Transcript
Speaker: It's Quest Quest. The ASMR podcast.
Speaker: Fingernails, fingernails, fingernails. Sarah, do you have any any ah ASMR sounds? This my fingernails.
Speaker: It was very good. was very good. It's Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. We have a guest. We have a special guest. We have ah a guest and a special guest.
Speaker: And a special guest.
Speaker: it So wouldn't it be terrible? All right. I might have even said this the last couple, like another time that we've had a guest. You ever see a movie where it has all the credits and then it has and special guest.
Speaker: o Yeah. What's going on there? They're all special guests. I like an introducing when with someone we've seen before. Yes, that's very good.
Speaker: that That's happened? and To me. I feel like I've seen introducing. I've seen something too. Like somebody who is far along in their career, like introducing George Clooney as Danny Ocean or something ridiculous like that. I think you two are just jerking me off. They the most famous first, I wish. Can you imagine how fun that would be?
Speaker: You know, it's part of this culture and community. We boost each other up. Is that what they're calling it? and And introducing to her podcast today is Sarah Joy Shockey. The most famous one.
Speaker: Sarah, um of course, streams with me on Tuesday nights, 8 p.m. Central. um But Sarah, what's the you're you're podcasting again, right?
Speaker: Yeah, my husband, Marty, and I have ah an occasional podcast called Marty and Sarah. It used to be called Marty and Sarah Love Wrestling. We still do, but we started talking about other stuff. So it's just Marty and Sarah.
Speaker: Wow. kind of like ah Kind of like that band. Yeah. Which one? Teagan and Sarah.
Speaker: I can't believe we were on the same wavelength. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Jess and are so rarely on the same wavelength. Yeah, that's true. but um Now, ah ah you know, and Sarah, you're you're you're quite funny. I need a lot of money to get here. Yeah, you you and I ah both trained at at Chicago's historic and incredible Second City Theater Chicago. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
Speaker: But... ah But, you know, your your your husband, Marty, or as some call him, Martin. That's his full name. Martin Short. Yeah. But, ah you know, he's a stand-up. Is it just laugh a minute in your house? Are you always just breaking each other up, telling jokes? Yes.
Speaker: Here's the thing. We started making funny friends in our neighborhood. And there's a guy down the street that comes over to help us with, you know, remodeling and stuff like that. He's so funny. All these guys are always like razzing each other's berries. You go to Menards, they're all yelling at each other. Like it, it cracks me up.
Speaker: Hold on. Hold on. Yes, my husband's funny and so are his friends. Yes, I'm gonna, I'm gonna ah fucking bulldoze you on.
Speaker: that There's nothing more Wisconsin that you just said. is It's like Marty is just yeah like cracking people up at fucking Menards. Yeah. what Yeah. Huge was Wisconsin co-op grocery store. know one ate at Wendy's like in the dining area, you know, like, like we used to.
Speaker: But what's the what's the Wisconsin huge grocery store? ah we I like Woodman's. woodman Woodman's is great. Yeah, yeah. Are you cracking people up at fucking Woodman's? You're razzing their berries? I have razzed a few berries at Woodman's. Are you cheesing their curds? Yeah, I'm seeing neighbors there. And then a lot of you know, it really is a great joke.
Speaker: I wish these things had a turn signal about the cart. Oh. i always get to laugh. Oh. hu
Speaker: What's a so, so yeah, as Sarah, yeah you and and Marty live up in in Wisconsin, what's the most Wisconsin other than going to fucking Menards? Oh, you're going to love this. What's the most Wisconsin thing you've done recently?
Speaker: at At Woodman's, they do a fresh delivery of cheese curds and they're made that day and they're so fresh, they just put them on a table with like a little price sign. But they're the squeakiest, best cheese curds you'll ever have. And they have a little sticker that's like, yeah, you know, we got these here this morning, so, you know, eat them up.
Speaker: Wow. are we wait
Speaker: Yeah, you just get the cheese curds from this morning. Our our dairy farmers live right over there. We got a pile of them over here. Put them in the fridge later. They're better fresh.
Speaker: Hey, I'm Pete. Those are my dairy cows over there. And I brought them over. so i have some of those cheese curds. A little kid at the 4-H fair was like, do you want to pet my cow? I'm like, yeah, I do.
Speaker: you're you're You're living a true Midwestern experience, Sarah. It's we went and saw wrestling at the Rock County Fairgrounds last Sunday and it was we're in the grandstands. They go.
Speaker: They've never done wrestling here. It's usually a bull rider. And then this year we had like Billy Gunn was down there. it was yeah dog. It was ah mr Ass was there. He was there.
Speaker: And Road Dogg? And Road Dogg was like, oh, he was like thriving on the community vibes. Everyone's singing Sweet Caroline. He's like pumping to the, oh, oh, oh. Oh, Are we talking like an outdoor situation or under town? Oh, man. No, outdoor, but under like the pavilion. And then the fried food was incredible. it smelled great. There's rides everywhere. Wrestling. Perfect day.
Speaker: what ah What was, were there any interesting fried things? Yeah, we had a lot of Oreos and snack cakes. ah funnel cakes were the best. But then there were these fried pretzels that were like the best I've ever had. Ben's ben's pretzels. Apparently one my friends met Ben. The original Ben of Ben's pretzels.
Speaker: fried are we talking like batter dipped and fried yeah yeah where they go like uh i'm trying to do it but they like just do the dough they do the dough in a pretzel shape around the dough yeah into the fry right there and then pull it out and you have like a hot little pretzel oh woodly doodly you know they would really doodly it what ah what is What's the the best? Because Wisconsin, for for our our our listeners ah in in foreign lands, ah is is as as kind of Midwestern in terms of diet, I think, as a state could get, right? oh Very good, very, like, incredible cheese.
Speaker: We do a lot of fish fry Fridays. A lot of places are yeah like, you go into the fish fry, yeah, fish fry days. um Supper clubs Oh yeah, we've been to a couple of supper clubs ah And um Sarah, are you, have you heard of this place? It's like, it's, it's North, like it's, ah it's North of Chicago, South of Milwaukee. It's like in in between there that does like this, this day in like December where they all eat raw beef.
Speaker: And they were like, this is our classic. This is our thing that we do. And then like, there's always, is there will be a news story. and And at the bottom, it's like doctors tell you don't eat raw beef. Yeah. we're showing everybody doing it but don't you try it i know it looks amazing and glamorous to read about here in the newspaper but you shouldn't try this at home guys come on stop eating meat just because you saw friends i'm i'm just but uh all right what is the the most wisconsin thing uh that that you've eaten
Speaker: That I've eaten personally the most Wisconsin thing. Oh, so my neighbors make this excellent pretzel. It's called a seasoned pretzel. And they get like a butter square from Snyder's, like the waffle print of the pretzels.
Speaker: And then they put them overnight in a seasoning mix that is also basted in Orville Redenbacher's just straight up butter. they're mixing a Snyder's pretzel.
Speaker: Yeah, with butter. And then, yeah, that's it's ah they bring it. Oh, it like it like messed up my cousin's psyche. He loved it so much at Christmas. He was texting me like, I got to get the recipe for those pretzels and I got it. I got it for him.
Speaker: But they're better when name is. Send me that recipe. I would like this recipe for purposes. Yeah, for for purposes. Yeah, you got it. Man, I want a pretzel so bad right now. Like I'm wondering if there's a box of super pretzels somewhere in our freezer that just has like one left and the little like ripped open packet of salt still in it And it's just been crushed down there for two or three years. I would kill for a pretzel right now.
Speaker: You know, i used to go over Aldi and get their frozen pretzels all the time because those Aldi, you know, it's a German-owned brand. It's They're that bad of frozen pretzel.
Speaker: Then you go and you buy some beer cheese from some fucking place. I've got some beer cheese in the fridge. We have a lot of pressed cheeses in Wisconsin available. So I'll get yeah of course the horseradish kind, the beer kind, the port wine. horse it is it that i always get here in Illinois. I think there they're in... I forget if it's from Wisconsin or from here, but the Mercs.
Speaker: Yeah, we love Mercs. Mercs on a burger. Oh. Oh. Oh. bola man this is This is a discussion of interesting cheeses.
Speaker: Sarah, have you been up to... Wait, you mentioned ah ah before you were recording, you're you're you're renovating your home. We've had, so yeah, we are We had the best of luck and made friends with a retired contractor and Marty was helping him with getting his yard edged and just like cleaning up with the weed whacker.
Speaker: And he goes, geez, thank you so much. I wish there was something I could do for you. And Marty's like, What do you do? about renovate my house, old man? How about on your 85th birthday, you helped me demo a shower and tear it out of our wall?
Speaker: Okay. This man brought over all these different people. He's like basically coordinated this whole thing. We had black mold in our bathroom and we were scared of it. Oh no. We didn't know what to do. So he just was like, okay, get a N95 mask. Here's the tools you need. We're going to scrape this going to spray this part. And then he's like, you know,
Speaker: You're going need a new floor and a new portion of the wall. So we'll get that fixed up, cut the floor out. And then he's like, why don't we put like a cool tile down? And then if you're going to put a cool tile down, don't you want to have a tub instead of this like standing shower? And so it was like a give a mouse a cookie, but of like this man being super nice to us. And today we replaced like we put a bunch of new lights in the kitchen. he brought an electrician over and they put a new light in the living room. Is all this happening magically pro bono? Like, is this a, is this all gratis? Ah, well. It's like, but but they would say, do you know how much money we saved by tearing out the shower ourselves? Like a thousand bucks. So it's kind of like that where it's like, we're buying the tub and we're like doing these things, but it's also like, we're learning along the way and having a good time.
Speaker: Wow. Yeah. if Does he have any jokes? Is he over at the Menards? Yeah. He goes up to these ladies at the Menards. He'll go, Hey, why are you still working here? Didn't I tell you to meet a rich guy and get out of here five years ago?
Speaker: Everywhere he goes, this man has somebody who comes up and he'll be like, Hey, what's all this old so-and-so? They all have a lot of like, i don't want to see you again. Just kidding. I love you a bit. It's like, so do you think it our generations will ever turn into that? Or are we too broken as people? I'm planning on it. I'm already there. I'm already there. I'd be an affectation if I tried to do it. I just don't think maybe you just to fake it till you make it though. Maybe, maybe I could be that guy.
Speaker: I think you could be that guy. Come to Wisconsin and just have a that guy personality. And then you'll find, you know, like when you come here, everyone will think like, oh there's that jolly, somewhat Midwesterner.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, West for west Virginia is is kind of, it it's rust. Is it rust? It is. It's different out there. West Virginia is like an odd. It reminds me of a mix of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Virginia all at the same time. yeah. yeah no i mean, we had like steel industries and things like that we that aren't around anymore. So yeah, I mean, we're like right South Pittsburgh.
Speaker: And hey, I was born in Pittsburgh. There you go. Go Steelers. Go Packers. Wow. Wow.
Speaker: Wow. Go Bears. I'm now. I turned my back on the place of my birth. Hey, Ben. Hey, Ben. but The Bears. That's good. That's good. That's good for me.
Speaker: No, no. It's so good. There's this comedy show that has been airing on NBC for a while. what When is it? what what time of what What day of the week is it? yeah is Do they take it ahead of time? What time of day? Like, is it a morning show?
Speaker: it's it's a It's a night thing. It's a night. So it's on Saturday night. Do they record it? In advance, the thing they do not pre-record this. It is aired every Saturday night and they do it then you, if you can believe this live.
Speaker: Well, well, Jess, this is, that's crazy. Do you know hard that would be? Like what sort of schedule you'd have to work to produce something like that weekly? And the amount of cocaine you'd have to consume? No, Jess, that sounds incredible. But the the bad news is is I'm moving away ah to the United Kingdom. So I can't enjoy a show like that. Oh, Ben. What? Here's the thing. You picked the right time. What? What? I wish I had a slide whistle I can't believe this is the first time ah you're hearing about this Ben because you're constantly like doing bits for Mad TV like you like you're doing like Miss Swan yeah I'm doing all the racist ones for Mad TV um
Speaker: But yeah, I've never heard of SNL. That's wild. I've heard of Fridays and I've heard of Mad TV. yeah Wow. And the original Saturday Night hosted by Howard Cosell. Of course.
Speaker: Saturday Night. Well, of Saturday nights. All right. Okay. Hold on. Before we even get into this.
Speaker: ah so So last week, a controversial change was made. who man. A controversial... we we First of all, this is not a correction. This is not a correction or course correction.
Speaker: We will not play... We will not play the the correction tune. This is not a correction. Or an apology. and No, I'll never apologize. Don't apologize for things you don't feel bad about. Ben apologized once on this podcast, and people have just been begging for it. Every episode comes out, and they're just like, Ben, you misspoke at this point. Could you please issue an apology? And he's not going do it.
Speaker: um But all right, so last last week, instead of playing the the looping, what have you been playing, Toon? We played instead a chime.
Speaker: That was from Police Quest 2, Sarah. That was so funny. It made me feel inexplicably powerful. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: them And that was, that was, uh, in response to what I thought was very good criticism from, from a listener, because I, as the person that edits these episodes and hears it a million times, it's like kind of being driven crazy by this theme playing over and over again. Well, you have a conversation for like 20 minutes.
Speaker: Uh, that wasn't what they said to be clear, i but, but, um, So we moved over to the chimes, but some people are telling us they they want the what you been playing theme.
Speaker: Now I'm stuck. Yeah. this is So this is just, this is why I propose. We play it once. It doesn't work. On this version of the podcast, and then we record the second version. And then next week, change it. Oh, no. Based off of what people say.
Speaker: I thought we'd do two, like, of this one. Like, each way. And see what people like better. Or we put out two different versions of the podcast.
Speaker: And we record. Sarah, you could stay for for longer too, right? Yeah. if We're going to record a whole new. It's not just different sound effects. We record the whole podcast again.
Speaker: Yeah, that's right. So try to also for the sake of the listener, try to remember roughly what you said the first time. It doesn't have to be like word for word, but we want hit the same beats and try to keep the time codes as close as possible. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, do a, do a top four on Wisconsin cheese, you know, and then remember where you flowed into from there. Okay. And I'll tighten it a little just out of elegance. All Well, we don't want one to be better than the other. Okay. Okay.
Speaker: I mean, that's not, we're not trying to have like a good version of the podcast and a bad one. No, no. In fact, actually, we don't want a good version of the podcast at all. Okay, great. So anyway, Jasmine, have you been playing?
Speaker: What have been playing? Ben, weirdly, I played a little bit of a game that came out in, I believe, 2023. Have you ever heard of Hi-Fi Rush?
Speaker: Oh, yeah, that game's supposed to be great. I yeah played it a little bit when it came out on on Game Path. Yeah, it's fantastic. It's kind of that genre of games like what, like a Devil May Cry, like a combat platformer chain attacks together into cool combos sort of game. But the premise of it is You're a a young guy by the name of Chai who through a series of unfortunate events has had basically your iPod fused into your chest by an evil corporation. Right.
Speaker: and Now the whole world around you functions on beat and to successfully carry out attacks and everything against your foes as this corporation tries to hunt you down and eliminate you as a defective unit. um You score bonuses by managing to carry out your attacks in rhythm with the music as it plays. um It's kind of a fun mechanic once you get into it, but also it's just this like wild,
Speaker: pop arty sort of comic book-y looking future world that you're playing in. Like everything has a cell shaded look and there's lots of like halftone effects and everything that gives it like that 3D comic book vibe and just some really great writing, some fun music. It reminds me a lot of like when I play games from Insomniac. It's not an Insomniac game, but what I like about it is It's just one of those games that feels good when you're swinging around your your guitar and hitting people and you're you're jumping and you're doing your thing. It's just got that tight feeling of control. So yeah, I've been playing Hi-Fi Rush and really enjoying it It's good stuff. I think I remember reading about it on release and there were lots of blog posts about like, this game is incredible, check it out. So I did three years later.
Speaker: Great. Ben, what have you been playing? I mentioned that I got this earlier, I believe. Been playing a little bit of Shovel Knight.
Speaker: I think we discussed this on an earlier podcast that I picked it up and I've been playing it. You want to know what? Pretty good. It's a beloved game that everybody loved many years ago.
Speaker: I enjoyed as well. It is a shovel night is a throwback to difficult NES platformers with a kind of a Uncle Scrooge cane like DuckTales type power with the shovel.
Speaker: How can you do that with a shovel? You just do it. i mean, a cane makes sense, but a shovel seems improbable. Um, but, uh, it's great. It looks great. Sounds great. Handles great.
Speaker: Having a good time. It's also, it is, it's hard, but fair. And you do feel very powerful once you figure out like a boss is like, It has that thing where you come up to a boss and the first time you fight that boss, it's like, well, this is the hardest thing that's ever happened. I'm never going to beat this this guy in a million years.
Speaker: This is impossible. Why did I buy this? What idiots like this game? This game's for idiots. I don't care for this. And then get beaten him and then and then you like you know get beaten by him twice and you go oh like he just does the same thing so now i just i just jump at this point and i duck at this point this is when you attack and you feel very powerful when you figure that out do you remember ben how great william h macy's character the shoveler was in mystery man it's another uh beloved cult comedy movie i don't care for what do you have against ben stiller
Speaker: i'm You want to know what? i'm not a i'm I'm not much a Ben Stiller guy. Wow. Seems like a ah nice guy. I'm walking it back now. No, I'm not walking it back, but i his his comedy does not, neither, like, I respect Ben Stiller because he is a, like a guy that does, like, he'll do really weird comedy shit like zoolander and then he will also do like meet the parents like he really feels like a the consummate one for you one for me type of guy i've heard that ariana grande is about to meet the parents no i didn't in the new fuckers movie great meet me you're gonna meet the fuckers
Speaker: I can't wait till you meet me. You're gonna meet me. You're gonna meet me, Ariana Grande. You're meeting with me?
Speaker: hey you meeting with me? you meeting with me? Hey, I'm meeting here. that's That's a Grayson kind of comedy. I like that. But, um... You know, ah yeah. No, I... he's He's someone I appreciate more than i like, really anything that he's done. He's very good in the Royal Ten Bombs.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's all I got. Are they coming out with the Royal Eleven Bombs? Okay.
Speaker: 11 bombs. Yeah. Yeah. Someone. Yeah.
Speaker: and but margo had a baby margo has a baby gerric pregnancy it's a shock to everyone and Yeah, ah we Wes Anderson is finally getting into sequels.
Speaker: And he's just like, i'm I'm making the Royal Eleven bombs. And thanks to the the CGI technology that that brought back that ah what ah Peter Cushing in Rogue One, they're going to bring back Gene Hackman.
Speaker: or the royal 11 bombs and you might ask yourself is that it does does is that either tasteful and does that make sense for the story given what happens with his character at the conclusion of the royal uh 10 bombs guess he'll just have to see it's weird in the trailer though how the gene hackman like The CGI actor just keeps doing backflips off of everything. Like that seems really unnecessary. don't know. Like, I don't remember him doing that in the original. So it's like why now in the Royal Eleven bombs is he constantly doing flips? Because it's just like Yoda being able to do like crazy lightsaber fights. Just like Yoda. it's actually, all right, a little peek behind the curtain because yes, I did work on the CGI for the Royal 11 bombs. Oh yeah, you did a lot for that movie. And I did sign a whole bunch of papers saying that I'm not allowed to talk about it. But in your defense, you didn't read any of those, so they aren't legally binding. I just signed it. I didn't read it. So exactly. Thank you, Jess. And let's all know, he has a PhD, so it's true. Yeah, it's a legitimate degree.
Speaker: But what I did, i've i just downloaded the Attack of the Clones backflip Yoda file and then just took a ah JPEG of Gene Hackman and just stretched it across that texture of Yoda.
Speaker: That explains why he's like two feet shorter than Ben Stiller in all the scenes. That's really making sense. Okay. Okay. Yeah. it's just Do you remember the ads for the home video version of yo man the clothes? The man, Yoda, man. Anyway, I've been playing Shovel Knight. That's why you can't keep the theme going so long. I think it, I think the re-edit's perfect.
Speaker: Yeah, this segment occasionally runs like 30 plus minutes and that music can become maddening. Sarah?
Speaker: Best of both worlds. What have you been playing? Glad you asked.
Speaker: That was a great theme. I need that when I walk into rooms. Any of them. I've been playing mermaid games with my neighbor, Marta, in the pool in the backyard.
Speaker: And they are different. They range in challenging. And a lot of times it'll be like, I just got in the pool. I'm keeping my hair dry. And she's like, come on. put get your goggles we got to play mermaid games and I'm like all right so the first mermaid game is you go underwater and you like blow kisses and like kind of swim around like a little beautiful lady and then you know maybe have tea and wave at each other and then i gotta be the bad guy And we throw all the mermaids and jewels and sinking rockets all over the pool. And the game is that I want to destroy all of her babies as a bad guy. And she, the mermaid swims around and tries to get all the eggs to safety. So a lot of times I'm like, just barely not making it or like accidentally dropping guys because I don't, I don't want to succeed as the bad guy. But anyways, I've been playing mermaid games.
Speaker: I, how, how old is ah your, your neighbor?
Speaker: She nine years old. and a lot of times we'll do like a little routine where we'll, Get in the pool, eat a snack, get in the pool, go inside, do an art project, watch an episode or two of Sophia the First, go back outside in the pool. And that's like a good regular me and Marta pool party. And a lot of times she goes, you know, I sometimes think a pool party with just two people is even better than a regular party. yeah.
Speaker: ah um you ever watch the sophia the first no i have no idea chris parnell is the voice of the king and i was talking about earlier today like i because i was talking about how funny chris parnell is yeah 10 years ago disney kids cartoons are huge right now it's so funny because she has she's going through this thing right now where she's like i know that this show is a little bit considered for babies but i still really like it and i was like listen that's how you stay creative
Speaker: You should teach her to like it ironically. i think the sooner a kid learns that skill, like, oh, Sophia the first, more like Sophia the worst. i mean i mean I mean, that's just like my first idea. i don't know if this is like first idea, best idea, but you could workshop that. Yeah. I don't have a degree in comedy. Workshop it in the mermaid pool.
Speaker: now Now, Sarah, you keep saying pool, like, you know. yeah I have one. it's the You have a pool and you don't have an ool. There is no pee allowed in our ool. Thank you for bringing it up. And I did make a sign about it, but the sign's so tacky, I have it in the pool shed. It's not out.
Speaker: But they say that if you really smell chlorine, it's because the chlorine is fighting the pee. So when you're in a hotel, just remember that. Oh, yeah, of course. a Now...
Speaker: Do you make a whirlpool? That was my favorite thing to do. Yes, Marta loves making a whirlpool. That was favorite thing to do. When was nine years old. oh I loved it I'm making a whirlpool in a pool. But then you lose like you lose so much water and then ah she goes home and i have to put the hose back in the pool. and it's It's fun, so Ben, but you got to think about the wasted water. this economy?
Speaker: in this economy ah And every other. ah Yeah, all of the economies. All of the economies. We're getting a new pool liner, so it's going to look like real fancy soon because our pool liner's got couple holes in it. Vandals. Vandals got it. All right. Sarah has brought me to court because I did take a photo posing with the pool liner. that i I don't know why you did it. You're just trying to get blue water.
Speaker: yeah We painted it blue and then Ben went down there and shredded it up.
Speaker: I came with my pool lining knife. All right. God, i hope that someday this doesn't make sense.
Speaker: Yeah, no, hopefully ah it doesn't. um But anyway, folks, ah all right now that we've ah gone through we've been playing.
Speaker: We successfully completed it and that's the point charm that says, good job, ah Sarah, Ben, and Jess. So how about ah we get to it? How about we talk about Sam ampersand Max colon hit the road.
Speaker: The game. Friends! Yeah, yeah. Sarah, actually, just sir just go ahead and do a ah reenactment of the the game all the way to the end.
Speaker: Friends! We've only gone out together three times! I, like, have it. I could do a lot that game. Call me Sam and Max. I think every voice in the game is spectacular.
Speaker: i just ahead of even discussing it, I have no edits, and I think it has some of my favorite bits that I still reference constantly of, like, any game. And it was one of the first adventure games that I felt empowered to complete.
Speaker: because i just didn't finish games when I was younger but my brother got a pack that had Indiana Jones, Fate of Atlantis, Sabamax Hit the Road and Day of the Tentacle and it like changed my life.
Speaker: That's stacked. That's such a stacked collection. Because because i know I know your feelings about Day of the Tentacle which you love. I'd marry Hoagie if I didn't marry Marty.
Speaker: Yeah. You have sexual feelings about Hoagie. I'm sure many do. I liked him before had the capability of feelings for sex, though. That's how you know it's real. Yeah. Your feelings. i loved many avatars as a child.
Speaker: Who else? who Like the airbender? Oh, yeah, yeah. i loved Aang and his best friend Zuko, but that was when i was older. Phantom the Opera. Sam Worthington. Sam Worthington. Oh, yeah, you fell in love with Phantom of the Opera. But also loved Raoul, you know? I have a lot of those ones where I'm like, eh, I don't think I'm both.
Speaker: um I really loved Indiana Jones, obviously. i have memories of being on a family vacation and being like, you know, Indy, I'm really glad that you and I don't fight, even if everybody else is.
Speaker: And I think, um oh, Orion, the constellation. I had a whole plot line where he fell out of the sky and everyone's like, the constellation's missing. And I'm like, who's that big, hot, naked guy out the window that seems like he doesn't know what an earth shower is? I'll tell him about showers and teach him how to be an earthling. Wow. Okay. Here's the thing. Ben, could you go back and backspace over the title of this episode? Because I don't think we'll have time to talk about Sam and Max. Too many questions about a lion. Get over it.
Speaker: Pause. Okay. Get over it. He's made out of stars. So your romantic plan for the physical manifestation of Orion the Constellation.
Speaker: Show him a shower. Was you would woo him by teaching him something that would be useful, yeah. How does this Greek myth end? Like what horrible punishment is visited upon you? become the Constellation and then he has all my stuff.
Speaker: He's like, finally have stuff. I always wanted stuff. This little girl's stuff. But in my mind, I was always like 25 when I was dating these guys, you know?
Speaker: Was, yeah, no, there's no, we're we're not concerned about any of that. Thankfully. ah ah But, ah okay.
Speaker: Was there anything else from the modern world that you were going to explain to him? Or was it just showers? The first thing you need to know. It's going to be showers into bedtime. And then in bedtime, I'll be like, this is cuddling.
Speaker: This is my pillow. These were like kind of platonic. Like they were, they were non-sexual cuddles. Yeah, because little. So but it was kind of like this idea of like, I know this is what adults do in bed when they're married. And I'm going to get to the bottom of it by teaching the constellation about what do you marry? Would do you marry him?
Speaker: Yeah, i probably did in my mind. oh you probably did. Tuxedo mask, Dimitri from Anastasia, but it was always one at a time. it would be like one at a time. And they're all kind of the same, like hoagie guy, you know, but it's also like they're all. Orion, the constellation is a hoagie guy.
Speaker: I mean, they're all made from the same, like, I'm dating them fantasy. so to me, it feels like you're not, like, having to break up with one and then start another one. They just kind of flow into each other. ah I'm every hoagie. It's all in me. So, you know, like, you know, I'm i'm just thinking about, like...
Speaker: You know, the music video for Take On Me. just just He entered like there's the the comic character that like walks out.
Speaker: Great music video, like enters the comic world. Like, you know, there's this it was a it was a the a woman artist and the man was in the comic or was Reverse. Okay. Woman artist. The man is in the comic. And I remember as a kid being stressed out if it started happening to me, if I would go into the comic, because I was like, I have parents. I have parents. I have parents. I gotta be home, but I'd like to go on the adventure.
Speaker: Yeah. With motorcycle guys and stuff. Yeah. You're you're worried you'd get trapped in the comic? Or yeah, just like not make it back in time. And then if I did make it back in time and it changed me
Speaker: Now, were you ever worried that like spending time with a celestial being made of stars like that would instantly incinerate you?
Speaker: No, because when he landed on Earth, he, like, became a big guy. And it's one of those things where it's like, I saw him land and he's naked, so I got to go get a pair of, like, my dad or brother's shorts, I guess? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. gotcha. And then immediately get him in that shower. Then get him in that shower. Show all about what you do in there. Soap.
Speaker: soap Do you, uh, uh, are we doing a combo shampoo conditioner? Are we doing each? I love, i like to use way too much conditioner. Even then.
Speaker: and we didn't even have three and one back then yeah you a pert Plus little girl. I love the herbal essences and I didn't understand the commercials. No, no, I didn't. under I loved her. earlys you a They're just really happy. But SNL one time has not been stopped out for me. I'm tipping my hand. I have heard of Saturday Night Live.
Speaker: Oh, wow. Yeah. Only Ben then. Wow. I didn't want to make him feel alienated. Alienated? Orion? The stars? It all connects. um All right. So. Sam and Brad. That's insane. Please continue, Ben.
Speaker: Sam and Max hit the road. um It does. Sarah. Okay. So you had, because yeah, that was ah a CD compilation. So you had all the voices as a kid. Oh, all the voices. and I would always turn the text on.
Speaker: I thought that the combination of text coming up with the voice was like, there's nothing better. I'd never seen technology like that. I played Zork. o I played Zork on floppy.
Speaker: You played Zork on floppy. And I didn't get anywhere because I was trying to talk to Zork like it was AI when I was nine.
Speaker: That is a special feeling, isn't it? I've been there, too. I know exactly what talking about. Yeah. Yeah. And so telling my secret to the King's Quest 2 parser. I don't care. The Zork could be so cold. Yeah.
Speaker: I don't understand lonely. At least give me smarter child. You know, I'll get somewhere with him. I don't understand lonely.
Speaker: That's your memoirs about video games. So I Well, good for you. I had the disc version of Zork.
Speaker: Wait, Zork. Oh, fuck. Seven backs. Where the intro, the friends. Friends! We've only gone together three times. That was voiced.
Speaker: trump that was we gone out together three times that that was voiced But the rest was was all text. I got the the CD version a couple years later.
Speaker: If you had to make a choice on what to voice, that's the right choice to voice. the The choice to voice? Well, they I think they did the same thing for Day of the Tentacle, like where the the intro is voiced, and then there's a little advertisement. like it It will say it's like, and if you want the whole game to sound like this.
Speaker: you can upgrade your disc copy to the CD version. Oh, we only have these CDs and they just came in hot. Inherit the Earth did that too. um But ah ah yeah, I mean, that is, it so that that intro where a mad scientist i is getting friend zoned, is furious about being friend zoned uh has tied up a a woman uh like a damsel in distress distress and has like some sort of laser contraption pointed at her she's so chill i remember being like how is she not freaking out yeah and this is something i want to because sarah i do want to talk about like those concerns because i do but uh could you do that voice can you do her voice can we hear that
Speaker: Hi, Sam and Max, I knew you'd come. ah Sam just kind of like flicking at the piece of rope rather than actively trying to untie her. Oh, it's so good.
Speaker: Ouch. He's not real guy, Sam. Are we going to reset this yeah game? Oh my gosh. I didn't go back and rewatch it or replay it for this. It's just all seared into my brain. I have notes. I i went through. i got i got a bunch of... I did them right in between. i did a little of everything, but also while i was watching it, i was like, I have a memory for every moment of this game five times.
Speaker: Yes. ah but But yeah, so let's... I think the this is obviously a game that the three of us have an incredible fondness for.
Speaker: um And I think one of the things that I like that, you know, I thought it was so funny then. Then when I revisited it as an adult, like many years after that, was like, wow, this is this writing is actually very funny.
Speaker: And then like every time I've revisited it, I've just been like, holy shit, this writing is so sharp. It's so sharp. And it was like for us little reading like English kids, it was a really nice example of like how funny you can be in ways that I hadn't seen done before.
Speaker: you it's this is This was when I was revisiting it ah today for the podcast. i like is It with...
Speaker: it has very like it has a lot of fun with extremely high culture references and then like gross out humor. Like, like, and like, you know, this guy's wearing a wig jokes, right? Like the, the most basic, but then it's like,
Speaker: i You know, i and we'll we'll get to it, sir. Don't worry. Who is John Muir? Oh, that's been to the planet. Conroy Bumpus refers to himself as a Chaldean god. remember that. You know, there's a Norman Mailer joke. Like, there's...
Speaker: like and And I wrote this in my notes as I was like kind of pondering this. I said, the greatest compliment I can give Sam and Max is that it has writing that feels of a piece with the episodes of The Simpsons at that moment.
Speaker: which trafficked in that really like, to me, this feels like ah the best example of that particular moments type of humor. Yes. At a time when everything was trying to capture that lightning in a bottle and a lot of other stuff failing it, what strikes strikes me so much about is how,
Speaker: confident it is in its tone. Like it definitely knows what it's going for and sticks to that. Like it is unwavering its commitment to absurdity in a way that I think presages lot of the you know, cartoons that would follow as the nineties went on. It's just, yeah. And because it's not tied into like cheap references to pop culture and stuff like that, for the most part, it feels pretty timeless. Like I think this game is just as funny today as it was then.
Speaker: And it blew my mind in 1993. Yeah. Total same. And I think I was playing it even a little later because we got the CD bundle as like a discount. Like we had the like offer to upgrade. We had the like we're coming down to the other side. There's way more games coming out. So like you might as well have this. And I was like a treasure.
Speaker: I can't believe this. I didn't know stuff like this existed. The um one of the like. And the, like the, the, the really great writing, it paired with like just a murderer's row of like performance talent in the voice acting as Sarah was saying, like everybody,
Speaker: doing like acting in it is is giving every line read exactly the line read that it needs which is really like it's all very very funny you have no idea how often i hear that i say that to myself all the time like This, this and Day of the Tentacle, like coming from Sierra CD-ROM products where, you know, a lot of their games, they're just getting people around the office to perform major roles in these multi-million dollar productions. and then to come into a lucas arts game and just hear such amazing voice acting it really was just like two different worlds at the time i mean you know this came out within like six months of day of the tentacle uh what a slate of releases for 93 when was fate of atlantis
Speaker: i think that sounds right yeah like it's just like you know they're just hitting yeah they're just hitting home runs like in uh like it it these these games are just so strong that there's one really fun thing i love in this game so it has ah Like all of the, actually, no, I was i was going to say all of the LucasArts games to that point are kind of local, but no, that's not true because like Zach McCracken and the indies are are globetrotting.
Speaker: This you're looking at like a playmat map of the United States, which slowly fills up with tourist traps. And when I was revisiting it today, i it it reminded me of...
Speaker: how much fun it was when ah somebody said a new location. yeah. And the line delivery of it was always really clear. Like punch it, Massa, yeah. Like the the the actor would always punch it. And I didn't write down, but it's just, it's like...
Speaker: frogs Yeah, we get all of our we get all of our fish out. World of Fish in Missouri. and then it cuts to the map and you hear that little chime like, ooh. And then it pops up. And then you also see all the places that you already had. There's nothing like a map that gives you a few starts. And you're like, I can always go to the Stucky's. And the regional Stuckies is amazing being how there's like a moose one and a Southern Stuckies. It's a the Southern one has a, it's it like in Louisiana has a crawfish. yes
Speaker: um Yeah. Now, listen, I know that a couple of people that make adventure games listen to this podcast. Do that. Just steal this. Just steal this idea. Just give me a map.
Speaker: Just give us a map, but but also give us a map. And then when somebody says like, because a lot of games have maps. Yes. And a lot of games have maps where it's like, Ben wants this exact map. He wants all the locations from Sam and Max yeah in your game. But i like I'm playing the very entertaining ah Casebook 1899 right now. And like when you talk to somebody, they'll they'll say like, oh, it's at ah the the house of hair so-and-so. It's a German game.
Speaker: and um And then you go to the map and now that little thing or like a little icon pops up. but I want to see the map and I want to see a little spot pop up where you see that mansion. Like it pops up in a little chime plays.
Speaker: Yeah. Yes. That's such it like it was such it and I know like as a kid, it was so satisfying because it was all like, oh there's a new place to go. Well, yeah, and do you know you're going to get to go there and see some cool art, and you're going to meet some new characters, and you're get to hear some new jokes. It's really just like this, you know, huge dopamine hit of like, oh, my gosh, here right here I go into the next part of this game. Let me let me introduce a character I've been workshopping little bit, Sarah, if if you could if you could help me out. um
Speaker: This character is named Jeff. um I know that's a little confusing because it sounds a little bit like Jess already, but this is what I'm working with. ah Jeff doesn't know a lot about adventure games.
Speaker: What is Sam and Max hit the road? If you had to give this for a first time, Sam and Max are. Ooh, that's a great Sam and Max Maxing. I think that it's like a comedy detective road trip game because it's funny but you have missions and the whole world starts to interconnect so it's like you get the best of a road trip where you can go anywhere at any time and see all these strange attractions but it's all leading to something because you're literally like chasing bigfoot
Speaker: Yes. The road trip cryptid elements of it, I think are so perfect. Just like in terms of catching that sort of sense of Americana, the Route 66 vibe, all that sort of thing, which already i feel like by the 90s was starting to feel a little old fashioned. This is something that I wanted to bring up too, which was that the the game is steeped.
Speaker: with something that you saw a lot of in the 80s. And I would say the like 94, 95, it is this kind of like boomer and older Gen X.
Speaker: ah like fixation with satirization of fifties stuff. Yes. oh yeah And like, you know, and you see it both in comedy, but you also see it like, um I'm rewatching ah ah Twin Peaks right now with my boyfriend who hasn't seen it before.
Speaker: And like everybody in it or, or a lot of the people in it are dressed up in like fifties outfits. Yeah. Like all the the women are are wearing like the the pencil skirts.
Speaker: And like there's a guy in like the leather like James Dean jacket and and stuff like that. Like that's something that David Lynch loved to play with. And but also it's like you you would see that kind of iconography in a lot of like kind of ah late 80s, early 90s type of comedy stuff.
Speaker: And this traffics a ton in it because it is, yeah, like a parody of like post-war, like the highways have been built Americana because it's all tourist traps.
Speaker: And like, so you have like kind of an Elvis a parody which is pure fifty s and he has like a Graceland type ah place where you spend time then also like the music also has like kind of fifty s ah style stuff like here's a piece it all sounds like stuff that a baseball game this is like Trixie's trailer oh
Speaker: Like this is like kind of a, like a wall of sound song, like a Phil Spector, like the girls. Oh yeah.
Speaker: You know, like leader of the pack.
Speaker: And then, of course, I was playing this earlier. This is my favorite ah instrumental tune. This is ah the tune that plays at the the hotel where the Bigfoot convention is.
Speaker: maybe this will be our next what have you been playing theme. This is so good. I love this one.
Speaker: And also in that hotel is like the woman like running the front desk is like kind of like a reference to like the main character from Sunset Boulevard.
Speaker: Yes. Because she's just like, ah, yes, was in the pictures. Oh, it's so good.
Speaker: Yeah, like you hear this type of like, because this also this hotel has like a tiki theme to it. there's an element of mystery.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, there's definitely an element of mystery to this music. Isn't there? So good. So good.
Speaker: so good it's so good But, but yeah, like there's definitely like you, you think about a lot of like kind of nineties comedy and stuff like that. And they're always like, I think about ah the,
Speaker: you there, there's so much what I associate with Gen iconography, which is tied up with the, the image of dad with a pipe.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. ah Yeah. Like, they might be giants, like, traded on that image. like Devo. Devo traded on that image. Like, you know just all of these, ah like, really cool late 80s, early 90s things were just, like, image with dad with a pipe.
Speaker: Pretty cool, you know? Right? We're going to subvert that a little bit. We're going to give that a little subversion.
Speaker: um One of the other things that really struck me about the the game is it has incredible custom animations. Oh, yeah. i mean, we've talked before a few episodes back. I declared that Sam's walking animation was one of my all time favorites, just like the way that he swings his arms and just sort of bounces as he walks is ah so perfect. I mean, at a time when a lot of games are sort of aspiring to this notion of like, we're going to be like ah a cartoon, you know an interactive cartoon.
Speaker: This one got farther down that road than I think any other I'd played at that point. It was like, okay, this, I think, I mean, it's an upsetting scene, but think about the animation right at the very beginning when Max reaches down into the cat's mouth to retrieve. Yeah, I mean, just so many custom animations like that that are so striking. Even the animation of the Soto their car as it as it peels out and and parks at locations so good.
Speaker: It like scrunches up a little bit and then does like a scooby-doo like skedaddle almost. And like the one you're talking about with the cat, when when he reaches, Max reaches his hand in, he's like feeling around. Like he wiggles his fingers like they're in a glove and then pulls out your directions. And it's like, I remember being like, whoa.
Speaker: a lot of times you save the cat, not retrieve the instructions from within. This is a topsy-turvy world. Sarah, did you have any other favorite animations?
Speaker: You know, there's a lot. And I think most of them are characters that are in charge of being at a location. Like the fishing guy is one of my all-time favorites.
Speaker: And then also... um Great character designs. The same location. yeah The alligators have this like casual air when you're playing the game where you have to mini golf, like hit fish and line them up.
Speaker: And I would get so stuck on that game. But also there were enough little like things like Max yells at you from the dunk tank while you're trying to figure it out. And he's like hopping up and down. The alligators are like coming across and it's just like they give you a vibe. Like you kind of feel like you're at a carnival and your friend is trapped and you have to help him But also I loved um Trixie, the giraffe neck girl from Scranton had such a brilliant, like beautiful animation. And then this big, long neck and this big, long hair. And like, I sympathize with their love story from the moment I heard about it. Like this game gives you nuggets along the way to where like you really care about these little guys and how cute they are. But also like there's some there's some real like stuff there.
Speaker: Sarah loves a romance. You love a love story. and and i think that's kind of. Especially if it's like weirdos on the run, you know, where you're like, oh, you guys think you that you have to be each other's ride or dies, but Sam and Max are also looking out for you.
Speaker: That. The knowledge of you loving a love story is I think pretty much why, like how adventure Tuesday really got to happen because it was like, because I think maybe Sam and Max is the first game. All three of us stream together. Is that Definitely the first time that I did a stream with you. Cause I was like, well, that'll get me on television playing my favorite games.
Speaker: and like salmon max and then i think we might have done like day of the tentacle or something kind of yeah like shortly out like it was like okay and then and then i was like i was like well we gotta keep we gotta uh keep sarah in but how am i gonna how am i gonna uh convince sarah to stay in like because now we've played like these couple games because we also played um Bay of Atlantis, which also has romance that I know that you love. Nurem Sal.
Speaker: That's the other romance. She's in love with Nurem Sal and Indiana Jones, and you know what? I'll fight you on that one. who Who were you rooting for? Indy or Nurem Sal? I think they could work together. Nurem Sal could be kind of a genie figure for the two of them and help them get fun vacations and solve mysteries.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: but But then, like, so i was like, all right, well, how do I keep Sarah in this? And then and then I was like, well, we got to play Conquest of the Longo. That was what came after that. Beautiful love story. because I had never seen any of those games, too. Like, just to be clear, this CD was my, like, foundation of adventure games. And people be like, oh, then you'd probably like Monkey Island. And I'm like, never heard of it, never came across it, have not seen it until Adventure Tuesday.
Speaker: But, uh, but then, yeah, then I was like conquest along though, because I know that has a love story. Maybe it's a me thing. Maybe it's a boy thing or something like that. But I have to say like, as a kid, I don't know if I could have told you what the plot of Sam and Max was like, it was almost like a joke engine for me. Like, like I wasn't even paying attention to the whole like Bigfoot Trixie story. It was just like, how do I get to the next location so I can hear Sam or Max say something really funny? And I still i will say almost every time I go back to replay, because replay it every three or four or five years, um I'm completely surprised by the story every single time. Yeah. it hasn't stuck it it's like water off a duck's back um it never sticks for me but then it's like I mean as we've already demonstrated you know all of us have lines memorized from this and everything else but yeah no it's uh yeah I guess the love story was lost on me at some level I think just like I was so cherishing of these games that on the family computer if I knew like the the Hans the Mole Man scene was coming up where he explained their love story I'd be like
Speaker: I gotta make sure that I've like done all my chores and addressed everything. Cause I need to like be in this room only listening. That's so good. to do where It's amazing. Were you ah quite taken by the, the fire eater? know, having been convinced to let Bruno out because Trixie was so in love.
Speaker: I was so her crying. That's an animation that's going to stick in my heart of like, oh, we have to help this sweet. And also from Scranton was so funny because was like, grew up in, you know, Pennsylvania. and I was like, that's a weird, right? Is that, or is there Scranton somewhere else? Or is she from Pennsylvania? Like me.
Speaker: they should set more pop culture stuff in Scranton. Yeah. Yeah. it's too bad this is the only example this is the only thing that was there ever anything else they put scranton on the map uh now we got they say scranton makes and the world takes yeah scranton makes the world that's really good um here you know this is something i want to talk about that uh like you were you were getting towards earlier sarah which is that
Speaker: i You and I are playing this and we're kids. Like I'm playing this in probably 95, 96. So like nine 10. Same. was right when got my hands it.
Speaker: same i was right when i got my hands on it And it's really funny because like, as said this game has all of these like, you know, references ah to like kind of very high culture, which obviously...
Speaker: I didn't get. And also like big vocabulary word yeah jokes. Like my mind was a scintillating miasma of turgid thoughts and yeah, that sort of thing.
Speaker: And, and it's, it's funny because it's like, and want I'm going to have to pull this up. I was reading the ah on the the digital antiquarian, like his write-up on Sam and Max, which I'm slowly... There it is. um And he quotes the computer gaming world review of salmon max. And I'm obsessed with this. Like when I, when I reread this, this is a, this is a Jimmy mayor quoting from the computer gaming world review quote.
Speaker: Uh, He found all of the, quote, self-referential jokes, sneering remarks, deadpan derision, sarcasm and ridicule, end quote, and even the unnerving jazz-influenced soundtrack to be decidedly off-putting, quote.
Speaker: Sarcastic New York intellectuals Like some of my friends ah will find the tone wholly agreeable, he concluded. But whether it plays in Peoria remains to be seen.
Speaker: Wow! And you had a child in Kokomo, Indiana, just like, and on all of it. The stuff I didn't know, I wanted to know more about. I remember being like, I don't know who John Muir is.
Speaker: You don't know? Who's John Neuer? I'm right here with you. No, that is a wild take on that to me. it I think it says probably more about the author than it does Sam Max. It seems to be sad. It's like, I'm obviously sophisticated enough to get this, but are you my reader? I'm not so sure. The rules might not.
Speaker: Are the dipshits in middle America that read our shitty magazine, will they get it? It's like, don't talk to me like that. get it. I it. Now, Jess, when you played it in West Virginia, like, were you, like, scratching your head and getting upset?
Speaker: I will say like from the start, the unnerving jazz music really got to like, I was just like, Oh, this is unnerving. that yeah This jazz music. this jazz The tempos, the the rhythms, the instruments. Oh, yeah. Unnerved was the only word I had for it. Yeah. as As a young kid in Appalachia, this was as if a constellation fell from the sky. And I had... I had no idea what to make it, so I just took it to the shower. How do I clean? I'm so dirty. I'm so dirty. do I get clean? I've got you. got you.
Speaker: where are Where's the nearest Grecian bath? Oh, we don't have those anymore. What? I'm sorry. Scented oils? Do you have scented oils?
Speaker: I'm having a memory that because a lot of times when I would really enjoy a video game like Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog, I would like try to integrate the characters like into my life. Obviously, I'm dating Hoagie. We're friends with Bernard and Laverne for Day of the Tentacle. With Sam and Max, I really struggled to come up with adventures for us because I was like, I just can't think all the funny stuff they'd say and what we do.
Speaker: They just hang out and eat chips, you know? But I'm like, oh, I know they'd say funnier stuff than what I'm thinking of. Maybe that's what ah the reviewer meant is ah like, you know, an impressionable child would not be able to play pretend with these characters because they're way too literate.
Speaker: They have such great references that a nine-year-old would never know.
Speaker: like it's it's funny because it's like, you know, i especially in the 90s, but this has always been the case. Like, it's like you watch a Looney Tune.
Speaker: from like the 40s, One Looney Tune, please. I would like to view one Looney Tune. Extra Looney. Looney Tune? Actually, can just have a looney tune?
Speaker: more actually can i just have a tune no looney I'm just feeling I want to I don't want to be unnerved today. yeah um But like, you know, you watch ay's jazz music. and When you watch a Looney Tune, like there's all sorts of like contemporary references in gags for mom and dad in them.
Speaker: um And like, and then, you know, the 90s especially was like, you know, they were really, really going crazy with those. um Like in the, to use a Sam and Max word, the apotheosis of that would probably be reached with something like Shrek, which is like half like, you know.
Speaker: it's like watered down Kool-Aid. Yeah, like like half references for adults and like half like gross out jokes for the kids, right? Like, you know, um and but it's it's just funny because it's like when I was a kid and I would see something like ah like a cartoon that would reference, you know, something I had no idea for just made me curious about what that thing was.
Speaker: yes yeah I didn't get mad or feel excluded. i actually always felt like I was doing something a little grown up, but it was open to me. And I never felt like I was going get in trouble for playing the game, but it did feel like it talked up and made me want to learn things rather than being like, okay, if you've already got it figured out, I'm not going to learn.
Speaker: it's it's It's like, because also the people making Sam and Matt, like, I think the the The team working and writing ah on the game don't expect you to get every reference.
Speaker: They probably don't even expect you to get any of the references. Do they really think you know what a Chaldian god is? like that's just a funny thing to say. Like, that's just a funny,
Speaker: like it's it's it's funny to hear that shit like even if you don't know what that is why still i still wikipedia it yep earlier today and i don't remember what a chaldean god is but yes i am going to play king of the creatures now i remember my childhood in brighton When dear old dad would bounce me on his knee.
Speaker: He'd say, son, there ain't nothing as exciting as exposing beasts to inhumanity. That's why I'm...
Speaker: oh I trapped my first tiger before I could speak killed me a bear when I was free
Speaker: With this Bigfoot and giraffe neck freak I finally have a full menagerie, hit it boy! Just by the peace, that's getting me here by the corner Just to be the song of love is all
Speaker: Now it's tough to be a country western star.
Speaker: Oh, it's amazing. I had to play that in its entire, like, it it felt wrong to not to not play it. I mean, where do you cut it? It's a piece. It's a piece. Yeah.
Speaker: But also this kind of underlines, we were talking earlier about the voice performances, and this has all of it. The way the the the voice actor doing Conroy Bumpus punches giraffe neck freak, like...
Speaker: That's the one. It just sounds so mean. It should because he's the villain, but just sounds so mean. You like are invested and have seen her crying over the Bigfoot who's frozen on a block of ice. She's in love with them.
Speaker: The fire breather wants to help her out. And then it's just like, I'm collecting a freak and all these creatures. And he's like, brilliant. It's different. It's different when you're like, she's at the freak show or she's in the freak show tent or something like that. But then we just flat out call her a freak. Like, hey. And not like the cool, like Rick, Rick James kind of way. um Yeah, just it's a giraffe neck freak. Like, like, like Sarah, you said, what was that line that like lives, like lives rent free with you? What's the one that's, ah you have no idea how often I hear that. Yeah.
Speaker: Giraffe neck freak is, is like that. line like that just particular delivery just lives in my head giraffe neck for freak because it's also it's like it doesn't entirely like sarah you were in a band and you i'm in a band right now you're you're you were in a band you are in a band yeah you're a band of brothers yeah and sisters trixies as well But ah like you were like you were in a ah ah is is the band you're in now also a comedy band? and comedy me I can't do anything else.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. Good. But like one of one of your favorite jokes, I'm i'm unfamiliar with your new comedy band. So I'm excited to learn about that. But um like like with your old.
Speaker: Yeah. With with your old comedy band, which I love to see perform back in the day. ah was like, you know, you you you always, you know, played with the the structure of songs and how like, you know, verses could fit.
Speaker: And like, Giraffe Neck Freak doesn't necessarily fit into the structure of the song, i don't think. Right? Like, and instead be a freak like an extra syllable. It's like the pre close to the ending. So it's kind of that like odd little is this a bridge? Is this a chorus? Is a verse? It's like a hot spot for like, that's where you throw in giraffe neck freak because audience is like, we don't have any idea where this is going. Oh, OK, we're going to hit it that hard.
Speaker: Giraffe neck freak. Great.
Speaker: I think there's a Simpsons episode where ah the one guy comes in, they think he's all going to be the teacher, and he's like, all right, you little freaks. And I remember that. That's a rent-free freak in my brain.
Speaker: Yeah. ah Nick Jameson? Hold on. Is that right? Conroy... Yeah. Nick Jameson. Great name. i Was the voice.
Speaker: And also, he was on 24th. Hey! He was a Russian president. I was in college for 24. He was the the Russian president, Yuri Surinov, over three seasons of 24.
Speaker: Now he lives in Reykjavik doing live comedy. Hey! Let's see what ah what what other things has has he been up to? Has he done any... He was in Psychonauts 2. Yeah.
Speaker: he's said Oh, he's ah ah the Coach Oleander and Dr. Loboto in Psychonauts. That makes sense. He was also in Broken Age. Maybe one day we'll talk about that. ah Nope. chuck Sure? You sure?
Speaker: was also two characters. Wait, he was the voice of Kyle Katarn. oh and he was he was also ah too care wait he was the voice of kyle catarn Wow, Kyle Katarn. Kyle Katarn. Kyle Katarn.
Speaker: Kyle Katarn. Kyle Katarn. Kyle Katarn. Kyle Katarn. I don't give a Katarn. i don't know what's a Katarn with you.
Speaker: oh brother. Anyway. um But yeah, I mean, you know when you're you're a kid and it it throws references like that at you, like, I love that shit.
Speaker: and And this was playable on the CD-ROM. Yes, it was. You could play on your CD player. Yes, and you could listen to King of the Creatures. didn't know that. You better believe I did. i listened to this one a lot. um It was, yeah, that was for me, I think, at the time. Since then, I don't know if I would say it was the absolute highlight of the game for me. But boy, did I just, if I was loving the game already, I fell completely in love with it during King of the Creatures.
Speaker: Now I'll tell you something, as a little girl, King of the Creatures really stressed me out because I felt bad for the creatures singing. I thought about their lives before, and I also thought that Sam and Max were going to set them all free, but also like, they he killed them. Like, they're singing somehow, but it's, you know, it can't all be roses and friendships.
Speaker: Well, I mean, they didn't they didn't free the damsel in distress at the start of the game. They just they like tore the guys' bomb head. Bye, Sam Max.
Speaker: Bye, Sam and Max. You really did a great job here today. but I'll get myself out even though you had your finger at the easily untied bow for a while. For a good while.
Speaker: um you know this is uh i remember this on the box on the back of the salmon max box and sarah you wouldn't have had this because have the compilation yeah on the back of the box i remember it promises quote endless hours of fun with the mini games in the game like say hours and would we say endless
Speaker: And in mrs of the so Sam and Max hit the road has a couple mini games. I think only one is actually required ah to complete the game, which is also like extremely easy, which is no, it's not battleship. It's oh also requires and enoughhack-a-mo the whack-a-mole.
Speaker: Oh yeah. w them all And the, the, the whack-a-mole is great because again, you have, or it's whack a rat and it has these incredible animations yeah of actual rats. And like by the end of the game, like they're looking woozy.
Speaker: They're great sound effects. Very smashing um yeah very unhappy. They're going slower. I remember once I figured out that you had to feel bad about that too, Sarah. Yeah, I felt bad about that. And that was a hard one to beat. I remember like asking my brother to beat it and he would.
Speaker: But then there's a time where I wanted to play and he's not around. And I was like, I really have to learn how to do this. And I did. But it was my little heart would be pounding. I loved the paper dolls. Like that was the mini game for me. like great So you got, I loved those like dressing up Sam and Max at the paper doll outfits was very much my jam. Like throwing a Pope hat on them and a pizza delivery guy outfit. I mean, it's, it's good. Endless hours of fun doing that.
Speaker: I wouldn't say hours or endless minutes. I did have fine minutes of fun. I had, had a finite number of minutes of fun. Yes. ah yeah. So there's, there's a coloring book. There's the paper cutouts. That one was too hard for me.
Speaker: I never have understood the driving one. And I'm, yeah, there's this driving. I'm not teaching Orion how to play that one. Okay. ah boy Which like you're, you're jumping on top of billboard or not billboard. Like, uh, uh, you're jumping on the car, but like ducking the signs maybe.
Speaker: You're jumping on top of the signs. I think you get the the points for for timing it to jump on top of the signs. I never figured it out. It always scared me. You're always scared by it. I'm scared by it. The color by numbers one was all right.
Speaker: container And then finally, yeah, then there was a ah battleship. It was like a battle. it was fun That was fun. It was it was just, yeah, just ah a battleship variation. It was a good year for battleship games and and adventure games.
Speaker: uh space quest five of course which we'll get to of after four yeah you know what jess i'm starting to think maybe we should just get to uh uh five because you know i love five so much we should do an episode about space quest five yeah yeah uh anyway um but i Yeah, like it advertised. I remember feeling like I was sold a bill of goods with these. I was like, ooh, there's all these extra mini games.
Speaker: And I wonder, and maybe there's like an answer. Like, you know, maybe this isn't like a design. I was trying to track down the design document for this. I know it's online. I wonder if that was like those mini games were placed in there.
Speaker: If it was just like something we tossed in for fun. Like that, like just somebody like had this silly idea or if it was like, sometimes you play an adventure game ah and they're like, well, we have to add something that kind of makes it replayable that, that bring people back.
Speaker: Was it that, or was it like to put something else on the box? You know, that's funny. They started doing the box and then they're like, we don't have enough games.
Speaker: We don't have enough ah bullet points for the box. Yeah, we only have two bullet points on this one list. Can we think of a third? What about dress up? We do dress up particularly?
Speaker: and I mean, do you is there an adventure game mini game that people have ever like gone back to revisit regularly? I mean, like, is there one in any adventure game that stands out so much? You'd be like, I'm just going to load up this game to play the mini game.
Speaker: Oh, sometimes I go to Day of the Tentacle to get into Mystery Mansion. But that's not exactly the same. Or Maniac can maniac panton maniac what did iia you Mansion. like Maniac Maniac Mansion. Mystery Mansion. That's my generic offshoot. That's what it was named called in Canada.
Speaker: mystery man i think it was it was well it was made in canada well they had to do a lot of adr uh for the american voices so yeah they just changed that but um yeah like there's uh Also, i'm i'm I'm looking at my notes here, and I just had to write this down from the the tar pits.
Speaker: ah I just had to write this this pun down because it murdered me. Brick-a-brack-a-brachiosauruses. So good. I remember not getting that and then seeing it a few years later and being like, I understand that now.
Speaker: It's so good. Brick-a-brachiosauruses. Incredible. Like, I was just like, fuck you. And they had a really distinct way of when you picked up an object, they gave you a great picture for it. Because at the tar pits, when you get the mammoth hair and it's like a little bit wet, or maybe one's a little wet from the ice for the Bigfoot hair, and then you get some more hair, each pile of hair looked different. And it was fun to combine them to make your tar suit. That was what it was. You get the tar from the tar pits and all the Bigfoot hair.
Speaker: But every object was like a distinct... You don't get that from every game where you're like looking at it and then you put it in your little box. they It had a a unique interface for Lucas games because it didn't have like the, like all the verbs on the bottom.
Speaker: It had the like right, right, ah right mouse button cycle, like a Sierra game. And then also, how did you, how do you feel about like ah the, the dialogue options in the game where instead of giving you like the full text,
Speaker: of what the person will say it just gives you an icon.
Speaker: I guess click Max's head instead of an actual piece of dialogue. At first I was a little like, whoa, I've never figured this out. But when I realized that Max would like help you do stuff, I was like, frick, yeah, this is the coolest.
Speaker: Any time I got to put Max into a situation, was like the best. I read somewhere, probably at the digital antiquarian, uh, we rely heavily on Jimmy's work, uh, here at the, uh, here at the pod. Um,
Speaker: a quote that says like, you know, when you see the joke on screen before you click on it and then hear someone deliver the exact dialogue you just read, like nothing kills a joke faster than having already read it before you hear someone deliver. It's like when you have closed captioning on, on your TV and it's ahll me sometimes. Yeah, I know. And it's true. I think that's a good point. I kind of liked that. And this, you know, sometimes when you have games like that, it's,
Speaker: you know, you occasionally like when it's a very vague dialogue choice, you'll click on something and realize that the tone or the intent of it was quite different from what you meant. In this game, the stakes are so low. There's no wrong dialogue choice anywhere. You're not, you're not going to ruin your relationship with Trixie because you clicked on the wrong icon. So it's all just good fun. Yeah. The, um, uh, like in Tex Murphy,
Speaker: Like you yeah have dialogue choices and they're all like kind of vague descriptions. It's like a suave overture. Yeah. Rye repartee. Like it's all of this.
Speaker: And like the thing with Tex Murphy is like, that's kind of fun. But if you choose the wrong, like dialogue option, you could die in certain situations. yes So like. Just like real life.
Speaker: And in this, it just doesn't matter. And so, yeah, like, I mean, having that icon kind of obscures, like if they have a really good joke, they don't want to, ah like, give it away. I'm realizing now as we talk about this, that this is the game that taught me what the term non sequitur. Yeah, me too. Yeah.
Speaker: Because the um the the duck, because I remember reading this in in the the manual, is the the duck in the the dialogue options is non sequitur. That's the the option. I believe that's what's in the manual.
Speaker: and And I remember reading that and being like, what what's a
Speaker: do Not much. What's a non-secuit with you? Woo!
Speaker: Yeah, Jess. Could you give me a point, Sean, please?
Speaker: And then Jess dabbed us at the end. yeah
Speaker: So crisp. He just hit it and quit it. just A really crisp dab. oh man. It was it was majestic.
Speaker: And then eagle perched on my head. Yeah. I thought the rubber duck without having the manual and just using context clues. I thought the rubber duck was just something funny, which is kind of a funny button.
Speaker: It's a funny button. I think, I think the last, the last thing I would want to say is that like, like It is absolutely an adventure game where like the, the writing and the the comedy I think is better than the puzzle design, which I think is not bad, but it's not great.
Speaker: It's weird for me to like, because ah in like I wrote this down, like it's hard for me to gauge what puzzles on this game I think are, might be unfair because I've played this so many times that I have it all memorized.
Speaker: So I can't think of any other way to solve those situations. Yeah. yeah but Like, so this is what I wrote down. Like when I was revisiting it today was it's like, okay, So you have to get to the other side of the ball of twine. And you know that because you looked down at the ball of twine and Sam says, oh well, you always need a long piece of string in a video game like this.
Speaker: laughed so hard when they said that. and And so it's like, okay, so the game is saying that this is important. And then you try it, like try to get And it's like, I'm on the wrong side. so you have to get over to the other side.
Speaker: So to get ah to the other side of the ah the ball of twine, there isn't a way to, there there is no visible way in the rotating restaurant on top of the ball of twine.
Speaker: So instead... I think is so hilarious that they put a rotating restaurant on top of the ball of twine. Logistically, that's insane. Very good. It's also and on top of the ball of twine in the museum of the ball of twine, which is not in the restaurant. It's at the base of the ball of twine.
Speaker: I'm just going to say ball of twine a million times. Ball of twine. Ball of twine. Out the window, you just see fish carcasses falling like rain the entire time. And then you go into the the restaurant and there's only one constantly swearing man there and he's not even eating.
Speaker: yeah the and and there is a very good joke there which is of course uh sam says uh uh there is something you you don't see every day ah you know at home it's halibut uh but uh Anyway, um so in order to get to the other side of the ball of twine rotating restaurant lower level, you have to go to the world of fish.
Speaker: Of course. And you talk to the fisherman at the world of fish. ah And like you see that a helicopter comes and steals all of the fisherman's fish. So that that happens. You have this information that a helicopter steals this man's fish.
Speaker: And he says, oh the fish go directly to the ball of twine in Minnesota. And then helicopter. So then what you do.
Speaker: and it's satisfying when that hook comes down and gets the bag of fish and flies away. One of the best animations. It's able to because there's like this, this 3d render. It's amazing.
Speaker: um yeah And so what you do is i there's a massive ceramic fish that you can enter.
Speaker: And so you and Max go into it. You unscrew the lower hinge of it. And Max, both of you being in it is so violent. It shakes it free. The fisherman fishes you, throws you into his pile. The helicopter comes, picks you up and then puts you It's wonderful. Like, and you want to know what?
Speaker: That is actually genius puzzle design. So I don't know what my complaint was. Because it was a little bit like it was so creative. you have to really. Yeah, you have to flex your brain and follow the clues. Because a lot of times with these games, there were walkthroughs becoming available.
Speaker: But also there's a big brother that you have at your house that's already played it. And so I'd be like asking him for like the next. He was my hint line. So then that's how I figured out puzzles like that it was because my brother had already done it and could give me like one or two.
Speaker: But i don't think it's an unfair puzzle. It's so they give you all the pieces. It's just not. They give you all. do Mr. Policeman, Mr. Freelance policeman. We gave you all the clues. i I also the idea of the freelance police was like, like so funny once I like understood what that meant.
Speaker: Yes, I was going to say the exact same thing. Like when it finally clicked for me what it meant to declare yourself freelance police. it It's just such a brilliant concept. so It's so funny. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. um Jess, how does this fit within Ron Gilbert's manifesto? How does this adventure game suck?
Speaker: That's what I was kind of getting towards. Yeah, I mean... It gives you options, kind of. Kind of. it's yeah I'm not always sure... so much that you know your immediate goal all the time as much as just new locations open up and they kind of drag you through the game. Like, I don't know if it's not like monkey island where it's like, these are the three things you need to do to progress, but It's much more of an open-ended, like I felt, i mean, there's clearly a linear way through this game, but as I played it as a kid, I felt more like I was just sort of wandering around and piecing bits together, which is also satisfying in its own way. Not everything has to be, ah we laid out exactly what you should do. What do you think? Does it fit what we thought of as as a non-sucky adventure game, according to Ron Gilbert? Slickron-y G? Yeah.
Speaker: i The Grumpy Ron. Grumpy Ron is what we call him around here. I think that it does, like, it it like and like to your point, I think that there's there's a bunch of stuff in it that is kind of a little more fuzzy.
Speaker: Yeah. It has a lot of fuzziness, but it is also, Sarah said earlier, like it clues you on all of it. All of the Mr. Freelance policeman, as I said, all the all the clues are there.
Speaker: So it's not is not bullshitting you, but it is since it relies on, you know, it's so twisted. Such a twisted game, right? Sarah, is it twisted? like my games like I like my tea, twisted.
Speaker: Yeah, it's like a twisted T. um yeah like Because it it it exists in this very twisted world, you you have to kind of think along those lines.
Speaker: And that doesn't, like, it it requires you to to kind of bend your brain in in a couple ways that might not necessarily be clear. Mm hmm.
Speaker: But I felt like that was the deal with every single game that I ever played, because, you know, games do that. They're silly. Yeah, i mean, I think Day the Tentacle asks a little bit of the same of you. It sort of asks you to start thinking in the language of the game itself. Like, once you start thinking like a freelance policeman, you can start solving puzzles like a freelance policeman. Yeah, you know, once you start thinking with portals.
Speaker: Hey, speaking portals, everything looks like a portal. Is the Snookies guy Bernard? That's Bernard, yeah. but there's But there's multiples of them. Like, what's the... I want to know. I want a game that's all Bernard Bernoullis and they all, you know, the one Bernard goes to the Snookies. Like, I want all the worlds to talk to each other. Sarah, I'm going to forge you several erotic fan fictions about this and it can fill it up. I've got my day laid out.
Speaker: and then And then Sarah, you can teach him how to shower.
Speaker: Is his friend Hoagie available? Do you remember when they had to teach our friend Grayson how to shower? Yeah. Hold on, hold on, hold on.
Speaker: We got to this. Fine. He's not even here. he's not even here He's not even here. Get him on the call. Get him on the call. Tuesday lore. Which is that...
Speaker: I mean, we'll have to have him on the podcast. We'll have to bring this up next time he's on the podcast. We have to do a special episode. But from what I understand, he had a special opportunity to go to like a management skills increasing class. But when he got there, he realized it was like for the stinky boys at work to be like, hey, you got to plan your day around making sure you shower. and brush your teeth and eat the right amount of food at work it was like wild to me that that that happened to our dear boy that's amazing i
Speaker: i i think it was yeah it was just like literally it like it was like yeah what you were saying sarah was like oh uh we're offering like this this this class on uh you know, professionalism and skill building. Yeah. And like, I've gone to lifelong learning like a couple of these, you know, it's like, yeah, here's some like fucking like this guy's going to come in and teach you how to make a good PowerPoint.
Speaker: And, uh, it's, he he he was like, well, remember to shower every day.
Speaker: who
Speaker: Hey, all of you, did you know that? I want to be in that room looking around to be like, what about me and these people do we all have to learn to shower together with?
Speaker: And then, and well, and then Grayson turned and one of them was Orion. um
Speaker: So this has been Adventure Tuesday. Thank you for joining us. was perfect That was the perfect Herald, Sarah. I brought it. that wasn't but And it's so rare to get a perfect Herald. It was a very, yeah, we had all three.
Speaker: yeah any anyway A, B, A, B, B, C, they all connected. So thank you so much for joining us for Adventure Tuesday. And thank you so much, Sarah.
Speaker: It's always great to have you. Yeah, this is and this is Quest Quest. Well, I'm sorry. What did I call it? It's a Quest Quest Adventure Tuesday takeover. Yeah.
Speaker: Listen, I, just thought thursday I I mean went to autopilot. Uh, uh, uh, just went into autopilot, uh, because I'm saying goodbye. Like, it's like, thank you, Sarah. thought we are so I was like, okay, we're going to obviously hang out for four hours. you like to raid somebody? No, I never raid anyone.
Speaker: You'd like to raid a different podcast. So this is my adventure Tuesday. The adventure game podcast.
Speaker: ah We started late. Yeah. And I have all the energy in the world. We started late because I slept till 8.30 PM CST.
Speaker: I needed a nap after work. Well, what you mentioned what or what you missed while you were like napping was mostly just Ben and I singing King of the Creatures to each other. did We did do that.
Speaker: i In our best Conroy Bumpus voices. um But this has been Adventure Tuesday. Thank you for joining us. Going to continue playing Casebook 1899, the Ziegfeld murders or whatever. um and ah But if you have any emails, we haven't gotten an email in a little bit. Send us an email at questquestpodcast at gmail.com. If you want to send an email. to If you want to know more about the Orion scenario, they will forward requests on to me and I will answer each one personally. Which is also the name of a spy thriller I'm working on. So make sure you specify which one you're you're directing your question towards. We have departments.
Speaker: Sarah, I can't believe i didn't know this fucking Orion thing. I feel like I just got a ah very good piece of Sarah lore. That's such Sarah lore. That's like sums it all up.
Speaker: The people who watch Adventure Tuesday but don't listen to Quest Quest are going to be so out of the loop on this. Like, they are going to not, like, they won't even understand what's happening next Tuesday.
Speaker: i can't wait. Um, but, uh, yeah, send us a email quest quest podcast at gmail.com. Please rate and review. to Tell all your friends. We have a discord link in the show notes. Sarah could be found at Sarah and Marty. Is that just what you search now? Like martin or Sarah, it's alphabetical. Yeah. Oh, and it's also, it's like Tegan and Sarah.
Speaker: It's like that. And if you're in the Janesville, Wisconsin area, I do have the Menards, one of the Menards. And I have a new comedy band called in in the homage to the Beatle Moses cartoon, a big binky and the banana boys. And we perform every now and again at the comedy cabin here in Janesville. We have shows in September, October and December.
Speaker: And we have this great opener, a young standup, Marty DeRosa. So come on out cabin laughs.com.
Speaker: Well, I, you know, I think there might be a future for young Marty. and He may not be opening forever. i taught him how to shower. ah Every young man at some point in his life. Did he reach out to Grayson for some he He loves that piece of Grayson lore. Also, another, he just, he loves Grayson. And we have like some in-jokes from the three of us that it's just like, you know what?
Speaker: Let's all go to shower school. thank the The two most important schools you'll ever attend are shower school and submarine school. That's true. Water above and water below.
Speaker: be sure to Join us next week ah on Adventure Tuesday. no On Adventure Tuesday when we play Space Quest 4.
Speaker: This is a little unnerving.
Speaker: Sarah, do you remember when we played Space Quest 4? Do you remember anything about Space Quest 4? not It's not coming up in my Rolodex.
