Desktop Adventures

A long time ago (a.k.a.1995), LucasArts published two ‘Desktop Adventures’. They were, basically, what you would call a casual game these days, so they fall into my review session for casual games I’ve played.

In 1995, the first of the two Desktop Adventures was published: “Indiana Jones’ Desktop Adventures”. The game featured Indiana Jones (who else?) and was set in the Mexican jungle in the 1930s. The game was based on a variety of puzzles and of tasks that were chosen randomly at the start of a new game. Indy would always start like this:

Then you go up to find your friend Marcus and get a mission, go off to find your whip, a map, another weapon and loads of objects. As the maps are always randomly generated, you will never play the same game twice, no matter how often you start over. But you will play the same mission again.

The player can resize the map (making the next map smaller for a shorter game or bigger for a longer one) and toggle the game speed and the difficulty level (which only interfere with the enemies, not with any puzzles). On modern computers I’ve found I need to slow the game down quite a bit, because otherwise I’ll never get any of those *#!**##! Nazi.

A bit later (the first game was still suited to run under Windows 3.1 – Windows 95’s predecessor), LucasArts published a second Desktop Adventure (and the last one): “Yoda Stories”. This time the main character was Luke Skywalker (as this was way before the prequels or the Clone Wars series) and every game started like this:

You go to find Yoda somewhere on Dagobah, get a mission from him, fly either (this was new) to a jungle, ice or desert world and have to solve puzzles on randomly generated maps again. There are a few additional things to the second game, though. After five games, Luke gets a new lightsaber (and he has it in his pocket from the very beginning, unlike Indy and his whip), after 10 games (I think) he gets to keep The Force (that’s an inventory item he has to find at the beginning of every mission otherwise) with him. There’s something else after 15 games, but I can’t remember what it is.

Unlike its predecessor, “Yoda Stories” needs a patch to run under Windows XP, but it will run fine then. As in “Indiana Jones”, you can choose from different map sizes and adjust the difficulty level. And you get a score after finishing a mission in both of those games. But in this game, you get to find weapons everywhere (usually you get them from defeated enemies, though) and can trade health packs, credits, junk (when you defeat a droid enemy, it’ll sometimes leave a heap of junk behind) and weapons for a random item that’s either a health pack or a weapon.

Both games can no longer be found at retailers, normally. I have bought “Yoda Stories” when it came out and got “Indiana Jones’ Desktop Adventure” on a CD bundle with a couple of older LucasArts adventures (including the first two Monkey Island games, the interesting and extraordinary Loom and my all-time favourite Day of the Tentacle) on a flea market for 50 cents (1 DM then). They’re still fun to play (after I lowered the game speed and found the patch online) and that says something.

So, if you’re a fan of either Star Wars or Indiana Jones and stumble upon those games on a flea market or garage sale, give them a try.

Wordl Art

I was a bit bored yesterday, so I went to the Wordl site and got one for every blog I have. This one is for this site:

Interesting collection of words, isn’t it?

Two delicious games

Over the weekend, I played some new casual games. Among them were the two last games of the “Delicious” series. And this post is about them, so it’s a review. I’m opening a new series of casual games reviews with this post, so stay tuned for more.

Game number four in the series – and game number one of the series I’ve played – is about Emily on her way to a TV studio. (Emily is the main character of all games in the series, as far as I’ve seen.)

Unfortunately, the trip to the studio ends at a no-parking sign and Emily has to get a job, so she can get her car towed to a garage and repaired. Betty’s diner is the first station for her and her friend Francois. (All in-game screenshots have been taken from the last level of the area and with all the upgrades already bought and in place, both for this game and the other.) And no, the guy at the lower left of the picture is not Elvis – it’s an Elvis impersonator who works as an entertainer at the diner.

The car got towed to Mo’s Garage for repairs, but until everything is done, Emily is working on the farm and restoring it to its former glory. She’s getting help from Mo’s new girlfriend and showing her the ropes in the last level.

Technically, Emily could just leave Snuggford now and head for the big city and the camera, but she’s too curious about the only candy shop in town closing, so she stays there for a while and helps the owner to keep it open.

Finally, the TV studio! But not everything that sparkles really is gold – Ludwig, the producer, surely isn’t. After serving customers in front of the camera, advertising a lot of products in the middle and realizing this isn’t what she wants, Emily…

…returns to Snuggford just in time to save the annual Town Fair.

Emily has found a home in Snuggford, but she’s still a single – very much to her mother’s dismay. For the holiday season, Emily has invited her family to visit her, so she goes to the hotel to organize the holiday dinner.

The Snuggford Hotel, though, has a new owner, Richard, who offers Emily a job and seems interested in her … but has to close down in order to renovate.

As the hotel gets renovated, Emily moves on the Christmas Fair in Snuggford to sell and serve all the nice Christmas treats.

Back at the renovated hotel, Richard and Emily get closer (but that guy in the picture is her friend Francois, not Richard) … until Richard’s feared father turns up: Ludwig (from the last game) in person.

Because his father disapproves of her, Richard basically dumps Emily who goes over to the skiing range to serve warm food to all the skiers and not-skiers. And to work with Paul, who also used to work in the hotel.

Mo’s Farm is the skating rink of Snuggford (though it’s probably not very comfy for the cow there). After Paul asked for her hand (after having known her for a couple of days, mind), Emily goes there to escape him for a while and think. Between serving the guests and treating their bruises when they slip on the ice, she also learns something about fun from her friend Francois.

What I like about these games (rather: what I like about these games far more than about the “Dash” games I’ve played in the past) is the whole game mechanism.

People arrive at the place (whichever one it is), come to the counter or sit at a free table and order their stuff. As I’ve never liked the seating in the “Diner Dash” series a lot, this is much more down my alley. You do not just take an order and hand it over to your cook, you actually have to gather and prepare (some things you just pick up, others you have to prepare fresh) all parts of the order and hand them over (either to the table or to the customer at the counter). Then they come to the cash register and pay. If they’ve been sitting at a table, you have to clear it before the next group comes in (usually, single customers buy at the counter while groups sit at a table).

In between customers you need to restock part of the products (some are there infinite, like most drinks, others not) or prepare new ones. Then there’s also the additional job in every level. These jobs range from walking a certain distance to repairing tables and talking to special people that appear in the area. (In the picture of the Town Fair level of “Emily’s Taste of Fame” above, you can see the crates with the fireworks Emily has to prepare before time runs out).

The games also offer trophies which, in the two games I’ve played, add to the ending sequence – fireworks. You gather trophies for a much bigger and more astonishing fireworks. To get the trophies you have to accomplish certain things in the game, like buying all upgrades for one area, serving a certain amount of people, finding all the mice (there’s one in every level) and so on. Some you get automatically (for instance the one for finishing the game), others you have to work very hard for. There’s also one mystery trophy in every game (you don’t get told in the trophies menu what to do to achieve them, you have to be inquisitive and find out yourself).

If you like TMs, you really should take a closer look at those games for yourself. But don’t expect them at Big Fish Games (where I usually get my games), they’re Gamehouse exclusive material.

Taste of Virtues

I hope this cute kitten finds the virtue soon – we all can live with less virtue.