Preview of a BJ joke

Grundislav gives us a sneak look at a Ben Jordan dialogue joke and cameo by Anthony Carboni of bytejacker fame:

Carboni's Cameo in Ben Jordan 8

These are a few of my favourite things

Xbox public alphas and Atapi reviews tied up with strings...

Interview, gentlemen, please

Igor Hardy, aka Ascovel, aka an Adventure Classic Gaming writer has an interview with Ben and Dan up on his blog.

Time for Time

Many moons ago, there was a game that quite a lot of people liked a lot called Ben There, Dan That. Now Zombie Cow studios, creators of said game, have released the sequel, Time Gentlemen Please upon the unsuspecting public and will take a whole five dollars or 2.99 of your earth pounds in order for you to receive this delight. Of course, awesome bloggers or those who have donated to the guys already get free copies!

There's also a free demo, if you're not an awesome blogger or a wealthy ex-banker who ran off with everyone else's money.

You wait ages for one then 2 come along at once

Well, another ECC review has surfaced some 4 months after the release. Marty McFly has come back from the furture to give 4.5 out of 5 to Dave's fab game.

Post of the Week: Atapi and Eric - Cool Adventure Games 3 steps away

Back again, dear viewers or random internet linkers, and we're about to see some really cool stuff from the AGS scene.

-Atapi:
A game by Moody Blues, finally released says I, and it's really looking and feeling rather good. The story takes you to a strange universe, where a father descended from an alien race of some sort (haven't played that much), is trying to save the village from a disease. I say give it a try for it's worth it!!



-In production(yes, not ready so don't get jumpy already!!)
-Eric and the Apostolic Megalith:
That's really so good to be true, a game attempting to pay a tribute to all those 90's games, but from the looks of it and the story of it, man, I have to play this. Can't resist really. Just look at that!! On the story behalf, there's Eric a sort of a loser, a Megalith, and parody all over the game.


-3 Steps Away (Not literally):
A game by a newcomer, to be precise and upcoming game from a newcomer, that's looking really good. And professional. It's a horror based adventure game. A boy while on holiday with his parents wakes up one morning and can't find anyone at home... 20 years later this person is having a peaceful life in Boston. He sudenly receives a letter that the words on it remind the way his father talked. Our hero Nathan thinks that its time to solve this mystery with his parents disappearance. Sounds intriguing...


-Rest News:
Poc301 after losing the last special MAGS, has decided to put a link of his prize (that was a CD with all the 5 years MAGS entries) so you can get it

Here as a zip

Here as a torrent (might work as Save As)
It's legal and free so no worries :D.

Linux lives!

Managed to miss noticing this before, but it looks like Electroshokker is well on his way to reviving the Linux port of the AGS engine! Follow the progress in the tech forum thread. Previously, since EvilTypeGuy stopped maintaining from about AGS 2.71 there's been a lack of support, but now 2.72 is in the works and he'll move on to the latest version after that. So far, its targeting the Ubuntu distribution.

Just ECC

Well, only a third of a year late, but Just Adventure have reviewed Dave Gilbert's non-AGS Emerald City Confidential. They rate it too easy on the puzzle front but a B+ overall. They do seem to criticize a puzzle that isn't actually in the game and get their facts slightly wrong about Oz, but its good to see that their usual review quality is maintained.

Ghost has given an entertaining but thought-provoking treatise on puzzle design on his blog. What kind of puzzle designer are you?

When Horror met Alice

Uhfgood has reviewed Ben Jordan Case 4.

I had a wee cough

Or was that a week off? Anyway, lots happened while I was off visiting Beijing:

JD reviewed The Reposessor and Mr Danger's contest.

Grundislav gave a sneak peak of a Ben Jordan car chase!

MAGS June began with new host Dualnames and the theme Sellout.

Dave Gilbert found an article on RoN in PC Gamer UK

Curry me Curry me Away!!!

CJ has released the new beta after a long while, but it's worth a download. Just remember to backup.

Changes in 3.2 beta 2:

* Implemented Audio Types editor
* Score Sound and ViewFrame-linked sound updated to work with Audio Clips; script ViewFrame.Sound property replaced with new ViewFrame.LinkedAudio property
* Added AudioChannel.SetRoomLocation function to emulate the facility provided by directional ambient sounds
* Added AudioChannel.LengthMs property
* Implemented the speech volume drop setting for Audio Types
* Improved accuracy of Position property with OGG audio
* Removed room properties Play Music On Load, Music Volume and Save/Load Enabled since they are now obsolete
* Dynamic sprite deletion warning is now only displayed on exit if Debug Mode is turned on
* Changes to improve music glitching when changing rooms in D3D mode
* Fixed editor crash if you tried to delete an audio clip when a preview of it was playing
* Fixed Sierra-style speech box moving if the room was scrolled around while it was displayed
* Fixed Dynamic Sprites causing memory corruption if a mouse cursor was set to sprite 0
* Fixed Make Default Language command crashing if two different source lines mapped to the same translated line
* Fixed crash importing old game if there was no Sound or Music folder
* Fixed intermittent crash when playing WAV/MOD in beta 1
* Fixed keypresses and mouse clicks being ignored after restoring a save game in beta 1

GET IT HERE

Post of the Week: Mr Danger's Sellout Carnival of Aquatic Siths

Due to me not being able to cover stuff on the AGS forums as frequently as I would wish to, I decided to call my posts as "Post of the Week" and post four biggies per month.


Competions and Activities Sub Forum:

Not really much here, but well, here's some interesting ones:
-Progz's Sprite Jellyfish ending 6th of June:

ProgzMax, or Shane Stevens, or Atomic Playboy, has chosen a really cool theme for this sprite jam, can you:

1. Create an aquatic buddy/enemy/other for the lonely Pac-Fish!

2. Name your aquatic buddy/enemy/other and tell us a bit about it.

3. Use gradient-style dithering to help shade your aquatic lifeform.

4. And the most important rule: Have fun.

-MAGS June: Sellout:

This month's MAGS rules are set by OneDollar that won the April MAGS with Breakdown. The last MAGS was a special one, and the winner will just get some inventory items and not the chance to host the next MAGS as it usually used to happen.(That's why it's called Special). The rules can be found here.


-Games to play:
-Mr Danger's Contest:
Despite the fact that the name of the host feels unispired and rather b-movie, poc301 has picked one hell of an idea to make a MAGS entry. The game's really good looking, and the story is about you, wanting money badly, accepting an invitation for a contest among with some other people. Thing is someone has been killing your competitors. He/She wants the money badly...do you want them worse?



-Game to wait for:
-Shai-La of the Sith:
A game initially released about two weeks ago, with ripped graphics, now has been removed by Marion(the author of the game) in order to be given a facelift. The result feels really good, and I'm so awaiting for Marion to finish it..In the Star Wars universe, the life of Darth Vader's young apprentice, Shai-la, who will live the events of the two trilogies and meet characters from the movies and the Extended Universe during her various missions on different planets. She will learn the powers of the Force and become a powerful young Sith ! Oh, and the game's is more of an RPG/adventure thing.

MI - Carvaval Vudu:
A sequel to the Secret of Monkey Island, but apart from the fact, there's not much to tell, it looks astonishing good.









-Last Minute News:
TIG source has an article about the RON, praying Ben mostly. Read it here.

OK, forget about forgetting about Monkey Island

Ron Gilbert has put up a fascinating retrospective of the original MI on his grumpy gamer site.

Tales of Blackwell Island

Forget boring old Monkey Island... Dave G just put up a new Convergence gameplay vid!

Sith turns Invisible

Marion, author of Dread MacFarlane put up a new game, Shai-la of the Sith, but then took it down again to make it better. Now you see it now you don't.

Blog round-up

JD reviews La Croix Pan and Vince Twelve appeals for an artist.

You can pick your games and you can pick your nose...

Well, just as Fading Shades comes to the end of its reign as Pick of the Month, The Occasional Player reviews it and contrasts it with LimpingFish's Unbound. Meanwhile, the new pick is Ivy's classic Nanobots. Hard to believe it, but I've never picked one of her games before!