The Manhole
Cyan, Inc., the company that gave us the wonderfully whimsical Cosmic Osmo (which I played constantly as a child), Myst (which I owned but never played) and Riven (which I also never played), also gave us this odd little game in 1988:
This is actually not the original game; this is the CD-ROM Masterpiece Edition, which is the one I had as a kid. I remember enjoying this game quite a bit, but watching this playthrough, some of it actually looks kind of terrifying.
The Cosmic Osmo Appreciation Post
So today I’m going to talk about this game:
This is the opening screen from Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel. It’s almost as old as I am (published in 1989) and is pretty much the only non-shooter game I grew up with (unless you count Spin Doctor as well).
Says Wiki: “There is no goal, no system of scoring points, and nothing that the player can keep in an inventory. A player can be said to have “finished” the game if they’ve explored every area and found every secret, but the game gives no feedback to indicate whether this has happened. Although this is unconventional, it allows finding new secrets to be a genuine surprise, while avoiding the frustration of endlessly searching the game for the last secret to achieve 100% completion.”
And it’s a big game, especially for 1989. And look at these awesome black and white screenshots:
You can buy Cosmic Osmo on Steam (for pretty cheap, I think). I totally recommend it.
And happy birthday, Matt!
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