Friday Night Videos was a weekly dose of music videos for those without cable and, therefore, no MTV. I hadn't thought about it in years until this episode from 1984, complete with commercials, popped up on YouTube. It is pure 80s nostalgia with Tracey Ullman, who I honestly forgot had a music career, Rockwell, whose Somebody's Watching Me video still creeps me out, a "brand new video by John Cougar Mellencamp," and a talking head of Freddie Mercury smoking like a chimney in an intro to the Radio Gaga video. — Read the rest
27 years ago, I returned home to Australia after two long years living in the USA. I was twelve years old, and my family was re-establishing roots in our old home. One of the first things we did was buy a new computer, with the help of my cousin. My dad only needed something simple for work, but my cousin had priced up a rig with me in mind too. It was a Pentium II 233 MHz, with 128 MB of RAM, a huge 20 GB hard drive, S3 VGA card and a 3dfx Voodoo 3d accelerator.
This was the era of demo discs - gaming magazines almost always came with one taped to the front, packed with the latest demos of new and upcoming games. Many retailers, keen to capture a slice of the growing games market of the Dotcom Boom, also released their own software compilations, usually available at the cash register in store. One of the largest home and appliance retailers in Australia then (and still to this day) was Harvey Norman, and for a brief period in 1997, Harvey Norman stores carried "Harvey Norman: The CD-ROM".
I don't recall exactly how I came into possession of this CD - it's possible that it came with our new computer, or that my childhood friend down the road had brought it by. I recall that my cousin had installed Civilization II on the computer, but other than that, my only access to games, for a while, was the demos on this disc - and what a selection of demos it was.
Source: Author.
The thing about demo discs that often gets forgotten is how brilliant they were at exposing gamers to a broad variety of games. In the days before digital distribution, social media, YouTube and Twitch, exposure to games and gaming news was mostly limited to a handful of early gaming websites and monthly gaming magazines. There were no Let's Play videos to watch - the only way you knew if you were going to like a game was if you had read a review, played it on a friend's computer, or tried the demo.
The Harvey Norman CD-ROM was a crash course in gaming tastes. Raptor, Death Rally, Need for Speed II, Wipeout 2097, Quake, Blood, MDK, KKND, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, Diablo, Fallout - this demo disc perfectly captured the zeitgeist of late 90s PC gaming, and was foundational in broadening my gaming palette and exposing me to genres and games that I would not have otherwise played.
Source: Author.
Like many others, I voraciously consumed demo discs like this every month, trying out every game I could to see which ones I could ask for at Christmas or my birthday. Shortly after settling back into our old home, I was buying monthly issues of PC PowerPlay magazine and methodically working my way through their demos every month.
While those PC PowerPlay demo discs provided many fond memories and exposed me to a vast cross-section of late 90s and early 2000s gaming, I had always placed the Harvey Norman CD-ROM on a pedestal in my memories. This was my first exposure to Fallout, and my first real foray into RPGs outside of Ultima. This was my first experience of Need for Speed, Quake, Diablo and Blood. Hornet 3.0 and F-22 Lightning II were my first combat flight simulators. Two of my favourite games in my youth had been LucasArts' X-Wing and the incredible sequel, TIE Fighter, and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter was a big leap forward in fidelity and into the world of multiplayer.
So cherished were my memories of this CD, that I had even falsely attributed it as the source of other beloved demos ("Remembering Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II" and "Remembering Rocket Jockey") - where I found those demos, I'm not sure, but my hazy memories of the era told me that of course it was this Harvey Norman CD.
Source: Author.
The CD was more than just memories of demos, however. As I have discussed previously, my father was not computer literate, and he didn't really "get" games. But I never stopped trying to share my beloved hobby with him. My dad was an avid golfer, and it was an activity I often joined him on. So, when I saw the demo for Jack Nicklaus 4 on the demo disc, I of course introduced him to the game. Dad had this demo installed on his computer for many years, and he probably played the three-hole demo hundreds of times. Years later, he was still playing it, and the image of him sitting at the computer playing the Jack Nicklaus 4 demo is burned into my brain.
At some point in the early 2000s, the Harvey Norman CD-ROM ended up in a box somewhere, or perhaps went in the bin. I'd long since upgraded my computer and moved on to more modern games. The rise of digital distribution via Steam and rapid growth of the Internet had begun to chip away at the dominance of print media like gaming magazines. I was growing up. I had stopped spending my money on games magazines and started spending it on beer, rent and petrol. I could rely on YouTube to gauge whether I wanted to purchase a game. Before long, the era of demo discs was a distant but cherished memory.
It was about ten years ago, during the rise of indie games and the nostalgia boom of remasters, that I started to pay more heed to these memories. I wanted to find those old demo discs, load them up and relive happy, carefree days. But the Harvey Norman CD-ROM was long gone. In 2013, I got in touch with Harvey Norman customer service to ask whether they had an archive of demo CDs, but to no avail. They had thought I was searching for the actual games themselves, but after clarifying that I was looking for the demo disc, they told me they had no archived copies.
Source: Author.
I tried again a few years later, this time through various Facebook groups, with no success. Then, again, I tried, about five years ago on the r/Australia subreddit, and two years ago in the r/Melbourne subreddit (Melbourne being my home town). That was the closest I came - one of the responses to my post on the r/Melbourne subreddit directed me to a 1995 Harvey Norman demo CD on the Internet Archive, but this was unfortunately the wrong one. I had all but given up hope. Unless the disc showed up in an old storage container somewhere, I simply had to accept the fact that this would remain nothing more than a memory.
A few weeks ago, I was tinkering with 86box, emulating a Windows 98 PC in order to get some old software running for a SUPERJUMP story. As I tend to do when tinkering with old software and hardware, I soon found myself distracted by nostalgic segues, such as installing After Dark screensavers or playing old games like Hover!. In this nostalgic mindset, I thought once again of the Harvey Norman CD-ROM, and decided to have another try at tracking it down. This time, I'd post on the Whirlpool Forums, a well-known Australian computing forum. If I was going to get my answer anywhere, it would be there.
Source: Author.
I began writing my post, explaining what I could remember of the demo disc, when and where I had obtained it. I linked a video of the Harvey Norman jingle that would play in the intro video. For clarity, I wanted to provide a link to that other 1995 Harvey Norman demo CD that the r/Melbourne subreddit had sent me to, and specify that this was not the CD I was looking for. So, to find the link, I went to the Internet Archive and searched "Harvey Norman".
But wait. My search had yielded two results.
Source: Author.
Staring back at me from the Internet Archive search results was that familiar rose-gold disc - Harvey Norman: The CD-ROM. Surely this couldn't be real? Is this the right disc? Where did it come from? When was it uploaded?
Hands shaking, I clicked the link, and saw that the disc image had been uploaded on 25 July 2023. I immediately downloaded the file and fired up my 86box Windows 98 virtual machine. I loaded the disc image. I waited. And then it began. That horrendous Harvey Norman jingle imprinted in my mind. The spinning image of the demo disc. The splash screen with the Fallout power armour and the F/A-18 Hornet firing a missile. I smiled in astonishment at the screen, overcome with joy. Tears welled up in my eyes, and the memories came flooding back. Sitting with my best friend, racing around the Pacifica track in Need for Speed II. Laying sticks of dynamite around the town in Outlaws. Watching a gang member get torn to shreds by the minigun in Fallout. Playing Quake Episode 1 over and over again.
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Source: Author.
Nostalgia is a strange thing. In my mind, I had attributed so much importance to this simple little disc. Hours of my life had been dedicated to it, replaying each demo dozens of times. It had fostered my interest in more than a few game series. There was never any possibility that revisiting it in 2024 could live up to the memories I had attributed to it. But, for a brief few moments, 27 years later, I was 12 years old again....
Don’t Nod, the studio behind the original Life is Strange and its (stellar) numbered sequel, has an earnest quality to its writing that still gets me, almost 10 years after Max Caulfield first strode down the halls of Blackwell Academy. So even when Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, the next game from the studio set to…
Recapturing the Essence of Classic Survival Horror
Daymare 1998 stands as a testament to the golden age of survival horror games, evoking the spirit of the original PlayStation era. The game pays homage to iconic titles that defined the genre, such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Its intention is clear: to transport players back to a time when eerie atmospheres, gripping narratives, and spine-chilling encounters were the hallmarks of gaming excellence.
Striking the Right Chords, Yet Missing the Melody
While Daymare 1998 successfully hits certain nostalgic notes, it falls short of fully capturing the essence of its predecessors. The game shows promise and potential, but its execution leaves much to be desired. With further fine-tuning and optimization, it had the opportunity to become a standout addition to the survival horror genre. However, as it stands, Daymare 1998 remains a bittersweet experience, simultaneously triggering nostalgia while eliciting frustration.
Unveiling the Flaws within the Game
Daymare 1998's shortcomings are evident, hindering its ability to reach its full potential. The game's mechanics, while reminiscent of the classics, lack the refinement necessary to deliver a truly immersive experience. The controls, at times, feel clunky and unresponsive, detracting from the overall gameplay. Stepping into the world of 'Daymare 1998' is like entering a dark abyss of fear and adrenaline, where every step you take sends shivers down your spine, reminding you why you love to buy PS5 horror games that push the boundaries of terror. Additionally, the pacing and level design could benefit from further attention, as certain sections tend to drag on, impeding the player's engagement.
A Glimpse into the Promising Future
Despite its flaws, Daymare 1998 does offer glimmers of hope. The attention to detail in capturing the aesthetics of the original PlayStation era is commendable, immersing players in a familiar and atmospheric world. If you crave an adrenaline rush that transcends reality, 'Daymare 1998' is the ticket to a heart-pounding experience, one of the best PS5 games available. The narrative, though not groundbreaking, manages to keep players engaged, thanks to its nods to the beloved survival horror tropes of the past. With the right adjustments, the developers have the potential to transform this homage into a compelling and unforgettable experience.
A Game of Nostalgic Frustration
Daymare 1998 serves as a mixed bag, teetering between nostalgia-inducing delight and irksome disappointment. While it successfully evokes memories of classic survival horror games, it fails to deliver a fully realized experience that matches its inspirations. As players journey through its haunting environments and face off against its menacing creatures, they may find themselves torn between moments of joy and frustration. Even if it's not one of the new PS5 games published, it is not old either - 2020. Ultimately, Daymare 1998 remains an intriguing testament to the power of nostalgia, leaving room for improvement and the potential for future success.
Conclusion
Daymare 1998, while paying tribute to the survival horror games of yesteryear, falls short of its lofty aspirations. Though it possesses glimpses of brilliance and captures the essence of the original PlayStation era, the game fails to deliver a fully satisfying experience. It may be one of the best PS5 games for some with a particular taste. With further refinement, optimization, and attention to detail, Daymare 1998 could become a true standout in the survival horror genre. Until then, it serves as a reminder of what could have been—a hauntingly nostalgic journey tinged with both delight and frustration.
So, when I’m writing this, it is 2024. I turned 31 years old back in February. I still love playing video games and surfing the internet since I was a young lad. Besides that, I also have a fascination for anything that has to do with dreams and their meanings. And then a game called Hypnospace Outlaw turns up on my radar. A game that promises to bring back the early years of the internet that I remember. Not only that, we are going to have to moderate the internet with a new technology that allows people to surf the internet while they are dreaming. We have to play as an unnamed enforcer to keep the internet safe and on top of that, we can create our own pages and mod this game easily. But before we start spending time on that, let’s find out if the base game is actually good and if it’s worth to start playing this game or if it’s something we should skip. Also, feel free to leave your thoughts and/or opinions on this article and/or the game in the comment section down below. Besides, dear enforcer and MerchantSoft, this isn’t harassment, this is a fair review/critique of the game. Removing this from HypnoOS isn’t the solution.
Dreaming Up Nostalgic Investigations
In this game, you play as an unnamed enforcer for MerchantSoft. A company that developed a headband that allows users to surf the web in their dreams. Your goal is to clean up the HypnoSpace for everybody. You start in late 1999, where your first case is assigned. When your first case is assigned, you are left to your own devices, and you can explore the internet by yourself. And let me tell you, there is a lot of internet to explore.
The story of this game is fascinating. You get to dive and explore through various pages on the internet about various things. A long time before social media was a thing and everybody had a website for their own creations. The HypnoSpace has several zones, with each their own theme. If you remember AOL, you will know what I’m talking about.
If you want to get the most out of this game, I highly advise you to take your time with this game. Don’t rush it at all. This game is sadly rather short if you only follow the main story of the game. It’s only 6 hours long and shorter if you know what you are doing. I mean, the speedruns are only around 11 minutes. The strength of this game is the depth it has. This game has three main chapters, and there are clear triggers that separate the chapters.
The deeper you dig and the more you read up, the more interesting lore gets revealed. I actually started a second playthrough to try and find the things I missed. And honestly, this game is one that gets ruined by playing it with a guide in any sort or form. Do not play this game with a guide. It’s a lot less rewarding if you play it with a guide in your first or second playthrough. The wonder of getting lost in all of these pages is just so nostalgic.
Now, while I was playing, I was wondering if it would appeal to the younger players out there. I’m somewhat on the fence about that. While it tackles a lot of subjects that are still somewhat relevant, I honestly think that it’ll mostly click with those who grew up with the internet of the ’90 to early ’00. With that said, I think that it still might click with the younger people, but know that the internet was very different back then.
Point-And-Click Detective
This game is a point-and-click adventure game in any sense of the word. You get a case, and you have to explore the internet to see if anyone broke the rules or not.
Each infraction you find, will reward you with HypnoCoin. You can use these coins to buy various things in the Hypnospace. This can go from stickers, wallpapers, themes, applications to so much more. But be careful, it’s quite possible that some of these downloads are infected with malware. And back then, malware was a lot more visual and less aimed at serving you a lot of ads or stealing your information.
The controls of this game are quite easy. You mostly click with your mouse and input things sometimes in the search bar. If you know how to do basic things with a computer, you’ll very quickly find your way around with this game as well. While I sometimes struggled with opening apps, I didn’t have too much trouble with the controls. Thankfully, there are some options to tweak the controls to your liking, like disabling that double-clicking opens apps. But, I’m a Windows user and the double click to open apps is just hardwired in my brain.
Visually, this game really looks like you are playing with the old internet. When I noticed that there was a mod that changed the OS into Windows 95, oh boy, I was sold. There are various themes for the OS in this game, and they go from amazing to silly. There is even a fast food theme. Now, if you read that this game is mostly created by a team of 5 people, it’s even more impressive. Not only that, one of the main designers of Dropsy is part of the team.
The creativity of this game never ceased to amaze me. Let me continue on the trend of the visuals and say that the little details on how the webpages look is just so realistic. The little typo’s here and there, the rabbit holes you can jump down, the crazy visuals on various pages… Even the “help me, I can’t remove this” and “Test 1 2 3″… I made me crack up and remember my early days when I used to write webpages in plain HTML with barely any coding knowledge as a young teen.
While I knew that wiggling the mouse sped up the loading of the webpages, I just never really did. I just enjoyed the webpages loading slowly and having that experience again when I was a teenager before Facebook or any other big social media started to take over. Yes, even before MySpace. While I only experienced the late “pre-social media internet”, I do have amazing memories of it.
On top of that, you have the amazing wallpapers and sticker packs you can buy and play around with. With this, you can really make your desktop your own. But, something that really triggered memories for me were the viruses you can encounter. Back as a young teen, I was a lot less careful in what I downloaded and seeing the visual mess some viruses can create in this game, it triggered some nasty memories.
Memories like how one time, I got a very nasty variant of the SASSER worm and each time I installed something new, my computer would lock up and crash. Yes, even when you tried to re-install Windows, it locked up and crashed the installer. After a lot of digging, I found that it was caused by a program starting with boot and I had to screw out my hard drive, connect it with somebody’s computer and then remove the start-up file from there. I also had a piece of malware that looked like the ButtsDisease virus in this game. Where it started to change all the text on a webpage to another word. Oh man, those were the days.
So, during your investigations you can encounter various things. Things like people breaking the rules, and you have to report those. You mostly need to focus on one of 5 categories. Copyright infringement, harassment, illegal downloads/malware, extra illegal commerce and illegal activity. Each law gets several infractions, and you do have to look for them. At one moment, I really that to take notes. I really have to say, taking notes for this game is really helpful, you even have the notes’ app in HypnoOS.
Sticking in your brain
Now, something I have to commend the developers for in this game is that they also took accessibility into account. Something I have to commend the developers for as well is the amount of content in this game, even when the main story is extremely short. I already talked about the visuals and how much I love them, but the music in this game is something else.
Some of the music tracks are really stuck in my mind and I wouldn’t be surprised that if I ever write another article in my favorite game music series, some of them will pop up in that. Some tracks are real earworms and got stuck in my brain. The music for some of the parody products in this game is so good, that I wish they were real.
The music in this game is a mixture of various styles, and I find some of them more catchy than the others, but it’s really impressive at how many styles there are in this game. If you know that this game has over 4 hours of music in it, that’s an amazing feat.
There is even a whole suite where you can create your own pages, music and mods released by one of the main developers of this game. It works only on Windows and you can read more about it on the itch.io page of Jay Tolen here. There were even various community events where your stuff could appear as an Easter egg in the main game. Yet, these tools are now part of the main game and are in your installation folder.
Speaking about this, modding this game is extremely easy. There is even a build in mod browser, and it’s a piece of cake to install and downloads mods. If you use the in-game mod menu, you don’t have to reboot the game for most mods to take effect. Just go to the main menu, choose the mods button and install the mods you want. Now, there are a lot more mods out there then just what you can find in the in-game mod browser, so check them out here.
The game has an autosave, it doesn’t really show when the game gets saved. There are three save slots, so if you want to replay the game, you can pick another save slot. Now, if there is one mod I highly advise is he expanded endgame cases mod. This mod expands the game quite naturally and is a lot of fun and additional challenge. But don’t read the description when you haven’t finished the game, since it contains quite a lot of spoilers.
This game can be quite tricky. Sometimes the solution isn’t the easiest to find. It’s even possible you don’t find the solution to every puzzle out there. Now, there is a built in hint system for this game. It’s somewhat hidden to avoid immersion breaking, but for a small HypnoCoin fee, you can get a hint to progress. I really love this system, since I rather have you getting a crowbar to get yourself unstuck than you getting a guide where it’s very easy to other things and spoil the whole experience. Since the fun of this genre depends highly on solving the puzzles with what’s given to you. If you want to get a hint, just search hint.
Overall I have been extremely positive about this game, and I have to say that overall this game is extremely well-made. I rarely found any moments where I thought, this isn’t right. But does that mean that this game doesn’t have any negatives? Well, sadly enough there are a few things I didn’t like about my experience and that I want to talk about.
First of all, I wish the default text-to-speech voice wasn’t the default language of your system if you aren’t English. I’m from Belgium and my text-to-speech voice reads English extremely weird. Thankfully, I had the English soundpack installed on my computer so after I went into the BIOS settings, I was able to quickly change it to the English one and it sounds a lot more natural and better.
Secondly, this is an issue in general with point-and-click games but the replay value just isn’t here. Once you explored everything, you have seen everything. There are various mini-games, but those are quickly beaten. While I personally don’t really see this is a negative, since not every game needs high replay value and sometimes playing it once and having the whole experience engulf you is the idea… I want to mention it, if somebody is looking for replayable games.
Third, you can find more infractions than what’s required to close the case. While I can understand that the game doesn’t tell you how many other things there are out there for immersion reasons, as somebody who wanted to experience everything, I was sometimes a bit annoyed that I couldn’t make sure I found everything. If only there was an option you could toggle to see completion percentage or something of that nature. Since, because of this, it’s possible to lock yourself out of achievements or content in this game.
Yes, this game has achievements and some of them are extremely tricky to get. It took me a lot of researching and exploring in HypnoSpace to find all the material. Thankfully, taking notes really helped me to find it all.
And the final thing is that the final chapters of this game feel a bit rushed and undercooked. One of the final cases is a breeze to solve if you have written notes during your playthrough and it feels like there is content cut out of the game. The ending comes a bit out of nowhere and if you didn’t explore everything or didn’t register certain things, the ending won’t make sense to you and it will loose it’s impact. Thankfully, the mod I shared earlier resolves this to a degree.
That’s all the negative I could say about this game, in my honest opinion. When this game clicks with you, it clicks really well and doesn’t let go at all. But, I’ll leave my final thoughts after the summary of this review. So, I think it’s high time for that since I have touch upon everything I wanted to in this review.
Summary
The bad:
-Text-to-speech should use English by default
-It’s possible to miss content or lock yourself out of it.
-The game is rather short.
-Rushed ending.
The good:
+ Amazing nostalgic trip
+ Amazing music
+ Fantastic writing
+ Easy to use mod tools
+ Great puzzles
+ Great controls
+ …
Final thoughts:
Hypnospace Outlaw is an amazing nostalgic point-and-click adventure trip through the late ’90’s internet. This game might not be for everyone, but when it clicks… Oh boy does it really click. Now, this is also a game you shouldn’t rush. The charm of this game is in all the little details and references that are hidden in the pages and the world building of this game.
While the game is rather at the shortside for point-and-click games, I don’t see it as a big problem to be honest. The journey that this game took me on was a lot more worth it to me than having a long game. Since, I think it would have lost it’s charm if this game kept going and going.
While I personally have more memories with the internet time period that came right after it, the developers are already working on the sequel to this game called Dreamsettler. I honestly can’t wait to play that one, since the quality that this game has is just top notch. The music is catchy, the visuals are amazing and it alls comes together in an amazing nostalgic trip that makes you want to play more.
There are some minor blemishes on this game, but you can work with them. Like I said before, when this game clicks, it really does click extremely well. I’d compare my experience with games like There Is No Game or SuperLiminal. Amazing small titles that leave a lasting impact on those who play it. All of these games are passion projects that turned out amazing and get a recommendation from me.
If you enjoy playing unique point-and-click games and/or if you have nostalgia for the old ’90’s internet, I highly recommend that you give this game a try. While this game is on multiple platforms, I highly recommend that you play the PC version since it has mod support that gives you even more toys to play with and expands the game even more.
I had a blast with this game and it’s a breath of fresh air for me. I’m angry at myself that I rushed my playthrough, but now I have installed several mods and I’m so going to replay this game after I have published this article. I also want to earn every achievement in this game, since I really want to see everything. I’m also extremely hyped for the sequel to this game and I can’t wait to start playing that, since that is going to be an even bigger nostalgic trip for me than this game. And with the amazing set of developers behind this game, I think we get another gem in our hands.
And with that said, I think it’s high time to wrap this article up. I want to thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.
Stand by me…in a turn based battle, Echo Generation Midnight Edition but is it worth staying up late for?
Echo Generation Midnight Edition hails from Canada from indie developer Cococucumber with support from Canada Media Fund and Ontario Creates. Echo Generation has made it’s way to the Nintendo Switch with it’s Midnight Edition. The Midnight Edition features upgraded graphics, fast travel as well as a host of quality of life upgrades.
Echo Generation Midnight Edition is a Turn based RPG set in a small town during the 1990’s and if that starts hitting you in the nostalgia feels then buckle up as you’ve got more to come. As soon as you load up Echo Generation Midnight Edition you’ll appreciate it’s art style, everything about the game is distinctly vintage but without looked dated, thats to say it looks old school but with the crispness you’d expect from a modern release. The first thing you’ll need to do is select and name your player character. I went with the character model I thought had the most 90’s vibe, then I had to name them, so with nostalgia in mind, I went for Ripley. The name of your character has 0 impact but I did get a fair bit if enjoyment out of the name choice once with more sci-fi elements of the games plot started to unfold.
Once you’ve selected your avatar you’re in your bed room which looks perfectly 90s, posters on the walls, a tape cassette player, old school looking PC, toy chests and of course (Ice) Hockey equipment, we’re in Canada remember (Although no Canadian team has won Lord Stanley’s cup since 1993) but being a big hockey fan myself, it was a nice touch. You leave your bedroom all set to start shooting a Sci-Fi movie with your friends, when your mother forces you to take your little sister with you. Now, in most stories this will be a chore, but Lily is a fully capable member of your party, in fact you party will make out at 3 members, You, Lily and a ‘Pet’, one of five to choose from, although pick Meowsy the cat, easily the best support character.
As always I like to keep narrative spoilers to a minimum but Echo Generation Midnight Edition features a great cast of characters, including a psychotic headteacher, hipster bubble tea store proprietors, a distracted inventor who’s some what of a lack lustre father to a Racoon in a baseball cap. As far as the games writing is concerned it’s sensational, it hits the Saturday morning adventure vibe perfectly. I’m sure comparisons to Stranger Things are guaranteed but I’ll be honest, I kept thinking about Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five, which is entirely anachronistic and makes me feel old, but be it Stranger Things, Stand By Me or any other rites of passage coming of age story and you’re in the right spot. The plot is the perfect adventure, the characters and their dialogue reach Buffy levels of witty banter and it’s pacing is perfect, the game clocks in around 10 hours and at no point in time did it feel anything other than compelling.
You’ll spend the 10 or so hours of the games length exploring a variety of locations, the suburbs (engaged in a turf war between kids and a Racoon street gang), the woods, a secret research lab and many more, and you’ll be running back and forth between these locations in an almost Metroidvania-esque fashion. The world features a myriad of NPCs, many of whom are memorable and add a huge amount of charm to the game.
Battles in Echo Generation Midnight Edition are turn based and for the most part they are pretty much what you’d expect for the most part. Each character has a basic attack and a decent selection of special moves. You’ll unlock these special moves by finding comic books (who says funny books aren’t educational) and each book is themed to each character. The main characters moves are all (Ice) Hockey themed which I really enjoyed. Having blocked a few shots in my time a puck being sent into your face via a slapshot would certainly be an effective tactic in battle. Each special attack has a unique mini-game, pass and you’ll do critical damage, fail and you’ll have time to make do with the attacks base damage. This can be increased be levelling up. Each time you level up you’ll be rewarded with points to spend in one of three categories, health, attack and skill points.
This brings me to the only really downside of Echo Generation Midnight Edition, aside from the first boss, grinding isn’t needed. Now, there are of course there are two schools of thought when it comes to grinding. To some, it’s a classic part of the TTRPG experience, to others its an outdated mechanic that needs to be left behind. I’m somewhere between the tow and if I’m honest the only game I think nailed it was Final Fantasy XIII. Echo Generation Midnight Edition doesn’t really have what you’d call a difficulty curve, it’s more of a small bump followed by a steep decline. Battles provide little challenge, even the final boss is a breeze and while the mystery of the narrative was rewarding enough but the ease of the combat did dull the feeling of accomplishment somewhat.
When I was a kid, I briefly had a friend who built the first computer I ever saw. I long ago forgot the friend's name, but I remember the name he gave the computer: Laurie (after Laurie Partridge, natch). It had one simple Star Trek game that somehow involved acquiring and shooting photon torpedoes. — Read the rest
Vimm’s Lair, one of the oldest places on the web to find and download classic video game ROMs and emulators, recently announced the removal of many titles due to requests from Sega, Nintendo, Sony, the Entertainment Software Association, and Lego.
Donald Trump's presidential campaign famously promises to "Make America Great Again." As a rule, no one should think too hard about the meaning of bumper sticker political slogans. But ever since Trump rolled it out nine years ago, his slogan has quietly asked some seemingly unanswerable questions: When was America great before? And when did that greatness vanish, thus necessitating its recovery?
The answer, it turns out, isn't a year. It's an age.
And that age is roughly when you were between 11 and 16 years old—regardless of when you were born. Across generations, Americans seem to believe that the best music, the best television, the top sporting events, and the strongest communities are the ones they experienced in their adolescence and early teen years. That's the conclusion drawn by the data crunchers at The Washington Post, who distilled some fascinating recent polling data from YouGov's survey of Americans' views about different decades.
"The good old days when America was 'great' aren't the 1950s," writes the Post's Andrew Van Dan. "They're whatever decade you were 11, your parents knew the correct answer to any question, and you'd never heard of war crimes tribunals, microplastics, or improvised explosive devices. Or when you were 15 and athletes and musicians still played hard and hadn't sold out."
The charts in the Post's analysis are striking: Across music, movies, fashion, and other social measures, Americans seem to believe that culture peaked roughly one to two decades after they were born and has declined since. The Post and YouGov polling data fits with what other researchers have found: that humans have the strongest sense of nostalgia for the culture we experienced between the ages of 17 and 23.
It's not difficult to deduce why. Those are our formative years, rich with new experiences and potential, in which most of us had few serious responsibilities and got to enjoy the safety of having others provide for our basic needs.
On its own, there is nothing wrong with having golden-tinged memories of those years. Do I still love a lot of music from the late 90s and early 2000s simply because I was born in 1987, even though I can admit that some of it is objectively pretty terrible? Damn right, I do.
But letting nostalgia get mixed up in politics is not a great idea, in part because it's obviously a false promise. Sorry, but no matter how hard you vote, you're never going to be 15 again.
Unfortunately, personal disillusionment is not the most serious problem created by nostalgia politics. As former Reason editor in chief Virginia Postrel explained in The Future and Its Enemies, many of the clashes that erupt in modern politics and culture are the result of a conflict between the forces of "stasis" and "dynamism." Her book remains a powerful argument in favor of letting messy markets work and embracing the improvements that will come from an unknown future—and I'm not just saying that because it came out in 1998.
It seems like nostalgia-influenced politics plays into the hands of the former group, which would prefer a world more strictly controlled, with less creativity and change. That shows up most obviously in Trump's slogan, of course, but also in many other policies pushed by both major parties these days: limiting immigration, restricting development, protecting domestic industries from foreign competition, and so on. It is unfortunately a quick jump from "I wish the world would be more like how I remember it when I was younger" to giving the state more power over your freedom and the freedom of others.
By all means, re-watch those old television shows for the hundredth time. Buy tickets to go see those washed-up rock stars on tour this summer. Just keep your sense of nostalgia out of the voting booth and the public square.
You'll never be 15 again, but please don't ruin the future for the people who aren't 15 yet.
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