Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Captain McGrandpa saves April Fools

It's April Fools, which means plenty of jerks out there are twirling their fingers around, cackling in front of their Dell Inspirons, and thinking about how much their hilarious Internet Meme Prank Thing is totally great.

They're wrong, though. Well, except for Gametap staff member Frank Cifaldi (formerly of Gamasutra and Lost Levels) , who has decided to use his powers of April Foolery for good, with a little exercise in communal self-entertainment called "Captain McGrandpa - Memory of the Forgotten". Here's the PR statement:
"The latest GameTap Originals production, Captain McGrandpa – Memory of the Forgotten is the first truly multiplayer adventure game. Using brand new technology developed at GameTap HQ, an unlimited number of players will be able to shape the world and story around them, in real time, with limitless possibilities. Only as a community can we help Captain McGrandpa find his way. "
Basically, Cifaldi started a thread on the Gametap forums in the guise of a classic text adventure prompt. Black background, second-person narrative, point and move totals in the upper right corner. After that, actual Gametap forum users simply posted what they wanted to do, and Cifaldi responded accordingly. The results err disturbingly close to genius.
(go outside)
As you make your way toward The Outside World, The Mean Lady You Don't Like waves and wishes you a pleasant day.

The Outside World
It's cold and frightening out here and you don't like it. To the East is A Place You Don't Want To Go, to the West is A Place You Don't Want To Go, and to the North is The Idle Springs Retirement Home. There is a Taxi Cab parked haphazardly on the curb.

You have to register for the Gametap forums if you want to participate, but I'm just watching the thread as it develops, something which requires no registration. Go check it out, it's seriously great.

3 comments:

Matt Brown said...

Interesting, very interesting. So Phantasy Star is next week, when do I get to hear your thoughts on the new Ninja Gaiden for the DS?

Unknown said...

Came here Googling to see if anyone's talking about Captain McGrandpa, stayed for the awesome Phantasy Star coverage. I'm salivating at the thought of making Phantasy Star II easier. I actually worked on an unofficial re-translation of the first Phantasy Star, give it a look if you're a fan.

Jason Moses said...

Hey, thanks! I really dug the unofficial re-translation, actually. I'll admit now that I'd hoped that M2 would put the FM soundtrack back into the Master System version for Complete Collection, but that wasn't the case. I've always really enjoyed your work in the past, anyway, and I'm glad that I was able to return the favor, so to speak.