Transcript
Speaker: Jess, someone has stolen Grandma Groupers' chest with all of her kelp seeds. And if we don't get them back, everyone is going to die. Those are the stakes. Yeah, no, i mean, it literally says that
Speaker: Grandma Grouper will starve to death. And that's not a quick death. That's what they never mentioned. i mean, that is like a slow, sad way for someone to die. But, you know, then pretty soon they're just floating upside down. You think this is, ah like, do you think that this has a timer in it? Like Secret of Monkey Island? Like that you just never...
Speaker: that you never hit like in secret, like I can hold my breath. Yeah. You can die in secret of monkey Island. If you wait long enough, does everybody in Freddie fish land starve to death? No, because I mean, it's still a kid's game, so they don't want to make it too dark. But if you do notice, like every time you return to a scene and see an NPC again, they've shaved a few pixels off so that they're slowly becoming thinner.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. So that like that woman who's trying to get her, her little guppy son. Yes. Yes. Too big to get into the cave. Yeah. But if you wait long enough, she can fit in there and it actually unlocks a new sequence of puzzles.
Speaker: Folks. It's quest quest. The adventure game podcast. That's right. Uh, how you doing today, Jess? Ben, I am i'm fantastic. How are you?
Speaker: I'm pretty good. i have i have something I have to talk about. This is really important. Uh-oh. This is really important. Uh-oh. So I believe one year about it one year ago, maybe one year exactly, i talked about seeing a ah concert.
Speaker: ah from I talked about seeing the band Witch, We Intend to Cause Havoc. It's a Zambian ah band. that that ah apparently has done at least ah two American tours in the you know within the last year.
Speaker: um And it's a wonderful, wonderful band. I do recommend anyone listen to them. But last year, i so the front man of this band...
Speaker: ah He's a 73 years old, an old man. He's full of energy. He's actually incredible. He's like dancing. He's got an incredible voice.
Speaker: He's like running around the stage. He's telling stories. He's doing shtick. Shtick. yeah Oh, he's doing, he is so charismatic. He's like this guy that can just like run a room.
Speaker: It is, he is, he is such an entertaining, like he's such a great entertainer. He tells like these, these stories and like these corny dad jokes in like a thick accent.
Speaker: He had a big old man smile. He's just the the greatest. And then he sings these lovely songs. um Anyway. So when I saw him last year,
Speaker: I noticed one thing that I found very charming, which was that he was ah snacking the entire concert. Gotta keep that blood sugar up. Yeah, especially if you're pretty old. You can pop out a little baby bell.
Speaker: And so he had, like, I remember, and I believe I cataloged this on the podcast last year when I talked about seeing him. I remember he had a clementine, which he popped open when it was slowly working through, and I think he had slices of an apple, and he had grapes that he would split in half and then pop one half into his mouth.
Speaker: Ben, can i ask you a question? i don't want backtrack, but...
Speaker: How like what size crowd, how big would a crowd need to get before you would lose your confidence in your ability to peel Clementine in front of them? Like, I feel like once I get past about 50 people, I'm going to be afraid that I struggle with the Clementine in front of too large of a crowd. Less than that, it's just like sometimes everyone has trouble with the Clementine.
Speaker: They're easy to peel, but occasionally you get a difficult one. Like how, like, is there a crowd, a size at which you'd be afraid to risk a Clementine? No, I don't think so.
Speaker: Well, I guess it's just me. like No, I don't think I'm very self-conscious about my Clementine, uh, healing abilities. um although it would be pretty that would be a good comedy bit like someone who just can't pill a clementine on stage oh it's too smooth can't find i can't find a spot to put my nail in yeah it's like oh now my hands are all sticky oh i just could yeah yeah you can eat the rind on those things you can i mean it's not great anyway anyway just
Speaker: So this time he was he comes out. He's snacking again. Got some snacks. He has some grapes again. Enjoying the grapes. He's splitting the grapes again.
Speaker: Crazy. But he did this crazy thing. He and I shared a photo on the discord of him standing ah with a banana, like on stage, like holding a banana on stage.
Speaker: He ate this banana. Yeah. in a way that I've never seen anyone eat a banana before. And I'm just kind of like, is this like a regionalism or is this just a weird way that he eats a banana? Okay. Let me take this. Is this, is is this just my Western, like, you know, is this my American idea of how to eat a banana? Like, or is this your limited worldview? Like, yeah, let me ask if it's, I haven't seen any photos and we haven't talked about this previously.
Speaker: Sure. Let me guess. I'm trying to think of weird ways to even ask. Clearly not peel at all. I know that's that's too weird. That's too far out. um I'm going to guess fully peeled using the peel almost like a tamale wrapper and then eating the banana out from inside. That's a good, that that's a good weird, because I think like the joke answer, this is what the joke answer to this would be like just biting into it and not caring about the peel or obviously for sex yeah like super sexy. I mean, I was turned on.
Speaker: Well, I mean, yeah, but you were when you got there. Yeah. Now, so this is how he ate it. And I'll be thinking about this. And i am I am going to say, I'm going to try this at home.
Speaker: And I'm definitely at some point in the future going to find a way to do this on a stage. Because I just feel like this was just so wild to me that, like, I want to share that that moment with an audience of, like, that That mystery.
Speaker: So this is how he ate the banana. He's hold, the, the photo I shared on, on the discord. He's just holding the, the banana, as I say, let's say regular style, just holding it up.
Speaker: Yeah. Just like you'd hold a banana. Yeah. Nothing weird there. Then he splits it in half. He, he snaps the banana in half. Uh, then he, he pops half of it into his pocket And then he has the other banana or the ah the the half, not the other banana, the half that he was holding.
Speaker: And he slowly squeezes the banana out like it's a push pop. Push pop style. That's exactly what i was going say. Okay, now that is wild. Like I thought that could be where it was heading when you were like pulling into the station there.
Speaker: And that is a wild way to eat banana. But do think there's precedent. I believe i have seen shaggy from scooby-doo do this move only for him it like oh yeah he just that's a whole banana okay that's shit it's a whole banana because half a banana doesn't have the peak on it for the aerodynamics to like fly through the air like now it's a blunt tip so you're not going to get as much yeah so it's like is it a little bit of time that he's pushing it up and like taking a bite or does he push pop the whole thing up and then like no no you have a little bit ah at a time oh that's worse
Speaker: No, you know what? I think it may be it like if if you're spending time because he's not eating the whole banana at once. He's got like he's got to sing. He's got to dance.
Speaker: He only has little moments. Like the more I think about this, the more it makes sense to me because he he's he's keeping most of the bananas sheathed, but it's ready for a banana bite.
Speaker: So, like, and it's not going to go brown. It's not going to bruise. Right. You can keep half, and the half in his pocket is fine to be in the pocket provided you eat it soon yeah soonish and even then like only the exposed bit will probably brown right away yeah and so but yeah i'm wondering like is this a type of like is this a regionalism is this something that he does just as a performer or like yeah just a stage convenience maybe you know especially if you need like a hand to be able to like adjust the microphone you know or or something like that you're just having your banana push pop style now i'm thinking about and i think i eat bananas in a weird way uh-huh
Speaker: I don't think I'd ever reflected on this before, but now I think I do this abnormally. You stick ah a banana, you hold a banana over your head and then you you ah drop it entirely into your mouth and then you pull the peel out and the entire banana's out. and they With the banana bones. Yeah, the banana bones are just hanging out. yeah is that Is that how you eat a banana? No, no, no, no. Here's what here's how I do it.
Speaker: And now I reflect on this. This is, ah I don't think this is a normal way to eat a banana. So I peel it and I peel it way down, like peel it down to so much. Like I can barely pinch the, the peel at the bottom. Okay.
Speaker: And then i push pop the entire banana out into my other hand, dispose of the pill and just eat the banana with no pill attached, like touching the banana of the banana. Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, because, no, I don't want to, I don't want my filthy hand. That's weird. like I never thought about that. I don't want filthy hand on a, on the unadorned banana. Yeah, no. Banana flesh. Why do I, I think I'm so afraid.
Speaker: of like getting strings like banana strings. I don't care for those strings. That's true. yeah but But like once the peel is gone completely, i don't run that risk of, Oh no, there was a little bit string attached to the pill and now it's in my mouth.
Speaker: So yeah, i just, I don't think I eat bananas normally either. So I feel a certain camaraderie with the lead singer of which the difference between you and Jagari is, well, just tell me the one difference between me and uh is is that like you're you're you eat bananas in completely the opposite way i gotta get that thing out of the uh out of the peel as quickly as possible must be gone he's keeping the bananas safely in the peel as long as it can be in there yeah i want that peel out of the picture um
Speaker: I also like to put the pill on the floor see if anybody will step on it. Like, that's always fun. Well, you know, you know that like the joke of slipping on a ah banana peel is because the like that, that joke came to prominence.
Speaker: Sorry to be a Grayson here. You're all Grayson about this sort of stuff. this Like, I don't, I don't know. Like I could ask Grayson. I don't think this is on his list because I think this is just one that's pretty well documented, which is that the bananas of like the era where,
Speaker: there was ah a joke of you'll slip on a banana peel or a different speak like type of banana. Like a pre-caven dish. Yeah, because they there there were the Grose Michelle, and which are extinct.
Speaker: Yeah, good. And those were bigger... Like they were, they were bigger and sweeter and had like, I think like thicker and larger peels and people did, they were the most popular fruit. So people would just like throw the, the, the peels on the sidewalk. It was a genuine hazard. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I'm glad we got rid of those bananas because they were too dangerous and they had fillings. Like people didn't talk about that, but the previous breeds every time you get into them. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, there's, oh, I mean, it wasn't like obnoxious, but like you get like a groan. ah oh like you're telling me about into one. No, it's only the first bite also.
Speaker: yeah If you can power through that, like in a suasion guilt, you'll be fine. Uh, well, speaking of guilt, a suasion, Jess, what have you been playing?
Speaker: Oh, Ben, um, what are your feelings on reality?
Speaker: You know, I think it's all right. What if I told you there's a different reality you could escape to? Like a synthetic one?
Speaker: Kinda, but I would describe it more as a virtual reality. Whoa. Yeah. That's crazy. Or if I started referring to it, super reality.
Speaker: Oh, good. Yeah. I mean, see, now you remember how bad reality is, right? And you want to escape even more to virtual reality. Now, friend of the pod, guest on our best app last episode. If you haven't listened to last episode, let me tell you. I haven't listened to it.
Speaker: It's fantastic. Oh, man, you should listen to it. You're pretty good at it. Yeah. um You're like about seven, I would say. um But as an episode as a whole, it's a 10 out of 10.
Speaker: All right. But our friend Grayson, who was our guest last episode, was kind enough to recently gift me his old Quest 2 VR headset.
Speaker: And I have been escaping to the world of virtual reality quite a bit and enjoying it. you know, I was never ah VR guy. I wasn't even terribly curious about VR at this point. The limited experience I'd had with it hadn't made me a believer.
Speaker: And now that I've had this headset for for a couple of weeks, I have been having a real blast with it. I'm i'm now getting it.
Speaker: You know, this is funny because I actually had this conversation with Grayson where i was like, do you think that Jess is going to like it? Or do you think Jess is going to like put it on, get like immediately like motion sick and go like, well, now I know.
Speaker: And we were both like, it's probably that. Oh, wow. No faith in me. I feel, now I feel, well, it's not, it's not even a like A lot of people had that experience. I don't even know like if that's a like that's one of the reasons that it's a super niche thing.
Speaker: Is that like a lot of people like put it on and were like, This makes me feel sick. Why would I this? And I guess I do have a little bit of like a tendency when it comes to games also just to not be into new things. Like I don't i don't push the boundaries of my taste that much. So I could get why that would be the assumption. But I've really dug it. You know, so far I've been like I've messed around with ton of tech demos with varying degrees of success. I mean, as you know, like the quality of implementation of VR is just wildly all over the place from one title to the next. But, you know, some of the games I've settled on so far, at your guys' recommendation, Walkabout Minigolf. So good.
Speaker: Download. I've only played single player so far, but... Yeah, we'll set a tee time. Yeah, definitely. It is... so good it is i mean it is just what it sounds like it's just a vr mini golf game with some very real worldy courses and then some very fantastical courses mixed in the the meow wolf one we're in a steam sale right now i mean are you buying this on the the the in the meta store or i'm doing the steam store i'm doing most of my stuff in the steam store yeah
Speaker: But it's it's fantastic. I mean, it's one of those games that just gets it right. with When you swing your putter, the ball pops off of it like you would think it should. And yeah, like tapping a little harder produces exactly the ah right amount of additional ball velocity that you hope it will.
Speaker: Walkabout mini golf is just a ah perfect little simple game. And there's something to be said for that. Beautiful game also. And then as part of the Steam sale this week, I picked up Half-Life Alyx for like 15 bucks. And Ben, have you played? You know what? I haven't, similar to Grayson, I haven't and haven't played it.
Speaker: Partially because I know that like, see, that's where one that's one where I'm like, I know it'll be great. I also know it'll scare me. Yeah, I mean... It's wonderful. has a scary level. Have you made it to the scary level? No, I'm just barely starting out. there's There's... oh And it's really good. Yeah. I don't want to give anything away about it. I'm just going to say it has a spooky level and it's actually like...
Speaker: ah Because i a friend was playing it and I was like watching him play it. And that like I think we walked out of it, walked away from it being like, wow, like that that's obviously the best level of it.
Speaker: But it's scary. I had like I had my favorite VR moment so far playing Half-Life Alyx, which is. probably about 15 or 20 minutes into the game at one point, ah some of the combine storm troopers like busted through a door, had me cornered and had their guns trained on me.
Speaker: And one of them shouted, put your hands up. And I kind of sat there and thought to myself, it's like, oh man, I'm getting ready to get arrested or something. I said, put your hands up. At that point, raising both of my hands and seeing Alex's hands floating out in front of me and the game then responding. It wanted me to literally put my hands up. It was just like,
Speaker: This is pretty cool. This is immersive in a really, ah really pretty charming way. So I've been having fun with it. I've been, I've also been doing, gosh, I think it's like epic roller coaster sim. can't remember what is, but it's basically, yeah, yeah a sit down,
Speaker: roller coaster simulator that does a nice job capturing a sense of speed it's the only thing that's made me motion sick so far but i think that's just a testament to its realism because oftentimes roller coasters also make me motion sick so i feel i'm digging it it's good stuff i've got a couple that i will all i recommend Now to you and and to anyone listening, if you're getting a Steam frame or you decide to get into VR, ah any of the any of the Jeff Minter games. So that would be,
Speaker: um oh Polybius... ah that's that's That one has the the coolest stuff ah stuff in it. I think iRobot might have a VR mode. um but Anyway, Polybius is really cool. Some of his other VR games are really good. um Along the same lines of Walkabout Minigolf being like, this is just a good implementation of a game that like you know it just feels good, is ah Premium Bowling.
Speaker: Oh, makes sense. It's just a nice, solid... Like, you know, and it has fun little, like, bowling alleys, but it's, you know, it's just bowling. Tetris Effect, you know, is just ah Tetris with crazy VR shit flying around you and great music. ah One of my games of the year, I think, like, a year or two ago on here was...
Speaker: um this game I remember telling you about it it it's this mech fighting game called underdogs yes that game is a lot of fun I'll exhaust you ah but yeah all all sorts of stuff like it I love vr I think it's really cool.
Speaker: But it it is a ah supremely niche thing. And then, of course, VR chat is fun with friends. yeah I don't know about it. with with other people. I've been trying to, ah trying to get Star Wars squadrons.
Speaker: i I never played that. I was always curious about that. Yeah. It has native VR support, but so far, I think this is just a product of me not entirely understanding like the flow between the meta software and steam vr link and like what the best way to interface with this game would be yeah uh because it's not working well directly but from understand the appeal of that one is you get to sit in a cockpit and manually manipulate controls as part of a star wars flight sim which sounds to me like kind of a
Speaker: you know, ideal implementation of VR if it works well. So that's what I'm still trying to figure out how to get my controls really working like I want to. But I mean, honestly, if I just got to sit in the cockpit of a, you know, of a X-Wing, even if my controls weren't working, that would feel pretty cool. So yeah, yeah there you What have you been playing, Ben?
Speaker: Well, just, you know, I've been playing a little bit. This is a game that, You know, we've talked about games like this and what way have you been playing a couple times where it's like a game that might be sitting in your library that like you you play a couple times and you're like, I know I'm going to like this, but i haven't figured it out yet.
Speaker: Right? Like, you have games like that, like, that just kind of accumulate in your Steam library or whatever. Or, like, you buy it and you play it a little bit and you're like, I think one day I'll like this, but whatever it is, it's just not doing it.
Speaker: And so there's this one game that it hasn't happened yet, but I keep going back to it I'll play for, like, 20, 30 minutes, like, every couple months to see if i crack it.
Speaker: gotcha and i know that like i could probably watch like a youtube video that's like how to you know how to how to play this game and it would like explain everything to me but i'm very like i'm very stubborn on like figuring it out for myself right gotcha it's this game called barony have you ever ever seen this super familiar um And it's like kind of a, like a, a proc kind of Ultima underworld type. Like, you know, has like big chunky, go like pixel world by way of, uh, Minecraft.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, Ultima underworld was big, chunky pixels. Yeah. Like it's Ultima underworld. Minecraft invented chunky pixels. But yeah, like, you know, it's just kind of a, like, you know, ah a like roguelike. It just generates a Ultima Underworld type dungeon.
Speaker: And similar toll to Ultima Underworld, I've never been able to wrap my my arms around it. But I keep trying because I love that aesthetic and I do love...
Speaker: I do love a dungeon crawler of that era. It's just that like, and I understand like the point of it is that it's difficult. Yeah. Right. Like the the point of this is that it's hard.
Speaker: It's, it's just that like, I haven't made it past the second, maybe the third floor, you know? You know, it's funny you say that because Ultima Underworld is a game that I've tried to play several times because I really want to like it.
Speaker: And I just haven't made that connect for me yet. Like I know why it's important and I know why i should appreciate it. And it just doesn't take any of, would say maybe the same of just ultimate in general. And now that thinking about it, yeah I've never quite like, I mean, I played ultimate game. I didn't play most of the ultimate games when they were of their time. And If you don't have that nostalgia, I think it's hard to revisit. But yeah, I've gone back several times to Ultima Underworld and just kind of bounced off of it. Someday I need to give it another look.
Speaker: Hey, I think the thing with Underworld... is that I think that's that's a hard one to go back to because like the it it is such an innovative and beautiful game at the time.
Speaker: And like I don't dislike how it looks now. It's more like that the controls really suck. Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah, I mean, roles yeah, that's my underworld or like, and that's, that's a problem with a lot of like kind of early 2.5 D or 3 D. Yeah. ah Games like, you know, gosh, I went back recently and tried to play the original system shock with like its default controls.
Speaker: And I mean, yeah, it, it took a while to, to nail some of that stuff. It took until Duke Nukem Before we finally figured out how to do, how the mess look.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that was it. yeah Yeah. And, and so i just have a strong feeling that one day I'll play Barony we'll all just,
Speaker: Like, just unlock. It will all open up right in front of me. I'll see all of it, you know? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I'll see the Matrix. And, ah but, like, that hasn't happened yet.
Speaker: And what will probably happen in the meantime is ah that I'll probably just end up watching, like, some YouTube or something something. Like looking at like, you know, e Steam Guide FAQ where it's like, you know, here's the build and here's what you should do.
Speaker: Or even turn on one of the assists. Which I haven't done. But that that day hasn't come. Have you got anything in the Steam sale?
Speaker: I picked up Half-Life Alyx. Oh, that's right. You said that. And... think that's it so far. I don't like, I'm really bad at keeping a steam wishlist. Like I have like two items on my wishlist and like looking at them now, I don't think I even want them really.
Speaker: I'm just like, I'll remember everything I want to buy when it goes on sale. And then I don't yeah just forget it immediately. um i should, I mean, should buy some stuff. I'm like on steam's front page right now. What did they, based on what I currently play, what did they think would be perfect for me? Tom Clancy's the division too. That's perfect. Right up my alley.
Speaker: uh what else the original sims that's closer oh forbidden solitaire they do know me well i can't get enough oh then for in solitaire i'm probably getting that does okay is that a good game uh people seem to like it here we go mouse pi for hire i've thought that looked kind of charming it's like the first person shooter with the with the one we'll call cupsy uh or cuphead aesthetic cupsy cupsy you have cupsy cupheads sidekick um cupsy uh cuphead aesthetic so that like 1930s cartoon kind of thing
Speaker: hand-drawn I do have a full wish list which of course also contains many of our friends and and Ben please give out a short URL version of that so our listeners can buy you games I'm good why ah I thought we were going fish for people to to buy our steam no no oh well you can just Venmo us Ben's Venmo is Jess ah dr jess So.
Speaker: All right. Well, ah but yeah, that's ah what I've been playing maybe one day. The reason I haven't bought anything is honestly like I just have shit I got from the last Steam sale that i haven't even. Yeah. Like I've barely played. I've been on I need to finish fucking Nighthawks. Like there's just all sorts of shit I should be doing.
Speaker: I haven't bought much in Steam sales in recent years. Like I've been just not. bru Like I've been trying not to add unnecessarily to my backlog. And then.
Speaker: this year gave me an excuse with VR, but then it's like a lot of the VR games I'm kind of curious about aren't really on the steam cell. So that didn't, uh, didn't help me very much. Uh,
Speaker: Yeah, no, I need to get in there. Like, I guess another, I can tell one more i've been playing. Picked up a Walking Dead game for VR that. Oh, Saints and Sinners. Yes. That's supposed to be, that's supposed to be quite good.
Speaker: It's neat, but it is certain that I have Vive VR set and will just absolutely play. adjust the controls to a quest and nothing I do can convince it otherwise. That's one of the most irritating like fucking VR tip.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, I do already have a little bit of that frustration. Like, yeah, a lot of VR doesn't feel like it works out of the box the way there's a lot of Yeah, the the hardware seems quite good. And then the software is just all over the place.
Speaker: Yeah. All right. Well, let's ah let's go back. Let's start talking about Grandma Grouper once again. man.
Speaker: Grandma Grouper. So today we're talking about Freddy Fish, the first Freddy Fish game. What is it? Like Freddy Fish in the case of the missing kelp seeds, I believe. Yes, whole yes.
Speaker: um Which is a ah game ah created by Humongous Entertainment. um It is from 1994. Right.
Speaker: It's a scum game. Did you know that? Yes. I love this about... the humongous games is that this, you know, this off, uh, this,
Speaker: This company that was co-founded by ah by Ron Gilbert of LucasArts fame. Yeah, used scum, I believe, for... licensed it. or Yeah, licensed it from LucasArts. I believe even the backyard sports games, at least the early ones, are built in scum, aren't they? I don't know. I believe that may be the case. um Correct me if I'm wrong, listeners. QuestQuest.
Speaker: podcast at gmail.com wow i couldn't remember our email address that's happened to me many times which is weird because i sent you passive aggressive messages on it all the time yeah but um so this is this is a uh a kid's adventure game it's classified as edutainment but i don't know other than a math focused mini game, I don't really know if there's much edutaining.
Speaker: This is something i want talk about. like, I think this is a curious part of it. So yeah, let's put a pin in that for a second, but it's, um This is ah a kids adventure game done by Humongous Entertainment, which was co-founded by Ron Gilbert in 92 after he left.
Speaker: Co-founded by Ron Gilbert and Shelley Bay. Yeah, who also was, I believe she was also... um LucasArts veteran, I believe. Yeah, Lucas veteran.
Speaker: ah They started with putt-putt games. Like, there's a bunch of putt-putt games ah before this. Yeah, joins the parade and goes to the moon, I think, at least have both been released already.
Speaker: Then, and and I haven't played any of the putt-putt games, but my understanding is that the putt-putt games are for, like, the youngest players. Yes, I got some sort of bundle packaged with a CD-ROM drive at some point around the early 90s that included Putt Putt Joins the Parade, which was the only way i knew about those games at all. I had no idea that humongous had any connection to LucasArts or anything like that but yeah I remember loading it up and like yeah this is a game for tiny babies and that immediately moved on to whatever else was in the bundle yeah like
Speaker: Putt Putt, I think is the like it is, i think in age order, Putt Putt is for the youngest. Freddie Fish is next. Pajama Sam and then Spy Fox. yeah Yeah, we aren't doing baby stuff on this podcast. We're doing stuff for like ages six to 12. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: I'd say like even like six to eight, maybe. yeah maybe so. i mean, let me ask you a question, Ben. That purple fish during the intro of this game, is that supposed to look like a fish version of putt-putt?
Speaker: I don't know. think there's a fish putt-putt. You think there's a... Like if a car could become a fish. Yeah.
Speaker: If a car could become a fish, Ben, would you eat it? Yeah. Yeah. ah Very good, Jess. I love it. But yeah, i so Ron Gilbert ah and Shelly Day. Shelly Long. her Shelly Day found Humongous Entertainment.
Speaker: They make ah you know a couple putt-putt games, and then they they get to Freddy Fish. I have Fatty Bear in there too. Yeah, Fatty Bear, who who didn't really take off.
Speaker: No, no, it's the name. Like, I've played Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise. um And that, it just, you know, he just kind of...
Speaker: He just, he he lacks a certain, like Putt-Putt makes sense as a ah lasting franchise. Like they released the last Putt-Putt game in 2003.
Speaker: Right? um Like Putt-Putt makes sense because he's a car. Yeah. Or they're a car. I don't know what the the gender of Putt-Putt.
Speaker: um But, i i and then Freddy Fish, I could see going long as well. And I think we'll talk about the the qualities of Freddy Fish as we go on.
Speaker: Pajama Sam... I also make sense that it goes on because Pajama Sam, especially as they go on like it's a much more like you could tell they've got a ton of games under their belt at that point. Like Pajama Sam comes along in 96 and Pajama Sam he's great and it's the only one that like then gets a spinoff series after pajama sam grows up and it becomes the serious sam series of first person shooters those are uh you can play that in vr two you know um but wow
Speaker: the serious sams and there's those screaming guys like the headless running at you and it's in vr like you do like kind of seize up and like oh ah ah hey hey don't run at me please uh yeah no i had dollar for the time i said that but uh okay So, uh, Freddie fish, this first Freddie fish game, as we said, the plot is that somebody stole grandma groupers, uh, chest with her kelp seeds. You wanted to put a pin in like, or like you, you wanted to un, un, unpin. I put the pin in. We're pulling the pin now.
Speaker: Is this edutainment? Are you not edutained? So, I mean, I think that the straightforward edutain is just there's a math minigame that is just simply arithmetic question. Yes, yes.
Speaker: And completely unnecessary. You meet a professor professorial fish. The starfish, if remember correctly. Yeah. um And he's just like, would you like to do some math problems, Freddie? And Freddie, she's like, sure.
Speaker: um And he's like, how dumb are you at math? And you you tell the... It goes up to advanced. And I was like, I selected advanced. and I was like, is this going to have like division or something?
Speaker: And now it's just... like bigger numbers. Yeah. being added by a this say Like this did not even pose a challenge for me. Like my first question was like 72 minus one. And it's like, I've got that all day. I barely had to think about it. ah I did that.
Speaker: And maybe I didn't even stay in long enough. Maybe there is like, I did it for a while thinking like, maybe there's like a little, like some, something happens if you answer like 10 of these and nothing happened.
Speaker: Yeah. Now, I mean, this part feels tacked on in a way that if anything, i don't think it adds anything. The rest of the game doesn't have enough educational content to make this an edutainment game in my eyes.
Speaker: So it raises the question, like, why include it at all? If this is going to be your one nod toward educational content, unless there was some sort of funding related issue on the box let's take a look at the box yeah um and then maybe it's just because you need that to sell copies you know that yeah like so mom and dad yeah look at it and it goes teaches math skills right it has to be something like that like it does not feel organic in any way and i mean i guess
Speaker: I think about these sorts of kids titles at the time, and they seem to vary between games that are meant to trick kids into doing their homework and then games where it's just math blasters. Yeah. And then games where it's like kids are dumb.
Speaker: They'll enjoy just seeing animations if they click on things. And this game, Freddy Fish, has a little bit of both of those. Freddy Fish, it says, I'm looking in the box, number one, it says for kids three to eight.
Speaker: but Okay. That's a pretty, pretty wide. um all right. So here's a here's a couple. um here are the the features on the back of the box.
Speaker: 400 click events or whatever, right? um Like the real world, Freddy Fish's world changes every time you play. which I've like the last, I played this one time on my stream and I have no recollection of any different, like I I'm just going to assume it's that the, um, the, the purple urchins that you collect might be in different places. I believe the bottles may spawn in different places, but lead you to the same clues in the same order. Okay.
Speaker: ah You can find the bottles in a few different places. Um, But I think there are only, I read somewhere, I think there are only 12 variations of the game and it is subtle. It doesn't ever lead to new puzzles or new solutions or... The the game is, it's not necessarily that it's teaching...
Speaker: like math or like book skills it's or like you know or school subjects it's it's that it like as the the back of the box says it's it's teaching the value of teamwork the the end of the game spoilers everyone is is about the value of sharing you know and you know it doesn't say this on the box but also it teaches you a little bit about swimming
Speaker: You're acting like you're trying to to sign off for the end of the podcast. A a cute little gag. That's all I've got. I've only got to deliver those. Yeah. them e No, no. I mean, i agree. I think that.
Speaker: like the explicitly educational content of a dumb math game in this case is probably secondary to honestly, not only the good morals of at the end, is it cooperation preferable to self-interest, but also I would argue that the logical problem solving of finding obstacle, identifying what item you need to address that obstacle, locating that item and bringing it back to use to solve that problem.
Speaker: Just the basic structure of an adventure game is closer to educational content than just some lazy arithmetic problems. Yeah, I like, yeah, I think because I remember like the Sierra games also would advertise as like problem solving as as one of the the things it's teaching kids.
Speaker: um Did you like this, Jess? Did he have a good time when you were playing this? You know, did. It was really charming. I think what immediately hooked me, what I enjoyed right from the start was it's really a gorgeous game in terms of really beautiful game yeah in terms of animation quality i was really surprised having never seen this one before it's been ages since i messed around putt-putt and things like that it is really beautifully animated in a way that
Speaker: You know, I think that games from this era that were striving for that cartoon look, I think it's more successful with that than a lot of what was out on the market at the time. And the animations are incredibly smooth considering this is a 1994 game. So right away, that drew me to it.
Speaker: And then, you know, I think beyond that,
Speaker: I want to talk about the gameplay a little bit in a moment, but right away, Freddie as a protagonist, I found her to be really charming right from the jump.
Speaker: Now it's it helps that Luther is just such a tool that by comparison, you know, Freddie is, uh, is pretty charming, but she is, uh, that's a fun little writing trick. They pull that her best friend is this, uh, a drip person.
Speaker: A real drip. Real drip. But no, Freddy's super charming. Can I put a pin in in your thought? I know there's lots of pins going on. I feel like a voodoo doll over here. Yeah, this is a real game. Yeah.
Speaker: Last night, I i was watching... I don't even remember what, uh, with my boyfriend. And I said, Oh, that guy's such a drip. And my boyfriend turns to me and goes, what's a drip?
Speaker: Not much. Yeah. And, and I go, you know, Like, he's a drip. Like, don't know what to say. Are you familiar with Fables and Fiends, The Legend of Kyrandia, book one? Because... he Brandon. No, that's a drip. Yeah, if you if you want to talk about a drip, like, the canonical adventure game Drip is 1,000% Brandon.
Speaker: Yeah, it's just like, how do you define drip? It's just like, i don't know, it's a guy that just kind of sucks. Yeah, it's it's like the mildest rebuke. Uh, he's just kind of drip. Like we tolerate him.
Speaker: Like he didn't do anything bad. it's just, that he kind of sucks. I wouldn't not invite him to my party. He didn't, he's, he's not even, he's not even soft canceled. He's not even like, you know, he's not like, it's just that he just kind of sucks. It's like, how does this guy suck?
Speaker: He's just got away. He's still on the group text, but he's going to be the one that sits on everybody's side. dm most stuff Yeah, that's right. I was like, did you get a look at that guy? Did you get look at Luther in the latest chat?
Speaker: What a drip. Oh, yeah. And it you know, it is, how would you define, or did you just do like, how do you define drip? Right. I mean, let's say my, my boyfriend turned to you and said, Jess, what's a drip?
Speaker: And after you say, much, what's a drip with you. And then after that, then he laughs for five minutes laugh and laugh yeah we're both laughing we're both laughing we're getting along great um first of all you know what i bet you two would get along but no i i think that i mean a trip i i think i like just a mildly annoying person yeah
Speaker: But I mean, there is a sort of like hapless element to it, right? Hmm. Is there like a haplessness? Yeah, there's certainly ah a like there certainly isn't enough hap, you know, you can do with a little more hap for sure.
Speaker: But yeah, no, I mean, yeah. yeah Luther's a little bit of a drip, which makes Freddy that much more charming. And, you know, also, apparently the decision to make Freddy a girlfish was very intentional from what I've read about this game, yeah that initially Freddy...
Speaker: was a boy fish. And the co-designer project manager, Tammy Borowick, suggested changing what was originally Fred Fish to Freddie and making this a girl, at which point I believe the art team brought back like, well, now we've turned into a girl fish. And of course, she has like a bow on her head and you know makeup and and cute eyelashes and all the hey they miss pacman her a miss pacman real sexy just like you asked for a boss um yeah oh my god miss pat like don't get me started o oh man those legs
Speaker: For a character that canonically does not have them on that on that cabinet art? I mean, come on. yeah um But yeah, I think they gave her that version back. And apparently she's like, no. you know we And I think it rewritten the character to be more girly, whatever that means in this context.
Speaker: and Apparently there's a real pushback. And from understand, the team really wanted to challenge this idea that boys wouldn't be interested in playing a video game that starred a girl.
Speaker: Sorry ah for the sound clip there. My my cat is rolling around ah in front of you. What sound clip did your cat attempt to play? Not too much. It did play.
Speaker: Okay, I just off. I didn't know that there was a shortcut. Hold on. what How did he do that? What key? What button did he press on my keyboard? That's the power of cats.
Speaker: It's this guy. This fucking He anyway. Uh, yeah. Um, yeah, they, the Freddie fish, it makes me kind of think a little bit about like when you were talking about that, like with, um,
Speaker: Like in Finding Nemo, where one of the design ideas like in Finding Nemo was that they weren't going to cartoon up the animals too much. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Like they tried to keep... most of the like fish looking as the fish that they are like, yeah. Nemo doesn't have like a baseball cap on and like, you know like Dory doesn't have like lipstick, right? Like, you know, they don't, they, a lot more fan art. She does.
Speaker: Yeah. Um, And so, ah yeah, like, you know, that, like they, that, that made me think of that in Freddie fish, some of fish are wearing dresses. Yeah. And some of the fishes are in heavily gendered clothing or costumes and and stuff like that. Which makes you wonder if there was some meeting. It's like, if we have like a mom coded fish,
Speaker: andly And she's naked. Yeah. Is this going to be a problem? Can we have a naked lady fish? it's like, probably. i mean, you know, it's like, I've seen, I assume half the fish I see are lady fish and all of them are naked. Do you think, um, that, that large woman fish that was stuck in the cave kind of awoke something and some kids playing this i thought this is i was playing i could see like you know um i could imagine how she might and i had that brief moment where i was just like oh man is this is this someone's rescue rangers is this someone's space jam right now yeah no i had that same thought so yeah absolutely it's just someone's robin hood
Speaker: But yeah, I really enjoyed playing this too. Both times I've played this and the the other humongous games I've played, there's there's a quality to the like to to this game and the the other, like other than that Fetty Bear game, which just kind of sucked. um You know, they just kind blew it. Is that it it does feel...
Speaker: like you said earlier, it looks great. It also sounds great. Yes. Music by George Sanger, who ah went by The Fat Man, did the meet like the music for Loom, Sin City 2000, Maniac Mansion, NES music. Oh, I love that soundtrack. That's my canonical Maniac Mansion.
Speaker: um You know, my my Maniac Mansion canonical song
Speaker: The Edison Family Tree You know it's just so great to start a madcap comedy, like family comedy for children with a song that sounds like a funeral dirge.
Speaker: Anyway, um look that up. Talk about that sometime. If you are unfamiliar, I think we might've talked about this, but if you are unfamiliar, type in maniac mansion TV theme into YouTube, uh, to watch something strange. Uh,
Speaker: But the the music is really good. It also, you could tell Ron was having fun ah because there there is, ah you know, like there there is a a bit of a Caribbean sound to it. and Some Calypso vibes going on. You tell that that he was probably having a little a little fun. But yeah one one thing I was thinking about playing it was...
Speaker: It really feels like they put their whole ass into this children's entertainment. And you were kind of getting at this a little earlier. Yeah. Is that, you know, it like There's some children's entertainment that is is made, and it's it's made for for kids, but, you know, it's it's made to respect kids, too. It's made to respect their intelligence.
Speaker: It's made with with care, and it's made in a way that a parent or, so you know, an older sibling or whoever... can play it and and enjoy it and not in a way where it's like, it's got adult jokes, like a DreamWorks cartoon, but instead it's just like, it's, it's a well-crafted thing that, that you simply must respect. And,
Speaker: that's how I felt playing it was. It was just like, obviously this is a game that I beat in like, I don't know, an hour, 45 minutes. Like it did. it Like if you are like probably at the age of eight, I would have finished this in 45 minutes. yeah I don't think it's just because we're so good at adventure games. This is a pretty simple. I mean, in a lot of ways it reminds me of,
Speaker: If there's any other like kids adventure game, it reminds me a bit of it's probably mixed up mother goose. It's a little more sophisticated than that, but it's got a lot of the same. Oh, I went to a screen and encountered somebody with a problem and the item to solve that is a few screens away and just need to go get it and bring it back to them. The puzzles don't get a lot more complicated than that.
Speaker: Yeah, the the the puzzles are are genuinely or generally ah just and genuinely and generally just a character says, I need this thing. And then like you go like two or three screens away and a person's like, I have this thing.
Speaker: Yes, but that's fine for a kid's game. I think I mean, it functions as a reasonable adventure game. There's no moon logic kind of stuff that I think made in here. It is a ah good it's almost like a test for kids. Like, are you paying attention?
Speaker: Did you know, did you see that item a few screens back if you've already gone by it? Now you know what it's for kind of test. you know Freddie will restate from time to time. Yes. I have to make sure to get the, the, the kelp seeds. Like, yes.
Speaker: You know, Freddie will, or like, I remember there was one point where it's like, i already, like I came upon like a puzzle where it's like, you know, somebody says, like I need a board. Yes. Freddie says like, said something like, I think I already have what I need for this.
Speaker: Like it, it will nudge, it will nudge you. i you know something else in terms of nudges that i really like know we talk about signposting occasionally this game has some really nice literal signposting in the form of wooden signs with arrows all over the level uh all over the screens showing you where the exits from those screens are which so helpful it's so helpful especially because i think back to a game like EcoQuest, which visually shares some things in common with this game. But when your levels are undersea and there are coral reefs everywhere and giant kelp, well, I mean, not as much kelp as there should be because, you know, someone stole the kelp seeds. But they're...
Speaker: Those sorts of scenes will always lend themselves to a clear, like, obvious exits are west and south kind of setup. And having arrows on the screen, signs just stuck into the sand at the bottom the ocean saying you can go to the left here, I thought was a nice little concession for kids who may not fully understand that you can leave a screen.
Speaker: I wonder ah how much they like they they put this in front of kids. I do too. That feels like... it feels like they did. yeah feels like...
Speaker: uh you know this this feels so how do you how do you feel this compares to like we talked about CR edutainment we talked about the eco quest games how do you think this this compares this is obviously like eco quest has like actual puzzles in it right and so I would say eco quest is like this as it says it's made for a three-year-old um yeah so it's I think a lot three-year-olds could probably figure out a good bit of this game um Yeah, and that's what again I think that's why I thought of Mixed Up Mother Goose. I think that's like the Sierra edutainment game. i guess say It feels between Mixed Up Mother Goose and EcoQuest. It feels like a middle step between those two. Or maybe even, like, I might put Peppers, Adventures in Time, but, like, a little lower EcoQuest. Oh, I would say Peppers is more advanced than really? Even that's and for a bigger kids? Okay. Absolutely. Interesting.
Speaker: I think Peppers has like like some tricky puzzles in it. then the Both EcoQuest or EchoQuest or Economical Quest. Yes, it's short for economics.
Speaker: i I think both of those have, like, those are full fat Sierra adventure games for kids with some educational qualities in them.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. I mixed up Mother Goose, I think is a little and mixed up fairy tales, which I played recently. Those are more for like, I think the putt putt crowd, like those are way more simple.
Speaker: Yes. um So this feels, yeah. You know what? Like this feels like it's a little more, what I would say about this in comparison is you were also oh like alluding to this earlier, which was like in the nineties,
Speaker: There was a ton of kids multimedia CDs, which were like those interactive storybooks. Yes. Where it was like, it would be a page and you'd hear a voice. Then you'd get ah ah a, like a screen where you can click on stuff and there would be a million different little animations.
Speaker: Yeah. Guy pops out from outside. He's like, ah, ah, ah. Yeah. Just back behind it. Yeah. ah Yeah, Paul Lind is hiding behind. ah Yeah. yeah um ah It's weird. I mean, first, he would appear anywhere for a paycheck. So it makes sense. But it's amazing how many of those games he's in.
Speaker: um But i yeah, like, so so this has this has that, as do all the other humongouses I've played, I think.
Speaker: And I love those. Honestly, like, By the time that I had a computer capable of playing games or like, ah like, you know, playing kids software like that, I was too old for them, but I was still kind of like, I remember when I was in, i think second, second grade, we had in every classroom, we had like four or five, like, uh,
Speaker: think they were like ibm pc like 286s or something like really look at mr my my school district has tax revenue over here uh and they they had like um And they only had CGA graphics. And so, like, there were these edutainment, like, these terrible edutainment games in, like, very blocky, h you know, old, like, you know, 1985 IBM PC.
Speaker: Probably, like, remaindered from something else, right? And then but there was one. it was on a cart, moved from class to class. There was like a like top of the line or you know, there was a like Macintosh like power PC in like 1993 1994. Yeah.
Speaker: that I remember being wheeled in ah to like early grade school class. and ah And it had um those kind of cartridge CD things. Like, do you remember those early like CD? Yes. Like Max had like...
Speaker: you put the CD in a cartridge thing that's slotted into the computer. Yes, I do. This is a, like, deeply buried memory. Yes. And I remember...
Speaker: this was like the most exciting day of class I got to sit there was they had a Strega Nona, ah like you remember the Strega Nona children's book. No, there's probably, no, those were popular in the nineties. So you were never heard of this. Yeah. Strega Nona was like, you know, these like ah these stories about like this Italian grandmother, like these kinds of, I think like kind of folktale ah type stories.
Speaker: And they made a ah interactive storybook CD-ROM of those. And I thought it was the coolest fucking thing I'd ever seen in my life.
Speaker: I've only ever seen it that one time. I should probably track it down. I'm sure it's on archive.org somewhere. Yeah. No, you know, I'm thinking back. And the first time I remember seeing a computer at my school was in...
Speaker: ninth grade algebra, there was an Apple two in the back of the classroom that had lemonade stand on it. So you could like, you know, set your prices on your lemonade and see how you sold and things like that. We learned all about economics with lemonade stand. Now this is an Apple to circa like 1993.
Speaker: So a little bit out of date technology at that point, but that's all our school could afford was one Apple too So one Apple II, but that's still at least two.
Speaker: They could have gotten two. No, you misunderstand. Yeah, they could have just gotten two Apple I's. That's a great point. um Incidentally, I just looked up. That's tall a Smurf is, isn't it? I just looked up Strega Nona, and it was published in 1975. So you have no excuse for not to. Wow.
Speaker: Wow. We didn't get those there. Striganona sounds like some sort of Italian dinosaur.
Speaker: and Anyway. lasagna dish. Ooh. Sounds like lasagna would be great. you But those old, like those early 90s, like interactive storybook games where like you just click on something where there's a goofy animation for every single thing. It's supposed to teach, I guess, little kids how to use a mouse.
Speaker: But also i think it's ah as much that as it is just like jingling keys in front of their face too. yeah I think it's just the idea that it's fun to click on things. Like this game advertises that has like 400 clickable like areas or whatever. Like that's a selling point. like if your kids like to see stuff dance on the screen when they push the mouse button, this game's got it.
Speaker: One thing I want to talk a little bit about is Did you pick up any kind of connective tissue between this and Ron Gilbert's earlier work?
Speaker: And like, obviously... There's a part in like towards the end of the game where you like you go to a shipwreck and there's pirate ah fish on Yes. And those guys are a lot of fun.
Speaker: Yes. Yes. There's a great arg song. well Really white arg song. Yeah. Yeah. I think what really felt like, like the, where I really felt Ron Gilbert's stamp on this was really most at the very end where,
Speaker: Freddy and Luther are revealed to be a brother and sister who are attending an aquarium together. And they've just been human kids the entire time. Like that slick Ronnie Gilbert rug pull once again. It's just like I just got invested in this idea that Freddy was an actual fish since it's in the fucking title.
Speaker: But no, Ron Gilbert couldn't have it without that level of meta narrative. Well, I was referring more to actual things in the game. ah Okay. i Maybe that part didn't happen. be Beyond like the pirate stuff, which like, you know, I think, ah you know, he very much enjoys.
Speaker: There were some things in this that felt very kind of Ron Gilbert-y, like something that I noticed in games that he's designed, which is there's a lot of,
Speaker: uh close-ups and close-ups with animation yes which like monkey islands one and two have close-ups and like two has like that close-up animation of the spit like flying which uh you know like especially um in when the the spit flies across like the wall yeah at the bar on Scab Island.
Speaker: Right. Right. It's you know, it has that. like I think that's something that Ron Gilbert doesn't get enough credit for. I mean, even like the cut scenes in Maniac Mansion, his first attempt to be, you know, more cinematic and adventure game storytelling. And then those close ups in sets and Monkey Island are the next evolution of that. and you see a lot of that going on here.
Speaker: And then there's also cut cut scenes. Yes. As you go through that, like kind of up the tension level of like, as you're playing, there's these two sharks that are after you because they've ah hidden the kelp seeds and they forgot where they are. So they're also looking for them at the same time.
Speaker: And they have cut scenes that to me playing felt like they were in like,
Speaker: still within the the type of design ideas that Gilbert was using in Maniac Mansion and in like Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2.
Speaker: Like all of those, like when I think about the close-ups When I think about ah like they're just simple like kind of formatting things with the the game yeah and how it's kind of laid out and how it communicates its ideas, that seems like it is a like a ah piece of connective tissue from like this, this LucasArts, Lucasfilm game stuff.
Speaker: And maybe, you know, if like, you know, I haven't played all the later humongous stuff, you know, maybe you could even draw a line from it. It's like, well, what did he learn from doing that and is there any learnings that he took to like thimbleweed park or to yeah you know ah return monkey island because like uh return has a ton of like the close-ups and it has kind of a like some kind of uh like kindness ideas and design mm-hmm
Speaker: And I mean, that is, I mean, as we've talked about before, it's something that Ron Gilbert was deeply invested the idea of building a better adventure game. And yeah, part of me feels like this, having this excuse to go back to basics to make kids entertainment adventures gives him an opportunity to really refine that formula a little bit in some interesting ways. yeah I think it might be curious to see how his post humongous games may be, uh, maybe learned a little bit from this. Yeah. And I've, I've talked about that, uh, with, with our friend, uh, Mike as well, like who, who's a humongous games fan. And it's just kind of interesting. I think, you know, i think these, ah these games are, are interesting to check out if you're an adventure fan and just kind of curious because they're not,
Speaker: like i i found playing this just a real pleasure like it was just a nice super charm you know a nice way to spend like you know a little under an hour ah in an afternoon um because it is so beautiful and like the performances are fun and like all these silly characters are a lot of fun there's a lot of I love the interface where there's just inventory at the bottom.
Speaker: Yes. And when you click on the inventory and you use it on something, when that inventory item is ah removed from from the bubble it's in, that bubble pops.
Speaker: Yes. Which is very cute. Very nice. It looks great. Yeah. no And that that part... like it's a smooth, nice, sleek interface. it It has all the advantages. The scum just boiled down to like a single click interface in a way that supports the gameplay beautifully. Yeah. i mean, you said, it's a fun game to spend an hour with.
Speaker: But you also have been. Oh, go ahead. Oh, no, you you please. here's Here's a question. So we've talked about and we like puzzle light.
Speaker: personality, heavy vibes, good games. Do we just prefer games made for children three to eight? Are we just now? And if so, are we childlike in our innocence or are we immature? Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, childlike for sure. yeah they Yeah, I think definitely not. It's not a maturity issue. ah No, i mean, yeah this is about the level of difficulty I want for my adventure games. This is perfect. this is Like I said, I felt like a genius. I was just like, ha, you say you need a pearl.
Speaker: I got one of those three screens ago. You you idiot. Yeah. You're going to dunk all over you, you fool. What I was thinking was, you know, You're being pursued throughout this game by two sharks, as Ben was saying.
Speaker: ah We come Spongehead and Boss, who are who are also searching for the clues to the missing kelp seeds. But you know, sharks don't eat kelp.
Speaker: They want these fish alive so they can eat the fish. You don't think a lot about that during the game, but really, because, I mean, they look at Grandma Grouper, and she is a literal snack.
Speaker: I think that doesn't get played up now. course, they are working in service of the Squidfather, because this game does 100% have a godfather. Well, I'm going to I'm shocked that they didn't take the Squidfather joke seriously.
Speaker: too far it wasn't in the game as much as you would assume it was a very cute drawing yes and it does have like the guy like it it speaks it unintelligibly which i guess is like kind of like a godfather but they don't go all the way they don't play like a godfather riff in the music i don't recall anyway i don't think they did and in it and there's no talk of favors and like the the mumbling isn't quite godfathery like there is kind of a like a godfather like you know like i don't think it quite sounds like that no it's interesting at one point he gets really mad and he sprays ink everywhere just like marlon brando famously did on the set of godfather I think that's maybe the most direct reference to it. Yeah, no. I mean, and there are kind of all kinds of charming little characters. I mean, we haven't talked a lot about the sporting cast, but there's a Manta named Ray who has, gosh, what is, it's the super duper duka buka poly gizmo that he has that that you have to get from him.
Speaker: There's a fiddler crab who plays a violin and like sings opera stuff. There's Herman the Hermit Crab that's that's quite a character.
Speaker: King Crab you eventually meet. I mean, it's all silly little fish puns and stuff like that. But mean it's cute. it's I mean, I think if I played this one I was like six or seven years old, i would have loved it.
Speaker: Yeah, it was that was my, one of my questions was, it's like, do you think you would have liked this as a kid? Yeah, think so. And the answer is, I know I would have loved it. Yeah, no, I think I absolutely would, yeah.
Speaker: now Now, here's a, so you're a parent. Yes. Would your, like, you know, she's too old for this now. Yes. um Do you think if you put, let's say, ah when she was six,
Speaker: If you put your daughter in front of this when she was six, do you think that she would have knowing that like, you know, like you obviously, you know, like ah so not speaking for all kids, just speaking for your daughter specifically. Do you think her at like half her age now? Right.
Speaker: Yeah. ah Would she have enjoyed this game? I think she might have. I think the barrier could have been just the fact that it looks old. If there's anything that would stop her, it wouldn't be the gameplay or the story or anything like that. i think those are pretty timeless.
Speaker: I think for a young kid today, it comes down to, are they going to look at it and be like, you know, this looks like you gave me some sort of ancient entertainment device. Even though it's like this, these hand drawn,
Speaker: like I wonder it's hard to tell. Like, i i mean, part me thinks like the kids seen a Disney movie by that point. Yeah. Like and they know real animation looks like it's, it looks like a cartoon.
Speaker: It does. And kids famously do love cartoons. Yeah. Yeah. like you know i think she would have liked it i mean like i said before when she was younger than that much younger my daughter was obsessed with sam and max uh i just loved so i mean i think there's a good chance that yeah this could have hit in the same way i guess you're just going to well we're gonna have to test this out so i think you're gonna have to new kid again oh no yeah so much trouble last time yeah
Speaker: um you gotta do the turn on verb you gotta do like there's just all kinds of stuff that precedes the new kid verb that's really more work than i can handle at this point um do do you think like you know i i said this earlier do you think that like do you Do you think, because I'm going to say probably most of our listeners to this probably haven't played this.
Speaker: I'm going to say. Like a lot of the the the folks listening to this, i i like i am going to assume haven't played this because I feel like a a lot of...
Speaker: You know, this Freddy Fish and the Humongous Games, I don't think they served as an on-ramp to, like, adult adventure games. I think kids played them and they played other games, right? Yeah, I don't know if I've talked to many people in the adventure gaming community, though. And part of it, I think, is that a lot of the old-school adventure gaming community was already too old for these games as they were coming out.
Speaker: But then also, I don't know that I've ever like bumped into someone, you you hear people who get on ramp by all the obvious Sierra and LucasArts classics. You hear people get on ramp by the Nancy Drew games.
Speaker: Yeah. In a big way. Yeah, for sure. You know, and there are a handful of other titles. I don't know if I've ever met someone who's just like, you know, I played through Freddie Fish and Pajama Sam and Spy Fox and then moved on.
Speaker: and picked up monkey island or your longest journey or whatever from there. Yeah. That'd be quite a leap to go straight from Freddie fish. It's like, I love this. Give me the longest journey. Yeah. Like it's like, um, is this, so this comes out in 94. So let's say that if like you're six, you were born in 88. not too long,
Speaker: you know, not too much younger than me. I was just too old for this. yeah Like, um but like the person who, you know, the the target demographic for this is still in their late thirties now.
Speaker: Yeah. Right. like Yeah, that's true. yeah other Yeah, no, I would be curious. I would love to know if any of our listeners, like, if your formative adventure game experiences were spent with these humongous entertainment games. If this, you know, I Did they on-ramp you to, because it's just interesting. Like, it's like, let's say you start with Freddy Fish.
Speaker: When you're like at the youngest and like you, you play up through spy Fox, which I think comes out in 97. Um, and like you keep playing and then like, once you're, you know, a teenager, you're like, Oh, I want to like,
Speaker: Then it's like the early 2000s and you're like, i don't know, like I'm not going to get Siberia. Yeah, think I've got an Xbox now. Yeah, we'll play Halo Combat Evolved.
Speaker: So, yeah, I know. I am curious. Did anyone was this anyone's entree? i don't think. I've met anyone. I mean, I hear people all the time that have memories of putt-putt.
Speaker: But also, is that an on-ramp? I mean, I think you could play a game like this. And then pick up the adventure game genre years later as an older teen or adult without it being like, and it's like, oh, this is like one of those putt-putt-em-ups all grown up, you know?
Speaker: Yeah. I doubt i mean like can can see that too. It's like I played putt-putt as a kid and then years later I discovered that I loved Siberia and had no idea. And they there was no connection whatsoever. You know, they just two independent discoveries. Yeah. And this is a little bit of the difference with the Sierra games. Like if you play EcoQuest, then you could be relied upon to be like, yeah, and then I played King's Quest.
Speaker: Yeah, that's right. There's like a clear, and I mean, part of it is, especially with Sierra, and you know, with just the sequel format of of their catalog, you know, it makes real sense to get on ramp, you know, i mean even if you get on ramp, like in two directions at once, it's like I started out with King's Quest four, and then I went back and played the ones before it and then started picking out the ones after it. Whereas, yeah, I would be curious if anybody took this route.
Speaker: If you did email us quest quest podcast at gmail.com. um Yeah, I don't know. ah Let me take a look at my my notes again. Like I just have a ton of little notes that are just like this is great.
Speaker: Yeah, this is great. Would you say would you would you tell someone. um that's listening as i said like a lot of our listeners probably i'm just going to assume haven't played this would you say that somebody listening to this uh that hasn't played uh and they're between the ages of 40 and 50 like the podcasters uh would would you say to them you adult play freddie fish that's a great question
Speaker: I mean, if you find kids stuff charming and just, I mean, for me, there's something to be said about just knowing the history of a genre that you love. And this is part of that history. And a part of it that i think a lot of us, myself included up until this week, hadn't necessarily experienced. So i think there's value in that. If you're, I mean,
Speaker: there are worse ways to spend 45 minutes. ah There are a lot worse ways to spend 45 minutes than, than playing this one. Ben, was there fish in a fish bowl at one point in this game? What did it do?
Speaker: Well, it's in it's in special it's in the special water of water. That's what I was wondering. yeah Tell me about, there's an underwater fishbowl with a fish in it, whereas all the other fish are out talking and they have eyebrows and all kinds of other things. This is a fish is fish. Yeah.
Speaker: This is like, I mean, it's also. Fish is fish? Yeah, it's a fish is fish in the same way. That can't be legal. It's like Pluto. But he's not Goofy's.
Speaker: Yeah, like this this fish in a fishbowl is in the water of water. Is it a lesser fish? Water has its own water. Did you know that? That's what the fish drink. Well, that's wet water. Yeah.
Speaker: but That's extra wet. Yeah, yeah. it's it's it's ah It's at a level of wetness that actually, like, mammals can't a touch. What would happen if I touched it?
Speaker: You'd become a fish. What? you think that was a mammal that touched that bowl? and That's why he's being kept in there and not allowed to roam free at the other fish? Yeah. Yeah. Ben, how do you cast a fishing rod underwater?
Speaker: a very carefully.
Speaker: and mean, yeah, there are a lot of other ah fucking, uh, cinema sins, for Freddie. Yeah. Yeah, give me my, where's my CinemaSins sound effect? um I didn't care in the intro for peanut butter and jellyfish sandwich. Wow. that didn't Sounds like it'd go down and rough. Sounds like it'd be ah really stingy.
Speaker: Oh, um to get the pearl at one point in the game, you play a literal shell game yeah with some clams. That's kind charming. Oh, there you go. I had it. I just had to dig through my files.
Speaker: Can we get a clean one? Do you to go, man, man, why is there a fish in a fishbowl? There we go. Never watched CinemaSins.
Speaker: Do you think that a fish could drink the water out of the fishbowl? Well, yeah they wouldn't want to. It's a fishbowl. Do you want to drink the water out the fishbowl? Be real. Only on a day.
Speaker: ah
Speaker: If you turned that upside down, what would happen? All the water would get out. But we'd go up or down? It would go down. It's denser because it's more wet. It's denser. Hello.
Speaker: Ben, if I shook it up and turned it upside down, would it propel me up through the water? ever i Giving me a headache. Ha ha ha ha
Speaker: Would it be like, would I shoot up through the water like someone squeezed a banana out of its pill? Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly it. ah But yeah, so...
Speaker: That is a Freddy Fish, the case of the missing kelp seeds. And we're going doing the rest of these back to back for the next several weeks. So that's going to take us through the 100th episode. And we we have way more thoughts. well We will recap a lot of the basic stuff about like humongous entertainment and Ron Gilbert and who Freddy Fish is. We'll just update which one we're talking about. We may even keep some of the same audio.
Speaker: yeah i i do want to return to other humongous games though i like i don't think we have to do every freddie fish but i yes we'll play all five why the fuck not i would like to i would i'm especially curious about spy fox like it's the one i've played around with the most and i think it is the biggest kid of the bunch i've never played it you've played it yeah Just a little bit. Got stuck couldn't getting further. No, um it's you know it's your James Bond ah version of a of a kids entertainment product. and
Speaker: It's pretty charming. i would I think we will definitely be back to the humongous game someday. But not today. We're done. We're done. We're done-zo. we' we're We're George Dunsington.
Speaker: um ah ah All right. Well, folks, this has been Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Please rate and review. That helps people find this podcast.
Speaker: ah Also, you can send us an email at questquestpodcast at gmail.com. And, you know, if you enjoyed this podcast, you can continue listening to it.
Speaker: Every week we have a brand new episode. And ah next week I'm excited to announce. Oh, ah we are going to play ah the Sierra classic.
Speaker: Space Quest. Four. Four.
Speaker: we were talking about red herrings recently. Like, remember, ah like in Goblins, we were talking about red herrings. Like, you know, all those uses. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Speaker: So what are your thoughts on the unstable ordinance on Xenon? You know, i think the unstable ordinance is a good puzzle because...
Speaker: On the one hand, if you figure out the deal, if you know what the word ordinance means, you know that unstable explosive is a bad thing to carry around. But worst case scenario, you don't know what it means.
Speaker: And you get to see Roger Wilco just blown to shit.
