Loom

"Rise, son of Cygna. It is the dawn of your seventeenth year. The Elders await you in the sanctuary." If you didn't listen to the 30 minute audio drama first, you'd have no idea what's going on when you first play Loom (1990, Lucasfilm Games). And if you did listen to it, you probably weren't any less confused. And on top of its unique magical fantasy setting, there's an unfamiliar music-based user interface to grapple with! Loom is probably one of the stranger Lucas point & click games, but its definitely not without its charm and therefore well worth checking out.

Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") for this podcast we have three guests. First of all returning veteran DGC member Esko ("Firefyte"), who has been speedrunning Loom for many years. Joining the podcast for the first time is DGC member Eino ("Evil Taco"), we love it when we get new people on! And last but not least we are joined by Mads from the Retro Asylum Podcast, who did a podcast on Loom themselves a few years ago.

On top of all this, DGC members Watchful, Juan ("Reidrac") and Christian ("stdevel") sent in a voice message. Thank you so much, we love hearing from our listeners! If you want to send in a voice message too, you can e-mail them to us at club@dosgameclub.com

[ download mp3 ] (161 mins, 185 MB)

Thanks to our producer Pix, who also recorded the audio clips from his retro hardware which you hear in the episode's intro. And thanks to DGC member Console for editing the episode, you're a lifesaver!

Thanks to all who make this show possible, we can't do this without you.

RELEVANT LINKS:

* Retro Asylum Podcast episode 220 about Loom

* Loom on Speedrun.com

* Space Quest IV on Speedrun.com

* Loom EGA vs VGA video by DOS Nostalgia on YouTube

* A webpage dedicated to the EGA vs VGA graphics of Loom on superrune.com

* Interview with Loom designer Brian Moriarty

* Forge is an unfinished fan-made sequel that's worth checking out

* Mark Ferrari's website has some other gorgeous pixel art he made over the years

* Interview with George "The Fat Man" Sanger on the Retro Hour Podcast

* Loom review by the International House of Mojo

* Florian was a guest on the Focus On Linux podcast in an episode about retro gaming on Linux

* We mention some previous DGC podcasts during this episode, including #45 Gateway, #22 Monkey Island, #54 Day of the Tentacle and #53 Interview with David Fox



04 Jul 2025

2 Replies to “Loom”

Mr Creosote says:

I’d say the one game Moriarty is remembered for most fondly these days is Trinity. It’s too bad you only mention it on a sideline. There is even a thematic link with Loom: it’s about the history, the implications of the development of atomic bombs; Loom is set in a world after nuclear holocaust. It’s one of the first games to attempt storytelling on a symbolic level instead of face value. I wouldn’t say it has aged perfectly; it’s a bit like reading Lord of the Rings nowadays and feeling this is all a big, trite cliché. We have to remind ourselves it wasn’t when it was written. Rather, it became a cliché because it has been imitated so my times.

In one interview, the localization manager of Loom talked about how Moriarty demanded to see all details, all things produced for approval. He went on to criticize the intonation of the voice actors performing the audio drama, in languages he didn’t even speak. It may tie in with the notion you talked about concerning full control over a text game versus this much larger scale effort.

Tijn says:

We clearly need to check out more Infocom games!

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