Old Games: Encyclopedia Bombastica: Pastfinder

k-razy

yay!

D'aww. Have to admit, I was hoping this was going to be another Alex episode of EB.

Did you find the past?

Do I have to consider these Encyclopedia Bombasticas like fillers in between more juicy contents?

Wow, this is the most advanced looking Atari game I've ever seen.

But still, nothing can beat Pitfall IMO.

Looking for artifacts in an irradiated zone... is this STALKER??

God damn it past Jeff, stop talking about how cool the weekend is!

@Porkellain said:

Do I have to consider these Encyclopedia Bombasticas like fillers in between more juicy contents?

You don't have to consider them anything. Personally, I consider them fascinating looks at the past. I'll probably never have the patience and time to get in there myself and find out what's cool about these older games, so it's great that Giant Bomb has a series of videos to show me exactly that.

This game does look really cool. Really cool all these open world games on these old school consoles, had no idea they existed.

If someone at Kotaku watches this to the end, we'll see a story up with a headline saying Jeff wants another game industry crash.

I'm always impressed by how ridiculously detailed Jeff's memory of these games seems to be.

@Porkellain said:

Do I have to consider these Encyclopedia Bombasticas like fillers in between more juicy contents?

Thefuck? These were recorded and produced during the weekend. This is pretty definitively bonus content.

This game seems pretty awesome.

@Porkellain: You could consider them awesome, since that's what they are. Filler... sheesh. Kids.

great video

The cover art is always so amazing on these old games, they're like the LP's of videogames.

Based on the amount of premium content we get it looks like you keep everyday real lazy.

I'm joking.

OR AM I?

The box art for Pastfinder is incredible. Like something from a Prog Rock album.

Activision needs to start putting their logo at the bottom of all their games all the time again.

This game seems batshit crazy even with Jeff explaining everything.

@Jeff Hey, what's going on with the framerate? The whole thing stutters quite a bit (gameplay and your feed), it's a shame since these scrolling are hard to watch because of it. You may want to check your X-split settings. Anyway, thanks for the great content and switching to a better mic.

New mic is SO MUCH BETTER than the old shitty webcam mic. Also, I will echo others here and say that is some seriously fantastic box art.

bombastica has shown me that old forgotten games are... forgotten for a reason.

We've come a long way baby.

I liked the look of this from the moment I saw the spidery walking and jumping animation. All the exploration potential adds to the neatness, yet another game that would have blown my mind back in the day. I would have been only 1 or 2 years old when this passed me by, though.

Oh god yes, new mic!

Jeff filling in for Game Room and I love it. I wish we see these sorts of games nowadays, it'd be awesome.

Still love that old Activision logo!

Wow, unless I view the video in fullscreen I can't tell the difference between the red and green zones on the map. If Jeff hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have noticed there were green zones. Being colorblind kind of sucks.

I would like to make a Encyclopedia Bombastica request/suggestion...Seven Cities of Gold. That was really teh first game I ever stayed up all night to play for hours and hours.  I know you couldn't show all of the game, but I think a 45 minutes Encyclopedia Bombastica could cover enough of the game to be illustrative.

Jeez, some of these old games were simply madness. Must have been more than weird to develop in an environment with almost no established rules or standards.

Is this future Jeff?

@SmarmyJerkface: I'm 28 but thanks for calling me a kid, relieves me from my 30-year crisis ^^

Anyway, having started playing in the early 90s I do have my shit ton of games I wasn't able/couldn't be arsed to try or finish, probably I've been unlucky not finding anything interesting to me so far. I'll keep hope alive.

Gotta love the price tag on the box.

I ... can't go on this journey with you, Jeff. I wish I could ... but I can't.

The graphics style really reminds me of Andrew Braybrook's Alleykat.

I, personally, think Activision should go back to publishing their name at the bottom of the UI of their games

@MonkeyKing1969: Yes he should! Why not do Underworld also. I remember a crazy neon level unless I am hallucinating that only at this point...

good video :D

This game looks really cool. There seems to be quite a lot to it for such an old title. Can't say I'd ever heard of it before this video either.

Clearly what we're seeing isn't a spiderbot, but a man with pickaxes for hands and feet.

Or maybe the less interesting option of a man riding a spiderbot.

This would probably be an award-winning browser game if it came out today

@bvilleneuve said:

@Porkellain said:

Do I have to consider these Encyclopedia Bombasticas like fillers in between more juicy contents?

You don't have to consider them anything. Personally, I consider them fascinating looks at the past. I'll probably never have the patience and time to get in there myself and find out what's cool about these older games, so it's great that Giant Bomb has a series of videos to show me exactly that.

Since Jeff is archiving all these old games, does that make HIM the Pastfinder?

Yay for microphone upgrades!

Liking the sound effects, exploration and item selection on this, definitely adds a lot to the scope of the game.

"Here's where it gets a little confusing," says Jeff about five minutes in. Because before that it was crystal clear.

Jeff dropping some knowledge at the end there.

Think about it: he also showed a CBS game today.

Even if gaming goes through hard times right now we will all be fine.

This actually doesn't look look like a bad game for the Atari, people were lucky to find good games back then without guidance.

Thanks Jeff. This game looks like a real gem. I love how the game implies a deepish premise without throwing up walls of text. As I see, this game is about post apocalyptic earth eons after the fact, and you're futuristic archaeologists fighting your way through the sentient machines that are the only thing that survived the radiation in order to find what you can of the ancient past. That's a suitably awesome premise for a fairly limited game. I love it.

Quite an artifact!

@BionicMonster said:

Since Jeff is archiving all these old games, does that make HIM the Pastfinder?

Oh snap! *mind blown*

This game looks surprisingly complex for the time and pretty awesome. Love the new microphone, btw.

Ha! "Radiation Gauge." It's called a Geiger Counter! And that "Space Invaders tone" would be the Geiger Counter clicking.

*adjusts monocle*