Jolt Country

I liked the parts that talked about specific games. I didn't really care about the speculations or the Bard's Tale discussions. Also, two years later, the sections devoted to 'the state of IF today' feel kind of dated. You should probably take a page out of the Don Rogers show and limit news reporting to stories that include shotguns.

Anyhow, when listening to it, I couldn't help but compare it to what I'd imagine an IF-devoted podcast would be like, so some of my complaints are a bit unfair in that respect (since that's not what the show sets out to be).

Still, I'm glad you guys did this, so thanks for putting that out there.

I don't know what got me to thinking or talking about the Bard's Tale Construction Set on a podcast dedicated to text adventures. I guess if something could have been cut, it could have been that.

There are a million games that you could dedicate a show to. I could see something like a book club, except for a game club, where people all played the same game and then got online to talk about it with one person throwing in facts and stuff about the game and leading the discussion.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to it, Roody. I really appreciate it!

Roody_Yogurt wrote:I liked the parts that talked about specific games. I didn't really care about the speculations or the Bard's Tale discussions.

Just out of curiosity, did you play The Bard's Tale when it came out or whatnot?

I had Bard's Tale II for the C64. I put enough time into it, sure, and even used the hints suggested in Shay Adam's Quest For Clues to get super rich and stuff, but I could never even beat the first dungeon, even with solution in hand.

My theory is that I felt like I was doing an adequate amount of grinding just because loading times took so damned long, but I really needed to do a fair bit more.

I also had a warezed copy of Bard's Tale III, but I got even less far in that. I'm not even sure if I found the first dungeon.

My friend had the first Bard's Tale for the Atari ST, so it was interesting to watch someone play something where actual <I>progress</i> was made. It was because of this experience that I thought New Haz in Fallacy of Dawn had a Skara Brae-like design.

Er, my point is, I'm cool with people talking about Bard's Tale most of the time, just not in a two hour podcast about something else.

Roody_Yogurt wrote:Er, my point is, I'm cool with people talking about Bard's Tale most of the time, just not in a two hour podcast about something else.

Oh, I agree with you completely -- I just wanted to make sure that I hadn't been quoting the thing for the last ten years, and the entire time you were thinking, "What an asshole; I've told him ten times I never played that game." =)

I just liked you two shooting the shit about games in general. Perhaps you should start a monthly retro podcast. Or yearly, even.


THE
WILL TAKE WHAT EVER
AARDVARK

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Oh, I agree with you completely -- I just wanted to make sure that I hadn't been quoting the thing for the last ten years, and the entire time you were thinking, "What an asshole; I've told him ten times I never played that game." =)

I've been meaning to comment on this. Despite playing enough of Bard's Tale II or watching Bards' Tale to have some sense of the appeal of playing those games, in the last handful of years, thinking back to the frustrations I faced with them has made my resentment increase.

There very well could be one that I missed, but in the games like that I've tried (the Bard's Tale games, Dragon Wars, etc.), the game never lives up to the strength of the interface. I mean, I think the way the screen is split up is great, and key commands for working with your party and doing things are well-clued.

On the other hand, these games totally dropped the ball on proper narrative. Several of them make you wander around just to find the first thing you're supposed to do. Difficulty-wise, they seem to be all aimed at the hardcore gamer.

If they had just made a game with a more moderate difficulty level and made a better effort at narrative, they might have accidentally made a great game.

I know that Wasteland is supposed to be the answer to all of this. One day, I guess I'll play past the rabid dog part in the beginning, but I just really hate explorations of morality like that.

I'd agree with that to an extent. A lot of the narrative of those games was included in the documentation and not included within the game itself. One of my biggest frustrations with playing a downloaded copy of Bard's Tale was not being able to find my way around Skara Brae. Imagine my surprise in discovering that the original came with a map!

The mistake I think developers of that time made was making the sequels "bigger" instead of "better". Bard's Tale (the original) consisted one one town and a few dungeons. Bard's Take II upped the bar to six cities and even more dungeons. In Bard's Tale III, they added alternative dimensions. I do think the stories got a little more involved as the series progressed, but the worlds became so sprawling that it seemed (to me) to lack continuity.

In Wasteland you can avoid killing the dog by pouring hot sauce on an oyster and then ... oops, wrong game.

Roody_Yogurt wrote:On the other hand, these games totally dropped the ball on proper narrative. Several of them make you wander around just to find the first thing you're supposed to do. Difficulty-wise, they seem to be all aimed at the hardcore gamer.

I agree with this. The story is like how John Carmack likes his stories in pornography: there, but not mattering.

But God, the addictive nature of games with that interface just end me. It ENDS my ability to accomplish anything else in life, Roody.

That being said, Bard's Tale III does not sound like fun in 2012. But I lost hours and hours to The Devil Whiskey and I lost hours (and plan on losing more, as soon as I take care of some things around here) to Wasteland.

I know that Wasteland is supposed to be the answer to all of this. One day, I guess I'll play past the rabid dog part in the beginning, but I just really hate explorations of morality like that.

I don't want anyone to imply that there is fantastic writing or a fantastic story to Wasteland. I'd describe the text as memorable and punchy. But it's not a masterpiece in that regard.

(And that's OK. They were all, what, 25 years younger when making it. It's fine! I expect better things out of Wasteland 2, though.)

Flack wrote:The mistake I think developers of that time made was making the sequels "bigger" instead of "better". Bard's Tale (the original) consisted one one town and a few dungeons. Bard's Take II upped the bar to six cities and even more dungeons. In Bard's Tale III, they added alternative dimensions. I do think the stories got a little more involved as the series progressed, but the worlds became so sprawling that it seemed (to me) to lack continuity.

They also really require the following out of the player:

1) It is the only game you purchased for that quarter. Maybe that entire year.

2) You know you have a long distance help line if you need it... but man, paying ten bucks an hour for a hint isn't the way to go. Money is used for hardware like modems and monitors. You'll press on.

3) You haven't spend every moment in every game for three decades grinding. A little grinding is OK.

4) You don't have a job, a girlfriend, any kids, any pets or any other kind of real responsibility. You are not engaged in other creative projects. You are not trying to learn how to swim.

5) The Internet isn't around to distract you.

Of course, we all know that. And I miss those times, a lot, and all the things I am trying to do with the Amiga is in the hopes of desperately re-reaching that time.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I lost hours and hours to The Devil Whiskey

Me too!

Oh.

You meant some computer game.

Bruce

Episode 116 is Online.

Episode 116 of You Don’t Know Flack tells the tale of Mr. Moonpie — who he was, and who he is. If you don’t know who Mr. Moonpie was … well, you’re probably lucky.

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Episode 117 is Online.

Going old school on this one, Episode 117 of You Don't Know Flack is all about copyfests, those disk-swapping parties we used to throw back in the day. In this episode you'll hear about my own experiences with copyfests, why we started having them, and why we stopped.

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Episode 118 is Online.

Episode 118 is about a new piece of hardware used to play old video and arcade games — the iCade. Yes, it was designed to work with Apple’s iPad, but did you know it works with Android tablets as well? In this episode of You Don’t Know Flack I give a complete review of the iCade, including a list of several games that are compatible with the iCade including iMAME!

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Episode 119 is Online.

Episode 119 is about Hohocon -- specifically Hohocon '94, the last Hohocon and the only one I attended. Hohocon was a hacker conference that ran for 5 years in a row, from 1990 to 1994. It was put on by dFx, the Cult of the Dead Cow, and Phrack Magazine.

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Episode 120 is Online.

Episode 120 of You Don’t Know Flack is about radio scanners, those little devices that allow you to eavesdrop on all the little conversations floating around us. In this episode I talk about my experiences with scanners and some of the things you can listen to with scanners. I also talk a little bit about how you can now listen to these frequencies using your computer and/or smartphone!

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Episode 121 is Online.

In Episode 121 of You Don’t Know Flack I talk about thrifting — this includes shopping at thrift stores, garage sales, antique malls and pawn shops. Throughout this episode I’ll tell you some of the best things I’ve found at these places along with some of the worst. I also talk a bit about what has replaced them (spoiler: online auctions).

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Episode 122 of You Don’t Know Flack covers the often requested topic of MAME Cabinets. In this episode I talk a little bit about what MAME is and a lot about the parts of a MAME cabinet and how to build your own.

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Episode 123 is Online.

Leaping from moderately mainstream to moderately obscure, this week’s episode of You Don’t Know Flack is dedicated to the CFFA 3000, a relatively new card that plugs into vintage Apple II computers and allows retro hobbyists to load virtual disk images and convert physical disks to virtual disk images (and back). I also coin the word “floppycentric” in this episode.

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