nullPointer wrote:RIP Bernard. Gone too soon. You were supposed to be the smart one.
Aiight guys, so I've fired up another unexpected backup pick instead of a core game:
Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? I'd initially tried installing it in my Win95 VirtualBox virtual machine, but there were issues with the SoundBlaster capabilities and the game kept crashing. So, I installed it in DosBox via USB floppy drive with my original 3.5" disks instead, and it's working just fine.
First of all, every time I work with 3.5" floppies I'm struck by how incredibly satisfying the process is to me. It's like scratching an itch I didn't know I had. The solidness of the disks, that wonderful ker-CHUNK sound... these details underpinned most of my gradeschool life, and sometimes I forget that. These disks were somehow futuristic and mundane at the same time. Like video game cartridges, they struck that amazing balance between a fascinating technical achievement ("I can bring
how many term papers back and forth to school on this?!") and carelessness-fostering indestructibility ("Eh, I just chucked it in the bottom of my backpack next to my lunch, it'll be fine").
Second of all, this game came with so much cool swag. A lot of my experiences in today's gaming world have made me feel lucky if I get a manual that's more than an insert; in
Where in America's Past is Carmen Sandiego?, you not only get a manual, but one that is lovingly stylized in its entirety as a newspaper. You sit there and read it, unfolded, like a newspaper, with all the instructions cleverly laid out in article form. I mean, the effort and cleverness and care that went into this thing! But not only that, you also get dossiers of the V.I.L.E. henchmen in trading card form, complete with pictures and biographies filled to the brim with all manner of puns.
Anyway, I go off on tangents about manuals and pack-in reading materials a lot, but it really makes me sad that at some point companies decided to stop doing this. I'm not saying everyone should stylize their manual as some kind of ultra cool in-universe gimmick, but when I think back on how much joy I got out of reading booklets, I can't help but feel for kids today who could have potentially loved this stuff but missed that era.
I've solved one case so far and will be picking them off a lot in the coming days. This is a great game to get into while my husband is in the hardest part of recovery, because I can put it on hold at the drop of a hat at basically any time.
By the way, I've never once caught Carmen. This summer is gonna be it.
