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 You want information? You won't get it. OK, maybe a little. Released in MCMLXXX for the Apple II, The Prisoner (insipred by the MCMLXVII TV series) is a game like no other. It's designed to confuse, disorient and deceive. It's a game which tracks and saves your every move, just so that it can wipe your XXXX XXXX the moment you make a critical mistake. As an off-line experience, the Prisoner is unrivalled in its meta level. For all his famous "Fission Mailed" and the HIDEO channel, Hideo Kojima has never made a game that can rage quit on the player. I'll start off with a few videos exploring our prison and figuring out how everything works. Then you'll tell me how to escape. I'm going into this with live commentary and semi-blind, having messed with some of the game's areas previously.  ACT I, Orientation:  Recording #1. Buildings #1-6. Recording #II. Buildings #7-14. Recording #C. Buildings #15-20+.ACT TWO,  : Recording #Four. Unplug the system. Recording #. Oops. Recording #2*3. Mary had a little ****. Recording #+1. The rover. Recording #Trial. Freedom. Recording. The Plug.
SelenicMartian fucked around with this message at 16:58 on Apr 23, 2017 |
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Feb 23, 2017 14:03
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Ah, crap. How do I ask a mode to change the icon to Classic?
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Feb 23, 2017 14:08
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Oh hell yeah. Subscribed.
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Feb 23, 2017 14:24
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This does look interesting, but I'm so glad games have moved on from this. This looks like one of those games where you can play through the whole thing in 20 minutes if you know the true path, so most of the gameplay is dedicated to obscuring and messing with that as much as possible to make the game last 4 hours. How crazy does the Prisoner-ness get as the game goes on?
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Feb 23, 2017 19:47
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Davin Valkri posted:
Think of it less as a tie-in game and more as being The Prisoner in spirit - the game can and will try to trick you, trap you and lie to you. It can get to the point where you're paranoid about doing anything, because you can't be sure that you're not doing exactly what the game wants you to. If it's similar to any episode of the series, I'd say it's closest to the penultimate episode, with the player in the position of Number Six. It's... an experience, to be sure.
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Feb 23, 2017 20:00
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SelenicMartian posted:Ah, crap. How do I ask a mode to change the icon to Classic? It's quite simple, really. Just type in the three digit code you were given when you decided to make a thread about The Prisoner...
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Feb 23, 2017 21:00
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I have *BEEP* no idea *BEEP* what is goi*BEEP*ng on. Be seeing you.
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Feb 24, 2017 02:16
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I've heard about The Prisoner, never watched it but I did watch the first episode of the remake. This could be something. I'll probably get you killed!
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Feb 24, 2017 04:30
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I've seen most of the original series, but I don't think that will help here.
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Feb 24, 2017 04:42
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Oh, this looks wild, I'm looking forward to this.
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Feb 24, 2017 05:54
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I am all kinds of here for this one.
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Feb 24, 2017 07:12
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Andrew Plotkin did a fantastic writeup of this game that I will link when you are done.
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Feb 24, 2017 07:13
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I'm excited to see this game after reading a (different) article about it somewhere and figuring it was too obscure for me to come across something about it again. If you haven't recorded the next episode yet, please turn down the game audio a bit because it's very irritating (don't really care if it's "supposed to be").
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Feb 24, 2017 14:51
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Oh, I will turn it down. This time I reduced it by 10-11dB, next time I'll go with 20.
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Feb 24, 2017 16:05
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SelenicMartian posted:Oh, I will turn it down. This time I reduced it by 10-11dB, next time I'll go with 20. It was definitely ok at the autoduck volume, if that helps.
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Feb 24, 2017 16:32
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SelenicMartian posted:Ah, crap. How do I ask a mode to change the icon to Classic? There are like five tags with "Classic" but I took a guess.
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Feb 24, 2017 17:10
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Fedule posted:There are like five tags with "Classic" but I took a guess. It was ironic that I'd forgot the icon, seeing that the game requires attention and concentration.
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Feb 24, 2017 17:34
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I've always wanted to check out The Prisoner, and I love the Zero Escape series, so I'm deffo bookmarking this. My advice for every action is to do it while yelling "I am not a number!"
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Feb 24, 2017 18:06
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What happens if you just type in "230" at random. Does it trigger the game over, or just if you type it into a prompt?
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Feb 25, 2017 02:09
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Randalor posted:What happens if you just type in a certain number at random. Does it trigger the game over, or just if you type it into a prompt?
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Feb 25, 2017 03:27
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Randalor posted:What happens if you just type in "230" at random. Does it trigger the game over, or just if you type it into a prompt? In my experience, it's best to just not tempt the game at all, ever.
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Feb 25, 2017 04:05
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I'm going to pretend this is the same universe as Headhunter. The saboteurs attacking the "water" were actually Jack and I-already-forgot-the-woman's-name destroying the supply of X-Must.
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Feb 25, 2017 04:26
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Reviewing the video, I believe, based on the code for the Clues program, that it's reading from the file, PR.LOST. So, perhaps next time you quit the game, you can check that one out.
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Feb 25, 2017 04:42
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It's always interesting to see games playing with the interface even if they're as old as this.
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Feb 27, 2017 03:19
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You know how Drakengard has gameplay segments that make you want to kill yourself, and then it mocks you for sitting through that poo poo? Recording #II. Buildings #7-14 The Prisoner is possibly the first game to let you graduate and get drunk. Also, a pioneer in 'There was a ____ here. It's gone now.'
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Feb 28, 2017 15:06
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SelenicMartian posted:You want information? You won't get it. By hook or by crook, we will! This show was batshit insane in the best/worst kind of way. The variance by episode was incredibly high, but the highs were really, really high. I'm interested in where this game goes! edit: Also, you've done the like two people who haven't already seen the show a disservice by not linking this! The Prisoner has one of the most awesome instrumental-only opening themes I can think of. It's just so distinctive! vdate fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Feb 28, 2017 |
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Feb 28, 2017 15:43
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So does the game turn out to be totally unwinnable if your RNG resignation code happens to match/be contained in anything else, like your bank ID?
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Feb 28, 2017 17:08
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Wow, this is bizarre. I imagine the musical room from video 1 wants you to step on the tiles to recreate the song ( ''''song'''' ) it plays for you, but short of making a grid map for it, I can't imagine how you'd do it. This game was so before my time -- before its time -- it's kind of amazing to think about its contemporaries. Came out the same year as Pac-Man, Warlords, and Missile Command. Not to say that those games are bad, but this is so on a different level. e: and the original Rogue.
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Mar 1, 2017 05:55
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Davin Valkri posted:So does the game turn out to be totally unwinnable if your RNG resignation code happens to match/be contained in anything else, like your bank ID? I assume the game is coded to avoid that. I get the feeling that it's willing to break the usual assumptions, but I think that to make it an interesting game they avoided making it unwinnable by coincidence.
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Mar 1, 2017 13:27
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I think it's unfair that you get a game over just for repeating 230 back to them. You can't tell people it's your number, but you should be able to do anything with it that wouldn't indicate it belongs to you. Like I would think refusing to echo 230 would be more of a tell than anything.
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Mar 2, 2017 01:04
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Domus posted:I think it's unfair that you get a game over just for repeating 230 back to them. You can't tell people it's your number, but you should be able to do anything with it that wouldn't indicate it belongs to you. Like I would think refusing to echo 230 would be more of a tell than anything. Well, as far as we know, just typing "2-3-0" in the memory game doesn't necessarily get you a game over, it's just better to be safe than sorry. I mean, if the emulator is capable of saving and loading states, it might be interesting to test it, just to see, but I wouldn't think it counts as revealing your number unless it's all a single prompt (such as in the Castle, or typing it as a complete input in a text box, rather than broken up between several).
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Mar 2, 2017 02:15
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Domus posted:I think it's unfair that you get a game over just for repeating 230 back to them. You can't tell people it's your number, but you should be able to do anything with it that wouldn't indicate it belongs to you. Like I would think refusing to echo 230 would be more of a tell than anything. If you think 'fair' has anything to do with anything in The Prisoner, then you've failed to understand the phrase 'by hook or by crook, we will.' Admittedly, I'm basing this on the show, but a BIG part of The Prisoner was about loving with the protagonist's head and trying to trick him into revealing the reason for his resignation.
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Mar 2, 2017 04:52
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Bogart posted:Wow, this is bizarre. I imagine the musical room from video 1 wants you to step on the tiles to recreate the song ( ''''song'''' ) it plays for you, but short of making a grid map for it, I can't imagine how you'd do it. This game was so before my time -- before its time -- it's kind of amazing to think about its contemporaries. Came out the same year as Pac-Man, Warlords, and Missile Command. Not to say that those games are bad, but this is so on a different level. One of the other games made by the same designer was a two-player domestic terrorism simulator. One person played the government and the other, the terrorist high command. The game was in real time and used the Apple II paddles as the controller. The paddles were picked because of how awkward and ill-suited to the game they were, this being a way to simulate incompetent subordinates or misunderstood orders. There were also random events that either side could choose to disavow or support. At least, this is what I read. This guy's games feel like they dropped out of another universe.
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Mar 2, 2017 06:09
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Actually, on the topic of Missile Command, that game kind of had some deeper messaging baked in than just "hey, stop some missiles". Here's one of quite a few articles on the subject. Basically, Missile Command was seen by its creator as all the fears of nuclear war caused by the Cold War channeled into an arcade game. He deliberately designed it to tell a story of mutually-assured destruction where all hope is lost, which is why instead of "game over" when all your cities are destroyed, the game instead says "the end". It's pretty interesting, someone using the minimal resources involved in making an arcade game to tell a story of that nature. You could consider Missile Command and The Prisoner (the game) two sides of the same coin, early game developers pushing the boundaries of what the technology they had available at the time would allow them to do, creatively.
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Mar 2, 2017 06:59
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Yes, Missile Command being nightmares given flesh is one of my favourite things about it. I wanted to record it for the old art games thread, but couldn't get the audio to capture. The original Monopoly, The Landlord's Game from 1904, had two rule sets, one of which ensured everyone got rich and the other would lead to one player coming out on top, as everyone else was in debt with no ways to get out. Elizabeth Magie made it as an illustration of some idiotic policies regarding property ownership. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Landlord%27s_Game Then her patents were bought, one half of the game was removed, and her name nearly erased. The part where everyone in Monopoly ends up hating both the winner and the game itself is 100% intentional. EclecticTastes posted:Well, as far as we know, just typing "2-3-0" in the memory game doesn't necessarily get you a game over, it's just better to be safe than sorry. I mean, if the emulator is capable of saving and loading states, it might be interesting to test it, just to see, but I wouldn't think it counts as revealing your number unless it's all a single prompt (such as in the Castle, or typing it as a complete input in a text box, rather than broken up between several). I know of one place where typing in your code does not end the game. It's the city selection before the first gassing. There the system only waits for any three symbols.
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Mar 2, 2017 11:25
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SelenicMartian posted:The original Monopoly, The Landlord's Game from 1904, had two rule sets, one of which ensured everyone got rich and the other would lead to one player coming out on top, as everyone else was in debt with no ways to get out. Elizabeth Magie made it as an illustration of some idiotic policies regarding property ownership. PBS's Youtube series, Game/Show, did an episode exploring this, including talking about how popular house rules like getting all the money lost through taxes and the like when you land on Free Parking end up just dragging the game out and making it less fun for everybody, because of how early a winner tends to emerge, as well as other ways in which Parker Brothers screwed up the mechanics by trying to turn an anti-capitalism game pro-capitalism.
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Mar 2, 2017 16:31
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SelenicMartian posted:The original Monopoly, The Landlord's Game from 1904, had two rule sets, one of which ensured everyone got rich and the other would lead to one player coming out on top, as everyone else was in debt with no ways to get out. Elizabeth Magie made it as an illustration of some idiotic policies regarding property ownership. I wonder how the original game was supposed to have been played, especially the half that was lost.
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Mar 2, 2017 19:15
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Mraagvpeine posted:I wonder how the original game was supposed to have been played, especially the half that was lost. Fortunately for you, the Parker Brothers did not collect and burn all extant copies of the original Landlord's Game, so the rules have indeed survived into the modern era, as seen here. Enjoy!
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Mar 2, 2017 19:21
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vdate posted:If you think 'fair' has anything to do with anything in The Prisoner, then you've failed to understand the phrase 'by hook or by crook, we will.' My favourite episode is Hammer Into Anvil for this. The Number 2 of this episode is the most obviously villainous, which results in the death of a young woman. So Six turns the tables on him and runs a plot to render Two utterly paranoid and mad.
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Mar 2, 2017 19:57
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For some reason (it may have even been referenced in the videos proper, and I just spaced out) I just realized that the game uses the # to refer to the character. You ARE, after all, a number, protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.
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Mar 3, 2017 00:41
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