Exploring Plague of the Moon: A DOS Gaming Mystery
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- čas přidán 30. 07. 2024
- #retrogaming #gamereview #dosgames
Plague of the Moon is a little-known DOS game where you play as the witch Alucarda, on a quest to avenge her mother. It's got a spooky atmosphere and a mysterious development history. Just my kind of game.
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0:00 Intro
1:13 Story Setup
2:11 Confessions
3:09 Game Info
3:59 Presentation
7:49 Gameplay
10:06 Story Spoilers
16:42 Conclusion
18:35 Outro
#adventuregame #horrorgaming #oldgames
#plagueofthemoon - Hry
Random trivia: the sagging-eyed witch at 7:23 is based on Albrecht Dürer's portrait of his own mother. He was a german artist from the Renaissance.
it seems like the troll is a rendition of Saturn by Goya so it's likely the devs took most of the character art from classic paintings, pretty neat
A lot of the gameplay seems directly lifted from the 1990 Elvira DOS game too, so that tracks
Many of the city scenes aside from looking like a late medieval/reinasance Italian city also have a reinasance type composition, specially here room.
Thank you for not calling it a "fun fact" & providing actual good information.
Dude was such a low key narcissist, its hilarious. He's not a total crazed asshole like Caravaggio or anything, but Dürer does this crazy detailed, flattering self portrait just to do a the equivalent of a Useless Red Circle moment on himself for a physician, when he literally could have just said that he feels pain at/under a specific rib.
Fascinating dude
I wouldn't call this a rip off channel at all! More like a channel in the same genre of GrimBeard and others. With his channel leaning towards longer, more in depth videos, it's refreshing to see a page doing more bite-sized looks into games that never got their time in the spotlight. Keep it up!
agreed. to Dungeon Chill: you definitely (imo) don't come off like you're aping his style and I think it's clear that you're two individuals with individual personalities, senses of humor and ways of editing. my primary reason for liking Grim Beard so much is not for the stylistic choices he makes but rather for the games he decides to feature, many of which were previously unknown to me. I think the same of you, after watching and enjoying several of your videos. whatever you're doing, please keep it up!
Every channel is a “rip off” of another channel. I’ve never even heard of GrimBeard, this is just solid content.
Whos GrimBeard...?
@@neurohack9038 We are all connected, more closely than some believe. No one creates something without being inspired by others.
bitching about who covered what is 2010 Nostalgia Critic bullshit
I noticed that nobody else seemed to mention it, but it's interesting that the main character of this game is a witch named Alucarda and there is also a nun named Justine. It seems like this game may have been inspired by the 1977 film Alucarda, as the names and themes of witches and hell are present in both, but that's about where the similarities end.
Also it's "A Dracula" backwards lel
Alucard!? But that's Frankenstien spelled backwards!
@gianpyres3 thanks for recommending this one. It was quite an adventure making. Aside from having some issues with the game itself (that I mention in the video), I also had trouble with my editing software while putting the thing together. Maybe this game really is cursed... Anyway, hope you all enjoy!
Thanks! I am honoured you made a video from my suggestion, and it's a great video too! 👍
I remember stumbling upon this game in one of those "1000 games in one" shovelware packs years ago, and until seeing it again recently, I swore that this game was just a strange figment of my imagination. It's so weird to see it resurface like this, exactly as esoteric and freaky as I remembered it to be.
It certainly looks interesting, but it also seems to have the same problem most, if not all, point-and-click adventure games have: getting stuck somewhere, and having to wait for events to trigger, and getting the right combination of items to make things work. Still, I'm liking this channel and the stuff you post. I like the obscure.
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
Very cool video about plague of the moon!, im so happy finally seeing recognition about it, and also, plague of the moon isn't the only game that gabe and rebelsoft released. He released lord of destruction part 1 in 1995 and probably he might had made other games, but they are unfortunately lost to the sands of times.
Whaaat? That’s awesome. I couldn’t find any other info about other games they developed on Moby Games, MyAbandonware or anywhere else. It makes you wonder how many other cool games are just lost to time.
@@dungeonchill Yeah, it's so sad if stop to think about games that sometime were available on the internet in the past and now they are completely lost, and also, if you want to make a video about this other game gabe made, as the only mentions of it are a livestream on yt and some forums posts from 2013. I can send you a link that i made myself for archival purposes.
@@Cauty_964I found a reddit discussion from 2015 with some screenshoots where OP (who deleted his profile) asked where he could find it...
@@BNK2442 Hey, yeah i know about that post on reddit, that post made me search for gabe's other games, anyway i already have Lord of destruction part 1 that i found on a russian forum and already archived on Internet Archive for anyone to play it! And also aparently there was also a Lord of destruction part 2 that i found mentions of it while using HxD editor on the EXE of part 1...
The Street View ending was genius. I love this channel.
Footstep sounds of running on a piano is now my new favorite thing in vintage gaming. 🤣
I, too, was dismayed at the piano sound of my footsteps in Ultima Underworld.
DOS is one of those operating systems that makes you feel like a 90s HACKER in a cool movie, like being River Phoenix in Sneakers or something.
I felt like that the first time I installed a second monitor.
Here's a handy lil tip when it comes to running games in DOSBox. If you drag the game executable over the DOSBox executable, DOSBox will just launch the game. This even works using the DOSBox shortcut if you happen to have one on your desktop. No messing around with DOS command line BS. I'm sure there's times when you'll want to dig straight in to the command line aspect of DOSBox, but if I'm just looking to run a game as fast as possible, that's just about the easiest way there is.
Unless you play games like Prisoner of Ice which wants to be fancy and want a virtual drive to save the game
That bit about the Underworld sound is very interesting. I watched Lobos Jr play through it and he was lightly mocking the piano footsteps the whole way through, just putting it down to it being an old game.
This guy seems to know his stuff I like that.
oh man, the character design, color palette and general melted-pixel art is so entrancing. the game reminds me of a really cool old school dnd campaign or something
As a big Grimbeard fan myself I like your content a ton. You deffo have your own vibe and I like seeing what new weird stuff you cover, you're doing good work.
"deffo" -- ThorHighHeels clone comment
Agree. I subbed to Dungeon Chill on DC's own merits.
Adore Grim, I know several parts of his long videos --- like Parasite Eve --- by heart bc I watch it so often, Grim's one of my all time favourite CZcams artists...but Dungeon Chill is Dungeon Chill & I enjoy the current channel content as well as being excited to see how DC's artistic voice develops.
We all have role models when we start creating things --- as someone who's interviewed 100s of artists of all ages, it apparently doesn't stop --- & if Grim inspires DC to experiment...well, that's like the best compliment one can get, as an artist.
Oh so I wasn't hallucinating Grimbeard vibes, you're actually inspired by the man.
Good, don't stop what you're doing, I need more!
More is on the way! I want to put another out by the end of the week. I feel a bit annoyed that this one had some issues and took me so long.
@@dungeonchill I feel you man. You got through it though, that's all that matters.
I almost wonder if the full version of the game was going to either have a different story entirely, or the shareware version just truncated the story and brought the ending up much earlier on into the game. It feels hard to believe the full version would have more story after the point the demo left off on.
I never thought I'd hear anyone ever talk about this game. I played the shareware version of this as a kid, and could never make it very far, but I loved it dearly. Thanks for covering this. It means a lot.
If you enjoyed the combat system, it reminds me of the old game "Waxworks". A real awesome, creepy gem- and also infamous for it's troublesome audio files, similar to the Roland debacle.
I like the general premise of the story. A horror game about a woman in the middle ages who tries to avenge her mother and and to this end performs apparently satanic rituals. It has a lot of "maybe *I'm* the evil one?!" potential for ambiguity and shocking twists. Unfortunately modern high budget horror games very rarely take place during the middle ages / witch purges. And they lack moral ambiguity, you are just the good guy fighting evil zombies.
Good stuff you're making here. I like the "chill" theme you've got going on here; It reminds me of going to a friend's house to play video games when I was young. I also appreciate the commentary on the old DOS shenanigans and workarounds to get stuff running again, though I personally would probably like it more if the video wasn't an entire walkthrough of the game.
Anyway, I think you'll fit just fine amongst veterans like Accursed Farms and Mandalore Gaming. Keep up the good work =)
Thanks! I’m glad that the chill-ness comes through. I’m still working on finding a balance with the story segment. Especially for these older games, I know a lot of people would rather just see a condensed version than play through it themselves. But yeah, maybe half the vid is a bit much. Thanks for the feedback!
6:40 ah, the "drunk cat walks on piano" dungeon-crawl noises
The piano key footfalls absolutely cracked me up.
I goddamn knew there was a reason I vibed with this channel, a fellow GGN member ONE OF US, ONE OF US!!
And nah dude, I never got the impression you was "ripping him off" you're doing your own thing be confident on that front, there indeed needs to be more vibes like that on CZcams.
Love this channel. Great narration, great editing, everything is very much quality.
I took it as inspiration, for sure. Nothing wrong with that. Your vibe's already distinct enough you don't need to bother taking anyone insinuating... things.
Anyway... back to the video. Been waiting since I found it on lunch break.
Oh yeah, I didn’t take anything negative from it at all. If anything it was a compliment! Thanks as always for the support!
totally
i have that legal "100 pc kids games" on cd with a bunch of dos games like commander keen
Love your channel! I remember getting games to run properly in DOS was hard back in the day, too. And, yeah, the sounds were bonkers.
Awesome, i am glad this video was made, this game always intrigued me, i remember playing it and wanting to play the full version so bad but alas it was never fully released, great video and thanks for considering my recommendation! (I mentioned it to GrimBeard aswell in the comments on one of his videos but doubt he read it lol )
No problem! I had a lot of fun making this one and talking about all its little quirks. Glad you enjoyed it!
@@dungeonchill I really enjoyed it, although not as obscure, if you want more DOS horror/adventure jank, I'd recommend the Last Half Of Darkness there's 3 on DOS and then the series got a sort of reboot, I wish your channel all the best and many more subs, you deserve it.👍
Thanks! I’ve heard of those, but never tried them. Always down for some janky horror games.
Bro I got addicted to Grimbeard on my vacation, watched basically everything and I was SO HAPPY WHEN I FOUND YOUR CHANNEL. I dig the format so much and it's cool that there's basically more I get to watch of my new favorite youtube vibe lol so thank you, you shouldn't be worried at all!
Best one yet. Keep it up Grimbeard's long lost dad.
Hey, I’m not THAT old
Thanks for starting this channel! I’m a Grimbeard fan, you’re a Grimbeard fan, art isn’t created in a vacuum. Ensuring that your creative vision is defined and well represented is far more important than creating something that’s wholly (and perhaps disruptively) “original”. When Grimbeard first started, his stuff was very obviously influenced by Civvie and Thorhighheels, and his channel is better off because of that. The best sourdough has a trace of every loaf that came before it.
I absolutely love that sourdough analogy in regards to art/creating. Fantastic!
It’s funny you mentioned Grimbeard, because I just started watching his videos, but I’ve been following you for longer. I think you have a vibe all your own, and the type of games you cover are more niche and along the lines of what really does it for me.
You're dope. Grimbeard's dope. I found your channel primarily because I was looking for more stuff with a similar vibe to his, like you said, and while I can see the similarities, your own voice is clear. That said, always good to cite influences and what not.
No joke. This game is super good quality for dos games back then and with a widespread publisher and a little marketing it could have made some money.
The alchemy and combat mechanic look super interesting and really innovative in the stale adventure market of the early 90's.
Bro, I genuinelly thought last night when I found this channel that it was a sneaky GB second channel(you nailed the style to a T, felt the magic). Love his stuff and I also love yours. We need more reviews like this! This is should be flattering.
As someone who was a kid of age to play some PC games during the DOS days, I feel your pain dude. I remember having to configure and launch everything via prompts but as a kid I had no clue what I was doing so I had written down all these commands and locations because my understanding wasn't there. Don't even get me started on the damn sound cards. I remember messing with SoundBlaster and a bunch of others and half the time i'd just give up and assume the weird sounds were purposeful.
I love the honesty towards your inspiration by Grim Beard; the dude makes some great content. Anyone who makes witty reviews of DOS-era games and the likes of the 90s will get my subscription!
Your channel is great. Love your style. I really do wish that someone would cover the adventure game The Dark Eye.
Just wait a few more days.
I found the piano footsteps very amusing!
"But why did I choose Wizardry 7?" Because you are a man of class.
This is my first video from you that I’ve gotten recommended so far it’s really good
Have to admit, you got me with that ending! Normally jump scares piss me off, but that one was fun and you didn't try to explode my eardrums through my headphones, so I'll let it slide.
Really liking your channel so far. I enjoy your style and vibe, and I'm always interested in informative videos on obscure old games I've never heard of. Never heard of GrimBeard, but I'll give him a look too if he's an influence on this tone you've got going on. Keep up the good work! It's a rare treat to find a gaming channel I click with, and a fair number of them unfortunately haven't lasted, so I wish you luck and success in your work.
I'm here based on a yt video recommendation from a GB video--enjoying your stuff, keep being awesome!
Lil Indie DOS games like this are so cool. Digging the aesthetic and tech of this game from that time period. Hopefully more of these lesser known games can get exposure and preservation. :)
2:14 "Confessions" I could feel the Grimbeard vibes~
Now I have two of the same but different but still the same!
Excellent!
ps.- I crackled with the 'LIIIInk in the description below'. This, in my mind, was Grim Beard saying the line.
Your channel is by far my best youtube discovery of 2023 👏👏
I remember trying this one out, back in the day. I really liked the art style, and interface. Never ended up finishing it though.
I also haven’t heard of Grimbeard, so I’ll have to check him out.
Grimbeard, Marsh, Mandalore, BrothersBasement, Sseth, WickedWiz, GamingHarry, Firescale20, ThorHighHeels. You, Majuular, and Retcon404 are the latest I've found. You're in good company, keep it up. The comfiness and familiarness of the videos is very calming. And having someone that can say something at least a little deeper than reading the back of a gamebox, seems to be a rare skill on youtube.
I actually like that CZcams has been recommending me actually good smaller content creators lately like Majuular and this channel. Haven't heard of some of the people you listed but I'll check them out.
If you care about a Playstation 1 especially obscure Japanese only PS1 titles check out Sean Seanson. Dude is really underrated, makes good videos and I'm glad he actually has a positive outlook and doesn't just circlejerk "Game bad." I'm getting really tired of all the negative "game bad" channels, well I guess WickedWiz falls in that category but I like how he's playing actually bad games and not just repeating "Spider-Man 2/Starfield/God of War is sooo bad" bullshit for views.
@@Gatorade69 Thanks! I feel like I've ate thru most of those guy's videos and it's really hard to find new content. I just watched one of Sean's videos, and I think you would prolly really like ThorHighHeels. He does the same kind of thing with old imported PS1 games. Except his is prolly a little more lazy and laid back in the language.
Thanks again and good luck.
@@bruticus0875 Yep, already subscribed to ThorHighHeels. Thanks for the recommendation though.
I was just thinking I'd like to see more DungeonChill style videos. Thanks for the channel recommendation
binging al your videos, thanks for the lil' jumpscare at the end!
A brief comment on the grim beard explanation. As a creator your audience sees your works as a cake, they don’t think hey this guys cake is copying that cake, they simply think “awe yeah 2 cakes” plus I think grimbeard would be happy with more retro game videos on CZcams too
THAT'S IT!!! I WAS LOOKING FOR THIS FOR DECADES!!!! THANK YOU!
Her name is Alucarda and she can turn into gas, huh. lol.
Capcom definitely ripped off Plague of the Moon :P
The ending of this video made me laugh, and I appreciate you for showing off this interesting, neat, little game. The art for it was really well done and it had such style. I hope your channel does well, you deserve it!
I almost spit out my drink. I live near that house.
Anytime I see old obscure DOS games I think of the obscure game I played as a kid called Last Half of Darkness. It has a charming, rudimentary old school pixel art style and you point and click to progress through rooms and use things. It has a fairly creepy vibe for what it is and actually gave me a jumpscare as a kid lol.
LOL @ Ultima piano foot steps!!! I wanna play it like that!
I need more content like this! Honestly this is something new and interesting, these are games I’ve would never of had the chance to know.
In music, they say something like good artists borrow, great artists steal. Well it's steal in that you take their ideas and make it your own, your own twist to it. If you like that channel and their ideas, run with it. Take what you like and give it your own twist.
I found this channel on accident when I was looking for something else and your Echo Night review was linked in the Reommendations off to the side. I didn't watch it yet though; I decided to come through your videos to see what other type of stuff you look at. Hence why I'm getting to this one first, and man oh man, hearing that you like Grimbeard and want more stuff with that kinda vibe out there on CZcams is music to my ears! SUBBED! The amount of cool obscurities you seemed to have looked at already - Lunacy, D2, Wachenroder, Peripetia (which I've never heard of before).... - I was pretty much sold on your channel just based on that kinda output. But putting out more Grimbeard-inspired content on more too-obscure games is definitely a mission statement I can get behind! Show me all the weird and wonderful games ya got!
As a viewer of Grim, I was enthusiast to find your channel. Your videos are well written and put together, and it's nice to have a new voice in choir.
On the other hand though, for the love of Christ, please equalize the volumes: the instrumental bits of the game almost burst my ears 😅
Someone that actually knows jazz jackrabbit 😢😢❤. Would love to see it covered one day!
Cheers for the GrimBeard suggestion ill check it out.
LMAO'd at the ultima piano footsteps.
Honestly i found you and grimbeard around the same time and ive been joyously devouring both of your content since.
Super high quality! I love your voice and personality.
I've now watched every single video of yours since yesterday upon finding it on my recommended.
You aren't a rip off of grim beard. I believe you have your own flavor into this.
Hey!! I found your channel from the kyoto video on my youtube home, and now this video. Can i say that you make videos that i really like? Keep it up!
@ 4:11 The SoundBlaster be sound blastin'
Your channel and Grim Beard - the algorythm blessed me with both and for some days I could not make a difference, but it never bothered me. More creators, more content of this fine topic: obscure - often point-and click and/or story-heavy, horror-vibe games on old plattforms, with stellar presentation. Just do you! It gives!
goddamn i got jumpscared by that crappy jpg at the end
Just watch out for any AI controlled pugs
Love the Wizardry 7 sound example :D
Thanks for sharing such a cool game! The bit at the end got me good, but then i started laughing really hard 😂 love your content, i appreciate your effort!
Another great video. There's nothing like discovering these old games.
games back in the old days is interesting especially with the artwork, the spites and the gameplay. The horror games that you introduce is pretty creepy too. As everyone say, keep it up man! This is something I really like to watch since nowadays youtubers have been doing quite a lot of indie games.
Hell yeah! Finally some good content. I like this guy
As a '91 baby, I got to use an IBM DOS PC back in 1996 I believe (when I was just 5). My dad didn't think we Filipino kids needed an up-to-date PC so he wasn't quick to upgrade. Played my very first video games on it (Xargon and Jazz Jackrabbit), and taught me how to use CLIs/terminals before my first taste of GUIs with Win 95. Made me look like a computer nerd among my Millennial peers. Never got to play most DOS games like this one, but looking at these always takes me back to that simpler time.
Ironically ive never heard of this grim beer guy but i found this channel in recommendations
Won't lie man, I understand where the self-consciousness comes from, but I was an active viewer of your channel before I even looked in Grimbeard's direction... guess I was busy with RagnarRox in the meantime.
This is way late, but just thought I would give the encouragement. Nothing is original. All things we enjoy or people we look up to were inspired by others. I am just glad I have yet another review channel to add to the top of my favorites list.
Grim + Chill underground vibes heck yeah
My uncle had an old hotrod DOS game on my grandpa's purely DOS computer. You could customize your car, tune it, and drag race it. I ALWAYS blew my engine up immediately and lost. Played music like from Chico and the man, before my time but idk the genre. Something Chicano? Anyway, learning how to run DOS fairly well at 8 had a huge impact on me.
The difference between you and him, is that your content is actuall a 100 times better, no kidding, I just feel like your videos have a certain style to them, which his fail to grasp, also I think that he sometimes takes way to much time with a video, pulling it into a drag, but your are just riiiiight.
Also I never missed one video of yours keep it up!
Thanks a lot for the support! Yeah, I actually like his long-winded style, but I don't think I could ever make videos that long.
It's awesome to have another creator I like for the same reasons as grimbeard
Jump scare was crazy 😂
After six long years, I finally have another channel like Grimbeard!
god deymn that spooky ending
15:33 I got to the end of Septerra Core, an old pseudo-JRPG game I played as a kid and wanted to finally finish a year or so back, and after beating the final boss, it tossed me back to the world map and I had to re-enter the boss chamber. It just kept doing that. Every time I'd beat him, the game would loop back in on itself. I had to watch the ending online.
I was *irritated.* I mean sure, I had beaten the game so whatever, I earned it, but at the same time... I didn't. Held back on a technicality. Drives me nuts.
I had a similar thing happen with Overlord: Raising Hell on PC. There were all sorts of problems with the PC port, it just doesn't work well anymore, but among them was how the Raising Hell expansion areas (the "abyss" zones) all had not only the audio issues that were infrequent in the base game, but also very specific instances that caused crashing. Beating the final boss of the DLC was one of those instances. I had to watch that online, too, though I had beaten it once before on PC before the port decayed from the ravages of time (new drivers, new hardware, new OS; whatever it is that causes old games to have compatibility issues with modern PCs, it happened to Overlord 1 and 2). Fortunately, RPCS3 has come a long way, so when I replayed it just a few days back, I beat it using the PS3 version on my PC with bumped up resolution so it didn't look like a fat kid just got done eating chicken wings and touched my screen.
HAH! The ending got me
The un-fixed music sounds like the Cruelty Squad soundtrack.
GrimGoatee? Whatever the case, it's nice to have more Grimbeard styled content!
I think you have your own style that is similar to but different from our favorite GrimBoy.
Love you both.
From what I've seen of you so far I wouldn't really say you're doing anything particularly derivative of Grimbeard that he himself isn't already doing which is derivative of others that came before him. His videos are fine for what they are, but they tend to focus on what I'd call the 'faux obscure' - games that are usually only "obscure" to people who have never played anything outside of the Top 40's chart, i.e. games like Destiny, Overwatch, FIFA, Fortnite and Madden and zoomers. Again, his videos aren't bad at all, it's just that the majority of the games he covers have already been covered dozens upon dozens of times by others. It's good to see people like yourself who are giving more of a chance to the actually obscure, like this game, instead of retreading once again upon the path of the comfort-food "obscure".
that game has amazing art, i should try it sometime. Thank you for making this video!
Oh my god, last night i was literally trying to figure out if you were like non-GrimBeard or something lol. there should be more content like you guys on youtube.
Would love to see a run down on Vangers! Basically if Cruelty Squad was a racing game from 98. Bugs and aliens and flesh machines. Awesome art direction
Oh wow, this looks awesome. And a racing roleplaying game. I actually love racing games, and probably won't get a chance to cover them on the channel unless they're some weird crossover thing like this. Thanks for the rec! I'm adding it to the list.
you're probably aware but Mandalore Gaming has a great vid on Vangers from a couple years ago
@@superhetoricand Mandalore donates to and has worked with Grimbeard.
The trifecta is complete.
Oh man, this is wild. It could've been made into a low budget horror movie, with a good director.
I love old adventure games. I remember watching my older sibling play Amerzone. It was super weird with all its fantasy amazon animals.
This was great dude. I haven't seen grimbeard before, but i liked your video a lot. Keep it up. You just got yourself a subscriber.