I like the time limit. It creates a sense of urgency and a sense of earning a reward when you cure yourself of your maladies and you can proceed at your leisure. I like the moves based time limit instead of "finish before x day and every move counts as one hour" not knowing the exact time limit increases the tension. I know the devs put it in there because trial and error was part of the experience of games back then, but it does other things than just increase the difficulty. This was a cool game, but I wish they had done more world building to sell that it was set in 1941 than just a newspaper. They should have had references to the depression being in the past or Ace being a WW1 vet or something.
Absolutely loved this game as a young teen. I did use walkthrough hints to finish it. I wrote several short horror stories in middle school that took a few plot points from this game. Love the Zork references too.
Really enjoyed this one. Would you consider looking at 1978's Pirate Adventure? Really genre defining, got an important game review column in a software magazine named after it.
Oh yeah all the Scott Adams games were really foundational. It would be *interesting* to do a narrative review of those given the limitations of how much text could be presented.
Love the way you talk about games! I know you've said you prefer not having to talk through entire text adventures, but I'd really love to see more vids like the one on Lurking Horror. It's a nicher subject with a lot less content and I really appreciated all the cultural background on the setting.
there were non humans in subsequent ultima games, Gargoyles (winged ones and non winged ones), you could have some on your team even, and they're even featured in UO as a playable race.
I don't think I've ever read the manual for this game. I'm not even sure if this story is in the manual for the version of the game that I have. I went looking for my copy, but maybe I stored it in the NES box, because it's not with the rest of the NES games. In case you'd know of any differences in the versions, I've got the dual cart that has SMB and Duck Hunt.
Wow, I had no idea the main-line Mario games had a consistent cosmology. Of course it makes sense now that you bring it up. Your videos are always full of such great gems of insight that make me see the old games in a new way. Thank you!
And of course the terrible secret of the Mushroom Kingdom in this one: "The clouds and the bushes are the same." Also, we can't forget the efficient public transportation system implied to be running in the background, but usually only speedrunners care about that part of the world.
Neat. I like the idea of going through some more gameplay-focused games to get at what story or lore there is. Especially for ones where the narrative is carried in the manual, if it's lost or rented or bought used we may never have even seen it.
This was amazing. I love the question of ludonarrative. Like, Asteroids: why is our little fragile ship in an endless asteroid field, hopelessly blowing them up? Who is in the UFO attacking us and why? Ect ect…
