Here's one more post about Geoffrey McKinney's Carcosa that I've had on the back burner. In the style of some previous posts, I made an "Appendix N-style" list of inspirational material that heavily informs my personal conception of the setting. The twist is that these are all video games. Why?
- McKinney's Carcosa always felt very video gamey to me, and especially comparable to retro games, what with the bright colors, and the pseudo-random, almost-clashing elements, and the synthesis of fantastical imagery and computer technology, and the way the game relies on the players' imagination to fill in the blanks and flesh out the implied world.
- A lot of video games just happen to have elements that fit Carcosa very well, through either game mechanics, through characters and props and setting details, or through the tone or atmosphere created by art assets and music and such.
- Video games just fucking rule.
Full disclosure: I haven't played all of these myself. I don't necessarily even think all of these are good, per se. But I think every single one of these is both fascinating in its own right and an exemplar of the aesthetics, mood, tropes, and pure gonzo insanity most associated with McKinney's Carcosa in my mind. I hope something here piques your curiosity and sparks some cool ideas for your own games and imaginings, whether Carcosa-related or within even stranger realms.
 |
| Picture courtesy of https://deathgenerator.com/ |
P.S. Much like Carcosa itself, "Age of Barbarian," "Produce," and the Japanese version of "The Legendary Axe II" include some nudity and/or sexual content that might be NSFW or upsetting to some people. I apologize if I neglected to warn about such content in any other games listed here.
Roll d66* for Inspiration for Your Next Game:
12. Alien Storm
13. Another World/Out of This World
16. Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior/Death Sword - especially Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax
22. Bloodborne
23. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
26. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
31. Far Cry Primal
32. Generations Lost
33. Golden Axe
36. Kenshi
41. The Legendary Axe - especially The Legendary Axe II
42. Metroid
43. Overwhelm
51. Rygar - especially the NES version
52. The Sacred Armour of Antiriad/Rad Warrior
54. Secret Quest
61. Tongue of the Fatman/Mondu's Fight Palace/Slaughter Sport
62. Turok
63. Turrican
64. Weaponlord
65. Wizard of Wor
Extras - After you use an entry from the table above, cross it out and roll d88** on this table for a replacement entry:
11. Altered Beast
12. Alternate Reality: The City/The Dungeon
13. Barbarian and Obliterator (the Psygnosis series, not the Palace Software series mentioned above)
14. Battletoads
15. Berzerk (and Frenzy)
16. Blackthorne
17. BloodStorm (and Time Killers to some extent)
18. Brataccas
21. Captain Zzap/Flash Gordon
22. Conan: Hall of Volta
23. Conan: The Cimmerian
24. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands/Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager/Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands
25. Drakkhen
26. Dyna Gear
27. Eldritch
28. El Viento/Earnest Evans/Anett Futatabi
31. Fester's Quest
32. Heart of Darkness
33. He-Man/Masters of the Universe
34. Hylics
35. Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road
36. Isolated Warrior
37. Joust
38. Karnov
41. Koudelka/Shadow Hearts
42. Krull
43. Kult: The Temple of Flying Saucers/Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess
44. Leander/Galahad
45. Last Armageddon (and After Armageddon Gaiden)
46. The Legacy: Realm of Terror
47. Marathon/Pathways Into Darkness
48. Metal Mutant
51. Might & Magic
52. Monuments of Mars
53. Mutant Chronicles: Doom Troopers
54. Oddworld
55. O.D.T.
56. Odyssey
57. Ork
58. Perihelion: The Prophecy
61. Produce
62. Purple Saturn Day
63. Quake
64. Rastan/Rastan Saga
65. Robinson's Requiem and Deus
66. SaGa/Final Fantasy Legend
67. The Sinking City
68. Space Ace (and Dragon's Lair to some extent)
71. Space Funeral
72. Space Harrier
73. Spiderbot/Arac
74. Stargate
75. Stone Protectors
76. Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight
77. Strife
78. Sword of Sodan
81. Terrorpods
82. Ultima
83. Unreal
84. Vandyke
85. Vangers
86. Where Time Stood Still
87. Wizardry (especially Bane of the Cosmic Forge, Crusaders of the Dark Savant, and Wizardry 8)
88. Xexyz
 | |
|
This is a good list. Some of my favourites are on here.
ReplyDeleteI know some people poo-poo the influence of computer games over tabletop rpgs -- probably because of D&D4 -- but I think there's some good things to be learned.
I keep going back to -- but never finishing -- this idea of an rpg based on side-scrolling beat-em-ups. They all share this vaguely near-apocalyptic world where there is society, but it's so broken that there are gangs of mohawk thugs wandering around kidnapping people, wrestlers roam the streets, and all the crime bosses have machine guns. I think there's something interesting to be explored there, but I haven't got past the issue that rpgs tend to be quite bad at capturing martial arts.
Anyway, digression. Sorry.
Thanks! I knew you were a big Phantasy Star fan, at least. And please don't be sorry for digressing. I like digressions. It was a good digression.
DeleteThat beat-em-up RPG idea sounds awesome! There's definitely lots of material to mine there. If nothing else, I guess you could try to run it with that Street Fighter RPG that exists for some reason. :P
The trick is to make combat interesting without having it bog everything down in detail. I probably need to do some heavy research into things like Streetfighter, Feng Shui, and probably Exalted, although the latter is probably an example of what I want to avoid.
DeleteAnyway, thanks for indulging my digression!
If you ran a beat-em-up RPG in which I were playing, I think these would be my most important criteria for enjoyment:
Delete1. Can I throw a barrel/box/boulder at a group of enemies to knock them down and do massive damage?
2. Can I take down the bad guys effectively with sweet jump kicks?
3. When I sock an enemy in the face, does it stun them so they just stand there dumbfounded while I deliver a cool combo to their stupid face, ending in an uppercut that shoots them comically high into the air?
4. Can I eat food out of the trash to heal myself?
Oddly enough, I was just thinking about (3) this morning, and (4) should be a feature of every game.
DeleteGreat minds think alike. That's why I can't be mad at you for fishing that entire roast turkey out of the garbage before I could get to it the other day. I respect your hustle.
DeleteHey, a street brawler's gotta eat.
DeleteIn case anyone doesn't want to deal with two separate tables and weird dice notation, here's a simple d100 table that includes all of the games above:
ReplyDelete01. Age of Barbarian
02. Alien Storm
03. Another World/Out of This World
04. Ark: Survival Evolved
05. Axiom Verge
06. Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior/Death Sword - especially Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax
07. Blaster Master
08. Bloodborne
09. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
10. Cap'n Magneto
11. Chakan: The Forever Man
12. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
13. Far Cry Primal
14. Generations Lost
15. Golden Axe
16. The Guardian Legend
17. Horizon: Zero Dawn
18. Kenshi
19. The Legendary Axe - especially The Legendary Axe II
20. Metroid
21. Overwhelm
22. Peter Jackson's King Kong
23. Phantasy Star
24. Rubicon (all versions)
25. Rygar - especially the NES version
26. The Sacred Armour of Antiriad/Rad Warrior
27. Secret of Evermore
28. Secret Quest
29. The 7th Saga
30. Shadow of the Beast
31. Tongue of the Fatman/Mondu's Fight Palace/Slaughter Sport
32. Turok
33. Turrican
34. Weaponlord
35. Wizard of Wor
36. Zeno Clash
37. Altered Beast
38. Alternate Reality: The City/The Dungeon
39. Barbarian and Obliterator (the Psygnosis series, not the Palace Software series mentioned above)
40. Battletoads
41. Berzerk (and Frenzy)
42. Blackthorne
43. BloodStorm (and Time Killers to some extent)
44. Brataccas
45. Captain Zzap/Flash Gordon
46. Conan: Hall of Volta
47. Conan: The Cimmerian
48. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands/Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager/Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands
49. Drakkhen
50. Dyna Gear
51. Eldritch
52. El Viento/Earnest Evans/Anett Futatabi
53. Fester's Quest
54. Heart of Darkness
55. He-Man/Masters of the Universe
56. Hylics
57. Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road
58. Isolated Warrior
59. Joust
60. Karnov
61. Koudelka/Shadow Hearts
62. Krull
63. Kult: The Temple of Flying Saucers/Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess
64. Leander/Galahad
65. Last Armageddon (and After Armageddon Gaiden)
66. The Legacy: Realm of Terror
67. Marathon/Pathways Into Darkness
68. Metal Mutant
69. Might & Magic
70. Monuments of Mars
71. Mutant Chronicles: Doom Troopers
72. Oddworld
73. O.D.T.
74. Odyssey
75. Ork
76. Perihelion: The Prophecy
77. Produce
78. Purple Saturn Day
79. Quake
80. Rastan/Rastan Saga
81. Robinson's Requiem and Deus
82. SaGa/Final Fantasy Legend
83. The Sinking City
84. Space Ace (and Dragon's Lair to some extent)
85. Space Funeral
86. Space Harrier
87. Spiderbot/Arac
88. Stargate
89. Stone Protectors
90. Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight
91. Strife
92. Sword of Sodan
93. Terrorpods
94. Ultima
95. Unreal
96. Vandyke
97. Vangers
98. Where Time Stood Still
99. Wizardry (especially Bane of the Cosmic Forge, Crusaders of the Dark Savant, and Wizardry 8)
00. Xexyz
They're not in alphabetical order, but I guess that won't matter much if you roll randomly. :P
Fantastic list, some of my favorites are here. Blackthorne, Out of this World, Metroid, Quake. Recently I purchased Quake from Steam but I found it that, sadly, it doesn't contain any music.
ReplyDeleteIt happened to need the original Quake game CD to play the music, but if I had that CD, why would I want to purchase the game again? Well, I ain't no hacker or programmer, but I googled how to solve it and after a few hours research, I was able to 1) download the music and 2) make the game think there's a CD in the CD room, and play the music.
I never played the game with music, I knew Nine Inch Nails had made the music and finally I can! It's a creepy atmospheric soundtrack, it really unsettles me.
I LOVE the first Quake, and I totally agree that it's dumb that they sell it without the music now. I'm glad you got the soundtrack working in-game. I recently had to do the same with Quake II, actually. Thankfully, there was a fan-made guide on the Steam forums that made it a pretty quick and easy process.
DeleteAnyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the post! The particular favorites you named are also some of mine. I should also mention that anyone who likes Out of This World or Blackthorne should check out Flashback: The Quest For Identity if they haven't already.