NEW FEATURE: "THE WONDERFUL MURDERS IN ROBERTA WILLIAMS' PHANTASMAGORIA!"

[Mockery]

Continuing with our "Double Feature Fridays", here's my latest piece about a classic interactive movie game from the mid 90's by Sierra that was quite controversial at the time. In this piece, I take a look at most of the memorable murders that take place in the game. Bad acting + lots of gore... how can you lose?


NEW FEATURE: "THE WONDERFUL MURDERS IN ROBERTA WILLIAMS' PHANTASMAGORIA!"
http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/phantasmagoria

Enjoy!

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

Seriously, ROG, thanks for posting this. It honestly made my morning. I have so many memories attached to that game - and the other horror themed games in the Sierra catalogs (Gabriel Knight). Reading your article was a walk down memory lane.

[Mockery]

Thanks man, I'm glad it brought back some memories for ya. Adventure games were so great back in the day... I really wish they'd make more of 'em these days. But yeah, I was surprised to see more people on hadn't even heard of Phantasmagoria...

Did anybody else here ever play this game before?

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

Old school point and click adventures were awesome. Police quest, King's Quest, Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry consumed much of my childhood. They don't even make games as offbeat, humorous and bizarre anymore. Now it's all about the shooting and the killing.

[Jomb]

I loved those Sierra adventure games when I was a kid. But I never played Phantasmagoria. It came out right when those games were dying off, and a friend of mine had bought it and told me it was stupid and not worth playing. Coincidentilly I have'nt spoken to that friend in about 8 years, so his opinion no longer carries any weight. Maybe one day I'll play this game through the magic of emulation.

There are a lot of great deaths to be had in the other Sierra games. I'm probably wierd, but half of the fun in those games for me was finding all the ways to die. There are some very odd ones. Several funny articles could be written on that topic....

[Chojin]

5 1/4" disks didn't EXIST, YOU LIAR

5 1/2" and 3 1/4" were the formats

HOW CAN YOU LIVE WITH YOURSELF NOW


Also, this game looks neat :< I wonder why it didn't come out for CD-i?

[Mockery]

Originally Posted by J. Tithonus Pednaud

Old school point and click adventures were awesome. Police quest, King's Quest, Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry consumed much of my childhood. They don't even make games as offbeat, humorous and bizarre anymore. Now it's all about the shooting and the killing.

Don't I know it. I loved all those Sierra "Quest" games, and let's not forget all the great ones from LucasArts back in the day either. Monkey Island, Indiana Jones, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, etc... all classics.

Originally Posted by Jomb

I loved those Sierra adventure games when I was a kid. But I never played Phantasmagoria.

It's definitely worth playing for the humor-factor alone.

Originally Posted by Jomb

There are a lot of great deaths to be had in the other Sierra games. I'm probably wierd, but half of the fun in those games for me was finding all the ways to die. There are some very odd ones. Several funny articles could be written on that topic....

Nah a lot of people liked finding out the ways you could die in those games, that was part of the fun. Most people remember the M.I. underwater death: "The joke that Guybrush can hold his breath for ten minutes, which is repeated throughout the Monkey Island series, can be put to the test when the game presents a chance for him to dive. After about 8 minutes underwater, Guybrush says "I'm running low on air." If kept under water for another 2 minutes, he decides to head back up to the surface. If tried again, after ten minutes he will drown, ending the game."

Originally Posted by Chojin

5 1/4" disks didn't EXIST, YOU LIAR

Also, this game looks neat :< I wonder why it didn't come out for CD-i?

Oh noes! The typo patrol!

Dunno about CD-i, but don't you own a Saturn anyway? You could probably find a copy of it. Otherwise, I'm sure the PC version isn't hard to find at all along with a copy of DOSbox.

[Jomb]

Believe it or not I've never played Monkey Island.... It's on my "to do" list though. I have very little experience with any of the lucasarts games. The only one I owned was Loom. It was'nt that I did'nt want them, but when I was that age I did'nt have enough money to get them all and I spent my money more on the Sierra games.

Probably the most memorable death for me was in Leisure Suit Larry 2, when Larry is in the Amazon and you have him walk across the river... then he comes out the other side walking around like everything is fine even though his lower half is just a skeleton now. The river was full of piranhas. The game lets you walk around for a little while before Larry realizes he is dead.

[Chojin]

Originally Posted by mockery

"The joke that Guybrush can hold his breath for ten minutes, which is repeated throughout the Monkey Island series, can be put to the test when the game presents a chance for him to dive. After about 8 minutes underwater, Guybrush says "I'm running low on air." If kept under water for another 2 minutes, he decides to head back up to the surface. If tried again, after ten minutes he will drown, ending the game."

This diving scene happens in Monkey Island 2, but I'm pretty sure you can't die if you dive again. The MI drowning scene happens when you're thrown in the water with the idol tied to your leg. If you can't get out in 10 minutes, you'll drown. You can die in Monkey Island 2 in a similar way when you're tied up over that pot of acid near the end.

[Jeanette X]

I was 13 when that came out, and I wanted to play it but my mom wouldn't let me.

I see I didn't really miss much. These deaths would've been better if there hadn't been that stupid chanting in the background.

I read an article about this game when it came out. All I remember is that Roberta William's son had a summer job mopping up the fake blood, and that orange shirt that the actress wore throughout the game got so worn out over the course of the filming that it had the be held together with duct tape on the inside by the time they finally wrapped up.

[Undead]

Originally Posted by Mockery

Did anybody else here ever play this game before?

I never played it, don't know how I missed that one. That's a seriously twisted game! Of course, I'm a seriously twisted girl so it would've definitely appealed to me.

I did have some game set in Germany involving werewolves and (I think) some voice acting by Tim Curry? (Hmmm. That seems bizarre.) I wish they'd make more of those games, esp with today's technology.

[Chojin]

Yeah, I think the Sega CD/3DO/CD-i pretty much scared off anyone from making FMV games ever again, even though there were a few diamonds in the rough.