Game On! Harlan Ellison Tribute Edition-I Have no Mouth, and I Must Scream

This was going to be a continuation of my Canada Day Weekend Tribute, but something else came uo that I couldn’t help but acknowledge! It’s been a sad time. We’ve lost another “literary master” of the sci-fi world.

Harlan Ellison was definitely innovative. He was like the “B-Movie” of the sci-fi world, which made him right up my alley!

He, himself, kept these quotes in the “Foreward” of his story collections,

“Harlan Ellison, contrary to the otherwise astute Theodore Sturgeon, is no more a major “prose stylist” than the editorial writer of the Plumber’s Journal or The New York Times. Instead, he stands unchallenged as the god-awfullest writer ever to become submerged in the vaseline of synonyms and antonyms. What Mr. Sturgeon mistakes for “image-making” is merely the slick conundrum of an empty-headed self-lover who, unhappily, believes that the bathroom ritual of personal daily resurrection, when inflated rhetorically, is 14” pegged prose. What emerges is not a “style” but rather a sort of neologistic bawling from the belly. It reminds one of the yips and yaps to be heard in the war councils of imbecilic demonstrators, from Berkley [sic] to Boston.”

He was well known for his combative personality. I would have loved to have met him!

If you’d like to check out some other wonderful tributes out there, head on over to Kim at By Hook or By Book or visit John Rieber. They both had wonderful posts!

Now, on to the game/short story discussion!

The game starts with the choice of 5 characters. You can play through a scenario with any of the characters in the short story.

Nimdok

 

Ted

 

Ellen

Benny

 

Gorrister

Each has their own scenario to face the fears and tortures wrought upon them by AM,

“”What does AM mean?”

Gorrister answered him. We had done this sequence a thousand times before, but it was Benny’s favourite story. “At first it meant Allied Mastercomputer, and then it meant Adaptive Manipulator, and later on it developed sentience and linked itself up and they called it Aggressive Menace, but by then it was too late, and finalyy it called itself AM, emerging intelligence, and what it meant was I am… cognito ergo sum… I think, therefore I AM.”” 

This is a point & click Adventure with puzzle aspects to it. I does not follow the short story, so don’t think that you can read this and get all of the answers. It’s a little difficult in that respect as there isn’t much guidance in the game.

It was interesting to have elements from the short story, but have them expanded upon. Is Ellen a “slut”, or did something happen in her past to cause this reaction to sex? Why would AM make Benny look like an ape man? You can finally get your answers here!

The best part of this game??

AM IS VOICED BY HARLAN ELLISON, HIMSELF!

That’s right, folks! You know that the game is done well when the author A: has a hand in it, and B: agrees to voice one of the characters! (and of course it’s the psychotic, sentient supercomputer!)

So, hop onto Steam and pick your copy up now! It’s their Summer Sale at the moment so it is INCREDIBLY CHEAP! You can finally find out why AM chose these people, and why he is so full of HATE.

“HATE. LET ME TELL 

YOU HOW MUCH I’VE

COME TO HATE YOU

SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE

387.44 MILLION MILES

OF PRINTED CIRCUITS

IN WAFER THIN LAYERS 

THAT FILL MY

COMPLEX. IF THE 

WORD HATE WAS 

ENGRAVED ON EACH 

NANOANGSTROM OF

THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILES IT

WOULD NOT EQUAL 

ONE-BILLIONTH

OF THE HATE I FEEL 

FOR HUMANS AT THIS 

MICRO-INSTANT FOR

YOU. HATE. HATE.”