From: Lucian Mogosanu Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2013 09:09:52 +0000 (+0200) Subject: posts: 015 X-Git-Tag: v0.3~5 X-Git-Url: https://git.mogosanu.ro/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=ce5dca3ce21f0d84d45941954dfcfc44d36882b8;p=thetarpit.git posts: 015 --- diff --git a/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-001-thumb.jpg b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-001-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b1b832 Binary files /dev/null and b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-001-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-001.jpg b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-001.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68d1f2f Binary files /dev/null and b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-001.jpg differ diff --git a/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-002-thumb.jpg b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-002-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9316410 Binary files /dev/null and b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-002-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-002.jpg b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-002.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e725bb Binary files /dev/null and b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-002.jpg differ diff --git a/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-003-thumb.jpg b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-003-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ac3878 Binary files /dev/null and b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-003-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-003.jpg b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-003.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..99a0a46 Binary files /dev/null and b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-003.jpg differ diff --git a/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-004-thumb.jpg b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-004-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c38f75 Binary files /dev/null and b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-004-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-004.jpg b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-004.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6c66cd Binary files /dev/null and b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-004.jpg differ diff --git a/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-005-thumb.jpg b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-005-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e689b0 Binary files /dev/null and b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-005-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-005.jpg b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-005.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7c7f65 Binary files /dev/null and b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-005.jpg differ diff --git a/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-006-thumb.jpg b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-006-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4ebae9 Binary files /dev/null and b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-006-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-006.jpg b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-006.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a863fbc Binary files /dev/null and b/images/2013/12/ihnmaims-006.jpg differ diff --git a/posts/y00/015-i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream.markdown b/posts/y00/015-i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2abe9d --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/y00/015-i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,110 @@ +--- +postid: 015 +title: I have no mouth, and I must scream +author: Lucian Mogoșanu +date: December 22, 2013 +tags: gaming, books +--- + +

I am a great soft jelly thing. Smoothly +rounded, with no mouth, with pulsing white holes filled by fog where my eyes +used to be. Rubbery appendages that were once my arms; bulks rounding down into +legless humps of soft slippery matter. I leave a moist trail when I move. +Blotches of diseased, evil gray come and go on my surface, as though light is +being beamed from within.

+

[...]

+

I have no mouth. And I must scream.

+ +"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is the name of a short story written by +Harlan Ellison in 1966, the same Harlan Ellison who wrote Star Trek's "City on +the Edge of Forever" among others. It is also the name of a computer game +touching on the same subject as the book, in which Ellison himself participated +as a designer. I bet you've heard of him before. Well, I've been completely +oblivious until recently, despite the fact that I'm quite a Star Trek guy and a +science fiction fan in general. + + + +The game was launched about thirty years after the story, which, I argue, +doesn't make the book look more outdated nor the game less interesting. +Similarly to [Gabriel Knight][1], I had heard of IHNMAIMS a while ago but never +got around to playing it until it became available on more modern distribution +channels[^1]. This also made me interested in Ellison's original work, which I +read and enjoyed and which has now led me to write this piece. + +"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" introduces a universe which can be +described in one plain word: brutal. Not unlike other settings of the last half +of the 20th century, it involves such things as "supercomputers": Asimov did +it, Adams did it; heck, Clarke created a similar supercomputer one year later. +Only few writers placed their fictional computers in settings such desolate as +the one devised by Ellison. + + + +The AM supercomputer, created by the Americans or the Russians or the Chinese, +it doesn't really matter by whom, becomes sentient at some point in time, it +doesn't really matter when. Since humans are bad and wage wars, mkay? the newly +born sentient being decides that it, or he, or whatever, is better off hating +humans and wipes out all of them, with the notable exception of five persons. +The brutalness of it lies in the fact that said persons are made immortal for +the sole purpose of fueling AM's hate towards the human race through torture +and all kinds of sick games. And that pretty much sums up the cold, barren +universe of IHNMAIMS. + +While Ellison's story is written from Ted's (one of the captive people) +perspective, the game attempts to cover all points of view and thus has no more +and no less than five playable characters. More importantly, the original story +deliberately keeps the characters' backgrounds mostly ambiguous, focusing on +their immediate traits, some of them twisted by AM to its own liking. By +contrast, the game's story focuses on who the five people were in the past, +thus giving birth to five distinct scenarios which are quite different from +what Harlan Ellison describes in his short story. + +This doesn't make the game any less brutal, however: Gorrister keeps his heart +in his pocket; Ted's slightly paranoid; Benny is made by AM into an ape-like +being that's unable to eat; Ellen is constantly thirsty and terrified by the +colour yellow. The story doesn't give the player any hope that any of it could +end well, although in truth there is more than one way to end the game. + + + +The mechanics are similar to those of SCUMM games like Day of The Tentacle and +are based on an engine called [SAGA][2], made by the same Dreamers Guild who +developed the actual game. The main innovation here is a so-called "spiritual +barometer", which is raised when the player makes "good" choices and lowered +when "bad" choices are made, and has a direct impact on the way the game (or a +given scenario) ends. This adds to the game's replayability, but it doesn't +make the game fully replayable, since it's a lot easier to end the game badly +by making "bad" decisions than to get a good outcome from the first try. This +makes the whole trial-and-error process more fun and challenging, though. + +The acting isn't particularly bad; it's not particularly good either. The +puzzles range from okay to illogical, which I suppose holds true for a large +part of the adventure games released in the '90s. All in all, IHNMAIMS is a +good way to waste a weekend and nothing more. Nothing extraordinary about it, +which doesn't mean it's not worth a try. + +As for Ellison's story, I suppose its style must have been considered quite +shocking at the time. The "shocking" elements however pale in comparison to +most Hollywood "science fiction" crap we see nowadays, so I guess you'll have +to stick with appreciating the author's pretty good artistry and nothing more. + + + + + +[^1]: Read: Steam and Linux. + +[1]: http://thetarpit.org/posts/y00/005-gabriel-knight-sins-of-the-fathers.html +[2]: http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/SAGA