2024

 A lot has changed since my last post here, yet much has stayed the same. I am still working at the local waterpark, but the Corpos cut most everyone for the off-season this time around. Until about March I will be mostly focused on current but sparse AWS DevOps contract work, fixing up a few things around my house, trading stocks (lol), and game development as far as productive things. 

On the fun side of things; I have not purchased any more arcade games, but none of my games have broken down since the last time I worked on them. I was basically forced to build a new computer in September of this year. I had decided to get myself a new Nvidia RTX 4060 card and it worked great for a while despite seeing an obvious bottleneck at the CPU and/or other components. Well, for about 3 days anyway. After running some Unreal5 tests the machine bluescreened and then never acted right again. One highlight was after many attempts finally getting the machine to boot and looking at the Device Manager section in Windows 10 to see that the processor entry was completely empty. I realized that the newest Intel CPUs are "generation 14" and I was running 4th. Simply replacing the motherboard and PSU didn't seem viable; at least for something I would enjoy for much longer. 

 Despite the voltage/heat weirdness that can occur with this generation of CPU and corresponding motherboard I've been really happy with my setup after making sure I wasn't burning up cores via a hardware monitor and watching a YouTube video that made sense on how to properly configure the BIOS for my motherboard to sacrifice a bit of power for sake of not cooking things. It's a bit insane how fast and power-hungry these new Intel chips run, so there's really no reason to even have the chip running that hot. It's not as if any game out now is really going to care! Cyberpunk 2077 running with 14th gen I7, 64GB fastest RAM, and the new video card was completely awesome to finally experience. I finished my 2nd play through of it last week and will probably have to check out the DLC content next year. Doom II Retraced on this setup is also amazing, and I hope to try VR soon once a friend lends me a headset. 

Duck Slide Range 3.0 was released earlier this month! I had to remove it from Google Play store because of numerous reasons. The short version is it barely made any money compared to the iOS release. That update introduced a new area with some new levels. I am going to try to push another update before New Years that will mainly be scripting changes and should add the ability for players to re-start the game on higher levels based on previous levels cleared rather than having to always start from the beginning. 

I recently had to re-do the micro-SD card inserted in my "EverDrive" cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The original became corrupted after trying to update firmware and ROM contents. I lost a couple of save games, but kept my most important at the time and got Mario Adventure 3 running. This is probably the best hack ever of Super Mario Brothers 3 featuring new areas, suits, and all sorts of craziness. Difficult, but I've been having a lot of fun with this one. 

Speaking of NES I recently attended my cousin's birthday party where he handed me his old NES to refurbish. I may make a blog with pictures here of how I do the whole process because I find myself explaining it a lot and while I know that sort of thing is fairly well documented on the internet, in my opinion there can never be too many pictures or descriptions when it comes to things like fixing PCBs. 

Summer of 2022

It's been about 2 years since I've updated this blog, but I figured it's about time for whomever actually ever looks at it.

I haven't had much to talk about here arcade-wise as I haven't had any recent problems for at least a year or so with all four of my cabinets, and have yet to mess with testing or repairing any of the random game PCBs I have collected since I got into the arcade hobby. Basically I reached a period where it was finally time to play these games rather than working on them; though I'm bet eventually something will pop up and change that. I'm still on the lookout for an affordable Funhouse or Fathom pinball machine. 

There was a Funhouse that popped up at a recent auction.. but due to nearly everything money-related being inflated lately and the fact I've been working a lot less while enjoying life more I am thankful I was at a waterpark that morning rather than taking a potentially awful hit to my bank account!

In the Interactive Fiction world, I've been paying attention and playing other peoples games.. but I've strayed from producing any more IF for quite a while now. Instead, last year I decided to create my first 3D arcade-style game for mobile platforms. I don't know how much (if any!) revenue it will bring me, but it has been a wonderful learning and productive creative process. Though I've dabbled in Unreal before and may return to it.. for this game I opted for the Unity engine. 

The game was formally called "Duck Slide", but another iOS creator had taken that name. I changed the name to "Duck Slide Range" (placeholder site: Duck Slide Range) upon my first submission to the App Store for Test Flight after work had already been done for quite some time. Speaking of which, if you would like to be a tester for the game, just leave a comment on this blog! I am still looking for testers for both the iOS and Android versions; though I still need to actually produce the Android port. That port should come soon. 

However, I do still have A Day in DPRK on the back burner. While obviously meant for text parsing computers, it may also potentially see a mobile release one day; and perhaps even be completed. I have also been helping Robb Sherwin (Author of Cryprozookeeper and many other classics) get some of his works properly (re)released to Steam. 

Aside from that.. I'm stoked about more surfing, kayaking, fishing, and definitely water-sliding this year!

Bosconian Arcade Restoration & Repair - Part III

Ended having to pull the monitor again to fix the sync issue. When I went to do that, the bent metal rod that encloses the flyback transformer fell out.. completely rusted in the middle. I followed this https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/u-bolt-on-my-k4600-flyback-broken.462981/ to get an idea of how to fabricate my own rod. The proper material, a vice, die tool and cutting oil got the job done.  

https://twitter.com/Jizaboz/status/1326008251989848065

With that catastrophe out of the way, I replaced 2 caps that did not come in the original kit (filter cap for c621 and the big filter cap)  to hopefully make the k4600 monitor image quit randomly scrolling while ticking. 

Alright! Then, I put everything together and fire it up. Within 5 minutes I see the ship sprites turn into blocks. Oh, no! 

PCB issue of some sort? At this point, I remove the PCB again and hook it up to a workbench set up with a JAMMA adapter. Removed and set aside the outdated "filter board" (Whups, what was that still doing there?) and ensured again the edge of the board itself was clean with a fiberglass pencil and alcohol. Replaced/Rewired/re-pinned the edge connector that goes to the PCB edge. 

Also, I was given advice over Twitter on that weird F 00003 error and apparently it was simply an odd dip switch setting! Always check for these things before wanting to start PCB surgery. 

After being very busy with other things, Christmas Eve snuck up on me. I wanted to show the game my nephew after dinner. He played this game a lot on one of those cheap 4-1 arcade things you could buy from Dollar General and plug up to a TV via A/V cables when he was a little kid. Walked into the arcade room with with him and PCB, said "Here goes nothing" and plugged everything up after checking to ensuring 5.10v at power supply and PCB input.

Machine fired right up and finally played completely proper for half an hour. Got another hour or so on it since without any glitching. After a final cleaning and spinning the cabinet back around to line up with the other cabinets, I'm calling this one as done aside from getting a new lock for the back door and other minor aesthetics like re-gluing the t-molding in a couple of places.

Part I is here - https://jizaboz.blogspot.com/2020/04/bosconian-arcade-cabinet-restoration.html

Part II is here - https://jizaboz.blogspot.com/2020/07/bosconian-arcade-cabinet-restoration.html

Bosconian Arcade Cabinet Restoration & Repair - Part II

After the third layer of Bondo was applied and hardened, I did one final sanding job. Then I used 6 new, longer screws to re-attach the metal feet plates for the front corners. It is finally time for the fun stuff; the electronics!

The original power cord was 2-prong and had to be replaced. I had a spare 18 AWG cable that I hacked the end off so that I could tie it into the AC filter. Matching the wire colors from the cable to the AC filter of a Bosconian may be confusing to someone that has worked on a Galaga cocktail cabinet at first glance. Bosconian upright is GND/Neutral/Hot. I have included a picture of the proper wiring. Note the insulated connectors I have used on the ends of the spliced power cord wires. They are not hard to find online or more preferable to me; your local small hardware store business. Always ensure an insulated connection from the wall to the AC filter!

Wall to AC wiring

Then, the monitor was removed for repairs. Wells Gardner k4600. I have only successfully worked on the k7000 model before this which has a more simplistic design. I gathered these are harder to work on, but very dependable once they are fixed.

After discharging and removing anode cup, then removing from cabinet.

Yes, harder to work on indeed. I have 2 daughter cards to deal with here. This requires me to not only replace caps on these boards but also the solder joints to the connectors on the end must be re-flowed. Of course, I also re-flow the neck-board connection joints and other worn-out or "cold"-looking joints.

Slowly pulling in each direction after removing the factory goo, the neck-board comes loose.

Also have to de-solder this width coil on both ends before removal.

k-4600 main chassis, 2 daughter boards, and external transformer.

Lots of things to replace. I used up every bit of the k4600 capkit with exception to a pot that came with it that I could not envision fitting to the board. Hard to stick something in that has 3 legs into a spot for only 2.

After putting it all back together and installing the power supply kit, everything powered up and the game plays. Now I have a a benign PCB issue and a horizontal hold issue with the monitor left as the only things bothering me.. to be continued!

Part I - https://jizaboz.blogspot.com/2020/04/bosconian-arcade-cabinet-restoration.html

Part III - https://jizaboz.blogspot.com/2020/12/bosconian-arcade-restoration-repair.html

Bosconian Arcade Cabinet Restoration & Repair - Part I

This is how it looked when I first brought it home. Years of cigarette smoke and general filth. A few layers of this must be removed before I even want to get near it. However, considering this machine was made in 1981, it is in great shape!

Just a few hits with magic erasers, 409 and papers towels has it looking more approachable the next day.

Now that most of the mildew smell is gone, it is time to start removing all the major internal components to do some repair to the cabinet structure itself. The slightly swelling walls towards the bottom are not much of a concern because the original material itself is there and should not deteriorate further unless for some terrible reason it becomes water damaged again in the future. I would rather not make it look worse trying to remove swollen MDF. 30 year old things should show a few battle scars anyway. However, the damage to the actual floor of the machine must be repaired. A whole corner was broken off and thrown inside the cabinet, and the other front corner bottom is pretty rough.

Time to open it up! Everything is all original inside. I was relieved to see it was the original Wells Gardner monitor instead of some hack or Kortek crap.

So far so good right? No keys were given to me, but luckily some of the spare standard keys in the Neo Geo MVS-2 next to it opened the coin door. Then, something scary happens. I begin to remove the metal piece underneath the marquee to pull it out and stop myself. A friend came over to help me with his ratchet set to remove some of the bolts holding the monitor frame in that are rather deep in the cab.  Figured it was better to remove the bezel glass underneath first just in case I dropped the piece holding in the marquee. I begin to remove the bezel..

It may be a little hard to tell what is going on here, but the upper picture is the top of the glass where I notice some sort of bubble going on. The lower picture is the underneath of the glass where I can tell the bubble is being caused by the old paint flaking off of the glass. This is could get really bad if not handled correctly to prevent further damage and flaking. I sure as hell did not want to have to replace this painted glass. I carefully remove it and consult pinball forums on how to preserve this as I figure it is probably also an issue with old pinball machine back-glass.


After carefully removing the glass, I set it down on a drop cloth to tape off the transparent area of the glass, getting as close to the round corners I can with bits of masking tape. No dust should accumulate on the backside, so there should be no need to try to clean before painting.  I sprayed a tad of this glaze onto a paper plate and dabbed a model brush in it and applied it to the flake shown in the previous picture. I spray 3 coats of Krylon Clear Glaze on. That effectively re-glued it to the glass before it was sealed.

See that in the corner? That is duct tape I added while the machine was still on the back of my truck. As I mentioned, the corner that was broken off here was found inside the machine. I thank the thoughtful person that did that so that I do not have to deal with carving out a new floor; instead I will repair the existing one. I begin removing piece of wood with transformers attached and everything else from the floor, while taking pictures of every wire harness I disconnect. The nastiest mold spot is under the PCB cage. I clean that out well while holding my breath.

Time to glue. Locktite III does the job well. Used a 24 inch "bar grip" in reverse to push one end up against the bottom of that metal coin box holder shown above with the broken piece underneath. I put enough pressure on it to hear a slight crunch after applying the glue and left it for 24 hours.

Now that the glue is hard and the clamp is removed, it is time to add some "body filler". I chose Bondo. One thing I always gathered from auto body guys back when I delivered paint was "Fill the holes, but spread thin." so I tried to do that, as well as using the spreading technique to mix a small bead of hardener into the filler rather than stirring it.

Letting this cure overnight. Also applied some inside the other side of the glued part. Tomorrow I will sand it, apply another coat, and repeat until these 2 corners are level with the rest of the floor. At that point I can spray both sides of the bottom and inside the bottom to about 12 inches up with clear coat.

I am really looking forward to working on the monitor and wiring up a new power supply to boot this thing! 

Part II is here http://jizaboz.blogspot.com/2020/07/bosconian-arcade-cabinet-restoration.html

Part III is here https://jizaboz.blogspot.com/2020/12/bosconian-arcade-restoration-repair.html

Quake II - Jolt Country Jailbreak

I've played a lot of Quake II in my life with many mods. However, I don't recall playing one called "Jailbreak" longer than about 5-10 minutes back in the early 2000's. It seemed sort of like a football mod I had played once. Mods like this are cool concepts, but they usually only worked if you had enough friends to play it who had interest in both Quake 2 and a sport or whatever, a setup to play the game (not really an issue these days), and patience to put up with old ways of getting your game client properly configured. All of that is assuming the server admin has things configured properly on his end.

My friend Robb requested I load up his favorite mod on my Linux Quake 2 server. That mod was Jailbreak. Unfortunately, the developers of that mod only released a Windows library file for their mod. A Linux server requires a mod library to be a .so file rather than a .dll file. In order to make this happen on an EC2 instance in Amazon Web Services, I had to launch a Windows 2009 base server instance. Getting the initial server going was easy. After downloading all of the Quake2 base files and quake2/jail files to the Windows server, I then opened port 27910 (default Quake2 port) in the Windows Firewall with a new rule. Also, I of course had to have the associated AWS security group allow all public traffic on port 29710

I needed a modern server binary to handle traffic, and that's where Yamagi helps. I downloaded the binary to that as well to the Windows server and copied it to the Quake2 directory. During our test of this server I found I had accidentally set my Windows shortcut to the server binary to the original one. This results in people randomly getting disconnected despite the server staying online, so I strongly recommend using a modern server binary rather than the original if you want to run your own server.

This is an example of how "target" should look on the shortcut tab in the properties of your Windows shortcut assuming you are using Yamagi binary:

C:\QUAKE2\yquake2.exe +set dedicated 1 +set game jail +map jb25map1 +set maxclients 16 +exec server.cfg

I wanted map voting and to report to a living "Master Server" (A public hub for finding servers), so I added the follwing to quake2/jail/server.cfg:

//MapVote
set allow_vote 1

//VoteTime
set sv_votetime 15

// Master Server
setmaster master.q2servers.com

I will be keeping the server up for a couple more weeks to make sure all is running smoothly, then the plan is to transfer ownership over to Robb.

At this point this is the only other jailbreak mod server running with exception to the TastySpleen server which requires an anti-cheat be present in your cleint. We do not use this requirement as server population is usually low on most Quake 2 servers and in my opinion you can always just kick/ban cheaters if you are paying attention to your own server (No offense to TastySpleen. They run many, many Q2 servers).



Anyone is welcome to join! The server address is jail.jizaboz.com:27910 and will remain so unless Robb wants to use his own domain.

Here's how to get started if you need help..

- Download a modern Q2 client if you aren't already using one. A very good one is Q2Pro

- Download the Jailbreak mod
After extraction, you should end up with a quake2/jail folder with a pak.0 inside of it and other stuff.

- Start Q2Pro or whatever client you are using. Hit the ~ (tilde) key and type "connect jail.jizaboz.com" (You can also find it in the MP server list)

Note: If for some reason you connect and do not see red or blue skinned character models (this is a team game after all!) then you do not have the jail mod files in the right place. To dummy-proof this and just download those files from the server if you must; hit ESC to open the main menu, choose
Options / Download Options / and enable Download player models and skins

July 2019

Realized how long it’s been since I updated this blog that feeds my website main page.

My current project status..

On-going server stuff:
- Quake II running in Amazon Linux
- Trying to get a good Amazon server solution for Tron 2.0 ready

Still working on:
- DPRK game in the Hugo interactive fiction programming language.
- A new game for the Vectrex system

Cancelled Projects (for now)
- A horror game prototype in Unity
- A Django-driven CYOA creation system prototype

Hope to do one day:
A first person shooter simulation of the original Photon laser arena game experience

IFComp 2018 - Five Short Reviews

 ** ORIGIN OF MADAME TIME - BRIAN RUSHTON **

I don’t recall trying the story that this is the sequel to but I recognize this veteran authors name and it’s a parser-based game, so I wanted to give it a shot. In this game you play a female with the super power to stop time. Now that time has stopped, you have to sort through scenarios frozen in time to get the superheroes out of the theme park. “TAKE”ing everyone as if they were static objects did feel a little awkward but I’m not sure would verb would have even been better.

There are ways to trap yourself and meet other bad endings, and I had to use the walkthrough to get to the proper ending. Had I not resorted to that, this line probably would have really nagged me:

“You have the worrying feeling that you’re forgetting something. But it might just be nerves.“ (Argh! Now I feel really insecure about this!)

This isn’t a bad game, but I feel it would have really frustrated me without a walkthrough. There’s some good humor, scenery descriptions, and the story isn’t long-winded or hard to follow.


** PEGASUS - MICHAEL KIELSTRA **

In this one you are basically playing some sort of futuristic future agent. After a brief intro screen you are sent into a training mission only carrying a rifle and wearing body armor. There is a simplified choice-based conversation system here which is always welcome to me. The story shifts from different periods in the characters past like flashbacks. It’s quick with not a lot of description, but effective.

A bit more story and ending text would have been cool here but the way it is helps reflect the bleakness of the future portrayed.


** TERMINAL INTERFACE FOR MODELS RCM301-303  - VIGIMECH CORPORATION **

This is an interesting one that I did have a lot of fun with. It’s not very traditional in respect to commands, movement, etc. However, I think this is one of the strong points because you are controlling a mechanized industrial vehicle while getting pointers from a fellow in some amusing dialogue. There is no walkthrough present, but if you are patient you should be able to complete the story fine without one.

Without spoiling anything for someone who has never played this one.. all is not what it seems here. This is made even more effective due to the fact that in the beginning it’s a bit hard to grasp what’s even going on to begin with.


** THE FORGOTTEN TAVERN  - PETER M.J. GROSS **

As you may have gathered from my previous reviews I’m generally not a fan of “choice-based” games, but there have been some exceptions.The premise of this one in the entry preview sounded a bit interesting and mysterious. It definitely got mysterious. You have been taken in by two peculiar NPCs with unknown motives. The combat can get a bit repetitive but overall OKnot a bad game. I wish I was given a bit more background on the NPCs and the strange happenings of things on the other side of a particular door, but I suppose too much explanation would be a bad thing in this story.


** NIGHTMARE ADVENTURE - LAURENCE EMMS, VIBHA LAIJANI **

This is a text parser game but seems to have been made from scratch rather than using a popular language like TADS, Inform, Hugo, etc. This parser took some getting used to. For instance, you can not use the command “SOUTH”, rather you must use “GO SOUTH” or “GO OUT FRONT DOOR”.

While I enjoyed the introduction of a new parser that was compatible with most OS terminals, I found the experience a bit frustrating.. the “USE” command is a bit ambiguous as well as other commands, but I can’t really say this is a bad game either. If anything, this game gets a point due to not being yet another choice-based game (heh-heh).

NEC Turbo Duo Repair

 About 20 years ago, I purchased a NEC Turbo Duo console from a now-closed store called "It's about games." I asked about Turbo Grafx stuff as at the time I think I still had a Turbo Express handheld system (It was later stolen along with my Splatterhouse and Bonk's Revenge Hu-Cards). An employee there mentioned he had a Turbo Duo still in the box with everything that came with it, and that he hated it and wanted 50$ for it. I instantly took him up on the deal.

 The system played well for years. I joined a group called R.I.G.G. (Retro ISO Gaming Guild) and learned the ways of ripping and burning CD games for the system. Eventually CD games that required a lot of loading such as Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective would hang/crash and I tossed a lot of those burned copies and put the system up for a few years.

 When I brought the system back out I could tell immediately there were audio issues. I could barely hear anything and what I heard was crackling. There were numerous posts on the Internet about this and it was quickly determined that I needed to order a cap kit because the surface mounted capacitors fail after a few years and to make it even better.. they leak acid all over the PCB which can ruin circuit traces. In my case, I was fairly lucky that there was not a lot of leakage but there definitely was some visible underneath nearly every original cap as I removed them. I had a bit of trial and error along the way because while I have quite a bit of soldering experience, I've never done any surface-mount soldering. Below are a few pointers I learned along the way, along with my list of capacitors replaced. Note how much larger the last couple of batches are! Once I had some practice and knew how to properly prep, things went much smoother and faster.

- Removing the old surface-mounted capacitors

 Some will probably disagree with how safe this is, but for me I never lifted a trace. I simply took needle-nose pliers and GENTLY rocked the capacitor back and forth and side-to side a few times each. Once it started feeling loose I would put the pliers down and use my thumb to gently rock the capacitor some more in a circular motion and it would just fall off. If some of the legs of the old capacitor are left on the solder pads, you can carefully cut them with wire-cutters though some people leave them as an additional bit of metal for new solder to stick to.

- Cleaning

 This is extremely important. You need to clean the pad and all around the area of the pad to ensure any residue left over is removed. I used q-tips and 93% rubbing alcohol. Clean each area repeatedly until there's nothing black or yellow left on the q-tip. If the pad is really dirty (won't get shiny) then you will need to use a fiberglass pen gently on the pad to basically "scrape" any hard stuff off, then hit it with q-tips and alcohol again. If your surfaces aren't completely clean, the solder WILL NOT stick to the pad! Also, there are two op amps near the audio sections of the PCB. They are black with 8 metal legs and have the code "4558" stamped on them. If you've had bad leakage you will have to get those off and clean underneath them. In my case I didn't see any signs of corrosion near them on top or underneath the board itself; so I soaked both pretty good in alcohol, wiped them off and only saw very light yellowing, then let them dry.

- Prepping

 You will need to bend each leg of the capacitor about 1/4 of an inch from the top outward, then trim the legs, essentially making little "feet" that will stand flush on the soldering pads. You can use the diagram and list here https://console5.com/wiki/Turbo_Duo to plan out which capacitors to replace and where they go. I also ordered my capacitor kit from console5, but these days you can probably get more high-quality capacitors. In my opinion I don't really care because I know what's in that kit is miles better than the old caps. I recommend making a little list of your own per each "batch" of capacitors you intend on replacing so you can check them off as you go.

 Pay VERY close attention to polarity! Out of the 39 capacitors I swapped, I discovered I had one backwards which is a first for me on any soldering job. Good thing I caught it before I turned it on too because that could have seriously messed something up! The stripe on the capacitor marks the negative side. Do not trust the + marks on the PCB completely as it gets confusing when there are a lot in a cluster. Always confirm uF. voltage, and polarity of your replacement by checking the diagram in the link above! While voltage isn't as important; the general rule is that higher voltage will work, but not the reverse. Also, uF must be EXACT. So say if you need 6v 22uf, you can safely use a 10v 22uf, but you can not use something lower than 6 volts.


- Soldering

 I used a soldering iron picked up from Radio Shack years back. Certainly nothing special. It is adjustable to 15 watt or 30 watt. You'll obviously want to use a small, thin tip on your iron as this stuff is tiny. I used 15 watt (and you'll probably want to as well) because I wanted to be extra careful not to burn anything up. At one time early on I briefly used 30 watt and things just didn't want to "stick" properly. I recommend you have both solder wick and a solder sucker for cleaning up any old solder or to clean up any you accidentally may drip on a resistor or whatever. The best method I found was basically applying a little drop on each pad then waiting for it to cool, then gently touch it with my finger to ensure it's properly bonded. Then I would take my prepared new capacitor in my left hand and heat the solder drop for about half a second as I sunk the leg into the drop then quickly pulled away to solder iron. Wait for it to cool, then give it one last little wiggle to ensure it's not going anywhere.

- Testing

 It's not a bad idea to do a test after each batch of capacitors just in case something weird happens latter it will help you narrow down what went wrong. Make sure the the black and white wires are still soldered to the metal place that covers the middle of the PCB. Again, check your polarity! Ensure nothing is backwards every time before powering on.

 Doing multiple tests actually helped me solve an audio issue that popped up after I thought I was done! The first batch I did included c604 and c610. Those op amps I mentioned earlier pass through these. My first test after that batch brought back my audio loud and clear.. but after the total job was done I eventually discovered I only had the left channel of sound when using my AV cable (stereo worked fine through headphone jack). I was scratching my head and then remembered I had to bend a couple of caps to expose a screw. Sure enough, it was c610 and c604 and one leg of c604 had come loose. Probably because I wasn't cleaning/prepping as well as I should have been on that first batch! I hit the leg with more solder, wiggled it to make sure it's tight, fire the console back up and shazam, both audio channels working.

- Capacitor list by batch

Batch 1
c604
c610
c884

Batch 2
c200
c201
c202
c101

Batch 3
c135
c149
c164
c133

Batch 4
c616
c612
c322
c961

Batch 5
c675
c674
c670
c671

Batch 6
c517
c523
c521
c519
c525
c512
c515
c159
c165
c110
c105

Batch 7
c614
c613
c323
c615
c653
c311
c526
c507
c311


Final Notes

 I found this project to be very time-consuming and honestly hope I never have to mess with surface-mounted capacitors again.. though that's probably inevitable. It took me nearly 2 years to get around to completing but that's mainly due to being busy with work and getting into other repairs that were more high-priority to me. However, I learned a bit along the way and the experience was very rewarding. Aside from the fact the first batch basically fixed my audio issue, with every batch afterwards I could see things like new colors popping up in Neutopia that I either forgot were there. Once complete, the audio is clear with no buzzing. The graphics are bright, crisp, and colorful. It almost feels like playing brand new system.

 I have not yet replaced the non-surface-mounted capacitors and they do not show signs of leakage yet. From what I've seen in arcade repairs, those could last a few more years so I'll just keep an eye on them for now and if something fails they'll be the first culprit. I also have not replaced the save game component but I have the part if save games start vanishing.

 I also have not addressed the CD-ROM yet. That will be next! As of now it just spins when trying to load an audio CD. First step will be trying to adjust the existing laser now that the capacitors have been replaced.






 You can find more pictures I posted along the way on my Twitter account https://twitter.com/Jizaboz

Slowly but Surely

 Last year I had tried to get the DPRK interactive fiction game completed by Christmas. That didn't happen. Besides my job still chugging along at a pretty grueling pace, other things just pop up. Foundation work to my house, repairs and appliance replacing at the trailer I inherited near the coast; it's always something! This is the first year I didn't even take the time to play and rate the Spring Thing interactive fiction competition games. It honestly came and went before I even realized it.

 On the bright side, things are a little less stressful now and I haven't taken on any new time-consuming projects. A friend of mine is working on a new MMO type game and I've assisted here and there.. but now he's hit a wall with the networking of the Godot engine that can't be solved until there is a newer version of the engine it seems. I've made a couple of electronic tunes you can listen to here, but that isn't time consuming either. I only sit down to try to make music when I have an idea for a song or am in a certain mood, which is rare.

 Today I'm working on DPRK again and wanted to update this blog before I forgot about it again for a few months (heh-heh). Over the past year I'm probably averaging about 3-5 hours a month total of adding bits of code here and there, testing things, and adding new graphics. That isn't great but I suppose it's better than nothing. I've had to tell myself to basically not force myself to try to do things that will be too time consuming just for a gimmick or puzzle feature. The time came long ago where I just have to focus on the content itself as the game isn't meant to be very puzzle intensive anyway. Instead, it should be fairly easy cruising to get an ending, wonder if things could have ended differently, and then hopefully play the game again and try different things for different results.

IfComp 2017 - 8 reviews

The Interactive Fiction Competition has many entries this year. Here are short reviews of those I've been able to play so far. You still have until November 15th to play and vote on games if you are interested.

*** A CASTLE OF THREAD ***
By Marshal Tenner Winter

 A lot of games that involve “ships” whether they be in the sea or outer space have always confused me a bit as far as map layout versus the area I’m picturing in my head. This was kind of the case for me in this game too, but not as bad as others. I’m not sure how difficult of a time I would have solving some of these puzzles without a walkthrough because some of them seem kind of abstract. The 2nd part of the game you are off the ship and in a city called “Badushizd” where you’ll find a humorously-named inn. It went by pretty fast for me in contrast with the 1st part. Pretty cool game overall. Some technical issues and a few nags here and there. The pacing of the last part and ending of the game seemed appropriate.


*** GRUE ***
BY CHARLES MANGIN

 Short game. Cool concept of being able to play from the perspective of a grue from the Zork series, but there just isn’t much to it. I was not able to finish the game; I think perhaps I didn’t get a timing puzzle right or something. Glancing at the walkthrough, there’s not much to the ending either.


*** INEVITABLE ***
By Matthew Pfeiffer

 I start in a crappy apartment. Apparently I’m a mad scientist. The game calls itself a 1-room escape game. There is no walkthrough and I couldn’t figure out how to escape the apartment.


*** MOON BASE ***
By Andrew Brown

 A short, creepy web game. I don’t think I reached the best ending, but seeing the consequences of apparently bad choices as a result was satisfying. Web games that seem to just go around in circles to reach only 1 or at the most 2 endings always seem to fail to keep me engaged or care to replay the game again. I would give this game another play if I wasn’t in the middle of all of these entries at the moment.


*** QUEER IN PUBLIC: A BRIEF ESSAY ***
By Naomi Norbez

 This is more of an “interactive essay” than “interactive fiction”. It's not a game at all. I don’t identify myself as Christian or queer, (the 2 main elements being compared in this entry) so this really didn’t hit any nerve with me one way or the other. The conclusion is basically a “The Jesus I know is a cool dude that isn’t mean to people.” theme.


*** The Richard Mines ***
By Evan Wright

 A parser game in which you need to search through some old tunnels and make your escape. Short room descriptions. Short game for that matter. Fairly easy puzzles. Not a lot of story here, but not a lot to complain about either.


*** A Walk In The Park ***
By Extra Mayonaise

 In this parser game you play a punk wandering around a city. It had a couple of lines that made me chuckle, and the setting was nicely put together. However, I got stuck trying to follow the tutorial at the step where I should “say uhh”. Uhh…


*** Will Not Let Me Go ***
By Stephen Granade

 Another web game. Here you are an old man dealing with alzheimer’s. This is another one where I don’t feel like I have any real choice here but to just keep clicking links to keep the story chugging along. What makes up for it though was it actually was a good story. I think it could have been a bit shorter though and still got the same effect across.

These Dreams

  Getting time to work on the DPRK game again lately has been nice. I've had to bug Roody yet again for assistance lately, but he's always happy to help with Hugo related issues.

 I've been focusing on the 2nd PC of the DPRK game over the past few months.. random stabs at the story and code. Taken many steps back when starting to code and realizing I don't even have a proper flow for the event written yet, but that's part of what makes creating games like this so fun; play-testing and adding things that are not implemented yet, testing them, and repeating the process. The third PC won't take too much longer finish up, but tying all three PCs together with decisions made by each, inventory changes, etc will take a while to clean up. The "alpha" test was released some time ago, and I plan on releasing the "beta" around November of the year..

 Not getting my old interactive dreaming Inform7 project properly updated with all the graphics window and other fancy screen effects extension stuff basically shit me out of IntroComp this year. I was a bit disappointed but will shoot for next year. This is worth revisiting..

 It's really neat that my friend Irfon told me about the "modern IF scene" around 2008-2009.  I'm still really thankful to be introduced a new world of "text games" I figured only existed in my own head and a very select few of others back then and before then. I've met some really cool people along the way both on the internet and off.

 I've also got ideas about creating some sort of dream share API or website lately..

Yukihiro Takahashi ("It's Gonna Work"): "I had a dream. You gave me a sign.. and put me on a new track."

Spring 2017

 Today I relaunched retrolab.servebeer.com to clean up old hacks I had used to get my Ultima Online server emulator chugging along. I'll be leaving that and my Quake II server down for a few months to come. If anything, for the purpose of just having 2 less things online that I have to worry about that I've barely had any time for lately. I'm trying to focus on working on the DPRK themed game, as well getting back to actually playing a few games such as Resident Evil 7 and my arcade games. Some good progress has already been made on the last third of Days in DPRK, but I slowed down considerably with the second third. I don't want the player to feel like any of the 3 slices of the game feel "rushed".

 The Guerilla War cabinet I previously talked about is now completely gone with exception to the marquee and bezel. The PCB and control panel were sold for enough money to break even for buying that cabinet and the Double Dragon cabinet. After cleaning up the Double Dragon cabinet with a lot of Lysol cleaner, magic erasers, and other means, it looks and smells a lot better than when I first picked it up. The monitor was removed from Guerilla War and installed it into the Double Dragon cabinet after swapping the wood panel connected to the frame and replacing the molex connector to the wires that were originally just grounded to the monitor frame to the isolated transformer inside the cabinet. The monitor that was originally in Double Dragon had severe burn of the game logo burned into it and had to go. I hope to do a tube-swap on it in the future. This setup is working well for playing Robotron 2084 and other games on a 19-in1 multi PCB. The Double Dragon PCB is still on the shelf for audio repairs.

Gutting Guerrilla War

 Last week a friend of mine who knows me as an "arcade guy" gave me a tip on a couple of cabinets that some people wanted to get rid of. The owner of the house the machines were in used to run his own business out of his house but had since had serious health issues. The state of the house had become pretty run-down and family members were in the process of clearing stuff out. The basement where the machines sat apparently had a leak or had been flooded at one point.

 Initially, I replied that I wasn't really interested in them because Guerrilla War looked like it was about to fall apart right there (despite the fact it magically still turned on and played!) and the other cabinet, a Double Dragon, wasn't of much interest to me as I'd probably not play it much.

 The next day it dawned on me.. if they only want 100-200$ for these, I could probably get that out of parts from the Guerrilla War alone. I also didn't realize that Double Dragon is a JAMMA-standard game with an 8-way joystick. That makes Double Dragon a great candidate to throw other game PCBs or even a multi-board into. Plus, it sounded like these people really wanted these machines out of there but didn't want to just give them away via a Craig's List ad or whatever. It's rare you see even a total piece of non-working junk sell at an arcade auction for less than 200$ anyway.

Picture texted to me of the game running in the basement of doom.

 So, the next day I rented an appliance dolly for 11$ and headed over to the residence with another friend willing to help for beer & pizza. Luckily, it was only 8 miles away. I preferred to take them one at a time so I could lay them down in the bed of my small truck. Moving them was not easy by any means. I've moved machines before, sometimes without even using a dolly.. but these were fragile and Guerrilla War was very heavy. Maybe because it had soaked up so much water (heh-heh)? The path from the leaky basement out to the yard where my truck was parked was covered in old wood, carpet padding, and other sorts of fun obstacles. After a lot of straining and a bruised arm, I got Guerrilla War home and onto the carport without it exploding into a hundred pieces.

The paintball splats on it give a bit of character!

 I don't consider this salvageable. The bottom of it had been so wet it was starting to separate.. as well as the top of it. Thankfully, things in the center and sides look like they stayed dry.

Front panel all busted up but control panel looks OK.

 At this point I have already taken out the marquee, but it was in good shape. The graphical bezel around the monitor was also in good shape.

With the plexiglass and bezels removed.

 This is the first time I have messed with a vertical-mounted monitor like this, so at first I tried to take the 4 screws out of the frame and pull the frame out. Nope. Stuck on something. Then realized "Oh duh, those are handles" in the wood around it. I put the frame screws back in, removed the 4 screws from the corner of the wood, and it came out very easy; a lot less scary and heavy than handling the 25 inch monitor in the Neo-Geo MVS2. I had already removed the wires to it from the PCB. I couldn't get into the back yet because it was locked and I didn't want to mess with drilling it out if I didn't have to.

Now I've just about got full access to everything.

 The monitor looked bright and colorful with the game playing before it was moved, just a bit of burn-in in the tube from the credits and score text. With that out of the way, I was able to open the back door lock easily from the inside and peer in. It was just as horrible as you would think, but honestly I'm surprised it wasn't worse.

Haha Oh, man.. yeah, I'll pass on even touching this.

 Good thing the main plastic circuit board is mounted half-way up the wall of the machine.

 

Nice and shiny PCB!

 The monitor has a Wells Gardner chassis (score!) and mild burn-in on the tube from the score and credits text. This will make a good backup replacement 19 inch monitor.

Backside of monitor sitting on t-shirts to prevent scratches.

 After removing the control panel, few more wires, and the JAMMA connector, I'm done rescuing all the good stuff with this. Tomorrow the cabinet will be busted up into smaller pieces for disposal. Next up: a bit of Double Dragon cabinet restoration!

DPRK Due in 2017

I gave up producing for IF competitions over the past few years. While they were fun to enter, eventually work became way too time-consuming aside from wanting to spend more time playing games than writing them. However, in the meantime I've slowly been creating a new game in the Hugo engine I've mentioned a few times before titled Days in DPRK.

 

The making of Days in DPRK was motivated by both my fascination of  North Korean history  and the country itself, as well as wanting to move away from the Inform7 system and work more in Hugo. Hugo is not a "plain English" language like I7 is; it's more like "real programming" languages I've worked with before. After playing games like Cryptozookeeper by Robb Sherwin, I was really inspired to make my own creations in Hugo. This not to say I'm ruling out ever making anything in Inform again; I enjoyed creating games in it and enjoyed messing with the Canvas extensions to create the UI for the Interactive Dreaming prototype I was working on a few years back. Who knows, perhaps that will be re-visited one day.

DPRK is a bit like Lunar Base 1 in the respect that it tries to be a life simulation of sorts with commands thrown in to do things such as get out of a chair before moving. RoodyLib has helped to implement many things I wanted done in the game. Making things seem realistic in a room can be time-consuming, let alone in a game with many more rooms than LB1 and the concept of 3 playing characters that divide the game into thirds and connect to one another. This year, I hope and plan to finally tie it all together. Even after it is, there will be a quite a bit of  "polishing" to do on things such as setting/editing mood music/ambient sound for the remainder of the non-demo scenes, and editing Creative Commons images to suit my needs for the game.

Speaking of which, I look forward to people cooking here..



..until next time!

IFCOMP 2016 Reviews

I've been playing a few games from the 2016 Interactive Fiction Competition at random that have interesting cover art or concepts to me, and have written a few short reviews for 7 games out of the bunch. If I have time to play and review more, there will be a part 2 to this blog.. but I wanted to go ahead and get a few out.


*** SPOILERS BELOW! **

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*** Color the Truth by mathbrush ***

 This is a mystery game that looks like it will have a lot of conversation in it. After reading the ABOUT text, it looks like the gameplay system will be more complex than the old Infocom mystery games.

 Actually, at the very start the game throws out a handful of conversation topics and the system of choosing topics and "linking" them feels pretty smooth. Changing characters when an NPC gives a statement feels a little weird. I started to think perhaps just a wall-of-text would suffice for these events, but that would eliminate the possibility of throwing in a couple of puzzles here and there during the flashback.

 Repeating actions in the flashbacks can seem a bit annoying, but is nessasary for revealing new bits of the investigation. Pretty cool game.


*** Snake's Game by Nahian Nasir ***

 First "web" game of the bunch I tried. I'm partial to parser games, but I do really like a CYOA once in a while if the story is good. The story is definitely weird, but actually wasn't as weird or creepy as I was expecting. The choices seemed pretty linear. This one really isn't bad, but I didn't enjoy it all that much.


*** Ariadne in Aeaea by Victor Qjuel **

 This is a parser-driven game written in Inform7. It's a pretty amusing story, but none of the humor made me laugh out loud. I was hoping the topless ceremonial lady in the cover art was somehow depicted in the game, and she was! Old auntie. Nice.

 The environment of the game itself seems well-rounded. NPCs react different when you walk by in in different attire than you did previously and other features. I did end up glancing at the walkthrough probably a bit too more than I should have early on, so I can't really speak to the difficulty of the puzzles.. but for the most part they seemed fairly easy and not too obscure with exception to probably would have had a bit of back-tracking to do had I not skimmed the walkthrough early on. There perhaps could have been less rooms and more time spent on more parser understandings.. such as "herder" when referring to a "goatherder".


*** Riot  by Taylor Johnson ***

 Another CYOA game. This one got me interested in the beginning, but then I end up with the same complaints I have with many of these types of games. My choices seem either too linear, and at times I'm asked to make choices that I wonder if any sane being would do, like correcting a random strangers broken nose. I straightened a friends dislocated finger in RealLife when I was about 12 after making an impulse decision, but I was young and he was no stranger. I don't think it ever healed correctly either..

 I felt like this story was ok, but not great. I did get into it more than Snake's Game.


*** Toilet World - by Chet Rocketfrak ***

 This sounds promising. Though on closer examination, it's just a "joke" game. Whatever, let's give it a shot. I'm told I'm in this glorious world of toilets, surrounded by toilets. Cool. I think I got this.

> X TOILET
You can’t see any such thing.

 Oh hell nah. So, in short what we seem to have here is a "joke" game that's basically a few room descriptions filled with typos, no implementation of objects, nothing to really do. Or maybe I'm missing some grand game behind the scenes that I couldn't figure out how to throw the right parser commands at to unlock. Probably not however, considering there is no walkthrough included.

** Ventilator - by Peregrine Wade **

 Ha! Now this one has some humor to it, at least in the death messages. There's no walkthrough included either with this parser game, so I didn't expect it to be too long. The few puzzles are pretty abstract, but it didn't take me long to figure them out. The ending was kind of a head-scratcher, but I found this more fun than the web-based games so far.

*** Cactus Blue Motel - by Astrid Dalmady ***

 A web game with some cool-looking text upon starting up. You play a girl on a road-trip with two of your friends traveling across the desert until you come to a stop at a desolate hotel. The game has nice visuals, but oh man these choices. The actual path to the finish line seems like it's fairly linear, but I'm forced to re-ask various NPCs questions over and over again until new options pop up. The author perhaps should have made previously asked questions that you've already read responses for disappear. The story seemed kind of interesting but the gameplay system made it very difficult to enjoy.

Getting RunUO to work in Amazon Linux

I had run an Ultima Online server for quite some time on an old PC running Ubuntu Linux. Once I backed up all of the data from the shard and turned off that old box, I never got around to relaunching the server until this weekend.

Since I am already running an Amazon Linux instance for my website and a Quake II server that is very rarely used, I copied up my entire RunUO 2.0 folder backup to the server and got started. The first step is installing Mono.

sudo yum install mono

I tried then starting the server and ran into errors regarding missing DLL files. This was fixed by using:

sudo yum install mono-*

In the Scripts/Misc folder I had to update the address line in ServerList.cs to my new DNS as well as update any data paths (there are only a couple so long as you aren't using a lot of custom scripts with hard coded data paths) that it whined about when trying to start the server again.

At that point, it looked as if all was well. That as until I tried to walk into a moongate to transfer to another area. The server instantly crashed. In the terminal running the server, I see that it can't find a specific zlib version. I was able to find the version it was complaining about not seeing (zlib.so.1.2.3.4) here at http://zlib.net/fossils/ and compiling the file was simply a matter of "./configure" and "make". I then copied the compiled file to the /lib folder. At that point, everything was running smoothly!

The old RetroShard website is back online at: retrolab.servebeer.com/lab/rs Leave a comment if you have any questions about the setup I've described. It's not very detailed but hopefully points out the main problems you may run into.

2016

Two years have gone by since my last interactive fiction full game release, Blackness. Blackness was written in 3 hours for Ectocomp, so it's rather short and there isn't a lot of attention paid to detail. There may be a chance of entering that competition or another short competition this year with another small game written in Inform7. While the Hugo IF authoring language has now became my favorite platform for authoring IF, I do miss some of the conveniences and quirks of I7 and never have gotten around to using the OSX version of it much.

However, I did manage to get a demo of DPRK released. It didn't get a lot of play-tests, but the few random ones I did hear reports back from on sounded very positive aside from a movement bug. Around Christmas of last year, I returned to the project to begin working on the final version of the game. With a lot of help from Roody (author of RoodyLib) I've started a "simulation lab" of sorts to start developing and testing encounter and combat systems. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I think the project is still promising and have a positive outlook to get the rest of the content and system coding done by the end of the year.

In other Hugo related-project news, Cyberganked is also coming up! Robb Sherwin has created a character using a picture of myself and I will be writing up some dialogue drafts soon for him to digest into the game, as well as doing some testing as needed. I'm really looking forward to the release of this game and to playing it. Anyone who enjoyed Wizardry and text games I think will as well. Roody has also been hard at work on RoodyLib for this past year.. which Cyberganked and DPRK both utilize. He's also been working on things such as handicap-friendly interfacing and other Hugo magic lately.
 
In 2015, I did manage to keep a group of 6 going for a table-top RPG going since December of 2014. As a listener of Burzum, I heard of a game that Varg Vikernes created called MYFAROG. I missed out out the first printing in Halloween of 2014, but managed to score a 2nd printing copy of the 1st addition shortly after that. We began as me playing the role of "MythMaster" (Dungeon Master) which was a fun practice returning to creating stories, characters, local areas, etc on the fly while keeping campaign solidarity. Most of the players eventually bought books, and one player took over the role of MythMaster long enough for another player to spend a few months in another country and for me to actually play as a PC.. an experience I haven't had in a very, very long time. I blogged about our game here if you are interested in how it began.

I also hope to get a refurbished monitor from Arcade Buffett soon in the mail to finally get my Neo-Geo MVS-2 arcade machine running again. I bought this cabinet (my first!) in January of 2015 at an auction for 425$ before fees and it worked fine aside from monitor issues. The main culprit of the issues was a crappy Kortek chassis. After a lot of de-soldering and soldering to replace all of the capacitors and the flyback transformer, I learned the hard way replacement flybacks are just not available for the crappy Kortek. So, I ordered a complete monitor as I plan on keeping this machine for years anyway and want something solid (and non-Kortek). I may buy a seperate chassis and yoke to rebuild another monitor with the leftover Zenith 25 inch tube.

The only major non-work or non-DPRK distraction I can see coming up? The new Doom game in May. If it's all it promises to be, expect to see more in the Id Software section of my website! I've still got a "Photon Doom" project I have on a backburner that may end up ported from Doom3 to that. I won't know until I play it. If it's not fitting to Photon, Doom3 BFG will be the target for a new Photon Doom mod. If anyone reading this is already planing a Photon mod for any game engine, please contact me. I'd be interested in sharing ideas and assets.

Handful of IFcomp 2015 Entry Reviews

This year's Interactive Fiction Competition has a very large number of entries. I knew I wouldn't be able to play them all online, so I picked a few at random that had interesting descriptions. I ended up playing through and reviewing Crossroads, Life on Mars, Laid off from the Synesthesia Factory, Much Love, BJP, The Sueno, and Taghairm. I played a few others that I just could not finish either because I couldn't get into them or I glanced at the walkthough after a few turns and decided I didn't want to play though the game. Of course, I'll only be voting for the ones I've finished and reviewed here. There might be spoilers here, so if you are afraid of seeing any now is the time to look elsewhere!



Reviews being after the stars...







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CROSSROADS

Interesting description, so trying this first. This Twine game was sort of interesting, but wasn’t interesting enough to play though again. I was expecting the text to be more graphic than it was due to the content warning. One typo I found that may be deprecated: “sand” where an “and” should be.


LIFE ON MARS

Scrolling thru the entries further so I don’t end up playing titles in the lower portion of the alphabet. Huh. A speed setting. And another content warning.. which is seems like a bit of a spoiler. There’s also a recommended playlist. While I like old Satyricon and some Aphex Twin songs, the two don’t seem to go together well if there should be a consistent mood to the game.

Spatterlight crashed when trying to use the email function, so I build Frotz from the latest source and ran the game in that. The email thing works now though, and I can see the text speed effect now which is pretty neat. Now, on to the actual game.

There aren’t a lot of rooms to explore, but given the setting there shouldn’t be. Using the “email” function seems to be the main thing driving the game until I get prompted that taking a nap might be a good idea. After the nap, more email and a robot needs my assistance. There wasn’t much more after that. Wasn’t too crazy about the ending. The game was mostly on-rails showing off a lot of text effects; the latter of which does make this a pretty cool little adventure.



LAID OFF FROM THE SYNESTHESIA FACTORY

And here we have another game with both a content warning and a recommended playlist. It promises to generate a readable, static story once I reach the end and also claims to be both short and completely puzzle-less. X GREEN. X BRAIN (surprised that one gave a response). CALL BRIAN (Huh. A response, but nothing that seems to be relevent). EXIT. Ah, that makes more sense.. DRIVE TO LAKE. Eh. PAINT LAKE. Ha! Myrtle Beach reference! God, how I’ve come to loathe that place since the arcade went to shit and they tore down the rides. Also, South of the Border! My family never did fall for that trap either though I also remember counting the signs as a kid.

Now I think I have a good idea of what this synpiece is.. but having it on while driving certainly feels wrong. I guess that depends on if I can still make out things or if the road is going to look chunky and crooked as it tastes. (That’s a synthestisia joke.) I end up at a lake with Brian where a “compromise” is met. I guess I got the OK ending. This was a neat little game and I’ll probably give it another play after the comp. I liked how it started completely abstract and hard to follow yet then started to make sense. I would gripe about things not being more explained, but I have the same gripe about the previous title I reviewed and this one at least warrants another play to perhaps tell more of the same story from different angles.


MUCH LOVE, BJP

Another Twine entry. This one is just basically what feels like newspaper articles linked by verb hyperlinks. Not many of them, either. Not many choices here. While the story of the reporter in this one is inspiring and all, it’s rather political and if anything, this title warranted more of a “content warning” than the other 2.. though overall I think content warnings are stupid.


THE SUENO

A game about a sleep study and lucid dreaming. This should be interesting. I’m not sure if I’ll ever finish the lucid dreaming game I made a prototype for.

We start out with good descriptions and all, but feels like I’m waiting in the sleep lab forever. Hm. I “look” in the Sleep Lab again after waiting many turns. I haven’t been prompted to do anything. Dr. Lynch is just “here, clipboard in hand”. I scroll back to look at all of the talking topics and ask about those. Still waiting. Oh. Consulting the walk thru says I really should ask about medication. OK, here we go. Going to try to not look at the walkthrough again now.

I can’t read or take the Frederick’s of Hollywood lingerie catalog?! No such thing?! Bah. Anyway, a few fairly simple puzzles progress the game along various snippets of moving through a house, some woods, and a town; separated by cutscenes of the doctor conducting the study interrupting your sleep with questions.

The inventory and puzzles in this game felt a bit clunky, but overall not a bad game and worth a play. I ended up returning to the walkthrough again a couple of times despite the suggestion that I should try not looking at it at all.


TAGHAIRM

Another Twine game, but very different from any other I have encountered. Cool sounds add a neat atmosphere. Around the time I started to think “Well crap. Just like every other Twine game. Not many choices or forcing me to make choices I don’t want to make to finish the story.”, something neat happened when I clicked the forced answer a few times. It actually explained what in the world was the purpose of this, and in a cool way. I was surprised to enjoy this one. Cat lovers will probably hate it.