Waltorious Writes About Games

Game-related ramblings.

The Case Of The Golden Idol Is Another Great Game For Collaborative Detective Work

This post is part of the Keeping Score series about games and their soundtracks. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Long time readers may remember that I wrote about Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn about a year ago. Specifically, I wrote about the experience of playing it with my partner, who is less well versed in games than I, and how it served as an excellent introduction to games. We enjoyed its intricate puzzle-like mystery so much, we looked into other games that might offer similar deduction puzzles. A kind reader suggested The Case of the Golden Idol by Color Gray Games — although mistakenly referred to it as The Curse of the Golden Idol, a mistake I keep repeating as I write this. It was inspired by Return of the Obra Dinn, and it got a lot of praise from the press, so it seemed like a good choice. But then we got distracted. Now we’ve finally given The Case of the Golden Idol a try, and I’m happy to report that it not only offers some quality detective work, it may be an even better introduction to games.

Scratching That Itch: Nest Lander

This is the two hundred fourth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two hundred fourth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is performing some precision aerial maneuvers. It’s Nest Lander, by Clockwork Hippo, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

Physics based flight, old school skillful gameplay.

It’s time to get old school.

Scratching That Itch: Neon Valley: Revenge

This is the two hundred third entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two hundred third random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality promises a virtual world to battle in, but does not seem to actually exist in the real world. It’s Neon Valley: Revenge, by Melloe, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

3rd/1st person online multiplayer shooter

As is often the case with online multiplayer games, it seems that the servers for Neon Valley: Revenge have shut down and it’s no longer possible to play.

Scratching That Itch: Flat Kingdom

This is the two hundred second entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two hundred second random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is changing its shape before our eyes. It’s Flat Kingdom, by Game Starter, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

Change into a circle, triangle or square in order to solve puzzles, overcome o…

Fun fact: triangles have three vertices, squares have four vertices, and circles have an infinite number of vertices!

History Lessons: Shiryou Sensen: War Of The Dead

Other History Lessons posts can be found here. If you’re looking specifically for console games, those are here. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

I’m almost finished with the latest departure from the nominal timeline for this series. It was triggered by finding several interesting Japanese-only games that have been unofficially translated by the team at Nebulous Translations, first Getsu Fuuma Den and then Star Cruiser. This time, however, it’s not my fault! Fun Project’s horror game Shiryou Sensen: War of the Dead (Undead Front: War of the Dead, according to Google Translate) was indeed a Japanese-only title that was translated by Nebulous Translations, but it was already in my list of games to play. The problem is that I wrote down the release date of its PC Engine port (March 24, 1989), not realizing that it was originally released for the Japanese MSX2 home computer sometime back in 1987! I’m trying to play games in original release date order, even if I’m actually playing a later port like the CD-ROM versions of Ys I & II or the Genesis version of Hydlide 3: The Space Memories. So I’m extending my detour to cover the PC Engine version of War of the Dead now.

Scratching That Itch: Benjamin Of Blackstone Edge

This is the two hundred first entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two hundred first random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has changed the protagonist on us. It’s Benjamin of Blackstone Edge, by criacuervos, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

Exploration, stories, fights!

I can confirm that it contains all three of those things.

Scratching That Itch: Moonstone Deep

This is the two hundredth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two hundredth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has put up a bounty, attracting fortune seekers from all across the land. It’s Moonstone Deep, by criacuervos, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

Explore, make hard choices, fight!

That definitely sounds like a video game!

History Lessons: Star Cruiser

Other History Lessons posts can be found here. If you’re looking specifically for console games, those are here. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

I’m on another detour from my nominal timeline for this series. The farthest we’ve reached is January 1989, with Clash at Demonhead. But when searching for a translation patch for the game to follow it in the timeline, I found some interesting games translated by the same team at Nebulous Translations that I didn’t have in my list. So I’m going back to play a few. The first was Getsu Fuuma Den, released back in July 1987. Now we’re jumping to May 1988, when Arsys Software released Star Cruiser for Japanese home computer systems. That places it between Ys II and Lord of the Sword in my timeline. Given the focus on consoles for this series, however — and because it’s the version with the translation patch — I played the port for Sega’s Mega Drive console, which appeared on January 21, 1990, and was handled by Masaya Games.

Star Cruiser caught my eye because it’s described as an action role-playing game combined with a first-person shooter, and, well… first-person shooters didn’t exist yet in 1988. There were a few early games on mainframes in the 1970s and 1980s, and the 1980 arcade game Battlezone might qualify, but most consider the first “true” first-person shooter to be Wolfenstein 3D in 1992. Star Cruiser seemed to do a lot of the same things, four years earlier. It even got a console port several years before Wolfenstein 3D released, which is extra surprising because consoles generally didn’t have first-person shooter games, at least not until Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64 in 1997. I was curious to see what Star Cruiser is like to play.

Scratching That Itch: Raik

This is the one hundred ninety-ninth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred ninety-ninth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is speaking to us in Scots. It’s Raik, by Harry Josephine Giles, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

a Scots fantasia about anxiety

This tagline is making me anxious.

Scratching That Itch: Our Love Can’t Save The World

This is the one hundred ninety-eighth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred ninety-eighth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is asking us difficult questions. It’s Our Love Can’t Save The World, by Mitch Schiwal, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

2-Player RPG where you can save either your relationship or the world.

That… actually doesn’t seem like a particularly difficult choice.

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