Missed Classic: The Hound of Shadow - By the Pricking of My Thumbs

Written by Vetinari

Next morning, I wake up to a surprise. The landlady, Mrs Bastable, announces that a visitor, a young lady, is waiting for me in the lounge.

Now, I haven't mentioned anything about a landlady up to now, and I can hear what you're saying: of course there's a landlady, all sleuths (especially ones who live in London, and in Marylebone, no less) have a landlady. No! You are thinking of Victorian sleuths! Golden Age sleuths have no landladies, only secretaries!

She's no Miss Lemon, but Nikki Porter comes a close second.

Anyway, going to the lounge I find that this mysterious visitor is none other than Yasmin the maid/assistant from the séance. She says that her real name is Vivienne Powers and that Harry Pelham, a.k.a. the Adept Karmi, has not been right since the other night. Nightmares, headaches, depression, the whole package that you can expect after having had a close encounter with occult and malevolent forces.

Homeworld - Spirits and Spies

By Reiko

Previously, we discovered Convergence was the head of a secret society who had leads on where to find the items necessary to fix the ship so we can return to Earth, but we still need the TransWarp drive from Solifluction to get back in time to stop the Assassins. So we have to contact his son Raphide again and also find Astatine in Fogram's lab. The Aesthemis constellation unlocks the door to the lab, so I step inside.

Please note that this post has fewer screenshots than normal because we have many lengthy conversations in which the only image is the exact same picture of the character having the conversation with us.

Sneaking into Fogram's secret lab.

There's a lot of mysterious equipment in here, but the most interesting things are a visor and a strange device on a pedestal. I think I remember something about the visor, so I look at the device first. It sort of looks like a belt but with a piece of metal attached. I reach for it to pick it up and fiddle with it, but instead it zaps me. Ow! Then the screen on the wall lights up, and we see an Ancestor, who says, "Who are you? Do you belong here? Get out! I'm at a delicate stage in my experiments and I will not tolerate your interference!"

Wayne's World - Welcome to Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse

by Michael

This logo reminds me of another adventure game publisher...

So, last post, I said the game wasn’t as bad as I expected.  And that’s still true.  But it is far from the “Pinnacle of Entertainment Software” as their logo in the game loading sequence claims.

I probably could have finished the game in this session, but I really needed to take a break.  

Recapping from the last time, we’ve crossed 5 of the 10 items off of our to-do list.  So let’s see how to handle the rest of them.  First, my thoughts before I started out:

• Advertising - I’ll need to find the mascot mouse or a replacement to pep up the ad agency staff

• Volunteers - I need to befriend the biker gang

• TV air time - I’ll need to steal the time slot somehow from the gadget guy

• Electronic totals board - I’ll need to use the remote control to commandeer the televisions/computers from either the TV studio or the invention business

• Pizza ingredients - need to be obtained, somehow, from the supermarket

And it turns out that I’m right on 4 out of 5 of these.  Let’s see how I worked this out.

Missed Classic 129: Valhalla (1983) - Introduction

 Written by Morpheus Kitami

Its time for a marathon. Today's topic, Eldritch Games, the company behind The Hound of Shadow and Daughter of Serpents. Two horror adventure games that got missed the first time through, and seemingly ones that deserve the title Missed Classic. But an astute reader will have already noticed that this isn't The Hound of Shadow. Like all good stories, it does not start where you think.

Wait, what do you mean Vetinari started up Hound of Shadow? Serves me right for first writing this entry in 2022.

The principal team behind Eldritch Games consists of Chris Elliot, Richard Edwards, Mike Lewis and Carl Cropley. Mr. Elliot did not do anything before Hound of Shadow, at least that I know of. Lewis and Cropley were friends long before, and we'll get to them quickly. Today's title covers a game Richard Edwards had a hand in, the Norse mythology driven Valhalla...which is an adventure game with real-time gameplay. Can't I get a game without some annoying aspect like that?

And this game has combat. Not sure how extensive it is, but that is apparently part of the game. I remember someone once telling me adventure games were generally not violent. I can't help but feel like I've never seen one that was about non-violence...uh..Leisure Suit Larry...?

BloodNet – WON!

 by Will Moczarski

Whatever the case: I’m back. Those are the words I ended my previous BloodNet post with, and they are just as suitable for picking up on it again. That was on May 19, 2023, so it almost took me a year to be “back” this time, hopefully for good. Now I could bore you with long explanations why it took me so long but I think it doesn’t matter at this point. Whatever the case: I’m back.

Last time, I finally jumped over the huge stumbling block that was the fight inside Grant’s Tomb. The spike in difficulty had been unprecedented at that point and the remainder of the game was comparatively easy. I finished BloodNet on May 22, 2023 riding high on my previous success, clocking in at 28 hours. Fortunately, I recorded my playthrough. Also, I wrote much of this post back then but because I had to get back into the plot (as is probably the case with you) I decided to rewrite most of it (you'll notice by the shift from past to present tense when the new introduction ends).

So, where were we? I won the fight at Grant’s Tomb, killing Abraham Van Helsing in the process. Also, I freed Alexander Tennant only to see him die on me. To make things worse, he told me that Van Helsing was not really dead. I’d have to stab his heart to make sure. From looking at my notes I figured that was fair game since I hadn’t managed to find Deirdre yet (my main objective once upon a time). It was time to shape up and tie up with some loose ends.

Now going back out into the streets felt strangely satisfying having spent so many hours inside that damn tomb (although the in-game time hardly advanced, naturally). I stocked up on ammo at Vince’s and only then did I notice (or remember, really) that my proud party of six had shrunk to only three members. Rymma Fizz and Monique St. Clair had stuck it out but the others would never come back from the tomb. 

I decided not to repeat the fight hoping for a better result as I still had some potential party members waiting for me out in the streets. Also, I had been stuck in cyberspace, not being able to continue with the “lost kids” plot. Going over my notes I figured that Chuck was likely the right person to talk to, so I went out to add him to my party. (I had tried that in some of my earlier save states but he didn’t seem like a good fighter to me. Maybe he’s of more use to me in the cyberspace.)

Now especially during the endgame I was quite happy that I had been really thorough at keeping notes. I could quickly look up where to find other party members such as Garrick Fizz who’d finally be reunited with his wife Rymma now. He was on the same street corner as Chuck, too, which was kind of convenient...