Together Retro: FMV Frenzy

[ElkinFencer10]

I played through Corpse Killer on Sega CD 32X via emulator while some down time at work today. I'd played it on Saturn a couple years ago, but I hadn't played it on Sega CD 32X. I had messed around with it a bit yesterday playing with the light gun, but I actually finished it today. Verdict - campy shit that I can't help but enjoy in short bursts.

[Ack]

I played through Corpse Killer on Sega CD 32X via emulator while some down time at work today. I'd played it on Saturn a couple years ago, but I hadn't played it on Sega CD 32X. I had messed around with it a bit yesterday playing with the light gun, but I actually finished it today. Verdict - campy shit that I can't help but enjoy in short bursts.

Did you ever play the light gun arcade game Area 51? The zombies thing in Corpse Killer always makes me think of that, and I used to have a blast shooting aliens and zombies in the local mall.

[Exhuminator]

I stupidly bought that David Bowie "Jump" thing as well as The Residents "Freak Show" before realizing they were for Mac only and I'm a PC guy.

That's unfortunate. I'm not sure about Jump, but I know for sure that a Windows PC version of Freak Show exists.

Also, if you want more Residents FMV goodness:



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OK! I had success. By utilizing a virtual machine of Windows 98, in tandem with a separate emulated 2x CD drive, I have successfully gotten my next FMV game to run. Hopefully I'll have it beaten soonish.

[ElkinFencer10]

I played through Corpse Killer on Sega CD 32X via emulator while some down time at work today. I'd played it on Saturn a couple years ago, but I hadn't played it on Sega CD 32X. I had messed around with it a bit yesterday playing with the light gun, but I actually finished it today. Verdict - campy shit that I can't help but enjoy in short bursts.

Did you ever play the light gun arcade game Area 51? The zombies thing in Corpse Killer always makes me think of that, and I used to have a blast shooting aliens and zombies in the local mall.

Yeah man, I have Area 51 on Saturn. That's a GREAT game!

[Ack]

Please play it next, Elkin! I need to relive my arcade light gun days vicariously through you!

[ElkinFencer10]

Please play it next, Elkin! I need to relive my arcade light gun days vicariously through you!

Haha, I'm working on replaying Corpse Killer on Saturn (again through emulation; my limited gametime at home after work is going to be dedicated to SD Gundam G Generation Genesis), but I'll do Area 51 after that!

[Michi]

I have finished Phantasmagoria! Ack summed up my own thoughts pretty well over in the Games Beaten thread, but I did add a couple of my own thoughts.

Next up, I think I may play the sequel.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I have determined tonight that life is too short to play the same awful section of Mad Dog McCree over and over again. I hated that game in ‘90s, and I still hate it.

Onward to something else!

[Exhuminator]

I finished my fourth FMV game for this TR this morning. It's...



PYST for PC! PYST was developed by Peter Bergman, and published by Parroty Interactive in 1996. This game is a parody of MYST. (MYST is a rather obscure indie shareware title from the 1990s, I understand if you've never heard of it.) PYST tries to convey the aftermath of the lands of MYST, after millions of people have visited it (played it rather). So in short, the lands of MYST are decimated and trashed. And you get to tour them as they are now. And by tour, I do mean "tour". There's no puzzles to solve here. You just click from interactive scene to interactive scene, until you reach the last scene. PYST is less a game and more a multimedia slideshow. Which I guess is a parody in and of itself of the MYST's style of game design.



Gameplay consists of mocked up locations from the real MYST game. The player can click around the screen to interact with objects. Typically interacting with objects produces short "humorous" animations. Like for example, clicking on a seagull will make it poop. If the player clicks the top or bottom of the screen, unique postcards will display with "humorous" text. The bottom of the screen also has a speaker icon. Clicking on the speaker icon will initiate narration from two tour guides, a man and woman, who make "humorous" banter about the current location. Lastly clicking on the left or right sides of the screen changes locations. Here's a few screenshots I took from my own play of PYST:

PYST has a fair amount of live actor FMV. Clicking on a TV for example plays all sorts of FMV segments. But PYST is most famous for its involvement with John Goodman. As in the John Goodman, the famous actor-comedian. It's a testament to how popular both MYST and FMV was in 1996, that John Goodman chose to be involved with PYST. He plays as a king. A king sitting in a filthy bathtub in a crappy cabin. He talks to the player via a short "humorous" monologue.

Here's a screenshot:



Now you may have noticed I keep putting parenthesis around the word -humorous- when referring to PYST. That's because I found PYST to be about as funny as filing my taxes. The jokes and gags on display here are low grade to say the least. I think an eight year old boy might find PYST to be hilarious. For any adult with a refined sense of giggle whatsoever, the pervasive toilet humor in MYST is simply cringe-worthy. Thus if you remove any hope of laughing while playing PYST today, what are you left with? I'd say a very odd curiosity piece. A strange fragment from an era long past. PYST is a foul smelling time capsule from an age when FMV was all you needed to sell a computer application. That, and also from the zeitgeist of MYST. For a long time (maybe still?) MYST was the best selling computer title ever. PYST tried to capture some of MYST's success in its own moronic way. Honestly? It failed miserably. However, for those of us who couldn't stand MYST, playing PYST can be cathartic in its own trollish way.

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Well I wouldn't say PYST was worth the trouble it took to track down and emulate properly. But that's number 4 of 5 finished. So far for this TR I've beaten people up, watched young Japanese women get naked, listened to Dennis Miller tell jokes about Bill Clinton, and been inadvertently exposed to John Goodman's nipples. As exciting as all this has been, none of these experiences have yet convinced me that '90s FMV games are awesome. However, I still have one FMV game left in my little box. Maybe, just maybe, it will cause me to have a change of heart!

[Gunstar Green]

I had Microshaft Winblows by Parroty back in the day and it was roughly just as bad. There's also quite a bit of FMV in it.