This is my third post about Crystal Caverns, the text adventure from Dan Kitchen (of Activision fame).
The game now lurches close to the end, but I wanted to write a post about a particularly horrendous moment of parser confusion.
https://bluerenga.blog/2025/03/14/crystal-caverns-the-worst-spot-in-the-game/
in which Crystal Caverns continues and I give the general map, which rather than being an intricate maze is more like a series of long tunnels holding secrets
https://bluerenga.blog/2025/03/13/crystal-caverns-samson-like-effort/
NEW VIDEO: Space Quest V may look like a cute little adventure game, but it's got some nasty tricks up its sleeve. How many? Here's my "dick moves of SQ5" video to entertain and inform. https://youtu.be/vJ24uGkv7Ws
Ah, fuck it, I'm gonna do a video on Monolith anyway. Sorry, Animation Arts — you're probably not gonna like this.
Time-travelling adventure Old Skies from Wadjet Eye Games arrives April 23 https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/03/time-travelling-adventure-old-skies-from-wadjet-eye-games-arrives-april-23/
in which I embark on an atmospheric text adventure from Dan Kitchen's early days, Crystal Caverns
(Dan Kitchen went on to be one of the original Activision programmers with games like Ghostbusters and River Raid II)
includes some early history of electronic LCD games
Next on All the Adventures, come for the tale of ill-fated Rabbit Software and the equally ill-fated "Knives of Eternity" series
includes dumping a van full of faulty tapes on a London street
my conclusion to Keys of the Wizard
where I experience bugs, maybe, except it's hard to tell what's really a bug
and where I theorize a solution to the adventure-roguelike problem
https://bluerenga.blog/2025/03/08/keys-of-the-wizard-maximum-difficulty/
betsyandsamantha now has a home on #youtube. All completed longplay content on #twitch has been moved to there, and as we complete games, they'll be downloaded and added.
Games are organised by playlist for ease.
https://www.youtube.com/@betsyandsamantha/playlists
I may consider adding to Peertube in the future.
There's content here from #infocom #atarist, #zxspectrum, #macintosh classic and modern #adventuregames.
I'm also working on a write-up detailing my video and audio capture setup.
after 25 years i finally cured my dino-fly and got to go on my first flght 
i can't believe it took me this long to finally work my way through twinsen's odyssey. it truly is the best possible sequel to little big adventure.
i only wish this particular kind of european-french design style had a modern counterpart. the only later games I can compare it to are Outcast and Beyond Good & Evil.
in which I "finish" Easy mode on Keys of the Wizard
and observe how the cut game mechanics undercut some of the more interesting aspects of the adventure-roguelike style
@danielalbu Be sure to watch the bit starting at 53:50, where he (without any fanfare whatsoever) shows off footage of the finale from a WIP build, with some different sound effects and some dialogue from the final version not added in yet!
I finished The Excavation of Hob's Barrow last night. I've been good friends with the Cloak & Dagger guys for a long time now, and I'm really proud of how far they've come. It's a really good game. If you haven't played it, I highly recommend it.
another obscure King's Quest IV fact: if you finish the game (and graham lives) - you're presented with a "Secret Code" at the very end of the game. my sister and i played the game for years and never could figure out what it was for - we assumed it was some kind of parser command that had to be entered during a subsequent playthrough of the game.
the actual purpose of the code?
when the game first went into print, each copy had a sticker in the corner that allowed the player to enter a draw for door prizes - and the grand prize a trip to merry 'ol england. the idea was that you'd finish the game, get the code, and then send in your submission to sierra to win a prize.
after the first print run was done, the sticker was removed. unfortunately, either (a) no one thought to remove the code from the end of the game or (b) more likely, cheap ass ken wouldn't pay for a programmer to strip out the code and do a new run of the floppy disks.
so everyone who played the game after that got the code without knowing where the hell it was supposed to be used.
when i was a kid, i never knew this alt dark ending to King's Quest IV existed 
Made it through Chapter 2 in Celeste! Wonder how long I'll be staying at the hotel...
New blog post time!
This week's game is Phantasy Star Adventure, the first Game Gear entry that picks up where those neat Phantasy Star II Text Adventures left off. Unfortunately, this one feels like a step down in pretty much every way. That sure didn't stop me from rambling about it for a while, though!
https://ephemeralenigmascom.wordpress.com/2025/03/04/phantasy-star-adventure/
I also did some reorchestrations of the Under A Killing Moon soundtrack for my video (including a fairly bonkers EBM remix of the Bastion of Sanctity music). Free download, of course. https://spacequesthistorian.bandcamp.com/album/under-a-killing-moon-a-fair-balanced-ep
My Under A Killing Moon retrospective is now also on #PeerTube: https://spectra.video/w/6ue3PmpQmJitHiMcooHrw5
My "Fair & Balanced Retrospective" on Under A Killing Moon, the third Tex Murphy game, premieres tonight on YouTube: https://youtu.be/rbmshHiOHfA
Come hang out in the chat and watch it with us.
Time: 10 PM CET / 4 PM EST / 1 PM PST
(And, yes, it will also be on PeerTube shortly thereafter!)
OverlordTomala
