Playdate: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (07/02/2018)

RIP Harlan Ellison

HATE

This should be fun.

I have been wanting to play this for years!

Also the short story upon which it is based is incredible for how misanthropic, angry, and nihilistic it is.

Oh man, this should be interesting!

Never did finish this game. It's quite good though.

I just bought this game on GOG. I guess the video will have to wait once I'm done playing through it!

Ol Vinny Greybeard!

@undeadpool: If you had to pick three words to describe Harlan Ellison, "misanthropic, angry, and nihilistic" are a pretty good selection.

I watched a playthrough of this a few years back and it's flipping fantastic.

This game is terrific. An all-time favorite.

Curious to see how this goes, back in the day I found this game super disturbing, but I’m curious to watch it through a giantbomb lens now

A bunch of giant bomb content, including a GBE Playdate the day before my birthday. This is awesome!

Random PC game returns...

Just want to say how enjoyable I think Ellison's vo is in this game.

@undeadpool: I love that a good chunk of the game came from the designers asking Ellison why AM chose these 5 particular people to torment.

Vinny rocking the salt and pepper.

You should really do a proper Harvester playthrough, it's very funny

Considering the legendary status this game has I was expecting a lot more

I would also recommend "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman to anyone interested in Ellison's fiction.

OMG yes, this is like a top 5 adventure game for me. Love me some AM.

The Old PC Games series remains my favorite on GB. So glad to see this pop up and hope it's a trend!

My first ever Let's Play (some have said the first LP, but I don't know if I'd agree) and one of my favorite adventure games of all time.

*cough* A Boy and His Dog *cough*

Ehhhh, he was multifaceted, like most people, but still INCREDIBLY bitter and angry. And most of his writing is intensely misanthropic.

It's also somewhat ironic that so many of his peers looked down on videogames, and by all accounts this was one of the only bits of media interpreting his writing that he loved.

I’m pretty sure Austin Walker just mentioned an intention to play this on a recent Waypoint podcast. Coincidence or is there some connection? Haven’t watched the video yet.

@htr10: Harlan Ellison recently passed. The writer of the short story and voice of AM.

The title of this makes it sound like an autobiography of the kamikaze enemy in Serious Sam

Of course as soon as I start this, it buffers.

I have no bandwidth... and I must stream.

Here's this guy - he committed war crimes in Vietnam. Here's this guy - he was literally involved in the Holocaust. Here's this woman - she... was raped. That's kind of her whole deal.

Sounds like a 90s adventure game.

WHAT?! IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!!!???!

(reaction shamelessly stolen from Team Fourstar)

@crimsonjesus:

Oh, I see. Thank you for explaining that.

Great, but don't forget you still have to finish Noctropolis!

@undeadpool: golly jeepers, ain't it great, little shorap is turning eight

They seemed a bit harsh on this game. I think it's pretty great. Pretty much the first good horror game i can think of.

Man, I've been jonesin' to watch Vinny play an adventure game.

That short story felt like I was reading something written my a junior high-school student, imho. Nothing about it was impressive in the slightest bit.

Fun playdate, though.

The games better than the short story, anyone know if Ellison thought of it as the "real" story? He did like games unlike his peers.

Again, Dangerous Vinny

Did Vinny get more grey after E3?

For anyone who was into Ellison's VAing in this, here he is reading the short story:

He also did an audiobook performance for Ursula le Guin's "A Wizard of Earthsea", which I think is worth checking out (and is on topic with seminal SF&F fantasy authors who have died in 2018).

Anyone else bothered by Alex looking at a guide and knowing what's ahead all the time? Especially in this game, it just ruins the collaborative puzzle-solving that the crew can have. I get using a guide if you are completely stumped, but I don't like that Alex is always looking at it in advance. I realize this is a dumb thing to get hung up on, but it really irks me for some reason.

Anyway, I've been curious about this game after hearing about it a long time ago so I'm glad they played it.

@pie: it seems silly now but in the 90’s when it came out and graphics were still very primitive, a lot of the presentation was very impressive. The subject matter while easy to roll your eyes at today was also a big departure from what you typically got as a videogame plot.

It was still a clunky adventure game but in a sea of other clunky adventure games it did stand out. Personally I remember looking at pictures of it in early PC magazines and being completely blown away.

@cikame: was it the twobestfriendsplay playthrough?

I'm kind of scared to read this short story for it may depress me. This video definitely put me on the edge.

I'm like 900% sure that Ted is voice by Christopher Randolph (voice of Otacon) but Ted's VA is the only person not credited basically anywhere so I can't confirm it.

Read the story, bought the game during Steam Summer Sale, all in memory of Mr. Harlan Ellison.

"Wow I'm glad games got better."

How about we don't use this obviously middling example of an adventure game to collectively dismiss all the genre classics? Like any other period of gaming some games were great, most were not.

This game's mediocrity doesn't make Day Of The Tentacle, Sam & Max or Beneath A Steal Sky any less exceptional.