesn't hurt to dream! Note: This petition was not created by me; I'm simply passing it on

[amegaotaku]

Wanted to do a playthrough without the ads you get on Free Games.

[saltysculptress]

Mini-bust full of collar length necklaces. Headed for the online store this afternoon. But first! Water park with the kids! #playfirst #whileihavetheenergy #collar #necklace #natureinspired . . . . . #jewelry #jewelrycomponents #maker #mushrooms #bees #trees #sticksandstones #fancyjasper #jade

[usfourmustardseedfaith-blog]

Check out this  PlayFirst Play-All-Day Pack - PC