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 What is this? Duckman - The Graphic Adventures of a Private Dick (I accidentally used the earlier title Duckman - The Legend Of The Fall at the start of the commentary) is a point-and-click adventure game based on the TV show Duckman, surprisingly. It's a standard 90's graphical adventure game in how it plays and it features the same kind of black humour that was prominent in the TV show. This game was made in 1997 by the Illusions Gaming Company and it shows very much that this is a 90's game with its references and, at times, it's humour and stereotyping. Jason Alexander was the voice of Duckman in the TV show but turned down an offer of reprising the role for this game. Playing Duckman was a big strain on his voice and this game was huge in scope compared to recording an episode for the show. The acting duties for the role of Duckman were passed onto Michael J. Gough who has done a huge amount of voice acting work over the years. Do I need to watch the TV show first? The game was released partway through the fourth and final season of Duckman and is only based on the show itself. Although characters from the show are in the game, it does try to link association with Duckman through dialogue. While it would certainly help with familiarisation, it's not really necessary. LP details This is going to be a VLP and I will be recording commentary as I play the game. I would like to add that this is the first time that I have ever played this game, which given the nature of the game I may end up regretting this decision. I will update with one video each and every Sunday until completion. Let's Play: Duckman - The Graphic Adventures of a Private Dick     
Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 10:37 on Mar 22, 2020 |
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Feb 23, 2020 22:45
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I dearly love Duckman, watching it in my early teens left a big impression on me. At some point I did play this, but didn't get much further than where you left off in the video.
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Feb 24, 2020 03:24
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Did you know they made a Duckman tabletop RPG? It's one of those things that makes you go "Really? That's a property they tried to adapt for party play?  " The entire premise is your class is literally what kind of gently caress up you are--a lecher, a drunk, a stoner, etc--and you only get XP if you make other people at the table fail at whatever it is they want to do. The drunk wants to power up his abilities with booze, so the rest of the table needs to come up with some kind of way to keep him sober. The dice roll resolution mechanic is literally "play craps, but class abilities let you 'cheat' in certain ways." Surprisingly playable for one shots.I mention that because I find the fact that they made a video game on the property only slightly less remarkable. I have not heard of it nor expected it to exist. Honestly the fact that the show got four seasons surprises me.
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Feb 24, 2020 06:41
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marshmallow creep posted:Did you know they made a Duckman tabletop RPG? It's one of those things that makes you go "Really? That's a property they tried to adapt for party play? The RPG was a podcast's April Fool's Day joke that later got made into an actual game by that podcast. Truth is stranger than fiction.
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Feb 24, 2020 07:06
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That's actually fantastic.
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Feb 24, 2020 07:22
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Nothing warms my heart like one of my old April Fool's jokes still playing five years later.
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Feb 24, 2020 17:02
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The joke you said you didn't get is that there is a song by Paul Simon called "Me and Julio down by the school yard"; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6VrKro8djw  Thesaya fucked around with this message at 08:54 on Feb 25, 2020 |
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Feb 24, 2020 20:32
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I need to check out this RPG and the podcast, I vaguely remember hearing something about it a few years ago but I had forgotten about it until it was brought up here.theironjef posted:Nothing warms my heart like one of my old April Fool's jokes still playing five years later. You're responsible for all of this? I need to spend some time looking into this more. Are you still involved with the podcast now? I've noticed that there's also a Patreon for the Duckman RPG too.
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Feb 25, 2020 00:06
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I read the rulebook and I love the idiot class. I'd just go around the whole day helping everyone and when they got violent start yelling for the cops. That 8/9 chance to have a success once per day is incredible too.
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Feb 25, 2020 01:53
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:I need to check out this RPG and the podcast, I vaguely remember hearing something about it a few years ago but I had forgotten about it until it was brought up here. Yeah, System Mastery is my show (the other guy is also a goon, Grngegsnspm). The show is still going. The episode was a whole improv thing, we went in knowing it was going to be about Duckman and the dice mechanic would be based on craps, nothing else. People caught it was an April Fools gag because we accidentally said it was possible to make a character that would start with zero hit points. I had to fix that in the post-show rules writeup.
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Feb 25, 2020 16:19
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In this episode, Duckman meets a couple of old friends who probably would have been better off leaving him where he was. There's something about the new Duckman that doesn't seem right, not only that, there is an early reveal of someone who makes the whole thing even more suspicious.
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Mar 1, 2020 11:11
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It's odd and not very hard graphical adventure. But fun.
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Mar 2, 2020 20:56
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This is more 90s than Tom Green on MTV. Never watched more than a couple of episodes back in the day, but the game seems to be done with a decent budget for an adaptation of a cartoon show.
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Mar 2, 2020 21:27
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I'm getting a very Sam & Max Hit The Road vibe from this so far. Gotta be honest, Sam & Max were a lot more likeable than Duckman though.
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Mar 2, 2020 23:24
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I honestly do not get this kind of "humour" at all, and feel that comparing this to Sam and Max really is a bit insulting. 
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Mar 5, 2020 18:12
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I've started watching the actual show now. EDIT: Having also watched Airplane recently, the reference at the beginning in the first episode is just a bit bizarre mateo360 fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Mar 6, 2020 |
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Mar 6, 2020 01:20
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In this episode, Duckman engages in some martial arts and then has a ride with the devil. The only thing that I can say about the first half of the video is that when it told me that I needed to pick up the spark plug, I didn't realise that it meant to click on it directly. It's not too hard to play, but there have been a couple of things that have been a little counter-intuitive to me so far. It wouldn't surprise me if Sam & Max was an influence for this game. The art style is similar, the controls, map & inventory operate in very similar manners.
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Mar 8, 2020 10:18
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the entire Pizza segment is reminding me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJe5aQ8FDV4&t=17s
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Mar 8, 2020 22:50
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Hm. That pizza segment is showing the possibility of some sophisticated slapstick narrative. If the entire sequence was playing with the concept that the nasty little kids will genuinely be cooked alive in the oven and nobody has realised this yet and then saves them with the building apparently exploding then that'll be rather better written than most of the other stuff we've seen so far. I find myself hoping the writers don't screw this up. Although Cornfed does totally steal the show every time he appears, just like in the original TV series.
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Mar 9, 2020 00:07
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aw heck yes, someone else has played this! I picked this game up while browsing an abandonware site and walkthroughed my way to the end because I have a big ol' soft spot in my heart for Duckman's almost baroque cynicism, both in this game and in the TV series I snuck late-night viewings of when I was probably way too young to be watching things like this it's a bit funny in a way because in real life I do my best to repudiate cynicism and embrace positivity, but I still dig the adventures of this spiteful, selfish fuckup; my own hypothesis is that it's because all those insults he flings about are so elaborate, so dense with reasons for contempt (real and imagined) that they circle around into a kind of affection e: that said, I could definitely do with less of Hung Lo, both the voice and the insult guessing game SatansOnion fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Mar 9, 2020 |
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Mar 9, 2020 20:54
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Hung Lo is the, pardon the pun, lowest of humor. I know Duckman himself would crack jokes like that, but then he almost inevitably got comeuppance for it. Here it was just "here's a massive stereotype, isn't he silly?"
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Mar 9, 2020 23:26
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The Hung Lo segment is definitely the lowest point of the game.
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Mar 9, 2020 23:48
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Edit: Ignore this. I done messed up!
Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Mar 15, 2020 |
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Mar 15, 2020 10:36
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In this episode, Duckman completes his hell ride and then moves on to cover a hot news story. I didn't realise just how short this game is, the next episode will probably be the last one. I need to start thinking about which game to follow this up with. This is a re-recording as I forgot to unmute my mic during the original recording.
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Mar 15, 2020 14:11
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Yeah we're going all-out for Sam & Max now, huh? Even the music in the museum brought back memories. Rocket, whatever your next game is, for the sake of your soul make it a decent one. Klingon Honour Guard maybe.
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Mar 15, 2020 14:16
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Loxbourne posted:Yeah we're going all-out for Sam & Max now, huh? Even the music in the museum brought back memories. The museum did make me think of the giant ball of twine. I was thinking of either doing Beneath A Steel Sky or Orion Burger. I have a lot of fond memories of Steel Sky, Orion Burger is another game from my youth that I never get a chance to play until now.
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Mar 15, 2020 14:25
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Go with Orion Burger since it seems like one of those games that really only could have existed in the mid-90's when every studio went nuts over the CD-ROM.
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Mar 15, 2020 16:51
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In this episode, Duckman discovers King Chicken's nefarious plans and does his best to thwart it. It's quite the ending, even if it was full of a lot of interrupting dialogue. This is the last episode of this LP, there's a blooper reel in the credits and afterwards, I've included some bonus footage that I missed in the main playthrough. There was a segment where I had optional choices that I could make, I didn't realise that the choice that I made first ended the segment entirely. The fact that a Duckman game even exists is a wonder in itself, it's pretty solid for what it is and you can clearly see that they took some influences from other adventure games. The influences aren't a bad thing as they played on some strengths and remained simplified. I could say that the length of the game is very short but I was using a guide, it isn't overly complicated and it seems like it could be completed without too much difficulty. It was nice to finally play this game and re-visit a part of my youth, the Hung Lo segment does leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth though. Thank you, everyone, for being a part of this LP. If all goes well I will be starting Orion Burger next week, I've had some issues getting it to work properly but I think that they're resolved now.
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Mar 22, 2020 11:30
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Well that was remarkably short. You barely had to leave the screen once before you finished all of the puzzles there.
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Mar 22, 2020 23:23
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Well for me this was all the worst humour of the nineties in one package. Awful main character that is supposed to be funny, racist jokes, transphobia, sexism, smart and kind people only existing to be the butt of jokes... Now, I personally hate this particular form of "schadenfreude" comedy, I just can't stand watching people being put down or victimised for no reason, and I definitely do not find it funny. Hell, I couldn't even watch Tucker and Dale vs Evil because it just made me feel bad, and from what I know that is an example of that type of comedy done well. However, this game to me just isn't funny even considering that. The gameplay elements seems to be pretty solid though! Of course it is hard to identify an unintuitive puzzle when watching an LP, but RBD usually tends to point them out, and as an avid Adventure Gamer, there were not much that you couldn't figure out pretty easily. Anyways, thanks for showing it, RBD, definitely not for me and I probably would never have followed the LP if it wasn't you doing it, but... Okay, I can't say I enjoyed it, or think of what to say, so thank you for the LP will have to do. 
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Mar 23, 2020 08:13
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Thesaya posted:Well for me this was all the worst humour of the nineties in one package. Awful main character that is supposed to be funny, racist jokes, transphobia, sexism, smart and kind people only existing to be the butt of jokes... This, for me, was mainly a trip down nostalgia lane. It's a show that came out in my teens and I enjoyed at the time, the last time I watched the show as about a decade ago. I've grown up a lot over the years and have long since moved on. I'm not going to make any excuses for the show, the style and humour was part of the culture back then. Transphobia, sexism and racism are wrong in any form. I was actually a little reticent about playing this game in the first place, at the least I probably shouldn't have gone in blind as I knew what style of comedy to kinda expect. It just blind sided me a little at times and just let it go over my head. The next game is about people being harvested as a source if food. If that doesn't cheer you up I dont know what will.
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Mar 23, 2020 20:29
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Thesaya posted:The gameplay elements seems to be pretty solid though! I don't know if I'd even give it that much praise. Yeah, illogical cat-mustache puzzles are terrible, but I feel Duckman does a complete 180 on that, and has puzzles that are obvious, and often solvable on the same screen. To me, Duckman looked like it was a vehicle to serve up some lush and beautiful VGA graphics, great voice work, and... dated humour. All relics of the 90s, and that's a decade most of us can agree was a mistake
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Mar 23, 2020 20:46
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:The next game is about people being harvested as a source if food. If that doesn't cheer you up I dont know what will. ...have you googled me or something? Or maybe I have just talked about things on here a lot. In either case, you seem to know me very well, that sounds awesome!  inscrutable horse posted:I don't know if I'd even give it that much praise. Yeah, illogical cat-mustache puzzles are terrible, but I feel Duckman does a complete 180 on that, and has puzzles that are obvious, and often solvable on the same screen. To me, Duckman looked like it was a vehicle to serve up some lush and beautiful VGA graphics, great voice work, and... dated humour. All relics of the 90s, and that's a decade most of us can agree was a mistake To be honest I was just trying to say something positive about the game to balance things out. 
Thesaya fucked around with this message at 11:54 on Mar 25, 2020 |
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Mar 25, 2020 11:49
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