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80 Days
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Ben and Jess pack their bags to travel across the world in a ludicrously short amount of time.
Quest Quest podcast is Ben Vigeant and Jess Morrissette.
Editing by Ben Vigeant
Show art by Kevin "WilcoWeb" Wallace
Watch us on Twitch!
Ben: https://www.twitch.tv/ps_garak
Jess: https://www.twitch.tv/decafjedi
Give us a review, they help people find this show! Unless you hated it, in which case, don't.
Talk with us on Discord!
https://discord.gg/ve9fqjgPp2
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Transcript
Podcast Goals & Space Quest Series
00:00:46
Speaker
Welcome to Quest Quest. The Space Quest 4 podcast. No, no. Here we go, Ben. We're going to do that bit where you're like, let's talk about ah the 2014 adventure game, 80 days. And I'm going to be like, wouldn't you rather talk about Space Quest 4? And you're going to relent and we'll be well on our way to our eventual podcast about Space Quest 6, which has been the goal of this all along. Yeah, yeah, we all want to talk about Space Quest 6, Roger Wilco in the spinal frontier. That's just been the the raison d'etre of this whole podcast, the whole time.
00:01:24
Speaker
So we have this episode, Space Quest 4, next episode, Space Quest 5, the episode after that, Space Quest 6, and the podcast will be over. Great. You have this episode and two more to go, gang.
Old-Timey Illnesses & Personal Health Beliefs
00:01:36
Speaker
ah So, Jess, how are you doing? I am... you're sick don't lie about death's door yeah i mean yeah the the answer is by the time we're here yeah but yeah by the time like listeners hear this there are already be like arrangements as to where to send flowers and things like that so you know these will be my last recorded words i suspect so i want to go out with a bang and really settle some grievances that's not good
00:02:07
Speaker
No, I'm a little sick. I've been fighting off various forms of the croup. And Ben, I understand you are too. So yeah we are. I have the grip.
00:02:19
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. You have the croup. I have the grip. Oh, man. Which is worse. Oh, yeah. You know, like, I mean, i'll my mom didn't let me go to the grip parties as a child. So this is why it's it's so much worse as an adult when you get. Oh, man. You know, that' you to be careful with this. I mean, yeah, the problem is there are germs out there everywhere this time of year. They're out to get you.
00:02:45
Speaker
I still believe in germ theory. It's increasingly a fringe perspective on how diseases are transmitted. But, you know, that's just how I grew up learning about these things. Yeah, no, I understand that ah you only get sick if you're a bad person.
00:03:01
Speaker
Well, or if there's an imbalance in your humors. Oh, yes. Well, that i like, yeah, what what are what like ah do you have a case of the morbs? Well, I i think i have too much bile. I feel like it's bile issue. It's a bile issue. Yeah. It's a bile. Yeah, that was the next thing I was going to say.
Christmas Decorations & Traditions
00:03:22
Speaker
Now, so Jess, I can't help but notice with ah your your camera on, because this is the first time I, like, I've seen you in a little bit, because it didn't stream this week either. didn't. I see in the corner of the frame.
00:03:37
Speaker
a little bit of of Christmas decoration. Is that correct? Oh, Ben, the the Christmas spirit is alive and well here. Full disclosure, we've had up a Christmas tree and Christmas decorations since like November 15th or so. We went early this year because we were going to be out of town on a little trip. And we started thinking if we don't decorate before we leave town,
00:04:04
Speaker
It'll be so close to the Christmas season and we'll get distracted by other things and we'll barely have any quality tree and tinsel time. So we got it up early this year. And yeah, you just out of frame, Ben, there is a lovely ball. Can you turn the camera? can I can't. I can't. Let's see here. A little bit of what's going on here. You got to see out there in my hallway. We have it decked with tinsel. There's a little ball of mistletoe up there.
00:04:29
Speaker
yeah we've got We've got it all. But no, it's, uh, have you
Command Strips & Home Repair Challenges
00:04:35
Speaker
decorated? Are you, uh, I have, uh, one Christmas decoration up, which is, I have the classic ceramic tree with a light bulb in it.
00:04:46
Speaker
I love a ceramic tree with a light bulb. Yeah. It's like, uh, maybe under a foot tall around there. ah has the little, like, you know, the little translucent, uh, like phony bulbs.
00:04:58
Speaker
and We had one of those when I was a ah kid and that was my favorite. That was my favorite thing. I have a string of ah the discount ah phone control ah colored lights that I need to to ah put up somewhere.
00:05:20
Speaker
Like, I was just like, oh, I got to do that. make it Make it look fun. And I bought those while I was on my my trip ah back home for the holiday for for Thanksgiving.
00:05:33
Speaker
And then like i I get back here and I open up the box and then I like look around my my home and I'm like, where am I going to put these up? I also got 90 feet of it. Like I was just like, I'm going to go. Oh, and I was like 90 feet. That's a lot.
00:05:50
Speaker
That's a commitment. Yeah. And like, theres a point i'm like I spent all this money. it's it's i have no idea. i have no idea where to put them.
00:06:03
Speaker
Uh, so, so, just wrap them around yourself that way, no matter what room you're in, it's decorated.
DIY Home Maintenance Experiences
00:06:11
Speaker
Yeah. And, and then like 90 feet, but you know,
00:06:18
Speaker
I, I bought a command strips to like kind of clip them up. But I think the ones I got are a little too small. Like this is a disaster chess. This whole thing is a, it's a disaster. Ben, can I tell you something as someone has,
00:06:34
Speaker
has done a lot of things around the house in the past you know 10 to 15 years of home ownership yeah um command strips are a joke and they should never be used for anything oh no i i disagree i mean there are those out there there are those of you out there who who don't know how to put up a command strip do not know how to accurate like You see all these beautiful framed works of art up on my wall that you can't really see them. You just see that they're hanging. That's one of them just fell down. Of course I can't see it. No, they've been up. You just pointed at it and it fell off the wall. In in my previous apartment, they they they stood all seven years I was there, other than the one that the cats pulled down. and I was in that apartment and there was shattered glass everywhere from frames falling to the floor. No, have been in that apartment.
00:07:28
Speaker
ah it Just piles of shattered glass. Cats trying not to walk on it. It was ah awful. Yeah. Now, here's the here's the thing. Here's the question I have for you, Jess Morissette.
00:07:39
Speaker
I'm sorry. Dr. Jess Morissette. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, i don't want to be picky about that, but, you know. Um, Dr. Jess, uh, more set. Yes. Do you, do you make sure to wipe down the wall with alcohol and then let it thoroughly dry before you hang your command strips? Ben, do I look like a moron to you?
00:08:12
Speaker
I don't believe in that. Yeah, that's what I do.
00:08:18
Speaker
These command strips don't work. I also am not using the instructions. Listen, I have work to do. i don't have time to clean my wall and hang something. I am hanging something out so I don't have to clean it.
00:08:31
Speaker
Jess, you think I am going to get up to my fucking drywall and use a stud detector and like figure all that shit out? No way, man. you have a stud detector?
00:08:43
Speaker
What do you have a stud detector? No. And I mean, I've got one. They're so fun. No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. Sometimes you walk into a room. You're like, where are the studs? where's the stud um Where's the studs at? yeah yeah You're just like, I wonder where the studs are at in this room. Yeah. Stud detector. It'll answer that question. I've got one. And you what? I think I've used it once. was going to say like, and then when I've had people come over, because it's like, I do have like big,
00:09:11
Speaker
heavy things that are up on the wall and those I have had like hung up and I've had, I've had, I've hired a man to come over and and do that because Lord knows that's not happening here. You hired your own stud. Yeah.
00:09:24
Speaker
And so like each time I've had someone come over to hang some shit or it like went like to, to mount the TV to the wall, they just like kind of looked at the wall and they're like, all right. And then just, just did it.
00:09:39
Speaker
And it worked. Yeah. Because they've got, they, they, they have stud detectors in their, their eyes and their minds. yes Yeah. There's nowhere they would put a stud if they were building this house. If I was, if if I was a stud, where would I be? Exactly here.
00:09:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I also think that like professionals can also just anchor stuff in drywall magically, where if I try to like anchor a photo frame and into drywall, again, it's going just fall to the ground rip half the drywall out of the wall.
00:10:06
Speaker
Yes, this is this is a this is a, like,
Sandwich Report from Scotland
00:10:10
Speaker
it it it is, like, I, since moving in yeah to to my home here, i have task-rabbited so many tasks that, like, should be, like, no like, you know,
00:10:28
Speaker
Probably not my dad, but someone's dad would be very disappointed. Yeah. yeah the My dad changes or changed his own oil. Oh, yeah. of course Every dad of a certain age does. My dad's not driving anymore, so he's probably not doing that. Yeah. Even if my dad wasn't driving, he would look for people's oil to change. Not professionally, just as a courtesy.
00:10:51
Speaker
Like I am, I'm thoroughly useless with, with this kind of thing. Oh yeah. I suspect you are more useful at this sort of thing than I am. It's possible.
00:11:02
Speaker
I am completely helpless. I just like politely asked my wife to do these sorts of tasks. Who's incredibly handy at everything. And if she isn't, she can learn it in a matter of hours. What would take me a lifetime to master? So, you know, was just default to her.
00:11:18
Speaker
those yeah and and YouTube will fool fool you. YouTube, you'll you'll see a video and and somebody will say, this is the easiest thing. And then you try it and it's not.
00:11:29
Speaker
Listen, I have trouble with fucking Legos. You think I can i can fucking ah find a stud? So Ben, are you not a Legosman? i've I've never been a Legosman.
00:11:41
Speaker
I feel bad about this. I feel like, you know, we've talked before about when it comes to adventure games, how like we both kind of wish we were map makers and note takers, but we simply aren't. Yeah.
00:11:52
Speaker
I really wish I was the kind of nerd who like loved Legos and really got into it and could throw together sets and
Pennsylvania Snacks & Family Obsessions
00:12:00
Speaker
throw together my own original builds and stuff like that. Yeah.
00:12:03
Speaker
I'm not. Nope. i I would pay occasionally i see a Lego set and I think to myself, I would pay double face value to have that preassembled for me just so I could look at it. But yeah, I'm not, I'm not a Legos man. I wish I was, I feel like there are a lot of cool nerds who are, and I wish that could be me.
00:12:23
Speaker
Well, you know, we have, we have a packed top of the show today. we have a map Before we even get to Space Quest 4.
00:12:34
Speaker
Before we start ripping through time. ah So I have a communique that has been sent to us by our sandwich correspondent, Francisco.
00:12:49
Speaker
It's time for another message from Francisco, our sandwich correspondent. Hello, Quest Quest. This is Francisco Gonzalez, your sandwich correspondence, reporting to you from beautiful, sunny Scotland.
00:13:05
Speaker
Actually, it has been very sunny in all the time I've been here, so I'm very lucky. But I have a very quick emergency sandwich report to report. I spent the last week in Edinburgh, and i did not eat any sandwiches while I was there, but I did see some menus, and I saw that at no fewer than two places, they had a Cubano or Cuban sandwich.
00:13:29
Speaker
And they all seemed fine except for one ingredient each, which was just, in my opinion, an abomination. They all had the ham, the pulled pork, well, not pulled pork, the ham, the pork, the cheese, ah the pickles, etc. Although they call them gherkins.
00:13:45
Speaker
But at one place they added caramelized onions and at the other place they added mayonnaise. And I'm here to tell you that neither of these ingredients are acceptable on a true Cuban sandwich. What are you thinking, Scotland?
00:13:58
Speaker
Do better. I hope to return for your next episode with an actual sandwich report from London with at least one special guest. So keep on keeping on.
00:14:11
Speaker
Until next time, sandwich correspondent out. I am so intensely on the hook. What a cliffhanger. Yeah. You know, this is what, this is why we brought on <unk> Francisco in the first place. Cause I'll tell you what, you send a lot of correspondents out in the field to report on sandwiches. You know what they're going report on?
00:14:33
Speaker
the sandwiches they ate and what I like about Francisco's approach to this is I want to hear reports on the sandwiches you didn't eat as well because yeah it's all about the sandwiches you don't eat uh exactly yeah no I mean this is brilliant and I have to say i can almost see mayonnaise on a Cuban sandwich before sauteed onions or caramelized. that
00:15:04
Speaker
Yeah, car caramelized or or caramelized depending on where you're from. Does anyone actually say caramelized? you guys say that for the first time? People say caramelized. Yeah. i came' A perfectly cromulent way to say it.
00:15:19
Speaker
Yeah. Let's say caramel flavored onions.
00:15:25
Speaker
Werther's original onions. Delicious. Those like, you know, does it, Cubano need that sweetness?
00:15:37
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I feel like a little bit of mayonnaise could easily get lost in the mustard and you just get like a slightly creamier mustard vibe that doesn't transform the entire flavor profile.
00:15:48
Speaker
But i feel like those onions are going to throw you in a completely new direction. Yeah, no and and and that's a great point about the mustard is that, yeah, the mayonnaise is going to cut the sharpness.
00:16:00
Speaker
Yeah, which is a shame because the sharpness for me is a big part of the flavor profile of a Cuban sandwich. But I think it's just going to be like a milder version of the flavor you like, whereas caramelized onions are going to be... It's you way off the map.
00:16:15
Speaker
You're in a different zone. you're in a different tone Yeah, that's that's just not. Yeah, I mean, I'm glad. It's texture thing, too. Like, you're adding a whole new texture. You're adding a new flavor. Oh, yeah. You're adding, like, everything, everything here.
00:16:31
Speaker
This sandwich now smells markedly different as well. I mean, you're going to have, I mean, yeah, I mean, it it is assaulting all of your senses. Yeah, this is wrong. I mean, iy this is troubling. This is why, i you know, it's important to survey these sorts of things around the world.
00:16:50
Speaker
um And that's why we have a global sandwich correspondent. ah hey Thank you so much, Francisco Gonzalez, ah who ah recently put out Rosewater.
00:17:02
Speaker
and wellll Yes. yeah Everyone go play it. A fantastic game. ah And ah he'll be back next week with a London sandage sandwich report. Sandwich report. And I have to be very clear. Ben and I, like because we love the sandwich report so much, do not allow ourselves to hear these until we hear them live.
00:17:24
Speaker
which really gives Francisco a great opportunity to pull one over on us at some point. But like we've, we've been sitting on this one for a little while now. Cause it's like, hey have the next ruin it for I have the MP3 sitting ready.
00:17:39
Speaker
Uh, because you know, like a little, a little peek behind the curtain. It's been a, it hasn't been a month, but it's been a little while since we've, we've recorded, what i asked together.
00:17:50
Speaker
i do want to say before we get to the, uh, the next thing, Talking about mustard, though, during my trip that I was just on, I was in Pennsylvania, the the Great Commonwealth, and... ah
00:18:06
Speaker
Pennsylvania is a ah big pretzel state. You know, they yeah fucking can love their pretzels over in Pennsylvania. And ah my brother had these ah really great sour dough sourdough ah pretzels.
00:18:23
Speaker
And then he had this wonderful, ah like kind of spicy... and ah with a touch of sweet mustard for dipping those pretzels and o let me tell you like i'm thinking about that now i'm thinking about like the wonderful crunchy like these were really like the sourdough like the really hard sourdough okay pretzels like covered with salt and then this spice are these like from a bakery or just like from a grocery store like it was it was from it was not
00:18:54
Speaker
it was wasn like there's a hannah It was like a local, it was yeah like, maybe it was like Amish or something. I don't remember exactly. got you It was, yeah. And then let me tell you, I'll say this while we're we're talking about ah snacks from the great state of Pennsylvania.
00:19:12
Speaker
For any of you traveling through or traveling to, going to Pennsylvania, I'm going to tell you some of the best potato chips you're ever going to have in your life.
00:19:23
Speaker
Uh, this, these potato chips are, an object of, of obsession, uh, for my family. Whenever we all get together, we order several bags. Like we get several bags from the grocery store and we kill them all. Like we just,
00:19:38
Speaker
like Plain plays, folks. You heard it here first. And and I want to say, so my ah my friend Steve was ah driving through ah Pennsylvania while he was going ah ah Thanksgiving. And I said to him, since you're in Pennsylvania, stop at a Wawa or a Sheetz or whatever.
00:20:05
Speaker
And pick up Middlesworth Kettle BBQ chips. Ah. The Middlesworth Kettle. Kettle barbecue chips are the best barbecue chips I've ever had my life. They have an incredible texture. The barbecue like flavor is perfect. The seasoning has this wonderful like kind of grainy texture to it that like you kind of see it, like kind of crystals on the chip. It is just incredible.
00:20:38
Speaker
I love a kettle chip. Yeah, you gotta... a so saying to you, Jess, and I'm saying to to anyone listening. Well, I have family in Pennsylvania as well, so I may have an opportunity to track one of these down. Yeah, give them give them a try. could do a a taste test, get the Middlesworth kettle ah BBQ chips. They have other chips. Their other chips are good. Those kettle BBQ chips, just to taste test, we tried...
00:21:09
Speaker
They're non-kettle BBQ chips. Ah. They're chips. BBQ classic. Chip flavored ones. And they were flying.
00:21:20
Speaker
Oh yeah. here You know, I feel like BBQ chips are... A tough one in the sense of there's a good chance I will taste a barbecue chip and I will love this barbecue flavored chip so much. And it will be such a complex and lovely flavor.
00:21:41
Speaker
And then a different brand of barbecue chip. It will be like, this is cloyingly sweet. yeah I don't care for what they've done here. um When you find that right barbecue flavor.
Love for 'You Don't Know Jack' Game Series
00:21:52
Speaker
it's hard to beat these are these are definitely way more on the savory side than the sweet side which i think appeals to you um yeah think that's more in your flavor profile yeah speaking your flavor profile what have you been playing Oh man, Ben. Well, as we were traveling around during the Thanksgiving season, I found myself in some planes, trains, and automobiles along the way, which meant I had my handy dandy retro handheld gaming console with me. My Amarnik was along for the ride. And you know what I found to be remarkably enjoyable in a in a plane ride setting?
00:22:36
Speaker
What is that? I was playing a little bit of You Don't Know Jack for the PlayStation 1. There's a PlayStation 1 port of You Don't Know Jack.
00:22:48
Speaker
And just sitting on a plane and playing trivia game with my headphones on... Just lovely. Just one. it makes fun of me constantly for, you know, only playing by myself and all that. But what really struck me? Who's the host of one? That's Cookie. um I'm not sure if it's a direct...
00:23:08
Speaker
port of the PC version of the first one, or if it's like it probably came a year two after it may mix together some of the early Jack going. Maybe it was Excel, which added a whole bunch more, like, there's even a 1 XL. Yeah.
00:23:23
Speaker
Adds a ah bunch more questions. Yeah. I can't remember for sure, like but what I will say is, what really struck me as I was playing this, I love you i would love trivia, a good excuse to play trivia and it works beautifully on handheld, because basically there's very little game to it other than pressing a button to choose your answer. It's ah like a macro media director game, right?
00:23:44
Speaker
Yeah, exactly, yeah. So what really struck me, though, is how fully formed you don't know Jack arrived on the scene. Like, talk about getting it in one, which is something I don't think I've played the original You'll Know Jack in a long time.
00:24:01
Speaker
And the number of elements that were in place from, like, obviously the game show presentation stuff and the sarcastic host and the fake commercials and modes like Dis or Dat and the Jack attack and everything.
00:24:17
Speaker
And just the tone of what really a lot of what Jellyvision and eventually um Jackbox would end up doing down the road. Like, it's just all there from the beginning. It's remarkable how quickly they nailed it and how it set a tone for for this entire series.
00:24:37
Speaker
it Yeah. i mean I mean, I remember playing that was at like 1996. Sixth is what I was thinking. Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah. I remember playing that and boy, oh boy. Like it was just, it was really
00:24:55
Speaker
the the quality of the the writing and of the performances and like those commercials that they play at the end. Yeah.
00:25:06
Speaker
Like, and that that's a great point because like that sensibility in You Don't Know Jack 1, like because, you know, all the You Don't Know Jack games, which, you know, continued until like, I think the last You Don't Know Jack, like was in like Jackbox, script somewhere around there. Somewhere in there. One of the the middle Jackboxes had yeah ah a You Don't Know Jack, but like,
00:25:32
Speaker
but like Those games are not that different. Those like, you know, like you don't know Jack the ride, the fourth one does the most with the like different with the format. And even then it's still pretty like,
00:25:55
Speaker
could You could tell that they they are like, all right, well, we've made not only like one and two, but I think at that point out they'd also done sports and movies. And lost gold or something. Yeah, there are a bunch of that. Just called later. Oh, is it later? Okay, yeah.
00:26:10
Speaker
But yeah, they they had three or four of these games under their belt and probably a few points here and there. Yeah, and three points. But yeah, have like essentially all the pieces, you're right. And then that sensibility from You Don't Know Jack is like, you know, that informs the Jackboxes that, you know, came out today, which, you know, Jackbox 11 is spectacular, by the way.
00:26:39
Speaker
But no, it just really impressed me. You know, it'd been a while since I'd gone back to play the original, and it was just, it's like, gosh, I see why I got obsessed with this game when I played it, you know.
00:26:51
Speaker
but what, 30 years ago or whatever. we're Yeah, no, it's still, you know, something else that that really struck me is it also reminds me in 1996 how hilarious talking about the Brady Bunch was.
00:27:07
Speaker
I wish I knew someone who had a blog that tried to explain why certain jokes seem to like latch into the zeitgeist and get lodged there and attempted to sort of explain why those jokes came to such like cultural, you saturation, but I don't.
00:27:28
Speaker
That's too bad. Um...
00:27:32
Speaker
It is there. That like kind of a Gen X humor preoccupation. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. The first year of the Jack. Yeah. Ben, which you don't know Jack game have you been playing?
00:27:49
Speaker
You know, I was playing the you don't know Jack. I think 2008.
00:27:59
Speaker
The one that came out on the PS3 and the 360. Oh. I
00:28:05
Speaker
i mean, I have that one somewhere. i do Yeah. sure Sure. I went to a whole bunch of different EB games. Or wait, no. That would have been GameStops at that point. yeah Yeah. To track it down because it had a pretty limited run. Anyway, what I've been playing... Man.
00:28:25
Speaker
So since this has been... a long time since we recorded the last one. And like, you know, so over the Thanksgiving break, I was over at my parents' house for a week.
00:28:45
Speaker
My parents live in a suburb, which is not the suburb I grew up in. And in fact, like far away from where I grew up. So it's like my parents live there and my brother lives there. There's like, other than them who I spend a lot of time with, there's no one else I know. So I have a lot of free time.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yeah, don't have a car. Like, I'm just like sitting in my parents house. Nice. Pretty cool. And so like I, you know, I was just a lot of that time i was just on my Steam Deck because I was just like, well, the fuck else am I going to do?
00:29:24
Speaker
yeah So I have a whole bunch of games that like you know I stored up. What have you been playing games for the cold winter of next time?
00:29:37
Speaker
Because I think like by the last episode, I was pretty like, oh, jeez, what have I been playing? But this is one, Jess, I'm going to suggest maybe that this might even be something that we do an
Exploring 'Paradise Killer' Game
00:29:54
Speaker
episode about. I might try to get you to play this.
00:29:58
Speaker
Uh-oh. So I played, a friend of mine has been on me to play this game called Paradise Killer.
00:30:10
Speaker
Have you heard of this Paradise Killer? The name is super familiar. Um, so my friend, my friend was like, oh, you like adventure games? You should play a paradise killer. You should play it. you should play I bought it like at the, like the summer sale.
00:30:26
Speaker
And then it just kind of sat in my steam library, you know, for months. And then I was just like, well, I have all this free time and here's this, uh, game that my friend has been on me.
00:30:39
Speaker
I play for months. Um, that I bought, that I owned. I was like, I guess I'll start this. And I'll say to you, the game begins.
00:31:06
Speaker
Okay. And I was just like, what the fuck did I just get? Like, what did I get talked into buying? You bitch, shit. Why did you talk me into play? I'm not going to play this fucking game. There's like just so much. They're they're just talking about all it. I'm never going to learn all this crap.
00:31:24
Speaker
This is all this. Like this, it has a very dense, very like this, you know, very intense lore that it it drops you and it drops you right into it. Like, it's just like, you know, it does not really, you know, doesn't really off ramp that much. It's just like, all right, exposition time, wall of text.
00:31:48
Speaker
I'm in for it. Yeah, you got me already. And i'm and I was just like, oh, and so I'm playing, but I was like, you know what? honor I'll honor my friend who was so passionately advocating for this game.
00:32:02
Speaker
So I stuck with it and I got to the gameplay. And then once I got to the gameplay, I was like, oh, this game's very good. Okay. And i also started to fall in love with the world and the lore and the characters. Like once I got to like, once I had passed through like the tidal wave of like this intimidating lore.
00:32:28
Speaker
And then I was just like, I'm just going to fuck around. Because what it is is it is a open world 3D whodunit murder mystery.
00:32:40
Speaker
And you're on an island and there's like ah like a group of characters and you just wander around and you just find little clues. Then you talk to people about those clues. Then you wander around and you find more clues. Then maybe you talk to the people more about those clues. it's a kernel a quest about it's it's a kernel a quest. I'm up. It made me think a bit about what I enjoyed so much.
00:33:10
Speaker
when I played Tex Murphy, Under a Killing Moon for the first time, which could be an upcoming podcast, was like, the thrill of playing Under a Killing Moon for the first time for me was that was exploring a mystery in a 3D space and discovering that there's an interesting texture to being, like exploring in like 3D in finding clues. There is like the idea of looking under a desk to see something rather than just noticing some pixels you can probably pick up on a 2D image. mean, and this could be something we talk about if we ever have a Tex Murphy under a Killing Moon episode. So we shouldn't get too far into this.
00:33:56
Speaker
But absolutely, I know what you're talking about there. And I will say like in Tex Murphy, it's like that is... really wonderful and immersive right up until the moment you finally hit something where it becomes the most frustrating thing in the world as well when you can't find that tiny little clue that's like wedged somewhere in a 3d space but looking at this game it looks fantastic like i like i like this vibe it's got like music visual novel vibe yeah going to it in terms of like what appeared to be the conversation scenes i guess you play as a character and named lady love dies who is an investigation freak yeah and i was that was another like all everybody's names are insane and i'm just like what is this fucking bullshit that you made me buy i'm not into this garbage and turns out i was very much into that uh it the thrill of it is
00:34:52
Speaker
is that it is this big open world. You can access an awful lot of it. Like, of course there, it's a mystery. So there are, you know, parts that you have to like, you know, get like find secret end entrances or like get a key or whatever.
00:35:08
Speaker
we in like, but it's a lot of it, like where, when it immediately hooked me, which was pretty early, honestly, after, after that tidal wave at the top was I just started wandering around and I just picked a direction and started wandering around and I just started seeing stuff. And I was like, okay, I get it. This is fun.
00:35:30
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, ah an open world opportunity like that just like set off in the direction of something that looks interesting. is always such a treat, especially when it rewards you for it. I mean, there's nothing worse than an open world game that's like, I'm going to strike off in this direction only to find out that was the wrong direction to go. When you get that reward of like, oh, I'm starting to starting to stumble onto to things already. It's, I mean, I love a good open world experience. I'll never forget the first time uh,
00:36:02
Speaker
ah in oblivion when I emerged from that little cave and all of Tamriel was laid out before me. Well, there you go. Yeah. ah Paradise killer. A good game that I might try to convince you to play. I could, I could be convinced of this one, Ben. I'm looking at, I mean, it doesn't hurt that in the screen shots on steam, there's a soda machine right front and center. There you go. So, you know, that's, there's something in there for me, even if I don't like the rest of it.
00:36:34
Speaker
here's a here's Here's another thing. Finish the game at 11 hours. oh that's a sweet. Nice, smooth. And I couldn't put it down. Like once it got its hooks to I was playing and playing and playing.
00:36:49
Speaker
And then like i there were like a couple, a couple things that I couldn't find. i just, at that point I was like, all right, Like I looked up where to find noise. Like, oh, right.
00:37:01
Speaker
I forgot to look there. And then I got those. And then i went to the trial scene, which you can access at any point. o Including the beginning. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to solve this thing. You're assigned by the judge to this.
00:37:17
Speaker
So you can just say to the judge, I want to start the trial now. Yes. Immediately. the sooner you go trial the sooner you can hit the bar afterwards yeah but uh but i was i was just like i'm going to like you have a little clue checklist thing and i was like i'm going to track all of this shit down and i love a good checklist that game we've talked to i'm sure we've talked about this by this point how give me checklists in every adventure and adventure adjacent game possible give me checklists i want checklists
00:37:50
Speaker
Well, I have one thing you might also want. It's an email. I thought we were going straight to the space quest for now. Uh, it's an email. Welcome to planet. Magnetius subject title ideas for future podcasts.
00:38:07
Speaker
Oh, we need these. Uh, Hi, Ben and Jess. At the end of the episode, I'm going to assume this was ah the previous one. You mentioned you were running low on ideas. This struck terror in my heart.
00:38:22
Speaker
i felt beholden to provide you with a comprehensive list of ideas for topics of discussion in future podcasts, colon. Space Quest 4.
00:38:35
Speaker
I hope that helps. Love the pod. Can't wait to hear what you come up with next. Matt.
00:38:45
Speaker
Well, Matt, it's your lucky day. Thank you for emailing. We are here to talk about everyone's favorite space quest, space quest or roger Roger Wilco and those times.
00:39:02
Speaker
Boop. I'm sorry, Ben, you had something to add.
00:39:08
Speaker
But this is Space Quest month. it's ah It's December, Jess. When did it turn December? It's December. Oh, the weather outside is December. hu Wow. And now that you mention I have heard a lot of people singing that.
00:39:24
Speaker
yeah i mean it is i'm i'm looking out out the the window here in in in beautiful chicago illinois and uh there is a shitload of snow out there wow yeah it's way too fucking early for this i don't care for it um but uh it is uh we are we are past uh space quest november yes called it at the time it's a full year before we work our way back around to space quest for you it's gonna be another landmark uh for a virtual broom closet all right stay tuned for 2030 uh summer 23rd fall 2030 we'll be hitting the uh 35th anniversary and we'll talk about space quest four doesn't feel landmarky enough yeah
00:40:15
Speaker
40th? Yeah, 40th is... We're going to have to go 40. How about 37? It's a prime number. We're going to go 40, I think. Okay. You heard it here first, gang. Tune in 2035 to Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast, i to hear more about... it will be knocking the door of 50. Jess will be... Jess will be long dead.
00:40:41
Speaker
ah LAUGHTER The website will still be there, but I will not be. I'll be buried alongside my website.
00:40:53
Speaker
But ah this week, we're we're getting away ah from ah ah retro ah games and old Sierra games. We're going talk about a brand new game from 2014. From 11 years ago.
00:41:11
Speaker
ah
00:41:15
Speaker
I'm going to be talking about 2014's 80 Days ah from Inkle. ah one of my favorite games uh that might have even been my favorite game of that year if i recall like i loved uh 80 days and i had a lot of fun revisiting it um and i was playing it for the first time yeah and uh let me just uh just agree with ben here if you haven't played this one
00:41:46
Speaker
man, you're in for a treat. This is really a charming game on just about every level. Like I, I find it hard to, just about everything.
00:41:57
Speaker
Yes, that's right. I find it hard to, to really find fault with this one in a lot of ways. So it's going to one of those podcasts gang where Ben and I just, uh, sort of nod our heads. It's really good game. Yeah.
00:42:09
Speaker
The, uh, what did you play it on? Uh, Jess, uh, I played it just on my desktop. You play on your desktop. I played this on my my Steam Deck this time, which felt weird. This was...
00:42:23
Speaker
ah This will always be in my head as a phone game. Ah. And when I... and, and I think it first was, i could, you know, I could look up. The interface feels like it was probably built for touch. Yeah. It was great with mouse, but it feels like a touch interface. It it also,
00:42:49
Speaker
i tell me if you notice this, maybe I'm nuts. Um, therere there i think there were a couple like spacing issues between some of the sentences, yeah which I feel was porting thing.
00:43:09
Speaker
Like format, and now it's in there. Yeah, it's going from... It's going from like skinny screen to widescreen. Yeah. And so like part of that kind of felt like, oh, they probably just like copy and paste the text into, you know, whatever. Yeah.
00:43:28
Speaker
Well, they used for this. And then like, but it was formatted and, you know, blah, blah, blah. That's very interesting to discuss. This is what people i hear right up front is if there are any kerning issues or other things that are going impact your... I mean, that's what ah that was the first thing I put my Steam review. It's like, first of all, let me say there's some real issues with with text display, i believe. I'm not 100% sure, but this
Introduction to '80 Days' Game
00:43:57
Speaker
is my suspicion. So so here's, here's if if you haven't played, 80 Days is, obviously, it's an adaptation
00:44:04
Speaker
of Jules Verne's novel, Around the World in 80 Days. ah But instead of, ah like, being stuck to the the root ah from the novel, which I've never read, nor... This is actually the only adaptation of this story that I'm familiar with. Have have you ever seen a movie or read the book?
00:44:31
Speaker
Is it possible? I mean... There's got to be a cartoon version. I feel like I've seen a cartoon version of this as a kid, but I've never read the book. I've actually never read any Jules Verne.
00:44:42
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean, I've gone on some Jules Verne rides at Disneyland Paris. That's essentially it. yeah i mean i got a lot of this and and this also i mean kind of like a lot of us i think that i have some degree of cultural knowledge of sort of the jules verne genre there are references to a number of his other works uh read a league of extraordinary gentlemen uh that's right yeah that's all you need to know that's yeah that's that's pretty much incredible film adaptation um yeah oh yeah sean connery is great in that now uh so
00:45:16
Speaker
as Instead of following like ah linearly following the novel, it is instead that you ah ah play Passportu, Phineas valet,
00:45:34
Speaker
phineas philussilus philus fogs ah valet and ah who has made a ah wager in the, you know, the Adventurers Club of London or whatever, um that he can go around the world in 80 days.
00:45:52
Speaker
And it is your job as his valet ah to book passage for him across the world, manage his finances, and manage his health.
00:46:11
Speaker
Yeah. ah Really a lazy shit. When you think about it, does not too much other than volunteer Hugh for horrible things. Yeah. I mean, at one point in my playthrough, he gets like food poisoning and he's barfing and I like bring him a bucket and he got mad at me because he didn't want to be witnessed barf gentlemanly.
00:46:37
Speaker
I'm trying to be your valet. sir No, no. You're you a very poor, Passepartout. I wanted to hold his hair back. You know, I wanted to be a good friend, but that's all a gentleman do. You're not his valet.
00:46:52
Speaker
Yeah. um yeah i bet I bet relations with fox with Fogg deteriorated slightly right Dan, you're exactly right. ah That's exactly what happened. you're booking Passage, and what that ah what that means is that the game i is like offers a massive variety of different routes, and the routes themselves aren't
00:47:27
Speaker
uh uh like linear either you can go like you can go like it's like all right well i'll go to paris then from uh you know paris i'm gonna like book passage to berlin where you decide that you're gonna go like uh down around the mediterranean go to athens and then like there's uh a massive Like it it gives you several of the cities of the world um in the 19th century. Are there like 160 cities or something like that that you can travel to totally? It even be more than that. but Yeah, i mean, it's a wild number. You can chart a course, you know, across any of the major continents, traveling by sea, by air, by rail.
00:48:13
Speaker
By electric camel. oh Yeah, by by moving city that walks around on its own. You went through India. oh Yes, I did. No, I mean it is a i mean, the amount of routes you could take through this, some much more direct than others is is pretty staggering. And then the way it unfolds from there is almost like an interactive fiction travel log. Yes. Which is fascinating to me.
00:48:44
Speaker
Yeah, so this is, it is a, it is interactive fiction, like, ah but but not typed. it's it's It's tap. It's, you know, like ah like a choose your own adventure or twine type thing. Uh-huh. And um the,
00:49:05
Speaker
i The presentation of the game is very ah like simple. like You have a globe, and each city has like an image that goes with it.
00:49:17
Speaker
um And there's only a couple little musical cues, but everything is... so smartly deployed that it looks really, really handsome. They get away with like graphically, like, because the, obviously the text is the star of the show and the writing is excellent.
00:49:39
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that is, that's where the, that's where the greatest triumph is far and away, but it's a handsome game. I mean, it looks good in 2025, just as good as I suspect it did in 2014.
00:49:51
Speaker
twenty fourteen Yeah. And, well, it, what's really wonderful about it also is that like, because there's this variety of routes, um, that, uh, there's an immense amount of replayability, uh, to, to the game. And I've been like, I played this game a ton in like at release. And then every now and again,
00:50:21
Speaker
um Like, i'll I'll pull it out and maybe do, like, a run or half a run every now and again. um I'm absolutely sure there's a ton that I have not seen. um and like, there there there are plots that I've seen,
00:50:40
Speaker
like the you know little bits of yeah i'm like ooh like i bet because the the the game does have like things that you can fail and they're not end game states but you'll probably get like punished you'll lose some money or you might get like uh lose a couple days on the calendar or something like that Or simply get cut off from a storyline direction that might've unfolded otherwise. Yeah. And so, and I've never looked at, I should like, I'm, I'm, I'm tempted. I have not looked at like a guide to get, uh, some of those kind of rare, uh, uh, roots because it's like, I was reading an interview, with Meg, uh, giant.
00:51:32
Speaker
that correct? Um, who was the writer for this game. And ah like she, she mentioned that like in some of the more like kind of off the beaten path, like none, like, you know, either not going straight through India or not going straight across um but via train through Russia.
Mechanics & Narrative of '80 Days' Game
00:51:56
Speaker
There are some really interesting like story beats that they, they hid there to reward the player for doing like for for going in a really weird way and I love that because like I mean this is you know to kind of talk about my experience I've played it on and off for the past couple of weeks and I've had two failed runs and if you don't make it 80 days you can still complete your trip around the world it's just that Phileas Fogg really dislikes you and you've made him a financial ruin and a fool to boot so that's unfortunate but
00:52:32
Speaker
I played through twice where I failed to make the trip and literally just moments before we started recording tonight. I had my first successful trip through, but what I will say is i am a creature of habit in this game. I have routes that,
00:52:49
Speaker
seems sensible to me, even if past experience suggests otherwise. And as a result, in my two failed runs and my one successful one, I managed to duplicate a lot of the same story. And it's like, I have to force myself to go through some of these other routes. Like I am a get me to Istanbul and then points east of there and get me on a boat to Honolulu and San Francisco as quickly as possible. you, have you, ah have you done the, the murder mystery?
00:53:21
Speaker
I did for the first time on this most recent one. I believe that's leaving Yokohama. Is that Leaving Yokohama. There's a murder mystery, which I failed the murder mystery. That one, that one ah took me several attempts, but yeah, there is a way to solve. There is a whodunit.
00:53:39
Speaker
That's a really, and that's, that's the thing is that, uh like in between so there are little like story bits that you'll get in each city and then on each travel there will be like little like story bits and i think that's yokohama to honolulu i believe so um and so it's like on especially long trips like that's an airship from Yokohama to Honolulu.
00:54:11
Speaker
Like there's, it's a, it's a multi-day trip. And so there's enough time. They were like, let's stick a whodunit in here. Yeah. And it's really fun how it unfolds because again, this is all like,
00:54:24
Speaker
again i think twine is a very good point comparison like a choose your own adventure where uh where we're re relaying the story of what happened this is passport to uh sort of uh reminiscing about this journey right you're journaling it at some level and he will stop mid-sentence be like and then what happened next was i noticed a suspicious character lurking around the boiler room and if you click that option It sends you down that sort of choose your adventure path. And they use this in a lot of interesting ways. Everything from like at one point, there's a possibility of like a boxing sequence that unfolds through this kind of ah choose your adventure route. And here it takes the form of a fun whodunit where you carry out investigation, you interview suspects, you investigate the scene. And if you do it wrong,
00:55:17
Speaker
Again, it doesn't end your game or anything, but, you know, it may delay you, it may cost you a bit. And if nothing else, you know, it gives you sort of that desire. it's like, I've got to play that again so I can figure out what was actually going on in that, on that ship. Who who done it, Ben? Who done it?
00:55:34
Speaker
I know because I did that successfully on my most recent play. One of one of the great things, one of the things I like about 80 days is because of the variety of ah like paths and little stories is that it's like when I talk to someone else, like, especially when it like first came out, I remember talking with my sister about it and she's like,
00:55:58
Speaker
you know did you uh like do this thing to like supercharge uh like a train to make it go fast and i was like no um it's like you you get to have like these it's like well did you uh do the whodunit on the the airship or it's like or in my case on my most recent one it's like uh did you uh were uh were you uh robbed and uh uh kidnapped uh while in an opium den like yes i have this experience on my most recent one yes i also uh found myself oops trafficked out of a uh out of an opium death ah there's whoops yeah like it's like did uh did you have the uh and you know there's
00:56:49
Speaker
i the the The game makes a really interesting point of um outlining, and i and I think it's always really funny, the, like, intense...
00:57:04
Speaker
national identities of the two main characters uh so you're embodying uh passepartout who is a deeply proud frenchman the frenchest frenchman that could ever french yes like you know he he's just like and and so like and and you can role play this it gives you role playing opportunities frequently where it's like you could say ah no i would never i would never do that before you see i am french like yeah yeah Yeah. It gives you the opportunity to be both a snooty Frenchman or a very romantic Frenchman. Yes. or Yeah. like All your options of Frenchmen are there at your disposal. where And then meanwhile, ah you know, Monsieur Fogg is like the absolute stereotype of like a stiff upper lip. Yes. Like exact phrase I was thinking. Yeah. Like well, let me be no stiffer.
00:58:01
Speaker
Like... British nobility shows absolutely no emotion. ah All he wants to do is just read the newspaper and like,
00:58:13
Speaker
he just kind of like enters every situation, like just assuming that everyone will pay deference to him because of this, like it is. And then meanwhile, Passport to like your role, part of your role is to maintain this illusion of, of this, uh, for fog.
00:58:38
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, it's sort of interesting because you're sort of balancing back and forth. Like, you don't want to step on Fogg's toes. Like, you want to be deferential to him, but you also need to protect his ability to be aloof and gentlemanly whenever possible. So it's like, on the one hand, you if you're being confided by an authority figure, you certainly don't want to talk over Fogg. He will not appreciate that.
00:59:01
Speaker
But at the same time, if there's an opportunity that he might accidentally get his hands dirty, you should very quickly swoop in on that or your relationship with him will deteriorate slightly. like Yeah, deteriorate slightly. That's the one of the other. So you never see like whatever your like friendship gauge is or it's not friendship. You're not friends. He's your employer. No. Yeah.
00:59:26
Speaker
But you never see your relationship gauge with fog, but you know, uh, like, you know probably like lightly inspired by like telltale or something. I'm sure like fog will remember that. Yeah. Like there are there you'll, you'll take actions and it will always say your relationship with fog has, ah deteriorated or what's the, uh, when it goes well, like has improved, has improved, but it's never by a lot.
00:59:58
Speaker
no it's only slightly way yeah yeah even like when it's like uh passport two you disappeared for several days after becoming you know sort of zonked out your mind on opium uh and only you've reunited with me now even that's not enough for like a significant decline it was it was was a slight deterioration now he found me he probably i think he always finds you because you join a circus i join a circus so you you join a circus as as past for two but it does give you an option as to what uh uh what you are doing in the circus that is what were you doing in the circus i was dressed up as a woman uh i was too yeah same yeah
01:00:47
Speaker
ah Same. and but We had like the option to do like some acrobatics or I can't remember what everything else was. and Yeah. This was, this was flying up on an earlier instance where I had also like apparently found myself disguised in a harem as a woman escaping in Istanbul. So yes, that's a really fun. yeah Yes.
01:01:12
Speaker
This was a through line Passport story for me. So yeah. yeah and then you have like the harem like because you have like suitcases that you carry with you and you can have multiple suit like it yeah it becomes it can become a problem you're trying to get onto certain things um and yeah you'll you'll carry the the harem uh dress unless you want to sell it at some point did you have do you ever get a ah the the pharaoh type the the photo of you and fog yes you carry it it all the way to the end mine was only me uh i didn't ask five i have a i had a pharaoh type of fog and that i carried all the way to the end and the game like ignoge like there's a little oh something that happens like just a just a little bit of flavor text
01:02:05
Speaker
That's cute. That just makes it worth it to to to get this memento of the two of you. this true um but But yeah, so the there like these...
01:02:20
Speaker
the game has ah is is steampunk it is like there are like these you know massive steam computers uh and uh are they're thinking machine yeah they're automatons and yeah robots and and automatons are somewhat sentient i mean they they can carry on conversations they uh yeah so it's fairly advanced refuses to believe that in ton of automaton at least mine uh could ever become a cook
01:02:52
Speaker
oh yeah oh yeah this was a real concern that's a great insult to the yeah could you ever master the uh the mother sauces as uh as an automaton i don't think so good luck robot making a bernays like the the the the game is steampunk it is also um Like, I don't know if, yeah like, and i was i was doing a little bit of reading ah ah before this, and I want to make sure I i got some of this right it know in as much as I can. I think it's like anti-colonial.
01:03:30
Speaker
Right. Like not, I don't know if it's decolonized or like, because there are colonies in it. Yes. Colonies exist. It is not like in this world. Like it doesn't exist in an alternate past where all of the nations of the world, like have self their own self-determination.
01:03:50
Speaker
Um, but it is anti-colonial. I think, i mean, right. On the one hand, I mean, I, I, I think so. I think, well I think it offers, an anti-colonial critique in the sense that certainly a lot of past per twos time in the game is spent kind of explicitly as you explore these cities, as you spend time on these airships and and boats and everything else, you are oftentimes among the subaltern or you're among the ah the people of these locations that you're visiting. You are learning about their culture. You are walking amongst the common people. Even though you yourself are, you know, a European traveling abroad, a lot of your time in the game is spent getting to know the local cultures and local people. And sometimes there are opportunities for past, past, to be a little bit,
01:04:49
Speaker
judgy or dismissive of this. Those role-playing options exist. But in many cases, i certainly found myself exploring more of, you know, the the tone of he is eager to learn about these cultures, whereas Fogg,
01:05:05
Speaker
is certainly set up as again like the embodiment of sort of the white man's burden version of uh of colonialism and imperialism that you would associate with england of this era he's he's busy rudyard kipling made it up so i uh to i was uh this is uh from an article from uh kill screen uh titled 80 days is the alternate reality anti-colonialism got it right thank you yeah absolutely anti-colonialism adventure we all deserve uh there is a uh quote uh uh that i'll read uh some of
01:05:43
Speaker
from MegaGiant ah again at it for a second. I lost it. um But it's hitting away at his mainframe right now.
01:05:56
Speaker
i She says that, aside from the history and fantasy there is a third ax is here for me and that's respectfulness we wanted our inventions and devices to be grounded in local cultures rather than overwrite them with a purely british notion of steam pump i wanted to write an anti-colonial adaptation and part of that was trying not to appropriate or disrespect people's struggles and history I did not want to exoticize or stereotype the indigenous steampunks I invented.
01:06:23
Speaker
And so informing the fantasy with historical resource research was enormously important to me. I tried to think about what kinds of resources are available, what kinds of pressures a culture might be facing, how our fantastical inventions are going to impact the geopolitics of the region and of the wider world.
01:06:42
Speaker
This game is so well thought out. like it's It really is. I mean, that's the beauty
Steampunk & Anti-Colonial Themes in '80 Days'
01:06:46
Speaker
of it. and And well thought out a game. And it pays off. I mean, this research creates a world where those cultural distinctions are apparent. Like every city you arrive in has a unique flavor. I mean, even within a single country, i mean, the difference between Omaha and Cheyenne in the United States, as you travel across the continent is observable. Yeah. You know, they've they've really gotten to great lengths here to try to give this world and especially, you know, this idea of taking steampunk and reimagining in a world where steampunk is so associated with Jules Verne is so associated with not just a European perspective, but think probably an explicitly British sort of origin there.
01:07:35
Speaker
you know to reimagine it's like well what does steampunk look like for the ottoman empire or what does steampunk look like for a pre-colonial africa uh you know what or uh well i don't know like uh or or for uh uh for haiti um yeah i went to on on my most recent playthrough i did not hit haiti yeah it was very interesting I've yet to take a trip through Latin America or the Caribbean in my journeys, which I'd be fascinated to see. sort of how
01:08:11
Speaker
What's that? Canada. Canada is also very interesting. i recognize Oh, interesting. i always get all those maps. Yeah. As I always do. Yeah. Or they have Sting Punk mousse and everything runs on maple syrup. Yeah. and yeah yeah it's It's actually syrup punk.
01:08:27
Speaker
It's syrup punk up there.
01:08:31
Speaker
pancake punk punk
01:08:39
Speaker
the the pitch that i always suck had tim bits punk good a and ah punk You know, they have poutine punk. Yeah. Poutine punk. There it is. We got it. All right We'll add that down to the only one we did. Um, yeah. The, the unrated cut of this podcast has us just riffing that, uh, for, for a while, but like the version that comes to the theaters just has us go right to poutine punk.
01:09:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. You have to, yeah I mean, for those of your patrons, you're getting the, the, you the uncut. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. We, we include all the raunchy scenes, like the like the one where, uh, where i like I hump a pie and things like that, you know, that's, you know, that pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.
01:09:32
Speaker
Now, ah the way that I've always described this game when I was trying to pitch people on it, because this, to me, this strikes me as an adventure game that people who have less an interest in an adventure game could play.
01:09:49
Speaker
Absolutely. I think I could recommend this to a normal person. Yeah, this always struck me as a game that, like, almost anyone could play because it it unfolds like just a really interesting and entertaining book.
01:10:06
Speaker
um You know, like the one it's based on. I mean, I think you could hand this to someone who doesn't normally play games and you might get a real like, oh, I didn't know games could do this yeah kind of vibe. I think it would hit someone who's maybe not that familiar with interactive fiction and kind of ah yeah like, oh, this is really neat. I didn't think that this was something that I could expect from a video game in a really good way.
01:10:31
Speaker
the the The pitch that I used to say to people is that it's like, in some ways, this game feels like, like the because there's something really satisfying about seeing a line cross a world map like you know indiana jones style right like it's which is what feelings on earth yeah like that's most of what you're seeing is this game plays out as a red line moving across a map from one destination to another and maybe i'm just the perfect mark for this because i just love looking at maps i've always enjoyed just looking at maps when i was a little kid
01:11:10
Speaker
I'd get ah like little atlases as a as a gift when I was a little kid. Yeah. Oh, oh I had and a world map. I had a world map in my room from the time i was like six or seven years old and just would study it intently. I'd just like stare at it and look at weird geographic things and wonder what's going on there and then go to my world book encyclopedia and try to learn about it. So I'm a map nerd too. yeah like maps are like so you get to just stare at a map with a red line uh you know progressing which is a lot of fun the way that i would like that i would describe it to people when i was trying to pitch people on it back when this came out uh was i was like you know it's kind of like oregon trail except it has like a lot more story uh
01:11:59
Speaker
Yeah, just a little, just a little more narrative than Oregon Trail. With ah a big story attached to it. But like, because the game has an economy.
Game Economy & Replayability in '80 Days'
01:12:13
Speaker
Yeah. Which, like, so Jess, and this is what I recommend to you. This, this helps me kind of vary up. uh my like uh how how i determine the path is it sometimes so when you go to each city each city has a market and uh markets will sell like you know certain uh like you know bits and bobs and some of them are useful towards uh perhaps comforting fog or some of them are it means a lot of comforting Yeah. or Some of, some of them are, ah ways like that are useful to, to kind of, uh, get discounts on trips.
01:12:56
Speaker
And then some of them are items that you buy in one market and then sell another one for much more. And will tell you exactly. It's like arbitrage like this.
01:13:08
Speaker
Is that, is that, yeah, you're arbitrage. Um, yeah and yeah, uh and so this um like you know we'll say it's like oh this this thing is worth you know 5800 pounds in uh you know tehran and so it's just like all right i guess i'm you know like i that's how i did my like uh uh you know, most recent game was I spent the first half just raising a ton of money, zigzagging across yeah like Europe in the Middle East.
01:13:45
Speaker
I did something similar. Yeah. I actually, in this, I mean, my first two attempts, I ran out of money. i had to borrow money from banks. I was broke the entire time. And on this most recent trip, ah I was,
01:14:00
Speaker
kind of let those high dollar items guide me and finish the game with significantly more money than I embarked on my journey with. So yeah, because, because the, the, the transit, because you do not have your own,
01:14:14
Speaker
ah ways of of ah transporting yourself ah you select in each city it's like well you could take you know the automotive machine or you know whatever they call a fucking car um and or you could take you know the airship or you could ride the robot horse or whatever like you know you you get multiple options they'll also all cost certain different amounts and you can also take longer or maybe your departure is delayed by a day or two and and sometimes you can also spend extra or you could have like the right you know items to kind of bribe uh to speed up like to have the next uh you know to to to speed up and make it so like the train will leave a day sooner
01:15:07
Speaker
yeah um but yeah does that work man with real trains if i just like roll into the train station you ride a lot more guy in a train city yeah like if can i just say you know is it possible this train leave a day earlier that's supposed to and they'll try to accommodate me well have to negotiate you have to negotiate have to have the right hat and jacket up you have to have to the englishman's wardrobe yes
01:15:34
Speaker
And then as you're playing, it's also through playing. It will, because you don't have, it doesn't show you all the the exits from every city. You have to discover them as you explore or you buy timetables.
01:15:48
Speaker
Have conversations. Yeah. Yeah. You'll find out it's like, oh, I hear there's a steam train that runs from Miami to Havana. and You just go, oh how interesting. Yeah, and then it marks it on your map, and you get to see that line. Oh, yeah, you get a little bonus. You get to see a thin little white or like like ah yeah like a thin little line show up on the map, and it's like, ooh.
01:16:10
Speaker
I could turn that red if I choose to travel there. Yeah, I mean, you're not wrong. How do you think it feels? To be Indiana Jones and be riding on a plane.
01:16:22
Speaker
And just look out the window and see that red line. How do you think Indiana Jones feels when he's making that red line? I bet feels amazing. I bet he he's just like looking behind him out the, he probably rolls down the window of the plane and he just peeks out. He's looking behind him. He's like, damn, that's where I just was.
01:16:45
Speaker
man, that was, that was so cool. do you think there's a, how is there not a movie that has made a joke about like a red line just peeling out behind a plane? As it feels like a joke that's, I feel like I've seen that joke. I feel like you can put that in like top secret.
01:16:59
Speaker
Yeah. That feels like I I'm just kind of like that probably was in top secret. Or like Airplane 2 or something. Or ah ah Top Gun or ah what was that? Oh, Hot Shots. Hot Shots. hobots Hot Shots was what I was thinking. Yeah. What's ah what's a Spy Hard...
01:17:23
Speaker
You know? Oh yeah. I'm sure it's in one of those. Cause it's too good of a gag. Like to not, yeah. ah I mean, yeah, that's gotta be out there. Uh, listeners, if you happen to know if any movie has ever included a gang, a gag involving a red line extending behind a plane currently in flight, uh, send that to quest quest podcast at gmail.com and let us know. And then we'll review it and confirm that your claims are accurate.
01:17:50
Speaker
Yeah. Well, we'll, we'll send it to our team. We will fact check that and get back to you. yeah Um, but anyway, yeah. Uh, yeah. 80 days, a great game that you could play, play it on your phone, play it on your, you know, your computer played on whatever I recommended playing on your, your phone.
01:18:11
Speaker
I play it. What a, um One of the things i I usually, and one of the reasons I wanted to to record this episode now is that traveling always puts me in the mind of 80 Days.
Appealing to Non-Gamers with '80 Days'
01:18:27
Speaker
Whenever I travel, ah like since having played 80 Days... i um like, I think about the game and maybe I'll play it at the airport.
01:18:39
Speaker
ah Because I, it just always, and also, like, the the writing style is is nicely breezy, Yeah. in in a way that kind of makes me think of good travelogue writing.
01:18:56
Speaker
Like, do you ever read like Bill Bryson or like, uh, any, like, have you ever read any, like, you know, someone's like travel writing? Probably where most of my experience there is reading most of Anthony Bourdain's work. Yeah. that' a lot of his readings Yeah.
01:19:14
Speaker
yeah Like, yeah, because it's like, you know, really good travel writing, really interesting travel writing kind of encompasses because it's like I went to this interesting place with a whole like that's very different from my experience. And I had ah like an interesting brand new experience to me.
01:19:35
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, like a piece that really leaps out at me is one of my all time favorite pieces right now from Anthony Bourdain is um his essay that he wrote. I think it was eventually collected in one of his volumes of assorted essays, but about his first trip to Vietnam.
01:19:53
Speaker
Uh, and yeah, yeah his experiences there and just everything from like trying for the first time, which is a food when I read that I'd never had myself and just things like, it sounds like the most amazing thing in the world. And then just hearing, know, sort of his experiences as an American traveling to Vietnam and reflecting on that as a child of the Vietnam era himself. And now, I mean, good travel writing is remarkable in this game.
01:20:19
Speaker
manages to be good travel writing about a fictional steampunk world, not entirely unlike our own. Yeah. And in, in the past, you know, yeah. yeah Yeah. It's, it's, it's a, it is such a, like an entertaining, like,
01:20:39
Speaker
You know, there's just part of me that just selfishly wants them to do like 81 days. Like, it's just like, yeah, just do it. And just, you know, just write a couple different things for for every city. 80 days later, now they're being chased by zombies. Yeah.
01:20:55
Speaker
Have you played any of the other ankle games? Is this your first ankle game? I think it is. Like, I would have to see what else they did, but I'm almost certain. I don't recall. What are some of their other... so you mentioned sorcery. They also did...
01:21:09
Speaker
ah ah they They did Overboard and Expelled, both of which I've played and I really enjoyed. um And they have, like, kind of a...
01:21:21
Speaker
Um, those, those have a, a kind of a, a similar kind of, uh, writing style, I would say. ah um, like it's very peppy and, and kind of fun.
01:21:33
Speaker
um they, i was, uh, they also did Heaven's Vault, which I have not played. i have not, uh, tried it out. So I can't, can't speak too much of, uh, Heaven's Vault, but it does look interesting.
01:21:47
Speaker
Um, Yeah, I don't think I've played any of these. They have a Highland song, which I which i own and I've played a little bit of. And a Highland song is pretty interesting. um it is i very, very different from this. ah It is a a game where Moira McKinnon is open platforming,
01:22:11
Speaker
and you are ah it is open platforming story like with storytelling and maps so maps i like maps as you are trying to explore uh the the highlands uh to uh visit your uncle hamish um it's interesting i i i played a little bit of it i haven't played uh uh too too much of it but uh i i i found it
01:22:45
Speaker
you know, interesting and um like, and ah like deeply charming. um But of the other Inkle games that I have played, ah the Overboard and Expelled, i think are just delightful.
01:23:03
Speaker
And whats what's the wrap on sorcery? Sorcery? So do you know what it like? Do you know what it is at all? I know it's Steve Jackson's, uh, sorcery beyond that. I mean, just knowing a little bit. Are you familiar with those with, uh, Steve Jackson's sorcery at all?
01:23:20
Speaker
No. I mean, just knowing that that that they exist, but I've never read them. Um, so those were like kind of choose your own adventure type, uh, uh, books that, uh,
01:23:34
Speaker
like that had an RPG element to them. Like so you would like fight monsters and it would like there was a dice rolling and stuff like that.
01:23:47
Speaker
Yeah, i played his um Oh, gosh, the fighting fantasy series like scorpion swamp was the and it was the same thing. It was a choose your adventure that also incorporated some dice rolling and like a character sheet and things like that. So I kind of a vibe for what Steve Jackson's all about. and these are basically just like that turned into visual novel format is that correct no i'm not that familiar with uh with the the with the the books so i i can't speak to how like they adapted to them my understanding but i could be wrong
01:24:26
Speaker
is that like the first one is a fairly faithful adaptation. And then each one, they got a little more ah like, you know, they, they did a little bit more ah to to kind of,
01:24:43
Speaker
use the medium that they were they were using yeah so they adapted it but then we're like well but you know this is a like a computer game so we don't have to be as as strict so they opened it up a little bit more that is my understanding i've only played the first two ah i enjoyed those a lot but uh i they they weren't uh like i you know they weren't my favorite uh and i still have yet to play three and four um maybe maybe i should go back replay those i was terrible at them is it's my main that's my main thing is that i have no time for a game i'm terrible at yeah i was just terrible like i i couldn't figure out uh some of the like it it kind of reminded me of like some some zork type stuff where there would be
01:25:34
Speaker
Like, you could cast spells at certain points, and I would never be smart enough to to think of, like, it's like, oh, you have, like, this book of, you know, weirdly specific spells, and it's like, I would never think to ah pull into. It's like, oh this weirdly specific spell is the perfect thing to use in this fix I got myself into. Yeah.
01:25:59
Speaker
But anyway, um yeah, and they have they have something coming out soon called, think, TR-49. I do not, i I don't know too much about that, but it looks neat.
01:26:13
Speaker
But ah Expelled and Overboard are my two ah favorites of theirs. Otherwise, i would easily recommend to anyone else.
01:26:25
Speaker
But anyway, ah is that it? Are we done? Delightful game. yeah Everyone, if you haven't played 80 Days, go play it. If you've played it before, it's a great time to revisit it. It is just as fresh and charming as I imagine it ever was. Yeah.
01:26:39
Speaker
All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us for another great episode of Quest Quest. i The reviews are at he asked. I'm PS underscore Garrick. He's Decaf Jedi.
01:26:49
Speaker
ah You could send an email at Quest Quest podcast at gmail.com. Please rate review, of course, five stars, blah, blah, blah. but you know You know, everyone says that, but there's a reason they always say that. When I was and listening to podcasts, I was like, why do they always say that? Now I make podcasts and I'm like, oh, now I know why they say that.
01:27:10
Speaker
You know, i think... I don't think this is out of place to say, but you know, we have a lot of listeners who say, look, I give you a five star review, but I can only really do that once. Once I've done that, like how else can I help the podcast?
01:27:25
Speaker
The other thing you can do is you can look for other podcasts in this niche that also podcast about adventure games and give them one star reviews because that's also going to help us. I mean, you can pull us up. You can also push them down. And in both ways, that's going to help surface us in search results. So like Ben was saying, either I endorse starting fights with almost all the other podcasts that think of are larger than us.
01:27:56
Speaker
No, don't start a file. You want to do this without revealing it You want to be very sneaky about this. And, you if you could leave a bad review for them, I mean, the numbers do a lot, but sometimes it's just like the right comment is the sort of thing that could really stop people from downloading one of our competitors. any Anyway. anyway
01:28:16
Speaker
i don't do that. um I think that goes without saying. I'd like to think. Well, cool here. ah but ah but anyway, yeah. Join us next week when we discuss Space Quest 4.