Over the last while I’ve become a bit obsessed with the 1994 MS-DOS game, Alien Logic, based on and developed by many of the same people responsible for the 1984 ttrpg, Skyrealms of Jorune.
Now, for the most part, I’m not usually a huge ttrpg or crpg person. I’ve played sessions of D&D with friends in the past and thought it felt like someone decided to imprison improv comedy and casual role-play in an overly stuffy, self-serious fantasy setting while forcing all participants to stop every ten minutes to do some accounting on the side — NO FUN ALLOWED!!!
I also don’t love a lot of fantasy/sci-fi settings in games. Most seem committed to a kind of dense world-building that I often struggle to get personally invested in, with most characters you meet feeling like glorified tour guides or just very dry repositories of information.
So imagine my surprise when I found myself hours into a sci-fi/fantasy crpg based on the world and ruleset of a ttrpg. Have I finally snapped and lost my mind or is there something fundamentally different about this dusty old DOS game released the same year I was born? Well, buckle up cuz this thread is going to be dedicated to pondering those questions and maybe more besides!
Maybe some of you have played Alien Logic yourselves or have experience with Skyrealms of Jorune or maybe you’re just curious about why I’ve suddenly become so enraptured by the beauty of this gentleman’s eyes:
I had made my way through several drafts of thoughts on this thing but kept holding off, thinking I might eventually get to capturing some screenshots from a second go round. Then I had some technical problems with dosbox’s video capture feature and, well… my feelings on the game also started to curdle a bit upon re-examination… Maybe the whole thing shares a bit too much in common with James Cameron’s Avatar, maybe parts of it get a bit too stupid and racist, maybe it just didn’t feel so great to discover that one of the co-creators has since gone on to spend the last few years working at various LLM startups. Whatever the reason, my heart just wasn’t in it anymore. I guess, in the end, the title of this thread proved to be a bit too on the nose…
Then there was a brief period where I considered surprising you all with a quasi-fangame about going on a date with my favourite character, I coulda even released it on April Fools as if it were just a big joke (it wasn’t!) but that idea also eventually fell by the wayside (for now, at least…)
And well, gosh, it feels like a shame to leave my first ever thread blowing in the wind like this… unloved… forgotten about…
The thought did occur that maybe some of you might enjoy directing me towards some other games that share just enough in common with the parts I liked most about this thing: bumping into non-human characters and having awkward exchanges while trying and mostly failing to make sense of an alien world’s culture and politics, that sorta thing… I guess you could argue that’s most RPGs but I swear I try my best to stick with those suckers only to have my heart broken again and again by endless filler. If you’re going to make me grind for hours on end at least let it be against an interesting looking guy from another planet while we also struggle to make small talk…
Anyway, I have a bit of a shortlist going already. Probably ought to finally play Captain Blood for myself rather than just stare at clips of it on youtube. Spaceship Warlock seems like a pretty obvious choice as well. Maybe Star Control 2?
This is also probably the easiest game to set up out of the three I mentioned so will probably be the first thing I check out. Any downsides to playing the open source version or should I be good to go?
I actually recommend using this standalone modpack of the open source version, not for any of the ‘hd’ content but because it allows you to integrate all of the best parts of the 3do version into the pc release and it has good gamepad support
Whoa, there’s even an android version of this mod! Kinda like the idea of carrying a bunch of alien buddies around in my pocket…
There’s a pretty intimidating dialog box on first boot up asking me what custom packs I would like included. Don’t suppose you have suggestions? (There’s a lot of options!)
3do voice pack and videos if you like (the voices are great, videos are fine but unsubtitled)
Go through the settings once its installed and pick and choose which you prefer between dos and 3do versions. I have mine set up so its dos interface with text buttons but most everything else taken from the 3do version
Star Control 2 has started to lose its lustre after I dunno how long of juggling the combined worries of fuel percentages, crew numbers, thrust levels, drift ability, ensuring I have the correct ship parts for a given situation, regularly reminding myself to save my game just in case I wipe out in an unexpected battle or get stranded somewhere while slowly, ARDUOUSLY floating from solar system to solar system, planet to planet, extracting as many minerals as humanly possible along the way while dodging tectonic vibrations, lighting strikes and spontaneous flame trails emanating out from all angles, only to blow up after failing to account for some funny-shaped fauna bumbling towards me…
And that’s not even accounting for all the diligent note-taking during alien encounters, robbing myself of the enjoyment of actually taking in the details and eccentricities of all these fascinating creatures cuz I need to make sure I don’t miss some vital clue, or set of coordinates or reference to some sort of significant item that might make lugging this dumb ship around the place just a tiny bit easier…
Then I found the cheat menu and gave myself unlimited fuel and the ability to instantly warp anywhere on the map only to run into a brick wall on several leads for how to progress the story forward… At least now I can finally let go of all that fuss and focus on the real reason I’m doing any of this…
When you choose dialogue options you can view a log of the previous chunk of conversation with the cancel button. I was replaying earlier this week and came to rely on that for note taking because I am too entranced by the aliens talking to me
You also don’t need to note down the coordinates of alien homeworlds, those get automatically added to your starmap as you find out about them. Cycling through what information is shown on the starmap makes the game much more manageable
You definitely want to get in touch with the melnorme if you want to make some progress
I did eventually stumble on the log feature but sometimes I make the mistake of advancing to the next bit of dialog which seems to clear any previous bits of dialog from the log… It’s only a small annoyance in the grand scheme of things.
Yeah, I was aware of the little homeworld spheres that pop up after meeting with a species for the first time, was talking more about the coordinates that get referenced in conversation. Sometimes they’ll be for a species you haven’t met with yet or something else relating to some mission or other. Again, just a small gripe. I think these just tend to exacerbate things when combined with all the other micromanaging involved with playing the game, which I get is probably kinda the whole point, just not something I tend to gel with is all.
When you mention cycling through info on the map, is there like a specific functionality I’m missing with that or were you talking more generally?
I’ve met with the melnorme trader at alpha centauri, are you referring to the information he sells providing me hints for making progress? I’ve been avoiding spending my credits with him on just info because the ship upgrades seemed a lot more valuable, but I also noticed there’s an option in the cheat menu to unlock all upgrades… hmm…
I reckon I missed this because I’m playing the weird android version and haven’t got some of the keyboard functionality mapped to my controls…
I did find out about quasi-space alright but was finding it a bit tedious with having to guess what portal goes where but then realised once you go through one it then provides you a reference for where it sends you afterwards…
Honestly think I’m just an insanely impatient person lol
