Embedded video format to use: dailymotion | google video | vimeo | locally hosted



This image is pretty much representative of the game. It's a cheesy send-up of the old 50s B movies about giant insects. Precisely how much of this game is intentionally funny and how much is just hilariously bad, I don't know.

A bit of History

The game was first released way back in 1989 for the Amiga (which is the version I played as kid, and the version I'll be playing in this thread). It was pretty good back when it came out, and got ported to a couple of other platforms including Sega Genesis and DOS. Nowadays it's not only abandonware, but the creators Cinemaware keep a couple of ROM images and the PC version up on their website. You'll find the game info and files here.

Gameplay info

There are a couple of different parts to the game - for the most part it's a point and click adventure, where you choose from a few options in a conversation or where to go. These sections are pretty boring to play out so I'll be skipping the shitty parts and posting the highlights in screenshots.

One interesting feature of the main game is that the game plays in so-called "real time". Every second you play the game, a minute ticks away in-game. I'm not sure when this is true, it might be paused while you're loading, or during certain actions, but in general you have to do things fairly fast. The game has a time limit whereby you have to finish before a certain date. I'll get into that later.

This game has quite a surprising number of alternate paths through. If you know exactly what to do, you could probably complete it while skipping a ton of stuff you can do. I might try speedrunning it some time. I'm going to try and make a normal play through, but since there's so much I'll be missing doing that I'll insert various side parts to try and show off the things that could happen without running through the game several times.

There's also a few different 'action' scenes, which I'm going to be posting in video form. I'm not going to spoil the surprise, but there are a few different types of minigames that are included. I'll try to only show off each particular type once or twice because they get pretty repetitive after that, but a couple of them come up regularly in different locations, so you'll see them a few times.

Game background

We play as a geologist Greg Bradley who came to Lizard Breath, a desert town in California, to investigate meteorite fragments from the desert around town. We're being assisted by a local college student named Biff, and we're being helped by a local prospector Geez to gather meteorite samples. The game begins shortly after we've returned from a vacation, eager to study the meteor which recently struck the nearby mountains.

Style

I'm going to have two slightly different layouts in this LP, so that hopefully everyone's happy. First off, I'll be doing this as mostly screenshot based, but with videos inserted when appropriate to show off action sequences. Those updates will be hosted offsite on my website, so that I can embed the videos into the text. All the videos will be on several hosts, as well as locally hosted on my site.

I'll be posting the exact same updates in the thread, but instead of the videos, I'll be using just animated GIFs and screenshots. So if you don't want to read off site, or you don't want to view the videos, there'll be a plain screenshot LP here. I hope to post updates every 2nd day.

Personally, I think the videos are worth it, but please tell me if anything sucks, because I'm not LPing this game for my own amusement. Well, maybe a little. Any comments, good or bad, are very welcome.

I'm going to stay in character for the most part, and I'll post in italics whenever I'm making an out-of-character remark about the game. Let me know if you guys want more or less game remarks, as I'll probably try and cut back on this to keep the flow going.

Without further ado, let's begin.

Table of Contents

Intro movie:



This LP is now complete! Thanks for reading along!

Check out the sequel here.

Update 1: Monday June 1, 1951 10:00am - The first sighting (offsite) (onsite)
Update 2: Monday June 1, 1951 1:00pm - Drama and Science (offsite) (onsite)
Update 3: Tuesday June 2, 1951 8:45am - Crazy broads and crazier reporters (offsite) (onsite)
Update 4: Tuesday June 2, 1951 3:37pm - Blood, daring escapes and flying lessons (offsite) (onsite)
Update 5: Wednesday June 3, 1951 2:41pm - Revenge and the clinching evidence (offsite) (onsite)
Update 6: Saturday June 6, 1951 8:30am - Sex Bomb, Sex Bomb, You're my Sex Bomb (offsite) (onsite)
Update 7: Tuesday June 9, 1951 9:05am - The beginning of the end (offsite) (onsite)
Update 8: Friday June 12, 1951 11:00am - The middle of the end (offsite) (onsite)
Update 9: Saturday June 13, 1951 4:00pm - The end of the end (offsite) (onsite)
Bonus 1: It Came from the Desert! - Turbografx 16 version dailymotion | google video | vimeo | my hosting (direct link)