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Hugo's House of Horrors
128 Plays20 hours ago
Ben and Jess continue to play TERRIFYING games and visit this indie shareware classic from 1990, which it seems everyone has played at least once. Gotcher.
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
The Podcast Boom and Conan's Influence
00:00:44
Speaker
a It's Quest Quest. The adventure game podcast.
00:00:52
Speaker
Oh, another day, another dollar. Yeah. Back here in the podcast minds. Yeah. We're making so much money on this. That's right. One year into it One million dollars.
00:01:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, you wouldn't think with no sponsors and yeah a very small number of listeners that you could get there. But that's just the podcasting business is gold ever since Conan got into it.
00:01:16
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, yeah, i way we we we don't have a very small. We have ah like a medium. We have a medium audience. That's right. I mean, yeah, considering most podcasts have zero people listening.
00:01:30
Speaker
And then there are some that have millions of people listening. We are medium between that. We're, we're like, you know, there's, there's a, uh, like there's like a dozen dozen.
00:01:42
Speaker
And again, you know, when WTF with Mark Maron ends, yeah we are, there's going to be a lot of loose podcast listeners up for
WTF Podcast Decline and Gaming Preferences
00:01:52
Speaker
grabs.
00:01:52
Speaker
I am assuming the position I'm crouched down. My, my hands are are right in front and I'm just ready to catch the onslaught of people. Yeah. I'm like, all right, well, yeah.
00:02:06
Speaker
um I mean, can you imagine we just got 2000 of those listeners? Like that's not much in the grand scheme of like his audience. That wouldn't get, you know, Mark, Mark Merritt wouldn't get out of bed for 2000 Yeah.
00:02:18
Speaker
No, absolutely not. Oh, no. No, no. Do you think we can get Marc Maron on here? What do you think his favorite adventure game probably is?
00:02:26
Speaker
Who are his guys? If you had are you are you adam w uh wtf uh listener i was when everyone was yeah and haven't been since everyone wasn't uh if that's uh if that's fair how about you how about you i would i would say i i i started ah as a wtf listener uh like in the early early days like when he was recording like when he was like sneaking into the air america offices yeah uh to like those really really early episodes before he like record them in his garage um and
00:03:11
Speaker
i You know, i the other day i was like, you know what? He's wrapping up. I'll put one on. And I was like, you know what? Still a good interviewer. He's, know, he's just has a knack for it.
00:03:23
Speaker
yeah And according to my Instagram reels, his new standup special has at least a couple of good jokes. That's right. Yeah. Every time I see one pop up on TikTok, I'm like, that's pretty good.
00:03:34
Speaker
I wouldn't watch a comedy special, but you know, it's pretty good. This is why what, what is, you know what? I don't really use TikTok any anymore. i had a I had a minute. I had like a year.
00:03:46
Speaker
I had a year of TikTok, and then I was like, all right, enough for me.
Social Media Algorithms and AI Content
00:03:51
Speaker
um are you ah But ah TikTok and now like instagram like you know when Instagram Reels is it's it's like in in terms of the recommendation algorithm starting to get a little better. like That was always what was really great about TikTok.
00:04:06
Speaker
um Or what still is, question mark? Mm-hmm. And, but both of them are just like, yeah, we're just going to show you Norm MacDonald clips and call it a day. I see a lot of that on TikTok as well. I mean, right now I can tell you what I've got, ah which is what you what I got right now on TikTok exclusively.
00:04:26
Speaker
ah Now that I guess Sora has launched its new video generation algorithm. Oh, amazing. Is nothing but AI videos. And most of them that pop up on my feed so far, I don't know why this is the case.
00:04:39
Speaker
Are AI videos. recreations of wrestling matches that never happened. Like pro, right? Like with voiceover by announcers everything. Like I keep seeing clips of Martin Luther King Jr. Wrestling Tupac in a WWE ring.
00:04:54
Speaker
And I don't know why this is like a common theme that seems to be popping up on TikTok right now, but you what? I don't for that. You can't swipe quickly enough for the algorithm to quit showing it to you. There's no way. i've I've just not looked at TikTok in days because all it wants to give me is that slap. I did get one of Norm MacDonald, like cussing out Mr. Rogers for some reason in like an AI video.
00:05:20
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's garbage. It's garbage. And see, Norm MacDonald needs to explain the man great to Mr. Rogers. See, that would be... Yeah, that's that correct.
00:05:33
Speaker
and Looking back, I regret the episodes early in our run when I was out and we used an AI replacement for me. I think at the time we didn't realize like, you just how problematic that is. And i mean, people didn't notice because I don't talk that much in these episodes, really.
00:05:50
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's pretty much a one man show. Yeah. I mean, then just some of the episodes, you just had like some like uh-huhs on your string deck that you just hit like your sound, your, you know, soundboard. Yeah, that stuff like
Culinary Adventures and Dining Experiences
00:06:02
Speaker
that. So, but no, you know what?
00:06:06
Speaker
Oh, man. Abu birds are out. Hey, I'm Jess. That's Decaf Jedi on Twitch and YouTube. And this is my partner, Ben. Yeah, i keep going.
00:06:17
Speaker
Ben, that's PS underscore Garrick, postscript Garrick on on Twitch and YouTube. That's right. Now, Jess, i think I think we need to get attuned for this. I said this the last show, but I think we're going to have to get attuned for it.
00:06:34
Speaker
What have you been eating?
00:06:41
Speaker
Yeah, ding du um dumb du um yeah now you talk. This is the tune that plays. ah Could you, can we maybe turn down a little bit? like Oh no.
00:06:54
Speaker
Oh man. Oh man. That's going to be, that's to be audio poison. um Ben, what I had today ah for lunch, and I'm very excited about this. I had a delicious Berea.
00:07:10
Speaker
torta it's hard to torta how now here's here's the follow-up question hey is did you make it through your afternoon
00:07:23
Speaker
I took a brief nap and they did not eat dinner is how my day went. Yeah, yeah i I've had, I've made the Berea Torda lunch mistake myself.
00:07:35
Speaker
Yes. And ah it, you know, it's it's tempting because you're at the Torda place. Mm-hmm. you're looking at the menu and you're like, Berea, that's, that's the hot, that's, that's a hot menu item.
00:07:49
Speaker
and Like, uh, you know, any, uh, any Mexican restaurant worth its salt these days is, is throwing, uh, Berea and, uh, case of berea, like case of Berea in, in their menus because everyone is, is really, you know, we can't get enough of it.
00:08:06
Speaker
Everyone's really excited about that. That was it stewed goat. Um,
00:08:13
Speaker
what is it dude go but I don't know it's delicious is what it is um uh this is this is embarrassing it is oh it is a barbacoa mainly made with go goat beef or lamb Just a couple times I had it was, was coach.
00:08:31
Speaker
I think I've mostly had beef up to that. i think around here we're getting mostly beef. Now this restaurant I went to, I didn't order this today, but this taqueria that I went to offers also Berea ramen.
00:08:45
Speaker
I've heard of this. I've, yeah I've seen Berea ramen around and I, I can't say that I'm against that idea. I have not had it. I just, I'm going to tell you right now. Oh,
00:08:58
Speaker
I haven't had really great ramen in a, in a little bit. I've had pretty good ramen. Yes. And, and I think because like, you know, uh, ramen shops showing up all over, ah like all over U S was like, I would say what, 10 years ago, 2015 probably little before that. Um,
00:09:23
Speaker
probably a little before that um And I remember like the first time I had really good ramen in it, like just totally knocked my socks off. I was like, shit.
00:09:34
Speaker
Like, I didn't know this could be this good. Holy moly. And then like, I had a lot of like ramen place that opened ramen that was like,
00:09:45
Speaker
you know, I wouldn't kick it out of bed. I don't know that I've ever had bad ramen from a restaurant. I mean, it's all like, even like mediocre ramen. It's like, yeah, it's still better than most foods. But, but good ramen's hard to come by. Like, yeah.
00:09:58
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, like I, I have a place in Cincinnati. that I like. Uh, but yeah, that's like three hours away.
Ramen Recommendations and Culinary Tangents
00:10:04
Speaker
It's a little inconvenient to just, you all the convenience of popping down to your and noodle shop and getting a little bit ramen, uh, really drifts away after three hours of driving each direction. Let's say let's, let's, uh, buzz market this place in Cincinnati for all of our, gosh,
00:10:18
Speaker
all of our listeners in the cincinnati metro area okay yeah this is right let me uh it's got the jess seal of approval okay it is zundo ramen let's see you in dio z-u-n-d-o zundo zundo ramen in the great city of uh uh cincinnati ohio that's right let me see here what's my order let me uh um yeah Let's walk through Let's walk through it. yeah we got get i have to There's not a lot going on in the game that we're talking about today. so we got oh no that this is This is good. this We got to hand pull these noodles.
00:10:52
Speaker
Yeah, let's see. Let me see if can pull up this this menu. and yeah I do a spicy pork, but um it's a style that I don't see at most places, and I can't recall what the name is.
00:11:05
Speaker
And their online menu doesn't seem to be loading very well, so we may just have to save that for a future podcast. I'll tell you, Ben, um I had a really good burrito.
00:11:16
Speaker
It was really wonderful. What'd you eat today? What sort of treats have you had? So, uh, I made last night, uh, an apple pie.
00:11:30
Speaker
Oh, didn we an apple pie on here before. Tell me about this one. I, uh, so, uh, and, and the worst part about this is I don't recall the, the name of the apple uh, so i went to the farmer's market, uh, this weekend and they had, ah we're, we're now, we're now in it. We're in apple season.
00:11:52
Speaker
Like, you know, like this was the first farmer's market weekend where like there was just apples up and down, you know, apples, apples, apples.
00:12:03
Speaker
It was like a board game convention in 2005. And five and so... Thank you, Jess. i And...
00:12:17
Speaker
Sorry, please. got That's much better than any other way. You could have ended that joke. That's good. no up Please go ahead. And so I went to a place and ah like one of the you know, the tents.
00:12:33
Speaker
And I said, what what do you got that are good pie apples? And ah the the lady pie apples right here. Yeah. She waved her fist in my face. But the the lady ah was like these apples, which are like this variety that I can't recall the name of. And I think that it it's like,
00:12:53
Speaker
Because we're now living in an era where, like, I mean, a ton of different varieties of apples have always existed, but it feels like we're living in an area era where people are, like, a ah lot more upfront with, like, the tons of apple variants that you're going to everywhere.
00:13:11
Speaker
Absolutely. Like, it was some sort of Michigan apple. all I'll take a look. i'll I'll head back through this weekend and see if I get the name. Well, Ben, can i ask a follow-up question? Yeah.
00:13:23
Speaker
How do you like them apples? Love them. Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:29
Speaker
I love those apples. So yeah, last, you know, I i made ah the crust, a flaky pastry crust i ah yesterday. And then I rolled it out and I sliced up some apples and got some brown sugar and little bit of lemon.
00:13:48
Speaker
You cheesing it on this baby? I've done the i've done the the cheddar crust.
Dessert Preferences and Unique Food Experiences
00:13:54
Speaker
Okay. I've done the cheddar crust for an apple pie. i haven't done it. I have not done that yet. I also haven't. i There's one of my favorite apple pie recipes is a caramel apple pie. Yeah, that's tough to beat. You just like chunks of caramel into it.
00:14:10
Speaker
But yeah, no, I mean, this was just a straight up brown sugar apple pie. I recently tried some caramel apple ah sour patch kids. So I can imagine how good that would be in a pie.
00:14:23
Speaker
Is that a thing? It is, Ben. and I have to tell you, it's part of like a Halloween mix of like there's apple cider, yeah like a cranberry pumpkin. And then, yeah, caramel apple. And honestly, it's it's none none of them are great. The apple cider one's the best.
00:14:42
Speaker
but The problem is just like sugar flavored. That they're not like tart. No, nobody's drinking Granny Smith apple cider. Yeah.
00:14:53
Speaker
But like, as far as like caramel apple is not something you can sour candy.
00:15:05
Speaker
No, I mean, caramel by definition is just like the sugary is sugar at some level. Right. Yeah, no, I mean, it it was it was doomed to fail from the jump.
00:15:17
Speaker
This is me telling the folks over at Sour Patch Kids, get together. Ben and I like a gummy candy. I think we've established that here before. I love the the water the Sour Patch Watermelons. I will say, though, yeah I don't like that a Sour Patch Watermelon is its own thing.
00:15:34
Speaker
Like that it's completely cut off from the rest of the the Sour Patch Kids. really Why do they have to be? this is if if we've If we're bending the ear of ah the Sour Patch Watermelon,
00:15:47
Speaker
kids and we know you're listening yeah a little little children little children why must he you keep why like why is it like here's a whole bunch of flavors and then here's just watermelon why why why why do we got to do that why does just watermelon have to to ah stand on its own and i'll say pretty good no let me ask a question um am i correct that the watermelon packaging specifies not so sour on it doesn't that part of the brand name maybe oh so it's like i think they yeah it's it's for babies it's for children just starting out with sour oh i didn't know that that was part of the the purpose yeah they're keeping it corralled for for people's safety some other
00:16:33
Speaker
flavors for that yeah like yeah that it's just it's just kind of it's just kind of weird i'm just like you remember when yeah you you can't just risk that sort thing you can't put like you know wacky flavored uh jelly bellies within reach of children that you know like could kill them with like a carolina reaper jelly belly You know what's really great with the Sour Patch Kid is like when you get them and they're in like pretty good, like they are reasonably fresh, like just to say they're not like they, they like a stale Sour Patch Kid that like you have to chew on for a while versus like one that you bite into and it like immediately, you know, falls apart. It has pull to it still. Yeah.
00:17:17
Speaker
You know, though what's also good? a stale one in its own way. Like I think sometimes that like crunchiness of the whole thing has its own separate appeal. I think the answer is I'll just take like right now i just want some Sour Patch Kids. And I know I have some in the next stream, which is to say my daughter has some, but you know what?
00:17:33
Speaker
She's in bed. And as we say here at the Morissette household, you snooze, somebody eats your Sour Patch Kids.
00:17:40
Speaker
Well, you know, ah like, I'm tired of the two of us just just sitting. it's It's time for us to to to stop all this chatter. We're just talking but just talking and talking and talking. All this garbage.
00:17:53
Speaker
About food. We're eating up all the, yeah, we're just talking about food. You and me, this is so, like, you know, let's that that's not what this podcast did ah is about. That's not what this podcast is about.
00:18:04
Speaker
It's not why we started this podcast. Yeah. Yeah, this podcast is also about our sandwich ah ah reports, which are not from us. Yeah, sometimes they're from us.
00:18:16
Speaker
Don't get me wrong. Don't get it twisted. yeah Sometimes our intrepid sandwich reporter... ah Francisco king is Gonzalez ah has a sandwich report for us. And would you believe it?
00:18:32
Speaker
We have another one, ah which we're hearing for the first time right now. Francisco. Hello, Quest Quest. This is your sandwich correspondent, Francisco Gonzalez, reporting from the field.
00:18:45
Speaker
From scenic Miami, Florida. I have just experienced a Cuban sandwich at a new restaurant that I was made aware of called Sandwich. The joke there being that if you live in Miami, you don't say sandwich, you say sandwich. ah So yeah, a Cuban sandwich. There are dime a dozen in Miami. I have my own particular favorite places to go to, but these people purport to have the best Cuban sandwich in South Florida.
00:19:13
Speaker
And I have to respectfully disagree. It's fine. It was, you know, it was okay. Wasn't one of my favorites. ah The mustard was a bit much.
00:19:24
Speaker
They were a bit heavy handed on the mustard. So that kind of changed the whole flavor profile. um They were very liberal with the pickles, which I don't particularly like them. And I i tend to pick them out.
00:19:36
Speaker
So it was a bit of a challenge. Usually if in ah in a normal Cuban sandwich, you'll get like, you know, Maybe two pickles, maybe three pickles per half. This one had like 20.
00:19:48
Speaker
So it was a bit of a chore there. um um Overall, the sandwich was fine. I mean, i wouldn't even necessarily maybe put it in my top five, but it wasn't bad. i mean, the good thing here is, as you can see in the picture, was they had a guava and cream cheese milkshake, which was amazing.
00:20:04
Speaker
But I'm the sandwich reporter, not the milkshake reporter. So that is my report. If you want a good Cuban sandwich, you can find them pretty much at any little hole in the wall place in Miami for much cheaper to this place obviously is catering to the hype crowd or the tourists.
00:20:23
Speaker
Anyway, that is my report. Catch you next time. Goodbye. All right, well, that's ah that's Francisco there in the field down there in Miami, Florida. where're wellll Where will we send him next? Yeah, and this is really awkward, Ben, because actually we did have a sponsor for today, and I'm looking at the ad copy here. hu and it's It's from Sandwich, right? It's it's Sandwich. Oh, it's from Sandwich?
00:20:52
Speaker
Sandwich. Oh, I thought it was just for the concept of Sandwiches. No, no, it's actually for this place. And now like, we're not going to get the, we're not going to paid for this, but i guess go there, Miami, Florida.
00:21:05
Speaker
ah You heard here first, too many pickles. Now, how do you feel like, all right, so this is, this is interesting. I jumped scared on the too many pickles. i say yeah you You reacted on that. and I love pickles. That's too many pickles. Yeah. Money is a lot of pickles. That sounds to me.
00:21:22
Speaker
That's less a pickle. Like at that point, That's just a ah large relish, right? Yeah, I mean, you you have eaten a cucumber's worth of pickle if you've had 20 pickles on a on a Cuban.
00:21:35
Speaker
that I mean, you Francisco is, is is ah you know, the pickles are, you know, ah with the times, which is probably why sandwich is is so pickle friendly.
00:21:50
Speaker
But even, so but the thing is, is that a pickle is such a strong flavor and it can easily overpower. Yeah. It's there to cut through uh, the heaviness of like your cheeses and your meats and everything. It's not, not there to overpower, especially if it also had too much mustard, like the mustard and the pickle are kind doing the same thing in a, in a Cubano. And that is, uh, that's too much of both.
00:22:15
Speaker
Now, he did say you could look at the the photo that's on our Discord. If you scroll all the way up to October 9th. ah And the GF Jedi channel. channel Yeah. ah Though, yes, if you listen to this much later, it might not be there. Who knows?
00:22:31
Speaker
that I will say that guava milkshake does look. It looks fantastic. yeah Yeah, I would i would definitely mess around with that. That looks pretty good. It's ah an interesting milkshake can really turn, like turn in opinion on a plate.
00:22:47
Speaker
Can I give you my hot take on milkshakes? Okay. Don't melt them though. I don't enjoy a milkshake with my meal.
00:22:58
Speaker
I prefer to have one as dessert after meal. i Yeah. I drink so much liquid in the course of a meal. Yeah. Like, I need to drink, like, 64 ounces of water to eat any meal.
00:23:11
Speaker
And milkshake, like, a milkshake is not going to do it for me. I don't know how people, like, eat, like... you know ah like burger and fries and shake and they don't just die of thirst in the process i've never quite understood that like i i i uh a shake is a lovely treat at the end yeah um i mean especially a thick boy like if it's one of those like you're like having to like hollow out the cheeks to to get anything up the straw um don't understand that at all There's the, uh, uh, what's the, what's the thing? The, uh, frosty.
00:23:44
Speaker
that at, uh, Wendy's? Yeah, that's Wendy's. Yeah. Like, you know, though i that has the fun of you stick a fry in it, which I've never done, but something. Oh, it sounds disgusting. Yeah. i've I've never. My daughter does it and I'm like, that's disgusting. Well, all right.
00:23:58
Speaker
I think I would enjoy that, but I know that you do not appreciate sweet and savory. Sweet and savory, not my thing. Or sweet and salty specifically, not my thing.
00:24:09
Speaker
Yeah. like No way. No way, man. yeah You don't. How do you feel? Like kettle corn? That's a no. No, not kettle corn guy. now No, no, no, no.
00:24:19
Speaker
No fiddle faddle. No crunch and munch. Well, yeah i yeah no, no, no, no. All that stuff's garbage. I'm like, yeah, but like, you know, you go, you go to the fair downtown. They have that like really unsafe looking Ferris wheel.
00:24:36
Speaker
They have them tiny little ah roller coaster for five year olds that can yeah be on the back of a truck. Yeah. that That haunted house. Do you ever ride that little haunted house at the carnival? I'm afraid of haunted houses. No way.
00:24:52
Speaker
i i don't even like to talk about haunted houses, if I'm being honest.
00:24:59
Speaker
All right. Well, you know, that's that's a Yeah, you know, i love to talk about haunted houses and Jess hates to talk about them.
00:25:09
Speaker
We'll see how the rest of this goes. Ben can't get enough. yeah Ben asked me before the podcast started, like, so Jess, it's October 9th. How many haunted houses have you been to so far?
00:25:23
Speaker
and I was like, none. And you've been hating them all over the Midwest?
Gaming Enthusiasm: Hades and Beyond
00:25:29
Speaker
i I can't do a bit here because there are people that do that. Like, they're the haunts.
00:25:34
Speaker
which are like a really scary like thing like where they'll they'll they'll make like a thing and people jump out and spook and no i don't do that no in in new england i don't do the i think this is a new england thing but you tell me jess if they because this sounds like something that would also potentially be in west virginia when i was a kid what it was was that they would have the haunted hayride yeah we have those okay so you have a haunted okay maybe that have you ever seen like the church haunted houses is that thing where you came from no no not where i'm from oh man yeah that a good hell house is really something else uh but uh you know speaking of hell house jess what have you been playing
00:26:18
Speaker
Hey, Ben, that's a great great segue. Oh, I know, because I know exactly what you've been playing. Yes. Coming off of last week, you might remember, eagle-eared listeners will know that last week Ben was talking about playing Hades 2 during What Have You Been Playing? And...
00:26:36
Speaker
I asked Ben, on air, I said, Ben, should I play Hades? It's six bucks on Steam right now. And Ben said, yeah, you should give it a try. And I said, I will buy it live on air. In the middle of the podcast, I completed that Steam transaction.
00:26:52
Speaker
I really shouldn't have mumbled my credit card number aloud while I was doing it, though. That was a mistake. Please don't use that. I can't stress strongly enough. I don't want to have to change it. But I'll have to reenter all my Google Pay information. It'll be a pain in the rear end. But I've been playing Hades for last week, and then,
00:27:12
Speaker
I absolutely love it. yeah I love it. It's wonderful. Everything about it's wonderful. I can't get enough of it. I am making okay progress. Like i am I've beaten the first two big bosses and and i had one of those great runs. Here I've never played Roguelikes before and I'm sure this is a very common experience that I'm about to describe, but for me it was amazing.
00:27:36
Speaker
Just this morning, I hadn't beaten the second big boss, who spoiler alert for a game from five years ago is a Hydra. I hadn't beaten it yet. Got into the Hydra few times, I'm going to able to finish it off.
00:27:49
Speaker
I finished off the Hydra in this run this morning. Like at full health, all of my revives you still intact. I just beat the snot out of it and then shot through the entire next level straight to the next boss and almost beat that boss in the same run. Oh, the first time I got up to that third boss, I was just like, I will never.
00:28:14
Speaker
beat this like i was just like yeah artist and then uh that's i that's one of the great things about hades yeah is that like the first the first time you kind of run into boss generally like you know except in your case apparently for for uh like the first time you run into a If you're a person of like medium to lower gaming skill, which I would include myself in as well, like you you you fight that boss and you're just like, this is the hardest shit ever. I'm not going to beat this.
00:28:51
Speaker
Yeah. And then, and then, and then like, I don't know, a couple, like five hours later, like you take that boss out, like bang, bang. It's like, oh, he's going to do this fucking thing. Okay, now I got to jump over here. I'm going to do this thing.
00:29:07
Speaker
Yeah, and something was going on. I mean, like, I have a feeling that. What weapon are you using? It was a weapon. I was using the spear. Oh, you're just using the spear. I'm a spear man. So far. You're going to get onto the other other weapons? You got to start.
00:29:21
Speaker
i keep I keep going back to the spear. Everything I've tried, I like the spear best. yeah yeah yeah It's a learning curve with yeah other weapons. like Because eventually when you start the other weapons, you're starting all over. this I know, I know. like Because then you have to learn how to beat the bosses again. Because you're like, yeah oh, all the attacks don't work anymore. I have to come up with a brand new strategy.
00:29:43
Speaker
But let me tell you, of those other weapons were really good. I have to say, like, whatever i was was going on this morning, I feel like I had gotten up today and instead of playing Hades, I decided to go golfing, like, I think i would have hit four holes in one. I think, like, I was just in the zone for a brief moment of my You're just fucked in.
00:30:04
Speaker
Yeah, I was locked in, as the kids say. As someone who's never been good at video game before, it was like my hands were moving entirely on their own without any input from me. It was was amazing, Ben. and I've never seen anything like it. But yeah, thank you for the recommendation. it turns out this game that everyone absolutely adored five years ago is pretty good.
00:30:21
Speaker
How have you been playing? Well, Jess, you know,
00:30:28
Speaker
Let's all be let's be the honest here. You know, sometimes when we do these, what have you been playing? I just kind of look through scheme and I'm just like, what can I talk about?
00:30:40
Speaker
Because it's like, you know what? I'm just playing the same thing. Like, you know, I don't have anything interesting to talk about.
00:30:47
Speaker
But you know what? I'm just going to be honest here. Kept playing Hades 2. Yeah. Now this isn't Hades, T-O-O.
00:30:59
Speaker
No. You're talking the sequel to Hades. Which I'm going say, I was having this conversation with a friend of mine today.
00:31:13
Speaker
We were both in agreement. She's a little more down on it than me. I like Hades 2 a fair amount. But we both think it's not quite as strong as Hades 1.
00:31:28
Speaker
And I love it, and probably, like, I'm going to finish it. And I know that, like, a lot of the discourse around Hades 2 is about people don't like the ending, apparently. I've seen i've seen that all over the place. Aftermath had a ah piece about it, and I looked it, I was like, I don't want to spoil this.
00:31:47
Speaker
But, like, you know, I think bit of the thing about Hades 2, and think this was in...
00:31:57
Speaker
the Kotaku review of it, if I recall correctly, is that like Hades 2 has a lot of, like has so many different currencies and resources and stuff like that.
00:32:11
Speaker
Hades 1 has just enough. like Yeah, there's not which just means there's just slightly too much yeah already. Yeah, yeah yeah Hades 2 has so many things that you get that you have to accumulate.
00:32:24
Speaker
And... My friend, she said to me, she's like, it kind of feels like you bought it and it came with like that you're buying the version that came with all the DLC. Interesting. Like it's a little too crowded. Like there's, there's just a bunch of, there's just a bunch of systems in it.
00:32:42
Speaker
And there's like a bunch of like, there's just a lot in it, which I get and I enjoy, right? Like, it's just like, because, you know, okay. Like I played Hades one. I played it like a ton of it.
00:32:56
Speaker
Like I, I, I defeated like a whole bunch of the post game. I made it to Apple lock. I did all this stuff. And it's like, I want more and I want way more. i want more than like, I want more than they could possibly provide.
00:33:12
Speaker
And then Hades 2 is like, okay, well, here you go. There's a lot more. And now I'm like, Too much. Yeah, there you go. I mean, I like this this analogy of like a game that already has all the DLC. like It's sort of similar to what do wait for like the the Game of the Year Deluxe Edition of you know, like a new Civ game to come out and all the expansions are already bundled in, but you didn't play the base game. And it's just like, I don't know, this whole like diplomacy mechanic seems a little, seems like a little much, I'm still just trying to remember how to build a city here.
00:33:48
Speaker
It's like, yeah, probably if you've gotten that incrementally over the course of several months, it would feel like a fresh new little addition to a game you're already familiar with. But yeah. Or or like if, you know, when you open up like a Bethesda game, like yeah you get the like ultra like game of the year edition or whatever. Yeah. And like you just start the game and then all of a sudden it just immediately drops on you like 10 notifications. It's like, you now have the ultimate armor.
00:34:14
Speaker
You've received a special letter that tells you to go to this location. Like you all of a sudden, like just yeah like it just like dumps on you. Oh, man. Yeah, that's pretty great. 20 quests and like armor and like all this shit.
00:34:30
Speaker
You got the Recon Ranger armor. Yeah, no, the like Fallout New Vegas Game of the Year Edition does this. I know Skyrim and Oblivion love to do, yeah. I don't want to log in and find out that I already have horse armor. I want to wait and earn my horse armor.
00:34:47
Speaker
Yeah, we all have to. Um, and so, yeah, like, I mean, and, and I, and I want to be clear here. I'm really enjoying Hades, too. I'm having a great time. Bryn gives it a four out of ten.
00:34:58
Speaker
I, I give it a, I give it a four out of five. Where Hades' wine is a five out of five. It's twice as good as what I said. Um, but, yeah, but, uh, you know, and maybe, like, I'm, I'm, I'm a mere 16 hours in.
00:35:14
Speaker
But, like, I'm having a great time. It's just, like, I, I'm, like, You know, like Hades 1 was just like, it was just a tighter. yeah it was a tighter experience. It was a a tighter experience. But you know what? Like the bones are good. and this That's what I said to my friend. Like like she was, a as I said, she was little more down on it.
00:35:34
Speaker
And I said to her, I was like, you know what I'm still having a good time, though, because it's like there's all this other extraneous shit. and Like it doesn't like some of it just doesn't hang for me.
00:35:46
Speaker
Doesn't have sexy gods and goddesses. Yeah, it has all that shit. They all, like, you get a boon, and they have, like, a little thing they say to you, and, like, you know, the you just kind of click through it, like, after yeah after a while. You're just like, how interesting, and you're like, no, I gotta, I gotta. Oh, it's me, Dionysus. Click, click, click, click. i got yeah You're just like, okay, all right, I'm over it.
00:36:10
Speaker
I'm charming, fine, get out.
00:36:16
Speaker
Um, that's the Hades experience. Yeah. It's, listen, it's a good game. I me agree love it. I love it. love it. I didn't think I'd love it, Ben. have to be honest. I didn't like, I, I thought, I thought you could love it, but I thought you'd bounce.
00:36:36
Speaker
I thought you'd give up. yeah What? Because I'm sure, like, I'm sure you felt the tug. what What is it that got you to stay in? What was the moment where you went from, you know, everybody loves this, but I'm not going to love this. Like, I know it's a good game, but it's not for me to, Oh, it is for me. What, like, when did that happen?
00:37:00
Speaker
It happened. Like which number run would you say? Ooh, that's a good question. don't know what number around, but I know it happened like about an hour in when I unlocked the, uh, I unlocked, uh, the bow and arrow, uh, as my weapon. Oh yeah. like Yeah. Yeah. That was and just right away. Having ranged attacks completely changed how I was playing the game.
00:37:20
Speaker
And I felt like I wasn't just constantly being bombarded in close fighting with a sword and, it all felt so smooth. Like, I really with any sort of action focused game, like smooth mechanics are in a lot of cases, my biggest, like draw in some ways, I think I've only come to realize this in recent years. i mean, honestly, know, we've talked about Borderlands a bit on here before, you know, that's what draws me to the Borderlands games is I feel like the gunplay is just really smooth and solid and just has a good feel to it. It manages to be the new one.
00:37:56
Speaker
have you played for i haven't yet i'm waiting waiting for it to get cheaper i'm not paying 70 for a borderlands game randy pitchford was wrong it's a premium experience jess yeah i'm not a premium guy so it's a premium experience for for a premium consumer that has a premium computer there i mean you can almost see like you saw a copy of borderlands in the store and it had a little price tag on it that said 70 you'd be able to see like poking out from below that appeal away that makes it $39.99 in like six months. That's why, like, there's never going to be a game more on sale than the latest You're not pay the sucker price?
00:38:35
Speaker
i not I'm going to pay the sucker price. I, you know, I've paid, I've bought Borderlands 2, 3, pre-sequel, Tiny Tina Wonderland at release.
00:38:46
Speaker
And not doing it for this one Not doing it, Ben. I'm drawing a line. all all'll buy I'll buy a game it released. Like Hades 2. But immediately it released. Also, like i'll I'll be like, you know, part of this is also a little bit of a tip you know to to the
Borderlands Pricing Strategy Discussion
00:39:04
Speaker
developers. like it's like I do worry sometimes that like take two not doing well.
00:39:09
Speaker
Yeah. i makes yeah you You need a little walking around money. Yeah.
00:39:16
Speaker
that's right yeah i mean if anything i think that a lot the lead up to the release of borderlands 4 was telling me how much they didn't need my money in fact so i decided to oblige them you know ah for someone with pitch in his name uh he's uh randy is not very good at selling anyone on anything no no he's no magic man when it comes to marketing uh but um but um You know, like, ah yeah, we we have we we have a short comment, which I'm going to use the the emails music for.
00:39:53
Speaker
a wow. Yes, please. We have a a comment on our Spotify. You can comment. ah if If you listen to us on Spotify, you can comment there. You can also comment if you're listening to us on YouTube.
00:40:08
Speaker
Yeah. Or you just send us an email at questquestpodcast at gmail.com. This comes from our friend Andrew. Andrew says, this is for the last episode for Immortality.
00:40:23
Speaker
Says, as a big Symphony of the Night fan, I think Jets should play it. It's a smoother game. Yes. I'll say that again. It is a smoother game than the older games.
00:40:37
Speaker
Because it's also an RPG. You can make your stats go up. I like that. like numbers go up. And do you like that it's smoother? Because he just said...
00:40:48
Speaker
Yeah, no feel feel means a lot. And let's drop in the clip from last week. I don't like Castlevania because Simon Belmont doesn't jump good.
00:40:59
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's what I said last week. That's I mean, I'll I'll never forget ah what I said last week.
00:41:10
Speaker
Oh, do we not have the clip? Oh, there. Okay. Thank you. There's a slight delay. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. yeah i was a like go right now I'm going try. i'm I'm trying to smooth things over their sponsor sandwich sandwich. Do you like pickles?
00:41:24
Speaker
Come to sandwich where we have ah the pickles. If you're Gen Z, you'll love sandwich. um Now. Did I tell you I had the pickle slush at Sonic?
00:41:36
Speaker
No. What do you think? It was terrible. Yeah. Just awful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It had popping pearls full of pickle juice. Oh, it had a, it had the, don't those have um microplastics like the, the Boba. hope so.
00:41:52
Speaker
That's why I asked, I asked for extra microplastics now, probably. Yeah. But you know, I eat macroplastics, but I'm chewing through like, you know, and entire entire bottle caps and stuff, you know, from like Diet Coke bottles. I'm good.
00:42:05
Speaker
I have, I mean, i have ah a mouth guard, which is essentially like, and I look at it and I see that it's like eroding. Like I just put a chunk of plastic that I'm slowly like whittling. you're micro dosing on macro plastics. Yeah, I'm micro dosing on macro plastics. Every night.
00:42:27
Speaker
Every night. That's right. But anyway, the same but just, i think, you know what? You should, you should, uh, you should give, uh, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe a Halloween, you know, an October side stream. Give it spin.
00:42:46
Speaker
I mean, people would be interested. That's the sort of thing gets them clicks and you know how much I like. Yeah. You're, you're, you're a click hound. Um, I can't get enough of them. You're, ah you're, you're always like, you're always chasing the clicks.
00:43:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, like when we're podcasting, I'm like constantly just refreshing my analytics. I'm seeing who's clicking what. I'm seeing how long they're clicking it. Usually not very long. Clicks don't take long. Yeah, like i you you said to me, what is this, meme girls? Because there's so many clicks. um Now, what are we... Talk about the plastics.
00:43:24
Speaker
No, we're we're not talking about plastics because it's...
00:43:32
Speaker
october right now we're we're talking about spooky games spooky games what's the scariest game you can think of for me it thousand yeah it's you know let me think what is the the scariest game i could think of yeah it's definitely hugo's house of horrors Yeah, no, I mean, it's pretty spooky. I mean, have you seen the outside this mansion?
00:44:01
Speaker
It's got bats. Imagine, imagine. Dragons. Podcast follows up an episode where you discuss immortality with Hugo's House of Horrors.
00:44:20
Speaker
I mean, wouldn't you say in a lot of ways, though, that Hugo's House of Horrors was the immortality of its day? That's true. mean, yeah, this is 1990 we're talking about? 1991? Does anyone even know? Was anyone paying attention? I don't think we'll ever know. I think it's... 1990. That's right. Yeah, this is actually lost in the sands of time. No, it's 1990.
00:44:40
Speaker
I mean, yeah, of course, immortality deals with slightly more mature themes at times. Immortality also uses clip art. Yeah.
00:44:51
Speaker
As its art. yeah Clips of movies. yeah ah And, you know, movies are an art form. Yeah. But you know what is an art? Clip art. Video games.
00:45:03
Speaker
ah Now. All right. So today we're talking about i ah designed, written, most of the art by music by ah David Gray.
00:45:19
Speaker
David P. Gray. Hugo's House Horrors 1990. One of the first ah like kind of like a real ah wild adventure indie adventure game that got like that it seems like a lot of people knew about it had like it had a pretty big success in terms of like distribution and like I think it was moderately successful
00:46:04
Speaker
Right. I mean, you have to think this is 1990. This is when graphic adventures were still, you know, a huge part of the PC gaming market. And I can say from my personal experience, like where I remember Hugo's House of Horrors from was going to software, et cetera.
00:46:20
Speaker
ah And they would have like a little display at checkout at the register ah with various shareware titles in it. And you flip through and you know, you've got your Wolfensteins and your various Apogee games, your Jills of the Jungle and and things of that sort, your Commander Keens.
00:46:39
Speaker
ah But I mean, I will say this was a time when shareware was very prominent. People were excited about shareware and the idea of a graphic adventure you know, for five bucks at checkout when you're buying your, you know, copy of Conquest of Camelot or whatever is a pretty tempting offer. I never actually bought it. i didn't play this game until last week. i It was everywhere. I mean, this is a game people were aware of.
00:47:08
Speaker
I bought whodunit, which is the the sequel. Mm hmm. on It was like ah on like a also one of the spinning racks at a store like that. It was on a five and a quarter floppy.
00:47:24
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. And it was just one. It contained all of the incredible gameplay. Seems impossible. Of Hugo 2 who done it. And yeah, and these were the the shareware versions, which so the shareware versions had the full game.
00:47:45
Speaker
Yeah, it was wasn't like a Wolfenstein situation where you get a certain number of levels and then you pay to unlock the rest of the game. No, it was that. The like it was the full adventure game.
00:48:01
Speaker
And the registered version had like like a hit book, I believe. i believe so. I think that's the big distinction. Which.
00:48:12
Speaker
That is kind of a problem for Hugo's House of Horrors because it's pretty solvable. It is pretty solvable. I mean, if nothing else, it is a game with very few rooms. ah there There aren't a ton of puzzles, regardless of difficulty level. And a lot of these puzzles are pretty straightforward. Like, let me give you a scenario, Ben. I know it's been a little while since you've played Hugo. seen you To prepare for this, I've watched...
00:48:44
Speaker
I watched your stream. I just. Oh, well, there you was going to say, I mean, you know, you have a puzzle where you have a vicious dog and you have like a pork chop in your inventory. It refers to it as a chop.
00:48:59
Speaker
Yeah, just a chop, a bung chop. No, no, the bung is a different thing. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. But I mean, yeah, I mean, that's pretty, that's like baby's first adventure game. Yeah, you throw the chop to the dog and it's going to be happy. and It's going to let you pass. But I mean, that's the kind of the level of difficulty on most these. The only difficulties you might have tend to be parser challenges. There are a few commands that are a little tricky.
00:49:24
Speaker
Like your YouTube yours your youtube of it is an hour 10 and that includes you opening up a copy of manhunter showing it to people and and i could tell you were taking your time because you knew that there was not a lot meat on that bone and yeah uh and then the other things that took you time were just trying to figure out uh, the, like the parser because, yeah all right, tell away my moment let's, let's rewind. Let's rewind. Let's explain.
00:50:00
Speaker
Let's explain what, uh, Hugo's house of warriors is for, for anyone. What is Hugo's house
Hugo's House of Horrors: A Retrospective
00:50:08
Speaker
of warriors? Yes. Yes. Hugo's House of Wars is, as we said, a parser-based graphic adventure game. You play as Hugo.
00:50:16
Speaker
ah Your girlfriend, Penelope, has gone for a babysitting gig at a nearby haunted house. And it's pretty clearly ah haunted house.
00:50:29
Speaker
Yeah, like imagine a haunted house, like the kind that you would see at like the fall festival at your elementary school, like on the bulletin board. And that is essentially Hugo's House of Horrors. There are bats flying around, creepy eyes in the windows, jack-o'-lantern on the stairs.
00:50:44
Speaker
I mean, it's kind of everything you exist you dilapidated. Yeah. And she goes there for a babysitting gig. She is, she disappears. And now the intrepid Hugo sets off in search of her. He, he braves this, this mansion full of ah various horrors.
00:51:01
Speaker
Now, like what sort of horrors are yeah are you going to tell me like, there's a mad scientist in there. There's a mad scientist in there. there Is there like ah some sort of large ah ah green a monster like called Yeah.
00:51:15
Speaker
Like some sort of, yeah, there's one of those. There's an Igor, possibly an Igor. Is there a, like a, is there like ah like a ah like a vampire or Frankenstein? Any of those? Well, it's not just any vampire or Frankenstein. It's a Dracula and a capital F, the Frankenstein.
00:51:31
Speaker
Wow. um All right. Well, that's impressive. i Okay. ah yeah Does it have a a strong man ah with a large bushy mustache ah standing completely naked except for a purple Speedo?
00:51:48
Speaker
You know, it i mean, it's weird. It has all the classic universal monsters. ah It's so strange. Like, you'd think that would have been a real copyright issue, but they did have large mustachioed muscle man and a tiny purple Speedo. They got him, too. They didn't do Creature from the Black Lagoon.
00:52:06
Speaker
Maybe they couldn't secure those rights, but they did get du Speedo Muscle Man. Have you ever actually seen the Creature from the Black Lagoon? I have not. It's not bad. No. It's not bad. It's like...
00:52:20
Speaker
i like It's interesting because it's like one of the last, like, because. Yeah. um Dracula comes out in the thirties. Yeah. um Dracula comes out when like sound films are still, you know, a novelty.
00:52:36
Speaker
ah And if the Dracula also comes out before, apparently, if you've ever tried to watch it before anyone invented, like, you know movies having pace. um Yes. Yes. Have you seen Spanish Dracula?
00:52:48
Speaker
I haven't, but I know that it's it's very, for those of you who don't know, at the time, ah they, ah ah instead of dubbing or like subtitling, what they did was just yeah try to shoot the same movie with just a Spanish speaking cast.
00:53:06
Speaker
Yeah, just same set, same costume, same camera set up. It's like, bring them in here. Let's get let's get the shot. All it goes. He leaves to probably, you know, like probably do drugs or something.
00:53:22
Speaker
and then like, you know, allegedly. I think. i I think I'm alive to say that. Am I? don't know. I'd hate to be sued by the Lugosi estate. All right, fine.
00:53:33
Speaker
Bela Lugosi as portrayed in Edward. As the character Bela Lugosi. The character Bela Lugosi. I don't know anything about the real Bela Lugosi. I'm just referring to ah Martin Landau, ah who was doing heroin when he played Bela Lugosi. Now, Martin Landau did do lot of heroin. Yeah.
00:53:54
Speaker
I mean, he like, he he had a real problem. He was riding that horse. Yeah. No, I mean, that was, yeah. I mean, I don't even think we have to like hedge ourselves on that. i mean, there's no question there. No, when he did a heroin in Edward, the film, he was doing it in real life. It was real heroin. It was yeah real. it was real heroin in the film. i would He insisted. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're like, is this method acting? He's like, no, I just love heroin. I frequent love it. It's so good. Yeah.
00:54:22
Speaker
Um, Yeah, so... I can't get enough of it. i haven't I haven't watched Spanish-language... Mexican Dracula? Spanish-language Dracula? like yeah I'm not sure if it was for all of Latin America, but oh it I mean, yeah I've seen... I've seen it. It's quite good.
00:54:42
Speaker
But... I have heard that that one is actually better. yeah But Dracula's here. He's in this game. But back to Creature from Black Lagoon.
00:54:52
Speaker
Creature from Black Lagoon comes out in the 50s. That's 20 years. It's color, right? What? No, it's color. All three of the ah Black Lagoon films are all.
00:55:04
Speaker
Wow. The Black Lagoon trick Like its gimmick is that it's and that it's ah like that they had like a really nice underwater camera.
00:55:19
Speaker
And so I've been fortunate enough, like the cool ah like you know, ah like repertory movie theater near me, the music box ah did a 3d movie festival a year or two back.
00:55:38
Speaker
And ah they played, creature from a black lagoon in 3d and you want to know what it looks cool as hell like it really black and white 3d is very stark and like compelling like i can see how that would like work in a really beautiful way but black and white yeah i had uh i'd seen one other thing of black and white 3d which also looked really cool but um yeah like yeah you are correct black and white 3d like it makes the whole of like it makes it even more kind of like dreamy
00:56:11
Speaker
And like the three d really comes into effect with all the underwater stuff. Like you have bubbles that are kind of like, and he's like kind of swimming around and weaving in and out. And it just looks really cool. And it's like decently paced. It's, it's entertaining film.
00:56:28
Speaker
ah It gets a thumbs up for me. Creature from a black lagoon three d If you can shape water thumbs down for me. Yeah. Just wanted to get that in there. Okay.
00:56:38
Speaker
You know, I haven't seen that. Yeah. I don't care for it. yeah i don't care for it. Uh, the, the other, the other great 3d movie experience from the 3d film festival that the music box had, you want to know what that was?
00:56:51
Speaker
Thor Ragnarok, uh, Jackass 3d. Um, yes, I saw Jackass 3d in 3d between the phantom camera and the 3d and everything else. It was, uh, it was truly remarkable. I'm not a Jackass guy.
00:57:08
Speaker
uh like i didn't watch it uh like i didn't watch it when it was on the air and when i've gone back like i have more difficulty watching like kind of prank stuff and stuff like that like as i've gotten older because like prank stuff i'm like ah you're you're just being too mean i'm uncomfortable yeah and then like like ah then like stuff like jackass i'm just like that just looks too painful that doesn't look like fun like uh but i but I knew like, so like i have friends that love jackass and I, you know, I'll like, they'll watch the movies and I'll come over and I'll just be like, eh, not for me. But 3D, I was like, i have to buy a ticket to this because i know this is going to sell out.
00:57:50
Speaker
And I know it's going to be an experience because everybody's going to like, ah gonna be everyone's going to be screaming. A raucous live audience. Like I saw, I think the first three jackass movies on opening weekend with like crowded theaters. And it's it's the best way to watch it with a bunch of people who are in various states of inebriation.
00:58:11
Speaker
absolutely Yeah. Yeah. Just they are ready to go crazy. Have I ever told you about, ah and maybe you have this experience, maybe some of our listeners have this experience, watching ah Borat, I think on opening night. Have I told this? Oh, wow.
00:58:26
Speaker
I don't think so. Maybe opening night, definitely opening weekend. What... ah It was, I remember I was in college at the time. i went there with like a friend or two.
00:58:38
Speaker
And i don't think it was, it was a ah full house. This was in like suburban ah Virginia, where I was going to school.
00:58:49
Speaker
It was a full theater. And I don't think people were actually familiar with Borat. Like, because like that was on the LAG show on HBS. I was like, I was, i was familiar with LAG and all those characters.
00:59:02
Speaker
Um, But I think most the audience didn't know what they were signing up for And ah like, it's one of my favorite, like I think about what a great experience it was because like the it would it just became chaos.
00:59:17
Speaker
Like people are just screaming like from the beginning to the end, like, you know, when he just starts like running nude, like down the thing and like, yeah like that other guy's running after him. They're both like naked and like, and everybody in the audience is just going, ah, ah, ah,
00:59:33
Speaker
like everyone is just screaming the whole time so it's like that's one of the top movie experiences of my life seeing Borat opening weekend do you know who i went to see that with? ah your wife?
00:59:44
Speaker
yeah we love movies
01:00:02
Speaker
Hugo's house of horrors. All right. Now, so you got a Frankenstein, of dracula a strong man in a purple Speedo. An old man, um which is maybe the scariest thing, comparing one's own mortality.
01:00:18
Speaker
That'll be us all someday. If we're lucky. Yeah, if we're lucky. Now. If we're lucky in this economy. Now, so. ah now so uh yeah so you gotta to you gotta to save your your girlfriend uh from this the house of universal monsters um yeah every one of them and wolfman's there invisible man well you can become invisible even though that doesn't that's true it doesn't go anywhere i kind of thought like
01:00:50
Speaker
the So there's ah there's a room in the game where there's this mad scientist and like you walk into like this Laboratory. ah Yeah, you you walk into like this machine and ah like it shrinks you and then like one of the other options is like it dithers you like yeah it makes you invisible dithers you yeah and like the thing is is that uh igor pushing the buttons is colorblind so he pushes like you tell him like one color and he pushes a different one yeah now we talk about how
01:01:33
Speaker
this feels like three different potential puzzles, none of which actually exist. It should be like the only puzzle you need is to be made slightly smaller.
01:01:44
Speaker
So you can walk behind a door to get a bung. You have to get ah a bung at one point as an inventory item, but literally it's in the same room. It's like, Not even like on the other side of the screen from where you'll be transformed in this transformation chamber made small to go behind that door or, or can you try to go behind the door? Like maybe you can, I thought I had to be made small, but otherwise, why is it there? It does feel like, I mean, again, if you're going make somebody invisible, why not write a puzzle where you need to be invisible?
01:02:13
Speaker
Well, everybody then make somebody. Yeah. Also that Igor, like, you tell him something and then he pushes the wrong button. Like that feels like a pretty straightforward puzzle, right? It's like, so that's right you say you are pushed the green button and he pushes the blue button.
01:02:28
Speaker
And so it's like, okay, whenever, like, because i I, remember playing this for the first time and my Mr. Puzzles, uh, like sense started to tingle or instincts kicked down. Yeah. Where it's like, Oh, I told them to, to do blue. Like I, I remember literally, wrote this down.
01:02:45
Speaker
yeah It's like, you tell them to do this one color and then it does this other one. Like I'm really, really thinking. of like okay so i guess the puzzle is i want him to push like this button all the way at the end and actually you just keep saying like that's it's random too like there's not even like a pattern like he just pushes whatever he wants to um don't even know if it's like a one-to-one think so but maybe i'm wrong maybe that is the puzzle but i think you were just writing the same thing five times yeah maybe so i mean it yeah it's um
01:03:18
Speaker
What if that is what if that is actually the the puzzle? i I don't think so. Let me look at the walkthrough because I think you just like just like bumbled. Like you you just kind of. like I wouldn't say bumbled. You bumbled. bumbled.
01:03:34
Speaker
i don't know I'd say bumbled. I would say there was a little bit of bumbling in there. I don't know that like I'm a bumbler, but go. No, please continue. You're a bumbler.
01:03:46
Speaker
You're. ah we Okay. You'll be in, this is ah the IGN, ah what's on IGN. Well, you know that's straight This is ah the the one that gives it ah ah five out of, or three, yeah, five out of five in replayability. Mm-hmm.
01:04:05
Speaker
I personally never grow bored of this classic. is very colorful and funny, and it's very fun game, especially around Halloween. um think some of those words are true, like it is around Halloween. Yeah.
01:04:19
Speaker
and Okay, so... ah so, okay. You do have to be small to to get the bung, according to this. All right. And then... i
01:04:30
Speaker
Go into the machine. Yeah, yeah you just tell him to push the blue button until he he pushes the the right button. Wow. See, don't know. David Gray, ah here's a little punch-up for your game ah from 35 years ago.
01:04:49
Speaker
step it up when you ah start, know, going out there and get ready to like AI upscale all of these rooms and you're getting ready to do your reforged edition, you know, just consider, uh, maybe, uh, tightening up that puzzle.
01:05:04
Speaker
I, it It just feels like a little bit like it just seems like that that would have had a little more possibility and that room. yeah It seems also a few puzzles in this game.
01:05:15
Speaker
It also seems like that might have been a puzzle that he tried to put in and like, you know, it's just kind of pain in the ass to get working. Could be. Because like when he pushes the like the other button, I believe that it like it says the color button in like all caps, which also implies to me, like oh, all right, this is that's a clue, kids.
01:05:36
Speaker
you know and kids um But anyway, yeah. So it's like, you know you give a i ah chop to the dog. There's number written on a mirror.
01:05:49
Speaker
And so you just punch the number in somewhere else. Like it's all pretty straightforward. And then like the back half of the game is like, it it punches up the difficulty a fair amount, I would say. Yeah.
01:06:07
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Yeah. Like the, the, the back half of the the game, like, so you, you go into a, like the basement. So there's the haunted house, which has all ah your spooky friends.
01:06:18
Speaker
And then like, there's a cave under the house and, Like one of the puzzles is that it's not entirely clear. ah like that there's a room, uh, in like the place that you enter. Like there's, that was like the biggest, I get no visible exit and nothing in the room. like that said ah Yeah.
01:06:41
Speaker
Like it feels like the back half of the game is where it it tries to start getting those registration dollars. Yeah. You know,
01:06:52
Speaker
Yeah. And there's not a lot of the back half. I mean, back half of the game is, is ah considerably is pretty short. It's like, yeah, you, you, you walk like through this, like hidden exit yeah between two rocks.
01:07:09
Speaker
Then you're in a room with bats that if you like brush against them, and you die and you just have to blow a whistle And that doesn't get rid of the bats.
01:07:20
Speaker
It slows them down. It's more predictable. Move around them. But you still die if you touch them. And then there's a mummy. Yeah. which You do a great run around in a circle to break his pathfinding to solve that bit. And that was like a thing where I was just like... When when I played that, I was just like...
01:07:41
Speaker
um is there like a thing to take care? Like, this is another case of it's like, I was trying to outsmart the game and the game's like, know, you just have to walk away from the mummy.
01:07:53
Speaker
Yeah. mean, that is the solution to mummies. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah. You know what? Great point. Yeah. that That's like, yeah, the the thing with them. If you're lucky, you're in a comedy mummy situation. It'll eventually like trip on its own bandage and and unfurl itself. Yeah.
01:08:11
Speaker
Yeah. I'm just like turning a dusty pile of bones after it's unwrapped. um Now, ah and then you you meet the the, really the the end boss. There's one more puzzle after this, but really the end boss, which is an old man that asks you trivia questions.
01:08:30
Speaker
Yes. And these are good trivia questions, right? I mean, like, what does he hit you with? Who's the lead character of The Hobbit? Like, so yeah, it hits you with like... boomer nerd shit yeah which it's completely exogenous to the game yeah it's totally exogenous um and as we like to say but
01:08:56
Speaker
it's what we call an exogenous variable yeah yeah that's what i was saying non-dietetic is that bad No, we're sticking with exogenous. I don't think I've ever used that word. It's right, the game's exogenous zone. That's what you get to hear at the end here.
01:09:16
Speaker
We call this back half of the game the exogenous zone. So he asks you a bunch of non-exogenous questions. and like And they're all, like if you're playing them, you know them. like It's like, who's the main character in The Hobbit?
01:09:33
Speaker
The answer is The Hobbit. yeah easy all right next number two what was the second one it was just where's aslan from was that uh yeah yeah and then it even mind of c.s lewis it yeah it even hints here it's like and it's not the wardrobe but yeah you big idiot um and then ah and then it's like what do you do with a pan galactic gargle blaster like this is like you know You know that david David Gray was writing like Frodo lives you know on a bathroom wall in 1975, right? Absolutely. Yeah, like absolutely. he's you know
01:10:14
Speaker
From that time where... like This is kind of like our our Conquest of Camelot ah conversation. or a conquest of longbow conversation, where it's just like, you know, there were, there was just a certain number of like, kind of agreed upon nerd texts, which I don't like there was a nerd monoculture.
01:10:35
Speaker
Yes. And, i So he asked you like about a pan galactic gargle blaster. I, Hey, Jess, Hey, Jess, Hey, Jess, Hey, Jess. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you know where your towel is?
01:10:54
Speaker
No. Yeah. Well, um, and you Have you read the Hitchhiker's Guide? It's probably been 10 years. But I mean, in the grand scheme of things, recent. Yeah, yeah. 10 years is. And I would say I read it about like a reread it. And it's it's ah the the first book is is very it's a slim volume. You could finish. know It's also a great place to stop.
01:11:19
Speaker
yeah it's an excellent place to stop um and uh i mean not to say there aren't like they're fine i mean yeah a diminishing returns yeah absolutely it would be hard to reach those heights a second time or a third time or a fourth or fifth time uh the um and though ah recently like uh uh this summer when i was uh at my family vacation when we were uh driving back my older brother put the radio show on which they hadn't heard oh i haven't heard the radio show oh the radio show is the first thing yeah i know i haven't i've never listened to it though it's really good
01:12:04
Speaker
yeah the radio show is excellent and i've watched like the old bbc version of the tv show use the guide stuff is just pulled straight out of the radio show if i recall but i i would recommend listen the radio show and i say this to i say this to the listeners as well you're listening right now you're still listening if you're a listener You know, listen to the Hitchhiker's Guide ah radio a show. It's really good.
01:12:35
Speaker
Yeah, listen to your old pal Ben, who's telling you to listen to the radio version of Hitchhiker's Guide. Anyway, yeah, when I reread it, I was like, oh, when I was a little kid, I liked all the silly jokes. And now, like, that I'm an adult reading this, it's like, it's a much sadder book.
01:12:52
Speaker
Yeah. and yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah like like it's just its it's it's it's just about like it's about a lot how a lot of things suck and yeah and the galaxy's hopeless like and cruel yeah like you you read it as a kid and you just see all the silly jokes and you read it as an adult and you're just like yeah you know just stuff is really deeply hey ben hey ben hey ben 42 ah ben forty two Oh my God.
01:13:23
Speaker
ah Oh my God. That's really good. Yeah. yeah Here's the best question in Hugo's house of Horrors is what was the name of Roy Rogers? Oh yeah. This is what I was building up to, which is, this is wild. This is wild. and is that That's the registration point.
01:13:45
Speaker
Yeah. Because like me, If I played, because I played who done, I played, didn't play this as a kid. If I played, this is like a 10 year old. I would have gotten all of those.
01:13:58
Speaker
Like I would have gotten all of those. Like, um, but then it's like, who's Ray Rogers dog. Like, I don't even know if my dad knows that. And my dad is in his seventies. Like he would have been alive.
01:14:12
Speaker
Maybe like, I mean, he would have been alive. He definitely was alive, but like, is that boomer nonsense? Or is that like greatest generation nonsense? Probably boomer nonsense. What's that? Like fifties.
01:14:27
Speaker
I don't know. and it's also, it's like, it like Ray Rogers also just, I say Ray Rogers because I'm thinking about the, the restaurant.
01:14:37
Speaker
Um, uh, but, um, Ray Roger, like that show wasn't, I don't think it was in like heavy rotation in this way that like, um but name nash that it was seen at all. Right. Like, I have no idea.
01:14:55
Speaker
I doubt it. It seems unlikely that this is like huge in, uh, you know, like South Africa or something. Because like, uh like Gunsmoke and Bonanza like those would be on like you know they're still on regular rotation today on cable channels yeah like on MeTV right like that yeah yeah like channel that just plays it's like yeah that's all my barber watches when I'm at my barbers I just watch Bonanza or Gunsmoke or real Raffleman yeah that'sty that's what he that's shows all the time i would say that that would be fun but honestly bonanza is very boring like yeah i mean most the time it is yeah i mean it is a profoundly dull show yeah uh but uh why you heard here first uh ben is not holding anything back today yeah take that uh bonanza take that lorne green oh yeah got him gotcha
01:15:52
Speaker
I speaking Marc Maron, you know, what's your Lauren story and then you know somebody just it's like well I met Lauren Green on the set of Battlestar Galactica.
01:16:04
Speaker
oh
01:16:07
Speaker
Yeah. but I mean, yeah, this trivia thing, it's, it's wild because I mean, it is a like once you finish these questions, there's what generously, maybe five minutes of game left.
01:16:19
Speaker
Yeah. If that, so, I mean, it right to the very end of this game. I feel like we're giving a walkthrough of this game because there's, Honestly, you can't talk about everything thing to hang a a podcast on, but yeah, God damn it. We're going to do it.
01:16:34
Speaker
ah Yeah. And then yeah you rescue Penelope. You know, everybody's happy. you meet the, uh, the man in the purple speed. Oh, it's really, you know, there's, there's a little bit of a psychosexual thing going on here because this is actually, you know, the subtext in the same way that, you know, when you play, goes like, he goes, has the fours as a kid. You're, you're more interested in,
01:16:56
Speaker
like the the the monsters and like you know the the the very occasional like witty touches in the text i would say also it's a very charming game um it is i mean as much as we're complaining about it i found this incredibly charming yeah yeah um but then like as an adult you discover that it's really about uh hugo wrestling with his feelings and about ah Penelope because spoiler, spoiler, spoiler.
01:17:24
Speaker
If you really care, the game ends, you rescue her and you get married immediately. And, ah you know, And then, like, as an adult, you realize that, like, the the House of Horrors is the anxiety ah that Hugo's facing as as somebody realizing that he has to be, like, bigger than himself. Like, that that that he has to, like, kind of, like, the...
01:17:52
Speaker
you know by being alone like he can't really he can't really do it like and like there's the the dogs and the the snooty butlers and the evil scientists and the guy in the speedo yeah ah well the guy in the speedo is a temptation of other like of other sexual thrills of earthly pleasures earthly pleasures that it's like you know like this is you're you're going to receive it in a very different way by by committing your yourself like you know and the the love to the rest of you for the rest of your life and and that's like and that's a really beautiful thing about Hugo's House of Horrors is that it works on so many levels right Jess
01:18:38
Speaker
You know, that's literally what I had in my notes. um So i'm glad I mean, now I don't know what to talk about. um Yes. And um no, that's I mean, yeah, I couldn't have said better myself. i I'll see it on your first playthrough. Earlier, earlier today on Blue Sky.
01:18:58
Speaker
earlier earlier today i um unflue sky uh papaya chemist uh uh posted ah ah you know the the streamer papaya chemist you should yeah should watch her um yeah that she's been listening to the podcast she said nodding sensibly at their very correct opinions well most of them uh so papaya i know you were nodding that one and I mean, that's irrefutable. I mean, yeah, if you just go like the Moby Games description of it, it says psychosexual journey of discovery through a haunted house. Well, that's why we did it after immortality.
01:19:41
Speaker
That's right. Turns out this is a mature game also. Yeah. A game for adults, as we like to call them here at ques Quest Quest. But I do, I mean, I do think as much as we're kind of dunking on how silly Hugo's House of Horrors is, it does have a charm. It has an amateurish charm that I find weirdly irresistible. This is my first time playing it And actually I was expecting something different.
01:20:06
Speaker
much worse. I think I was expecting it to be less competently made. And I mean, it's not like it's super competently made, but you compare it to like the capstone games that we've talked about on here before.
01:20:18
Speaker
Like this is a far better and better designed adventure game than Beverly Hillbillies. Yeah. In almost every way. Yeah. i mean, the puzzles mostly make sense.
01:20:30
Speaker
There are some moments of kind of amusing dialogue in the game. You have it somewhat sparse. Yeah. This is a game that, that I'm not mad at necessarily.
01:20:47
Speaker
It's fine. Yeah.
01:20:56
Speaker
know, actually, I think we're too hard. We're too hard on Beverly Hillbillies. Yeah, I mean, it's... mean, yeah, there are limitations to, like, an ad-lib card at the time this came out.
01:21:06
Speaker
Yeah, right, yeah. This is pretty good.
01:21:16
Speaker
All right, yeah. Oh. What's that? What's that?
01:21:23
Speaker
That's a good That's the best note. right. All right. Oh, it's so good. But no, I mean, what fascinates me is that this game has stuck around. I think it's especially stuck around in the world of like,
01:21:38
Speaker
twitch and youtube it almost seems like required playing for anyone in this adventure game space right at some point some october every streamer eventually has to stream hugo's house of horrors and this was just my turn this year it was it was very it was just because it was this shareware game where you got the whole game mm-hmm it was ubiquitous.
01:22:03
Speaker
It was yeah everywhere. Like, and eventually it starts showing up on big shareware compilation CDs and stuff like that too. So it has a long life in this form. And then like, yeah,
01:22:16
Speaker
I think he's still selling it on his website. Like, I don't know if the, like, if that's active, like i don't, you can buy this on GOG.
01:22:26
Speaker
You can also buy it on GOG. Yes. Yeah. the The whole Hugo trilogy. Um, how much is the Hugo trilogy? It's 599 for all three games. yeah um You know, Wikipedia says that David P. Gray was inspired to create this game because a friend of his who is a gynecologist developed software on the side and David thought that would be a good side hustle.
01:22:54
Speaker
so this game was inspired by gynecology. I'm i'm ah i'm reading this year to prepare for this. There is this ah piece written by Megan O'Neill um in PC Gamer a couple years ago.
01:23:06
Speaker
ah Looking back at Hugo's House of Horrors. I'm going to read this little ah this little ah chunk here from the article. I reached out to Gray to ask him what his aim was with Hugo's House of Horror.
01:23:20
Speaker
I wanted to emulate the enchantment I felt when i first played the original adventure game, Colossal Cave, he explains. What you have to understand is and and this is, and now this is no longer the quote.
01:23:32
Speaker
This is just that the, or maybe it is. What you have to understand is that old school design was really was magical. Why else would 5,000 people date have downloaded StairQuest, an homage to adventure game staircases?
01:23:48
Speaker
Wait, what? So David Gray didn't say that. No. The writer said that. But StairQuest, the game that ah you were part of the the team designing, was brought up in this PC Gamer ah piece about Hugo's House of ah Horror.
01:24:08
Speaker
That's amazing. That's wonderful to hear. And she brought up how many times it's been downloaded. Wow. That's amazing. No, I mean, I'd like to think that in a lot of ways, you know, we were of carrying the torch. You know, Hugo's House of Horrors walked so that we could fall downstairs.
01:24:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's a really like, there there's something very sticky about this game. And I think a big part of it is that it is so charming. And it is like, it's not a pain in the ass. You could die in it.
01:24:43
Speaker
but whatever they're not really hard they're all the puzzles are pretty solvable you're just going to like wrestle a little bit with the parser sometimes but it's fine yeah it's that's true of a lot of parser games from this era you know it's it's funny that he says that like he was inspired by a colossal cave when this clearly looks like a sierra game like it looks like it looks and controls it looks in controls like a like an AGI game it's higher well elsewhere. He said that leisure suit Larry was a huge influence i on this as well. Like he also cites that as the specific CR game that that he was sort of going for as he as he dev developed this which again was the guy. Yeah, that yeah, yeah.
01:25:29
Speaker
yeah No, mean, that's true. That's not joke. He does say it's Leisure Suit Larry, but I was going to give it credit to your theory of the the deeper meaning of this game. Oh, yeah. No, well, it's not a theory.
01:25:41
Speaker
It's It's fact. ah That's what you get when you listen to Quest Quest. Yeah. Only the facts. Just the facts. Which just does start with the Dragnet theme.
01:25:53
Speaker
It does open with a barp, barp, barp. Like, that is an interesting, you know, I didn't pull that audio, but it does open with a PC speaker rendition of, like, the the Dragnet opening. Barp, barp, barp.
01:26:09
Speaker
Like, what? Why? That's not, like, horror music.
01:26:13
Speaker
Well, I mean, in the Dragnet film, starring Dan Aykroyd. Maybe it's Drag-ula-net. i mean, they do fight against an evil organization called the people against goodness and normalcy or pagan.
01:26:29
Speaker
And yeah, that sounds pretty horrific to me. you have ah any final thoughts on andre house of word before we put it away? And we one day returns. We talk about who done it, which we do actually have to talk about someday because that game is insane. well Who does bananas like everything about it? Like you will possibly you done it?
01:26:52
Speaker
I watched you play who done it. Right. And yes, I think there's a good chance. Like if our listeners go and just look up the Wikipedia entry for Hugo to who done it, the plot summary alone, like could give you a stroke.
01:27:06
Speaker
It is a lot of things happen in that game that are difficult to understand. And yeah, we'll just, we'll tease that one. That's coming in 2027 February.
01:27:19
Speaker
um We'll see. You heard it here first. Anyway. All right. Well, ah we slam the coffin shut on Creak Slam.
01:27:32
Speaker
on Hugo's House of Orders.
Podcast Conclusion and Listener Interaction
01:27:33
Speaker
ah Thank you so much for listening. Please, ah you know, rate and review. Let your friends know. ah Send a a friendly skeet, like our friend ah Papaya.
01:27:44
Speaker
um And ah you can send us an email at questquestpodcast at gmail.com. i And i
TV Show Revivals and Nostalgic Reflections
01:27:53
Speaker
don't know. Is there, Jess, you got any plugs?
01:27:56
Speaker
ah just Just this bung. Okay.
01:28:01
Speaker
I don't even know we really really talk. There's an item in it, which is called a bung. And, you know, yeah you know, <unk>s a balance is you You plug a hole with it. The new a season of Beavis and Butthead.
01:28:17
Speaker
i haven't yet watched the like last new season. I'm watching the new season of Futurama right now. I watched a little bit of that. i You know what? I think Futurama was good for those first three seasons and that that's it for me. Did you watch any of the other new ones like that in the Futurama?
01:28:33
Speaker
Yeah, well, I was going to say, ah they they released a new batch of episodes like two or three weeks ago. Oh, no, I haven't watched any of those episodes. There's a new crop, and I will say, they're a little better than what came before.
01:28:46
Speaker
its like Every episode feels like an okay episode of the original series, rather than like all the post- fox like versions of it it's you know what i'm happy to let it just stay i'm happy to let i am too there doesn't need to be more future i think they sweetened the voices this go around uh because those were sounding a little rough in the uh in the last way What do you mean like they they like ah digitally, you know, i think they've been digitally tweaked a little bit. Yeah, like Billy West was having a lot of trouble doing the fry voice in the last batch of episodes.
01:29:22
Speaker
Just because I think it's his regular voice and that is aged. It's so close to his regular voice. so And this go around fry is a okay so either he he had a lot of he had about honey tea had some honey lemon tea.
01:29:35
Speaker
or uh you know just like or yeah they gotta they gotta give whatever they're they're giving him uh to julie kavner if they're gonna keep having her uh perform his merge on the simpsons um all right but no i mean it's about how's the new beavis butthead uh i think that the newest season So like the the new Beavis and Butthead in general, like those two seasons that came out earlier in the TV movie they made.
01:30:02
Speaker
i think they're all really funny. yeah think this newest season is pretty good. i yeah i don't think it's as good as those first two. I think, but... there's one like there's one of them that really really made me laugh and i have a good laugh in every episode like it's not bad it's just like those first two like of the current run of beavis and butthead i thought were just like banger banger bang or banger and this one is more like a bunch of like you know singles and doubles you know did you do king of the hill on its recent return uh I did, but i I haven't watched the back half of it. I have to finish it. I enjoyed it.
01:30:46
Speaker
I enjoyed that okay. i yeah I thought it was okay. I thought it was much better than than i would have expected. Yes, absolutely. Well, there you have it. that Did you watch X-Men 97 or any other animation revivals from the last few years? I watched like the first episode of X-Men 97, and then I was like, oh, yeah.
01:31:08
Speaker
yeah I'm not really into superhero stuff, so i don't know why watch this. I was shocked that you'd watched it. I thought that was absolutely a non-starter. watched a couple episodes of of the original at the time yeah because I was a child. I got the first episode um on VHS with a pepperoni pizza at Pizza Hut.
01:31:25
Speaker
Oh, is that the Kitty Pryde one? Because that's not... Oh, I know that's not the same. but I think they gave away the animated series version as well, but I think they may have given away pride of the X-Men, the one that the Konami X-Men games based Yeah, pride of the X-Men, which like has ah Stan Lee like introduced. Yeah.
01:31:43
Speaker
And Australian Wolverine. Right. Yes. Which is ironic because he hates Australia. Yeah, it's true. bub all right so uh thank you uh so much uh for listening uh we'll be back uh next week where we uh do our review of uh pride of the x-men and uh we do our very very best australian accents the entire podcast the entire time we'll see you then mate nah