Guess that Adventure Game

[dark-daventry]

Space Quest VII?

Last time I checked, there were only 6 Space Quest games, not 7... All of the Space Quest 7 games, be them official or otherwise, got cancelled somewhere during their development.

[MikPal]

All of the Space Quest 7 games, be them official or otherwise, got cancelled somewhere during their development.

I think this was the closest thing to a complete game.

I don't think Hitchhiker's was written with 10 year-olds who only knew English through their neighbor's Children's Channel in mind (and I suspect, under those circumstances, you were only even able to get up to the babel fish part because English and Swedish are closely related).

Sometimes in life you get what you get, not what you were meant to get. Before learning swedish in the mandatory schooling, I already knew the basics of english thanks to the TV. Didn't help squat. I still don't speak swedish. Not because I can't understand it, but because I refuse to speak it. And even though they are both based in latin, they are nothing alike. Eller kan du förstå vad jag skriver här just nu? Min svensk är så dålig at jag kan aldrig bli en författare. Vieläkin pahemmaksi tekisi muuttaa koko puhe kesken kaiken ugrilaisemmaksi.

I'm feeling generous, here's four clues:


1. The developers, according to their own words, interviewed over 2000 members of the target demographic before starting the production.
2. The company that made this game actually bough out their own parent company and then sold it.
3. Marvelous, cool, kinetic movement, ever-lasting friendship, non-conformist, zany, ingenious, and empowered.
4. You can make out with a cowboy in a barn. Next to a horse. Eeeee....

[darthkiwi]

I don't think Swedish is based in Latin; it's a gemanic language and therefore is on a parallel branch to Latin and Romance languages (if wikipedia does not lie).

It should have some similarities to English since English is also Germanic, but Swedish is apparently North-Germanic whereas Old English is West Germanic so any similarities are probably rare. Plus, English has been fundamentally affected by the influx of French that accompanied the Norman invasion.

[MikPal]

Yeah, that statement was just my own stupidity.

So... Any quesses?

1. The developers, according to their own words, interviewed over 2000 members of the target demographic before starting the production.
2. The company that made this game actually bough out their own parent company and then sold it.
3. Marvelous, cool, kinetic movement, ever-lasting friendship, non-conformist, zany, ingenious, and empowered.
4. You can make out with a cowboy in a barn. Next to a horse. Eeeee....

[glottal]

... but Swedish is apparently North-Germanic whereas Old English is West Germanic so any similarities are probably rare.

[language nerd moment]English is actually a creole of Old English (from West German, yes) and Old Norse, it actually has quite a bit in common with the Nordic languages, particularly Icelandic.[/language nerd moment]

As for the current game: I have no idea, and I'm not ready for another round of google fu yet.

[drunkenmonkey]

Interesting. I know there are some similarities in old Scottish and German. Most likely due to the Anglo-Saxon influence.

[darthkiwi]

English is a mixture of Old English and Norman French, plus some Latin words which were introduced in the Augustan period (roughly 1600-1800) such as hexameter and ellipsis, as well as a few bits and pieces here and there like kiosk, blitz, veranda etc. which are loan words. There is an influence from Norse languages, but this influence is twofold:

1) Vikings invaded the British Isles in the 9th century and colonised about half of the island forming England, Scotland and Wales. Since they settled here, some of their words trickled over into English, and some English words changed their meanings slightly due to pressure from their Norse equivalents. For example, before the invasion the English word "eorl" meant "man" or "warrior"; during the Danish occupation, the word came to have the connotation "lord", which was how it became the modern word "earl", because there was a similar Danish word meaning "lord". Interestingly, it was during this period (we think) that the feminine pronoun "heo" became the more familiar pronoun "she". None of the other pronouns have undergone such a large change which makes me wonder why this one has.

But, more importantly:
2) Old English was itself a Scandinavian language: the Saxons who brought the language to England in about 500 AD came from southern Denmark, which is why their language has so many similarities with Old Norse (eg. words such as scip (ship) and brond (sword) are the same in both languages).

The reason why the language has many similarities to German is because Old English was itself a Germanic language, as were all Norse languages; it therefore shares a common root with modern German. The reason it has similarities to Scots is because Scots was slower to change than Modern English since it was less exposed to foreign influences and reformers, and as such retains words like bairn ("child", from OE "bearn"), burn ("stream", from OE "burn") and ken ("know", from OE "cunnan", to know) which have fallen out of use in more fluid Modern English.

Sorry to go off-topic with this but people seemed interested and I think it's nice to know where languages come from. I'm afraid I don't know what game you're after...

[KatieHal]

Yeah, if you guys want to do more language nerding out, you should start new thread for it.

I also don't know what the game is. But now that I know google fu is allowed!

[glottal]

Yeah, getting back to the topic...

Marvelous
cool
Kinetic movement
everlasting friendship
non-conformist
zany
ingenious
empowered


&

C
o
.

[MikPal]

Yes, yes, YES!! Sorry, I'm going nearly orgasmic here with that answer.

McKenzie & co., made in 1995 by Her Interactive (Nancy Drew-games, The Vampire Diaries), a then subsidiary of American Laser Games (Mad Dog McCree, Crime Patrol 2: Drug Wars, Space Pirates). In 1999 Her Interactive bough out American Laser Games and a year later sold it to Digital Leisure Inc that has released many of the old ALG games to DVD and console format.

The name of the game McKenzie & Co. comes from the name of the car that the main characters own. the object of the game is to make choices that will affect with whom do you go to the prom. Will it be Brett (The cowboy), Steven (the rich kid), Brandon (marshmallow loving Porche driver)or Derrick (the athlete). If you bought the expansion disk, McKenzie & Co: More Friends, you could also date James (rebel with a bike) and Aaron (the vegetarian). The executive director Patricia Flannigan has been known to say on record that the team interviewed over 2000 girls to find out what they wanted from a game. What makes this game really interresting is that one of the programmers, Sheri G. Ray, wrote a small memoir of her experience. Let's just say that nobody knew what they were doing and some threatening phone calls were made. At least the steadicamshot of the intro came out nice ("Jaa, jaa. Ai em exhcange shtuudent").

Also if you want to know what a bunch of thirty something drunken men think about this game, answers can be found here.

[glottal]

I don't feel like throwing another challenge out right now.  I do feel like handing the opportunity to KatieHal, for no particular reason.  If Katie does not take this opportunity to make the next challenge within 24 hours, it will be up for grabs for anyone.

[KatieHal]

Oo, fun! I'll take it and post something a little later on today.

Also, that Vampire Diaries game intro is...wow. The actress sounds so terrible. She sounds like an actress, which is not a good thing! I've never read the books but really enjoy the TV show. Now I'm curious if I can track down some gameplay of that game online....

[MikPal]

Now I'm curious if I can track down some gameplay of that game online....

Right here. Personally the most interresting thing about The Vampire Diaries is this bit from Ray's memoirs:

The time came to film the "bite". In the scene the actor playing the player would have her back to the camera, and the actor playing Damon would be facing her, thus facing the camera. He would say his line, then step forward, put his arm around the waist of the girl, tip her head to the side and "bite" her neck. We set up the scene, ran through quickly a time or two, then, it was time to actually shoot it.

Damon said his line, stepped forward, slid his arm around her waist, tipped her back slightly and she bent her head to expose her neck and Damon leaned in to bite, all the while keeping "eye contact" with the camera. He finished the scene and there was this audible "sigh" form around me. I looked around and realized that EVERY woman in the set was standing behind me, watching the scene in my monitor.. and they ALL nearly swooned! I knew at that moment we'd done it right!

As a side note, we got MANY letters from players who told us they regularly chose the 'wrong' path through the game so they could see the scene where Damon bites Elena over and over again!

Now read the whole thing with genders reversed. And FYI Elena's age is 13.

[Enchantermon]

He finished the scene and there was this audible "sigh" form around me. I looked around and realized that EVERY woman in the set was standing behind me, watching the scene in my monitor.. and they ALL nearly swooned! I knew at that moment we'd done it right!

What is this I don't even.

[KatieHal]

13?? Isn't she older than that even in the books? Thanks for the gameplay link, btw!

1) Your character has no parents.
2) The game is only somewhat faithful to the original source material, but that's not really the fault of the designers.
3) Many walkthroughs, including the official as I recall, advise you to find a hidden area in the game by a method that does not work*. There is another method that does work, however.


*To be fair, I've never tried it on someone else's copy of the game or asked around about people's success with it. But I tried it MANY times and it NEVER worked even once. So I'm convinced it doesn't work at all.

[MikPal]

13?? Isn't she older than that even in the books?

Here's a quote from Ray:

We went to cast Elena and decided she would only be seen from the back, thus we needed someone with GORGEOUS blond hair. We ended up casting a 13 year old girl who had the most amazing long blond hair we'd ever seen.

It's the same kind of decision making as hiring a late twenty something to act as a high schooler or to quote allegedly Jeremy Heath-Smiths during the devlopement of the original Tomb Raider: "If I'm going to be staring at someone's bum all day, I'd rather it be a female bum."

1) Your character has no parents.
2) The game is only somewhat faithful to the original source material, but that's not really the fault of the designers.
3) Many walkthroughs, including the official as I recall, advise you to find a hidden area in the game by a method that does not work*. There is another method that does work, however.

Your puzzle intrigues me. This calls a trip to the library.

[KatieHal]

Well, I had to go for some clues that wouldn't be TOO obvious.

Ahh, okay, the actress, not the character. Gotcha. Although (as I'm watching the playthrough) the only shot I've seen of Elena so far had her with brown hair I think. Also this is game is hilariously terrible! It's a shame the playthrough isn't complete (only 5 of 10 videos from nearly a year ago) and also that there's no snarky commentary being made. It rightly deserves some.

[Haids1987]

Also, that Vampire Diaries game intro is...wow. The actress sounds so terrible. She sounds like an actress, which is not a good thing! I've never read the books but really enjoy the TV show. Now I'm curious if I can track down some gameplay of that game online....

[rant=Haids]Okay, off-topic rant here, but...

SERIOUSLY?!  They made a Vampire Diaries video game?!  Ugggggggggggggghhhhhh!  I remember reading those books when I was thirteen and being so lyk in luv wiht stefan (this was light years before Edward Cullen), and absolutely marveling at how amazing a writer LJ Smith was.

When the show and new books came out, jeez, I was startled and appalled!  Of course, the books are still written by LJ, but they're NOTHING like the original series and read like she was locked in a room with only Sailor Moon DVD's rolling 24/7.  And the TV show?  Forget it.  Too much!

Now there's a freaking GAME of this trainwreck of a once-beloved series?  I'm angered!  I'm frustrated!  I need M&M's!  The author needs to stop trying to cash in! *Huff*Puff*[/rant]

[KatieHal]

Haids--I've never read the books, and I watched the show with the intent that it would be a silly guilty pleasure. But it's actually pretty damn good! I know it deviates quite a bit from the books themselves, too. I recommend giving it a shot. Although it sounds like you have seen it...y'know, I'm just gonna move this post to a new thread, it's more appropriate there at this point!

[Haids1987]

I'm just gonna move this post to a new thread, it's more appropriate there at this point!

Haha!  Yay, a Vampire Diaries AND a Twilight thread?  Vampires FTW, man!