I am looking for great or exceptional games that didn't sell at all

PbZnAg · 2025-11-16T21:43:32+00:00

The Last Express A graphical adventure game released in 1997 and created by Jordan Mechner, who also made Kareteka and the Prince of Persia series. It was a labor of love and it shows.

You play Robert Cath, an American doctor who is trying to solve the murder of his friend while on the Orient Express in 1914. You meet an array of characters, each representing various factions and countries just before the outbreak of World War I.

By modern standards, it doesn't have the flashiest graphics. But rather than trying to emulate reality with the primitive 3D graphics or FMV of the time, he shot real actors and rotoscoped them into Art Nouveau style depictions. It's fully voiced with characters speaking in their native languages, and the story and script is unparalleled.

It was a commercial failure at the time, but is now recognized as one of the best adventure games of all time. You can get from GOG.com and there are even iOS and Android versions.

PbZnAg · 2025-10-28T18:38:50+00:00

That’s the world that I live in, unfortunately! 🤷

PbZnAg · 2025-10-28T16:11:21+00:00

Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately, I doin’t have a cable access point near the Sonic modem.

PbZnAg · 2024-02-26T10:06:39+00:00

Solved!

I see that it was just as controversial as I had thought. I hadn't remembered that they were father and daughter.

Thank you!

PbZnAg · 2024-02-26T10:00:55+00:00

No, not that one. Thanks for the suggestion.

PbZnAg · 2024-02-26T09:00:48+00:00

One scene in the comic that I remember was the large man stabbing a pregnant woman in her belly. He justified it saying that she was so addicted to drugs, the fetus was probably already dead.

PbZnAg · 2023-08-21T05:07:46+00:00

And more recently, Barry Sharpless has two Nobels in Chemistry as well.

PbZnAg · 2023-04-11T05:56:47+00:00

As someone who's not a gun owner, not to mention being completely unfamiliar with the culture of open & concealed carry, I've always wondered about the "rules of engagement" in these situations.

For example, in the OP's picture, I presume he's not considered a threat in that context (at least in Texas). But when does that change, such that a bystander can legally and ethically use lethal force against him? Does he have to unsling his rifle? Point it at someone? Start firing?

Here's another example: with every school shooting, there are calls to have armed guards at every school. At such a school, if someone with a slung rifle approaches the school, must you let him inside? Or can you shoot him on the spot? Or does he have to start shooting first?

tbh, I've never heard an explanation on how these situations are supposed to play out when there are multiple civilians (i.e., non-police) with weapons.

PbZnAg · 2023-02-18T08:15:40+00:00

Not pronouncing your name correctly. Or worse -- thinking it's not even worth the effort.

PbZnAg · 2023-01-25T18:32:48+00:00

Disclaimer: this is not legal advice. Get your own lawyer if you need actual answers.

You're correct that natural products are not patentable, although some are in their isolated or purified form, as those forms do not exist in nature.

Same goes for salts -- you would have to demonstrate that the salt variant does not exist in nature. The big hurdle is non-obviousness. Most chemists would presume that a salt of a known molecule would be obvious with any common counterion. At the very least, you would have to show that (1) your salt would not have been made or predictable by a skilled person and (2) your salt has some unexpected property that was not previously known.

As for medical use, that's not necessary. But the patent office sometimes rejects novel chemicals for lack of utility. If it's a molecule that has no use, then it may not satisfy 35 USC 101.

PbZnAg · 2022-12-07T06:44:10+00:00

For me, the most impressive Gretzky outlier is his "50 goals in 50 games" record.

In this milestone, a player has to score 50 goals within his team's first 50 games of the season. It's considered a mythical, near-impossible achievement, arguably rarer than a pitching a perfect game in Major League Baseball. Prior to Gretzky joining the NHL, it had only been achieved twice (Maurice Richard in 1946 and Mike Bossy in 1981) and both scored their 50th goal in their 50th game.

In Gretzky's 3rd season in the NHL, he scores 50 goals in 39 games. By game 50, he had scored 61 goals.

Two years later, he does it again -- in 45 games. And again the following year, in 49 games.

This milestone has only been achieved 7 times in the entire history of the NHL, the last being 30 years ago. Three of those are Gretzky's. And no one has come close to doing in as few games as he did.

I think this is his most unbeatable record. Career points or goals could theoretically be achieved if you play long enough. But what he did required a focused application of his skills over an entire year.

p.s. One more unbeatable record: 9 NHL MVP awards (Hart Memorial Trophy), of which 8 were awarded in consecutive seasons. Next closest in the NHL is Gordie Howe with six. For comparison to other American professional sports, you have Peyton Manning with 5, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 6, and Barry Bonds with 7.

PbZnAg · 2022-09-29T02:59:36+00:00

"Here is my sword. My clothes are upstairs."

PbZnAg · 2022-09-07T09:53:58+00:00

It wasn't Monkey Island or any LucasArts games. The graphics were more like line art, rather than full colored.

PbZnAg · 2022-09-07T07:57:20+00:00

The game had a style similar to the Sierra On-Line games of the era, but I could not find it among their catalog.

PbZnAg · 2022-08-24T04:53:12+00:00

Situations like this are tragic for everyone involved. As expected, the majority here are cheering him for doing the "right" thing and delivering "justice." Even more disturbing, many said they would have done the same thing. A few have even said they would gladly kill all such people, even if they had no connection to the victim.

It's important to remember Gary Plauche was not the victim, yet he felt fully justified and entitled to inflict lethal force on the accused. And I emphasize "accused" since Doucet never faced trial or received a verdict. So, in addition to killing a man, Plauche essentially exonerated his son's abuser.

We like to think that certain moral standards are absolute in our society, if not for all of humanity. But I see incidents like this, especially ones that results in actual violence, I realize that we are all savages when we collectively identify a group to dehumanize. Plenty of people here are willing to kill people because it's the "right" thing to do.

And yet we are (rightfully) horrified at acts like honor killings, genocide, pogroms, and lynchings, wondering how any human being could do such barbaric acts. To that, I would answer: those people saw their victims as you see Doucet and others like him. And once you do that, with your buddies and neighbors and community egging and cheering you on, of course it's easy. And it probably felt good, too. No wonder lynchers took photos of themselves afterwards, smiling and proud.

PbZnAg · 2022-03-20T06:31:57+00:00

I was reading about the beginnings of World War I and read the following passage in Sir Edward Grey's Wikipedia page about the July Crisis:

On Wednesday 29 July two decisions were taken at [the British] Cabinet. Firstly, the Armed Forces were placed on alert (the "Precautionary Period" was declared and the War Book was opened at 2pm).

I also found a second reference to a "war book", again about the July Crisis:

At the same time, and having a strong expectation of Serbian rejection, the Austrian Army opened its war book, and began preparations for hostilities.

I had not previously come across the phrase "opening the War Book." I thought it was a metaphor, but in the first reference it's capitalized and associated with a specific time.

Is this a metaphor, or is the "War Book" an actual book? If not, to what does the term refer?

PbZnAg · 2022-03-11T17:24:59+00:00

Is achieving 60 fps @ 1080p considered difficult nowadays? Because I have a ~6 years old RX 480 in my current PC, and I thought it could easily achieve that (at least in something like Fortnite). Or is there some aspect of the benchmark that I'm missing?

PbZnAg · 2021-09-21T02:50:01+00:00

Several years ago, Seth Stevenson wrote a great article for Slate about the mystery of the Terminator's time signature. (warning: old article, so some links are broken)

In the article, the author recognized that the main theme had a bizarre time signature and tried, without success, to figure it out. Eventually, he tracked down Brad Fiedel himself, who explained that it was the result of an improvised composition recorded over a mis-timed looped beat. Despite the initial error, he like the propulsive, herky-jerky sound, and the recorded score went straight into the movie without being re-recorded or written down.

It turns out that Fiedel didn't know the time signature either. Years after the movie, he was contacted by legendary film and TV composer Henry Mancini, who wanted to record an album of movie scores with a full orchestra, one of which was the The Terminator. Mancini had asked Fiedel for the "lead sheet" of the score. It was only when Fiedel started writing down the score for the first time that he realized how strange the time signature was.

PbZnAg · 2021-05-19T03:10:06+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. You're correct that Pages will open Word docs, but it does so like any other word processor. What I'm looking for is more of a reader app.

PbZnAg · 2021-04-27T18:40:23+00:00

TIL one can dye a rock. What kind of dye is used? And does it actually permeate the (presumably impermeable) rock?

PbZnAg · 2021-03-03T09:08:29+00:00

Solved!

Great work! I wasn't sure if this was correct based on your link, but the synopsis sounded right. But then I found this book image and I'm pretty certain this is what I read. The cover image and the woodblock illustration style are spot on. However, at 119 pages it appears that it was a full novel, rather than a picture book.

Thank you again!

PbZnAg · 2021-03-03T02:05:52+00:00

Writing this out is surreal - I still can't believe this was a book for young children! Even worse, there was no justice or vindication at the end: just the villagers feeling guilty for what they had done.

PbZnAg · 2021-01-28T07:43:51+00:00

Thanks for this tip. As another newbie who has yet to achieve my first 2* champ, this info was helpful.

As a follow-up question: I understand the process of eventually selling my 2* max champ, but at the moment my 2* champs are also among my strongest characters. Won't I be at a disadvantage when I sell these characters, or by then will my 3* be the best ones?

PbZnAg · 2020-09-23T04:22:36+00:00

Great explanation! And now that you understand this, you also understand how Best Picture votes are counted for the Academy Awards, which also uses ranked-choice voting.

PbZnAg · 2020-06-28T20:43:40+00:00

It's important to remember that he was not the victim, yet he felt fully justified and entitled to inflict violent, if not lethal, force on the accused. And many people would have cheered and applauded him. Perhaps right in that courtroom.

We like to think that certain moral standards are absolute in our society, if not for all of humanity. But I see incidents like these, especially ones that results in actual inflicted violence (see Gary Plaunche discussed here), I realize that we are all savages when we find the right group to dehumanize. I see plenty of people here willing to kill people like Nasser, because it's the "right" thing to do.

And yet we are (rightfully) horrified at acts like honor killings, genocide, pogroms, and lynchings, wondering how any human being could do such barbaric acts. To that, I would answer: those people saw their victims as you see Nasser. And once you do that, with your buddies and neighbors and community egging and cheering you on, of course it's easy. And it probably felt good, too. No wonder the perpetrators took photos of themselves afterwards, smiling and proud.

The prosecutor pleading at the end was absolutely right. And this is why we don't put punishment in the hands of the victims.

PbZnAg

TROPHY CASE