Pleroma

Pleroma

Richard Moss MossRC

I've been introducing my four year old to point-and-click adventure games via the Humongous Entertainment "junior adventures" series. She's loving them, aside from occasional frustrations and some scary bits, and is now showing a great deal of interest in any grownup adventures she sees me playing.

Freddi and Luther embarking on a new adventure through the haunted schoolhouse. This photo shows the inventory bubbles at the bottom of the screen. We hadn't picked anything up yet, but it notably has pre-set positions in the UI for each item you can collect. Freddi angrily confronts the ghost who has been scaring all the other kids. Photo of my laptop screen playing the intro to Pajama Sam in No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside. Sam is shining his torch into his bedroom closet.
replies
5
announces
2
likes
18

Michael MichaelKlamerus@dosgame.club

@MossRC they hold up incredibly well. My kids love them

Richard Moss MossRC
@MichaelKlamerus I'm really enjoying them too. They have the same kind of layering of humour for different age groups that great kids' TV offers, the art and animation is superb, and there's a lovely message of inclusiveness and courage pervading through each one. Plus charm in spades.

Matt Diamond matt_diamond@mastodon.gamedev.place

@MossRC Pajama Sam is my personal favourite. Slightly older age range than Freddi Fish.

I hate to ruin a potential surprise, but if you replay some of these, you may be shocked like I was to see the game inserts additional puzzles and locations. So if your kid ever wants to revisit an old favourite, you should let them 🙂

I used to say that Pajama 1 was one of the best designed computer games I’ve played. My opinion hasn’t changed. @grumpygamer and co. made it look effortless.

My name is Gordo gordoooo_z@hachyderm.io

@MossRC Nice iBook! That appears to be in pretty nice shape.

Bink bink@defcon.social

@MossRC I'm sure those games are awesome (I was too old, but living in the Seattle area, several friends worked for HE)... but that clamshell iBook! Gorgeous. Love playing old stuff on period hardware.

Or beautiful copies of period hardware.

A "Commodore 64 Ultimate" sitting on the lower portion of an 80s vintage two-tiered computer desk. A joystick sits next to it, and a modern 27" display shows the opening screen of "Karateka". The desk is otherwise a mess. Behind the computer desk, an octagonal Multiboard mesh is mounted to the wall with wires and bins hanging from it.

superfunc superfunc@mastodon.gamedev.place

@MossRC pajama sam & backyard baseball were so amazing

Richard Moss MossRC
@matt_diamond @grumpygamer Totally agree. I was super impressed by the outstanding quality of the design (and art and writing) on Pajama Sam 1 when I played it recently. Great, meaningful, logical puzzles and interactions.

One of the big motivators for me with my SCUMM history project is to bring the brilliance of the Humongous games to light and to show they were so much more than mere "kids games".

Richard Moss MossRC
@gordoooo_z It's got a couple of cracks, the battery is as good as dead, and one of the keycaps is missing. But otherwise the iBook in great working order, and absolutely delightful to use.

Richard Moss MossRC
@bink Playing old games on period hardware really elevates the experience, I find. Doubly so when it's something as beautiful as a G3 iBook. The convenience trade-off gets harder the further you go back, though, as I'm sure you know, given your C64 photo.