Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
FMVs!
77 Plays1 day ago
B-movie actors portraying Ben and Jess show what it looks like to be on a podcast using high tech green screen wizardry.
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.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Listener's Text
00:00:24
Speaker
Hi. Hello. Hello. Hello. This is quest quest the adventure game podcast. I'm Ben. I am Jess ah right before this podcast. I received a text ah from my brother and which was I haven't listened to your podcast yet, but I will.
00:00:52
Speaker
Wow. Future listener. So he's going to hear this brother. Yes. Oh, he hasn't. He's already behind as we record this. what Which one number is this? This is. ah The the ninth. This is the wow. Lucky number nine. Finish the edit of number seven. i Which is the one about consoles. And so he's already going to be behind by the time that he hears me say. I just got your text.
00:01:21
Speaker
Will I respond to you now or will you have to listen to all of these podcasts to receive my response, which is cool. ah Very cool. Could we go back and update some of the earlier ones and like leave little breadcrumbs for your brother and just update the ah RSS. And now there are little hidden messages for him there to appreciate along the way, building up to you eventually saying cool.
00:01:48
Speaker
I, you know, I would just like to put the, uh, read it and put in the bread crumb of, uh, let's fix the first episode, which I don't entirely like. That's weird, you know, because I only hear good things about it, uh, to my face. Everyone to my face has said they really love that episode. So if I trust what people say to my face about my creative endeavors, I think it's great. Great.
Adventure Games on Twitch
00:02:12
Speaker
Uh, well, uh, this is quest quest where we talk about adventure games. Uh, both of us, uh, stream on Twitch. I'm PS underscore Garrick. I am decaf Jedi. And we both play a bunch of adventure games on there. Uh, but Before we we get to to any of that, let's, before we talk about adventure games, unless we decide to talk about adventure games during this segment, uh, Jess, why have you been playing?
Exploring 'Gray Matter'
00:02:40
Speaker
I want to talk about an adventure game, Ben. Oh, believe it or not, usually sounds like the boo birds are out. Thank you, Ben. I love you for that.
00:02:53
Speaker
ah That's a callback. Um, yeah, usually we don't talk about adventure games until at least like the 25 minute mark. And, uh, but here I'm, I'm here to talk adventure games right from the jump because I've been playing gray matter. The Jane Jensen, 2010 street magician, uh, mystery point and clicker.
00:03:18
Speaker
Okay. Was that now, so I haven't seen, you've been streaming that a little bit. Was that in the style of the remake of Gabriel Knight one that, that she did with like, did it like handle like that or, or how does it play? Like what? it plays a little bit like that. Like you've got like pre rendered backgrounds, which look really good. And then some chunky 3d models that look less good. Sometimes they look lavish background do they'll do they're they're perfectly serviceable. And yeah, I mean, it's it's interesting that you know, we'll probably end up talking about Jane Jensen into in today's episode. So we'll get a lot of time to heat praise on Jane Jensen. But you know, I love the game. Yeah, series.
00:04:02
Speaker
And I'm early in this one so far. I mean, it has some of the vaguely supernatural source stuff. It has it has all the changes and vibes. Doesn't have any queerness in it. Let me think so far. No way. But at any moment, what is what's the plot? What's what's going on there?
00:04:25
Speaker
Well, you are a
Diving into 'Tetris Forever'
00:04:28
Speaker
magician um named Sam. She is a ah cool kind of alternative magician top. It like shows up at a creepy old mansion riding on her motorcycle in the rain, like she's Kathy Rain or something. huh And like she turns up at this mansion And a person who's there to apply for a job as a lab assistant with a creepy old doctor who wears a Phantom of the Opera mask, she gets scared away. Yeah, just like you're going to go up there and you're going to flim flam your way in and pretend to be the research assistant just so you have somewhere to sleep for the night. Okay, then you get like pulled into doctors creepy experiments.
00:05:11
Speaker
This is kind of a fun premise. Like, it's, you know, it's right of more im up um it's fun. I mean, what's nice? Like, what's really fun about this is what this is, I think the this is the gimmick. This is the hook. All right. Some of the puzzles.
00:05:27
Speaker
you solve with magic and sleight of hand. Like not magic, like I'm a magician, like magic, like I'm a stage magician. So it even has like an interface where you use this book of tricks. You have to figure out the right trick for the right situation.
00:05:42
Speaker
and you have like palm atoms and then like reveal them or interact with the something that's not a table and everything. So you adapt all of these little stage tricks you use to solve certain puzzles along the way, along with just typical inventory puzzles and stuff like that. So that's fun. It's a fun gimmick. you know i'm I'm still relatively early in it, but it's worth checking out. I mean, it definitely has that 2000s, early 2010s, point and click, adventure game ah sort of vibe. It looks like it could be like a lost Siberia game. a lot of A lot of those games before like kind of the the generally agreed upon engine for that type of adventure game, just everything moved over to
00:06:29
Speaker
AGS. Yes, not everything. Obviously, there's a bunch of games not made on AGS. But a lot of games have moved over to that. And that sounds like the sort of thing that, you know, that would have at that time. Yeah. Like, I mean, it existed. But you know what I mean? Everyone knows what I mean. Everyone knows what you mean, Ben. You don't have to explain yourself to you first all ah't explain yourself to anybody. You don't have to explain yourself to anybody. You're a grown man.
00:06:54
Speaker
i'm a um I put my pants on, one leg at a time, like everyone else. Yeah, absolutely. I've seen him do it. Yeah. Yeah. That's how, that's that's how he made more rob that's how we We both put our podcasting pants on. yeah We turn on our microphones and we start talking. That's right. That's how you do this. That's how pros do it. The cameras are are on at that point, but the microphones are off. That's a ah crucial detail. Yes. You don't want to hear me putting my pants on. yeah No, no, no, no.
00:07:27
Speaker
No, no, that's no fun. No, no, no, no. No, not ever but that's bad audio. That's bad radio. But no, everyone check out this game from 14 years ago. Grey Matter. It's perfectly Romulan so far and has kind of a good gimmick, a good hook. OK. All right. I will check it out. Well, Ben, what have you been playing? ah You know, so I have been playing i The Tetris Forever, ah which is the ah digital eclipse, their most recent think like gold master, gold series, gold whatever series. I don't remember. It's the latest entry in the famous gold box series of D&D. Yes. Pool of Radiance. oh there It's it's the the third in there. We're going to make a video game documentary that's in a series that
00:08:21
Speaker
ah is just like Atari 50, but doesn't contain Atari 50. The other two being the making of Kara Taka, the Jordan Meckner martial arts game. And the other one being um this ah Jeff Minter ah collection. ah ben If I could er interrupt you for just a second. and Yeah. ah Kara Taka, my wife, please.
00:08:53
Speaker
Wow, the boo birds are out. i But anyway, ah so Tetris forever is their most recent of this and ah if if you haven't played any of them ah before what it is is it's like kind of a museum piece of a game like they'll ah it will be the the The main thing that you interact with is a timeline that has ah video clips and little bits of ephemera like brochures or design documents that you can look through. And then, of course, games on it. And sometimes, like in Making of Karateka, there will also be like prototypes and early versions and little offshoots. ah And so
00:09:44
Speaker
Of those three, uh, uh, making of care, take the Jeff mentor games, um, and Tetris Tetris is like by far the biggest property, uh, uh, contained.
00:09:59
Speaker
in this because Tetris is is such a massive thing and there have been like a million different Tetris is and of course the most famous versions of Tetris are ah on Nintendo consoles, which means that they will never be ah included in a collection like this. what you're telling me Nintendo didn't participate in this project. You know, I'm as shocked as you are that ah there isn't a ah a ah collection that contains a Nintendo published games ah that I can ah legally play on my steam deck. ah So weird. It is very strange. I'll be honest. Normally they are quite permissive.
00:10:40
Speaker
ah But so fun and so there is there like I think the the major knock that people have on on ah this ah is that i if you want the story of Tetris, it has been pretty thoroughly disseminated in the last 10 years. ah There's been a movie ah the like Alexey Pajinov and Hank Rogers, I think.
00:11:10
Speaker
like the two of them ah have been like giving a ton of interviews, there's a book, there's a bunch of other stuff, you can get that story elsewhere. um And then ah there is not an easy way like so this this contains, ah I think like 15 different Tetris is, but none of the Tetris is that you like think of because it doesn't contain Nintendo Tetris though it does have a like a ah an interesting monochrome with a ah green background ah version that they made up themselves that's a completely original ah version of It's just in 1989 style. Yes. That that boys might like to game with. is Yeah, like a. or Or if like if you were a Hillary Clinton on Air Force One and you had some sort of portable. The ah gaming thing. Yes. You might have a famous photo of you playing.
00:12:24
Speaker
Uh, but anyway, does this have the weird ones? Like faces? Tris faces. And that's one of the, so it has hat Tris, which sucks ass. Oh man. If I want to play that, I just go play team fortress too.
00:12:38
Speaker
where they have lots of hats and things. You remember they have hats. That's like that's that's the joke. They got a lot of lots of hats. Yeah, they got a lot of hats. They stack the hats. Yeah, they got some hat stack and some has a lot of bomb bliss, which is which I never played before. And you know what? Bomb bliss is perfectly fine. And then it has this like ah is a lot of the the releases that has are are from This company bulletproof software, later blue planet software, uh, that like handled, uh, releases of Tetris in Japan because of the complicated, right structure and who was licensed what. And so it's like a bunch of versions of Tetris. I, I have never played. So that that is cool, but like it only has.
00:13:29
Speaker
Spectrum, Holobytes, DOS, and Apple II releases of Tetris. And they made a whole bunch of them. They made Faces. They made Welltriss. They made Tetris Classic. They made, like, they made all this ah stuff. Like, I just kind of, like, I understand everything is, like,
00:13:49
Speaker
it It kind of struggles against the seams of i like what they can do because Tetris has been released on everything yeah and everybody has a favorite Tetris and it's probably Nintendo one.
00:14:05
Speaker
Yeah, but like, you know, I just wish that it it it got a little weirder. Yeah, but the interviews are great. Like the the the interviews are really good. If you are not like fully steeped in the story. ah ah They're really good interviews and there's really cool footage of like, ah like this guy's home videos as he went to you the Soviet Union to find the A-Lorg or E-Lorg company so he could license it and like so you have like you know VHS footage of 19 like some point in the 80s I think late 80s like Soviet Union
00:14:51
Speaker
And also he the guy was there on a tourist visa, and he is attempting to lock down.
00:15:01
Speaker
Lockdown a business contract in the Soviet Union. Like there's a point where his translator says to you, you're not allowed in that building. Like, yeah you're not allowed in there. And he's like, well, um I have to get this contract. And the translator is like, I will not go in there with you. You are not allowed in there. And it's like,
00:15:20
Speaker
Now, uh, you know, uh, I wouldn't try to get into trouble in the Soviet Union. Just speaking for myself, uh, if i yeah I would, I think I would really like play fast and loose with the rules of Soviet era ah Soviet era, you know,
00:15:45
Speaker
customs law, visa law, like I feel like I could like really just with my charm. I mean, you know, this band, I'm an international traveler. I really, you know, I mean, I'm a, I guess cosmopolitan, you know, if cosmopolitan means citizen of every city, that's me. And I think, ah well, first of all, I think a lot of people are going to realize I'm not a Russian citizen if I'm in like 1989 Soviet Union, im what blend in just so completely. So I mean, yeah, they probably won't even know.
00:16:14
Speaker
But I just finished watching all the documentary stuff earlier today. I really, like I really enjoyed myself. And as I said, it's like. Well, I wish they got a little weirder. Like I wish that faces was in there, even though that's not a very good game. Yes. Like I wish more of the spectrum hall bite stuff was in there. I wish I like, I, I just want more. Uh, but that all said, uh, it's a perfectly good collection. And the thing is, is that I always like to play Tetris. So it doesn't matter. Like it's like, I have, I already have several hours in this collection.
00:16:50
Speaker
because like, I just, I'm like, Oh, it's Tetris. And then I just start playing Tetris for a while. Though the current iteration, the current rule set of Tetris has spoiled me because like Tetris now like does the outline on the bottom. hu And I remember when they started showing the outline on the bottom. And I was like, this is for babies. This is baby. Like, why would the part of the game, but now I can't play without the outline. If the outline's not there, I'm just like, I, I, I script constantly. How are you on Tetris? What's your, are you, are, ah do you really like Tetris or are you like, is, yeah is it just a game?
00:17:30
Speaker
You know, 99% of my Tetris experience is the Game Boy Tetris. Like, I had a Game Boy and- That's the case for a lot of people. Yeah. i I owned very few games for my Game Boy. I think I had like Tetris, Super Mario Land, and the bad, amazing Spider-Man game ah that was just pure trash. And I played a lot of Tetris. I mean, it was It's the perfect portable game. It always has been everything else. But you know, I really haven't picked up the series for more than just like a minute or two. Like, wasn't there a like battle royale Tetris game briefly a few years ago? I think it's still on there. I think it's the one the switch that would be Tetris 99. And it's yeah, I think I played that for a few minutes. And you know, but yeah, I'd I love Tetris. I mean, let me put this in some context.
00:18:22
Speaker
Tetris is one of the very small handfuls of games. And this is I think a universal experience at some level, one of the small handfuls of games that ever gave me like weird anxiety dreams, where like, I played a lot Tetris one day went to bed and couldn't stop seeing falling blocks. Well, of course, it's the the yeah, the ted that's the canonical experience. And I didn't sleep for like two days straight. And oh It was rough. It was rough for 12 year old Jess. And I think it, uh, I mean, the same thing happened with super Mario too. Like that's the other game that did it to me where like every blade super Mario. I did. I'm better. I'm okay now. Uh, but like I had a night or two where I went to bed and every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was Mario ripping a turnip about the ground. And it became what this, uh, this very intrusive thought, uh, that I couldn't read myself up. And, uh, yeah, I mean, sometimes that happens and Tetris, uh, Tetris hurt me.
00:19:15
Speaker
Well, i that's ah that's a little surprising. I didn't expect that. I was going to say, I think you would enjoy this collection. Let me just trauma dump on you, Ben. That's very insensitive that you would even suggest I would want to play this. I can't believe you. Well, let's check in with the audience. What do they think? oh See sympathy for me on your side this time. Finally, you know, I've off off microphone. I've said a lot of nasty things about our audience, but here and now I'm ready to take most of them back. Yeah. ah Anyway, ah ah even with those caveats, like it sounds like I was pretty down on it. I thought the documentary is excellent. And like the the the games bomb bliss is pretty fun. ah ah And
00:20:04
Speaker
um like a they made like a new Tetris variation thing for it ah called Tetris time warp, which is perfectly fine. And i I played that for a while. And that was also like, it's it's fun. So anyway, I love these collections, though. I mean, I do love the like, we have done the deep dive here is more behind the scenes stuff than any reasonable human being could ever want.
00:20:31
Speaker
I love this format. Like, for me, it's like you give me control of the video game industry, you say, Jess, you're now president of video games. And I'm gonna say, I want one of these collections for every game that sold over 100,000 copies ever. I buy, I buy these, I have purchased all of these digital eclipse ah collections on day one, because it's like even Uh, like carrot taker is a game I never played before. I have absolutely no affection for, uh, like I know of Jordan Meckner because he made Prince of Persia, uh, and the last express, which maybe, uh, we'll talk about on, uh, some future, uh, podcast. But, uh, the making of carrot taker, I think actually might be their best one in terms of being a documentary because.
00:21:25
Speaker
They had a full act like he he gave a really great interview and they got other interviews, including with his father, who seems like a very interesting and nice guy. um And he had everything like he had all of his notes. He had all of like he had all these prototypes.
00:21:45
Speaker
He had all this, this stuff. And so it really like, even for a game that I have absolutely no affection for or any interest in, like it was like, well, actually you get to see this, the full journey of this, this young man. I think it was like 19 or 20 when he made this game. And, and, uh, so, and it has like multiple different versions of his apple two version as the Commodore 64. And I think the Atari.
00:22:15
Speaker
whatever jaguar. Now, it helps. I mean, Jordan Meckner is an interesting person who has interesting thoughts about game design and articulates them in interesting ways. like I can imagine that's the collection where you're going to get like some really good stuff, even if it's a game you don't care about. I mean, even some of these collections are a little less ambitious, like the recent Street Fighter collection that came out that was mostly just some like behind the scenes stuff, but not nearly that level of like documentary stuff stuff. Still great. I mean, the dream that will never ever happen for, you know, not to bring this back to adventure games too soon. No. but I mean, can you imagine one of these for LucasArts or Sierra? Like how much a small group of people would adore this?
00:23:00
Speaker
Yeah. Do you know, like that this is a really good way to get me to buy all of these games again? Yes. Right. The third time you will sell them to me a third or fourth time. Like.
00:23:12
Speaker
Yeah. ah Do do one of these for like a King's quest because it's like, you know, and, uh, like we could get Ken and Roberta to tell the same stories they've told a million times. We all know all of the, the stories of the development of it, but that's fine. Get them on a camera. We'll tell all the stories and talk about mystery house. And maybe you could throw a mystery house in there too. Yeah. One or two of the other ones, adventures in Serena and some of the other. Give us the Japanese mystery house.
00:23:41
Speaker
Yeah, and then like put ah like, then you put Kings quest ah one and you somehow emulate like the PC jr way where it fills in the thing, then you ah throw in like the master system system version, you throw in ah the SCI zero remake and I don't know and then you have Oh, no. And then ah and then you you make King Graham real. Then he says, yeah, wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't you like to be friends with King Graham? No, why not? He's always playing his family in terrible danger.
00:24:23
Speaker
ah It's a great point. It seems like he's more upset. Was this you that said this? Someone said this. This is not my joke. i have in King's quest five when he walks and he sees like, uh, that the, the castle's missing seems to be a little more perturbed about the missing castle than the fact that his family is gone. That was your observation. I think that was, yes. and like so yeah Yeah, this is only recently like Don Domi. I don't know about King. You're right. Maybe maybe I don't want King Graham to come to life. I want. I want Baron Von Glauer from Gabriel not to to come to life. Yeah, I've segwayed. Yeah.
00:25:10
Speaker
All right. ah So, Jess, what are we talking about today?
The World of FMV Adventure Games
00:25:13
Speaker
We are talking about FMV or Full Motion Video Adventure Games. That's what it stands for. Yeah, that's it. I just nailed it. That was one of the talking points we had. all right It said here, don't make it 40 minutes into your discussion of FMV videos before you say what an FMV game is. I thought I thought we were talking um about, you know, like if I had a a brother ah named ah Ferdinand Michael, vcha like, what would that be like?
00:25:44
Speaker
That'd be crazy. I mean, i mean i I thought that was what you were talking about. That's what all my notes are about. Have I ever told you that my grandfather used to call me furd for some reason? No. Yeah, I don't know why. I've never called me anything but furd like short for Ferdinand. And and he was in full control of his his ah ah band ability. And what are you implying? No, of course he was just called you by a different name when you were a child. Well, yeah, I never called me anything but that furd.
00:26:15
Speaker
Sure. All right. Yeah. but This is going to be the third motion video motion video. All right. FMV games. Yeah. What? I mean, it's it's so let's let's roll the clock back ah to, you know, the CD, the dawn of the CD-ROM era ah and just ah how cool all that like and you were you like a like so what let's let's say this when when was the first computer you got with a cd rom drive oh gosh that must have been
00:26:59
Speaker
Probably like 92. I'm going to say 92. Wow. You're way ahead of us. I don't think we got ours until 95 or 96. Okay. And I was jealous because, because all of our, like the, the number of games that were coming out on, on discs was getting less and less and less every time we went to the store.
00:27:23
Speaker
And also, I was so like, I so desperately wanted to hear the voices. Yeah. I mean, listen, let me just say when Interaction Magazine told me to go buy a CD-ROM drive, I went out that day. I listened to whatever Interaction told me. And Ken Williams and his editorial up front said, Jess, you need a CD-ROM drive. And when I get an order from the big man, I'm going out and buying that CD-ROM drive.
00:27:49
Speaker
so What? All right. But like, yeah to to put ourselves in, like, there was this this dream and of the the multimedia era, where, like, you know, it was video, and it was like high quality music, we are going to make like these Hollywood experiences.
00:28:14
Speaker
Uh, and like in a Hollywood experience means actors. Absolutely. The only the finest actors to, um, this, you know, it's it go ahead. I know you please know. It's interesting because you see like there's obviously like a lot of these, these FMV games have, uh, like,
00:28:42
Speaker
You know, kind of like be be be tier actors or like like working actors. No one know when you've heard of but Then like you see a game that has like a couple like actual name names show up in it and I kind of got the sense when I like let's say Isabella Rosalini shows up in a goosebumps game that someone like, you know, agents or actors, and this is only supposition on my part, but that like, there was a feeling that it's like, Oh, maybe we should get in on this. Like, is this what like, you know, like, because there, there are a couple times where like,
00:29:34
Speaker
Uh, you know, like name actors, like show up, uh, like Christopher Lloyd in, in Toonstruck. Like that's not like, that's kind of, yeah, that's an FMV game in some respects. Yeah. Um, but but like, it's like, you, you know, you see sometimes in that era, uh, uh, like, you know, a big deal name actors, uh, show up in something.
00:29:57
Speaker
And I always yeah assume that has to be one of two things. Like this actor is interested in applying their trade in a whole new medium. They want to trod the boards that have never been trod before, or they have been tricked by their agent or manager in some way and didn't know what they were signed up for. it Yeah, that's I think those are the two forms. I mean, you're offered just a ton of money. Like, yeah, like here's a lot of money. And they're like, okay,
00:30:25
Speaker
You know, you say like the actors i always think, you know, uh, when we look at the, uh, the actor who plays Gabriel, not to, or he plays Gabriel, not Gabriel. No, way he's Gabriel night to his Gabriel. Not the second. I mean, he is the second son of Gabriel night. Yes. Gabriel night. Yes. But like, you know, his big credit is an episode of Frasier. And I feel like that is exactly the level of fame that you go into most of these games expecting. This is someone who you might've seen.
00:30:54
Speaker
on one episode of a sitcom or like a serialized adventure action type series or something like that. Right, right. That's perfect. You know, it's and honestly, I'd rather see someone like that sometimes than like the the Hollywood star slummin it. Yeah. What was What was your feeling about FMV at the time? I was a big skeptic. Like I'll i'll tell you, like for me, I would have articulated it this way at like age 12 or 13.
00:31:25
Speaker
that for me I think this is the era of video games where, especially in the PC space, where technology was really driving the art maybe more obviously than any other stage where it's like we have these new technologies of CD-ROM and now full motion video and stuff and we are going to let that be what dictates the games we make rather than a concept for a game. And again, I don't think I would have articulated it that way as a kid. I think I looked at it and just says, like, I don't know. I loved games the way they were, especially adventure games. It's like I loved Gabriel Knight 1. I don't understand why Gabriel Knight 2 has to be an interactive movie. And it's a lot more than just an interactive movie. It's not a just click. say but
00:32:14
Speaker
Like it wasn't like a dragon slayer right exactly and you know and i'm i'm just reading about in magazines and stuff and said like no i don't want that i want like the the point clicky you know third person e kind of gabriel not game that that i love from the first one and i think part of this too is driven by.
00:32:35
Speaker
but the technological ah limitations I had. I was an early CD-ROM adopter. It was like a dual speed. Yeah, like single speed, double speed, or whatever. like I did not have the kind of drive that was going to make a lot of these games really sing. Right. I was using really bad hardware, which means they're going to run horribly, if at all. Yeah.
00:33:00
Speaker
ah then I have to say like the first, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, my first foray into the world of FMV adventure games, right? um Was, are you familiar with this one, Ben? MTV's Club Dead.
00:33:17
Speaker
Uh, no. Yeah. I mean, it is a strange cyberpunk MTV, just terrible. Are you going to stream this soon? I should stream. Like and it should i mean it would probably ah get muted and give you a copyright strike. Yeah. I mean, there's probably a licensed music and stuff. But probably who knows? But I mean, it's terrible. It's just ah it's like surreal. And they use that as an excuse for it not to make sense. And it ran terribly. And I got in the bargain bin at KB Toys for five dollars. And I was just like, if this is what full motion video games are, if even an illustrious studio like your TV games can't do this, wow you know, who can? Well, well, and that sounds kind of like ah it was was was it a like a
00:34:10
Speaker
something that you only really found at that time ah like in that early to mid 90s period of it's like it's a multimedia CD and what that means is like you put it in and you'll get like a little splash screen and it's generally just uh you know little little something that you just kind of interact with in the same way that you would interact with like a museum exhibit that has like five buttons yes that was basically it yeah i mean you're getting the world's tiniest video window with the worst interlacing you've ever seen right and almost no interaction which is a far cry from a well-made
00:34:54
Speaker
FMV adventure and I think that's I had a really negative act like I didn't play Gabriel not to until just like four years ago for the first time I yeah stayed away from it I was just being a real brat about it I was just like every other gamer dude who's ever taken a principled stance on something stupid. Yep. Ever. And I stuck with that for a really long time. And, you know, I think I've probably mentioned this on, on our podcast before, but you know, you know, this Ben absolutely loved Gabriel. Not too. It may be yeah top two or three CR games for me. Anyway, I think this is, let me throw this out there as
00:35:34
Speaker
as a statement for you. And you tell me agree or disagree. All right. I'm ready to agree or Or, you know, if you find something in between. OK. OK. All right. All right. So I think when it comes down to it.
00:35:50
Speaker
full motion video adventure games live and die by the performances. There is nothing that good gameplay can do in this tiny little sub genre to overcome a terrible performance because I feel like the performances are so front and center. I. i I have a nuanced view on that. Okay. and Let me, let me, let me nuance first. When I say good performance, Oh, Oh, he's anticipating my nuance. I'm pre-new. I'm trying to preempt my nuance because he knows what I'm going to say. And now he's like, I'm not the bad guy. Everyone's going to come in here. It's like, well, everyone paid attention him on the stage yeah watch out. Boo birds. Here they come.
00:36:37
Speaker
Okay. When I say good here, I'm talking about entertainment value, right not yeah like, is this an Oscar caliber performance? Let me at least give it that little caveat. Because Gabriel not too full of wild over the top performances, a lot of which are pretty hammy, but it works. Here's a question.
00:37:00
Speaker
can't and and I throw this to the audience because I sincerely this isn't me throwing the question where I know the answer and I don't think you have an answer either. So if you the listener have an answer, please email us at quest quest podcast at gmail dot.com. ah And the question is, is there an FMV game that you believe has like Very sincerely, great acting. And, and, and I want to be clear, I'm not putting down. There's a lot of stuff. I like it all. This isn't, but like, like a performance that you would see, uh, where you're like, this, I could put this on a stage. And in like, like a, like a stage critic would be like, that's acting.
00:37:59
Speaker
because like i a generally like FMV performances are very, you know, like a little, like part of it is the talent pool. Part of it is that it's all genre stuff. Yeah. Almost entirely. Almost.
00:38:16
Speaker
uh uh and and part of it is it's like well also we're talking about like one of the very earliest generations of performers that have to do like full green screen acting like it's star wars episode one except that like they have like you know they don't have lucas dollars i was gonna say yeah the director they're working with too is no George Lucas. And that's a pretty low bar. um yeah I mean, this is so like, but you understand what I'm saying, right? Like, like, it's like, I enjoy the acting and night trap, but it's not like good acting. No. And I mean, a lot of it, and gosh, Phantasmagoria, you have to talk about if we're talking, you know, Sierra stuff, you know, Phantasmagoria is
00:39:05
Speaker
a, you know, it's a game that has its moments. I don't know if it ever rises to the point of being effective psychological horror or anything like that. But man, there's some dire performances in there just like immortality might have that was gonna be my answer. Ben, you, you and I have arrived. Yeah, let's get to immortality later. Let's let's let's immortality thing about immortality. There's always time for Yeah, there's ah there's always more time. Yeah.
00:39:33
Speaker
I just I'll go back to how I felt about it at the time, which was so we didn't get as as I said, we didn't get a computer with a CD ROM until 95 or 96. And I like it was just something I desperately wanted and couldn't have. And by the time that ah we got our computer, that was already like on the downslope.
00:40:03
Speaker
of like the the big deal FMV era. Okay. Cause this is like a short period really. It really didn't last that long because. I think the costs were massive. I mean to do this. Yeah. ah Like, so I think the, the, like the, the first big one is seventh guest.
00:40:28
Speaker
which is a DOS adventure game. It's a lot of like, I guess a lot of annoying puzzles ah and big acting and like it sold extremely well. And I think also the thing is, is that once the gimmick was kind of like metabolized, people were like, okay,
00:40:53
Speaker
What else do you have? Yeah, that's the thing. You know, the word you choose there is dead on. I think to me this felt gimmicky. It didn't again. It felt like putting the gimmick in front of the the game more so than a lot of technologies. It just felt for a lot of these that failed felt very gimmicky at the time, which I think is unfair to the to the and to the sub genre probably a little bit. And I mean FMV games.
00:41:20
Speaker
Like a lot of the joy of playing a video game is this feeling that you're in control and that you're in control of like this this character and that you can do all of this stuff and ah making it FMV ah removes a lot of ah that because it's like well you know that you're only ever going to be dealing with and this is obviously the case with any game. But it's like with FMV is especially like to the player it's very obvious that there is a very set number of.
00:41:58
Speaker
things that possibly can happen, because it's a video, like, you know, the it's not going to generate, like, you know, the the actor, Dirk Benedict, in Zork Grand Inquisitor is not going to do a surprise new move. ah He's only going to do the couple scenes that he was there on the day that they shot it for, you know,
00:42:23
Speaker
Thank goodness we have AI now, though, so that soon we can start building games where Dirk Benedict can say anything we want him to say. Yeah, finally. Finally. So let's let's talk about some of our favorites from that era. Number one for me.
00:42:40
Speaker
is, uh, uh, Tex Murphy under a killing moon. Now I, I know everybody loves Pandora directive. I've not played it yet. Uh, I, I, know, and I will don't worry about it. Everyone will be okay.
00:42:54
Speaker
Uh, I, uh, I played under a killing moon, which is like kind of this, uh, blade runner inspired, uh, uh, detective, like future detective noir, uh, game with a very light touch.
00:43:11
Speaker
and it is ah FMV and it looks that, you know, the, the funny thing about all of this FMV stuff from the period two is that like they use FMV to kind of brag about like, look how expensive this is. Look how fancy this is, but all of the FMV games like ah look like, you know,
00:43:33
Speaker
don't look good. No, no, it's rare to about cheap, like, not all, but they mostly look cheap. Yeah. And a lot of times it's the lack of actual sets. but um Yeah, it's just Yeah, cheap, cheap. And i so the text Murphy games, which are mostly ah like local Salt Lake City area actors, i like,
00:44:01
Speaker
the, you know, the costumes are great. And the actor, like the acting is very ham and cheese. ah But you know what, it, it's got heart and soul. And that's what makes it like the the performances in it. And it's kind of awareness of like as a very good sense of what it is. And like, it doesn't like that it as a game, it doesn't take itself too seriously.
00:44:31
Speaker
Uh, that like the performances are all like kinda like, you know, we're a little bit of a wink with all of the performances. It won me over completely. Yeah. You know, this is one I haven't played. I haven't played either text Murphy games and really need to, uh, it's a real hole in my adventure game. I think, I mean, under a killing moon, as I said, that's the only one I've played. I thought it was like, there's a couple, like there's this.
00:44:59
Speaker
really annoying puzzle in it where you're trying to like avoid a sentry. And it also like office building thing. Yeah, I watched you stream this part. And it's it's like, it's not horrible, but it's annoying. yeah And then, ah like the movement in it, like it it switches from like this first person, like, there's this first person movement mode, which I'm sure they thought was extremely cool. Absolutely. It's like playing Wolfenstein. Yeah, yeah, like it has that exactly like this Wolfenstein or doom type look. And the movement is entirely like you move forward by moving your mouse forward instead of like, put yeah, it is a mistake. yucky it It feels bad. But
00:45:49
Speaker
It needs a track ball. Once you get used to it, I bet with a track ball, it would feel great, honestly. But yeah, once you get used to it, then it's like, it's fine. It's fine.
00:46:01
Speaker
So yeah, that's, that's a, that's a game, uh, Tex Murphy under a killing moon, just really fun performances. And then a couple, like they got James Earl Jones to do a little bit of voice work and they have ah like a couple other, uh, uh, people in the the games in the last, in the last one that they made in the nineties. So not counting Tesla effect, which they did like as a Kickstarter, like 10 years ago or whatever. Um, but the the last one had like Michael York.
00:46:28
Speaker
Logan. Wow. From Logan's run. Oh, there you have it. Was Marco Kitter in under Kelly moon? Was she? I think she was or she was in Pandora directive. She was in one of those. I don't know. But I don't remember. It's been a minute. ah But ah but yeah, ah that one is fun. And I love like in in the FMV is just like I remember going into and being like, oh, it's one of these FMV games. d yuck And then like I played and it's like, oh, this is actually very fun. And the video is amazing. And I love watching it. You know, I think that I may have purchased
00:47:10
Speaker
under a killing moon around the time it came out. Because I read, you know, magazine articles about it, reviews, and it seemed very much up my alley. And I believe I got it home and just could not get it to run on my system at the time. Oh, I'm sure you had to, like, do all sorts of, like, edit your auto exec and make a boot disk and all this crap. Oh, yeah, yeah. Thank God we don't have to do that shit anymore. Oh, I know. Yeah. And I mean, it, again, that's part of that process of how I got soured on FMV games. I was just like, ah, my crappy computer can't make this one, this one sing. But I mean, now in an era where disk swapping and slow drive read speeds and stuff like that aren't around, it's one I should revisit.
00:48:00
Speaker
I yeah that's another good point is that also like FMV games they would come and you would get like six you know CDs and there would be like disc swapping and I remember I think it was like when we were streaming it I think ah ah like someone it was pointing out like you know you're really enjoying this but I just want you to note that it's like that like leaving like that room and then going into the next room and then going to the next one. That was like three different discs and it took forever at the time. And so you don't really know. Like it was, it was a total pain in the ass in like 1993. I'm just letting you know that. And I'm like, well, yeah, no, it's great now. um That's right. Yeah. ah Screw those kids back in 1993.
00:48:50
Speaker
Yeah, whatever. Forget them. Yeah. Now that I mean, you know, I've taught before and I won't belabor it here. But you know, Gabriel not to as I said, for me, absolute masterpiece from some of these earlier eras of FMV. You know, for that one, I think that whether intentionally or otherwise I think intentionally leaning into the campiness of it for me is what makes that one really work and I'm not sure I mean I know Jane Jensen sets out to tell a pretty serious story and does it alongside the campier bits but
00:49:25
Speaker
The performance is there just top to bottom. I mean, Von Glauer, especially, I think is just a really captivating again, kind of a hammy performance, but one that that that really works for me. But yet that one is such a surprise. Yeah, I think that if if the promise of FMV games was to do something maybe in some cases a little more mature, you know, if Hollywood means more mature storytelling. I think that Gabriel not to edges in that direction. Well, and people love fantastic Korea to which neither of us have played. No, but like that is also a like a mature
00:50:10
Speaker
Uh, I mean, it's, it has Magoria, of course, it's mature, but it's like, areas game ever made the sequel to the secariest game ever made. I remember like, oh man, the the ad campaign for Fantasmic Gloria, uh, at the time of release was, it's like, this game's going to, this is going to be the scariest shit you've ever seen in your life. And, uh, was it at the time? Did people feel that way at the time? Because it's like, I've watched people stream it. I've watched you stream it. I like, we'll probably stream it at some point.
00:50:46
Speaker
ah and like it's mostly like not it's like unsettling at best and it has like a couple i mean it's not like in the wrong way warning warning type things yeah uh which are upsetting yeah but they're not I mean, they're scary in a sense, but they're not like, Ooh, like things that go bump in the night. Like, yeah, those parts, I don't think they realized we're actually the scarier parts. it's somewhat Like a realistic, yeah. Sort of level of of fear there versus like, yeah, they're spooky, spooky ghosts or something is, is very different. Can I tell you, uh, some behind the scenes, uh, never before BTS. mts
00:51:34
Speaker
Um, let's go back to interaction magazine. All right. Well, you, there was talking about interaction magazine, the the company magazine of Sierra online. Yes. Well, I got all of my Sierra news because it's the only place you could trust your Sierra news. Well, they're there. So who else?
00:51:50
Speaker
That's right. Who's going to give you a better, I mean, it's like, yeah if you have a Nintendo, you're eating Nintendo power because they're going to tell you which games are good. And the answer is all of them. Yeah. All of them are great. You'll enjoy them on your Nintendo hair entertainment system. Exactly. They'll be entertained on the ni Nintendo entertainment system. It's right there on the box. All right. it's It's a system for you entertaining. Yeah. Let me tell you this BTS.
00:52:11
Speaker
So there was there was a ah little piece, I think about maybe Space Quest six in one of the in one of the issues of interaction. And in it, Scott Murphy, who is being interviewed, brings up Phantasmagoria and talks about how scary it is. And I believe he refers to as being a two pampers kind of game like that you're going to need. ah You're going to be a little dappers well way to put it.
00:52:40
Speaker
Yeah, I want to ask him about that. And he said, I never said that shit. They made that up. They this this fabricated an entire interview with me and that issue of interaction. I would never say that about you didn't interact with him. They did not. They did not interact with him. So here's what I'm here to tell you, Ben.
00:52:59
Speaker
Interactions a lie. It turns out they were just trying to sell us Sierra games this whole time. No. Yes. No. yeah I'm sorry Ben. I didn't want to have to tell you like this. Not like this. Not like this. Not like this. But yeah Space Quest creator Scott Murphy never said it was a two pampers game. He said it was three. Twist.
00:53:24
Speaker
Let's see another FMV, ah the Zork games, the the latter Zorks, the latter three Zorks, which would be return of the latter day Zorks. Yeah, the turn to the latter day Zorks.
00:53:39
Speaker
um Return to Zork, Zork Nemesis, which I haven't really played. I've played a little bit of ah and Zork Grand Inquisitor, which I have, which is great. i Those were all FMV. And I mean, you know, like let's go back to ah performances. I mean, return to Zork is nothing but performances. ah Wild, wild performances. Yeah, you know, there's performances in it there. ben Can I ask you a question?
00:54:11
Speaker
Now, ah I'll have you know that it's you know, tomorrow I got to work. So if this is an invitation to drink some some form of whiskey, I might have to turn you down but well question withdrawn. Okay.
00:54:33
Speaker
That's good radio yeah like Uh, uh, it's, it's, it's funny. Uh, yeah. Return to Zork has, uh, uh, some very big performances in it. Um, very strange performance surrounding a very terrible game. I don't even know. Is that too hot of a tank? I don't know. I mean, it's not good. No. Uh,
00:55:02
Speaker
It's very strange. It is odd. It's it's so strange that I don't hate it. But I also have never beaten it because it glitched out on the final puzzle for me. And I was so bad that I was like, all right, well, that's it. All done.
00:55:21
Speaker
i But I mean, I wouldn't call it good, and I wouldn't say that it makes any sense. um And it has a lot of problems, and it has dead ends, I believe. But um it has ah a very odd charm to it it, in large part to these ri ridiculous performances, ah including the the guy who memorably says, want some rye? Of course you do. ah Crystal ball wizard.
00:55:55
Speaker
crystal ball wizard. ah Is he a wizard? Yeah, he's a great wizard. Oh, okay. ah I'm not a Zork. I'm not a Zorksman. Zorkran Inquisitor. That's when they i ah started to throw in some some real star power. ah So it has ah the aforementioned Dirk Benedict who played Starbuck on the 70s Battlestar Galactica and Faceman on a team.
00:56:24
Speaker
Yeah. um And then ah the i ah get your vacuum cleaner out because there's going to be a lot of glitter. They have, of course, Rip Taylor. Rip Taylor is in Wow. an Inquisitor now. Now you've got me back. Yeah. ah It has 90s 90s that guy actor. So if you don't know who this this guy like I'm about to say you've seen him in stuff. Eric Avari.
00:56:54
Speaker
plays the titular grand Inquisitor. He's a that guy actor, especially in the 90s. He was all over the place. He was in start like he was in at least one Star Trek episode. He's in a ah ah deep space nine episode, I believe. yeah um But he was just a guy that was just all over the place as a character. And then there's voice acting.
00:57:19
Speaker
Uh, by Michael McKean, um, who is easily like, that is, he's, he's the most, that's a, you know, like he's the, the, the most gap. They didn't get him on camera.
00:57:29
Speaker
ah he He wasn't going to go on camera for them, but he he he'll he'll sit down in a in a voice booth and and read all that shit. ah But those I mean, like, it was very exciting to see that video at the time, but even Zorkran Inquisitor, which I believe was 97.
00:57:52
Speaker
Like you could tell it was already on the way out and it kind of had like, we had it, I believe on DVD. We had a DVD rom at that point. And so like, that was part of like kind of the promise of it. Like of like the DVD roms was it's like, Oh, look, we have a FMV again. And now it's at like a higher.
00:58:14
Speaker
And like, it's it's like, even outside of adventure games, you had ah like the wing commander games, ah which, you know, were well known for, for their, uh, uh, FMV's, uh, like with Mark Hamill, the Mark Hamill Skywalker room himself. Yes. Uh, how they're shooting down kill Rathy. But, uh, but really like by, like by the time you get towards the end of the nineties, people were,
00:58:43
Speaker
not interested in that sort of thing anymore. That was, that was a, that was like a weird little dead end. Yes. Right. Like that was just a weird little, they're like, we tried that and we thought it'd be really cool, but no, people don't.
00:58:59
Speaker
like that. And it's also like, because I think like, so I think Sierra spent an enormous amount on like a studio that made like one game in it, right? Like, I think that they barely produced a full game in this giant studio. They may. Well, I think because there are three FMV adventure games.
00:59:19
Speaker
ah that they made. Phantasmagoras one and two and Gabriel Knight two. Right. Yeah. So maybe no I would assume that at least like, I would assume some of them are paid in there. Yeah. I did. Yeah. I mean, it was, and what for one, they're saying it was like fantastically expensive because there was a brief period where I think the assumption was This is just what adventure games are going to be now. This is what yeah, this is what they're going to be. And then like three years later, it's like 3D is what adventure games are going to be. Yeah, it's like uh uh like yeah exactly like uh uh it it really seemed like this yeah or or at least the push you know uh
01:00:04
Speaker
You know, I don't know, like I can't say I wasn't, you know, I was, I was a child. Like, I don't know if people like was that, you know, we're going to have more video in every video game. Uh, like, was that something that people at the time were, were kind of like, no, not really. Like, you know, ah people are like, this is just a gimmick. This is going to go away. Or, or did like.
01:00:28
Speaker
Uh, did more people than just, you know, the rich guys that run companies that are always looking for the hot new thing. You see my impression, like reading old issues of computer gaming world, um, is that.
01:00:44
Speaker
It was very hit or miss with the reviewers. Like there would be a decent one that came along that we get good reviews, but almost from the jump, they were, you know, very skeptical of this as a gimmick. I think the games that felt like they were cashing in, you know, the ones that are just like, if we throw some.
01:01:01
Speaker
You know, quick time videos onto a CD-ROM or whatever and sell it that, you know, we're going to make the big money. I think that there was a lot of perception that there were too many of those clogging the market and not enough of the quality productions. um And then, you know, also, this is a rabbit hole we don't need to go into, but, you know, this this platform also takes off ah for erotica.
01:01:22
Speaker
And those are all advertised on the back pages of of Computer Gaming World, ah you know where you have games with titles like Seymour Butts, a point and click adventure game. Is that real? Is that real? Yeah, his name is Seymour Butts. It's for people who found less manly.
01:01:45
Speaker
No, that's for people who found less real. You have to Google Seymour butts video game. I mean like everyone listen to us Google a more butts with a Z. No, just two T's. Okay game. The interactive adventures of Seymour butts. I can't believe this.
01:02:07
Speaker
Whoa. Ben, I wouldn't lie to you. I mean, there's man. It just sounded like, like a, like a joke you made. and It does sound like a joke I would make. And that's very much my kind of joke. There's a man enough, which is like the FMV dating sim from the fine folks at tsunami media. Uh, O curse, California's second largest software developer, uh, that also made blue force. Uh, so you can, uh, man enough is another fine, uh, title dating Sam from that. era I I am I am just amazed everyone that's your official recommendation called it's called Seymour butts like it's just like now but I don't know you do get that this is a pot like what I mean yes the man's name is Seymour butts yeah I just thought that was just his name but what if you let me burn that down like see okay more butts
01:03:11
Speaker
All right. very Yeah. So now it makes sense. Now you're less, yeah you're less like shocked by this. Now those aren't good games. But I mean, again, it's it's an era where it's like, especially yeah if you're looking for like, you know, can I can I drag some models into a studio and have them say some flirty things to a camera and turn it into a cheapy cheap visual novel dating sim sort of thing. This is an era where a lot of that's going on too. And again, it's flooding the market with just low effort products that I think do drown out some of the quality work that's being done. Like a game from this era that I really like. And again, here we think about games that, you know, if I say they live and die by their performance quality, and the quality of the performance is not how well they spin up in your CD-ROM drive.
01:04:01
Speaker
um The X-Files game from 1998 is a a perfectly fine adventure game. And it has a little bit of ah ah screen time for David Duchovny and Jillian Anderson. They are there. They are they're doing their thing. They're moldering. They're scullying, respectively. And you know for them,
01:04:23
Speaker
I think probably it was just another day at the office. I mean, they're probably filming in Vancouver in between episodes of the actual X-Files. And you know by that point, it was like three or four seasons. Because ah the main character, you're you're not playing. You're not playing them. You're playing a different FBI agent who is searching for a missing Mulder and Scully.
01:04:47
Speaker
And what, I mean, for them, but yeah, it's no bad office. They roll in, they give their performances. They are locked into these characters by now. It feels like you're watching lost footage from an episode of the X and Mitch, uh, Pelagi, uh, director Skinner is there in a much more prominent role as a more affordable actor. I imagine. And he's knocking it out of the park. I mean, he is bringing his egg game. It's a game with some great performances. Now the lead and a lot of the less.
01:05:14
Speaker
like the The new characters, the original creations are all over the place with just, I mean, they're trying to do like that sort of dead pan kind of humor that Xpiles does a lot of yeah and not getting it. Like it's not it's not clicking well necessarily. Xpiles performances have to be very like to to do like you know, Mulder and Scully like that, that very low, you know, That kind of X-Files kind of spur and let her talk. It's kind of slow. You've got to be able to match David Duchovny's energy. You have to be very talented to make that work because otherwise it's boring. know But like, you know, in, in their hands, it was, you know, deeply entertaining, obviously. um And of course in the hands of whoever else it was the last couple of seasons.
01:06:15
Speaker
but Did they try to do that? I don't know. i I'm not really an X-Files guy. I mean, did they replace them with other leads? Well, I bet I know, but I mean, did you lead, like, did they try to do that? Like, that kind of thing? They tried to do lots of things. And so do we all, and that's what's so beautiful about that this great voyage that we're all on called life. All right, now... ah
01:06:41
Speaker
Um, uh, is there anything else from the nineties that we would like to to talk about ah before we close the book on the nineties forever? Yes. We'll never talk about a game from the nineties again as of right now. All right. There it is. Uh, now, uh, so yeah, pretty much, you know, uh, like once everybody got into 3d, that that was that, uh, not very much FMV stuff.
01:07:11
Speaker
And then like, kinda, it feels like recently, I guess it would be like, what, the last 10 years or so, started to see kind of in the FMV stuff. And I'm sure there's always been some stuff. This is not a show that is a research show. So you're looking for research. Move on. No, we're, we're, we're doing this show with our hearts. Yeah. Yeah.
01:07:38
Speaker
So think about that. Uh, now, uh, so like the, the most prominent FMV thing I could think of are, uh, the, the, the games by Sam Barlow, the last, uh, as I said, the last duration, which would be her story, uh, telling lies and most recently immortality, uh,
01:08:02
Speaker
And, uh, I've played immortality and I still have some stuff to go left in it.
Modern FMV: 'Immortality'
01:08:08
Speaker
i That's a game that I find very unsettling. So it is like hard to go back to. Yeah. like in a way that like and got all Yeah. I mean, in a way that.
01:08:19
Speaker
It's like, I don't know if another game I can think of off the top of my head that left me kind of like weirdly uncomfortable in a good way. I want to say this for me is like high praise. Like this is yeah unsettling in ah in a very good way. I mean, how would you describe immortality for our listeners who don't know this one?
01:08:37
Speaker
So immortality, I at first I'm going to zoom out a little bit on zoom yeah on on Sam Barlow's games. I haven't, as I said, I haven't played Telling Lies, but I'm pretty sure it has a similar kind of what what's interesting about ah his approach to these FMV games is that these aren't
01:09:02
Speaker
like ah they're they're not like direct point and click adventures. They they come up with kind of a person where you are searching through video footage is it's it's like one level extrapolated from the story that's being told like your one one step back from it. Yeah, like in in all of the games you are a like kind of like you're a detective in in a way like there is a lot of video footage that you are searching through and they ah the way that you interact with this video footage in in the games ah like in
01:09:43
Speaker
ah Her story, it's that you ah use a very imperfect ah search ah parser ah that has a bunch of limitations on it ah in order to to ah find clips.
01:09:58
Speaker
And test they're like witness testimony interrogation type stuff, right? I remember that one. yeah Yeah. And you're trying to piece together this story out of order with partial information. And depending on how good you get at following the breadcrumbs that are dropped in each little clip, you may or may not be able to complete all the story in your playthrough.
01:10:22
Speaker
And it's very similar for immortality as something yeah immortality is is similar in immortality, instead of using a search parser, you kind of use that. It's that instead you you click on or or tap or whatever you're using on items in the in the video and then it matches it with other instances of when that item showed up ah in in other videos in this and in immortality you're tracking the very mysterious strange career of this film actress uh
01:10:58
Speaker
who I don't want to spoil it at all. In case No, I feel like saying too much beyond that is Yeah, but I mean, it what's neat about this one is it it just has the magic trick. It's very unsettling. First of all, it has yeah has a very great magic trick, but which we definitely can't talk about. Yeah, I mean, but just the idea that the way you shuffle through these clips, like, you know, if I'm watching a little clip, and I see, you know, a glass of water sitting on a table,
01:11:25
Speaker
And if I click on that glass of water maybe it takes me to a different clip that in some way features a glass of water or is about water or just the notion that it. Thematically searches through these things which ultimately probably isn't that much different than the search engine in her story.
01:11:45
Speaker
But it's a cool little magic trick that it pulls off when you're especially when you're first starting out in the game, and it just feels like magic. It's like there's no way if I click on that thing. Yeah, it it does. it look very Cool. Yeah, it's gonna take me no way it'll work. And it's like, oh, wait, it did it knew exactly why I was trying to get at and it took me to a clip that I can see the connective tissue and start putting this story together out of order. Asynchronously. It's neat. It's a really And again, a game that is stuck with me in a way that most games don't. yeah And yeah, the ah as said earlier, this probably does have I mean, honestly, in her story, the performance, the central performance in her story is extremely good, too. But yeah, the ah the woman, and the actor that they have playing the central character, there's a ah couple ah like main characters and immortality, but the like the main main character
01:12:38
Speaker
in immortality. Like she has to do a lot in that game. Yeah. And her performance is is very, like it's very complicated. And it's very interesting. And it's, ah ah yeah, everyone should go out and play immortality and I should finish it. It's just that like it always it like I have to get myself on the right headspace for it because it is a game that just it it it gives me a bit of the heebie jeebies in a good way.
01:13:08
Speaker
Uh, you know, I wouldn't call it like, uh, like a five pamper or whatever, but, uh, you know, this is why I'm glad I played on stream because I think if I were playing this like by myself at night, it would definitely creep me out. Like i felt like this was nudity. Are you able to do that? No, no. You know that I've never seen a nude person, uh, myself included. Yeah. Um, and yeah, no, I can't do that. Yeah. No, but are you able to stream nudity? I don't know that. Are you? Oh,
01:13:36
Speaker
Um, I mean, I stream that. All right. Yeah, I guess I did. Yeah. So yeah, I guess I stream unity all the time. Great. I thought you i were asking if I was allowed to see nudity. I'm like, Oh yeah. Are you? Does mother allow?
01:13:48
Speaker
no's right
01:13:51
Speaker
Mother. The actress who plays the lead in immortality. I'm sure just mispronounce her name horribly, but Monon Gage, I'm going to say, is my best guess at this. Also streams on Twitch. I don't know if you've ever checked out any of her streams, but good streamer also.
01:14:10
Speaker
Yeah, everyone check out immortality. I think if there's a game that maybe some of y'all, I mean, I'm betting a lot of us have played your return to Zorks and your Gabriel not twos and things, but get out there and play your immortality. It's a fantastic, weird, upsetting game. Yeah. um And ah I know also like I i think there was something that might have been in Aftermath or or something like a one of the like I read a ah piece Uh, like in the last year or so about, um, uh, about like how FMV games are very popular, I think in China, something like that, like there's a whole bunch of Chinese and like some of them are on steam. I don't know if they're translated or not, but I am very curious about this. Uh, uh, especially if.
01:15:05
Speaker
There is like you know a translated ah way ah to play them because that just sounds really interesting to me. Uh, but like, yeah, there's a, there's a whole, you know, there, there's, there's, uh, a larger world of all of them, uh, that I haven't accessed at all. And I mean, I, and I know that there are other people out there doing very clever and interesting things, uh, with FMV, especially, uh, uh, these days, it's just the Sam Barlow ones in particular are very pot, like have, have become kind of well known. Um,
01:15:40
Speaker
You know another series that I think mixes in FMV in a really neat way nowadays um that it's adventure adjacent at least you know Alan Wake especially Alan Wake too. Oh right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Great job of integrating.
01:15:56
Speaker
FMV cutscenes. I mean, even the first one has little bits of FMV, but it's more pronounced in the sequel. um Alongside its gameplay, which is mostly 3d third person, he has stuff, you know, but yeah, the use of FMV there, I think is a nice touch for it nowadays where you can take you know, this technology that once upon a time, it's like the scaffold we build the entire game around. And now it becomes something that's additive to an existing game design. It's like this is something it's a, you know, it's something that spruces up, ah you know, game that maybe isn't built just because it's like, hey, we have, we can do full motion video. So let's do full motion video. Yeah. And you know, that, that, that's kind of jogging, like a ah thought I'm starting to put together in my head and I don't, but you know, it's, it's interesting or you thinking about immortality or, or like the video segments in Ellen wake or like, you know, I know that there were at least, you know, in, I think a metal gear solid has some FMV.
01:16:57
Speaker
yeah Uh, but I'm not a Metal Gear Solid guy. Um, but you know, like, but, but, but going back to like the Sam Barlow ones and some of the other like kind of indie experiments with FMV these days. Uh, I, I think it's really interesting because as we said, uh, like when we were talking about the, the nineties FMV.
01:17:22
Speaker
Some, uh, a lot of it was, uh, a, a top down decision of like, this is, or at least that's the impression I get is that this is like exciting new technology. We, uh, uh, this is what adventure games in games in general are going to be. This is like, when we get to the 21st century, when the the the clock strikes one in the year 2000.
01:17:50
Speaker
Uh, uh, the, like everyone's going to play games like this. And then obviously anymore, we can just have video. Yeah. And then obviously like that was rejected. Like that was like, it stopped selling and, and, and people moved on. Um, and so now returning to FMV and people like using it.
01:18:18
Speaker
It, it's so curious and strange. Like it is it's such a strange thing to have somebody in this century make an FMV game. And to me that, that like, and now, but, but, but my point is, is that now it's kind of artist driven. It's driven by the designers. It's driven by the developers. It's like, I have this idea.
01:18:43
Speaker
Uh, and I could only tell this story using like actors and, and like, you know, and like, I'm telling better with that. Yeah. Yeah. And like with video footage of actors, because it's like, you know, like Baldur's gate three mocapped the hell out of every character. And it looks really cool. Uh, but, uh, but like Baldur's gate three would be way better. Can you imagine the game and make it an A plus, uh,
01:19:12
Speaker
Ben, I know we said we wouldn't mention 90s games anymore. Yeah. How did we not talk about Star Trek Borg at any point during this episode? Well, it's because it's getting its own episode soon. OK, there you go. Enough said. Enough said. ah You heard it here first, gang. We're going to do a four part episode on Star Trek Borg with John Delancey. Now it's the game, not the podcast. Correct. Correct. Correct. yeah We can't get him. No, but we can get John Delancey the game.
01:19:39
Speaker
um But, but yeah, like, and I think that's what's really interesting about it. And, uh, what's interesting about like kind of the, the, the new stuff and the, the indie stuff is, is that these are direct choices versus it's like, you know, uh, uh, this is the, the cutting edge future. Uh, you know, Jane Jensen, figure out a way to do this with actors. This is what our investors want to see. I suspect she might've been.
01:20:07
Speaker
Yeah, I suspect for her being able to tell a more cinematic story was probably very exciting. I mean, she's someone with like, who seems like she might have big cinema dreams, you know, maybe in the way that Gabriel Knight to ends like it's it's big like climax is something that is more impressive because it's done on video with actors.
01:20:32
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, if it was done in pixels or like polygons or whatever, it would look neat and it would be like, uh, in the story and, and explain what, what happens. But like on video, it looks ridiculous. Yeah. What happens? What's the climax? Spoilers spoilers for Gabriel Knight to the beast with him.
01:20:55
Speaker
So at the end, you put on a ding-dang Wagner opera. ah you stay You stage a Wagner opera to catch a werewolf. um Which, you know, you say those those words out loud and you ask yourself, how do we get there? And trust me, if you play Gabriel on that too, it seems like a completely reasonable plan once you've built up to it. Like you see people in full costumes. They're people with elaborate sets. They've composed music. They have an orchestra they're playing. It is so...
01:21:31
Speaker
Like, and yeah, like if you did that with like, you know, like hand drawn graphics or, or polygon, like, you know, if it time was composed, that'd be great. Be very neat, but i that they got all of that on video is yes ridiculous. It looks expensive. It looks time consuming and it all pays off because it's like,
01:21:55
Speaker
Man, if you played Gabriel, not to, there's a good chance you're seven, eight hours into the game by the time you reach that maybe longer. And it gives you like the big send off that really makes it all worth it. I mean, it is, it is a spectacle and that's like FMV at its best. yeah I mean, it does have the potential when used well.
01:22:21
Speaker
to create a level of just sort of like human excitement that, uh, that sets it apart. You know, I think those are the games that like, when you see something, you think to yourself, I think this could have only been done in
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:22:37
Speaker
video. That's what, that's when they're working. That's when they're click pointing and clicking. Yeah. ah All right. Well, I have to stop there. Uh, I was going to say more, but I have to stop there. That's that. That's the period at the end of the sentence. I'm afraid.
01:22:51
Speaker
All right. I mean, is it I have to. It's legally. I have to. I have more to say, but that that's a straight in the bin. Oh, that can be for our patrons. And the patrons only. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. ah All right.
01:23:07
Speaker
Well, ah do you have a favorite FMV adventure game or game at all? Like, you know, it could be a wing commander three. I don't care. Uh, do you have, do you have a favorite FMV game? Send us an email at quest, quest podcast at gmail dot.com.
01:23:24
Speaker
You can hear the melancholy music that I haven't played in a while. Yeah. Uh, let me say this, yeah you know what, I'm going to try some reverse psychology here. I personally hope the listeners don't, uh, rate and review this podcast. You know what I, I think that that is, you know, maybe they're just not tough enough.
01:23:44
Speaker
Uh, or, you know, probably cool. Yeah. Just not cool enough to go give a, give a review to this because, I mean, they don't care if people, people find this podcast. Yeah. They want it. They're a little secret. Um, but, uh, but yeah, thank you. And you can always watch us on ah Twitch. The links are in the profile. You can see it. It's, it's right there. It's right there. It's right there on the Twitch.
01:24:11
Speaker
ah But yeah, shoot us an email, ah write a review, follow us on Twitch, ah and join us next week when we discuss the exciting new King's Quest fan game entirely about the creature in the moat. We'll be there then. Bye, folks. Bye.