Ilmari Jauhiainen – Page 3 – The Retro Gaming Treasury

Missed Classic 59: Deathmaze 5000 (1980) – Introduction

On October 18, 2018October 18, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

Written by Will Moczarski One of the creepiest gaming experiences of my childhood was called Asylum, a downright crazy text adventure with graphics scaring the hell out of me back then. As I never actually managed to complete the game it has kind of stuck with me over the years […]

What’s Your Story – Will Moczarski

On October 17, 2018October 19, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

Answers: Will Moczarski Introduction and captions: Ilmari Due to various game, computer and work related problems both our main game line and Infocom Marathon are a bit stumped. In order to give our fine reviewers some time to get back on track, we’ve decided to conduct a Special Week, with […]

Infocom Marathon: Cornerstone (1985)

On October 11, 2018October 11, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

Written by Joe Pranevich One of the sad truths about our beloved genre is that nothing is forever. Some of the greatest names in adventure games– Sierra, Adventure International, and even LucasArts– saw their day in the sun only to fall leaving behind unfinished games and frustrated fans. By 1992, […]

Missed Classic: The Worm in Paradise – Won! (With Final Rating)

On October 7, 2018October 7, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Ilmari The main problem throughout the whole game has been a lack of clear goals. I had to finally go to the well of the official clue sheet to get some idea what I was supposed to do here. It turned out there was a whole area of game, […]

Spellcasting 301 – Wet T-Shirt Nite

On October 5, 2018October 6, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Deimar Ernie Eaglebeak’s Journal #4: This contest is never going to end. It is contest on contest on contest to battle for the right of coming to Fort Naughtytail for the next five years. Our opponents, the cow wizards from the GLY fraternity, are stronger, more handsome, and frankly better […]

Zork Marathon: A Rush to Uniformity – 1984 Books & Wrap-up

On October 1, 2018October 1, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

Written by Joe Pranevich Sixteen games! It’s been another year both in real-time and in Infocom-time as we have reached the end of 1984 in our misnamed “Zork Marathon”. I’m still having a ton of fun, but as I mentioned in my last post, we need a bit of a […]

Missed Classic: The Worm in Paradise – A Golden Handshake

On September 29, 2018September 29, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Ilmari At the end of my last post I planned to try gathering enough money for the more expensive items. After that I noticed that the price of dagget (a mechanical dog) had come down in a couple of days – indeed, it appeared to have lost 100 creds […]

Alone in the Dark – Final Rating

On September 27, 2018September 27, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Andy Panthro As I said in the introduction, this game not only brought 3D elements into game design in a new and interesting way, but also paved the way for what we now consider an entire genre. How well did it succeed? And how well does it perform as […]

Spellcasting 301 – Sand castles in the sand

On September 25, 2018September 28, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Deimar Ernie Eaglebeak’s Journal #3: Beating the GLYs is proving to be harder than we anticipated. Of course, we had already beat them at weight lifting and partying, but now we have to build a sand castle, belly flop and a drinking contest. And that’s not even the end of […]

Missed Classic: The Worm in Paradise – The Brave New World

On September 23, 2018September 23, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Ilmari Blaming socialists and “aliens”? I wonder what regime this might be Let’s begin with some general remarks. My starting inventory consisted of tradclads – some sort of overalls – badge with a string of seven colours (I’ll get back to that later), what seems to be a tattoo, […]

Alone in the Dark – Tree’s A Crowd (Won!)

On September 19, 2018September 19, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Andy Panthro We left off as I had guided the private detective Edward Carnby underneath Derceto, and into the tunnels and chambers beneath. This area was ancient and surely constructed long ago, perhaps by the pirate Eliah Pickford or perhaps some of these were here before he took up […]

.Missed Classic 58: The Worm in Paradise (1985) – Introduction

On September 17, 2018September 17, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Ilmari Joe Pranevich has just completed another year of gaming (1984) in his Infocom marathon, and before moving on to the challenges of 1985 games, he is planning to write a few additional articles on other interesting things Infocom was doing at that period. It is thus a good […]

Spellcasting 301 – The Party

On September 15, 2018September 16, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Deimar Ernie Eaglebeak’s Journal #2: This is not the spring break I had dreamt of. But it is getting close. I mean, I am getting to know very hot girls and even rekindle some old passions. However, there is this part about having to compete with the SWAM boys, the […]

Alone in the Dark – Going Underground

On September 11, 2018September 11, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Andy Panthro Most of the house is now open to me, and I have explored a great deal of it. What remains is a couple of rooms, and to make my way down into whatever catacombs, caverns and caves lie beneath this cursed house. Last time, I had conquered […]

Alone in the Dark: History of the House of Hell

On September 6, 2018September 6, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Andy Panthro Derceto, the house that cages me and kills me. Either by traps, wildlife or creatures from dimensions beyond ours, I face death at every turn, through every door, in every room. I knew the library held the key, if not literally then perhaps by means literary.A helpful […]

Alone in the Dark – Bows, Books and Vagabonds

On August 21, 2018September 4, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Andy Panthro I was a little lost last time, but progress has been made! I decided to leave the statue and the book where they are in the darkness, having no space to take them, and turned the corner towards the gallery. Jeremy Hartwood was a painter of some […]

Alone in the Dark: Kitchen Nightmares

On August 13, 2018September 4, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Andy Panthro To my right, a suspicious suit of armour, holding a very sharp sword. Ahead, a pair of locked doors that closed as I arrived on this floor. So I choose to go to my left, towards the unknown. This direction leads me to a corridor and some […]

Missed Classic 57: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1984)

On August 9, 2018September 4, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

Written by Joe Pranevich Infocom may have been the masters of text adventures, but they aspired to more. They wanted to be “interactive fiction”, to have the recognition that gaming could be an art form on the same level of a good book. To this end, they pursued authors, most […]

Alone in the Dark – Man in the Mirror

On August 7, 2018September 4, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

Written by Andy Panthro This is a game that wants to kill the player character, and it begins from the start, even as you’re just getting used to your surroundings and used to the controls and user interface. I try to get my bearings in the attic, this large open […]

Missed Classic 56: The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1981)

On July 24, 2018September 9, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

Written by Joe Pranevich In the mid-1980s, Douglas Adams’s career was firing on all cylinders. A comic writer since college, best known for his collaborations with Graham Chapman and Monty Python’s Flying Circus, he was writing for classic Doctor Who at arguably its creative height and had just launched […]