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Colorred
Dec 26, 2012

Have you ever wanted to act out Edgar Allan Poe's famous short stories in your very own Interactive FMV video game?!

Well, now you can with the Dark Eye! That is, if you can find an available copy online. You see, the game has become increasingly rare nowadays, and only very occasionally does it pop up on eBay.com and other websites. And when it does, the cost is totally not worth it – sometimes up to $90 for a game that lasts you 4-5 hours. So I'm here to share with you this unique relic from '95, developed and published by iNSCAPE.

The Dark Eye features three separate story adaptions – Berenice, the Cask of Amontillado, and the Tell-Tale Heart. However, it also has a few extra poems and stories that I will be showing off gradually throughout the LP. The events that take place in 'reality' in the game seem to be of iNSCAPE's invention, and not of any specific tale by Poe. They do have similar themes to many of his stories, however.

Oh yeah, and William S. Burroughs voices a character in this game.


About iNSCAPE -
iNSCAPE was a video game developer and publisher in the mid 90's that made FMV games, notable for their strangeness and avant-garde sense of style. They only ever made five games, two of which are designed by famous new wave artists Devo and The Residents, respectively. For those interested in The Residents's one, check out Niggurath's LP of Bad Day on the Midway.

As far as I'm aware, no one has LP'd any of iNSCAPE's other games.



Edgar Allan Poe is quite a famous author. Which is strange, because he never actually wrote any novels. Rather, he is mostly known for his elaborate and dark horror stories that have become the darling of literature professors and high school English teachers alike. In my town, we actually read The Raven in middle school. I always find the fact that it is required reading at an age that young quite surprising, because most teachers I know have strange aversions to horror stories, particularly ones that often involve crazy protagonists or murderous ones. And Poe does that pretty often. So, my assumption for why he is so popular is simply that his prose is pretty fantastic.
So, why not - some of my favorite/the most famous lines from Poe -

“THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” - the Cask of Amontillado

“FOR the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not -- and very surely do I not dream.” - the Black Cat (used in the intro to the Dark Eye)

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." - The Raven

“Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?” - Dream Within a Dream (before Inception, mind you)

Updates & Technical BS -
I should be able to post an update about every week, but I am known to be extremely lazy and awful about stuff like this, so be sure to bitch about it if I take too long.

The game plays at an awful resolution of something like 800x640, and I was not able to really get that in the first video, but for the second one I'm going to try experimenting with my software to get it to record better.

If you want to know how I was able to play this game on a modern PC, I used a custom DOSbox emulating Windows 3.1. You have to actually own a copy of that version of Windows for games stuck in between DOS and XP, though. Let me know if you guys want to hear more about this.

I'm also totally fine with long discussions about Poe! Actually, let me join in, because I cannot for the life of me find another person who isn't one of my middle school teachers who's interested in him!

And lastly, if you're interested in seeing this game come to GOG.com, vote here.

Colorred fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Jan 19, 2015

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Colorred
Dec 26, 2012
The Cask of Amontillado


The full story.

The Tell-tale Heart


Berenice


Reality?
Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8jgDRwPI9A
Part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Lu_3MibNo

Bonus Videos:



Colorred fucked around with this message at 04:30 on May 5, 2015

Mr. Highway
Feb 25, 2007

I'm a very lonely man, doing what I can.
As a fan of Poe, I'll be following this LP. The one in the archive is fine, but without commentary I had no idea what was happening gameplay wise. It will be nice to

One of the great things about Poe is that he is a strictly American writer. For a long time American writers (such as Hawthorne and Irving) wrote in a "European" style. Poe helped to define what makes a American writing "American" and helped to create the short story. Poe laid the foundation of what the short story, as we view it nowadays, should consist, which was different from what past writers wrote, which made the short story an entirely American genre. Compare The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with just about any Poe story and you should be able to see the differences.

discworld is all I read
Apr 7, 2009

DAIJOUBU!! ... Daijoubu ?? ?
I always enjoyed the unique art style of this game; I can't recall another game that used anything similar and honestly that's a shame cause it does lend a particular flair to the game. I'll also agree that William S. Burroughs might not have been the best idea for a voice actor in the game and I seem to recall I had similar issue with Harlan Elison in 'I have no mouth...' the game. I understand putting some celebrity into your game but it's a good idea to double check to see if they don't put the audience into a coma.

Colorred
Dec 26, 2012

Mr. Highway posted:

One of the great things about Poe is that he is a strictly American writer. For a long time American writers (such as Hawthorne and Irving) wrote in a "European" style. Poe helped to define what makes a American writing "American" and helped to create the short story. Poe laid the foundation of what the short story, as we view it nowadays, should consist, which was different from what past writers wrote, which made the short story an entirely American genre. Compare The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with just about any Poe story and you should be able to see the differences.
Yeah, I'm a huge fan of his writing style. How do you mean by European style for Hawthorne and Irving? I noticed the differences in their writing style as opposed to Poe, but I never really saw it as European. Then again, the only book I've read by Hawthorne is the Scarlet Letter, so maybe I'm not a fit judge. :gerty:

Niggurath posted:

I always enjoyed the unique art style of this game; I can't recall another game that used anything similar and honestly that's a shame cause it does lend a particular flair to the game. I'll also agree that William S. Burroughs might not have been the best idea for a voice actor in the game and I seem to recall I had similar issue with Harlan Elison in 'I have no mouth...' the game. I understand putting some celebrity into your game but it's a good idea to double check to see if they don't put the audience into a coma.
The claymation is really fantastic when they're not moving across the screen. In the upcoming part, however, it's fairly - well, terrible. When they move across the screen for some reason they elected to use transitions instead of actually animating the characters. It looks a bit like a power point presentation made by someone who just discovered the fade-away transition. I suppose that was because of video limitations. And William S. Burrough's voice isn't that bad in short bursts, (even though it's really easily mockable) but when he reads out "The Red Masque" (16 minutes of fun!) later I begin to get brain-cramps from trying to parse what the hell he's saying. The big other problem I have with him is that his acting is kind of awful.
Did you ever play any of the other iNSCAPE games like the Devo one or the one about martians? I'm a bit curious about those ones.

Mr. Highway
Feb 25, 2007

I'm a very lonely man, doing what I can.

Colorred posted:

Yeah, I'm a huge fan of his writing style. How do you mean by European style for Hawthorne and Irving? I noticed the differences in their writing style as opposed to Poe, but I never really saw it as European. Then again, the only book I've read by Hawthorne is the Scarlet Letter, so maybe I'm not a fit judge. :gerty:

One of the big, and easily explained differences, is that before the American definition of the short story, "short" stories tended to be part of a larger narrative that wasn't quite a novel or a frame narrative. Irving has "Strange Stories by a Nervous Gentleman, which is a collection of "short" stories whose only connection is that the same character tells them in a particular situation but are still vitally connected by the character and his situation. Poe argued that for a "short" story to be a "short story" it must stand alone on its own merits. If you are familiar with Gulliver's Travels or something like The Heptameron, picture those, a collection of travelogues and stories connected by certain commonalities, instead of The Illustrated Man, which are wholly separated stories that have a very loose frame narrative to justify calling it a novel.

The harder to explain quality is what Poe called the unity of effect. This just meant that a story had to have the same "effect" all the way through. If a story was to be a humorous story it must always be humorous. If a story was to be a scary story, it must always be scary. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," is, in my opinion, a great example of the absence of the unity of effect. Most people are familiar with "Legend" because of the Headless Horseman, who actually plays a minor role in the whole happenings of Sleepy Hollow. The story is one part historical, one part folkloric tradition, one part comedy, one part romance, and one part horror (which wouldn't even be considered horror in the sense that horror is, and I'm misquoting this here, "the inability to overcome obstacles"). Hawthorne's "Young Good Man Brown" also suffers in that the whole story has a air of mystery, but then Hawthorne (taking the place of the narrator) explains everything that happens.

Mr. Highway fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Dec 31, 2014

Colorred
Dec 26, 2012

Mr. Highway posted:

One of the big, and easily explained differences, is that before the American definition of the short story, "short" stories tended to be part of a larger narrative that wasn't quite a novel or a frame narrative. Irving has "Strange Stories by a Nervous Gentleman, which is a collection of "short" stories whose only connection is that the same character tells them in a particular situation but are still vitally connected by the character and his situation. Poe argued that for a "short" story to be a "short story" it must stand alone on its own merits. If you are familiar with Gulliver's Travels or something like The Heptameron, picture those, a collection of travelogues and stories connected by certain commonalities, instead of The Illustrated Man, which are wholly separated stories that have a very loose frame narrative to justify calling it a novel.

The harder to explain quality is what Poe called the unity of effect. This just meant that a story had to have the same "effect" all the way through. If a story was to be a humorous story it must always be humorous. If a story was to be a scary story, it must always be scary. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," is, in my opinion, a great example of the absence of the unity of effect. Most people are familiar with "Legend" because of the Headless Horseman, who actually plays a minor role in the whole happenings of Sleepy Hollow. The story is one part historical, one part folkloric tradition, one part comedy, one part romance, and one part horror (which wouldn't even be considered horror in the sense that horror is, and I'm misquoting this here, "the inability to overcome obstacles"). Hawthorne's "Young Good Man Brown" also suffers in that the whole story has a air of mystery, but then Hawthorne (taking the place of the narrator) explains everything that happens.

Ah, now I see. Thanks for clarifying. I had just assumed that the language they used was just more floral than American writers for some reason. I guess that's stereotyping Europeans though? Oh well.
Now that you mention unity of effect, I can't actually think of a modern novel that doesn't have that. The only one I could vaguely attribute that to is Trainspotting, in the scenes where the novel dips into horror.

Anyways, sorry for the delay. I should have a new video coming in two days, it's just that I've been having trouble with getting my setup to work properly. I had to do the same drat video three times before it finally started working right.

Colorred fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Jan 10, 2015

gschmidl
Sep 3, 2011

watch with knife hands

I loving love this game and you LPing it has just freed me from having to think about trying my hand at it.

Colorred posted:

Did you ever play any of the other iNSCAPE games like the Devo one or the one about martians? I'm a bit curious about those ones.

I tried to play the DEVO one but it was pretty much nonsensical. I also played Drowned God, which seemed pretty amazing and deep back then. There's an LP of it but the final videos -- and only those -- are private.

e: more random stuff - my favorite thing about Poe is that he wrote Jules Verne fanfic; later, Lovecraft wrote Poe fanfic. Then Arno Schmidt wrote the most insane book ever written in the German language that's a mix of fanfic and psychoanalysis of Poe. Only recently did I learn that Verne wrote Swiss Family Robinson fanfic. It's fanfic all the way down!

Arno Schmidt and another author also translated Poe's entire oeuvre into German, including that poem that contains a message if you read it diagonally so that it also works. Dude was insane.

gschmidl fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Jan 10, 2015

Colorred
Dec 26, 2012
Finally, a new update!


gschmidl posted:

I tried to play the DEVO one but it was pretty much nonsensical. I also played Drowned God, which seemed pretty amazing and deep back then. There's an LP of it but the final videos -- and only those -- are private.

e: more random stuff - my favorite thing about Poe is that he wrote Jules Verne fanfic; later, Lovecraft wrote Poe fanfic. Then Arno Schmidt wrote the most insane book ever written in the German language that's a mix of fanfic and psychoanalysis of Poe. Only recently did I learn that Verne wrote Swiss Family Robinson fanfic. It's fanfic all the way down!

Arno Schmidt and another author also translated Poe's entire oeuvre into German, including that poem that contains a message if you read it diagonally so that it also works. Dude was insane.

Huh, I didn't know anyone had even tried Drowned God yet. I wonder why the last videos are private?

I always find it really funny when stuff like that happens. Especially with some author's aversions to fan fiction, like George R. R. Martin. Like, has he not heard of intertextuality? Gimme them links though, I've never heard of those stories!

gschmidl
Sep 3, 2011

watch with knife hands

Colorred posted:

Huh, I didn't know anyone had even tried Drowned God yet. I wonder why the last videos are private?

T-H-E-Y probably got to him.

Colorred posted:

I always find it really funny when stuff like that happens. Especially with some author's aversions to fan fiction, like George R. R. Martin. Like, has he not heard of intertextuality? Gimme them links though, I've never heard of those stories!

I got some of the stuff reversed; I apologize, it was late and I was tired.

Jules Verne's Robinson Crusoe fanfic. (Not Swiss Family Robinson, of course).
Verne's The Ice Sphinx is the sequel to The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (not the other way round).
Lovecraft's fan tie-in to Arthur Gordon Pym is, of course, At the Mountains of Madness.

Schmidt's stuff is in German and not available online.

Colorred
Dec 26, 2012
First in hopefully a few bonus videos!

Thesaya
May 17, 2011

I am a Plant.
...That might have been the worst reading I have ever heard.

ComicsandSlushies
Feb 22, 2013
Wow, that was a really bad reading.

The visuals looked cool though

Colorred
Dec 26, 2012

Thesaya posted:

...That might have been the worst reading I have ever heard.


ComicsandSlushies posted:

Wow, that was a really bad reading.

The visuals looked cool though

William S. Burroughs may have been a great writer, but he certainly did not have a great voice.
The visuals are pretty neat, but they don't make a lot of sense. It's probably difficult to get a great number of different pictures for Annabel Lee, so I guess they decided to put Bill's interpretive modern art in it.

A new bonus video, in which I try out a very strange hidden object game based on the Fall of the House of Usher.

Mr. Highway
Feb 25, 2007

I'm a very lonely man, doing what I can.
I say bring on the bonus game. I know The Dark Eye is short so this will help extend the fun. I always found these hidden object games weird. They are so generic, but they have so much meticulous detail but into the backgrounds, which aren't all that bad looking. So far this game looks like it is constantly shifting on the scales of competent and lazy.

Accordion Man
Nov 7, 2012


Buglord
This game always looked cool to me, but yeah I'd never buy it at this point unless they put it on GOG.Good to see an LP, especially because the videos on YouTube are lower quality.

Niggurath posted:

I always enjoyed the unique art style of this game; I can't recall another game that used anything similar and honestly that's a shame cause it does lend a particular flair to the game. I'll also agree that William S. Burroughs might not have been the best idea for a voice actor in the game and I seem to recall I had similar issue with Harlan Elison in 'I have no mouth...' the game. I understand putting some celebrity into your game but it's a good idea to double check to see if they don't put the audience into a coma.
You should really check out The Dream Machine, its an episodic point and click adventure game, and its also claymation as well as having handmade scenery. Due to the art style its been really slow going with episodes, the first episode came out four years ago, but they just recently released the fifth episode. The sixth and final one probably won't be until like the end of the year at the earliest though. Here's some screenshots off Steam.





I need to get back to I Have No Mouth, but I actually like Ellison as AM. Its a bit hard to explain but he just gives AM this casualness that makes it rather creepy.

Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Jan 20, 2015

Colorred
Dec 26, 2012
Sorry for the long delay, here's the next episode! Featuring a lot of pointless messing about the house, and a great tune from Deadly Premonition!



Mr. Highway posted:

I say bring on the bonus game. I know The Dark Eye is short so this will help extend the fun. I always found these hidden object games weird. They are so generic, but they have so much meticulous detail but into the backgrounds, which aren't all that bad looking. So far this game looks like it is constantly shifting on the scales of competent and lazy.

Yeah, I will probably get around to that at some point. I just don't understand half of the mechanics in that game.

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

I remember watching an old lp of this years ago. Except Burrough's voice acting it's stuck in my head since. Well I guess his voice acting too. :v:

Thesaya
May 17, 2011

I am a Plant.
What I love about this LP is the fact that each chapter makes me re-read the corresponding short story, reminding me of how amazing a writer Poe was.

Colorred
Dec 26, 2012
Hey guys, it's been awhile! I apologize, it's just that I really cannot motivate myself with this LP for some reason. I think it has to do with the game just not being very much fun... It's a lot more interesting to watch than play for some reason. But anyways, that's no excuse, so I'll have a new video coming out this weekend.




Thesaya posted:

What I love about this LP is the fact that each chapter makes me re-read the corresponding short story, reminding me of how amazing a writer Poe was.

Aw, thanks! Poe is a pretty great writer. On a side note, has anyone read Poe's novel? I just recently heard about it because it's apparently really crap.

JamieTheD
Nov 4, 2011

LPer, Reviewer, Mad Welshman

(Yes, that's a self portrait)
Whuff, the Berenice segment is, hands down, the creepiest part of the game for me. TheteethTheteethTheteethTheteethTheteeth :stonk:

I can understand where you're coming from, Colorred, and nobody would blame you for abandoning the LP if it's not fun for you, but yeah, a lot of the games from the FMV period, even ones as well crafted as The Dark Eye, are somewhat tedious to play at times (Amber: Journeys Beyond is a good example of this. Has good moments, but it's a fucker to get through because of the controls/transitions/the fact that FMV games of this period are a bastard to run on modern systems)

Mr. Highway
Feb 25, 2007

I'm a very lonely man, doing what I can.
It's good to see you sticking with it, Colorred. I feel bad for enjoying an LP that you specifically dislike, but, maybe, if you think of yourself as a tortured pawn in a Poe story, you'll find the strength to solider on.

But, yeah, just from watching the game, I can understand why it would not be much fun to play. The game seems to be more about the atmosphere rather than any sort of deep gameplay mechanic.

gschmidl
Sep 3, 2011

watch with knife hands

JamieTheD posted:

Whuff, the Berenice segment is, hands down, the creepiest part of the game for me. TheteethTheteethTheteethTheteethTheteeth :stonk:

I still get goosebumps just thinking about it.

CatsPajamas
Jul 4, 2013

I hated the new Stupid Newbie avatar so much that I bought a new one for this user. Congrats, Lowtax.
Thanks a lot for showing this game off, Colorred! I think you've been doing a great job with this LP so far. It's so interesting to see a game like this. I can understand how it's more interesting to watch than play, but I appreciate you making it this far.

Also, despite being a fan of Poe's work I had never read Bernice before. I agree with JamieTheD on this one. :stonk:

JamieTheD
Nov 4, 2011

LPer, Reviewer, Mad Welshman

(Yes, that's a self portrait)

CatsPajamas posted:

Thanks a lot for showing this game off, Colorred! I think you've been doing a great job with this LP so far. It's so interesting to see a game like this. I can understand how it's more interesting to watch than play, but I appreciate you making it this far.

Also, despite being a fan of Poe's work I had never read Bernice before. I agree with JamieTheD on this one. :stonk:

Yeah, Berenice is one of Poe's creepier tales. Which is saying a lot, dude wrote a loooot of creepy things. And I say this as a fan of W. H. Hodgson (Being possessed by a demonic pig), M.R.James (Atmospheric scares aplenty) and Dean Koontz (I sometimes think "Hey, maybe I can do a comic page of Koontz' stuff!"... Then I remember Midnight, and my mind retreats while yelling NOPE at klaxon volume). Poe did obsession really well.

Colorred
Dec 26, 2012
Well, it's a bit later than I promised, but here's the next video, featuring more of Burroughs's smooth, smooth voice acting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8jgDRwPI9A (I'll make some bad image at some point)

JamieTheD posted:

I can understand where you're coming from, Colorred, and nobody would blame you for abandoning the LP if it's not fun for you, but yeah, a lot of the games from the FMV period, even ones as well crafted as The Dark Eye, are somewhat tedious to play at times (Amber: Journeys Beyond is a good example of this. Has good moments, but it's a fucker to get through because of the controls/transitions/the fact that FMV games of this period are a bastard to run on modern systems)

Yeah, I've been thinking about what I dislike about this game, and I suppose I had a sort of revelation about it. When I first started this LP, I was really excited and was having a lot of fun with it, and then the technical difficulties started coming. I replayed the Cask of Amontillado section five times due to crashing and a horrible bug that doesn't let you finish Fortunato's viewpoint without starting out as Montresor, and then I began to start to feel apathetic. It's not really the game's fault, it's clearly not meant to be replayed over and over again, but I kind of had to do that to make sure I knew how to finish the sections. So I've basically been releasing videos when I suddenly get struck with a sudden inspiration that quickly dies out. But yeah, I'll tough it out for you guys. It really is a neat horror game if you have never seen it before as well.

JamieTheD posted:

Whuff, the Berenice segment is, hands down, the creepiest part of the game for me. TheteethTheteethTheteethTheteethTheteeth :stonk:

Just wait till the next partof it, when I show off Berenice's perspective - it has one really great scene that I swear I will never forget :stonkhat:

Mr. Highway posted:

It's good to see you sticking with it, Colorred. I feel bad for enjoying an LP that you specifically dislike, but, maybe, if you think of yourself as a tortured pawn in a Poe story, you'll find the strength to solider on.

I swear to god, I can't stop thinking of the word 'LP' for some reason. It's - It's just repeating over and over again in my head...

CatsPajamas posted:

Thanks a lot for showing this game off, Colorred! I think you've been doing a great job with this LP so far. It's so interesting to see a game like this. I can understand how it's more interesting to watch than play, but I appreciate you making it this far.

It's really no problem. I'll truck on - for all you fellow goons back home ~ :911:

Colorred
Dec 26, 2012
Reality Part 2, where things begin to become interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Lu_3MibNo

Kangra
May 7, 2012

Colorred posted:

Aw, thanks! Poe is a pretty great writer. On a side note, has anyone read Poe's novel? I just recently heard about it because it's apparently really crap.

If you're talking about Arthur Gordon Pym, I read it once but found most of it forgettable. There are some good bits (like the Flyiing Dutchman) but it really doesn't hold together as a novel well at all.

"MS. Found in a Bottle" is better, along with the hoax about the Western/Canadian expedition (I forget what that's called) for much of the same sort.

I think Poe doesn't get enough credit for his humorous works. His sense of humor seems very 19th-Century, but it can be pretty amusing.

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Mr. Highway
Feb 25, 2007

I'm a very lonely man, doing what I can.
Even though the reality segments aren't from Poe, the developers accurately represented the Poe feel. Watching you explore the house is a surreal experience. Not just with how the characters act, but the house layout and the color composition. Every room feels very confined, and something about the fading paint on red brick contrasted with the optimistically bright blue sky adds to the uneasiness.

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