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Hypnospace Outlaw
132 Plays19 days ago
Ben and Jess gush about the late 90s internet simulator Hypnospace Outlaw.
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
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Transcript
The Struggle of Crafting a Perfect Intro
00:00:20
Speaker
It's Quest Quest! The Adventure Game Podcast. Yeah. We rehearsed that one. That is not something that just happened. That was four hours. Four hours of work. Four hours. It is two o'clock in the morning.
00:00:35
Speaker
because we did this all, you know, just straight through. You see, our mistake was we would do the intro and then do the whole episode and they were like, you know, that intro wasn't it. And then we would go all the way back to one and just do the, this'll be the fifth time we've recorded this episode just to get the intro right. Right. Yeah.
Casual Chatter: Weather and Food
00:00:54
Speaker
I mean, we haven't even talked. We have any, but we're keeping her powder dry talking about the game. Fortunately.
00:01:02
Speaker
How are you doing today, Jess? You know, I am pretty good. I have been having a great day. It's been snowing here. It's a wintery wonderland. Oh, let me introduce you. You're Jess, and I'm done. All right, great. That's right. And we talk about things like sandwiches and the weather and adventure games here on Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. And I'm here to talk about soup. I had a big pot of borscht today. Oh, my borscht. You were skeeting.
00:01:29
Speaker
I was. About borscht, and you yeah you even had an exchange for the great Dost nostalgic. Yes, shout out ah to Anatole. Yes, I had a a wonderful pot, a couple of bowls of the of the good old borscht, some fresh baked bread with it. I've eaten them. Who's the bread maker? ah and i' got A small machine that sits on our countertop.
00:01:55
Speaker
So it's like Courtney put the stuff in it. My lovely wife. You know, I'm sure she's listening right now. So shout out to Courtney. She can't get enough quest quest. You know what? Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure she hasn't had your fill, ah her fill of your voice.
Homemade Bread Adventures
00:02:17
Speaker
brother Oh, coming out s swinging. You know what? I miss. I used to have a bread maker But you know, city living, those things are a big chunk of ah real, you know, kitchen real estate. I liked them as like a dough maker, like if I'm making like pizza dough. but Yeah, putting all that shit in there and then just hit the dough thing. It almost always made good enough dough. But I know there's some dozeman
00:02:51
Speaker
And those people out there no boys is the yeah oh, is that the phrase? Oh, man, we're getting punchier and punchier every episode. Yeah. And I think less and less about adventure games, it feels like. I don't know. It's going to be the first adventure game podcast to just become two guys talking for an hour. Oh, yeah. That's if we did it. ah We cracked the code. um ah But. ah Yeah, they're gonna be like, you know, these these dough boys, they're gonna ah be upset that I use the dough machine to make pizza dough. And listen, I know I don't know I now I don't I use my kitchen aid, everyone calm down. Yeah, but I don't want to see a kind of reviews on like, you know, on iTunes about this about you know, Ben's not a real dough aficionado.
00:03:46
Speaker
Oh, man. All right. So you had a homemade borscht. I've never made borscht. You know, it's it's wonderful. It's just, you know, just lovely beats. It's the kind it makes a delicious red broth that would destroy forever anything it came into contact with. Oh, yeah. Oh, you can't drop it that on your hardwood. You got to move to a new place. Yeah, um it's it's game over.
00:04:13
Speaker
Um, that's why you and I also have cats and that takes care of the hardwood as well. And you also have a dog, like that almost takes care of hardwood.
00:04:24
Speaker
No, no, yeah, we have we have a like a real time cleaning system of several animals. They're just constantly, you know, moving around like fleshy Roomba's scooping up any food that hits the floor. So yeah, we're safe there. Oh, I was talking about how they damage hardwood. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's hopeless too. Yeah, I mean, yeah, all the grooves they've created are perfect for some force to pull up in. Oh, yeah, that's yeah, they that's what they call that. They call it a boarstgroove. Yeah, a boarstgroove. The gang into the boarstgroove. Jess, I have a very important question for
Gaming Critique: Willy Beamish
00:05:02
Speaker
you. Please. Jess, what have you been playing lately? Oh. Oh, now this is delightful. What do you have going on here? I told Jess that there would be a surprise. Here it is. Jess, what have you been playing?
00:05:28
Speaker
ah I just had no idea. What am I hearing? I'm not sure. like this is This is just some chill, jazzy tunes off of the royalty-free collection I got on Humble Bundle. Well, I mean, I hate to repeat this.
00:05:45
Speaker
But you know, I just finished up Willy Beamish for the first time. I'm talking at adventure games here. And Ben, what is Willy Beamish? I know that I may have said this exact phrase in the last episode, but what is Willy Beamish? Like, what is it trying to be? what How am I supposed to feel when I'm done playing Willy Beamish? And if you know the answer to this, email us at QuestQuestPodcast at gmail dot.com. But I have an opinion on this as well.
00:06:19
Speaker
okay. I like the same energy you're bringing to the table. variety of problems with Willie Beamish, also known as Wally Beamish to some. Yes. To many. To most.
00:06:50
Speaker
think it does any of them particularly well. Yes. Oh, and let's have a little background. If if they didn't listen last week, what' what's Willie Beamish? Willie Beamish is a magnet. It's your game. I mean, one, it's a Saturday morning cartoon for adults, I guess, about ah the worst family ever and their little turd of a kid, Willie Beamish.
00:07:36
Speaker
character, you know, not every every show or movie or or piece of art about, like, people. has to have likeable characters. Famously, there are some great television programs and films and so on that are starring horrible people, and that's that's part of the appeal. But if if you're not like good,
00:08:03
Speaker
Like, that's an advanced class. Yes. you read the letter if you You need to learn how to tell a story with, like, a likable set of characters and get good at that before you start telling stories about, like, like satirically unlikable people.
Exploring Cook Serve Forever
00:08:19
Speaker
Yeah. And so all the... you're you're You have this unpleasant hang with a bunch of unpleasant people. Yes.
00:08:29
Speaker
Uh, that the characters all hate each other and the writers have contempt for the characters. The writers are making fun of all the characters. Yes.
00:08:41
Speaker
Also, the game has a very characteristic, especially of games of that ah adventure games of that period where like the last quarter or so just hits a complete vertiginous difficulty spike.
00:08:59
Speaker
Yes, and we're going to talk about this eventually in an episode, because it simply keeps coming up. Like, adventure games that cannot stick to the landing. You get to the final act, yeah and all of a sudden, most of the story drops out, or the characters drop out. It just turns into, here are where we crammed all the least thought-out puzzles. Like, here's where all the fiddly, weird, bad puzzles come into play. And this is your punishment for sticking with our game for so long.
00:09:25
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, yeah. You know, here's the thing. I mean, I complained about this last time. Willy has too many things. First of all, he has the ambiguous name. Yeah, that's what it is. Is it Wally? Yeah, he's got that. He's got the... Grandpa. Ghost Grandpa. He's got Ghost Grandpa, who's a train conductor, who's never commented upon and barely shows up. He's got... showy The variant yeah, just like right when your parent your dad's gonna be murdered um And he's like watch it will you don't want your dad my son to be murdered and be a ghost like me?
00:10:00
Speaker
he's got that hes still is full yeah championship jumping frog he's got a dog that maybe talks it's unclear if will he can hear him or not i don't know it just i mean there's two i mean ben i know you love family guy more than anything and say it's the best show you've ever watched um yeah you're a huge family guy fan this was honestly like i've said before i like watched like one episode of family guy i'm like nope never again I felt like a talking baby and a talking dog was too much. I was just like, no, you can't have both of those in the same show. And a kid who sounds like Seth Green? I don't think so. You can't have all three of those. um Yeah, and Willie Beamish is doing that more. So that's what I've been playing. Willie Beamish, that is a two-star adventure game out of five. All right, well, you heard it here first. Two out of five. I have been playing. Ben, what have you been playing?
00:10:57
Speaker
Uh, I don't know if I should keep this looping under this entire, no I don't, I mean, honestly, I feel like I do know and the the hand signal. Keep it going. Keep it going. Yeah. Oh, okay. So here, here I'm going to wait until the the loop here and
00:11:36
Speaker
I have a, so I've been playing Cook Serve Forever. Have you played any of the Cook Serve Delicious games? No, I haven't. Okay, so the Cook Serve Delicious games, of which there are, so there's Cook Serve Delicious one through three, and then now in early access is Cook Serve Forever, which is kind of like a side, it's not,
00:12:04
Speaker
It is not a total sequel to cook, serve, delicious three. It's its own kind of thing a little bit. In Cook Serve Delicious in the first three games the game is kind of a bunch of button inputs to quickly create a food item that you then serve to a guest and then you get a whole bunch of them over the course of the day and it's kind of
00:12:54
Speaker
nothing's better than this but close. Cook serve forever. i Just got a big gameplay overhaul update. Apparently people did not like I didn't buy it initially because ah all the initial reactions were were very negative.
00:13:12
Speaker
And so they took all the early access feedback of we don't like the gameplay and completely overhauled it. And so I was like, all right, I'll give it a try because I liked the first three games. And it's a lot of fun. It has and it's still in early access. So i I noodled on it a little bit. And I think I'm going to put it away until it gets closer to one. But the the interesting mechanic, the Cook Serve Forever, which is more of a narrative game. It's that you see you get little story segments. And then the difference between this and the the other three games where you manage the restaurant
00:14:01
Speaker
is that you're doing two things at once, which is insane. What it is is that it splits either your keyboard or your gamepad into you see two instructions at all times and the instructions on the left are all instructions on what you do on the left side of your gamepad and the instructions on the right are what you're supposed to do on the right side of the gamepad and they are both button presses and button holds and sometimes like hold a button while pressing this other button.
00:14:36
Speaker
And it's insane! I couldn't do that. My brain no longer can do those sorts of things. It is an absolute rub your belly and pat your head. Yeah, I know. And it feels very satisfying when you do it. Yes, I can imagine. I can imagine. I could not do it, but I can imagine. it is It is a very intriguing uh sort of feeling I've only put about 40 minutes into it uh so the nice thing about the other cook serve delicious games is that like really
00:15:13
Speaker
Like the game gets more difficult as you go because you get more complicated food items that you learn and they all have more steps and you're racing to view them. But really the start of the game is always always feels like the most difficult because you're getting used to all these fast button inputs and stuff like that.
00:15:37
Speaker
So, like, i'm I'm looking forward to playing this and being able to go back to these first levels that I'm doing where I'm just, like, staring at the screen, feeling my brain split, and being able to do it like... bit the but butp but but but but thinking about boomomo being boomm boom dingbo um boom be bomb for po and my group Like Like that, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now now I get the game. I hear the music, so I i start scatting.
00:16:06
Speaker
Which, that's true. I mean, this, yeah, who could not with this jazzy, uh, jazzy tune. All right. And Jess, that's what I've been playing.
00:16:19
Speaker
You're dead.
Hypnospace Outlaw: A Retro Internet Adventure
00:16:21
Speaker
Oh, Jess, what are we talking about today? Oh my goodness. We are talking about a very exciting game. We are talking about 2019's Hypnospace Outlaw.
00:16:37
Speaker
2019. Really believe isn't it? Yes. 2019. I thought it was really Wow. 2019. But this is a fascinating game. Now this is one I know you've played before. And you love Yeah, this is and this is one I'm just playing currently right now for the very first time and I am fascinated by this. We were we were kicking around topics for this week and I am so hypnospace on the brain. I just thought this is the only thing I want to talk about this week is the game Hypnospace Outlaw. Yeah, because it's it's it's lodged up in my medulla oblongata. It is it's inescapable to me right now.
00:17:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And how in the world would you describe Hypnospace Outlaw? And isn't it an adventure game? It's absolutely an adventure game. Next. Well, how would you describe it? though like what is just Tell the listener. First off, I'm going to say yes that Hypnospace Outlaw is one of my top games and adventure games.
00:17:48
Speaker
of this century, of these of this quarter century. Wow. Since 1925, one of your top games. Wow. Sure. ah But since a since the year 2000 when this millennium began. Okay, okay.
00:18:08
Speaker
matt Oh, when you said this, oh, that makes a lot more sense. i' ah but And I mean, also people, they're like, excuse me. That's not what it started. But also, the year 2000, it's very big in ah within the the fiction of the game. It's losing. But this this game is literally one of my top games of of these past 25 years.
00:18:36
Speaker
And I get that. like I'm two hours in and I see it. So Hypno Space Outlaw is a game that takes place ah towards the end of 1999. And it is this this alt history where ah it is set within this enclosed internet like space.
00:19:07
Speaker
Uh, where you are navigating these user made websites that are very similar to if, if you use the internet at the time, such as I did, such as jested, we're going to talk about that. They all look like geo cities and brave net.
00:19:34
Speaker
And what were some of the other, what were some of the other ones? Jess, because everybody says she Angel fire, Angel fire, Angel fire were the worst because they had, they were covered with popups. Geocities yeah wasn't even as bad as Angel fire in my, robot law not by a long shot. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, we're talking animated gifts. We're talking under construction signs. We're talking, what else?
00:20:00
Speaker
We're we're talking Oh, this one, this one's in my notes. This is something when I reopened hypnospace today to to kind of jog my memory. Uh,
00:20:13
Speaker
I this this one just slapped me across the face where it changed your cursor into another cursor and then there was a dragging image. Oh, a mouse trail. Yeah, mouse trail. There was I went to this website in Hypno space. ah When I was playing it earlier today.
00:20:34
Speaker
where it changed the cursor into ah like a wizard's scepter. And there were sparkles that trail behind it. And I was just like, I remember this. I remember these websites. And um it turns out I'm a return guy for that.
00:20:52
Speaker
Oh, man. No, I mean, yeah, I didn't realize how badly I missed it. And so I mean, right auto play in a MIDI when you hit onto a website, horrible real player quality video clips, like I just want it all I want that all back, right? The i so the the the premise of the game is that so that's the setting it takes place in in that the the the alt universe wrinkle to it is that instead of sitting down at a computer and ah typing on your keyboard or whatever this is a. ah Some sort of like headset that you put on and you go to sleep and you access it while you're asleep which is a very strange like.
00:21:40
Speaker
It gives the developers and the the writers a lot more I think kind of narrative license to go even kind of weirder yeah with it and get a little freakier. There is this has It takes that Geocities to use a shorthand, that Geocities aesthetic, and then turns up the volume on it all the way. ah And Geocities aesthetic was pretty loud, but this is as if Geocities aesthetic was at like, let's say five, and this turns it all the way up to 10.
00:22:22
Speaker
Yeah, this is the world where the worst GeoCities page you ever went to is every GeoCities page. Yeah, that's right. yeah the yeah where Yeah, the most egregious one is just like the norm. And yeah, absolutely. And I mean, it's pretty unhinged and there. And I feel like even describing this thing, it's like we sound unhinged because you haven't played this. Yeah. and So the the gameplay of it is that you are a moderator for Hypnospace. And what that means is that you'll be given a series of assignments to find ah users or websites that are in violation of Hypnospace laws
00:23:08
Speaker
and report them. for Maybe they're posting copyrighted images. Maybe they have, you know, harmful content of some sort. Maybe they have malicious software that they're out there. And yeah, your job is to basically be a net cop. You are, you're out there looking for violators, you're flagging their content.
00:23:28
Speaker
And jane that you're cleaning up this platform. You are a forum moderator of sorts. It's remarkable. like I mean, this is a trick we'll probably talk about a lot, but within minutes, yeahp I became yeah such a righteous enforcer of these rules. It's intoxicating.
00:23:49
Speaker
Oh, I know. It's like some lady has uploaded some copyright images of a cartoon character. Kind old lady. A kind old lady. And it's just like I want this person sent to Internet Prism. This is not OK. It totally i just gives you. That that taste of petty authority. Yeah, it must be hot fields to carry a gun.
00:24:16
Speaker
um Alright, there's a lot, there's a lot to talk about here. But and and I really want to talk about also, like, how, what the gameplay of that is, like how you search throughout before we even get to that. I'd like to talk ah a bit about because this game, um it it really ah within a second,
00:24:45
Speaker
Well, I remember when I, when I bought it, like this was a day one purchase for me, um, because I was a ah fan of, uh, the lead developer, uh, Jay Tholen's, uh, previous adventure game dropsy. Uh, I really loved that game. And so this was a day one purchase. I was like, I loved dropsy and this idea seems great. Uh, but within a second, I was like, this is something even more special. Um,
00:25:14
Speaker
ah because it it feels it it it feels like it did. Yeah, I want to we are both old internet veterans.
Nostalgia and Early Internet Experiences
00:25:27
Speaker
Yes, we are children of this era at some level. And you know, I think that we had maybe some different You and I both had websites, too. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. You and I both had websites. We both like perform people. We were both. And so let's hear a little bit. I'm going to assume that almost everyone listening is familiar with your Web 1.0 website.
00:25:59
Speaker
ah but But let's hear that. Let's hear your your internet history. Yeah. I mean, let me just open up my internet history here. Um, no, my internet history. Uh, you know, I, uh, in 1995, um, arrived at college and literally on the first day during our sort of orientation, walked through the computer lab. I sat down at a computer. I opened up a web browser for the first time. And that was literally my first time ever going online. I'd never had, you serve. No AOL, no CopyServe. Sadly, no Imagination Network, ah Sierra Network. As bad as I wanted those. I'd never been online. I'd never even dialed into a BBS. um So this is my first time online experience.
00:26:45
Speaker
And I was fascinated. I mean, this is the 1995 web, like where there's nothing even on it. Uh, you know, it's like a few research laboratories and a couple of Star Trek fan pages basically is, uh, is all it's out there. And just immediately I got obsessed with this idea of, I saw the internet and I'm like, I want to create something for this. It was this big wide place. Yeah. It was.
00:27:10
Speaker
making fertile soil. Yeah. and it we And making a website learning early like HTML like one through four was not hard. No, it was pretty straight like HTML is not a hard programming language. And I say that as a guy that is like I do not Have any of those skills? No, absolutely. I wish I did and I don't. But I saw the internet and I'm like, I have to create something. I went out that day after orientation was over. I got my car. I drove to be Dalton at the mall.
00:27:51
Speaker
Yeah. And I bought a copy of HTML for dummies and I was like, I'm going to learn how to make stuff for this internet and read through that and decided I'm going to make a space quest website. I was a huge space quest fan. Yeah. Then just as now I loved adventure games and I just thought to myself, I'm going to make a space quest fan site. And I launched Roger Wilko's virtual broom closet in November of 1995. And it was very web point one oh point To 1995. Yes. Five. i know better in it This year is huge. This year. I'm going to do something this year. Just you wait. I've got plans, but yeah.
00:28:35
Speaker
I launched this thing, like the idea of writing something, cramming it into an HTML document, putting it online, just felt magical to me. Pretty soon, once I figured out how I had a web forum going on the website, so I was getting to play moderator myself there, a community springs up. It was amazing. And this was a time when, yeah, there were just,
00:29:02
Speaker
homemade personal websites and fansets popping up everywhere. We didn't know how good we had it. Oh, no, no, I mean, like there was a no, because it was so exciting when Facebook and all that shit came along. It was so exciting. When all that stuff came, it was like, Oh my god, this is so great. And No, we didn't know we were going to lose. But yeah, I mean, there was a time like we had a ah Wilco World Wide Web web ring, which was it had like 22 websites and or so like there were like 22 active Space Quest fans that somehow all posting different original content. So I mean, that's how I came onto this web. And it was amazing. I mean, it literally was.
00:29:43
Speaker
life changing to me. I just didn't know how this was missing from my life. And that early era of being able to create something around the same time I created a web zine I had a personal website called jessville that looked a lot like one of these. how Wonderful.
00:29:59
Speaker
Well, he said like I had a little guy in a hula hoop animated gif at the top of it. Oh, yeah. And a quote from the Harvey danger song flagpole set up right at the very top of my web page. Yeah, I want to publish zines and raging us machines. I believe was the quote I chose. ah So yeah, I mean, how's that for like 1996? What?
00:30:23
Speaker
Um, what was, were, were, was, uh, Jessville, did you ever use geo cities or any of those or, or were they all on university internet? I had ah had a friend with a server, uh, where I hosted all my stuff. Now you tell me about your website. Okay. So, so my, what so the, the, the funny thing here is I was on the internet before you, or I was on,
00:30:51
Speaker
Connected like I was online before you let's not say the internet i'm much older than you ah it did it is Like ages. Yeah, I could be your father. Yeah No and what Depends i mean could you are almost exactly 10 years older than me. There you go probably maybe Maybe like a 11. I don't know around there. Anyway, I ah We had So first off, we had a very, ah we were a very computer savvy family, my family. And ah I believe even before I was using it, I think my ah ah siblings used CompuServe briefly.
00:31:41
Speaker
But my earliest memories of online are that we had in the early 90s, and I'm saying like, 91, 92, we had prodigy. Oh wow, yeah. Prodigy, we were using that on DOS. And ah it was, if there there was something very,
00:32:12
Speaker
exciting about, like even to me as a kid, that you turn on the computer and there would be something new there, you know? Uh-huh. Yeah, because in a world pre, like everything being online, like your computer was the little box of disks you had sitting beside it, basically. there There wasn't any new content unless you went to a store and bought some new content for yourself. Yeah. And so we had Prodigy and there was a ah adventure game there was this this ah not I don't know if it would be we would call it a choose your own adventure it was it was kind of like you had prompts that you selected and it was called Mad Maze which I believe you ah someone recreated online so you can play Mad Maze right now has some really
00:33:06
Speaker
interesting vector art in it that I think is is is pretty neat. I recommend checking out Mad Maze. I don't i don't know, you know ah like my view of Mad Maze, because I played a lot of it as a kid, i I will never be able to look at it from any sort of objective. Yeah. just yeah and So I don't think it's probably it's probably not that good. But it's interesting. I think you this week's recommendation. Yeah, yeah. Next week, we're we're talking about mad maze.
Community Dynamics and Writing in Hypnospace
00:33:43
Speaker
But so we had prodigy, we had the imagination network, I got it addicted to Serbia. And then in
00:33:56
Speaker
i' going into, uh, the, the time that this game is set. So in 99, that was when I, I have a very distinct memory of, uh, the year 2000, new year, 2000 and.
00:34:20
Speaker
ah posting on my sliders fan website about Happy New Year's 2000.
00:34:32
Speaker
ah I my I had a ah sliders fan website. Then we've got tiny years at the time he could not get enough of them be the science fiction. programs jarring jerry o'connell h Oh, Mm hmm. Oh,
00:34:50
Speaker
John Reed Davies is not lower decks. Oh, uh, yeah. Well, oh, wait, yeah. why Why are you shaking your head, Ben? What? Oh, we'll talk after the podcast. Anyway.
00:35:04
Speaker
i So I must have made that website in 1999, maybe late 98, but I had a ah sliders fan website that ran off 50 free megs dot.com. I believe was, was the web provider service because it gave you 50 megabytes. You can do anything with that. That's like an unbelievable amount of yeah space. for You were lucky if you had a 50 megabyte hard drive at that time, like Gio, I think our our hard drive was, ah ah we had a gig, we had one gig. Our first, i our Pentium computer, our gateway 2000 that we got in 1996, I think came with a ah one gig hard drive. Anyway,
00:35:54
Speaker
i and then yeah, so I made a website and I think this is really important to actually linking this back to Hypnospace Outlaw, is that I was all over ah the internet. I like, you know, as a like, as a 12 and 13 year old as a as a kid, because yeah, 90 in 99, it would have been 12 and 13. And
00:36:33
Speaker
In Hypnospace Outlaw, they do one of the one of the the great touches in the game is that all of the websites that you go to there is a very like extremely varied mix of ages all schmooshed together into this one community and that's how it was because I was like posting on these forums as a 13 year old with like 20 year olds 30 year olds for like
00:37:06
Speaker
yeah Absolutely. Yeah. it Must have been really annoying. ah one of the One of the little details that I love about it is because I mean, within this game, you can surf to a bunch of people's, you know, personal websites, you go to some business websites, other things like that. But for a lot of the personal websites, so many of them are just people like Let me tell you about who I am. Like these about me sections. They're just like, what? Cause you couldn't have a website back then without like mostly doxing yourself. Like you're going to tell everybody your first and last name, what town you're from. my god your Yeah. yeah that always love That was something I wrote down to was, uh, let me, let me look through my notes is this is my exact note here.
00:37:56
Speaker
is the written tone of personal pages is right on. There's a certain type of overshare specific to then, obviously, like today, like, um ah like on on, you know, the Twitter blue sky or whatever.
00:38:14
Speaker
uh you know someone might say something really humiliating about themselves but that is generally generally like everyone will be like ah don't do that um whereas um uh uh whereas in uh like at that time Like the the website that that on Hypnospace that made me think about this was ah there's this page of this guy, ah Corey, and he is
00:38:51
Speaker
updating the page constantly talking about ah his girlfriend. Yes. And then what happens with her and I don't want to give away all the like, you know, the whole ah story. And the thing is also is that Hypnospace Outlaw takes place on a couple dates. So much like myself being amazed at product like logging into prodigy a week later, and there would be new information on the websites or or in the prodigy zones, whatever they call those.
00:39:20
Speaker
i In Hypnospace Outlaw, ah it takes place across a couple dates. And so the websites do update and change over the course of the game, which is also great. So you get to see i people ah update and ah develop their stories and interact and stuff like that.
00:39:45
Speaker
God, I'm just thinking like the way I used to surf the internet was I had my bookmarks in my browser and probably had like 100 of them. And just like once or twice a week, I would just go to all of these websites. A lot of them are just personal like websites made by some single human being and just see if they've been updated. It's like I wonder if there's anything new.
00:40:13
Speaker
at my favorite deep space nine website. Yeah, I'll go there and check. And yeah, I like I've lost so much touch with that way of interacting. I mean, first RSS, and then social media, and then the collapse of anything resembling a healthy online community.
00:40:31
Speaker
And it's like, that feels so foreign. And I think that's what's for, for old heads like us, I feel like that's what Hypnospace Outlaw captures and just such a beautiful, elegant way. You have had to have been there to make the game. I don't know if you have had to have been there to enjoy the game. I i have heard, and I would be interested if anyone, uh, who's listening has thoughts or experience with this quest, quest podcast at gmail dot.com.
00:41:02
Speaker
I have heard, I've seen people post online like, oh my 13 year old played it and had a great time. Yeah, it feels like you could. I think it is a testament to this game has spectacular writing.
00:41:26
Speaker
Absolutely. I, you know, and so regardless of like you and I, you know, we old heads, we were soaking in it. And even when I just opened it up today to to refresh myself, I just, I, I got that. it It really gives me the warmth of a nostalgia when I open up the game. Uh, but, um,
00:41:54
Speaker
I, regardless of if you get that hit or not, the writing is of such high quality that even if you are, you know, 21, which means that you weren't around for this, uh, you, you could probably have a pretty good time playing it because it's a good game. it a right It goes beyond the.
00:42:24
Speaker
Uh, nostalgia gets you in the door, but, uh, the quality of writing, or that the quality of presentation, the, how much fun it is to play. Yeah. Uh, it gets you in there. Let's, let's talk a little bit about, uh, you know, one of the the great things about it is the music.
00:42:50
Speaker
So every website when you enter absolutely. That's how websites used to be. Now, the the change that they did is that these are all kind of like you there, there are samples, there's there's audio back then it would would have been waves which were too high. um
00:43:23
Speaker
too big, so they had to be short, or it'd be middies. Yes. So like this.
00:43:35
Speaker
Yeah, we've had to have ended right there. Probably if it was a wave file back in the day. And man. the the way that that song sounds like that has that 1999 kind of it has like an Evan essence waking up inside kind of vibe. Oh my god, then ah there's I think it's called chill punk from like
00:44:05
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:44:08
Speaker
um This is all has an album. ah So, you know, you could purchase it or I believe it's on all the streaming platforms as well. It's also good. I mean, Ben, you mentioned the gameplay. Like, for me, this is bad. Again, you're playing. I'm sorry, go ahead. Well, yeah, that ah I wanted to say this is just about i'm I'm sure I think we're both your traffic jamming ourselves here is the I think they ah and how what the interface we haven't talked about.
Interface and Gameplay Mechanics
00:44:45
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the interface at some levels like a web browser, I mean, you're doing a lot of this game inside web browser, but it's an OS, you're like basically in the hip no s or hip nos, I guess. And it's a desktop that you can download software and install it, you can like update wallpapers and do all kinds of fun stuff like that. And it's where your suite of tools that you use to enforce internet justice all live. So it's like where you open up your email to get your latest case assignments. It's where you open up your browser to get on Hypnospace and start looking through websites for violations. It's how you report. It's all
00:45:30
Speaker
I mean, it all feels a lot like a Windows 95 98 sort of interface. There's was a lot of vapor wave yeah vibes. Like yeah it's definitely got that turn of the millennium vapor wave. Yes. Aesthetic going on which is which feels very, very cool and and and very retro in its own way. And there's a great joke on on Windows stuff that comes later in the game that I won't give away. ah But it's there for for all of you Windows joke heads. The gameplay
00:46:06
Speaker
actually makes me think a bit about. So, when you're in order to do your detective work as a moderator, we hear that someone's been posting unauthorized content, you need to find five examples of it and send it to us.
00:46:22
Speaker
i the way that you do that is first and this is true of if you remember Yahoo had these NGO cities have these is that there are these zones I believe AOL had these two I didn't like neighborhoods almost yeah neighborhoods of websites that you can click on they're all ah subject related and so there will be like maybe I don't know eight pages per but then there are a lot of websites that are not listed. Yeah, we not indexed. They're not indexed. How do you find them? So the game is ah takes a page from her story.
00:47:03
Speaker
Yes, I'm glad you made this this connection because that was the comparison I had in my notes too. Yeah, her story, the fantastic Sam Barlow FMV game that we've talked about before. A lot of this is you're kind of using your own Google foo, I guess, as we used to call it your search engine skills to backtrack through information you have follow keywords to similar sites. It is actual detective work is what I like about it is that you are So you you're like, okay. And part of the wonderful, you know, allt world of this is that there is a ah alternative a set of acronyms and vernacular in the world. So ah there's b w l instead of lol.
00:47:56
Speaker
which I think is, if I recall correctly, it is bursting with laughter. Yes. b w l b w u l. There's just a bunch of those etc, which instead of e etc, is extra thick chips.
00:48:15
Speaker
There, there is so much much of that and also because it uses this other vernacular and there are other terms and things in this ads it It makes the searching and the detective work ah a refreshing, like additional, additionally difficult without the The game has, especially in the later going, it does get pretty tricky, but I don't think it ever gets unfair. It just gets tricky.
00:48:46
Speaker
Yeah, and it's kind of slowly eased you into it in such a way that if you're paying attention, you have the tools to figure this out. These cases don't solve themselves either. I mean, you're gonna have to do a little legwork and make some logical leaps and things and they're never out of grasp. But I like that I like that it takes a little bit of thought even by the time you're like to the third and fourth case, you're not going to just accidentally solve it by searching for copyright infringement. There's all the copyright infringement. Right. And um' I'm just going to loop back once again.
00:49:26
Speaker
to just how great ah the the writing is, because the the game does a really wonderful job of, and you'll you'll see more of this as you get further in the game, Jess, is it does this wonderful job of showing how like the evolution of internet communities and how drama forms in them and and how bad actors in internet communities work.
00:50:02
Speaker
And also we ah get, uh, there's subplots in the game about the weird two brothers that own the company that own, uh, the, the headset, uh, that, that make this, and there's all sorts of interesting running plots that are the the game at first glance.
00:50:27
Speaker
has there is, you know, very funny, and it has a remarkable aesthetics. But there's actual ah craft to what the game is saying and how it has different voices for each of the characters. One of the characters, Jay Tholen liked so much, he spun off another game ah off of Hypnospace Outlaw.
00:50:59
Speaker
There's ah the Slayer, ah I believe it's Slayer Z. Yeah, yes. ah The Slayer Z shooter game from the character Zane, who's one of the most distinctive and memorable
00:51:13
Speaker
characters. yeah Also a little turd. Yeah, who who's Zane? Talk about Zane. He's just been barely introduced to Zane. Zane is I believe he's 14 but he's turning 15 soon. um He is i kind of like an edgelord in training. I would argue he likes a little bit edgy comedy. He likes some heavy metal music. He is ah you know, he likes a little bit blood and guts and some things like that. ah He is kind of a resident bad boy at some level. I feel like that's my read on him so far. Ben, how would you how would you describe it? I think you got it exactly right. I think he is
00:52:02
Speaker
a annoying little 14 year old edge Lord. He has a web comic. Yeah, he's the kind of edgelord who would use the word shit, but put a star in place of the eye on it. Or an exclamation point. Possibly, yeah, just so we wouldn't get into trouble. Yeah, I mean, this is, and it's one, I mean, this is, we've taught before bed. I mean, at this point, we only say like six or seven things on this podcast. One, we talk about where great sandwiches are in New York City 20 years ago. fun But one of the other things we've talked a lot about
00:52:36
Speaker
Yeah, is a sense of place. And wildly, I think this game does that as well as any game I've ever played. Hypno space feels like a real lived in place. Yeah. And characters like Zane and the people that Zane interacts with, some of whom aren't big fans of Zane, create a world that feels weirdly real, like once you're in it, it starts to feel like, God, ah if you were around at that time, you may have been in web communities that felt a lot like this. And that to me is just like, it's all credit to the writing. I mean, it's it's just fantastic. The, the way that they write, and again, this is later on, and I don't want to spoil anything.
Internet Culture and Ethics in Hypnospace
00:53:30
Speaker
But the way that
00:53:34
Speaker
some of the like kind of Silicon Valley ethics ah that are displayed by some of the characters and how some of the trolls behave is not only really i true to life, it feels like it's true to life and also a commentary on today somehow.
00:54:02
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I think this is very fair. Yeah, I mean, it manages like, I get a good what work in nostalgia should should take you back, but it should also make you reflect a little bit on the present as well. And I think it does that, you know, something, ah Ben, I've got to talk to you about this. All right. This, this is like, something that immediately captured me as I was playing this game.
00:54:27
Speaker
Okay, let's hear we talked. We talked interface. We talked gameplay, right? When you find a violation in this game, you have Okay, Ben, you know where I'm going. yeah You click on within this little but your your special admin browser. You have a button that feels so good. You have a special admin browser. Are you kidding?
00:54:48
Speaker
You're not like one of those regular users, you're a power user. if special And you have this little gavel that you use to strike down violations. Say you see an image that infringes on copyright. You hit it with the gavel, you submit your report, and it is stricken from that website. Ben, how good does it feel? so what else ah It's like a dunk and then ah put a bit minute like because you get paid in phony internet money that you can redeem on just garbage. Yes, like new wallpapers for your webs, every your desktop and things. But it feels so good. I mean, not only do you get the thrill of justice was done of, you know, sent some poor kid to internet prison. But gosh, just even I mean,
00:55:37
Speaker
It's so visceral, it's almost like it has haptic feedback. I almost feel like mad my mouse is somehow vibrating with the hammer of justice. right Every time I drop this thing on some filthy rule violator. yeah And I just love it. I mean, it feels good to play. Like I said, you get you know, so into being a cop so quickly ah that it is insidious. You see it, you you understand.
00:56:10
Speaker
Yeah, no, absolutely. No. the And ah it's it's it's like a little it's like a little magic trick. The game pulls and it pulls it so well. And again, I'm two hours into this thing. I'm talking like from somebody who's basically played a demo of it at this stage. ah Probably by the time this airs, I will have completed it and you have even more praises to sing. But and this is ah ah me saying this to you, but this is also me saying it to ah the listeners as well.
00:56:40
Speaker
There is it's not hard much in the same way that I said earlier that HTML ah is not that difficult. It's not hard to make websites that you insert into the game and can access through the game and you can even put in your own custom music. ah And it's so beautiful. What was such a thrill when we streamed it on on my stream ps underscore Garak Uh, we made like, I don't know, four or five websites. And one of them was a period accurate virtual broom closet. know i logged it I didn't watch too much of this because I didn't want to spoil it for myself, but I happened to see just long enough, uh, your stream to catch that bet. And yeah, like the idea that.
00:57:33
Speaker
you would include that in the game, like a way to create your own Hypnospace Geocities style website. ah What a good idea. I mean, again, if you have nostalgia for this era, that's just extra, extra joy crammed into and crammed into the game.
Is Hypnospace Outlaw an Adventure Game?
00:57:50
Speaker
You know, Ben, I asked at the beginning, yeah is this an adventure game? I agree with you. yeah Yeah, I mean, if you look like on Steam and things, it's usually listed as a simulation. But you to me, this is a mystery detective style game that through your ability to solve the sorts of puzzles within this world unlocks further narrative.
00:58:16
Speaker
It feels like very squarely at the adventure game level. i mean i'll know It's certainly not a traditional adventure game. No. But I think it's an adventure game just as much as say her story yeah or a game like that might be an adventure game. It's just ah a different take on this genre and one that, oh my gosh, just takes it in directions that I can't imagine other games go. as like it is It is one of a kind at some level.
00:58:44
Speaker
Yeah, it is. And I, I believe also, the J full in had ah shared online on it, like some of the his art reference points for it, ah which is just very interesting. It has that
00:59:12
Speaker
ah 90s kind of world was I think there's actually like a term. for this, like global coffee house or something. yeah Sometimes like it has the vaporwave. It has the global, uh, coffee house. It has a lot of, if, if there is a nineties aesthetic or like mid to late nineties aesthetic that you like, you'll, you'll find it done very well.
00:59:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's some way in there. Yeah, I mean, yeah. They just get it. You know, of course, right now, there's a sequel under development. I said this is one of the kind that could so soon be two of a kind i suppose ah dream settler. Yeah.
00:59:59
Speaker
Advances this timeline just a few years. I believe it's set like 2003. Yeah. avi And it's interesting to see the incremental differences there because it still appears to be from everything that's out there. Another web investigative style game. I think it looks like it's cut from very similar cloth, but even seeing just that tiny bit of evolution in the OS that you're accessing in the kinds of websites you're going to visit because oh my God.
01:00:30
Speaker
the from to 2003 is completely different worlds. I mean, here next day isn't that different than it was 10 years ago. But in that little four year period, it's not in day. I'm going to I'm actually going to say it is different from 10 years ago, because I'll i'll say that Even 10 years ago, I had websites that I visited. I had less web websites that I visited, but I would check like the AV club every day, which is still around, but it's not the same. you know Um, with apologies to, I know there are still people that work there. Um,
01:01:09
Speaker
Yeah, they're now there's just like the couple of websites and I know this web pages man and don't and don't email me. Don't email me. If you have a website that doesn't want to hear about it. yeah Don't email me. I know that there's neo cities and all that and and that's very cool. And I'm not putting that down. But I'm i'm talking about when that this was the entire internet.
01:01:35
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, not like a novelty space on the internet. um Yeah, I mean, I do miss web pages. I mean, there's something to be said. I do think about this like now. I mean, gosh, I don't even like keep bookmarks in my browser. I I'm still an old head using RSS. I still use I mean, what is there to read on a website anymore? you know, even that like you had to have a website full of things I want to read. And this is hard because I think you and I are both yeah people who have never understood, like how to use the internet as a tool that we access to get things done. It sounds like both you and I from a very young age, where how can I live on and be part of this magical place? Yeah. And you know, it sucks.
01:02:22
Speaker
Yeah, now we have to do that on social media and all social media is terrible. And I mean, thank goodness TikTok's back. I know that we're both real happy about that. But I mean, what's left? it what That's a that's a crazy thing to say with a two week lead time on this episode. You don't know what's going to happen.
01:02:42
Speaker
but dot god and again back four more times yeah yeah Or just if you need to, Ben, when you're editing this, just drop in some other very topical, topical reference.
01:02:54
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Or just drop in like a news story like Lance Bass was eaten by a wolf. Oh yeah. Or something like that. You know, that's a great SNL sketch. the Oh boy it is. Yeah, I know it is. Tom Brokaw. Yeah. Ben, do you feel like it's been too long since we've talked about SNL on this platform? I mean, I think it's been too long since we've been off topic. We like this game so much that that we stayed ah engaged and on topic this whole time. We really did.
01:03:20
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know what happened. I mean, this is the problem with a pregame. I mean, I feel like we were pretty on topic with King's Quest 2. Yeah. And we'll just say King's Quest 1 also. But I don't know, Ben. Have we just gotten good at podcasting? Or is the off topic? We've gotten the best at podcasting. I mean, that's why we are the only remaining adventure game podcast. We entered the Thunderdome.
01:03:44
Speaker
Uh, but, uh, I believe, I think, uh, somebody that was working on dream settler said like, please. This is, if you haven't picked it up so far, uh, uh, uh, this is a ah complete endorsement of hypnospace outlaw. And I believe, uh, uh, picking up hypnospace outlaw, uh, helps ah support the production of dream settler. So.
01:04:11
Speaker
I want to see that game. So if you haven't gotten hipness face out while you have a job right now, if you're listening, absolutely that job is to get this game because I'm a sequel by this game.
Light-hearted Interlude
01:04:24
Speaker
And of course, as always, you know, if you enjoy fresh home cooked meals,
01:04:30
Speaker
You could do a lot worse than HelloFresh. Oh, um then I have two messages today. First, get out there and get Hypnospace Outlaw. This is a terrific game. Second of all, do you like having your ingredients arrive portioned out for you already ready to prepare? HelloFresh might be right for you, Ben. What is our special discount code at HelloFresh? Our special discount code at HelloFresh is one, two, three,
01:05:00
Speaker
or podcast. No, I'm sorry. Um, uh, you know, I had one more, uh, but you know, what I don't use, uh, uh, I don't use hello fresh anymore because I just get this now.
01:05:38
Speaker
granny creams hot butasss cream
01:05:43
Speaker
That's amazing. That's from Hypnospace game. If you want to learn about hot butter ice cream, which I mean, the more you think about it, the more up saying it becomes. ah yeah ladies name Yeah. Like we're, we're, we're wrapping up. We're, we're towards the end, but I didn't even talk about how great, uh, there's this whole thing. And again, you'll see this Jess, this about like the evolution of music and how people react relate to it. But.
01:06:10
Speaker
This, it would just sound like rambling if you're unfamiliar with the game. I mean, this is one of those games I don't even know how you create. Like, I don't know, like all the parts that come together in this, from, you know, the aesthetic, from the writing, from the music, getting a group of people all on the same page point in the same direction to create such a cohesive game as this.
01:06:35
Speaker
Man, it's good stuff. Again, just a 100% endorsement coming from the boys at Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. Yeah. All right. Well.
Final Thoughts on Hypnospace Outlaw
01:06:47
Speaker
Uh, that was, uh, this week's quest quest where we talked about Hypno space Outlaw. I give it five stars. Uh, the podcast, not the game. I give it four out of five because I, you know, it is one of my favorite games of the 21st century, but everything has a little room for improvement.
01:07:06
Speaker
Uh, now I give it two stars because the game was great, but the Amazon box that arrived in was damaged. So I'm taking off three stars for poor shipping on that. I love that. I love that when you see that.
01:07:21
Speaker
That's like what but I love that when you see that on Amazon. Yeah, I got this and they and it was stolen in my stoop. Yeah. One star stars. Yeah. Or, or even better, like arrive fast. Five stars. Like that's super useful to me too. I'm trying to decide if this, if this is the right, you know, Bluetooth adapter for me, it's like, yeah, it's good to know this one ships fast.
01:07:44
Speaker
it's Yeah, I was getting ah getting a several emails. ah Did you like ah the replacement razor blades that you received? ah Give us a review. There are replacement razor blades. i but Three stars. theyve had replace them myself They didn't bring the dad back.
01:08:10
Speaker
but Where are you daddy? All right. Well, this has been quest quest, the adventure game podcast. You can join us next week. Oh wait. No, we're not at that joke yet. Send us an email at a quest quest podcast at gmail that.com. Please ah send us a five star review on whatever you're listening to this on. It helps people find this podcast and it makes me feel personally better. Both of our self-esteem are just stuck to that number and the number of reviews that we received, but only good ones. And, uh, join us next week when we talk about operation, the board game, colon, the adventure game.