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in reply to: Time Again for a Flight Sim #6619

First three got a lot of gaming time from me growing up. I remember them being hard.

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in reply to: PCGAMER #6618

Agreed here. I read my US PC gamers front to back, and then several more times after that…

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in reply to: We should do a modern telnet MUD! #6508

Honestly Javabean, I think a chunk of what I did was on Win 3.1 too, but I definitely have memories of setting up telnet on dos. I was a kid so the specifics are fuzzy.

I saw these links when looking around for how to set it up in dosbox:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MUD/comments/rd361z/any_ms_dos_compatible_mud_clients_that_work_in/
http://www.starbase21.net/telemate.html

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in reply to: Impressions #6421

My experience replaying it mirrors rnlf. There are segments that basically seem impossible without significant trial and error, which is very frustrating.

Back when I played it the first time closer to release, I was willing to troubleshoot through some of the more obtuse puzzles. I had a lot more patience and time back then. Also, I agree that it seems like you can wind up on paths that basically make it impossible to finish without going way back.

But two things still stand out. The research and world building of the characters, train, and time period are still second to none. Compared to anything else FMV from the time, it’s actually great writing and acting. I know many of the characters are real people that were extensively researched, which comes through in the game. Nobody even tries to make experiences like this now.

Second, the concept of a realtime adventure game is still pretty wild to me. I can’t think of anything else that lets you walk around what feels like a movie set in normal time, playing an adventure game. It is this premise that I think causes many of the gameplay issues later on, but if you forget the game’s puzzles and issues, and just wander for a while and imagine you’re on the train in the time period, there is nothing else quite like The Last Express.

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in reply to: Forum reply emails #6380

Thanks Tijin! Not urgent for me, I love the site and podcast as-is, just think of it as an “if this is easy” feature request for future iterations. Thanks!!

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in reply to: Confused on Editions (GOG vs Steam Gold Edition) #6348

This is probably a little late, but I wanted to note here that it looks like the Gold edition is more than just achievements.

I bought the game on GoG and had a very difficult time getting DOSBox to not crash on the title screen. When it worked at all it stuttered horribly. After playing with the settings a bunch, I bought the Gold version on steam, and it launched without dosbox and I had no problems running it. I know Dotemu did some update work to make the game run on iOS, so perhaps that work was brought over to the Gold version.

I also see that the Gold edition says it has a new more intuitive UI and inventory, a new hints system, in addition to achievements.

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in reply to: Magazine Reviews #6340

Brutal! Haha

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in reply to: Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within #6332

Exciting! I’ll check it out.

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in reply to: Confused on Editions (GOG vs Steam Gold Edition) #6298

It’s very linear but the train cars are also so identical that I found it easy to wind up in the wrong train car room.

Which, you know, sometimes worked out.

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in reply to: Making of The Last Express #6297

Looks like there was a fun “Making of” video made at the time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DygVxOWd_9o

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in reply to: Lemmings #6295

Enjoyed reading both your accounts dave and sorceress! Dave, love the logo.

I haven’t played it since I was a kid, when I had large amounts of time to pour into it. I will have to seek it out and play it again to see how I feel about it now.

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in reply to: Lemmings #6291

That’s a shame! I imagine it holds up well.

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in reply to: DOS on untraditional devices? #6284

I use a Raspberry Pi 4 to run Dosbox and scummvm on my TV with a wireless keyboard with an integrated trackpad (the Logitech K830 Illuminated Living-Room Keyboard)

I’m not doing anything fancy, just Raspberry Pi OS with shortcuts to both.

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in reply to: Kids Games #6283

Super solvers was big growing up. There are so many games that could fit in this category.

The Living books series was a big part of my childhood. There’s the Reader Rabbit series as well. Richard Scarry’s Busytown, Kid Pix, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, were also favorites.

Also… As a kid without a home console who was more than slightly jealous of those with NES/SNES, I played a lot of Mario is Missing! 😂

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in reply to: Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within #6282

I’ve also wanted to play this and have never gotten around to it.

Given my love for other questionable FMV games of the time, I bet I’d enjoy this one, since people say it is actually good 🙂

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in reply to: Magic Carpet #6277

I would love to play this game again.

I suspect it will look pretty dated now, but Magic Carpet was an absolute technological wonder at the time.

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in reply to: Dark Forces #6274

Loved this game. Doom was too demonic for my folks, and so I went straight from Wolfenstein 3D to Dark Forces. I remember being immersed by the story and setting.

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in reply to: M.D.K. #6273

I would not have guessed this had a DOS release, I think of it as a later game.

I had the demo and played it over and over again, but never purchased it.

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in reply to: Making of The Last Express #6272

Thanks for the link! Very fun to read a contemporaneous making-of.

I have not played Toonstruck, but it looks like perhaps I should. 8 million in 1996!

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in reply to: Empire: Wargame of the Century #6267

My dad was absolutely hooked on Empire Deluxe growing up. Whenever I wanted to buy a new video game, from Civ to Dark Forces, he would ask, “But is it as good as Empire Deluxe? We already have the best game ever made, why do we need another?”

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in reply to: Magazine Reviews #6263

According to gamasutra, it was in newsweek twice, and PC Gamer hailed it as the best adventure game of the year. Unfortunately, I don’t have copies of the original coverage. Here’s the gamasutra article: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3862/the_last_express_revisiting_an_.php?print=1

Rotoscoping has its own charm, and is used in modern projects like the TV series Undone. It’s also a massive undertaking- the whole thing has to be shot on film and then painstakingly painted frame by frame. According to the gamasutra article above, it cost 5 million, which would be an astronomical budget in 1997!

I was a fan of adventure games back when it came out, but somehow missed it. I later bought it in college, when I heard about it online as a “great adventure game from the 90s” and bought a used copy of it off ebay. It’s a very unusual, innovative game, and quite a classic.