sb hermit posted:

Whoa, another Legend Entertainment game! I mostly know this company from the Companions of Xanth game, although they also released a lot of earlier games that could be played in either text-only or with graphics.

Reading the wikipedia page, it looks like they were Infocom refugees after Activision acquired then closed it down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_Entertainment

That explains some of the writing, I guess. I kind of want to play the earlier Infocom games if I ever get the chance.

Crazy Achmed posted:

This has started out nice and weird, makes me wish I had a local bar like that. It's giving me some Hitchhikers' Guide vibes, and the voice acting is very nice so far.

Zaroff posted:

It took a bit of help at the end, but I think the riddle is Doctor Hook and the Medicine Show

I’m really enjoying this - it says a lot that we’re about an hour into the game, and aside from some riddles (which unfortunately date it poorly), it’s really just been a lot of dialogue and yet it’s engaging!

I’m just not sure what the object of the game is though…

quote:

"It seems like every game I play these days is about monsters, murder, destruction, and evil. I wanted something uplifting, something that would take place in a world I wanted to live in, rather than one I wanted to escape from."

—Designer Josh Mandel in 1997

sb hermit posted:

I would love to have four primary arms so that I could pet four dogs at the same time.

berryjon posted:

Spider Robinson had an interesting career, and the first book of his I read was Telempath. Heck, he was even tapped to adapt one of Robert Heinlein's story treatments into a full story - Variable Star (published 2006). Sadly, due to deaths in the family and his own health issues, his career as a writer has come to a halt, and his last work was in 2008.

I'm here for this.

Crazy Achmed posted:

This has started out nice and weird, makes me wish I had a local bar like that. It's giving me some Hitchhikers' Guide vibes, and the voice acting is very nice so far.

BlankSystemDaemon posted:

I’m so here for this; Callahan’s is one of my all-time favorite book series, and I have fond memories of playing this game way back in the day.

He’s still plugging away at another book, as well as his autobiography, and does irregular blog posts on his website.

Yea, there’s something quite Douglas Adamsesque over this game, especially when compared to Starship Titanic.

Rocket Baby Dolls posted:

Starship Titanic is on my list at some point. But that's only when I'm good and ready for it. I'm trying to space out the more unforgiving adventure games and I've gone through a few of them these past couple of years.

Spider Robinson recorded music for the game and they can be heard when you ask Fast Eddie to play one of his "specialities". I might try to find a way to record and upload these at some point. I'll see if I can find the music files on the disc, if they aren't then I'll have to record the songs in game.

BlankSystemDaemon posted:

Starship Titanic is absolutely wonderful and absolutely bonkers in how much it expects you to just figure out by trial and error.

Drunkards Song, which the game opens with, wasn't written for the game - rather, it's featured in The Law Of Conservation Of Pain, which is one of the short-stories in the first book in the series. The guitar solo is by none other than Amos Garrett, who's got a long and illustrious career.
EDIT: You'll be able to find it on Spiders website, I'm pretty sure that's where I got my copy from.

Spider has made music for several of his books, and there's quite a bit of the author in the books'/games protagonist.

BlankSystemDaemon posted:

Starship Titanic is absolutely wonderful and absolutely bonkers in how much it expects you to just figure out by trial and error.

Rocket Baby Dolls posted:

Thank you for the link, these are the same songs that Fast Eddie plays when you ask for one of his specialties.

Item Getter posted:

Though I played it myself back in the day, I've always felt it is one of those games that would be best experienced through watching an LP, so the audience can enjoy all the great humor and cool sci-fi art deco atmosphere without having to personally deal with some of the more dubious puzzle design. Though it's telling that they felt the game needed to be shipped with a strategy guide and we still had trouble with the precise wording on a certain "ask a robot to do something for you" puzzle.

Rocket Baby Dolls posted:

Zaroff posted:

It took a bit of help at the end, but I think the riddle is Doctor Hook and the Medicine Show

sb hermit posted:

I don’t know what authentic brazilian-accented english sounds like but I would be hard pressed to believe that this is an accurate representation.

Dave Syndrome posted:

Just discovered this thread thanks to Pragmatica's announcement post. Yay!

Callahan's Crosstime Saloon is a game I replay every few years or so, and it was through it that I discovered Spider Robinson's books. Hope discussion of the stories isn't considered derailing the thread.

I had The Callahan Chronicals (the collection of the first three books) forever, and just a few months ago I completed my collection up to Callahan's Con and the two Lady Sally books and went on a complete rereading binge.
And boy howdy, as a non-native speaker with a reasonable understanding of English, deciphering some of the puns can be hard work. Especially when they're references to cultural phenomena of the 1960s that 1970s American readers of the books would of course know - but when you've been born in Germany in the mid-1970s, even cultural osmosis has its limits. The "yule gibbons" joke in one of the stories nearly broke my brain until I googled it. Also, we don't have the "traveling salesman and the farmer's daughter" as joke tropes, so I didn't get the punchline of the Al Phee story until this year's reread.

Still, the books are an utter joy to read, and I'd heartily recommend them to anyone who even mildly enjoys the game. The overarching theme of making the world a better place through empathy is something the world desperately needs more of. Not since Terry Pratchett have I read an author whose worldview is so... well, human at its core.

That's not to say some of the material isn't a bit dated. The writer is/was of his time, and some of the views expressed (especially with regards to sexual topics, and especially where the topic overlaps into the area of minors) made me cringe and probably wouldn't fly today. Especially the way rape is sometimes talked about as almost a casual thing really stuck out.

It's also obvious that Robinson has his favorite topics / obsessions, and sometimes when the characters talk at length about their love of certain musicians or science fiction authors, you feel like you're reading Ready Player One, just for a different subsection of geekdom. (Even so, I'm now convinced that I need to start reading at least some Asimov and some Heinlein, if only to get more of the references.)

And some of the writing, especially in the later books, is frankly getting absurd. The way the heroes deduce the impending space catastrophe in Callahan's Key is nothing short of ridiculous. The mood also gets a bit mean-spirited around the time of Key, with an unexpected amount of body-shaming for a certain antagonist, but luckily that's addressed, admitted to and resolved in Callahan's Con.
One could also accuse Robinson of lazyness: What's an author to do if he created a memorable villain and effectively killed him off (well, shipped him of to prison, presumably to be raped and killed there) in one of the books? Just invent a son of the villain, who is almost identical to his father. And then of course there's the fact that all the later books from Callahan's Secret onwards hinge on nearly the same method of resolution (telepathic mind meld).

In case it sounds like I'm putting down the material, here's the thing: I love those books. Even with all the criticism, the good in them so far outweighs the bad that they're still a hugely enjoyable read and give me the warm fuzzies like almost nothing else. I just mention these points for newcomers: Be aware that you may find some material objectionable, and once you've made your peace with that, you're in for a rare treat.

Anyway, apologies for the ramble. It's just that I'm so happy to finally find a place where I can talk about this.

On with the game, and thank you, Rocket Baby Dolls, for creating this thread!

BlankSystemDaemon posted:

I basically agree with everything in this post, and only want to add that Spider Robinson is, as I see it, the epitome of humanist science fiction.
His stories are science fiction of the best kind, but through and through they've got this deep core of empathy to them that's been hard to find (though thankfully, not impossible - that's reserved for finding another author who's as much of a paronomasiac as Spider and I are).

As for reading Heinlein, I think you can do much worse than reading his juveniles - but he had his Old Perverted Man phase as an author towards the end of his active writing career, so reader discression is advised.
I'm not sure I can recommend Asimov - as much as he's had an effect on society with his writing, the things that've come to light about him and which were apparently open secrets at various conventions make it hard to swallow a genre as forward-looking as science fiction, from someone so regressive.

Dave Syndrome posted:

Do you have any specific book or story recommendations (from any of the two) for someone who enjoyed the Callahan books?

BlankSystemDaemon posted:

Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series is the one series I remember reading recently, which gave me the same kind of humanist science fiction vibes.

Although since both involve aliens in some capacity, I guess calling it humanist is pretty close-minded?

Dave Syndrome posted:

Thanks for the tip. My wife was given two Becky Chambers books for her birthday earlier this year, but she hasn't read them yet. Guess I'll give them a go.

I meant Asimov and Heinlein specifically though - their output is somewhat massive.

Dave Syndrome posted:

Just discovered this thread thanks to Pragmatica's announcement post. Yay!

Callahan's Crosstime Saloon is a game I replay every few years or so, and it was through it that I discovered Spider Robinson's books. Hope discussion of the stories isn't considered derailing the thread.

Anyway, apologies for the ramble. It's just that I'm so happy to finally find a place where I can talk about this.

On with the game, and thank you, Rocket Baby Dolls, for creating this thread!

BlankSystemDaemon posted:

I basically agree with everything in this post, and only want to add that Spider Robinson is, as I see it, the epitome of humanist science fiction.
His stories are science fiction of the best kind, but through and through they've got this deep core of empathy to them that's been hard to find (though thankfully, not impossible - that's reserved for finding another author who's as much of a paronomasiac as Spider and I are).

As for reading Heinlein, I think you can do much worse than reading his juveniles - but he had his Old Perverted Man phase as an author towards the end of his active writing career, so reader discression is advised.
I'm not sure I can recommend Asimov - as much as he's had an effect on society with his writing, the things that've come to light about him and which were apparently open secrets at various conventions make it hard to swallow a genre as forward-looking as science fiction, from someone so regressive.

Coco13 posted:

I think a ton of Spider Robinson's humanism is influenced by Theodore Sturgeon, who is one of those "your favorite band's favorite band" types that never reached the popularity of Heinlein or Asimov. Almost everything he wrote had some inspired level of compassion or togetherness - The World Well Lost being an amazing example of dealing with gay rights in the 1950s. He wrote a massive amount of short stories, and some like "Bianca's Hands", "And Now The News", and "Yesterday was Monday" will stick with you for one reason or another.

BlankSystemDaemon posted:

Yeah, Sturgeon was pretty fantastic too - and he's got a law named for him, so he's at least a little bit famous?

anilEhilated posted:

Most people who are aware of the law would be hard-pressed to name a single story of his, though.