Metroid: Zero Mission

I wonder what they would call a prequel?

Metroid: Zero Mission, the remake of the original game. Besides better graphics and enhanced music they added a little bit of story-telling via cutscenes and put up an extra challenge after the end of the original game. Also, better controls and a map system, the best improvement ever for the original.

Challenge in the old days was to start the map so it didn't went of the paper

Basically the story is that the space pirates lead by Mother Brain has taken newly discovered metroids and plan to use them as biological weapons so the federation sends out their best bounty hunter, Samus Aran to stop the plan. We also learns that Samus grew up on Zebes (as the planet is called) when she was being under the protection of the Chozo, a mythical and ancient birdlike race of aliens that have travelled all around the galaxy and furthered civilisations everywhere and left their mark, ruins and artefacts for others to find. If I remember my lore correctly Mother Brain is actually a "security computer" created by the Chozo that aligned itself with the space pirates and either killed or drove of the Chozos from Zebes. So you have a bit of a grudge against them, doesn't help that Ridley, the leader of the space pirates killed your parents so the Chozo had to take care of her. Oh, big spoiler, Samus is actually a girl. Maybe in 1986 that was considered huge, not so much today. Still, it could have shocked someone.

I found out by reading this comic, now Kevin is the Game Master right? So haven't he finished Metroid to get the secret ending or what's the deal?

So it is pretty straight-forward. I played it on the Wii U, but I bought the original release back in 2004 for the GBA. It wasn't the first time I tried to play the original game though since it was unlocked as a feature on the first Metroid Prime. It's also released here by playing through the game once so I can always try that. But playing that feels rather archaic. No map so you either memorise or download from the internet (who's so stupid to write your own? I mean, yeah it makes for a better experience and immersion in travelling the desolate corridors of this alien world, but come on), you don't start full heath and have to grind to get more of it. Same goes for missiles. But I've actually finished it old style... twice, all so I could get the ending screen with Samus without the suit.

She's a brunette?

Shannara (1995)

And who is this person?

Being a huge fantasy geek I came across the Shannara-series by Terry Brooks and found them really interesting. Much later I understod the controversies around the books as being clearly rewritten parts of Lord of the Rings, albeit simpler and still with rather interesting ideas hear and there and some books (like The Elfstones of Shannara) clearly steps out of the Lord of the Rings mold. I still liked the series and the more I read about it it became more interesting. For example, the world is set in an post-apocalyptic Earth were magic has come back, humans mutated to gnomes, dwarfs and trolls while old fey creatures like elves returned. Yet you can find old machines of our time. I know something similar appeared in Robert Jordans Wheel of Time, but Brookes wrote most of his book in the 70's and 80's. Why bring this up? Because I found an adventure game from 1995 that I just had to try by the name alone.

The setting is the generation between The Sword of Shannara and The Elfstone of Shannara, not actively putting something new in the mix and instead just be fanservice. Cause that is what is it biggest draws. If you read the books you will like the nods here and there together with a visual representation of the characters for the first time, like Alannon. Some can be quite jarring. Like whats the deal with Brona, the first big bad of the series?

Strange, you don't look like the guy on the cover!

That doesn't look like the deceitful spirit of an ancient druid who just didn't believe he couldn't die, more like every undead lord ever. It's not very challenging since the puzzles and riddles are fairly straight forward and the mandatory battles are few and rather automated. Together with a undo option if you die makes it rather easy. But of course I suck at these games so I got stuck in Arborlon trying to find the earth sign. And as usual it stares right at my face, pixel hunting on a dirty road.

Story-wise you are Shea Omhsfords son Jak that are fishing in the woods and suddenly attacked by a monster, saved by Allanon who sends you away. You meet Menion Leahs daughter and travel to the kingdom of Leah where Menion Leah's been poisoned by the gardener... and then he kills the healer forcing you to search for the herbs. Again, damn pixel hunting. Doesn't help that the guard let the gardener away outside even though they are surrounded by monsters. Then again, the murderer seems to be a shape shifter remarkably alike the chameleon demon in Elfstones. You save Leah, gets to Tyrsis who are overrun by the dead, you get the sword of Shannara which is broken so you set out to find one from each race and a magic item to fix it. You basically travels around all the places of importance from the series... a pity they don't have a map so I can easily find them while travelling on the road with monsters everywhere.

I'm travelling apparently

Now to the spoilers of the game, which is a rather common theme in the books. The death of main characters. Surprise surprise, Shella Leah, your first companion is also the first to bit the dust, saving you from the shapeshifter. What is rather unique is that the game forces you to kill her in order to not make Brona take her soul. You have to push a blade through her body and cast a spell over her. And even sadder is the other dialoges like "I can't kill you, I love you", "we can think of something" or "what if we use the elf stones to heal her". The last part causes a game over, thanks for that game. Then we have the fairly standard gauntlet of death. Each and everyone of your companions seems to die saving you. The troll stays behind fighting the armies of monster, as do Allannon and the dwarf. The elf actually dies while killing of the shapeshifter with the elf stones that disintegrate them both. And the gnome... well, he died while stealing some clearly cursed items and you basicly forced him to come so no tears lost there. And the ending of course turned into a Ni No Kuni situation where I hoped some unforeseen magic power would bring Shella back to life... but no. Probably for the better since I know Jak Ohmsford granddaughter end up with another Leah which might not be the best for genetic reason.

Lastly, while enjoying the game for it's fanservice I had some problem playing it. I used Boxer witch is a dosbox program and it runs the game, but either without sound or without voices. Both and the game doesn't start. Playing without sound is rather boring for the most part and the voices is needed for the cgi cutscenes which pushes the plot a bit, sadly I don't get it since there is no freaking subtitles in it's stead. If someone knows how to fix it I would be thrilled since the final confrontation with Brona is a bit anticlimatic when you don't know what he says.

By the way, this is Swedish cover of The Sword of Shannara my father own

This is from The Elfstones of Shannara

And this is Wishsong of Shannara, do you see something special in all those covers?

It's the same freaking cover they cut in three, good work swedish editors or whoever calls the shots for the covers. Well at least it was a cover from a Shannara bok and you could argue each cut of the cover fit the "hero" of each book, think if they put the girl at the Sword of Shannara HAHA....

Oh for the love of god!!!

The Journeyman Project - Pegasus Prime

I don't know if that is a scene from the game

So after a great deal to get the last game working I decided I've had enough with troublesome installs and such so I was mighty pleases that the remake of the first game was compatible with ScummVM and decided to check it out. And it worked like a dream, no delays and no audio glitches or crashes. So I started playing, came to the TSA and was noted for being late (I took my sweet time exploring and finding my keys) so I restarted to get the most point as fast as possible. I then noticed something peculiar. To access the inventory you need to press either clear or tilde... which don't exist on a Macbook air (not any portable Mac at all). So how would I solve this since the game is pretty much unplayable in that state. I try some remappable keyboard programs, non works. So in desperation I go to the attic to get our old iMac keyboard and plug it in. It works, but have no clear or tilde keys either, but a del button and I think I stumbled on a conversation that it also worked. Bloody hell it didn't. In desperation again I started pressing every single key and through luck one key responded with the correct action... the damn 7 key on the numerical pad. I can't access any easter eggs, but I could at least play the game.

Figuring out my keyboard is harder than defeating you, Poseidon!

Story is that you are Gage Blackwood, Agent 5 of the TSA and you are once again late to work. Especially bad since all other agents are out watching the first contact with aliens right outside your apartment and you must take over from Agent 3. Your boss commander Baldwin is on your case and some old man going to the roof keeps you from reaching your work. You arrive and are forced to re-read all information on time travel, about protocols and the creator Dr. Elliot Sinclair. Looks rather familiar that fellow. And then it happens to Baldwins chagrin, a temporal rift and you are the only one able to stop it. You travel a couple millions year back to the TSA safeguard archives and finds out that a Mars colony blows up while Aliens appeared, a nuclear bomb scuttled the global peace talks and a proponent for reaching out to the aliens are assassinated. Fairly interesting places to visit, a Marsian mining colony, an underwater military base and a scientific symposium in Sydney. Sadly, as someone pointed out, they look rather similar as futuristic corridors since the earliest place is in 22nd century and then 23d and 24th century respectively. Since I already played the last game I know Dr Elliott Sinclair is behind it and why, although this games make him just seem paranoid.

Also, I didn't check any walkthrough for a solution to the puzzles, played it in one go and finished it in one day. Maybe it's because the puzzles are fairly simple or maybe that I had a fair idea what to do and if I got stuck just checked another time zone. Doesn't mean my stupidity didn't try to stop me for a while. One part of the game is to fill an air tank so you can walk in the Marsian mines, I sit at the filling station were you can choose from different gases and such and I can't get it to work. Incompatible it says, do I need to replace the nozzle? The thing was that I kept pressing the CO2 because it was the first thing I thought of in air. And sure, part of the answer is in it, O, but it was a real face palm when I figured it out. 

I lost my heart to a TSA Agent!

The changes in the remake I gather is mostly the FMV cutscenes and many characters are appearing in the other games, like Baldwin, Agent 3, Sinclair and the INN news anchor. Strangely a character like Megan Love that is Gage's girlfriend doesn't reappear (at least not in the third game). And I must say that I greatly prefer the actor for Gage Blackwood in Legacy of Time. Maybe should wait until I play the second game when he actually made his debut in the role. Other things about the game is that it has some arcade style sections in the game. For example a mine cart race and space dogfight on Mars and an underwater submarine battle around the military base. You hardly do anything than watch, but it looks and sounds rather awesome with the music and a full view screen of the action. The submarine is the best with good music and the intense feeling as the military tries to hail you, shoot at you and several torpedo's flying past you and damaging your ship. Then again, due to restarting the zone every time you go back and some of the scenes you must watch and can't skip I might see why some can't stand them. Lastly, I now know why the last puzzle in Legacy of Time is turning those pyramids. It's because it's a legacy (HA, get it?) from the first game when the final puzzle is draw and fill out all the lines in 6 different shapes... while under a timer to deactivate a bomb. God I hate timer puzzles.

Save me Arthur, you're my only hope!

The Journeyman Project 3 - Legacy of Time (2)

And this scene... wait, I already mentioned that

So I got the game working and played through it from start to finish. The story is that due to the incident involving time travel has caused the alien federation to persuade Earth to shut down their time travel program since the risk are to great. This at the same time as the rouge Agent 3 that almost succeeded in selling their secret to another alien race and almost framing Agent 5, Gage Blackwood, for the crime is still out in the time stream infected by the AI Arthur. Meanwhile the alien federation is attacked by the Quell Thalas (or however they are spelled) that are headed for earth to search for three alien artefacts that was left by some ancient highly advanced aliens. So your goal is to get the artefacts to avoid repeating the past when the aliens clashed over earths greatest civilisations (Atlantis, El Dorado and Shangri-La) wiping them out of existence.

El Dorado... funny, I don't remember that scene either

The game plays as you as Agent 5 travels to these civilisations one day before their destruction to search the three different temples for the artefacts. With the chameleon jump suit you copy the appearance of the different inhabitants and there interact with them. Apparently giving it more dialogue compared to the earlier games and more focus on listening in for clues. To your help you have Arthur, the AI that sent Agent 3 through the time stream and started the path of the game. Always helpful and commenting on your surrounding gives a more lively experience. Also, you could ask him for help with the puzzles, but I've always went through all options since I liked hearing him talk, even though he gave obvious clues. Really, most of the actors are rather good with the great star being Graham Jarvis reprising his role as Dr. Eliot Sinclair, the father of Time travel and villain of the first game. Rather expanded back story as the lone survivor of Atlantis that due to the artefact had prolonged life into the 24th century, explaining his hatred for the aliens as they destroyed his home.

In the 20th century Dr. Sinclair was a rather famous actor appearing in shows like 7th Heaven

Most gameplay is solving puzzles, either with items, choosing the right disguise or logical thinking. Sadly if felt a bit lacking as it was rather easy, which probably was due to me play through this game a couple of times as a kid, but still. As expected you sometimes need items from other time periods to progress, but El Dorado and Atlantis just need one item to finish them and they feel rather short. The big one is Shangri-La were you need more items than ever in the largest puzzle quest. There you need to solve the 6 paths of the Buddha to reach the heavens and obtain the artefact. You must show humanity, pass through the fires of hell and so on. I think they might have wanted more since if I know my Buddhism there are 8 paths on the wheel of life before reaching Nirvana (I have now studied up on Buddhism for a possible DnD campaign and what do you know, there is just 6 realms to traverse into enlightenment, guess they thought me more than I suspected). It's also the one I had the most trouble with as a kid. First finding the black Buddha since it was in the steam tunnel maze combining two things I hated, mazes and scary underground areas with scary music. Then it was the damn music puzzle. Easy to find the solution as it is in plain sight, but the damn pattern are hard to decipher and the damn 5 isn't a 5. I don't know how often I played the same note over and over again, went back and read the pattern again and did it over again. Real satisfaction finishing it. And what is the reward for doing all this? A final puzzle that goes the 7th Guest route, turning three pyramids to create a light pattern.

I hate this puzzle

Playing through it again I still love it and find it really satisfying finishing it, but it feels short for a 4 disc game, and there really isn't that much in the different areas, except Shangri-La. Maybe that is the problem with FMV games that you have 4-7 disc and really, there isn't that much ganeplay. Thankfully the most game I've played from the FMV area are rather good in the story department and it some decent actors and this game really excel in that department. Even if it begins in media res from the second game it works fine without playing those (it worked for me) and I really like stories of the lost civilisations and such and the mythology they build up are amazing and at the same time feels mysterious and educational (even if most are fictitious some are based on real world like the Minoans, the true story of the gilded man and Genghis Khan). Also the characters feel alive, and some you feel sad for as you know they will die the next day, the warriors of El Dorado who believe they will stand a chance against the space ships, the peaceful monks of Shangri-La. The Atlanteans are a bit more ambiguous since they are a bit more militaristic and hostile against their neighbours. Sadly the only one (beside Sinclair) that survives the destruction is Genghis Khan and we now what a nice guy he was. In hindsight the saddest story is that of the potter and olive oil vendor siblings since you basically fool the potter in disguise of his sister to leave the oven causing the pots to crack since no one is taking care of that. The potter believe his sister slipped up and she don't know what he talks about meaning the last thing they will discuss before they die is arguing about something you caused. Don't you feel bad now? I say play it, it's a great game.

The whole gang, and most are killed by the beginning of the game

The Journeyman Project 3 - Legacy of Time (1)

This scene never took place in the game

So playing all these old adventure games got me craving for one of the better ones I could remember from my childhood and one I actually completed, The Journeyman Project 3 - Legacy of Time. Why we got the game in the first case was thanks to Myst. We bought the sequel Riven and on that game was a demo for this game since both game was published by Red Orb Entertainment. So looking through my parents game collection (more like my fathers game collection) I'm able to locate our original 4 disc version of the game and I put them in the external cd-drive for our Mac. Disc doesn't read. I take it out and look at the back, it's scratched, they are all scratched.

Scratches, a gamers nightmare

So I began searching the internet for tips and tricks to solve this. It was toothpaste there, vaseline here and god knows what. The only thing that happened was that the game at least wasn't booted out of the drive, but the files was horrible damaged. Apparently the original package case wasn't the most optimum place to store the cd's in. Probably for the best as well since I learnt that the current Mac OS X ain't backwards compatible. So what do you do as a person with a broken game and an internet connection? You download a digital version of course. Sadly non works of the current Macs, only windows. So I began researching and finds out about this nifty little program called Wine. It somehow tricks the computer to think it's windows based for that program. How neat. So I set out installing and downloading the softwares I need for this and forces myself through a very loose guide on Terminal to get it running.

Where were the green colours?

I'm able to install the game and start it up, I hear the intro music and click a new game. A box without text in my way. I knew there was some trouble with the text in the box and pushed on. Hmm.... seems like we skipped the intro movie, but at least I'm at the beginning of the game, but there is still a box in the way. I press escape and flickering by I can see a "switch cd box" and I realise it doesn't work. Failure. Alright, so I'm not the best computer geek that can whip out some mad hacker skills. I need some help... to the internet. So I look around and apparently some are pointing toward a tool called wine bottler. Supposedly it creates an app around the program that you then launches. So I thought, maybe if I put all the information inside the app it will work like ScummVM and such. I get that, goes through a much simpler program, creates an app that even have the game logo and start it up. The music is heard, I click New Game and... same problem again. No cd's detected. Well duh, there ain't none besides my scratched ones. Same problem and of to the internet again. I'm pointed toward Wineskin and get that one. Third times a charm right?

The reason console games are better is because they at least worked while repeating over and over

Same result. It doesn't work and it apparently misses the disc. So I presume the files I've have aren't sufficient. So I search the web again and find iso-files for the four discs and download them. And what do you know, I finally got the first disc working. Finally, it worked. Spending more time on getting this game to work than playing the game from start to finish. A little setback happened while playing through the first part of the game as it wanted to change disc. Lucky I saved before and tried the only thing I could think about, loading all the iso's for the disc and loaded the game again. Worked perfectly. Might switch the disc's out for the dvd version so I just need to juggle one disc instead of four. Sadly I realised the limitation of Wine. The game was jumpy, moving or people moving in front of me caused hacks or whatever you called. Lucky the nostalgia warmth in my heart made me overlook those flaws since it was so fun to watch it, hear it and play it again. Another thing wrong was that at times the audio scratched or whatever and once a movie froze the whole game. But I played it from start to finish.

Barely that is

The actual game will be talked about tomorrow.

Loom

Having played the Secret of Monkey Island many people encounters the pirate Cobb at the SCUMM bar talking about this high fantasy game called Loom and in the third game they reference someone named Bobbin Threadbare (Bobbin was also referenced in the original game at the circus). So with that much advertising I just had to play it, and boy was it fantastic. For clarification I went with the CD-version without going that some saw as a bit flawed due to changes in dialog and almost no music. I can see way and I might replay another version just to get a full experience. Still it was a rather fantastic journey while it lasted.

It's THE Loom on the island of Loom in the game Loom

The story is that your character Bobbin Threadbare is a Loom-child, a child spun from the Loom by his mother Cygna Threadbare without consent of the elders, for this she was turned into a swan and banished beyond the thread. Around his 17 or 18 birthday he is summoned by the elders and there he overhear his caretaker arguing with the elders and she is put under the same spell as Cygna, but it backfires and turns the elders into swans at the same time. They all fly away leaving Bobbin alone and with one of the elders distaff with which he can perform drafts that works like spells. Trying to find his people he set of to the mainland uncovering a plot by the clerics to use the different skills of the guilds to conquer the universe. Really, this is novel worthy and apparently it was plans for two sequels making a trilogy and it shows since in the endgame the clerics try raising an army of the dead, but instead brings back Chaos and it's up to you to stop her. The climatic ending is near the Loom as Chaos wants control of it to spin the world as she see fit, but you decide to destroy with a draft that she gave you by killing your caretaker. MY GOD!!! WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Well, you enter the rift in the thread, turn yourself into a swan and fly away and Chaos shouts that we shall meet again. And of course there was no sequels. The man behind the idea left for other projects and no other people at Lucasarts felt they could do it so it disappeared. Damn it.

 It's the ending of Dark Dawn all over again! Boy, it was a long time since I referred to Golden Sun (when I wrote this 3 months or so ago, before I went on the Golden Sun memory lane).

It is a beautiful looking game, especially since the CD version boosted the graphics quite a bit, but as mentioned the music mostly disappeared and seems to only play during talking sequences. Sad since most I've heard is rather good renditions of the music from Swan Lake. Also, it appears to be censored, but the scenes that are left can be quite gruesome with two persons unmade by Chaos (the first ones head and chest flew at the screen as well) and another one eaten by a dragon. Apparently if you want perfection and could do without the voices the FM Towns version is the way to go. I must try that one out definitely. The voices are taken from a radio drama that came with the original and explains the origins of Bobbin and history of the world. They do a good job although at some points Bobbins voice actor feels a bit to much of a drama actor than a fluent voice actor.

Gameplay wise it's an adventure game where you walk around and solve puzzles to further the plot. Now, the puzzles are all solved by using magic. Magic works by reciting drafts you have stumbled upon while interacting with items all around you, hearing music notes that you then use the distaff with. Each spell consists of four notes and if you do it in reverse you can in some instances cast a reversing spell or similar. For example reversing Open makes thing close and so on. A tip is to write down every spell you see and it's only 16, but if you forget them it can put you in a dead end, but with the internet today you can trail and error you forward with the right spell (the spells are randomised at the beginning so don't bother saving the combinations after you finished). Spells are also effected by the difficulty you choose at the beginning. First time I choose practise and you get the different notes and they light up and in the bottom is a box showing the whole spell. Good way to start to get how the game works. In standard mode they just light up and I've heard that in expert mode you need to identify the notes by hearing. Might try that with the FM Towns version, but I guess not many are able to play that.

Not everyone can be a Leopold

Overall it's a short game and rather easy I found. The only times I had some trouble was at the very beginning before I understood how I played the game (it introduced me to The Adventure Gamer so no harm done) and the second time was near the end when I had mapped most of the spells and realised I don't know their true names, meaning I don't know how to use them. I checked it out on the web and since that is manual knowledge I don't see it as cheating, although it made me solve the current puzzle. It's well worth a play, but as mentioned it ends on a cliffhanger which to this day is unresolved. One could hope that Disney pick this one up and turns into their own animated fantasy trilogy now that they own all of Lucasarts. I would go see it, but then again, the only movie they've made that is equally dark is probably Taran and the Black Cauldron and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.