TGOD Game Challenge 2016

by Herr M. (02 Jan 2016)

Welcome to The Good Old Days' Game Challenge 2016!

If you are looking for some inspiration on what game to try next or wish to join some fellow gamers in a greater gaming experience, you have come to the right place. The aim of the game is to pick video games fulfilling the criteria found in the following list and finishing them for this challenge. Afterwards you come back here and share some thoughts about your experiences and tick off a point or two.

So, get ready and play a game:

set in a year ending with 16 (e.g. 2016, 1016, 2116, 1816, etc.)
found on this site picked at random
created before you were born
with a protagonist who has something in common with you
based on a different medium (e.g. book, movie, etc.)
with an infamous reputation
set (at least partially) in Australia
which tries to teach you something
made by someone you know in person
in a language you do not speak (without subtitles or any other kind of translation)
of Solitaire or Patience
on a system you never started up before
released this year
you started at least twice but never finished … until now
from the ‘adult’ section
taking up less than 100kB of disk space

The rules are as follows: Anyone can join in. You can pick a game for any item on the list any time you like. Each game you chose counts for only one point on the list, even if it would fit more of them. Try to get a proper impression of the game, just starting it up probably will not be enough. After you finish the game just let us know how it was like, either by posting a short summary on the forum (see the link bellow), or, even better, by writing a review for it. You win by ticking off all of the games. This will earn you a place in the hall of fame.

So start up your engines, let’s get playing and have a great gaming year 2016! And do not forget to join us in the forum.

Mr Creosote

A game set in a year ending in 16

A game I started at least twice, but never finished… until now

A game from the ‘adult' section

A game taking up less than 100kb of disk space

Ein Spiel, das in Australien spielt

Ein Spiel, das auf einem anderen Medium basiert

A game on a system I never started up before

A game with an infamous reputation

A game in a language you do not speak (without subtitles or any other kind of translation)

A game created before I was born

A game of Solitaire or Patience

A game with a protagonist who has something in common with me

A game released this year

A game which tries to teach me something

A game made by someone I know in person

A game found on this site picked at random

Moebius

Ein Spiel, das auf einem anderen Medium basiert

A game I started at least twice, but never finished… until now

A game from the ‘adult' section

A game created before you were born

A game taking up less than 100kb of disk space

A game with a protagonist who has something in common with me

A game with an infamous reputation

A game in a language you do not speak (without subtitles or any other kind of translation)

A game made by someone I know in person

LostInSpace

Ein Spiel, das auf einem anderen Medium basiert

Comments

Herr M.

Welcome to The Good Old Days' Game Challenge 2016!

For the exact details of the challenge, take a look at the
corresponding article.

Everything, from discussing possible candidates, commenting on certain games and choices, links to reviews, todo lists, etc. goes in here.

---

Willkommen zum The Good Old Days Spiele-Wettbewerb 2016!

Die genauen Details dazu bitte dem entsprechenden Artikel entnehmen.

Hier kann alles was damit zu tun hat gepostet werden. Wie beispielsweise Diskussionen zu möglichen Kandidaten, Kommentare zu den Spielen, Verweise zu dazugehörigen Rezensionen, Liste von erledigten Punkten, usw.

Moebius

Hm... interesting. Not sure yet which one i would like to play though.. so many options, yet nothing particular pops up

Perhaps i might give that Batman Forever another go... Something i've tried playing several times over, but always failed to finish. Would make a good review too. I guess i'm in...

Linki05

Hm.... Wie lange hat man denn Zeit diese Punkte abzuarbeiten?

Herr M.

Originally posted by Linki05 at 05:16 on January 4th, 2016:

Hm.... Wie lange hat man denn Zeit diese Punkte abzuarbeiten?

Da hatte ich den 31.12.2016 angedacht, da folgt nämlich die große Auswertung und Zusammenfassung.

Originally posted by Moebius at 17:31 on January 2nd, 2016:

I guess i'm in...

Great, I knew you would.

Mr Creosote

Originally posted by Herr M. at 21:32 on January 4th, 2016:

Originally posted by Linki05 at 05:16 on January 4th, 2016:

Hm.... Wie lange hat man denn Zeit diese Punkte abzuarbeiten?

Da hatte ich den 31.12.2016 angedacht, da folgt nämlich die große Auswertung und Zusammenfassung.

Was geschieht in der Zwischenzeit? Soll man nach erledigten Punkten jeweils einen Zwischenstatus geben? Oder auch sagen, was geplant oder in Arbeit ist?

Herr M.

Originally posted by Mr Creosote at 22:12 on January 4th, 2016:

Was geschieht in der Zwischenzeit? Soll man nach erledigten Punkten jeweils einen Zwischenstatus geben? Oder auch sagen, was geplant oder in Arbeit ist?

Ersteres sollte genügen (wenn die ersten Reviews eintreffen werde ich auch mal schauen die Zwischenergebnisse wo zu sammeln und zu posten, eventuell im ersten Post dieses Threads). Zweiteres macht die Sache allerdings eventuell spannender und ist vielleicht zur Inspiration nützlich (oder falls wer ein Diskussions-Review starten will).

Mr Creosote

Frage: Ist es akzeptabel, mehrere Punkte der Liste mit ein und dem selben Spiel abzudecken?

Herr M.

Originally posted by Mr Creosote at 09:10 on January 8th, 2016:

Frage: Ist es akzeptabel, mehrere Punkte der Liste mit ein und dem selben Spiel abzudecken?

Steht an und für sich in den Regeln: Nein, ich würde sagen, jedes Spiel kann nur für einen Punkt angerechnet werden (auch wenn es mehrere erfüllen sollte). Es müssen also tatsächlich 16 Spiele gespielt werden, was aber über ein Jahr verteilt aber durchaus machbar sein sollte.

Mr Creosote

Where does

Quote:

someone you know in person

begin? Met in person once? Acquaintance you see occasionally? Good friend you meet every week? Colleague you see every day at work? Life partner?

Mr Creosote

Three more questions:

Quote:

found on this site picked at random

What does this mean? I should use the "random game" link and just pick what I get? I assume it should be "use 'random' until a game not reviewed by myself appears"? Or are there any other means or "random selection"?

Quote:

you started at least twice but never finished … until now

Are you implying that the game needs to be finished this time around? It's not really clear.

Third, what kind of coverage do you expect for each game? Full review equivalent? Some small comments on the forum? A specifically written article per game focusing on the aspect it was selected for? Oh, and please don't say "it's in the text" – I'm asking how extensive the work should be (minimum) per game.

Herr M.

First things first: I tried to keep the points a bit vague, so have to be a bit creative on how to fulfil them.

But let's try to get into a bit more detail:

Originally posted by Mr Creosote at 08:31 on January 15th, 2016:

Where does

Quote:

someone you know in person

begin? Met in person once? Acquaintance you see occasionally? Good friend you meet every week? Colleague you see every day at work? Life partner?

At least an acquaintance. Someone you know by name and have met (in real life) more than once.

Originally posted by Mr Creosote at 10:22 on January 16th, 2016:

The exact method is up to you, the only criteria is, that there is a random element (no matter whether it's a roll of a die, dart throw, a random number generator or the actual random game link) and you stick with it.

Originally posted by Mr Creosote at 10:22 on January 16th, 2016:

Are you implying that the game needs to be finished this time around?

Yep, you have to make it all through to the end this time.

Originally posted by Mr Creosote at 10:22 on January 16th, 2016:

Third, what kind of coverage do you expect for each game?

Absolute minimum: 100 words plus a screenshot to prove that you played the game. Plus the text(s) should include the reason why you picked this game and somehow reflect your experience, so no copy&paste of a random blurb or only general description. Of course, the more the better.

Mr Creosote

My entry as a game set in a year ending in -16: Dawn Patrol.

My entry as a game I tried at least twice before, but never finished: Ancient Domains of Mystery.

Herr M.

Well, finally got round to it and picked a game: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver will be my 'tried twice but didn't finish it' attempt.

Let's start wit a bit of personal history: This one was part of a games collection I got sometime around the millennium. I have vague memories of having heard of it before that, but nothing stands out quite like that moment when me and my sisters watched the intro and started laughing at all the 'gothicness' and homoeroticism of it all. Yet it did have a nice atmosphere, very dark and moody and all that soul eating stuff sounded rather cool after all. And Re:Sounding: The voice acting was (and actually still is) top notch. Nevertheless I got bored after the first couple of areas, probably because there where lots of other games in said collection, which seemed a lot more promising.

Around a year passed until I gave it another try and played it a bit more serious and for a while longer. Still I did not get past that cathedral level, getting stuck in a room with pipes, having no clue how to move on. Well, that was back in the day when you did (or could) not look up all the solutions to each and every problem with you games on the Internet, so it was either hours of searching for the missing detail or giving up on it again. For reasons I cannot quite remember I decided to do the latter.

So here I am, about 15 years later, starting it up again. And I am actually quite surprised: For one the graphics held up really well (this being a game that is almost 20 years old, form an era where everything in 3d looked horribly blocky) and for two the English voice acting is horribly dull. Lucky me though: I found my copy of days of yore and with a bit of tinkering I have the overly dramatic German dub again. It pulls me right in and I am jumping, slashing and pushing my way right through the desolate wastes of Nosgoth… I even come to that cathedral again, determined to move on… I think I am covering new grounds, until the game crashes… and my last save was two hours ago, thanks to those stupid save points mechanisms.

But I will not give up.

Herr M.

Avoid repetition at all cost.
- Rule #3 from the 101 of Game Design

I didn't give up on Soul Reaver and by now it is starting to pay off. I have reached that sweet spot of the game where I have mastered the controls and gained enough of the powers to manage almost any thinkable situation. So I became a bit adventurous and started exploring, which really pays of in this game, since there are lots of hidden levels which you would not even know if you didn't do a bit of side tracking. Funny thing is, that some of those bonus levels are even better than the normal ones.

Speaking of which: There was one point where I almost gave up again. A sunken abbey which features lots of precision jumping. And missing a platform means dropping all the way down to the beginning of the level and doing all those jumps all over again. I must have done the earlier parts of this section about two dozen times until I finally got a grasp on the fly-jump controls.

SOME IMPORTANT HINTS:
-) If you want to glide over a chasm position your self in a straight line to your target and jump and glide without pressing anything else. So no running forward or trying to correct your course mid flight.
-) Don't forget that you can high jump and glide.
-) There are buttons for turning the camera, you just have to search for them in the config menu.
-) Don't use an analogue gamepad or joystick, because Raziel won't stop running. Use some kind of tool that binds certain keys to gamepad buttons/axes.

OK, I guess I am nearing the final section of the game, since there are only two of the about a dozen save points left. Actually it is kind of funny how fond I grew of the game after all those years of indifference.

Moebius

I think i'm gonna change that Batman Forever to Judge Dredd, seems a lot more attractive at this point.

Moebius

Heh, nailed it in 5 days. Soon to be reviewed.

Mr Creosote

Originally posted by Moebius at 12:58 on April 20th, 2016:

Heh, nailed it in 5 days. Soon to be reviewed.

If it's half as interesting as Herr M.'s diary, I'm definitely looking forward to it

Moebius

Now, a few more questions regarding the criteria for the game challenge.

Quote:

set in a year ending with 16 (e.g. 2016, 1016, 2116, 1816, etc.)

How do i actually find THAT? I still don't get it how you managed to fill it out and kill two birds with one stone while still contributing to flight theme. But the real question is: how did you find out the game is set in ..16? I don't know any games like that and even if i did i probably wouldn't recall the date they are set in.

Quote:

with an infamous reputation

Could you give me an example? Anything i can really think of falls under adult category for some reason. I could probably do Leisure Suit Larry 1, whose AGI version i never actually finished, but i do mind beranmuden who's quite a bit into Sierra's oldies, so i'm still open for any alternative.

Mr Creosote

Originally posted by Moebius at 17:13 on July 2nd, 2016:

Quote:

set in a year ending with 16 (e.g. 2016, 1016, 2116, 1816, etc.)

How do you find out? Well, for instance like this:

Moebius

Erm... sure, but i mean how do you know which game to pick in the first place. Now i will have to remember games which have passing time with annual change...

Mr Creosote

My strategy was to think what happened in the real world in those years and then, what could have been turned into the a game. E.g. 1816: Argentine independence war; Frankenstein published; King Shaka ascends to Zulu throne. 1716: Austrian-Ottoman war.

Moebius

Ah! Brilliant, thanks.