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No-Action Jackson - Graphic Adventuring Up Geekdom

Posted by simoniker on from the where's-the-cheetos? dept.

digitaltacoGSI writes "Fans of LucasArts-style adventure games (Monkey Island, Day of Tentacle, etc) would be wise to check out the brand-new, freely downloadable PC graphical adventure entitled No-Action Jackson, from independent developer Britton O'Toole. The story revolves around a young nerd -- Jackson -- who must escape the confines of his house and free his friends from their daily activities in order to make it to their D&D sessions at the local comic book store. It's very funny, very professional, has a great old-school look, and includes some very difficult puzzles." Judging by the positive reactions on AGSForums.com, this is well worth checking out.

32 comments

  1. Awesome by Lane.exe · · Score: 4, Funny

    But does it contain grog recipes?

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    IAALS.
  2. Um.. no thanks. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    What's wrong with this picture:

    Download and run this 6MB Windows executable that's hosted on a site without a domain name!

    No thanks, but I'd like my Windows machine without what could very easily be a nasty custom virus disguised as a game.

    1. Re:Um.. no thanks. by Pluvius · · Score: 1, Funny

      I think you'd better take off the tinfoil hat before the mercury that's been added by the government to all tinfoil supplies in the US leaches into your brain.

      Rob

    2. Re:Um.. no thanks. by codexus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes it could very well be a trojan. But then that is true of any software you download. It's never going to be 100% safe.

      --
      True warriors use the Klingon Google
  3. Lack of innovation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Yuck, what a common slashdot subject line. *hits anonymous*

    Seriously, though, "great old-school look" is what all these fan adventures do. I'd like to see one that looks like a Hieronymous Bosch come to life or something. With 1024x768 and 16.7 million colours to work with, there's no reason a 2-d graphic adventure couldn't come to life.

    I'm sure this one's great... but that's what happened to the whole genre. A quick glut of nearly identical games made 3-D seem like the only visual choice. Don't talk Grim Fandango... too little, too late, too "wishing to be real 3-D".

    1. Re:Lack of innovation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Dude, you don't diss Grim Fandango. You... you just don't.

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      M

    2. Re:Lack of innovation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you want to see a really wierd game, I would recommend 9: The Last Resort. Crazy music, very spaced out.

      http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/nine/review .h tml

      http://www.quandaryland.com/jsp/dispArticle.jsp? in dex=193

    3. Re:Lack of innovation by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      Sanitarium (a difficult to find game, but a fantastic gem). Old, so 8-bit graphics, but it doesn't use a Lucasarts look.

      Syberia.

      The Myst series (sans that recent MMORPG disaster -- I have no idea why they did that, as they had few concerns about pirating due to size anyway -- and without the antipiracy concerns, MMORPGs lose a lot of their publisher appeal).

      --
      May we never see th
    4. Re:Lack of innovation by th3walrus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Any time lack of innovation in adventure games comes up, we have to point out Gabriel Knight 3.

      Beautiful game in it's day. Took the Sierra style adventure game into a fully 3d environment and had an amazing story. However, it's release during the FPS/Action boom doomed it to failure. It came out even before the repopularization of RPG's, let alone adventure games. People saw "Sierra", "Gabriel Knight" and "Adventure" and said "Screw that, give me more FPS'".

      So even though it was one of the best adventure games (if not THE best) to ever grace the screen of a PC, it's failure against the FPS/Action game boom told game makers that fully 3d adventure games don't work.

      I was so excited when I played GK3, thinking of all the great 3d adventure titles that would be released in the future. What a let down...

  4. Looks cool but... by Mish · · Score: 3, Informative

    Although the game was written in Adventure Game Studio (which has a Linux client) the Linux client requires the raw .dat file, which the author hasn't supplied.

    The win32 version 'runs' under WINE but the mouse code in win32 AGS doesn't play nice with WINE, to the point of making the game unplayable. :(

    1. Re:Looks cool but... by Khalek · · Score: 3, Informative

      When I last used the Linux port of the AGS interpreter some time ago it was able to use the information in the exe to play the game without the need for a .dat. I don't see why this behaviour would have changed.

    2. Re:Looks cool but... by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 1

      I just put a bit of begging in on that topic. I was only able to get through the intro with wine as well, but what I saw really made me want to see the rest. Anyone given this a shot with WineX?

      --
      Everything will be taken away from you.
    3. Re:Looks cool but... by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This is the first time I've used AGS, so I'm hoping someone better informed might leap in to point out what I'm doing wrong. I ran the linux config program, then with current.exe from no-action in the same directory I tried ./ags and got "Main game file not found. This may be from a different AGS version, or the file may have got corrupted.".

      --
      Everything will be taken away from you.
    4. Re:Looks cool but... by Mish · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, I personally couldn't get it working.

      As Khalek mentioned it 'should' work and shouldn't require the original .dat.

      1) Download and unpack the latest Linux client (2.60)
      2) Download and install Allegro 4.1 if its not already installed.
      3) Rename current.exe to ac2game.dat
      4) Run ./ags-setup to set ags up
      5) Start the game with: ./ags
      6) If it complains about a missing liballeg.so.4.1 then you may need to simlink/copy the 4.1 version of liballeg.so to whereever your system keeps its libs.

      The game hangs X for me when I do this, maybe an older version of Allegro might help.

      If you get it working let the version numbers of the libs and core program you used.

    5. Re:Looks cool but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      i disabled the full screen output, so it won't crash X..
      but it didn't work :
      Checking sound inits.
      Shutting down Allegro due to signal #11
      Segmentation fault
    6. Re:Looks cool but... by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 2, Informative

      Urgh, somehow I didn't notice this post! I missed the renaming of current.exe to ac2game.dat, and somehow didn't even notice the faq on the client page. I eventually found out by searching the ags board. It's working for me now using 2.60 and the redhat 9 allegro-4.1.11-1.i386.rpm from the client page, converted by alien to a deb and installed on Debian Unstable. It's not hanging x for me when run as a window, but I'm a bit too nervous to try full screen untill I can afford to have x crash around me.

      --
      Everything will be taken away from you.
  5. No-fun Jackson is more like it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought I'd like it, but the music is really really boring (just some snare and an annoying oboe or something that plays two different notes), there's few sound effects (No sound when words appear, character does not make any noise when he walks), few things have descriptions when yopu look at them, and the story just doesn't seem all that interesting.

    1. Re:No-fun Jackson is more like it. by Slyght · · Score: 2, Informative

      The sound issues you speak of are what the old-school LucasArts games were like, which this game is trying to emulate.

    2. Re:No-fun Jackson is more like it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well I just downloaded the Maniac Mansion remake, and I'd never played the original game, but aside from a few interface annoyances, MM is LOADS of fun!

  6. Anime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Otaku unite." -
    Niira - nayami@anime-chat.com

  7. Brings back memories by VikingBrad · · Score: 1
    Because I'm stuck trying to open the bedroom window.
    Have my rope blanket but nothing to get the window unstuck.
    Oh well, ran without probs under WinXP

    Cheers VikingBrad

  8. Bandwidth Limit Exceeded by FrivolousPig · · Score: 0

    Big surprise there , mirroras anyone?

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    ~ All comments automatically moderated -1 since 2004 ~
    1. Re:Bandwidth Limit Exceeded by applef00 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ask and ye shall receive. http://www.talesofinterest.com/no-action/

  9. How to unstick the window by Chemisor · · Score: 1

    Look in the medicine cabinet. The rest of the game looks no more obvious to me.

  10. it's about time... by jacksonscottsly · · Score: 1

    somebody made a video game about me (even got the name right!)

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    [ you and I are ugly ]
  11. Mirror anyone? by Killjoy_NL · · Score: 1

    The link has exceeded it's bandwidth, can somebody mirror it or mail it to me ?

    Remco {AT} Palli [DOT] NL

    Thanks

    --
    This is the sig that says NI (again)
  12. Mirror by cerebrit · · Score: 1

    There is a mirror available now at http://www.talesofinterest.com/no-action/

  13. *mirror* by obscuriosity · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since his site is completely borked. Here's a mirror. be gentle.

  14. did someone call me, Action Jackson? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    www.affichescinema.com/insc_a/action_jackson.jpg

  15. Funnest. Trojan. Ever. by Ayaress · · Score: 1

    I liked it. After this, they can have my passwords.

  16. What? by J'raxis · · Score: 1

    What!?

    Liberty in our Lifetime.

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    Liberty in your lifetime