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Music!
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Ben and Jess talk about their favorite music pieces in adventure games, nerdy drag, and the adventure gaming Names they're putting on notice (good, bad)
Quest Quest podcast is Ben Vigeant and Jess Morrissette.
Editing by Ben Vigeant
Show art by Kevin "WilcoWeb" Wallace
Watch us on Twitch!
Ben: https://www.twitch.tv/ps_garak
Jess: https://www.twitch.tv/decafjedi
Give us a review, they help people find this show! Unless you hated it, in which case, don't.
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Transcript
Technical Difficulties and Humor
00:00:52
Speaker
You know, the worst thing about the theme running that long is that I tried to take a screenshot of our expressions there because we've we've talked about this.
00:01:03
Speaker
We talked about how the longer it runs, the bigger my smile is. And then like you started laughing too. And so I was trying to take a screenshot and for whatever reason, the Windows snipping tool was just not behaving. It was just like, maybe it was because this is like a, like a video feed. Maybe there's like some sort of digital protection.
00:01:26
Speaker
You know, like how you can't take a screenshot of Netflix or whatever. Yeah, I have that set up for myself. Yeah, I have, I pay for a special monthly service for that. Yeah. Your, I mean, your image, like that's your life. Like that's my IP.
00:01:40
Speaker
I mean, yeah no I mean, I'm not, i this this is the moneymaker. And if for those of you listening to this, not watching it, I'm just gesturing at my face. I mean, yeah, that's, ah you know,
00:01:52
Speaker
well As Andy Warhol said, ah we ah we all become IP in the end. Yes.
Introducing the Podcast and Hosts
00:02:00
Speaker
Welcome to Quest Quest. The Adventure Game podcast.
00:02:06
Speaker
I almost said, i don't know if someone listening could hear, i almost said the Adventure Game podcast. I almost said it. I was, I was just. You looked like you were about to say, that's why I didn't jump in. You like looked ready.
00:02:18
Speaker
by But I was like, no, no, no. that's what That's what Jess says. That's my words. Don't try to steal my bit. Radical. I feel like you are just like spreading your tendrils through this entire ah this entire podcast and taking away my bits.
00:02:35
Speaker
Yeah. You can listen to Ben Twitch at PS underscore Garrick. You can watch Jess on Twitch at T-Cav. T-Cav Jedi.
00:02:51
Speaker
And also on YouTube for both. And also with you. Amen. Now, Jess, are you doing today? You know, I'm not too bad. I'm, ah you know, IRL, as a lot of our listeners know, um I'm a college professor and I'm nearing the end of my semester. So life couldn't be better. I've got I've got summer fever.
00:03:13
Speaker
I've got I've got never ending case of senioritis. oh About to go a summer break. We'll be able to make three to four episodes a week once I'm on summer break. ah yeah Nothing but time to record.
00:03:27
Speaker
Oh, Jess. Oh, Jess, you're killing me. Yeah, I mean, yeah it's a good gig. It's a good gig. How have you been? I'm pretty good, you know.
00:03:38
Speaker
Yeah, you look great. Yeah, no, I'm pretty good.
Sports Talk: Cubs and Softball
00:03:43
Speaker
You know, the Cubs are doing great. Oh, are they? Oh, the Cubs are doing excellent. Yeah, they're mostly fall. It's incredible.
00:03:52
Speaker
Wow. I mostly find little league girls softball nowadays. So I haven't been keeping up with the majors as much. Oh, you know, how how and all right. Wait. So what's we talked about this in a previous podcast. What's ah your your daughter's softball ah team name?
00:04:09
Speaker
The base bandits. Yeah, see, I like that. I know you're bass bandit skeptic, ah but ah I think that's a fun name.
00:04:20
Speaker
It is fun. And I mean, they're still in basses left and right. they're They're living up to their name, so I can't complain. We suffered a tough loss just before just before coming into record tonight. So if i but seem like just really angry, you know, it's because we were beaten by the outfield outlaws.
00:04:41
Speaker
Is that, is that, is it? How many, is that true? Is that a real name? true And I think that's a terrible name. Wait, yeah, base bandits and outfield outlaws? eaten No, you can't. First of all, you can't have both, but also most of the outfield outlaws numerically are infielders, which bothers me. Like the math just doesn't work there.
00:05:00
Speaker
I mean, two thirds of your team are infielders. This is standard baseball softball rules. but what are What are some of the other... or What are the other... Like, are these all... Like, it's like, you know, The ah the home run thieves.
00:05:18
Speaker
Like, what what other kind of... ah wrong side of the law teams are there in the softball ah league. Well, we recently played a team there. but I think they're the only like rule breakers. We had a team that were the lady bolts, like a thunderbolt, but and The jerseys were difficult to read in their font. What font is it? Is it like a ah like a Harry Potter? Yes, it has lightning bolt-y letters. It has lightning bolt letters, which means that it's just like things...
00:05:55
Speaker
have like drop case kind of vibes that they just throw it off. And it made it very difficult to read. i had to be like people in the stands were asking, what is this team we're playing? And finally, someone said, I think it's lady bolts.
00:06:07
Speaker
And all a sudden, I mean, I didn't know that like lightning bolts were like male or female or are gendered in any way. I thought they were just lightning bolts.
00:06:18
Speaker
Well, I mean, they, you know, but these are the lady ones. There's these are the lady ones. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They have like a little bow. Yeah. Yeah. And some eyelashes. You know, yeah. That's how you know, girl.
00:06:30
Speaker
um Yeah, no, the the the Cubs have been great. ah ah their Their offense, after ah couple years of pretty poor ah offense, they're starting they're they're getting some runs.
00:06:42
Speaker
And we we love it. We love to see it. We love to see our our Chicago Cubs. The Cubbies, as I like to call them. Yeah, the Cubbies, that's a good, that's that's good. They're off today as i as as we're recording.
00:06:57
Speaker
So I'm not going to be checking my phone to see... ah ah the score but they'll be back ah tomorrow they just they just swept the Dodgers in a two-week series which Ben speaking of the Cubs how often do you think of Will Ferrell's Harry Carey impression like if you had to like estimate like his his Harry Carey because I feel like I think about weekly and I don't think a lot about I think about that more than the actual Cubs
00:07:28
Speaker
That's a pretty... You know, i don't think of it that often, but I was ah watching recently. you You didn't watch this show ah because it's... ah Like, I
Entertainment Insights: Will Ferrell and Righteous Gemstones
00:07:42
Speaker
i think...
00:07:42
Speaker
good there's only a certain amount of danny mcbride that your your your household can take but will ferrell plays this this character i think it's like ashley something i forget his name in uh eastbound and down where he's like a you like a like a car salesman and or like a guy owns ah a car lot who hires uh who hires baseball players to like former baseball players to promote his cars and it's one the psychotic performances that Will Ferrell has ever given.
00:08:20
Speaker
it is an absolutely unhinged performance. uh you know i just please look it up because i don't have a clip ready uh really you didn't prepare this i didn't prepare that is his his hairy carry is very funny but like that character and he's bounded down just wild you are are you up to date on this season of righteous gemstone yes and i'm working toward lobbying for eastbound and down i think yeah bounded down is very spicy i like and that that's a
00:08:54
Speaker
I could watch righteous gemstones every day of the week. It is. It's like a ah pleasant bath. It is like, and I say this. So righteous gemstones ah for the listeners is a ah ah ensemble. camp Camity.
00:09:10
Speaker
cay i By Danny. It's like a drama to you without all the drama. by by danny mcbride and his group of folks but it's like an ensemble and it has the the great john goodman in it who like he's just tremendous fantastic um but everybody in it is really really good yeah and um the little the little trick that it plays is is that if if you're familiar with danny mcbride he has a very specific type of humor and it's very kind of like this aggressive bro-y humor but the joke is it's like that that he sucks like he always yeah plays like this aggressive bro who has like such a thin skin like that's the joke but yeah
00:09:50
Speaker
but doesnt matter But even so, it it is it can be ah it can be a lot. it could It could be heavy. And Righteous Gemstones gets away with it because it is an ensemble. So you have him playing like doing his thing where he's being like ridiculous and big and this like foolish idiot.
00:10:13
Speaker
But he's surrounded by all these other people. Yes. So it's like, he's like just a little bit of it as opposed to like an Eastbound and Down where he plays this, uh, like disgraced, uh, former pitcher, uh, who thinks he's the greatest, like, you know, thinks he's hot shit nothing and nothing. He's really nothing is,
00:10:35
Speaker
it's a funny show, but it's like, I couldn't watch two episodes of that show in a row because it, it, it, like, I'm just like, this is so much, this is so much, this is such a pummeling of this type of guy. And it's very funny and it's very good, but like there's, there's vice principals. I think you should try vice principals. Yeah.
00:11:01
Speaker
I've watched vice principles. We enjoyed that. Yeah. Okay. You like vice principle. Yeah. No, Ben, how much time do we have like in the format to talk about Danny McBride right now? Oh, we all the time in the world.
00:11:11
Speaker
Okay. I was curious. is you You're up to date on the current season of for Righteous Gemstones. I'm one episode behind. I didn't watch ah last week's. Then you're golden for this question.
00:11:24
Speaker
How amazing is the actor they have cast as young Danny McBride? Oh, oh, yeah. And he's in every season. Every season of ah Righteous Gemstones has a ah flashback.
00:11:40
Speaker
ah episode and all of the the actors they like that all young are all very good but there's this one young man who I believe across all four seasons has been the same guy and we see him because like they're all three of those at well two of them are going like through puberty and like getting taller and they're you know like they're they look different season to season if I recall correctly haven't compared the episodes but like His it's this like, I don't know how old this kid is.
00:12:14
Speaker
He looks like a 15 year old, like a 16 year old. Right. but Yeah. And the first time he was on the show. Yeah, it was. It was. I actually wondered for a moment. It's like, have they like pitch shifted Danny McGod's voice and dubbed it in, but they didn't clearly. Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:29
Speaker
like you're like i'm like did they pitch shift it did he done over it did they do he's gotta be on set like giving the line read and then the kid is giving it back right i mean i have no idea yeah it's in and like like on the the in the brutalist uh like they they they ran like some sort of like voice AI thing to make like Adrian and Brody and some other characters voices sound a little more like, uh, uh, like Austrian or German. I forget where, where he's Hungarian. um gar Yeah.
00:13:03
Speaker
Um, uh, like they, they modified his voice. Like there's just part of me. I'm like this impression that this little kid is doing of Danny McBride is so perfect. Um,
00:13:16
Speaker
Like it is, it is incredible. And like, let's play the clip. Just play the clip. All right. And here's the clip. The clip is here.
00:13:29
Speaker
This is the theme song to Ratchet's Gym Stunts. Yeah. All right. Well, okay, Ben, I've got an important question for you. We know what you've been watching. Yeah.
00:13:42
Speaker
We've, we've nailed that down. I'm curious.
00:13:48
Speaker
Why have you been playing? Why, Jess, I've been playing a little game called Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3. You sound like a liar right now. I had to, i pulled it up on
Game Review: Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3
00:14:01
Speaker
Steam so I could get the name right.
00:14:04
Speaker
Because like yesterday i was playing it and I was like, I want to Google, like I want to check on something and about this game. And like, I typed like Redneck Mansion 3.
00:14:15
Speaker
three Like I, you know, I was like, what's the name of this fucking game? It's Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3.
00:14:24
Speaker
It is, came out this week when we recorded this. It came out last week when ah this episode releases. It is the latest game from Strange Scaffold, which is, if I mispronounce his name, I apologize, Zalavir Nelson's company.
00:14:47
Speaker
He's a gentleman who, in addition, i There was an article, like there was an interview with him in Aftermath recently. Did he read this? i don't think I saw it.
00:15:00
Speaker
There was an interview about like how he works and like, I already had a lot of admiration for him because he's, is like, ah the the games that Strange Scaffold have made are all really
00:15:19
Speaker
And then also he's done a lot of work, like he worked on, you know, one of my absolute favorite games and one of yours, Hypnospace Outlaw. I think he did some work on, also released this week, Old Skies.
00:15:35
Speaker
Like, yeah. As far as I understand, he releases between like eight and ten games a month in some sort of ungodly pace. It is unbelievable. then he's like all over TikTok. He's amazing there.
00:15:48
Speaker
Like, he's got very funny, like tick like, I don't know what's going on. And then, like, you read the thing and it's just like, what's your workday like? And he's just like, And it's just like, i work on I work and I work and I work and I work and I work and work. Like he like, and, and so yeah.
00:16:03
Speaker
So this is the latest from him and his team at Strange Scaffold. And so what this is, is it is just, did you ever play Puzzle Quest?
00:16:19
Speaker
I don't think so. So Puzzle Quest, well, did he ever play Bejeweled? Yes. Okay, so we all know what Bejeweled is. Match three, there's like a square with a bunch of jewels. You have to match three of them.
00:16:36
Speaker
And then, so Bejeweled was a very, like ah a big casual game hit. I got my dad really in into Bejeweled. Wow. And then,
00:16:50
Speaker
then some amount of time later, out comes Puzzle Quest. and Let me double check. Is it Puzzle Quest? It's got to be Puzzle Quest, right? Yeah. Puzzle Quest. And Puzzle Quest, which I played on the Nintendo DS, was a What If Bejeweled, but jeweled by RPG mechanics.
00:17:14
Speaker
And so it's like each of the jewels ah like represents a different type of mana, which like you you bank up and then like you have certain spells and then also like other tiles do other things and like the the spells kind of modify
00:17:35
Speaker
like can modify the board or attack. Like when you're playing, like you'rere each of them is some kind of encounter. And you're kind of moving, like you progress, and it's been a very long time.
00:17:46
Speaker
I haven't played it since I played it on my original Nintendo, my clamshell release Nintendo DS. Wow.
00:17:56
Speaker
So it's been a long time since I played it but I seem to recall there was like, you you moved, like there was a world map and there was like a big story and this, that, and the other. Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 is,
00:18:12
Speaker
takes that a step further.
00:18:16
Speaker
Where, so now we have the match three and we have, and then we, there's match three and then you have like that each of the gems and other things on the board, like charge up actions that you can take that can modify the board or attack the monster who's also playing on the same board as you are.
00:18:40
Speaker
Like they, they, they get a poo-poo. They attack you you have like hit points and you have, uh, in, uh, creepy redneck dinosaur mansion three, uh, you also have sanity, which, you have to, to watch.
00:18:55
Speaker
Um, so it takes that and then, like it, it mixes up Like, I'm about two hours into it, so there's, like, I'm, ah like, I don't know how long it is. Well, I hear you have to play about 20 hours before you really get into what the game's really about.
00:19:14
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that's, yeah, I'm sure.
00:19:18
Speaker
That's when you start to realize what the game actually is. It's not really a Metroid, it's Metroid 4. It's actually Metroid-brainia. Well, this hit, so...
00:19:30
Speaker
Hold thine tongue, Jess. Oh. It has all that, and then it mixes up the encounter design. like There's like one I played where it's like you're you're trying to disable a trip wire into some of the like things are cables, but some of them, like the red gems, actually like set off the cable so you hurt yourself.
00:20:00
Speaker
But then also, so this narrative, which was a world map in Puzzle Quest is instead of branching twine like narrative. Wow. With like, if you've played games that like Nelson has worked like he is a very clever ah writer and very witty and funny. So has that.
00:20:26
Speaker
ah And it's this branching narrative that it is in a kind of Metroid style.
00:20:36
Speaker
Because there's this big world map that you're advancing through and each of the encounters. And then like in some of the encounters, you kind of pick up traits as you go or some of the dialogues that you have with various characters in the creepy redneck dinosaur mansion.
00:20:57
Speaker
Uh, and once you fill up that tree, then that might unlock something else deep in the mansion. So now you have to go back and travel over that way.
00:21:07
Speaker
And so, ah yeah, it's scratching the puzzle quest itch. It's like, I mean, at its heart, like in the same way that puzzle quest was, it is,
00:21:22
Speaker
It's Bejeweled, and then Puzzle Quest added some extra mechanics, and then this adds a bunch of extra mechanics on top of Puzzle Quest. Wow.
00:21:33
Speaker
So, You see, the closest I've come to, like, adding a mechanic to a Match 3 is probably Puzzle Fighter, Capcom's Street Fighter Match 3. I guess there are at least a couple of those, right, somewhere along the way?
00:21:46
Speaker
I it's not great. I'm pretty sure, I think Ron Gilbert had a match three that was, uh, a global. He did. Which I played. and was quite thing.
00:21:57
Speaker
heard it has really crummy ending. You're never gonna let this go. Uh, and- I'm still mad about returning to Monkey Island. I'm never going to shut up about it. Fight me, Ron.
00:22:08
Speaker
Um, You'll get a nasty gram from Ron, and I'm going to distance. I'm just going to tell you right now, I'm going to distance myself. Ron's a listener, and, you know, if he has guts, he can write us at QuestQuestPodcast. Send us an email at QuidQuidPod.
00:22:29
Speaker
Porkpie. Oh, brother. QuestQuestPodcast at gmail.com. Ron, hit me up. And he gets such a nasty gram. He writes, he's the grumpy gamer.
00:22:42
Speaker
That's what he says. Anyway, that's what I've been playing. It's a creepy redneck dinosaur mansion three. There is not a one or two. it has very, like a ton of meta humor. Much like Ron Gilbert's thimbleweed part. And I would argue this is considerably more successful at the meta humor.
00:23:00
Speaker
Back to you, Jess. Okay. Well, what have I been playing, you ask? Yes. I was going to ask you that, and then was like, such a jackass thing to say. Back to you, Jess.
00:23:14
Speaker
I don't know. Just something about it. I was like, it just smells very assholey to say that. And then that made me laugh. Like, Jess can grab it. It makes me laugh.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah. Back to you, Jess. Oh, no. Well, thank you. This is Jess reporting live from the scene of the accident. And what I see here, mangled bodies everywhere. It's hard to believe an ice cream truck could wreak this much havoc in a dinosaur museum.
00:23:42
Speaker
But here we are. Ben, what have I been playing, you ask?
00:23:48
Speaker
You ask? Ben? Is it the game that you were streaming last night? No, I was going ask you to ask me what I've been playing. What have you been playing? I thought you were like- I can't do this. I can't do this, Ben, if you don't follow the rules.
00:24:04
Speaker
It's in my goddamn contract. Oh man, the music went well. Yeah, we need a darker tone for this. What have I been playing? You know, Ben, I loaded up Oblivion Remastered the other day and played about an hour and a half.
00:24:20
Speaker
I was afraid you were going to say this. Why? Why, why, why, why, why? No, just because I knew that you were going to say this. I don't even know why I was afraid. Here's... No, keep going, keep going. I can't even get to my observations. haven't bought it. It's fine. I mean, here's the thing. Like...
00:24:38
Speaker
Oblivion was the first ah was the first Elder Scrolls game that I really played much of. I tinkered with Morrowind and honestly i kind of got like that overwhelming open world feeling. I got to the first town and searched through like 900 different barrels finding mostly nothing except for the few times I found something good. I'm like I just can't keep searching barrels for the next 100 hours.
00:25:02
Speaker
And I kind of bounced off of Marwen. And I missed, I know, what is a good experience. I came back for Oblivion, though. And there, you know, collecting calipers around Tamriel was a much more rewarding experience.
00:25:14
Speaker
I played that with my wife and I played it together. It's one of the first big open world games I really tackled. I have a weird fondness for Oblivion. Skyrim is probably an objectively better game. A lot of people would say Morrowind is an objectively better game.
00:25:28
Speaker
But I like Oblivion. The remaster is pretty. Looks good. I don't mind it. I mean, it's it runs really beautifully. you that you can go back? go back to Oblivion and enjoy it.
00:25:41
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know if I could do a full run of Oblivion. I mean, I feel like it... I've never beaten Elder Scrolls, and I've played Morrowind Dawn. Yeah, you know I've beaten...
00:25:53
Speaker
Oblivion and Skyrim. And that's usually I play them exactly the wrong way, which is to say i go through that main quest and I just burn it out and there are a whole corner of the map I'll never see.
00:26:05
Speaker
That's insane to me, Jess. I never play the main quest. I just wander around. I just I just go like. like I always join a couple of guilds like I'll join the Assassin's Guild or something.
00:26:15
Speaker
Yeah, but I am going to power straight through that game because i have things to do. i have to move on to the next game. I can't just be in one game forever. forever oh Yeah, but the main quest isn't that fun? you know, it is. It's got stakes. Wandering around is a lot more Hiding in a bush, shooting an arrow into a guy and then having him run around with an arrow sticking out of him in his little cycle.
00:26:40
Speaker
Uh, while he's like, halt! Who's there? Who's there? Who's there? And then him not finding you, and then just going, must have been the wind. While an arrow is sticking out of him.
00:26:51
Speaker
Yeah, t'was the wind, nothing more. Yeah, that. is an Elder Scrolls experience. But no, I mean, it's still really charting. I think one the best game moments, like if I was thinking about all time favorite game moments, emerging from that first little dungeon at the beginning of Oblivion,
00:27:14
Speaker
like after you've like escorted the king and all that sort of stuff and like stepping out to this giant vista of all of Tamriel out in front of you. I mean, i guess it's a moment that like games like Breath of the Wild have also done in a really powerful way, but that sun sort of, you know, just shining into your eyes and everything, it really clicked for me in a way that, yeah, Oblivion holds a place in my heart. Now will say something I read recently that has really intruded on the experience for me.
00:27:44
Speaker
was I read recently that when the original voice acting was done for this game, and you know of course, Patrick Stewart has a good bit of that. Pat Stu, as I like to call him. Apparently they recorded all of those lines in alphabetical order.
00:27:58
Speaker
Okay. which rather than going through the script and having you deliver, say, the lines in the order they will appear in the game, rather they just arrange the whole script for each actor in alphabetical order.
00:28:10
Speaker
And once you know that, you can't unhear it in Patrick Stewart's performance. Every line is delivered in a tone that in no way matches the sentence he said before. and It's literally sentence to sentence.
00:28:25
Speaker
Each one is just recorded separately without context. And because he's a good actor, he knows how to get enough of a neutral affectation in there. to mean that they don't feel like jarring, but they're also very clearly not connected and it is dominating my experience in this early, I've only played like an hour and a half, but all that time I'm sitting- I mean, Badger Stewart's not very much in the game.
00:28:50
Speaker
No, he's just there in the beginning, but it is enough that it's just like, oh no. And then I'm trying to think of I'm guessing other characters who talk a lot. It's probably gonna be similar. Maybe they aren't, I can't remember if they're, you know, if you spend a lot quality time with any one character the way you do ah that that old, old man in the fancy robe.
00:29:09
Speaker
that that That's such a ah game developers like doing their first game with voices. It really is. like You gotta figure that's how Sierra probably did a lot of their early stuff too. I mean, just like, and it probably explains a lot of the quality. It's like, what easier way is there than sorting alphabetically? They're just like, well, this will be really easy for us to edit and put into the game. So this is yeah perfect. And then the actors just read the lines and that will work.
00:29:36
Speaker
And it's like, no that's not how acting works, but you know, well, uh, Jess back to you. oh and what are we talking about today?
00:29:47
Speaker
Oh, well, Ben, uh, thanks for throwing it back over here. Um, today, I'm very excited for this topic. We are talking about music and adventure games. Now you heard some music earlier. Astute listeners will notice, uh, the Conan Iceman theme was played. Uh, if we get a clip of that playing from earlier, back to you, Jess, that's the clip. I remember when you said that earlier, it was right in the middle of the, thank you. No, uh, previously on quest quest.
00:30:21
Speaker
But no, we're talking about adventure game music and yeah ah sort of ah mix of thinking about what music does in adventure games. But i think mainly it's a chance for Ben and I just to talk about some tracks over that have stuck with us through the years. Some of our favorites. I mean, and I can start this out on a ah personal note.
00:30:44
Speaker
Get it?
00:30:46
Speaker
i don't get it.
Music in Adventure Games
00:30:48
Speaker
Like a musical note.
00:30:51
Speaker
Okay, personal note. um On a personal note, I don't want to, like, big league any of our listeners. But Ben and I... Both are very fancy lads who grew up with three voice sound cards.
00:31:08
Speaker
Ben had an IBM PC junior, as he's talked about relentlessly bragging about his wealthy upbringing. And I had the much more modest Tandy 1000. But both of these offered us an early entry into the world.
00:31:25
Speaker
listen to that. You were playing the the remake of quite eric but King's Quest III last night. And their version, you know their orchestrated mini version of this was playing.
00:31:43
Speaker
And like, I said this in the chat and I stand, but like, this is, this has got to be one of the best like AGI. oh absolutely.
00:31:54
Speaker
This is gorgeous. I mean, it is a beautiful layered piece. And you know I don't think I realized as a kid, that my Tandy had anything other than a PC speaker. I thought this was how everyone's computer sounded.
00:32:06
Speaker
Same, same. Until I heard an actual PC speaker version of like the Space Quest theme. And I'm like, oh, this is notably worse. um So yeah, we grew up very fancy and spoiled.
00:32:19
Speaker
Oh, now listen to that. This is a little more simple. Yeah, but still it's so iconic. It's stuck with the rest of the series. Yeah, there you go. This is the tune when you think of Larry.
00:32:33
Speaker
Right. i mean, this is yeah, this is iconic. Now, Ben, I do have to make an important admission here. I am not someone who does a good job at noticing music in video games.
00:32:49
Speaker
i want to be better at this. I am someone who but probably, if you think of all the technical elements that go into creating a video game, I feel like music and sound is the smallest component to me. I tend to notice it when it's bad.
00:33:04
Speaker
am very bad at noticing it when it's good, ah which is something i don't like about the way I play games. I mean, how do you, how how important is good music to you for enjoying an adventure game?
00:33:18
Speaker
um oh it started to loop and when I recorded that a while ago that's is i didn't prepare those tunes for this episode I had them left over from the AGI episode and about wow to your question oh back to you band music back to me music is tremendously important okay this is good I'm glad that you're through game and there are a lot of tunes ah that I think about all the time.
00:33:49
Speaker
As I'm speaking now, I'm like, because both of us pulled some of our favorites, some that have stuck in our head that we can play during this episode and maybe chat a little bit about, um like another couple songs that stick in my head, ah like just, ah ah you know, came back to me, um like just talking about it.
00:34:16
Speaker
I, i Some video game tunes, ah like, will just come to me when I'm walking down the street. I think about, and and one of these tunes is actually on your list. I could put it on.
00:34:30
Speaker
um But I think about when I'm walking around, ah like, on the street at night. the the the Scab Island tune plays my head.
00:34:44
Speaker
Like the map tune. Like, so you, one of the tunes, so we, as I said, we both picked a bunch of ah songs um ah like to have here. This is, I'm gonna put on here, ah the wood tick ah theme, ah Michael Land ah from ah Monkey Island 2.
00:35:05
Speaker
And so this isn't the one for me. Like, I mean, i I love this too. And this is also, ah this is also like, not only is it a good tune, but also it, like,
00:35:23
Speaker
is a demonstration of the iMuse system. Woodtick in particular. I think- Yes, this is what I wanted to talk about. Because yeah I think this is, i mean, everybody knows Monkey Island 2. It didn't make it as far as it could have in our LucasArts adventure game bracket.
00:35:39
Speaker
But you know, it's a fine game. But it does introduce LucasArts proprietary iMuse music system. And it's brilliant in that it's- orchestrated music that can dynamically respond to player action. So what you get in Woodtick is this nice orchestrated version of this song, which is very Monkey Island, very atmospheric.
00:36:01
Speaker
But what makes it neat is when you go into each of these buildings and locations in Woodtick, it will oftentimes take it down to just a single instrument or a smaller arrangement of this same song.
00:36:12
Speaker
Like when you walk into Wally's shack and then when you step back outside, it will reintroduce the full, full version with all the instruments playing. The one playing right now, this is the the wood worker, right?
00:36:27
Speaker
Yes, I think so.
00:36:30
Speaker
Like seem to recall, and this is like a half remembered thing. I think, This is the only scene in Monkey Island 2 that really uses this dynamic thing because apparently it was a nightmare to put together, I can imagine.
00:36:47
Speaker
And it may be appearing elsewhere. i think this is the one that shows it off the most certainly. Yeah, I mean, this is like the this is like the proof of concept for it. I think this is Wally. I think you're right.
00:37:00
Speaker
How brilliant and how atmospheric and how cinematic. I mean, that's the sort of thing that certainly you're not going to squeeze out of a PC speaker. That's going to be a difficult thing to accomplish.
00:37:11
Speaker
This is...
00:37:14
Speaker
And I think when they did the special edition of it, they didn't implement this entirely. Which, like, it makes sense because this is like a MIDI, so it's a sit like a sound file that is being...
00:37:34
Speaker
like i don't understand how music works you can tell me i'm wrong but i'm pretty sure it's like you know that your sound blaster your roland like this is the the roland um like is is playing like the notes itself but like the special edition is playing an mp3 which is like a recording of a band yes Yes, absolutely. That sounds right to me too.
00:37:56
Speaker
Um, who is this? Which one is this? This isn't the bar, is it? No. Is this, um, is this, uh, the laundromat? Is this the, the lazy pirates?
00:38:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think maybe the lazy pirates. Um... But yeah, exactly. And I think that you, it's funny to think that, you know, you jump ahead decades and the idea of recreating this wild music system that LucasArts made for Mike Gallant to she is just like, that's too hard. Throw an MP3 in there. Well, those I mean, they had an actual band to do it.
00:38:29
Speaker
So you can't have, you know, Oh, yeah. You'd have to have them live streaming as you played the game. That would be very... That's where a live service approach would be very difficult.
00:38:40
Speaker
Yeah. ah So I'm going to play one of mine. ah So this is a tune i think about all the time. ah This this i soundtrack, I think, is actually...
00:38:54
Speaker
it's hard this is a ah game series that has uh all bangers all all five games in this series which is of course quest for glory all bangers no mash all yeah it's all sausages and no potatoes um i I think every every soundtrack in um Quest for Glory is is great.
00:39:21
Speaker
And I think on a given day, I'll give you a different answer as to which one is the best. Like, 5 has some really spectacular oh it really does. And um that was the Quest for Glory 5 collection ah that came with 1 through 4.
00:39:40
Speaker
and then the demo for 5 that had the multiplayer that never came out um came, if I recall correctly, with the Quest for Glory 5 soundtrack. Maybe just Quest for Glory 5 came with it. I forget.
00:39:54
Speaker
But I had it, is what I'm saying. So I listened to it. um Are you checking? I see your head just shot over. are you checking? so So anyway, this is um one of my favorite tunes.
00:40:07
Speaker
Yeah, this is one of my favorite tunes. from Quest for Glory 4, which is, so Quest for Glory 4, this is Aubrey Hodges.
00:40:20
Speaker
And he also did, I think, Doom 64. He an interesting couple of soundtracks that he's done. But...
00:40:33
Speaker
First off, I love the Glory 4 soundtrack because, and this song doesn't have any of it, it has a lot of synth guitar, which I love. Like Cranium has synth guitar.
00:40:44
Speaker
The opening theme. Yeah, the opening theme has like a synth guitar solo. I think the Arana theme,
00:40:57
Speaker
also has like, yeah, like anyway, so the guild hall, this is why, here's why I love this theme. I think about this theme all the time, which is because think really successfully.
00:41:12
Speaker
So, so getting to like kind of the larger themes of of what we're talking about, right?
00:41:18
Speaker
Is like this piece here.
00:41:24
Speaker
I think that this sets a sense of place extremely well. Yes, absolutely. And which is so important in an adventure game, like more like,
00:41:40
Speaker
In an adventure game, a tune might be for only one scene or maybe like a collection of scenes. um that's That's all I got of that. ah Like a collection of scenes like outside of Mordavia, like on the streets.
00:41:55
Speaker
But that tune, what I love about that is that it um like... it has this melancholy.
00:42:05
Speaker
Yeah. Because this is the abandoned adventures guild. By the time you reach quest for glory four, this is a town without hope. Yeah. It's a town without hope. And what I love about that, that, that tune is that it walks.
00:42:19
Speaker
Like when I listened to it, I hear, ah both the, the, the grand history of it. It's like great things happened here.
00:42:30
Speaker
Like the, you know, there's, there's, there's parts And I don't have any musical education, so unfortunately I can't say like, oh, it has this incredible thing. Leitmotif. I know what that is. ah but um uh like it it has like these moments where the song really swells swells up gives yeah you a sense of the the heroism of the past but at the same time it's very sad because it's gone it's little haunting in that regard yeah like like so when i hear this song it really evokes for me like it's like this is a place uh where really great things have happened
00:43:11
Speaker
but they're they're not happening here right now. But that doesn't mean that they can't happen again. That's why I really love that tune. That is a very good answer ah because it absolutely does capture that. I mean, there there's no question. I mean, ah I think it's a beautiful piece of music. I think about it all the time.
00:43:33
Speaker
Oh yeah. I mean, I don't like quest for glory four isn't a game. I've played as much as some of the other games in the series, but the minute I heard the opening strains of that, I knew exactly what scene we were looking at there because yeah, it really is evocative in a way that, you know, after quest for glory, you know,
00:43:52
Speaker
earlier entries in the series have made this adventure guild such a cornerstone of what you do as a hero arriving on a new land. You go in, you sign the guest book sort of process and and go into Yeah, this idea that you get to Mordavia, it's just, it's gone. It's locked. Yeah.
00:44:07
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah, it's just not in operation anymore. So that's fantastic. Can I get one that I think comes from maybe the complete opposite direction? This is an earworm for me that if that one is rich and soulful and emotional, one that has been stuck in my head for decades now.
00:44:27
Speaker
ah From Leisure Suit Larry 6, Shape Up or Slip Out. um If I could get a little bit of that spa theme. All right, here we go. It's loading up and.
00:44:43
Speaker
Now this one, what I love about it, it is such soulless music, right? I mean, this is fantastic. I believe this one, I'm not mistaken, is by Dan Keller, is the composer on this one.
00:45:00
Speaker
But there's something about this that for me, I mean, the whole idea of Leisure Suit Larry 6 is Larry's arrived at this high-end spa on a special trip.
00:45:12
Speaker
And yeah, the just capturing like a slightly jazzy Baza Nova style of soulless Muzak is so well done here.
00:45:24
Speaker
I think it's accomplishing exactly what it's trying to accomplish. It's... It's funny because this is well done, but it's also, as you say, is soulless and it has like a little bit of a wink.
00:45:40
Speaker
Yes. You know, like there's a bit of a wink. You, you could tell this song's looking at you and saying like, we know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, exactly. Yeah. This is supposed to, I mean, and that's what makes it so insidious. Like I find myself walking around kind of humming this occasionally.
00:45:58
Speaker
Oh, look at this. Oh, a new instrument is entered. Oh, yeah. We're mixing it up. I mean, there's a similar song actually in Leisure Suit Larry 3 when you're in Space Quest 5.
00:46:12
Speaker
Yeah, when you're in the casino, wait, is it casino? What is it?
00:46:18
Speaker
Well, when you're in the place where meet Passionate Patty and everything, it has a similar sort of Muzak vibe going. It also stays stuck in my head. Yeah, I kind of love this one in lot ways for the exact opposite reason that you love.
00:46:33
Speaker
There's been a sense, I think, that they share in common that this, you know, it establishes a sense of place. This is... a soulless plastic, you know, overpriced snooty spa experience.
00:46:47
Speaker
And I feel like this song communicates that. And yeah, it's been just relentlessly stuck in my head ever since I played. And Lucid Larry Six is in the game.
00:46:58
Speaker
I've played that many times. It's not one I really revisit, but man, this song. Man, now we got another, is that like a piccolo that just came in there? Yeah.
00:47:10
Speaker
ah So now I'm going to i'm going to jump us up into ah i more more recent ah stuff. i this is I'm just going to play a ah small clip because this isn't...
00:47:26
Speaker
uh this is a song with lyrics so we can't talk over it and also i don't know how much i can play before you know this episode will be taken down ah maybe maybe i could play all of it i don't know but this is there's no way to know uh yeah uh this is uh from kentucky route zero
00:48:01
Speaker
So ah Kentucky Reads Zero has, ah but if I recall correctly, across its four or five episodes, it has ah one full lyric a song each.
00:48:15
Speaker
I think all, like, maybe there's one extra because there's it's it's not too late, ah but there's like four or five of them are like bluegrass hymns.
00:48:27
Speaker
Mm. and they are incredible yeah you see this is something you like for i've never played kentucky route zero kentucky route zero is one of my absolute favorite games of the 21st century i think it is an excellent work of art and if you think it's boring and pretentious I disagree.
00:48:54
Speaker
Hearing that now, though, it's like now it feels like a must play for me. I love I saw the look on your face when it started to play and I was just like, know I got you. No, I mean, i grew up with the with so much bluegrass music.
00:49:12
Speaker
Members of extended family have played in bluegrass bands my entire life. Like i I, am the guy who walked around listening to nothing but the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. for like a year after that film came out.
00:49:25
Speaker
This sort of old-timey mountain music is near and dear to my heart. And hearing something like that, mean, I assume with Kentucky in the title that some of those vibes would be there, but that is enough to like,
00:49:39
Speaker
pushed me over the edge. I've been thinking about checking out Kentucky Route Zero, and I literally like have its Steam page up right now in a tab on my on my computer as I think about it. It's like, I'll just go ahead and purchase this. It's time to kind of make the dive. And yeah, that that atmosphere that that creates in a game. I mean, think Bluegrass has the capacity to be so...
00:49:59
Speaker
haunting so um so heartwarming so homey and all those sorts of ways it's oh good stuff the excuse me the uh the last episode of it the last act has ah one final ah like tune like that which made me cry like the way that it was done and the way that the scene was staged and set up uh like and then this tune plays and also like kentucky route zero has a very like evocative ah like kind of
00:50:38
Speaker
uh uh like orchestrated soundtrack as well but i wanted to call out in particular ah these songs because they really as you're saying here when i heard ah like the first one pop up in the first act i was like oh this is something special yeah like no absolutely i heard that tune and the thing about kentucky route zero is that that's one more piece that pulls you into jess i know you're like as i start to talk about this you're gonna be like uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh where where it's like as as the first act kind of spins out and you're exploring this world uh like uh kentucky route zero kind of explores like
00:51:30
Speaker
you can feel the heat of the night when you're playing Kentucky zero, United States, you feel that southern united states like southeastern united states humid summer night you feel the stickiness you feel the humidity you feel the heat uh like and so you're exploring because most of the game takes place at night um and so like you just kind of feel that oppressive
00:52:09
Speaker
dark humid heat but if you live in a region of the world where like you haven't been to like a a place where it can get in fahrenheit at night like 85 and up and 100 which is nearly 160 degrees celsius for all of our people listening yeah that's like 5 000 degrees celsius uh uh like if you know And it's not, as they say, it's not just the heat. It's the humidity. I don't know. That's over 40 stone.
00:52:50
Speaker
But, but yeah, I mean, and so that's like just one more piece of like, because the first tune in the first act doesn't like start playing for, I think maybe about a half hour, 45 minutes into it, if I recall correctly.
00:53:04
Speaker
And i so it's like, once I heard that, I was like, okay, I know where I am. I am so thoroughly in the American South.
00:53:16
Speaker
Like i I know how it feels. I know how it smells. I know what, like my skin, like how my shirt is sticking to my skin.
00:53:27
Speaker
And I hear this music off in the distance. It reminds me honestly, like different type of music, but I mean, and, and, you know, i guess you would get this by Norco, which has its own very good soundtrack.
00:53:40
Speaker
Um, uh, i but like, you know, it made me think about like when I like ah go to New Orleans, which is my favorite city ah to visit. And ah like New Orleans, I often go when it's 95 Fahrenheit and like super humid.
00:53:58
Speaker
I essentially go with the sort of hurricane season, which is honestly not a good idea, but I've done it now three times. And you're still here to tell the tale. still here to tell the tale. i'm curious when you go to...
00:54:11
Speaker
When you go to Nolens or the Big Easy, as I sometimes call do you ever visit any bookstores? Do you have a chance to like go and look at any of the wares at the local bookstores? Yes, I do, Jess. And there is there's one bookstore in particular in the French Quarter that I always...
00:54:34
Speaker
take time to check out. You've told me about this. It is the Barnes and Noble? Yeah. No, no, no no It's the Bedal- Bedalton. Oh.
00:54:46
Speaker
Oshkosh Bedalton. Um...
00:54:51
Speaker
i don't think that's even funny that's just a series of words i said but i mean i think a lot of listeners probably know what we're listening to here this is the saint george's bookstore theme from gabriel knight it's not the opening theme per se.
00:55:08
Speaker
But to me, this is Gabriel Knight music. It essentially becomes the Gabriel Knight theme because they they use it as the Gabriel Knight theme in the other games, right? Like, right. Yes. I mean, this basically becomes effectively the Gabriel Knight theme composed here by Robert Holmes, who would do music for all the Gabriel Knight games and pretty much all of Jane Jensen's games in general.
00:55:34
Speaker
I love this song. I'm gonna say it's beautifully composed. It's just, you know, a really atmospheric piece. And think In some ways, like, Gabriel Knight, the first time I played, it was a game that hooked me from the first scene, basically.
00:55:54
Speaker
Like, I was, I loaded this game up way back in the day. Those first interactions between Gabriel and Grace there in the bookstore, the whole Grace, you know, taking the phone call and, you know, the, I'm sorry, Gabriel's a lout, I mean, out bit, but,
00:56:11
Speaker
Like, with Leah Remini delivering that line beautifully. I think it's just I have such affinity for the Gabriel Knight series.
00:56:25
Speaker
And when I think of the music from that series, even though there are much grander pieces, I mean, there's some beautifully composed music in Gabriel Knight's. one, two and three. This is the one that I always I go back. I'm right with you.
00:56:40
Speaker
I go back to this tune all the time. I listen to this tune. This is this is this is this is on my certainly for Sierra. This is on my mountain tunes or
00:56:53
Speaker
It is. want to be clear. Every time Ben says tunes, you can't hear this maybe back. And see on his face, he's pronouncing that with a Z, too. um which There's just like real Z energy coming from Ben.
00:57:08
Speaker
Z energy for our listeners in the UK. Okay. You know, I don't have as advanced thoughts on this as I do as like the guild hall or something like that.
00:57:20
Speaker
Yeah. But there's something like, and like when I was talking before of, like when I was talking before, and actually this is, this gives me a nice segue into my next song.
00:57:37
Speaker
So I'll start to get that queued up. Back you, Ben. Back to me. But... This really puts me in the mind of like kind of an urban
00:58:03
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think it gives that because I mean, again, as a kid picking up Gabriel Knight, I didn't know what this genre was like. What does making remember how Gabriel that sells itself? But have that weird do you have the weird box?
00:58:17
Speaker
I don't have the weird box. I have the regular box. um Which is a shame. I would love that. I owned the weird box as a kid and I threw it straight in the garbage when it got hard to find a place to put it.
00:58:28
Speaker
That wasn't smart. Yeah. There's someone on Etsy that does, that does replica boxes of that and the day of the tentacle weird pyramid box. Oh, cool.
00:58:39
Speaker
And they are very good. They are like picture perfect for a surprisingly reasonable cost. If you ever want just one for the shelf, It's a great place to go. Just go to Etsy. So here's ah mine ah that evokes ah kind of an urban, like homey feeling in the same way that St. George's does.
00:59:01
Speaker
aha This is from Blackwell Convergence. This is Rosa's theme. Oh, like this. This is in four variations of this tune.
00:59:15
Speaker
are in four of the Blackwell games. It's not in the second game because Riz is not in the second game, but it is in the first one, which you've played.
00:59:28
Speaker
This is the version from Convergence.
00:59:33
Speaker
And so this is kind of like Rosangela's theme. This is the tune that plays in her apartment. And...
00:59:45
Speaker
It like, so Thomas Regan, I believe, who did the music on Blackwell's two through five, like two on essentially.
01:00:03
Speaker
Gave all of the Blackwell games after the first, which has a very synth-y sound, which I actually really like too. This really kind of smooth jazz.
01:00:17
Speaker
Easy listening. This very chill jazz sound that to me kind of feels very, like, you know kind of cool.
01:00:28
Speaker
Once again, kind of cool urban. ah Like, and i listen I've listened to you he uploaded a bunch of ah his tunes. I think all of them from the Blackwell games onto YouTube some years ago.
01:00:41
Speaker
And I've listened to them and there's just so much fun jazz in there. ah Like just very ah chill ah jazz scenes where it's like, rosangela's in an art gallery and it's just like a saxophone and uh like a piano and i'm just like i can get sax so good this is so fun and i like i was saying earlier um I, I, a couple other tunes have popped into my head like that I didn't capture.
01:01:11
Speaker
So honorable mention that I didn't remember. One of them is, is like tunes from, ah The Longest Journey, which has an incredible soundtrack. Uh, and those, a lot of those really put me in the place of like the city, um, that April lives in.
01:01:29
Speaker
ah Like, I have a very, as a person that has spent my entire adult life ah living in a metropolis, like living in a large- In literal metropolis from DC Comics. Yeah. ah ah Like, li yeah. um i Jess, did I ever tell you that when I first moved here ah to Chicago 2007, I was um i was ah staying in some like student loft housing.
01:01:59
Speaker
and I, ah like I had like a week or two before classes started and I had like a day or two before anyone I knew was there. So my loft housing, uh, was, um, it actually wasn't too far from, uh, the, the, the, the bar which you were offered Coke outside of. Okay. That's part of the quest quest lore now. Yeah. Uh, but, um, uh,
01:02:27
Speaker
that that neighborhood that area ah is right adjacent to downtown like where the sears tower is and like all skyscrapers and and all that and so ah like on my like first full day in chicago ah not knowing what else to do i was like i guess i'll just like walk around downtown and just kind of you know just like kind of see it because i've never spent any amount of time really in downtown chicago And so I was wandering around and i i came upon, i saw like the scene and a whole bunch of police officers that had on their uniforms patches that all said ah Gotham City PD.
01:03:15
Speaker
and i also wow out And I was just kind of like, is that like a nickname? like for the like i i didn't not for this city no yeah i was like it and then and then i looked around a little bit more and i saw like cameras and i was like oh they're and that's when you realized you had been cast as batman yeah and that was and that began i I, so yes, so the summer I moved here, they were shooting ah The Dark Knight here. I got to see, with a couple friends, um like, I got to see ah ah them ah destroy the parking lot that they dressed up as a hospital for that scene where the Joker flies up the hospital. Yeah.
01:04:01
Speaker
And that was really exciting because somebody posted on Reddit or something, maybe Dig because it was 2007, I don't know. Yeah. um Somebody posted somewhere that this was going to happen. And so there was this big crowd. We're all like waiting. There's this huge parking lot. And then there's this like parking garage love that joker they they dressed up as a hospital. And and it was posted on this website.
01:04:26
Speaker
This is going to ah be detonated at like 1 And so there's this huge crowd. We're all very excited. We're standing behind. i thought it was really excessive. They actually put patience in it before they did that. Yeah. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:04:37
Speaker
It doesn't show on screen. I mean, it was, yeah. i But um ah so we're all waiting there and everyone and people are starting to get pretty impatient. Like now it's like two o'clock. Now it's like three. yeah And it's just like, come on. We're only going a blow of this building. When they going to this building?
01:04:56
Speaker
where we goingnna build our yeah Where are they going to pull blow up the If you remember that scene from the dark night where the Joker blows up the hospital, then he liping away from it right he's that he walks out of it. He's dressed up as a nurse. If I, if I recall, yeah he, he walks out of it and he pushes a button and like a little like flare of flame comes up out of the hospital. And then like nothing really happens.
01:05:22
Speaker
And then like there's a beat and then the hospital explodes. Yeah. So we saw that, which is to say, so then like we're all waiting, we're all waiting, we're all waiting, we're all waiting. And then all of a sudden we see like this flare shoot up out of the the parking garage with like, you know, like hospital stuff on it and nothing happens. And we all start booing.
01:05:45
Speaker
I would never be the Joker. what the That's a good way to get a face full of Joker gas. We all just waited. we all just waited for like two hours to see a building explode. And we just saw like a little, a little flare. This is bullshit, man. And then we saw the explosion. We're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hell yeah. And then a massive column of smoke came right for us.
01:06:10
Speaker
Turns out it's hard to blow up a building in an urban. Speaking of Joker gas.
01:06:16
Speaker
Joker gas is mostly just asbestos, it turns out. Yeah. Oh man. That's one of my favorite. When I moved here to Chicago stories.
01:06:28
Speaker
Oh, that's really good. You know, i love that number from Blackwell. And you know, ah i think with the saxophone, it does have that nice, easy listening, jazzy sort of vibe to it, which I think maybe brings me to the next track that I want to talk about. ah One of my favorite moments from, um,
01:06:50
Speaker
Lara Bo to the dagger. and ah yeah. Cue that one up for me, Ben. I want to marry an archaeologist and keep his autographs warm.
01:07:06
Speaker
I travel with him through jungles and deserts and weather out every storm.
01:07:21
Speaker
Oh, I love it. It is ah is a fantastic song. I want to marry an archaeologist from the Dagger of Amin-Ra. You hear it when you go into the speakeasy for the first time. It is the Roaring Twenties, so this is the sort of music you heard all the time back in the Roaring Twenties, as I understand it.
01:07:40
Speaker
Is that the first... song sung with full lyrics in a sierra game that is something i wondered i know it's the first one that i can recall encountering like i because this does predate uh king's quest 6 right yeah predates king's quest 6 There's not a song in King's Quest V. everybody. This is Ben. i'm um
01:08:11
Speaker
recording this at a later date as I edit it. Actually, ah you know the the episode is coming out in seven hours, and I'm editing at the last second. and As I listen to this, I realize that I was wrong, that...
01:08:29
Speaker
The Weeping Willow has a song in King's Quest V, and I know that some of you would be screaming, screaming, screaming at the podcast if I got that wrong. So I apologize, everyone.
01:08:44
Speaker
i was wrong. uh this rarely happens uh typically i'm always correct but uh i'm ready to sit down and listen to uh the weeping willy willis zone but uh anyway okay back to the podcast um And there's not a song in space quest for no.
01:09:08
Speaker
And I can't think of the other CD games. Yeah. like So there's a good chance. This was like Freddy Farkas is later and that has a song of its own as well, which is very good.
01:09:19
Speaker
The ballad of Freddy Farkas is fantastic. It was nearly on my list of songs I wanted to play. Yeah, I feel there's a whole Freddy Farkas episode waiting for us down the road. So don't want to I don't want it to throw away my shot now.
01:09:32
Speaker
ah But no, I love i Want to Marry an Archaeologist because it did blow my mind. The idea that you could have, you know, ah fully recorded song with vocals just crammed into adventure game. Like I would literally like reload my game to go back into the speakeasy just to hear it again.
01:09:50
Speaker
and I think it's so charming. It's so cute. It's so matches the tone of Lara Boe. I feel like just a just a really charming bit of work on I Want to Marry an Archaeologist. And, you know, don't know if it's as cool as nearly being blown up by the Joker.
01:10:08
Speaker
But my I Want to Marry an Archaeologist story is ah back, goodness, probably 12 or 13 years ago. ah had the opportunity to... Did you marry an archaeologist?
01:10:23
Speaker
I did. I married an archaeologist. And you know who it was? was Lara Croft. oh I'm now the, I'm now the husband of one British millionaire adventurer, Lara Croft. This is revealing it now for the first time. You've heard me talk about my wife before on this podcast.
01:10:42
Speaker
This whole time, she has been ah statue of Lara Croft that I found in the dumpster behind GameStop.
01:10:54
Speaker
It's like a body pillow, but it's fiberglass. Oh, that's even better. Because it's glass made of fiber. But you were say telling a tale. Yeah. ah ah Back 12 or 13 years ago, had a chance in a series of strange events to to get to lip sync this song in front of a ah small audience while wearing...
01:11:20
Speaker
You've never heard this story, Ben? This was, I knew that you, i think I, I didn't, I think I've heard this story. i don't, think i don't think I knew this part of this, the story.
01:11:31
Speaker
Like I didn't know that this was the song that you were lip syncing. I was in Cleopatra drag. That I knew. i have This I've known. Yeah, I was in Cleopatra drag. Maybe you told me this. and i Yeah, at a symposium at my university where, like, the arts department and the English department had come together to do, like, a series of small...
01:11:51
Speaker
like performance art pieces about Cleopatra. And I love that my reputation is such at my university that someone came to me and said, Jess, would you be interested in being part of this and doing a campy Cleopatra drag?
01:12:08
Speaker
And I was like, I know just the song. I'm going to lip sync. I want to marry an archaeologist. That's when I provide them with the It was ah wonderful experience. ah What a strange opportunity to fall into my lap.
01:12:24
Speaker
And not only did love this line as a kid, it gave me a great chance to revisit it as an adult in a way I never imagined. So, yeah, that's. You know, is there I've thought about this.
01:12:37
Speaker
Is there is there a nerdy... Is there other nerdy drag that you would do? Because I i know what my answer to this question is. Oh, man. And there, there's a couple of reasons why, ah there, there are a couple reasons why i wouldn't do drag, which one is, is that I'm terrible in heels.
01:12:57
Speaker
Yeah. I've tried. My ankles are dog shit. I don't know. those of you out there, those of you out there who, who wear heels, uh, uh, endless respect.
01:13:10
Speaker
Uh, that's hard. That's very hard. Uh, I've tried. no, Not happening. ah My ah ah number two, I'm a big baby about dry and like makeup near my eyes. I don't like any. Oh gosh.
01:13:23
Speaker
Yeah, no. yeah This is right. Yeah. I had a lot of like Cleopatra style eyeliner going on. And I just spent the entire time like, you know, just reeling away from every time that little pencil came anywhere to me. I'm a baby about that too. get yeah same reason I don't wear contacts.
01:13:43
Speaker
Yeah, like, ah like I've been in like plays where I'll be made up, ah like to to get on the stage. And like the makeup person just gets so fucking furious at me because like, I'm just like, Nope, nope, nope.
01:13:58
Speaker
Like every time they they bring the the liner pencil to me. and I'm just like, because did that's a pencil near my eye. That's sharp. My eye is soft. um uh so that's one thing uh and then and then finally uh i you know choreography has never been ah strong suit anyway no my choreography was weak in this one i was in hills and i wasn't doing a lot better with it and these are like kitten hills they weren't even like really you know anything impressive but i was struggling with that my choreography was a lot of uh
01:14:34
Speaker
more like sashay style attitude. Yeah. Some hula type moves, some like lots of graceful arm work is how I describe a lot of my choreography, very movement of the lower half of the body.
01:14:46
Speaker
But so i who would you, you said there was someone you had in mind. Like, who is this? Who are you doing? So for our listeners, if you're not driving a car or otherwise unable to check your phone right now, the nerdy drag I would want to do is i specifically would want to be the bride of pinbot which she is a uh like that that's a pinball machine i believe from 1990 yes i knew this one as soon as you said i just pulled it up here i knew yeah
01:15:21
Speaker
and you have to make this happen i this has been on my mind for like 10 years i've been thinking about this and it's like and i know the thing is is that if i did bride of pinbot drag i would have to have my legs light up because the thing is is if you look at the back glass if you look at the art of the bride of pinbot She ah they have on the back glass like a list of like bonus things you can get like a multiplier and a big jackpot and stuff like that.
01:15:54
Speaker
And ah those run down her leg and they light up. ah And and so if I were to do it, I would have to have those there and they would have to line up ah light up.
01:16:05
Speaker
Man, I feel like you could do this for seven to eight hundred dollars. I don't think it would be that difficult. I think you can make Bride of Pimbot drag work. I, you know, i have a friend um and he doesn't do very much of this now, but I have a friend who used to be my costume guy for all my like various plays and shows that I i did in Chicago was.
01:16:28
Speaker
had no theater experience uh he became like the costume person that i worked with because he did really good cosplay and uh like and then we invited him to start doing props and in costumes uh for our show kind of based off of that and as it turned out, it was a remarkable skill that he had in his back pocket.
01:16:52
Speaker
Like it was just like this guy that's very good at cosplay, as it turns out is good at theatrical costumes. Uh, I wonder if that could be like what the costs and cosplay, uh, like if that's a coincidence, no, no, that's, uh, that's, cos it's, it's, it's, uh, uh, Cossack.
01:17:08
Speaker
ah cossack Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of choreography. Right. Yeah. And I will walk out and I'll kick. And I need. So there there are a couple parts of the Bride of Pinbot drag.
01:17:22
Speaker
the The thing is also, I need a light up heart also. And then the thing is, is that in the game, and I don't know if I want this because I don't know how to do it in a way that would be interesting.
01:17:34
Speaker
But I do know that like drag is about reveals or some drag is. And i in the game, bride of Pinbot, like you make her turn into like you give her sight, you give her voice and then you make her a woman and then she becomes a human.
01:17:54
Speaker
Oh, wow. So we're like Pygmalion, this thing. And as you ah do that, there is a toy like this mechanism on the pinball ah table that spins this face. So you see it where she has no eyes and then you see it that she has no mouth.
01:18:12
Speaker
And then you see it like that. Now she's become this robot woman. And then you see that she's become a human. And so I'm like, is there a way to do this where I have the spinning head?
01:18:23
Speaker
And then was like, that might be too much. Let me give you a pitch. I think we moved from like drag to now we're in the territory of Halloween costume, which is very different.
01:18:35
Speaker
But what if you were the entire pinball machine? So your face was through a cutout of the back glass and your face is in pin bot. No, no, no. not saying i say no Because thing about if I went as bright as a bride of pin bot, I would have to make it really sexy.
01:18:54
Speaker
yeah no i mean and that's the whole that would have to be the whole thing of it is that it would have to be like like it would have to be like i'd have to to really find a way to make it really sexy uh because that's what the whole idea of the game is well but i think that's not that's no one's fucking a pinball machine do you know well you say that you say that i'm gonna google right now and find out
01:19:20
Speaker
All right, what's your nerdy drag? And then I guess we'll have like one or two more songs because I can't think I've been like spending this whole time trying to come up with the game. Like probably the answer is I shouldn't have been doing drag the first time because I don't think it is where my strengths lie on the stage. um My strengths on the stage lie in having just a very deep voice and not much out else. That's like my tool is I can shout to the back rows.
01:19:48
Speaker
That's that's your well, I mean, I have that power. ah I'm like, i I really shouldn't shit talk as much as I do because I do not have a whisper voice. um Ben and I, I don't know how well this comes through on the podcast, but we are two of the loudest people you will ever meet. I thought like Ben, I was like, I'm very loud. And I'm like, this guy's a rookie. ah he He doesn't always talk about then we met and I'm like, this guy's pretty loud. Yeah, I'm pretty loud.
01:20:17
Speaker
ah that The like, if you're listening this podcast and you're like, why does the audio keep peaking all the time? It's because we're both screaming into our microphones. Yes, because that's the only way we know how to talk.
01:20:29
Speaker
Then like me, I can tell even when whispering sounds, consistently does a stage whisper. Like even a whisper is at like full volume for normal people talking. And I mean, that's ah that's what we promise you here at Quest Quest. It may not be the best adventure game podcast.
01:20:44
Speaker
It's certainly not the only adventure game podcast, but is the loudest. It will peak your audio more often than any other one out there on the market. right. All right. All right.
01:20:56
Speaker
All right. All right. Back to you, Ben. Very, yeah. All right. We're not going to hit. I have a whole bunch of songs. I have 40 other songs still. We have a whole bunch other songs in this.
01:21:06
Speaker
um And we're not going hit. Lightning Round. But, I mean, here we go. Like, you know, just a little bit. I have to put this in because it's such a funny.
01:21:18
Speaker
I just need to hear your voice.
01:21:31
Speaker
I just need to hear you say. I'm not going to play the whole thing here. all right. So I just pulled this from YouTube. ah And the funniest thing about it was like, I was just recording it from like this YouTube and the person that uploaded it, ah like it just played like a, so like a slideshow of screenshots of Alex and Cosima.
01:21:54
Speaker
and it was very funny. Like, yeah do you enjoy this ironically or earnestly? girl in the town i think it's my six lyrics by jane jensen yeah like i think i have a little bit of affinity for like i mean this is that period roughly when like some of the radio edits of disney love songs from like you know those disney renaissance eras were making it onto the radio it feels like it was a whole new world that ken heard a whole new world and was just like
01:22:25
Speaker
I gotta to have that. I could imagine something like that. Yeah. i mean, yeah, we, just you hear people brass and, and you think I got to on that people train. I got to get on the people train. Got to go that people train. It's just fun to say people train. Um, Bryson. Yeah, no. Um, but,
01:22:43
Speaker
but I mean, yeah. Girl in the tower. i don't think I, I may have come out back around from ironic to maybe I'm into it. It, it is.
01:22:55
Speaker
oh man. Is it cheesy? You know, I was thinking as you played that there are what, like 7.5 billion people on earth. I think we're at eight now. Oh, wow.
01:23:06
Speaker
Uh, thanks to Elon Musk. Um, yeah. ah like yeah i know yeah that's yeah but anyway seven but eight billion people on earth do you think two human beings have ever played this at a wedding bin yes have to have right someone has someone has Maybe Chris Williams, the son of Ken and Roberta Williams, an Interaction Magazine columnist.
01:23:44
Speaker
i I think, you know, like, i i there's got to be there's got to be one person.
01:23:56
Speaker
Now, do I know if this was like the first dance? I don't know. like now we're you're dealing with narrower odds. hey We were talking about this.
01:24:09
Speaker
So I just streamed King's Quest VI. We were talking about this, is that there's, like, so the the story of, and the disc version of King's Quest VI, it says, call up your radio station, ask them to play Girl in the Tower.
01:24:26
Speaker
And, ah like, there's versions of like this, which I think have circulated through, like I think it might be mentioned in Ken's book. I haven't read it in some other places where I had heard that they got complaints from radio stations.
01:24:46
Speaker
Somebody said that they got lawsuit threats from radio stations, which I just do not believe. But there's part of me that's just like, I don't even really know if they actually got complaints from radio stations.
01:24:59
Speaker
I seriously doubt it. i I think... i I'm calling citation needed. I'm going to say maybe, like, i think we all settled in, ah yeah, Grayson, my Wikipedia guy, get on that.
01:25:17
Speaker
We settled on my stream that maybe one in, like, an area, like, most likely in, like, Southern California, like, near Sierra, where you have, like, a big, like,
01:25:32
Speaker
penetration of pc owners uh maybe possibly you also have to think that they're going to like someone so it's like okay 400 000 people purchase uh king's quest 6 like soon which is big numbers for pc gaming in 1993 but not really that big um in the grand scheme of things um Like, certainly not like a movie, you know, like like a movie opening weekend, right?
01:26:06
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. i think it's like 400,000. I could have that number totally wrong. but Yeah. it's how many but How many... Millions and millions sold. How many King's Quest VI sold?
01:26:20
Speaker
so PC data reported that King's Quest VI sales in the United States reached between 300 400 units. There are 300 and 400,000 units. Wow, not bad then. according to Sierra Online, the whole series surpassed 3.8. But, like...
01:26:38
Speaker
the the whole series surpass ah three point eight um but ah like
01:26:51
Speaker
Yeah, so that's not like a ton of, like, that's not really. Yeah, with billions of people in the world.
01:27:02
Speaker
Like a lot of them haven't played King's Quest VI is what you're saying. yeah I'm just saying that I don't, I just don't buy it. I, I, maybe one, maybe one, but I just don't buy it because also like you had to dig through the info.
01:27:17
Speaker
Like, yeah, that's right. i to Go into the about, like, it's not saying to you like right off, like call your radio station. Like you have dig through it. So I'm this 10.
01:27:28
Speaker
You're like Ron Gilbert. You're on notice. I don't believe you. well i don't believe this tall tale.
Controversial Topics and Personal Stories
01:27:33
Speaker
Well, I, I, I, I think this is a tall tale. business is This is me getting controversial because I know there's some people listening to this podcast are like, Ben, you're wrong. You're wrong. You're wrong.
01:27:44
Speaker
Well, you know what? you they yeah They were a friend. And in fact, they were sued. And that's why Sierra went down. Yeah, that's what took him down. There was actually a digital antiquarian about this last week. this is Yeah, there was a digital antiquarian. And then he said that he hated Girl in the Tower and we were all furious.
01:27:58
Speaker
Yeah, I know. Come on, Jimmy. but Ben, I know we're running long, but this discussion unlocked a core memory that I have repressed and somehow never on stream before.
01:28:12
Speaker
Well, tell ah tell me, your therapist and our audience of... hundred of people. and Hello, hundred people. Um, so this is a story about my own wedding.
01:28:25
Speaker
So a few months before girl, of the tower while dressed as Cleopatra, I was the girl in the tower. also lip synced it there. i just went through little phase I was lip syncing Cleopatra, uh, bits, you know, Sierra songs all the time. No.
01:28:40
Speaker
So as i was getting married way back, uh, way back when, uh, over 20 years ago, um, i just a few months before I was married, Sierra designer, Josh Mandel got married.
01:28:54
Speaker
And he posted. So he's off the market is what you're saying. I'm saying, yeah, that's why eventually I decided to marry my wife, a statue of So Josh got married and somewhere he posted some photos of his reception.
01:29:12
Speaker
And I noticed what appeared to be some really interesting placemats on his on his wedding reception tables. So I did what a normal person does. And I emailed Josh and I said, those are really cool placemats because what they were, were like activity placemats, like ah restaurant children's menu activity placemats. I might steal that idea myself. That's fine.
01:29:37
Speaker
Let me tell you this. I'm not getting married. I'm not in in any sort of relationship right now. Yeah. Just, yeah. But what's amazing about these was they were like a children's activity play, uh, uh, place setting.
01:29:49
Speaker
with like one of the things they had was a maze that like was had illustrations of a groom running away from the altar to try to get away from the wife. One of the things was a crossword puzzle with all kinds of like words in it like divorce, um separate beds, all these other sorts of like really dark comedy kind things around. That guy is so fucking funny.
01:30:15
Speaker
He is such a funny guy. And he got illustrated, so it had like great cartoon images. And everything on it was just like, what is the the most inappropriate thing to be joking about at a wedding reception? He is such funny person.
01:30:27
Speaker
Josh Mandel is such a funny person. I said, Josh, and I hope he doesn't mind me telling this story out of school. I don't worry. We already have Ron Gilbert and Ken Williams up our ass. I can't afford to upset. We can't. and And Josh, we like you.
01:30:40
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. You're not on blast. You're not. Yeah, you're on um a hug. Yeah, you're on hug patrol. Yeah, um as we like to call it here at Quest Quest. Play the hug patrol thing. Yeah. Oh, uh, uh,
01:30:56
Speaker
uh, patrol being a color.
01:31:09
Speaker
Here's the thing. Here's where it gets. Here's where it gets a little cringe, Ben. So ah emailed Josh to tell him that's really funny. I love it. And mentioned that I'm getting married soon. And he's like, would you like the PDFs?
01:31:20
Speaker
And I said, yes. And then those became the placemats at my wedding reception. Also pretty good.
The Role of Music in Games
01:31:28
Speaker
Pretty good jokes. also i'll note uh peter mcconnell that's a uh grim fandango so good right so i mean talk about just a ah game know start to finish with just wonderfully evocative music yeah this where we are into a 30-minute discussion of grim fandango bone wagon theme incredible i have one last one i want to play uh uh and then and then we got to wrap it up uh because we're running long
01:31:55
Speaker
But I'm not cutting any of those tangents. No. That one at the beginning. And only Jess and I will ever know what that was. um ah One more for me from ah the Dropsy soundtrack ah by Chris Schlarb.
01:32:11
Speaker
ah This is called, I think, Kierkegaard. Is it Kierkegaard Kierkegaard? Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard. Erbigerd, Kierkegaard.
01:32:24
Speaker
effective jared gerersperm
01:32:29
Speaker
you
01:32:35
Speaker
This song is just going to tuck us into bed. yeah This is from the great game Dropsy.
01:32:45
Speaker
The first released like a commercial adventure game from Jay Tholen who did, know, podcast favorite hypnospace outlaw which also has incredible music which i was going to include and then i was like we already talked about how great music is yeah but this is another tune that i'll i like i have queued up on on my phone and i play when i'm walking around in the evening because this is evening music this is so chill this is smooth
01:33:22
Speaker
This is, uh, so it's called, uh, Kierkegaard's or Kierkegaard, uh, that guy's neon lights. Um, I don't know how much of a song I can play, so I'll stop there.
01:33:35
Speaker
Um, no, it's, I love it. You know, it, uh, it, again, the chill vibes are, are key there. And, uh, I mean, I like that you, clearly it's the smooth songs that, that hate apparently I'm, I'm all, I love them. Smooth, ah smooth.
01:33:50
Speaker
if uh like yeah when it comes to modern adventure games like new adventure games like dropsy and blackwell like you know if you if you give me something that goes down smooth i am going to plug it on my podcast and likes it smooth i like it smooth very smooth you know it's funny It's the chill tunes oftentimes that stick with me too. mean, I don't want to play this because we are short on time, but you know, I mentioned earlier at the beginning of the podcast. Yeah, I'm not someone who tends to do a great job noticing music unless it really stands out good or bad.
01:34:28
Speaker
And what's this one series? Well, that's one of the two i was going to think of Iranis piece from the original quest for glory. ah Beautiful. Oh, I know the other one. I've got this one.
01:34:42
Speaker
This one. Oh yeah. That's very good too. The the difficulty selection from Curse of Monkey Island. It's got that lazy banjo, the dog barking.
01:34:55
Speaker
This also gives you a sense of the temperature, right? Yeah. This is swamp music. This gives you a real swamp feel. Yeah. Big swamp that big swamp energy.
01:35:07
Speaker
that's a yeah I do like a swampy tune. Yeah. And I mean... Even, you know, one of my other picks was I Love the Music and Life is Strange. um You know, that's a ah series with lots of lo-fi tunes that if there's any soundtrack I'm likely to actually listen to, say when I'm at work trying to grade papers or something, a little bit Life is Strange, lo-fi, chill out vibes.
01:35:32
Speaker
Oh man, I'm there for it. But Ben, I think we have done a great job here tonight. We have... talked our way through some of the, uh, some of the songs that mattered to us. and I think made a case for why,
01:35:46
Speaker
you know, adventure game music is important. I think in some ways, you know maybe music for adventure games because of the slower pace of adventure games. Yeah. Does create a space where you can really yeah soak in a song.
01:35:57
Speaker
You
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:35:58
Speaker
know, it's like that, that just ability to, you know, be puzzling through a scene and hearing a song, maybe loop over and over again, really does give you a sense of connection that may be, know, versus say the song that plays in a doom level,
01:36:14
Speaker
that you're through. Adventure gamers hate doom. They hate doom. Violence. Horrible. How about you use your brain? Use your brain. name about using your brain But I don't like Myst either.
01:36:28
Speaker
No, God, that looks terrible. I won't even play it. No. Use your brain. Play the dig.
01:36:37
Speaker
Well, there it is. That is your homework, gang. Uh... The rest of your homework includes, boy, you got get out there. You've got rate and review this podcast because Ben, as I understand it, that's how people find it.
01:36:52
Speaker
That's right. And you can also send us an email. Let us know if you have a favorite tune from an adventure game ah that won't get us DMCA'd off. or ah let us ah Let us know questquestpodcast at gmail.com.
01:37:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah Well, you covered, yeah, you could watch us both Decaf Jedi and PS underscore Garrick on Twitch and YouTube. And be sure to listen to us next week, next Tuesday, when our next episode comes out, when we introduce Hug Patrol. We're coming for you, Josh!