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.
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| 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 (and Demon's Souls and Dark Souls to some extent)
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. Blade Master (Edited on 8/17/21: I originally had Terrorpods here, but this is a much better fit.)
18. BloodStorm (and Time Killers to some extent)
21. Brataccas
22. Captain Zzap/Flash Gordon
23. Conan: Hall of Volta and Conan: The Cimmerian
24. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands/Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager/Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands
25. Drakkhen/Dragon View and Eternam
26. Dyna Gear
27. Eldritch
28. El Viento/Earnest Evans/Anett Futatabi
31. Fester's Quest
32. Forgotten Worlds (Edited on 3/6/22: I originally had Conan: The Cimmerian here, but I combined it with the Conan: Hall of Volta entry above.)
33. Heart of Darkness
34. He-Man/Masters of the Universe
35. Hylics
36. Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road
37. Isolated Warrior
38. Joust
41. Karnov
42. Koudelka/Shadow Hearts
43. Krull
44. Kult: The Temple of Flying Saucers/Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess
45. Leander/Galahad
46. Last Armageddon (and After Armageddon Gaiden)
47. The Legacy: Realm of Terror
48. Marathon/Pathways Into Darkness
51. Metal Mutant
52. Might & Magic
53. Monuments of Mars
54. Mutant Chronicles: Doom Troopers
55. Oddworld
56. O.D.T.
57. Odyssey
58. Ork
61. Perihelion: The Prophecy
62. Produce (プロデュース)
63. Purple Saturn Day
64. Quake
65. Rastan/Rastan Saga
66. Robinson's Requiem and Deus
67. SaGa/Final Fantasy Legend
68. The Sinking City
71. Space Ace (and Dragon's Lair to some extent)
72. Space Funeral
73. Space Harrier
74. Spiderbot/Arac
75. Stargate
76. Stone Protectors
77. Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight
78. Strife
81. Sword of Sodan
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
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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.
DeleteFantastic 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.
In 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. Altered Beast
04. Alternate Reality: The City/The Dungeon
05. Another World/Out of This World
06. Ark: Survival Evolved
07. Axiom Verge
08. Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior/Death Sword - especially Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax
09. Barbarian and Obliterator (the Psygnosis series, not the Palace Software series mentioned above)
10. Battletoads
11. Blade Master
12. Blaster Master
13. Berzerk (and Frenzy)
14. Blackthorne
15. Bloodborne (and Demon's Souls and Dark Souls to some extent)
16. BloodStorm (and Time Killers to some extent)
17. Brataccas
18. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
19. Cap'n Magneto
20. Captain Zzap/Flash Gordon
21. Chakan: The Forever Man
22. Conan: Hall of Volta and Conan: The Cimmerian
23. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands/Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager/Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands
24. Drakkhen/Dragon View and Eternam
25. Dyna Gear
26. Eldritch
27. El Viento/Earnest Evans/Anett Futatabi
28. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
29. Far Cry Primal
30. Fester's Quest
31. Forgotten Worlds
32. Generations Lost
33. Golden Axe
34. The Guardian Legend
35. Heart of Darkness
36. He-Man/Masters of the Universe
37. Horizon: Zero Dawn
38. Hylics
39. Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road
40. Isolated Warrior
41. Joust
42. Karnov
43. Kenshi
44. Koudelka/Shadow Hearts
45. Krull
46. Kult: The Temple of Flying Saucers/Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess
47. Leander/Galahad
48. Last Armageddon (and After Armageddon Gaiden)
49. The Legacy: Realm of Terror
50. The Legendary Axe - especially The Legendary Axe II
51. Marathon/Pathways Into Darkness
52. Metal Mutant
53. Metroid
54. Might & Magic
55. Monuments of Mars
56. Mutant Chronicles: Doom Troopers
57. Oddworld
58. O.D.T.
59. Odyssey
60. Ork
61. Overwhelm
62. Perihelion: The Prophecy
63. Peter Jackson's King Kong
64. Phantasy Star
65. Produce
66. Purple Saturn Day
67. Quake
68. Rastan/Rastan Saga
69. Robinson's Requiem and Deus
70. Rubicon (all versions)
71. Rygar - especially the NES version
72. The Sacred Armour of Antiriad/Rad Warrior
73. SaGa/Final Fantasy Legend
74. Secret of Evermore
75. Secret Quest
76. The 7th Saga
77. Shadow of the Beast
78. The Sinking City
79. Space Ace (and Dragon's Lair to some extent)
80. Space Funeral
81. Space Harrier
82. Spiderbot/Arac
83. Stargate
84. Stone Protectors
85. Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight
86. Strife
87. Sword of Sodan
88. Tongue of the Fatman/Mondu's Fight Palace/Slaughter Sport
89. Turok
90. Turrican
91. Ultima
92. Unreal
93. Vandyke
94. Vangers
95. Weaponlord
96. Where Time Stood Still
97. Wizard of Wor
98. Wizardry (especially Bane of the Cosmic Forge, Crusaders of the Dark Savant, and Wizardry 8)
99. Xexyz
00. Zeno Clash