Idle Thumbs 287: The Fun Cast

[Jake]

Idle Thumbs 287:

The Fun Cast
Are you guys ready to do The Fun Cast? Your employment agreement stipulates that you're are, so let's go! This week our hosts Shmirkin Burpin and Minion 600 check out Owlboy, finally released after nine years in development! Then, Nick Breckon, confused as to where he is, drives a tank up a hill and back down. Finally, an update on the new intra-organization subway service. Thanks everyone, back to work.

Discussed: Owlboy, Shovel Knight, Battlefield 1, Battlefield 1942, MiniMetro

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[Vainamoinen]

Thanks, now I feel older than the lot of you (but I do have the back pain as well). Owlboy "a Metroidvania where you fly most of the time"? Have none of you ever heard of Gargoyle's Quest? That's what this game reminded me of most. So the concept isn't new.

 

The whole being-annoyed-by-the-cutscenes business felt strange to me as well. The dialog is super-lightweight really, two or three lines of text is usually all there is... and the protagonist is mute to boot.

 

And, yup, I've been in a whole, whole lot of bullet hell situations up to now, and may indeed give up on the game because it's too difficult for me. Which would be a disaster, because I really love Owlboy!

 

(Yup, it's only on PC, but it's not only on Steam thankfully)

[Cordeos]

I find your lack of Steve Gaynor Hitman discussion disturbing

[Flay]

Guys I figured out how to promote the podcast

 

[Twig]

that's definitely jake goddamn

[Chris]

looooooooool

[Nick Breckon]

1 hour ago, Chris said:

looooooooool

 

^

[Nappi]

[Henke]

That Ernie Dingo goes to Sega World vid...

 

 

Spoilers: Ernie Dingo reckons it's pretty nifty.

[Turgid]

Chris, Mini Metro does have an Endless mode where the goal is to achieve better and better passengers/day. I too wanted a soft failure state mode without the stress, and Endless mode is great for that. If you restrict yourself somewhat in the changes you make (no redoing entire lines) it approximates your realistic mode where certain stations become perpetually underserved and crowded.

 

I'm not sure if you can do Hardcore + Endless...that would be even harsher than real life, since real train systems do actually change service, and occasionally physical infrastructure, in response to city growth and changing needs. I suppose that would imitate introducing a subway to an already established city over a few months, where stations popping in are just being completed.

 

Can anyone find that Claire Hoskins (?) talk with the first-time metro gif? I'd be fascinated to learn a bit more on the theory and practice of actual metro design and see how my MiniMetro strategies compare and contrast.

[Chris]

2 hours ago, Turgid said:

Chris, Mini Metro does have an Endless mode where the goal is to achieve better and better passengers/day. I too wanted a soft failure state mode without the stress, and Endless mode is great for that. If you restrict yourself somewhat in the changes you make (no redoing entire lines) it approximates your realistic mode where certain stations become perpetually underserved and crowded.

 

I'm not sure if you can do Hardcore + Endless...that would be even harsher than real life, since real train systems do actually change service, and occasionally physical infrastructure, in response to city growth and changing needs. I suppose that would imitate introducing a subway to an already established city over a few months, where stations popping in are just being completed.

 

Can anyone find that Claire Hoskins (?) talk with the first-time metro gif? I'd be fascinated to learn a bit more on the theory and practice of actual metro design and see how my MiniMetro strategies compare and contrast.

 

That's great to know, thanks! I guess it must just be on the Steam version?

 

Claire's thing was just a gif in a tweet: 

 

[chummer]

i couldn't not know.

 

 

[Vasari]

I am so happy that people are talking about Mini Metro again. I played it in early access and I started to go slightly insane recommending it to everyone. Chris mentioned the strategy of pausing and deleting every track throughout the game, and I do the same thing and absolutely hate it. I feel like it ruins the flow entirely. I actually lose most games on purpose because I realise that I can wipe everything and place new tracks, but it's not very fun and I'd rather just stop playing. Next time I play I'm going to take on Nick's suggestion of playing on hardcore mode where you can't remove tracks, that sounds like the best way to play it.

 

Oh, and you can delete an entire track at once. If you click the coloured circle at the bottom of the screen it'll give you an X button you can press to remove that entire track.

[SecretAsianMan]

I will send in whatever kind of (in)edible thing is desired if it means we get to see Princess Nick Breckon eat it.

[marginalgloss]

Ah, Segaworld. They had one in London too, in a massive building near Piccadilly Circus called the Trocadero. Again, the rides had nothing to do with Sega characters, but they had some pretty cool stuff regardless. There were hundreds of arcade machines, laser tag, etc. There was a weird ride where you could drive dodgems around and shoot rubber balls at each other. But most notably Segaworld gave me my first (and so far only) experience with virtual reality: they had a space flight sim ride which involved sitting on one of those hydraulic platforms, much like a video coaster, but with a VR headset which allowed you to look and shoot in any direction. 

 

There was also a networked version of what I think must have been a modded version of one of the Mechwarrior games, where each player sat in a little self-contained pod with their own set of joysticks and array of buttons. The pods would rumble and shake as you moved and fired your weapons and got shot. 

 

And for some reason there was a walk-through experience called Alien War, based on the Alien(s) franchise. You would get split up into little groups and be guided through a little experience by actors dressed as marines, while other actors dressed as xenomorphs burst out of the walls to scare you. (I never actually went on this one - I was too young at the time, I suppose - but I was always told it was terrifying.)

 

It closed in the early 2000s, though they kept the arcade parts open for a while longer. For the most part the Trocadero is derelict today. I think they're trying to turn it into a hotel or something. It's strange to recollect this stuff now; because it existed in an era that almost predated the internet, it's really quite hard to find any actual photo/video documentation of any of these rides. There seems to be no footage at all of the VR game, for example, and I can't find many accounts of Alien War, let alone any pictures. For a while I used to dream that one day they just locked the doors and forgot about everything -- for some reason, the idea of all those old headsets and alien costumes gathering dust is fascinating to me...

[Dewar]

There were apparently 26 Battle Tech Centers all over the world. I always wish I had gone to one.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BattleTech_Centers

[SecretAsianMan]

We had a set of 4 of those pods on campus when I was in college.  I probably visited them every day for 3 months straight.  I had never really been a big fan of MechWarrior before but man those things were ridiculously fun.  The fact that there were so many screens, buttons, switches, toggles, levers, etc. that were all completely functional made it the single most immersive experience I've ever had.  It also helped that my favorite Indian food place was right around the corner.

[Dr Wookie]

Hey, I just listened to the episode, and thought you'd like to know that Planet Coaster is out a week today, November 17 :D. The beta came out yesterday, and I'm kinda going through decision paralysis with all of the extra stuff they added. Luckily the career mode seems to be a gentle introduction.

 

Kotaku repulished an article from UK print magazine Edge where the author says 

" Books have been written on how best to structure a theme park. They’ll tell you to put the most exciting ride as far away from the entrance as possible, both to let guests get acclimatised with some lower-stress rides and to eke more money out of them along the way. They advise on the correct placement of food stands and toilets in order to maximise the visitor experience – and their expenditure. They’ll share best-practice advice on crowd management, on structuring paths and placing scenery to optimise the flow of an excited, teeming crowd. Before our visit to Frontier, we had no idea these books even existed. After a day spent in the company of a team making what is, by a distance, the most ambitious theme-park simulator ever created, we have a strange urge to read one."

 

I also really want to dig out a book or two, but even that tip is  a real help!

[infamous space turtle]

Holy shit I've been to sega world. 

7 year old me was in Australia around about 2000 and I went there.

 

Man, so much weird warm fuzzy memory. It was like my only experience doing amusement park things... I think my child brain melted there.