Unnecessary inclusions in games

[SteveSmith]

It actually comes from a remark a former girlfriend made about a certain appendage on my body.

"It looks like a bloody flange!"

Not sure what she meant though.

Completely off-topic, but me and my wife call the 'inside' of your elbow joint a flange. No idea where it started.

[TMD2003]

Kudos on your forum name. I used to be in band called Flange in the early 90s

And I'm going to assume your stage name was Stuart Pidget.

What was your instrument of choice? Theremin? Comb and paper? Bread Bin with the plastic keyboard bolted on top? Spill the beans.

[blucey]

What was the point of all those shooting range type sections in Combat School if you take on the final mission barehanded?

[cmal]

Some games add extra keys to perform actions, when the standard control keys could have done the job. One that comes to mind is Horace and the Spiders.
Good game, but on the third level when you go stomping holes in the web, they could have utilized the down key to stomp a hole. Instead it’s an extra key that is used so it involves some tedious thumb travel.

[ParadigmShifter]

Halls of the Things was especially bad in that regard with about a bazillion keys (great game though).

[stupidget]

And I'm going to assume your stage name was Stuart Pidget.

What was your instrument of choice? Theremin? Comb and paper? Bread Bin with the plastic keyboard bolted on top? Spill the beans.

I wish we'd been some bizzare avant garde medieval jazz fusion band, but we were in fact a noisy grunge band. I played guitar and we supported such pop-rock luminaries as Genital Deformities, Excrement of War, Babies with Rabies, Exocet Erection and Entropy

[Morkin]

Halls of the Things was especially bad in that regard with about a bazillion keys (great game though).

Talking about unnecessary inclusions, the sword in Hall of the Things was probably the most useless weapon - did anyone ever use it?

If you got close enough to a Thing to try to use your sword, you'd probably be dead anyway.

[Andre Leao]

Inclusion of akward keys in Ultimate games, artificially increasing the difficult level. The main reason I never liked the games from this publisher, except for Jetpac and Alien 8.

[equinox]

Inclusion of akward keys in Ultimate games, artificially increasing the difficult level.

Probably done to make the keyboard reading easier (ports, half-rows) rather than to make the game intentionally harder.

[rich_r]

How about the road bit in Horace Goes Skiing? Yes, it's fun and can be challenging (actually I enjoy it more than the skiing bit). But the game is called 'Horace Goes Skiing' not 'Horace Crosses the Road'.

I'd say possibly the way the character accelerates in Sir Fred, but I guess that with enough practice you would get the hang of it. It's just that in 40 years I still haven't (despite it being one of my favourite games, ever since buying it from Woolworths when I was 13). It makes getting into just the right place to jump extremely hard, in a game that already has enough things that can make life difficult.

[equinox]

How about the road bit in Horace Goes Skiing? Yes, it's fun and can be challenging (actually I enjoy it more than the skiing bit). But the game is called 'Horace Goes Skiing' not 'Horace Crosses the Road'.

Haha... but he's going there. It's Horace Goes Skiing, not Horace Skis.

[AndyC]

Haha... but he's going there. It's Horace Goes Skiing, not Horace Skis.

Agreed. Both the first two levels in Horace and the Spiders can jog on though, absolute garbage compared to the stomping on spiders bit.

[XTM]

What was the point of all those shooting range type sections in Combat School if you take on the final mission barehanded?

They had to train you with those guns, but the training left them without any ammo at the time the final mission took place

Also, I really hated that arm wrestling event in Combat School. I think I always failed it when playing with a joystick because you couldn't "cheat" by holding down one direction like you can do with the keyboard in other events. Or maybe that didn't work on keys either in this specific event, don't remember.

[TMD2003]

Talking about unnecessary inclusions, the sword in Hall of the Things was probably the most useless weapon - did anyone ever use it?

And talking of swords, I will further nominate the sword in Hocus Focus.

If, by some miracle, you can scroll through the menu fast enough to get your sword out and swing it at the guard after setting off one of the traps, it hits the guard, and... you lose your sword, your film, and everything else, just the same as if you had no sword at all.

Then again, it wasn't exactly a Crash Smash.

[equinox]

I also think I spotted an unnecessary inclusion in Dizzy, but I'm not certain.



inclusion noun (mineralogy) Any material that is trapped inside a mineral during its formation, such as a defect in a precious stone.

[Wall_Axe]

The lawn mowing and coffee machines added a bit of mystery and fun

[stupidget]

I also think I spotted an unnecessary inclusion in Dizzy, but I'm not certain.

You mean that smug faced ovoid bell-3nd?

[mjwilson]

The octopus in Starquake.

[ParadigmShifter]

That's more an Easter Egg I guess he had some spare memory and it shows up if you quit to basic as well.

[mjwilson]

That's more an Easter Egg I guess he had some spare memory and it shows up if you quit to basic as well.

The octopus does? I didn't know that.

[ParadigmShifter]

Yes

[XTM]

Nice MSX screenshot of Starquake

[equinox]

You mean that smug faced ovoid bell-3nd?

No, you're getting mixed up, Seymour wasn't in the Dizzy series!

Spoiler

Neither was Stephen Fry

[mjwilson]

Yes

Just goes to show, I have never tried to quit Starquake. 8=)

[ParadigmShifter]

Nice MSX screenshot of Starquake

It was a screen capture from JSSpeccy on this very site so not MSX. Looks like the colours are a bit off though. QAOP emulator was not working at the time.

I don't have an MSX emulator.

JSSpeccy link from here

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/playonl ... wnid=30276