http://obscuritory.holenet.info The Games You Never Played Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:21:25 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://obscuritory.holenet.info/essay/try-try-again-how-the-cd-rom-caught-on/ http://obscuritory.holenet.info/essay/try-try-again-how-the-cd-rom-caught-on/#comments Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:20:35 +0000 Shadsy http://obscuritory.holenet.info/?p=673
Denise Caruso, a writer for the 1990s trade journal Digital Media, uploaded an archive of the magazine’s articles. One particularly fascinating issue from 1991 featured a few lengthy pieces about the CD-ROM, storage mediums, and the future of the “new breed of interactive developers” who used them. This is invaluable information that practically explains why [...]]]> http://obscuritory.holenet.info/essay/try-try-again-how-the-cd-rom-caught-on/feed/ 0 http://obscuritory.holenet.info/other/duracell-run-the-bunny/ http://obscuritory.holenet.info/other/duracell-run-the-bunny/#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:13:26 +0000 Shadsy http://obscuritory.holenet.info/?p=642
Duracell: Run the Bunny might be the only game that I legitimately cannot understand. Even the weirdest ones have an intelligible premise or plot. Take LSD, a PlayStation game about acid trips and bad dreams. Although there’s no clear goals or objectives, and no matter how abstract it became, the game still had a straightforward [...]]]> http://obscuritory.holenet.info/other/duracell-run-the-bunny/feed/ 0 http://obscuritory.holenet.info/adventure/the-journeyman-project/ http://obscuritory.holenet.info/adventure/the-journeyman-project/#comments Sat, 31 Jul 2010 22:15:32 +0000 Shadsy http://obscuritory.holenet.info/?p=607
For a while, I had assumed that most people knew about The Journeyman Project, or at least heard of it. Turns out this isn’t the case. That needs to be rectified immediately. Despite coming out the same year as Myst, The Journeyman Project may be the pinnacle of the first-person adventure game genre. It might [...]]]> http://obscuritory.holenet.info/adventure/the-journeyman-project/feed/ 1 http://obscuritory.holenet.info/board/span-it/ http://obscuritory.holenet.info/board/span-it/#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:27:34 +0000 Shadsy http://obscuritory.holenet.info/?p=591
Rarely does a game’s title explain its entire premise. In Span-It!, there is a board. And you must span it. Despite the hilariously simple premise, Span-It! contains enough options and tweaks to stretch out its worth and replay value. But they also reveal a few major strategic shortcomings that makes the single-player mode wear thin [...]]]> http://obscuritory.holenet.info/board/span-it/feed/ 0 http://obscuritory.holenet.info/adventure/wrath-of-the-gods/ http://obscuritory.holenet.info/adventure/wrath-of-the-gods/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:46:57 +0000 Shadsy http://obscuritory.holenet.info/?p=549
The Muses in Greek mythology glorified the spirit of the arts and history through poetry and song. Not one could have predicted that several thousand years later, a grainy adventure game with stilted, public-access-quality acting would take up their mantle. You have to hand it to Joel Skidmore and the small team at Luminaria: Wrath [...]]]> http://obscuritory.holenet.info/adventure/wrath-of-the-gods/feed/ 0 http://obscuritory.holenet.info/puzzle/tubes/ http://obscuritory.holenet.info/puzzle/tubes/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 03:50:40 +0000 Shadsy http://obscuritory.holenet.info/?p=533
Anyone remember Klax? In the age of Tetris clones, Klax stood out with its unique tile-dropping gameplay. Like all successful games, copies were inevitable. Enter Tubes. Despite the upgraded aesthetics, Tubes plays nearly identically to its inspirational source. The wave system and the pacing are lifted directly. The game of course provides a few tweaks [...]]]> http://obscuritory.holenet.info/puzzle/tubes/feed/ 0 http://obscuritory.holenet.info/action/robomaze-ii/ http://obscuritory.holenet.info/action/robomaze-ii/#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:15:02 +0000 Shadsy http://obscuritory.holenet.info/?p=481
I’ll skip the introductions. No, RoboMaze I never saw public release outside a bundle collection. Yes, this could be a blessing, given the sequel’s quality. In RoboMaze II, players control a robot under the command of freedom fighters from the Resistance taking down a repressive dictator by battling through his massive tower, complete with an [...]]]> http://obscuritory.holenet.info/action/robomaze-ii/feed/ 0 http://obscuritory.holenet.info/blog/a-brief-personal-history/ http://obscuritory.holenet.info/blog/a-brief-personal-history/#comments Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:22:03 +0000 Shadsy http://obscuritory.holenet.info/?p=393
I love old, weird games. That’s probably obvious, and that’s why I started this blog. Writing about the netherworlds of classic gaming is as much a fun, educational project as it is a personal one, so I feel obliged to give a bit of personal background for my obsession, my experience, and the unconventional childhood [...]]]> http://obscuritory.holenet.info/blog/a-brief-personal-history/feed/ 0