Video Games Knowledge Quiz - Season 9 - Pirez

[dr_st]

Alright, everyone, let's begin!

Welcome to the Video Games General Knowledge Quiz Season 4!

This is the first time I'm running such a broad topic, so I hope I'm up to the task. Although I'm a PC player mostly, I will do my best not to skew the questions towards that platform, because I realize that for most players, the console world is the richer experience. Fortunately, in recent years, the different platforms have been all but unified, plus many releases now revive favorite retro games and bring them to new platforms, blurring the distinction.

In fact, I think we will start with exactly such a question.

Q1. Which three games were included In the 2021 release of Blizzard Arcade Collection?

[Greengoop]

Isn’t one of them the lost Vikings? And I’ll just guess the other 2. Rock and roll racing and Diablo?

[dr_st]

I'm going to let you try to amend your answer, since you got 2 out of 3 right. Hint: think arcade games.

Anyone else is free to try to answer as well.

[Greengoop]

The only other one I could think of is blackthorne

[dr_st]

The Lost Vikings, Blackthorne and Rock-n-Roll Racing are correct!
An updated version for the Switch also included Lost Vikings 2 (the sequel) and RNB Racing (the prequel).

Scoreboard
Greengoop - 1 point

Q2. In a duo of adventure games from the nineties you can find references to classic stories such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Rapunzel, and Lord of the Rings. Name the games.

[Greengoop]

Are they kings quest games?

[LoveMetal]

Dragon's Lair?

[dr_st]

Nope, neither. Not to mention that I asked for a "duo" of games, and you guys mentioned an entire series.

[Greengoop]

Can I guess again? Is it the legend of kyrandia book 1 and 2?

[dr_st]

No, that is also not what I had in mind. Let's move on since it's the weekend.

The answer is Simon the Sorcerer 1 and 2.

Scoreboard
Greengoop - 1 point

Q2a. Who is the final boss of the 1998 arcade hit Marvel vs Capcom?

[Greengoop]

Presumably onslaught

[dr_st]

That is correct!

Scoreboard
Greengoop - 2 points

Q3. The racing games Lotus II (Amiga) and Lotus III (DOS) featured a revolutionary-at-the-time "Race Environment Construction System" (RECS). Explain how it worked.

Greengoop got 2 points in a row and should skip this question.

[LoveMetal]

Alright, I've no idea but I'm going to guess that it's one of the first games to have a map editor which allows you to create your own races and play them.

[Hunchman801]

Kinda reminds me of the Mad Trax minigame in Rayman 3, but probably better.

[Greengoop]

That actually does look quite fun! I assume it was GameCube only though

[dr_st]

Alright, I've no idea but I'm going to guess that it's one of the first games to have a map editor which allows you to create your own races and play them.

Close! It wasn't a map editor per se, but you could indeed play your own levels. Do you want to guess how it worked?

[Greengoop]

Also can I just point out the typo on Arnold’s name on the main post?

[dr_st]

Also can I just point out the typo on Arnold’s name on the main post?

Corrected, thanks!

OK, the weekend has come and gone, so for the sake of progress, I shall accept LoveMetal's answer, since it was clearly in the correct direction, and there weren't any other attempts.

The full answer is that RECS was a system where you could define the general parameters of the track (type, length, curves, obstacles...) using a GUI, which would translate into a 9-character code + 2 digits for difficulty. This would get fed into a pseudo-random generator, and that would generate the actual track. So you could not exactly fine-tune everything like you would in a map editor, but the pseudo-random nature ensured you would get the same track every time. In fact, all of the game's built-in courses were generated from such codes, and by using those codes as inputs to the generator, you could replay and practice any track any time you wanted.

It looked like this:


And you can read the details in this review:
https://www.amigareviews.leveluphost.com/lotus3.htm

Scoreboard
Greengoop - 2 points
LoveMetal - 1 point

Q4. The 2022 hit FPS High on Life, by Squanch Games - why is it called High on Life? How is the name explained by the game's plot?

[Greengoop]

Just making a guess here, Maybe it’s because they’re really enjoying life?

[pompom454]

Guess: some alien species invaded Earth and forced humans on drugs?