At last! At last!

<span class="bold"><span class="podkreslenie">Noctropolis</span></span> is here!

At last!

They even put it on sale for the GOG release so (thanks to the impeccable timing of the snow which allowed me to earn a little extra dough) I was able to get 2 copies!!! I, of course, got one for myself, and another to give away to one of you! This game is where I get my name, drealmer, from, and so I think it is quite sensible that I give away a copy of the game.

I'm not exactly sure when I got it originally. I know I didn't get it when it was originally released because I got it for $20 and it was in a small thin box tucked at the bottom of a barely visible row with a variety of cheaper/older titles at Electronics Boutique sometime in the mid 90's (probably 1996.) I contemplated for a long time whether to get it or not, going back to the store many times and pondering it, reading the box over and over, looking at the SSs on the back and wondering: is the game any good or is it relying on the M+ rating and the hint of boobs to sell a crap game? Is the name "Noctropolis" straight un-inventive cheese, or was there something to it deeper and interesting? I did not want to waste money on a lame game and feared I was going to be played for a sucker. I remained wary.

Over some time (several months I think) that row of $20 titles kept dwindling and they never added more. Each time I returned to the store 1 or more titles were gone from the bunch, but Noctropolis remained, time after time. That it remained instilled more doubt that it was a worthwhile purchase, no one else seemed to want it. Yet, why was it the most interesting of the bunch to me? One day there were probably a total of 7 titles left in the row and I thought "If I don't get it now, I'll never know what I missed, good or bad, and it will most likely/seemingly obviously be gone forever if I don't get it." With no forethought/knowledge of the existence of the digital distribution of games coming in the future and the re-emergence of old titles long forgotten and of the never-heard-of, I didn't want it to pass into oblivion, and so I bought it.

It felt good. It felt right. It felt like it should belong to me. I was ecstatic that it was in my possession, and I was very excited to play it, even with the awareness that it could be lame, I had a good feeling I made the right choice.

And I had!

I love dark themes. I love the darkness. I love B-quality if done with heart. This game was done with heart, no doubt! It did what it wanted, catered to no audience or overbearing publisher, and delivered a completely unique and fulfilling experience. It also delivered my nickname that I used from then until this day, all over the place on the internet. drealmer!!!

Drealmer is a character in the game, and moreso than loving the character (I wouldn't say I love the character, actually), I loved the idea surrounding the character (which I was already enthralled with the idea of due to the movie Dreamscape.) Someone with the power to enter people's dreams and instill their will upon the dreamer to alter their dreams and make the dreamer dream what they wanted. It embodies a powerful and fantastically creative mind. Even though the character is a "bad-guy," I didn't carry that over to the identity I took when I made my usernames/nicknames/handles. To me, it is just a fascinating idea that I still love.

In order to enter:

1. say "I want to play Noctropolis!" this means you want to play the copy I am giving away. you can only enter for yourself and redeem it with the username with which you entered

2. tell me about your username. Why you chose it, what it means, if you use it other places or here exclusively, and any other things about it you think I would find interesting. I want to hear all about your username. If I'm not satisfied with the amount of information you provide, you are not qualified!

3. tell me one or some of your favorite adventure games and why they are. try to "sell me" on it, show me your passion about it!

guidelines:

I. you must have a positive forum presence to enter (this has nothing to do with rep.)

II. no talk of scammers or calling out scammers or anything of the sort. if you have a concern about someone who has entered for this GA, send me a PM. doing so will earn you my disdain and I will enter your dreams and severely disturb you in them

III. be courteous and civil to other participants in the thread, conversation about the games mentioned in the thread is definitely welcome, derailing, off-topic, and/or discourteous posts are not and they will disqualify you if you entered and, otherwise, earn you my disdain and I will enter your dreams and severely disturb you in them

IV. please do not bump this thread. I will bump it at my discretion. bumping this thread will get you disqualified, earn you my disdain, and I will enter your dreams and severely disturb you in them

V. do not question my ability to enter your dreams and severely disturb you in them, this will earn you my disdain and I will enter your dreams and severely disturb you in them

You haven't mentioned in the rules:
Can I be in for somebody else?
I'd be willing to do all the work for the entry requirements still.

No. I thought by putting "I want to play noctropolis" there that that would cover this question. guess not. updating it to be clearer.

Alrighty, then. That's what I thought, but I wasn't entirely sure.
Quick question before I make an entry: You mentioned it was M-rated? What's it include? I just personally prefer to keep away from oversexualized games, but if it ain't that bad, I'll go for it.

oh hmmm, maybe I should add the rule "you must be 18 to enter" .... hehehe jk, if you get your guardian's permission, you can enter (still kidding)

but no, I wouldn't call it oversexualized by a long shot. there's a few moments of sexiness, but not much at all. It's M I think because of very brief nudity, language, and mature themes that may turn off some. I wouldn't say it's gorey, but it is suggestive of gorey with stylized gruesomeness, but it's nowhere near off-putting or disturbing in my opinion...well maybe a little

Let's put it like this:
On a scale of Gabriel Knight to Leisure Suit Larry, we're saying it's more on the Gabriel Knight side of things?

absolutely
LSL is an immature perv. and I don't like that sort of objectification or disrespect to women at all
GK gets a little sexy at a few points, but it's not the focus of the game or done distastefully

Perfect. Looks like we're on the same page here.

In that case:
1. I want to play Noctropolis!
2. I made my username some years ago, I think. I forgot what it was about for some time until somebody reminded me about the Power Rangers. I watched nearly all the incarnations as a kid, and the zeo gold ranger was one of my favorites just because he was so much different-looking than the rest. I use it all over the place. In fact, it's so unique that see the name "zeogold', chances are that it is, or probably was, me.
3. Whoo, boy. I could go all day on this one, I've played so many, but I'll go with the one I talk most about:
Myst!
I admit I'm partly biased toward it just because I remember when I was really young and my parents used to play the 3rd and 4th games and let me play/watch/help. I've always had a love of puzzles, and this series helped to feed it. I finally actually got to play the original thing about a year or two ago, and it was amazing. I heard that it was a rewarding experience to beat it without using any hints or walktrhoughs, and boy, let me tell you, it is. I know it's trivial, sure, but I felt like I'd officially deserved the title of "Puzzlemaster" at that point due to earning it.
If you haven't played it, you definitely should. It's the holy grail of adventure gaming, and the true test of a Puzzlemaster's mettle.
I look forward to playing the rest of the series when I get a chance.

Thank you, drealmer!

1. I want to play Noctropolis!
2. Lifthrasil is the name of a pen and paper roleplaying character I played for many, many years. As you can guess from the picture he's a warrior/barbarian type (a Thorwalian, for those familiar with Realms of Arkania / Das Schwarze Auge), who, during the course of his adventures, gained 4 arms through a magic accident. The name itself comes from the Edda. Lif and Lifthrasil are the two humans, who survive Ragnarok and rebuild human society afterwards. And it is my standard name / avatar in all fantasy and gaming oriented forums.
3. My favourite adventure game is still Monkey Island. If you really have to be sold on that classic, I don't know. It has very funny humour, nice puzzles, which sometimes require twisted logic, but never get unfair. The entire setting, atmosphere and music is great, ranging from quiet and dreamlike to silly and funny. Many nice characters to interact with and a lovable, clumsy protagonist. This game is with good reason deemed one of the best adventure games of all time.

I'm in as well! :-)

1. I want to play Noctropolis! (it looks pretty interesting, so why not?)

2. Now about my username... Well, I've mentioned why I have this username before in other threads, but since you asked:
I initially joined gog for the freebies, and especially Treasure Adventure Game (I think I had read about it on kotaku or some other similar site, don't remember exactly), so when I was asked for a username I chose this one (Treasure) because it's a general tendency I used to have, choosing the reason for signing up as my username. At any rate, I grew fond of this username even though I chose it pretty much randomly in the first place, and I even though I haven't signed up in many other places lately I do use it as an account name on e.g. Groupees (probably mainly out of inertia, because I didn't want to think up of some other username...). So there's my username story... In case I forgot anything (after telling the story 3-4 times it's hard to separate the main part with the part of how I joined the gog community, which I narrated alongside, but which is another story) I'll add it later...

3.That's a really tough question, as I've liked many point-n-clicks over the years. The main problem is that the ones I liked most are kind of obscure and not widely known, but are still very good (but then you did say that Noctropolis also seemed kind of obscure only a few years after its release, so of course obscurity has nothing to do with perceived quality). I'll mention 2 games, one I played in my childhood and one I played only a year ago, but it is ata least a decade old:
a) The one is Atlantis Evolution. It's about a journalist in the beginning of the 20th century that ends up in Atlantis after being gobbled up by a hurricane after a shipwreck of the ship he was on. Atlantis however is a quasi-totalitarian state, controlled by the gods of Atlantis, who enforce their will through guards and have an almost orwellian surveillance of the population, via a crystal placed on the head of each inhabitant on their birth. The guards try to arrest the journalist because he's a threat, because he doesn't have a crystal and thus can't be monitored, but he escapes. He eventually joins a resistance movement that wants to stop the this tyrannical regime... and this is as far as I got, because I got stuck on a stealth section where I had to infiltrate the abode of the gods - I always got spotted... At any rate, this game had some pretty good environments, not too hard puzzles (other than this stealth one), and a pretty good story too. Since its a Microids game, I do hope it'll come to gog at some point, as I can't get the multi-disc installer to work in Win7. I played this one when I was about 10 -I bought it for 20 euros, but these were 20 euros well spent...
b) The other game is The Fifth Disciple. I found this one a year ago for 5 euros at a store selling used stuff and it looked interesting enough, yet I wasn't certain whether it'd actually be good, as I hadn't heard of it before, but I figured that 5 euros wasn't much anyways so I bought it. It ran almost flawlessly in a 32bit Win7 pc I have (only crashed once at the beginning, but not again), so I was able to experience it. This time the plot isn't much (the protagonist is a student of magic who tries to stop a dark lord -or something like that- from taking over the world), however this game has a novel approach to point-n-clicking, in that it combines point-n-click environments with RPG style battles and levelling -the battle system wasn't intuitive at first sight, but with some help from a walkthrough, I got the hang of it. The puzzles were rather good, and the battles after I got the hang of it were nice too (these were battles with almost exclusive magic usage, given the plot, and a pretty nifty feature came mid-game as there came the spell that allowed to control an enemy creature, which brought the spectacle of enemies fighting between them! At any rate, I expanded too much on the battles (probably because I was impressed by the combination of them and the p-n-c other gameplay), but, as I already said, this was a pretty good game all in all, and in the p-n-c segments (I'd say the ratio between battles and point and click was rather actually more towards the point-n-click. And because I forgot: The spells learnt could be used not only in the battles but also in the p-n-c segments, which made for some interesting gameplay (e.g. teleporting on an otherwise inaccessible area, or becoming invisible for a while to avoid guards that are after the protagonist). (Also, I actually completed this game, thanks to a walkthrough, but still)
Anyways, that was also a game (more than) worth the money I gave, yet it's unknown...

Anyways, thanks a lot for hosting this giveaway drealmer and +1! :-)

P.S. Both games are in the gog wishlist (as a matter of fact, I myself made the entry for the Fifth Disciple after competing the game, as it didn't exist before), so feel free to vote for them!

Nice!

1. I want to play Noctropolis!

2. Before Dessimu there was Dissimu. Before Dissimu there was Wertnex. Before Wertnex there was Kietex. Before Kietex there was Kietux. And finally, before Kietux... I was not even born yet.

So I used to call myself Wertnex everywhere. That was my nickname and I couldn't find such word in Google, so I was happy. I think in the end of 2013, the beginning of 2014 I was got hooked up watching tv show Lost. It wasn't the best show I have ever seen, but it was new for me, long and interesting overall to see how people survive. And then Desmond Hume happened (season 2, episode 1). I loved everything about him. His Scottish accent, his loose looks, the way he talked, his madness, him being mysterious at that point. And I especially loved the sound of name Desmond. It sounds tough, strong, name of a man who can stand up for his principles, who is respected. Association might be with diamond because of the sound. I just wanted to Desmond myself.

And then the idea popped in my mind. I should base my nickname on that! Wertnex sounded edgy, like a metal cutting metal, cold and also I got associations with something computer related, like programming maybe. But also Wertnex had it's own, sort of my childhood, early teenage history. And I was becoming a man. I needed a change. Desmond... Sounds like a great adventurer. But there are millions of Desmonds on the internet, some are famous. I want to be unique, to be able to recognize myself on the internet.

So what did I do? I opened Google translator, chose to translate from English to Latin. I figured English being popular language, any word can be translated to Latin. And I wanted my new nickname to have a Latin sound. But what to look for? How to describe myself. I tried many words like adventurer, raven, crow, pirate, secret, mystery... I think the word "conceal" was the one giving me something that I seek. One of the Latin translations was "dissimulo" (means disguise, pretend, conceal, hide, dissemble, ignore) and I love secret, lies, masks and that sort of thing. I loved it. "Dissimu" I told myself. This is how I want to be know. Loved everything about it - starts with D, two ss give a feeling of something exotic, mysterious, ending with u is not common. And I was unknown to Google.

That was it. For some time I was Dissimu and I was proud of it. Then a few times I was shortly called "Diss". The sounds was not very pleasant. Diss/this... Also sounds thin, weak. Remembered Desmond, changed to Dessimu. From the moment I am sticking to it, I am proud and happy to call myself Dessimu. Dess also sounds good. Love it.

3. The talking about games and adventures, and passion, I simply can't shut up and not say the title "The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing". Everything about this game screams ADVENTURE! Even Van Helsing says that in the game.

There are three games. One thing I love about them all, is that you can import previous save and sort of play the story further. Expanding the Secret Lair and seeing same and new faces in the game. It is brilliant! Hell, it is amazing! Just because I showed my passion about the game, I got all three to play from a friend. I already finished the first game 4 times, second game 3 times and the third game 2 times. And I want MORE! Every time I feel happy and intrigued.

I love how Van Helsing and Katarina (his lovely ghostly companion with Ukrainian accent - love it) interacts with each other - make fun, discuss things, warn each other, talk from the heart, help each other. Their relationship is like nothing I have ever seen in any game. Variety of fighting styles, sort of tower defense mini game, different approaches to fight bosses. And characters. God, you should see them characters! Even cows and chickens can make fun!

I can shortly say that in my life time it is highly likely I shall finish the games 10 or 20 more times each. Or more. THAT is how passionate I am.

And thanks for interesting giveaway, it's a pleasure to read all the stories!

I want to play Noctropolis!

My username: Sadly, there is no tale to tell of the one I am using here. I picked something on the spur of the moment when I first encountered GOG, and I never changed it. I did intend it as, "Mr. Yo." but I am gratified that people often read it as, "Mistery-o" But my real name, the one I use everywhere else on the web, is, "Gothemasticator." which is from FO2. In the boxing ring, when you fight the various opponents, a crowd gathers and cheers and boos. One thing they say is, "Go Name of Boxer." Well, when you get to fight the boss, The Masticator, the crowd shouts, "Go, The Masticator." QED.

Sell you on an adventure game: I doubt you haven't played this one. But I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream seems right up your alley. You always hear people saying about horror that the best stuff relies on psychological horror and atmosphere rather than jump scares or gore or gross-out stuff. Well, this title is one of the few that succeeds on this front. And it's all due to the writer Harlan Ellison. Everything the man puts out can be described as dystopian, even his non-fiction essays. This game succeeds in communicating his bleak tough doomed cruel vision of the world. Ughhh. My hands are getting heavier just talking about it.

Cheers!

<edited away>

1.) I want to play Noctropolis! I've never heard of it before, and it looks pretty good. It should work in WINE too.

2.) When I was maybe 13 or 14, I used the phrase "hummer" to refer to a certain sexual activity while talking to some friends on my hockey team. None of the other guys had heard of that euphemism, so I had to explain it. Like most team sports, in hockey nicknames are very common. For the next 8ish years, I was known as hummer. This event predated the hummer vehicle by 5 or 6 years, so it has nothing to do that hummer. The "010" part came from yahoo. At some point I was signing up for a yahoo account, and hummer was already taken. Yahoo suggested hummer010 as an alternative. There you have it.

3.) This is a damn tough question to answer. It's tough to pick just one, but I'l go with Grim Fandango. I likely wouldn't have picked it if the remastered version hadn't been released recently. I'd have likely written my love of Grim Fandango off to fading nostalgia, but playing the new version recently reminded me how great this game really is! Manny Calavera is just suck a relate-able character, that the whole crazy story works beautifully. None of the puzzles are too tough, and they mostly make sense. The pace of the game is great, and even though I knew the story this last time around, it's still just a hoot to play.

enter into the city of night

enter for Noctropolis