| Weird little game | posted by CayceP |
| Hey, I found this weird little game in the AmieOS archives. It’s some kind of love story or something. I don’t have time to check it out right now, but you guys should take a look. | |
| RE: Weird little game | posted by joeboy11 |
| WTF is this how is it even a game? i can play an OS all day at work. my gramma uses BBS… way to post another shitty game cayce! | |
| RE:RE Weird little game | posted by Rydell |
| It is a game, dumbass. If you had a longer attention span than a mayfly you’d realise that. You were probably too stupid to try the dialler. “all day at work” my ass, unless that’s what you call remedial English in high school. Anyway, loving it so far, Cayce. Great writing. You should play it and give us a review when you have time. |
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| RE:RE:RE: Weird little game | posted by joeboy11 |
| man rydell u r so whipped | |
| Nostalgia | posted by *OldAmieGuy1.3 |
| Rydell–troll feeding. Wow, never thought I would see that blue background and that classic font again! Clean and simple, just the way I liked it. This takes me back to when my uncle ‘Mute showed me how to dial in to the university BBS. We never met anyone like *Emilia on there, though, just a bunch of fellow Amie nerds! Peace out, guys. |
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| BUMP: Just finished it and I’m still reeling… | posted by Aleph |
| Thanks so much for recommending this, Cayce. You really need to get round to playing it, if only so I have someone to gush at! This game is a triumph of storytelling, immersion, and emotion over those 3D games all the twitch kiddies are playing now. I haven’t cried so much since I finished Plait and recognised the allegory for biochemical warfare. It’s an experience, not just a game. Two of the most profound hours of my life. If any game is Art, then this is it. I love how you can only infer the unnamed protagonist’s personality from the subtext of how other characters react to him. Most games just give your character lines to say and they don’t always line up with what you might say. In Digital: a Love Story, this barrier to immersion is dropped and I found myself relating to Eidolon—my handle in the game—more than other characters that are given reams of dialogue responses in other games. And Emilia, man, she was so easy to fall in love with. |
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| RE: BUMP: Just finished it and I’m still reeling | posted by joeboy11 |
| ROFL aleph u r such a fag. srsly hav u even played a real game befor? u cant evn chose what t do | |
| RE: BUMP: Just finished it and I’m still reeling | posted by Chromedogfight |
As much as joeboy is a moron, I have to (grudgingly!) wonder if you’re playing the same game as me? Before you jump on me for being a philistine, here are my points:
Anyway, I’m kinda disappointed because it seems like a great concept let down by an unfriendly interface… |
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| RE:RE: BUMP: Just finished it and I’m still reeling | posted by Rydell |
| Chrome – you can turn the dial tone sound off in the menu or you can skip it by clicking your mouse. And yeah, you should read everything. It’s mostly relevant or interesting, especially if you care about the history of the tubes we’re posting on now. You can get more codes from the Matrix. I’m still curious about what you think of it, Cayce. |
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| Bugging out? | posted by *OldAmieGuy1.3 |
| Chromedogfight, you should try and download all of the attachments (not something that I would recommend these days) and “reboot” your system. Rydell – You are correct that most of the information in the posts is true. I particularly enjoyed the explanation of ARPAnet. The idea that advanced programs could be contained on an Amie system is laughable, however. Or even a modern system. I particularly enjoy the music. I have downloaded several song files from the contributing artists. |
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| RE: Bugging out? | posted by Chromedogfight |
| I still don’t get it. I mean, I fixed it so I could play the game again. But I don’t feel any emotional investment in something that wastes half my time punching in numbers. It’s cute and all, but what’s the point? | |
| Sorry to resurrect this thread | posted by CayceP |
| I finally finished the game. I have to say that you all have a point, yes, even you, joeboy. Amie 1.3 was before my time, yet I still feel a tinge of something when I see the interface in the game. It’s like driving an old car or looking at ancient pottery. Reverence? Maybe not quite, but there’s definitely a kind of acknowledgement that I’m playing a tribute to the rise of online communication, something that’s intrinsic in our lives now. This feeling is created not just by the great old school graphics: it’s in the meticulous writing, the clearly differentiated voices of all the characters. It’s in the physical act of typing in numbers to access new areas, the frontiers of the embryonic net. The love story is minimalist and almost archetypal, yet this also enables the player to embellish it—and Emilia’s character—with their own ideas of what love is. That you’re playing yourself in a computer interface, rather a 3rd person avatar, suspends disbelief further. I liked that the few puzzles in the game required me to actually investigate the information available to me and work out what to do next. When it worked, it felt extremely natural and realistic: I wasn’t given a list of objectives or items to collect. The thrill of solving a puzzle based on textual information, or hovering over the enter button before dialling in to an unknown territory is genuine and strong. But there aren’t enough moments like this in the game. Too often the information is easy to miss among the many posts, or the right person to reply to isn’t obvious. I didn’t have many of those problems, personally, but I can understand why they ruined Chrome’s experience. A lot of the time you just have to reply to everyone and PM everyone, which isn’t very realistic at all. Can you imagine letting people do that on this messageboard, AmieGuy? Overall, though, the storytelling and use of subtext is top notch and the narrative draw was more than enough to pull me through to the conclusion. The lead up to the conclusion, by the way, benefits from the complete linearity in the game in the same way that a novel can be enhanced by foreshadowing… I’m definitely going to play again, this time more slowly, and read those messages I skipped because I wanted to get on with the story. 80%* *As in, you should at least check this out. |
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| RE: Sorry to resurrect this thread | posted by Rydell |
| /thread. | |
Craig Lam
Nice review style.
As for Digital, I’m afraid I shared some of Chrome’s experiences. I thought I’d read everything, but either I’m being incredibly dense or happened to miss some sort of trigger and I just hit a brick wall (if I have to guess I’d say it’s more likely to be me than the game).
Might give it another go from the start – as I was rather enjoying it until I got stuck and it was satisfying when you figured out how to progress. Plus I want to see how the story concludes.
PS – Where I got stuck I’d found a new BBS through a cryptic message from Emilia but the password cracker wouldn’t work on it – I’d appreciate any subtle hints!
Accessing that BBS is one of the main puzzles in the game. Look through the earlier BBSes and you should find the password. That is only the first step, however.
Oh man, that HTML is sexy.
You did a great job. The choice of font is just right.
Hehe, wicked. What’s the number for this GD bbs?
Fantastic. A really cool review style, though I think Mr.Lam might now suffer multiple personality syndrome after writing from the perspective of so many fictional forum people.
STFU n00b!
I started it, but I couldn’t get on with it. If the BBS dialer had a history then maybe I’d be happier. But I’m not altogether sure.