#super solvers

[ultraericthered]

Erika Furudo complains about how Midnight Rescue! was sanitized and made Woke when it got remade in the 90s.

[videogamepolls]

Requested by anon

[themattress]

Looking back at this post, I'm randomly struck by something. While I generally prefer playing the updated CD versions of the Super Solvers / Treasure Land games, there often was something of an edge in the DOS versions that gets lost. Not too much of an edge since they're still educational games aimed at children, but less sanitized than the later versions.

Midnight Rescue, the first ever game in the series, is the most blatant example of this. The original DOS version has the hallways darkly lit, with the walls painted dark blue with some dark red showing beneath a veil of blackness, which along with the music creates an unsettling atmosphere of truly being in a school after it's been locked down for the night. But the CD version completely neutered this, with the place being well lit and the walls being a nice shade of salmon with light gray stone tiles beneath. The MIDI music does it no favors, as unless you have a strong sound driver it won't sound nearly as tense and eerie as it should.

Now, the Super Solvers Reading Ages 9-12 edition fixed things a little, repainting the hallway purple and swapping the light gray stone tiles with dark red bricks to make your surroundings look more intimidating again even if the lighting is still pretty strong, and the mp3 music is definitely more intense than the MIDI version. Unfortunately, it forgot to change the outside of the doors when inside rooms, which still show the salmon walls and stone tiles. Oops!

And of course, there's the matter of the robots. In the DOS version, the music stops when the robots appear, so that all you can hear is the loud, screeching noises the robots make as they come after you. This jump scare factor is gone in the CD version, where the music keeps on playing and the sounds the robots make don't come close to drowning it out.

Outnumbered is a lesser case of this. While once again the hallways are well lit up and the music keeps playing when Telly shows up, so it's less frightening than the DOS version, the MIDI music is a whole new composition that is at least still creepy and good at putting you on edge. Similarly, while the rooms in the CD version again have the outside showing through the door which isn't as scary as the pure blackness from the DOS version, the CD version of Livewire is actually scarier, moving faster and making a way more intimidating sound.

Last, there's the first three Treasure Land games. Now, these games don't really have scary set-ups like Midnight Rescue and Outnumbered, so the edge the DOS versions have are minimal, but still worth noting. In the DOS version of Treasure Mountain, the castle interior at the end of each level played is dark colored and the ladders spread far apart on a single screen, with you having to jump between ladder to ladder. But in the CD version, the ladders are all pressed against one another and you simply climb up through multiple screens.

Treasure Cove and Treasure Mathstorm, meanwhile, first suffer from lighting issues in the transition - in the DOS version of the former it's night when you reach close to the surface and dawn breaks only when you make it out of the ocean, whereas it's already day time in the CD version, while in the DOS version of the latter the sky is always night-hued whereas in the CD version it's a clear blue day. But secondly, they also suffer from plotting issues!

In the original plots of Treasure Cove and Treasure Mathstorm, the Master of Mischief is actively doing something. In the former, he has constructed the Goobie Tube to drill holes in the ocean floor so that he can collect Goobies to use in his magic, which has the side effect of releasing Goobies that pollute the ocean, and he destroyed the Rainbow Bridge so that nobody could cross to his island and stop him. In the latter, he took over the castle like he did in Treasure Mountain after using his blizzard machine, and thus is always sitting upon an icy throne at the end of each level played. Bizarrely, the CD versions change the stories. In Cove, he now just destroyed the Rainbow Bridge to prevent people from crossing to his island to stop him from doing hypothetical mischief in the future, with the Goobies now just being a part of his defense to keep the Super Seeker from recovering the bridge gems rather than a pollutant or fuel for his magic. In Mathstorm, his use of the blizzard machine is just a hit-and-run revenge prank and he otherwise does nothing in the story, meaning he's absent from the castle and you might even forget he's even in the game by the time you complete it.

So yeah, gotta give the DOS versions some respect. They weren't afraid of scaring kids!

[what-the-goodness]

I want to hear your favourite edutainment games from the 90s.

Mine is MISSION T.H.I.N.K, a logic game that is probably subconsciously the reason i fell in love with programming. It may be playable at the link I attached, but always play it on my hand-me-down PowerBook G3.

[appealingtonobody]

[semisweetstuffs]

Going live in ten minutes (8 PM EST) playing some Treasure MathStorm! on Youtube and Twitch.

[audiart]

Vuzi on the mind, took a while for them to be truly vulnerable with each other <3

[themattress]

Because I brought the subject up recently...

[ultraericthered]

So many years and this is how I learn that this secret glitch exists.

Wait a second, what? Hang on…

[seraphont]

some stuff for my Drone Tessa Au story! Downsides of stealing your body from a zombie/eldritch horror is that your antivirus thinks youre a threat and your body is rapidly deteriorating

[ddwhaleshark]

A valentines card i made for the Glitch inn art contest!

Uzi, girl, get yaslef some oil

[edupiii]

CW: bright colours + possible eyestrain ⚠️

I wanted to step out of my comfort zone with my art and I’ve always really liked eye bleedy work, so I attempted to dabble in it!

yes, feral Uzi is naked because I hate drawing her clothes sometimes oki

i love these crazy girls so mc-fucking much

[ultraericthered]

SQUARE SNOWMEN? WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS CRAZY MOUNTAIN?

Um someone please tell me I’m not the only one who played this as a kid.

[permetutotheworld]

bones fandom??!?? Is there anyone there?????

[get-snuck-up-on]

All versions of my Cyn!

(Please reblog if you see ^^)

[traumatizedartist]

My fucked up khan au origin story

Let me know if you want some more(the cropping is awful I'm so sorry)