Game Review: Dungeons and Deadlines (2020, Miles Matrix)

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

Stressed out, you lose focus and injure yourself using a stapler. You die from an untreated sepsis, because you didn’t make time to see a doctor.

You lasted 3 days.

That was my fate the first time that I played Dungeons and Dragons, a work simulator that is all about the horror of having a job.

I was so angry about dying of sepsis, I decided to try again. This time, I said, I no stress. When the game asked if I wanted to work overtime, I said no. When the game asked if I would arrive early, ontime, or late, I picked late.

You get fired before the end of the probation period. Idiot.

You lasted 3 days.

Well, that didn’t work. I decided to try again. When you play Dungeons and Deadlines, the idea is to balance four ratings: stress, family, health, and esteem. Keep them balanced and I guess you’ll make it. Let one get too low or too high and you’ll lose your job or maybe your life. This time, I was determined to be neither too lazy nor too much of a workaholic. Instead, my goal was to just do an adequate job and keep everything balanced.

At first, my approach of showing up on time, doing the work, but spending the weekend with my family seemed to work well. I survived past the third day. On the 9th day, I was told this:

Elon Musk follows you back on Twitter. You’re so thrilled, you come too quickly when you have Sex with your spouse that night.

My family rating went down a little but my esteem rating went up. Figuring that I had figured this game out, I continued to play.

On Day 17, I was given the choice of pulling a “work card” or a “life card.” (This game not only simulates having a job but it also simulates playing a card game.) Since I was at work, I went the the work card. I made a mistake:

You finish your task faster than projected. Your supervisor is very happy with you. He also expects more from you now.

Up went my stress level.

You faint. All this stress has finally gotten to you. Your stomach ulcer bursts and you die. Ugh.

You lasted 18 days.

18 days! To win the game, you have to survive 62 days. Good luck with that. As for me, I’m going to keep trying.

Play Dungeons and Deadlines.

Music Video of the Day: Go Back Home Again by Andrew Gold (1977, directed by ????)

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

The 91st video to premiere on video was this performance clip for Andrew Gold’s Go Back Home Again. Previously, on that day, MTV also played the video for Gold’s deathless ditty, Thank You For Being A Friend.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977, directed by Don Taylor)

Posted on October 24, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

After the ship that he’s working on sinks, engineer Andrew Braddock (Michael York) washes up on an uncharted island. It’s a beautiful island but it quickly proves dangerous as another survivor of the sinking is killed by wild animals. The injured Braddock passes out and when he wakes up, he’s being cared for by a mysterious scientist named Moreau (Burt Lancaster).

Braddock discovers that the island is populated by creatures that are half-human and half-animal. Led by the Sayer of the Law (Richard Basehart), these creatures are the results of experiments conducted by Moreau and his assistant, Montgomery (Nigel Davenport). Moreau’s experiments are expected to obey Moreau’s laws. Should they fail, they will be taken to the House of Pain and punished. When Baddock objects to Moreau playing God, Moreau plots to reverse the experiment on Braddock and turn him into an animal. Even as he falls in love with a former cheetah (played by Barbara Carrera), Braddock realizes that he must escape the Island of Dr. Moeau.

This is the forgotten adaptation of H.G. Wells’s classic novel, as well as being the most faithful. The Island of Lost Souls, from 1932, is considered to be a classic. The third version, directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer, is a legendary disaster. This version, though, is usually overlooked. It’s also my favorite of the three but that might be because it was the first version that I ever saw. It’s a straight-forward version of H.G. Wells’s story of science gone mad with director Don Taylor not wasting any time getting the action started. Michael York, always an underrated actor, convincingly portrays Braddock’s outrage and his struggle to maintain his humanity after Moreau starts to experiment on him while Carrera is beautiful and mysterious as Maria. Probably the film’s biggest surprise is Burt Lancaster, who turns out to be ideally cast as Moreau. More subdued than either Charles Laughton or Marlon Brando, Lancaster plays Moreau as a brilliant but callous man who is too arrogant to realize that he’s become as much of an animal as those he claims to be perfecting. What makes Lancaster’s Moreau so disturbing is that he doesn’t have the excuse of being insane. Instead, he’s just too stubborn to admit that he’s potentially made a huge mistake.

It may be forgotten but this still the version of The Island of Dr, Moreau that I would recommend.

(Trailer courtesy of Classic Movie Reviews)

2021 Interactive Fiction Competition Reveiew: extraordinary_fandoms.exe (2021, Storysinger Presents)

Posted on October 24, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

extraordinary_fandoms.exe is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition. Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

This game is about a non binary teenager who gets on Discord, discovers a group of friends, and also discovers a love of coding while helping them design of wiki for their Japanese virtual idol group. Things take a serious turn when the teenager’s friend realize that the teenager is in an abusive situation. The friends come together to help them escape from their horrific home life.

This game is a tribute to the friendships that are made online and how they can change a life forever. It’s mostly made up of a combination of Discord chats and DMs and it carefully charts the path to discovering that the main character is being abused by their parents. Like many Twine games, it’s more of a short story than a traditional IF game. You do get options but mostly it’s just two different ways to phrase the same sentence. Do you say “hi” or do you say “hello?” I would have liked more choices but that’s not really what extraordinary_fandoms.exe is all about. Instead, it’s a celebration of friendship and changing lives and, as far as that’s concerned, it succeeds. Most importantly, if it’s help out anyone who is in a similar situation as the game’s main character, that’s all that really matters.

Play extraordinary_fandoms.exe.

Music Video of the Day: I Don’t Want To Know by Robin Lane and The Chartbusters (1980, directed by ????)

Posted on October 24, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

The 90th video to play on MTV was this energetic video from Robin Lane and the Chartbusters. From the the band’s two videos that aired on MTV on that date, it really seems like Robin Lane and the Chartbusters should be better know than they are. They rocked!

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

Red Planet Mars (1952, directed by Harry Horner)

Posted on October 23, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

Chris Cornyn (Peter Graves) and his wife, Linda (Andrea King) are two scientists who have spent the years since World War II listening to transmissions from Mars. The technology that they use was developed by a scientist who may have been a Nazi but the Cornyns feels that the greater good of learning about Mars outweighs the problematic background of their equipment.

One day, the transmitters pick up a message from Mars, announcing that Mars is a Socialist paradise where there is no fear of nuclear war. The Soviets are gleeful because they think the Martian messages will lead to the collapse of NATO. But then the Martians start sending out religious messages, which lead to riots in the USSR and Eastern Europe.

Are the Martians really contacting Earth? Is God really transmitting a message from Mars? Or is a more sinister figure responsible?

Red Planet Mars is one of those films that only could have been made at the height of the Cold War. Despite the title, the film is decidedly Earth-bound and full of stock footage of the nations of the world reacting to the Martians. The main theme is that, Martians or not, nothing is more important than protecting the American way of life. even if that means sacrificing your own life and misleading the world. Even if it is now impossible to listen to his dialogue without thinking about the “Do you like movies about gladiators?” conversations from Airplane!, Peter Graves was the perfect, no-nonsense messenger. An artifact of a different time, the movie’s greatest strength is that it takes its ridiculous story seriously and even today, it leaves you wonder how we would react to messages from Mars. Hopefully, we would today be more skeptical. People in 1953 would believe anything.

Game Review: Taste of Fingers (2021, V Dobranov)

Posted on October 23, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

Taste of Fingers is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition. Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

You are in a city that you do not know, a stranger in a strange land. You are hiding behind the counter of a small cafe while, outside, the world comes to an end. Whether it’s due to a plague or just people finally being driven mad by the stress of every day life, going outside is not recommended. The cafe is your only sanctuary. Behind the counter, you experience memories of the way the world was in the days leading up to whatever has happened. When an intruder enters the cafe, it is time for action!

Like a lot of Twine games, Taste of Fingers is more of a short story with choices than an actual game. You really don’t have much control over how the game progresses or how it ends. The main choice you get to make is which memories to explore while you hid behind the counter. It’s not possible to explore every memory over the course of just one play through, which does give this game a high replay value. The descriptions of the cafe and the memories are vivid enough that you’ll want to explore them, even if it would have been nice to have had more options. Realistically, though, there aren’t that many options available when the world is ending around you. Taste of Fingers captures the feel of a world spinning out of control. It’s not a happy game but it does what it does well.

Play Taste of Fingers.

Music Video of the Day: So Long by Fischer Z (1980, directed by ????)

Posted on October 23, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

The 89th video to premiere on MTV was this rather cool video from Fischer Z. I don’t know much about the band but I can appreciate any video tht pays homage to a good detective movie.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

Spirits (1990, directed by Fred Olen Ray)

Posted on October 22, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

In this sex-filled take on The Haunting of Hill House, Robert Quarry leads a group of researchers to a haunted house. Amy Goldwyn (Brinke Stevens) is the smart psychic who knows the house isn’t safe but who still gets possessed by a demon and ends up hammering a nail through her palm. Beth (Kathrin Lautner) is the self-described “bitch” who has a lesbian past because this is a direct-to-video 90s film. Harry (Oliver Darrow) is the cocky womanizer who gets seduced by a succubus. The house is haunted by the spirit of a fallen priest and his demonic nuns. Only another priest, Father Anthony Vicci (Erik Estrada!), can save the researchers but that holy water that he’s carrying around is only going to work if he regains his faith and seeks forgiveness for his past sins.

As far as I know, Spirits is only available on VHS. So, if you do watch it, you’re going to need a VCR that works. Considering how easily an old VCR can break down and how it’s nearly impossible to get them repaired, you’re going to need to realize that Spirits could very well be the last tape you ever watch on the old machine. Do you want to take the risk? I took the risk and, for what it is, Spirits is not that bad. It’s a Fred Olen Ray films and it’s got Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer in it so you know what you’re going to get. Still, after I finished it, I realized that, if Spirits had been the last thing I ever watched on that old VCR, I would have been pissed. If my VCR is going to break, I’d rather it break while I was watching a tape full of hours of Must See TV from 1996.

Spirits has a few things to recommend it. Brinke Stevens was one of the best of the direct-to-video scream queens and she actually does give a “real” performance as Amy. The sight of Erik Estrada, playing a tortured a priest as if he was a character on a particularly racy telenovela, was certainly entertaining. Finally, there was Count Yorga himself, Robert Quarry, as the main ghost hunter. Otherwise, Spirits is a typical direct-to-video Fed Olen Ray film, with cheesy music, terrible special effects, and laughable dialogue. There’s a lot of nudity, of course but you can find the same amount of nudity in films that you can safely watch on DVD or Blu-ray. If you’re going to risk the VCR, the movie is going to need to have more to offer.

IF Comp Review: The Daughter (2021, Giovanni Rubino)

Posted on October 22, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

The Daughter is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition. Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

The time is the distant future. In a world where everyone is practically immortal, there’s been a death. A girl, who were told is the first daughter to have been born in thousands of year, has been found at the bottom of a cliff. Did she commit suicide or was she pushed? You take the role of Agura. You’re investigating but, because you live in utopia, you don’t have much experience investigating crimes. You listen to what the ancient ones used to call a podcast. The name of it is Serial.

This was a strange one. Like a lot of Twine-designed works of Interactive Fiction, it’s more of a short story with choices than an actual game. It’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. With the exception of choosing your prononus, the choices you make don’t make that much of a difference in the story’s that told. Clicking on a choice will often lead to a large bulk of writing, detailing the future world but not really moving the investigation forward. The game ends up abruptly without really seeming to come to a conclusion.

I suspect that the author’s intentions may have been satirical but it’s hard to say. I’m not sure what to make of The Daughter but I did appreciate the effort that it went to describe it’s futuristic society. I just wish there had been more for me, as the one in charge of interacting, to do in this work of interactive fiction.

Play The Daughter.