The first part seems to be for people who are unfamiliar with the games. The political analysis begins at 19 minutes.

The games go into:

• Discussion of monopolies, how they are used to exploit, and how they use state force to maintain their position to prevent competition
• The Carrot character is an anarchist in the first game, who infiltrates the weather factory of the second game to document the exploitation of its workers. He then gives the player a quiz about US economics so that you can infiltrate a board of directors, but when he becomes a member of the board himself, becomes a liberal reformist.
• In the third game, the devs put an easter egg only accessible by editing a config file with an obscure code, which adds police branded riot gear to the marching fascist candy soldiers, in a reference to the 1999 Seattle WTO Protests.

I really like the premise, though if I might suggest, y’all might want to tweak that trailer so the intense movie trailer music doesn’t stop abruptly towards the end.

A Mind Forever Voyaging, by Infocom.

It’s an old text adventure from the 80’s with a particularly cool and oddly relevant concept: You take the role of an AI that’s been meticulously raised in a simulation to truly become a general intelligence. The reason this project was undertaken was to eventually send you, the AI, into other simulations based in the near future to test the outcomes of various political policies of the new republican government, record your interactions, and report back to the engineers who created you.

The game’s designer said that he created the game in response to the despair he felt from Ronald Reagan being elected.

I haven’t gotten super far in it, but it has an incredibly well written short story in the manual that details all the events leading up to the start of the game, and so far the game itself is unlike anything else I’ve ever played.

Adding onto his recommendation to join or create unions:

Unionizing your workplace brings almost immediate benefits to you and your co-workers (a living wage, benefits, more time off), it also lets us fight back against the regime with an effective general strike, just as it worked in 1886 (they wouldn’t have fought us so hard back then if it didn’t).

Below are some resources to Unions from around the world who can help train you to become an organizer and form a grassroots union with your co-workers:

• 🌍 Global: IWW (Français) - (Español)
• 🇦🇷 Argentina: FORA
• 🇦🇺 Australia: ASF-IWA
• 🇧🇷 Brazil: FOB
• 🇧🇬 Bulgaria: ARS
• 🇩🇪 Germany: FAU
• 🇬🇷 Greece: ESE
• 🇮🇹 Italy: USI
• 🇳🇱 🇧🇪 Netherlands & Belgium: Vriji Bond
• 🇪🇸 Spain: CNT
• 🇸🇪 Sweden: SAC
• 🇬🇧 United Kingdom: UVW

Wadjet Eye games help fill the void :(

You can play the game here on Archive.org, or you can download a copy from that page and play it in DOSBox Staging.

Here’s all the physical documentation you’ll need, such as the short story, how to play manual, and an in-world map (you’ll have to draw your own, but it’ll give you a rough idea of the land. If you find map making tedious, you could use a map someone else made).

Lastly, you’ll need this interactive copy protection wheel when it prompts you for a combination in game, right before entering a simulation.

Good luck! :D

A Mind Forever Voyaging, by Infocom.

It’s an old text adventure from the 80’s with a particularly cool and oddly relevant concept: You take the role of an AI that’s been meticulously raised in a simulation to truly become a general intelligence. The reason this project was undertaken was to eventually send you, the AI, into other simulations based in the near future to test the outcomes of various political policies of the new republican government, record your interactions, and report back to the engineers who created you.

The game’s designer said that he created the game in response to the despair he felt from Ronald Reagan being elected.

I haven’t gotten super far in it, but it has an incredibly well written short story in the manual that details all the events leading up to the start of the game, and so far the game itself is unlike anything else I’ve ever played.

That’s apparently a new style of presentation oftentimes done purposefully to give a more ‘real’ or ‘authentic’ view of the presenter due to appearing as a less polished production.

While not a super deep analysis, the Space Quest Historian did a retrospective on the first Police Quest that deconstructs somewhat how Jim Walls seemed view police work, or at least his idealized version of it. It’s also pretty funny :p

Excellent article. When combined with the previous expose on Williams over on Vice, the evidence seems overwhelming that Ken was nothing more than a fairly heartless new money asshole who readily got caught up in the hard right, and sought nothing more than wealth and the spoils of it.

Back when the Two Guys from Andromeda (Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy, creators of Space Quest) were doing a live stream for SpaceVenture, Ken Williams joined the chat. Upon confirming that it really was him, Scott Murphy was visibly still embittered at Ken, and when Ken mentioned that Space Quest was his favorite series, Scott simply responded “I really doubt that.” (If I recall correctly). In a comment elsewhere, he said that as their games became more successful and made more and more money, Ken would always try to pay them less.

Later, Scott got cancer and did a gofundme to help pay for his medical expenses. Ken, a multi millionaire traveling the world on his yacht thanks to the wealth the creatives at Sierra generated, and directly responsible for Murphy losing his job, donated $500.

A few years later, he had a new yacht built from scratch for himself.

Bananas Screen Sharing may one day be able to replicate that functionality, though at the moment it does not pass-through application audio (The dev mentioned they hadn’t implementet that because it’s difficult to do on Mac OS, but seems to be viable for Windows/Linux), but it does pass through the microphone.

Thanks for catching that! I changed the title to the correct name.

SNES:

Sunset Riders and Wild Guns are fun little western shooters.

Genesis:

Rock’n’roll Racing is a fantastic racer.

GBA:

The Wario games are pretty superb for quick sessions

When I played the first game, I eventually become a bit annoyed at how some systems worked, such as how frequently henry became hungry, so I downloaded a mod that extended the time between meals, which made the experience a bit more realistic and less annoying.

Though on the topic of degrading equipment, I kinda like shoes wearing out of it’s not too frequent, because for some odd reason I find it enjoyable to have to plan trips around such limitations 😄

I’ve always been able to rely on her reviews, love her stuff as well ^^

James Lee was right.

Another reason to add to the pile in favor of citizen controlled media like the fediverse.

Awesome! There’s also a sweet browser add-on called libredirect that integrates really nicely that’ll automatically open YouTube links in freetube :D

For more of a focus on affordable used mini PC homelabs, I’d recommend Hardware Haven’s content instead.

I went outside of my usual wheelhouse and tried playing some of the Wario games for the gameboy advance. Finished Warioware in one afternoon (very fun short little collection of mini games) and currently on Wario Land 4. It’s a platformer with light puzzle elements, and I’m quite surprised at how much I’ve been enjoying it, as I usually don’t mesh with platformers.

In a way, it reminds me of one of the later Commander Keen games, but with much better level design and variety in gameplay.

It’s a polished and quirky little game, and its handheld roots lend itself to short sessions, which has been all I have time for.

I think I’ll be investigating the earlier entries after I complete it. Certainly recommend it if you have access to a handheld emulator!