Sunday, November 8, 2020

Appendix VG: Carcosa

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?

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Video games just fucking rule.
Some people look at Carcosa and see Masters of the Universe. I see sprites and polygons and hear chiptune music.

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:

11. Age of Barbarian

12. Alien Storm

13. Another World/Out of This World

14. Ark: Survival Evolved

15. Axiom Verge

16. Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior/Death Sword - especially Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax

21. Blaster Master

22. Bloodborne (and Demon's Souls and Dark Souls to some extent)

23. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

24. Cap'n Magneto

25. Chakan: The Forever Man

26. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

31. Far Cry Primal

32. Generations Lost

33. Golden Axe

34. The Guardian Legend

35. Horizon: Zero Dawn

36. Kenshi

41. The Legendary Axe - especially The Legendary Axe II

42. Metroid

43. Overwhelm

44. Peter Jackson's King Kong

45. Phantasy Star

46. Rubicon (all versions)

51. Rygar - especially the NES version

52. The Sacred Armour of Antiriad/Rad Warrior

53. Secret of Evermore

54. Secret Quest

55. The 7th Saga

56. Shadow of the Beast

61. Tongue of the Fatman/Mondu's Fight Palace/Slaughter Sport

62. Turok

63. Turrican

64. Weaponlord

65. Wizard of Wor

66. Zeno Clash

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

Picture courtesy of https://deathgenerator.com/

*If you're unfamiliar with d66 rolls, check out this Wikipedia entry...or better yet, check out Troika!

**This works just like a d66 roll, except with two d8s instead of d6s.

10 comments:

  1. This is a good list. Some of my favourites are on here.

    I 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 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.

      That 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

      Delete
    2. 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.

      Anyway, thanks for indulging my digression!

      Delete
    3. If you ran a beat-em-up RPG in which I were playing, I think these would be my most important criteria for enjoyment:
      1. 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?

      Delete
    4. Oddly enough, I was just thinking about (3) this morning, and (4) should be a feature of every game.

      Delete
    5. Great 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.

      Delete
    6. Hey, a street brawler's gotta eat.

      Delete
  2. 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.

    It 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 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.

      Anyway, 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.

      Delete
  3. 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:

    01. 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

    ReplyDelete